Chapter 11

"Always very eager to learn magic, everyone thinks it's a cheat that will just make you super powerful, let me tell you learning magic will be ten times more difficult than what you have just done," said Blade to Ash.

"There are a lot of ways you can go about learning magic, and there are a lot of forms and types of magic, elemental magic, the most popular form, is what I would advise you should start with since you have a pretty aggressive element, it would give you the most advantage in a fight, but it will be like taming a raging bull, you will get hurt in the way, the more you are ready to shed blood and sweat, the better," said Blade coming forward to stand in front of Ash. 

He put his cloth-covered hand inside his robe and produced a small blue glowing crystal.

"What is that?" asked Ash.

"It's a magical crystal like the one in your sword, I bought it just this morning, it has a bit of lightning stored in it, should be sufficient for your training," said Blade.

"What do we do with it?" asked Ash.

"Simple, I will shock you with this every day until your body starts absorbing it," said Blade.

"What? There has to be another way," said Ash recoiling.

"There might be, but I don't know them, and this is the fastest, you don't have time to sit around in a cave meditating, now hold it in your hands," said Blade thrusting the crystal in his hands. At first, nothing happened, the crystal was just vibrating a little, but then Blade said a word and a sudden feeling spread through his body. It was so fast and instantaneous, that it took his body some time to register that he was in pain. It was a kind of pain he had never felt before, it was like a thousand needles were going into his skin at once, he dropped the crystal immediately, and the pain went away but the buzzing soreness remained. He felt his skin and muscles burning up as if they had been a little bit cooked.

"Good, you held longer than I thought you would, either your brain is too slow to understand what's happening or you do have this affinity after all," said Blade.

Ash was in a state of shock, his stomach was churning as if he had eaten something bad, and a strange feeling had settled in his chest, it was as if the lightning was still moving around in his bones.

"I'll send you back now, try to act normal in front of the elf, she shouldn't expect anything," said Blade, and before Ash could say anything he was sinking into the ground, after a few seconds he found himself again sitting in the middle of the forest against the tree he had initially planned to sit under. He turned his head and there was Aria, eating her apple like nothing had happened, she opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Geez, you do look tired, maybe we'll go slow from now on, or you'll wound up dead like this before we reach the gates," said Aria. Ash stayed quiet ate his food, and tried to recover his energy. It wasn't easy from that point on, his body wanted to sleep, and Aria had given him half an hour to rest, which would have been fine if he had been just walking. He had no idea how he was going to survive this and the training with Blade. He was a complete sadist and he didn't even know if he was a good teacher, because he never had proper training before. No matter what, if he continued with this training and managed to survive then he better turn into a damn good fighter. 

"You know, I had expected you to pester me about our previous conversation about dating, but I guess you are not interested anymore," said Aria.

"I guess, I forgot with everything happening," said Ash. He wasn't feeling anything else right now.

"I still don't know if it's a good idea, especially since we'll be among elves now, that's why I was thinking maybe we should see what it's like before we reached the city," said Aria.

"umm, sure," said Ash. He had no idea what she meant by experimenting and he didn't want to get his hopes up.

"Let's find a place to camp and stay the night, the sun's going down, it will be pretty dark very soon," said Aria, and Ash nodded. 

They had been walking for the whole afternoon and evening now, around six hours. Ash's feet were hurting badly, he was glad when she finally said yes to a place he suggested they should settle. Fortunately, she let him rest while she found wood for the fire and set up a small fire. She took out some small brown leaves from her bags and threw them in the fire, they emitted a mild and sweet-smelling scent. 

"It's Fruint grass, will keep the predators away, we won't need to be too careful," she said and came and sat beside him on the wooden log he was sitting on.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"Better," he said, his breathing was still fast. He felt stupid, here was an amazing girl any boy his age would be extremely lucky to have a chance with and he was too tired to make a move when she wanted him to make one.

"Here, I have something for you, it's an elvish secret, I am not supposed to share it, but whatever," she said and produced a lemon-sized white fruit, it looked extremely soft. 

"Eat it, let's see how it works on humans, it helps us heal injuries faster and restore energy," said Aria. Ash didn't ask what its name was, he just had a bite, it felt like he was biting into a pillow, and as the cloudy form entered its mouth it started absorbing. He just felt it, as he ate the whole fruit, it acted as a cleaner and absorbed all the pain in his body like magic. His eyesight improved, his breathing got normal, and he even felt wide awake and stronger. As his mind and senses cleared up, the sounds around him became more clear, it was as if he was finally waking up from a long sleep, the effects of the shock he had endured which he hadn't felt yet were now coming forth. There was something in his body that wasn't there before and it weirdly felt like the very electricity he had suffered from before. 

"It's amazing right," said Aria looking at his wide-eyed expression, he nodded looking at her.