The next day, Evan woke me up after precisely eight hours. He said from now on, I needed to have a fixed sleeping time. We started the morning training, and when we finished. We went to the training room in the temple.
We practiced the breathing technique again, but this time after the practice, Evan said we would start another training.
"You need to learn how to move the right way. You have to adjust your posture, the way you move, and the position you put your feet. And all of that changes depending on your footwork"
"Okay"
"I will teach the footworks I created. They change depending on the situation and are essential if you want to become strong like me. The difference between the people who have and don't have footwork is really big, if they fight in the snow it would be a massacre"
"I don't know what 'snow' is"
"Snow? It's white, falls from the sky like rain, and it's quite cold. Have you never seen it?"
"No"
"Oh... I forgot that snow doesn't fall in this part of the forest"
"Do you want to see it? It's quite pretty in the winter"
I looked at him and waited for a few seconds to see if he wasn't joking before nodding.
"I see... I can't make snow. I am not a magician. But I can take you to a place where there is so much snow it looks like the world froze. It's a really beautiful place, but it's very cold as well"
My curiosity raised as I started to imagine what it would look like.
"Well... That is what I would like to say, but we are trapped in this hole until we beat that black cat"
'Yes, calm down, I need to get stronger now. I can think of the rest later'
"I understand, shall we start then?" I said with determination.
"Someone is motivated. Let's start then. The footwork is called Basic Steps. It's the base to learn the others. We will adjust your posture first, put this piece of wood on the head."
I did what he told me.
"Now I will start to throw some rocks at you and you will dodge. Do it without letting the wood fall"
"Okay"
Evan picked up a pile of rocks he had prepared before and started to throw them. At first, it wasn't that difficult but then he started to rise the speed, I was getting more and more tired, my legs losing strength by the second, and when I thought I couldn't handle it anymore. Evan speaks up.
"Don't move!"
I paralyzed. I couldn't think straight so I just did what he said.
"Stay in this position for some time resting. During this training, all your rest will be like that"
I was very used to pain and it didn't seem like that much of a problem but my body had limits and my legs were starting to give up. Evan realized I couldn't endure it much more grabbed a water bucket he got from the lake and threw cold water at me.
It was a very strange feeling when the water hit my legs, they contracted a lot. It felt like they were trying to smash my bones but it didn't hurt. Then I realized that I wasn't putting force on them anymore but I could still maintain the posture, which made the resting time a lot better.
"Okay, second round!"
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After the footwork training, we still did the swimming training again. After that, we ate some underground monsters Evan found and went to sleep.
Later, he showed me how he found the monsters. He said: 'It's like fishing but in the ground.
I didn't think he meant quite literally what he said and became surprised when he randomly dug his arm into the ground and removed a big fish from it. It looked like a fish but was actually a worm with teeth and eyes.
It was surprisingly delicious and nutritive. I was used to fishing outside but learning how to fish underground was totally different and I had a lot of fun doing it.
I had a simple routine, sleep, eat and train. It was hard at the start, but after some time I became used to it. I was changing little by little. My lugs became stronger, my breathing more powerful, and my footwork faster and faster.
Then one day, Evan started doing his own training as well. As we were underground, we didn't know how much time passed nor if it was day or night.
When we were eating, Evan started to talk. It was the only time we had to talk since we trained and slept all time.
"Today, we will change your training, you already learned enough of the basic steps, and your lugs are strong enough. I will teach you in a spar today"
"Okay" After so much training, my self-confidence grew. I could probably kill that spider without hurting myself so much like last time.
We went to the training room in the temple.