Chapter 5: Old Man II

"You're both Legendary Candidates, yet what you showed me was someone with the capability of a Rare Class. You've trained for 3 weeks and all your abilities are still Level 1, and on top of this, you're still using Mana Circulation? Disgraceful, there is honestly no reason for me to stay". The old man just gave both the children a sharp gaze.

Ivan decided to speak out. "Give us a week! Please! We'll show you we can improve, it's just that in our training sessions we didn't train properly or focus, we just had fun with our abilities".

At this point Ivan was pleading, he could tell the man wasn't simple just by the fact he could guess what level their abilities are at first glance.

The man closed his eyes and suddenly his man bun came undone and his hair started to float, and when he opened his eyes, they were glowing purple.

He gave an intense look at both Eve and Ivan.

"Interesting". The man murmured to himself.

Without realising, the man had scared the shit out of the kids, they honestly thought they were in trouble for speaking out.

"Okay. If you can learn Mana Meditation in two hours then I'll teach you. If you can't I'm leaving. Time starts - now".

As he said that, he sat down, and crossed his legs, and with that, the flow of energy surrounding him changed, it flowed into him. As soon as that happened, he got up and the mana still flowed inside of him, and he walked up to both of the kids, and told them to do what he did.

Both of them knew what he did, however how the hell did he do it? They could see the mana going into his heart, but how do they drag the mana from their surroundings?

Without contemplating much, they both sat on the ground and used Mana Circulation, as this is the only thing they could use in regards to Mana. After that, Ivan focused on his surroundings, since he learned Mana Circulation, he was able to see specks of mana in his surroundings, and this goes for anyone who learned Mana Circulation. But how is he supposed to attract them towards him? He literally can't!

An hour went by and he made zero improvement, and neither did Eve. Without realising though, Ivan got closer and may be able to see results soon. He finally thought of a last solution. Instead of trying to get the mana to go inside my body, why don't I just release my mana? He never did it before, but he knew how to do it, he just didn't know the results of doing it.

As he did it, the old man smiled and Ivan heard a ding.

[Mana Circulation Level 1 has evolved into Mana Meditation Level 1!]

Ivan had no idea what he did, but he stood up and instantly regretted this decision. As soon as he stood up he felt a sharp pain and had to sit back down.

"Deactivate it you moron!". The old man sighed in his wooden chair.

"Eve, release your mana with Mana Circulation activated".

Eve pretty much trusted Ivan with her whole heart and she did as he said, and she heard a ding.

[Mana Circulation Level 1 has evolved into Mana Meditation Level 1!]

"???". She had a confused look on her face.

The old man started to explain. "Your mana basically takes over control of the mana in your surroundings and forcefully takes it and puts it away in your heart, so your essentially dominating the mana".

"Okay, whilst you were doing that, I created a schedule for you both. You're no longer going to school and you'll be spending 12 hours training everyday, understood?".

The kids squinted at the sheet of paper that was handed out.

Eve's schedule consisted of Body Training, Reflex Training, Scythe Training, Mana Training and Farming.

She was so confused, she thought she was a mage.

"Sir, aren't I a mage? Why do I have to do reflex and body training?". Not only that, but it made up of the majority of the schedule and she only had a few hours for Mana Training.

"Because you're not a Mage, you're obviously a Fighter. I've also brung some Dummies, and you have a quota to meet with your Scythe Training". The old man didn't hesitate to speak.

Ivan's schedule consisted of: Mana Training, Beast Training and Reflex Training.

Beast? What even is that?

"Sir! What's Beast Training?". Ivan asked as quickly as possible since he wanted to start training instantly.

"Do you even know what a Druid is? When you turn Level 10, you'll need to make contact with a spirit beast. Here, this is a book based on every spirit beasts in the world and their rankings, find one that suits you or something, then you'll learn the incantation for a Beast Summon".

Ivan nodded his head, and with that, the children got to work, and their first class was a joint one for reflexes.

Somehow, the old man brought a piece of apparatus with him in his backpack. This consisted of wooden poles which would swing side to side.

"Okay, you'll start off with two poles at a time until you can dodge them 250 times in a row, however Ivan you only need to dodge 100 in a row since reflexes as a mage is less important, but is still vital. If you aren't paying attention for a split second in a fight, that could be your life down the drain".

As soon as the old man mentioned life, Ivan and Eve instantly tensed up. Honestly, Eve wasn't very confident in herself, her figure was the opposite of what it means to be a warrior, and she really disliked confrontations.

She sighed and just went with it. It was too late to back out.

They both went up on seperate pieces of the apparetus and dodged the swinging poles. One came from the right and the other came from infront. Although it was tough for the first few hours, Eve got the pattern down pretty quick and was able to reach 50 dodges in succession, and Ivan was the same, he was able to reach 40 in succession. The old man made notes of this as they were quick learners.

With 6 hours over, Eve was able to dodge 250 times in succession and Ivan reached 150 and then went off an hour earlier to read the spirit beast book he was given.

The old man looked at Eve and threw a piece of wood out of nowhere, it was the size of a pencil, and Eve was actually able to dodge it.

The old man nodded his head. "Well done. Now, we'll be doing body training and I'll help you". The old man gave a smile, but it wasn't any smile, it was like the devil was staring at Eve.

Eve genuinely thought the man would bring out a whip and hit her with it.

"Okay, so you need to build up your stamina, so run for 2 hours straight and then afterwards come to me".

Eve stared. 2 whole hours? Seriously?

"But why is stamina that important, fights are usually short right?".

The old man gave a disgusting look at Eve, which made her think she asked a wrong question.

"Do you think wars end in a few hours? If you and Ivan are serious about wanting to become Legend Classes, it's basically your job to participate in wars, and to defend the entire Valor Races. A small battle in a war can last up to months. For months you'll be stuck, not knowing if your comrades are dead or alive, and eventually you may lose a limb. Don't take these things lightly, for your own safety. Also, you better be running at full speed for the entire 2 hours, if you don't then you're not trying hard enough.".

The story seemed oddly specific for Eve, so she assumed he participated in some form of battle at one point so he lost his arm.

Meanwhile Eve was running around the garden, Ivan went inside to look at the Spirit Beast Book. There was countless beasts, ranging from huge boars to small, delicate insects. What brought Ivan's attention was these two, beautiful butterflies, however they weren't separate, it looked like they came together, and they were both rated Epic. One of them was a pastel pink colour with gold spots over it's body, and the other was a beautiful dark blue colour with black spots. They were the epitome of beauty, and Ivan felt enchanted by them. He took a pencil and circled them. This is what he wanted.