Strength Takes Time

'I really need to get stronger.' Damian thought

He was going to the Church to get the rest of his wounds fixed.

'Man, imma have to pay around 3 silver for this, I guess I need to find a new job now.'

Soon, he got to the Church.

The receptionist who received him, told him to go down the hallway to the right, and make a right turn. Then he should go down the hallway a bit and the 5th door on the left should be the room he was looking for.

He got to the room and paid the 3 silvers and 15 copper to the priest.

The priest then told him to lie down on the bed and relax his muscles.

The priest then cast a tier 0 sleeping spell on him.

The next time Damian opened his eyes was 8 hours later, and the healing was finished.

He quickly went back home to deal with the situation.

Once he got there, He then cleaned up the bed Charlie's body was in.

Charlie's body was taken by the city guards for more evidence against Micheal.

Damian then started his daily warm-up.

10 push-ups, 25 frontal punches, 15 round house kicks, and a 5 minute plank was all he needed.

He then started on his special training on his mana core.

Damian never really developed it after he awakened, a natural procedure every child undergoes by the age of 10.

Since he never trained it, he never had the ability to cast spells.

He started to cycle his mana, from his mana core, situated right above his nape, to his shoulders, then forearms, then hands, fingers, fingertips, nails, and back around.

The same mana was then cycled to his high chest area, but he quickly lost control and it dispersed. Damian wasn't a prodigy after all.

He then continued his cycle for more than 3 hours until he could barely reach his cycle to his bellybutton.

He then stopped.

It was time to practice his physical body.

He then started with some push-ups, 10, 15, 20, 30, 50, 80, 100, 150, 200, 278… 279… 280… 281.

He was at his limit for push-ups.

He gave himself a rest and cycled his mana through out his upper body until he was near peak condition.

He then started his punches.

1 punch, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 566… 567… 568… 569.

He could through 569 full powered punches until he nearly collapsed from fatigue.

He rested for 5 minutes before the cycled his mana again.

He then started on his kicks after he was near full power.

1, 2, 3, 4… 198… 322… 323… 324.

He could do 324 full round house kicks before felling morbidly tired.

He then rested for 10 minutes and cycled his mana to mostly his core and arms to prepare for the plank.

He then got into position.

1 second, 2, 3…

Damian was cycling his mana while doing the plank!

He was constantly reinforcing his arms and core with mana to keep going!

It was to be known that mana has multiple properties, and that includes the property of healing in high densities!

Damian had been in the plank form for more than 5 hours, and he was in a state of extreme concentration.

He had progressed in his mana cycle to the point that it could to near his ankles.

But this was baby steps according to mages.

The only advantage that Damian had, was his larger than average mana pool size.

If the average size is a puddle you see on a rainy day, Damian's was the size of a large pond!

Damian's arm and core muscles had been torn many times over, and had grown stronger 5 fold!

But this was still the level of a child compared to the world powers.

Damian then stopped.

Instead of his usual resting period of 5 minutes, he stood up and got into a horse stance.

Since he had trained his upper body, he naturally couldn't skip leg day.

So he started cycling a large density of mana down to his legs and whenever a muscle was torn, it heal back to optimal condition in less than a few seconds.

He stood in a horse stand for around 3 hours before falling to his knees due to tiredness.

He then washed his sweat and got into bed before sleeping like a baby.

When he woke up, he washed up then grabbed some bread from the kitchen before starting his warm up, which was 5 times more intensive, counting the gains he made yesterday.

After completing his warmup, he sat down and started cycling his mana.

He continued doing this for around an hour and a half until he made a breakthrough.

He could now cycle his mana through out his entire body, not including the brain.

He now started on his physical training.

He trained for 10 hours total, but didn't get the explosive increase like yesterday, he only got a 50% physical strength increase.

Day flew by like seconds, and soon an entire month had passed.

Damian had only completed 10% of his mana cycle through his brain, as it was insanely complex and he had hit many road blocks due to no proper training, even though it was close to his mana core. If his mana core was even 30 centimeters further he wouldn't have even 3% right now.

On the other hand, his physical training had gone smoothly, but rather slowly compared to his first day.

His progress was in the top 10% of his kingdom for the first month, but he knew he would be at most in the top 45% if not for his rigorous regiment.

Once he was done with cycling mana through his brain, he could begin handling spells.

He had multiplied his starting power by 8x within a month.

But, there was only so much one could do on his own.

Without proper technique, his power would stagnate and stop improving.

So, he needed to find an instructor willing to teach him.

Luckily, he had already found one.

The city guards.