Gray's first impression of Kazu was—creepy kid.
Every time he sat in the tavern, he occasionally felt Kazu's gaze.
What troubled him was not the frequency but rather the intensity. He felt like somebody was dissecting him inside out, which felt terrible to him. This was also the reason for the last few months he had avoided being inside the tavern.
So, despite not vocalizing this, he was quite pissed at the newcomer.
Then, one day, the newcomer, who wasn't new anymore, challenged him for a spar.
Gray accepted it, partially vengeful and partially curious about this guy's abilities.
So, when he battled him, he was pretty shocked that the guy was not half bad.
'That bastard not only got the last hit, but also forfeited before I could retaliate.' Even after a few days, Gray was still grumbling about that.
He left the guild, currently heading to the forest to train.
"Hmm?" In the backyard, he observed Kazu fighting the air. Without thinking much, he didn't pay much attention.
A few hours later.
'It still takes too long to make my constructs.' Gray frowned, not much satisfied with his session.
"Just have to be patient." He sighed, heading towards the guild for dinner.
On reaching the guild, he stopped before entering. 'What's this sound? Is somebody in the backyard.' Curiously, he made way towards the backyard.
He saw Kazu with his hands outstretched. Ethernano was being manipulated to remain together in a square shape.
'He is still at it?' Gray watched Kazu concentrate on keeping that square like that.
One minute later, the ethernano was finally disrupted from the square shape. "Fuck." Kazu muttered, closing his eyes for a few seconds.
After that, Kazu again formed the square shape, repeating the exercise.
'Wasn't his attribute enhancement or something? Maybe it's manipulation?' Gray hummed, heading inside the tavern.
"At least, I can eat in peace." He thanked nobody in particular.
"Yo, exhibitionist, what were you up to?" Cana waved at him, sipping orange juice.
"Just usual training." Gray shrugged. He told the bartender his order.
"What about you?" Gray asked.
"Nothing much. I was practising my fortune telling by giving other people their fortune for free. Do you want yours too?"
"No." Gray's face scrunched up. Last time, following her predictions, a guildmate was reported for child molestation when Gray accompanied them on a mission.
Cana grinned. "That time was unintentional. My skills have improved so much since then. Moreover, that lady was suspicious anyway." She said the last part in a whisper.
Gray just deadpanned. "That lady isn't like that. Also, I am not getting my fortune read until more than half of the guild supports your skill."
"Tch. Just you wait. I will show you." Cana clenched her fist, gulping the entire glass.
"One more." She told the bartender.
"..." Gray wordlessly watched her drink 3 glasses of orange juice in one go.
"What are you looking at?" She shot him a look.
"I hope you never touch alcohol or something in the future," Gray muttered.
"What? Did the cat get your tongue? Say it louder."
"I was saying that creepy guy seems quite diligent." Gray quickly changed the statement.
Cana deadpanned at him. "His name is Kazu, not Creepy guy. Well, it's not that surprising. If he could observe people for hours, every day for months, then this seems natural."
Gray paused. "I guess. Didn't see it from that perspective. Even so..." His attention shifted to the food that came to the table.
'I wonder how long he trains?' Gray thought, digging into his food. He didn't know it then, but that question would significantly change things the next day.
---
The next morning, Gray arrived at the backyard at 5 am.
"Guess, I am too early. Well, let's start with some conditioning." Seeing nobody around, Gray started with some exercise.
Physical training is one of the ways to increase the Ethernano capacity.
He trained for around 2 hours before changing his focus to ice magic—specifically the speed at which he creates stuff.
Another 2 hours passed by. It was now 9 am.
'The guy didn't come.' Gray thought before heading to have breakfast. He was curious whether the guy would come to train early morning or not.
"You are here!?" Entering the tavern, he saw Kazu having breakfast.
"Where else would I be?" Cana retorted, thinking Gray was speaking to her.
Gray paused for a second. "I was just shocked for a second. You generally don't wake up before 10." He smoothly adapted to the situation. 'Almost got caught.'
"Hmph. I have been waking up early since last week. You need to pay more attention before making such statements." She snorted.
"Right." Gray took a seat beside her. Cana was sitting on Kazu's left, and Gray on her left.
"Were you training?" She asked
"Yeah. I decided to do my morning schedule here only. Just for a change of scenery." Gray didn't mention that his session got extended by 2 hours due to waiting for somebody.
After having breakfast, Gray went back to the backyard. As expected, Kazu had arrived and started his training.
Gray wasn't in the mood to continue training, especially after eating, so he decided to take the book he had been recently reading and sat at the edge of the training ground, his back against a tree.
[ Molding Magic for Pros. ]
This was the third book he was reading in the series. The first one was things he already knew, and half of the second was the same.
He read the book while occasionally glancing at Kazu.
The latter was doing his physical conditioning.
'His form is good. Though the exercises are quite basic.'
Just like that, 2 hours passed by.
'I am bored.' Gray thought, looking at the sky.
He was still a kid, and despite all the motivation he got, he still couldn't train for the entire day.
His average training time is currently 4 hours, with a recent peak being 7 hours, which he reached last month.
This time also includes the time of reading books.
'Maybe I will beat my peak time today. Just one hour to go.' He thought, but didn't continue as he felt it was quite hard to focus.
His attention shifted to Kazu, who was now lying on the ground, eyes closed.
'I am half-tempted to think he is sleeping, but another part makes me wonder if he is meditating. I wonder what he is doing.' Gray didn't have to wait for long.
Kazo got up and then stared at the sky.
Gray got confused, looking up.
'What is he looking at?' His gaze shifted back to Kazu, who had a... contemplative expression.
After a few seconds, Kazu started working on his barrier magic.
'Oh! He must have trained last night.' Gray thought while looking at the cube that was being maintained.
A cube was formed of 6 squares, so it was quite a jump.
"That reminds me, I need to work on my multi-tasking too." Gray groaned. He looked at the book in his lap and sighed. Fortunately, in the last 2 hours, he was reading about that only.
Even so, his mind vehemently refused to move, giving a lot of excuses to stop Gray.
His gaze went back to Kazu, who was training with single-minded focus. It somehow reminded him of his days with his master.
Gray clenched his fists. He needed to be stronger… for Deliora.
After a few minutes of observing Kazu, Gray got up and moved to the other end of the backyard.
'Time to apply what I learned.' Gray took a deep breath and started applying what he had learned from the book.
2 hours passed like that.
'8 HOURS! I am finally done.' Gray gave himself a thumbs up for breaking his record before heading for lunch. He threw a glance at Kazu, who was still working on maintaining the cube.
'I could have just observed from here.' He thought while looking at a window that gave him a view of the backyard.
The rest of the day was a blur for Gray. He accompanied a guy on a mission, which went sideways and led to massive property damage.
The next few days were not as bright as the day he had reached peak, which was normal, as this always happened.
Even so, he still did 2 hr physical conditioning every day.
Apart from that, Gray had been tracking the time Kazu had been training. To his shock it was 9+ hours every day.
'He is going to stop soon, right?' Gray knew how hard it was to maintain such a tough routine.
So, Gray observed.
Another day.
2 days.
5 days.
1 week.
2 weeks.
1 month.
"Damn, this guy is really something." Gray was amazed at Kazu's training intensity. It was only increasing with time.
Midway through the last month, Gray had tried to mimic his routine. He even stopped waking up too early, just so he could match the guy's routine.
Just being on the same ground as him motivated him to train. The bonus fact was that the guy never initiated the conversation, and Gray was the same. So, they silently trained.
In the past 30 days, Gray had been successful in mimicking the guy for 5 days, with Gray's peak training hours being 12 hours.
His entire month's average had elevated from 4.5 hours to 7 hours. A whole 2.5-hour increment.
One day, Gray finally confronted him.
"You've been doing this for months. No breaks. No talking. No skipping."
"It can't be just discipline. What is driving you?"
***
A/n- Guys, Double Release for 50 Power stones.
***
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