'No. It's because they don't have enough resources to support their growth.'
What Voice meant was that hay heads were born with stronger minds but weaker bodies while the rest had it reversed.
It didn't mean they had a harder time growing stronger than the rest. It just meant that they had a different set of problems to overcome.
'That's why you wanted me to become rich fast? To feed my body with resources? And here I thought you just wanted to see the world burn...'
All this time, Lucian thought Voice was only in it for the drama and chaos, not because it wanted to help him. But it was helping him. In a way that didn't seem helpful at all. It was a bad motivator, that was for sure.
Instead of telling him it would help his growth, Voice told him he had to get rich to get back at the world. Instead of telling him that his body needed resources, it told him he had to impress people with his wealth or else he would be bullied for being poor.
Everything was done with intimidation, fear, and humiliation.
'Too much,' Voice made him correct the force behind his punch to match the exact amount of force needed to hit Blocky, which Lucian found to be too little to be able to break anything. He was not convinced.
Voice made him hit it from various distances and angles, making him adjust the power each time to the required minimum, not a single bit more.
There was a difference in the required amount of force needed depending on the distance from which he threw the punch.
'Again. Too much.'
The angle, the force, the distance, the speed, they had to be perfect.
'You're not holding back enough. Again.'
'You are focusing too much on the wood, and not enough on yourself.'
Lucian grabbed Blocky's 'shoulder' with his right hand, and punched it lightly with his left.
'Feel the air resistance, how it's moving around your hand. Any force that's opposing your movement needs to be eliminated before your fist touches your target.'
Lucian tried to remove the air resistance with Voice's instructions. He controlled his breath and motion, decreasing the pressure around his fist.
'Transfer heat of your body to your wrist and knuckles, the area where your hand will connect with your target. Move it from your torso.'
This was where the hard part started. Lucian had to increase his body temperature, then concentrate that heat in the palm of his hand, making it hot enough to burn someone's skin from touch alone.
"..." Lucian rubbed his fist against his shirt to create some friction to make the heat transfer faster, but Voice wasn't pleased.
'It has to be instant like a thought that crosses your mind.'
'How?'
'Think. Your body will obey if you train it to. It's just like when you are about to sneeze. You don't need to command your body to cover your nose, it does it on its own, faster than you can think.'
It was like building a new habit, one that would become natural over time.
Lucian continued to output the same amount of force, but could feel the difference. Before, his fist would bounce off, now, the wood was deforming slightly under the same force.
Same force, different results. It was as if he was touching it with a hot iron. The heat transferred was what made the wood weaker.
Voice was teaching him the fundamental basics, the way he could break Blocky with his bare hands was to understand the nature of the wood.
'Do other knights also have to go through this kind of training?'
'No, they mostly learn how to use their hands as an axe instead of burning their target. You don't have their bodies or muscles, so we'll have to use the resources you have to make up for the difference.'
'I've grown taller and gained some weight since the last time I measured myself,' Lucian defended himself, continuing to multitask between questioning Voice and deforming Blocky.
He was as tall as Cansan, who had an average height. Five foot ten (178 cm) to be exact, and he had a few pounds on him too. He didn't look weaker than the average person in his age group, in fact, he had a pretty good physique, with muscles in the right places.
He might have worked harder to achieve the same result, but that didn't make the end product any worse.
Lucian's shirt was dry from stopping the sweat from cooling down his body. It felt like standing in front of a campfire, but at the same time, he was comfortable.
His body was adapting to the heat due to the copper stage. Once he unlocked it, he would be able to hone his skills further.
"Hahh..." Lucian slid down to the ground, resting against the mast after depleting his energy.
His right hand was still intact, so he pulled his pocket watch out and checked the time. An hour had passed, and his stomach was twisting itself in protest from not getting any food.
His head burned too much to think about anything other than food.
Placing his left arm over his knee, Lucian leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
From what he heard, most knight training involved surviving in the wilderness and learning from the harshness of nature.
They would be doing things like climbing mountains with heavy weights, running through obstacles, getting their bodies hit with heavy logs and stuff like that.
Lucian did some research on the topic.
Those were logically the best ways to temper one's body, and were proven to be effective over the years. Their bodies had to heal, then be broken and rebuilt again.
What Lucian was doing now was quite the opposite.
The knights were mostly using external forces while he was using internal ones to enhance his body.
They had to go through hell and high waters to achieve what they wanted.
Lucian had to figure out how to summon hell and high waters inside his body.