"We'll do what?! "
Paryl screamed. His voice was drowned out by an advertisement from outside. Indom rubbed his chin, thinking.
"Or is it just terrorism? It's not like we are from Dormalia.... Huh, food for thought."
"I am not going to be a terrorist! No way! No!"
Indom sighed, tapping the kid on the back.
"Listen, kid, we won't be hurting anyone. We'll just be burning an uninhabited tower and running away."
Paryl shook his head vehemently in protest.
"No! No, no way! There's no way! I refuse! I'm serious, Mr. Ordin! I refuse!"
He was on the verge of tears. Indom backed off.
"Fine, fine, we won't do it."
The boy looked up at the man.
"Promise?"
Indom nodded.
"We won't burn the tower down. That's my word, and I never break my word. That is my honor as the Emperor of Dragon Valley."
Paryl calmed down. Indom wanted to cheer the boy up, saying:
"Let's start training!"
Paryl nodded excitedly.
"Okay! Let's start!"
"The first thing you'll be practicing is the speed you can do a partial transformation at. Try to manifest it over your hand as fast as possible."
"O…over my whole hand?"
Indom smiled politely.
"Attaboy, but we'll start tomorrow. We walked to Lutingen, and you had that fight yesterday. Kid, you must be exhausted."
Paryl just nodded, preparing for bed.
They started training the very next morning. Day one was spent repeatedly summoning the electricity over his hand, making it a larger dragon arm.
His arm trembled, red and mildly swollen. Indom assured it was normal, as his mana network was swelling due to overuse.
"You good, kid? It hurts like hell, I know, but it won't cripple you, if that's any consolation. We can take a small break here, if you'd like."
Paryl touched his swollen arm, some of the earlier red sparks still clinging onto it, then nodded solemnly.
"I can continue. I promise."
Indom just nodded in response, not bothering to bark out an answer.
Instead of doing it step-by-step, he kept repeating it until it was muscle memory.
Every time his arm hurt more and more, but he gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain, not allowing anything to stop him.
Paryl stopped thinking, instead just performing the action until it was completely ingrained in his mind, despite the agony he found himself in.
The small boy's lower lip was bloody from his chewing on it as a way to distract himself from the pain. His childish, innocent face was sullied with tears.
Indom seemed impressed.
"You're a quick learner. No hints either. Good job! And we even have 3 more hours before it's your bedtime."
Paryl adored being praised. He wiped off the blood and tears with his functioning hand, then sat down, smiling.
"Ahaha, thank you, Mr. Ordin."
Indom stretched a bit.
"Want to do some more training?"
"Yes! I do, I do!"
Paryl never agreed to something so fast in his life. The boy had always loved trying new things and getting better at them, and of course, he loved praise.
This thirst for training wasn't because of those factors. Paryl was great at something, and that motivated him, despite the overwhelming pain his young mind was in.
"Just empty your mana core, okay? Make a habit of doing it repeatedly so it grows fastest."
Paryl meditated for half an hour, keeping a small flame in check within his hands until its fuel was completely gone.
"Now, focus on your back. Do you see something?"
Paryl fidgeted around.
"No, not really."
Indom hit the boy on the head lightly.
"Focus!"
Paryl closed his eye, sensing around. Then, his eyes exploded open in shock.
"I have two mana cores?!"
Indom chuckled.
"No, the imprint has a secondary mana storage. It's something I can fuel, but it seems to absorb the mana by itself, too. It also seems to be only for transforming."
Paryl stayed quiet, then asked.
"So, how do I use it?"
Indom shrugged.
"I assume it'll come naturally with time."
Another silence ensued, broken by Paryl, again.
"Hey... Mr. Ordin? How big is my mana core now?"
Normally, you'd need a mana-sensing device, but after years of practice, Indom was more accurate than any inscription-based test.
"6.1 gigamana. Its maximum capacity has increased by 300 megamana in just two and a half days. It's incredible."
Paryl smiled.
"Go rest, kid."
"What?! But training is going so well! Why should I go rest?!"
Indom smiled at the pouting child's inexperience.
"Rest is as important, if not more important, than training. Go brush your teeth, shower, and sleep."
Paryl childishly pouted, but he really was incredibly exhausted. He set up into a position that allowed his swollen arm to be under no contact with the rest of his body, and laid down.
The moment his head touched the pillow, sleep was calling the boy's name.
Before dreams could steal him, he saw an elf girl stare at him through the window. Paryl's eyes opened widely, and he jumped back in fear. The boy was remembering Elizabeth.
He looked back, and she was gone. Paryl started shaking, tears building at the edges of his eyes.
Every shadow seemed large, any sound that broke through the thin walls was deafeningly loud. It was as if all his instincts screamed he was in danger.
Indom solemnly sat down at the foot of the small boy's bed.
"Sleep, okay? Don't worry, no monsters can reach you when I'm here."
Paryl answered in a small, shaky voice.
"Okay Mr. Ordin. Goodnight."
"Night."
Suddenly feeling safer, the boy drifted off to a nice sleep.
The next day was spent practicing two things. Until lunch (delivered by the staff as a part of their room service), they had practiced the ability to summon a partial transformation to defend from an attack. Indom started with slow punches, working his way up to mana attacks. Paryl was great at this portion. His partial transformation speed lowered down to 1.8 seconds…
His arm was less swollen today, a sign his body was adapting.
The second portion didn't go as well. The goal was for him to use both the transformation and an elemental magic attack at the same time.
While he could do it, the transformation would waver, and the attack would be impossible to control. Even if he tried to just send out all his mana, it would only be a predictable but strong attack.
"Ugh! Why! Everything else feels natural, why can't I get this?!"
Indom, seeing his pupil struggle, decided to try a different approach.
"Listen up. Your mana attacks are powerful and telegraphed, but you can use that to your advantage. Come here. Focus on dodging."
Paryl approached his mentor cautiously, only to be met with a small fire projectile. He dodged the first one, but two more moved toward him at stunning speeds. Paryl barely got out of their way, and finally got the rhythm of the fast-paced arrow like attacks.
The boy dodged them without getting, until he was met with a fast right-handed punch into the gut.
"See? Show your opponents a rhythm, then disrupt it."
Paryl managed to groan out, clutching his stomach in pain:
"Alright..."
That's what they worked on until late in the night of day two. By midnight, Paryl had learned how to combo strong, predictable pillars of flame and unpredictable human movements.
They overslept, waking up at 10:30.
Or rather, Paryl overslept. Indom spent the whole night awake, making plans and protecting Paryl.
They ate a light breakfast, some cheap room service toast and an overly sweet drink called Enar-g, chatting about this and that.
"Hey Ordin, do you have a wife?"
Indom signaled for Paryl to wait until he finished chewing. When he did, he answered.
"No, I don't. I'd prefer not to talk about it."
Paryl looked away, shyly.
"Oh, sorry."
The moment they finished breakfast and got ready to leave, Indom's expression got serious.
"Kid, is your mana core 100% full?"
Paryl was confused by the sudden question. He knew Indom could see his core, so why would he ask?
"Yeah... I slept through the whole night after all..."
Indom sighed, as if he hoped the kid would say no. Maybe he would've felt better if the kid couldn't do the last part of his training.
They stepped out, but Indom quickly jumped to the side, pointing to a corner of the hallway.
"Kid, I taught you a lot, some would even say too much! Now, test it out on her!"
Paryl was confused. Test it out on whom? He wasn't feeling any mana in the hallway, except his own. Indom's mana suppression technique was so incredible you could never feel his mana, so where was the other person's signature?
Paryl turned his head at the direction Inpdom was pointing.
He saw a small elven girl with white hair run at him, thrusting toward his neck with a rapier.