After accepting Stormhold academy's invitation, Damian went straight to the training room and closed the door.
The training room was filled with many intensive training equipment and machines.
His parents were both high rankers and were very powerful, so the training room designed for their use was more than enough for his own requirements.
In the center of the room was a meditation mat, where breathing practices could be done comfortably.
Damian went ahead and sat on it without wasting much time.
For the first time since he regained his past life's memories, he had time to really think and process everything.
"Is my world really just a novel?..."
"No… I don't know what is happening right now and how I even managed to gain my memories in the first place…
but there is just no way that my whole life was just a stupid novel!"
"One day maybe I will get my answers, but worrying about all this now will gain me nothing."
With that thought Damian put aside all these useless thoughts.
"Hmm… I don't know why the federation only wants students to start doing breathing exercises and training only after accepting an invite or joining an academy. They even went as far as to make it a law."
"Anyways, before starting breathing exercises maybe I should do some training first and work on getting familiar with my body."
Ever since gaining his memories, he always felt like his control over the body was not like before.
It is only natural considering in those memories he had the body of an adult and right now he was in the body of a teenager.
Although the memories only took a few moments to settle in, it felt as though he had lived an entire lifetime in those moments.
He was more used to being "Alessio" than his own self.
Right now, it seemed he was neither Damian nor Alessio, but someone who was a mix of both.
Alessio never allowed himself to have "weaknesses" while Damian was a child who loved his family.
He… was becoming something new.
****
Damian changed into his training clothes that he got from his room while on his way to the training room.
He first started his training with a light jog on the treadmill.
After running for some time, he shifted his focus to the training equipment and machines.
His goal was to make himself used to his own body and gain complete control over his body.
So he planned on training each and every muscle in his body till he feels completely in control.
Training went on for a long time, and before he knew it, Damian's clothes were already soaked with his sweat.
"Huff…huff… I finally feel a little familiar with my body. I guess I should start my breathing exercise now."
He panted as he finally stopped training and sat on the meditation mat and focused on his breathing.
Breathing exercise was taught to everyone in school but they were forbidden from practicing it before joining an academy.
Having accepted Stormhold Academy's invitation, Damian could now finally practice it.
These exercises were used to generate Aura in a person's body and help them form a core where all the Aura could be stored.
As he focused his breathing as per the breathing exercise, Damian soon found out he could "See" inside his body and manipulate his breath to some extent using his mind.
"Maybe it is due to my will power being so high…With this, I can form my core even faster!"
He saw how his body started taking in the Aura spread around in the air and making it his own.
Those aura particles flowed along his breath inside the body and became concentrated below his navel.
He noticed how these particles resembled sparks of bright light, but as soon as they entered his body, they became reddish black in color.
It was said that the color of a person's Aura is completely based on the person himself.
Their essence was reflected through its color.
Damian didn't know why his aura was a dark shade of reddish black, but he didn't focus much on that thought as he kept his concentration completely on his breathing exercise.
Soon a small dark red core was formed inside his body and all the Aura was now getting generated inside it.
"Phew… It's finally done. I have officially awakened!"
He was filled with joy, feeling the Aura coursing throughout his body making him feel as though he were on drugs.
It was… addictive.
This power, he wanted more of it!
A grin formed on Damian's face as he revelled in his aura for some time.
"Now let's see my status…"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Name: Damian Valcor
Age: 15
Rank: F-
Talent: S
Core Attributes:
Strength: 9 → 12
Speed: 8 → 13
Stamina: 9 → 15
Vitality: 10 → 20
Aura: F
Will: 120
Skills: —
Shooting: C+
Hand Combat: B
Aura Control: E
Weapon Arts: —
━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Looking at the improvement in his stats, he was already far more powerful physically than he was in his past life where no human could break past their limits.
He noticed how his Aura stat also changed from 0 to F.
"Hmm… It seems I gained a new skill – Aura Control.
From the name itself, I guess everyone who has Aura core must have it."
He saw how he already had Aura control at E rank, even though his core was only at F rank.
"It's probably due to Will Stat being high, it seems Will power is very important.
The benefits might not be direct but it might indirectly be far more useful than it seemed."
****
By the time Damian came out of the training room, it was already dark.
"No wonder I feel so hungry… It is already dinner time!"
He rushed straight to the Dining room where as always his family was gathered before him.
Unlike the morning, the room was filled with a joyous atmosphere.
"Sorry for being late, I was training and didn't keep track of my time."
Damian apologized while taking his seat, his parents and sister put aside the conversation they were having and focused on him.
"Start eating before the food gets more cold, Damy!"
Lyandra exclaimed, as she remembered her son didn't even have his lunch.
She continued, "I told you in the morning to eat your food on time.
I know you might be excited about the future, but you should not forget to take care of your body!"
Lyandra kept on nagging her son, while Damian kept apologizing and promising her that he would be more mindful in the future.
Alaric and Luna just kept smiling and pitching in the conversation too from time to time.
The room was filled with a familial atmosphere during dinner, and Damian was starting to relax himself and fit in as usual.
'Sigh… I wonder why a person like me even got this second chance.'