The Stages of Training

The gloves materialized in the air and started speeding toward him, unaware that it was a different Lance they were facing now.

Since he had gotten out of the pool, it seemed as if something had clicked in Lance's mind. Where before it took conscious thought and effort to increase the power output of a body part, it now took only a thought. With a single thought, he could move his arms with superior speed and full power output to meet the incoming gloves. As he did so, he felt a feeling of slight fatigue. Before, he had never activated the cells for enough time continuously to generate any such feeling. Now, everything seemed to be in place. The fatigue let him know that he had only had 20 percent of power left. After that, it would not be possible to activate those body parts anymore.

This was crucial information that made him dial down the output.

In a second, the gloves collided with his arms and were sent flying back in the air. Just as he suspected though, they flew back, continuing to attack.

If he had blown all his pair on that first contact, only failure would have greeted him again.

Instead, he regulated each punch to output just the required amount of power. With time, he got more and more efficient at it until only very little of his energy was wasted.

This went on for 20 more minutes. These 20 minutes had taught him more than all the 2 months combined. It truly was all about control.

Just as he was about to collapse on the floor with exhaustion, the gloves fell to the ground.

The Castellan came in front of him and took his hand. Lance could only smile stupidly seeing the gloves lying on the floor unmoving. Finally! These damn gloves! He had lost of the number of times he wished he could strangle the man controlling them.

"Mind and Body as One. Attok told me you were close, but I had no idea that all it would take was the first task. That makes the rest of the training so much easier! Now, you may actually have some chance of getting out before 3 years are up." Saying so, the Castellan patted Lance's shoulders, making him wobble.

The pat had brought him back to his senses. Hearing what the Castellan had said, Lance felt proud. He had reached the famed mental realm! At least now he could try to stand and fight side by side with Darius and Entsy. He couldn't wait to have a sparring match and beat them both to the ground(or at least try to).

Even though exhaustion clouded his mind, Lance looked at the Castellan with burning eyes.

"What's next?", he asked, feeling ready for anything.

The Castellan chuckled before replying, "You have crossed all of our expectations Lance. Originally, the plan was to segregate your training into 3 stages:

Stage 1: Learning to activate certain parts of the body

Stage 2: Learning to activate the whole body for a period of time

Stage 3: Learning to choose between sources of energy and using that energy to drive the wishroot with moderation.

As you know, you have the ability to choose any absorbed form of energy to drive your wishroot. Although the power you can output now is commendable, it is almost nothing compared to a typical initiate with a proper power IN. Thus, your only choice is to learn to use the wishroot with moderation. This is actually a long process, but your goal would have been to meet the minimum threshold i.e learning to use the smallest amount of energy safely. Now, everything can be brought forward. Get some rest. Tomorrow, we will begin Stage-2."

Lance bowed again before heading to the living room. He had really pushed his body to its limit. Now it was time for blissful sleep.

Seeing Lance go, the Castellan smiled again, proud of his disciple. As an expression of mischief came on his face, he muttered, "It is time to take advantage of an old friend's bad habit again. You have proven your worth my disciple, now it is time for me to prove mine."