Chapter 4

After Rougue changed into his Gym clothes he found that Instructor Warwick was waiting for him while doing stretches. Rogue stepped closer until he was around 5 feet away from him and the instructor stopped his stretching.

"Join me for some stretches! It's better to stretch before exerting your body."

Rougue hesitatingly joined the instructor for his stretches after thinking for a moment. Even thought they were only stretches, knowing the instructor they couldn't be ordinary and he was right. They weren't normal stretches all right, they were made to temper ones body. After watching the instructor do his stretches he copied the movements and very strand of his being felt like it was on fire.

After completing one set he collapsed on the ground while sweating and breathing heavily. The instructor did them once more before noticing that Rougue was lying on the ground.

"You tried copying me just then didn't you?"

'Seriously, how are you able to do those with a straight face?!'

"What are these stretches?"

"So you did! You're lucky you didn't do them more than once. These stretches are of a special kind that help strengthen your body by minuscule amount."

The instructor gave a hearty laugh after realizing that Rougue had copied his stretches.

The stretches he was doing would take the Mana from the surroundings and inject into the body's muscles and tendons, strengthening them and making them sturdier. Of course this wasn't without it's downsides, it would drain the energy from your body rapidly if your body wasn't trained enough or properly like what happened in Rougue's situation.

The minuscule amount he mentioned was aimed towards him, if a normal person would try to do these stretches they would at most be able to do one set before collapsing of exhaustion. After recovering from the soreness and exhaustion brought by the exhaustion they would notice that they were considerably stronger than they had been before.

"Student Rougue, you shouldn't practice these stretches with your current body fitness if you wish to have enough energy to actually move afterwards."

After saying this the Instructor picked Rougue off the ground with one hand and then placed on a bench facing towards the ceiling of the gym building. The instructor walked out of the gym and came back a few moments later with two bottles of water in his hands, he handed one to Rougue and then drank all of what was in his bottle.

Rougue slowly sat up from the bench and opened his bottle of water before taking a drink out of it.

"Can I learn how to do those stretches?"

Rougue looked at the instructor and patiently waited for his answer. The instructor put his hand to his beard and seemed to be thinking about the pros and cons of the situation before long he hit his palm with his fist and then spoke.

"Student Rougue I've got an idea, if you can endure the rest of this weeks training then I shall gift you the manual, of course, if you're actually able to do the stretches depends on if your strong enough."

Rougue was surprised that the instructor actually agreed. He thought that the instructor would say no and tell him that it was something that couldn't be given to civilians or that he shouldn't give it him because his body wouldn't be able to handle the stretches.

"Really?"

"Of course! Though That means I will make your training even more intense than it is now, you'll probably barely be able to even handle the first exercises."

The instructor gave a few hearty laughs and patted Rougue on the shoulder.

"That's it for today Student Rougue."

"But I thought we were still going to do training?"

"Do you think that you're body can still do exercise in that condition?"

Rougue slowly moved his legs and he flinched at the pain that was caused by the small movement.

'Just how much energy did those stretches sap out of me?'

"I guess we can't continue like this."

Rougue scratched the back of his head while saying this. He said goodbye to the instructor and then walked home with an aching body and collapsed onto his bed feeling all energy leave his body and he drifted asleep.

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Inside a giant workshop in capital city Orenia

A tall man sat hammering away at some unknown material until it began to take shape as a flamberge blade, the man then got up and walked towards the western wall of the room where a variety of different blades were hung. He placed the blade atop of the many empty racks and left through a door at the western wall.

The man entered into an office with a desk and chair in the middle of it, on the walls were many paintings and photos. One of the photos was the man standing next to an exquisite looking dagger with an unnatural sharpness that could still be felt through the photo. The man had a youthful appearance with a stubble on his jaw and a head of wavy silver hair. His eyes were round and a hint of innocence in them unlike what he looked like today.

The most eye catching feature of the room would the glass display case behind the desk that was filled with medals and awards some were old and rusted and some were new and glowing, the thing these awards had in common was the rest that was engraved on them or at the base of them.

"To the winner of the annual smithing competition held by the royal family."

Every year there would be a blacksmithing competition that was held by the royal family of Archa. The Archa royal family was the most influential royal family out of the dozens that existed at it's time.

They loved to hold miscellaneous events but the one they held the most out of all of them was the Smithing competitions, high ranking smiths in the city of Archia and the surrounding cities would to to the competition but the same man won every time, leaving many smiths depressed.

That was this man, the winner of one of the most prestigious competitions for 10 years in a row.

He sat down in the chair and leaned backwards while sighing.

"When can I go home and see my son again?"