Preparation Training(Unedited)

[Welcome Back to The Mythical Age!]

And with a familiar flash of light, Nex and his group returned to where they logged off before and appeared back in the game.

It was an early morning hour now in the game and the Dojo yard seem to be clean of people,

except for a little kid that kept hitting a training dummy with his bare hands at the side and a tall old man that kept yelling corrections at him from behind him and hitting him with a thin stick.

*Smash*

"Stop acting like a wimp and hit the damn puppet with some force already!"

"Yes!"

*Smash*

"Keep your posture firm or else I am going to let you run around the arena until you couldn't move your legs at all!"

"Yes!"

*Smash*

"Look at your inept movements! To think you actually thought you are going to train with a sword without being able to even move your body! Don't make me laugh!"

"Is he crazy!?" Jane instantly became shocked with Elise having a similar expression, "To train an eight-year-old like that!? I am stopping this now-"

"Don't worry about it," Nex stopped her with a smile and pointed at the old man, "Louis is only using the stick to fix Roland's mistakes such as his stance and movements. That fellow is too soft-hearted to actually harm the kid!"

"I heard that you bastard!"

Almost instantly after Nex explained, Louis yell came over and the old man glared at Nex.

"Yo! Louis!" Nex went over with a smile and patted the old man's shoulder, "How is the mood of my favorite Arch-Human trainer on this lovely day?"

"Not that bad until you came!" Louis snorted and shoved Nex's hand away.

"Yeah, I can guess that," Nex smiled and turned to the little kid that obediently stood at the side with a shy and expectant expression, "Started to train I see?"

"Yes!" Roland nodded energetically.

"Good," Nex smiled in approval, "Before you show me what you were taught, don't you think you need to do something first."

"Something I need to do first?" Roland tilted his head.

"Yes," Nex said solemnly before smiling and spreading his hands, "You need to say to me and everyone hello first!"

"Yes!" hearing Nex words, Roland's face instantly turned into a smile and he ran into the embrace of the former.

"Good morning Big Brother!"

"Good morning to you too!" Nex smiled and rubbed his head, "But there are a few more people you need to say them hello besides me no?"

"Yes," Roland separated from Nex a bit reluctantly and turned to the three, "Good morning to you Brother Ed, Sister Jane, and Sister Elise-"

"Good morning to you too Roland!" before he even managed to finish his words, Jane already stormed at him and hugged him close, "Did you miss me? I know I missed you!"

"Sister Jane it's not fair!" Elise pouted angrily, "Didn't we agree I would be the first to hug him?"

'You actually had an agreement beforehand!?' Nex smiled awkwardly and quickly saved the boy that by now had his face completely red and hard time breathing because of the limited amount of oxygen he had access to.

"Don't worry, I am here," Nex calmed him down before pointing at a certain person, "So you only have to go through this once more with Elise."

"Please don't-" Roland tried to decline his fate, but before he could, a pair of lithe hands came and snatched him.

"Good morning to you too Roland! Is it me or you got cuter while I was away?"

And after exactly the same amount of time that Jane hugged Roland for passed, Nex rescued the kid and got him to be in front of Eddie before holding back the two cuteness-hungry girls from reaching the poor fellow.

"Hard isn't it?" Eddie sighed and patted Roland's shoulder with an encouraging expression, "Don't worry Andy. Someday, you will learn to endure it."

"When will it be?" Roland asked with an expectant gaze.

"When…" Eddie was about to say something optimistic before he suddenly remembered a certain girl he has to visit next Saturday and as a result, he could only sigh with a slightly dead expression, "Actually it will probably continue forever as long as there will be one to find you."

"No…" being able to somewhat understand the reason behind Eddie's action, Roland became heartbroken himself.

'Stay strong little fellows,' Nex prayed silently for the poor fellows before clapping his hands and gathering the attention of everyone there.

"Okay guys, since it will take Celes a few hours before she could come to the city and considering the fact I need to teach Roland some things, let's do some preparation training here before we go on our first group hunting."

♦♦♦

"Did you two understood what I just taught you?"

Nex asked Jane and Elise.

"It's just a few healing spells how hard can it be?" Jane asked in confusion. She expected this so-called preparation training to be much more difficult.

"That's right Teacher," Elise nodded in agreement, "What you gave me was only a few basic Martial Skills even though they are usable here in the game I don't need much training to use them well."

"Don't be impatient," Nex already entered his trainer-mode and flicked the two girls' foreheads without much care, "Even if you understand the skill and can use it, it doesn't mean that you can be called proficient with it."

"Jane," Nex threw a small bag to Jane, and when she opened it she saw it was full of seeds, "Your mission is to use the healing spells I taught to make these seeds to grow only 3 flowers in less than 3 seconds, if there are signs that show that the seed was growing another flower then this seed became invalid."

"What!?" Jane furrowed her eyebrows, "You never taught me how to do things like that, how should I know how to do it?"

"Just cast the spells a few times and then you understand," Nex just gave her a smirk and turned to Elise, "Now to you. You said that you will be able to use the Martial Skills that I gave you without much trouble?"

"Yes…" Elise answered with a somewhat lowered confidence upon seeing the bizzare and probably very difficult mission Jane just received.

"Good," Nex nodded and called out loud without turning his head, "Hey Louis-man, as this place was a once-proper dojo, I bet you have one of those things right?"

"What do you mean a once-proper dojo!?" Louis seemed quite irritated but he quickly got a hold on himself and sighed, "It's over there, but while I allow the young lass to use it, the moment I see you try and mess with it, I am going to throw you outside the city borders and into the nearest Monster Nest I could find!"

"Sure, sure," Nex waved his hand and indicated the puzzled Elise to follow him to a circular arena that had in front of it a large slab with several magic stones of varying colors embedded into it.

He then touched a few stones there, causing them to glow dimly, before turning back to Elise and indicated her to follow him into the arena.

"What is this-!" Elise was about to ask something before her voice suddenly cut off and she fell into the ground.

"The ground is… changing?" she reached in conclusion when she tried to lift herself up only to constantly lose balance.

"Among some other things you will find out about soon," Nex said and with a simple pull, lifted her back up to her feet, "I don't sure what this thing is called around here, so I just going to call it Adaptability Arena. Your goal here is to be able to use the Marital Skills that I taught you without losing their power potential and display their peak strength…"

"How can I do it, Teacher!?" is he kidding her!? She barely able to stand properly right now, to use Martial Skills in these conditions is impossible unless she had her real-life power!

"Let me finish," Nex flicked her forehead and caused her to almost completely lose balance and fall to the ground, "And in addition, I want you to be able to chain at least three of those skills."

"Isn't that too much?" she covered her forehead in embarrassment and pouted at him.

"Nope," Nex suddenly appeared behind her and before she managed to react, he lifted her up and threw her at the center of the arena.

"Teacher you meanie!" Elise called in anger while trying to lift herself, but Nex already walked away while clearly ignoring her.

Before moving on to training Roland, Nex stared at the former and Eddie talking sharing a laugh like good friends before sighing and walking to Jane.

"What do you want?" Jane grumbled while her surroundings were covered in seeds that had at least 5 flowers growing out of them, "Want to add another torture to this stupid training?"

"No," Nex shook his head and said with a somber expression, "I remembered that we still didn't finish our conversation from earlier since Celes appeared."

"..." Jane stared at him with silence before finally opening her mouth, "What do you want to say?"

"I know that you are afraid of Eddie becoming a Hunter and things going wrong," Nex spoke gently, "But there is something now that makes it different than before."

"What is it?" Jane asked weakly.

"I am here now," Nex patted his chest with confidence and sincerity, "And even if the sky will fall right now, I can promise you that no harm will come to him. So even though it will be hard for you to agree for this, I still ask you to give it a chance."

Jane stared at Nex quietly for a few minutes before finally opening her mouth.

"..."

♦♦♦

"Okay, guys! Let's start with you two training!"

With those words, Nex instantly gathered the attention of the two kids but more especially of a certain one of them.

"Big Bro?" Eddie asked cautiously, "What do you mean "you two"? Big Sis doesn't allow me to train…"

"Well about that…" Nex smiled, "Let's say that I got her permission, but aside from certain techniques you are not allowed to use what I will teach you IRL unless you are in danger, is that clear?"

"Big Bro… are you serious?" Eddie had a hard time believing his ears, he actually got Big Sis permission to train? He didn't think it will happen anytime soon considering what happened not long ago.

"Of course I am!" Nex patted the kid's head, "Just don't forget to say thank you to your sister. As you can imagine it was a very hard decision for her."

"Okay," Eddie nodded with tearful eyes before giving Nex a tight hug, "Thank you!"

"Anytime buddy," Nex grinned and indicated him to move back to where Roland is, "Now quickly prepare, I am going to teach you one of the most important techniques for the stage that you two are in."

"Yes!" Eddie called excitedly and went to next to Roland who was also very eager to learn this important technique.

"What I am about to teach is something I call Foundation Breathing," Nex started to explain, "And as you can guess, it is a breathing technique. Do you two know how breathing techniques work?"

"I know!" Roland lifted his hand with enthusiasm, his grandma made sure to drill as much basic knowledge as possible since they started to live in the village, "It is a special rhythm of breathing that awakens the Mana Veins in one's body and depending on the rhythm, allows one to use the mana in various ways such as causing it to grow or unleash greater amount of power."

"That is correct," Nex nodded with a smile before adding, "Then I have a question for you. The Mana Veins are a spiritual organ that doesn't truly exist in one physical body, then how is it that simply breathing through your mouth and nose can influence it?"

"It is…" Roland got a blank expression as he couldn't think of a possible answer while Eddie to his side had a similar face, how does merely breathing in a special rhythm influence something that is not physical?

"Doesn't make so sense now does it?" Nex smiled as he expected this answer, "The answer is that you don't truly breath with your mouth and nose, but with something else entirely. Can you guess what it is?"

Both being smart kids, Roland and Eddie thought of Nex words before their eyes brightened and they yelled at the same time.

"You breath with your soul!"

"Exactly," Nex nodded with satisfaction, "Although it is an organ that manipulates the mana in one's body, the Mana Veins actually come from the soul and only through it you can manipulate them. When you use a breathing technique, you actually use a language that your soul can understand and through it act accordingly and influence it, the Mana Veins, and even your physical body!"

"The Foundation Breathing that I am about to teach you is able to develop and strengthen all three to the limit when you are in early stages of strength, thus enabling you to not only show power way beyond what normal peoples can do in the same stage, but also ensure that your future breakthroughs will be smoother and more stable. So what do you say shall we begin?"

"Yes!" the two kids nodded excitedly.

"Good! Then let's begin!"

And soon time quickly passed and only after an hour, the two kids sat cross-legged on the ground with their breathing stable and a soft aura of light surrounding them.

"As I thought," Nex nodded in approval "You two are really talented, normal people will take a very long time to master this technique like you two just did."

"Big Bro?" Eddie suddenly furrowed his eyebrows and stared at Nex with confusion, "Although I feel that I do this correctly, why don't I feel my body improving as you said will happen? Is there something wrong with me?"

"No, there is nothing wrong with you," Nex shook his head with a smile, "The reason why your body is not improving is that our avatars in the game have their abilities fixed to their stats and level, once you try this technique IRL you will immediately saw results."

"So why should I learn how to use this technique inside the game?" Eddie became puzzled.

"Well," Nex said with a mysterious smile, "Aside from accelerating both your mana and HP regeneration and entering your mind to an optimal state, you will soon find several more benefits in using this technique inside the game."

"Cool!" Eddie's eyes shined, a technique that not only makes you stronger in real life but also has incredible effects inside the game! How awesome is that!?

"Wait a moment before you continue training this technique," Nex stopped him before he resumed his training, "There will be enough time for that later and besides it best to give Roland time to adapt to the changes the technique is bringing to his body. Now it's time for even more important training you have to do if you want to go hunting with us."

"What is it?" Eddie's eyes shined.

"My favorite," Nex smirked.

"Combat training!"