Cultivating

After they had a delicious meal together the cloaked man looked at Bill who was completely satisfied with his meal "now i want you to do something before you cultivate in the breathing technique"

Bill looked at the man with a curious gaze

the man continued " every time before you cultivate i want you to run around the outer region of the forest two times without resting"

Bill nodded his head "i will do it" he then stood up and started to run like the man said

the cloaked man watched Bill as his back grew further until disappearing from his sight he then started his muscle training

Bill was running around the outer region of the forest that is around 5 km

when he reached the first kilometer he was already panting but then gritted his teeth and continued

this process occurred for 5 hours straight and when he arrived in front of the hut he collapsed while panting as he gulped huge amounts of air his shirt was also drenched in sweat and mud

he gritted his teeth as he resisted fainting and sat cross legged, closed his eyes and began to meditate and forgot himself in meditation till falling asleep

in the next morning he saw himself inside the hut laying on his bed

his body was aching all over as every time he want to move he would grit his teeth from pain that was like needles piercing his body

he swallowed the medicinal soup as usual and felt a warm sensation in his stomach that will spread all over his body that made him comfortable and filled with energy

Bill was surprised as he realized that this medicinal soup was really good for his trainning

he then washed his face and then began running without saying a word to the man who was doing his muscle training

this process continued every day as his body started to slowly get adapted to the training

his mind was even clearer than before and his body was lighter but there was something he was worried about that is no matter how hard he tried he couldn't make mana circulate one time around his body

he even asked the cloaked man but got no answer to his question

the end of the month was fast approaching and Bill wanted to complete one cycle of mana around his body so he began to train more training as he ran three times around the forest instead of two

another strange thing worried him was that his body was always hungry and wouldn't be satisfied with his usual share of meat so he asked the man for more but got "if you want more then hunt it yourself" as an answer so he began to hunt but this time he discovered that the process of hunting is easier than when he did it three weeks ago

he discovered that he could catch up to the running rabbit without losing his breath and that his grip was stronger as when he gripped the large snow white rabbit from it's ears no matter how it struggled to run it couldn't break free from his hand

and when he showed the first game he caught to the man he got a nod in response which made him quite disappointed but then he brightened himself up as he was still developing and his strength increasing he then learned how to bleed, skin and cook his prey so his meal increased and he could eat to his fill without being worried about hunger all day

there was one last week before his evaluation day by the cloaked man

so he wanted to increase his training difficulty and the man seems to know about his intention so he gave him a 10 kg rock and ordered him to carry it while doing his running routine

so his training got many times harder as every time he wake up the next day his body would ache horribly but then realized that the bowl of soup was bigger than before and that every time he swallow it his pain disappear without a trace and only a comfortable feeling remains

but one day when he woke up something happened that scared Bill the most

he discovered the cloaked man disappeared

at first he kept shouting loudly around the hut and the places he went to frequently "Sir!,where are you?!" but to no avail so he ran to the forest checking it up and searching everywhere for him but didn't find a trace of him Bill was panicking at the thought of being unable to learn magic and it's spells so he could become stronger but he didn't lose hope and continued to search for the man but didn't go deeper into the forest as the cloaked man has warned him before after the incident with the python

but Bill lost all hopes of finding the man at the outer region of the forest as the sky was slowly darkening with the sun setting

so he thought about going to the deeper region 'i will just run quickly if i see any danger as my speed has increased' he was confident in his speed after training for the last 25 days while cultivating the breath technique also he wouldn't get exhausted quickly if he put down the weight he is carrying every time

so he approached the inner region of the forest and while he was approaching stealthily and carefully he would hear some roars coming from the distant and would shiver at the thought of the magical beasts which remind him about his encounter with the python and how defenseless he was

he would have been in the stomach of the python if it wasn't for cloaked man who came at nick of time to save him