Progression (1)

In almost everything he put his mind to, Dane had always been an overachiever. To him, losing wasn't part of his vocabulary, and he pretty much had access to anything that tickled his fantasy. All his life, nothing was out of reach, nothing was undoable, unattainable. No woman he couldn't bed.

Dane himself kept challenging himself in things that he could do. One minute he would be training himself mind control, the next he would be busy starting an alchemy empire with just himself, and the next he would be toppling empires and supplanting kings.

This was the kind of level that he operated. Scratch that, he used to operate. To him, planetary civilizations were beneath him unless there was a goal he needed to achieve. Finding himself forced to work at a level below a planetary civilization, Dane felt underutilized, unfortunately, this is where he had to start from.

His one advantage was that his consciousness was complex enough to have multiple conversations in different forms.

In the Hexham cave, he was in the form of a dragon absorbing energy.

In the dragon world, he was in the dragon from maintaining the environment and training his dragon powers. The dragon world is the world where Alie had trained for a considerable period. The world with violent storms and magma rivers.

Among Bamboo and his trio of friends, he had taken the form of Kendar, but he chose to walk away in that form and appear in his mansion as Dane. This time, in his human form.

Finally, there was another Kendar, but he was walking around with young Alie. After their moment in a settlement, Kendar had come to like Alie's conduct. The boy was very well behaved and a proper assistant. Of course, the sneaky little devil had other intentions.

On the day they were to go back, he came up to Kendar with a request. He wanted to go back to what had been his home. Alie wanted to see it again, maybe even properly moan those he'd been with, the ones that had been fought and killed.

Thinking about it, kendar found that this was a good opportunity to make a lasting impact on the kid. Part of growing up was facing one's past. Dane understood that. He'd thought that perhaps by seeing how the boy would behave, he would get some inspiration.

Right now, they were camped in some cavern they'd found along the way. From the looks of things, this was a fairly used cavern among travelers. As part of their culture, lavels would clean up and leave any shelter they found. This was meant to be used by other passers-by if they found it.

This was a fairly well-cleaned cave with some markings on the sides. It was also well concealed from the elements, meaning that the lavelian traveler would be very at home. The two were just chatting away into the night, an old lavel and a boy.

Of course, such distinguished company wouldn't eat raw meat, they were too sophisticated for that. After catching some deer, they had settled down where Alie had prepared the meal, being the fire mage, it wasn't that hard. The night would while away with Kendar telling Alie great stories, some of the dragons, some of the great heroes.

"Well, we should tuck in the for the night kid." Kendar said, but just as the boy was about to rush in, "but first, you need to take care of the trash."

"Come on Master, it's late, can't we do that tomorrow?"

"I am not sure this trash will allow us, especially since it's been following us since we left the settlement."

When Kendar finished his statement, five silhouettes came out of the forest. Each one of the lavels that came out had the most frightening weapons at hand. They looked as menacing as they came, and each one looked like he could hack the 2 into bits without breaking a sweat.

"That's some sense you got there old one," said one, who looked like the leader.

"Maybe that's how he got so old!" Laughed another.

"Too bad old one, we'll be taking the boy!" The leader's sudden change in tone caused the other's to spring into action. All the new figures were practiced bandits, they knew not to chat with their food. The plan was simple, put down the old lavel, take the boy with them. He was just the right age to be taken by the vasil traders, and they had a quota to fill.

Five bandits charging at them, Kendar almost pitied them. In that instance, a giant fireball engulfed the entire region and the ensuing explosion could be heard from miles. When the dust and cloud of smoke settled, a pissed of Kendar was whacking a branch at the boy, "Haven't you heard of putting up a barrier!"

"At least I saved you from a beating?"

"You think any one of them was scary enough to beat me, you need severe beating for that."

And so the went on as though nothing had happened. The 2 travelers didn't even pause to get rid of the bodies because there were no bodies to get rid of, everything had been burnt in the flame.

***

3 days had passed and there still was no sign of that old lavel. While the Order was still functional, Kendar was the only point of contact. While Bamboo and his army that was slowly taking shape continued to worry, they still grew restless nonetheless. What were they to think after such a mysterious disappearance?

Despite it all, Kendar had made sure that there was a well-established system of training. The first thing they did every day was a round of work out regimes. As they were mortals, they still heavily relied on their bodies of most of their functions. This meant that they needed their bodies in top-notch conditions to aid in their growth.

It was easier for some than others. Brom and Hasilo excelled in this, which Karri or Thea felt extremely spent. Kendar had been strict in this, such that not even Karri, who was younger than most present was allowed to skimp on this.

After an intense workout, they would make their way to the local watering hole. There they had their fill of water. They also took the time to bathe and have themselves refreshed for the day.

By midmorning, they were seated under certain trees where they were taught how to read and write. They also learned about their history and any important subjects. Any important subject was handled at this point, including any theory they needed to learn before performing a skill.

Afternoons were what most looked forward to. Here, they would break for the field classes. Dane could relate to what the students were feeling. Even he relished the time when the boring morning classes would be over and they would break for the exciting stuff.

Who were their instructors at this point? They could be summed up into one man, Dane. There was a reason why Dane had opted to pull the form of Kendar away from the students. While there were the benefits that came from maintaining this image, there was a potential downfall.

If you only met one man who supposedly represented an entire organization, sooner or later, you'll come to be skeptical, like where is the rest of the organization. While the entire organization was only made up of one man, this was no ordinary man.

For starters, Dane had the power to split his consciousness into multiple personalities. At the same time, Dane could conjure several clones of himself, those that could take on any form that he desired. This in effect meant that he was one man but an entire organization. He could create several forms of him, each with a different personality, to train the army.

Drawing from memories he had from all the many lives he had lived, he had a plethora of personalities to choose from. Each of the instructors had been introduced before Kendar departed.

There were several kinds of lessons in place. There were the common classes, such as the literary classes. There were where the lavels, and some vasils who had joined in, came to learn how to read and write.

Then there came the specialized lessons. There were the lessons given to those without any power. These could be taken by anyone, and even those with powers could join in if they were not in some other classes. Usually many came to watch, but for the lavels that felt that they too needed to grow strong despite not having any powers, this was the method that best suited them.

Next came the elementary control lessons. For many elements, the basics were the same. Therefore, at the most elementary levels, the information available could be shared. Krea excelled due to her intricate ability to control her element, not even Bamboo could have such a high level of understanding and control.

The final type of lessons available to the students was how to channel their power. Due to their internal energy, they could do amazing things. However, without proper control, their output was extremely limited. To Dane's experienced eyes, they were pitiful at best.

To solve this, experts in the universe have their disciples or scions watch and engage in countless battles. With rich battle experience, it was easy for one to move one's body and even energy without much wastage. It served as a chasm that separated true experts from newbies. There was a simpler method though.

Instead of carving out your understanding, why not learn from those that already had it? This meant that one could receive instructions on how to do it. The merits notwithstanding, it was always a good idea to carve out one's path. This was because gaining someone else's understanding was not as good as gaining your understanding.

As a means of protecting the young minds, the Maa Faction had come up with a means of training the students that provided them with the basics of understanding their energy, but not too much information to form some sort of foundation. The student would have to build their foundation themselves.

Dane the Teacher was quite busy. On one hand, he was in charge of Alie's development as Kendar. On the other, he had transformed into the several instructors that were in charge of Bamboo and his clan. Each one of these responsibilities tied him down, but not as much as the form that was standing in the white palace.

Seated on a throne, Dane was resplendent as a sun. No one could look at him at this point. He dazzled lighting up the entire room, but that was not all. At his feet, there was a mountain of Hexham gems littered all over. They were glowing, indicating that they were being actively absorbed by someone.

Dane couldn't believe that time had finally come for him to do this. Kedan had performed well so far, bringing Dane a level of confidence he hadn't had before. He had wondered if his brother could rise to the standard he needed him to be. From the start, Kedan had been a hard worker, but he just didn't have as much talent or bloodline blessings as Dane did, which meant that Dane as always ahead of him.

In this, he needed someone he could trust completely. Before now, it could be said that he was working within the law, albeit in the grey areas. However, once he did what he was about to do, all that would change. At that moment, he would be in violation of a direct order given by the Universe Creator himself!

Thinking about this only gave him a moment's pause, before he balled his hands into fists. Without great risk, one couldn't hope to advance. That being said, this wouldn't be easy, but then again, when was it ever?