Hellish Training

After Darknik left the black room, he went to a series of corridors and finally got to a blue floating cube that was four times as large as him. He touched the cube and channeled his energy into it, being sucked into it a moment later.

Inside of the cube was a large expanse of fertile grassland with a few ponds. It had red grass and no trees, with ponds filled with different colored water. There was no sun in the sky, just red clouds.

Right after Darknik appeared a silhouette dashed towards Darknik at extremely fast speeds to the point where it left afterimages. The silhouette punched towards Darknik with a sonic boom and stopped it's fist a millimeter from Darknik's face. Everything in the grassland 100 meters behind Darknik was immediately destroyed.

Darknik had a fearful look on his face that as he plopped down onto the floor with his skin pale and cold sweat running down his back. The silhouette stopped moving and allowed itself to be clearly seen, revealing that the silhouette was Kainik. Kainik had a smug face as he asked;

"Still think magic is better than scythemanship?" Darknik shakily got up as he replied.

"That isn't scythemanship, that's just brute strength!! I actually thought I was going to die!! Why did you do that dad!" Kainik replied with a question of his own.

"What are you going to do with scythemanship?"

"Get stronger and become the strongest!"

"Will you kill for your goal?" Kainik asked with an icy cold expression on his face.

What... Why would I need to kill people?"

"What do you think weapons and strength are for? Since the first weapon was made, no, even before that, we have been killing each other for power. If you think you can get stronger without having to kill, then you are the stupidest person I know. I'm not teaching you scythemanship just so you can twirl around your weapon and say you are strong. To truly be strong you must kill. So, tell me, do you have the resolve to kill?"

"I... w-what...h-h-how could..."

"Never mind, you are still too young. I will still teach you, but once we get to the serious stuff, I will ask you the question again. Depending on the answer, I might not teach you. Go eat a snack and cool your head down, then come back."

After saying that, Kainik disappeared and left Darknik standing alone in the grassland.

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23 minutes later, Kainik reappeared in the grassland and started setting up machines.

"Before I teach you scythemanship, you will have to have a proper vessel, so first I will have you do some training." After hearing those words, Darknik was thinking about why those words sounding so familiar when Kainik suddenly grabbed him and put him in a machine that looked like a treadmill, but it had no handles and no interface. The part where you step on was red and it looked like it had many stars in it.

"Start running, I will put it on its lowest setting... For now." Darknik did as instructed and started running as the tread started moving. Darknik had a relaxed expression on his face, but after Kainik pushed a button, Darknik started running as fast as he could.

"Hmmmm." Muttered Kainik. "I guess he can handle level 2. Okay! We will be doing some hellish training, boy." Darknik had a terrified expression as he thought. 'This is level two!? Just how hard will the other levels be!? And he said hellish training, just what else will he make me do?'

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Over the course of 4 months, Darknik went through abominable training When he was with his mom, he would have to dodge her magic attacks. If he got hit, he would go through unbearable pain. She also made him channel his energy to train it, and repeatedly use his energy until he was completely drained.

It was much worse with his father though, as he had to run on the treadmill that would go much faster than he could run, leading to him being launched through the air on more than one occasion.

There were many more unorthodox training methods, such as an arena where he would have to dodge hard rubber balls that could come from any direction at a fast speed, a monkey gym that had many traps and a machine that emitted gravitational pressure, a huge pond that had acidic green water where he had to hold his breath and find a key that was hidden in its depths, etc...

But the worst one of all was his own father, who would 'spar' with Darknik which was basically just a one-sided beatdown as Darknik tried to dodge his attacks.

Finally, his mother introduced something new to the monotony. "Today, you will be learning how to use actual magic." Said Darkcon. "Take out the book I gave you for your birthday and open it to page one." Darknik did as he was told and opened the book.

On the page was an introduction the read; 'There are the 5 Main Elements. These elements are Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, and Lightning. These elements are the weakest but also the most versatile. Then there are the Deviant Elements. These elements are Blood, Poison, Death, Darkness, Light, Chaos, Life, Nature, Space, Time, and many, many more. It is hypothesized that there are an unlimited number of Deviant Elements, but it is yet to be proven right or wrong.'

'Normal people don't have and Deviant Element affinity, and only have 1 or 2 Main Elemental affinities. semi talented people have one Deviant Element, with any number of Main Elemental affinities. talented people have 2-3 Deviant Elemental affinities with any number of Main Elemental affinities. Although very rare, Ultimate Talents have 4-5 Deviant Elemental affinity's, and one Main Elemental affinity that can evolve into a Unique Element. Someone with more that 5 Deviant Element affinities has never been recorded.'

'Unique Elements are elements that used to be Main Elements but evolved into something much more powerful. For example, the First King had a Unique Elemental affinity called 'Bloodwater'. This element allowed him to control blood and water in a way no other person has ever been able to copy, to the point of being able to take the moisture out of the air and use it for his magic, making his magic more powerful while not using any mana at all. Unique Elements can only be used by Ultimate Talents.'

'Let's talk about how Magic works. there are two ways to use Magic, and each way has its disadvantages and advantages. the first way is to use the pure elemental particles in the air and convert them to the elements you want to use. Please note that it is impossible to use elements that you don't have an affinity for, and if you try anyways, you will die. The advantages of this way of using magic are that you use less mana, and the longer you use this way the more in tune you will be with the elements. The disadvantages are that it takes longer to form magic, and you can disrupt the elemental particles in the air, making it impossible to use magic in that area.'

'The other way of using magic is by taking mana from your inner world and bringing it outside of your body to shape spells. The advantages of this way are that you can release magic faster, and you it will make it easier for you to go into your inner world for the next part of learning magic. the disadvantages are that you can corrupt your foundation if your magic backfires, potentially dying. you can also go into a coma if you use to much magic for both ways.'

'So, which one will you use?'