Hardening

" You are late! " screamed Mako when he saw Jade descending.

" I don't know how are manners in your country, but from where I come from, you should always respects time. "

" Ah! That begs the question how can we understand each other's speech? " it was indeed a sound question. Not only with the people he met in the guild but also the receptionist in that hotel.

" I don't know the details but I think that someone who could summon us to this place might as well be able to make us communicate with each other. " Looks like Mako did not know much himself.

" Let us get started already! Here is what you got to do.. " Mako started speaking about breathing and the importance of focusing on it and trying to sense the air when it is inhaled and when it is exhaled.

" Practice this for a few minutes and then we will move on to the real challenge "

Jade did as he was told, and to his utter surprise, he seemed to notice something different from the first time he inhaled deeply.

' I feel as if the air has a taste of its own '

When he noticed this, he immediately told Mako about it.

" Wait, what? Did you honestly taste it or did Podric told you this beforehand. And don't you dare lying to me if you know what is good for you " said Marko with a tough face trying to hide the shock he received. Normally, you will need at least a dozen inhales to started sensing the taste.

Jade nodded.

' That bitch Aisha, did she somehow know he was talented? '

" Alright, none the less, keep breathing until I tell you otherwise. " Mako could not bear the thought of this newbie being that talented.

Jade did as he was told, not knowing Mako's real intentions.

After a few more breaths, he started to notice something weird about the air.

' I can't put my finger on it yet, it is a different sensation than what I felt in the first inhale. I will keep at it until I fig... '

" That's it. You can rest now, newbie. " Mako interrupted him and he preferred to follow his instructor's orders.

After a few minutes Mako led Jade to one of the special places in this floor. What was special about it is its low temperature. it was so low that the air literally was being condensed into liquid water and then into snow.

" My guidance is at its end. From now on all, what you will be doing is entering these areas and trying to stay there as long as possible. " said Mako dismissively.

The other areas were also places that had a nature-esc vibes to it ; a very hot place, an artificial cascade ...

" Wait, how is that supposed to help me? I mean .. I get that il will help me increase my endurance and all, but other than that... I don't see any point of it! "

" That is completely wrong. " Mako's patience started to decrease.

" If you managed to persevere in all these different areas, you will be able to do what you saw me and my sister doing before. Basically you will become a superman! Only without the flying part... Oh and the laser part too... "

Jade was completely taken aback.

" You mean to say that just by becoming able to resist this place's environments I will become like you? Just like that? "

" What do you mean - just like that -, kid it took me and my sister months to be able to even reach the bear minimum of resistance. And even then, we are considered the lucky ones. You see, all the people in the first floor are invited who are trying to train here on a daily basis to become adventurers, and in the mean time they are working there to afford living in this place "

" Wait, what about me? How am I supposed to live here ?! "

Mako has a sly foxy smile on his face.

" You don't get to do that work because your inviter prohibited you from it. So until you learn how to fight yourself and become a fully fledged adventurer, you will stay as poor as church mouse. "

' Why would she do that to me? I should ask Podric later '

Mako left the floor wishing, Jade sarcastically, a good luck.

Jade started by exploring the place a bit. He noticed that all these abnormal areas were consuming some sort of energy that flew through wires.

' Must be the equivalent of electricity in this world '

Without overthinking too much he hopped into the cold area, and started his training.

***

It has been a couple of hours since he started, but until this point he could not resist more than a few seconds.

He had thought of multiple strategies. For example, he thought that maybe since he is heightening his sense he should try and dampen them a little. It was a good idea and it actually allowed to stay longer there, he almost reached 30 seconds, however, it backfired on him when he noticed his hands starting to turn blue and his eyes loosing focus.

Dampening his sense of skin allowed him to not feel the cold that much, but his body suffered its consequences none the less.

In all this time he noticed a few people coming up here trying to resist in some area only to fail miserably and return where they came from.

' They must really want to become like those siblings '

And that is when it hit him. He recalled what Mako said about the end goal of this training. It was to be able to do what he saw them do in the morning.

' Everything makes sense now ' he also remembered that nameless man who made him sign that contract, and remembered him explicitly talking about the ability of changing the body's features with but a thought.

So that was his new approach now. He tried to think about hardening his whole body. It was overwhelming at first, so he decided to go one step at a time. He began by dampening the senses in all his body but his hands which he tried to harden.

After around 15 minutes and a few dozen fails he succeeded!

' I can't believe this is happening! '

After that, not an hour later he was capable of resisting that cold weather for at least 5 minutes without breaking a sweat. What he did not know was that the basic level that Mako has talked about was about three minutes of resistance, and that five minutes meant that he was now more or less a capable - hardener -. ( That's what he decided to call this ability )