Chapter 35：The Five Basic Stages (1/2)

”I see. Thanks for explaining all this to me. It was very important.”

# Now to the training. The rest i will teach you along the way. #

Raz moved to the side and gestured to Mack to observe.

He then took his sword, and after talking with the green NPC, bot started sparring.

Raz was showing the basic forms of attack and defense to Mack.

After a few minutes of sparring they stopped and Raz took the portable board, drew some runes, and showed it to Mack.

# You two are going to repeat these same movements until you get it right #

Mack nodded with his head and started repeating the same movements while sparring with his ancestor NPC.

While one did the defending movements, the other would do the attacking ones.

Repeating and alternating.

The movements themselves were not in any way advanced, just basic sword movements.

But for Mack, they were very hard already.

Even seeing the warlocks fight during battle and trying to copy them, he still struggled to move the feet or to put the correct force in each attack.

After half an hour of training, Raz signaled to them to stop, took his board, and drew some runes on it.

# Ok. You two are going to practice these movements for 2 hours each day. I will come to check from time to time. Use this same place here to train. We will only change places if the army retreats or advance too much. #

”And what about the first step of Essence Manipulation?”

Raz looked annoyed, but drew some runes on the board.

# I will teach you for one hour a day about the rest. Come to me after the training. #

After saying that, Raz left the two alone and went back to the camp.

And just like this, Mack now had a Master. An NPC Master, but a master in the end.

Mack was not sure if his ancestor arranged this. But seeing the annoyed face of his 'Master' he knew it was not an easy feat to become his apprentice.

Mack turned his gaze to his ancestor light construct and resumed the sparring session.

He still did not punch him in the face twice, as he had promised himself.

~clang~

The sound of sword clashing could be heard from meters away as the two practiced.

This would become a daily routine for Mack in the days to come.

Only he knew how he will miss those simple days.

Train. Eat. Sleep. Fight. Repeat.

Humans are simple creatures. Give them a motive and a routine and they will strive to do their best. And Mack had the best motive someone could have. To survive.

Ten days later.

At one of the warlock camps.

”Ten days already. You promised to teach me how to use Essence to reinforce my body.”

Said Mack, furious because his master kept avoiding him like the plague.

# I told you already. But you don't listen! I'm very busy with the war right now #

”You are eating now. Why can't you spare 10 minutes? Just 10 minutes.”

Mack, for the first time in his life, saw himself begging for attention. His master had not taught him anything in the past 10 days.

Seeing no response from his master Mack took his dagger and scratched the two runes on his belt.