After waking up in the morning, Nial was not sure whether he was feeling energized or fully drained.
It was a weird feeling he got.
On one hand, he was eager to move, but on the other hand, the bed in which he slept felt like he was enveloped in the softest feathers imaginable.
Yet, the moment he recalled that Kira had warned him to wake up early, or that she would throw an ice cold bucket of water on him in his sleep, his drowsiness disappeared.
Getting up from the bed, he shook his body once before approaching the small bathroom that was connected to the guest room he was residing in.
Splashing some water on his face, Nial felt refreshed, and it didn't take long for him to be fully awake.
Changing into combat clothes, Nial just noticed that he had only two pairs of them.
This was probably too little to change every other day as he would have to clean and wash them regularly.
'Do I have to go out and purchase some more necessary items? Toothpaste and a new toothbrush wouldn't be bad too…'
Wanting to check the time, he accessed the Originals bracelet to figure out how late it was.
But, when he saw that it was only 5 am, Nial decided to do something different.
Using the online shop service, he purchased everything required, paying with the money that was on his Originals ID Card before leaving the mansion.
There was no need for him to leave the mansion, to begin with.
However, instead of staying in his room, Nial took out the cushions he had stored inside his spatial ring before placing them in the backyard, where faint breezes of wind swept through the parkour he had used the day before.
It was neither cold nor warm.
Thus, everything was perfectly fine for him to read through the First stage of the Control of the Ancient Monarch technique.
Attempting to practice it outside would be quite helpful too, even more so because the released mana upon failing specific movements was said to be quite dangerous for others in the surrounding.
Nial was not sure to what extent unintentionally released mana could be dangerous.
Nevertheless, it was better to be safe than to do something stupid.
As such, he decided to spend his time reading the manual when suddenly he sensed a drone flying toward him.
Having been officially accepted as a temporary resident of the mansion, Nial's Originals ID card was more than enough for him to be allowed entry and exit from the mansion at will.
In fact, the same applied to the drone that was sent to the coordinates Nial was currently at, replicating his ID card that was scanned by the AI defensive system of the mansion.
Thus, only registered beings were allowed to enter the mansion, while others would be thrown out.
Nial knew only little about this, but fortunately, it didn't pose any problems to him.
Picking up the items the drone dropped in front of him in a box, Nial stored them away before returning the box to the drone that disappeared only a moment later.
Afterward, he didn't pay any attention to his surroundings anymore and solely focused on the manual in front of him.
He had read through the entire manual in an hour, but his understanding was still lacking severely.
However, he didn't want to nag Mara with questions just moments after she woke up.
Because of that, he tried his best to prepare himself for his first practice session using the technique.
But, before he could do anything, he heard steps approaching from behind him.
Sensing the mana fluctuations of Kira, Nial understood that she was ready to instruct him about the workout he was supposed to do.
This excited him, but upon sensing the excited fluctuations of mana that Kira radiated, he was not sure how happy he should actually be.
To Nial's misfortune, he had grossly underestimated Kira's training method, and it was only half an hour later that he found himself lying on the ground, gasping for air.
His gut felt oddly twisted, and only the vial Kira handed to him seemed to help relieve the pain.
The content of the vial energized him while soothing the pain of his strained muscles.
It was oddly relieving, but only a moment later Kira destroyed all of his hope to relax his aching muscles.
"If you want to have a physique that is remotely similar to that of the prodigious descendants of semi-powerful families, you will have to workout like this, three times a day.
The nutrition serums and other supplements which I purchased will help your muscles recuperate faster, but it doesn't mean that your training sessions or their difficulty level would decrease. It will still be exhausting.
In fact, with every single day, you'll probably feel worse, but that's your mental exhaustion not your physical exhaustion!
With that being said, you will have to train your mentality too, along with your stamina, flexibility, mana control, Mana core rank, and combat proficiency.
However, for now, read your little book a little bit. Afterward, complete 30 laps by running along the mansion's fences!"
Kira seemed to be extremely happy the moment she gave him more tasks to do and brightly added that every single workout focused on a different body part.
Thus, the resting period wouldn't be only a few hours before his muscles would be strained once again.
Instead, a certain area of his muscles would rest for the entire day only to be strained once again.
That was under the condition that he wouldn't train his spearmanship or venture into dungeons to gain practical experience, which was something he ought to do.
Somehow, Nial couldn't help but feel that all of these straining workouts and other exercises were something Kira felt happy to put him through.
Even though she looked quite feeble to him upon sensing her for the first time, when he tried visualizing her in detail, he realized that she was certainly someone who knew how to build muscles.
Her body was slim, but she had enough muscles.
In fact, Nial believed that she didn't have a single muscle that was not trained properly causing him to feel respect for her.
She was certain to be respected as she knew what she was doing, while her sister, Mara was the same, just in a different aspect.
As such, by combining theoretical and practical knowledge together, the sister duo could train Nial extremely well.
He also realized this, but the more days passed, the less he liked the situation he was in.
Luck was by his side that he had found not one but two perfect instructors, but upon feeling himself unable to think, let alone move for the next few days the moment he fell in his bed late at night, Nial couldn't help but curse at them more often than he wanted to acknowledge.
They certainly wanted the best for him, and he knew that time was ticking much faster than he wanted to acknowledge it.
Nevertheless, the burden on his body and mind was manifold higher than he had hoped to endure.
Thus, after two weeks had passed, Nial was not even able to distinguish his front from his back.
He had already undergone the first enlarging of his mana core, but upon encountering problems with the enlarging procedure there were a few things the sisters had to modify their teachings.
In fact, Nial knew that he wasn't facing problems.
Rather, his condition was slightly different from others.
Enlarging his mana core meant that it would have to be filled with mana to the brim but sadly Nial's mana core never had enough mana.
The excessive mana was greedily devoured by the Odyssey seed, which was quite interesting, but also disturbing.
After all, an overflowing mana core was helpful to naturally enlarge it.
Thus, not having this natural support, Nial had to initiate the enlarging procedure all by himself.
It was not exactly difficult, and his talent was more than enough to undergo the first enlarging process.
Nevertheless, it was quite a hassle that could have been avoided.
Fortunately, his control over mana had skyrocketed during the last two weeks as he was slowly starting to exert the Control of the Ancient Monarch technique.
Despite that, Nial had not yet met the conditions to practice the first stage of the technique, which was an additional factor he and the sisters had to pay attention to.
In their opinion, Nial's biggest advantage was his control over mana and his proficiency with the spear.
His movements were smooth, and they could see daily improvement in him when he started to show signs of growing more muscles.
Training with a workout that focused on an athletic and flexible body, instead of brute force, Nial's body was not bulking up. But neither did they intend to do that.
Instead, the existing muscles were being refined slowly, making it much clearer to see them on his thin body frame.
The sisters even told him that he looked much healthier now, which allowed his face, and entire appearance to look more handsome, however, his looks had never been important to Nial.
Rather than focusing on looks, the enlarging procedure had been much more important to him.
It took him more time to undergo the enlarging, and the amount of mana he required was a lot more than it was normally the case, but that was not something he could pay much attention to during the last two weeks.
After all, he had only been able to enlarge his mana core once in two weeks, and even that had nearly caused an incident.
Having been forced to initiate the enlarging process all by himself without receiving natural support, cracking one's own mana core to allow it to enlarge and grow was not only more painful but also a mind game.
Cracking one's own mana core too much might destroy the entire core, but doing too little would also cause issues.
Thus, Nial had to take his time to enlarge the mana core, and enter the 2nd Origin rank, only to understand that the following enlarging would be even more annoying.
However, that was perfectly fine with him as long as he was slowly getting the hang of how he was supposed to enlarge his mana core properly.
With precise control over mana this would be easily resolved as he could hold together the core, even if he were to make a mistake.
This reassured him a lot and made Nial even more eager to train in the Control of the Ancient Monarch technique.
As such, it was a blessing in disguise as it would take him at least a week, or two before he would be able to enter the 3rd Origin rank.
After all, a mana core had to recuperate from the pressure it had undergone while being enlarged before it could undergo another enlarging.
Because of that, Nial could only accumulate more mana inside his enlarged mana core for now, without actually being able to enlarge it until a few days before the final date of departure.
Mira and Kira had expected Nial's mana core to be stronger, and that his in-built support mechanism would allow him to have less trouble.
Unfortunately, that was not the case, which was why the plan of the sisters was completely shattered.
In the end, they had expected too much from him, thinking that Nial's mana core would be as great as his mana veins.
However, that was not the case and their calculations had been way off the mark as based on the current scenario Nial would end up as 3rd Origin rank at the end of the period instead of a 5th Origin rank.
In fact, even that was not relatively high because most prodigies were likely to be between the 5th and 7th Origin rank in the Teradan military camp.
With that in mind, it was fine for Nial to be at the 3rd Origin rank, as long as his other traits and attributes were on par with the other participants of the military camp.
They thought that there were no problems with his combat talent, and even his combat experience seemed to be quite decent, considering that they had observed him while conquering a few dungeons during the last two weeks.
In fact, Nial seemed to be a born fighter because he was able to evade attacks before they were even directed at him.
Kira and Mara knew that this was also owing to the [Hodur's Heir] Curse, but this was something that still bothered them.
Nial's talent was undeniable, but the Curse he had bound to his mana core made them feel uncomfortable.
As such, they observed everything intently, only to sense black miasma radiating from the tip of his spear when he started fighting the Boss monsters of the dungeons in close combat.
To be precise, every single time, Nial felt that he was close to death, and his body seemed to react by instantly activating [Hodur's Heir] to reveal traces of black miasma.
However, in the end, he only used this miasma to envelop the tip of the Viper spear with it, ending the life of the Boss monster he had fought.
Other than that, Nial wasn't really doing anything with it.
This confused the sisters because there was certainly a wide variety of things he could do with the miasma.
Yet, instead of bothering him about this, they understood that only dangerous situations allowed this Black miasma to emerge and save him in dire circumstances.
That indicated to them that Nial was not able to actively release the black miasma.
Nial was too mysterious for them and he had too many things the sisters were unable to comprehend.
However, what they clearly understood was that he had the unbending will to become stronger, and to reunite with his family.
This was also the reason why his combat prowess increased drastically in a matter of only two weeks.
He was hungry for knowledge, knowing that it would help him in the future, which made him ask numerous questions without neglecting his practice in any of the tasks which the sisters had given him.
And this was not something to take lightly because the sisters were known as the Instructors from Hell itself, and the Devils of the Government!
**
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