Luca was listening to Sergio who was telling him about the spear art with concentration. Sergio told him that the Pravus spear art had an emphasis on fast and explosive attacks. It was like the saber art that required him to use a lot of stamina and strength.
To train this spear art, Sergio created a spear that weighed 250 lbs (113kg). Luca had to hold this spear in his hand and attack with it. Sergio told him that if he trained like this for 3 hours a day every day when he got a normal spear he could attack with tremendous power instantly.
At first, Luca thought that Sergio was just messing around and laughed it off. But when he saw Sergio's serious expression, he wanted to run away.
"There's no way that's possible, my arms will come off!" He put on a sad face as he tried to gain his sympathy.
Sergio just looked at him and created a spear and stabbed it into the ground. Pointing at it,
"Alright, here you go, have fun! When you do this for 3 hours, you can eat. Then we can start the second part of your training." He walked off in a carefree manner.
"WHAT! NOOOOOOOOOOO!" He fell to the floor and cursed his bad luck.
After a few minutes, he got on his feet and warmed himself up, trying to pump himself up. Looking at the spear with a serious look, he walked up to it and tried to pull it out of the ground. He was able to pull it out but stumbled back from the weight and almost fell on his ass.
He tried to balance himself. It took him a while, when he finally got his balance, he pointed the spear in front of him and stabbed the air. It was so heavy that when he stabbed forward he felt his forearms burning and his arms shaking like crazy. When he pulled it back he could feel his abs shaking as they tried to balance his body, working overtime.
He did this for 30 minutes before he couldn't anymore; his whole body was covered in sweat. His arms couldn't hold the spear any longer and he dropped it on the ground. His red hands were shaking nonstop and covered in blisters.
"I can't feel my hands!" He sat on the ground.
Luca was sure that he couldn't do this for 3 hours! Heck, 30 minutes was his limit. But then he got a bright idea: why not transform into his evolved form and practice that way? It would be a lot easier after all Sergio hadn't said that he couldn't do it. With a sly grin, he was about to go into his evolved form when he suddenly heard a voice near his right ear.
"What do you think you're doing punk. You're not allowed to use your evolved form."
Sergio's voice had a hint of authority in it. Luca was spooked by the voice and looked around, but he couldn't find Sergio. How did he do that? Luca was a bit scared and caught off guard by the sudden voice. He also knew that he was busted and looked dejected.
Lowering his head as he gave up on the idea. Sergio didn't say to do it 3 hours straight but instead 3 hours in total. But Luca didn't want to go through 3 hours of suffering. With a heavy heart, Luca took a break and went back to training.
High up in a tree, Sergio was sitting on a branch and looking down at where Luca was training. He nodded his head acknowledging Luca's effort.
"What a sly kid, but sadly you're behind those kids at the academy who've been training for years. The only way for you to catch up with those kids is with extreme training, you'll thank me later." Then he closed his eyes and meditated.
After 7 hours of training, Luca heard Sergio's voice
"Alright, that's enough" Sergio showed up before Luca.
Luca's clothes were soaked in sweat as he collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. He passed out from exhaustion. Sergio went up and picked him up, taking him to their temporary camp. He didn't mind the sweat from Luca's clothes.
He laid him on the floor slowly and started to cook some meat. After a while, the savory smell of meat and spices went into Luca's nose. His nose moved a little and he woke up.
Looking around, he was surprised that he was at the camp but more importantly his stomach rumbled. He then saw Sergio coming up to him. He gave him a plate of seasoned meat and vegetables.
Luca felt some warmth in his heart for the first time in a while. He lost everything, and his heart had gone cold. After spending time with Sergio and Damien, he felt that he wasn't alone. They helped keep him from feeling alone and even though they were tough on him they still showed concern.
With a smile blooming on his face, he started eating the meat. He was happy and genuinely thanked Sergio for the food. Luca felt that today the food tasted better than usual.
Sergio was a bit troubled, he helped the kid because it was part of a deal he made. But the longer he spent with the kid, the more he started to care for him. He respected the kids' attitude because even after all that happened Luca kept pushing forward, refusing to fall into depression. This made him want to help him out.
He even went against clan rules and taught an outsider like Luca. He taught him his family's elite saber and spear arts giving him the best ones that he knew. He knew that he would be in trouble for it but felt that this would help Luca get closer to his goal, so he did it.
After they finished eating, Sergio told Luca that it was important to meditate and stabilize your state of mind. Keeping your mind in harmony would increase your battle effectiveness and once mastered could also help in speeding up recovery.
Luca had hard trouble sitting still and doing nothing, but he believed in Sergio and did it anyway. After an hour of struggling, he finally got into a calm state of mind. The feeling of being mindful and letting his mind reset was a great feeling.
He never thought that he would like mediation, but he liked the feeling of peace that he got from it. He also noticed that since his body was relaxed, that his healing was faster than usual. He went to sleep feeling relaxed and woke up the next day.
Sergio walked over to where Luca was and woke him up. Luca woke up and felt so sore! He struggled to get up and felt intense soreness in his arms and stomach. But with his strong willpower and clenched teeth, he got up and stretched out his body.
After breakfast, Sergio said that for the next month he would do the same thing and build up strength. He would also meditate and go into the skill shard with the left-over time. Next month he will start learning the techniques of the Pravus spear art.
When Damien got to see Luca that evening in the skill shard, Luca told him about his schedule. Staring right at Damien, Luca finished talking and saw his face turn sour. He then saw him shaking his head in disappointment.
Damien then did a heavy sigh and felt that even if he didn't like it, having Luca train in his human form would help a lot. Since he didn't know how to train him in spear and saber arts, he knew that Sergio made the right choice.
Since he had less time he decided to train him in the more minor aspects of the demon fox. He finished collecting his thoughts and looked at Luca.
"Alright, you noticed early that we have enhanced smell right. Well, I'm going to train you to pick up certain smells that can give away a person emotions and state of mind. Also, you can find a lot about a person based on their smell. When people feel certain emotions, they emit certain smells. You can pick them up if you're in the same stage of cultivation as them or higher. If they're at a higher level then you, they can block your sense's, there are exceptions. Like if your target experiences a very strong emotion, then it can leak out."
After finishing talking he created a human puppet and made it release certain smells. Then Damien would teach him what each smell meant from sadness to fear and so on. This was what he would learn for a month with Damien. This was something that he would have to learn so that he could hone his sense of smell and use it to his advantage.
The whole month he spent training. Luca liked to learn, and even though his body was sore from the training, he loved it. In the first week, Luca had a breakthrough and progressed into the mind consolidation stage (stage 2). He could feel his power within his body increase and his mind felt quicker and faster than before. The amount of energy that he could use increased.
After the month was over he could wield the spear, it wasn't perfect, but he could use it for 3 hours without a break. He also honed his sense of smell and could tell what someone was feeling. He could also separate the smells and pick out the ones that he wanted.
After the month was over Sergio had him stop and made the heavy spear disappear. He made a new one that was 3lbs (1.36kg). He told him that it was a normal spear that he could use. Luca took the spear and felt like he had a feather in his hand. It was so light for him as he stabbed out.
He was so fast that he wasn't prepared for it. He was caught by surprise because he could hear the noise of air being cut.
He started to appreciate the hard work he did. It was already starting to pay off. Sergio just waited for him to calm down. After Luca looked back at Sergio he saw that he was waiting so he calmed down. Sergio continued.
"Now let's learn the basics, we're going to fix your footwork and teach you the basic forms. Don't think that spear is easy to master, it's easy to learn but hard to master, remember this."
Sergio didn't think much at first, but after a day of training, he realized that he picked up the basics fast. But with the weeks that followed, he had trouble mastering the advanced forms and had trouble making progress. The spear art emphasized precise attacks that were filled with explosive power. Aiming to kill in the fast manner possible and avoiding flashy moves that wasted energy.
He had to make every strike count, and each move empathized this. Every move was efficient and wasted movements weren't used when fighting the enemy. He was stationary most of the time and only moved when necessary to converse stamina. Because each move was a powerful explosive attack, it meant that you would get tired faster if you kept moving around wasting your stamina.
This was different from his saber art, where he was constantly moving around trying to outmaneuver his opponent. Damien also changed his training and made him learn how to properly use his advance hearing. He would learn how to hear enemies from afar and how to differentiate between different sounds. Once he got good enough he could hear heartbeats and find hidden enemies.
It wasn't perfect when he was up against those with higher cultivation. If they were at a distance, he couldn't hear them if they hid their tracks but if they didn't he could hear them. At close range, he could hear them even if they had a higher cultivation. He was also taught how to use his enhanced vision properly.
He was curious about his new cultivation stage and asked Damien what the difference was. Damien was embarrassed that he forgot to explain it to him. But he didn't show it, and his pride wouldn't let him. Damien was having a hard time teaching so it slipped his mind.
Damien summarized it for Luca. In general, a mind consolidation expert was able to easily kill a body refinement cultivator. The reason it was called mind consolidation was because the mind was improved. You could process information faster and you could think faster. You could handle more complex spells that required a lot of brain power.
These new spells are impossible for body refinement cultivators to learn. The new spells are more powerful and could be used to attack at long range. Also, the amount of energy that you could use would double or triple after you entered this stage.
Every level that you moved up in the mind consolidation stage would double the amount of energy that you had. It also increases the body's strength and resistance. Meaning that they could take more damage and deal more physical damage. Body refinement cultivators didn't have a chance of fighting mind consolidation cultivators, the difference was too big.
Luca's eyes shined with amazement, and he couldn't wait to get even more powerful.
"Then can you teach me a new powerful spell!" He was having a hard time containing his excitement.
Damien looked at Luca and grinned.