LEADER!?" David, Nala, and I all shouted in unison. "I don't know how to lead. Hell I only just got out of a cell!" Jed was still excited and acted like he didn't hear a word that I had said. I looked down at the pieces of the shattered crystal. The deep black color of it really intrigued me, so I picked a piece of it up and looked it over. I thought to myself, "It should be a problem if I take a piece." And placed it in my pocket. Jed was still mumbling about stuff that I couldn't hear so I walked back to David and Nala. When I got back with the group, David smiled and bowed to me and said "Oh the great leader has blessed us with his presence. We are not worthy!" Nala started to laugh and I was embarrassed about what had just happened. " I don't want to lead anybody!" "Good" said Nala "I don't want you to think you can start bossing me around. I don't care how strong everybody thinks you are." I smiled at her and said "Thank you!" She seemed taken aback and flustered. She stuttered and said "Iiit wasn't a compliment." "I know".
Finally Jed had calmed down. He turned to us and said "I'm sorry, we haven't seen a level 1 in 100 years. You are the first since then." David slapped me on the back and said "Lucky." I gave him a quick smirk and looked back at Jed. He continued and said "Forget the leader stuff for now. Even forget your level rankings. I was caught up in the moment. Right now we need to focus on your physical training. Now that we have your numbers and measurements, we can now create plans for you each that will help you grow in strength. First up we have David. You will start off doing 100 squats, 100 push ups, and 200 sit ups. Then you will be taught a variety of combat techniques with a focus in boxing, for further strength and endurance. Next Nala will also start off with the same number of push ups, sit ups, and squats. You will be taught parkour movements as well as dagger handling and short sword handling, and archery . Zahir you will do push-ups, sit-ups, and squats too. You will be taught how to handle short and long swords, as well as hand to hand combat techniques. For right now we will start with the exercises. I will show you how to do them and then we will break for lunch." David raised his hand and asked "How come I'm not being taught how to handle weapons?" Jed said "Because, when you figure out how to use your Grace, you won't need any weapons but your fists." David looked a little disappointed but he just shook his head and said "Ok". Jed raised his voice and said "Ok, let's get to it!"
We finished all of the exercises after a while. We all were lying on the floor in a pool of sweat unable to move our bodies. We couldn't even talk. I turned my head to look at Jed who had done everything we had done but effortlessly. Now he was lifting heavy weights and doing a bunch of other exercises at an extremely fast pace. I finally gained enough energy to pull my upper body up at asked him "How are you able to do all of that after doing what we just did?" "Oh, what you guys were doing is my warm up. You'll get to where I am eventually. Plus you still have more to do this afternoon." "MORE!?" We all said in unison. It cause both David and Nala to sit up with me. Nala asked "How can we do more? We can barely move right now!" Jed laughed and said "I have a technique that will allow you to recover fast. It will take a while to master but it should help you out." "What is it" David said. "I want you all to sit down on the ground however you feel comfortable. Then I want you to close your eyes and focus on the warmth sitting in the center of your body. This is where your Grace is focused. I want you to imagine that you are circling this energy through your entire body. This energy will help you enhance your body as well as speed up recovery. Since you guys are just starting it will probably take you two hours to fully recover. We have about an hour until lunch so focus on this before we go and eat." We all did as Jed had said and started to focus. At first I couldn't feel anything, but then in the darkness I felt a warm breeze. I followed this feeling in my mind and I entered a warm area. I looked around and I saw a glowing black dame resting there. I went over to it and contemplated on how to spread this around my body. Finally I took my hand, put it into the fire, and caught some in the palm of my hand. Then I just started to move around the mental space that I was in, moving my hand around trying to warm up different areas. It didn't seem like it was working so I went back to the black flame. Confused as to what I should do, I thought to myself, "If only I could make it bigger…" as soon as I thought that the flame grew a little bigger filling up more of the space. "Ohhhh, so that's how it works?" I continued to focus on enlarging the flame. It only grew a little bit but it was progress. Suddenly I was shaken out of my trance. David stood over me and said "Get up it's time for lunch."
I got up off of the floor a little tenderly. But I realized I felt a little better than earlier. However it looked as if it didn't go as well with David and Nala. They were moving much slower than I was. As we were walking back to the room to eat, I asked David, "How did you healing go?" He looked at me and scratched his head. He looked a little embarrassed. He said "I don't know what to do. I found the center but I didn't know what to do next. I gave up after awhile." Nala chimed in and said "I had the same problem. I just sat there until Jed woke me up." David looked at me and said "How did you do?" I looked at David and Nala and said, "I think I figured it out. You have to make your flame bigger. You just have to focus on that." David looked surprised. "You have a flame inside you?" "Well, it's not really a flame really. It's a flame like black thing. Why what do you have?" David thought about it and said "My center was like a group of dark gray clouds that flashed lightning all over the place. I was scared to mess with it for a while." Nala said "Mine was like a super fast circle of air that stretched up really high. I was kind of scared of it too." Nala looked always and blushed as if she was embarrassed. I looked at Nala surprised. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything." I said to her. "Shut up!" She shouted and stormed off as fast as her sore body would allow her. "I didn't mean anything by it." I said, unsure of how I upset her. "Don't worry about it," said David. "She just a confusing person. " Like this we limped into the kitchen and sat at the table. While we were eating Jed said to us, "You all will now be split so that you can train appropriately. Nala will be with Lia, David you will be with me, and Zahir you will be with Luki." I quickly dropped my food back on the table. "Luki!? Can't I work with someone else?" Jed said "There is nobody else. The others are out doing reconnaissance and you haven't even formally met them yet. You will be fine." Just then Luki came into the room and looked at me with disgust. He said " I hope your prepared. It's going to be a long day for you."