Time went by in a flash.
Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Treyton never stopped his training routine, not even for a day. Every second is precious after all, especially for his space-essence, which is difficult to train and control.
Sometimes, Caleb joined him in his sessions but he never stayed until the end. It's way too tedious keeping up with Treyton's insanely structured routine, even cutting sleep and meals to stay until the very end.
Caleb preferred more doing his own training, joining Treyton only for the physical workout.
At this pace, time went on for some time. After more than one and a half years, Treyton and Caleb started taking harsh military lessons from a Squad Captain, who got injured during a monster attack. The injury is rather nasty and right at the knee, forcing him to switch to an office position in the camp. However, for a change in pace, he occasionally teaches skills to new recruits including Treyton and Caleb.
Generally, both of them would be too young to join the instructor lessons but both of them were allowed to participate because it's unofficial and both of them are stronger than the average recruits. Many recruits come straight from the Central Region and never experienced real life and death situations, while Treyton and Caleb lived at the frontline since they can remember and already experienced way too many dangerous confrontations during hunting outside in the woods, where dangerous monsters often cross the duo.
Treyton turned twelve years old a couple of weeks ago. His control over his essence is finally good enough for using supernatural powers, even though the effect is still small.
His essence heart reached the upper limit of Stage One and is ready to break through to Stage Two. Only God knows how often he exhausted his essence until he broke down, solely for the reason that it would train his heart. In the end, the increase in power only comes with blood and sweat.
However, the breakthrough from Stage One to Stage Two takes a rather long time because the amount of essence produced by the heart increases drastically at once. This means that an amount great enough for modifying a specific body part is available, marking a big turning point in someone's power.
Each big Stage releases such an amount so the opportunity to modify more body parts comes with every major breakthrough. However, each essence-type allows people to modify other body parts.
The popular steel-essence, used by the military, focuses mostly on body parts like bones, skin, and inner organs. Hardening the whole body is important for steel-essence, providing tough defensive abilities and improved offensive abilities.
Other ones focus on the eyes, ears, nose, the nerve-system, and more, each one depending on the type of essence.
Considering his options, Treyton slowly got into a comfortable seating position, preparing for another modifying process.
This is where it really begins, Generally, Stage One power-users are not special, not on the slightest. It even wouldn't be enough to use it in a fight, except as a small distraction if one is lucky.
Stage One fire-type users would only be able to make a fireball as big as a fist and the heat would be rather low.
Thinking about the new possibilities, he closed his eyes and started concentrating. This time he could control the essence better, as well as the process in general, saving him a lot of time.
Treyton sat for around three hours until suddenly an immense rush of energy flowed through his body.
He broke through!
After smiling shortly in joy, he closed his eyes again and started modifying. The enormous essence was slowly entering Treyton's control until he could compress the essence to smaller units.
When the last bit of essence calmed down, Treyton started modifying and led the essence straight to his eyes.
He decided that he could use some kind of ability for sight as a great advantage, especially since his other abilities take up too much essence.
When the essence arrived at his eyes, the pain immediately kicked in, making him feel dizzy. His eyes started to tear up, causing a burning sensation. He once again wished for the horrible pain to just go away but his wish would never be heard.
-Seriously, why is it so exaggeratingly painful, what the heck?-
The pain continued for several hours until midnight. It took a tremendous toll on him not to faint in the process, avoiding a big disaster. After all, if one faints from the pain, the essence slowly dissipates until the chance for modifying is gone.
Treyton laid on his back, his eyes still closed. He felt tired and just wanted to sleep.
-Those body modifications are just too much-
He thought about how his heart changed two years ago and now his eyes.
-If this goes on, will I still be human?-
However, in the end, he didn't care.
If that is what it takes to survive, then so be it.
This is the only way to walk forward in this miserable, cruel world.