It has been two days since Joey had begun his attempt to reach 1st awakening. For Joey, those two days felt like a week. Those days were filled with screaming and agony, he rarely got breaks longer than 30 mins.
He has been trying to grasp the concept but he has made no progress. He always felt like he was on the cusp of understanding what he needed to do, but the pain became too much for him to bear. After failing the 42 times he finally wanted to give up.
"M...Mila, I-I can't I was foolish. This is too much for me" Joey desperately said, Mila herself was reluctant to hear him giving up. She felt he was on the cusp of finally being able to figure out the secret to awakening.
She thought about using less energy but his body needed to go under intense overload to be able to trigger an awakening. Mila started to grow sick of the screams that were starting to way on her mind mentally.
The contents of the first aid kit were finished on Joey and he still has not been able to awaken his potential.
"Haven't you figure it out already kid? Or do you just like pain" Mila asked as she took a seat in front of him. "I....I.. d-don't...u...understand," Joey said with staggered breaths.
"You have to figure it out on your own. Fire flows differently than water and the same can be said vice versa. My superpower is unique and so is the energy I release is different. You have to figure out a way to use your energy to make it flow throughout your body.
You need to understand it completely to control it, but all you need to do is guide it through your body.
That will in turn remove the imperfections from your body. After that, continue to siphon the energy around until your body potential is lifted thus triggering an awakening.
You can try and temper your bone and nourish your blood to start advance to the second awakening...Forget I said that. I don't want you to die before we can properly live like a family"
She looked at Joey with a look of pity and said "As for the pain, that just comes with the treatment. You need to fight through that on your own" then she asked, "Are you sure you want to continue?"
Joey laid in silence after hearing the question. The thought of giving up never came across his mind, but he didn't know how much more he could go on.
"O....one more time," he said, his body started to pain him after those words left his mouth. As if to punish him for what he was saying.
"You've got more guts than me, but there is nothing wrong with giving up. As long you never give up on yourself. It's ok to try again another time." Mila said with a slight chuckle.
Joey never heard much of what she said because he passed out. Mila unlocked the chains from his wrist and laid him on a bed. Mila watched him sleep with a smile on her face.
Joey woke up and saw himself on a makeshift bed with lots of sheets. "Had a good sleep?" As he was looking around he heard Mila from a corner of the room.
"Did I pass out?" Joey asked.
"No, you fell asleep after pricking your finger on a spinning-wheel spindle. I was starting to wonder if I needed to find someone to try and kiss you" Mila replied, making Joey hold his head in shame.
"There is nothing shameful about failing. The term failing is often believed to be bad, but it's only bad when you make it break your spirit. It's all about how you handle it. Will you sulk all day about what could have been or will you work harder on the future"
"Thanks for that, but I don't think I understand what to do. I never thought it would be easy, but this is too hard"
"There is are treasures that can supposedly help with this, but we have no access to it. I think the next time you do it you'll awaken" Mila said with a smile but this made Joey confused.
"Why do you say that"
"It's the law of failure, When you finally decide to give up it finds a way of working about," she said matter of factly.
"You're just trying to convince me to do it"
Mila thought about something then said, "How about this, After you awaken I'll teach you to good Martial Arts instead of the one you were practising in that book over there." She said pointing at Joey's book on the ground, then she laughed"I have to say your drawings are spot on".
"I don't want to learn to hand combat martial arts, I want to learn weapon martial arts. You have a spear and I have a staff" Joey said, but Mila only clicked her tongue.
"I'll simply attach a blade onto your staff, I should have something that size", she said as she looked at Joey's half-convinced expression then said, "All my Martial Art Advanced Tier" then waved pulled it out and showed him.
"Really? How can you afford these! There like half a million!" Joey shouted as he forgot about his injuries and ran toward the book to grab it. But Mila grabbed to away first.
You seemed a lot more interested now, what do you say we have a deal right? Let's not forget about the real reason we are doing this"
Joeys expression became somewhat sad whenever the mention of his sister came up.
"Cheer up I never said that to make you sad. You know there is no use in being gloomy, we just need to focus on the goal" Mila said.
Joey took her word into consideration then got up from his bed, then said with a serious expression "I'll try a thousand time over".