The old man was pleased that his desciple finally had started walking the path of the sword. He felt like now is time to train them hardcore. Their stamina is terrible. Even with all the resources to train their physique they are not using its advantage at all. Their perception is terrible. Their intuition for danger is non existent. For 4 years he's going to fix all this. Through life and death experience they would learn by force.
"Noah, you and Smith and Nix should go carry a boulder each", the old man ordered them. Noah ordered Smith and Nix to do them same. Nix didn't need have and need mana. His physique was the best among them.
"Run down the mountain and come back up 5 times", the old man told Noah. Noah was in disbelief. That was torture to them. But the old man didn't say anything anymore. Noah ordered them to do as the old man said. They were in disbelief. This was torture no matter how any of them saw. The mountain was tall and not smooth. They would drain their stamina easily.
They started their trip down the mountain. By the third journey Noah and Smith had finished their energy. While Nix was already tired since he doesn't have anyway to make his body perform better. The 4th and 5th journey was hell to them. They couldn't do anything when they came back. They felt like sleeping but the old man made them to meditate instead. This should heal their body and help their body to passively get energy out of reflex when their stamina is low. The next day they did the same thing. There was no sleeping for them. By the sixth month they were carrying a boulder 3 times the original size and also going 10 times up the mountain. Their stamina and their energy control was getting better. They could control their energy to last longer. They made sure not to waste their energy. The old man made them heal by meditation so as not to create bad habit for them.
He could see that they could effectively use their mana now. But they still didn't depend on their body and their willpower wasn't that high. In order to temper their body and will, he increased from 10 to 30. This was far worse as by the 13th time they had ran out of energy. Nix innate body stamina was low too as his body was special. The 22nd time and their body was spent. From then on only their will kept them from stopping. Noah didn't want to disappoint his master while Smith and Nix knew they wouldn't be useful weak. When they finished the 30th lap they couldn't even move. The old man expected it and had already prepared pills with alchemy. Noah provided the others with pills.
By then 10th month of the first year they could go 60 laps down the mountain. Noah and Smith broken to 3 star because of the training as their body was hungry for energy which it used for repairing some minor damages and also helping them regain their stamina. Excess energy helped them to breakthrough. Their stamina had increased and their energy control too was better.
The next part of their their training was focusing on their perspective. They started to spar. Smith didn't know any spell except from the basic fire spell. Other spells need precise control over mana to cast. If the mana doesn't revolve around the body precisely you could receive a backlash by trying to use your mana to move the laws of the world. That's why even those who spend their lives learning ancient language don't dare to try create spells. Only saints who interact with the laws of the world can create spells easily but they don't create easily as they use laws to fight directly. But a good number of saints came together to form the mage guild. There they try to make new spells for each element. Different races coming together to make the mages more powerful. Other classes have their guilds too so the best information can be accessed at the best institutions while the outdated ones are provided to lower tier kingdoms.