Castor sat quietly with his gaze fixated on a fighting trio. He dropped his teacup in shock only for it to be caught by another weaving branch, leaving the silence undisturbed in the midst of sword clashes.
"Just what monster did I take in?" Castor muttered in a daze.
Now at 6 years old, Zalan has learned quite a sum from Castor in the past two years about combat and theory. Although Zalan improved quickly, even Castor didn't expect it to be to this degree.
Observing Zalan swing his sword methodically at the plant golems, an invigorated expression blossomed across the old mans face from the sheer skill and battle instinct displayed by the child. After-all, most teenagers couldn't achieve this level of combat prowess, so for a 6 year old child to do so almost sent shivers down Castor's back. But deep down, Castor knew if not for the gruesome training regimen, this result would've definitely not been possible.
"That's enough for today." he voice noticing Zalan near his limit.
Standing up, Castor walked over to the bloodied child. With only a dim light above head in the earthen training space laced with reinforced stone walls, Castor's suit blended with the darkness leaving only his pale face visible which loomed over Zalan. Castor looked down and flashed a delighted smile before he recalled the plant golems back into the earthen ground to rejoin the ranks of his arsenal.
"You did good Zalan. Two low tier 2 golems are no easy feat when you are only mid tier 1. If not for that unique swordsmanship of yours and your energy abilities, I'd doubt you would've stood a chance against even just one of them".
Castor let out a light chuckle.
Zalan only panted heavily before collapsing on the floor. Clearly, the fight had taken a huge toll on him. Yet, despite Zalan's current predicament and numerous aches radiating pain his body, Zalan still let out a satisfied grin for the rare occasion of being complimented by Castor.
'I finally beat those two menaces. Take that you stupid trees'. Zalan thought and did a mental fist pump as both his arms were too severely injured to do a proper one.
It was a bit unusual to see an awakened get beaten-black and blue whilst fighting a couple of stationary trees that only swung their branches, but to Zalan, it was his greatest achievement yet. After all, he had to take them face on simultaneously and stand within the vicinity of their razor sharp branches at all times. Not to mention they were several times faster than Zalan. Definitely no easy feat by any means.
Castor took out a vial filled with glowing green medicinal liquid from his personal subspace and knelt down to pour it into Zalan's mouth.
A soon as Zalan consumed it, the cuts and wounds around his body instantly closed, all the mental stress disappeared, restoring both mind and body to its peak state. The current serum he had was the most expensive one on the market priced at a whopping 50 million credits per bottle and the only one marketed without side effects. The reason Zalan could take this bottle for his injuries is because Castor and the Vermont clan manufactured them through mixing a variety of different secret plants together.
But clearly, they didn't care about the taste of the product.
"Ugh! Bleh!"
Letting out a gag, Zalan struggled to swallow the serum. Despite its appealing light green appearance and numerous benefits, enduring the taste was more painful than the battle itself. It was almost as if the recovery potion was designed as motivation for soldiers not to get injured in battle else having to endure far worst torture.
But, Zalan would still take this potion again for its benefits but discovered a newfound will to be extra careful in every battle. So technically potion it did have some effects, just psychological trauma—or motivation—depending on how you look at it.
Zalan's body restored back to its original condition and his face flushed red slight from the lingering taste still present.
"Zalan stop being lazy. Get up lets go".
Letting out one last chuckle of amusement, Castor turned and left the room.
Castor didn't treat Zalan like a normal child. Ever since the meeting 3 and a half year ago when Zalan proved that he could swing a sword competently, Castor has been pitting him against various familiars with a multitude of fighting styles for Zalan to gain treasured combat experience from.
From his perspective, Zalan's understanding and comprehension was simply off the charts so he could comfortably explain concepts and various fighting theories to Zalan. And when Zalan wasn't learning, he was fighting—or rather, getting beaten up by various combat plants that strangely had incredible mobility despite being stationary. After-all, what better way is there to improve fighting aside from getting beaten up each and everyday? If there was, it clearly wasn't present in Castors knowledge.
In the mornings, Zalan would absorb Vis along-side Castor to strengthen his body. Although it didn't take a long time for him to develop a core, accumulating enough Vis to expand the core took longer the higher tier the awakener is. After about three years, Zalan only reached the 50 percent mark between tier 1 and 2.
Also, Zalan only had 2 years left in the company of Castor before being sent off to the front lines, so there weren't any moments to spare. From his state after every training session, Zalan pushed his mind and body to the limit every time to maximize the knowledge and skill accumulation in preparation for the borderline suicidal quest. Since an entire army of Chasm-Borns was actively fighting the humans, it was incredibly unlikely that they wouldn't have any above tier 2. And sending an awakened to fight some a few tiers above them was basically a death sentence.
Despite it, Zalan had a hunch that Castor mentioned it just to motivate him, but he wasn't willing to bet on the possibility of the former. Who knew what Castor was thinking? But one thing was for sure. He wasn't a bad teacher at all.
Castor loved going in depth with his explanations of the theory behind Vis manipulation. This little antic of his allowed Zalan to delve deeper into understanding the fundamental nature of this primordial force and to view it from various perspectives. By understanding the behaviour of Vis, Zalan saw that the tiers just meant the different degrees to which an awakener could manipulate and see these particles. More importantly, how to extract the most power from the Vis in each tier.
Not many had access to knowledge like this and Zalan never expected himself to learn at such a young age. However, he has gained only benefits from the theory taught by Castor.
Especially [Icarus's Swordsmanship] that was improving at a considerable rate in part thanks to the gruesome fighting training Castor put Zalan through each day, but also, his energy affinity and understanding. Zalan discovered that he can coat his sword with and aura of Vis to increase the lethality of the weapon.
To show the increase the sharpness and durability of the blade, both factors almost doubled when Zalan coated it with one layer. But despite the crazy enhancement, Zalan could barely maintain one coating due to the Vis consumption being simply too high for a tier 1.
However it was still much better than not having the option at all.