Breathing heavily, Lucas couldn't run anymore and he fell down onto the ground. The workouts made for Lucas were made with traces in mind, meaning that it had an effectiveness way better than traditional exercise, but it was also 10x more difficult.
"What are you stopping for?! Run for 4 km more!"
Lucas couldn't disobey, but his body was on the verge of breaking down. Lucas activated the traces and regained some of his stamina.
'I think I'm going to throw up.'
Lucas has made some progress in this week. He could now handle 8 activations in a row without rest and he was in the last stage of Rank 1. Still, it was nothing compared to his teacher, Seth, who could handle about 253 activations in a row.
As soon as Lucas was done, he sat on the ground and tried to recover.
"Good job today, once you can use activations 20 times without a break, I'll teach you how to use the energy more practically and efficiently."
'20 times huh? It took me a week to go from 3 to 8 activations. I'm guessing it will only get harder, but I have to persevere.'
In his free time, Lucas would ask Seth about the Central Zone as he was quite interested in it. The Central Zone was apparently where all the true noble families and talents gather, and there were multiple reasons for it. First of all, the Central Zone had an amazing amount of resources and unexplored land, making it perfect for people looking for an adventure or opportunity.
Second of all, it had a school for young cultivators, available for people from ages 15 to 21. This was a place where they could get a secure future as even the current rulers of the Central Zone were interested in the talents there. Lastly, there was the inheritance of the 10 Kings. People would come to compete for a chance to go inside this inheritance.
'The inheritance of the 10 Kings?'
"Who were the 10 Kings?"
"Well, nobody except the Royal Family knows. They seem adamant on keeping it a secret for some reason. However, they did tell us the paths of these 10 Kings, which is one of the criterion they use to choose people for the inheritance. I think that's enough for know, it's time for your training to continue."
'I guess this is my daily life now.'
Lucas did some stretches before starting to run once more.
"What?! Why is it so much harder now? It feels like a heavy weight is being pressed against me!" Lucas complained.
"You're already progressing very fast my student, however it's still not as fast as required. If you want to catch up to those monstrous talents in the Central Zone, you'll have to make up for it in hard work!"
Lucas felt like crying, but he still did as Seth said and tried to keep his speed the same as before.
Lucas was running through a forest right now, he must've been far away from the mansion right now because back then, he couldn't see any forest no matter how hard he looked from the window of one of the rooms of the mansion.
The forest was full of animals and plant-life, Lucas could hear it very clearly. These animals seemed to keep away from Lucas, he was unknowingly releasing an aura that scared these animals. Still, Lucas didn't know this so he thought it was Seth who was scaring them away.
Lucas ran for 30 minutes without stopping before he reached his limit, he could only do so much with something like a heavy weight pressing on him at all times.
Seth allowed Lucas to rest for a while before the cycle continued.
By the time they got back to the wooden hut that was somehow in the air, it was already midnight and Lucas felt very tired.
"You should get a lot of rest now, tomorrow, you will be hunting some animals. This will be a sort of test for you. If you see any beasts, then immediately run away, they are not something you can handle right now. I'll give you more information tomorrow."
Lucas nodded before laying down and falling asleep soon after, the drowsiness from today was something that could only be rectified by sleep.