"But before that. You need to learn about Mana." The Baron continued.
"Mana is a form of energy which exists everywhere, and in everything. Normal people cannot see or feel mana and it generally does not affect them too much when it is not tempered with."
'Mana? Is this a game?' Kai joked in his mind. He remembered the videos of people playing Virtual Reality Games back in the Earth Alliance which involved concepts ranging from sci-fi dark-matter engines all the way to fantasy spells.
"However, there are two types of people who can use this intangible Mana. They are us External arts users and Magi. I'm not sure of how the Mage system works, but for us External Art users, we need to build up mana in our bodies through constant training."
"With this training, and enough Mana within our bodies, we would be able to utilise the External Arts to release unimaginable powers."
Kai just looked at the Baron strangely. He had never seen anyone using superpowers, even when he was ambushed.
The Baron noticed this gaze and laughed as he stood up.
"Don't worry. Let me give you a taste of the power of Mana," he said as he placed his feet apart and lowered his body. Then, he pulled back his fist and gripped at the air tightly, enough for the veins on his entire arm to bulge.
Then, all of a sudden, the Baron opened his palm, the entirety of it turning a dark shade of red as though it was a tomato.
Releasing his held breath, the Baron moved the palm forward with an astonishing speed, and Not only did Kai fail to follow the movement of the attack, but he also faintly heard the cry of an elephant as the hand moved!
'Superpowers! Superpowers exist here!' Kai excitedly thought to himself.
"Huu…" Baron Dread took in a deep breath as he brought back his hand to its normal colour and the veins slowly vanished. After that, he turned to Kai and noticed the excited glint in his eyes. A satisfied smile appeared on the Baron's face as he nodded in his mind.
"Alright then Kai. We will begin your training now. In fact, the training itself is rather simple, and it involves you following a strict routine of exercise and nutrition, which will not just improve the state of your body, but also increase the amount of Mana your body can hold."
"But Pops… When will I be able to learn the Five Elephant Palm technique?"
"After you have enough Mana."
"And how long will that take?"
"About 2 years?"
"…" Kai's initially bright gaze dimmed considerably.
"Haha! Kai. You don't need to worry about feeling like you will not be making any progress. Look at your body right now. It is as thin as a twig. But with this training, you will soon become strong enough to be comparable to my heavy cavalry! You have seen them right?"
"Really? As strong as the heavy cavalry without even training the external art?"
"Yeah"
"Alright then."
Kai was easily persuaded. After all, his body was terribly weak, and Earth Kai's body was practically in a diseased state of malnutrition, lack of vitamins, and the Bionic chip slowly killing him.
Therefore, the concept of having a very healthy body appealed greatly to him. Therefore, he simply nodded and followed the instructions of his Uncle and performed the sets of training exercises.
…
The entirety of the next day was spent recovering from his aching muscles after performing the exercise.
'Nope. I cannot do this. The Path of an external Arts user is not for me. I should ask Pops about the Magi. Maybe their method of training is less painful.' Kai decided in his mind after just a single day of training.
…
"Pops. How do I become a Mage?" Kai asked at the breakfast table after he had had his day of rest. His muscles were already feeling better, which was rather surprising since it would normally take at least a few days to recover back on Earth.
Even the system from the Bionic chip had calculated wrong and said that he would need 3 days to recover when he did it in just one. This also meant that his head injury should have healed earlier on, but since the system said it had not healed, Kai followed it blindly and rested a few more days than he needed to.
"Hmm? Are you saying this because you think you can't persist in doing the exercises?"
Kai looked down at his feet for a moment before nodding slowly.
"Haha! Kai. That was just the first day. Don't worry too much about it. It gets easier the more you practice. Just keep going for a few weeks. If you still can't keep up, then we will talk about this again. How about that?"
Hearing this, Kai was somewhat convinced as he nodded, and continued with breakfast.