Wake up.
Study.
Walk.
Refine his muscles.
Pass out.
Wake up again.
Train his spearmanship in practical experience duels.
Take a brief break.
Train for hours more with one of his friends.
Go overboard and get reprimanded by Alaya every now and again.
Walk back home, either with help or on his own if need be.
Eat some fruit or dried meat.
Go out in the wilds and help Sharyl hunt.
Come back home again.
Wash the dirt and grime off.
Get ready for the next day.
Sleep.
Repeat the process.
Do it again.
And again.
And again.
And then take a Spirit Suppression Pill at the beginning of a new week.
The process thus begins anew…
Mikhail lost track of time as he immersed himself in the routine of his new life.
Time flowed incessantly like the sands in an hourglass as Mikhail grew closer with his friends, grew distant from some of the youngsters, and trained like a mad man to break through to the Martial Genesis Realm.
And despite the way time had become a blur, Mikhail was always mentally present when it came time to train.
***
Mikhail stood opposite to Lirim as the commotion in the training grounds died down, with everyone going their separate ways, most going off to work.
Alaya stood off to the side with her arms crossed over one another as she blew a tuftof her cerulean hair out of her face.
Mikhail's pose was steady despite the intense pain coursing through his body, the only trace of it being the scowl on his face. Even Sharyl's presence on his shoulder was of no note to him by now.
Lirim, meanwhile, took no pose. He looked carefree with his hands on the back of his neck, his buckler shields hanging from the large leather waist belt.
"Let's see if you can land a hit on me this time, eh?" he said with a bit of a grin.
Mikhail rolled his eyes. "Psh. I doubt it, but that's not going to stop me from trying!"
He dashed forward, taking heavy steps that dug into the arid ground beneath his feet. As he came close, he let his momentum carry him forward as he prepared to stab forward.
All the while, Lirim stood still.
The sound of leather grating against rock resounded out as Mikhail's feet dug into the terrain, and then, he tensed his muscles, taking the brunt of the force and planting him firmly in place.
And then, he loosened his grip on the spear, allowing it to fly forward.
In the fraction of an instant where the spear otherwise would have dug into Lirim's skin, one of the two shields hanging from his hip fell before shooting through the air with an intense burst of gray gales.
Clang!
Mikhail's spear was sent off course, and the second shield followed a moment later.
Pow!
With a groan, Mikhail stumbled from the intense blow to his stomach.
And as he fell, he swung the spear back towards Lirim, hoping to catch him by surprise.
Yet he simply moved his head to the side, avoiding it completely.
And in the next instant…
WHOOSH! Pow!
Sharyl flew off the spear and headbutted the flamboyant man, forcing his head to turn.
***
Mikhail slapped away Amir's hand, and in the next instant, a flash of shimmer flew out of the palm of his hand, quickly dissipating as Mikhail spun on his heel to kick Amir in the side of his torso, right into his ribs.
"Agh!"
Amir let out a pained exclamation as the force of the kick flung him away, sending him tumbling towards the ground.
Yet Mikhail didn't let up, giving chase as he prepared to stab downwards and end the fight.
However, Amir corrected his posture, using the momentum of the kick to throw himself right-side up once more.
The blade of his thick stone rapier slammed against the long pole of Mikhail's spear, and rather than another flash of Shimmer, Amir simply threw out a hail mary punch.
Mikhail's eyes widened in surprise, and he quickly jammed the spear into the ground.
He vaulted himself over Amir, bending the spear to a ridiculous degree before he yanked it up, smacking Amir in the face before he flung his left leg backwards, kicking Amir in the back of the head.
Amir stumbled forward, but spun to swing at the currently vulnerable Mikhail.
Yet the last thing he saw in that exchange was Sharyl's claw, extended outwards and poised to strike his eyes.
***
Mikhail flung his arm to the side, narrowly avoiding the fierce downwards slash of Valeria's saber. He grit his teeth as he hopped upwards, spinning slightly in middair and whacking her lightly in the side of the ribs.
Something she easily shrugged off.
Rather than waste time by pulling back, Valeria masterfully curved the arch of her swing and turned into an upwards slash.
"Argh, fuck!"
Mikhail's left arm fell off, just like his right leg earlier.
Yet the swing barely lost any power.
Valeria's saber shot through his arm and halfway through his neck before Alaya stopped the two for that round. Sharyl would've been hit too had the little creature not made the quick call to jump away.
***
Tybalt, Mercutio, and Romeo all worked together as Mikhail swatted their comparatively weak attacks before responding in kind.
A whack to the head, a powerful blow to the stomach, and piercing through the stomach.
Mikhail easily swatted the three of them down in a single exchange each.
"And you guys said… Three on one wouldn't be fair, huh?" Mikhail said, panting heavily.
The other three looked dejected after Alaya had healed them, leaving Mikhail as the trainer rather than the trainee. Sharyl hadn't even needed to offer any help, allowing it to rest lazily on Mikhail's shoulder.
"Look, you guys… You really need to put more effort into the refinement process. You'll never catch up if you keep slacking off!"
***
Quite a long while had come to pass.
Three months to be precise.
Or, in Mikhail's old calendar, about seven and a half months.
Things had been going smoothly.
And in Mikhail's mind, he was sure that things would continue to go smoothly…