Jacob screams out in pain as he observes his contorted left arm.
"Calm down Young blood, it's not....that bad."
"Ehh!? Not that bad?, Not that bad!!?, My arm looks like a freaking tornado you old bastard!"
*sighs*'You say that, yet here you are arguing with me in spite of the pain you're supposedly feeling.' The grand sage thought.
"Like I said, it's not that bad, see." He says this as he points at Jacob's arm.
Jacob looks at his arm and sees it rapidly healing itself in a matter of seconds.
"it's...it's all better now, I couldn't do that yesterday, what's happening grandpa?"
'This kid, he's completely forgotten that he to call me the grand sage during training.' The grand sage thought as he replied "Like I said last week, your strength as of now is incomparably different from back then."
"As you can now use the sage arts, your body's tolerance and acceptance of nature energy has vastly improved."
"As such you are....hey young blood....are you even listening to me?"
The grand sage asks as he notices that Jacob's gaze is still fixed on his now perfectly fixed arm.
Jacob then begins waving his arm around completely ignoring the grand sage. The grand sage frowns and just heads back to the house.
After waving his arm, Jacob stares at his hand. "Yep, definitely couldn't do this yesterday." he then looks up and notices the grand sage leaving.
"Grandpa, you're leaving already? wait for me!" Jacob shouts as he chases after his grandpa.
A few minutes after Jacob enters the house his grandfather throws a few scrolls at him.
"Here, read those scrolls on the way." The grand sage says.
"Grandpa are you upset with me?"
"Why would I be upset?" The grand sage asks with a raised eyebrow.
"I mean... you're throwing these scrolls at me that seem as ancient as you."
The grand sage's vein pops at that reply. He then composes himself.
"Those scrolls contain the sage arts that you will be learning."
"Oh?"
"Indeed so read and learn, okay young blood?"
"Right. By the way where are we going?"
"Yes about that, pack your clothes I'll tell you as we leave."
An hour passes and Jacob walks back to the training grounds with his grandfather while carrying a duffel bag.
"So grandpa, where are we going?"
"To the Spirit realm.."
"Spirit realm?"
"Indeed. It is the home of a few friends of mine who will be responsible for transforming you into a true sage."
"Yes but as to where we're going right now , I'd say your next training ground."
"huh?"
The grand sage stretches his arm out "Gate."
A purple card like portal opens.
'A teleportation gate, that's right my grandpa was a master magician before becoming a sage. April is also considered a prodigy, if only I was one too...but sometimes life just doesn't work that way, I'm considered as trash but that will all change, once I become a sage, I'll show them that the manaless are not powerless.' Jacob thought.
"What's the matter young blood? All I did was open up a portal."
"Nothing to be concerned with grandpa." Jacob smiles.
"I see." The grand sage responds, obviously not fooled by Jacob's forced smile.
They then walk into the portal and enter a barren field.
"Alright young blood time for training. Here you go, your weights."
"My weights?"
"Oh don't worry as I won't be restricting you anymore, so I took the liberty of increasing the force of the weights."
"Hooray" Jacob sarcastically remarks as he puts on the weights.
The grand sage then materializes a massive steel box. after it crashes leaving a Crater he taps the massive steel box.
"This bad boy over here weighs well over a 1000 tonnes."
"pounds?" Jacob asks hopefully.
"Kilograms." The grand sage says, pouring cold water on Jacob's mood.
"Why did you create that thing?"
"Simple really, for you to carry it."
"What?"
"While running at full speed."
"Why though?"
"For six hours straight."
"Do you hate me that much?"
"Of course not young blood, by the way if you drop it, you'll do it all over again."
"You're kidding...right?"
He was not. For 3 months Jacob had to carry the steel box and Everytime he got the hang of it, the box's weight would be increased. At night he had to absorb nature energy into his body as well as study the scrolls.
On one early morning Jacob is lying down on a hill complaining to his grandpa.
"Grandpa, I'm already used to carrying the box and using me as a punching bag as of late. argh Im really tired of this."
"Okay, I'll stop."
"What?"
"I'll stop training you."
"really?"
"Yep, but before that I believe you're able to read your own energy, right?"
"Yeah."
"Good, now remove those weights and put this on." He hands over a bracelet.
"What is this?"
"It's a speed detector."
"oh?"
"Yes, now run as fast as you can."
"Alright grandpa."
Jacob readies himself and runs, causing w massive cloud of dust as he circles the area at neck break speed.
After he is done running he gives his grandpa the bracelet to check the reading.
*sighs* "Should have figured." The grand sage says as he looks at the reading.
"What does it say grandpa?"
"It seems your top speed is 180km/s."
"Woah cool, is that fast."
'Is that fast...you brat, you're able to run like this without even using sage mode. I'm tired, the spirits will deal with him.'
He looks at Jacob. "Alright brat now for the more difficult part of phase 2."
"This whole thing.....was the easy part?" Jacob asks dumbfounded.
The grand sage simply replies by saying "Yes, yes it was."
"....."
"Controlling the elements comes next, but I won't be the one to train you. you will find your teacher at the end of that cave."
He points at a distant cave shrouded in tinted purple clouds.
"Man, that is one gloomy cave."
"Yep, have fun now, oh and I'll be taking this." The grand sage says as he takes Jacob's bag filled with his clothes.
"But wait grandpa, shouldn't you at least guide me through the cave?"
"Now why would I do that? It would defeat the whole point of your training."
"What!?"
"Good luck now." The grand sage says as he disappears.
"Couldn't he have at least left me with a water bottle?" *sighs* "Guess I have no choice once again."
Jacob then runs to the cave at a blinding pace
and reaches the cave within a few minutes.
As he arrives at the entrance, he hears ominous sounds coming out from the inside.
"Yep definitely gloomy." Jacob says as he enters the cave.
An hour passes by and Jacob is being chased by varying monster from giant centipedes to gigantic bears.
"Stupid old man, why the hell are there so many monsters in here!?" Jacob asks out loud as he flips over one of the centipedes.
"This training is definitely gonna give me nightmares once I'm done."
The monsters don't relent and give chase for a few more minutes. Soon after they grow tired as they are just unable to reach Jacob.
But suddenly something unexpected happens as Jacob stops in his tracks which causes the other monsters to stop and look on in confusion.
Jacob grins "Seems you've finally exhausted yourselves" He then leaps towards the monsters and kills them all with a few punches and kicks.
"That was.....rather easy."
As Jacob continues his journey, he arrives at an open space, he then notices a massive humanoid stone creature, that seems to be 8m tall and just as wide, with glowing yellow eyes.
"You my teacher?" Jacob asks hopefully but the creature roars in response, generating a massive gust of wind.
Jacob frowns "I guess not." Jacob says as he does a side flip to dodge the attack from the creature.
"Judging by your body I'd say you're a golem." The golem roars once more. "But what are you doing in a cave, shouldn't you be in a dungeon or something?"
The golem then attacks Jacob, as he casually dodges he says "guess you're not much for conversation, have it your way then."
Jacob then rushes towards the golem and punches straight In the chest which... unfortunately does nothing to faze the golem.
Jacob then backflips away. *sighs* "Should have figured."
'A golem, a supernatural creature that rivals a vampire in strength and has impeccable defenses. I was lucky last time as Kalen was incredibly weak for a vampire but this time it seems my luck has run out.'
Jacob then clenches his fists and enters a boxing stance. 'But I'm not one to give up based on the circumstances. Ever since I learned to harness nature energy I've always been able to regulate my strength even without using nature energy. Let's see what going all out can get me.'
After a few minutes Jacob realized that his full strength...got him nothing. While Jacob obviously had the speed advantage the golem overwhelmed in strength. As Jacob tries to outmaneuver the golem, the unexpected happens as the golem rushes Jacob, hitting him straight in the gut winding Jacob in the process as his face contorts in pain.
Jacob lands awkwardly on his back and the golem leaps up in the air. 'million tonnes, that was definitely a million tonnes of force behind that punch.' Jacob thought as he coughed out blood.
As the golem descended above Jacob, Jacob raised his right arm 'come on, do something, anything, just help me!!' a black katana then materializes in his right hand.
Jacob swings the sword and generates a shockwave that repels the golem. Jacob gets up weakly while staring at the familiar sword in his hand.
Jacob then grips the handle with both hands resolutely. "It seems my luck hasn't run out after all."
Jacob then vanishes and reappears in front of the golem. He does a vertical slash which deals great damage to the golem. The golem responds by swinging it's left arm. Jacob elegantly dodges and within the blink of an eye Jacob cuts off the golem's arm off. the golem reels back.
'Strange I wasn't able to even scathe it earlier. it seems the sword must have a special ability that allows it to increase my attack power.
Jacob then does a round off and and a few backflips to cover the distance and ends it off by doing an Arabian flip over the golem's head. As Jacob swings his sword mid flip towards the golem's head, it dodges.
'Damn it's using mana to temporarily enhance it's speed. I'll have to counter it using that move.'
Jacob exhales slowly, as his hair rises in a spiky manner. "Sage art: Rhythmic Appraisal."
A translucent aura covers Jacob. 'Rhythmic Appraisal, it's a technique that allows me to see the mana circuits and the flow of energy around me as clear as daylight. with I, I can be able to judge the next move of my opponents based on the energy flow in their bodies and surroundings.'
'I see the mana core acts as the medium for mana flow, huh? but it's incredibly weakened by my earlier attack. The next on should do the trick.'
Jacob after analysing the golem rushes forward and within a few seconds Jacob slices the golem apart by targeting it's weak points.
Moments later the sword vanishes.
"Yeah?"
Jacob looks at the remaining pieces of the golem, he then crushes the mana core with his foot.
As Jacob's hair falls "With that done, we can finally move on but I gotta say it's kinda scary how I'm able to use that sword so easily even though I don't have any training in swords whatsoever." Jacob says as he finds an opening leading outside the cave.
As he exits the cave he finds himself in a beautiful garden, he looks back at the cave and is shocked when he doesn't find it. He then looks toward the end of the path and he sees a well endowed beautiful woman wearing a green dress, has dark green hair, light green eyes and a fair complexion.
"So you've finally arrived Jacob."
"You know me?"
"Indeed and I'm rather impressed by your strength."
"Thanks, I guess. Who are you anyway?"
"My name is Ivy, and I'm the queen of the spirits" She says as she gently smiles at Jacob.