Kayden returned home, wondering what to do. Any path would result in stagnation little by little. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head: where did men's inspiration always come from? What is the origin of everything? Of course, it would be nature and animals. That thought brought doubts to Kayden.
How do magical animals dominate most of the planet if they are mindless? How does your evolution engine work? Kayden decided to clear his doubts with the old man; he should know something about it. Arriving home, he went straight to look for the old man.
"Dad, do you know how magical beasts rank up?" asked Kayden. The old man was taken aback by the tenor of Kayden's question and replied, "That's classified information, Kayden. I can't talk about it with you."
"Dad, I need this. I'm deciding which class to choose, and this information would be very important to me", insisted Kayden, determined.
"Is it that important?", the old man had his doubts, but since he saw Kayden's talent, he was more softhearted towards him. "You can see if you can find something in the library, near the 3rd shelf."
Kayden knew that was as much as he could get out of the old man; normally, he would even have refused to teach or lend books. Kayden never understood the old man's refusal to teach the children; it was clear that he was strong and very strong at that.
Going down to the library, Kayden searched the 3rd shelf for books on magical animals. He found one on the anatomy of beasts and decided to study it.
It took him a few days to read the entire book, but once he did, he got some clues about magical beasts. First of all, they don't have a core, but a heart of mana that pumps mana everywhere in the beast's body. It is similar to the mage core, only it works 24 hours a day; the beast practically depends on mana to live.
But on the other hand, their stats were far superior to mages of the same level. The advantage of mages was being able to think and cast different spells; if it were for that, probably the whole world would be dominated by beasts.
To level up was very simple, they just needed to eat other things with a lot of mana, and over time, they would pass rank. That's what Kayden learned in this book.
Right now, his focus was on continuing to learn how to manipulate mana and thinking about which path he should choose. Furthermore, there was the other "path" leading to the fourth rank, which he should also think about. That was at the top of his priority list, as his body couldn't harm him there.
After thinking for a few hours, Kayden had another idea as well. What was, in all novels, the classic wizard problem? Your weak body. In most of them, wizards only learned magic and that was it. In that sense, Kayden decided that he would try to start doing exercises aimed at gaining strength and endurance. He knew this would take time, but he had time. He was only 4 years old and a few months old.
He was going to start doing some push-ups and jogging before heading to class. Other than that, his priority was to find a class that, even with his low-level body, he could progress through the ranks. Her other priority was to find his "way", because even with his weak body, if he found his way, he would be able to stand out.
In order of relevance, it was the path first, class second, and body last. Kayden knew it would be difficult, but he was determined to succeed in this life, whatever the cost.
The next day, Kayden woke up a little earlier than usual. He had a big cup of coffee, knowing that without a lot of nutrients, his body would never be able to progress. He left home determined to give 101% of himself to the exercises.
As he didn't want to be disturbed and lose focus, he went to a clearing nearby. Usually, the kids played there, but it was too early so there wouldn't be any problems.
He started with some push-ups and... He barely completed 5. He knew he was weak, but he thought he could do at least 40. Saitama managed to do 100, why couldn't he? He waited a while and did another 5 again. And then another 5. Until he couldn't lift his arms anymore.
Then he tried to do some sit-ups and did it in the same style. From series to series until you can't take any more. Then he did the same with squats. All this time, he felt like throwing up, but he held it in, as he knew he couldn't afford to lose the nutrients.
When he finished his series, he went running around the property. It didn't take even 1 minute to run out of breath, and even holding it, he wasn't able to stop his body from throwing out everything he had eaten earlier.
He was lying near the path that led to the train, to recover he leaned against a random tree and breathed deeply repeatedly. As he rested, he heard the sound of running footsteps. It didn't take long and he saw a shirtless boy running too. The moment their gazes met, there was an awkward silence.
"Hello? I'm Kayden," said Kayden, vaguely remembering the boy but not knowing his name. The boy was at least 1.70 tall, his eyes were green and in a cliché way, he had golden hair, very magazine cover style.
Kayden wasn't very sociable with the children in the house, and in addition to the other residents' study and workload, he hardly ever saw many children. As he clapped one eye on the boy, he could tell he was going to follow the path of a knight. His big, tufted muscles made that clear.
"Hi, I'm Ryan. Want help there? You look like you need it," Ryan said with a strange look in his eyes. He kind of had an idea of what happened there, when he decided to follow the path of a knight, he also made that mistake.
"No need, I'm fine. I just threw up a little bit from running too much, I'm not used to that kind of activity," admitted Kayden sheepishly.
"You ate too much too, right? I did that when I decided to be a knight. This is a classic mistake in the life of every swordsman and knight," said Ryan in a friendly manner. "If you want, I can help you a little. How old are you?"
With that brief interaction, Kayden realized that Ryan was very friendly and that the frightening amount of muscles and his model good looks added up to a very snooty teenager, but his true self was the exact opposite of that.
"I don't plan on being a knight or a swordsman, so I don't think your tips would be very helpful to me," Kayden said after thinking for a few seconds.
"But then, why are you training so hard?", Ryan shook his head in confusion. "Wouldn't it be better to focus on learning magic or whatever wizards do?"
"I just want to get a little stronger. I feel that mages are very reliant on magic," Kayden explained his line of reasoning.
"Got it, it makes sense. I had never stopped to think about it", Ryan seemed to have discovered something new with this conversation. "But if you want, I can help you a little bit with some exercise and diet. Doing anything and eating wrong greatly diminished your results."
At that moment, Kayden realized something. He wasn't into an action story. This was real life. If he tried to copy something from the comics, he would probably just get hurt in the process. He felt like a complete idiot.