Elijah moves to the backyard, Arthur quickly following behind him.
"Okay kid, first off explain what you know and understood about Zeal already." Elijah says as they reach the backyard.
Arthur once again noticed just how massive it was! Howver he quickly thought if an answer to Elijahs question.
"Well, I dont know much. Honestly all I know is what you have told and shown me. Zeal is a type of energy residing within all living things, including plant life. You can somehow use it to create lightning and move at incredibly fast speeds and your wife Emory can somehow create a red liquid to cause explosions?
Also you seem to be very durable, being able to withstand said explosions with no injuries." Arthur concluded.
Elijah smiled at him. "Well you dont know much, but that doesnt matter. As long as you have me, there is noone that could teach you better."
In the back of his mind Elijah was thinking of one person that might be better at this than him. However there was no need for Arthur to know about that person yet.
"So, yes. The very basics of what you know is true. Zeal is energy within all living things. It exists inside you, me and every other being. Inside your body, you have a 'core' where the majority of your Zeal is stored. The rest is evenly distributed throughout the veins in your body." Elijah explained.
'So thats what that was. I already thought it would be something like that when I learned of Zeal.' Arthur thought.
"Now the amount of Zeal depends on the person. Zeal is fundamentally the energy of 'will' and 'determination'. You are born with a certain amount of Zeal and you can increase it through 2 ways.
One is 'physical'. Meaning the more excercise you do, the more you train and the more you push your body to its limits the more your 'maximum capacity' of Zeal you can store increases." Elijah explained.
"That seems simple enough." Arthur remarked.
"That's because it is. However this method is purely to increase your maximum amounts of Zeal you can store. The second method 'mental' gives you far more benefits but is also not as simple." Elijah said.
Arthur simply nodded in understanding, a bit suprised on how that childish man from before became this serious when it came to explaining Zeal. Then he remembered the invisble pressure he had experienced from Elijah before, where his entire body froze up. Clearly that childish act isnt everything to him.
"You perform the mental method through repeated meditation. In this meditative state you need to solely focus on your determination. On your will to increase your abilities in Zeal, on your goal to get stronger.
As you do this, you will start to feel your Zeal from your veins start to focus more into your core. More and more Zeal will move towards it until you finally enter your 'Innerworld'." Elijah paused for a moment, letting Arthur digest the information.
"Innerworld?" Arthur asked.
"Yes. Now comes the point where I need to explain you 'Essences'. Simply put, an Essence is the representation of your will. It is where you draw your abilities from. My Essence is 'Lightning' and Emorys Essence is 'Explosion'. Claires...well you can ask her yourself once she's here." Elijah explained.
Arthur was a bit overwhelmed at the information. "But I thought we get our abilities from Zeal?" Arthur asked.
"Well yes and no. There is a lot you can do with purely Zeal. Afterall, not everyone is even born with an Essence. However you cannot create lightning like I do with purely Zeal, you need to use your Zeal to activate your Essence and use that. Of course, only if you have a lightning Essence." Elijah made sure Arthur understood.
"I see. Okay I think I get it. So how does that link with innerworlds?" Arthur asked.
"When you meditate and reach your innerworld, you will 'see' your Essence in it. Essences come in many different forms such as Gods, animals, people and even objects. Everyones is different. Thats because every Essence is different.
Even if you see someone else with a Essence similair to my lightning, it will never be exactly the same. The easiest way is to explain through the teleportation Essence.
One teleportation Essence might allow you to travel 100 meters, with a short cooldown. Another might allow you to travel thousands of meters with a longer cooldown. Another might allow you to take people with you when you teleport. Other ones wont. Some might only allow you to teleport to places you've been. Some only where you can see and so on.
There will always be differences in Essences, there can never be two of the same."
"So everyones abilities are unique? Thats quite interesting but also be a bit scary. Afterall there could be someone with a very unusual ability that could cause major harm." Arthur thought.
"Indeed. However like I mentioned there is also a good number of people that dont have an Essence at all. And even if you have an Essence, there is only a small amount of people who have ever even unlocked their Essence. An even smaller amount has trained it to the degree that its actually useful beyond minor things." Elijah said.
"How do you unlock your Essence? Do I even have an Essence?" Arthur asked. He would be very dissapointed if he didnt even have an Essence. Well, he isnt originally from this world so he was quite worried.
"For your first question there are also two versions. However one is learnable and another isnt, so I will not even teach you that. As for the learnable version, you can unlock your Essence and train it through the mental training method. Simply put, you have to reach your innerworld and then 'fight' your Essence while solely focusing on your will.
You need to want it, with pure determination you need to overwhelm your Essence with pure mental strength and win the fight. These fights dont have much to do with your phyiscal strength, tactis, abilities or anything like that. If you're determined enough you will win, if you're not you will lose." Elijah explained, intriguing Arthur.
'Pure determination and will huh? I will unlock my Essence.' Arthur firmly thought. There was no way around it, he had to unlock his Essence. If he had one of course. If not he would do whatever he could with those other abilities Elijah spoke about that didnt require a Essence. Afterall he needs to be strong to live a long and fulfilled life.
"For your second question, there is no way to tell besides you entering your innerworld. If you have an Essence, your innerworld will have a unique look to it with your Essence inside. If you dont have one, it will be a plain white space, with no being inside." Elijah said, fueling Arthurs determination even more.
A few steps caused the both of them to turn towards it. "There you are!" Elijah said to Claire who finally arrived after finishing her breakfast. Turning back to Arthur Elijah said "Okay kid, I have taught you the very basics on what you need to know about Zeal training. Now its time to put your will to the test. First we will start with physical training."
A massive smirk was plastered on Elijahs face. 'This isnt going to be easy. But for my life...I will do it!' Arthur thought, all that talk about determination clearly motivating him.
"I like that look of yours kid. Both of you, run laps around the backyard." Elijah ordered.
Claire was used to this. She was in her training uniform, a black crop top cross strap t shirt with baggy black sports pants. She immeadietly began her run.
Arthur saw that and started his run aswell. In the first few seconds it was already clear, she was way faster than him. I mean who could blame him? Before coming here, he was a teenager practically living in the hospital. He didnt have the strength or endurance to go on runs.
However, he didnt let this bother him. He was here now, cured of his disease. In a new world, with endless possibility. All that he needed was the will to see it through. So he would do just that. See it through. So he ran.
In the meantime Elijah appeared ontop of a tall tree and simply watched them running while eating the leftovers from the breakfast. Arthur saw that, still pretty hungry. However he ignored it. Maybe this was to test his determination? He sure hoped Elijah didnt make him run this much on a pretty much empty stomach just because.
As the minutes passed and they were nearing the half hour mark, Arthur slowly reached his limits. "Haaa....haaa...haa..." He exhaled deeply, still hanging on. Claire had passed him already dozens of times. It was clear he wasnt strong physically, however being this outmatched left him a sour taste. Just what did that girl eat!
The training field was around 1 kilometer wide and 500 meters long. So each lap was about 3 kilometers. Truly a indescribably big training field! However that also meant him being lapped dozens of times meant that this girl had run around a two dozen laps within just 30 minutes. Thats almost a lap a minute! In contrast, Arthur had only run around one and a half laps. 5 Kilometers in 30 minutes would be considered a pretty decent time back on earth.
Especially considering that he was untrained, no more like bedridden for a majority of his life this would be a major accomplishment! However he simply got completely overshadowed by this frail looking girl. This did not curb Arthurs will at all.
'With enough training I should be able to do that aswell!' Arthur thought. Afterall this was a supernatural world. He had a weird energy inside of him, surely this would allow him to train well beyond the norm!
For now though, he just kept running. He had to show his determination. Elijah hadnt told him to stop yet, so he wouldnt stop! No, he couldnt stop!