Putting his thoughts aside, Niles clapped his hands to get the attention of his recruits.
"Alright! So, we'll catch a flight to Greece in two weeks time and you Jack, you're getting your passport the day when the Tera is implemented. I'll send you the money." They both nodded in agreement.
"I'll go take a shower then I'll go to sleep." Arthur announced as he got up from the sofa, and left.
"I'll go back to my roo-"
Niles interrupted Jack with a big smile; "No Jack, I'm going to give you a little preview to what training will be like for the next two weeks. Follow me outside. "
Just by looking at Arthur, Jack already began to refgret his decision. He was about to end up like that.
They stood three meters apart in the backyard. Jack steeled his mind, ready for whatever Niles was going to throw at him.
"Don't worry, you won't go through the same training as Arthur. You're not at that level yet." Niles reassured him, but it hurt his ego to be told someone younger than him was at a higher level than him.
"Take this with no offence, I'm not saying this out of spite. It's just that the entity is a bastard when it comes to Aura. When you're chosen, your body is rebuilt beyond human limits. The process heals everything, except for scars as long as they don't affect you. They're seen as a medal of honour. Everyone though, ascends to the same level of physicality, no matter if you're old, young, man, woman, it doesn't matter. So in the beginning stages of your new life, only two things matter. Adaptability and versatility. You've got to have an idea of how to move your body to produce as much power as you can, and you've got to use your brain a lot more than your opponent. Arthur has almost two decades of fighting experience under his belt so he's already got a headstart there. As for you though, I'll need to teach you the basics."
Niles signalled Jack to get ready, and with so Jack got into stance.
'Horrible' Jack seemed to only have experience in street fighting. This might take long.
***
Three hours later, Jack was in his bed sleeping whilst Niles was back in the basement, scribbling in his notebook.
'Jack is a fast learner, and as predicted, can already visualise his aura in a feint black and purple colour. He's not far off from the 2nd stage. His ability seems to have a high affinity with him if he's so close to the second stage. Good.'
As soon as he finished up his logs, he looked up on his phone 'flights to Athens' and then trains to a town near Mt Olympus, and as he thought, the prices were already in Teras.
Looking through the different flights, he couldn't help but wander back to the training of his 'subordinates'. By the time they flew to Greece they'd be more than strong enough to fight against other enchanced humans, but would they be able to handle the new predators that came along with the entity…
***
Jack observed his surroundings with a blank face, but deep inside he was elated. This was the first time he flew to another country, and Greece was definitely high-ranking in terms of best countries for tourism. It's already been two weeks since he was told they would be going to Greece. He expected himself to be bored especially considering that this was more of a work trip, but the surroundings looked beautiful.
It was sunny and the buildings around him looked completely different that what they did in England. Before he could fully admire Athens, Niles got his attention.
"Alright so, we will be going to Thessaloniki tomorrow afternoon, so think of today as you day off. Let's go look around."
He signalled Arthur to start walking, he was after all the only one of them that visited Athens before. More accurately, he's the only one that visited Athens in the modern era. They left the hotel where they dropped off their luggage soon after landing.
First stop, the beach. Despite it being winter, the beaches of the Hellenic Republic were always beautiful at any time of the year. There was not much to do there though, so they aimlessly wandered about the coast.
Niles let them go ahead of him by a couple of meters, and stopped, tensing his body. He stared at a building far way from him with a dangerous look on his face. He stayed that way for a couple of seconds until Arthur called out to him; "What are you doing? Let's go." Relaxing the muscles in his face, Niles walked towards them as if there was nothing wrong.
***
It's been 24 hours since they landed in Athens, and now they were standing on a platform in a train station, ready to go to Thessaloniki, a city close to Mt Olympus. Truth to be told, there was nothing exciting that could be done in a day in Athens for Niles and Arthur, Jack on the other hand experienced the best day of his life.
The speakers announced the train was coming, and Niles told Jack to get ready. He learnt modern Greek in the past month.
They sat in a compartment where Arthur got his phone out, Niles read a book and Jack stared out the window.
They were on their way to Mt Olympus.