"Urgh," grunted Jash as he woke up and blinked his eyes multiple times, yet the absence of sun made him doubtful.
'Did I sleep for an entire day?' he wondered, but the thought quickly got buried due to the revolting pain from every muscle in his body.
As if that wasn't bad enough, his grumbling empty stomach added to the muscle contractions, spiking the pain.
"Arghhhhhh"
"Damn it!"
'He should've gone easy on me!' Jash complained inwardly, but it was useless as just moving his arms to hold his stomach caused an immense amount of pain.
However, his tense body and tightened facial expression were relaxing, as if he were getting used to the pain.
'No, this... this is different,' mused Jash as he could feel his twitching muscles decrease in frequency.
Eventually, the pain faded away, leaving behind the bewildered Jash. 'Just what in the magical world happened?'
Confused yet intrigued by his body's condition, he decided to probe it using the little amount of mana he could muster.
Despite the familiar feeling of it, he just couldn't get the hang of it. Something felt lacking.
"It's enough," mumbled Jash involuntarily, his mind focused on harnessing mana inside his body.
Luckily, the limited knowledge from his previous life was enough to notice the changes inside his body. They were surprising, to say the least.
"How?"
That was all Jash could formulate as he was too stunned by the feeling of his strengthened muscles. They were undamaged to the point it made him doubt if they were even hurting in the first place.
Unable to come up with a reason to explain it, Jash backtracked a little before arriving at the only plausible explanation.
'It has to be the awakening! Nothing else can make sense of this strangeness.'
Jash suddenly shivered as a dangerous thought took root in his mind.
The vivid image of his father forcing him to go through that brutal torture in the name of training if he ever discovered it. "He must never know!"
"I can easily make an excuse of muscle pain due to his excessive training and mom would take care of everything after that," Jash smiled evilly as he cooked his revenge.
Of course, that didn't mean he would actually laze around.
He was lazy, yes. But did that mean he wished to die?
The answer would be a clear-cut no.
Few people truly wished to die, even if they claimed to be suicidal. After all, the final step required a tad bit too much courage.
In that regard, Jash truly had ways to minimize his efforts to achieve optimum results, possibly preventing his potential death.
Given his strange physique, it wouldn't be hard for him to double the gains with half the effort.
"Gotta get out of bed before any of that happens, though," chuckled Jash as he looked at the clock.
'It's not even 5 AM.'
Shaking his head, he went to freshen up as the sweat from last night really started to irk him after waking up.
…
Around 7 AM, Jash stood in his training clothes.
It had already been roughly an hour since he had his early breakfast, making it the perfect time to train.
Naturally, the moment he finished breakfast, Carcel really wanted to come and train him, but Jash somehow escaped it.
He sighed, recalling Carcel's stubborn words. "You will still be training in the evening. No excuses."
"Fuu…"
"Haa…"
Taking deep breaths to get rid of bothersome thoughts, Jash returned to himself.
Focusing on his breathing rhythm, he began doing various moves, starting with the basic postures before slowly moving his legs and hands.
If someone observed him performing the basic martial art technique, they would truly be enchanted by the beautiful demonstration of coordination and form.
It was the most basic method that had been passed down through most of the noble families, with each one improving it to fit their kin over the generations.
Though the method helped everyone, it helped weapon-users the most. In short, the warriors.
As if a dam broke loose, copious amounts of information flowed inside Jash's mind as he continued to practice the martial art.
…
The broad categorization of a Hunter post successful awakening could be said to be Mage and Warrior.
Only after their awakening would their path be decided. If a person had a larger mana pool and fewer mana veins, they would choose the path of a mage.
If a person had more mana veins and less mana pool, they would train their body more to increase their weapon mastery.
Although several other paths existed and people chose to tread them for a variety of reasons, these two were the most common.
Naturally, the reason the two paths became mainstream lay in the fact that fewer mana veins resulted in slower mana flow and less quantity inside the body, making it impossible to be a warrior.
As a weapon-wielder, warriors had to coat their bodies, weapons and even their internal organs with mana with large amounts to defend against others on the front line. They could also choose to specialize in speed and burst attacks instead if they wished to.
However, in the case of mages, all they had to do was speak words in a specific order and tone. The ambient mana would then resonate with the chants, moving and forming the spell after the mage used their own mana to cast and define its shape.
…
Breaking his form and the flow of memories, Jash mumbled in curiosity. "Just how did grandpa cast spells, then? Isn't he a warrior too?"
Such a thought roused his curiosity as he hoped for an answer from the mess of his memories.
Luckily, he got his answers in the next second, as the final memory regarding the breakdown ended.
"I see, I see. So, that's how it is!" muttered Jash in understanding as his eyes lost focus.
"So, this categorisation is only valid till early A-rank? After that, things aren't so simple?"
Nodding in agreement, he felt it was right until something struck a chord within him.
"Wait a minute! So simple? Who the hell calls this so simple? If this is simple, just what the heck is complex?"
Jash had a hard time accepting his own thoughts, unaware that they truly weren't his.
Despite his almost perfect memory before, he now had a hard time even recalling specific things, with random information coming to him.
'Just what is happening with me? Did Bhair–my past life mess up with the current me?' Jash wondered in fright.
With a grave expression on his face, he compared what he learnt versus what he recalled currently.
'Hmm. This is far too refined,' observed Jash, feeling goosebumps at the scary thought.
As if to pour cold water on his rising anxiety, the memory of him accepting Bhairav's offer assaulted him, leaving him speechless..
"Haah." Letting out a breath of relief, he gritted his teeth and turned to stare at his own eyes in the mirror.
"I will focus on what I can control and understand instead of wasting time on things too complex or involving unknown variables. Also, explore the internet, if that's what it's even called. Learn a bit about the world and its name, if it has any."
Jash spoke to himself with great resolve as he really disliked the feeling of not knowing something obvious.
Instead of wasting his time on the unknowns, it was better to focus on something productive.