Level your stance, Inhale and feel the air reach deeper and deeper into your lungs, project the distance in your mind and feel the mana course through your veins.
I was so focused that I could even feel and tell the wind direction just by how still I was. In terms of swordsmanship and magic casting, I was both poor.
But the most important part of my reformation training that yielded the best results, was non other than my motion training.
At an average, I could reach up to a hundred meters under a minute, and over 150 at my peak.
In plain terms, I was insanely fast.
The reason I had prioritized motion over strength, was simply because I would be able to make it out of a losing fight, as fast as possible if need be.
Yes, I was training for cowardice.
One of the first few things I had learnt when I got transmigrated, was the existence of extremely gifted beings in almost every corner of this world.
"Hence why this is so important"
Why proceed with a head on clash, when you could easily just avoid it and make it to safety faster than your opponent can think?.
That was a question I always asked myself back on earth, each time I saw so called "heroes", fighting for something they thought was important.
Unsurprisingly so, I wasn't that gullible.
Would I fight back if I had no options??
Yes
Would I risk my life if there was a venue for escape, even though another life depended on my involvement??
A big fat no.
"Life is fleeting, I don't want to die hopelessly once more" i always encouraged myself, each time the thought of intervention reached my mind.
Only fools felt the need to prove their power, but for me, I'd rather exert dominance while in the clutches of safety, whenever I could.
*******
I closed the book which I was reading, wishing I had followed the mantra of the main character in the story.
"Odyssey of a reborn ordinary man in a world of mana"
It was the title of the book that Tanya had been able to get her hands on, after extensive research into the cult of Nirvana.
Proving that, besides me and the otherworlder, there had also been people from earth, reborn or transmigrated to this world.
Although the book was written entirely in English, making it impossible for Tanya or anyone from this world to decipher, the contents were forbidden by the empire since they felt it might awaken the thirst for a new religion amongst the people.
"The insecurity of the empire is so raw, it's actually concerning" i thought, placing the book at the top of the shelf beside my bed.
The room now had a different feel to it, since the curtains and bedding had been changed once again, a ritual Tanya had deemed mandatory.
I ran my fingers through the white covers, feeling the softness of the fabric brush over the tip of my fingers.
Just like the beddings, everything had been redecorated with a touch of white, and even the walls were repainted too.
"I guess it's more of a fetish than a ritual" i thought, staring outside the window, watching as cart upon carts, all filled to the brim, made their way towards the lawn at the entrance of the mayor's Villa.
Today was the day of Dragar wolvesborn arrival.
Sabrina was speaking with Elderick- her magic instructor at the entrance, nodding frantically at each statement he made.
I just stood there and watched, hoping all the investments I was making on her would one day pay off.
The deluge of the morning wind, pushed at my window as it shook the entire environment.
Causing flowers to fall and birds to rave in detest.
The raging weather grew more aggressive as the days passed, sometimes with torrential rains, accompanied by blistering colds, while other times the intense heat of the day took over.
Disregarding the unfair weather, I toiled, sometimes shouting orders in the rain, other times trekking in the intense heat to collect taxes for the mayor.
The more I sat to think about it, the less I understood what the hell she was trying to shape me for.
I walked back towards my bathroom, sinking totally into the clutches of my hot bath, numbing my senses totally as I felt a rush of stinging esthesis, cling to my brain and causing tears to flow.
'Nothing really comes close to a nice warm bath' I thought to myself, affirming the statement repeatedly as I sunk deeper and deeper.
After my bath, Tanya asked me to pick up the communication artifact Shruwid- an adept dwarven craftsman- was working on.
I had written a model for it's main interactive feature, and was oddly thrilled to see how Shruwid must've implemented it.
His workshop was barely a mile from the villa, so I decided to take a stroll there, passing a horde of nomads not too far from the entrance, who had come into the city to spend autumn.
They were clothed in thwab like robes, covering most of their bodies as the residue of sand and dirt stuck at the hems of their dresses.
The northern parts of the elven territories were said to be dominated by desserts, mostly discouraging people from traveling towards it.
It was probably where the nomads had made their way through, hoping to rest in a shore city for the last season of the year.
After about fifteen more minutes of strolling, I finally came face to face with his workshop, a poorly made wooden placard hanging from the edge of the roof.
There were Dwarven engravings plastered as the sign for his shop, before a small deck of wood, covering the main entrance from either sunlight or rain.
People walked by as I stood there, waving and stopping to bow lightly as they greeted me, probably from fear of my reputation as the famed "Bloody tax collector".
It was strange that you would look at a calm, coordinated fourteen year old like me and believe in petty rumours.
"Such disappointing rumors" I sighed, pressing gently at my nasal roof.
The shop's door had a special type of bell that sent out a shrieking signal to the main room, alerting Shruwid of a guest. Using a type of mana crystal as the medium.
In terms of level of intelligence, you could say that dwarves were all born relatively as geniuses.
This was solely due to the fact that, their earliest ancestors existed with low affinity for magic, divulging towards handiwork and craftsmanship in order to preserve their race.
"Hey Shruwid, I came to pick up the device." I called out, staring at the galore of inventions in front of me.
Ranging from mechanical toys to even home appliances that ran entirely on mana.
"Ah young Lord, you finally came. I was hoping to test it out today nevertheless" A round, four foot figure noted as he walked out of the only separate room in the shop.
He was clothed in a distinct attire that resembled a Norse man's clothing- with stringed long beards plaited tightly as they dropped up to his chest point.
The brown fur overgown coat he wore looked like it would only stretch up to the top of my belly but somehow, it towered over his entire form.
"Here ya go!" He stressed, lifting the crystal orb onto the short table at the center of the room.
"I used ya model in creating this one. Ya a really gifted lad ya know that" He jeered, tapping at the orb to awaken it, his northern accent kicking in every step of the way.
The basis for the orbs operation, was sending out messages in readable text forms using mana as the wavelength.
For safety purposes, I asked him to install a type of security protocol, that only allowed a singular mana fingerprint pattern to operate each orb.
Since just like actual fingerprints, mana cycles of each person differed from one another.
"So now we don't have to worry about leaked messages huh?" I placed my hand on the face of the orb, transmitting a message from my thoughts towards the other orb Shruwid held.
I returned back to the villa, after filling out multiple orders for a hundred more to be made within the month.
I was greeted by a retinue, accompanying the beastmen dignitaries.
Out of the royal carriage, came a girl and a woman with the cross appearance of a wolf. Then Dragar descended also, clothed in a war garment as his fur was carefully hidden.
It was then that another race's image was imprinted in my mind, awakening a dreadful fetish I had thought wouldn't be possible to achieve.
"This is gonna be another wild ride!".