The next morning, before the sun had even risen, Luca and his group were woken up. They had barely gotten any rest, but the instructor had already arrived to start their training. They were quickly taken to the training ground, where they waited for their new instructor to appear.
After a short while, a tall man with a thick beard walked up to them. He had a calm expression and looked like he had seen many battles. "I'm Aaron," he said with a friendly smile. "I'll be your instructor from now on."
The boys studied their new teacher. He seemed strong, but not too scary. They had all been expecting someone more intimidating. "Now, introduce yourselves," Aaron instructed.
One by one, the boys spoke up and shared their names. After they were done, Aaron nodded and smiled. "Good. Since today is your first day, I'm going to give you an easy task. Run fifty laps around the training ground as a warm-up."
The boys looked at each other. At the Essence Flow stage, they had enough stamina and strength to run much more than fifty laps without breaking a sweat. It wasn't hard at all.
But then Aaron added, "Oh, I almost forgot. You'll need to carry those stones while running." He pointed to a pile of large stones nearby, each weighing about 50 kilograms.
The boys stared at the stones for a moment, unsure if he was serious. But they quickly got to work, picking up the heavy stones and starting their run. By the time they finished fifty laps, they were all tired and breathing heavily.
"Great, that's enough for the warm-up," Aaron said, sounding satisfied. "Now, let's move on to the real training."
He motioned for the archers to step forward. The soldiers in charge of the archery practice were standing nearby, each holding a bow. Their arrows were specially designed with blunt tips, so they wouldn't cause serious injury, but still packed a lot of force.
Aaron turned to Elias. "Your task is simple. Just dodge the arrows for as long as you can. It should be easy, right?"
Elias nodded confidently and stepped forward, prepared for the challenge. Being at the Essence Flow stage gave them heightened senses, so Elias believed he could dodge anything the soldiers threw at him.
At first, it was easy. The first soldier shot arrows one at a time, and Elias dodged them effortlessly. But when two soldiers shot arrows at the same time, Elias was caught off guard and got hit.
The soldiers stopped shooting immediately, and Aaron looked at Elias with a slight smile. "Even though the soldiers are only at the Awakened stage, you dodged their arrows well. Nice job."
Elias didn't respond but gave Aaron a hard look and quickly re-joined the others. His face was flushed with frustration, and the other boys whispered among themselves.
The next few boys took their turns, each trying to dodge the arrows. When it was Luca's turn, he had no trouble dodging the first few arrows shot by three soldiers. But when the number of arrows increased to four, Luca found himself struggling.
He didn't want to reveal his true abilities to the instructor just yet, so when the archers shot four arrows at once, Luca purposely let one of them hit him. He wasn't hurt, but it was enough to make him seem like he wasn't as fast as he really was.
Aaron watched quietly, not commenting on Luca's performance. What the boys didn't know was that these soldiers had spent years perfecting their archery skills, and some of the boys were performing better than expected, given their age. But Aaron had a purpose behind his tough training.
He knew that if they let their pride grow too big, they would become careless on the battlefield. This training was meant to show them that they still had much to learn.
After breakfast, it was time to practice Luminis, the internal energy technique. They spent some time focusing on controlling the flow of Luminis through their bodies, letting the energy fill them up. By the time it was noon, Aaron led them to a nearby pond. He handed each boy a belt with weights attached.
The pond was shallow, with the water only reaching up to their necks. It didn't seem too difficult at first, but walking through the water with the added weight proved to be a serious challenge.
Aaron gestured toward the pond. "Walk across it," he instructed.
The boys stepped into the water carefully, trying to maintain their balance. The extra weight made it hard to move quickly, and some of them slipped and stumbled. Others moved more steadily, taking each step with caution.
After almost an hour of struggling through the water, Aaron told them they could get out and rest for a while. They were all exhausted and ready for lunch. The boys shuffled off to eat.
Once they had eaten and rested, it was time for more Luminis practice. The sun was beginning to set when Aaron gathered them for the final task of the day.
"This is your last challenge for today," he said. "Once you finish it, you can have your meal and rest."
He pointed toward a large pile of sacks filled with sand. "Carry those sacks up the hill and bring them back down," he said, pointing to a steep slope.
The boys groaned inwardly. The hill was steep, and the sacks were heavy, but they didn't want to show any weakness. They picked up the sacks and began the slow, difficult climb up the hill.
The incline made their legs burn with every step, and by the time they reached the top, they were all out of breath. As they made their way back down, their legs trembled, and it felt like every muscle in their body was screaming for rest.
When they finally reached the bottom, they could barely walk. They shuffled to the area where dinner had been set up for them. The meal consisted of grilled meat, and they were also given a bowl of herbal soup. Aaron told them to drink the soup before going to sleep.
Luca, exhausted but relieved that the day was finally over, ate his meal and then drank the soup in his tent. As he sat down to practice Luminis, he felt a warmth begin to spread from his abdomen.
The heat slowly moved through his body, and he felt his muscles start to relax and heal. The sensation was strange, painful but also comforting at the same time.
Luminis flowed through his body smoothly, almost effortlessly. He focused on it for as long as he could, until his body became too tired to continue. Eventually, Luca couldn't keep his eyes open any longer, and then he fell asleep.