'Where am-' "Ahhh!" Ezra screamed as he felt an incomprehensible amount of pain throughout his entire body.
He remembered doing push-ups till he felt like he was going to die, but continued nonetheless and finally achieved the one hundred mark.
'Yeah, I did it, I did-' "Ahhh!"
He couldn't move an inch without feeling immense pain.
'After that…everything went dark. Oh, I fainted' he thought, quickly coming to a conclusion.
'But then, where am I?'
He opened his eyes to a wooden roof. He couldn't see anything else because he couldn't move his neck at all. He felt stifled, to say the least.
'Should I bear it and move my head?' he asked himself.
He needed to understand his current situation, but he couldn't do so because he couldn't move.
A door was opened, Ezra deduced from the sound, and he closed his eyes immediately, acting like he was still sleeping.
'I have to know who put me in here and what he or she wants.'
Ezra calmed down and began to rationally deduce the situation.
'From the sound of the door and the way the roof was constructed, it seems I'm in a medium sized cottage'
But his worries became null after he heard a familiar voice.
"Sheesh, when's this kid gonna wake up?"
It was…
"Sir Fredrick?"
"Ho, ye awake already? How ye feeling?" he asked seemingly concerned.
I thought for a split second if I could trust him, but quickly gave up such thoughts.
After all…
'He could have killed me or whatever it is he wanted to do fifty times over, and it's not like I'm in any condition to move'
'No, even if I was in my peak condition, I don't have any way to escape an Expert Knight'
I thought all this in mere seconds, before quickly answering.
"My whole body is aching like hell"
"What did ye expect? Ye overused em while overclocking ye mana. Ye quite lucky if you ask me"
"I don't understand" I said, listening attentively, though it was only my eyes that were moving.
"Of course ye lucky, what ye tried yesterday was downright reckless. If an official knight tried it, his meridians would have been crippled"
"Ye only lucky that ye barely a one-star novice, so thank ye stars kid"
"I can understand that I'm lucky to be alive, but why does it seem like there's something else?" Ezra asked.
"Nothing gets past ye does it? Alright, close ye eyes and concentrate" he said and I did.
"Now focus on yer mana and try cultivating?"
'Cultivating?' I almost lost my concentration because of his absurd request.
This was quite a simple process, depending on how one went about it.
Whether it be mages, knights, shape-shifters, psychics or martial artists, they all had one thing in common.
They used mana to enhance their fighting power.
Mages construct something called a magic circuit within their bodies which affects their amount of mana and how effective their spells are.
Knights use mana to enhance their physique by cleansing their meridians and enlarging them, which later allows them to use mana externally.
Shape-Shifters are people with the ability to turn into a certain beast and gather mana from their naturally formed mana cores, going through evolutionary stages.
Psychics are people born with a special ability related to the mind. They use mana to refine their mental ability in a variety of ways. Not much is known about them.
Martial Artists are very similar to Knights, but they use martial techniques to influence mana.
Each has their own ways of cultivating, which is simply using mana to increase their strength.
Mage's study mana.
Knights cultivate mana in their veins.
Shape-Shifters refine their mana cores to contain more and become purer as they increase in strength.
Physics use mana to increase their mental capabilities.
Martial Artists cultivate their bodies but through their diantians.
There was much more to be said, but Ezra didn't know much about the other paths.
So cultivating for a Knight meant using his mana to clean impurities, something Martial Artists also did, but in different ways and with different techniques.
He had met many Knights, Mages, Martial Artists and Shape-Shifters when he traveled cross-continent in his past life, but only three psychics.
This showed how rare Psychics were compared to the others.
Ezra pushed such thoughts out of his mind as he did as sir Fredrick instructed.
'Well, my mana seems to have recovered quite a bit. Now, what was the reason? Oh! This is why!'
Ezra was only a little expectant, but he found himself pleasantly surprised.
Sir Fredrick naturally didn't miss it, his smile deepening.
'My meridians…they grew at least three times bigger!'
My face visibly showed shock, but I still had my eyes closed, maintaining concentration as I examined my body to assess my gains.
My meridians have gained a significant enhancement with its enlargement.
I can hold more mana within my meridians, my senses have become far more sensitive, and my range of perception has become much wider.
While I moved mana throughout my body, an idea popped up into my head as I looked at my aching body.
I was going to use mana to reinforce, and possibly enhance, my physique to match that of my meridian.
My meridians were now the size of an Adept Knight.
I reckoned that the reason was because I used up every bit of mana I had in me.
So when I absorbed pure mana from the atmosphere, it allowed my meridian to enlarge.
'Which means…I should be able to widen my meridians after using up this small amount of mana to reinforce and enhance my physique'
But I couldn't do it by myself, and so, I informed Sir Fredrick about it, and thankfully he agreed.
"I can only help when things are either becoming critical or dire, as well as being the one to stop your mana from overloading, apart from that, ye on yer own"
Ezra was about to nod when a few things came to his mind.
"Sir, where am I exactly?"
"Oh that? Ye in my house. I didn't take yer to the castle because I surmised that those queens might try something"
As soon as he said that, I became fully alert. It was something I overlooked before, but those witches are trying to slow down my progress at any means, and they changed my combat instructor to Sir Fredrick.
Surely, it wasn't out of goodwill, and although his temperaments didn't hit me as the scheming type, that's not to say he didn't have something planned.
'Well, I know I can trust him to some extent, but I still need to know why those witches allowed him to teach me-' Ezra suddenly thought of a very likely possibility.
'Are they trying to get me to give up from the start? Hmm, it's a very likely possibility though. If I was an ordinary five year old, I would've most likely ran away from such hellish training, but…my ambition for revenge won't allow me to miss a path to becoming stronger'
Ezra thought as a deep smile formed on his face, before becoming a pained expression.
'Damn it, I can't even smile without my bones aching' he thought, before he tried to rationalize the implications of the current situation.
'Mother would have been really spooked if she saw me in this state, which might weaken her resolve or make her complain to father, and that would be even worse' as he thought about this, he sighed in relief.
'Thank goodness, he didn't take me to the castle, but those he-' as his thoughts reached this part…
*cough* *cough*
Sir Fredrick lightly coughed, pulling Ezra out of his reverie.
"Oh Sir, sorry about that, I was thinking about something, about two things actually" Ezra said, noticing his mistake.
"What ye thinking about then?"
"Sir, didn't the royal palace send an envoy or such?"
"Oh yeah, they were here about an hour ago. I told them ye said ye wanted to stay to finish training before coming back to the castle"
"O-okay, that works, but they didn't ask how long?" I inquired.
"I told them ye said at least three weeks from now, then they asked if they could see yer, and then I told them ye were sleeping, but they insisted and thankfully yer body was looking nothing like yesterday and they didn't bring a healer.
After that, they left to deliver 'your message' to your mom" he replied.
"Damn" was the only thing that came out of my mouth, as this man was a very crafty liar. That was a useful ability in many ways.
I regained my bearings before asking the most crucial question I needed to know.
"Do you have magical herbs or pills here?" I asked expectantly.
"Hahaha, who do ye think I am, of course I do" he laughed before replying with a proud gaze.
"Ok then, do you have any sapphire leaves?"
"Of course"
"Moon grains?"
"Yes"
"Mana recovery potion?"
"Yes"
"What grade?"
"High-grade"
"Ok"
"Moss powder?"
"Yes"
"Bristle roots?"
"Yes"
"Septic flakes?"
"Yes"
"What types of poison do you have?"
"Hmm, not much, but the best is rosewood venom"
That name made Ezra's pupil widen.
"I didn't know it was easy to get?"
"Of course it wasn't. I only have three bottles. Also, what exactly are you going to use all those things for?" fre(e)webnovel.com
"Oh, and what about a special type of water?"
I saw Sir Fredrick give me a dangerous look, and suddenly, he pulled a dagger from gods knows where and put it to my neck.
He then moves his head near my ears and asks in a whisper.
"How'd you know about that?" Sir Fredrick said with killing intent oozing out of him.
At this moment I instinctively knew something was very wrong.
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