Workout

105 AC

— No, not like that, spread your legs wide, not so cretin! — Crane's scolding sounded in Aiden's head. — Yes, like this. Now, swing.

— "Ugh," Aiden mumbled indignantly. — "It's complicated."

— Of course it's fucking hard, did you think the path of a swordsman was easy? It wasn't like that!

— "I certainly understand that it will not be easy, but why are we doing this for half an hour?" — Royce asked mentally.

Crane's ghostly form formed next to him, his expression impassive, though his single unbroken eye indicated his annoyance.

— Look. — the giant pointed forward with his finger and two structures formed there, consisting entirely of boards stacked on top of each other.

— "What is it?"

— The foundation of the building. — The spirit said shortly. — What is the difference?

After carefully examining the ghostly constructions for a few seconds, Damon's son answered.

— "One of them is designed worse than the other."

— Exactly. — The spirit nodded. — Now look.

A click and the constructions turned into small houses, outwardly no different. When Aiden wanted to ask why he did it, the same ghostly clouds formed over two houses, and it began to rain. A few minutes later, one of the houses, whose construction was worse, collapsed.

— Why did one of the houses collapse, while the other stands as if nothing had happened?

— "Because one of them was badly built?"

— That's right, what else do you understand?

— "Um," — the boy thought, scratching the back of his head, but after a moment it dawned on him. — "My rack is the foundation of the building!"

— It's amazing you have brains. — The giant chuckled derisively.

— Hey! — Aiden shouted, drawing the attention of the other trainees in the yard.

Being busy with his training, the heir of the Runestone completely forgot that he was not alone in the courtyard of the Red Keep.

— What are you looking at? Get on with your workouts! The master-at-arms saved Royce from an embarrassing situation.

With a nod of thanks to sir Rodrick, Aiden continued his training.

— I'll have to thank the old man. — Crane said standing next to him. A bottle of good wine and snacks should be enough.

— "And why, and where do I get them?"

— Because Rodrick is the weapon master of the Red Castle, he follows and communicates with various personalities, be it an ordinary guard of the castle or some kind of lord. So you can get useful information from him if you can find the right approach. And don't worry about snacks and drinks, I have my ways. The Giant grinned mischievously. Now let's get back to training.

— "You said that my rack is the foundation of the building."

— Exactly, if your stance is unbalanced, then you will fall like a sack of potatoes at best. So I will teach you how to keep your stance strong and break the stance of others. To do this, I will teach you two things, Aikido and Muay Thai.

— "What is it?"

— Aikido is a martial art aimed at using the opponent's strength against him with minimal effort.

— "Cool!"

— An experienced warrior can also use the power of the enemy against him, although his capabilities will still be negligible compared to a person who is a master of this art.

— "What is the second for?"

— Muay Thai or Thai boxing, there are two main styles: muay lac ("hard fight") and muay kieu ("dandy fight"). The Muay Lacquer technique is characterized by a firm, stable stance combined with reliable protection, slow movements and powerful blows. Decisive importance is attached to the counterattack and combat at close range. Muay kieu is rather more for entertainment, which is why it is much inferior to muay lacquer. For obvious reasons, I will teach you muay lacquer.

— "Why then does the second style exist, since it is so inferior to the first?" — Aiden asked, swinging his wooden sword.

— Keep your sword a little farther, or you'll hit yourself in the face with it." — the spirit immediately pointed out the error of the carrier. — What is Muay Kieu for? Quite simply, the original style, which has a history of six hundred years, was not too pretentious, although it was effective considering when it became known to the rest of the earth in the twentieth century, it won a number of significant victories over other martial arts. So, when Thai boxing had already become commonplace, it no longer brought the same reaction as then. And for this, Muay Tieu was created, it is quite spectacular, although not so effective. So the original style is popular only at home. Have questions?

— "When do we start?"

— From today!

* * *

A whole year has passed since the day when the highlanders attacked him. Much has changed during this time. For example, he became taller, and found out that Crane was to blame for his rapid growth. His roommate explained this after they met in his subconscious for the second time. There, his roommate explained exactly how he got into his head, what his goal was and many more questions. After that, his torment began... that is, training under the guidance of the spirit. The load, variety and training time doubled, which at first was very tiring for Royce. But time passed, and he got used to, and later saw the fruits of his training.

Also, Crane often yelled at him during sword training, constantly pointing out his mistakes, often using obscene words. Aiden was sure that even his father would have blushed like a girl if he had heard the foul language, and his father was not the most exemplary person. As a result of Crane's training, Aiden didn't have a mountain of muscle, a super-strong, skilled swordsman like his father, or something like that. But on the other hand, he brought down his peers like a drink, because of which he had to train with older and more experienced guys. Aiden simply developed faster than his peers and had better training.

Aiden still could not believe that in a past life he was a completely different person, and from another world! According to Crane, he was a Hunter, a man who fought monsters to protect ordinary people. Moreover, he was one of the strongest and was a friend and named brother of the strongest Hunter on Earth, whose name was also Crane, who was the creator of his cohabitant. His name in a past life was Vitaly Rashevsky, a native of a country called Russia, which somehow reminded him of the North in terms of climate, and even looked like a Northerner in a past life. Black hair, a scowling face, a ferocious look and a thick beard.

Vitaly was Crane's deputy, whose real name was Stepan Molochnikov. Vitaly and Stepan knew each other even before the invasion of monsters and the appearance of the Hunters. Both had a difficult life. Vitaly lost his father when he was ten, he was a military man and worked at the border, it was during the skirmish that everything happened. Vitaly's mother, being unable to provide for the child and from the grief of losing her husband, went into all serious trouble. She began to drink, sometimes took illegal substances and invited various men to her place. Not all mother's lovers were exemplary people, among some of them were all sorts of bastards who did not hesitate to beat the little boy. This went on for four years until Vitaly ran away from home, unable to withstand such an attitude. Wandering the streets without a penny in his pocket, Vitaly held out for several days until he lost consciousness from hunger and cold. It was then that he met with Stepan, who saved him by feeding and changing clothes.

Stepan's life was not easier either, his parents were once from wealthy families until they met and had drunk sex. Stepan's mother soon became pregnant, but for some reason did nothing when she found out about her situation. Stepan doubted that it was because of love for him, rather it was because of the stupidity of her mother. When the mother's family found out about her pregnancy, a scandal began. Soon they found Stepan's father, as it turned out, he was the son of her family's competitors. And the heads of both families hated each other so much that the feud between the Bracken and the Blackwoods seemed just child's play. Both families, refusing to have fun, decided to kick them out, the fact that both children finished off their fathers with their antics probably played a role in this, and this was just the last straw. Thus, two gouging majors were left on the street without a penny in their pockets. And after a while Stepan was born.

The birth and childhood of Stepan could not be called kind and bright. His parents fulfilled only the most necessary minimum for their child while blaming him for all their troubles. This taught Stepan to be independent and cunning. Already at the age of seven, he beat the bullies in his class who offended other children in return for money, clothes, food and much more. And when Stepan got older, his parents somehow got rich, although this did not change their attitude towards him and, in general, to his financial condition. Stepan still had to do everything for himself. But due to the fact that his parents were gouging and stopped monitoring the amount of money, Crane's creator sometimes stole from them.

When Stepan was fifteen, he began to collect his gang, realizing that one day he would simply be crushed by numbers. In his gang, he gathered mostly orphans, children with the same fate as his and other guys of the same age or a little less. At the beginning there were twenty, then fifty, and three years later there were two hundred. But Stepan's gang was not a stereotypical gang. Stepan was not an idiot and understood that if they make too much noise and interfere with others, then there will be those who will interfere with them. So he decided to engage in collecting various junk and repairing it for resale, beating up anyone who interfered with the lives of others, and of course for the protection of small shops that were interfered with in every possible way. At the same time, the gang itself was well organized, everyone had their own place in the hierarchy and responsibilities.

Soon the territory of Stepan's gang was one of the largest and most influential, and life there was a model of integrity. Stepan got rid of bandits, drug dealers, drunkards and other dregs of society. There, people did not have to worry about their property, the girls were not afraid to walk the streets at night, in the houses the fathers did not beat their wives and children. If a stranger came to Stepan's territory, he would hardly have thought that he was on the territory of some kind of gang.

In addition, Stepan took care of the members of his gang and in every possible way provided them with food, clothing and shelter for the money received in the course of their bloody work.

Stepan found Vitaly when the gang was just being formed, which influenced their future. Over time, Vitaly became Stepan's ears, he obtained the necessary information and warned of the danger in advance. Vitaly's nickname then was "Spider", because the spy network was almost everywhere in their city, like spider webs.

Vitaly was very devoted to Stepan. And it wasn't just because he saved his life. Stepan risked his life more than once and proved that he was worthy of their devotion. Vitaly saw himself as a servant of Stepan, one whose meaning of life is to serve him and nothing more. In fact, Vitaly was a broken man who was simply looking for the meaning of life. And when the invasion of monsters began and the Hunters appeared, this also did not help.

Stepan, who then took the nickname "Crane", founded his own guild called "Honey Badgers".

Vitaliy was no ordinary Awakened, he was a Ranker, a person who awakened and became stronger by killing various monsters. Shortly after a year of the monster invasion, Vitaly was considered one of the strongest Hunters, earning the nickname Northern Bear. His obsession with being close to his master made him go forward without sparing himself. And this obsession has not weakened after many years.

Stepan repeatedly tried to reason with his friend and named brother, but he was stubborn like a bull in his aspiration.

And when, twenty years later, Crane disappeared during the cleansing of the Dungeon to which they gave the SSS + rank whose Gate was the size of Moscow, everything became even worse. Vitaly hated the very existence of monsters and the gates themselves, the first days he tore and threw, if not for the other members of the guild who stopped him in time, then great destruction would have been inevitable. Under him, the Guild expanded even more, and its members became stronger. Not only Vitaly wanted to avenge the Head, who was then considered dead. For fifty years, Vitaliy and the Honey Badgers waged a bloody war against the monsters, becoming a horror for those on a subconscious level.

But despite his unbridled rage and hatred, he did not act unreasonably. Vitaly possessed excellent managerial skills, thanks to which the guild not only did not fall apart, but also expanded. And there were a lot of enemies like Stepan and Honey Budgers, and with his disappearance, they all seemed to pour out of all their shawls in an attempt to take everything that belonged to him. Vitaly did not appreciate such an act by killing them personally, but before that he forced them to watch how their loved ones died. The executed became an example for the rest, and their property passed to the Honey Badgers.

Fifty years later, Stepan returned, and he became stronger. As it turned out, Stepan was moved to the world of monsters where there was a constant struggle for survival. For fifty years, Stepan engaged in an endless struggle with monsters, eventually exterminating all living creatures on the planet, which led to the fact that he became a Titan, an immortal being. It was through his evolution that Crane's creator was able to return to earth.

The return of the once-dead Hunter caused a real sensation in the world and finally cooled the ardor of Vitaly. Then it seemed to everyone that everything would be as before, but it was not so. A week after Stepan's return, the Gates began to appear around the world en masse from which monsters poured. This event was called the "Second Invasion". Stepan, led by the Honey Badgers, took up arms to defend the world, like the rest of the world's Hunters.

Three years. That's how long the war lasted. During this time, more than one city disappeared from the face of the earth, countless people died, whether it was an ordinary person or a Hunter, the landscape changed at least thirty times, the grassy fields turned into a wasteland, even some animals that were in the red book disappeared. But despite all the sacrifices and losses, the Hunters were able to defend the rights for the life of mankind. It was in the last battle that Vitaly died covering his master in battle.

Vitaly Rashevsky died at the age of ninety-seven happy, with the thought that he could fulfill his duty. He had no wife, no children, no brothers or any relatives. But he had a master, and he died for him with a sense of accomplishment on his hands.

* * *

— Still, I was lucky. — Aiden said out loud while in his room. It was already night outside and the entire Red Castle, not counting the guards and some servants, were asleep.

It was true, in this life he had a loving father and mother, he was a nobleman, he also had other relatives.

Despite knowing that he was Vitali in a past life, Aiden considered himself a different person. Why didn't he know? Maybe because their lives are radically different? Or maybe there was some other reason, but he simply missed it? Maybe. Who knows.

— Of course, lucky. Cause I have to mess around with you. — The spirit turned up its nose proudly.

— Yeah, very. Aiden rolled his eyes, though deep inside he felt a sadness that Crane hadn't hidden.

— Okay, enough sitting around your ass, it's time to get down to business.

— What's the matter?

— Do you remember I told you that I know how to get wine and snacks?

— Yes, and how do we do it?

— Magic. — Repeated SpongeBob's spirit.

— Are you really going to make me invisible so that I can sneak into the kitchen unnoticed and get everything I need from there? — asked with a twinkle in his eyes.

— You really are a cretin. — Crane said with an absolutely imperturbable face.

— Hey! Don't call me a nerd, I'm your master!

— Ba, master of my spiritual ass." the giant snorted derisively, but then his face darkened, and a noticeable pressure fell on Aiden's body from which he fell on his ass. — Don't think that you have power over me, jerk, my goal is to help you develop and not indulge your wishes. If I want to, you will die in the most painful way, I want to take over your body and then this piece of dirt that is called Westeros and you can't do anything. So do not be arrogant puppy, the fact that you were dear to my creator in a past life does not mean that I will not destroy you. Capice?

— Y-y-yes. — The boy barely nodded.

— That's good. — The pressure instantly disappeared as if it was not there at all. — Now let's get down to business, get out the parchment and ink.

— Are we going to write?

— You can call it that. But more specifically, you will draw a matrix to create the things we need.

— Stop! Didn't you say I couldn't practice magic for the next few years?

— True, but I meant standard magic, but drawing a matrix is ​​a completely different matter, unlike traditional magic, it does not impose a load on the body.

— What does it do?

— Do as I say and you will see~

Aiden only nodded at the words of his roommate, deciding not to provoke him again. Soon a drawing appeared in his head which consisted of various drawings. Without further ado, Damon's son got down to business.

As a result, on the third attempt, he succeeded. Surprisingly, Crane didn't say anything when he made mistakes, preferring to just watch.

— Okay, now put it on the ground. — Aiden did as he was told.

— What's next?

— Put your index finger on it. Okay, now close your eyes and focus on your mana core as I taught you during your meditation. Do you feel?

— Yes, there is something, it looks like a stream.

— This means you are on the right track, now direct this stream into the paper, but do it slowly.

— I'll try. Roy nodded.

— Don't try, just do it. You are on a path where you can not fade or leave on the other, you must complete the task instantly because time will not always be on your side.

— Mmm. Royce nodded thoughtfully and did as he was told.

As soon as the first grains of mana reached the paper, the symbols written on it began to glow dimly with every second growing stronger. A moment later, a bottle of wine appeared out of the air without any glow, slowly re-forming from nothing in the air and other special effects appeared just like that. The very same paper turned into dust, being not adapted for the use of magic.

— Wow! – fascinated began to look at the bottle that was created literally from him. — How?

— This area of ​​magic doesn't have a name, but let's call it Projection. Honestly, this is just a spell rather than some kind of magic direction, but due to the fact that you are just entering the path of a magician, you had to go this way. An experienced magician could do this without any drawings using only his will. — the giant gave a short explanation. — Now let's move on to how it works. Our world has a reflection, it is called Astral. In the astral world, most things are displayed, people, animals, things. This is called astral projection, the display of this or that thing. When magicians found out about its existence, they began to study it in every possible way. As a result, magicians realized that they could copy and recreate the projection, but there were three limitations:

1. It is impossible to recreate a living being, only deities or similar entities are capable of using this magic.

2. Also, you cannot recreate any artifacts or enchanted things. More precisely, they can be created, only they will be without a drop of magic. So no, you can't make a copy of the Dark Sister or any other weapon out of Valyrian steel.

3. You can not copy everything indefinitely, each magician has a limit of projections that depends on the soul of the magician. The stronger the magician, the more powerful his soul, which means more space.

— What happens if you exceed your limit? — Aiden asked the question he was interested in.

— Great question! It all depends on how much you exceeded the limit. Imagine that this is your soul. — a ghostly ball appeared above Crane's hand, which was completely filled with air. — If only one, or two, maybe three projections — the ball swelled even more, being on the verge of bursting. — Then you are threatened with constant astral pain, it will be more difficult to conjure because of the additional pressure on the soul, hallucinations and other difficulties. And if this is not corrected in the near future, then the soul may be damaged, which entails catastrophic consequences for the magician himself, from madness to the destruction of the physical shell, which is very painful. But if you significantly exceed the limit then. — the balloon burst from which the balloon burst. — There will be the same consequences that I described in advance, but they will happen much faster. Of course, the soul itself is immortal, but it can be torn into tiny pieces, divided in half, and damaged in every possible way. But even the strongest of the gods cannot completely destroy it. Only the Creator.

— Creator?

— It is the Creator of everything, time, space, life, soul, gods and much more. Only the Creator is able to create and destroy souls.

— What is he like? Well Creator.

— No one knows, but his power is enormous and limitless, his gaze is omniscient, and his presence is oppressive for any creatures. And answering your silent question, how do we know about its existence since we do not see it? It's simple, when a god appears, he instinctively feels him and this feeling cannot be drowned out.

— How do gods appear? — Royce asked.

— I only know three ways. The first is that a god is born from the union of two gods, and yes, both deities can have the same gender. Don't look at me like that, I'm serious, and shit like this doesn't happen. — The mind spirit said irritably. — As I said, the first way is the union of two gods or divine beings. The second way is faith, ba-hion.

— Faith? — the boy asked doubtfully.

— You have no idea what believing in something is capable of. If a group of intelligent people believe in something, or in someone, then this something or someone begins to receive ba-hoin. And when this ba-hoin reaches a certain amount, then it reaches the divine rank, and the larger and stronger this faith, the faster the process itself. For example, imagine some kind of weapon from the legends. Let it be the Lightbringer of the legends of Azor Ahai. Introduced? So now imagine that a sword was forged in the likeness of this weapon. People en masse began to believe that this was the weapon of a great hero. In the end, if this continues long enough and the faith of the people is as strong as it was at the beginning, then the sword will actually acquire the same abilities of the Lightbringer from the legends. But it can't work in every world.

— What is it like?

— Magic enhances the power of the ba-hoin, without it the ba-hoin will not have the same power as with the magic itself, no matter how strong the faith of the reasonable is.

— I understand, but what then is the third way?

— To do this, we first talk about the structure of the soul.

So, the soul is a kind of astral body, an ordered structure of a stable dense ether. Present in all forms of life, including the most primitive. It is distinguished by a complex structure, divided into several Beginnings or Shells. Four to nine, depending on the creature. Each beginning has an innumerable number of names.

1. First Beginning

This name is traditionally borne by the physical body. However, this component is far from mandatory - there are quite a few creatures that are not burdened with this shell. They are usually called spirits, that is, people like me.

2. Second Beginning

Life energy, she is prana, she is also Jiva, Nefeshu-Zayini or Koaha-Gafu. Terminology doesn't matter. Prana permeates every cell of the physical body, allowing the being to live, breathe, move, eat, multiply. The complete loss or decay of prana means the death of the physical body. If a creature has one or another semblance of a soul and a physical body, but is devoid of the Second Beginning, then we have undead before us.

3. Third Beginning

Astral body, or Skias Onap. It is visible to some extent it is this that magicians scan when examining the aura. The Third Beginning provides us with life after death, it is it that produces bahion and allows us to travel in the subtle realms. The astral body copies the physical body, which is why spirits and ghosts usually look the same as they did in life. It is necessary to radically change the very perception of oneself in order for the astral appearance to undergo a change. Own Skias Onap have not only in humans, but also in animals, plants, even inanimate beings very primitive, but still there. That is why there can be ghost ships, ghost houses, ghostly weapons, ghostly clothes ... in fact, almost every material body casts such an "astral shadow".

The previous two shells are the unconscious parts of the soul, and it is called Anochton.

4. Atman

The fourth beginning, otherwise Atman or the True Soul, is the central core, the core to which all the other Shells are "attached". This is the most important part of all "I", self-consciousness. It encodes the basic information about the structure of the soul. It is impossible to change or destroy the Fourth Beginning its reality is one hundred percent. It is this shell of the soul that is responsible for the continuity of the chain of rebirths when the soul goes to reincarnation, only this core remains ... although sometimes shreds of other Shells cling to it. The bare Atman, devoid of other superstructures, is absolutely impossible to keep, it is impossible to influence it in any way — this is the Third Law of the Creator.

— The third law of the creator?

— Oh yeah, I almost forgot to say.

«Three immutable laws that are valid for the entire set of worlds of the Metaverse:

1. Law of conservation of matter-energy. They can neither appear out of nowhere, nor disappear into nowhere, only change states.

2. The law of unidirectional time flow. It is absolutely impossible to move into the past, to change it in any way. Even if a divine miracle rolls back the whole planet to a previous version, this will not be a return to the past, but a change in the present.

3. Law of immortality of Atman. The soul is an absolute beginning, not subject to final destruction, but only to a change in external shells and regular reincarnations».

— Is it possible to travel through time? — the owner of indigo eyes almost shouted.

— Only to the future, it is impossible to travel to the past. Even if you get to the moment you need, it will no longer be your world, but another in which the events that happened in your world have not yet happened. Have extra questions?

Aiden's response was simply a shake of his head.

— Move on.

5. Fifth Beginning

The sensuous spirit, or Oumos. This is personality. Character. Emotions. The senses. It is this Shell that is usually understood as the soul in fairy tales a creature deprived of the Fifth Beginning becomes like a soulless machine.

6. Sixth Beginning

The thinking spirit, or Frenes. This is the mind. Memory. This Shell is concentrated in the cells of the brain the rest of the body is of little interest to it. It is thanks to the Sixth Beginning that the spirit after death retains the ability to think and remember, despite the loss of the brain.

7. Seventh Beginning

Active Spirit, or Nous. These are spiritual lines and knots, nadis and chakras through which mana flows. It is this Shell that allows you to cast spells and cast spells. For ordinary people, the Seventh Beginning is in a "sleeping" state, and only in the body of a properly trained magician does it flourish in all its glory. Of course, even for non-magicians, Nous is present and functioning - it produces bahion, such things as prayer, meditation depend on it. Even dreams are one of the manifestations of Nous.

Together, the fifth, sixth, and seventh sheath together make up the conscious part of the soul, or as it is otherwise called the Nous Kai Logos. Spiritual power depends on the Nous Kai Logos.

And now we come to our question.

8. Eighth Beginning

An immortal spirit, and only immortal beings possess it. In addition to an indefinitely long life, this Shell grants a number of other benefits. At a minimum, this is an increase in physical abilities (strength, speed, endurance, lack of fatigue, hunger, etc.), not necessarily all at once, but in some form for sure. Plus all sorts of other properties and characteristics that depend on the specific variety of the Eighth Shell and what type of ether it is based on. It was thanks to the appearance of the eighth shell that my creator was able to become a Titan.

9. The Ninth Beginning

The Ninth Beginning is the divine spirit. This sheath is only for the gods and is generated through a kind of "opening" or "blooming" of the Atman. It is based on the primary element and determines the polarity of the deity belonging to the Light or Dark gods. Figuratively speaking, they differ in "spin" - the direction of rotation, just as Light and Darkness differ in them. The Ninth Shell gives amazing possibilities of influencing reality. The stabilizer of this "Etheric vortex" is bahion supplied by believers.

Also, some chthonics of the first generation have the Ninth Beginning this is the so-called "wild" divinity. Such a Ninth Beginning has completely different properties, and it is based not on the primary element, but on the chaotic ether in its original state.

— Chthonics?

— Let's talk about this another time, okay? You still need to translate that considerable part of the information that I dedicated to you.

— Hmm, okay. So Stepan was not a god?

— Well, yes, but he could be if he wanted to. He had all the beginnings for this. But he was too freedom-loving to burden himself with the obligations of a deity.

— At the God's are their obligations too? Aiden asked incredulously.

— Yes, there are, of course, not like people, but still there are. Like listening to the prayers of those who worship you, directing followers to find even more followers, performing miracles or sending disasters depending on your mood, fighting with the gods of another pantheon for bahion if they exist, of course, etc.

But you must remember the most important thing. The strength of a god does not depend on the number of ba-hoin, but on how much he develops and controls his abilities, the ba-hoin only pushes the boundaries of further development.

— I never thought that the gods could have responsibilities, well, it's a god!"

— People of the Earth also thought so before the invasion of monsters, everything changes sometime. Now go to bed, we have a busy schedule tomorrow.

* * *

— Tsk, tsk, tsk, we only had a three-hour intensive training, and you are already lying on the ground.

Aiden lay on the ground panting, trying to catch his breath and even out his breath, which he had difficulty doing. The day started with Crane waking up early in the morning, TOO EARLY. Even Aiden, who often woke up from the first rays of the sun, was dumbfounded, because when he woke up that sun was just beginning to rise, even the servants didn't really wake up! Aiden wanted to resist, giving arguments that were logical for him, but not for Crane, as it turned out, and under the threat of increasing training even more, Aiden had to obey. Upon reaching the court, the Heir of the Runestone put on a coat of mail according to his size, bracers and knee pads as weights, as he had done earlier in this year of training. But it turned out that this was not all, and he felt heaviness, no, not so, this was HEAVY! Aiden felt like he was underwater, it was so hard for him to move. It turned out that his roommate increased the gravity around his body, which made it harder for him to move and tired him faster. And so he had to do warm-ups, practice drills, try basic Muay Thai moves, and train with the sword. As a result, within three hours, Aiden Royce survived like a lemon.

— I-I'm dying… — the white-haired man squeaked.

— Don't worry, you're not dying, I won't let you die until you become a man before my very eyes. And that means forever if you whine and wallow on the ground for so long. Get up bitch, you'll lie down when you're dead!

— It's not funny. — Somehow, rising, the boy replied.

— It wasn't , only the dead with crap pants rest on the battlefield if they managed to understand that they were about to die. Do you want to be dead?

— We are not on the battlefield. Aiden said, looking tired and annoyed.

— And you think you won't go there? As soon as your piper, which you call a dick, starts getting up at the sight of any cunt, you will have to participate in the war, because you are the heir and future lord of one of the strongest houses of the Valley, which is famous for its chivalry, and knights are always at the forefront. Even if this is not a war, then you will have to calm down the presumptuous highlanders or vassals who considered you a fucking weakling?! Do you want to watch how your people were killed in front of your own eyes, and how your mother, aunt and cousin were raped by the mob while you are lying on the ground exhausted?! Answer!

— I will have a dragon! — Aiden barked at the top of his voice.

— It's not a dragon, it's an overgrown fucking lizard with intelligence no different from a beast! And you think a fucking lizard can protect you forever?! Do I need to remind you what happened to the pro-grandmother that the Dornish shot down?! Remind you that even her bones weren't found in Dorne?! And it was not known that she survived after which her broken body was thinned by the Dornishmen in order to torture her until she died? Do you want to repeat her fate puppy?!

— It was just luck!

— Exactly, luck is a skill! All you can hope for is your body, mind and skills! You cannot rely on external factors forever, you must be able to adapt otherwise you will die! So stop making excuses and keep practicing!

* * *

— Sit normally and don't move. — said the spirit of the mind, looking at its bearer, who was writhing while sitting on the ground.

— It's complicated. — Muttered a tired-looking Aiden after five hours of practice. — And I'm tired.

— Do you want to learn magic?

— Can i?

— Yes, I thought you were ready to master the basic skills.

— Cool! — the owner of indigo eyes chimed in.

— If you make less noise and follow my instructions, it will be even cooler. — spirit replied to the twitching eyes. — Well, first close your eyes, clear your thoughts, breathe evenly. No, you're not breathing!

«5 minutes later»

— No, it's not like that, sit normally, how many times do you repeat it ?!

10 minutes later

— Shit, are you sleeping?

Half an hour later

— Yes! Like this! Keep up the good work!

Half an hour later.

— Well done, now you can open your eyes. — Wearily answered the spirit, which had suffered quite a lot during this hour.

Aiden opened his eyes and the world played out with new colors.

— Wow.

— Congratulations, you have discovered True Sight.