Shopping

Death.

There was nothing else, Luke could wish for, other than a painless death. 

It had been 3 months since he began his training, and it was the most miserable experience he had faced, his previous life included.

The first day was already tough enough, some basic cardio and filling up mana stone till he ran out of mana completely which was already hell but what came after showed him what little he knew of cruelty.

From forcing his body to various forms of physical exercises till his body gave out with magic which included various forms of cardio to even weight and body-weight training, after which he would have to chug down the vile liquid of death, which his father even shamelessly named, "The elixir of Rejuvenation" every hour to keep his body from giving out.

Not to mention the mana training, if anyone ever wondered what having your mana reserved emptied out feels like, you didn't need to look much further, as Luke had become an expert in the field.

Every time you ran out of magic, it left a desolate feeling in your body, an emptiness akin to hunger, not the regular kind of hunger either, it felt like you were starving for months, hungry to enough to eat an entire buffet by yourself, and that wasn't the end of it, the worst part of having your mana reserve emptied was that there was no way for you to fulfill that hunger.

Not that, mana potions weren't available but since it was too expensive to buy, he had to just wait it out, which depending on your condition lasted for hours, hours of mental torture that you couldn't come out of no matter how hard you tried.

After the first two weeks of regular practice, he had successfully created his first perfect mana crystal, another week after that, even Jacob could create his very own mana crystals. Hoping that this part of training would finally end both he and Jacob went to their father only to be left disappointed.

They were left creating mana crystals every single day, like a child labor factory from China, the two-man factory they were running was in charge of filling up two large crates of mana crystals every hour of their waking life, the only exception being sleeping and physical training.

Why a factory you might ask? Because their dear father was selling boatloads of these mana crystals every single week and would come back each time with the biggest smile on his face. That was the only time he had seen, Michael smile, and he knew, if it were up to him, they would never escape this level of modern-day slavery.

After two months of rigorous filling of crystals, both of them were proficient enough to create them without even looking at them or concentrating on them. Soulless zombies, that is who they had become.

Ethan would send a letter every now and again, which would be delivered by an eagle, recounting how much of a great time he was having. In fact, he had even been chosen as a substitute teacher for a while now, teaching dark arts at this wizarding school in Uganda. Attaching pictures alongside the letters, where every single picture indicated that he was having a blast.

And that was their life, a tiresome life filled with unimaginable hunger, jealous of the life their brother was currently living, and no time for their personal hobbies.

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"Dear Harry Potter, I know no one has ever said this to you before, but I'll gladly exchange your life for mine. P.S. You are a living Horcrux."

Luke kept running laps around the house, his body well developed for a boy who was just 10, from his height to his muscles, were all indications of a very healthy lifestyle, but all one had to do was look a little up, at those soulless eyes which had nothing no signs of life in them.

If the person in question, wasn't running around actively, he could've been classified as dead.

The only damming thing about it was that due to the daily consumption of the potion, there wasn't even a trace of tiredness in his entire face. No matter the sleepless nights or the stress exerted on his body, you couldn't even see a single trace of a dark circle, let alone any other factor.

Luke turned towards his brother who was running alongside him, the only happiness he felt during the entire time was that he wasn't alone in his suffering, his brother who was weaker when it came to mana control was suffering even more than him despite him being physically well off.

"Stop!" Michael said as both Jacob and Luke came to a halt.

'Has it been a 100 laps already?' Luke wondered as both of them began heading for the crate of mana crystals like clockwork without Michael telling them to. 

Both of them had just sat with a crystal in their hand when they both heard a cough,

"Ahem! You don't need to do that any longer." Michael said looking slightly embarrassed which he quickly healed from, "We will change your training after today!"

"Wait really?" Luke said with a spark of hope in his dead eyes, "Is it really over?"

"Physical training is never over, but you won't be focusing your energy on it longer, I am guessing you haven't realized it but you have been doing all your exercises without my magic for the last month." Michael said, "And yes Jacob, you both have proved your control over mana, so you can focus more on your sword training."

'Last month? I have been doing everything on my own?' Luke looked at his own body as he couldn't believe it, for the longest time he had been just forcing himself to do all those exercises despite being in full control of his body, but that wasn't what mattered, what mattered more to him was that he had really become stronger, the endless torture was finally over and the reward for his hard work was his strength.

But a hint of sourness still rose up from within his heart, as he just realized the training wasn't really over, just the initial phase of it was.

"Clean yourselves up," Michael said handing Jacob a handful of crisp dollars, "Get a haircut and go buy yourself some new clothes for you and brother, so you don't look like you've been living in the jungle."

"But we're living in a jungle though," Luke's words were completely ignored as Jacob asked, "Are we going somewhere?"

Micheal nodded to which Jacob happily stretched his body, "It's been so long since I've been hunting, what's the monster on today's menu?"

"Veela!" Michael replied,

"Alright, Veela... wait what? We're not going to hunt our kind are we?" Jacob asked narrowing his eyes,

"You've had no problem hunting wizards in the past, so why are you hesitant now..."

"No, it's not that, I just. I don't think Veela's are creatures that create trouble that often, enough trouble for us to hunt them, at least."

Luke who was confused by the sudden revelation was itching to ask questions, but couldn't as Michael seemed to be staring bullets at Jacob.

"We'll talk about this later." Michael said, "We'll be having dinner at your mother's place, so don't be late!"

Michael left after saying what was needed, and Jacob finally took a deep breath out of relief before his brother clung to him with those doe-like eyes filled with curiosity.

"I'll tell you on the way, dammit!"