After the explanation of the training plan Rufus planted his hand on Damons back and guided his mana to the points they needed to go giving him a demonstration of how to properly tear the muscle fibres and how to use his mana to piece them back together with condensing them the demonstration was slow lasting about an hour to ensure Damon under stood the proper way to do things. After the demonstration was completed Damon was sent home to rest ready to continue the next day.
But as Damon got home he wasn't satisfied so he continued his mana training and discovered that he can replenish his mana as he expelled it allowing him to raise his mana capacity by almost 50 points over 3 days, not that he was aware of the significance of the increase. After a month of training in strength increase he decided to self learn the defence after all its the same as muscle tempering but without tearing it apart to he started by infusing his skin with mana then his muscles followed by bones and organs.
Thats when the idea hit him what if he was to temper his muscles while keeping the defence training up so he tried and to his surprise it worked the pain was still there from ripping the fibres but after around 30minutes the pain became less noticeable untill one day afew months into the training that the pain just disappeared even without the defence enhancement the pain of muscles tearing was gone. This discovery made Damon happy as it meant he could speed up the strength training while also increasing defence at the same time.
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Its been 2 years since Damon started his training he had just turned 7 and was struggling to increase his defence any further from just the regular training and his strength stopped increasing around a year ago so he started to think thag maybe what Rufus said about the human body having a limit was correct but he still felt there was still that little bit more he could push his defence he just knew this couldn't be the end so he tried his luck while doing the defence training he slowly started to compress the mana around his organs causing excruciating pain but he didn't let up and for a whole week he kept crushing his organs every night until he noticed that the pain was not as severe as it used to be thats when he remembered.
"Heart and lungs" he whispered. He had what he thought was a stroke of genius if he crushed his lunch like what he was supposed to do for stamina training it should also be enough to raise his defence by at least a little bit and what if he did the same to his heart crush it ever so slightly as it beats not enough to kill him just enough to cause a strengthening effect but he also didn't want to kill himself so we held out on the heart crushing untill he had raised his defence in every other possible way.
"Master I was wondering, with the heart and lung training if you where to also crush every other organ or at least put some pressure on them would they also strengthen, or would that be a bad idea?" As Damon asked this question he was hoping for a good response as for the last 3 months he had compressed every organ him his body to the point he doesn't notice it well every organ apart from heart. He just hopes it doesn't do anything bad like shorten his life. "Well to answer that no not a good idea while applying small amounts of pressure to the organs can mildly increase their strength and productivity its not to the point where its worth the pain. Now with the heart im sure with enough fine control over mana it could work".
He stared at Damon before continuing, "But and a big but one wrong move and you can very easily crush your heart popping it killing you instantly but if successful just like with lungs it will improve stamina and energy consumption and make it harder to kill you with blunt force to the chest". After that explanation Damon had a new hope of raising his defence further by strengthening his heart further than it already was. and so another 3months pass and once again he had hit a brick wall.
His defence wasn't increasing anymore so he focused on his speed instead doing just as was instructed running while supplying mana to his legs while repairing damage as it happened although this was some of the fastest training in just 2 weeks he had reached the limit of his speed but he also noticed that if he did all 4 training methods at once he could increase all aspects of his body not just physical but also his mana was increasing steadily from all the mana he exurts over the course of his training. Although he started all his training early and had completed all 4 routines faster than expected, he never told his master as he knew he would get in trouble for going behind his back and increasing the speed of his training even without taking care of any risks that may happen without proper care.
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Over the next 2 years untill Damons 10th birthday he continued his daily training with all 4 training types happening at once. He had recently over the last 6 months gotten to the point he can keep all the routines in practice all day with the help of his passive mana regen of filling his mana from the surrounding as he used it. This caused his mana to increase more than it should for his age but like all other things it stopped increasing before long and it soon felt like all his training was for nothing as he has been stuck never getting stronger for almost half a year now and he was frustrated.
But he was never allowed to check his status as that wasn't allowed untill your 10th birthday when you can visit the temple for the first time to pray to the gods and awaken your God sheet. But lucky for Damon that day is tomorrow, tomorrow is the day that he can find out just how far his training has taken him. But before that he must spar with his teacher as a graduation lesson. Over the last five years it wasn't just body tempering but also different forms of fighting. Though he never fought anything but a wooden doll before and he was nervous as he has been told many times before about how strong his master is by people in town and he was honestly scared.
But he won't let his fear of his master stop him from graduating, so he went to his masters house in his training clothes with a small wooden dagger tied to his left thigh. He walked into the back courtyard and greeting his master with a light bow. "Greetings to the master, thank you for your hard work or training me the last 5years and I hope to have a great spar with you today, treat me well" Rufus responded in kind with a bow of his own "yes, you have grown nicely over this time but today is your graduation but let's spar till your half dead on the ground" he said with a smile before finishing with "treat me well".
Once those last words were spoken they Rufus launched from his spot aiming his wooden cane right at Damons face.