"Huff...Huff." A ragged breath resounded in a large grey room filled with various types of weapons and machinery. Theo was panting and struggling to calm his breath while his sweaty hands held onto two chained sickles. He had trained with those chained sickles for over five hours without taking a break. Even while exhausted, His eyes remained resolved but carried an emptiness hidden under the relentless push to surpass his yesterday.
It's been four days since he instructed Cain to find a grade 4 or 3 art, and Cain hasn't found any.
The clock time has been running, and he could hear the clock hands ticking in his mind. Seven months, and that's all he had. His impatience was growing with each tick, making it harder to control.
After doing some research, he found that in the previous year, the lowest ranker admitted into the GUHA academy was a Seeker in the Tuning phase, and Theo, who still hadn't even begun his path, Seeker rank stands as a mountain impossible to cross in just seven months.
He tapped on the smart band on his wrist, and a small blue halo screen projected out from it. Theo tapped on the bell icon to check the notifications he received while he was in the middle of training.
After skimming through them, he double-tapped on the smart band, and the blue screen disappeared back into the band.
Disappointed, he walked to the weapons rack to leave the chained sickles back in their designated place.
The growing impatience felt alien and uncomfortable, even when he remained unawakened and ridiculed with venomous words, he still held an iron hold on himself and avoided making choices that he would later regret, but with each passing tick, the control on himself started to loosen, and he chose to try something no sane person would ever do.
He wanted to try out the knowledge his mind held from the dream, the internal art he memorized, believing that the dream was his lucky encounter.
His instincts are screaming that this is the right choice, and to stop doubting it and train in it.
He didn't know whether this was a result of his uncontrollable emotions or a genuine instinct, but soon he discarded these questions and decided to gamble. Thinking that no harm would happen to him just for trying it out.
He left the room where he was training and started walking towards the small room meant for the Internal arts training, which he hadn't entered until now for obvious reasons.
He stood in front of the door made of redwood. A rich, sweet, and pleasant aroma caressed his nostrils gently. Any normal human would feel a sense of calmness when breathing such a fragrance, but Theo felt none of it. His thoughts didn't consider the smell, but instead, his heart raced in anticipation of what awaited him inside.
He slowly opened the door, and the grey, shaded walls invited him in warmly.
Even though many would avoid painting walls with a grey shade, as it would feel gloomy. But Theo liked the aesthetics of grey walls and made sure that every corner of the whole building he lived in was painted in Grey shades and in some places with silver as well.
The size of the room was 310 square feet, and it consisted of only a beige-colored mat made from Tier 8 monster leather. Its smooth, warm texture grounded me as it blended pleasantly with the pale grey walls surrounding him.
He crossed his legs, sat in a lotus position on the mat, and the strange runes etched on the walls pulsed golden the moment he sat on the mat, lighting up a golden shade to the gloomy room.
The air felt heavier the moment Theo settled on the mat.
'A trigger?' he thought, closed his contemplative eyes, and took even breaths to calm his chaotic mind.
The pulsing runes on the walls are to maintain the nexus concentration in this compact room. When the runes activate, they raise the nexus concentration inside the room by 15% to help training in the internal arts.
Feeling the heavy air,
He recalled the knowledge of Heavenfold internal art.
Without dilly-dallying, he followed the instructions and tried to breathe in a certain form and flow while trying to chant the mantras, but his breath flow was broken before he could even chant the mantra.
Even though Theo had trained in some breathing techniques before for better concentration and a calm mind, the form for the heavenfold internal breathing proved to be much more difficult than he had expected.
From the knowledge he knew, breathing techniques in an internal arts weren't supposed to be too hard to train, but reciting mantras was the real deal. But Theo had failed to follow the breathing form and broke the flow, which raised a doubt in him, but, dismissing it, he tried again, thinking that this much should be expected from a grade 1 internal art.
Time passed, and his breathing form and flow improved quite a bit.
Before reciting the mantra, he decided to perfect the breathing technique as much a possible, and without realizing it, three hours had passed by, and his calucalted breathing form and flow satisfied him, and he could feel a change in him but at the moment he failed to pinpoint what changed in him, but he felt better than before started his internal arts training, and without delaying, part of his concentration shifted to the mantras.
Mantras hold a magical nature that molds one's inner nexus into the very nature that mantras hold.
Before he could recite the first word of the mantra, the breathing flow he had maintained for hours broke under the pressure held by the first word of the mantra.
"Ughh", gritting his teeth, he focused on maintaining the flow and form of his breathing and recited the mantra.
A total of eight hours passed by, and no matter how hard he tried, he was unable to go beyond the third word. The pressure emitted by the words of the mantra increased with each word, and he felt a splitting headache cracking his skull open.
Frustated, he summoned his status to see if the internal art registered in his status.
Name: Thalen Varkheil
Rank: Initiate
Phase: Dissonant
Aspect: The Sovereign
Trait: Boundless Physique
Affinity: Golden Lightning (Unclaimed), Metal (Unclaimed)
Charm: F–
Nexus: (F-)Unclaimed
Skills: None
Weapon Mastery: Sword(Intermidate), Spear(Basic), Bow(Basic), Dagger(Basic), Chained-sickles(Pseudo Intermidate)
Internal Arts: Heavenfold Internal art(Grade 1) - (0%)
Battle Arts: None
He studied the status and seeing no new additional information in the aspect and trait section, he moved on to the internal arts section while completely ignoring the charm section.
"Heavenhold Internal Art (Grade 1)," Theo said exuberantly
Despite the pain he was in, A bright smile formed on his lips, and joy spread over him. Seeing that it was indeed true that the internal art he got from the dream was authentic grade 1 internal art. His joy resounded in the small, closed room in the form of his rumbling heartbeat.
Thump-thump!
Thump-thump!
Until now, his confidence in the internal art was almost nil, but now everything had changed for him. With a renewed attitude and a calm mind, he started training in the internal art again.