Every muscle in his body seemed to burn, enduring the physical strain of being pushed to the very limits of its capabilities.
Julius was a highly competent man and made sure that his practical lessons happened with a certain frequency, so that Giovanni could forge a body capable of withstanding the extreme conditions he would one day face.
The full-immersion stations, equipped with nearly perfect physical feedback, were a miracle of technology, allowing situations from the Dream Realm to be replicated within a controlled space.
For cases where the environment or the lesson itself was too absurd, there was always virtual reality to compensate for what the stations could not achieve.
Climbing, navigating rough terrain, foraging, sneaking, erasing tracks, countless ways to start fires, and orienting oneself even in nearly alien landscapes.
Everything and more within the curriculum was thoroughly explored during the few classes they had.
This allowed the boy's enhanced physique to reach new peaks of agility, vigor, strength, and endurance.
It was living proof of just how unprepared he had been before coming to the academy.
A spell could accelerate and skip long stages of the evolutionary process, but even a powerful machine still needed a proper pilot.
He grew accustomed to his own limits, turning his body into a true tool.
His second month at the academy was nearing its end, and in the meantime, his life seemed to have finally settled into a predictable routine.
He spent most of his time absorbed in his own notes and classes. When he had free time, he trained alone, especially in the dead of night.
The moment he understood the full capacity of his tunic, he began abusing its limits.
Twenty-four hours getting stronger, twenty-four hours improving. Twenty-four hours closer to survival.
It did not take long for people to notice this anomaly, and when rumors spread that Giovanni neither slept, nor ate, nor rested, his image became even more distorted.
Some who had merely admired him began to feel a sense of fear. What had once seemed like a mysterious and gentle boy had turned into something almost inhuman, unreachable to most sleepers.
Even instructors approached him, worried about his condition, but Giovanni was quick to dispel their concerns.
Everything was fine.
Day, night, dawn, at some point, the concept of time itself seemed to unravel. Every moment felt the same, one step after another toward his goal of becoming the best he could be in the shortest amount of time.
He almost always practiced on the surface, moving the earth around him in repetitive patterns, alternating between a myriad of defenses.
From formations meant to block piercing, concussive, area-based, aerial, or simultaneous attacks, he accounted for every possibility.
In his mind, he saw the ghost of an old enemy. That same colossal centipede, facing him again and again.
In every simulated battle, he died in a single move. Giovanni was nothing more than an ant, incapable of even dodging the simplest attack.
That was why he needed to become faster. His instincts seemed to sharpen, his connection to his aspect breaking through a barrier with each passing month.
The stinger struck with chilling precision, tracing a straight path toward his head. The barrier rose in a mere instant, yet it felt slower than a frozen snail.
Too slow. Too weak.
Giovanni tried to remember the last conversations he had, the jokes and idle chatter, but it all felt like a blur. At some point, he stopped truly listening to people, responding instead with rehearsed comments.
He did not mean to be rude, but it was the only way he had found to deal with his situation. His own mind felt emptier than ever, following the routine he had created without question.
The mental fatigue piled up to such a degree that even thinking felt like too heavy an effort. Giovanni knew he needed to rest, but as long as he could keep going just a little more, he would not stop.
Mechanically, he always checked the time on his communicator, never daring to be late or miss a lesson.
There was one hour left until his next private tutoring session with Beako.
The sun had risen only recently on the horizon, and there was still a generous window of time before the agreed thirty-minute early arrival. Still, that day he decided to go even earlier.
To the young man's surprise, when he opened the door, the bee woman was already there, despite the early hour. Strangely, she was not wearing her usual irritatingly energetic and bossy attitude.
Faced with a serious gaze, Giovanni greeted her with a smile.
"Good morning, professor."
"There you are. Get in already."
There was no surprise attack either. Over the past two months, Giovanni had been exposed to every dirty trick imaginable meant to catch him off guard.
The last time, Beako had offered him a box of cookies filled with explosive honey as a reward for his effort.
Giovanni would normally be suspecting everything, scrutinizing the environment, but he could not bring himself to care, focusing solely on the next lesson.
"It seems you are improving faster than expected, so today we're going to do something different."
She stood up from where she had been sitting, beginning to stretch her body. Giovanni waited in silence, not responding to the comment.
"You'll start facing me from today onward."
Beako declared as she began to close the distance between them. In mere moments, the earth started to stir, ready to defend its master.
There was no signal to begin the fight. Both sides simply moved in unison, bracing for impact. Beako's fist was delicate, yet it carried more weight than the mightiest sledgehammer.
A barrier of rocks and stone formed with impressive speed, capable of reacting to the attack of an awakened human. The effort, however, was futile.
At the moment of collision, the defense collapsed like paper, torn apart without buying even a single extra second. Giovanni kept smiling, failing to move in time to avoid the blow.
His consciousness went dark instantly. His body was hurled against the wall like a rag doll, and even after long minutes, he did not rise.
During those two months, he had grown accustomed to the sweet taste filling his body and waking him in an instant, but this time the flavor never came.
***
When sparks of consciousness began to surface, Giovanni felt something comfortable beneath the back of his head.
His mind throbbed unbearably. He genuinely believed this was the worst migraine any human being had ever experienced.
When he opened his eyes, he first saw the yellowish light of the room, then a faint shadow fell across his face. Beako's black eyes studied Giovanni's disoriented expression, judging his current condition.
Dried blood had been cleaned from his face, and the swelling on his cheek was somewhat better than before. It was not just his head. His entire face ached as if needles were being driven into his skeleton.
"Finally! I thought I'd actually put you in a coma! Boys are so fragile, heehee."
Sliding her bronze-tinted finger through his hair, she coated it with honey and shoved it into the student's mouth. The various aches melted away in moments, his face reorganizing itself until it was pristine once more.
The relief was divine. Only then did he have the chance to register his situation. He was lying in the instructor's lap. His head felt dizzy, yet strangely light.
"What happened…?"
"You slept the entire day! Your laziness disgusts me, golden boy…"
The shock of hearing that jolted his entire body awake like a lightning strike. He sprang up from where he was, sitting on the cold reinforced floor.
"W-What? How?! When?! Where?!"
He had wasted an entire day at the academy, missed several courses. My God, it was a disaster. He began to stand, ready to leave and make up for lost time.
"Sit your ass down! Now look at me."
Already accustomed to obeying, he turned his attention to Beako and received a lethal flick to the forehead, sending him rolling across the floor until he slammed back-first into the wall.
"Much better! Beating you earlier wasn't satisfying enough… what the hell is going on in that head of yours, huh?! Are you stupid or something?"
Earlier? He truly could not remember almost anything. It felt like a melted, burned photograph at the back of his mind. Seeing that he would not respond, Beako continued.
"Teenagers are reckless, but you surpassed my expectations by far! Who in their right mind would train nonstop for over a month? You looked like a zombie, you dumb, useless, stupid, jackass."
"I just wanted… to be efficient."
He replied, embarrassed, not knowing how to defend himself against the relentless accusations. When he realized he could use a power at his disposal to gain an advantage over the other sleepers, he thought it was right to use his full potential.
"Efficiency is my nonexistent balls. That's just a more complicated form of suicide."
Giovanni trembled slightly, having nothing to retort. Beako, on the other hand, crossed her arms, maintaining a severe expression.
"When we're young, it's natural to be tempted by extremes, and it's the job of us adults, who've already suffered their consequences, to cut these poisoned ideas at the root. Get this into your head: everything taken to the extreme is harmful."
"Your ambition isn't the problem. Pushing beyond your limits isn't the problem. But your method is a doomed path. No matter what power you're granted, you're still human. Your brain needs rest. In due time, the fruit of your effort will come."
Finally hearing something he wanted to contest, he lifted his gaze.
"But… It's only six months. Even legacies, who train their whole lives, can still die. Will those fruits be enough?"
"Yes, yes, and guess what? There are miserable boys and girls out there who have what? Days? A month at most? And they still survive. There's no amount of training in the world that would save you if your carcass were summoned at the feet of an unholy titan. Legacies who die young were unlucky, and ordinary folks who survive were lucky. Two sides of the same coin."
She walked up to Giovanni, pulling him to his feet.
"And you're neither of those two. Use the time you have. Make the most of your potential. I don't know what kind of demons are chasing you in that little head of yours, but they're making a difference. You're evolving fast, fast enough to scare me! So cool your head and keep running. Everything will be fine."
The woman's serious expression vanished, giving way to her caricatured and infuriating smile.
The word potential echoed in his mind once more.
"Time to start the real lesson, golden boy! Heehee!"
Beako spun away in a pirouette, landing in the middle of the room.
"But what about the other class—?"
"I already took care of that. Now shut up and listen! As I was saying…"
She pointed to herself with her fingers, puckered her lips, and blew a kiss into the air.
"From today on, I'll be your opponent in flesh and blood! You'll have the pleasure of feeling my fluffy hands deforming your face every single day."
"I-It doesn't seem fair to face an awakened…"
She shrugged, smiling.
"The world isn't fair! You'll face awakened creatures, maybe even ones of higher rank. I heard the story of your nightmare, golden boy. Your lucky strike against a corrupted creature was an astronomical probability. Don't expect it to happen again. Now… prepare yourself!"
Bees were summoned, and in an instant, they spread throughout the room, flying along unpredictable trajectories to surround and pierce the boy.
Months of accumulated training allowed the earth to respond to his thoughts immediately.
He no longer needed to calculate and assemble simultaneous defenses. His need and imagination shaped barriers at different points, guided by his seismic sense that covered the entire room.
One by one, the bees met resistance, unable to reach him. His accelerated mind predicted trajectories, using previous training as a basis to detect Beako's habits and patterns.
His hands moved fluidly, guiding the flow of the terrain and keeping his body in sync with his mind.
In an instant, he was surrounded by barriers from every direction, sealing himself inside a circle of rock. That was when Beako acted, propelling herself forward and leaping over the wall, descending with a precise kick to Giovanni's chest.
Once again, he instinctively tried to block, but the result repeated itself. With the air knocked from his lungs, he accepted his defeat on the ground.
"No good! You're way too stiff, golden boy!"
"Argh… ah… how… so?"
The walls crumbled, turning into a heap of earth on the floor.
"Your control over your aspect is getting sharp, but your movement is pathetic! Your first instinct is always to block instead of dodge. You look like a post stuck in the ground."
Beako climbed off the boy, returning to her favorite spot.
"You control earth and stone, nothing more. It doesn't matter how thick or solid you make a wall; awakened creatures and people will shatter it. Remember, there are attacks you can't defend against, so run!"
She gave the boy's physique a good look, noticing the improvements since the start of their lessons.
"That old man's lessons have done you good, but a strong body won't cut it alone. It's time you learn how to throw hands… or at least how not to get beaten. Get up, again!"
"Yes, ma'am."
As instructed, he rose, still aching. The honey restored his strength, and within seconds, he was ready to fight again.
Hours passed, dancing in a violent performance with his mentor. Deprived of his ability to block, he was forced to stay in constant motion, adding a new layer of complexity to combat.
Until then, his focus had been entirely on stopping projectiles, but a fight is not static. Enemies are always moving, and therefore, so is the fighter.
Every step had to be calculated. Sometimes dodging in the wrong direction was a fatal mistake. Turning your back on an opponent, backing yourself into a dead end, and facing hidden dangers in the environment itself. A root causes you to trip, a deep hole stealing your balance.
His ability to perform simultaneous defenses, which he had once displayed with such pride, now felt suffocatingly insufficient.
Dozens of bees, fists, and kicks rained down, knocking him out so quickly he could not even tell where they came from.
It was simply impossible to win.
With each failure, Beako corrected his posture, often repeatedly, delivering a continuous sequence of blows until he understood the most efficient response.
A fight is not about grand, exaggerated movements. It is about attacking and reacting with the least effort possible, conserving energy, and dealing lethal damage through an opponent's mistakes.
By Beako's hands, he died ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times. Each attack was delivered with the intent to kill, or at least to create an opening for a killing blow. Again… again… and again.
***
"Hmmm… It's already dawn. That's enough for today! Can you hear me, golden boy?"
She stared at Giovanni's unconscious, bleeding body on the floor. Beako was sweating, having forgotten the last time she had exerted herself so much. She usually kept her lessons to one or two hours. It seemed the young man's enthusiasm had affected her more than expected.
"Oh, right. I forgot to fix you!"
A bit of honey got him back on his feet, but Giovanni was a crushed wreck.
"Thank you for the lesson… professor…"
He was sent out of the room with a pat on the back and a sweet "Good night!"
Descending through the floors of the complex, down to one of the deepest levels, he made his way to his room, where he bathed and dismissed his tunic in golden sparks.
The sensation of sleep at the fall of night was refreshing, and when he lay his head on the pillow, he fell asleep like a baby.
He had forgotten how good sleeping felt…