Caecus' eyes opened. His calves were sore from running yesterday, and he felt a cramp in his leg as soon as he stretched.
"A-ah!" He was tossing and turning in bed, trying to withstand the cramp. After a few seconds, it was gone.
'I didn't expect to wake up like this… but at least I'm up now…'
The blind boy sat up and rubbed his eyes. He then lifted the blanket and got out of bed, changing into his everyday clothes. He picked out some sweatpants, a T-shirt, some new socks, and underwear. Right after, he entered the shower, feeling the warm water run over his skin.
After he was done showering, he dried himself off and put on some clothes. All of his clothes were black. Although he didn't know what colors exactly were, according to the servants, they provided a nice contrast against his skin. He went back into his room after changing and pressed a button he had on the wall to call for the servants.
"Please tell Amelia that she should come to my room. "
And so it happened. After two minutes, Amelia opened the door and stepped inside.
"Good morning, Young Master Caecus. Have you eaten breakfast yet?" The sound of her steps on the soft cushioned floor was heard.
"Thank you, a good morning to you too. You're right, I haven't eaten yet. Can you tell the cooks to prepare something for me?" He rubbed the back of his head.
The servant took out her phone and called the cooks, telling them to bring some food. In just five minutes, a knock could be heard at the door, and Caecus heard Amelia opening it and grabbing a tray, which she placed on his desk. It smelled like eggs and bread.
"What's for breakfast?" he asked curiously.
"Scrambled eggs that contain cheese and some bread. As a side dish, there is some cut-up fruit on the side."
The Young Master sat down on the chair in front of the table. The brown-haired servant gave him a fork and knife, and he started eating. It seemed to be big portions, around six eggs. After finishing and feeling like gagging, it was time to move on to the fruits, which provided quickly digestible carbohydrates. Feeling like a bubble after finishing everything, Caecus stood up, and the servant-master couple left the room. Amelia, leading by hand, showed him the way to the library.
"We will start by studying first so your food digests well and then train in around three hours," she said as she moved the chair back so he could sit down. As soon as they both sat, the servant took out some books, the -thud- of the books being heard. The black-haired boy learned some mathematics and science, being able to pick up most topics at staggering speeds. Even Amelia, who taught all kinds of people across the corpora, was surprised at his comprehension speed. The two of them studied for around three hours until they did a last test for revision of everything.
"Alright, you got 95 out of 100 questions right. That's extremely good for the amount of content we did in just three hours. I'm proud of you." Amelia sounded astonished.
"O-oh, thank you… um… I need to go to the toilet. Could you show me the way?" The breakfast from this morning had finally digested.
"Sure." She grabbed his hand, and they both went to the restroom. When they finally entered, she left, and Caecus let his big brown train release. The fiber he got from the fruits definitely helped in doing that. After being done releasing his doo-doo train, he wiped his butt, flushed the toilet, and washed his hands. He left the restroom, Amelia waiting outside for him.
"Alright, let's go and train now." The servant grabbed his hand, and he trailed behind her. They arrived in the training room, and she released his hand. He heard her leaving, then grabbing something, and then footsteps approaching again.
"I figured it's best if we measure your progress so you know best in which areas you need to improve the most and can see your progress in the future. I got some tools to measure a few things. I'll note them down then, and we can compare them later. First of all, please take off your shoes and your shirt."
Caecus nodded. He untied his laces and took off his shoes one by one. Amelia then proceeded to place a long stick onto his back, and he heard the sound of a pencil against wood. She then measured the length.
"You're around one hundred and fifty three centimeters or five feet tall. Below average for your age." She shook her head, and he felt a measuring tape tighten around his waist. The Young Master's face had a frown etched into it.
"Sixty centimeters is the circumference of your waist. Please flex your arms."
Caecus did as told and flexed his biceps.
"Twenty centimeters circumference… we have a lot to work on."
'Is it really that bad?' He had a frown on his face.
She then proceeded to measure a lot of other things, like his chest and arm length. After she was done measuring everything, she proceeded to tell him to run a kilometer as fast as he could.
The skinny fourteen-year-old gave it his all and ran, putting everything he had into it.
After around 8 minutes and thirty seconds, he achieved his goal of one kilometer. He slumped to the ground, panting like crazy. His legs hurt, and he had side stitches. Five minutes later, his grip strength got tested, along with a few other strength tests, and after around an hour of doing tests, they were done. It was tiring, and his real training hadn't even started.
"We are done now. I think we can skip out on training for today since you seem pretty tired. Tomorrow you'll get a good training plan," Amelia said while she closed her notebook.
"Alright… do you think I can already start cultivating my soul essence?" Caecus asked while scratching his cheek.
"…"
The boy noticed his servant went silent and got confused.
"What's wrong?"
"…Well, I expected you to have already started training with soul essence. If you only start now… well, I'm just gonna say you are probably very much behind the other children of the other corpora."
"I asked Father for instructors, but he never gave me any… so I never learned how to actually cultivate soul essence," the black-haired boy explained, while feeling the heat of a blush creeping up his ears and lowering his head, hoping she wouldn't see it.
'I really am bad off...'
"...Well…" she sighed. "It's best to start as soon as possible. Since we'll be skipping out on training today anyway, we can just start right now. Follow me."
Amelia grabbed his hand and led him to another room. They went out of the training room into the hallway, then walked straight for twenty steps, turned right, and then continued walking for around five-hundred steps. The brown-haired woman stopped in front of a new room, and he already smelled the scent of lavender, just like in his room. Lavender was a mind-soothing scent, after all. She let go of his hand and opened the door, a -squeak- resounding. As soon as they entered, he noticed that everything was unnaturally quiet. The only sounds that could be heard were his and Amelia's breathing, and he could even hear her heartbeat. Unnaturally slow, probably because she was an augmenter before and still trained.
Caecus touched the wall. It was cushioned, probably a soundproofing panel. His steps seemed to produce no sound on the floor either. It was very weird.
"This is a concentration room. It is used for when you want to advance in your soul essence cultivation. As you probably know, there are different stages of soul essence, so when you want to reach the next stage, you will need to advance. For that, you need concentration. If it's broken… bad things will happen."
"Ah—so this is good for me to learn cultivation. Perfect! Can we start right away?"
"Well, we need to make sure you're completely concentrated on it." She grabbed his hand again and pulled him into the room. The room was perfectly warm, the type that made you feel comfortable rather than hot. "Sit on the floor cross-legged and keep your upper body straight."
Caecus did exactly as told, his heart beating rapidly from excitement. 'I'm finally learning to cultivate soul essence!'
"Now I need you to listen extremely carefully and make sure to do exactly as I tell you to." Her voice had an edge to it; she was clearly tense. "Just as I told you, we need perfect concentration here. If something goes wrong… well… never mind, just know that it's important you listen to me and keep your focus. First of all, close your eyes—oh, uhm… sorry."
Caecus tried to keep himself from laughing. It was easy to forget he was blind since his eyes were still intact and looked normal.
"Well, you don't need to do that, just do what's most comfortable for you. Then now try to focus into yourself. The feeling of your blood running through your veins, the 'thump' of your heart. Your lungs being filled with air as you breathe, your stomach digesting its food. Try to feel yourself."
The blind boy did that, and after around two minutes of this, his attention was removed from the outside world, the only thing receiving input being his ears, which were listening to Amelia's instructions.
"Now try to adjust your breathing. Breathe in for five seconds, hold it for five seconds, exhale for five seconds, and hold for five seconds again."
As he did that, with time he felt his pulse slowing down, the rushing of the blood through his body becoming slower as well. He was in a trance-like state right now, his focus entirely on this meditation. Slowly, he felt the sensation of something new in his lower stomach area, where the soul core was located. As time passed, the sensation got stronger, and his attention shifted away from his heartbeat and blood, solely focused on this weird new sensation of his soul core.
Amelia felt his soul essence shifting and knew he started feeling it. She continued with her instructions.
"You must be feeling your soul essence and soul core now. Now the most difficult step. Slowly draw on your essence and try to press it against your soul core from the outside. Slowly. If you do it too fast and harshly, there is a risk of it breaking."
Caecus drew on his soul essence. It was a completely new sensation. Like something warm was moving around; it's hard to explain to someone who has never experienced it really. As soon as his soul essence left his soul core, he felt a certain 'ecstasy'. The area where his soul essence was felt healthier. Stronger. Basking in that new feeling, he almost forgot his instructions. He pulled himself together again and moved his soul essence to touch his soul core.
"Now use your soul essence. Imagine it converting to energy. Imagine it hardening," Amelia said nervously. This was the most important step; if he messed up here, it would be over.
Caecus enveloped his soul core, with his essence not missing a single spot. Then he used it. He felt it convert into energy. Into strength. But suddenly, it started hurting.
He was careless because of the excitement of finally wielding soul essence. But that bit him back. He noticed there was a tiny crack in his soul core. His soul essence drained out, his control over it slowly waning.
Amelia's heart skipped. "Quickly! Cover the crack!" she exclaimed, her voice shaking and hands balling up into fists.
He felt more and more of it spill out, and he was slowly panicking, his previously perfectly controlled breathing rhythm speeding up. His heartbeat quickened, and he forced himself to focus even in this disaster of a situation.
'If I mess up here, I'm done for!'
Quickly, Caecus used the soul essence that drained out and covered the crack with it, closing it by using his soul essence when it finally filled the crack. A sense of relief washed over him when he finally noticed the danger was over.
He felt his soul core getting reinforced. Like its quality just got an upgrade. Suddenly, all of his soul essence shifted, all of it getting pulled into its core again.
"Now don't try to draw on your soul essence. Don't try to feel your soul core. Just leave it alone."
His soul core started throbbing and tingling. After a few seconds, the sensation was gone, and he shifted his attention to it, feeling it. His soul essence had doubled. His soul core, which felt frail before, was more resilient now. He tried drawing on it and noticed it had doubled in its amount. But his body felt drained. And before he knew it, he lost control over it. Caecus slumped forward and felt Amelia catch him in time.
Amelia sighed in relief. She was clearly worried. "Congratulations. Your soul core reached rank 1."
'Finally I can use soul essence'
Caecus felt his consciousness slip and slowly his senses drifted into nothingness, until he was finally unconscious.