Groan.
Caecus awakened from his slumber. When he finally made sense of his surroundings, he noticed that he was back in his bed again. The soft cushioned mattress supported his small frame, meanwhile a blanket was draped over him. A fluffy pillow that was holding his head in place was making sure he was comfortable.
The blind boy had a nagging headache that made his head throb. It was accompanied by a heavy fatigue that he had never experienced before. It made him feel like a used napkin, limp and wrung dry of any energy.
"So you're up. How do you feel?" Amelia's voice sounded through the room.
"Bad." The fourteen-year-old sat up, discomfort clearly chiseled into his face. The mattress's mesh curved under his bottom as he moved.
"Well, it makes sense. You experienced soul drain for the first time. Don't worry, you were only out for around 5 hours. It's 7 PM now." She sighed, and he heard her rub her temples.
"Soul drain? What's that?" the black-haired boy's exhausted voice was filled with curiosity.
"Well… it's when you use up all of your soul essence. So your soul basically can't control your body anymore, and you just lose consciousness. Until your soul essence reserves are completely filled again, you won't wake up." His servant explained. "When you made a crack in your soul core, it took all of your soul essence to fix that crack and advance your soul core at the same time. That's why you experienced soul drain."
"But after finishing the advancement, when I sensed my soul core, I had double the soul essence compared to before…" Caecus sounded confused.
"That is because when you advance your soul core, a little bit of soul essence naturally gets produced. It wasn't enough to fill it completely though. That's why you collapsed. Try sensing your soul core again."
He did as he was told. As soon as he shifted his focus onto it, he felt the sheer amount of soul essence in his core had increased tenfold of that before advancement. The realization rendered him speechless.
Amelia noticed him being stunned and allowed herself to let out a little laugh. "Every time your soul core advances, your soul essence increases by a very large margin. This is why most people who are one soul core rank higher than others are still able to beat them without much difficulty, even if their soul density is way higher."
Caecus drew on his soul essence. It left his soul core and he felt the same feeling of warmth as when he first drew on it. He tried moving the soul essence higher up from his soul core, but as soon as he did that, it was like he was pushing against a current. Moving his soul essence was hard.
His servant sensed his soul essence moving. When she saw the strain that was clearly etched onto his face, her hand gripped his shoulder, signaling him to stop trying to move his soul essence.
"W-why was it too hard to move it… I thought I finally got enough soul essence to be able to use it…" Caecus frowned deeply and his eyes glistened with unshed tears. When he noticed that, he quickly averted his gaze from the direction Amelia's voice came from.
'It's a dream come true for me to be able to use soul essence. But why doesn't it work now?'
Amelia was biting her thumb, debating with herself on how to explain it to her Young Master.
"Well… when you never used soul essence, it's like moving a muscle you never used before. It's stiff, weak, slow, and not precise. The more you use soul essence, the better you get at it. Training to use your soul essence is purely the adaptation of your nervous system to moving it around. Like for example, if you practiced the same movement every day for an hour, your central nervous system will adapt to the stimulus of it and be better at sending out commands to the motor units that make up the muscles that are used in the movement. This results in you needing less and less effort to perform that movement. Your body is constantly adapting to make everything easier. Same goes for your soul essence. If you just moved it around for hours a day, it will get easier with time and you'll be able to handle it without needing as much effort."
After her lengthy explanation, Amelia sighed. She had incorporated what he had learned when they were studying yesterday in the library to make it easier for him to understand.
Caecus, on the other hand, was relieved. The tears that glistened in his eyes before were not there anymore.
"Alright, that's relieving. So when—"
Growl.
Having not eaten any meal after breakfast, his stomach growled, interrupting him. He felt heat creep up his ears and cheeks, clearly blushing.
Amelia just chuckled, finding his reaction endearing. "Don't worry. I told the cooks to prepare something as soon as you woke up. When you did, I just sent them a message to do so. The food should arrive soon."
"—Ehem—Let me repeat what I wanted to say." he said, getting himself together again. "When will we start learning to control soul essence?"
Amelia tapped her finger against the wooden frame of his bed. She seemed to sit on a chair next to him, hunched over. He heard the fabric of her shirt rubbing against the fabric of her pants and skin rubbing against skin. She was probably propping herself up by her elbow while supporting her head with her hand.
"Well… we could start today. But—" Caecus heard her taking out her phone, looking at the time most probably. "It's getting late already. It would be best for the both of us to just do it tomorrow and let you recuperate from your soul drain."
"Okay." He was slightly less motivated after experiencing the strain of trying to move his soul essence, but still extremely excited.
Three minutes later there was a knock at the door, and he heard Amelia standing up and receiving the food that was delivered to him. It was a combination of protein and carbs with most of the nutrients he needed and a dessert again. His body still aching, Caecus left the bed and sat down at his desk. With a growling stomach he proceeded to devour everything. After that he started feeling drowsy. He brushed his teeth and went to sleep.
Just as Amelia was about to leave, Caecus's voice resounded through the room.
"Amelia. I know I shouldn't be asking this, but why are you even helping me?"
The servant stopped in her tracks. Her footsteps were not heard anymore. She went silent for a few seconds and then spoke again.
"I'm gonna be honest with you. It's because when I am with you, I don't have to do any other work, since I am helping a person from the main family. And I kind of enjoy watching people grow. I stopped working as a teacher when I had my… accident, because no one thought I was qualified for it anymore. So when I came here as a servant and saw you needing help, I just… I just felt that maybe my dream job of teaching was still reachable."
Caecus didn't know what kind of expression she had or how she stood, but he heard the sincerity in her voice.
"I'm glad. Thank you for being here with me, Amelia." he said softly, smiling in the direction from which her voice came.
"I have to thank you too for giving me a chance at my passion again. Good night, Young Master." Amelia turned away and closed the door, bringing the dishes of his dinner with her.
Caecus lay down on his bed and covered himself with the soft duvet blanket. If he wouldn't be blind, one might have said he stared into the ceiling. But for him it was just the nothingness and his thoughts.
'I said I wanted a purpose. That's why I wanted to start training and studying now, even though the corpora including my father don't support me. I never really thought of what this purpose should be though.'
'Do I want to get strong?'
'Of course I do. But why? To have more influence? I never liked responsibility. Nor do I like that much attention. Attention is like a drug… at first it feels good, but the more you get of it the more you depend on it. People start to judge you for every little thing and snoop into your private life. So it's not that either.'
The teenage boy grabbed a stray pillow and hugged it, bringing it to his chest and nuzzling his face into the fabric of it.
He felt empty.
…
The next morning Caecus woke up and did his usual routine: pick out clothes, shower, call for Amelia, eat breakfast, and lastly go to the library.
The scent of old paper and wood could be smelled very strongly in the library. Ever since he advanced to a rank 1 soul core, he felt that his senses had grown much stronger. His sense of smell and hearing, along with touch and taste, were extremely elevated. He could feel the way someone moved just by the way the air shifted around him.
His servant gave him a few books to read, and since they were in braille and he felt that his mind had cleared up too ever since advancing, his comprehension speed was immaculate. He could just glide his hand down the page and understood everything that was said in it.
The black-haired boy took around an hour to read 10 books on maths, science, history, and literature.
After he was done with them, Amelia was amazed. He took almost half the time he took last time for the same amount of content. It wasn't unheard of that people's comprehension speed and senses were raised after ascension, but not to this extent.
"I have a theory. The reason why your senses and comprehension were raised so much is probably because you're blind. Normally the eyesight is the sense that gets improved the most, since it's important to be able to observe the opponent's movements in a fight. With the speeds that soul essence users move, it's impossible for mundane people to do that. Since your eyesight couldn't be improved, the enhancements went more into the other senses."
Amelia stretched, her back stiff from being hunched over her phone the entire time because she waited for her Young Master to finish reading.
Caecus tapped on the table with his finger. He was deep in thought until Amelia pulled him out of it when her voice rang out.
"Now let's see if you actually remember what you read or just did it fast."
She asked him questions about the things he read, and he answered. Twenty minutes passed and they were finally done with the questions. He got 90% of them right.
The black-haired boy and Amelia stood up and went into the hallway. Their steps echoed through the hallway as they went through it and into the training room.
When they entered, Caecus was able to inhale the fresh air that filled the room. They had installed ventilation to the outside world, which he was unable to notice before. But now with his enhanced senses he smelled and felt that the air was fresher than in the hallways.
"Alright, since I tested your abilities yesterday, I created a good training plan for you. We are going to start with strength work."
Amelia took the black-haired boy to a new area of the room. He noticed the room was more of a hall, as could be noticed by its size.
She sat him down on a bench and showed him how to perform a biceps curl. He repeated it until he reached failure. They did that for three sets and then moved on to different exercises until they finished training the entire upper body.
"Phew. This wasn't as tiring as run—"
"Good that you have some energy left. Instead of long-distance running we are going to try out something different today." Amelia explained, amused by the whole situation. "I always wanted to see what would happen if you trained your stamina like a muscle. So today what you're going to have to do is sprint as fast as you can and until you can't run anymore. I want 100%, so you won't even be able to finish 100m."
His servant positioned Caecus at the end of the training hall so he had the most room for running.
He made himself ready and sprinted ahead as fast as he could.
They did this for five sets and then finished with some punches against a sandbag. Caecus noticed that whenever the sandbag moved he could feel the air shift around it, so he never missed any punch.
Amelia of course showed him the correct technique and he just followed the best he could.
Since he was pretty drained, they worked mostly on his punching technique and how he used his core and footwork to supply it with more power and speed.
Drenched in sweat and with clothes sticking to his small frame, the young teen lay down on the floor, drained and exhausted.
'Even though this was hard I found it surprisingly fun to test my limits...'
"Now it's time to eat. You probably must be very hungry after all of this." Amelia sounded proud.
She helped him up and they returned to his room, where he showered and changed again while his servant brought him the food.
He ate everything and then just rested for a bit. He was tired, and the food enhanced that feeling even more.
"Young Master. I understand if you're tired. Rest is important too, so it's probably for the best if you take a nap." Amelia said as she gathered the dishes together.
For some reason she sounded content. Way more content than the day before yesterday, where he first met her at the very least.
"I'll do that then."
Caecus lay down in bed, and exhausted from training he immediately fell asleep.
He woke up and immediately felt that his food had digested well, along with a certain grogginess. The toilet was his savior, and after washing his hands he called for Amelia.
The both of them went to the concentration room, the lavender smell greeting him. He felt himself immediately getting calmer and more relaxed when he entered it. Was it placebo? He didn't know, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that it worked.
"Alright, sit on the floor and cross your legs, just like when you advanced your soul core." Amelia said while she grabbed a chair that was nearby and sat near him.
"Now try to move your soul essence like before today. The most important part of fighting with soul essence is protecting your soul core, so that's what you should focus on. Try to push your soul essence into your abdominal muscles and organs."
Caecus did his best to do what she said and felt warm sweat run down his face and lower back.
He drew on his soul essence again, the warm feeling almost inviting him. Then he tried moving it outside the area around his soul core.
It was just as before: pushing against a stream or going against the current.
But he didn't relent.
'I have to do this. Even if I don't make it today it's okay since I'll do it tomorrow and the day after that. Until I can finally use it perfectly!'
Caecus did his best to push against the current and reach his abs.
The effort of it was making him feel extremely dizzy, and he felt like throwing up. But he kept going, against the pain and against the strain.
Until finally he reached his muscle.
As soon as his soul essence entered his abdominal muscle he felt it being strengthened to a degree he hadn't felt before. It was like it was ten times stronger and harder.
He kept it there for a few seconds, pushing against the current. Then he finally gave out and his soul essence retracted back into his soul core.
Huff.
Huff.
With heavy pants he slumped backwards and lay on the ground. This was way more difficult than he expected. His body was now completely drenched in sweat, and his clothes were soaked and sticking to his body.
"That was good for a first actual try." Amelia moved her hand to pat him on the shoulder, but then short of touching him she saw how drenched his shirt was and stopped her hand before it came in contact.
"Now we repeat this for three sets until failure. But first take a few minutes of rest."
After Caecus recovered he propped himself up again, feeling the warm floor that suddenly felt very comfortable to lie on.
He got back into the cross-legged position and focused again.
…
Twenty minutes had passed and the black-haired boy was finally done.
He wasn't just lying on the ground anymore.
No. The floor seemed to practically melt into him.
'I could fall asleep again right on the spot.'
Amelia helped him up and they went back to his room.
Caecus showered again and put on his sleepwear. While he was doing that his brown-haired servant went to grab some dinner for him.
Refreshed and feeling renewed, Caecus sat on his chair that was in front of the desk where he usually ate.
He always had water ready, so while he waited for his food to arrive he sipped from his bottle. All the sweat that came out of his body while he trained made him thirsty.
The food arrived and started being eaten.
After his belly was as full as a bursting balloon, he finished the food.
"Don't forget to cultivate before sleeping. I want you to try and cultivate, while you fall asleep. If you do that there is a good chance that with time you'll be able to do it while you sleep."
"Okay. I'll go rest now."
Caecus bade Amelia goodbye and good night and went to sleep.
'If I'm being honest today was very fun. Maybe it's not about having a specific goal in mind but just doing what you want. I never felt this lively in a while.'