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The First of Many Training Arcs

Everything hurts. 

   As I begin to wake up I find myself unable to get up from my bed. 

If you want to know how I got to this point, let's do a quick flashback to what transpired for the last week or so. 

   A week ago after breaking down everything to me, Eddie told me we would begin "training" after breakfast. After breakfast, I got changed then asked where we were heading. 

   We are headed to the trail near Mount Summit, the trail that starts from the base of the mountain has quite a nice secluded grove perfect for training, Eddie says. 

   I reply with a baffled "Wait but just from here to the trail is already around 20 km?". 

That's your warmup, you gotta get used to this quick man cause we're doing this everyday. 

   Now, even though my time working at the construction site has helped develop my body a bit, but by no means can I run 20 km for shits and giggles, I think to myself. 

   Don't worry kid, first day is testing the waters, I'll match your pace, Eddie says with a big dumb grin.

   As we began running I thought to myself, "This has got to be the worst time to run ever". 

We began running at around 11 in the morning and despite the rainy season, the weather was particularly way to hot and humid today, it's as if the sun wants to add more to this horrendous experience.

   We arrived at the trail at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.

It took a while for me to catch my breath as we bought water bottles from a small shop at the base of the mountain. 

   I was way to exhausted, my feet ached from the 20 km run and my head hurt because of the heat, it was as if the sun was frying my brain throughout our run. 

   Eddie on the other hand looked like he was having the time of his life. Throughout our run he just would not shut the f**k up as he talked about the most random things. 

Until now I zoned him out entirely because I was already tired with his s**t.

    Listen man, we go up the normal trail but around halfway through we take a detour from the trail to get to the grove where we train. 

As we begin our ascent, I was able to rest my heart quite a bit. 

Compared to our 20 km run where the sun was just beating us down and I really felt just how taxing it was to run, our trip up the trail was quite relaxing, it was still tiring nonetheless but it felt refreshing walking under the shade of the trees as we heard the crunching sound of fallen leaves with each step.

   It was nice as well to hear the distant chirping from the birds that nestled on the treetops, As promised, we took separated from the trail halfway through and after about 10 or 15 minutes of walking Eddie stopped and said we have arrived. 

   This is the spot that I usually train, Eddie says. 

   Since it's the first day let's do some basic training and let's try and figure out what type of magic you've manifested. 

   This little grove is filled to the brim with booby traps and I will have you run around here. This will hone your reflexes and the constant stress put on you from this training can help coax your magic into manifesting.

   Let's begin Eddie's super duper training program!

We arrive back to the present, with me struggling to pick myself up from the floor as I begin to hear banging from my door. 

   From my door I could hear the sound of Eddie's muffled voice from the other side of the door. Listen kid, either you open this door or I open it... A f**k it, I'm opening it! Don't get mad if I see you naked! 

   As Eddie walked in to the room I tell him that everything in my body hurts, from all the running, to the muscle training, and to me constantly running into  and being whacked senseless by the booby traps scattered around the training area. 

   Can I at least get a day off? I ask Eddie. 

With each day you spend not honing your body, you increase the chances of Head Hunter actually taking you head by a lot kid, and trust me you don't want that, Eddie replied. And with that  Eddie helped me get up from bed. After breakfast I braced myself for another day of hellish training.

   It was raining quite heavily today, 

despite this we still continued on our regular training. Even though my body was always sore, I have been noticing that with each day the amount of times it takes for us to get to the trail has been decreasing. 

   I however am still waiting for my magic to appear. 

As we arrived at the grove we began our usual training. We began with muscle training, your basic pushups, pullups and whatnot. 

   I then went on to spar with Eddie, for the past week or so Eddie has been teaching me basics in how to fight, He taught me how to punch, kick and most importantly how to deflect a punch, which he thoroughly enjoys as he gets to beat me up because I still can't quite handle his punches. 

   After our sparring session I went on my trip around the booby trap filled grove, I hopped from tree branch to tree branch, as I worked on my speed and agility and as I did my best to dodge and try to predict the booby traps but alas there were always a few that caught me off guard.

   After this, I spent 10 to 15 minutes talking a quick breather as I now spar with dummies made out of hay and tree trunks that Eddie fashioned. 

   At first, punching and kicking hurt me a lot, but after a while I was able to bear the pain. 

   Normally this is where we could call it quits but since I was decreasing the time we spent running to and back from the mountain I had a lot of free time before we went home so I spend this by practicing with wooden weapons.

Eddie was kind enough to provide me with a wood staff and wood fashioned into a sword as I practiced  using these on both the dummies and on Eddie. 

   Eddie was not familiar with using weapons as his forte was hand to hand combat but still he did his best to teach me how to properly use the sword and the wooden staff, I supplemented this with the videos I watch on the internet whenever I get home.

   I wanted to practice using weapons because I felt that in the event that my magic would finally manifest I could use weapons as a medium for my magic.

   I got this idea from Eddie from how he was able to manifest and use his magic. 

On our first day Eddie showed me the nature of his magic. 

   Apparently the sentient magic that grants powers grants its users two abilities, one primary one, and a secondary or less powerful one that is meant to compliment the first ability, or a slight boost to a persons magic if they ever have one, this being extremely rare as there are very few in the world that possess magic according to Eddie. 

   Eddie's magic manifested itself into two things, His Primary ability gave his body extreme durability, when he still possessed all of his power he was able to take on barrages of bullets. 

   Bullets, knives, and other blades were not able to pierce his skin and it made him a lot stronger physically. 

His secondary  ability made use of his ability to take hits from from anything by allowing him to convert how hard he is hit into strengthening his punches or making him faster. 

   The way Eddie explained his power to me is that wherever he is hit, by a punch or a bullet or a blade or whatever, that part of his body glows gold, much like color changing shoes that change color from exposure to heat. 

The harder he is hit the more that part would glow and the more power he could draw out from it.

Whenever we would spar he would often be basked in this golden glow as he took in all the hits.

   Whenever Eddie consumed the the hits he took in, 

   he would lose his glow and he would then begin to emit steam from his body as he converted it into power. 

With this he was able to increase his punching strength and his speed depending on how much power he could convert from the hits. 

   He told me that he had multiple different forms depending on how much power he has. I have only been able to witness his weakest form "Stockpile first form" allowed him to use the power he converts into any form of quick burst in movement. 

   It allowed him to have sudden bursts in speed when running and also when punching, which I learned the hard way being from the receiving end. 

   Upon learning about Eddie's magic it made me want to get my magic faster so I could finally tailor my training to the magic that I possess and so that I can hone it as fast as possible. 

For the next few weeks or so I spent my time training my ass off and on my free time trying to manifest my magic. 

   Eddie told me that I should be able to feel it coursing through my body as I activate it but so far still no progress. As I continued my training we met my first ever adversary on our way to the grove at the foot of the mountain.

Luckily there are no people here, the mysterious figure says. 

   I steeled myself knowing that I am about to fight with a person who's out looking to kill me. 

   I also had to keep in mind that I still hadn't manifested my magic yet and that Eddie can't back me up in 1 on 1 fights as the lingering sentient magic from his body forbids him from participating. 

   Welp, this might be my moment to awaken my magic, I think to myself as I charge in.