The Rising of the new forest king

Chapter 5: Training with Aerolic

"Get up. It's time to begin." Aerolic said.

"Why are you up so early?"

"If you want to get stronger you must train. Get up now."

"I'm up, I'm up."

"Good. Now go over there and continue what you did yesterday."

"I can't do that," I exclaimed, "it leaves me tired!"

"That's what I want. The best growth happens when you're exhausted."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes. Now get to it."

"Ok, ok." I said getting up. I walked over to the corner, and instantly almost fell over at the pure mana condensed there.

"Did I forget to say I put my mana in the corner to make it harder to train?"

"Yes you did!" I took a step forward. Every inch making it harder to breathe. When I got to where I was supposed to be, it was so hard to breathe that I had to take slow, deep breaths to stay alive. I went to sit down, but every move made my vision blurry. I fell forward, landing face first. I reached out with my right hand feeling for a support to lift myself on. I reached out further, desperately looking for something. To my relief my hand caught on a small, brown rock, which felt close to eroding. Using the rock as leverage I pulled myself into a sitting position. I started releasing mana slowly, my body resisting the release so hard that I could only release a very small amount every 10 seconds. The more mana I lost the harder it was to release it. After about an hour I realized that my mana was slowly countering Aerolic's mana, making it easier to breathe. I hung onto that fact, using it as a motive to release my mana as fast as I could. The corner exploded into purple black smoke, only in the corner though. Every second it got denser and darker, until it felt like a block of concrete. It was hard to move, yet easier than when it was in Aerolic's mana. I continued to release mana until I had none left. I stood up and walked shakily over to Aerolic. "I'm finished," I told Aerolic, "what now?"

"Now I want you to seal your mana in that corner, and every morning when you wake up, and night when you go to bed, pour more mana in there."

"I don't know how to seal mana!"

"Fine. I'll teach you. Walk over to the corner and touch your mana."

"Ok??" I walked over to the corner and reached out, touching the mana, confused.

"Now imagine forcing all the mana into a box, or in this case the corner."

I reached out and sent my senses into the mana. I pushed, trying to force it all into the corner, but it wouldn't move. I forced harder, slowly making it budge. I got half way to condensing it all when it started pushing back. I pushed harder, but at this point it felt like trying to push a brick wall with your mind. It started to stab at my brain, forcing its way out. I was startled at first but managed to keep pushing it back. My brain aching more with every push. By the time I finished, it felt like my brain would explode.

"Good now imagine a lock and make a wall and door. Place the lock on it and close it."

At that point I was struggling too much keeping the mana in place, so I couldn't respond. I used a little mana to make a barrier, and reinforced it with the mana in the corner, to where no mana could break free. I used what was left of my mana to make a lock and locked it in place. Using the mana in the cave's air to fortify the latch. I fell over exhausted.

"That's goo- fo- -oday" Aerolic said around my clothes as he pulled me back over to the place I had slept last night.(Aerolic is just older than a baby. He's around my size)

"Thank god," I said weakly, "I don't know how much more I could do today." I started to drift off to sleep as Aerolic set me down and started saying what I could have done if I wasn't so weak.

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"I can't believe that crazy old man. He really did plan on finding that kid. I thought he would change his mind and be back by now," I said as I sat down waiting, "I'll give him one more day; then I'm going home. He doesn't understand how scary that boy is. He probably thinks he's weak enough to mess with, but that kid.... That kid is a mon-...." I cut off hearing a loud thump nearby and branches breaking. "What was that!?!" I exclaimed, I need to stay calm, I told myself. I stood up and slowed my breathing. Feeling my heart go back to the steady bump.. bump.. bump.. as it slowed down. I walked towards the noise, determined to find out what happened. Luckly I did; because when I got there the old man was laying face down in the dirt with a giant muddy print on his back. I ran over to him and rolled him over checking his pulse. I breathed a sigh of relief feeling his pulse was still strong. I set his head down and whispered, "Thank god he's just asleep." I shook him a few times to try and wake him up. Much to my amazement it didn't work. I continued to try until eventually night fell again. I started reaching out to him with my magic, slowly getting more and more worried. After 5 more minutes of trying he slowly opened his eyes.

"Y-you have to listen to me," he whispered weakly, "that boy.. That boy."

"Yes I hear you. What about the boy?"

"H....he...... he will..... King."

"What about the king?"

"The boy......king of......the forest."

"He will be king of the forest?"

"He has... a strong spirit."

"Stop talking. Save your strength. I'll get you out of here." I picked him up, and ran to the house. I went to set him down, but he slid off me and hit the ground with a thud. "I'm so sorry," I began, but he cut me off.

"It's fine, I can already feel my strength returning. Whatever that boy had as a pet really is defensive. It pushed me down and sapped my strength. All I did was run back to tell you about my vision. I wonder where that boy ran off to though. I followed his blood for miles, but the trail ended just under 7 miles from where it started."

"Hmmm I don't know where he went.... Unless." I said as I pulled out a map. "There is an old abandoned hunter shack right around here." I drew a circle on the map. "It's about 14.5 miles away from here. Is it possible he went there?"

"Maybe... It is in the same direction the blood went. Should we check it out?"

"We could."

"Then lets get go-"

"BUT not today," I interrupted, "you're weak and need rest. We will leave tomorrow." I picked back up the map and said, " Good night." I walked to the only room in the house and laid down. "What an eventful day." I said drifting off to sleep.

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"Good morning," Aerolic said, waking me up.

"Good morning."

"Do your regular morning practices. We'll talk after."

"Ok, ok, ok. You're always demanding of those." I stood up and walked to the corner, pushing my way inside. My morning practices now consisted of putting all my mana into that space every morning. Because of the regular sapping of mana, my body evolved to get used to it. I increased my mana storage by triple in a week. After that I had to use some of the mana in the corner to make different tools and equipment. Like armor, swords, bows, and arrows. Sometimes even lockpicks. After each item was inspected by Aerolic, I had to dispel them. Putting the mana back into the corner. This taught me how to gain precise control of my mana. Today I decided to go above and beyond. After making the armor, I carved folds into the mana to make it look like scales. I even carved the sword to look rune laced. This time when Aerolic looked at it his eyes widened.