The first phase of their training began at dawn.
Adam woke up with Kaelrik's boot pressing against his ribs.
"Up," Kaelrik said simply.
Adam groaned, muscles aching from the previous day's ordeal. His body was still sore from the one-strike test, yet Kaelrik was ready to drag him into hell.
Seren, who had just barely rolled out of her sleeping mat, winced as she saw Adam struggling to his feet. "You sure you didn't break a few ribs?"
Kaelrik ignored her. "From today on, your bodies are mine to mold. You will eat when I tell you to eat. Sleep when I allow it. And fight when I say fight."
Adam wiped the sleep from his eyes. "Sounds like a dictatorship."
Kaelrik smirked. "It is."
Kaelrik gathered them both, standing in the cold dawn air.
"Twelve months," he said. "Your training will last for 12 months like I said and splitted into 3 phases with each phase lasting 4 months. First, physique. Then, power. Lastly, skill."
"Since you seem to have an explosive potential to grow and a strong will to endure" Kaelrik added. "I will go all out with your training schedule to make you strong in a short time. I believe it's not about how long one trains but how hard one trains."
He looked at Adam. "During the rigorous physical training you will undergo in this first phase, you are not allowed to use any of your special abilities. No energy blasts. No heat vision. Nothing. You will only use your body and your body alone throughout this phase because it is purely based on building a physically strong martial body"
Adam and Seren exchanged glances.
Kaelrik smirked. "Now let's begin."
Phase One: Body Before Power
Kaelrik's first lesson was brutal.
"Stamina," he barked, tossing Adam a bundle of weighted clothes. "Wear these. Always. Until I say otherwise."
Adam frowned, feeling the weight drag his shoulders down. The clothes were lined with dense mana-infused material, designed to resist movement.
"This is nothing," Adam muttered, adjusting the straps.
Kaelrik's smirk was almost cruel. "We'll see."
The first task? Run.
Up the mountain.
Then down.
Then up again.
By the third ascent, Adam's muscles burned despite his superhuman endurance. The weighted clothes weren't just heavy—they drained energy constantly, forcing him to exert far more strength for even the simplest movements.
Kaelrik observed without comment, occasionally correcting Adam's posture with sharp words.
"Shoulders back. Stop dragging your feet. You do like you expect your strength to solve everything."
It was humbling. Infuriating. Necessary.
Even Seren, watching from the sidelines, winced at the sight of Adam collapsing near the summit after the tenth circuit.
…
A month had passed since Adam begun his physical training. The first month was sheer torture.
Every morning, he had to climb the mountain ten times carrying progressively heavier weights tied to his back, run vast distances to and fro, do extreme cardio like push ups with a boulder on his back, long squats while lifting a boulder, planking for hours while having a dagger planted in the floor just below his chest, Balancing on wooden stakes while carrying jugs of water and many more.
There's also the monster fighting schedule, he would occasionally fight a hand to hand combat with dangerous monsters every week.
Every now and then, he was thrown into the wilderness without weapons and forced to survive the night and fight off beasts with his bare hands.
Kaelrik called it the Survival Fest. Adam called it an absolute nightmare.
The worst part? Kaelrik made no effort to protect him.
If Adam got injured, he had to deal with it. If he ran out of energy, he had to push through it.
And if he complained?
Kaelrik just flicked a pebble at him so hard that it sent him sprawling.
By the second month, Adam ran for miles without rest, planking for hours while Kaelrik sat on his back drinking herbal tea and swinging swords ten thousand times regularly.
Kaelrik even went as far as poisoning his food just to teach him how to purge toxins using his core.
"If you don't learn," Kaelrik had said, watching him struggle, "then you die."
Adam had never eaten more carefully in his life after that.
The training got harder as Adam got stronger, Kaelrik increased the weights he had to lift, the distance he had to run, he raised all the bars.
One time, Adam in his normal routine of climbing the mountain.
Then Kaelrik pointed to a massive boulder not too far from them
"Carry that up the mountain. Now."
Adam barely caught it, his legs nearly buckling under the weight. He didn't even have time to question it—Kaelrik was already walking away.
Seren snorted. "Oh, this is going to be fun."
Kaelrik turned to her. "You. Get on top of him."
Seren blinked. "…Excuse me?"
Kaelrik crossed his arms. "He's strong enough to carry you, isn't he? If he wants to build his body, he'll carry extra weight."
Adam scowled. "You're joking."
Kaelrik didn't even smile. "You have five seconds before I add another rock."
Seren hesitated for a moment before shrugging. "Alright."
She hopped onto Adam's back like it was nothing.
Adam gritted his teeth. "This isn't dignified at all."
Kaelrik simply smirked. "Get climbing."
Seren's Growth
While Adam was being molded into an unbreakable warrior, Seren's training took a different path.
Kaelrik had her refining her swordplay—not by teaching her new techniques, but by forcing her to perfect what she already knew.
"You hesitate," Kaelrik had told her. "Your mind is split between instinct and thought. That's why your strikes feel incomplete."
Seren frowned. "I don't hesitate."
Kaelrik flicked her forehead.
She blinked. "Did you just—?"
"You hesitated just now," Kaelrik interrupted.
Seren's eye twitched.
From then on, Kaelrik pushed her into countless sparring sessions where she was forced to react without overthinking. Her instincts had to become sharper.
He also noticed something strange.
"You should have unlocked aura by now," Kaelrik mused one evening, watching her fight.
Seren paused mid-swing. "What do you mean?"
Kaelrik narrowed his eyes. "Your swordsmanship is past diamond class. But your aura hasn't manifested. It's like something is blocking it."
Seren felt a cold chill run down her spine.
She knew why.
Kaelrik's piercing gaze lingered on her for a moment, but he didn't press further.
Instead, he handed her a manual.
"Read this. It's a technique for refining your core and clearing your mind."
Seren hesitated before accepting it. "What's it called?"
Kaelrik turned away. "Iron Will."
Despite the hellish training, Adam and Seren occasionally found moments of levity.
One evening, Adam returned from the survival fest, covered in dirt, bruises, and scratches.
Seren, who had finished her sparring drills earlier, smirked as he collapsed near the fire. "Rough night?"
Adam groaned. "You have no idea. A razorkin tried to eat my face off."
Seren chuckled. "I mean, to be fair, you probably looked like an easy meal."
Adam threw a stick at her.
She dodged, grinning. "Missed."
The two laughed, the exhaustion momentarily forgotten.
Unbeknownst to them, Kaelrik watched from a distance.
His sharp eyes lingered on them for a moment before he turned away. "They have potential," he murmured.
Progress and Pain
Months passed.
Adam's body transformed.
His movements became sharper, his strength more refined. His speed increased, his balance improved, and his stamina nearly tripled.
By the time the fourth month ended, Adam stood taller, his body no longer burdened by its former weaknesses.
Kaelrik observed his progress one evening as Adam effortlessly carried a massive boulder over his shoulder.
The swordmaster smirked. "You're ready for the next phase."
Adam grinned, his golden eyes burning with anticipation.
Seren stepped forward as well, her aura beginning to stir beneath the surface.
"Let's see how far we can go," she said.
Kaelrik turned to both of them.
"The real training begins now."