Paramount Magus

I smiled at his snide remark but couldn't even get myself to retort. After all it really feels like I could fight a dragon right now, my body feels stronger yet lighter at the same time.

But simultaneously I got a whiff of myself and realized he wasn't lying about the smell, all the impurities I cleared out of my channels to make room for mana oozed out of my skin during the awakening process, leaving Alaric to clean up the floor while shooting him a middle finger and a smile I went to the bathroom to have a quick bath.

After scrubbing myself thoroughly, and multiple times. I finally got out of the tub and could process the progress I made.

And the results are simply astounding.

My thoughts run faster and my senses feel heightened. I know it's the resort of mana passively running through my body.

And it feels nothing short of amazing. I've never felt so strong in my life.

I put clothes on after checking myself out for a couple minutes and went to see Alaric with a big smile on my face.

"So what ever happend to that spar?"

He smiled and led me to the backyard, we grabbed wooden swords from the rack leaning against the house before leaving.

Most mages use weapons, after all each level of magic makes your body much stronger then the last, not to mention reinforcing your body further by augmenting the speed of its circulation. So it's important to get a good head start on weapon mastery while you can.

So for the past year and couple months Alaric has been beating my ass and making me workout constantly, and teaching me different weapons and the proper way to use them.

The worst part, or the best part depending on how you see it. Is that Alaric is an accomplished healer, who is very profound in his use of the light element.

After beating me senselessly he's always ready to test out new healing spells that don't even work half the time.

But from constantly getting beaten and broken, and my muscles strained and recovered over and over again, I've made some ridiculous progress.

Even though it doesn't feel like it, after all I'm just getting beaten constantly.

But I trust my mentor and his methods, he told me I'm in the middle of the pack that kids should be my age for swordsmanship, not too high not too low, and im at a similar level with spearmenship, which is quite astonishing for only having a year to catch up.

Even better my physical shape should be almost unmatched. Working in the mines all those years did wonders for building me a decent structure of muscle, after all we were suprisingly well fed in the mines, no gourmet foods, but foods high in well needed nutrients to keep people working 24/7.

Yet despite all that I can never seem to win against my teacher, even while he's matching his physical qualities to mine. It's quite disheartening somtimes, but I know I'm making progress and that's all that matters.

Anyways I have to shake off these thoughts and focus before I get my ass beat.

Alaric readied his wooden sword.

"Im going to go a little faster then usual brat, your body is reinforced with mana now, even if your not using it to its full potential the passive effects are noticeable enough."

Alaric paused then simply said

"I'm starting now."

And before I could even register his words he was already infront of me, swinging directly at my left hip.

Due to inexperience of my new strength, and because of the speed and precision of the strike I barley got my sword up in time and managed a flimsy block that instantly opened my guard.

Alaric seemingly teleported behind me and then kicked me directly in the nuts.

"WHAT THE FUCK OLD MAN"

I managed to groan as I was rolling in the dirt while holding my precious jewls.

This fucking old man is trying to make it so I can't have children someday.

Alaric still standing above me, started walking back towards his starting position, giggling the whole way there, and I swear to fuck I saw a little hop in his step.

"I'm just helping with your pain tolerance."

He stated shamelessly.

Fucking geizer.

After taking a minute to recover aswell as I could, I stood up to face Alaric again, and if you ignore the slight shaking my legs were doing, I was ready to face him again.

This time I won't be caught off guard by the initial burst.

Alaric nodded at me and then said.

"I'm starting again, guard your nuts this time."

And then he was gone again, but this time I was ready, he was doing a different swing this time, a two handed overhead swing. Not having time to do anything else I raised my sword to parry his blow to the side.

"BANG"

His sword slid off mine almost perfectly, but before I could capitalize he had already recovered and was swinging at my waist with a diagonal swing.

This fucking old man is many things, annoying, lacks time management, rude, a dick and more, but no one could ever call him weak.

Not having much time I attempted to block his hit head on.

"BOOM"

The second his sword hit mine I knew I'd be blown away, so I jumped back with the force, letting it carry me with it. I landed not so gracefully but I rolled onto the ground to cushion the fall.

I stood up right away and attempted to thrust at his chest, only for him to parry the blow and stab me with his wooden sword directly in the stomach.

And I was on the floor once again, this time puking all over our arena, Alaric doesn't seem to be pulling his punches today.

We continued for an hour and a half of straight duels, and at the end my body was completely bruised and battered. Alaric healed me with his light magic pretty quickly though.

Atleast I'm giving the old man some practice on his healing magic, I have a certain feeling that's why he enjoys beating me so thoroughly.

Overall today was different, but in a good way, the spars were shorter than usual but quicker and deadlier. I can feel myself growing with every duel. Especially now that my body is passively influenced by mana.

These duels felt different then the other ones we've had. After all I could somewhat keep up with Alaric's movements for once,even though I knew he was holding back a fuck ton.

I knew the mana circling inside of my channels had made me much stronger but I didn't realize how much untill right now.

My thought process was never ending and quicker then ever before, my movements improved by mana were stronger and quicker, my agility and endurance seemed to spike to a noticeable degree too.

An overall body enchantement, that's what I got for five minutes of pain, well worth it if you ask me. I might not be able to slay dragons yet, but this is definitely an improvement.

Alaric walked over to me, I was still laying on the ground from being beaten.

"Good job today Sylas, I'm proud of what you've accomplished today."

I don't know why but I started tearing up a bit. Probably because my teacher called me my name instead of brat, doofus or retard, maybe because my eyes were still swelled up from getting beaten over and over.

Or maybe because I've never had someone say they were proud of me that earnestly.

"Shut up old man."

Is all I could get myself to say before closing my eyes for a well needed nap, but not before seeing Alaric shoot me a wide smile.

"Goodnight doofus."

End of chapter 3