Here is chapter 3 hope you all like it

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Waking up I notice that a couple of spheres are pressing against my right arm. Hmmm, yep, it Melody’s mountains. Now I have to be extra careful to move without waking her up. Don’t want to be rude since it is just barely getting light outside, so it must be early in the morning. I quickly exchange my arm for my pillow with timely success.

That was quite a night. Maybe it’s just a one-time thing or not. Personally I think this is going to happen again, however I have other things to attend to. Walking over to my gigantic wardrobe I put on some light leather boots and pants. Along with a black undershirt with some light leather chest armor and gloves. They did say I’m going to train today so it would

be better than casual clothes.

Plus I’m a the leader of a clan so I need to look strong, even though all of the other people here could kick the shit out of me. Anyways once I’m done suiting up, I leave the room because my clap-clap gesture would wake up Melody. And just as Drake said, a ninja appears out of nowhere, kneeling, and waiting for my orders.

“Sir!”

“Uhm, yeah so where is breakfast?” Scratching my head confused, he then tells me to follow him to the dining hall.

Along the way ninjas would be like shadows descending from somewhere and taking a kneeling position every few steps or so. I can only imagine where they might have been hiding the whole time. The ceiling looks empty. I pity anyone else who might try to intrude upon this fortress.

Which poses the question: How have they lived incognito for so long? I went ahead and asked.

“Sir, that is because they never get near enough to the castle and its surrounding area, since we immediately dispose of them. Furthermore if any humans get close we can spread our senses using ki and tell where they are. It is an advantage over the humans we have. Human mages can only sense mana in another being. Since we don’t have mana, they cannot tell where we are. There are also other countermeasures we have for staying hidden. Our location is a big factor too. Elves naturally don’t explore very far throughout their lands. They are content to stay in their villages and a small radius around it. Humans are the conquest race. They cannot gain enough land. Nothing is too much for them.”

“How’s that any different from what the elder was saying yesterday about going against the humans?”

“Well the goal is different. We want revenge plain and simple, not to take back our land. Taking back our land would be a secondary goal if we finished the first.”

Right after he finishes his explanation we enter the dining room. Again it’s much larger than expected. Also the two elders

Vandel and Knife are sitting across from each other. They both stand and bow, which is kind of awkward so I just wave hello and go to sit at the head of the table. At least, that’s where the last plate is so I assume that’s my chair.

After sitting down several maids enter with an array of different dishes with all kinds of food types I have never seen.

They are both staring at me, when I realize I’m supposed to eat first.

“So you said I’m going to be training today?” I ask hesitantly.

“Yes sir, after breakfast we’ll go out to the training grounds to test your strength, speed and endurance. After that I will decide on a training method based on your skill. However when we are out there please understand that I will not be treating you as Clan Head, you will be my student.” [Vandel]

Sounds easy enough. It’s still hard to feel like a leader, so this could be a stress relief.

How wrong I was…

-----1 hour later----

“You have no skill whatsoever. All the muscles in all the wrong places for our clan’s martial arts.”

That’s Vandel’s summary after seeing me do exercises.

“So what do I do to condition myself for the right style?”

“You have enough upper body muscles, but the clan emphasizes speed and agility, rather than strength and defense.

Warriors (humans) tend to focus on strength so they just add muscle weight and don’t give a flying fuck about anything else. Using ki we gradually gain a better defense as we have breakthroughs. You already have a solid defense that puts you ahead of the others, however it is still not good enough. A mage or a magically enhanced warrior can still give you serious injuries.

Right now, your muscles need to mostly be in your lower body to give you more speed. After that our techniques will be easier for you to learn. As of today you will wear 50 johk (pound equivalent) weights on each leg and only take them off when you sleep and bathe. Also do you already know any meditation techniques?”

“Yes grandfather taught me how to do ‘Resting Talonbane’.”

“WHAT?!”

“Oh? Is it that great?”

“Y-yes of course it is! It is one of the greatest meditation techniques only known by a select few individuals. I don’t even know it. Everyone else’s are only pseudo version of that. If you can please use it for the next 2 hours and I will be back after that to tell you about your endurance training.”

Nodding my head, I then sit down in lotus position and close my eyes. I have to create an image in my mind of my body and the red/black strands that come from my fingertips. Now that I can see the strands, the next step is to separate the strand from my fingers and move them along my body to my chest. Slithering like a snake along my skin, the strands meet where my sternum is and form several circles like a bullseye alternating between black and red strand-circles.

From what Gramps told me, when doing this you take two layers (one black, one red) and peel it away from the bulls-eye.

Once they are unattached you move those to an area which you want to destroy and rebuild. It’s similar to a breakthrough, but controlled. This is only usable with my ancient technique ‘Resting Talonbane’. Truly ‘form’-idable, hehehe

Right now I need to give more strength to my legs. Moving the two strands together down to my left leg, I put them in position over my calf muscle. The red strand destroys, while the black strand rebuilds. To destroy I have to move the red strand in a circular motion counter-clockwise. Like unscrewing with a screwdriver. Then I have to rotate the black strand in a clockwise motion, building the muscle back stronger. Think of it as removing and old screw to replace it with a new one.

Except I didn’t realize just how much strain this puts on the body!

*Crack* *POP*

“AAAAAAAHHHHH!!”

It feels as if I put my muscles against a cheese grater and slid back and forth, shredding them. The pain puts me on the edge of consciousness, threating to knock me out. Staying awake on pure willpower I start to rotate the black strand easing the pain a small amount.

If I rotate the black strand too fast it will not shape correctly and deform it. Which I will then have to do the procedure again. No telling how bad that will be. Trembling in pain and gritting my teeth I finally get to the end of the rebuilding and finish.

Now that I am done with my left leg I have a spark of curiosity, and send the strands up my legs and back to my chest to re-attach themselves to the bullseye instead of going to my other leg. Slowly peeling off each layer at a time I move them back to the original positions before the meditation. As a side note, the stronger I get the more red/black double strand layers I will be able to peel off at a time. So right now my limit is 1 double layer. Since there are 10 strands there are 5 layers of two. Meaning 5 double layers. Using 2 double layers would mean I could do both of my legs calf muscles at one time.

Later on Vandel would tell me that my father could only get to the 3rd double layer while he was alive. That’s another tale for another time though.

Now I only have one new enhanced muscle on my left leg. Exiting meditation and standing up from my lotus position, the pain from the rebuilding is mostly gone. Now for the experiment.

I jump up using my right leg only, and it’s the normal one, so nothing great happens. I only get about 2-3 feet. Then I use my left leg and there is a major difference. I jump about 4-5 feet. Holy shit, that’s high!

I must really look like an idiot right now. I can just imagine all the ninjas hiding and watching me right now.

Now that I can do this is makes me wonder what would happen if I rebuilt my finger several times. Maybe I could flick a boulder at someone. Or if I rebuilt my eyes? I think I’ll wait on that one. I’m not very confident that would work.

I quickly sit down and work on my right leg before the 2 hour time limit finishes.

------After 2 hours-----

“Along with endurance you will also learn balance. The trees around here aren’t like normal trees. The branches on these trees are very hard to break. They can also grow on mountains, and that’s where your endurance training is going to be.

You will be jumping from limb to limb scaling the mountain. If you fall off once, you will start over. Furthermore you will be wearing the leg weights. The mountain is not completely vertical. It has an angle similar to a hill. Each time you fall make a small cut mark on a high branch to tell how far you got. You will do this all day, and are allowed to bring food in a backpack. However you cannot touch the ground at all. Any time you touch the ground you have to start over. I don’t care if you have to stick your ass out of the tree and shit off the side of the branch, you cannot tough the ground. People will be watching your progress so don’t even think about cheating hehehe.”

I think Vandel is a sadist. Definitely a sadist! And that mountain is gigantic!

Time to be one with the forest and jump through trees like a monkey.