“Looks like you’ve been training hard.” Said Lark, standing before a sweaty Karim.

“The same as always.” Replied Karim grabbing a nearby towel to wipe himself with.

Rolling his eyes Lark made himself at home, finding a comfy chair to sit on and kicking his feet up.

“You’ve been here about a week, what have you been up to?” asked Lark.

“I could ask you the same thing. Aren’t you supposed to be training me?” said an expressionless Karim. However, to Lark who had spent a lot of time with him the subtle change in his usual tone was enough for him to understand that Karim was angry.

“That bad, huh? We can talk about it if you want.”

“Not necessary.” Said Karim who moved to the wardrobe to change into new, less sweaty clothes.

“Anyway, sorry I couldn’t be here. I had some family stuff I needed to take care of, been a while since I was back home so a lot of things had piled up.” Lark said, raising his voice so that Karim could hear.

“Everything okay?” Karim asked a few minutes later having changed into loose fitting wear.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t but anyway, enough about me. I came today because your father asked me too.”

“Father?” A thought suddenly occurred to Karim quickly brightening his face up in excitement.

“Oh, it looks like you were expecting this.” Lark then unfastened a small pouch bag from his waist and waved in front of Karim. “In this storage bag, there is all the enhancements you could need, custom made for your constitution. Made personally by your grandfather from what I am told.”

The storage bag was one of the items crafted by Spirit Engineers using beast cores as well as various parts from specific spirit beasts that had the ability to store a large number of items within their bodies without increasing their mass.

Spirit engineers combine these materials using specific tools of their trade along with the requisite skills and the result is the storage bag. A device that despite its small size could fit full carloads of items inside. Their difficult production makes them rare, exclusive to the Nobles and the wealthy.

Looking at the current Karim, Lark couldn’t help but shake his head.

“I would give you the bag but for obvious reasons I don’t trust you. Besides, it’s my job to design the training regimen so the storage bag stays with me, and I administer its contents to you accordingly.”

Disappointed but understanding of the circumstances, Karim nodded in acknowledgement.

“What enhancements exactly are in there?” He said, pointing to the bag.

“There’s pills to help you recover faster after training so that you can train some more after. There are pills to help you digest the energy from the spirit food you consume faster, this way you can eat, train till your tank is empty, and eat again in short succession. A fulfilling life if you ask me.” The joke at the end did not elicit the desired response from Karim, who was still seriously and attentively listening.

“Is that all?” He asked.

Whirly smiling Lark continued, “There’s medicine to clear the poisons lurking in your body.”

“Wait, poison?” Karim interrupted.

“Well, I call it poison but think of it more like impurities. After all, the number of pills you will be ingesting from now on will be to put it bluntly, enormous. Regardless, of how good for you they are or how well they are made, they will leave residual energy in your body which with time will accumulate to the point that the impurities will hinder your progress or worse lead to the development of a sickness.”

“So, the medicine clears these impurities from my body?”

“Exactly, just take one a week and after a long trip to the toilet all the bad, residual foreign stuff will be flushed away.” Laughed Lark.

“Anything else?” asked Karim, eager as ever for with each new type of pill Lark introduced, he could already foresee his rate of improvement skyrocketing.

His need to rapidly improve stemmed almost solely from the motivation provided by the still terrifying force within him however, not for the reasons one may think.

The main motivating factor remained fear however, the other factor was vague as Karim himself was not too sure about it but if he improved enough, he was convinced that he would get his answers and with them he could confirm a certain theory of his.

“There’s medicines that replace sleep which we’ll be using sparingly. Healing pills for micro injuries that you will develop from the intensive training, and some stomachache medicine because believe me, you will get stomach aches. The amount of spirit food you’ll be consuming is no joke and the part of your body that’s processing that into energy is not going to be happy, so this medicine is especially important as it will save you from things like exploding, paralysis and other nasty things. So, we’ll be using this a lot and you will be visiting the toilet just as often.” Said Lark, smiling upon seeing the frown on Karim’s face.

“Think of using the bathroom as part of being Hayawani. We devour a lot of things and not everything can be converted to energy that we can use, and that waste must go somewhere. The more you eat, the more spirit medicine you ingest, the more you train, basically you’ll be pooping a lot until you can increase your capacity enough to the point where you can ingest spirit food that is purer with less waste material.”

“Is that all?” replied Karim.

“I can’t list everything, there’s just too much. A lot of stuff we won’t even need. Your father even included dozens of spirit items to aid in your training so don’t worry about what we’ll use just that it’ll help you get stronger.” Said Lark, fastening the bag back onto his waist.

“Okay, so how will I be training?” A curious Karim asked.

“What do you mean? We’ll still be lifting and running like always. Maybe the intensity and frequency will change but fundamentally, your training remains the same.” Replied Lark.

“What about things like combat training, how to use weapons, survival lessons.” Wondered a shocked Karim.

“Huh? Why would I teach you that?” wondered Lark. “The Imperial Academy and the House will arrange the rest, don’t worry.”

“But wouldn’t learning earlier be to my benefit? Why waste time?” Karim couldn’t wrap his head around it.

“As your teacher it looks like I didn’t do a good enough job explaining so I’ll put it like this. For the common Hayawani, practice, effort and hours of learning is how they acquire most of their skills but Nobles are different. They aren’t just born with innate elements, they also have the best devouring talent, they embody what it means to be Hayawani.”

“What it means to be Hayawani?”

“Correct. We devour the efforts of others in order to strengthen ourselves; I’ve told you this before. And for those exceptionally talented that means being able to devour much more than just energy.” Explained Lark.

“Things like what?” Karim asked, his widened dark eyes seemingly glowing with intrigue.

“Things like…what you’ll learn at the Imperial Academy a month from now. If I tell you everything now, what will your teachers have to do? Besides, your father will tell you more when he decides as it concerns matters of the House as well.”

“What’s the point of this? Just tell me.”

“Hmm, I don’t want to.” Said Lark, on the verge of bursting out into laughter.