In the afternoon, Ilario went to the training ground for training.

Lyra and Oliver were waiting for him. Oliver said nothing but put the stone bracelets on his waists and ankles. It was heavier than yesterday.

Ilario warmed up himself with the double sets of training. He run 80 laps, swung sword 200 sets, run across the logs 40 sets, and climbed up and down 20 sets. Apart from number of sets, he must do everything faster. It had tired him. He was sweating and taking some rest.

“I will teach you how to shoot the arrow,” said Lyra, she came toward him and handed him mini bow and arrows for child. She led him to the archery training area.

“See my posture. Stand and assume the stance, load the arrow with it nock, rise and draw string bow toward face as much as you can, hold and point to the target and then release arrow,” Lyra explained and showed him the posture step by step, “try after me.”

She repeated all the posture and observed him at once.

He followed her and shot an arrow to the target but he missed. It fell down to the ground before it reaches to the target. He thought that he must have done something wrong or his body was not strength enough.

“You didn’t draw the string hard enough. Try again,” Lyra said.

Ilario drew string harder, he used all of his strength, and then shot arrow to the target. It reached to the target but it did not hit to the inner center, it hit to the outer of the target instead.

“You’re still out of focus. Try again. Focus your eyes on target, hold the bow after drew the string, point the arrow as follow as your eyes focus on and release it,” Lyra said.

Ilario drew the string again. He concentrated and focused on the inner target, and then shot with all of his strength. An arrow hit near the inner center.

“Good, try to focus and practice more,” Lyra said.

Ilario shot the arrows many times, some arrows hit near the inner center, but he still could not shoot the arrow to hit the inner target.

His hand was bleeding in scratches after drew string many times, it hurt but he must continue to practice.

“That’s enough for today,” Lyra said after she saw his slow movement. She guessed that he cannot practice more.

He healed himself after Lyra and Oliver left.

***

In the next morning, Ilario went to training ground directly. Mr. Marius, one of elders, was waiting for him. He saw a magic symbol mark in shape of shield and crossed swords on back of his right hand.

“Hello, I’m Marius.” Mr. Marius greeted and smiled at him.

“I heard about you from Mr. Mercury. My name is Ilario. Nice to meet you.” Ilario greeted him back.

“I will teach you how to control and fight with magic power,” Mr. Marius said, “I heard that you could not control fire magic power well. Let me see how much you can control. Try to activate small fire ball first.”

Ilario concentrated and imagined a very small fire ball, then activated Fire Magic Power. The result was as same as the last time he activated. It seemed that it was the minimum power of him. He could not reduce its size even how hard he tried to imagine.

“Activate again and hold it, then concentrate and reduce its size bit by bit. Do not rush. It will affect to your emotion and the result will be the worst or magic exploded. Take your time,” Mr. Marius said.

Ilario activated the fire ball again, the size was the same, he followed the instruction from Mr. Marius’s guide. He was holding the fire ball and try to reduce its size slowly. It took time for a while until he could reduce an inch of its radius. He stopped and took some rest. It tired him so much just to reduce its size an inch.

“Recall the feeling when the size reduced, then try to activate again,” Mr. Marius said.

After heard the instruction from Mr. Marius, Ilario got some idea. He tried to reduce the power gathering inside his body before released it out as less as he could. He imagined a small fire ball, and then activated. It was a success. He could activate a small ball as his imagination.

“How could you do that?” Mr. Marius asked. He looked at him with surprise.

“Oh…I got some idea from what you told me. Instead of reducing it outside, I reduced the magic power gathering inside my body before released and activated it. I just think that I should try to control the magic power inside my body first,” said Ilario honestly.

“You’re very clever. It’s the correct way but it’s hard to do so. That’s why I didn’t teach you since the beginning. Well, try to activate again by making a small fire ball, then changing to be a big fire ball,” Mr. Marius said.

Ilario activated a small fire ball first, there was no problem, then he slowly increased his power to make it a big fire ball.

“Try to make a shape of hummingbird next,” Mr. Marius said.

Ilario imagined about hummingbird, then activated a fire hummingbird. He thought he made it success, but it turned out to be a fire hummingbird in size of eagle.

“Well done. I think you have no problem with the power control. Just practice more to make it perfect. I think you can do it within a short period of time,” Mr. Marius said and smiled at him.

“I will show you how to activate magic power for attack,” Mr. Marius said and activated ‘Wind Slashing’ to cut off the target into 2 pieces as if he used a sharp sword to cut it from far distance.

“‘Wind Slashing’ is one of abilities of wind magic power. Its shape was sharp like invisible blade. It generated from wind magic power, which can shoot it away to slash the target from far distance. The damage is up to magic power and the speed. Try to active it,” Mr. Marius said.

Ilario activated “Wind Slashing” to slash the target. He could not cut off the target like Mr. Marius, he only made a scratch on it.

“Try again. You should cut off the target which made from wood at least,” Mr. Marius said.

He gathered more magic power and activated “Wind Slashing” again. He finally cut off the target this time. It also made a scratch at the wall behind.

“Good, that’s enough for today,” Mr. Marius said and left.

Ilario went back to treehouse and took some rest. He was exhausted, he used too much magic power today.

Ms. Carina prepared lunch for him as usual. She was taking care of him kindly.

“I will prepare soy milk for you. So, you can drink when you come back. It will help you grow up fast,” said Ms. Carina, she smiled at him gently.

“Thank you,” Ilario said and bowed his head to her.

Ilario went to the training ground. His afternoon training became part of daily routine. The same training set but he must do it double.

Oliver said nothing and put the heavier stone bracelets on his waists and ankles as usual.

Ilario run 160 laps, swung sword 400 sets, run across the logs 80 sets, and climbed up and down 40 sets. He continued to shoot the arrows until he hit the inner center of target. He succeeded in shooting at the fifth times.

“I will teach you how to shoot arrow to the moving target. You need to hold string, catch up the movement of target, predict it next movement, then shoot the target,” Lyra said and showed him how to shoot the moving target. She easily shot at a log which Oliver threw in the air.

Oliver started to throw many logs in the air by changing to many directions.

Ilario tried to shoot but he missed many times. He concentrated and focused on target and shoot again and again until he finally hit one of moving targets.

“That’s enough for today,” Lyra said and left.

“You can take a rest tomorrow,” said Oliver, he took off the stone bracelets and left.

Ilario went back to treehouse. He saw Ms. Carina was preparing dinner.

“Is there anything I can help you?” Ilario asked.

“Oh my…It’s very kind of you. I just finished it. Take a seat and wait for a moment,” said Ms. Carina kindly.

She served all dishes on the table.

“How was your training?” Ms. Carina asked.

“It tired me as usual,” said Ilario honestly, “ah, I have no training tomorrow,”

“Oh, it’s good for you. How about looking around the village tomorrow?” Ms. Carina asked.

“Yes, that would be great,” said Ilario excitedly.

The next day, Ms. Carina led Ilario to look around the village. He behaved himself and followed her obediently. He did not want the other elves to dislike him because he must stay here for years. He also wanted to know more about elves and this village.

The land of elves’ village was very large. They zoned the area by using the center of village for residences and the outer area of village for other purposes.

Ms. Carina led Ilario to the apple orchard, large area, which have a lot of apple trees with plenty of apples on it.

“This apple orchard is the most important source to the young elves’ life. It’s the life force for young men elves and the fruit that make all the young elves be in good health. You can eat it. I also used it to make apple pie for you,” said Ms. Carina, she smiled at him gently. She used her magic to cut one of apples and gave it to him. Its size was bigger than the apple that he had seen in his previous life. Its taste was very sweet and its smell was very good.

Ms. Carina led him to the next area.

“This is vineyard. We planted the vines for eating and making wine,” Ms. Carina said, “we also have several kinds of vegetable farms in the other zone near the river. There are many young elves who have responsibility to take care and harvest all the crops here. Most of them have less magic power but they are good for farming. These crops are our fresh fruits and vegetables supply.”

The elves’ village was plentiful nature. The land was fertile. The feeling was like countryside, it was beautiful and peaceful.

We spent many hours to look around the village, and afterward we walked back to the treehouse.

Ilario went upstairs to his bedroom. He spent the entire afternoon reading a book ‘How to kill monsters’ which was given by Mr. Mercury. He needed to take time to read because there were a lot of monster types and details inside the book. It will be useful for him in the future.

***

3 years passed, Ilario was 8 years old.

In the past 3 years, Ilario got a lot of hard training as if he was a warrior who will go to war sooner or later. He was in excellent state of basic skills of fighting with magic power, armed and unarmed combat. However, the meaning of basic skills in the elves’ perspective, it was not the basic skills for human at all. They have a very high standard for everything, especially magic power and fighting.

Today, they throw the party to celebrate him for reaching the age of 8. They did not know his birthday but they counted his age from the day when he came here. It was like the party to celebrate the children who grow up enough to start learning the advance magic power.

Even though he got hard training since he was 5 years old, he felt grateful to them for all that they have done to him.

He sometime thinks that he might become a superhuman who possessed supernatural power after he trained everything from them.

All the elves attended the party, which hardly thrown in the elves’ village. They look so happy with it. The other young elves were friendly toward him, it took 2 years for them to be familiar with him.

There were a lot of foods and wine serving continually.

He wanted to drink a glass of wine but Ms. Carina looked at him intensely. He could tell from her expression that he should not drink it because it was not good to a child. She likes a nanny who was taking care of him since he was born. He gave up and drank soy milk instead.

“Are you ready for the fight tomorrow?” Oliver asked and smiled at him.

“I think I’m ready,” Ilario said calmly, even though his mind was still not ready yet.

“Just give it all. We will be fighting for real. It’s the best way to practice you. So, you can go for hunting with me. You can do it,” said Oliver, he smiled encouragingly at him.

Oliver was friendly toward him after he trained him for 2 years. He has told him recently that he was funny and did everything obediently. He said so because he did not know the fact that he complained him a lot, but in his mind.

“Do you hunt often?” Ilario asked curiously. Oliver trained him 6 days a week. He wondered how he can go for hunting.

“Yes, I do it often. Normally, I hunt 5 days a week but after you came, I can’t do that much. We hunt wild animals to use their parts and sell their meats to humans because we need human’s money to buy their products. There is a market in human village, near Magnus Forest. I will take you there after you won me once,” said Oliver delightedly.

“Can I use magic?” Ilario asked.

“Of course not! You must fight with armed combat as I trained you,” Oliver said.

“How can I win without magic?” Ilario asked honestly.

“Haha…you’ll have to try harder,” Oliver said.

“Yeah, I got it” said Ilario, he had a grim expression on his face. He must find new tactic to win against him.

Ilario was confident that he will have a chance to win if he can use magic power to fight him.

As a matter of fact, the young men elves have magic power at low to medium level. Even so, the level among the elves were higher than human level. Low level of elves means medium level of humans. Apart from magic power, the young men elves were outstanding in hunting skill. For that reason, Oliver was confident with his agility and combat.

Their hunting style was like assassin. They conceal themselves, wait for a chance to kill the target at once or make a great damage at first attack. All the attacks must be fast, sharp, and effective.

They trained the Bellators to be able to fight at restrict areas and distance areas. They use armed or unarmed combat for close combat, therefore they can fight by hand to hand, hand-held or hand-thrown weapon such as swords, and dagger knives. They use bow to shoot arrows in distance areas. They can fight with all kinds of situations and areas.

***