"When will he be back?" Tujitou asked as he sat in front of the hut with Tsander.
"If he can survive at least a year there alone then he'll be ready for the Lygis."
"What's the Lygis exactly?"
"The Lygis is a place ruled and maintained by the most powerful being known as Beyond. It's a place where the strong reign over the weak. The one to finish the Lygis will become the ruler and will receive Beyond as their loyal servant. Nothing you can imagine is impossible for Beyond. He can bring the dead back to life or create life, destroy and create universes, you name it. That's why most unleveled decide to go into the Lygis. Any unleveled is allowed to freely enter the Lygis. It may be free, but it is in no way easy. Only after an unleveled has passed the TOTS, will they be able to enter the Lygis and be called a leveled. But for now, let's focus on getting you there."
Tsander then picked up some firewood he had prepared earlier this morning and made a fire.
"Now Tuj, your training will be simple but hopefully quite effective. You'll have to observe this fire and try to understand it. The way the flames dance, how the flames consume the wood and everything else about it. Until you finish this, I won't let you do any other training except for your daily physical training."
"Sounds boring old man" Tujitou commented while he picked his nose.
Tsander grabbed a hold of Tujitou's head with one of his hands and started squeezing it.
"It seems I need to teach you some respect first" Tsander said with an annoyed look on his face.
"Ow ow ow okay okay I'm sorry old man I'll do it."
"Not enough strength I see" as he started squeezing harder as he got more annoyed.
"I'll be heading out for a while. I need to finish some things before Alexander returns."
After Tsander left, Tujitou sat in front of the bonfire. He sat there for hours not really knowing what to do except look at it. When needed, he put more firewood so the fire could keep burning. Eventually, he got bored and started doing his daily physical training while looking at the bonfire.
After he finished training, he laid down and kept looking at the fire.
"I don't get what's so important about this. Ugh, Isn't there any other way I can get stronger?"
He then looked up to the sky as he laid down on the ground and tried to create fire at the palm of his right hand. A small ember appeared, but faded away after meer seconds. This frustrated Tujitou. He then looked back at the bonfire and placed his hands in it.
'I feel the heat, but it doesn't bother or hurt me as it does to others. It actually feels nice. Feels almost like a small breeze blowing upwards. Sigh, what can I possibly do with this? I'll fall asleep at this rate. It's best if I just go and splash my face with some water.'
He walked to a river near their hut. The river was one of the very few river branches that came out of the Roshigi forest. When he arrived there, he kneeled down as he approached the shallow river, scooped up water and washed his face. He then looked at the reflection of himself in the water.
"I've spent so many hours just watching the fire and haven't learned anything yet. This is really depressing. It's becoming less fun to spar with Alexander. Every day he just widens the gap between us."
"Who are you talking to?"
Startled, he jumped into the river. He didn't know someone else was there with him. He then looked to see who made him ridicule himself. A girl, who seemed to be the same age as him, stood in front of him laughing. You'd be mesmerized when you looked at her eyes. They'd reminded you of the galaxy. Perhaps it was just plain violet, but it was somehow different. They seemed like some sort of stardust.
"I'm sorry. Here, let me help you up" she said as she extended her smooth chestnut brown hands out to help him up.
He grabbed ahold of her hand and stood up. Besides her mesmerizing eyes, one would also instantly fall in love with her long black curly hair.
"It's nice to just scare people like that, you know."
"Yeah, I'm sorry" she said as she chuckled.
"Who are you anyway?"
"I'm Moraña. Nice to meet you" she said with a warm smile on her face.
[Moraña]
Race: Unleveled Human
Gender: Female
Age: 7
Weight: 32kg
Height: 4'6"
Tujitou bursted out in laughter, which made her stand there confused.
"Nice to meet you MORON" he blurted out in laughter.
She immediately got infuriated and pushed him back into the water. Again he found himself soaking wet in the river and yet he kept laughing.
"Guess I asked for that one huh?"
"Hmph" she pouted.
He stood up. There was a moment of silence between them. Not because they found it awkward, but because Tujitou was focusing. After a couple of minutes, Moraña saw steam coming off of Tujitou. He had raised his body temperature to easily dry himself off. When Moraña saw this she had a faint smirk on her face.
'So he's an unleveled.'
"I'm sorry. I'm Tujitou Rozemidas, but you can call me Tuj" he implied as he extended his arm for a handshake.
She shook his hands and accepted his apology.
"What were you doing?"
"I came here to clear my mind. My dad gave me something to do to better control my gift, but it isn't really working out for me. What about you?"
"Uuuh well, I wanted some fresh air."
" So you're an unleveled too huh?" she said as if trying to change the topic.
"Well yeah. Wait, you're one too?"
"Well yeah of course. Let me show you."
She walked up to the river and kneeled down to touch the water. The second she touched the surface of the water, you could see a layer of thin ice forming on a small surface of the water. Tujitou was stunned by the fact that someone who was his age could better control their powers than him. He knew he had to train harder to not make her best him. This was the first time Tujitou met someone else besides Tsander and Alexander who had a gift. A single thought came into his mind "a new rival". Tujitou was someone who adored fun. The idea of having a new sparring partner excited him.
"Why do you want to go there?"
"You mean the Lygis?"
"Yes."
"I don't really have a reason. It's just that my brother wants to go there to find his mother and my father is a pretty strong leveled. So I just thought I had to go. Especially since I'm an unleveled and not a normal human. Plus I'll get to fight others there. So I'm pretty excited."
"Hmmm. Why don't you help your brother find your mother then?"
"Oh no, me and my brother aren't related. We were adopted by a leveled. We might not be related by blood, but we are by heart."
"That's nice. My father once told me that you won't make it far into the Lygis without a good reason. 'The Lygis isn't for the weak-willed' is what he always tells me."
"What's your reason then?"
"Well, my father is a very popular figure in the Lygis. So he doesn't have much time for me. So my reason for going is to be able to be by his side."
"My father is too, but he still makes plenty of time for us."
"I'm pretty sure my father is more popular than your father. After all, he is P-"
"Miss MORAÑA!" someone shouted in the distance. Moraña jumped up in surprise.
"Well, that's my cue to leave. It was nice meeting you. I hope we see each other again."
"Uuuh yeah", said Tujitou as they waved at each other as she ran away.
'Weird girl. Well, no time to bother with that anyway. Damn my shorts are still wet.'
Tujitou again raised his body temperature to dry off his clothes. Again the thought came into his mind. "How can I get stronger" he asked himself.
"Wait, that's it!"
…..
Tujitou returned to the hut. Tsander had already returned and was preparing dinner.
"Where did you wander off to? I hope you didn't forget your training."
"I was at the river and met a girl. Thanks to her I came up with something. I might not be able to control fire yet, but for now, I can do this."
Tujitou put his hand out and started focusing on it. After a minute or so his hand started glowing red.
"Yes! I knew I could do it! It might not be fire, but I bet it can do this."
He walked towards a pile of branches and picked one up with his red glowing hand. After a couple of seconds, it ignited into flames.
"Yes! I knew it. If I keep training this I should eventually be able to create fire instead of just heat."
"I'm proud of you son. I didn't expect you to come up with something like this within a few hours. It takes you a while before you can heat up your hand so keep training to shorten the amount of time you need and the temperature of the heat too. If you can raise it up more, you'll eventually be able to use fire instead."
"I will. Now, what's for dinner old man? I'm starving."
"Apparently this morning's lessons weren't enough huh brat?"
Tujitou and Moraña frequently met up with each other. Most of the time they spend together was used for sparring. Every time they met up with each other their session always ended with the same person calling out her name. They were already used to this. Even though 6 months had passed since they met each other, they still knew very little about each other. It's not that they never dared to ask, but it's that it never mattered to them. Tujitou saw Moraña as a new rival he could spar with whenever he wanted to and he even enjoyed the thought of it alone. Moraña saw Tujitou as her one and only true friend. She did not only enjoy Tujitou's company, but she also finally had a friend. Every time they sparred, they learned a lot from each other.
"26-13."
"I never imagined your potential to grow stronger would be this fast" Moraña picked herself off of the ground.
"Hehe" Tujitou smirked.
"Wanna go another round?"
"Sure let's make it 26-14."
"Getting a little too cocky don't you think?"
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