The early morning sun broke through the single window in my room. It was a small room, consisting of a single bed, a small table with a stub for a chair and an open fireplace that warmed the room. The walls were adorned with carvings of weird symbols and characters.

The thin wool blanket I was given, had surprisingly kept me warm under the night. Or maybe it was just the embers of the fireplace. As the dancing rays of light landed on my eyes, it forced me to wake up.

I was a bit frustrated at this since I had such a wonderful dream.

I was falling, but not plummeting. Slowly falling like a feather. However, I was not falling through the air, but some sort of black thick liquid, with some weird specks of dust that almost looked like eyes. As soon as I tried to look at them, they would turn away, looking the other way. But I knew they were watching me. I felt it. However, it wasn’t an uncanny feeling. It was comforting. I felt protected and I felt at peace.

So, when the sun woke me up, I was quite pissed.

Despite that, I got out of bed, dressed myself, stretched, picked up my sword and went down two floors to get some light breakfast with the money that I had.

”Porridge and bread.” The waitress said, dropping the food down on the table.

She seemed nervous. Her dress was covered in dirt, and she had bags under her eyes but it looked like she was trying to look her best.

I began to eat.

I felt the stares of the other patrons as I ate. It felt weird. It was like I was some exotic animal being swarmed by curious onlookers.

I tried to make eye contact but whenever I did, they would turn away acting like I didn’t catch them staring, and it wasn’t just the other patrons and the staff. I noticed a small crowd was standing by the window.

I finished up quickly and left my pay. I hurried out not wanting to be the center of attention. As I left the inn, I could hear the sound of a bell ringing out over all the districts.

That must be the first bell chime.

I walked down the broken roads, jumping between them like a frog jumping on lily pads. However, with each road I walked through the feeling of being observed only grew as I walked past more and more people.

I tried to ignore the stares by counting the money I had.

"5, 10, 20, 30 Oura. That would cover maybe a month or two for the room I'm staying at now..." I mumbled.

Even though I tried to get my mind off it, I could still hear their whispers.

"Is that really the giant half-breed that fought with the six finger girl yesterday?" One mumbled.

"Yeah, I saw it, he even used Form and it seems that he is with Johan." another said.

"LeBlanc? Really? Why would he waste his time with that addict?" a third asked.

"Maybe he is being held hostage?" one said laughing.

Ignoring them, I hurried past and got to the training field.

I looked around and noticed that Johan wasn’t even there.

Hold on when even is the second bell chime? He said it was when the sun stood high, but that could be anytime couldn’t it?

I decided to swing my sword around in order to pass the time.

Time went and the sun rose enough to just be visible over on the training field. As it did a faint shadow emerged from it. It was Johan. Jumping down from the island above.

Just as the hit the ground the second bell chimed.

”Oh, good morning mr eh… LeBlanc?” I said.

Johan seemed to visibly curl.

”Gods no… Look, just call me Johan.”

”O-okay.” I said.

”Well, let’s get this started.” Johan said.

”So, from what I’ve seen you look to both know the basics but not all of it. You also seem to use some pretty impressive and unusual incantations despite it.” He explained.

”So for that, I have decided we should start from the very beginning and look through what you don’t know and how to improve with what you know.”

”The first thing I noticed was that you don’t use any of the recuperating techniques and I already assume you don’t know of them.”  Johan said.

”Recuperating?” I asked, confused.

”It’s a way to regain stamina quickly and regulate how much of your eternal energy you use while performing incantations.” he explained.

”For this, I need you to prepare an incantation, but don’t cast it.”

I did as he said. I focused my pressure waves and pictured the air's waves having the same frequency as that of a knife.

”Now, I want you to imagine this incantation as you holding water in your palms. You want to release this water back into the pond you took it from, but you know if you pour too much back you will disturb the animals drinking from the pond.” He started.

”So instead, you decide to slowly open your hands only pouring out a small amount at a time. Now apply it to the incantation you are about to perform. You don’t want to use too much energy because you don’t want to disturb the animals drinking.” He continued.

Johan stood there seemingly proud over his explanation.

”But, how do I do that? Like how do I limit my energy?” I asked.

”Simple, just think like I just explained. You see half of the magic of pressure waves is that most of the process happens automatically up here.” Johan said, pointing to his head.

”If you simply concentrate enough on the thought of limiting it and with enough practice you will notice a change. Did you never notice how everything you learned just simply fell into place when you first started practicing? Like how complex instructions seemingly seemed useless?” Johan asked.

That’s when I realized that he was right. Back when I first learned with my father in Berkton, it seemed to just simply fall in place after my father gave some vague instruction.

”You see, there is a slight difference between people who are able to use the third principle and the others. Like practitioners of the first principle, we have a difference in how our body is made.” Johan started.

”Practitioners of the third principle develops a mutation in our brains as we learn the ways of the third principle.”  Johan said.

”A what?” I asked.

”It might seem strange, but it is indeed true. While old war priests were examining fallen soldiers they always found a strange black orb in their brain, which later was shown to be the source of how we could subconsciously perform these complex and vague instructions. Because we have essentially developed a second brain that does it for us." Johan explained.

I stood there gobsmacked. I had never heard of any of this before.

Was it really true? It doesn’t feel like something he would lie about whilst training me, I caressed my head after hearing all of this.

”Now try.” he said.

So I did.

I stood there trying to concentrate on minimizing the amount of energy it took to perform the incantation. I saw myself standing in a lake with animals drinking from it. My hands full to the brim with water. I tried to open my palms slowly, my palms felt shaky. Like the weight of the water was too much for me to hold. As I tried to pour it out, I felt how the weight became far too much for me and my hands gave in.

”Puncture”

As I spoke the incantation instead of feeling like less was released it actually felt like more of my energy was consumed. My knees fell into each other, and I fell to the ground. It felt like I had run for a day straight. My body was shaking and sweating profusely. I tried to stand up, but I was stopped by Johan's foot pressing on my back.

”I speculated this would happen so I thought this would be the perfect time to teach you one of the other recuperating techniques. This one will help you to get back the stamina you’ve just lost. It’s called the Brimstone method.” Johan said.

I still laid there listening to what he had to say.  Even though it felt like I was on the verge of falling unconscious.

”So, what you have to do is reverse your steps. Instead of letting your pressure waves spread and form changes in their frequency. You will try to focus on limiting the reach of your pressure waves, condensing them closer into your body, and then try to minimize the frequency of them to be almost nil.” Johan explained.

”Doing this will trigger an effect that the old war hero of Apeth, Casandra Brimstone had discovered and used it as a secret weapon against her enemies. This effect will slowly but surely bring back stamina.”

As I lay there, I decided to try what he told me. I focused so that my pressure waves would condense closer to my body. Minimizing the frequency so much that I couldn’t even feel my pressure waves anymore. First nothing happened, I wasn’t even sure if I was still awake. I couldn’t hear Johan, if he was talking of course. All I could hear was the low thump of my own heart, but there was something else. A slow whistle like a low breeze drifting through a halfway closed window. Along with it, I felt a rejuvenating feeling. As if my whole body began to feel lighter.

I felt how my tiredness was slowly fading away and I could stand back up again.

”Whoa… I feel weird.” I said.

”But, better?” Johan asked.

”Yeah, I’m not fully back but I can probably perform less craving incantations.” I said.

”That’s great. Now I want you to continue to focus on spending less stamina and if you fail just keep using the method I just taught you. Keep doing that for the rest of the day.” Johan said.

”R-really?” I asked.

”Yep. I will make sure that you will become the best you can be, think you can handle it?” Johan asked, with a grin.

Thinking back to my training back at home and comparing it to this, I feel a strange feeling of excitement and nostalgia.

”Bring it on,” I tell him.

I spent the rest of that day trying to limit my stamina consumption and failing, causing me to use the Brimstone method a lot. Which in turn made me get more used to it.

As today’s training finished with the fifth chime of the bells, I saw Victoria, Lilith, and Kasper doing some training of their own. Kasper was sparing against Victoria, using wooden poles, with Lilith watching on.

I stumbled over to them feeling each step I took was like running  marathoon.

”Oh, hello there grizzly,” Lilith said to me as I got close enough.

”Grizzly?” I asked confused.

”Oh, don’t worry about that. She does that to everyone. Apparently referring us by animals apparently helps her remember people,” Victoria said fending off Kasper's garage of attacks.

”She calls Kasper Chimera, Johan she calls Cornix and-” Victoria said however Kasper cut her of whilst breaking through her guard.

”And Victoria here she calls Thunder Hawk,” Kasper added.

I saw Victoria get visibly flustered by this.

"Is she embarrassed about that?" I asked myself.

"I-Im not a thunder Hawk! They are big and scary and ugly! None of those fit me!" Victoria exclaimed, sounding more frustrated than embarrassed.

"I don't know... I would say our first fight was pretty scary if you ask me," I teased.

"Yeah, a tall girl running around with a lightning sword is pretty damn scary," Lilith jumped in.

"See Thunder Hawk fits you perfectly," Kasper added.

"Oh shut up chimera!" Victoria swore punching Kasper in the gut, causing him to temporarily keel over.

I couldn't help but laugh at seeing their interaction, but as I calmed down, I turned to Lilith.

”So, why grizzly?” I asked.

To this, Lilith simply pointed to my hair and said.

”Blonde.”

”Barbaric,” she also said, pointing to my face.

”O-okay…” I say, not sure if I should be offended or disappointed about her simplistic reason.

"And your name almost sounds like Adam, which just makes me think of the old legend," Lilith added, most likely referring to the legendary grizzly who my mother had used as the origin form my nickname as young.

”Anyway, saw you being pushed to the brink by Johan before,” Lilith then said, while the other two kept on with their sparring.

”Yeah, I can barely stand, but it kind of reminds me of the training my mother put me through,” I told her.

”The thought of the bogeyman teaching you. Ugh… Just thinking of it gives me the creeps,” Lilith said with a chill.

To that, I let out a small laugh.

”Remember she is still my mother, and she isn't as bad as you all say," I tell her.

"Sure..." Lilith rolled her eyes, obviously not fully believing me.

"Though I wouldnt be surprised if Cornix would be as though or maybe tougher then Miranda Lark herself," Lilith muttered.

I stared at the blonde magus confused about her words, and as if she could read my thoughts, she continued.

"Maybe not here in Koporia, but in most places, the name Johan could make kings fall to their knees."

I turned my gaze over to Johan, who was currently using pressure wave incantation to walk through the air and up to the platforms

It wasn't like I didn't trust Lilith, but for some reason, I couldn't believe her words.

Because of my tiered state, I decided to head back to my inn early and sleep away the rest of the day.

The next day went the same.

I spent hours trying to minimize my exhaustion and getting more used to regaining my stamina every time I failed.

By the third day, I started to get more used to the Brimstone method. It started to feel easier to condense my pressure waves and it felt more natural to regain the stamina I had lost. Just as natural as breathing. With little to no progress in minimizing my exhaustion. I had almost done it, but it backfired on me causing me to pass out.

However, on the fourth day.

It went on as normal. I stood there drenched in my own sweat, trying my hardest to not pour out all of my energy.

I did as I had done for the past four days. I breathed in, closed my eyes and imagined holding water in my hands. However, my hands didn't feel as heavy as they usually do. When I opened up my palms I didn’t feel like the water was overpowering me. Making the water flow in perfect portions.

"Mirage."

I spoke the incantation and the air around me warped and a mirror image of me was built, and I wasn't exhausted. I had done it. I was able to minimize some amount of my energy while performing an incantation. While still keeping the incantation going. 

"I-I did it!" I shouted with a smile.

 I moved my hand in a waving motion and the mirrage did the same, without disapearing. 

"It's a start, and that's all you need now. I want you to now continue to do these exercises even after our training sessions as we will now begin with the next part of your training." Johan said.