Chapter 685 - Training
The next day, Alex began his training with Aileen.
As usual, they were going toward the field with Ryuu and Maya.
"I hope you don"t mind if my disciples are watching us." Aileen softly said, looking at Alex, who stood in the middle of the field.
Alex thought for a moment. Ryuu aside, Maya didn"t have anything with this training. After all, Aileen must want Ryuu to learn what she thought and learned where he needed to teach Alex on a particular day.
Aileen smiled as if she knew the question in Alex"s mind. "I need to supervise Maya these days since I want to see how big her determination is. I am just afraid that she will become her past self and say she is bored."
"Master. Trust Maya a bit more." Maya pouted and looked at her with teary eyes.
"You should earn my trust then. Do you think I don"t know how much you slack and how much you beg your Elder Brother Ryuu to hide that fact? I know everything about my disciples. You are talented and powerful, so I want to see you at the top, a.s.sisting Ryuu in managing the temple after I retire." Aileen sighed and shook her head.
"Eh? Isn"t it enough for me as long as I get stronger? Why do I need to handle those boring jobs? I can"t stand those papers." She pouted.
"This is why I can"t trust you. Cultivation is a boring and tedious path. If you can"t even handle this type of job, you shouldn"t think about marrying Ryuu. I"m not handing him to you." Aileen shrugged.
"What do you mean? Why do you sound like a mother opposing his son"s marriage? And to your other disciple on top of that." Maya lifted her eyebrows, looking very annoyed.
"Anyway, I won"t give you a blessing for this if you are not diligent enough. Unless you want to elope to the surface… No, do you think you can escape even on the surface? I only want the best for you." Aileen thought for a moment and said. "You two are going to the potential tower half a year later along with Alexander. Will that be alright?"
"Yes. Just like how Master or even Great Elder Viola, we will try again and again." Ryuu nodded with a solemn expression.
"That"s right. Always ask this question to yourself! Have you found the limits of your abilities? Even though your technique, body, cultivation, and mentality aren"t complete?" Aileen paused for a moment before pointing at Ryuu and Maya. "People who are naturally better than you have been different from you ever since they were born. It"s impossible to turn that around, no matter how hard you work, how well you strategize, or who your teammates are…
"You can complain about that once you have actually done everything you possibly can." Aileen smiled brightly as she gave a thumb up. "Rather than despairing and giving up because you are not a genius, believe that your strength is not limited to this, and to continue on the path straight ahead of you… It may be harsh to say so, but…
"Today might be the day to grasp the chance to let your talent bloom, maybe tomorrow, the day after, or next year, or maybe even when you are a thousand years old. I"m not sure if physique has anything to do with it, but if you think it will never come, it probably never will.
"That"s why I want both of you to take every chance present, including this training. Because there is no saying it will be completely useless to you. You might even get enlightenment, but if you don"t attend this training or stop trying to improve yourself, I have said it myself, that is where the clock of your world dies." Aileen had the need to say this, so his disciples didn"t get discouraged after watching Alex.
Alex lifted his eyebrows in astonishment. Although her personality was like this, Aileen was really a good teacher.
"Master." Ryuu bowed his head and cupped his hands respectfully. He had experienced it himself when Aileen asked him to be his disciple. Meanwhile, Maya bit her lips and realized what she had done wrong this whole time. "I"m sorry, Master. I will try to reach the ninth floor this time."
Aileen smiled gently and said, "I just want to say that you won"t know how big your talent is until you die. That"s why don"t waste it. I will always stand behind you."
"Yes."
Alex nodded in agreement. The word choices might be different, but Alex had conveyed the same thing to Rose and Evelyn.
She turned back to Alex and apologized. "I"m sorry to say something like that in this training session."
"It"s fine." Alex waved his hand.
"Then, should we start?"
"Yes."
"Have you read the book yet? I want to know about your view first."
Alex contemplated for a moment and recalled everything he learned from the memory. "s.p.a.ce Bind. A technique to bind someone by creating a chain with the s.p.a.ce Energy inside the Blue Layered Realm. This chain is very effective in stopping anything in that realm while you can connect to the real world to bind someone or something."
"That"s right." Aileen nodded. "There are many variants for this s.p.a.ce Bind. My favorite is to use it with my Spatial Gate just to make my enemy think I need a gate to use it. Besides, they will be visible if I bring them to the real world to make it even more obvious. The enemy will usually focus on what they can see when it"s right in front of their eyes, so I can use another s.p.a.ce Bind in the Blue Layered Realm to make a sneak attack.
"There are many more, but I want you to practice creating a single chain first. I will let you learn the variants after you can create thirty chains like your Spatial Gate. Are you up for the challenge?"
Alex nodded with a smile. "Of course!"
"Then let"s start."
The two began their training with Ryuu and Maya observing their movement. Ryuu was amazed by Alex"s comprehension speed because Alex managed to create thirty chains in just two months. No, it was actually easy to create thirty chains if you already knew how to make one. However, it was a different matter if one needed to control it. The technique used too much Mental Power.
Alex only smiled upon this challenge. His Mental Energy was far beyond their imagination due to his fateful encounters and pills. At the same time, he had been training Alchemy this whole time, so his control of Mental Energy was perfect, and the amount of energy was crazy.
Yet, Aileen still couldn"t understand how Alex had such a speed. It didn"t matter whether he had learned about the basics of s.p.a.ce Element as it didn"t increase his speed too much. Unfortunately, her question remained unanswered, and she also didn"t want to ask Alex because she respected his privacy.
Albeit, the cost of it was a little bit of her sanity. She was completely stunned when she saw Alex mastered most of her variants in another month. The only variants Alex had yet to master were those that combined with other techniques that Alex didn"t study.
In the end, Aileen could see the hope of Alex finis.h.i.+ng another two s.p.a.ce Arts within his stay here.
Alex was grateful to her and asked her to teach him about s.p.a.ce Mark.
Aileen agreed to teach him to the best of her ability, but only offered a very low price that she would say after Alex mastered the technique.
Maya sometimes gave Alex some advice as it was still useful despite how incomplete her understanding was, but Aileen denied most of them because she could see the flaws behind her understanding. Of course, Alex was still thankful to her and decided to show a bit of his understanding of the spear.
Unfortunately, there was too much uncertainty, and with Maya"s incomplete understanding, Alex decided not to take the risk and only practiced the very basics of this ability. He would only use the escape ability until he mastered another variant.
Nonetheless, the relations.h.i.+p between Alex and Maya became pretty good to the point she proudly said that Alex was the number third after Ryuu and Aileen. Obviously, Ryuu came first.
Alex thought he would just treasure the memory because this might be the last time he met them. At the very least, he got a few people that he could call friends in this world.
Lastly, Alex wanted to learn about Spatial Lock from Aileen. She had been waiting for it after the failure earlier. She taught Alex everything about this technique.
In front of this enthusiasm, Alex accepted and learned everything. He felt that Spatial Lock was more powerful than he expected, and he should learn it before the s.p.a.ce Mark, albeit it was futile to regret it.
He kept studying under Aileen and got shocked when she compressed his Pure Fire. At one time, Alex was wondering whether he could compress his own h.e.l.l Inferno and released it in a more mighty way.
Unfortunately, he abandoned the idea when he realized that his control over s.p.a.ce Element was still too low.
Unlike Alex"s frustration, the three were also frustrated because Alex was still disappointed despite having that much talent. They knew Alex had Pure Fire, but they didn"t know Alex"s s.p.a.ce Element was, in fact, beyond their imagination.
Alex could learn s.p.a.ce Element this fast because he had a Unique s.p.a.ce Element granted by his System, Knowledge about s.p.a.ce from Earth, and the memory he got from the inheritances. These three somehow contradicted each other, but still gave him the answer he sought.
Yet, Aileen could only smile despite how much she was frustrated about Alex"s talent. She simply wished to see another person reach the tenth floor this time, even if that person was not her disciple. Ryuu and Maya might get motivated by him and pursue higher cultivation. She didn"t know whether it was possible or not, but she was already happy knowing her disciples didn"t see him as a limit. Instead, they treated him as a role model that they needed to surpa.s.s.
Finally, he finished all his training perfectly, leaving Aileen speechless. She only wished him luck for the Potential Tower and asked him to prepare for it before leaving the scene.
Ryuu said she must want to fill the necessary forms for us to join, so he asked Alex to go back until the time arrived.
It was only a week or so anyway, so Alex agreed and trained in his house quietly.
…
Six months later,
"Alex! Let"s go to the Potential Tower." Ryuu"s voice resounded through the entire house.
Alex himself went out of his room and replied. "Alright. I will be ready in a moment."
He had been training so hard in the past six months. Anna had informed him of the situation on the surface, and he was quite satisfied with it. Fire G.o.d Clan had lost so much face this time and endured the humiliation because they didn"t bring a big force to help the Divine Kingdom.
On the other hand, the Divine Kingdom somehow learned about the Spirit Nest"s existence on that sh.o.r.e, but they didn"t do anything. In fact, they were wondering whether to give Spirit Nest the invitation for the banquet or not.
Sadly, many disagreed with that plan because Spirit Nest was too mysterious and dangerous at the same time. Alex didn"t mind though, because he was happy with many minerals from the sea. Even Greg said there were a few rank 8 metals that could be fetched for a high price.
As soon as he came back to the surface, he would become rich to the point he wouldn"t think about the twenty-five thousand Spirit Crystals he lost for all the fees he needed to pay in this place. His heart wasn"t that sour because he broke through to 7-Star Martial Monarch to boot.
"Only a few months, huh… I"m looking forward to seeing everyone again." Alex smiled as he walked toward the door, finding Ryuu and Maya in front of his house. "Sorry to make you wait."
"It"s fine. Let"s go. Master has gone first to meet the other Great Elders." Ryuu waved his hands as a Spatial Gate appeared, and the three went inside.