"Then unfortunately by law and the strict rules of the adventurer guild I cannot rank you any higher than bronze four."
"Fuck."
Samael exits the examination room and is met by Ezra holding a maniacal grin. Samael walks towards the receptionist frustrated but even more than that, disappointed. He should have known better than to make a reckless deal like that knowing he doesn't posses one of great powers.
"Lets make this action plan."
Samael's plan to raise enough money for the aura master is pretty simple. He shows the receptionist the route they're taking and they pick missions that follow along route they travel. Samael marks every mission, from picking flowers to hunting boars. Every piece of copper and silver counts considering that they need to raise 10 platinum. After careful planning and consideration they gathered enough task and marked local adventurer outpost where they can turn in the items. The plan is nearly fool proof. But that all depends on the pace of the trip.
Samael and Ezra leave the guild office and using the rest of their silver they buy a wheelbarrow. They'll have to hunt and catch their own food while traveling. The sun rises and Ezra and Samael are at their promised spot awaiting the strange man. The man appeared and looked somewhat surprised.
"you boys actually came, alright then. My name is Cain. Remember, I wont protect you, I wont provide you shelter, and I wont feed you either. Follow me at your own discretion."
"My name is Ezra, and that's Samael! We'll be in your care."
"He actually just said the opposite."
The group heads out of the city gates and their journey begins.
"If I'm being honest, I'm surprised you boys came. No sane people would follow a blind man's trail."
Samael and Ezra look at each other confused.
"Blind?"
The two boys say in unison.
Cain points at his blindfold.
"Yeah, can't you tell?"
Samael and Ezra freeze up.
Samael and Ezra are at a loss for words, they were under the impression that the blindfold was aesthetic purposes, surely he's joking around right. He navigates way to well for a blind man.
Caine points towards his prosthetic arm.
"What? Did you think my blindfold is just for show? And I'm crippled, you guys are either really brave or dumb, which I believe to be the same things."
Ezra crosses his arm and has a look on his face that screams of confidence and ignorance.
"If you're blind how have you been navigating this whole time? And how were you able to tell that Samael was burned on his arm?"
"Firstly it doesn't take master to hear and feel flames coming from somewhere, and secondly."
Cain stops and stares the two boys down.
"My lack of sight doesn't equal a lack vision. Like now, I can see that your body isn't fit for aura yet, you need to do more physical training or it won't successfully awaken, and you, you have little to no control of the solra inside of your body."
Samael and Ezra become serious, their faces straighten and they look at Cain with eyes seeking knowledge.
"So how do we change it?"
Cain is taken aback, usually young people are cocky and ignorant. He knows he was when he was younger. He points at Samael.
"Well for you, you have to implement exercises into your day to day."
Cain reminisces of his time as a youngster, he would swim against currents, do pushups and squats under waterfalls, run miles with heavy boulders. Ah the good times. He signals for Samael to give him a sheet of paper.
Cain writes a down a routine that Samael could do while they're traveling. The regiment consists of, traveling with the weight of the wheelbarrow and boulders. Push ups with boulders. Sit ups with boulders, squats with boulders. And harvesting Excalidrakes.
"What's an Excalidrake?"
"It's a veggie that grows along our path, they're pretty hard to harvest. Takes a lot of muscle, so that'll help you build some. And I've been craving some."
Samael gets exited, he's gonna grow and he's gonna train. He's been thinking about it, and it's more than just getting the solra out of his body. Looking at Caine, Ezra, the Larind family. They're all free, and they're free because they're strong. There's no greater freedom than being strong, and so he has to get stronger. Just enough so that he can be free without any hindrances. And so Samael's training regiment begins.
As Samael begins his training, Ezra approaches Cain.
"So what can I do?"
Cain touches his chin and ponders.
"Since you cant use aura, you'll need to awaken your seventh sense the hard way."
Ezra looks looks at Cain as if he's senile, he's rightfully confused because he was only taught the 5 senses. Sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. So where did he get 7?
"Your seventh sense is what allows you to truly view the world. As for your sixth, it looks like you've already awakened it, you just need to get better at using it."
"what are you talking about, I would know if I had more than five senses-"
Ezra is cut off before quickly jumping away. Cain didn't do anything, he didn't move or anything. moved his head in Ezra's direction.
"that's your sixth sense, you probably awakened it when you were young so it makes sense that you barely know of its existence and that's because it feels so natural to you, you probably thought of it as a normal bodily function. But its much more than that."
Cain swiftly cuts down a tree with his spear. Leaving a clean and straight cut. He grabs the log and throws it into the nearby river.
"That river leads to the next adventure outpost. In the river there's very violent predatory fish in the water, and in the grass and tree's that run along it hold more aggressive and larger predatory animals. Get on the log, and stay there until you can dodge the fish with your eye's closed and sense those creatures watching you. Once you're able to do that you'll be a little closer to awakening your seventh sense. Oh and-"
Before Cain could finish speaking Ezra rushes onto the log and blindfolds his eyes using his scarf.
"You won't be seeing me until I'm able to do it! And tell Samael he better not give up either!"
As Ezra floats away into the unknown Samael is hard at work with his regiment. Time passes and Samael is sore and tired from the training, his legs feel week, his arms feel as if they're gonna explode, and his core feels like its tearing apart. But now he's on his last task of the day. The Excalidrakes. All Cain gave him was a description. They look like spikey turnips in the ground. That helps so much. But after a couple minutes of searching he finds one.
He goes to the veggie and begins to pull. When he initially pulls it doesn't budge at all. He goes around and gets into a squat like position to pull with his whole body. As he pulls his body begins to scream for him to stop, his bas, arms , legs, back, all of his muscles are already exhausted from the regiment he just did and now he's using all of them to their full force.
This was like torture for Samael but he refused to give up. He was gonna pull this dumb plant out of the ground no matter what.
"I, Samael Grimoire refuse to lose to something like a plant! Why is this so damn hard!"
Eventually the plant fly's out of the ground and Samael smiles in achievement. But Samael is met with a horrible reality. The plant in question is now approaching him. It has eye's, a face, and a set of spiked arms and legs. And it looks very angry.
"Shit."