Reon walked into the old man's small cabin. Inside there was only a bed, dresser, table and a chair.
Raqm'EL looked at Reon gauging him. He thought he looked young but had a solid body.
"So what is your goal, young warrior? Why did you come?" asked Raqm'El.
Reon took a second to think about it then smiled.
"My goal is to become a great warrior. I came because you said you want someone that wants to get stronger, and I do. Now, how can you make me stronger?" said Reon.
Raqm'El opened a small container on his table, taking out a wood pipe. He sat down, struck a match, and lit up the pipe, taking a deep puff, while looking at Reon.
"For that, young one, you must prove yourself and pass a test, otherwise I won't pass on my method to you. Do you understand?" Raqm'El inquired.
"I think I do. To prevent your method from falling into the wrong hands you want to make sure I'm worthy of it first. In that case I'll take any test you have to prove that I'm worthy." said Reon.
"Good. Very Good. For your first test, go down to Woodrow and get me some fish for dinner." said Raqm'El.
"Yes Sir." said Reon.
Once Reon left, Raqm'El thought that Reon was quite a respectful kid. He wondered how long the first trial would take.
"This may take some time."
Reon went back down to Woodrow and kindly asked someone where he could buy some fish. He bought two pieces of fish that looked quite good to him, then made his way back up the hill to Raqm'El's cabin where he saw the man preparing a pan over a small fire he made outside.
Reon handed Raqm'El the packaged fish that he bought.
"These are nice, but…did you buy these?" asked Raqm'El.
"Yes, I bought them in Woodrow like you said to." Reon smiled.
"No, I told you to get fish, not to buy fish." Raqm'El said before throwing the package of fish Reon bought far into the sea.
"What are you doing!?" Reon yelled.
"You were supposed to get the fish yourself, and failed because you bought them instead. Now go get some fish properly this time!" said Raqm'El.
A brief moment of silence erupted.
"There was still no reason to throw away the fish like that! Someone worked hard to get them, and I spent money to buy them, so return the fish you just threw away!" said Reon.
Raqm'El changed his stance to a fighting stance, and seeing that Reon followed suit.
Reon and Raqm'El looked at each other with scornful faces for some time before a smile appeared on Raqm'El's face.
"You passed the first trial, young Reon. Congratulations." Raqm'El spoke.
"What are you talking about? I don't care about that! Return the fish you threw out!" said Reon.
"You are angry right?" Raqm'El asked Reon with a smirk.
"Of course I am, Look at what you just did!" said Reon.
Raqm'El took a slight bow while looking at Reon.
"I apologize, young Reon, I know my actions may have seemed mindless but it was all for a purpose. The first trial is to see what it would take to make you angry. It was to gauge your compatibility with my method of gaining strength. If you had respectfully gone down to Woodrow and spent time collecting fish yourself, I would have thrown them away again. If that didn't make you angry I would have done more just to see how much you could take." Raqm'El explained.
"You got angry quickly but for the right reasons, even if it was something that seemed as small and insignificant as some fish. You've proved to me that, not only do you have a high compatibility with my method but that your principals overcome your fear of superior authority, so you've passed the first trial with flying colors, young one." he said.
Reon was surprised by this. He didn't expect this to be part of the test. Reon was glad to hear that he passed the first trial. After calming down he understood why Raqm'El threw his fish away.
Raqm'El led Reon to a cave in Emerald cove. It was time for Reon to learn about the Raise Body Heat Technique. An energy manipulation technique that could boost a fighter's power explosively for a short time.
Within the cave was just darkness at first but later on Reon began to see some strange mushrooms growing in the cave, and a light as well coming from the end.
Reon and Raqm'El descended for minutes into the cave and the light at the end became brighter and hotter. Eventually they reached the end and Reon saw a large pit of lava. Within the pit of lava many large red mushrooms were growing.
Reon found out that Raqm'El planned to pass on his Raise Body Heat Technique to one student before he left the world. Reon was curious about the technique and Raqm'El obliged him by demonstrating its power.
Raqm'El threw a regular punch with most of his strength at the wall of the cave. He even used his body's energy to amplify this punch and a two foot wide dent appeared in the cave wall.
Raqm'El then circulated his energy to mimic a lava plume eruption, and when he did Reon noticed everything with his Kinshi Sense. It was similar to when the Inferno family boys did with their mana when they cast flame magic, except Raqm'El used his internal energy and he wasn't expelling it from his body, rather he erupting it within his body.
Raqm'El's muscles puffed up and his skin toned reddened. Sweat and misty aura appeared around his body before he quickly threw another powerful punch.
This time the punch landed with a loud bang, and an almost 2 meter wide indent was left where he punched the wall, as rocks fell from the surrounding cave walls.
Raqm'El's body slowly returned back to its regular size.
"As you can see, my Raise Body Heat Technique can almost triple your power for a short time! But it takes a toll on your body and mind. They may break before you can properly utilise its power in a fight." Raqm'El explained.
Now it was Reon's turn to decide if he still wanted to go through with it.
"I will still learn your technique, master." said Reon.
"Very well. Luckily for you, you have someone to guide you through the technique and aid you at every turn. It will still take effort, but you shouldn't take quite as long to master it as I did when I was younger." Master El explained.
Master El pulled out a blood red mushroom with orange patterns. The orange parts glowed faintly resembling a lava plume.
"First, you must eat this mushroom. It will excite your energy and make it flame like, but, it will also make your body feel hotter than ever. Even hotter than if you had a fever in the dry heat of a dessert without any water for days." Master El said.
These words scared Reon quite a bit.
"But, I will help you stabilize your energy, ok?" Master El asked.
"Ok. Let's do this." Reon took a bite of the mushroom, which wasn't spicy but hot on his tongue.
He took a few more bites to finish the mushroom quickly as it wasn't enjoyable, then sat down as the master instructed. Reon was in a meditative position while Master El sat behind him, waiting for the effects of the mushroom to begin.
When Reon felt the effects of the mushroom they came on quite quickly. He felt sweat pouring from everywhere on his body, soaking him, but this was nothing yet. As minutes passed the heat increased in his body, slowly but surely it always got hotter.
Every time Reon thought he was okay, the heat would grow more from within.
It felt as though hours passed and Reon heard Master El behind him, whisper something that almost made him cry.
"Halfway there. I'll only step in when you need help."
The heat waves continued and Reon felt as though his blood was boiling. Reon could not open his eyes as when he tried to he felt like hot water was going inside them.
After some time, his body felt like it had no water left inside, and he stopped sweating.
"This is the final stage." Master El spoke.
Reon didn't hear him. Instead, he was shocked to see a white haired woman in front of him.
She wore tribal clothing of many different colors.
She was at least six feet tall with a strong physique, and wore a regal red cape.
"Mother!?" said Reon.
Looking around he saw himself standing in the throne room of Valt Temple, his home.
"This is impossible, I must be hallucinating!" said Reon.
All of a sudden his mother turned toward him, a sad look appearing on her beautiful face.
"Be safe my boy." she said.
"Mother, wait!" yelled Reon.
In the bottom of the cave, Master El was excited as Reon had almost completely finished absorbing the molten shroom all by himself.
He knew that Reon must have been hallucinating at this point because he was talking to himself as was expected in the final phases.
Unexpectedly, Reon suddenly stood up from his daze all by himself.
Reon looked around the room with a worried expression before realizing that he was back in the cave with Master El.
"How are you alright?" the master wondered.
Raqm'El looked at Reon's body and saw nothing peculiar, but still he expected him to be worse off than he was. He put his hand on Reon's shoulder and focused on the flow of energy and discovered that Reon's energy was regular, as if he never ate a molten mushroom.
"How long was I out for, Master El?" Reon asked.
"Believe it or not, it's been only 20 minutes since you ate the molten shroom." El answered.
Reon was surprised at this knowledge. The experience he went through felt like hours turning into days of perpetually increasing heat. Since the shroom made him hallucinate he figured it must have also distorted his sense of time passing, making minutes feel like hours.
"So what's next?" said Reon.
"Well, about that, I believe there is something severely wrong with your internal energy system. There is no way that after eating a magma shroom you can just stand up and walk normally because your energy should be spiraling like a wildfire right now. Instead, all of the effects were neutralized, although it only happened during the last phase." Raqm'El explained.
"Something is wrong with my internal energy system? Well, to be honest, although I've trained heavily for many years, I've strangely never been able to sense or externalise my energy. I always thought it was because I was a late bloomer, but maybe not?" Reon said.
"If what I'm thinking is correct Reon, it's not that you are a late bloomer, but that something within you is actively preventing you from blooming at all, and if you don't deal with it, you'll never awaken energy control as most warriors do when they become 3-Star warriors, and you'll be stuck at 2-Star level forever." said Raqm'El.
"So… I can't practice the Raise Body Heat Technique, or even learn to control my energy?" This realization made Reon look toward the floor in defeat.
Master El put his hand on Reon's shoulder to comfort him.
"Don't worry my young disciple. As I was saying, that may have been the case, if you didn't deal with it, so we'll deal with it now." said the master.
"But how?" asked Reon.
"Well set off to Redakai Island to see a Spirit Doctor who lives there. He's an old friend of mine and he might be able to help you out." Raqm'El said.
Reon was intrigued and slightly nervous by the thought of a spirit doctor that could help him. He did not know too much about spirits, only hearing stories that they existed somewhere.
The master and his new disciple Reon left the cave and went to Raqm'El's cabin to slay the night. Reon slept outside by a fire, while Master El stayed inside.
Night fell and Reon found it hard to sleep.
"After we go to Redakai Island and get help from the spirit doctor, am I finally going to find out why I haven't been able to harness my energy all of these years, and more importantly will I finally be able to use my energy?"
Reon kept thinking about how strong he could be when he could finally harness his internal power.
His wildest thoughts turned into dreams where he saw himself jumping high into the sky reaching a sea of clouds, and splitting the sea with a single slash of his blade.
Reon's dream was interrupted by the sound of a horn blowing. He woke up and ran toward the edge of the cliff in the direction of Woodrow, and saw a group of over a hundred warriors on horses, just outside its gate.
"People of Woodrow come out! There is an important announcement to be made by the leader of our forces." one of the men on the horses said.
Reon could hear him clearly from up on the hill so he knew that the people of Woodrow must have heard the man.
Slowly but surely all of the dozens of people of the fishing hamlet came outside holding fishing rods, and one old man stood at the front of them.
A strong looking guy with long black hair rode his horse in front of the old man who led the people of Woodrow.
"We will take control of Woodrow's boats and food supply for a short time, and we'll compensate you with money for it." said Coco.
The old man, Gideon, looked at the forces ahead of him and took a swig of his pipe that was made to like a fish.
"And how will you compensate for our honor, ignorant brat?" said Gideon.
"What? What honor do you have to lose by allowing us to do what we're here to do? If it's about the money we don't have to pay you, that works out better for us." said Coco.
"You'll have to pay with blood." said Gideon before swinging his fishing rod.
Gideon skillfully manipulated his fishing line and hooked it around the ear of a man on a horse, then pulled back, swiftly chopping it off as if the fishing line was a steel cord before Coco even realized what happened.
"Kill them all!" yelled Coco.
All of the men on horseback rushed towards the people of Woodrow, at once with their weapons ready.
Many of them were cut by fish hooks before they could strike anyone down. When they first reached the people of Woodrow's forces Coco's men slashed some down but some people blocked with their fishing rods before slashing them with the rods.
A full on battle ensued as Reon watched. He ran to Master El's cabin to tell him what was going on.
In less than a minute after that, Raqm'El and Reon were sprinting down the hill towards Woodrow.