After his morning reflections, Elion opened his eyes.
With age, he had become slightly more cynical and poetic. Was it just a transitional phase?
Apart from training and walking in the sun, his life was rather uneventful, so he read various books and observed people on the street and at the preparatory school. As a result, he understood life and the aspirations of different people. He began to understand them more deeply, along with what motivated them, almost unconsciously.
He didn't judge them; he simply observed everything as it was.
Getting out of bed, he carefully placed the Annabelle doll, which he hugged in his sleep, on the bedside table and began his morning exercises.
His small room, about ten square meters, was given to him for four years of study. It was very narrow and decorated in dull gray tones. The only furniture was a bed, a nightstand, a table, a chair, and a floor coat rack.
Elion started with stretching, bending his body forward and...
Backward.
Yes, Elion was now, one might say, a master of his own body. He could assume any position; his muscles and skeleton readily yielded to him. Doing the splits and bending his back in any direction were just a few of his tricks. He could probably even turn himself inside out and find it normal.
After finishing his stretches, the boy began jumping in place...
Onto the walls.
He jumped onto one wall and then onto another. Considering the distance between the walls was 2–3 meters, the fact that the boy could make quite a few jumps without touching the ground was impressive. However, Elion wasn't particularly pleased with himself because he secretly desired to jump from one wall to the ceiling and then to the other wall. So he tried again.
"Hoo... And... Hoops!" The guy got into a strange position, bending his body slightly.
Deciding to use the bed as a springboard, he first jumped onto it, then onto the wall.
"Hop!" Because he had bent slightly, it was easier for him to turn his body in the air and correctly place his foot on the ceiling.
Pushing off from the first wall, he made a small running jump along it to maintain his momentum and reach the ceiling.
"Phew!" Putting his foot on the ceiling, he immediately pushed off because he couldn't jump and run along the ceiling at the same time. As he pushed off, the young man changed his body position immediately, stretching straight toward the second wall. He performed a strange pirouette, touching the wall with his foot first rather than hitting it with his head.
"Ha..." Then, time seemed to freeze for him.
His body was already positioned to land on his foot, so he didn't need to do anything else. For a moment, he was in free flight, and the thought flashed through his mind,
Fun... But it wasn't accompanied by a smile.
The moment of climax arrived, and finally...
*Thud*
"Oh..."
*Boom!*
"Oopss..." The guy's foot touched the second wall, but it would be strange to call this trick successful given the current situation.
Elion regrouped, but he was far from perfect. After bouncing off the wall a second time, the boy tried to do a somersault to land safely, but he couldn't push off the wall properly this time.
Failure... I just don't have enough speed because of the initial acceleration. Flashed through the young man's mind. Of course, even though the boy could jump like a spring, he couldn't reach optimal speed for such a trick in such a small room. But that's exactly why his jumping ability had skyrocketed.
In any case, today is my last day in this room, so there's no point in despairing. I just need to prepare for the new conditions and hope that they will be more suitable.
Elion decided to stop practicing this trick. After all, today was his last day in the dormitory. His studies were over, and he was only staying there until he was evicted. But that moment had not come yet because today he was finally enrolling in the 'Expedition' department.
Four damn years... He regretted the time he had wasted.
No matter how productively he spent it, forcing himself to do something he didn't want to do for four years was almost torture. However, Elion skillfully diluted the unloved routine with activities that interested him. For example, he came up with the idea to train on his own because their institution didn't teach such things. There wasn't even general physical education, let alone combat training. Who would teach ten-year-olds to fight except monsters or lunatics?
After finishing this part of the warm-up, Elion got up from the floor and approached a long stick fixed to the floor with a strange object held in place by rubber bands glued to the walls.
The guy had made this strange training device himself. With the help of the rubber bands, the stick could swing wildly in all directions without falling to the floor. But what was it for?
Elion pulled the stick back with force, then let go, entering the space as the stick moved chaotically. He thought it would help him improve his agility even more.
So he began moving with the stick, keeping it at the minimum possible distance from his body.
"Ha!" The stick gently slid across the boy's cheek as if affectionately caressing him. The young man decided to end it there, opening his eyes and leaving the danger zone.