Huff.
"5 minutes and twenty seconds. Good progress." Amelia wrote in her notebook that was now filled with three weeks of content.
'The intensity of my training has only increased, but I can't help but feel like I'm adjusting to it well. If I had trained as hard today three weeks ago when I took the first tests, I'd be unconscious.'
"Finally done. I'm hungry, let's eat." Caecus said, going towards his own room. He had memorized the way after some time and knew where to go without assistance now.
"You weigh 3 kilograms more than when we first measured you. Starting today I'll be adjusting your calories. You'll have to eat more." His servant explained, following him.
'My body's progress has been good. I feel more energetic than ever and I have gained muscle with barely any fat. I wonder how my physique would be if I was raised like my sister…'
Entering his room, Caecus sat down on his chair and waited for Amelia to bring his food. After eating he took his nap and then went into the library to study. He was almost at the education level of a twelve year old who was raised under the corpora. At the rate he was progressing, it would take him another month at most to catch up to people his age.
"Alright, that's it. Now let's practice using your soul essence. We are gonna try to use it while moving today, okay?" Amelia helped him up and they both walked towards the training hall, not the concentration room.
'My soul essence control has increased too, now I can push it into every one of my muscles with a little concentration.'
Amelia told him that his rate of increasing control over soul essence was frightening. He had entered the level of complete assimilation. As Amelia explained to him, the first three levels of soul essence control were: Assimilation, which was using soul essence to reinforce one's body or senses; Augmentation, which was using soul essence to influence things outside one's body (which you have to be in contact with). For example, if you augment a sword you could make it sharper and harder. And the third one was Manifestation, which means wielding your soul essence outside your body and transforming it into something tangible that's able to influence the outside.
'Normally it takes many years to be able to completely use Assimilation. Most teens from the corpora my age are at Augmentation, and the more untalented ones are still at Assimilation. As far as I know there are almost no people who reach Manifestation before the age of eighteen.'
They reached the training hall and went into the area with the sandbags. Amelia, who was an augmenter before retiring, held the sandbag and infused her soul essence into it, making it unable to break from his soul-essence-strengthened strikes.
Caecus got into a boxing stance and focused. He drew on his soul essence and led it into his fist. And he punched a straight.
Bam!
When his fist connected with the sandbag he noticed one thing. His punch wasn't stronger at all. His hand was definitely reinforced though.
"If you're only gonna reinforce your hand your punch isn't gonna be stronger. Since you're only able to reinforce two places at once with your soul essence right now, the most important muscle you should focus on reinforcing for a punch specifically is the pectoralis major, or in other words your chest muscle. And of course your arm as well, we don't want you breaking bones or injuring yourself here."
Caecus, who is left-handed, got back into his boxing position with the right foot in front. He drew on his soul essence and guided it into his left pec and into his left arm. He shifted his weight and turned his hip with his core, transferring the momentum from his leg into his arm. But as soon as his arm moved, it struck forward with an almost undetectable speed for the normal human eye.
Whip!
A completely new sound emerged from his punch. It was clearly much stronger, and even the reinforced sandbag had a small cut in it.
Swish...
The sand from the inside of the sandbag could be heard falling out. Quickly Amelia covered it with her hand.
"Very good, you got it down. Please cover the crack in the sandbag with your hand. I'll go get some duct tape so we won't make too much of a mess."
Caecus could hear exactly where the sand drew out from so he covered the spot perfectly. Amelia quickly grabbed the duct tape and taped the open spot.
"Now we are going to try out something new. We'll need to go to the reinforced sandbags though." she explained.
Just a few meters away there was a new set of sandbags.
"These are specifically made for soul essence users. They can withstand even punches from a rank three soul essence user."
"You remember how you use soul essence while cultivating? Try to do the same the instant you throw the punch, but instead of your soul core try to do it on your arm and chest instead." Amelia didn't even bother with holding the sandbag, as he wouldn't be able to make a fraction of damage on it.
Caecus focused again. He drew on his soul essence and put it in his left pec and arm. He got into a fighting stance and got ready.
He shifted his weight again and rotated his hip and torso so the momentum would transfer into his arm. But as soon as he wanted to move his arm, the black-haired boy used his soul essence and his muscles, joints, bones and tendons got reinforced by a degree incomparable to when he just had his soul essence inside.
Crack!
Another time a new sound was to be heard. You could hear Caecus' fist practically cutting through the air. When his fist collided with it, the sandbag only moved a little, due to being reinforced of course.
'This strike was almost thrice as powerful compared to a normal soul-essence-reinforced one.' But suddenly Caecus felt that something was off.
When he checked his soul core he noticed one thing. All of the soul-essence he used for his strike was gone.
Amelia chuckled. Being able to tell what he was so confused about, she answered his unasked questions."This is why this stage of soul essence control is called 'assimilation'," she explained. "You are converting your soul essence into an energy your body uses, which of course results in it being expended when you do."
Caecus nodded. They continued practicing this with different things, like kicks and defenses. For example Amelia would tell him to reinforce his body just in time to withstand a strike she made with a stick. Of course Caecus felt the air shifting from the stick moving through the air so he knew exactly when to do the assimilation.
They stopped as soon as Caecus felt that he only had around ten percent of his soul essence left. Though his servant gave him a task before that.
"From now on I want you to constantly try to reinforce the area around your soul core. Don't assimilate, but just have your soul essence around there. If your soul core gets damaged in any way it could be detrimental for you. So I think this will be good practice."
The Young Master pushed half of the soul essence he had left, which was around five percent of his total, into the area around his soul core. His abdominal muscles and his erectors got reinforced. When they went back into his room he struggled to keep the focus while walking there and eating his food, but he barely managed to. This was definitely good practice for him. He stopped his control when he cultivated though.
…
The next day he followed the same routine as he did every day with Amelia: study, train, eat, sleep, and then finally they were at soul essence control again.
"You know, it's January now. The Psychéion entrance exams will start in December. You've got around eleven months of preparation if you want to enter the academy."
'Right, the Psychéion will start soon for the teens who were born in my year. I never considered actually entering the academy…'
"I'm pretty sure you already know this, but any child of the corpora who is at least rank one, or better said able to control their soul essence, is forced to take this exam. The reason your family never showed you how to cultivate is so that you wouldn't have to partake in these exams and embarrass them. But now that you are rank one you will have to participate. Blind or not."
"Do you want to pass the exams, at the cost of having to grow stronger and dedicate yourself to doing so, or do you want to be disqualified? If you do nothing about it your life won't really change."
'Joining the academy and showing my family that I'm not as useless as they make me out to be certainly sounds great. Maybe this was the goal I was searching for all along?'
"Tell me. What do I need to pass the exams?" Caecus said, voice filled with conviction.
"Okay, first of all, the entrance exams will encompass measurements of your soul purity, your soul rank, and see how well your physical attributes are, like stamina and strength. Then the theoretical part is where you'll take multiple exams across different topics to see how good your knowledge is. Then there are problem-solving exams that will measure your basic problem-solving skills. After all of that there will be a part where you'll have to fight against the other combatants in a sort of tournament. You'll be ranked as a sum of all tests." She stayed silent for a few seconds, allowing her Young Master to process everything, sighed, and then continued. "At the rate you're going you'll be able to pass, but not in the tournament part. Your blindness is too much of a burden for that. You won't be able to track their movements, much less land a hit on them."
Caecus frowned. "What am I supposed to do then?"
Amelia scratched her head. "Reach the level of an augmenter." Caecus heard her playing with her hair and twirling it around her fingers. "You probably already noticed but I am able to sense your soul essence moving. You can't sense mine though. Why is that? The answer is simple. I'm an augmenter, and you're still an assimilator. As soon as you step into the realm of augmentation, you're able to sense foreign soul essence. If we manage to make you an augmenter before the entrance exams, you'll be able to sense other people's movements by their soul essence."
"So basically it's like I can sense their souls moving around?"
"Yes exactly. When they attack they will most probably use their soul essence to reinforce their attack, which means you'll be able to tell where their fist or whatever they are using to attack you with is."
"But if someone just attacks me without soul essence, what am I gonna do?" Caecus was confused. He had such a simple flaw.
"You'll still be able to tell where they are. And you don't have to worry about that. The children of the corpora were taught to circulate their soul essence so that they can use it fast on whatever limb or area of their body in general. If they attack you, you'll still be able to feel their individual limbs moving due to that circulation of soul essence. You'll have to try passing off as being able to see so they don't try to attack you without their soul essence."
"And for the case that they attack without their soul essence, there is a way for you to be able to sense their movements. And I'm gonna show it to you now."
Amelia dragged Caecus to an area with padded floors where people would fight.
"First of all try to sense my movements. I'll be hitting you with my fist, lightly of course, and you'll have to dodge."
Just like with the sandbag, the fourteen-year-old could feel the air shifting from his servant's movements, so when she finally delivered the punch he noticed immediately. He couldn't tell exactly where the hit was located though, just when it happened.
Caecus decided the safest option here would be to simply move backwards. He dashed backwards, but Amelia simply followed him and continued her attack. The teen wasn't able to take that many steps backwards at the same time and fell on his butt.
"You did very well. As I could see, you were able to feel when I moved. You solved the problem of not being able to locate my attack by dodging backwards pretty well, but as you could see this doesn't work in a real fight." Amelia said while she helped him up.
"This time I want you to try something else. Your sense of touch is what I'd assume makes you able to feel my movements, right?"
Caecus nodded. "Yes, I can kind of feel the air moving."
"Alright, this may sound weird, but try to infuse soul essence into your face. Not the muscle but the skin. Your face is among the places with the most sensory receptors in your skin, which would help you feel the air the most if you infused it with soul essence, because just as I said it has the most sensory receptors."
Drawing on his soul essence, Caecus got into a fighting stance. This would be best for dodging her hits. He accumulated his soul essence on his face and waited.
When she moved Caecus wasn't only able to feel the air shifting but also the exact spot where it kept shifting. With his enhanced cognitive abilities, which he got after advancing to rank one, he was able to make out exactly where her punch would land, right on his nose. Just before the punch connected, he shifted his stance. Rolling his shoulder and twisting aside, he slipped the punch. Amelia's fist cut through the air where his head had been a moment before. Of course it wasn't as simple as that, as she followed with a second punch. The location: his liver. He quickly used his footwork to rotate on his left foot, the hit meeting air.
"Yes! You did it!" Amelia's composure slipped as she was genuinely happy for him.
"I… I actually managed to fight. Yes. Yes! Yes!!" A smile spread across Caecus's face. He was beaming with excitement.