Michael slid down the tree, landing on the ground with a dull thud.
"I… I thought we were learning magic here…" he said while groaning.
Reygart shook his head, arms folded as he leaned casually against the tree.
"You can't use magic yet. Something's blocking your mana from flowing. So in natural magic… even the foxxycat outclasses you."
Reygart narrowed his eyes slightly as he looked at Michael's hair.
'I can sense his mana, but it feels… clustered. Probably because of that Edible Soul Item he ate. And for it to change his appearance too… it must've been a pretty decent one.'
"What?! Even Red has stronger magic than me?!" Michael blurted, mouth hanging open.
"Hmmp hmmp… peasant…" Redhood muttered smugly.
"So obviously you need to sharpen your physical abilities… but it seems…" Reygart said.
A boulder swung in.
Michael threw himself out of the way, rolling across the ground. Another came from a different angle—he twisted mid-motion and dodged again, pushing off the ground into a quick backward leap.
Reygart tapped his finger against his chin.
"Your instincts are decent… and so is your physical ability. But it's not the kind you get from training. More like… a lifestyle."
He yawned and stretched lazily.
"Yeah. Keep dodging these boulders until I wake up."
"Wait—this isn't training, this is torture! And when did you even set all this up?!" Michael shouted.
Reygart was already gone.
Curled up in a hammock strung between two trees, he was fast asleep, soft snores drifting through the forest.
Michael's eye twitched.
"He's already asleep?!"
The boulders kept swinging through the night, forcing Michael to stay in motion, ducking, weaving—never still. Sweat poured down his face as he gasped for air.
Woop! Woop!
They cut through the air in crisscross patterns.
Michael's breaths turned heavy, uneven.
'I'm already getting tired… and it's only been an hour… usually I can keep my body moving at a steady pace for an entire day…'
His eyes widened slightly as something clicked.
'That's it… I'm not doing chores… this time I'm using both my brain and my body…'
Another swing—he slipped past it.
'My brain to anticipate the patterns… my body to react… I've never had to do both at once… before, it was just…'doing' now I'm being forced to stay aware of everything…'
He exhaled sharply, barely avoiding another pass.
'And it's draining me… fast.'
Michael kept moving—dodging, weaving, adjusting, through the entire night until daybreak bled into the forest.
Reygart stirred, letting out a slow yawn.
"I see you got the hang of it… huh…" he muttered, his voice dragging lazily.
Michael was too focused and too tired to even notice, let alone respond. Redhood was fast asleep, curled up on a branch, still snoring.
Reygart spoke.
"Well, don't get excited. Those boulders were swinging in one direction the whole time, at the same speed. If you used your brain, you could've positioned yourself where they couldn't reach and just sat tight and rested. But instead, you wasted your energy dodging them all night… a foolish way of thinking if you ask me."
He lifted a finger, small sparks crackling around it, his smirk stretching as he tapped the boulder.
"You're about to learn how important it is to reserve your energy."
In an instant, the rocks sped up—double.
Woop! Woop!
BOOM.
One caught Michael off guard, slamming into his side. Another followed immediately, knocking him the other way and sending him rolling into a tree with a heavy thud, his eyes widening from the sharp burst of pain.
"W-what… what the…?! They got faster… all of a sudden…?" he rasped weakly.
Michael struggled to push himself up, gasping for air, his body refusing to cooperate.
'I spent all my energy… just constantly dodging… I never stopped… never even thought to look for an easier way… I just did what was in front of me…'
His thoughts dug deeper.
'...Wait... is that what he was trying to tell me...? I'm too narrow-minded... I don't even understand what my body can actually do...'
His breathing hitched.
'When I started dodging… it felt natural… like my body already knew… the flips, the jumps, the speed, the balance… it's all there… I just don't use it properly…'
A shaky breath escaped him.
'So I just need to use it… without wasting everything… and think of the fastest way to win… win, win, win…' he repeated in his mind.
"Okay… let's go," he muttered, a small smirk forming.
A boulder came tearing toward him.
He closed his eyes, then took a deep breath.
His fist tightened and, in one clean motion, he drove it forward.
CRACK.
The boulder shattered into pieces.
Michael blinked, surprised his simple method had actually worked.
"…Woah… that actually worked?!"
Reygart's lips curved slightly as he thought,
'He shattered it with his bare hand… and it was moving double the speed too? Well… at least he's getting the gist of it.'
His gaze lingered on Michael a little longer.
'What a Neanderthal.'
"Okay kid… show me more. Time to kick it up a notch."
'I'll admit… he looks dumb, but he's very self-aware… and that alone will speed up his growth… but still… his roundabout way of doing things will catch up to him someday.'
Reygart imbued more magic into the boulders, making them move at an unimaginable speed.
Whish! Whish!
They sliced through the air.
"Kid… this time if it hits you, you will die for sure… so good luck," he said casually.
"Huuuh?! I'm getting the feeling you're trying to kill me here!" Michael screamed.
Reygart's smile widened, unsettlingly calm.
"If I were you, I'd stop talking and start dodging. Oh, and don't even think about punching those boulders… unless you want your arm crushed."
Redhood had just woken up moments ago. Even without knowing the context of what was happening, all he saw was a clear execution site.
He clasped his paws together.
"RIP Mickey… it was good knowing you, buddy."
The boulders surged forward at terrifying speed. Michael tried to dodge with everything he had, but one barely grazed him, carving a line across his arm. Another followed, then another, scraping past his legs and shoulders, leaving shallow cuts as blood began to seep through.
He clenched his teeth, thoughts spiraling.
'Damn it… these boulders are moving so fast I can barely even see them…'
His heart hammered as they streaked through the air, his eyes struggling to keep up.
'…The first phase, I used all my senses to predict where they were coming from… but this is different… they're too fast for my eyes, too fast for sound… my senses are useless…'
A sharp breath.
'So there's only one thing left… a risky move… if I mess up…'
He swallowed hard.
'I'm dead.'
The boulders tore through the space around him, invisible except for the sudden shifts in wind and pressure.
Michael leapt and rolled into a blind spot, barely escaping.
But one curved through the air, forcing him to twist mid-motion. It grazed past his face by inches before slamming into the tree behind him, tearing straight through it in his place.
'When did their reach extend?!'
They kept carving through the battlefield as Michael's eyes darted wildly. He pushed off the ground again and again, each movement more strained than the last, his body beginning to fail him.
'This can't go on… I was already at my limit… what is it? What is Reygart trying to show me? What am I missing… think… think…'
His chest rose and fell sharply, each breath shorter than the last.
A jolt of realization shot through him.
'Wait… is thinking the problem…? There's something… Georgy once said… but why is it coming back to me now of all times…?'
Doctor George had once explained the five senses in animals and humans—how when one sense is reduced, the others sharpen in response. Michael hadn't paid much attention back then, but he had caught the point.
Michael inhaled deeply, then exhaled. He stood completely still and shut everything out—sight, sound, hesitation, everything and focusing only on the energy around him, relying on pure instinct and letting go of conscious thought.
What he didn't realize was that years spent wandering the forest had already shaped him. Back then, he had learned to move without constantly thinking or looking, how to navigate blind paths, which vines were poisonous and which could be used to swing across gaps, even how to avoid branches hidden in blind spots. It hadn't felt like training at the time… just survival.
Reygart smiled.
"…well… this is interesting…"
Michael, with his eyes closed, stopped trying to see, stopped trying to hear, stopped trying to smell. He simply let go—his awareness sinking into a void.
It felt like he was slowly sinking.
Then a white line whipped past him… but slow.
'What's that?'
He moved.
More white lines swept past as he shifted, adjusted, repositioned again.
'I see… these white lines… must be the boulders… they're faint but… it's like they're moving in slow motion… like I can actually see them coming…'
Redhood's eyes widened.
Michael was moving before the boulders even reached him, his feet shifting with minimal, precise motion.
"No way… he's moving like… he already knows when they're coming…" he muttered.
Reygart watched quietly.
'Kid… you don't even realize what you're doing, do you…? Even though it's narrowed… you've already overcome a hurdle that takes most seasoned wizards years to reach…'
A small smirk crossed his lips.
After ten seconds, Michael snapped back to his senses.
"Dammit… I lost focus!"
Whip!
A speeding boulder shot toward his head—close enough to kill him instantly.
'I can't dodge…'
At the last millisecond, Reygart appeared in front of him and stopped it with a single finger, while the other hand casually halted a second boulder without even turning his head.
Michael froze in shock as Reygart stood there with a satisfied expression.
"Well kid… you've entertained me a bit… so you pass the first phase of your training. Now then… the second phase."