Chapter 40: Grinding II.
Felix had a plate full of food that almost spilled out on the table, but he took care of it and ate everything filling his stomach.
He sat alone a bit far from Steve and had lunch without wasting much time there. Done with the meal, he escaped from the approaching chatterbox and locked himself inside his room.
"I can't let that idiot disturb me, for now, I need to concentrate and meditate more."
Going back to sit on the floor, he continued this morning's cultivation. His mind and body relaxed as he went through the different phases of meditation with the sunshine bathing his body.
*****
Twelve days went by as he spent his time cultivating and getting more information from Steve who occasionally dropped by his room to discuss happily.
"Hmm, I'm looking a lot better now."
As he stood naked in front of his mirror, he could see the wonders of cultivating which proved itself in the form of strong muscles and a grown body.
His previous height of 153cm had increased to 161cm in just a few days as he could now not worry about being shorter than Noah and others.
If his body previously looked like a small kid's, now he looked like a capable teenager with fit bones and toned muscles. The weak body had changed to become a lean and strong body with more strength and agility.
The most fearsome fact was that he had not trained his body at all but only meditated in the cultivation method written in the manual. And even though he had done so much, he was still a bit far from reaching the threshold for rank 1.
Now after 12 days, he thought he had enough meditation done, so today he was going to the training room with his new weapon that he had not used yet. Steve had agreed to train him today as he was free from his usual missions.
"I can't keep him waiting."
Wearing his clothes which were getting less for him, he walked out of his room while carrying his weapon. He decided to practice the sword arts sometime later, as it was something precious that Miss Elsa had told him to not easily show others.
Stopping in front of the door of a room some distance from his, he knocked on it while calling out.
"Steve, it's me, Felix. Open the door."
A few seconds later, the door opened, and a dark green-haired chatterbox enthusiastically walked out.
"Yo Felix, are you ready to get your ass handed to you?", the boy teased his 'pupil' whom he had taught with fervor while holding a slim and long sword in his hands.
Felix twitched his lips and let out a whisper.
"Are you not ashamed of bullying your junior?"
"Hahaha, don't worry, with me as your guide you won't be a junior anymore and you'll start doing missions.", he laughed confidently.
Felix smiled as they both chatted and walked toward the stairs before heading upstairs to the third floor and reaching the training room section.
From the stairs, to the left was the trading hall with the inventory at the end of it while the right side had a long corridor with many specially built rooms reserved for heavy training and mock battles.
They walked ahead and chose a room with a stand at the door showing a green color. Steve flipped the stand showing a red colour and opened the door leading Felix inside.
The interior of the room was brightly lit and looked a bit larger than the corridor outside in terms of breadth and length. With several pieces of equipment and weapons kept on the side, the room had closed walls devoid of any windows.
"Come on, we'll start with a light exercise to stretch our muscles first."
It seemed Steve was not that dumb as he instructed Felix to do some light exercises. Five minutes later, they both stood some meters away from each other as he motioned to start the training.
"For now, show me how strong you are in hand-to-hand combat before we start training with weapons."
"Alright.
Felix nodded and took a boxing stance as they had already kept their weapons to the side.
"I'll be starting now."
With a low shout, Steve kicked off the ground and dashed toward his trainee while throwing out a punch.
Having a serious expression, Felix readied himself and tried dodging the punch which arrived at a fast speed.
Turning his head at the right time, he smiled but hurried again to defend against the kick that was followed by raising his arms toward his head.
The kick landed on his right arm and he felt some mild pain. But he regained his focus and tried attacking his opponent with his elbow.
Steve easily blocked the hit with his palms and pushed Felix away from him.
Jumping behind to stop the force of the push, Felix bent his feet and pulled himself together but he got back into the fight as Steve hurried to hit across his face to which he bent down and swept his legs around on the ground.
Letting out a chuckle, Steve hopped up and avoided getting hit on his legs by moving back. They both stood straight and readied themselves for the next move.
"Hehe that was not bad at all, did you have experience fighting in close combat before?", Steve praised as he looked at the kid who defended accurately against his attacks even though he was holding himself back.
"No, I just used to get into some fights here and there with kids."
Felix lied easily when he used to make trouble with even gangsters in his old neighborhood, but there was no need to tell everyone that.
"Then it seems you got some talent at fighting with your body.", he raised his brow and smiled at his talented sparring partner.
"But the fight is far from over."
He did not waste any more time talking and started trading blows and hits with Felix.
From weak and slower moves to strong and faster moves, he increased his output as the boy slowly started to get hurt here and there.
Felix didn't try to use any of his skills as he wanted to grow used to his new strong body and experience a fight with no tricks like he used to do back on Earth.
But considering it was several years before that he fought in the streets, his moves were not that coordinated and his overall performance slowly started to gain a nice footing.
They both fought with their hands and legs for about a total of twenty minutes before Felix felt exhausted and asked for a break.
Sitting on the floor, he collected his breaths as he looked at the boy who was not tired at all.
"Huff....Huff.....Why am I the only one to get tired, did you not feel anything at all from all the fight?"
Steve rotated his hands around in a circle as he replied matter-of-factly while grinning arrogantly.
"Well, I'm a rank 1 warrior, so of course unlike you, I have much more stamina in my body."
"I guess you're right."
Felix nodded and rested for a few minutes before raising himself up and going to the side to wield his weapon.
"How about we start using our weapons now."
He licked his dry lips as he held his short sword straight with both of his hands while showing a mad look in his eyes eager to test his new weapon.
"Impatient, aren't we?"
Steve shook his head as he went and picked up his long and thin sword before standing in front of the boy with an excited grin etching on his face.
"Don't go crying over me if you get hurt, okay?"
The silver-haired boy nodded with a serious expression, getting ready to fight with a sword for the first time unlike just stabbing forward with a knife.
His red eyes gleamed with a strong will as he ran ahead while raising his short sword to meet his sparring partner's sword as they both clashed strongly.