Caleb PoV
As planned, I teleported to Leshy’s temple early in the morning.
He was already waiting for me.
“Ah, Caleb, first things first, how fast can you run?”
“I can run a mile in 2 minutes.” I smiled.
“… great. Reaction speed will be practiced later then, so, for now, let’s focus increasing speed.”
“Ok, how do we do that?”
Suddenly, we were in a field, I felt a press on my back that faded.
“Woah, where are we?”
Leshy sniffed the air and sighed contently, “One of the upper levels of my temple. A field I made.”
I blinked, “Leshy, we’re outside…”
“Actually, yes, but no at the same time. See, this is a pocket plane.”
“How does that work?”
“Do you know how space works? How things are filled?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“Wonderful, then have you ever seen someone fold it?”
“Fold it?”
“Yes, it’s simple, the room itself is only 1000 by 1000 feet, however, by folding space, I can condense whatever is inside. Then I use some of my illusion, and voila, a practice room.”
“Illusion?” Hold on, he can do illusions?
What does that do?
“Consider, you smell Camellia, yes? Are there any?”
“No… woah…”
“Yes, even the grass is an illusion. Sight, Smell, Touch, Hearing, and even Taste if I want to… makes Kallamar’s cooking more palatable.”
“Is Kallamar a bad cook?”
“No, it’s just that he has every ailment ever possible inside of him at all times. Some of those make food taste bad. He’s actually a rather good cook.”
Yeah… that does make sense for the god of blight.
“Anyways, to training, you’re going to run to the end of the room and back 50 times.”
I blinked, “50 times?! I definitely don’t have that much stamina.”
“Alright, then do as much as you can do. I’ll run with you.”
We ran, and he simply walked, his full stride being as fast as my sprint, and after ten minutes I reached the end for the first time.
It looked like I could go further, but it was almost glasslike, but not smooth, like it was carved from a block.
I was tired, then I felt a pod press the back of my head.
Energy pulsed into me and I no longer felt tired.
“What?”
Leshy smiled, “See, if you want to get to the point that I can actually train you, you need to be able to at least see my speed.”
“How fast are you?”
Leshy became a blur that steadily stabilized into hundreds of images of Leshy at every point throughout the room, and wind picked up, until he finally stopped. Find the original chapter at g.com.
“I ran from end to end 587 times.”
“…. That was ten seconds…” I knew he was fast but… that room simulated around 5 miles…
“Don’t worry, that was my full sprint. My normal run takes about two and a half minutes to do that.”
Oh, two and a half minutes?
All right, if it’s that long, I guess it’s okay.
“Caleb?”
“That’s still insane speed!!!”
“I guess, compared to mortals, but my siblings are faster than me. Shamura, for example, can do ten times my amount in ten seconds.”
“Shamura… … … the one whose crown dwarfs me…”
“Ah, you’ve met her.”
“She moves… that… that fast?”
“Yeah, she’s the fastest of us.”
That would make sense.
She was the strongest bishop.
“Now, let’s finish these 50 runs, each rejuvenation will be further apart.”
“Right.” I was ready.
The first heal was after we finished the first there and back.
The next was after the third.
The next was after the tenth, when I was tired.
The next heal was after the thirtieth.
And I finally finished the fiftieth.
“So… I’m done… aren’t you going to heal me?”
Leshy smiled, “Firstly, one last run, except this time, try sprinting it.”
“Was I not sprinting?” I was using the same force, maximum, the whole time.
“You were, in the start, but then it stopped being the maximum in as little of the fifth back and forth. So, try sprinting.”
I sighed, still feeling drained.
I did give my max, but may as well humor him.
Focus in my legs, and bur-
I slammed into the wall, and collapsed, coughing, blood poured down my forehead.
Some drained into my mouth, more of it into my eyes.
I felt Leshy’s pod hand press on my face, and then Leshy poured water on my face.
Then he wiped my face.
“You crossed the room in one second. Unusually fast evolution for an ascendant, could be your odd biology. Now, the real thing is increasing your perception speed.”
Leshy pointed, “I will do my normal workout, and you will, through the whole thing, simply try to see me individually. Even as much as seeing a solid blur will work.”
Over the next three hours, I did stretches and whatnot, but even still, besides flickers, I couldn’t get a glimpse of him.
I tried staring.
Then Leshy stopped, “Okay… I figured your problem, you’re focusing only on sight. That won’t change anything. Try doing it again, but keep your eyes closed.”
That didn’t make sense… but I’d try it.
I kept my eyes shut for about an hour… and at one point… I began to see without seeing.
A vast pressure was moving all around, but… I began to be able to see where it was.
Then I reached out, and felt the fur.
I opened my eyes, and Leshy was smiling in my direction.
“There you go, now keep that sense, while looking.”
He moved, but it was visible, even if it was still heavily blurry.
He smiled at me again, “Perfect, that is the most growth I’d seen in a day. You honestly would be strong enough to be commander.”
“Really? Would I be strong enough to beat someone like Valefar?”
Leshy laughed, “HA, no, oh goodness no. You’d be a match for Amdusias at this point, which is no doubt impressive for one day. You’re at about a three year ascendant’s strength. But, no doubt, Valefar would still crush you with little to no effort. I mean, you’re far slower, and you haven’t trained strength yet. Frankly, I’d recommend starting a cult, but my siblings wouldn’t be fond of that, and besides, I doubt you’d be fond of that either.”
“Yeah, I’m not interested in being worshiped.”
“Speaking of, you’re still planning on going to the harvest festival tomorrow, right?”
I nodded, “Of course, I mean, Heket did invite me. It would be rude not to go.”
He smiled again and patted my shoulder.
“Wonderful, well, meet me again at first dawn. The Festival itself starts at noon, but I want to take you around Anurai. As the Capital of Anura, it’s very vibrant on that day.”
“I’m definitely looking forward… but I should probably wear a mask or something.”
Leshy thought for a moment, “That’s a good point, people could get jealous, and even potentially attempt on your life later, or use you as blackmail. I’m not worried about the Lamb doing it, she has proven to be valiant, even if a threat. But, there are many, far stronger than you, who would leap at the chance. Tell you what, I will prepare a robe in your height, Commander robes conceal the face as well, and it would not be difficult for them to imagine me with a new commander, especially given I’ve lost two in only a few days.”
I blinked, “that would be interesting… but what if someone who knows how I smell is there?”
“That would be problematic, but either I could just sustain an illusion over you, which would become obvious if we separated, which obviously, you would want to do, to buy some exotic foods or whatnot, or I could imbue the robes with my scent… which would create… a rather different impression.”
I blinked, what could the impression be of the… oh… “Yeah, I think I’ll stick with my own scent.”
“That is probably for the best.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I held my fist up in the air for a fist bump.
He stood there, “… I heard you move your arm, but why?”
“Oh, it’s something where I’m from, we sort of bump our hands together, it’s called a fist bump.”
“Ah, so a cultural friendly gesture.”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
He held up his pod hand, and we fist bumped, and I grinned, and he also did.
It was different from his other smiles from before, this one was adorable, like a cheerful kid.
“See you tomorrow, Leshy.”
“See you then, Caleb.”