?"Well, Master!" Lucas exclaimed with burning enthusiasm, breaking the morning silence in the shack's front yard. "We're ready! Where's the blue light? Teach us how to shoot Force Ruin!"

  ?Niko and Blade stood to Lucas's left and right, their chests puffed out with hope. After hearing the epic explanation about the history of Adam, Universal Concepts, and soul power, their blood was boiling. They were already imagining themselves floating in the air, shooting lasers from their hands, or creating impenetrable shields of light.

  ?Master Jiren, who was standing with his back to them, slowly turned around. His old face was flat, as flat as the cliffs on Planet Horizon.

  ?"Blue light?" Jiren repeated hoarsely. He then pointed to a pile of junk in the corner of the dusty yard. "Grab your equipment over there."

  ?The three of them ran enthusiastically, expecting to find legendary swords or ancient artifacts that emitted Lux. However, their steps halted. They blinked in disbelief.

  ?There was only a roll of extremely fragile, dry grass roots, a pile of dead tree twigs, and a sack containing thousands of super tiny iron scrap shards.

  ?"Hold on a second," Niko adjusted his goggles, feeling there was something wrong with his eyes. "Is this some kind of hazing prank for new students?"

  ?"Your training starts now," Jiren said, leading them to the edge of the steep, rocky hill.

  ?Jiren looked at Lucas. "Spartan boy. At the bottom of this hill is a boulder the weight of a minecart. Your task is to pull that boulder to the top of this hill using that rope of dry grass roots."

  ?Lucas's eyes bulged as big as plates. "Grass roots?! This will snap if I just pull it a little, Old Man!"

  ?"Exactly," Jiren answered coldly. "If you pull it with brute, unrefined muscle power, the roots will snap. If you pull it too weakly, the boulder will drag you down. You must find absolute balance."

  ?Jiren turned to Blade, tossing a rotting twig at the swordsman's chest. Blade caught it with an offended glare.

  ?"Sword user. Hand your Katana over to me. Your task is to split that large boulder in the middle of the yard in half. Your only tool is that twig, and... you are not allowed to use Lux."

  ?Blade's face hardened. The veins in his neck popped. "You're telling me to split a solid rock using a rotting twig?! This is an insult! This twig will shatter on the first touch!"

  ?"Then make sure the twig doesn't shatter before the rock splits," Jiren cut in mercilessly.

  ?Finally, Jiren looked at Niko, who was already trembling. The old man kicked the sack of iron shards to Niko's feet.

  ?"Bookworm. At the edge of that cliff, there is a stone pillar one meter wide. You will sit cross-legged there all day, arranging these iron shards into a perfect cube. But..." Jiren picked up a handful of sharp pebbles from the dirt. "While you arrange them, I will throw these pebbles at you randomly from a distance. If you fall from the pillar, or your cube structure collapses, you start over from the beginning."

  ?"That doesn't make sense mathematically or biologically!" Niko screamed hysterically. "Those pebbles could put a hole in my head! ROT, tell him this is illegal!"

  ?BEEP-BEEP! ROT beeped angrily, flying in front of Jiren's face while turning on its red toy laser.

  ?Jiren merely blew on ROT, sending the little robot tumbling backward. "Your robot can only cheer you on from afar. If he helps you block my pebbles, I'll dismantle his engine for scrap."

  ?"BUT MASTER!" the three of them protested in unison. "WHEN DO WE LEARN LUX?!"

  ?"You are learning it right now," Jiren sat back comfortably in his wooden rocking chair, brewing fresh tea. "Get to work. Or go home and cry to your mothers."

  ?And so, the hellish torture officially began.

  ?The first day was a total disaster.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  ?Snap! Lucas's root rope broke on the very first pull. He tumbled down the dusty hill, cursing in pain.

  ?Crack! Blade's twig shattered into pieces the moment he struck it against the rock. He had to pick up a new twig, over and over again, while his hands grew scraped and bloody.

  ?"Ouch! Dammit!" On top of the pillar, Niko's forehead gained a bump from Jiren's pebble throw. Every time he tried to dodge, his concentration broke, and his iron cube structure collapsed, blown away by the wind. ROT could only fly in circles beneath the pillar, playing a cheerful song with its distorted little speaker.

  ?The second, third, and fourth days passed like endless torture.

  ?Every morning they woke up with bodies that felt crushed, bones that felt cracked, and spirits that steadily chipped away. They began to feel that Jiren was just playing with them. There was no blue aura. No Input or Output. Only dust, sweat, and blood.

  ?On the evening of the fifth day, their frustration reached its peak.

  ?"I can't take this anymore!" Niko yelled. He jumped down from the pillar, his breathing ragged. His iron shards scattered everywhere. There were five bluish bruises on his face. "We've been tricked! This old man doesn't know how to use Lux! He's just a psychopath who likes torturing kids!"

  ?Blade threw his broken twig to the ground in a fit of rage. He was panting heavily, his palms covered in torn wounds. "I'm wasting my time. Hundreds of twigs destroyed. This has nothing to do with the sword. This is madness."

  ?Lucas sat on the dirt, his entire body caked in mud and dust. His root rope had snapped for the thousandth time. Even so, a faint smile—though he looked incredibly exhausted—still lingered on his face.

  ?"Hey, calm down, guys," Lucas said, wiping the sweat from his forehead that was mixed with blood. "Uncle Garp always said, great sailors aren't born from smooth seas. There must be a reason for all this."

  ?"What reason?!" Niko fired back, frustrated. "The reason being so we die of exhaustion before we even set sail?!"

  ?The three of them turned toward the shack's porch, glaring at Master Jiren, who was calmly smoking his tobacco pipe.

  ?"Master!" Blade shouted, holding back his anger. "Give us an explanation! What kind of training is this? If you just want to torture us, kill us now!"

  ?Jiren exhaled a plume of tobacco smoke into the air. His sharp eyes stared at the three dirty and desperate youths.

  ?"Don't stop," was Jiren's only answer. His voice was low, but it cut through the evening wind. "A cracked and leaking vessel can never hold the water of an ocean. You want to control the storm within your souls, but you can't even control your own fingers. Don't stop."

  ?There was no further explanation. No motivational words. Jiren simply turned around and walked into the shack.

  ?The three of them fell silent. The words 'leaking vessel' echoed in their ears.

  ?Blade clicked his tongue in annoyance. He walked over to the pile of dead branches, picked up another twig, and stood back in front of the large boulder. "One more time. I'll do this until my hands are destroyed."

  ?Niko let out a long sigh that sounded like a whine, then climbed back up his stone pillar. Beep! ROT played a cheering tune, making Niko smile bitterly. "Yeah, yeah, ROT. I know. Let's start again."

  ?Lucas chuckled softly, picked up his grass roots, and walked down the hill to pull the giant boulder once more.

  ?The sixth day. Something began to change.

  ?Amidst their extreme exhaustion, just as their conscious minds began to give up, their instincts and bodies took over.

  ?Lucas was halfway up the hill. His arm muscles were trembling violently. Usually, when he felt pain, he would forcefully yank the rope, and it would snap. But this time, because he was too tired to be angry, Lucas began to synchronize his breathing with the tension in his muscles.

  ?Inhale... hold the muscles... exhale... pull slowly.

  ?For the first time, the root rope did not snap. The boulder, as heavy as a minecart, shifted smoothly half a meter upwards. Lucas's eyes widened. He realized something. This isn't about brute strength. This is about flow stability. A stable energy Output!

  ?In the yard, Blade stood in front of the rock. He no longer gripped the twig with an anger-fueled hold. His wounded hands held the twig incredibly lightly. He stopped trying to 'hit' the rock. Instead, he closed his eyes, focusing his mind on a single point of intent: Split.

  ?Blade swung the twig casually.

  ?Click.

  ?The twig snapped. However, when Blade looked at the surface of the hard rock, there was a tiny scratch, as thin as a hair, that had never been there before. Blade narrowed his eyes. Intent. Focusing the mind on this twig to coat it... this is the foundation of Force Armament! It was different from the basics he had taught himself.

  ?On top of the pillar, Niko was placing his four-hundredth iron shard. His eyes were red from lack of sleep. Suddenly, the whizzing sound of wind was heard. Jiren had thrown a sharp pebble from behind.

  ?Niko didn't turn around. He was too focused on his hands so that his cube structure wouldn't collapse. Without thinking, and without taking his eyes off the cube, Niko tilted his head two centimeters to the right.

  ?The pebble narrowly missed, flying past his ear.

  ?Niko was stunned. He had just dodged a high-speed projectile without looking at it. His consciousness, entirely focused on a single point, had created a sort of small 'radar' around him. Absolute focus under threat... this is the root of Force Sense and Force Barrier!

  ?The three young men, in their respective positions, smiled at the exact same time.

  ?On the porch of his shack, peeking from behind the bamboo blinds, Master Jiren exhaled his tobacco smoke with a faint smile.

  ?"Stubborn brats," Jiren muttered proudly. "Your vessels are starting to seal tight."

  ?Without realizing it, this agonizing manual labor training was slowly forging their souls into deadly weapons.

  ?To be continued...