Chapter 3: First step towards Greatness
A/N : KingofThingz : I am planning to give him slayer magic but the hard part is which to give him, although i like your suggestion, i'm going to make it so that learning magic is really hard and that even one branch needs a lot to master. So, he will have slayer magic along with what old man Ed will teach him. So, please wait for future chapters and hope you like it.
Also, i forgot to upload pictures in the previous chapter so here they are:
Blake(mc)
Grandpa Ed
Now on to the story ~
As Blake felt his magic coursing through him, he found that he could 'see' his surroundings even though he was closing his eyes. It was a new experience and he was adapting himself to it. He could see the grass under him, the rustling of leaves as they swayed with the wind, grandpa Ed sitting behind him, the house, he could feel and see a lot clearer and further than with his eyes. It was an amazing feeling and as he was reveling in his new found senses, he heard Ed speaking and decided to ask him about it.
Grandpa Ed was dumbfounded, this was magic sense!, only mages with years of training and having fine control over their magic could use such a technique and Blake could do it mere moments after his awakening!, truly a prodigy, he thought to himself.
Having come to a decision he asks Blake,"Do you really want to learn magic from me, i must warn you, it will not be pleasant since being a mage means you will find yourself in dangerous situations with your life on the line. Although we haven't known eachother long, i feel that fate has brought us together and you are like the grandson i never had, so i want you to be safe. But, it's your decision and if you really want to become a mage i will train you to the best of my ability! I was called a demon during training the army for a reason", after saying this he looked and Blake with a serious expression and quietly leaked his magic to pressure him.
Blake could feel the pressure slowly building and trying to suppress him, but he didn't backdown and looked at Ed directly in the eyes and said seriously, "I want you to train me old man!, I..I also feel a connection with you and it feels like i've known you my whole life. Now that i know i can become a mage i want the power to protect myself and my loved ones, to destroy and obstacle and enemies that may try to do me or mine harm. We both know just how cruel the world is! I don't want to be powerless anymore! I want the power to live my own life!".
There was a short silence after that followed by a sigh then a smile from Ed,"Very well, since you've made your choice I won't argue. A man's got to have a firm resolve and strong enough will if he ever wants to be a mage. Remember those words you said and never falter, because a weak minded person can never become a strong mage."
After saying this he stood up then motioned Blake to follow him as they slowly walked towards the forest and gradually his steps became faster and faster until he was on a full on sprint. Blake was running behind him through the forest as they weaved their way through the thick foliage.
After an hour of constant running where Blake fell numerous times and had accumulated scratches all over his body, he refused to quit as he knew this was a new chance in life, a new beginning where he could actually have the power to write his own life. "I won't be powerless anymore, i will become strong, not only because of the coming war or the plot of the story, no, fuck the plot! I will make my own destiny!", thinking to himself over and over, he followed Ed through the forest until finally they were back to the front of the house.
Ed was surprised and proud about his newly acquired grandson. He had that look in his eyes that burned with fierce determination. He knew he would become a strong and powerful mage, so he decided that it was enough for today and he will give him a little push so that they could begin their tortu-ahem training tomorrow, yes training, he nodded sagely to himself.
"Okay, rest now, that was just a little warm up, we will truly begin training tomorrow, prepare yourself for some harsh training. When you achieve a satisfactory level, this is what i will be teaching you", after saying that he released some of his magic and a large golden magic circle appeared behind him then his body began to light up in a golden aura and veins that looked like it contained lava appeared all over his body.
Blake was awestruck with this demonstration, he was thinking of possible magics that looked similar but couldn't identify what it could be, so he asked, "uhh grandpa, what magic is that?"
Ed smiled at the awe filled expression of Blake and said,"Your grandpa wasn't talented and couldn't learn any type of magic so i decided to create my own. This is the result of years of training, studying, trail and error. This is my own self styled magic, 'Reinforcement magic' ". You could clearly hear the pride in his voice when he said this, but Blake was a bit puzzled so he asked,"But grandpa doesn't magic naturally reinforce and strengthen our body, I mean i could never run as much as we did before, and that was right after i awakened it. So wouldn't i basically be able to strengthen myself further after training?".
This was true as magic or ethernano strengthened the body and made it more sturdy, resilient to amazing levels that would be in the realm of gods back on Earth. But Ed just smiled and said,"Normally yes you would be right but my magic takes it to a whole new level.
Lets say that a mage could strengthen himself to about three times using magic and he could lift a 800kg boulder with just his normal strength, so three times that would mean 2400kg. And that a normal fireball would burn him quite a bit without magic and with magic he could comeout with just minor burns."
He stopped his sentence for added effect and then continued,"My reinforcement magic isn't just amplifying your strength and resistance. You know that when a mage uses up his magic, he subconsciously absorbs the ethernano from the surroundings, what my magic does is consciously absorb the ethernano to amplify everything, your sight, smell, awareness, thought process, strength, speed, durability, everything. This means that a regular mage with this magic could take on a much stronger opponent and come out on top!".
Blake was blown away by this, the possibilities of this magic was insane but still wanted to clarify, "So how much of an amplification are we talking about and is there elemental magic involved, if not is it possible to add elemental properties to it?", he asked.
Ed was once again amazed at his deduction skills and answered,"If i was to give an amount, an A-rank mage with this magic could take on multiple S-rank mages and might even be able to win, as for your second question, no it doesn't have any elemental magic, but in theory it should be possible to add it. As i said i wasn't able to learn any other type of magic so i developed this magic. However!! I must warn you, although it is powerful there is a price."
He said the last part in a grave voice without further explanation and waited for Blake to make his own assumptions first.
After pondering for a moment Blake asked,"With such boost in power, it probably has a huge toll on the body and overuse or oversupplying magic may lead to even more dire consequences, even death. So although it seems simple, one must have intimate knowledge about magic, the human body and one's own limitation, otherwise it is like a bomb ready to go off at any mistake."
Hearing his deduction Ed nodded and had a small smile on his face. Blake was truly observant and had a sharp mind."Correct, if you intake more magic then your body can take you might explode or lose your magic, the strain on your body could lead to permanent disability, or destroy your brain. This magic requires an absolutely absurd levels of physical fitness, strength, will, knowledge, control. Simply put it needs perfection. So, after hearing all that you still want to learn it." he said in a teasing tone at the end.
"Hell yeah!", Blake answered with an energetic shout with his right fist punching the air. This was a really powerful magic and could be on par with all those op magic that were at the top in this world. But power comes with a price and he was willing to pay that price.
Seeing his energetic response Ed laughed and said, "Hahaha, ok, lets get washed up and we can officially start your training from tomorrow.
After washing themselves and Blake having to wear Ed's old clothes they had a hearty breakfast and went to bed. The next morning at sunrise Blake was standing at the front of the house with Ed looking at him sternly with a sturdy looking stick, "Now your training truly begins! Before you even learn this magic, you will be training your body, your control over your magic, and all the necessary knowledge for it, and you will be sparring with me .... alot, because unlike other mages, we don't have much long range magic besides throwing things so you need to get up close and personal with your opponent. Now, RUN 50 LAPS AROUND THE FOREST RIGHT NOW!! MOVE IT! DON'T BE A PANSY AND GET TO IT! HUT! HUT! HUT!", what followed was a full day of intense tortu...ahem training. After which Blake would read various books and ask questions to which Ed would provide answers.
The physical training consisted of running, jumping, stretching, sparring, weight lifting and hunting animals in the forest, while the last part might seem insignificant compared to the others it was actually the most dangerous as Blake had to do it with his bare hands!!
Sometimes he would wrestle with Emboars, a large boar like animal with huges tusks and could breathe fire that burned upto a 140 degrees Celsius. And its body itself was strong enough to uproot multiple trees with a charge and its hide was very thick and hard. Blake almost died encountering the emboar and continued to have near death experiences every time he countered it. It Ed didn't save him a few times we would likely have died more then a hundred times already.
Then there was the encounters with Rockbears, a species of bear that had high affinity with earth magic, making them have super boulder like fur with jagged teeth. A fully grown Rockbear could easily destroy a tank and shrug off anti tank missiles like it was nothing. So, suffice to say Blake was thrown all over the place like a ragdoll and had nightmares for weeks about the Rockbears.
These intense trortu...training sessions would go on for a whole year and during which Blake's body saw intense changes, his muscles were bulging almost to unbelievable levels but Ed assured him that after learning his magic his muscles would become compact so he simply shrugged it off for now, he also had massive changes in his mentality and demeanor.
If he was the regular guy with future knowledge of this world, this one year of training had made him accept his circumstances fully as well as adapt his mind to kill and fight humans and others if the need arises.
Although this may seem insignificant, for someone living on Earth in the 21st century, this would be unthinkable as we live in a society where everything has rules and we can't even defend our own security in emergencies without breaking rules. A society where a small percent of wealthy people make and use the rules to their own whims while the rest suffer. Where a rapist and serial killer are more likely to leave jail than a man killing his daughters rapist.
Anyway, this was not Earth but Earthland, a place where magic exist and the world is governed by ones own strength rather then some made up system of hierarchy.
And now Blake had the necessary mindset to be a part of this beautiful and magical but brutal world. But, this is just the begining as he wasn't even halfway done with his training that Grandpa Ed had made for him.
Now that the physical condition part was over, it was time for the magical conditioning part to begin.
Ed showed Blake a technique to flow his magic in a certain way and told him to do this while meditating every morning. Then, after breakfast he would control his magic to cover his entire body and told hi to try and compress it so that it was basically sticking to his skin, this was very hard, because when a mage releases his magic, it comes out in the form of an aura that bursts out around the mage like how characters in a certain anime get powerup by shouting for two to three episodes, cough, not gonna say names.
This makes the area of effect of the magic aura very wide and Blake had to continually try to shrink the area that the magic aura expanded. The higher output meant stonger push from the magic and this meant that Blake had to concentrate very hard to not let it slip at any moment.
Apart from this he still had to do his hunting training as a way to train fighting magical beasts and tracking them as well. He also had a spar every other day with Ed and got trashed everytime although he saw his progress and he was able to land a couple of hits more everytime. It also sharpened his instincts as well as mastering close quarter combat to levels he never thought he would be able to achieve before.
The strange bond they felt for each other also grew stronger everyday and now they were really like a real grandfather and grandson with their constant bickering, story telling, boasting and pranks.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Baneofthedragon
Baneofthedragon Hey guys!! Thanks for the positive comments about the previous chapter. I currently have another work in progess called Fate x Marvel but there is sooo much knowledge and trivia that i need to research as well as the lore so its very slow going. Also i have exams till 6 dec so i won't be updating regularly so be warned. Anyway thanks of reading and please leave a comment on what you think about the story so far.
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