Nuclear Warlock

Artus woke up as usual, ate a light breakfast, he was ready to start training with Gabell, but to his surprise, his mother told him that his father was busy today, he had an important matter to deal with.

So Artus went to the training ground by himself, he warmed up and then ran a few laps, next he trained with the wooden stick, he swung it around as if he held a sword.

He recalled what his father had taught him, he trained till he could not swing the stick even once.

He then sat down in the shade of a nearby tree to catch some breath, his eyes were closed yet his mind was wide awake, he trained to focus all his attention on feeling the world around him.

He spent some time in this state, then got up, and went home.

****

In the evening, Artus was sitting down with his mom.

"Artus, how was your training today? Were you able to train by yourself without your father?"

"Yes Mom, I ran a few laps then trained with the stick, I trained using what father taught me"

Milal looked at Artus, she always knew he was a smart and sensible child, he did not ask about his father, Gabell, where he went or when will he return.

In the last week, Gabell spent all his time training with Artus, it could be seen how much importance he placed on training, so for him to miss a day meant that he had really an important and urgent matter to attend.

Yet Artus did not ask a thing even though he was curious, because he knew that if his mother wanted him to know, she would have told him, he did not want to put her in an awkward position by asking.

Suddenly a knocking sound was heard at the door, Artus got up and went to the small window to see who was the visitor.

"It's me Gabell, open the door"

*****

Artus looked at the small bottle in his hands.

His father had given him this small bottle after he returned today, he instructed him to drink it before going to sleep today.

The glass appeared faded with tiny cracks across its surface, the cork at the top was chipped and worn out, Artus was afraid it might crumble with a slight touch.

For the past several days, every night in his room alone, he would spend time trying to sense the world's energy.

At first, he did not feel a thing, but he did not give up, he read the books several times and concluded that the key to sensing the world's energy is to isolate oneself from the surrounding world.

To be able to use your mind to sense the world, you should first block all physical senses, to facilitate thing he put a piece of old clothes around his eyes to blindfold them, he tied it around his head like a band, he also put another two pieces he had mad into small balls on his ears underneath the band.

In that way, he was able to shut down his vision and hearing to a certain extent, if he wanted to achieve the same results by only relying on meditation and concentration, he would at least need months, he didn't have enough time.

He opened the bottle slowly and carefully, brought the bottle close to his face, he took a few sniffs, a faint herbal smell filled his nose, it was so light, he could hardly detect it, he looked at the inside the bottle, there was light blue fluid, filling only half of the bottle.

His hand grip tightened around the bottle, he knew his father had paid a lot for this bottle, its quality did not matter, for Artus it was a priceless treasure.

He drank it in one gulp, he could feel his body getting lighter, he also felt that his vision and hearing had become clearer.

Next, he filled the empty bottle with water and drank it again, he did that several times, till he made sure there was not even a drop of potion left in the bottle.

He kept the bottle at the small table beside his bed, he planned to fill it with water and drink from it every day.

That night while he was in a state of complete silence, he lost his sense of time, he saw a small round light in the complete darkness, it seemed the sun had already risen, and the blindfold was made of clothes so it could not block the rays of the sun.

 He removed the blindfold and stared into the distance while he felt the warm rays of the sun hitting his back.

"I lost the sense of time and spent all the night in a state of concentration"

*SIGH*

Artus took a small breath, got up from the floor, and opened the window, he looked at the village, but his mind was somewhere else. He was disappointed with his progress; he was running out of time.

*SIGH*

"At least by losing my sense of time, it could be counted as progress in the phase of concentration and isolation from the physical world, isn't it?"

He said with a perplexed smile on his face, he shook his, he slapped his face with his hands light.

"There is no time to waste on negative feelings, I should concentrate all my efforts on my training"

"In the end even if I did not make it, I will at least have no regrets as I had given it all my efforts, another opportunity will arise in the future"

He said that only to encourage himself yet deep done he knew that there be no other opportunities like this one….

He headed down the stairs to start another day of training…

Artus had a lot on his mind, so he did not notice that when he got up from the floor, his back was facing the small window.

He usually sat with his body directed towards the window to the east when he trains, but it seems that after he put on the blindfold last night, he accidentally turned around and sat with his back facing the window.

So, when he saw the faint small light in front of him, he thought it was the sun and got up…. yet the only thing in front of him was the wooden wall to the west….