Nero did not leave the arena. Instead, he walked up to Silas who looked both queasy, and determined. After a week’s worth of training, it was time for him to fight Andrew again. For one week, Nero had regularly taken out time to slowly teach Silas, giving him pointers and training, as well as sparring with him as well.
When Nero was not available, Silas would spar with others in his own battalion. He had a decent standing in Demeter, and the battalion was doing especially well with its new batch, so he had more than enough people to train with.
Yet Andrew was not idle either. He had been full of resentment, not just from getting beaten up by Nero, but facing a tough battle at Silas’ hands. Thus, he had also trained furiously, aiming to get his revenge on Silas. Secretly, he was even aiming to get his revenge on Nero... until he saw the fights against Vilhelm, that is. That’s when he realised just how easy Nero had gone on him.
For some odd reason, his desire for revenge against Silas also vanished. Now, he was treating this somewhat seriously, while he also began to have some thoughts about the offer for training Nero had given him.
Nero stood on the side, not interfering or guiding Silas at all. He’d already done that for a week. His targeted training was somewhat effective, but at the end of the day Silas was the one who needed to learn and adapt to it. If he didn’t, then no amount of training could make him useful.
The main thing Nero had focused on for now was developing Silas’ reaction and hand-eye coordination. His senses, especially due to his ability, were already incredible. But if he couldn’t utilise them, then it was pointless.
The fight began, and after a week’s worth of training and improvement, the results were... worse than last time. Andrew was no longer treating Silas lightly, and so fought seriously from the start, not giving Silas any opportunity to fight desperately.
Although he still ended up suffering a couple of Silas’ attacks, they might as well have not landed at all. The only positive thing that could have been said about the match was that Andrew had not been needlessly merciless. He only defeated Silas, and did not abuse him.
As soon as he won the match, Andrew looked towards Nero warily, almost expecting him to retaliate. Yet Nero only nodded to him, and moved to Silas.
"Got a little over confident after last week’s match, huh?" Nero asked as he squatted down beside Silas.
Silas, however, did not reply, and just looked at the ceiling listlessly.
"If you want to quit, you can. Just remember - all it will take is a threat of this level to kill you," said Nero as he got up, seeing that Silas was not responding.
Seeing that Nero was leaving, Silas groaned as he pushed himself up while a nurse inspected his body for injuries.
"I don’t get it. I trained so hard last week. How could I actually do worse than before?" he asked.
"It doesn’t matter how hard you think you trained. It only matters whether you trained enough to bring about the necessary results. Real life doesn’t care about your feelings. Besides, if you could cover in a single week the amount of work and training Andrew has probably put in for years, then you’d be the prodigy, not Vilhelm," Nero answered.
He was a little harsh in his response, but Silas needed to eradicate the notion that he had to get a certain outcome just because he put in a lot of work. Victory was not owed to anyone - it was earned, and there was no fixed requirement for what it would take to earn that.
Silas groaned once more as the nurse pressed his stomach to check for internal injuries, and Nero shook his head.
"Remember, your enemy is not Andrew. Your enemy is the threat you will face in the future that will kill you. How much harder would you train if you knew it would save your life?" he asked.
Silas was in pain, and in no mood to listen to motivational speeches, yet unable to move he lacked options.
"Your next match will happen on the same day next week. You better reflect on what happened this time, and start paying greater attention while training. Training isn’t about mechanically repeating movements. It’s about consciously utilising your brain each time to master and improve. You must..."
The rest of their free time was spent just like that, and Nero made no attempts to approach Gabriel, or spend time with any of his other acquaintances. Training Silas was also an important part of his plans.
The excitement of his victory did not keep Nero up that night, for sleep was one of his most valuable assets that he could not compromise on. In fact, Nero hadn’t been depriving himself of sleep at all.
Unlike before, where eight hours of sleep was his average requirement, now Nero felt completely well rested after five hours of sleep, so he always woke up fresh for his early morning class.
The morning drills changed once again, this time making them march in formation carrying full gear besides their full body weights - just the kind of early morning workout Nero needed to start the day feeling energised.
At breakfast he devoured everything he could get his hands on, and then quickly arrived in Professor Isabella’s class, anticipating her response. This was the thing he had been working hard for, and now he needed to know what the subsequent steps were.
When the professor came in, she was whistling and seemed like she was in a particularly good mood. If such a sight was ordinarily seen, one might ask the young lady if her birthday was around the corner, or if her parents had gotten her a nice gift. In this case, however, Isabella felt satisfied having played a direct role in ending Vilhelm’s winning streak.
"Ah, Mr. Grant, you look in a fine mood this morning," she said cheerily as she set down some papers on her table. "I have already submitted, as well as processed your referral to the Valkan legion. I will update you on its status after this class. Everyone else, pay attention.
"Today, since I’m in a good mood, we’re going to be covering something a little special. I have brought with me the latest theoretical paper published by the Lorilem University, and it’s based on some research material they discovered in the Lumina ruins. This is a theory, with no way of confirming whether it’s true or not, but this is the latest and most relevant debate ongoing in the academic world right now, and I’m going to give you all a taste. Nero, why don’t you hand out the papers and we can begin."
Nero immediately grabbed the stack and distributed them across the class, not wanting to risk ruining Isabella’s good mood. At the same time, he could not help but take a look at the title of the page.
’ Gradual Attunement: Evidence for Adaptive Aetheric Responsiveness .’
The title was somewhat confusing, but Nero didn’t delve into the paper just yet. He took his own seat once he was done distributing them and waited for the professor to explain.
"The research paper in front of you has two lead researchers, and thirteen secondary contributors who have come together to put forth this paper, studying the history of human innate abilities since the time of Emperor Iskander, and using data gathered from the ruins.
"The language and terminology of the paper are somewhat above your level for the moment, so I will help you go over it. After that, we will have a class discussion on the paper, since this is only a theory for now. Everyone can feel free to share their own opinions then. For now, why don’t you all read the first three paragraphs which introduce the premise of the paper, and then I’ll explain it to you."
Nero turned to the paper and began to go through the unfamiliar, and difficult vocabulary, making it so that Nero sometimes needed to read the sentence a couple of times to even get a basic idea of what they were actually saying.
What was even the point of being so obtuse in their writing?
Nero still trudged on, reading the paper when he finally reached a point that caused him to pause. He looked up, and saw the smiling Isabella waiting for everyone to finish.
"Did you all get a sense for what the paper is discussing? Well, it doesn’t matter because I will not explain. Going over the data of the last nearly nine centuries, the authors propose that humans are displaying a trend of increased aether sensitivity, as well as developing increasingly complex or powerful innate abilities.
"Calculating the rate at which humans are currently improving, and using it to estimate the origin point of when humans began to adapt to aether, the author suggests that humans are not native to this planet, and that we arrived here approximately five to eight thousand years ago."