In the year 762 of the Journey Calendar, a newborn came to be in the town of Afaik.
"Congratulations, your son was born healthy, you must take care of him well, Sina." Said the nurse that helped in bringing the child out of his mother's womb.
Sina looked at her child with warm eyes as she caressed his head gently as to not hurt the newborn.
The father, Fernas, was there besides his wife, holding the right hand of his wife, smiling while looking at the newborn.
"I think we'll call him Leo, Fernas" Said Sina while looking at her child.
"Yes, what a great name that is!" said Fernas, he was clearly excited to be a father. "And I'll make sure this boy lives up to his name!".
"Mhm, with that settled, excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom." said Fernas, as he left the room.
When Fernas went to the bathroom, he washed up his hand that was full of blood.
What Sina didn't notice was that while she was holding the hand of Fernas while giving birth, her grip was so strong she punctured the skin of Fernas with her nails without noticing.
Fernas had kept quiet all the time and kept up a bright smile as to keep his wife's spirits up while she was giving birth, not making a single sound.
As resources were scarce, Fernas had to be moderate while washing up the blood in his hands, he couldn't waste too much water.
Fernas was a warrior in the army, one of the survivors of the battle that had occurred, once he made it back, he had rushed back to his home in order to be present at the birth of his first son.
Sina knew how to do many things, she was a doctor, and she knew sewing and traded a few clothes for commodities from families that could afford trading those.
She brought a stable income to the household along with Fernas, hence why their family could be described as a middle-to-lower class family.
---
Since that day, three years had passed, it was the year 765 of the Journey Calendar, and Leo was now three years old, and no battles had occurred since the battle of the year 762.
Leo in his upbringing was a very intelligent child, he had learned how to walk by the time he was 9 months old, and he had learned how to speak the language of the Kingdom of Kai by the time he was one year and six months old.
He was also currently learning how to write, and considering the situation of the Kingdom, Leo wasn't aware of how difficult it is to get a healthy learning environment in such a Kingdom, this was because Fernas and Sina never complained or stopped providing books for Leo, although this had taken a toll on their bodies as they had to work extra hard to get the necessary materials for learning.
Fernas and Sina were surprised to see the growth of their child, and they felt he would be something special when he grows up, and they felt it was their responsibility as his parents that they should not falter one bit in providing him a healthy environment to study and grow up in.
As they were looking at their son studying, Fernas spoke "Sina, I think this child will be someone great when he grows up. I'm sure of it.".
"Really? I hope so too." said Sina as she looked at Leo.
"Mom, do you need something?" said Leo as he noticed his mother looking at him.
"Oh, nothing Leo, keep doing what you're doing, honey." said Sina, a bit surprised at her child's question.
"This kid..." Fernas was also surprised with what Leo had said as he laughed, "Hahaha! This kid, he's something else!".
"Leo, keep at your studies and don't forget to eat on time, yeah?" said Sina. Leo had already learned how to eat by himself by the age of one.
---
Three years had passed since then, Year 768, Leo was now six years old.
The situation was now even grimmer in the Kingdom, as they were nearing the end of the their resources, there wasn't much hope in the current situation.
By now, Leo had learned how to speak, and write the language of the Kai fluently, he had also learned sewing from his mother.
Leo was a very polite kid, he never shouted at his parents, and he was always mannered when speaking with guests of the family's household.
One day, his father barged in from the front door, "Kid, you're six years old now, time to put some muscle and start learning how to fight, intelligence will help you, but it won't get you too far if you don't have the power to convince the people. Get up, get up!"
Leo, who was reading a book was baffled at his father's sudden entry and idea.
His right arm was then grabbed by his father as he was dragged outside of the household in order to train him, Sina was also supportive of this, as her husband's words were right.
"Listen, Leo. What I'm going to tell you is important and always hold it valuable no matter where you are in this vast world." said Fernas when they were at what looked like a place for fighting.
"Kid, in this world, what matters is strength and technique. Intelligence can only get you so far." said Fernas as he picked up a wooden stick from bundle of sticks nearby.
"You need to have good strength to lead people, to protect yourself and to survive. And that's why I'm going to train you this early.".
Leo understood that his father's actions were only out of care, so he couldn't refuse, his father's temperament was also a bit scary when he was talking.
"Listen Kid, from this day, you'll be doing basic body strengthening training, ten laps around this area, ten pushups, one pullup, ten setups, ten squats, an hour of meditation, and a plank hold for thirty seconds. Don't think of leaving this area without completing these!" said Fernas with a fierce face, leaving no room for negotiation for Leo.
"Come, since you haven't heard of some of these exercises, I'll teach you how to do them, and tell you the correct form of how to do them, if you do anything with wrong form, that won't be counted towards your daily quota!" said Fernas.
Leo had never seen his father so furious when talking to him, but he would soon realize that this was just how his father was when he was training.
"This is so... hard!!!" thought Leo after finishing the seventh lap around the area he was training in, his daily quota was barely even started and he had already struggled to finish the first exercise.
One could tell that his day would be a long one.
However, to his father's surprise, after being outside for twelve hours, he had managed to finish all of his exercises, and after finishing the last exercise of the last set, Leo had fallen to the ground like a log, fast asleep, he couldn't stay awake anymore.
His father saw this, smiled and said "This kid... I'm still going to need to have him wake up to massage his body so he doesn't wake up tomorrow solid like a rock..." as he woke him up his son, who was refusing to wake up because of how tired he was, so he received a massage while he was asleep, even his father was surprised at how thick his sleep was.
The next day, Leo had woken up incredibly sore, this was what couldn't be removed from the massage, so one could expect what would've happened to Leo had he not received his father's massage.
His father let him rest for the day, as muscles won't grow if he exerts them while they're recovering from an intense training session.
This process went on for the next month, but as he went farther into the month, the lesser rest days he would get, as he was somewhat getting used to it, though still struggling with the time spent on the exercises he did every day.
He barely had any time to study, so for the first month he had barely studied anything, his focus was all on completing the exercises, and eating as much as he could.
His father had tried his best to provide a good diet for his son despite the dire situation of the Kingdom, providing him with meat was easy, as he could hunt animals and sometimes beasts every now and then, but providing bread and other supplies was difficult, as their cultivation process was long, and they were expensive commodities.
After a while, Leo could tell that the situation of the Kingdom wasn't as good as his parents had told him so, and he knew that what he received was special compared to the people of the Kingdom, he felt appreciation for what his parents had done, and promised that he would try his best to live up to their expectations.
After the first month of training, on the first day after that, Fernas suddenly at the beginning of the day told his son "Listen kid, you've been getting too comfortable lately with the exercises.".
"Not really... Father..." thought Leo as he found his father's remarks a dangerous mark.
"He's going to increase the number of my exercises, isn't he..." Leo was demotivated as this thought had occurred to him.
"From this day onwards, as you seem to be getting used to it, every week, you'll increase all your exercises by adding one more of each, except for pullups, ten seconds to the plank hold. As for the pullups, you'll be adding one pullup to your exercises once every two weeks." said Fernas with no room for negotiation again.
This caused Leo to nearly faint, as he wasn't ready for such a sudden change to the daily quota.
He had to roll with this though, as there wasn't any other choice, he would also need to find a way to balance his studying, and his training in his day.
---
As Leo was an intelligent kid, he always thought about the hour of meditation that his father had assigned him, he at first thought it was to help him take a break between the set of exercises, but two months down the line, he realized that wasn't the case.
"Father gave this to me for a reason... but what might that reason be..." thought Leo, he went to ask his father, and Fernas only responded with "Training, what else?".
Leo felt helpless at the response of his father, as he went deep into thought again.
It would be later that week that Leo would begin to comprehend the reason behind that.
---
A few days later, while Leo was doing his one hour of meditation every day, he suddenly felt an empowering feeling, as he felt the ethereal existence of something around him, actually it wasn't just around him, it was everywhere.
"What could this be..." he thought as he was relaxed with no one interrupting him.
He kept focusing on this energy and hadn't realized that he had meditated for two hours.
When he opened his eyes, what welcomed him was his father's odd look at him, which then disappeared very quickly afterwards.
"Could he... already?" thought Fernas as many thoughts were going on in his mind, but he kept it to himself, as he was already planning to tell his son in the future.
"What was that odd look on father's face? Perhaps I did something wrong? Or was that feeling the reason that father gave me an hour of meditation?" thought Leo, who was amazed at the empowering feeling that that energy gave him.
He went back to his exercises and learning afterwards, and as the days passed, he would feel this energy every day.
He would continue to ponder about this energy, thinking what he could do with it, if he could even affect, manipulate it, or do anything with it.
The more he did meditation, the less time he needed to enter the state of comprehending that energy.
He had first tried to move has hands to affect the energy, affecting his meditation pose, which didn't work out, and it brought him out of his state.
Afterwards, he tried moving it with his thoughts, which appeared to have no apparent effect.
He tried blowing air from his mouth to move it, which did move the energy, but it quickly returned to its original state, a failed experiment.
He then thought about how he entered the state, and how meditation helped him see this energy.
"I do have a certain pose when I'm doing it, so is that the case? But no, I can alter it and it didn't have any effect, then what else, closed eyes? No, not that either, I can still see the energy even after I open my eyes for a bit of time, so that isn't the reason either... What else..."
He kept pondering this question for many days until he had a sudden breakthrough two weeks down the line.
