Year 768 of the Journey Calender, two weeks and three months into the year, in the small town of Afaik.
After Leo's observations of his father, he discovered that his theory about breathing was mostly right.
What Leo noticed though, was that it wasn't the breathing specifically that allowed for this boost in power, rather it was the rhythm of the breathing that was the reason.
"Right, when father was chasing that uncle, I could remember him breathing incredibly quickly, in a very fast manner, perhaps that's why he was able to exert that much power instantly with no warm up..." thought Leo as he recalled the scenes from the day before.
"Let's try and see if I can replicate it..." he said, as he started breathing very rapidly.
His father was nearby as he looked at his son who was breathing like a hyena and started laughing.
"What are you trying to do, kid? Regulate your breathing, lest you run out of breath, hahahaha!" said Fernas to Leo.
Leo was a bit irritated by his father's laughing, although he kept at it, "He probably doesn't know what I'm doing, hehe." he thought.
He kept trying to breath rapidly, but to no avail, nothing happened, no feeling of power felt, nothing improved.
He was frustrated by this as he thought he had figured it out without the help of his father, but all of this came crashing down when he couldn't even feel anything by doing that.
While he was frustrated, he was reminded of his father's laughter at him which frustrated him even more.
Suddenly though, as he was recalling his father's laughter, he remembered his father's words.
"regulate your breathing, he said..." said Leo, as he felt enlightened by his father's remark.
"So it's not just about breathing fast, it's about regulating it... did father know that I was attempting what he did yesterday?" thought Leo.
Leo's remark was wrong, as his father said it out of habit, as regulating breath was a key factor in providing the body with enough energy to last him for his exercises, and it was one of the first few stuff he taught him.
"Okay, let's try it again..." said Leo, as he tried the fast breathing method, except this time, it wasn't just random fast breathing, rather it was regulated.
As he was doing, he felt his body being empowered, and he only kept feeling more powerful, "I did it!" he thought, he was squatting while he was trying this method, a moment later, the sky was facing him, as he blacked out.
The next thing he woke up to was his father, mother and a nurse all standing around him.
Sina was looking concerned, and the nurse was talking to Sina and Fernas, "Don't worry, he just over exerted his body, you shouldn't make him train as much as he is doing right now." she said as she noticed Leo awake.
"Look, he's awake now, you shouldn't do this again, boy. If you ever feel tired, take a rest." said the nurse, as she was packing her stuff "A good night's rest and he should A-okay tomorrow." she said, then left the house.
Leo was embarrassed as he noticed his father look at him, "You damn brat, you never blacked out before, so what happened now?" asked Fernas, but Leo just kept quiet as he was too embarrassed to say anything.
"You tried using the method I used yesterday, didn't you, brat?" said Fernas as he looked at Leo dead in the eye.
Leo was shook as he heard his father's remark, "Uhh... no?" he said trying to cover it up.
"You really did you brat!" said Fernas, while he grabbed Leo and spanked him.
"Don't do anything other than what I tell you, there's a reason why I haven't told you about what happened yesterday, don't get sidetracked while training!" Fernas reprimanded Leo.
"What you did was pretty dangerous, brat. You could've went into a coma you know? Even death was an option!" Fernas was harsh on Leo, as what he did was reckless even though he didn't know it.
"I'm sorry father! When you dashed towards that uncle with your speed, I found it really cool! And I really wanted to do that too!" Leo scrambled as he tried to explain his actions.
"No excuses! Go rest and do what you want for the rest of the day, except exercising, and you better be resting, because I'm tripling your daily quota for the next day!" responded Fernas to Leo's attempts.
"Okay..." replied Leo, dejected as he had realized he had done something dangerous, and made his parents worry about him.
Leo was demotivated as he went to read a book, and he looked outside his house, and found a few kids playing football, then he asked "Can I-", "No. No matter what your request is, today is rest day." He was interrupted by his father, leaving him no chance to ask for anything else.
"Oh... Okay..." replied Leo, looking even more demotivated, as he went back to reading books.
One book he was reading was called "A small snippet of the history of Luvt", Leo was intrigued by a few pages which seemed interesting.
Interestingly enough, humans weren't the first species to exist on planet Luvt, there have been clues that were discovered that indicated the existence of an ancient civilization that had existed thousands of years ago, what's even more interesting, was that we couldn't determine whether the species that once built this civilization have gone extinct.
This was more than enough for us to determine that even more species, ones with great power, exist on Luvt, as great as this news is, this also means that there are other species who are capable of competing, if not annihilating, the human race.
"Woah... So it's not only humans..." thought Leo, as he continued to read the book.
What was strange though, was that the skeletons discovered were of a wide variety of shapes, we could only explain this with saying that the ancient civilization didn't contain one species only.
An ancient civilization that united many species! We can only imagine how powerful that civilization was, we can also ask many questions, questions like, 'What did these species look like?', 'Were they powerful?', 'Why and how did they unite? And following this logic, what was the motivator? Was it a species so strong it could annihilate all of these species if they hadn't united?', 'Are these the remains of a great battle?', come to mind.
Luvt seems to be full of mysteries, and these species, their ancient civilization, can only leave you wondering what other sites lay dormant waiting to be discovered, truly, what a magnificent world!
Written and discovered by Van Fower, Year 741 of the Journey Calendar.
Leo read this with his eyes glowing with excitement, his previous face no where to be seen, as he closed the book, he thought "I can't wait till I grow up!", completely forgetting about his previous ordeal, as he closed the book, and continued on with his day.
***
The next day...
Leo had a long day ahead of him, as his quota was tripled, he woke up feeling quite drowsy, which didn't help his case, but it soon went away as he finished his breakfast and started training.
While he was training, Fernas came out of the household and called out "Leo, come inside for a bit." as he went back inside.
Leo found it odd because his father had never called him before when he was training.
As Leo went inside, he greeted his father "Yes, Father." as he sat down.
"Remind me at the end of this month to tell you something, okay? Also, go talk to your mother, she's going to leave for the next two days to tend to her patients." Fernas said.
"Okay, will do." replied Leo, as he went to talk to his mother, hugged her, talked a bit, waved her goodbye, and went back to training as she left.
The tripled quota was incredibly hard, it felt like it was his first day of training all over again, but he managed to get through it by the end of the day, although completely exhausted so didn't have enough time to study.
He didn't try the breathing method, not that he would, as he swore with himself to not do it again without telling his father.
At the end of the day, he went to his bed, "The bed feels so good...", he thought, as he fell into deep sleep.
***
A few days later...
When Leo finished his exercises, and went to study, he looked outside the window and found the same kids he saw a few days ago playing football, he then wanted to join them and asked his father.
As his father didn't mind him going outside, he went outside and went to the kids, they all looked like they were between eight and eleven years old, yet Leo was the same height as them, even at the age of six, perhaps it was the effect of his training or his genetics, no one knew the exact reason for this.
The kids saw Leo approach them and stopped playing, and one of the kids asked Leo "Need something?", which Leo responded "Oh, I want to join you guys, is that possible?".
"Sure, we needed a few extra players anyways, do you know how to play?" asked one of the kids, seemingly the leader of one the teams.
"No... it's actually the first day I play football..." responded Leo, a bit embarrassed.
"Oh... Uh... No problem, we can teach you." said the same kid, although he looked a bit... worried, having a newbie on the team wasn't something you'd want when you were very competitive.
The kids starting playing, and one of them started teaching Leo how to play the game on the side, after a bit of practice, he got the hang of it, and joined in one of the games.
Leo's shots were powerful, it almost amazed the other kids, but what didn't amaze them, was his accuracy, it absolutely sucked!
"Hoooo, boy." thought one of the kids inwardly, "This is going to be one hell of a match...".
As the day went on, when Leo was benched and waiting for his next match, the kid who taught him approached him and extended his hand, "Hi, I'm Gabriel, what's your name?" he asked, very straightforwardly.
"Oh, nice to meet you, Gabriel, I'm Leo, need something?" Leo responded back.
"Oh no, I just wanted to get to know each other, you have really powerful kicks, y'know?" said Gabriel.
"Haha, really? My accuracy sucks though so it doesn't matter that much..." Leo said, a bit embarrassed.
"Oh man, don't worry, we all sucked at the beginning, it's still your first day, so don't sweat it too much. Once you work on your accuracy, you'll be one hell of a player!" replied Gabriel, trying to tell Leo that his problem wasn't that big.
"Really? I hope..." said Leo, feeling a bit motivated by what Gabrial said, "I'll be playing a lot in the next few days to improve myself!", as he gripped his fist, he looked similar to the success kid meme.
As the days went on, Sina returned from her duty looking tired and went to sleep, Leo kept playing football after he practices, and reads for a bit, he gradually improved at football, though he still had a lot to work on.
On a Sunday, the 29th of March, Year 768, while Leo was playing football near his house, he saw a bunch of guards enter his house and was a bit concerned but put it aside as his father was a soldier in the army, and guards would come every now and then to carry him news from the army base.
Leo carried on with playing till it was night, he chatted a lot with Gabriel and they played together, Gabriel was patient with Leo, and Leo appreciated that, so they quickly became best friends.
"See you tomorrow, Leo!" said Gabriel, "Yep!" replied Leo, as they went back home when it got dark, the other kids kept playing, but he and Gabriel went back home.
When Leo opened the door of his house and went inside to the living room, and into the corridor leading to the rooms, what greeted him, was the sound of his mother's concerned voice.
He peaked just ever so slightly and saw his father's solemn face looking down on the ground while Sina sat next to him, telling him a bunch of things.
"Don't go this time, honey, it's far too dangerous this time, and we've got Leo to take care of..." said Sina to Fernas, not noticing her son's entry into the house.
"Honey, I can't disobey military orders, I've been summoned, and it seems the leaders are stacking all of the hopes of the kingdom on this battle." replied Fernas, also not noticing his son.
Leo's eyes widened in horror as he heard the terms 'battle', and 'summoned'. He instantly figured out what was going on. A bit later, he saw his parents walking out of the room, he immediately ran, but this time, Fernas and Sina noticed him, as they realized Leo had heard a lot of their previous discussion.
"He heard us..." said Sina, "He did..." replied Fernas, also a bit taken aback.
"Haa... Well he was bound to know about it sooner or later. I'll talk with him about it later tonight..." Fernas added, looking a bit sad.
