In the dining hall of the Heimarch Manor, Apollo sat at the dinner table, Ares to his right and little Marco to the left of him. Opposite them sat his mother Helaine, aunt May and an aging man. This man had a kind air about him, he had satisfied eyes as if he lived an accomplished life, but if you looked carefully into his eyes, you would see traces of a dominant man of the past. His name was Grieswald Heimarch, Apollo’s grandfather.

“The steak is succulent and very tasty today Oscar, a job well done!” said the tranquil and florid man.

“You praise me too much sire”, responded a middle-aged chef standing nearby.

“If only young Tyr and Hermes were here” sighed the elderly man as he looked to his right at the empty master’s seat.

“We can’t help it father, both of them are working hard in their respectable cities” smiled aunt May.

“I know, it’d be nice if everyone were here once in a while” replied Grieswald as he dug into the steak in a precise, refined manner, slicing the meat with his knife like it were made of paper. You could tell that this man was skilled with the blade just by looking at his handling of the cutlery.

He locked eyes with Apollo and said, “You seem upset, Polo, was your little adventure not to your satisfaction?”

“No, it was nice, its just-” he trailed, “Father has forced me to go to military school” pouted the young boy in an effort to look like a victim.

“Military school?” laughed the elder, “Im sure young Tyr has great plans for you boy”.

Apollo’s plan in manipulating his grandfather so he could persuade his father’s decision wasn’t looking quite promising now.

“But, bu-“

“No buts mister” demanded his mother, “Your father has his reasons, besides you will learn military discipline and perhaps you can even make friends there” she added, a part of her wished he would not attend but she understood her husband’s intention.

Apollo looked to his right in hopes that his sister would support him, but he only saw her nodding in approvement. ‘I thought you were on my side’ was the expression plastered on his face.

Feeling betrayed, he peered to his left and only saw his cousin Marco stuffing his face with the steak in a careless manner, well it’s not like a 4-year-old boy could make any promising points that would support his disapproval.

Apollo just wanted to be left alone in peace, read books and maybe practice sword arts in the background until he attended a prestigious magic academy. He was even tempted on living a slouched life by turning into a worthless bastard feeding off of his parents’ hard work. But of course, it was only a fleeting thought that he discarded quickly, he still wished to explore Greiss as a hardened man.

In reality, he didn’t really care much about his father’s condition, he was well aware that it was for his own good, he wasn’t dense. Apollo just felt that joining the military at his age was not appropriate, he would’ve preferred to join when he was older.

“Good idea indeed” said the aged master, “Perhaps Marco could join in on the fun in the near future” he continued as he glanced at his daughter’s expression,

“That’s unnecessary dad!” said the brunette woman, frustrated. “My innocent boy will be a politician, not an army officer”, she refused to put her son in useless wars after what happened to her husband who was mortally wounded in battle thus dying years later due to health complications.

“You’re right, forget about it” he immediately regretted his previous comment upon seeing his daughter’s saddened expression. Truthfully, he was also bitter about the tragic end of his son-in law. He gripped his fork tightly thinking about the ‘Byzantine bastards’.

Seeing the sudden change in atmosphere, Ares blurted out, “Mother can you stop sending me useless men? They’re all so weak” she said, annoyed. Helaine tried her best to find Ares a suitable marriage partner but to her dismay, Ares kept rejecting each one she sent.

“*Sigh*, Ares you’re already old enough for marriage, look at your brother Hermes, he’s already married” Helaine deliberated.

Hermes married at the age of 25 when Apollo was only three years old, he is currently managing the city of Salem as expected of an heir. As a matter of fact, planned marriages were common in Greiss, noble families would offer their offspring up to similar families in hopes of creating a pact bound by blood, nasty politics.

“From now on, I’ll choose who I will marry, right granddad?” she glanced at the eating buffoon,

“…..Sure honey” shrugging his shoulders as he took a glance at Helaine, concerned. “As long as he can withstand a blow from me”, flexing his bicep.

“Granddad he will probably die if you do that”, laughed Apollo.

“You’re right lad, bahaha” the senile man agreed, laughing while nearly choking on a piece of steak.

 

After dinner, Apollo returned to his room and sat in front of his desk, at the same time he took out a leather-backed diary from the magical inventory and wrote a new diary entry. He liked to write down accounts of his daily life on paper so he could reflect upon them later. He even wrote every single word in English to make sure that even if someone stumbled upon his diary, they wouldn’t be able to read his writings, it was the paranoia that made him do this.

Accounts of his most precious memories back on Earth were written down in the first few pages so he wouldn’t be able to forget them, Apollo was adamant on not forgetting the existence of Mateo Reiner.

Soon after recording his day in the journal, he returned it to the place in his mind and began to ponder, “If im going to attend a military institution, I might as well start preparations”. Therefore, feeling an unexpected flood of inspiration, he stood up and extended every one of his limbs prior to dropping to the floor setting two hands on the cold surface, he endeavoured to push against the unassuming floor playing out a basic push up.

“…three.”,

“..fo..ur“

“..fiiv-“

Be that as it may, before he could finish the fifth repetition with shaking arms, blood rushing to his face, he collapsed on the ground breathing frantically, his arms and chest aching from the exercise.

“Shit, this body of mine is too weak”,

Frustrated, he turned onto his back and stared at the ceiling, a brief pause before attempting another set, this time finishing the fifth repetition.

“Two sets should do for today” he said standing up, the boy did not want to overwork his muscles on the first day. He looked down, lifted up his shirt and stared at his ‘one pack’ rubbing his hand against it in a circular motion,

“I have to shape you up too Mr Abs-olute” he forced a smile.

Eyeing the four sides of his room, Apollo strolled towards an unhindered part of the wall and sat before it, placing both feet against the wall before laying his upper body on the floor with knees pointing upwards.

From there, he attempted to perform a sit-up or at least tried to, “fuu-ck come on Apollo, sit the fuck up” but he couldn’t, his upper body didn’t even meet the half-way point towards his knees. Helpless, he stood back up,

“I need some sort of counter-weight”.

He looked around his room for something heavy before staring at a stack of books, like a light bulb being lit, Apollo took out a leather bag from his wardrobe and filled it up with books before dragging it towards the wall. He resumed his previous position but this time, on the top of his feet was a bag full of books. His sit-ups immediately became easier with the added weight as he began lifting his upper body using only his abdominal muscles in an experienced but struggling manner. In the end he finished about 10 repetitions before collapsing, the boy repeated the excruciating exercise 2 more times.

Eventually, the young boy stood up content with 3 sets of sit-ups. Spreading his feet in a horse stance with his upper body upright, eyes focused in front of him, he preformed a squat, contracting and relaxing both his hamstrings and calves in a continuous range of motion. At any rate 50 squats was what he could manage prior to resting his sensitive knees.

“*Phew*”

Feeling exhausted, Apollo exited his room and made his way towards the kitchen where he saw Oscar cleaning an iron-cast pot with a piece of cloth.

“Young master, what can I do for you?”

“A glass of milk and fried eggs if you don’t mind Oscar”.

“Please young master, it would be my pleasure, have a seat”, he said pointing towards a set of table and chairs.

Apollo did as he was told and plunked down on the seat, inclining his head against his hands on the table. He observed the man disappear to the back room where all the food was kept afterwards returning with a glass of milk and two eggs.

“Your drink”, said the man as he passed over the cup.

“Thank you”, smiled Apollo.

He took a sip of the drink and checked his overview, displayed under the Status section was the single word, “None”, ‘safe to drink’ he thought, it was not a problem to confirm his suspicions. Apollo increasingly became paranoid due to his past death experience, he had troubles trusting the people around him.

Oscar went back to the cooking area and flicked his fingers towards the stove, lighting up the heat source in flames, afterwards placing an iron cast pan on top of the fire. This was a simple magic trick that wasn’t even considered a spell due to its limiting use, most cooks knew how to generate a small flame out of convenience.

“How do you prefer your eggs done?” said the brown haired-man, with uncertainty.

“Scrambled please”.

“Coming right up!”

Apollo spectated the man out of boredom, he watched Oscar crack both eggs onto a wooden bowl and add a pinch of salt into it before stirring the mixture as he left it aside. He turned around and opened a nearby container as he scooped out a viscous solid, placing it onto the hot pan with an audible sizzle. Apollo assumed that it was lard which was a substitute for cooking oil. The smell of animal fats drifting in the air.

After spreading the lard around the pan as it quickly melted into liquid, Oscar poured the content of the bowl into the pan generating another pleasing sound of sizzles. Roughly 5 minutes later he served the dish to Apollo, giving him a set of cutlery.

Scrambled eggs garnished with parsley and a glass of milk, his small source of Vitamin D and protein both of which were required for the build-up of muscle mass. Apollo thanked the chef before devouring the ‘post-workout meal’, he also checked his status after taking a bite.

“That was delicious Oscar, thank you”,

“No need to be polite young sir, it’s merely a duty of mine” said the humble man.

“Alright, I won’t be taking much of your time, farewell”.

“As you wish” bowed Oscar.

Apollo swiftly left the kitchen and returned to his chambers then he picked up a book laying on his bedside table and sat down on his bed. It was titled, “An introduction to magic”, he bought this book in a previous occasion due to his interest in wizardry. After flicking through the first half of the book, he came across a paragraph describing the acquisition of a ‘force’ used for the casting of spells. It stated that mages accumulated a type of expendable force which they used to cast their magic spells. Below a wall of paragraphs was a method of breathing, it said vaguely that through careful breaths; a person can gather the force in the atmosphere turning it into an expendable resource, ‘mana’.

‘This isn’t very useful’ he thought, the book only described vaguely and there was no visual imagery included in the chapter, just words and sentences which aimed to confuse a reader. However, it did shine a light in the darkness of magic, ‘meditation’ he thought. Back on Earth meditation was loosely used as a way of relaxation and no one really took it seriously except for the Buddhist monks.

“Just maybe….it could work”

Apollo closed the book and put it aside, he then sat upright with his legs crossed, he took a breath, held it in and exhaled forcefully, this was repeated for roughly 5 minutes before he checked his stats. Under the resource tab was his mana stat which remained at 10, he became dispirited upon seeing the unchanged value.

Nevertheless, Apollo did not give up, he tried various ways of improving his meditation, but he still could not stimulate a change in his mana value. He rubbed his chin as he looked back on Earth forcing his brain to think of any useful techniques, it was not until he nearly expended his mental capacity that he thought of a peculiar breathing method, the “Wim Hof” technique.

He stood up and walked around his room in an effort to expel the stress accumulating within him, then he sat down on the concrete floor, eyes closed in a comfortable manner. The boy inhaled through his nose, filling up his lungs to the maximum capacity and after doing so he exhaled through pursed lips, he repeated this 30 times. After the 30^th exhale, he held his breath for as long as he could before inhaling forcefully thereafter holding that breath for as long as he can yet again. Then he breathed out, this whole process was repeated throughout the entirety of what seemed to be an hour, Apollo was completely lost as if in a trance.

He opened his eyes feeling remarkably rejuvenated.

“Overview” said the boy, impatiently.