After resting for a while longer, Andrew forces himself to continue the lap with his hands. There were falls here and there which resulted in injuries and sprains but he still tried his best to go beyond his limits. He continued until deep into the night when everything was barely visible due to the lack of moon today before being able to complete the third lap assigned to him. But on completing the third lap, there was no longer any bit of strength in his arms. No matter how hard he tried, he could not even raise one of his fingers. He smiles in depression before looking towards the sky, it doesn't take long before sounds of snoring could be heard from Andrew, seems like he has been holding the sleep for a long time now and being unable to move just made the exhaustion wash over him at once and he fell asleep.
Michael was hiding in a corner while watching the proceedings of Andrew with his training and when he finally completed the third lap. They were undisguised pride revealed in the eyes of Michael at this moment, something which he would never allow to show before Andrew. There was another shadow hidden in another corner watching the training, the face of the person was not visible one bit, he was covered from head to toe in dark clothes. Even Michael was unable to notice that there was another person present in the training field which goes to show that the person present was at a higher level than he was. The person in dark clothes stood by for a pretty long time, watching Andrew before moving away silently like he was never there.
Michael watches Andrew who was laying on the floor then went toward him to bring him back into his house. His face portrays every bit of care one could muster but he doesn't regret his decision of being strict in the regulation of Andrew's training a bit. It was all needed to groom him to be the best and attain great heights.
The next day, Andrew woke up all energized and was wondering how it was all possible since he knew how weak he was before he passed out to the extent that he couldn't even lift any of his fingers. But now he was energized, the pains from his head were gone, his whole body was active the only thing was that his legs were not fully recovered and he couldn't walk with them as at now, but he was feeling an itching sensation to show that it was recovering in a steady pace so he had nothing to worry about. Later, however, he was able to realize the reason why he felt full of energy was because of the herbs mixed in the porridge he ate earlier. Before the herbs would be able to perform their functions, the body needed to be stretched beyond its limit and thoroughly drained of all its energy. The function of the herb was to strengthen the body and its cells to be capable of adapting to the variety of workload being presented to it and also to drain the system of any waste. It was a very good herb as it would aid in his training for a very long while since even the herb has a limit and he has to use his own body to adapt to the other variables being presented to him.
His training continued without hitch, he trained every day until he was thoroughly exhausted and ate the porridge before resting. He didn't have to think about how to regain his strength after being exhausted so he had no scruples about going an extra mile in his training to the point of a near breakdown all in his quest to be more powerful. His legs were healed in a week but before he could restart the training of the weighty stone, he waited another week while running normal laps to exercise his legs into shape since it has been a long while since he has made use of his legs.
His training continued to progress smoothly and it was also accompanied by real-life hunting in which he got to know that some insects can be a lot more dangerous than the beasts found in the forest. Injuries were unable to be avoided during the training but Andrew was relentless in his training either way and he could feel his body getting stronger with each passing day. He also got to learn how to use some cutlass skills, axe throwing skills and even the bow and arrow. He was a hunter and he have to be versatile in his range of weapon usage, just being good in one does not mean that he shouldn't learn how to use the others cause he doesn't know when close-ranged combat or long-range combat would be needed, focusing on one could endanger his life on the long run.
To the amazement of Michael, he was able to learn the usage of all weapons being handled to him very well, like he had a very solid foundation on it and just needed a few hints to perfect his skills.
During this period also, Michael took Andrew to visit Annie and Marian, seems like they have been able to get by through their mourning period as they were able to smile a bit now. Michael also helps them a bit with some meat and money for them to get by, Michael was not the only one who rendered help to them as the other members of the group came along once in a while to drop some stuff for them. Although not intentional, Andrew and Marian were able to talk and get along once in a while. It was mostly Marian doing the talking though but Andrew just had to play along to lift her mood since he kind of still felt sympathy for this little girl. And although he was a young man in a young boy's body, it doesn't stop him from being playful with Marian and he grew fond of her in the process.
Little by little, Andrew's training was upgraded and got more painful and exhausting even though his body has been strengthened a lot of times by the previous training. He almost gave up more than ten times due to the increase in the difficulty of the training but held back and strengthened his resolve thinking about brighter days in which all his training would finally start paying off and he would be able to have everything he has ever desired. He and Michael have even gotten closer than they usually were, Michael took perfect care of him and was unintentionally showing him the kind of fatherly love which he never experienced since he was always the one taking care of his father even before his father's death since he was bedridden for as long as Andrew could remember and when he asked his father what happened, he had told him that it was due to an accident at work which claimed a lot of people's lives and he was lucky to have barely survived such an ordeal albeit at this cost.
Although Michael tried his best, he was after all a caring person on the inside and couldn't always hide it, hence his care towards Andrew was shown once in a while. Although he was always strict on the surface, he never took it too far that he put Andrew in a life or death situation even during hunting with other warriors, he never put Andrew in harm's way and if by a slim chance he was, Michael would make sure that he was saved. Little by little, Andrew's strength increased by leaps and bounds but he was having this aura of death which reeked of blood most times due to his huntings now and then which involved killing beasts and he was not able to rein the killing aura of which was awkward for a child of his age. If he had entered into assassination guess he did have become a top expert already due to his reaction, size, aura and explosiveness.
All that was being dished to Andrew was being absorbed by him except the theory aspect though, after all, Andrew was not a bright person and he learnt faster by practice than by words. He just tries his best to put the words being spoken into practice once in a while to get accustomed to it, only when he remembers them though but most times he just acts based on his instincts which has helped him pretty much in a lot of ways.
He also noticed that the reason he was able to pick up weapon usage easily was also due to using his instincts and not due to any foundation built on weapons usage or stuff like that. It seems like there was a formless hand guiding him on how to complete some of his training, the right amount of strength to use in handling weapons and being able to master the skills being presented to him without too much practice and this made the grooming of Andrew into a seasoned hunter easier which continued to surprise Michael a lot such that he almost asked Andrew if he had trained in this way before but manages to hold himself back after all everyone has their secrets and it won't be nice to just go about questioning everyone about their secrets. He doesn't let it bother him too much because Andrew transforming this quickly is also a good thing for him and the village.
