Tiring
12 Hours to the first exam.
"Hm. Okay, that should be enough." A voice snapped Osho out of his gaze as he looked up and saw Lady Haggai taking so notes from behind a wall of glass.
Nodding, he slowly stood up and watched the bubbles float to the surface as he did so.
Yes, bubbles.
Osho was inside a large pool of water that had been modified to serve as a simulated environnt. As for how? Well, nurous runes had been inscribed to make it so that the water was several tis more difficult to move through. Moreover, the suit he was currently wearing increased his weight by several tis, not only making it harder for him to move overall, but also to ensure that he stuck to the bottom of the pool.
He wore a helt that allowed him to breathe and do the like. However, this helt would suddenly stop giving him oxygen at random intervals, forcing him to hold his breath and supplent his blood with Mana if the period without oxygen proved to be too long for his ordinary body to handle.
Not to ntion, the jumpsuit still served to deprive him of his senses and, Mana sense the sa way his senses had been restricted at the beginning of this entire ordeal, but at this point, Osho hardly noticed such a restriction.
Lady Haggai and Simon hadn’t been joking when they said he would not take off the clothing for the entire month, and at this point, he’d found ways to cope and function sowhat normally.
Down the line, when he seed to have acclimated to the effects of the suit sowhat, they moved on to more intense things. Before this whole simulated environnt thing, Osho had been forced to spend a week inside a room with its gravity multiplied by a few tis, and he couldn’t step out once until he’d acclimated enough to start running around under such pressure.
Before that, they wanted to make him use only his non-dominant hand under strenuous conditions to make him used to it, but they quickly moved on as Osho casually revealed he was ambidextrous.
He then spent a few days only being able to use his Mana sense as his remaining senses had been completely suppressed, leaving him with his already limited Mana sense.
There were a lot of other tests, and not once had Osho not been given a chance to not study, as throughout it all, he’d had this seemingly indestructible tablet that had all his study materials in digital form, and he’d been using it for the entire duration of his training.
Now one may ask, if Osho was doing this much? Then what about Gale? Surely his had to be worse?
And you would be absolutely correct.
Apparently, Gale had been put in a simulated environnt just like him, only far more restrictive.
Not only had Gale not taken off those weights he’d been using from the start, but the room he was training in also had increased gravity. But it didn’t stop there, it had also been vacuud so that there was no air within whatsoever, yet he’d still been forced to fly by using his Mana to act in place of the air, while at the sa ti using his Mana to prevent the expansion of his bodily fluids due to the lack of any air in the room.
It didn’t stop there, as when Gale had gotten acclimated to this, the weights began doing sothing similar to what Osho’s jumpsuit did as Gale’s senses would be restricted little by little over the course of his training.
After that, Gale was made to manifest his bloodline for as long as his body would allow him under these conditions. It was only with limited intensity initially, but it slowly grew to him having it on maximum blast until he finally couldn’t go on due to exhaustion.
Oh, and all of that had been done in one go, Gale hadn’t stopped flying throughout that ordeal.
Osho was, understandably, more than a little pissed when he heard the amount of strain the bird was being subjected to, and he wanted them to stop, or at least reduce the intensity. But to his surprise and perhaps dismay, Gale didn’t want to stop, and when Osho tried to convince the bird otherwise, he stubbornly refused, his feelings translating into sothing along the lines of ’I can handle this much’.
Anyway, Osho eventually relented and the bird continued like this until he could sustain such a strained mode of operation at a satisfactory level. Lady Haggai then started experinting with Gale’s Sky magic. This ti, Osho had no idea what it entailed, but through their weakened bond, he’d felt Gale’s Mana pool completely bottom out more tis than he was comfortable with.
As for Osho, whenever he was being subjected to the intensity of a simulated environnt, he wasn’t just sitting around. Either he was studying, cultivating... or fighting Simon.
Yes, the man would frequently join him in these environnts and the two of them would spar, with Simon barely restricting his strength to Osho’s level.
In all of this, Osho was almost always at a disadvantage due to his use of Mana and his senses being limited while also being restricted by the imnse gravity. In comparison, the Man was barely affected by the gravity and he could use his Mana and senses without any pretense.
However, Osho usually managed to hold his own despite these conditions, and while he never got any complints or praise, he could sense the man’s approval after each bout they had.
Now, with just 12 hours left till the written exam, Osho would finally be allowed to move around normally, granted, he couldn’t take the jumpsuit off until the practical exam, but that was fine. He was just glad the suit had an automatic cleaning feature, because not showering for a month just felt plain weird no matter how he looked at it.
Then again, with greater Mana control, one could just expel any dirt that has accumulated on their body. This was kinda needed, especially for people who tended to go into the wilderness for extended periods as showers typically weren’t possible for obvious reasons.
Osho felt the water stop resisting him so fiercely and he kicked off the floor, swimming upwards as though the suit he wore over his jumpsuit wasn’t weighing down on him heavily.
He breached the surface and felt several clicks in his helt, indicating that he could take it off, which he promptly did.
He looked up and saw Simon standing there with two cups in his hands. Osho climbed out of the pool and removed the suit which ensured his body didn’t get wet. Only his head and hair were wet due to the helt filling with water every now and then.
"Here." The man said and handed him one of the cups while making the towel float towards him with Mana. Osho gratefully took the two things with a small ’thank you’ and dried his face before drinking from the cup. Coffee.
As he drank from it, he noted how ’free’ his body felt.
It was only natural, as having it suppressed for so long would naturally elicit a sense of freedom after said suppression was lifted. However, Osho had no idea how much of this translated into actual improvent, he just knew he had improved.
"How do you feel?" Simon asked and Osho just shrugged.
"Like I was stuck underwater for a few days." This made Simon crack a small smile
"That’s fair, I suppose." He tilted his head.
"You know, your performance this past month surprised us more than a little bit. You’ve gone above and beyond." He said and Osho just took a sip of his coffee before answering.
"Huh, well I wouldn’t really know since I’ve had nothing to really compare myself with." He said with a shrug. At this, Simon tilted his head.
"You seem irritated?"
Osho: (ō_ō)
Simon caught Osho’s gaze and sighed.
"Moee irritated than usual." He clarified and Osho sighed in return.
"Let’s just say, I’m not a huge fan of being left alone with my thoughts for so long." Simon’s eyes widened a fraction before he nodded.
At that mont, Lady Haggai appeared with a tablet and didn’t even spare Osho a glance as she typed a few things before saying.
"That’s that I suppose. The results of this have been satisfactory." She said before finally looking up at Osho who tilted his head.
"So. Gale and I can finally head out tomorrow?" He asked after taking another sip from his coffee. However, Lady Haggai raised a brow.
"Whoever said anything about you and Gale? Gale isn’t writing the written exam, you are, he will be released only when the practical exam starts."
Osho’s expression positively darkened and he didn’t even try to hide it. However, Lady Haggai wasn’t perturbed.
"It’s only a bit more ti, it shouldn’t be an iss—"
"No." Osho cut her off and she paused, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly.
"I said no. My beast and I will be leaving this place together." Osho said firmly, not breaking his gaze for even a mont.
"... You seem to believe you have a choice in the matter." She said slowly as she lowered her tablet and Osho felt foreign Mana begin to press down on him. However, before it could proceed any further, it was nullified by soone else’s Mana.
Surprised, everyone turned to see Mrs Jane stride into the room with her usual cool expression.
"... How did you get in here?" Simon asked with genuine confusion, but she ignored him as she stepped in front of Osho and spun to face Lady Haggai.
"I’ve co here to take my student and his beast " she stated. It wasn’t a question.
Osho saw Lady Haggai’s lip curl slightly, and for a mont, he thought a fight was going to break out. However, she sighed and nodded.
"Follow ." She spun on her heel and walked briskly. Osho locked eyes with Mrs Jane who offered a small smile which Osho returned.
"Thank you."
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