Chaos Cycle: The Eye of Genesis

Shin held the sword tight before swinging it right at the tall girl before her. Sweat beads were apparent on both their face and body, and they seemed like they were barely holding in the practice.

There were a couple of reasons for that. They were at it for at least four hours by now, taking a short break every half an hour, but even with that, they would not be at this stage when their legs were barely moving. All of this was because of the training suit Elior made for them.

Though the one Elior made for the two was a slightly downgraded version compared to the one he was using, he still inputted a couple of things, keeping in mind what they needed the most. It even cost him more credits than his own suit.

For Shin, who had the worst posture and form in the battle, he put the runes just like that, if he bent or even motioned his body even a little wrongly, the 100 kgs of weight would pull him downwards, not only that, the mana manipulation would turn 10 times more difficult.

This was surely cruel to Shin, but considering how awfully he moves If he sees an opportunity in the duel, Elior had to do it. Shin might get better off his opponents now, but not all of them would be like that. Not all the people they would face would be inexperienced in battle.

In the four hours, he had made the move wrongly over six hundred times and more than half of that time, he dropped onto the ground.

As for Lara, it was not easier either. Well, it might be even crueller. Elior even considered asking Lara if she would be fine in it or not. But Elior knew, in talent, she could not compare to Shin, so hard work was the only way for her. So he just made the suit and gave it to her, saying the decision was on her how she uses it. Her suit was exactly opposite to Elior.

In Elior's suit, the weight of the suit will rise, along with the collectability of the mana manipulations. While in Lara's suit, she had to manipulate mana all the time, or over a hundred kilograms of weight would always crush her.

Depending on the level of her mana manipulations, the weight of the suit would hover around. Certainly, she had it the cruellest in the trio. Elior knew she was not that good at mana manipulations, so he input this. She had to keep on using some amount of mana all the time to keep the weight of the suit at a minimal level, and that was true even when he was duelling.

A dozen yards from them, the chestnut-haired girl was sitting in meditations. She was similarly sweat-ridden. Spells of different kinds were forming and collapsing around her, like she was a failure of a mage.

For Ileana, Elior chose to augment her spellcasting ability. He wanted her to at least have a few spells at instinct. Among the three, she was surely the weakest and if she could not even cast a spell instinctively before an attack arrives, she would not be the only one to suffer, but her companions would suffer too.

Her magic robe actually stops her from creating spells, if it was not made in a certain amount of time, and that certain amount of time always lessens the better she became. Her training was surely not the cruellest, but most frustrating.

And worst of all, they could not stop the training. Other than their ambition to succeed in the tournament, Elior actually blackmailed them somehow.

They all learned it took Elior a sleepless night as well as over ten million credits to make their suits. He had turned a surely rich student into a peasant because of them. Moreover, when they said they would pay all the money slowly when they have that much credit, his reply was really epic.

'You want to buy my blood and sweets with credits?' he had said. 'You call yourself my friends to offer me credits? If I want credits, I could earn millions of guardian credits easily each day, but do you think everyone deserves a piece of my work?'

Certainly, Elior does not lie. And he surely would not sell his stuff to just anyone. In the previous timeline, he had made that mistake, and evil was done from the weapon he had made. Certainly, he will only sell or give his pieces to the people he could trust.

For the payment of the suits, all Elior asked of them to train at their best of ability. If they succeed in the test, it would be the best outcome for him.

Frustrations rose in Ileana's face as she opened her senses. Only then did she hear the yelp for help, coming from the other two.

Both Shin and Lara were currently stuck to the ground, with pale faces and wet armours. They were so tired that they could not even move a muscle, much less manipulate mana to disable the training suit.

"Oh god," Ileana said and stood up immediately. She was not certainly in good condition. Even though her body was in a fair state, her mind was on the way to collapse. Dizziness hit her and she was about to collapse on the cold floor.

She barely stopped it in her four limbs. She breathed out a couple of times and disable her suit first. With a swirl of refreshing mana, she stood up and walked slowly towards the collapsed figure.

"Do me first," Shin mumbled pitifully, he was actually crying. 

Well, it was not the first day they were crying in that training and if everything goes according to Elior's plan, it won't be the last day of crying for them as well. 

But Ileana went to Lara first. She was similarly crying and in a far more awful state than Shin. Shin's suit works on his posture and physical body, mostly; Ileana's on spell casting—mostly mental energy and mana manipulation, but for Lara, she had it worst at both ends, physical or mental ability.

After she disable the training suit, they could finally breathe freely. The heaviness in their body dropped, but they still lay there, crying.

"I want to die," Shin whispered, laying properly on his back.

While Lara was on Ileana's lap. The poor girl actually passed out when Ileana helped her take care of the suit. All the effort she was putting in was subdued with the weight of her body.

Ileana was even wondering how Elior put up with his training after everything he went through in a day. Though she didn't have the slightest idea what her best friend went through. She only thinks of him as a student—the best, but still a student.

While to Shin, who knew a little better, Elior was something else. He once heard Elior coming safely from a grade three dungeon, though rather pitifully. Surely, he worked no less hard than what they were doing now.

As they were laying on the ground, the door of the private chamber opened, and Elior came in. He was actually fresh, like he had taken a shower before coming here. He did, actually. After working in the workshop, he went directly to his room showered like always before making way here, thinking he would look at their progress and assist them any way he could.

"Looks like you guys still could not adapt with the suits even after four days," he said and crouched down near the three corpse-like figures.

"I hate you, El," Ileana muttered, peeking at him.

"No, you don't," Elior chuckled and unzipped the bag he brought. From within, he brought out three flasks and helped them drink it one by one, though he could not help it in Lara's case.

He looked at the pale-faced girl from head to toe, and shook his head. He left the other flask to Ileana before sitting there.

The flash contains some catalytic energy potions that augment training to about 50% as well as heal it, though they need to use it in certain routines to get the best effect.

"Any progress?" Elior asked Shin, finding he was in the state to converse.

"My swordsmanship reached level 7," the wannabe dead Shin said. "And strength and agility rose by a fair margin."

"Quite some progress," Elior said, nodding. "You invested points in intelligence again?"

"It's only 4 points," Shin said pitifully so that Elior would not yell at him. "As you told us, I only invested in intelligence. The amount of mana I have is not enough for my training."

Through training, all the stats could be raised to 50, but it was rather slow in the case of Intelligence. Intelligence actually doesn't rise even if you practice mana or spells all day, what rose was mana and that too in a pitiful amount.

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