The next day started at about 10 am with a knock on the cabin's door. Veles stayed till about 2 am last
night, so he was still in bed. Eight hours of sleep were hardly enough to cover his needs.
He woke up unwillingly and went to open the door. His brain was still working very slowly, making him
move like a zombie. The most challenging task he could take on at the current state was around the level of
peeling a banana. And even that was already pushing it.
Veles opened the door and saw Brendel; the silver Android specialized in swords.
"Hi Veles, I came to assess your current physical condition and then set your training regime." The Robot
said and entered the room without waiting for any reply. "We'll start right away," he added in a dull voice.
Veles watched Brendel entering the gym room and sighed helplessly. Although he was well built, he was
far from top form. He had decent general physics, but that was all thanks to efforts from his teenage
years. Back then, Veles used to swim daily and train karate twice per week. During college, however,
when there were no parents to help him make more healthy life choices, he did not exercise at all. As a
result, even walking to the 2nd floor by stairs made his breathing heavy.
Right after entering the gym-room, Brendel threw him a wooden sword. What followed next was
instruction on basic stances, how to guard, how to attack, and some simple combinations. After Veles
got those somewhat right, Brendel ordered him to keep practising by hitting the training dummy for the
next hour.
Veles sighted again. He picked up the sword and started hitting the scarecrow. Not that he had
something against the exercising, it's just he wanted to focus entirely on mastering the Aether.
Android was looking critically at each strike and spoke after observing for a while.
"Like most, you probably think that keeping fit is not needed, especially for a future, 'Aether Master,"
Brendel said as if reading Veles's thoughts. Who knows? Maybe he was?
"However, once you start getting yourself familiar with the materials from the library, you'll change your
mind. To put it shortly - the human body has a limited capacity of storing and channelling the Aether. One
of the best ways to change it at the beginning is to train and let the muscles absorb Aether gathered
during meditation sessions. That's a basic you need to understand." The silver man said with satisfaction
as he saw Veles's facial feature changed.
"Anyway, since you are all warm-up, lets spar so I can assess your fighting prowess. I can already tell
that your sword skills are beyond pitiful. However, it seems to be the case for most Earthlings, so I'll go
easy on you. We can later switch to a more general brawling. Take a stance!" Brendel shouted.
Veles quickly guarded himself, taking the just learned stance from Voyak's Military Swordsmanship. Any
Veteran, baa, even a person that practice this style for more than two weeks would notice that Veles's
the position was far from perfect.
Brendel gritted his teeth when he noticed the stance and attacked with a slow and weak horizontal slash.
Even that strike was almost enough to break Veles's guard and made him catch balance. However,
Brendel was an experienced instructor, and under his slashes, Veles started to understand more how to
parry, block, and riposte strikes. The postures he learned from the Voyaks Military Swordsmanship also
began to make a sense. Every time Veles made a wrong stance, Brendel was uncovering it by skilful
strikes. It made Veles learn pretty fast what happens when his swordplay was not good enough. In the
course of that learning, his sword flew from his hands a couple of times. A few times his blade lost all the
impact and Veles was not fast enough to guard against the next incoming slash, earning him a soon to
be purple bruises. He also lost a balance more than once, landing on a floor after a few swayed steps.
His fingers were numb from pain as Brendel seemed to find pleasure in hitting them every time he
deemed Veles' guard to be particularly pathetic.
And every time Veles did something wrong, Brendel said "Hmpf" with expression usually reserved for a
shit someone left on your doormat.
After a few hours, once Veles's stances were not a pure embarrassment, Brendel changed tactics and
stopped punishing every mistake. He instead turned the duel in a competition of reflexes and endurance.
The silver Robot's strokes became faster and faster, turning in a blur in Veles' eyes. Veles was parrying
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them like crazy, moving quicker and more agile than ever in his life.
Suddenly Brendel feinted upward slash, turning it in a nasty strike from a weird, almost horizontal angle.
Veles noticed the change immediately and reacted even before realizing what happened. He unskillfully
switched his guard to the left and kicked at Brendel with his right leg.
The leg never connected. Instead, Veles was thrown away by the Silver Robot's slash, unable to take its
impact with a hastily made guard. However, it was the first time he did not hear "Hmpf" after landing on
the floor.
"That was almost not bad," said the Android, and his expression for the first time was not full of
contempt. "Anyway, I made my assessment so we can stop for a day." He said and attached his wooden
sword back to the belt.
"So...
"In general, you have a lot of work ahead to get a somewhat useful body. Your endurance is a joke, your
strength mediocre, and your body toughness is nonexistent. On the bright side, you seemed to have
surprisingly good reflexes and even some battle instincts. Also, your body, although rusty, appeared to
have a decent foundation." He shared his general findings. "From now on, I'll be visiting every other day
for swords lessons. I will mail you your list of exercises via mail." Brendel said, bowed to the training
room, and left the cabin. The military tradition in the Federation must be strong if even their androids
respect martial art customs like bending to the training area.
After Brendel left, Veles took a quick shower. When he returned, there was a package waiting for him.
He received aa device that looked like an electronic watch with a weekly schedule. However, that device
had all kinds of cool functionalities. The watch could be called a mini-computer, projector, and phone at
the same time. Besides, it measured different body metrics like pulse, temperature, and even blood
characteristics.
As for his schedule, except for the training appointments with Brendel and Friday's lectures on Aether, his
the calendar was free.
Veles picked the watch and played with it for a while. It was very advanced equipment that could even react
to his thoughts.
"What time is it?" Veles thought, and the watch responded in a pleasant, female voice,
"It's a 13:42. Your nutrition level is low. I recommend taking a break for lunch," the device sounded.
"Heh, I do feel hungry. Show me how I can get food around here." said Veles amused and impressed by
the new "watch."
The device directed him to one of the room's wall. There was an oven-like looking equipment where one
could order almost any possible dish from Earth. Veles ordered a medium-rare steak with fries, and
around two minutes later, the meal was ready. And it was delicious.
He gobbled his lunch as he did not feel like interacting with anyone, so he did not go to canteen. All Veles could think now, where the
cultivation materials on his shelve and the need to continue the meditation sessions.
"Only once he gets more knowledge on my own, there is a reason to exchange thoughts with others." He
thought.
Veles also suspected that walls have eyes and ears, monitoring their progress. Otherwise, how would
they know if someone made a breakthrough? Are the sword instructors checking that? Or is that this
fancy new "watch" mission?
However, what worried Veles the most is the amount of freedom they had. Most of his time, he could do
whatever he wished as his schedule was a lax one.
"Northing's ever for free or without a purpose. There must be a reason behind it. Until I know what it is, I'll
need to do my best." Veles decided as he was finishing lunch. "On the other hand, there is not much to do here, but cultivating and eating. All other areas of the ship seem to be off-limits."
The next couple of days were all spent on meditation. Veles did not achieve any breakthrough. However, at the noon of the second day, he
began to feel a tingling sensation around his stomach. That sensation seemed to radiate to other parts of
the body, and the longer he meditated, the stronger he felt it.
Such a small boosted his morale, and he managed to cultivate it till the late evening. Only then he stood up,
ate dinner, and started reading the book called "Early phases of cultivation."
Thanks to the book, he realized that such a tingling sensation meant he was able to accumulate enough
Aether to circulate it in his body entirely. That tingling sensation was his body opening new pathways and
absorbing the Aether. However, there was also a piece of information that shattered his just boosted
morale. The book says that the truly talented people could experience such a sensation after the first
hour of meditation.
"That's it from being the chosen one", Veles said self-mocking." I needed two days to get an early feeling of Aether which makes me painfully average. I wonder though, how rest is doing. Maybe next lunch I'll actually eat in the canteen and meet people. There isn't much to do on the space ship anyway, and I could use some company. Seems I'll be here for a while, so I have to keep myself sane and talk to people. Cultivation is still a priority, however, maybe I can even exchange some tips with others.”