IMPORTANT!! IMPORTANT!!

A/N: Yeah, I know, I took a long ass break.. but I'm finally done with exams! Thank you for the kind words, I really appreciate. I'm really sorry for the unhealthily long break, it was just necessary. At least now I have some time, like two weeks before I leave for SIWES(or IT, or Internship, or Industrial Attachment, whatever it's called, I think the last one's for engineering students though), so in the next four or five days, I'm going to push myself and write much so that I can try and do a little mass release, it's much needed. After the mass release, updates will continue like 3 - 4 times a week, as the IT will start in 7 days after tomorrow, and I won't have lots of time then too. But, at least it's not exams, so I can write in my free time.

Also, as most of you, if not everyone might have noticed, this book of mine has a lot of inconsistency when it comes to certain things, and I know, it can make the whole thing boring and vexing sometimes, so I apologies. Thing is I didn't really have a lot of faith in this book doing well, so I had a lot of pauses in between writing, and there were a lot of unfinished planning sessions, which led to me writing some complex things that I couldn't remember after time passed, causing minor aggravating mistakes every so often. Coupled with my small problem of bad memory about certain things in general... yeah, its bad.

But!

But, worry not, as I will now take good time to plan from here on out everything before I write, and I might even return to previous chapters and fix them, who knows? Not that I believe it's that easily fixable though. So, if you guys see anything that goes contrary to what you already know, just flow with it, as that will be the new path, hopefully I don't have to change much. It won't be alien, so don't worry. It will only look weird for a second, then everything will align.

Also, shout out to Thiaan for the review, and if you are reading this, bless man. I respect the respectful and somewhat cordial manner in which he aired his complain and opinion about the book, which by the way is totally my fault, but still didn't open his keyboard and use me as some stress relieving decoction. I was thinking it, then you came and said it, which just solidified my thought process on how to go about this whole thing. Really appreciate it man.

Alright, that's all for now, I hope you guys have a wonderful day.

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.

More than a few months had passed since Dustin was able to bear the weight of the weighted robe, and just like Eir said, the exercise he was subjected to before was only the beginning of his suffering. The next phase of the exercise wasn't at all what Dustin would even expect even though guessing correctly would win him a million dollars.historical

From simple running, push-ups, and the rest of the basic exercises Dustin had to do, he was made to transition into common poses.. Poses!.. Seriously, Dustin felt Eir was just bluffing and trying to make him more diligent, not like he wasn't already. The whole thing felt too normal. The only good thing about this was that Dustin was to take off the robe which had been on him for months now, ever since he started this training.. that is except for the one time he took it off.

Of course, like anyone would, the moment the robe came off, Dustin rushed to test just how much of an improvement he had made, and just like he expected, he was not disappointed at all. During this time he had not gained any experience points at all, as to do that he would need to kill something first, but even then he still got some increase in his stats. It was also safe to say that the effects of the dark energy within his body also helped tremendously, more than showed.

His punches carried more weight behind them now, and his speed had also improved, not to talk of the other aspects. Though, even with all these increments, it was always a humbling thing to spar with Eir and realise just how much weak he still was compared to true power, and the fact that Eir didn't even consider himself as powerful in the face of the powerful people he had seen, Dustin really felt like a kitten surviving in the world of lions and tigers. Heh, at least he had enough strength to cause serious cracks on the trees there, and with a couple punches could even knock them down.

After gauging his strength, Dustin went back to practice the set of poses he was told to hold, like some yoga shenanigans. They say that thing connects one to the spiritual self, but he calls serious antichrist! It was all a plot the devil was making... But then again, after hearing about the existence of many other gods, he wasn't so sure about Christianity and other religions anymore. Maybe these gods they say to believe in are not all that powerful in the end? Who knows?

Unexpectedly, these poses seemed to be the creation of the devil himself, as getting into the correct positioning only, made Dustin feel like his dying, he felt like his entire body was going to burst from the inside out, and that was just one of these weird positions. The remaining caused him to experience different feelings that he was not in the least comfortable with, but with Eir constantly reassuring him that nothing would happen to him and that the worst that could happen was death.. Dustin pulled through.

In total, there were seven of these poses, and each brought with it different effects and sufferings. The first one made Dustin feel like he was going to burst like a pressured tomato just from trying to enter the position, which theoretically, looked like a piece of cake, but then the more he went into it, the worst the feeling he got. The second one made him feel like he was going to melt from the intense heat and Dustin was sure he burnt all of his body fat from doing that alone. The remaining poses carried with them different effects, and he was supposed to repeat these poses three times each, focusing on one for each week.

In the end, he managed to get through everything without dying, which was a plus.

Back to the present day, Dustin was about to return together with Eir to his special space, seeing as he had completed the objective of them coming outside. Going back into the room meant that his system would once again disappear till he exited the room, so he was really glad that the system had completed all the necessary tasks and corrections that had to be done, at least at that time. The system really helped a ton when it came to the issue of the dark energy within Dustin unable to fuse with him properly, as it solved this issue and even made his body process the dark energy faster than normal.

Also, another thing Dustin found out was the presence of another energy that started becoming more present in his system, but unlike the dark energy seemed to be more natural and his own energy welcomed and accepted it more. The interesting thing however was the fact that this energy and his own seemed to be merging together, and the more time passed, the closer he could feel both energies fusing into one and the same energy. Whether his own energy was fusing with this one, or it was simply just changing into this one from the get go, Dustin couldn't say anymore, the good thing was that this was a good change, at least according to Eir.

Following just behind Eir as he entered the portal with his loose robe that didn't seem to bother him followed another person. This person was naturally Dustin, though, someone who knew him before would have to check at least twice to be able to recognise him.

Everything had changed. From his height which was now approaching 6'2 from the previous 5'10-5'11, to his more muscular body. Perhaps, the most change came from his hair that despite being overgrown, was the least surprising difference, as it would seem like Dustin had dyed a portion of his hair a shade of green. Good thing his hair didn't make him look like some weird dude, and instead gave him that Nordic swagger that would make anyone who looked at him scream "Men cannot be beautiful, they can only be handsome!"

In fact, everything about Dustin, apart from his blatant sexiness, he seemed to impose a fierce aura that seems to dare something to attack him. His eyes were now completely black like the darkness around him, with a tint of green in the centre, and his temperament seemed to have become even colder than before.

Dustin followed Eir back to that room, and then the portal closed behind them, leaving the spot where the portal closed empty as the constant wind blew infinitely like a calming wave. Around that spot though, the landscape didn't seem to have enjoyed that same calmness that was spread across the fields, as numerous marks and cracks were noticeable on the ground around the entire place, and most trees were nowhere to be seen, leaving behind just a part of what used to be the trunk and probably roots that remained underground. One would wonder what sort of training went one in this place, but then, only those present could tell.