Chapter 70: Chapter 70: More Training
For Calcium, Siderius could easily extract it from the bonedust or bones of animals he hunted. So the binding agent was not hard to find.
The Sub Reagents included two ingredients, one with a pure Earth Element and one with a pure Water Element.
Earth provided a good base for all living beings to thrive in. In essence, Earth element fortitude oneself.
Water was necessary for all lives. It was what was needed for humans to operate. Its presence ensured a flowing state of energy.
The Reagents should be easy to replace. In this dense Rottin Woods, there should be plants that could fulfil the Reagents’ purpose. Similar to how Siderius had substituted the plants for the Cindrox formula.
The most important and probably the most difficult ingredient to replace was the Husky’s Heart.
Husky belonged to the Kingdom of Nature, under the Beast Family. It lived in cold, usually snow-filled biomes that were harsh to survive. Additionally, Husky was built to endure long and often heavy workload, making it a perfect candidate to produce Stamina Anabolism.
Different from Cindrox Tonic. Stamina Anabolism had a lot of variations, each corresponding to the biome of which the hunter was in.
Snow areas and other cold areas had Husky as their best choice. Pronghorn was the best replacement in grassland. Camels in the desert. And many other animals.
However, Husky was still the best candidate amongst them all.
Obviously, Siderius wouldn’t be able to find a Husky in this pine forest. He couldn’t even be sure that this dog breed existed in this world.
The only way was to find a replacement. That would take a while and many hunts to be accomplished. Luckily, he did not have any rush.
After making his bow, Siderius refocused on building his power and training Ashe.
Ashe was still in her pre-elevated state so he mostly helped her with the Truth-Seeking Path. He also taught her survival and hunting skills in between, making sure Ashe would be able to survive on her own.
For the training, Siderius splitted it into five parts. Each part will have a dedicated day.
The first four related to his four attributes, Strength, Agility, Endurance and Stamina. The fifth day would be entirely dedicated to meditation and mental fortitude. Siderius would still do meditations every day but the fifth day would have total focus about them.
Strength day started like every other day, with warm-ups and stretches. It was crucial for training to prepare your muscles and body for what was to come. Not only would it prevent injury, it would also ensure better growth because of the training.
Siderius trained functional strength, not the strength of the individual muscle. So what he needed to do was simple, practice with his weapon and the corresponding muscles would grow.
The first training was to practice shooting with his new bow. The heavy bow with more than a hundred pounds draw weight.
This could develop his body and also practice the muscle memory to be familiar with shooting a bow.
A hundred pounds draw was not light and Siderius needed to rest frequently. However, he made sure he would not put down the bow until his body completely gave up.
Training to failure was good. But training with failures was even better. It made sure his muscles reached the hypertrophy state, the best state for growth.
After archery practice, the second training was chopping wood.
It could look and feel ordinary but chopping wood was a very natural way to develop the strength of your upper body. It also helped the body to get familiar with explosive motions that could be used in combat.
Then, after chopping the wood, the final practice would involve combat drills.
His guard sword was broken so it became very light, no longer suitable for training. Siderius created a wood plank that was much longer than a normal sword to train with.
He used a long plank because he wanted a heavier feel to his arm. This could develop the muscles on the arms and forearms, useful for actual combat.
The long plank could also be used to practice spear drills so it was also useful in that aspect.
To make the drills even harder, Siderius would sometimes soak a random piece of wood and use it to practice. This provided a heavier and more difficult training but would destroy the piece of wood eventually.
Siderius used random pieces if he wanted to do this so his training plank was untouched.
Agility day was next.
As usual, the day started with warm-ups and stretches before the actual training.
Rottin Woods provided a difficult terrain to traverse in. So the first training was an obstacle course in the natural environment.
Siderius tried his best to focus on his feet and body motion. A perfect combination of both could be the difference of light and day in agility.
The second training was footwork. Or more precise, elegant and complex footwork. Those that you used in combat.
Siderius found an even surface in the woods then started to draw patterns on it.
Footwork in combat was crucial. A warrior without good footwork could easily be swept off his feet. By training, Siderius slowly got over this weakness and established a better mind to body connection.
Snow’s body was unfamiliar with these movements. So the more Siderius trained, the easier it would be for him to use his combat skill. In the end, he would become much more dangerous.
The last course of Agility day was reaction. Siderius needed help from Ashe to train this.
She was not a capable warrior so even with his current state, a spar with Ashe would be like playing with a child. So Siderius gave Ashe his bow and a bunch of blunted tip arrows.
Ashe would practice her bow skill by shooting at Siderius. And Siderius could practice his reaction by evading the arrows.
The training started with Siderius and Ashe standing faraway from each other. Siderius would not move unless Ashe had shot. He also avoided looking at Ashe because he could anticipate her aiming.
After evading all the arrows, they would move closer to each other, which granted Ashe a better chance to hit Siderius and granted Siderius a more difficult time to evade, forcing him to push his reaction even more.
The closest they got was around five meters. However, with Ashe’s current skill, she didn’t manage to hit him even once.
This training proved to be less effective than Siderius’ realized. But he didn’t worry too much about it. Ashe would improve soon and then he would have a better training partner.
The third day was Endurance.