THUD!
Gareth crashed to the ground in exhaustion. He had just finished with the hellish training that Commander Donovan put him through. Even with his extraordinary strength, he was still put through the wringer.
As a miner, it he had incredible endurance. However, after he was overworked, starved, and bought, quite a while had passed. He hadn't done much physical labor in that time, making him naturally weaker.
Still, he was still strong enough to complete his training. Even as he was tired, he didn't complain once and simply put his head down and completed all the training without any excuses.
His attitude earned the silent approval from Commander Donovan. In his view, Gareth displayed extraordinary discipline, an essential trait of a good knight.
However, it was only the first day, and it would take much more than that to truly impress the man. Still, it was a good start.
'At least he doesn't seem to be a slacker,' thought the Commander. He had been a bit worried that the young man might not be able to handle the training and not live up to the Countess's expectations.
"All right, that's enough for today. Training starts from noon till three pm. I expect you to be here by eleven o'clock in the morning and complete 20 laps around this estate.
Is that clear?"
Standing up groggily, Gareth's hand was instinctively about to salute; however, he quickly caught himself, and instead stood straighter.
"Yes, sir!"
"You can leave now." The commander said, waving his hand to dismiss him.
Gareth dragged his body back to his room. His body was soaked with sweat, leaving him smelling funky. He knew he needed to take a bath; however, he didn't even have the strength to do that.
'Hahhh, I wish Hazel were here,' he thought to himself, remembering how she had helped him 'relieve' himself earlier.
However, neither maid was here; he doubted he had the energy to do anything with them.
Deciding not to think about it anymore, he willed himself to the bathroom, where he took a quick shower to wash the grime and sweat off his body.
After that, he took a quick nap, wanting to rest quite a bit.
Knock Knock Knock!
The sound of knocking on the door woke Gareth up from his slumber. He glanced out the window to find the sky already dark. It seemed he had slept until nighttime.
Standing up with a yawn, he opened the door to find Miria standing there, with a tray of food in her hands.
"Hello Miria, thanks for your hard work," Gareth said while taking the tray from her.
"There's no need to thank me. I'm just doing my job." She replied with a smile. Gareth was a bit taken aback. While Miria was more expressive than Hazel, she had never really smiled at him before.
It seems now that she knew he was going to be an Ardent, her attitude did a complete 180, and now, she was trying to get on his good side.
Not like Gareth minded. In fact, he was amused. His gaze lingered around her for a moment, scanning her from head to toe. Noticing his gaze, Miria subtly shifted her posture to enhance her figure.
Rather than becoming shy, she was trying to pull his attention more, to make herself more attractive in his eyes. Gareth didn't say anything and simply smiled and closed the door.
He wanted to finish his dinner quickly, so he could start cultivating. He wanted to make as much progress as soon as possible.
The rest of the night passed uneventfully.
The next day, Gareth woke up early. Because he slept in the afternoon, he didn't sleep much through the night. As soon as he woke up, he went to the bathroom to freshen up before he started cultivating.
By the time it was 8 a.m., Hazel had brought his breakfast. When he opened the door, he found the young woman standing there with a tray of food.
Because of what happened yesterday, her face was red and she was avoiding his gaze. Normally, Gareth would have liked to tease her a bit, but now he wasn't really in the mood.
He merely greeted her and collected the food before closing the door. The entire encounter lasted only a few seconds, surprising even Hazel.
She was happy he didn't seem to pay attention to the previous day's incidents. At least it saved her the embarrassment. However, there was another emotion welling up inside her. Could it be disappointment?
Was she secretly hoping that he would pay more attention to her? This simple encounter suddenly made her emotions all jumbled.
However, Gareth, whose mind was focused on something else, didn't even know that he had caused a storm in her mind. His whole focus was on the cultivation technique.
After being able to sense the mana in the air, the next step was the process of sensing the one in the body. Whether one wanted to become a mage or warrior, this process was the same.
Every living being had mana in their body. To become an Ardent, one had to be able to channel the mana in the body. The mana in normal individuals could be stagnant.
Without proper methods, sensing it would be impossible, much less channeling it. This was why the Ardent Cultivation Technique was important.
If learning to sense the mana was hard, then it was abysmally difficult to learn how to channel it. Without proper guidance, it would be next to impossible for anyone to learn it on their own.
However, nobles would never face this problem. They would have been tutored from a young age, so they would not find this step too difficult.
The same could be said for their retainers. If a noble had decided to grant someone the cultivation technique, they would do their best to help them awaken quickly.
There was no sense in letting someone who could essentially be considered their asset struggle pointlessly. However, it seems like the Countess had forgotten about this step.
Or had she? Perhaps it was all a twisted game to her. From the beginning, aside from giving him the cultivation technique, she had offered him no help whatsoever.
Not one word of advice, not one class of tutoring.