Oscar's Talent

"Keep it up, Oscar. You only have five laps left today."

The sun was sinking lower, its light already tinged with dusky yellow.

Outside the Academy, Le Bai and Oscar were running laps around the grounds with weighted loads.

Le Bai carried a metal block larger than his own body on his back. He also wore a pair of Heavy-Soled Shoes made of metal—Le Bai had specially made them to keep his feet from sinking into the ground under the excessive weight, while also making up for the insufficient load.

Le Bai's total load was now close to two tons, yet he still ran as lightly as the wind, his breathing exceptionally steady.

Oscar carried no weight, but he was panting like an ox. He opened his mouth to speak, only for his breathing to grow even heavier instead.

Le Bai caught up to Oscar. "Don't talk. You'll throw off your breathing. Whatever you want to say can wait until training's over."

With that, Le Bai abruptly accelerated. Within two breaths, Oscar could no longer see him.

I never should have agreed to train with him!

Oscar thought regretfully.

He had agreed to begin training alongside Le Bai. A year had passed, and the two of them were now eleven.

Because of Soul Power, Soul Masters developed faster than ordinary people. Though Oscar and Le Bai were only eleven, judging by their physical development alone, they were already comparable to ordinary teenagers of fourteen or fifteen.

Compared with when they had first arrived at Shrek five years ago, both of their bodies had changed greatly. Their once-slender frames had become solid through improved meals and training. Even through their clothes, neither looked frail or skinny anymore.

Furthermore, as their bodies gradually matured, the gap in their looks grew wider and wider.

Oscar had inherited his father's fine looks, especially those peach blossom eyes of his. As a result, whenever he trained, he was aggressively watched by the little girls from the nearby village who belonged to the Appearance Association.

Le Bai was not particularly handsome, at most somewhat above average. He was the sort who would be difficult to pick out in a crowd. When standing beside Oscar, he was not even good enough to serve as a foil.

Fortunately, Le Bai's mind was entirely focused on the Panel and grinding skill levels, so he did not care about such things.

After a year of grueling training, Oscar could now keep the Soul Power within his body circulating while moving. Though he still could not do it as effortlessly as Le Bai, Oscar had already gained an initial grasp of the method and mastered the essentials of Single-Minded Dual-Use.

This greatly improved Oscar's endurance. Otherwise, even with Soul Power assisting him, he would not have been able to run forty laps around the Academy in a single day.

But such talent made Le Bai tremendously envious!

Le Bai had only managed to master Parallel Thinking over several years because of the Golden Finger known as the Panel.

But Oscar did not have a Golden Finger!

He had relied purely on his own talent, using one year to reach the progress that had taken Le Bai three or four years.

Though those three or four years had been spent before Le Bai fully understood the effects of his own Panel, it was still enough to prove that Oscar's talent was terrifyingly high.

For a time, Le Bai had even suspected that Oscar might have a Golden Finger too. But he had no way to verify that guess, so he soon put the thought out of his mind.

Le Bai was not the only one astonished by Oscar's extraordinary talent. The Academy's teachers were as well.

They had not paid much attention to Le Bai's growth, since Le Bai had not initially been a student of the Academy. By the time he entered it, he was already a "Monster."

But Oscar had practically grown up under their watchful eyes.

That made quite a few teachers sigh. Why did someone with talent like this have to be a Support System Soul Master?!

Ma Hongjun had similar feelings. However, the person he marveled at was not Oscar, but Le Bai.

After resolving the problem caused by his Martial Soul, Ma Hongjun's interest in the opposite sex gradually returned to normal. Though he still liked girls, it no longer affected his body. He also devoted more time and energy to cultivating Soul Power and training his body.

Especially the latter.

If Ma Hongjun wanted to maximize the advantages of his mutated Martial Soul, he had to add more kidney energy to his flames, which would undoubtedly place a greater burden on his kidneys.

Unfortunately, people in this world did not really know how to train internal organs.

After much consideration, Flender finally came up with a simple-minded solution: use the all-purpose Soul Power to temper the body.

"So long as you use Soul Power to temper your entire body inside and out, your kidneys will naturally grow stronger too."

After saying that, Flender directly handed Ma Hongjun over to Le Bai and had Le Bai train him together with Oscar.

During the training that followed, Ma Hongjun experienced Le Bai's training intensity up close—enough to train a person into uselessness. While marveling at how inhuman Le Bai was, Ma Hongjun also quietly began to regret saying that he would challenge Le Bai again once he could fly.

He now had a mysterious sort of trust in Le Bai. He believed that even if he could fly, Le Bai would still have a way to knock him out of the sky and pin him to the ground for a beating.

Today, Ma Hongjun was running alongside Le Bai and Oscar as well. He was slightly stronger than Oscar, carrying more than ten kilograms of weight, and could run two more laps than Oscar each day at his limit.

Because he exercised heavily every day, Ma Hongjun was much thinner than he had been a year ago. Though his face still carried a little baby fat, his overall build was already at a normal person's level. He could no longer be called fatty.

"Yo, Hongjun, which lap are you on?"

Le Bai quickened his light steps and rushed to Ma Hongjun's side, running alongside him.

"Still... three more laps..."

Ma Hongjun gulped in huge breaths of air, barely able to speak clearly.

"Fine, you don't need to talk."

Le Bai hurriedly told Ma Hongjun to stop speaking. Only after his breathing gradually returned to a steady rhythm did Le Bai say, "I have quite a few laps left, so I'll head on ahead!"

With that, he accelerated once more, shooting away like a freight truck tearing through Mount Akina and leaving everyone in the dust.

Because his load was heavy enough, every step Le Bai took left a shallow footprint in the ground. That was only because he wore those road roller-like Heavy-Soled Shoes on this path every day, compacting the earth beneath them.

Le Bai remembered that in the beginning, every step he took had sunk half his foot into the ground.

His load was much greater now than it had been at the start, but when he stepped down, there were no longer any obvious tremors.

This was part of Le Bai's Strength Control practice while running, meant to improve his control over his own power—each time his foot came down, he withdrew force at the instant before the sole collided with the ground, then exerted force in the opposite direction, continuously reducing the speed of his descending foot over an extremely short period until it came to a complete stop precisely as it touched the ground.

As a result, his landings did not make much noise. At most, his excessive weight pressed the dirt more firmly together.

When he had first begun doing this, Le Bai had found it extraordinarily difficult.

Whether it was the weight of the shoes themselves, judging the distance between his soles and the ground, or instantly exerting force in reverse to reduce the speed of his falling feet, none of it was something he could master in a short time.

Back then, Le Bai could not even finish one lap a day.

But soon, as the level of the [Strength Control] skill on the Panel steadily rose, Le Bai could finish one lap after a week;

A month later, Le Bai could easily complete fifteen laps;

After three months, controlling his strength had become as natural to Le Bai as breathing.

Even so, Le Bai had not stopped grinding the skill. The progress bar on the Panel continued to grow steadily every day.

The sun slanted westward, and the dim yellow sunset declared that little remained of the day.

For today's routine training, Le Bai once again finished earlier than Oscar and Ma Hongjun, despite his training volume being several times greater than the two of theirs combined.

"Whew, another refreshing day!"

Le Bai returned to his room, washed away his sweat, changed into clean clothes, and tossed his dirty clothes into soapy water to soak. As he headed toward the cafeteria, he considered what to eat that night.

Halfway there, he ran into Ma Hongjun, who had also finished his daily training. His whole body was soaked in sweat, but he looked to be in good spirits. "Yo, Hongjun, your training—"

"My whole body feels sticky and gross. I'm going back to the dormitory to bathe! We can talk later if there's something you need!"

Ma Hongjun cut Le Bai off and dashed toward his dormitory as though fleeing for his life.

"He still has the energy to run that fast?"

Watching Ma Hongjun's retreating back, Le Bai pondered, Looks like I can increase his training intensity a little tomorrow.

At Flender's request, Le Bai had taught Ma Hongjun the technique of keeping his Soul Power circulating while moving when they first began training a year ago.

Unfortunately, Ma Hongjun did not seem particularly skilled at controlling Soul Power, and his current level was inferior to Oscar's. However, he was a Battle Soul Master, and his Martial Soul gave him an additional boost to his physical fitness. Overall, he was somewhat stronger than Oscar, which was why he could run a few more laps each day.

Le Bai remembered that six months ago, the maximum difference between Oscar's and Ma Hongjun's daily laps had reached seven.

But as Oscar became increasingly adept at Distraction Dual-Use and his Soul Power Level gradually rose, the difference between him and Ma Hongjun had shrunk to only two laps.

"In another two months, Oscar should be able to run more laps than Ma Hongjun. When that happens, I'll suggest to the Dean that the two of them spar."