Aetheric Chronicles: Reborn As An Extra

For the next five days, Adrian plunged into rigorous, secretive training. His goal was to push the boundaries of his new powers, quietly honing his abilities to harness and manipulate time itself. He was fully aware of the potential within him—he just needed to draw it out, refine it, and become as precise with these skills as he was in close combat.

Adrian's training began with a deceptively simple exercise: dodging a single training dummy. But this time, he wasn't just sidestepping; he was testing his perception, bending each second slightly to catch subtle variations in the dummy's movement.

He dodged a swing, feeling his perception stretch, as though he were slipping between moments. His body responded faster, his instincts sharper. The sensation was disorienting at first, like dipping into a river's current and trying to predict the next wave. But with each maneuver, he grew more attuned to this edge, learning to ride the subtle flows of time itself.

Each dodge filled him with an exhilarating sense of control—like he was existing just outside the bounds of ordinary time.

The next day, Adrian advanced to a more challenging exercise, surrounding himself with multiple training dummies. This time, he aimed to master what he'd begun calling

temporal echoes.

He would leave faint afterimages of himself as he moved, disrupting the dummies' tracking mechanisms.

He darted to the side, catching a glimpse of his own fading outline left just long enough to mislead the mechanical eyes of his opponents. It was a trick that required intense concentration, forcing him to balance his presence in each moment just long enough to create the illusion.

The dummies swung at his ghostly trails, leaving Adrian free to strike from unexpected angles. With each attempt, his echoes grew clearer, lasting fractions of a second longer, enough to deceive any watchful eye. He was adapting, his mind and body in sync with his power, timing each dodge, each feint, with smooth efficiency.

Honestly speaking, he was doing remarkably well. His growth felt almost unnaturally swift, as if he was reawakening skills he already possessed.

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On the third day, Adrian focused on a technique that demanded both precision and courage—time leaps. With this, he aimed to skip briefly forward in time, effectively allowing himself to teleport short distances, evading attacks or repositioning instantly.

He set up markers around the hall to practice, forcing his mind and senses to adjust to a new level of spatial awareness. With a deep breath, Adrian concentrated on the first marker and, with a subtle push, found himself standing before it in a blink.

Each leap was disorienting, like being thrust through the air without moving. He felt the rush of adrenaline as he skipped from marker to marker, his mind racing to recalibrate his sense of space.

It was an exercise in both patience and precision—leaping too far or too quickly would throw him off balance, but with each successful jump, he felt the technique becoming smoother, more instinctive.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

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By the fourth day, Adrian's focus shifted to refining his strikes, adding bursts of time compression to deliver amplified blows. With each punch and kick, he compressed his movements, condensing his power and speed.

At first, the strain of manipulating time with every strike left him drained and staggered. But as he adjusted, finding a rhythm, he learned to harness the compression in bursts. The air around his fists rippled faintly as his strikes landed with intensified force, enough to stagger the dummies with a single hit.

He took it further by combining time compression with his defensive maneuvers, creating a field where he could momentarily "freeze" the dummies in place, allowing him to slip between them and strike from every direction. This exercise required careful timing; the compression field only held for brief moments, and he had to remain calm, preventing any errant burst of energy from destabilizing his control.

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On the fifth day, Adrian prepared to bring everything together. He activated every dummy in the hall, feeling the weight of his growing abilities pressing down on him. It was time to test the full extent of his short but intense training.

He began with a swift time leap to reposition himself, dodging an oncoming barrage. With each move, he compressed his strikes, landing blows that left the dummies reeling. As he moved, he left temporal echoes behind, confusing the dummies and making it nearly impossible for them to track him. The hall was a blur of movement, the air thick with echoes and ripples of compressed time.

Each sidestep felt instinctive now, as though he could anticipate the dummies' movements. His senses heightened, and in flashes, he saw not just where his opponents were but where they would be in the next heartbeat.

It was overwhelming yet electrifying, a sense of power he could barely contain. For hours, he rode the edge of time, leaping, compressing, and striking with an intensity that made the dummies stumble and crack under his blows.

Finally, when his energy was nearly spent, he called a stop. The dummies froze in place, the echoes faded, and the hall settled into silence. Adrian's breath came in steady bursts as he absorbed the weight of the past six days—the clarity, the power, the precision he'd gained.

He had sharpened his control, his understanding of time bending to his will. Yet he knew he'd only scratched the surface of his potential.

Tomorrow would bring new challenges, but now, he was ready.

Even if that arrogant brat decided to challenge him, Adrian would be more than prepared to show him just what true strength tasted like.

'Well, now I'm really looking forward to it.' Adrian chuckled while drinking water to quench his thirst. 'Though I have to be careful to not to show too much.'

'But a talk with the King...'

'It is inevitable.'

'Even if he doesn't want to, I will make him talk with me...'

'He probably doesn't want his precious secret to be known to the world, right?'

'He treasures his throne more than anything after all.'