They continued their conversation even after they reached Ben's accommodation.
Ben: " Is there no other way by which one can develop their meridian seeds? Alchemic masters, artifact refiners, healers…. Do all these classes have to go through combat to awaken their powers.
Malcen: As I said earlier, the pressure from combat helps in awakening their power. Another thing is the sheer scale of the army. It has an ancient legacy. No known noble family or wealthy tycoons or martial entities in the Marthya race can claim such a legacy. Many planets are entirely under the control of the army. The resources they can fish out of these planets are endless and priceless. No organization can sustain such a large number of people in their ranks.
Ben: That is cool. But aren't their other countries who has given private individuals their planets and made profits.
Malcen: Heh… they are profit mongering nations who do not care about the lives of their people."
Ben and Malcen discussed for some time. They discussed the present day society, the world order as they knew it and so on. Malcen was fiercely defending the systems in Gyagar nation. He was not a huge fan of privatization and wanted everything to remain with government.
After Malcen left, Ben mused, ' He is extremely loyal to Gyagar nation and is an avid believer of government taking care of everything. But I need to be more pragmatic. The government cannot take care of everything. All is not right in the government or army. Army is not some philanthropic organization, which trains the young ones of the country for their betterment.
I need to be careful about my interactions with the government. I don't think they would be really happy that a single person has access to the knowledge of sages. I need to observe how this mission goes. They would want a person who entered Knight realm at 17 to remain in the army. The various noble scions won't remain in the army. They would return to their family and businesses.
But a person who do not have any of those will remain in the army. They might even make that person their puppet and brainwash them to be of use to them. If everything is good, I will be working for the betterment of my country. In the worst case scenario, I would be the puppet of my superior officer.
I can't remain anything like that. It is not like wealthy people and businessmen have done only bad things. They have done their fare share of good things. And the most realistic way by which I can get wealthy is by starting a business. Though people at the highest ranks of army make a fortune, who knows when I will reach there.
I seriously need to think about starting something on my own. But I will work in the army to gain experience. I must be careful not to be attracted to some utopian ideologies and must anchor myself to reality. Everything must be studied and decisions should be taken only after gaining sufficient information.'
Ben looked around his new room. It had the same size and the same facilities as the other hotel. He meditated for some time messaged his parents and went to sleep.
The next day Ben woke up. He freshened up and went to Malcen to train. They went to the SMT and took a room. They trained their body skills without the use of aura.
In the ensuing spars, Ben was actually overwhelmed by the Malcen these spars. The reason for this was that Malcen was experienced in hand to hand combat more due to his age and due to the nature of his work. Ben was panting.
Malcen took a jab at him, " You really do not have stamina. What were your teachers teaching you in the school?"
Ben wheezed and said, " Hu Hu…. I was learning you oaf. Hu... hu… You only know how to fight like a madman. While I have class."
Malcen sneered, " What class did you take? To wheeze after a small sparring session."
"You…. You have not seen anything...Hu hu hu…" Ben said.
Malcen smiled and said, " Yeah, yeah, I am waiting ha, ha …"
Ben closed his eyes. He looked into himself. He imagined himself in the middle of cosmos itself. He was exploring it vastness. Then he became frustrated. I he could explore the cosmos, why was he being destroyed by a mere Knight level being. He became frustrated. He became angry. Then he was enraged. Then…. Then he calmed down. Frustration and calmness existed at the same time. Nothing happened for several seconds. Malcen furrowed his eyes.
Then Ben opened his eyes. Malcen could see that he had clamed down. His breathing was in serene. It was in sync with his body, his very being. Malcen felt as though the entire training room was in sync with Ben.
He looked at Malcen and said, " Let us start over….."
Malcen raised an eyebrow. But that did not stop him. He moved towards Ben. When Malcen entered his range, Ben lashed out. He started out with light jabs and then low kicks. Malcen dodged them and launched offensive through gaps in Ben's guard.
Previously these strikes would have struck Ben and from there on the spar would go downhill for Ben. But now Ben was mitigating those strikes. He moved back, side ways or even moved forward so that the kinetic energy from the strike was either redirected or it was not allowed to form at all.
What followed was the most brilliant display of counteroffensive that Malcen had ever seen. Ben blocked his attacks, executed throws with extreme precision, destroyed Malcen's balance with little effort. Even many of his strikes were aimed at really small pressure points, causing immense pain or momentary paralysis sometimes.
Ultimately both Ben and Malcen sat down wheezing and looked at each other. Both of them were extremely tired and they both did not speak for a long time. Malcen was tired due to pure physical exertion. Ben was tired due to both physical and mental exertion. Thus, he could not maintain his sitting posture and he simply laid down on the floor.
Malcen decided to revaluate Ben's potential in his report. As they were sitting, both their devices set off at the same time. It seemed like an urgent message was sent to them.
Malcen looked at the device. He said to Ben, " It seems like there are some issues and the mission is pushed to after 4 weeks."
Ben, who was lying down. He asked, " Why? It is going to affect my year ending mission in school"
Malcen said, " Let me see what I can do. They will not let it affect your graduation. Don't worry about that."
Both of them ended their training and went back. They needed to know more information.