Psychic Overlord

"Apart from this, I will also actively train you in how to activate your other paths. We will take element training for you to unlock Elemental Control and spirit training, for you to be able to unlock Channeling." Dean Rochester said with a smile.

"As for Spacetime Manipulation, that one is the easiest since you will have both myself and Lysandra teaching you in that regard."

Dean Rochester struck the butt of his cane down and changed the room’s layout into a field. "Now enough of that, we shall begin training immediately!"

Kaizer was forced to stand as his seat disappeared while the Dean rapidly shifted towards the side of the room, into an arena box that gave him a premium view of the area.

An arena suitable for training manifested into existence as the room expanded, the white walls vanishing into a simulation of rough terrain. There was cracked earth, scattered boulders, some funny metal slabs, and wooden effigies shaped like humanoid figures.

Dean Rochester’s voice rang out from afar yet sounded so close. "We shall begin with Force Projection. To start with, I want ten full-powered telekinetic blasts with no excess and no distractions. Strike that stone boulder directly ahead and if it doesn’t split, you’re lacking precision."

There was a slew of round boulders that hung across small mounds and outcrops of rock, laid around almost like a shooting range in a carnival.

...the only problem was that each of them was exactly 500 meters away, the limit of his telesthesia range.

Kaizer raised his hand, his blue eyes narrowing as they began to glow due to his sudden focus, compressing raw force in a straight vector.

With a sharp exhale, Kaizer fired out his most condensed blast of psychic force head-on at one of the targets.

BANG!

The air in the direction of the target twisted as his push struck the boulder, shattering the front layer slightly.

"Too wide, try to refocus the shape. Precision equals penetration, and right now, your attack is just loud without the necessary power behind it," the Dean instructed.

Kaizer aimed at another boulder and this time, he condensed the blast into a much tighter stream and fired again. This boulder cracked halfway, showing that his actions were having some effect.

"Much better, Kaizer! Do it again just like that. Don’t just release your power, try to imagine you’re trying to throw a ball as far as you can." Dean Rochester encouraged with a clap.

BOOM!

BANG!

KRAKOOM!

The sound of psychic explosions resounded in the room every ten seconds as Kaizer blasted forward again and again, condensing his push power into a smaller unit to increase its penetrative power.

By the eighth blast, Kaizer’s head throbbed with pressure, his body sweating. Finally, on the tenth blast...

BOOM!

The boulder he targeted finally exploded roughly into two, split into two on the left and right as each side crashed down.

Dean Rochester clapped again. "Good. Your goal for Force Projection these next 8 months is to practice this until your pushing power becomes thin as a thread. You are a well-read young man, so I will ask you to envision the ability of the cueball from Dragon Ball who can throw disks of energy."

"Of course, we will also train your pulling power, but that is for later. Right now, you have to master the basic foundations of each application before moving to the next step."

Dean Rochester tapped his cane. "Now for Object Control. Behind you."

The ground split as dozens of differently sized items rose, being crates, planks, rods, orbs, all levitating in chaotic orientation.

"Stack them in the shape of a tower. You must balance shape and weight. If one falls, you restart." Dean Rochester said with a point of his cane.

Kaizer closed his eyes, spreading his power thin, coating each object as they shimmered with a blue outline. Kaizer moved them fast but carefully, guiding each item into place, but when a long rod began tipping the stack, he almost lost control.

"Shift the weight center," the Dean urged quickly.

Kaizer forced a correction in the rod’s trajectory, placing a heavier base beneath it and stabilizing the tower barely.

"...Done," Kaizer muttered, chest heaving as he rubbed his temples.

"Now knock each item down from the bottom using only Physical Enhancement while making sure that it remains stable," Dean Rochester added cheerfully.

Kaizer narrowed his gaze as the difficulty increased but did not back down. Psychic energy surged into his arms and legs as he dashed forward.

Kaizer ducked low and spun close to the ground, slamming a heel into the last item near the ground with calculated force. It was sent flying, but the rest of the tower came down along with it.

"Too slow, start again and put more force in the legs. Don’t only reinforce your muscles and bones, but galvanize them according to your will." Dean Rochester remarked.

Kaizer winced but complied.

He tried again, and again, but he simply couldn’t get past his hurdle. He was able to knock down the first item while keeping the tower stable, then the second after a few more failures, and then the third after the same.

The Dean remained patient with him the entire time, offering critical assistance in terms of guidance from the side. For Kaizer, Dean Rochester’s advice was like a heavenly compass when stuck in the desert, able to guide him to the path of success.

In about an hour’s worth of tries and retries, he finally kicked the final item down, panting heavily the entire time.

Dean Rochester simply threw over a familiar green talisman that exploded near Kaizer, releasing a green wave of energy that caused him to feel refreshed and chipper.

After using physical enhancement for so long, his muscles were pretty torn up badly while his bones were worn, but this talisman healed all that, even alleviating some fatigue.

"Good job. Now, onto Corpse Control." Dean Rochester said simply, not minding the fact that he threw out a talisman of the highest tier that cost a hundred thousand per copy.

After his words, the ground around Kaizer suddenly opened and four practice dummies resembling human cadavers were ejected.

Scanning their internals with telesthesia, Kaizer could see that they had fake muscles reinforced with gel pads and their eyes maintained a corpse-like glassy look.

Dean Rochester leaned in. "Infuse your telekinesis into their muscles. I want full anatomical articulation. Walk them to me."

Kaizer spread his power thin, slipping invisible threads into the limbs in the way he did before. One dummy jerked upright and stood there, rigid as a pole.

When Kaizer reached out to control another, he barely got halfway when his focus slipped and the first one collapsed into a heap.

"Too much force in the tendons of the first one when you started with the second. It’s like carrying one heavy item and trying to add another; your mind is subconsciously tightening its grip on the first item to ’secure’ it while lifting the second." Dean Rochester explained casually.

Kaizer released a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened them again. He changed his methodology and visualized a puppet master’s strings, guiding the bodies of the dummies carefully, penetrating the muscles like filaments.

The four dummies twitched and rose to their feet shakily like corpses in a horror movie, then began to move.

One walked relatively fluidly, the second staggered forward like a zombie, the third collapsed mid-step like a toddler still learning to walk, while the last one was crawling forward on the ground like a dying patient.

Dean Rochester pursed his lips, trying hard not to laugh since Kaizer had a completely serious expression. "You have to learn how muscles resist. Corpses can’t give feedback like living muscles, so you must become the feedback."

The Dean’s voice softened. "This one will take time. But it’s worth it."

Kaizer agreed and began working once more, continually trying and failing to make all four walk like normal competent human beings. Even though his method was better than before, the sheer amount of focus it required was crazy.

To compare, try picturing yourself playing a raid battle in a fighting game or shooting game with four monitors for four different players all at once.

Kaizer’s psychic power had increased, but it did not increase his thinking capacity, nor did it necessarily increase his focus or his senses. Otherwise, there would be no need for training.

In the end, the Dean stopped the training when Kaizer could make two dummies walk forward shakily, while the other two were still pitiful.

"Let’s move onto Micro-Manipulation, we’ll circle back to this. Now, build me a special psychic barrier of compressed air, but with force, rather than finesse." Dean Rochester instructed calmly.

Kaizer cricked his neck and got into the zone again as he closed his eyes and reached into the air around him. He compressed nearly invisible molecules—not with pressure, but with gentle psychic clustering, like herding a bunch of preschoolers in the midst of recess back into class—together, gradually forming a translucent sphere around the Dean that had a carapace-like design.

"Now shift its shape to a dome. Good, now do a wall. Excellent, try a spearhead." Dean Rochester instructed one by one.

Kaizer carefully altered the field’s geometry, causing the barrier to change shape like clay, the atoms rearranging themselves like soldiers in drill with their CTO barking at them.

Dean Rochester smiled with satisfaction for the first time since training. "Now we’re making a tiny bit of progress, about 0.1% overall."

Kaizer, panting, wiped his brow. "That was only five applications..."

Dean Rochester waved his hand, summoning new targets. "And you’ll master the next five as well. This is only the beginning."