That same night, at the Bael family's practice ground.

"Then let's continue."

Hog walked to the opposite edge of the training area.

"We'll skip the actual use of sigils this time, but I'll give you the sigil I'm supposed to use and you have to figure out how to react to it."

"Okay. I'm ready."

Without a second's hesitation, Hog jumped out of his seat and attacked Cenn. Once close enough, he extended his arm and mimicked the casting of a spell.

"Sigil of Water!"

Cenn didn't hesitate to respond.

"Shield!"

Hog finally came within striking distance and delivered a piercing blow to Cenn's right shoulder.

Cenn shifted to his left and pushed the enemy's sword aside with his spear, forcing Hog to take another step forward. Once behind his mentor's back, he saw an opportunity to attack.

"Lightning!"

The moment of euphoria was cut short by a biting comment.

"Aaaaand you lost, kid."

"I couldn't lose, the bolt hit you right between the ribs."

"No, you missed. You missed."

"Don't try to cheat, Uncle Hog, I'm not a kid anymore. I know what I hit."

"Heh, you may not be a kid anymore, but you're far from being an adult either. You fell into the most primitive trap."

"..."

Cenn looked at the fat man in disbelief, still fearing that the man was trying to trick him.

"You used a shield against the water balloon. The shield will certainly neutralize the main force of the blow, but it won't be able to stop it. As a result, you'd be soaking wet right now."

"Damn." Cenn immediately realized his mistake.

"I see you've already figured it out. Now that you've shown the power of your Lightning Sigil, future opponents will try to take that advantage away from you. And the best way to do that is to make you wet. Think about it, what should you do?"

"Dodge. But Uncle Hog, I don't think anyone in the tournament has mastered Waterball, it's a pretty useless spell." Cenn replied sullenly.

"What are you, a fortune teller? How do you know that no one will use the Water Sigil? And I've told you more than once, don't use sigils if you can do without them. Now, not only did you waste qi, but you also misunderstood the purpose of my attack and lost the battle. Even though you could have easily dodged it."

"Yes, you're right, Uncle. But I've been trying to practice my sigil casting more after I formed the second seal. That's why I didn't hesitate to use the shield."

"Sigh. I didn't pay enough attention to your training this year. Therefore, your mistakes have become habits."

Hog clenched his fist.

"I know that since Aydor was sent to train with the Orist family, you've had to train on your own. But you could have come to me for advice. After all, I am your mentor, even if I'm not the most responsible one."

Even though it was dark, the torches provided enough light for Cenn to see the fat man's face darken.

"I know the family business has been going from bad to worse lately. That's why I didn't want to keep you busy." Cenn said.

"Whether I'm busy or not, I'll always make time for you, boy."

Hog patted Cenn gently on the shoulder.

"All right, enough with the sentimentality. You better tell me how your progress is with the sigils." The fat man sat down on the ground and gestured for Cenn to follow.

"I've already memorized four sigils for the third seal and increased my maximum qi reserve to 11."

"Hmm, has your ability to sense your qi so accurately changed in any way over the past year?"

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"No, I can still see how big my qi reservoir is and how much energy is in it at the moment."

"Good. But remember, don't tell anyone about this except me and Velin."

Cenn nodded disappointedly. Ever since he realized that his ability to sense qi made him extraordinary, he had been impatient to brag about it to Aydor and the rest of the family. But Uncle Velin had strictly forbidden him to do so.

Seeing that the boy wasn't happy about having to keep quiet about his talent, Hog tried to calm him down.

"I know you want to rub everyone's noses in it. But it's better to keep your ability a secret. When I was in the army, I heard about many people who had similar abilities. But they were all from noble families. If any of those pompous assholes hear that a commoner has the same ability, they'll call you a liar at best."

"But I'm not lying, you believe me, right, Uncle Hog?"

"Of course I do. I just don't want you to get hurt. You should stay away from the nobles and temple officials at all costs. Don't expect anything good from them."

The fat man moved closer to Cenn and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Promise me."

Cenn wasn't quite sure what exactly he had to promise, but he didn't dare to clarify.

"I promise."

"That's good. Okay we got a little distracted, but still you didn't tell me about how your progess with the sigils went."

"I've tried using all the sigils I've learned, based on the descriptions from the First Martial Emperor's manual. But so far, I can only confidently use 6: Lightning, Shield, Spear, Grasshopper, Water, and Bull. For these sigils, I've mastered all the available forms."

"Not bad. But I don't think it's enough to win the tournament. Which of the remaining sigils are you most familiar with?"

"I've almost mastered the Sigil of Wind and the Sigil of Ice. No problem with the spells, but enchantment and amplification I'm still having trouble with."

"Hmm. If you have to choose between Wind and Ice... I think you'll benefit more from Wind. What can you tell me about the Wind Sigil and its techniques?"

Cenn thought for a moment and tried to remember what the manual said.

Sigil Spell Enchantment Amplification Wind Wind slash - a wave of compressed air capable of inflicting slashing damage. Enchants throwing weapons and projectiles, increasing their speed and range. The power of wind makes the wearer's body lighter, which helps them move faster, and protects them from fall damage.

"Well, the spell allows you to attack from a distance. Amplification makes you faster. And Enchantment is usually used by archers."

Hog clapped his hands together and laughed happily.

"Right, I need to show you something. Give me the spear."

Cenn held out a training spear.

He took the spear and carefully placed it on the edge of his right palm, which he held out in front of him. He shifted the spear until he found a point of balance.

"At this point, the weight of the spear is split in half. This balance point is different for every weapon, when you get home you can find it on your spear. I don't think this needs to be explained to you?"

Cenn nodded.

"Excellent. Now to the point. I saw that when you used the Lightning Sigil, the charge went straight to the tip of the spear. Did you direct it?"

"Yes. I realized during training that the amplification works much better when the entire charge is concentrated in the tip."

"Heh, and you're not as hopeless as I thought. You got it right. When you enchant a weapon with a sigil, the result will be different depending on where you concentrate the energy."

"You make it sound like I'm stupid." Cenn replied jokingly.

"Well, not smarter than me, certainly not. Well, I'll tell you a secret I learned in the army."

Hog threw the spear up and immediately grabbed it.

Then he took a deep breath and blew on the spear with all his might. In this unusual way, he applied the Wind Sigil to the spear.

"Woah, Uncle Hog, will you teach me how to do that?"

Cenn was excited at the thought of learning such a cool trick. Applying Sigil without a mnemonic phrase.

"Uh...? What did you think I was doing this whole speech for some cheap trick? You hopeless idiot, when are you going to grow up?"

Hog raised his hand to smack his student, but for some reason changed his mind.

"Fine, if you want, I'll teach you that trick later. In the meantime, don't get distracted. You're already pretty good with a spear, but do you know where a spear is superior to a sword?"

Cenn thought for a moment.

"A spear has a greater attack range, which allows you to keep your opponent at a distance. Also, the thrust of a spear can pierce an opponent's armor, which a sword or saber cannot do."

"Not a bad answer, but in addition to the many other advantages a spear has when used in an army formation, there is one advantage you forgot to mention."

Cenn looked at his mentor blankly, it was obvious that he had run out of ideas.

"It can be thrown... Was that hard to guess? And until you said that every weapon can be thrown. No, you can't. Well, you can, but it's useless. No sword or axe will ever do as much damage as a spear. Go get some sandbags."

Cenn got up and ran to a nearby shed where various things for training were stored, including some sandbags used for archery practice. It took him a few minutes to drag six bags to the place and stack them on top of each other.

"That's enough, come here. You were right when you said that the Wind Sigil Enchantment is mostly used by archers, for them it's one of the most useful sigil. And only idiots use Wind on melee weapons. But now imagine that a spear is a big arrow." Hog continued.

"Even too big." Cenn said incredulously.

"Shush. Your goal is to find the balance point in the spear and focus the power of the sigil on it. Activate the sigil the moment you release the spear from your hands. Watch carefully."

Hog picked up the spear to make it easier to throw. He swung it and threw it at the pile of sacks. He immediately activated the Wind Signet.

The spear whistled into the sacks, piercing them. And crashed to the ground about twenty feet behind them.

"Heh, with a throw like that, you can pierce a person through and through. How about that, isn't that cooler than a little Sigil trick?" Hog said haughtily.

"This is incredibly cool, I want to try it now." Cenn was excited by what he saw.