Damon sat on the edge of the dueling platform, catching his breath as he examined the progress that he had made over the past two years.
He had recently celebrated his seventh birthday, and his mother had insisted on halting all training for the few weeks surrounding the date.
She had ordered cleaning and decorating around the mana and had hosted a celebration for Damon. She had invited a few nobles of her faction, as well as some neutral ones.
Today was the first day of training after the festivities around the manor had died down, and Damon was relived, he could finally move on to the next stop!
True to her promise, Umbra would be allowing him to start sword training as of today.
Although Damon had become powerful in his previous life, his swordplay had been heavily reliant on his overwhelming aura, natural battle sense and his mana sensitivity.
He knew no true techniques to speak or, relying only on those that naturally awakened when he levelled up. Truth be told, there was no basis for his sword-style other than raw experience.
He was genuinely excited to undergo formal sword training.
In the meantime, Damon sat, looking at his stats, and he found himself smiling.
Umbra's training was truly effective.
Name: Damon Solis Aristum
Race: Human
Age: 7 years
Height/Weight: 5 ft 1 inch / 44.6 kg
Level/Class/Sub-Class: Level 0 / -- / --
Title: Second Prince of Aristia
Stamina: E (Low)
Speed: F (High)
Strength: F (High)
Durability: E (Mid)
Agility: E (Low)
Mana: E (Mid)
Aura: --
Remaining Stat Points: 0 (35)
Innate Abilities: True-Sight (A), Mana Sensitivity (Pinnacle)
Class Abilities: --
Sub Class Abilities: --
Miscellaneous: Mana Control (D+), Mana Circulation (D+), Mana Threads C+
Remaining Ability Points: 0 (14)
Damon was big for his age, that much was guaranteed considering his father's stature and his mother's height. The important thing was that his stats had grown to keep up with his frame.
His mana stat had grown from E(Low) to E(Mid). With three years left until his awakening, there was a chance he could even get it up to D(Low). If he managed that, it would put him in a position to be one of the most talented mages in history.
Not only that, but thanks to Umbra's rigorous training, Damon's physical stats were ridiculously high for someone of his age, almost matching up to what William's were at his awakening.
Damon was only seven years old, but with his physical stats clustered around F(High) to E(Mid), it was no exaggeration to say that he could physically match up to most healthy un-awakened adults.
His mana threads had progressed from C to C+.
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It looked that they had reached the highest level that they could progress to but considering that Damon could not make them tangible and channel mana through them at the same time, he suspected that there was a higher-level version of the mana threads that he would unlock in due time.
He could create and sustain up to fifty threads now, and the increase in his mana circulation and mana control from D to D+ was a testament to this.
"Looking forward to learning the sword?" asked William, walking over towards Damon.
At seventeen years old, William cut an imposing figure. Where it not for the traces of boyhood still present on his face, one would assume that he was a fully grown man. And a gigantic one at that.
"I am, but why do you look happier about it than I do?" asked Damon.
William was all smiles despite the sweat pooling at his brow.
For someone with Williams physical to stats to be sweating showed just how effective Umbra's training was.
"It's just nice to have someone else to spar with her." Admitted William.
Umbra wrapped up her training sessions with active sparring, and it left William bruised every day. He couldn't help but think that she would tone it down now that the prince was joining in.
"Do you really think it will make a difference?" asked Damon.
William sighed wistfully.
"A man can hope." He said.
They both chuckled, knowing full well that the beatings would continue.
Damon appraised William as they waited for Umbra to join them.
Name: William
Race: Human
Age: 17
Height/Weight: 6ft 9 inch / 115.6 kg
Level/Class/Sub-Class: Level 2 / Heavy Swordsman / --
Title: Royal Bodyguard
Stamina: D (High)
Speed: D (Low)
Strength: D (Mid)
Durability: D (High)
Agility: D (Low)
Mana: --
Aura: D (Mid)
Remaining Stat Points: 10
Innate Abilities: Blessing of Kalanor (Intermediate)
Class Abilities:
Sword Reinforcement (D-)
Heavy Sword (D-)
Basic Sword Techniques (C)
Basic Shield Techniques (C)
Body Reinforcement (D)
Charge (D+)
Aura Brace (C)
Sub Class Abilities: --
Miscellaneous: Aristian Royal Swordsmanship (C), Royal Stance Shift (D)
Remaining Ability Points: 6
William's stats were amazing for his age and level. With every physical state at D, he was a truly superhuman. He was markedly faster, stronger, more durable, more agile and had more stamina than even the most physically gifted athletes of Damon's first life on earth.
And this had all been achieved without using any of his ability or stat points!
Not only that, but his true combat ability went beyond just his stats.
William's Aristian Royal Swordsmanship had been bolstered by the Royal Stance Shift, which was a movement technique that was centered around shifting between the various Aristian combat stances to get to the optimal position within the optimal stance during battle.
The Royal stance shift was one of the things that William had gained from his bet with Carter.
The other was Aura Brace, which was an aura technique used by the royal guard that allowed one to burst their aura out in one go. This could be used to power a strike or help brace for a block.
Furthermore, at level two, William had become a Heavy Swordsman, another unique class, and it had afforded him a greater range of class abilities.
This was the advantage of unique classes.
A normal level two swordsman would have learnt Body reinforcement as a level 1 warrior, and then basic sword technique and sword reinforcement once they became a level 2 swordsman.
William had additionally gained 'Charge' at level 1, and 'Heavy Sword' and 'Basic shield technique' at level 2 due to his successive unique classes.
All of these techniques, paired with the hands-on experience he got from dueling with Umbra so frequently, made William a powerhouse in the making.
This was proven by Kalanor's blessing rising from 'Lesser' to 'Intermediate'. It was a clear indication that the god of war's interest in William had grown.
As things stood, William was at level 2 and on the precipice of level 3 at only seventeen years of age. This rate of growth did not lag behind those nobles of William's age who were currently enrolled in the academy!
William sat cross legged on the floor, closing his eyes and breathing in a slow, steady pattern.
Damon's eyes twinkled as he saw this.
This was what had made him so excited about having Umbra as a tutor.
After a few months of training Damon and William, Umbra had officially accepted William as a candidate to be her disciple.
The caveat was that he would have to learn Umbra's personal Aura augmentation technique.
Umbra's technique – Astral Breath, was what had lead her to be able to match level 8 adversaries despite only being level 7.
Damon very clearly remembered Umbra's demonstration of her technique to William. He had placed her palms on his back and started breathing with a very specific rhythm whilst moving her aura.
This had stimulated a strange energy that Damon had never come across before.
Using True - Sight, Damon had seen that this energy coalesced from the sky and fell in a gentle beam onto Umbra whilst she breathed.
The energy pulsed to the rhythm of Umbra's breathing and had been absorbed by her.
With True - Sight activated, Damon could confirm that it was not mana or aura. It seemed akin to the nature energy that some elves and dwarves could use. It also had some similarities to divine energy.
Umbra called it Astral Energy.
She said that theoretically, anybody could interact with it, "just breathing the right way and opening your mind to the stars above will cause the Astral energy to resonate with you." She had said.
The key word was 'theoretically'.
In practice, Umbra had yet to find anyone who could actually adopt the energy.
Damon desperately wanted to try, but Umbra had told him to wait until after his awakening.
In the meantime, William had spent as much time as he could attempting it but had made no progress.
Umbra had said that the cut-off was once he became level 3, as his aura would crystalise into a circulation system and it would be too late to introduce a foreign energy.
As William grew closer to reaching level 3, he also grew more desperate to resonate with Astral energy.