Miles looked at his hands speechless. ‘What the hell is happening?’ Miles talked to himself. Coin was not with him, because he had to be free of any distraction, so Malcolm insisted on leaving him behind. Miles wished he could talk to his best buddy right now because he had no one else he could share his secrets with.
“What went wrong? What happened? How can I fail to form a seed? That is not logical at all!” Miles looked at his body once again. Nowhere. He could not find a seed at all. “Damn it!”
“Father said I cannot level up to Form-Rank without forming a seed. To form a seed, others are practicing their superpowers to the peak of Grace-Rank, then use their arts to create a seed. But I used my body to get to this point, maybe I can use the fifth Strengthening Serum to level up!”
“Wait, what is this?” Miles looked at his body. He used to feel a warm current leaving his heart when he used energy. But now, the energy was forming from… everywhere?
Just as Miles was pondering, Malcolm opened the door and entered. “Seems like you already formed your seed.” He said with a proud smile and walked to his son. Miles looked at Malcolm with an embarrassed smile.
“Father, what is the sign of entering the Form-Rank?” He asked.
“Hmm? Besides the freaking seed in your body, I would probably say energy originating from your seed. It is also the reason why you are best at your main branch because your energy is most familiar with it thanks to the seed.” Malcolm explained.
“So, if energy originates from your brain, it means you have a mind seed. If from one of the limbs, it is body seed, and if it is from the right side of the chest it is heart right?” Miles asked.
“Yeah, that is how you locate your seed. Besides looking into your body and feeling it, not everyone can achieve that feat though.” Malcolm nodded wisely as he explained.
“So what if the energy is forming from any part of your body?” Miles asked.
“Hmm? Technically it is possible. After all, limbs and other body parts should still fall under the Body seed.” Malcolm scratched his chin and asked with a squint, “Where is your energy originating from?”
“Um, from my torso.” Miles lied through his teeth.
“Nice! That is my son. Hahaha.” Malcolm patted Miles's shoulder and laughed. “That is better than having one of your limbs.”
“Hmm? Why?” Miles asked.
“When you prepare a technique, you have to circulate your energy and bring it all the way to the required point. So let’s say the technique needs you to use both hands and your seed is in your right hand, wouldn’t it take a little bit of time for it to move your left hand? But if it is in your torso, you can lead it to your two hands at the same time. It would save you a lot of time.” Malcolm explained.
“But what if the technique requires a single hand? Wouldn’t that make me slower?” Miles asked.
“That is a good point. There are indeed some techniques you can execute with a single limb, so having the seed on the limb would save you a lot of time. But those techniques are weak.
Let me put it this way. There are two techniques, A and B. A requires your two arms and deals 40 unit damage, while B requires one hand only and deals 10 unit damage. The person with the limb seed will be able to use technique B quickly, but the outcome is weak, while you will be able to use technique A pretty fast, although slower than technique B, it will be pretty quick and will deal 4 times of damage compared to the other technique.” Malcolm drew two bodies on the dirt and explained by marking them with seeds and required energy paths.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“But that is not all. After all, the right side of your chest is still your torso, so in a sense creating a Hearth Seed would be considered as having a seed in your torso but why was I still amazed by your achievement?” Malcolm looked at Miles with a knowing smile.
“Because each seed has a different layer, in a sense. Let me put it this way, drawing energy from your seed to execute an attack from other branches delays the time. For example, if you wanna use a physical attack, the heart seed will first generate the energy then will send it to another layer where you use energy for Body Branch.”
Miles showed an illuminated expression to show his understanding. ‘Than, if I can originate energy from any part of my body, doesn’t that mean I can use techniques pretty quickly?’ Miles thought in his heart with excitement.
But how can I level up to Form-Rank if I have failed to create a seed?
‘Is this the correct path, perhaps? I failed to create a seed, but I can use energy in every cell in my body!’ Miles was getting more and more excited.
“That is enough theory!” Malcolm said and grinned. “Let me put your seed into a practical test!”
“Now you are talking!” Miles smiled too as he punched his palm. He too wanted to spar against his father.
“Hmm, let’s bet. If you land me a hit, I will give you a pretty decent core for your new wristwatch. How about it?” Malcolm said.
“Alright, we have a deal.” Miles said and vanished from where he was standing. His speed was faster than ever since he peaked his strength. Now that he was in Form-Rank, although he didn’t use the fifth Strengthening Serum yet, he was damn too fast.
Malcolm wasn’t a nobody either. He was fast and strong, so he could easily see Miles despite his speed.
Miles appeared in front of his father and charged his fist technique. It was one of the techniques the Cross Family owned. Although they weren’t part of the Royal Blood, they were still techniques passed from the same times.
As an art originating from old legends, techniques had mostly weird names too. The first step of technique was Baron rank, and techniques of the first step all had the name Baron before them. There were five techniques in the first step for Body Seed users. They were Baron Green Knight’s Charge, Punch, Slash, Stab, and Shield. They were movement, punching, sword, lance, and defense techniques respectively. All the techniques had the same name before them.
Because all the moves were named after the Knights of the Round Table, the name of the Art was The Knight Order.
Miles used Baron Green Knight’s Charge previously to appear in front of Malcolm, now he directed the energy to his right arm and used the Baron Green Knight’s Punch. It was basically a punch boosted by energy. It was directing the energy into a shape of punch covering flesh, increasing its explosive strength.
Malcolm was able to evade the attack easily, but his eyes were wide open. “You can use that technique pretty fast, and Charge too. Having a rare torso seed is surely useful.” Malcolm was pretty surprised, but Miles was snickering. ‘It would take me a few seconds to use premoves to lead the energy to needed limbs before, since I couldn’t move the energy as I wanted. It was a major giveaway for an experienced opponent. After all, they could tell which move I would be using based on the premoves. But now I can use the same moves as easily as breathing. This is awesome!’
Miles willed his energy to form a sword in his hand. He had to close his eyes and focus on the shape and texture of the sword for a long time, but in the end, he was able to form a sword. The energy in his hand looked invisible. He had seen conjuring of energy before, they were always visible with color, but his was colorless. He looked at his hand and there it was. A sword with a vague outline. Looked ethereal.
“Oh, you can form energy tools already. Good! I didn’t know you were proficient in Heart Branch as well!” Malcolm looked at Miles with interest. When he battled against Tian Ling and others when the latter turned into the Ice Dragon, he already learned how to create corporal things from energy. At the time he imagined his energy to a criss-cross on top of his body to form an armor to protect himself.
From then on, he would try to create things whenever he could. That is why he was able to form the sword so swiftly.
“Why is It colorless though? Hmm?” Malcolm held his chin as he looked at the ethereal sword in Miles's hand. “It must be because you don’t have a superpower.” Malcolm tilted his head and created a sword too. He only took less than a second, and the sword looked much better too.
“Tch. Show off!” Miles clicked his tongue and attacked. He wanted to use other techniques too. He used the Charge three times in a row and circled around Malcolm. When he was behind him, he used Slash!