Chapter 6
Now, in addition to meditating and practicing mana control, Nick had to master Maria's language lessons. Which, thanks to his skill, was not difficult at all. So, seeing Dylan's progress, Maria began teaching him to read. The lessons were very easy, but Nick did not pretend to be a super-smart child, so instead of studying, he mostly teased her. He also did physical exercises with a small stick every day under Benedict's supervision. The old butler wanted to teach him how to swing the stick correctly. The fact that Nick was stronger than an ordinary child did not mean that he needed to be taught how to fight yet.
Nasty old man, why teach children to swing a stick, I'm only 2.5 years old. Is he completely crazy? Or is this how all children are raised?
Nick often thought about his own stamina, he did not understand why stamina was recovering so slowly, despite the fact that there were so many. But even because of active training with a stick, his endurance fell by a maximum of 20 units. And he still felt very tired. Nick decided that in order to fully use endurance, special skills are needed. He really wanted to use this natural potential of his body, but could not understand how. He tried to conceptualize endurance as mana and tried to find it in his own body, but it was useless.
He also often took etiquette lessons that he really did not like, and he deliberately did not study anything at all. Nick believed that even geniuses could not be perfect in everything, so he was more happy to skip all the lessons.
Everything was so-so in the family and Nick didn't like it at all. His father was often away all the time and Nick didn't see him at all, he tried to talk to his mother every day and demand her attention, but she was also busy in her office. The other children either weren't interested in him or were busy with their own training. Nick was bored and a little sad, he spent most of his free time at Maple as always.
What made him very happy these days was connected with Liam, he tried to come to Nick often. Mostly they fooled around like real children, but sometimes they could talk to each other about their past lives. Nick learned from these conversations a short history of Liam's life. He died at 28 from a blood infection, was the son of a family of lawyers and lived quite decently, not taking into account the fact that he was an avid gamer. He got blood poisoning when he went on vacation to the river with friends. In the river, he cut his stomach without noticing it. The cut was not deep or big. But because it was not immediately treated with disinfectant, Liam caught the disease. Subsequently, he died very quickly, literally a week later, the sepsis was too strong. Liam clarified that he died in 2028, and Nick died in 2024. So Nick was for some time in complete fear that some god had gathered them for a mission he needed, or that their reincarnation was a monstrous accident, which he of course did not believe.
Nick really wanted to spend his free attribute points at this time, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. His main choices were mana regeneration or willpower and mental control. Nick knew that the faster he invested these attribute points, the faster his skills would grow. But now he was stopped by the logical thought that the higher his attributes, the harder it would be to use his racial skill:
Adaptation of Minor Attributes [Common] - With this skill, you can develop your attributes by repeatedly performing actions; after receiving a certain number of attributes, this skill will stop working.
The skill didn't say that the higher his stats were, the harder it was to increase them, but it seemed very logical to him.
***
A new council of church hierarchs was convened in the main cathedral of the Holy Church in the holy capital of Alexandria.
“Dear Cardinal, we are ready to hear about your successes in finding reincarnators,” said the Pope of the Holy Church.
"Your Eminence, we suspect 8 people of reincarnation. Mostly, they are children of noble families of the kingdom. But we are not entirely sure of this. Each child had an abnormally strong soul, and we are also absolutely certain that a reincarnator was born in the House of Scarlet Blood. Your Eminence, I understand that vampires deserve a place in the nobility, but are we obliged to continue to tolerate these damned creatures, especially leaving the Reincarnator in their hands?
"I understand your concerns, but as we have discussed, we will not pursue our conflict with the vampires any further. Hard times are coming, and we will have to choose between needlessly slaughtering our vampire allies and fighting the demons for our own survival. I believe the choice is clear, and as before, the vampire reincarnator will remain under the supervision of the House of Scarlet Blood. Now continue with your report."
"Yes, Your Holiness, we suspect the reincarnation of Dylan Ghostblade, son of Count Varion. Liam Changeable Water, son of the Great Mage Firel Changeable Water. Lita Lifewarden's grandson, Jake Lifewarden. Viscount Jared's son, Alister Kitherius. We also suspect that the House of Unbreakable Stone and the House of Holy Water have reincarnators as their primary descendants. In the House of the Enlightening Flame, the son of Duke Kindroth may also be a reincarnator.
"Okay, okay! It's time to open the sacred vault. We will generously gift all the people on this list in every way possible so that they can continue to grow into the future of our world. Any new suspects will also be added to the list of those we will help in every way possible. Take out of the vault anything that will be useful for the growth of the children, and also make a list of all the skills we can give to a child with a strong enough soul."
“But Your Holiness, how can we distribute our holy treasures without being convinced of the righteousness and devotion of the Church?!”
"I'm closing our meeting! Everyone, get to work!"
Dad couldn't stand any more arguments, he stood up from his seat and walked out of the office, walking along the terrace, he knew exactly what all his decisions would lead to. But could he have done otherwise? If he hadn't helped all these children full of potential, would they have had a chance to win? The gods wouldn't have declared a threat if it was insignificant. The [Guardians of the World] would have to deal with the [Archdemon], should they prepare for the worst, or would the guardians not consider demons a serious enough threat to interfere with the natural law of the world. If he could talk to the other guardians, he would have chosen the best option. But with the exception of the [Sapling of the World Tree], he didn't know how to contact to the other guardians of the world.
***
Two and a half years had passed, and Nick was now holding a heavy wooden sword in his hands and learning the ways of the phantom sword under Benedict's tutelage. He tried to control his sword with extreme precision, but as always, Benedict did not like much about his stance. Nick's body was completely bruised from the butler's soft blows. Standing in front of Benedict, Nick moved forward as fast as he could. He feinted to the right and struck with his sword, but as always, it was easily blocked. Benedict moved to the left and found Nick wide open, throwing a blow that Nick managed to block with great difficulty, the next blow caught Nick in the forearm, causing him to drop. Standing like a beaten dog, Nick waited for the butler to tell him.
"Your swordsmanship is mediocre. But what I can praise is your footwork, you can move really fast when you want. But to master the phantom sword style, it is not enough to just move fast, let's start over, sir."
Nick knew all this very well, but even if he was a master of the sword, he could not keep up with Benedict's attacks. He guessed that this was done on purpose, so as not to leave him time to think, and to use only sword techniques. A new sparring match began, and instead of running towards Benedict, Nick decided to try to catch him in a mistake. Unlike all the training before, today he had metal daggers with him. In his past life, when he was young, he was very interested in throwing knives, and now that his body was strong, he could easily and accurately throw knives. Benedict decided not to move quickly, but calmly approach Nick. Nick quickly lunged with his sword, and when the butler blocked it, he accurately threw the dagger at him with his other hand. Nick did not think that anyone would guess that he got a dagger from somewhere and did not expect Benedict to parry it with the same ease.
"Young Master, cunning is always needed in battle, but you lack many skills. For example, how to properly carry a hidden weapon. I knew from the beginning how many daggers you had, no special skills are needed for that. Your throwing technique is much better than your sword art. Which should say a lot about me as a teacher. So today we will spar until dinner.
Nick's face was blank, he expected his knife to be blocked and knew he would be punished for it. But he couldn't expect him to give himself away so stupidly. The sparring began again with a quick swing of Benedict's sword, Nick decided to keep his distance and try to strike only with a clever feint. On another swing of the sword, which he avoided, Nick quickly moved forward and again threw his dagger almost closely, Benedict dodged, which prevented him from bending his hand with the sword in time. Nick's next blow was aimed at Benedict's wrist, but instead of pulling the hand towards himself, the butler straightened it completely straight. Thanks to this, the blades met parallel and Benedict's skillful feint was enough to completely disarm Nick.
This old man will give me a heart attack, he is very good at predicting all my movements. And he easily parries something expected from a child.
"Well then, we will now begin to repeat the basic sword stances again. Sir, take the first stance and begin the basic movements."
Without saying a word, Nick took a stance. Feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent, sword held in front of him with both hands. The first stance began with a simple swing, the second stance was a lunge and swing of the sword, the third stance was a lunge with the sword and a two swing, the fourth stance was two parallel swings, and so on. These were relatively simple movements to understand, but the further the stances went, the more difficult it was to make them dynamic and strong. Each subsequent stance required even greater speed and force of movement. The main trick of sword fighting was simple, you need to put into each strike not only the strength of your arms, but also your body and legs. A lunge was a simple movement only in appearance, you needed to move, which added strength to the strike, turn your body in the direction of the strike, and only then strike with the sword. These three actions had to be synchronized to achieve a strong and correct swing of the sword. Many of his days passed like this since he was 4 years old. which put a lot of pressure on his endurance. Only through special food his stamina regeneration increased, if not for that he would not be able to get up the next day. A qualified healer was also needed, but not to ease the pain or cure him, but to regularly replenish his life force. Nick understood why he was not treated properly, it was done so that his body would develop better than just roll it back to its original state.
After the sparring, Nick went to the bathroom to wash off all the sweat, and then joined his family for dinner. Today, his entire main family was gathered. His father came with his mother, his father's brother Rayon and his wife Lucille along with their four children: David, Cassandra, Alexia, and Chloe. What did not surprise Nick at all was that all the children looked beaten up like himself. His father's older brother was the head teacher of the fencing school and of course all his children had a combat class. His wife was some kind of scientist-mage from some noble family. All their dinners were held in a peaceful manner and calm conversation.
"Dylan, how are your training sessions with Benedict going?" Varion asked.
"Okay, today I wanted to catch him by throwing a knife at him, but Benedict knew that I had them. For this I got a very long training session."
"Haha, why are you like that? Benedict wouldn't be our butler if he couldn't see hidden weapons. I hope your progress in mastering the phantom sword style is decent. Tomorrow, a tutor is coming to us who will teach you the knowledge that you will soon need. I know how much you don't like etiquette lessons, but I think you can tolerate it."
"Of course, father, I would like to ask you to hire me a magic tutor."
Varion looked at Dylan, shrugged and nodded.
"Of course, you need to know all the habits of mages perfectly in order to cope with them perfectly."
Nick got a little nervous and began to fidget on the spot, having gathered his determination, he told his father what he had not wanted to mention for a very long time.
"Father, I want to become a mage and have a second class of ghost sword art."
Varion looked at his son carefully and thought about his words. His face did not show what he was thinking, his shock was only given away by the fact that he fell silent for more than a second.
Be a mage?! The main heir of the phantom sword would be a mage? And no noble class? I should have foreseen it with the way he looked at Mrs. Firel's magic. But to become a mage, you need more than just desire.
"Okay, we'll find you a magic repeater. But I'll set you a condition, if you can't reach the mage class by the age of 15, you'll choose the Phantom Blade class as your main class. I hope we understand each other, Dylan?"
"Of course father, thank you very much."
Nick had noticed a lot about the people around him over the past few years. Classes were not equal. Class 1 roughly gave the owner 100% of the class multiplier's ability, class 2 gave 80%. That 20% made all the difference between classer battles. A simple table popped into Nick's mind.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
+???% to class skill development speed
+???% to understanding your own class
[Common] -25%
[Uncommon] -50%
[Rare] -75%
[Special] -100%
Nick learned from various books that in theory a person can have more than two classes, but he never learned how to unlock another class. Actually, Race gives the same thing, but only skills compatible with it. Nick was able to add resistance skills to the race. Mana sense and mana manipulation skills look compatible, but he could not add them to the race, which at that time was a good decision, since they would have been intended for his class.
The day after tomorrow with his family, Benedict took him to another place on the mansion's grounds that he hadn't been to before. It was near the District School. Entering the building, Nick smelled a strong stench. The smell was like sour, putrid decomposition. Walking through the corridors, they came out into the arena, which was in the open air. Looking at the butler, with a question on his face. Benedict answered him.
"All the members of the Ghost Blade Clan, around your age, are going into their real battle. But you don't have to worry too much, they'll just be goblins."
Goblins? Goblins? When I'm five? You're all crazy !
Taking Nick by the arm, Benedict jumped down to the arena and put Nick on his feet. Saying "Good luck sir," the butler jumped back into the stands. Realizing that there was no point in protesting against this, Nick began to look around the arena with greater determination. Not far from it, he found racks with real weapons. There were also swords that looked more like daggers, which of course were for him. Taking a sword from the shelf, Nick heard the gate rise and a goblin ran out to meet him. It was a small a bastard little over a meter tall who constantly screamed in his ugly voice. But no matter how small this goblin was, Nick was even smaller. Without wasting much time, Nick began to walk towards the mad goblin. When he was already close to him, Nick made a quick lunge and slit his throat. Nick immediately jumped back a short distance and happily watched as the vile creature pressed his hands to his throat. The goblin could no longer scream and was gradually losing blood, after only 5 seconds he fell and did not move anymore. Benedict started screaming from the stands.
"Sir, I can only be proud of you. You were ruthless, so be prepared for two more goblins. Our patriarch's record at your age was 4 goblins killed at once. Good luck sir!"
Damn psychos!
Nick had already begun to hear the next pair of goblins. And while they were moving towards him, he was stealthily glancing at the goblin he had killed. It was an ugly green child with lightly sharpened claws and teeth. They were most likely not of a high level, since killing the first one was no trouble at all. Having noticed the new addition, Nick also began to move towards them deceptively slowly. The goblins were not completely brainless creatures. They were looking at the goblin he had killed and were talking about something in a language he did not understand. The language consisted mainly of growls and screams. Apparently having decided something among themselves, the goblins went their separate ways and began to surround Nick.
Hmm, so goblins are more like evolved, barely intelligent, hairless, green monkeys. Nothing unexpected.
Still deceptively slowly moving forward, Nick waited for the right moment. He needed to allow himself to be almost surrounded and quickly strike the first goblin to death. Having made the same fast, in his opinion, lunge with his sword, he missed and hit the goblin in the arm. With a failed plan, Nick abruptly returned the sword stuck in the bone, under the sweet cries of the goblin and moved to the left side of him, leaving the encirclement. Nick was lucky that the goblins underestimated him, especially his speed. The second goblin ran right behind him, abandoning the one-hit technique, Nick began to chop his sword at the limbs. The first blow cut off the hand of the goblin behind him, and the second cut the ligaments on top of the knee. While the second goblin was also screaming hysterically, the first goblin decided to jump on him, Nick did not have time to move away and only raised his sword to impale the goblin on it. The goblin began to scratch him hard while he was on top of Nick, even the sword stuck in his stomach did not stop him. Nick had to somehow catch the dagger and stick it into the goblin's neck several times. Having thrown the goblin away from himself, Nick managed to get up just as the second one was approaching him. A couple of deadt blows and the goblin was killed. Nick got away from the two-on-one fight with a whole bunch of deep scratches. He was in simple clothes, which did not protect against cuts at all. Wincing in pain, he began to hobble to the stands to heal his wounds.
"Young master, you are a great guy, but you shouldn't have let the goblins surround you. And our tournament today is not over yet, of course you deserve to be a member of our clan, but to be its master. You need to at least defeat three goblins. Good luck, young master." Benedict said with a big smile.
Damn, sadistic bastard, what the fuck is everyone thinking? Insane! And how am I supposed to defeat three goblins?
Nick whined, he didn't like the idea of fighting three goblins with such terrible wounds. He wasn't worried at all that the goblins would kill him, but they would definitely hurt him. So he threw daggers first. But it was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he was hurting the goblins, on the other, these primitives weren't stupid enough not to take an iron dagger. The goblins were getting closer, Nick could hear them perfectly well, the stupid monsters couldn't even shut up for a second. These three were as small as the last ones. When they were 10 meters away, Nick threw a dagger and hit a goblin in the chest. But it was useless, the dagger got stuck in the bone, and the goblins tore it out. This wounded goblin ran even faster and more furiously. Nick calmly walked towards him, when the distance between them was a couple of meters, Nick lunged with his sword blow and another, and another. The first blow was blocked by his hand, the second by his dagger, the third hit him in the chest, and the fourth in the neck. Nick quickly backed away from the dying goblin and waited for the next ones. The goblins decided to use the same tactics as the last pair. So Nick followed Benedict's advice and rushed towards the goblins with great speed. The first goblin hesitated greatly, but managed to prevent the sword from hitting him in the neck, the second goblin simply pounced on Nick, growling and screaming furiously. Nick hit him only once in the arm when he noticed that the second goblin was also rushing at him. Nick began to walk around the goblin so that the second goblin ended up behind the first one every time, which was surprisingly easy. The first goblin in his rage did not pay any attention to the tactical advantage at all. So soon he was cut down by a series of blows, Nick decided to experiment with the close goblins. He led him closer and closer to the weapon rack, until the goblin noticed the weapon. Nick allowed him to take it. The goblin chose a large sword for him, but he looked confident enough to grab it with both hands. Nick realized that the goblins were stronger than him, but the question was, how much stronger? Nick decided to cross swords with these goblins in a duel of strength and was completely defeated, almost dropping his sword. The goblin was much stronger than he expected. These creatures could break his bones if one of them grabbed him. No longer in the mood to play with his food, Nick pretended to swing the sword, and the goblin fell for it. The next blow cut his wrist, and the last blow cut his throat. Breathing heavily from all the effort, Nick was able to completely relax. As he walked, Nick looked at his notifications. And he was pleased to see that he had received messages about killing creatures.
You killed [Common Goblin [Common] Lv. 19, Claw Fighter [Common] Lv. 20] – Extra experience gained for killing an enemy higher than your level.
You killed [Normal Goblin [Normal] Lv. 19, Claw Fighter [Normal] Lv. 19] – Bonus EXP for killing an enemy higher than your level.
You killed [Plains Goblin [Normal] Lv. 17, Clawed Fighter [Normal] Lv. 18] - Extra experience gained for killing an enemy higher than your level.
You killed [Common Goblin [Common] Lv. 19, Claw Fighter [Common] Lv. 16] – Extra experience gained for killing an enemy higher than your level.
You killed [Common Goblin [Common] Lv. 17, Claw Fighter [Common] Lv. 16] – Extra experience gained for killing an enemy higher than your level.
You killed [Normal Goblin [Normal] Lv. 14, Claw Fighter [Normal] Lv. 15] – Extra experience gained for killing an enemy higher than your level.
Congratulations, you have reached Level 1 in Race [Evolved Human][Rare] Lvl 7 > Lvl 8
For 1 level you get:
Strength +1
Dexterity +1
Stamina +1
Vitality +1
Constitution +1
Mental Control +1
Willpower +1
Intelligence +1
Wisdom +1
Perception +1
Charisma +1
Luck +1
+9 free attribute points
Well, they turned out to be weaklings, and I only got one level, what a pity!
"Status"
Name: Dylan Ghostblade (Nick Miller) 5 years old
Race: Evolved Human [Rare] Lvl 8
Class: Blocked
Class: Blocked
Health 270 HP 0.27 HP/hour
Mana 190 MP 0.11 MP/hour
Endurance 250 ST 2.5 ST/hour
Statistics:
Strength 23
Dexterity 24
Stamina 25
Vitality 27
Constitution 27
Intelligence 51
Wisdom 40
Mental Control 45
Willpower 53
Perception 31
Charisma 14
Mana output 12
Where 19
Mana Regeneration 11
Luck 18
72 free attribute points
Titles: Otherworldly Reincarnator [Legendary+]
Racial Skills:
Fast Learning [Uncommon]
Low adaptability of characteristics [Common]
Minor adaptation [Common]
Lesser Mana Core [Common]
Low Psychic Resistance [Common] Lvl 28
Low Poison Resistance [Common] Lvl 15
Skills:
Meditation [Uncommon] Lvl 144
Lesser Mana Sense [Common] Lvl 55
Language Proficiency (Ramiast) [Common] Lvl 75
Minor Mana Manipulation [Common] Lvl 61
Disciple of Sword Mastery [Common] Lvl 38
Knife Throwing [Common] Lvl 26
Hehe, soon I'll be able to crush stones with my hands, I just have to wait!