Johan went to the training facility right in the morning. Knowing what he knew, this was the time to figure out more about his Light attribute. Not only did he have a new direction opened up for himself but also a great teacher like Bahamut was by his side.

When they arrived at the facility, a surprise was waiting for them.

"Huh? Hwaa? What are you doing here?"

Hwaa was leaning on against the wall with her training suit already on.

"Why? Can't I be here?"

"Well, I thought I told you that you don't have to be here today?"

"The facility here is nice. Let's go. I've been waiting here for a while."

'For a while? It's only six in the morning. When did she arrive here?'

"Sure."

They entered the room and went straight to the ring.

"Hwaa, I want to test out something new. Don't be surprised if my combat style changes a bit. Not that you remember it anyway."

"Stop talking this much. Are you a girl?"

A vain on Johan's head popped.

'This chick...'

He summoned his fence and focused on his core this time.

'If I direct the Light into the fence perhaps I can use it just like Mana.'

The core started heating up and his body radiated stronger aura. He directed the energy coming from his inner into the outer. The fence started illuminating a golden glow. Taking an offensive stance he focused on Hwaa now.

'Hmm, I haven't seen anybody with a golden aura yet. Maybe I can find something in the library.' ,Hwaa thought.

She took out her daggers and waited for his attack.

whoosh

Johan dashed towards her in the blink of a moment. Thrusting his fence forward he got deflected barely by her daggers.

'Woah! He's fast. I have to be more nimble with my attacks before he stabs me. I don't know if the training suit will hold that out for long.'

She jumped back and lowered her stance by quite a bit. She put one of her daggers away and summoned a little fire ball.

Johan remembered her fire powers very well. They almost ended him last time. He knew to not go too close to her.

swish

This time Hwaa made the first move. She sidestepped and ran towards him. The fence would have lower chances of reaching her there. Johan knew that he couldn't simply attack her like that, so he summoned a few arrows and shot them towards her.

"Haa! Idiot."

She faked her attack and rolled to the other side while the arrows shot over to Johan.

'Dammit!'

He used his fence to deflect two arrows but two other pierced him. On the other side Hwaa threw her dagger and stabbed his leg while jumping up and fireballing his face.

Johan tried to defend himself by creating a little Mana shield which got broken immediately. It held out for two seconds and then shattered into tiny pieces.

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'Shit!'

This went on for a while until Hwaa came out on top. She kicked him in the injured leg and made him fall. The dagger which she put back, was now at his throat.

"Good spar."

"Haaah. Good fight."

He lied down for a bit and tried to go over the mistakes he did. Overall he thought that he did better in terms of actual skill but it was hard to not outright use Light abilities and smash the opponent.

'I have to combine both of the systems or else I might reveal too much.'

SHE SEEMED TO HAVE MEMORISED QUITE A BIT OF YOUR FIGHTING STYLE. SHE MIGHT NOT REMEMBER FIGHTING YOU BUT HER BODY DEFINITELY DOES.

'Yeah, now that you say it, the way she dodged the arrows was amazing. Almost like she knew that they were coming.'

"Let's do some cardio and then finish the session with a round of sparring without weapons."

"Sure."

They continued training for another two hours and then called it quits. Both of them gave it their all and one could see that.

"Let's do this more often if you don't mind."

"...Sure, whatever."

She shrugged her shoulders and left the facility.

'Weird. She clearly seems to dislike me but somehow still ended up wanting to train with me. Is it the effects of Shadow Slave?'

He pondered about it for a while, then decided to also go back to hi pent house. His dear maids were already waiting for him.

...

"Where were you last night?"

The mansion of Brox von Parseval was a huge black castle in the woods of Brenhaven. He had personally hired the best architects and construction teams from all over Euros to build it. The amount of wealth he had accumulated over the years exceeded even that of Mattheus von Parseval. He had his own combat gym which was the second biggest in Germania and one of the biggest in the entire region of Euros. Other than that he also had law firms and some of the mining companies which were under Mattheuses watch secretly belonged to him.

He was someone who grew up in a poor branch of the family with his father being a bodyguard and his mother working as a nurse. Early on he realised that if he wanted to be successful in this life then working hard every day was the only option. Working his ass off for years reality hit him and made him look around him. He, who was working every day and doing his best wherever he went, was still poor and the other family members who had been fed by a silver spoon and worked basically nothing, were living under conditions not even presidents of countries lived.

Slowly he became envious and hateful. Bit by bit he started building connections with wealthier people and doing favours for them. He learned that the only way to the top was through exploiting others and taking what was theirs for himself. He betrayed countless people to gain power. He even went as far as to scam his own cousin, Mattheus von Parseval, out of companies he owned.

His next goal was to get in as the new heir of the family but that was one thing where he couldn't plan his way through. The handing over of the throne was done through power in the family and fighting. The wealthiest and most powerful members of a family would usually fight over the throne. This only happened if there was no strong descendant from the last patriarch.

That was impossible for him. He either had to beat the current patriarch, which was basically undoable, as he was one of the top Rankers in the country. The next option was to wait until he passed away or gave up his position and then fight the other candidates. Even there he knew that he couldn't beat Mattheus or even Tristan.

The next best thing he could think of was to marry a woman and have children. He would have to give them the best education and grow them up as ambitious as possible. When he went about the plan, he got immediately stopped by Tristan von Parseval. It seemed like he was thinking about getting the position of patriarch for himself and so he got brutally ambushed by him. Tristan used an extremely rare item to destroy his ability to create children. To shut him up he also blackmailed him with all the evidence he could find about his prior businesses.

Brox knew he was done for. His dream shattered into pieces before his eyes. Almost giving up he came across a woman and a child who were sitting on the side of a street. They needed his help and offered him the last gold they had. He asked them about their situation and the lady told him that she found the child abandoned by a river. Since his dream of having a child was gone he took in both of them. At some point he married the woman. The girl he had adopted had certain features he was unaware of. She had eyes which were from eastern cultures and also her eyes were completely red. He did some digging and ended up finding out where she originally belonged to. That was the beginning of a path that had opened up for him.

"I told you I went training."

"Hwaa, you know that I don't like lies, right? Where did you go?"

She looked at him a bit nervously.

"I... really went training. It was at... Johan's private facility."

"Hmm, I see. Why didn't you tell me? That's a great idea to get closer to him. That way you don't have to get closer to him the other way. Now do me a favour and go there more often." He stood up and gave her a hug. "You will do that for me, right?"

Hwaa's eyes were glossy. It was hard for her to deny her fathers orders as he was the only person she was told she could trust.

"Of course, father."

"That's very good. Let's go out for dinner tonight. We'll go wherever you wish."

...