Sweat dripped down the side of his face as Reivyn pondered over the wooden stump in front of him. The sounds of others practicing and sparring with each other was flung to the back of his mind. He held a sword in the ready position trying to visualize exactly what he wanted to accomplish.
He delved deep into his Transcendent ability, overlapping the lines of attack he could perceive with his goal. He slashed out with his sword. Huge swathes of wood carved away, revealing the lighter color beneath the bark as wood shavings flew through the air.
Reivyn concentrated on his task, whittling away the exterior of the wood to reveal his idea underneath. The shape of a person started to form, but it was just a clumsy lump. His sword was wielded perfectly. It sliced through the wood regardless of the grain exactly as he intended.
Despite his sword striking exactly where he wanted and only where he wanted, his visualization of his goal wasn’t perfect. Before he could start to improve on the lump, huge chunks of the wood caught with the others and tore away, marring the aesthetic.
Reivyn frowned as he paused in his endeavor. He inspected his work, but he quickly shrugged and continued.
This is my first attempt, and nobody expects me to be any kind of artist, Reivyn thought to himself. It’s better to finish my first attempt all the way and reflect on what caused the problem than to quit half-way.
He continued carving the piece of wood with his sword, all other thoughts relegated to the back of his mind. After about twenty minutes, a little statue, much smaller than he had originally intended, was beginning to take shape.
It was rough, without any actual features, but it was indisputably the image of a person. It wasn’t striking any kind of heroic pose. It didn’t have a legendary weapon in its grasp. It was just the shape of a man standing with his hands by his sides. It was about as simple as it could be.
The little statue also suffered from many nicks and chunks tore out of it in many places. One arm was shorter than the other, and it stood at an angle instead of perfectly vertically.
Reivyn stroked his chin as inspected his work.
“What is that?” A discordant voice intruded on Reivyn’s concentration.
“Is it supposed to be a troll?” Another, identical voice, followed the first.
Reivyn looked up to see Kailey and Riley walking toward him. They were both bleary-eyed, and they mirrored each other as they yawned and wiped the sleep from their eyes. They were dressed in clothes meant for physical activity, and they each had a sword belted to their side.
It was an appearance he had never seen from either of them before, but the swords didn’t look out of place on the training field. All around, young women were dressed and armed similarly.
Now that Reivyn had finished temporarily combining his Skills together, he had resumed his normal training sessions in Kefira’s courtyard. All of her staff were once more practicing under the supervision of Refix.
Kefira and Serilla were sparring together, but they slowed down as they cast glances in Kailey and Riley’s direction.
“You call that a piece of art?” Kailey continued to ask.
Reivyn snorted and shook his head.
“I call that a first attempt,” he retorted, unashamed. Nobody would confuse Reivyn for the artist of the family, and he had no intention of pursuing such a goal.
Riley bent over the two-foot tall mangled statue and gave it a thorough inspection.
“You completely ignored the grain of the wood,” she said, pointing to a point where some jagged pieces had been torn out.
“If you don’t want the wood to splinter like this, you have to work with what you have,” Kailey continued.
“You can’t force it. Don’t work against the wood.”
“Work with it.”
“Hmm, yes, I can see what you mean,” Reivyn replied, looking closely at the position indicated. “I was concentrated more on the visualization of my own slashes than on how those slashes would affect the wood.”
“This is also a piece of Tier 4 wood,” Kailey said. She pointed at some of the nicks and cuts that were out of place.
“Like the physical grain, these higher-Tier pieces also have Mana grains,” Riley supplied.
“These nicks and cuts are formed out of the stump’s Mana interacting with your own.”
“Little pieces of Mana were super-charged and melded with the Mana from your sword and caused these additional cuts as they escaped the confines of the Mana grains.”
Reivyn frowned.
“So even these trees have their own Mana channels?” It wasn’t something he had ever considered before, but upon hearing it, it made perfect sense.
“You can think of it that way,” Kailey nodded.
“Though, as far as we know, plants and other inanimate materials don’t actively channel their Mana.”
“It’s more like a road that’s inherently built within the wood than a person’s meridian.”
“It’s just there, but facilitates third-party traffic.”
“Hmm, that makes sense,” Reivyn nodded his head. He looked up at the two girls. “But we’re not here to inspect my work. I was just trying out the training method I have planned for you two.” Reivyn gestured to two wooden stumps sitting on the ground next to his statue. “Show me what you got.”
The two girls smirked as they drew their swords in front of a wooden stump each. They wasted no time in slashing out with their “carving tools.” Reivyn stood to the side with his arms crossed as he watched over them.
He had to fight to maintain his bearing and not put his face in his hands. Kailey’s first sword-slash simply bounced off the wood, having struck with the blade at an angle. Riley’s sword sunk two inches into the wood, but she had put her foot against it to yank the metal away from the wood.
The two girls simultaneously glanced at Reivyn with a sheepish expression. Reivyn simply quirked an eyebrow, but he didn’t say anything else. He nodded toward the wooden stumps, indicating for them to continue.
The two girls spent the next thirty minutes hacking away at the wood. With his Divine Sense, Reivyn could pinpoint the exact positions they were attempting to carve the wood, but their Skill with the sword wasn’t enough for them to hit their intended target in the way they wanted.
When they did succeed in hitting the proper mark, they often had to pull their sword out of the wood like Riley had on her first attempt. Their Strength and Skill wasn’t high enough to slice through the Tier-4 wood effortlessly.
Part of the problem was they were using mundane swords that could barely even be considered Tier 1. They had also been forbidden from using their Mana in any capacity. The purpose of the training was to improve their weapon Skills.
Once they were able to properly carve through the wood, they would begin to train their actual Carving Skills simultaneously. Their art Skills, though, vastly outstripped their weapon Skills at the moment, so they were going to have to narrow that imbalance first.
Finally, the two girls stopped. They wiped the sweat from their brow as they rested with their swords on the ground. Reivyn was of a mind to scold them for treating their swords so poorly, but these weapons were specifically designed to be used in a punishing manner. It could also unintentionally contribute to the girls’ weapon Skills if they had to fight through a dull edge to achieve their goals.
“Not as easy as it looks, is it?” Reivyn finally taunted.
Kailey huffed, blowing some hair out of her face.
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“We could easily cut through this wood with a carving knife,” Riley said.
“Even if it wasn’t as sharp as these swords.”
Reivyn shrugged.
“But you’re not Carving the wood,” he pointed out. “You both do have the Sword Skill, right?”
“Of course,” Kailey said, standing up straight.
“Dad wouldn’t let us quit until we had it up to 10,” Riley added.
“Well, mine’s at 11, now,” Kailey said. She had a far-off look to her eyes that informed Reivyn she was looking at her Notification Page.
“Huh, you’re right,” Riley confirmed. “My Skill went up a point already.”
“Your Skills are too low and you’re not in the right mindset to combine it with your Carving Skill just yet,” Reivyn said. “That being said, I’m sure the System recognizes what you’re attempting to do, which is probably one reason you gained a Level in the Skill so quickly.”
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“That makes sense,” Kailey replied. “We’re not fighters. It took us months to raise our Skill to 10 the traditional way.”
“We’re artists,” Riley continued. “So it makes sense that using the weapon for art, aligning with our talents, would increase our Skill.”
“And that Skill will translate to fighting, once you’re good enough,” Reivyn ended, nodding his head. “Now that the introduction is done, let’s get on with the actual exercise.”
The two girls frowned at his back as Reivyn walked off to a large pile of wooden logs set aside. He inspected the concentration of Mana in each of the logs until he found what he was looking for and retrieved two pieces. He carried them back over to the two girls and set one down next to each of the Tier-4 stumps they had been working on.
The two girls’ jaws dropped as they looked back and forth between Reivyn and the new pieces of wood. Kailey raised an accusatory finger and pointed it at Reivyn.
“You, you, you…” she stammered.
“You had these Tier-1 logs the whole time!” Riley exclaimed.
“And you made us look like fools with those Tier-4 pieces?” Kailey managed.
Reivyn grinned at the two girls.
“That’s because I knew exactly what kind of attitude you were both going to have when we started,” he said, smirking. “And you didn’t disappoint. You found two ways to criticize my work right off the bat.”
“We were just teasing you!” Kailey said.
“Plus, we had a point,” Riley shrugged.
Reivyn nodded his head in agreement.
“I don’t deny that,” he said. “I agree with everything you said, and it has given me a lot to think about for my own training.
“That being said, my little stunt also had a point.” He stopped and looked each of them in the eye to convey his seriousness. “You’re not ready to do things with a sword you normally do. You have to start at the beginning and work on your foundation.”
A hand clapped on Reivyn’s shoulder. He didn’t flinch as he had already seen his father approaching with his Divine Sense.
“Your brother is right,” Refix said. “There’s no shortcut bypassing a solid foundation. The both of you already have the foundation set for your Carving Skills, but you need to catch up with it with your Sword Skills.”
“And axes, and hammers, and polearms, and whips…” Reivyn listed off several other weapons with a smile.
Kailey held her two hands up in front of herself.
“Woah, woah, woah. Slow down,” she said.
“We’re not going to be working on Weapons Prodigy,” Riley pouted. “Are we?”
Reivyn shook his head.
“No, but it does make sense to have you work on the weapon you're most suited to,” he said. “We’ll train until you have several past the first threshold, and then you can decide for yourself which weapon best suits you and focus on that one going forward.”
Kailey and Riley both got a thoughtful look on their faces as they contemplated the plan.
“We hadn’t thought that far ahead,” Kailey admitted.
“We had just assumed we were going to be training the Swords Skill,” Riley said.
“But how are we going to use a hammer?” Kailey gestured at the wooden logs.
“Wouldn’t that just dent or obliterate the wood?” Riley asked.
“Who said we have to use wood?” Reivyn asked back. “We have access to marble and other stones. Do you want to try carving a stone statue with a sword? I’m sure we could arrange that.” Reivyn shrugged with a half-smile.
“And who says a hammer has to do blunt damage?” Refix asked.
Kailey and Riley looked at their father in confusion. Refix smirked as he summoned an ethereal hammer. He struck an overhead blow at the stump that Kailey had been working on. The hammer slammed into the top, but sharp sliver was carved off the side as if he had chopped it with an axe.
Kailey and Riley both rolled their eyes.
“Da~ad, that’s not fair!” Kailey complained.
“That’s your Transcendent ability!” Riley echoed.
Refix shrugged, undeterred.
“Well, maybe you’ll gain a similar Transcendent ability in the future,” Refix said. “Maybe an equivalent ability from a different source, even. It’s something to think about with your Carving Skill, at least. The utility of being able to achieve any kind of effect regardless of the tool you use would be a powerful ability for your craft.”
“Anyway, enough stalling,” Reivyn said, pointing at the Tier-1 logs. “It should be a lot easier this time around. Just focus on striking where and how you actually want to strike. Don’t worry about the final product.”
“Even if we can’t hit where we want…” Kailey started.
“I’m sure whatever we make will be better than yours,” Riley stuck her tongue out.
Reivyn shrugged.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Reivyn and Refix took several steps back, giving the two girls room to work. They watched the flailing of their weapons for a while with amused expressions.
Reivyn turned to his father.
“Going forward, I’m not going to participate in the morning exercises,” Reivyn informed his father. “I’ll just come to help the girls out and do a little of my own artwork. Fine tune my attacks, if you will.”
“I see,” Refix replied simply. “What do you plan on doing, otherwise?”
“They System informed me I built the perfect foundation in Tier 2,” Reivyn explained. “So now I need to focus on building off of that base. First, I combined a lot of my Skills together. That didn’t just condense my Status Page, it was building off of everything I had done up to that point.”
Refix nodded his head and motioned for Reivyn to continue.
“Further building off of my base entails three more things in preparation for advancing to Tier 4: My Affinities, actual combat and Life Experience, and Qi.
“Xudrid mentioned combining Qi and Affinities the same way one does with Mana isn’t possible, but my most recent acquisition of a combined Skill has made me think: What if my Qi was combined with my Mana that inherently has my Affinities imbued in it instead of pure Mana?
“I highly doubt any of the Cultivators have spent their time building up Mana Skills to combine before creating their own Qi. That means their Qi is built from pure Mana. It makes sense they can’t infuse their Affinities directly into their Qi.
“But what if their Qi already has the Affinities in it when it’s formed? I would just need to parse out the Affinities I want to use instead of trying to infuse something from the outside. It’s a completely different take on the exercise that pure Cultivators simply aren’t capable of trying.”
“Huh, that makes a lot of sense,” Refix nodded along with Reivyn’s thoughts. “What are you going to do about the Qi you already have, though?”
“I’m going to have to disperse it,” Reivyn shrugged. “I’ve thought about it, though. I don’t have my Qi Core formed yet. If I introduce new Qi at the same rate I disperse the old Qi, there shouldn’t be any problems. It’ll just take extra time, but I would have had to spend that time, anyway.
“I’m going to be focusing on substituting and forming a Qi Core for the foreseeable future, and I think that will go hand-in-hand with my Affinities, too. If I’m right, and this works, I think it will also allow me to introduce new Affinities I gain directly into my Qi if I’m able to form a perfect core: 100% Mana conversion.”
Refix glanced at Reivyn out of the corner of his eye.
“I know you don’t ever do things by half-measures, and I’ve always expected your goal to be a perfect core as soon as we learned about it, but don’t do anything dangerous without first telling us and getting everything set up properly. There’s no reason you should try something without the proper failsafes in place.
“Your mother and I, and Kefira’s family as well, can scour the Realm for natural treasures to protect you through the process. I’m sure the Cultivators know what natural treasures will be needed. Xudrid and Vyria left us a way to contact them, so be sure to do so before it gets too far along.”
“You’re right,” Reivyn replied. “I’ve also thought about that, too. I plan on making a trek through the Wilderness and into the Tier 5 Region for my combat and Life Experience. I’m not sure I’ll be able to find a proper challenge, other than fighting the invaders, under Tier 5.”
“We still have the Dungeon Key,” Refix pointed out. “I can take you in there before you head off to augment your combat experience. Going through the Wilderness and exploring the Tier 5 Region will be good Life Experience regardless.
“I know you probably want to go into the Dungeon in a Party with Teilon and your other friends, and I encourage you to do so, but you and I should go in their just the two of us, too. Maybe we’ll bring your mother along if she wants, too. She’s started Adventuring with me again now that the girls don’t need as much supervision.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
After informing his father of his plans for the future, Reivyn turned his attention back to his sisters. Refix walked off to continue supervising the others training in the courtyard as well.
Reivyn let his sisters do their own thing without any input for their first wooden statue. Their swords actually carved through the wood when they managed to strike properly, though they still needed to focus more on the execution of their swings than the little statues they were trying to make.
Reivyn had to admit that the nascent form of their statues was definitely better than his own, despite their handicap of not being able to strike with perfect efficiency. They knew their way around carving wood, and they didn’t make the mistake of ignoring the wood and Mana grains of their logs.
After inspecting their handiwork and praising their statues, Reivyn retrieved another set of logs and set about properly instructing them on their Sword Skills.
Despite the disparity in Skill Levels, Reivyn found that he was able to work on his own Transcendent ability through the strikes of his sisters. He could see exactly where they intended to strike even when they failed miserably.
Continuing to watch their training, Reivyn was able to condense a picture in his mind of what they were attempting to do and extrapolate what their statues would look like in advance.
At first, he was only able to see bits and pieces of what they were trying to do. As he continued to instruct and correct them on their stances and swings, he was also able to fine-tune his own ability and extrapolation of the final result.
Using his Transcendent ability coupled with his Divine Sense, he could see the forms his sisters were trying to bring out from the logs. With his ability to penetrate the logs and see deeper inside, he began to offer advice on where to strike for the desired result for his sisters.
They were skeptical at first, but after seeing the results with their own eyes, they began to trust his judgment. The three of them coordinated together throughout the morning, lost to time in their own worlds.
By the time Kailey and Riley had a dozen little statues carved out of their logs, the three siblings were the only ones still in the courtyard. The others had finished their training and left to attend to their own duties. Kefira and Serilla were waiting for the trio to finish, but they didn’t intrude. They simply found something to do to pass the time.
Reivyn stood with his sisters as they looked over the yard littered with the starting forms of statues and wood shavings.
“That’s a good start,” Reivyn finally said. “I don’t expect you to be able to add proper details to the statues with your Sword Skills anytime soon. That being said, you have a choice moving forward.
“You can leave them as is, and we put them away in temporary storage until your Skills Level Up; or, you can switch to a dagger and try to lean into your Carving Skill more, but wielding the dagger as a weapon instead of a tool.”
The two girls shared a look. They held a silent conversation with each other before turning back to face Reivyn.
“We might as well split the difference,” Kailey answered.
“We’ll pick up tomorrow with a dagger and try to add some details with half of them,” Riley added.
“And we’ll save the rest for later.”
“Okay,” Reivyn nodded his head. “Let’s get this courtyard cleaned up, and then you two can go wash up. I know Kefira has maids that can take care of this, but this is our training mess, so we should be responsible for it. I’ll carry the statues back to their place, you two sweep up these wood shavings.”
Kailey and Riley nodded their heads. Even though they were living in the Imperial Palace and interacted with the maids on a daily basis, they were still used to taking care of their own messes. They happily skipped to a utility shed to retrieve the brooms and get to work.
Kefira stepped out of her house now that the sounds of training had ceased and approached Reivyn carrying the little statues off to the side.
“After you get washed up, my parents want to talk to us,” she said with a smile.
“Oh yeah? What about?” Reivyn asked. He continued to move the statues as they conversed.
“I think my mother wants to start the wedding planning,” Kefira said. “I’m sure your mother will be there, too, so don’t take too long.”
Reivyn bent over and kissed Kefira on the cheek.
“Sure. I’ll be done with this quickly. Go ahead and wait for me over there.”
Kefira acted like she was going to give Reivyn a hug, but after wrinkling her nose at his sweat-soaked clothes, she settled on squeezing his hand before walking away. Reivyn chuckled to himself as he continued to tidy up the courtyard.