BANG!

A clash of wood crafted weapons reverberated as Will was sent tumbling across the grassy sparring compound. His arms trembled as he hastily rolled to his feet. Without much time to even comprehend the strength behind the blow that sent him to the ground, his pupils constricted as he felt a shadow loom over his head.

BANG!

This time Sam delivered an overhead slash that forced Will to one knee.

Such strength! Will thought as he tried to weather the vibrations that second strike had sent through his upper body.

So weak! Sam thought inwardly equally as shaken as his opponent. He was used to sparring with his father where he had to use all his strength just to barely elongate the duel. But this guy in front of him… he couldn’t take a single hit.

Pride began to take root in the boy’s heart.

Without giving Will time to rest, Sam collected the strength in his legs and sent a huge roundhouse kick to his opponent’s temple.

He missed.

Will was clearly outmatched in terms of strength. That much he understood from the first exchange. But regardless of his inferior strength, he refused to believe he was inferior.

Battle intent blazed inside him as he crouched down, leaving Sam’s kick to harmlessly sail above his head.

Will tightened the grip over the wooden polearm in his hands as blow after blow was exchanged. Undoubtably, he was pushed back more and more with each collision.

This must be how papa feels when he’s sparring with me, Sam couldn’t help but release a chuckle when he saw the serious expression on Will’s face.

He was always the one being suppressed when he sparred with his father, barely managing to keep up the fight. Even when he went out on hunting expeditions, he would always have to skirt around any beasts he encountered or flee with his tail between his legs.

Everything and everyone was stronger than him. It was a stifling experience.

Today, however, was different. Today, he was winning. It was satisfying.

As for Will, the more he fought, the more assured he felt in his speculation that his opponent was a Divine physique host. There was no way he would be so suppressed otherwise.

The speed and strength that Sam exhibited were plainly on a whole different level. But that wasn’t the most monstrous thing about him. What truly chilled Will’s heart was the fact that Sam seemed to have an uncanny ability to predict Will’s attacks.

Every time Will perceived an opening to exploit, he would find his hand or foot inexplicably obstructed, forcing him into a longer windup and leaving him unable to capitalize on his split-second opportunities.

It was frustrating.

On the veranda of the cottage house, Neva stood with Rose and Lena, watching two boys flit across the grass as wooden weapons clashed time and again. Neva had a relaxed smile but a gleam of pride could be seen in her eyes. Lena and Rose on the other hand were shocked.

Lena was especially astonished when she realized she could only barely match Sam in strength and speed. As for when using her mana, she couldn’t be sure. She could see that Will was being smothered every time he tried to counterattack, she could replicate the feat at her current level of strength. In the body tempering stage, however, she definitely would not have been able to.

In fact, while her base strength and speed were always above the young prince when they still used to be in the same realm, she always struggled to defeat him. This was testament to Will’s superior talent for weapon arts giving him an edge in mana-less battles.

“Why does it seem like your son is reading mana waves?” Rose couldn’t help but ask with narrowed eyes.

She had also noticed what Sam was doing. Though she wasn’t sure at first, as Will’s counters were thwarted more and more before they had the chance to even happen, Rose became certain. And it was because she was so certain that she couldn’t believe it.

By all accounts, that child is still in body tempering. Even if he has awakened a Divine physique like little Lena that only accounts for his monstrous physical abilities. Rose thought.

No matter how good the boy’s speed and reflexes were, it did not mean he could read minds. Even if she entertained the wild notion that the boy could sense mana, to be able to do it to such a refined extent and in a fast-paced battle… That required experience and control only exhibited by apprentices on the verge of unlocking their mana sense.

“I suppose that’s how it looks to you,” Neva replied softly.

Rose furrowed her brow, not understanding her meaning.

“Strictly speaking, he is not reading mana,” Neva explained. “He is sensing the shift in the air waves around him. When he notices an unnatural shift, he moves to obstruct it. Because the young prince is trying to make an unnatural movement, whenever he is obstructed, his stance staggers that much more.”

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Although Neva said it nonchalantly, to Rose and Lena she may as well have been speaking a foreign language.

Lena had only just stepped on the ascension path so her ignorance was understandable. But Rose knew more. True, such a thing was possible. But not at the mana condensation stage let alone the body tempering stage. At least, she had never seen anyone do it in any of those stages.

“I told you,” Neva said to her companions. “I am an expert of the soul.”

Understanding dawned on Rose but it soon turned to disbelief.

Neva smiled at Rose but didn’t speak further on the matter. “Let us continue to my workshop,” she said. “The spar is over.”

As if on command, Will succumbed to his frustration and launched a wild slash with his weapon. Sam easily parried to the side before counter attacking with a massive punt kick to Will’s solar plexus.

Crack!

“Gah!” The air left Will’s lungs as he felt something crack inside his chest. His expression morphed to one of pain as he hit the ground with a thud, his weapon no longer in his grasp.

Will tried to sit up only to wince at a sharp pain in his upper torso. He tried to feel for the location of the injury but the movement only served to exacerbated the pain.

Aziel knelt beside the child as he sent a stream of energy into Will’s chest. Immediately, Will felt the pain dissipate and his breathing that he hadn’t felt was labored and forced smoothed out.

He looked at the expressionless face of the swordsman healing him and the boy his own age standing behind him and he couldn’t help but release a wry chuckle.

“A tiger father cannot birth a dog son.” Without thinking, Will found himself repeating a sentence all those nobles back home said whenever they tried to curry favor with him. It was only today that he realized that those words weren’t just empty talk.

“I will take you as my martial disciple,” Aziel said after finishing with the boy’s healing. “While I feel it is a pity that you favor the halberd despite your talent for the sword, everyone has their own path to walk.”

Will’s mood visibly brightened at those words. While he hadn’t said anything about it, he had felt very on edge when he asked for a halberd at the beginning of the spar, thinking it would lower his chances of being accepted as a disciple.

Azael then addressed Sam. “Take William and clean up. Come to your mother’s apothecary for your advancement thereafter.”

Sam didn’t have to be told twice. Hoisting William to his feet, the two boys made their way into the cottage as Sam resumed his excited rambling.

***

Rose and Lena were led into a humble wooden workshop near the peripheries of the compound. It’s back melded with the fence with top tier potted herbs resting on the window sill beside the door.

While Rose recognized the herbs as natural treasures of incalculable value to any alchemist in the kingdom, she had already gotten used to seeing them after a brief scan of the plants that grew in the garden that surrounded the workshop. In fact, even though she could not identify the vine type plants that grew upward the perimeter fencing, from the purity and density of mana they expelled, she was sure it must be some sort of alchemical treasure.

Despite all this, she was still surprised to find that the mana quality could still increase when Neva led her and Lena inside the workshop. Outside, the mana was pure and dense yet still retained the natural wildness inherent in ambient environmental mana. Inside the workshop however, the mana seemed milder and more refined, as if it had already undergone cycling in the mana core, ready for immediate use.

Without even thinking, Rose found herself cycling her core to take in the mana. She was shocked to find that it was even purer than the mana refined in her core. And with the introduction of such mana, Rose begun to notice imperfections in her foundational runes.

Under Neva’s teasing gaze, Rose closed her eyes as she breathed in pure mana and exhaled the impure.

As for Lena, due to her injury, her senses were dulled so she could not fully appreciate the haven she had stepped into. She did notice however, that it was somewhat easier to absorb mana here without causing herself excess pain. She did not dwell on the matter too much, though. Her attention was riveted on the woman that saved her life the previous day.

Lena’s mind couldn’t help but think back to the conversation Will had with that swordsman from before. Just like Will, she was also shaken when he said his son had opened twenty meridians. Even if she disregarded the preposterousness of the claim, how can a boy of merely ten years open all of them? And now, for different reasons, she also found herself entertaining the existence of divine physiques and her best wager at finding answers was walking right in front of her.

Lena followed Neva as they made their way down an aisle with plant and herb saplings that lined the sides. Overall, the room had a greenhouse aesthetic as Lena never saw any plants past a certain height of maturity. At the back of the room, there was a large workbench with a cauldron not unlike what alchemists used to concoct pills and potions back in Aurum.

Neva’s destination was the shelf that stood behind the workbench and extended to cover the entire width and height of the back wall of the workshop. Seated upon the shelves, Lena could see some pots with newly sprouted herbs, herbal remedies and potions, closed jars and vials with some rare ingredient preserved within, as well as other odds and ends.

Lena watched Neva paced back and forth across the shelf as she picked one ingredient after another and placed them on the workbench behind her.

Biting her lip, Lena decided to ask the question weighing on her mind. “Was it true what the lord swordsman said?”

“Was what true?” Neva replied with her trademark voice transmission. She didn’t stop gathering her ingredients though.

“That your son… Sam… opened twenty meridians?”

“It is.”

Lena was silent. Whether it was because Neva was busy gathering ingredients to heal or something else, the short response made the young girl feel she was making a nuisance of herself.

Neva paused briefly when she noticed that Lena did not continue her questioning.

Neva sighed, “If what you want to know is if divine physiques exist, then the answer would be, yes.”

Lena’s eyes brightened. “Then – “

“But if what you want to know is if my son has a divine physique, then the answer would be, no.”

Lena’s eyes dimmed and she furrowed her brow in contemplation. “But the lord swordsman said he opened twenty meridians.” She couldn’t help but mutter.

At this time Neva had finished gathering her ingredients. She shook her head when she heard the girl’s mutterings.

“Ever since the era of Great Emperors and the battle of Forbidden King’s Plains, this continent fell as a whole.” Neva explained patiently as she plucked some leaves off one of the plants on the workbench. “Whenever there is a war of supreme powers the size of which took place back then, even if you win, you lose. New power’s rise and supplant the old ones. Most clans, rather than let their ancestral teachings fall into the hands of outsiders, they’d rather see them destroyed.”

Lena listened quietly and noted the wistful expression on Neva’s face as she looked into space.

“Anyway, divine physiques do exist. Though it is highly unlikely that anyone in this realm possesses one. Even during that great era, there was no such person. The great emperors were no exception.”

“But then the twenty meridians? How?”

Neva smiled but did not answer. She continued to pound the ingredients with the pestle in her hand.

Lena’s face reddened slightly when she realized what she had just asked. Her own backing treated a fifteen-meridian inheritance as a treasure worth going to war for, yet here she was brazenly asking her savior to reveal her own precious secrets.