"Alright Lance, just put your sword back where it belongs, and you are free to head back in to get ready for dinner soon. As for me, I am going to start heading back to help my wife pack our belongings." Kong told Lance as he stood up to make his way out of the training grounds.

Hearing that his training was finally over for the day, Lance felt a sense of accomplishment, while some fatigue was still present. He was only ten years old, but he was still training for many hours during the day in order to become stronger.

Usually noble families would rather their youngest generation use different herbs and such in order to build their strength while waiting until they became ten years old to start allowing them to try to follow the path of an expert. It was unfortunate, but the Sacred Ember clan did not have such resources at their disposal to give to their youngest generation.

It did not matter much to Lance, since over the years, it was clear that he was making quite a bit of progress, even compared to some of the older generation clan members who were considered the core of the Sacred Ember clan's strength and pillars that held the sky.

Lance after putting away his equipment realized that he was full of dirt and so he made his way into the Sacred Ember clan's mansion. The mansion was indeed massive and able to fit over one hundred rooms for the pure blooded members of the clan. As for Lance's room, it had a personal bathroom attached to it.

Asking a maid to fill the tub with water, Lance quickly undressed and grabbed a soft towel before making his way inside. After taking a quick bath and putting on a regular and comfortable blue robe, Lance started to make his way down to his clan's dining hall.

The dining hall of the Sacred Ember clan was rather large, but there were barely any treasures within to give it a sense of nobility. It couldn't be helped, since Lance's father needed to make ends meet on occasion, these treasures would be sold to merchants and collectors over the years.

It was even to the point where the Sacred Ember clan did not even have any extra items in their treasury other than decorative heirlooms passed down for generations of their ancestors. Not a single person within the clan was willing to argue against this, because it went towards prolonging their survival.

"Well son, it looks like you had a good day. Did you learn a new sword technique?" Lance's father asked him as their family sat down for dinner. Lance's father being the Patriarch of the clan was able to sit on the throne while his immediate family sat beside him along with Lance's uncle and grandfather who assisted him.

This throne was made of very simple wood, but was covered in cracks after decaying for so many years. There was no reason to swap this throne out for a newer and more expensive one, because there just wasn't enough money to make such arrangements. However, every Patriarch continued sitting on this throne which gave it a sense of glory and love for the clan rather than one's self.

There were roughly only thirty clansmen present in this dining hall and only a handful of maids and servants who helped serve food and drinks to everyone before sitting down to eat themselves. It was rather common for even nobles to not spend too much of their wealth on feeding their members during ordinary dinners. Therefore, the Sacred Ember clan wasn't criticised by anyone for following that route.

The Sacred Ember clan's numbers have slowly dwindled over the years, and only recently, have they decided to possibly recruit some citizens within Granite Town to add to their numbers as a branch type family. However, they would only begin this process when Kong officially moved in and was ready to train others. Not too many people knew this transition except for those who held some type of decision making position within the clan.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

This was not an uncommon practice for clans, rather it was indeed extremely common whether a clan was a noble one or otherwise. As long as the pure blooded members remained in charge and continued to have more children, it was still good to find potential outside experts to take in as well.

With a setup like this, commoners as long as they showed promise, would always have some type of path in order to move up in society if they had a high enough potential. In the Sacred Ember clan's case, they were willing to recruit normal civilians.

If the Sacred Ember clan was able to invest some of their extra funds to train potential experts, it would allow them to make better deals with those who they continued to do business with. Granite was a type of ore that the majority of statues were built from, and so it was a very lucrative business to remain in for the clan.

The only issue was that for the most part, they could only try to negotiate with merchants who were willing to take trips to personally pick up their share to purchase, or to rely on hiring a local guild. If the Sacred Ember clan minimized this, they would be able to not only make much more, but they could expand their clientele.

Even if they had to bring in individuals who had yet to reach the 1st rank as a warrior or even as a mystic, the Sacred Ember clan needed to try something new. According to their current predicament, the Sacred Ember clan needed to increase their numbers. if they were to hope to survive even as a fallen noble family.

Therefore, bringing in a trainer such as Kong who could train those even with low potential, would at least add some type of quality to their forces, even if it would be mainly quantity. It was about survival and the only method they had now, was creating a way to increase their strength from within.

Still, the Sacred Ember clan were more than happy to make such a decision, because if enough outside citizens were to join them, it would possibly give the clan enough leg room to eventually send the pure bloodline members to schools and into the military. This would cause their clan's reputation to skyrocket and would help them solidify themselves in the region more properly.

"Father, I wish you and mother told me about Kong living with our clan." Lance told his parents as he gave them a shy look. Since his father was the current Patriarch of the Sacred Ember clan, their family of four were at the head of the dining hall. And since his father was teasing him, it was clear that everyone within the dining hall could hear this conversation.

"I also learned that a mystic will be coming over from Bitter Falls to test some of our Granite Town's younger generation." Lance after getting over these chuckles from his clan about receiving the news about Kong, told his father.

"Oh is that so? You do realize how much we have given up to Kong to make sure that you can start your path towards becoming a warrior properly, right?" Lance's father replied before Lance was able to get another word in.

"I will only approve of you taking the elemental affinity test, if you promise that you will only pursue the path as a dual master if you have a high level of affinity. Otherwise, you must become the strongest warrior that you can be and pour all of your time and energy into it."

"I know that the path of a dual master is alluring, but our clan is just starting our rebuilding phase. We are unable to afford anyone pursuing a much longer and harder path in gaining power, when so much is at stake. Do you understand my boy?" Lance's father said as the dining hall became silent.

Some of the clan members present did not realize that their Patriarch had already taken steps in order to build the clan back up to where they should have been ever since their ancestors chose to stand their ground against the Yellow Serpent clan. It was even to an extent, that he was willing to make his own son possibly sacrifice his future potential on behalf of their clan!

"I understand father, and will agree to what you just said. However, even if I have an average affinity with whichever element it may be, I will be pursuing the path of a dual master. My little brother here can make up for anything that is unsatisfactory from me pursuing the path, but I will one day make the Yellow Serpent clan pay for what they have done whether I have the support of our clan or not!" Lance shouted out before exiting the dining hall.

The remaining clan members did not make too much of a fuss about Lance's words since he was still a young child who hadn't experienced many hardships. Deep down however, they would want nothing more than for Lance to be accepted into the school for mystics. Even if he were to flunk out, it would give him the ability to try to make some connections with other powers and organizations in the area.