The deep, yet elegant voice reverberated through the now silent room.
"Once again, thank you all for making an appearance at my daughter's birthday ball. We truly do appreciate the hardwork you all do, and the fact you were able to put it aside for one day. I do not want to bore you all with a long-winded speech, so instead I would like to commence the next event, courtesy of Estella. We invite the younger generation to show off their skills before the academy's entrance exams in friendly spars.'
The noble children started looking around for anybody who would do so.
For the children who were taking the exams, revealing your cards could lead to an early elimination.
So everybody was hesitant to participate, especially when nobody else seemed keen either.
That was until a hand suddenly shot up with the sound of clattering bracelets.
I turned behind me and saw Azure grinning ear to ear, not even bothering to hide her excitement.
"Oh daughter of Bruin." Mikael's tone indicated that he wasn't at all surprised. "You seem to have inherited your father's famous fighting spirit."
"Infamous you mean.." I could hear the duchess mumble.
"Thats my girl." I heard duke Bruin praise his daughter.
"Then would you please come to the center of the room while we wait for another participant."
Azure nodded before pushing past me and Miller and eventually
arriving at the center of the room that was now empty due to everybody spreading out towards the walls.
As the king said we waited, but still nobody dared to raise their hands and volunteer, especially against a duke's daughter.
But then I saw Estella begrudgingly tap her father's shoulder.
After hiding the shock on his face he turned to his daughter wondering what she had to say.
The crowd all looked in anticipation but couldn't hear what Estelle had to say.
'System partially activate some of my enhanced senses so I can hear the conversation'
Over the course of the moons I had learned that the system could suppress my senses so that they would be at a normal level. So, day to day I kept my senses at that level.
When I heard what Estelle told her father I couldn't help but roll my eyes.
"Your majesty, could you nominate Rohan Ruena for the duel."
I saw the king nod and then rolled my eyes.
'Seriously?' I grumbled in my mind. 'System you can supress them again.'
[Understood]
With my systems back to normal I made eye contact with the king.
He then announced, "My daughter has made a personal nomination."
The guests were now hyper-focused as they hadn't expected the princess to do or say anything the entire time.
I could feel the pitiful gazes of the dukes, and some other nobles.
After all, anybody beyond the 4th or 5th rune would've been able to hear her words.
"Rohan do you accept?"
Miller and Sera looked at me with a glint of curiosity in their eyes while Azure looked like a maniac as the grin got wider.
I let out a sigh before answering.
"Of course, who am I to reject the nomination of the princess herself." I said with a bit of attitude subconsciously.
The guests looked surprised with my ease, and carefree tone.
I could even hear some calling me arrogant.
Mikael on the other hand had a slight smile as he praised my choice.
"Wonderful, now please make your way to the center."
I walked to the center not paying mind to the murmurs around me as I approached Azure.
Now two butlers walked out.
One held in his hand a wooden sword, and other a pair of leather fingerless gloves that had rubber padding on the knuckles.
"I'm not sure what you use Rohan, so I just gave you the weapon your father specializes in." The king commented.
"It's fine. I happen to specialize in it as well, so thank you, your majesty."
"A swordsman?" I heard somebody gasp under their breath.
While swordsmanship wasn't rare amongst the general populace. For a swordsman to be amongst the nobles higher than the earl rank was fairly uncommon.
In fact, if not for my father the Ruena family would have been stuck at the viscount rank due to their usage of the sword. My father was one of the only notable swordsmen on the continent.
So, the young generation typically revolves around a tower mage or a battle mage.
A tower mage usually spends their time researching magical topics and species. They spend their time in the magic tower that is located not too far from the academy. However, if needed they do participate in wars if hired. But, they usually cast stationary spells that require a long preparation time.
Battle mages on the other hand, like my mother, spend their time on the battlefield. They are usually stationed behind the knights and other melee fighters. They specialize in casting spells continuously in rapid concession.
But swordsmen fall under the warrior category. They fight in close range, typically using buff and debuff magic. Sometimes they mix basic spells to immobilise their opponent or gain an advantage. However, the biggest difference would be their utilization of aura which the mages can't do.
And even besides me Azure was also a warrior, but instead she used gauntlets over a sword. But, since people already knew what she was, I ended up being the focal point of the whispers.
I glanced at Estelle who had her arms crossed and looked at us attentively.
"Then when both are ready the spar can begin" one of the butlers announced.
"I'm ready." Azure said.
"I am too" I had my sword pointed down with one arm in the pockets of my pants.
While the noble children scrutinized my poster the adults kept their silence.
"Then…you may begin"
Almost instantly after the signal. Azure's body was enveloped in a golden light.
In that same moment she stepped forward, disappearing from her spot.
She appeared in front of me, sending a roundhouse kick towards my head.
'Buff magic..'
As I dodged the kick I recalled the Bruin family's special magic that was shown in the game.
They specialize in strong but short lasting buffs. But the most dangerous part of their abilities is that they're able to enhance their 5 senses, increasing their spatial awareness past their existing limits.
With my sword's tip still facing the ground I stepped back continuously dodging the attacks.
Rather than insult me for dodging or calling me a coward the onlookers had stayed silent keeping track of every move.
Azure eventually jumped multiple metres away.
"Trying to land a hit on you is probably gonna take me hours at this rate." She complained while stretching out her arms.
"Hm?"
I'll admit I was a little curious about what she was planning, especially since she wasn't the type to give up.
My attention was drawn in as the golden aura that enveloped her formed a magic circle below her.
The magic circle disappeared but instead of the light enveloping her, it was radiating from her eyes.
As her eyes lit up she once again disappeared from her spot, even faster than last time.
My eyes widened as I heard a step behind me.
I spun on my heel and jumped back.
The same time I did that she threw out a punch.
Knowing I wouldn't be able to dodge I used my sword to parry it.
'If I remember right her physical starts are superior to most 2nd runes by now if we factor in the buff.'
Even Aureus had a hard time beating her in the first few runs.
I used the chance created by the parry to slash my sword down her torso making her jump back.
"Finally striking?"
"What can I say, you're getting a bit too clingy" I rolled my eyes.
"Sorry about that, but it's only gonna get worse." She said with a grin.
And in the very same moment she disappeared from her spot again, this time appearing on my right with her left leg flying towards my face.
I blocked it with the blade of my sword causing me to be pushed back.
'This sword won't hold out much at this rate..'
I exhaled considering all of my choices.
Glancing at my father I looked at his knowing nod.
"Alright I guess I can't really hold back much"
She was one of the named characters so it makes sense she can rival the average 2nd rune as a 1st rune.
She stopped in her tracks keeping her guard up as she observed me.
A red glow covered the wooden blade compressing until it formed a glowing red almost crystalline cover tightly around the blade.
"Sword aura?!" One of the guests exclaimed with a gasp.
Looking around everybody's faces were full of doubt, confusion, and surprise; except my parents and Estelle.
I could see the dukes turning to my father who had a uncharacteristic smug look on his face.
"How do you have that?" my opponent asked
"I'm just on the unique side of things" I shrugged in response with a smirk.
She shook her head and her gaze shifted from curiosity to one of focus as she got ready to dive in.
As she disappeared and reappeared towards my rear I turned on my heel blocking her punch with the base of my blade.
The aura around my blade focused at one point sending the force of the punch back to her through her arm.
She went flying backwards barely sticking the landing.
The bewildered expression on her face almost made me laugh, but I managed to compose myself before I ended up ruining my image.
'I'm not that cruel.'
"Why did she go flying like that?" I could hear a kid in the crowd asking.
Right on cue the duchess began speaking.
"Aura has 3 abilities, to strengthen, to reflect. And to nullify In the first stage and most common stage of aura it simply strengthens whatever it is applied on. The second stage has two effects: to attract and to repel. The attraction effect helps the user gather force on their blade, this further enhances the strengthening effect of the strike but it also allows a person to counter the repelling effect. Repelling, which is the main feature of the second stage, allows one to send back the physical force absorbed by the blade as long as the energy concentration is enough. There are only two ways to counter the repelling effect. One is to use aura and the other is to use magic since repulsion and attraction only works on physical force." She was ready to finish her explanation there before her son, Miller asked a question of his own.
"What about nullify?"
"The nullify effect is only applicable by those who have reached the pinnacle of mastery in their weapon and are able to use it as a perfect medium for their aura. It is the ability to nullify the mana in a magic based attack. However, the condition is that one's aura must have the same or superior concentration of energy as the attack itself."
The only people to have reached this level are my father, Aureus's master, and one of the bosses in the future, and of course the princess.
Not even Aureus had reached the level since his talent isn't in weapons, and that talent barrier required to reach the 3rd stage can't be passed even by experience.
"To reach even the first stage of aura in the 2nd rune is unheard of..let alone the 2nd stage."
I realized something about her explanation causing me to furrow my brows.
"Duchess..could you please not expose my weakness before the fight is over?" I asked her.
She covered her mouth with her hand before innocently apologizing.
"Oh apologies dear I didn't mean to."
Azure now knowing how to deal with my aura charged in appearing at my side and kicking my calf.
As I moved my sword to block it she hopped off her other foot flipping in the air, sending a kick towards my head.
'This is getting kind of dangerous' I moved a step back,
The force from the kick flying through the air caused a small cut to appear on my nose.
I sighed as the wound healed.
My eyes were drawn to another pair of crimson.
Her lips parted mouthing something.
"If you win…"
Suddenly looking back at Azure my eyes focused on her.
"Sorry" I told her
She raised a brow.
I disappeared from my spot much like she did and appeared in front of her.
She took a step back but I kicked her leg causing her to lose balance.
In that same instant I took a step back letting my thrust my sword forward.
As the aura all concentrated on the tip of the sword she was sent flying back.
Catching her was her giant of a father.
The first person I looked at afterwards was of course Estelle.
She looked shocked at the prowess I had displayed but also have a slight smile on her face that she hid behind her hand.
I also looked towards the king who was changing his gaze back and forth between me and Estelle.
I handed my sword back to the butler and bowed towards the royales.
"It was a good match" I said to Azure seeing her get out of her father's grip.
I could see a look of conflict on her face.
"Don't bother worrying over it. Theres only 2 people our age who could get me to go all out in the first place."
The crowd looked confused and shocked at my answer.
Azure opened her mouth and asked the question I could tell they all wanted to.
"Besides the princess…who else is there?"
Even Estelle looked at me curiously.
"You'll see in 2 months time."
Before any more questions could be asked I glanced at the king.
Following a cough into his hand he began speaking.
"Thank you for the entertaining show Rohan and Azure. The future of the kingdom is bright with talents like yourselves and my daughter. But now seeing as it is getting late I believe it is time for me to see you all of. Thank you once again for your presence."
Everybody in the crowd bowed in response and began walking away with their families.
I joined my family, saying goodbye to the other Dukes.
Turning to the royales I bowed before turning back towards the entrance.
We said all our farewells and now were back in our regular clothes within the carriage.
Despite having left the gathering my problems were still far from over.
I could feel a stinging gaze in my direction.
As I met the gaze the questions started immediately.
"Why were you so friendly with Estelle?...Did you know her before?...Was this why you reacted that way to the invitation?"
"First of all, no I did not know her before the gathering so you can dispel the thoughts about the imperial family being involved in the experimentation."
I could see the clear relief in their faces as I cleared up the doubt.
"Secondly I don't know why I was so…friendly with her. It was almost natural. It kind of felt like the act of gasping for air after holding in your breath for a long time."
This time I could see them exchange glances.
"Alright…thats interesting but enough of an answer I guess." My mother backed off…almost.
"So…what did you two talk about?"
I looked at my father.
"Her family for a little bit."
One could hear a pin drop with how silent the space in the carriage became.
"Don't worry I just told her that things weren't what they seemed. And then we talked about my training since she was curious."
Shaking off the earlier shock my father nodded.
"She was always obsessed with training." He smiled.
"Hm?" I questioned.
"We were there when she was born," My mother said. "Your father and I had to come to the palace quite often so we had met the children quite often. She was almost like a little niece. She used to always whip her head back while laughing, and always tried her best to hide her smile so she could look like the image of a royal she had read about. "
I could see the nostalgic look in her eyes.
"Well…she hasn't changed much then." I told them about how she had laughed on the balcony basically the exact same way my mother had described.
Mother let out a giggle into the knuckle of her index finger.
"Habits die hard." She smiled. "Ro…Stick with her please. I know as a mother it's selfish to ask this of my son but…ever since her own mother's passing she had grown cold, distant, and pushed away every bit of love that was in her life. But tonight, that smile was unmistakable."
I shifted my gaze between her and my father who clearly shared the same view.
I laughed lightly and stated, "I planned to do that anyways. I don't think I'd be able to do otherwise in the first place."
My father smiled and rubbed my head like usual.
"Anyways…about that second person?"
"You too father?"
"I'm just curious to know who it could be, and how you'd know of them in the first place?"
I sighed.
"A vision."
I needed an excuse anyways and it's not like oracles didn't exist in this world.
"A vision?!" My father and mother repeated in shock.
"I get these dreams where I'm in another person's body sometimes, a person living a tragic life. But in these visions I hear things sometimes, and I heard a name. After hearing the name again outside the dream I realized it wasn't just a dream."
"What was the name?" Father inquired.
"Aureus Vaunt. Viscount Dorren's son. He's a monster beyond imagination."
"To what extent?" My father asked.
I knew better than most that I couldn't change the narrative on my own. Especially if Min was right and the ones subjecting the world to this fate were the gods. I needed help, not just from the main cast but from every power I could get my hands on, even if I had to expose some cards. A duke's help, especially one of the strongest people as of current would be helpful. But if I simply asked it as his son, he'd grow suspicious one day, and I'd rather avoid having to explain it to him when it could be too late.
"The strongest mage history had ever seen. If I was built for the sword he was built by magic itself, sculpted by it, it's as if magic itself relinquishes its soul to him every time he uses it."
"What?" My mother asked this time as she had spent decades studying magic.
"Think of it this way, there are three kinds of magic in this world right?"
The times were conjuring magic, natural magic, and special magic.
Natural magic was the most common amongst mages, it allowed people to manipulate the elements around them. With this magic people didn't have to pull mana in their body as they ranked up, rather all they did was increase the purity of their already existing mana to interact with the element they had an affinity with. This pure mana in their body would serve as a guide to the aligning natural mana particles in the air, which consequently performed a spell.
Conjuring magic on the other hand is much and I mean much less common, roughly one out of one million people were able to use it. With this practice the body is used as a medium, kind of like a magnet. The body draws in the mana particles that the user had an affinity for and then releases it from their body. With this practice they had to learn to cleanse their mana veins using their mana, and also strengthen them. The amount of materials needed to train the body per rank up was exorbitant to say the least. It also required much more physical strain than natural magic. But as an upside the spells were much quicker, and debatably stronger. So, people ended up investing quite a bit on people that could do that.
The third type, special magic. It was the least common. Roughly one in one hundred million. For reference the current human population in purgatory is around 20 billion. This applies to those with affinities or abilities that aren't normal. For example, Anais's barriers qualify as special magic because they don't use any of the four natural elements, fire, wind, water, earth, nor does it derive from any of them. Her barriers in a sense were pure energy condensed to form a physical surface. Father and my blood affinities were also considered special type magic. Essentially all of the dukes utilized special type magic, besides Duchess Gale;who as one could probably tell uses wind magic.
"Mhm.."
I held up 3 fingers.
"He could use all 3."
"What!" My father yelled out enough to burst my eardrums but thankfully I had lowered my sense of hearing in advance.
After raising it I continued.
"He has affinities for all four elements, and an affinity for 3 special elements as well. The elements are Corrosion, Magnetism, and Spirit."
The special elements I had mentioned were already known elements, and especially legendary ones. But the third one was the one that shocked them the most, because it was a special element, but not one humans could have. The ability to communicate with spirits was something only elves and higher races could do, and to them it wasn't an affinity or anything but simply a trait. And only through tools made by those beings could humans ever contract a spirit, and that only applied to one, but having an affinity for spirits boasted the potential to contract multiple, which to humans was like having multiple nukes.
"..."
"..."
Silence once again enveloped the carriage, a silence I didn't dare to break.
[Host…is this true?]
Even this bastard had to ask to verify. The system probably believed that I had oracle capabilities considering my already existing uniqueness.
'Very…'
"A monster…an absolute monster." My father uttered under his breath.
"He's also at his second rune, but will probably advance to his fourth by the end of this year."
"Thats…"
"Consider him the child of mana, nobody and I mean nobody can gather mana as quickly as he can."
"So what should we do with this information?" My father spoke in a serious tone as he grasped both of his hands.
My father was asking me not as his son, but as an equal. He knew more than anybody that I wouldn't reveal this all without a purpose.
"Form a relationship with Viscount Dorren, he's a good man. Arrange a way for me to meet Aureus continuously after school begins. But, and this is serious, do not do any of this until the moment I give you the signal, it'll be at the entrance exam. Otherwise, the heavens themselves will be against us."
"What does that me-"
I could hear the thundering outside it gnawing at my heart, only increasing my anxiety.
"I can't elaborate."
If I'm right and it is the gods doing all of this, that could mean they were listening right now. And more so than them, the Ziat was listening, and based on what Min said it was brought over by the gods themselves.
My parents nodded. We changed the topic back eventually talking about the gathering a little more before getting off the carriage.
I eventually got back to my bed and plopped down immediately without even changing my clothes.
I shut my eyes going to the library immediately.
The scenery was different than usual with heart balloons all over the place and rose petals scattered across the floor and tables.
"If it isn't the loverboy~" Min floated around, spinning in the air.
"Shutup…"
If this was my physical body I probably would've turned red
from the embarrassment.
"You really did a great job with this place…"
"Thank you thank you, I had plenty of time." He grinned.
He landed on the ground towering over me before messing up my
hair.
"Glad you were able to ease your burdens."
I tilted my head
"You're carrying the world on your shoulders, even if I don't know what it may involve, I can acknowledge that much."
"One day Min, one day it'll make sense." I told him
"Then for that day I'll wait. Now what are you here for?"
"To explore the library, I haven't gone to the second floor yet."
"Oh right.."
Min flicked his wrist as some scattered books levitated and structured themselves to form a staircase.
"Walk up." He instructed.
I took a step feeling the surprising sturdiness of the book staircase.
As I walked up I could feel the space around me shifting and the pressure increasing exponentially until I eventually reached the top.
The space around me had finally reached reached a standstill letting me admire it.
The book I was standing on had morphed into a simple black floortile.
The walls were a matching dark black vinyl. Basically everything in this library besides the books were black.
And the thin lines of gold that outlives the shelves, and embellished the top of the pillars.
The chairs were now made of a black stained glass, with black legs.
The shelves and walls themselves rather than forming a traditional square room were curved, forming a circular space.
Width wise it was the size of the palace ballroom, but it's height
reached and maybe even went past the sky.
In the center there was a singular circular table with a chair pushed in.
Min appeared once again floating in the air and dancing around as if he was swimming in water.
"I thought I'd have to compress energy to enter the next floor?"
"That's the case for mana users, but you are a qi user."
"Whats the difference?"
"Well to use qi is already to compress energy, since you have to consistently compress energy within your dantian to increase your reserves."
"And for runes?"
"For runes you have to have pure enough mana to compress mana, but that happens externally."
"So that's why it was so easy."
"Mhm."
"I've always wondered what do the runes even do?"
This is one thing that's never really been discussed in the game since Aureus kind of just could.
"The runes serve as almost a badge. Being able to form another rune means you're able to control the added mana that the rune utilizes."
"But the runes aren't the same strength?"
"You're right the first rune is twice as weak as the second, the second is three times weaker than the third, and so on and so forth."
"Why does each rune have different amounts of energy?"
"That would be because each rune has different amounts of purity. The purity causes an exponential increase in control and strength rather than a linear one."
"Oh alright."
I began looking around seeing all the different books.
There were a variety of colors and sizes of books along the shelves.
I walked around taking note of each title.
"You can say what you want the book to encompass and the library will shift to bring the books you want to you.'' Min informed me.
"Books on the sword." I announced.
Within a second the shelves started folding in on themselves and books start flying around.
Eventually everything reached a calm and I looked at the new titles.
I grabbed a book with a red leather cover and golden etchings on the spine.
'Sword Qi: Basic Intent'
"Hm?"
"It is like your world's sword aura but utilizes the principles of qi instead of mana."
I flipped through it trying to get the general gist.
"So despite having qi I've been using aura like mana?"
"Basically."
Compared to sword aura, sword qi, or intent didn't simply coat the blade in energy. Rather, it filled the sword with qi and then let the remaining aura permeate from the blade. It looked similar to sword aura but the fundamental difference wasn't anything to scoff at.
It was like giving the sword a soul rather than basic enhancement. If you focused on cutting, the sword would get sharper. If you focused on blocking it would lose it's sharpness but would get more durable.
This was possible because unlike mana which acted similarly to atoms and relied on collision and forces to attract, qi was already merged inside of the body making it more dense naturally. So, qi being a more dense energy was able to base it's consciousness off of it's user.
That didn't mean qi as an energy was superior to mana it was simply useful in different means. Qi was much less versatile than mana for example.
I read the words carefully and then put the book back.
Picking up another book, this time it was white with silver carvings on it's spine.
'Understanding Qi Techniques.'
"Oh?"
I skimmed through this one finally reaching an understanding of the differences.
In this world knights simply enhanced the strength of their aura not focusing on technique very much since it would be useless in the face of power and experience. However, martial artists focused mainly on technique.
For example the effect of a horizontal swing can change depending on how one flows the qi through their body while swinging it.
This is once again because qi is much better at following the users commands since it is essentially created through them.
But the stronger the technique the more qi required to flow, the more control required, and the stronger the veins
I then picked up some technique books looking through them.
'Double swing'
'Reverse slash'
'Sword control'
The first two were simple.
Double swing simply allowed one to send the impact of their hit towards the opponent twice. The first was the normal hit. Then the second hit utilized qi to almost vibrate the generated force to instead of dispersing focus back onto the target. It was primarily used as blunt force so like when an opponent was blocking you.
Reverse slash operated by changing the direction of your swing's impact. So if you swung right the force go left, if you swung left it would go right.
These were both made by the same person.
'Heretical swordsman'
"That doesn't sound like a name?"
"You have the option of choosing a pen name." Min said.
I nodded my head in understanding.
Now for the final book.
Sword control allowed one to control their sword despite it not being in their hand. This is done by letting the sword absorb your qi to the point it becomes a separate limb due to it merging with your conscious mind.
I absorbed all the knowledge I could.
Then I slept getting the rest I'd need before beginning training.
After I woke up I trained the techniques day after day, even training with the other knights and my father. I also asked my father to make a sword using the parts of the mutated wolf that I killed along with some metals that help with energy conduction.
2 moons later-
I finished exchanging blows with one of the knights before hearing my father call for me.
"Rohan it's time, get ready to go to the academy."