It's been a bit over a year now. I'm at Dark Orange core now and about to break through to Solid Orange. I really did make the right choice, choosing 500% learning speed. I'm quite powerful now, considering I beat Kaspian Bladeheart last month while he was training me in my swordplay.
"Your usage in magic is excellent, but your swordplay is quite lacking in comparison." He told me.
Seeing as how the perfect example was standing right in front of me, I asked him to teach me his sword, and with Father backing me, telling him I was only three and already so talented, he caved and taught me his sword.
"Kuro. You may have learned my sword but I want you to make sure you never copy me. You must find your way of the sword just as everybody else has and will. Even my niece, Claire, will have to learn her own way of the sword. I am merely her foundation, just as I am yours."
"Yes, sir. I understand."
If Kaspian was strong, I would've used Dawn's Ballad to train with him. But he's not, so I just had Father buy me a standard iron sword. Of course, I modified it to fit my normally irregular swordsmanship style. Though, if I'm gonna have Kamish's Wrath in the future, I'm probably gonna need to learn other styles of combat.
I was currently training in my backyard. I'm more than happy to say that I've unlocked two Deviant's. After enough time training with Wind and Earth, I finally unlocked Gravity and Sound.
Now, I can multiply my weight instead of just increasing the resistance placed on my body.
"Kuro." Father called to me, standing next to the backyard door.
"Yes, Father?"
"So I was wondering. How would you like to attend the Sixth Annual Helstea Auction with the family? I originally wanted to invite you all along and I thou-"
"Father, you're doing it again."
"Ah, sorry."
I chuckled."No, it's fine. I'd be more than happy to go with you guys."
I heard Father was talking about needing a guard for the Auction House. I think it should be around this time when the Leywin's should be arriving anytime now.
"Hmm. What am I going to do though? I still need a guard for the Auction House to minimize damage if there's an incident." He pondered.
"Do you have any old friends you might have in mind, Father?" I hinted.
"Well, there's one, but we haven't talked in a while. Last time I checked, he settled down with his wife and had a kid."
Yeah, I'm well aware, I literally read this whole situation in my last life, dude. They're gonna encounter bandits near the Grand Mountains and Arthur's gonna fall off a cliff, be assumed dead for four months, and return in Xyrus in three or so years later, during the race integration competition thing that was briefly mentioned.
Actually, I think it's about right... now.
"Sir. You have a visitor waiting for you," a maid came out and notified.
"Huh? Who could that be? Do you wanna go with me, Kuro?"
"Sure."
That's the Leywins, alright.
We made our way to the front doors and opened it.
"Ah! Rey! How've you been? What're you doing here?" Father cheered.
"Ah, could you let us inside and explain? This is a long one." He caught a glimpse of me coming from behind Father and looked a bit confused. Alice looked a bit pained to see me.
Definitely because I look around the same age as him.
"Vince, I didn't know you had a son?" Reynolds pointed out.
Father turned and looked at me. "Ah, Kuro. Come here, son." I walked toward them. "This is actually my adopted son, Kuro. He didn't have a last name that the Head Mother knew of. Say hi, Kuro."
"Hello." I nodded my head. "I'm Kuro. I was an orphan until Father adopted me."
I turned to Father. "Do you trust this man, Father?" I asked. Of course he does. Why wouldn't he.
"I do. Yes, that means you can tell them, but wait until we get inside and let them explain their situation, please."
I nodded. "Okay."
After the Leywins had come inside and settled in for a bit, we talked in the living room and they told him and Mother who had joined us with Lilia in her arms about what happened with the bandits.
"Oh, my god. I couldn't imagine what would happen if I lost my daughter or son." Tabitha covered her mouth in shock.
Father looked at me in sympathy. I felt like I knew what he was thinking. 'I couldn't even imagine what would happen if I lost Kuro or Lilia.'
"Father. Can I tell Mr. Reynolds?" I asked.
"Ah. Yes, feel free to. I don't know about you, Alice, but I know you'd want to hear this, Rey."
"Okay?" He brought his attention to me.
I sighed deeply. "I'm a mage, Mr. Reynolds."
He was left frozen. Didn't move an inch. I didn't let him speak as I continued further.
"I awakened around the age of two and right now, I'm four. According to Father, I'm a Quadra-Elemental augmenter with two unlocked Deviancies, Sound and Gravity. My core is currently Dark Orange, but it looks like it'll become Solid sometime soon."
After I dropped that nuke, he immediately turned to Father. "Y-you found him in an orphanage?"
"Yeah, I was just as shocked when I found out he awakened as young as he did. By the way, you said Arthur was special?"
"Y-yeah, he also awakened his core, but he was three when he did it. We came to Xyrus for the purpose of getting him a better teacher because I was holding him back, but..." His expression darkened slightly in pain.
"D'you hear that, Kuro? There was another kid like you."
"Woah. A kid like me. Wait, does that mean he could've survived the fall?" I asked as I feigned surprise.
"I don't think so, Kuro. Arthur was only a Dark Red core when it happened, right?"
"Right."
"Father. Can I ask Mr. Reynolds something?"
"Hmm? Sure, go ahead." He looked confused. After all, I'd never asked for many things, so it's understandable to see what I wanted.
"Mr. Reynolds, I can see your core is Light Red, but I can't help but feel like you're much stronger than that. Would it be okay if I sparred with you?"
"Eh? Uh, sure I guess." He looked at Father as if I really meant to say it or if it was just a joke.
"Go for it. Kuro's at the Orange stage, remember? Or did you forget already?"
"Alright, then! Let's do it!" He smiled, a newfound spark in his eyes.
He's excited to test me out. I'd be more than happy to see how well he'd fare against me. But there's more to it as well. I can see it in his eyes.
The pain and regret of not being able to save his son as well as the self-centered blame for ordering his son to keep his mother safe even though he's a mere child. Alright then. I'll let him vent on me.
We made our way to the backyard, where we stood roughly six or seven meters apart. He brought his fights up into an offensive stance.
Bringing out the big guns straight to boot. Sheesh. Well, it's good training. Might as well test out the new gauntlets I made.
I called upon my dimensional storage and took out the void black gauntlets I'd recently created not too long ago. Boy, did the backlash hit me when I made these boys. I damn near almost died.
It's too bad that I wasn't able to completely replicate adamantium, though. They would've been stronger by several grades. For now, I guess Mithril will do okay. Mithril's good for mana conductivity, so I guess it's somewhat a redeeming point.
I hadn't heard of these actually existing in novels or the like, I just applied my knowledge of materials and created an item based on that knowledge, and these were the result. I just named them Nightfall Gauntlets. These things could even store enough mana to match a Silver core's reserves.
It could also release the mana it gathered and stored, so it'd pack quite a punch if I actually used the mana inside. I don't know whether to call it a double edged sword or what, because these things even absorb my own mana while simultaneously fueling my reserves, so it's just an endless loop or give and take with these things.
But anyway, back to the fight.
"Father. Please give us the signal," I got into my own offensive stance that I learned in my last life.
He raised his hand up, signaling the spar would begin the moment he brought it down. "Begin!" He brought his hand down and we advanced toward each other, meeting halfway.
He went for a straight jab so I ducked under it and aimed for a right hook. I knew he wouldn't it that easy, so he stepped back and went for a right kick.
I brought up my left arm and jumped away from the kick in time to minimize damage but it pushed me back a bit further than I wanted.
Damn this tiny ass body. I can't move around like I want to, and I'm not strong enough to withstand attacks like these yet.
After another minute or so of exchanging and dodging each others' attacks, we retreated back a few feet from each other. I was fine but I could see the damage my gloves were doing to his body. I still hadn't had a single scratch on me yet, but he was covered in small cuts and bruises already.
I relaxed my form. "I think this is my win, Mr. Reynolds."
"What do you mea-" He didn't even finish before he dropped to his knee and winced in pain. He was already pretty worn out from the trip here, so he didn't last as long as he should have.
"Damn. Looks like I'll have to give the win to you, kid." He smiled. I raised a sound barrier between us two. "I shouldn't tell you this, but expect a message from your son within the next few months. Don't tell Mrs. Alice that I told you this. Just wait."
Alice made her way toward us, looking at me in amazement and shock before healing Reynolds.
When Father, Mother and Lilia got to us, I got body checked by the two and Lilia had stars in her eyes as she said, "Wow! Brother is so strong! Can I be strong like you too?"
"Of course you can, Lilia. Train hard like your brother and you'll become strong too!"
You weren't even at the Orange stage last I checked in the original novel, so I'll at least bring you to Initial Silver.
I took off my gloves and placed them back in my dimensional storage.
________________________________________________________________________________
It's been roughly 5 months since the Leywin's have been here, now. Reynolds has challenged me to spars at least once every three days. He talked to me about the 'message' I said he and Alice were to get within the few months they lived here. I was right, as usual.
Arthur was indeed alive. He was 'sick' and needed to get it taken care of but he didn't know how long it would take.
Of course, I knew it was gonna be in three year's time, during the multi-race integration event that he would be coming here, so I didn't have anything to worry about.
I'd also broken through again. I'm a Solid Orange core now. I'm at the point in my mindscape where I don't even think White core's the purest; at least not the purest in literal terms.
Of course the color White is the purest color on the spectrum, but what about the color or even colors outside of the spectrum? Transparent?
Does that mean I can go as far as obtaining a transparent core? Ah, whatever. We'll get there when we get there.
Aside from the spar-crazy Reynolds and my breakthrough, I've been working on my Water and Fire magic now, since I'm aiming to at least unlock Lightning and hope to unlock Ice sometime.
It's a nice change, finally being able to multiply my weight and not just increase the resistance on my body, or else I would've had a much harder time training in general.
It's quite useful for many training situations. I can even apply Gravity to my own body to make it float in the air. A crude imitation of flight, yes, but I don't have the intricate mana control of a White core mage, so I'll have to wait a bit longer.
I've also been working on my creation skills. I can make small weapons like basic daggers and knives without getting hit with backlash now, but I still can't handle complex things like Kamish's Wrath without the backlash. At least it doesn't bring me to death's door when I do it now.
I still have my very first creation, Dawn's Ballad, in my dimensional storage. I can automatically adjust it to fit my size but I'll just give it to Arthur when he breaks the original in the war.