It's been two years and a few months now since the Leywin's have been living here. Arthur returns in two years, during the race integration competition. I've reached Solid Yellow now and I'm at the peak, considering how the core is littered with cracks.
I was also pulled into Zalam's realm last year. He said something about the future being much more dangerous than expected so he said he was gonna give me a stronger body that'll be able to handle whatever comes my way. I thought he was gonna give me an Asura's body and that would've been just fine with me.
The dude gave me a God's body. I'm only six and I already look 12. I've also gotten quite tall; right now, I'm about 5 feet tall now, making me taller than most boys my age, actually.
I thought I was gonna have to make up some bullshit reason about me suddenly growing three quarters of a foot in a night, but Zalam probably solved it considering I haven't gotten any questions about my unusual growth spurt.
He even said my being pulled into his realm would likely become a normal thing eventually.
In any case, I've created enough daggers and short swords to get sick of them. I can at least be consistent with the creation of more advanced weapons like my Nightfall Gauntlets, but I still don't have enough mana for the consistency of Dawn's Ballad or Kamish's Wrath with no backlash.
Father and Mother agreed to let me go Adventuring sometime since they know how strong I am now, but I'll just go when Arthur does, so neither of our families have to worry about the other.
Reynolds still asks me to spar with him every once in a while, but I have to hold back a lot, or else even just punching him regularly could hurt him. I need to get stronger opponents. I've still been reading up on assassin and speed-based dagger arts so I can adapt myself to Kamish's Wrath when I use it, as well.
It won't be any trouble holding down S-class mana beasts for the most part, I think. Maybe not those super-enhanced mana beasts that those Alacrya guys mutated, but I could probably handle any normal S-class beast. Even though I'm only Yellow core.
Speaking of S-class, I might just become an official S-class Adventurer. Kaspian said he'd personally evaluate me when the time for me to go Adventuring comes, and all I would need to do is request an official examination, since I'm only S-class in name and not officially.
I also still practice my "irregular" sword, of course. There's always room for improvement, as they say. I've also unlocked Lightning and Ice, thankfully, so I've attempted using Thunderclap Impulse which, quite frankly, is a lot more broken than I expected.
Forget, the speed boosts, this shit is literally flowing through my veins. I'm reacting at speeds I couldn't normally react to if I had five years. I've also mastered Mana Rotation to about 50%. Sylvia sure wasn't lying when she told Arthur it was a difficult technique to learn.
"Kuro, are you out here?" I heard Father calling me.
"Yes, I'm out in the backyard training. What is it?" I asked.
"Ah, Kuro!" Father walked to the door. "Your mother needs you. She's in the living room with your sister."
"Okay. I'll be right there." I released the Lightning attribute spell and wiped the falling sweat on my face before heading back inside and making my way to the living room.
"Mother, Father said you need me?" I made my presence known.
Speaking of presence, apparently I have a lack of it. Father, Mother, Alice and Reynolds can't really sense me unless they're looking at me. Not to mention I have especially quiet footsteps. You can't even hear me running.
But anyway, back to talking to Mother.
"Ah, yes, Kuro, I wanted to ask you a few questions. Would you mind?" She gestured to the chair in front of her.
"Of course I wouldn't mind. Please, feel free to ask me any questions." I took a seat.
"What do you think about going to school?" She asked first, waiting for my answer as Lilia slept peacefully in her arms.
"Of course, I'd still like to go. Even as I train everyday, I think about school, even if I'm probably too good for school."
Mostly because Arthur'll go to school and I need to change some things that'll happen in the not so far future to come.(The Lucastration shall not change. - Light)
"Mm. Do you want to meet Princess Kathyln again?"
"Yes. I only met her the one time I saved her from assassins, when I was five."
"M'kay. Last one. How do you feel about going to Xyrus Academy?"
"I would like that. But if you and Father are thinking to send me, can I decide when?"
"Sure. When would you like to go?"
"When I'm ten. I know the average age is around 12, but I want to go there and get used to the place first."
"Okay. You can go to Xyrus when you're ten. I'll talk with your father about this, though."
"Okay. Is that all? I have to go somewhere."
"Mm-hmm. Where are you going?"
"My first home." I reminisced, thinking back to my time back in the Xyrus Orphanage.
She smiled. "Of course. Be back before sunset, okay? I know how strong you are, but you know I can't help but worry if you're gone for too long."
"Okay." I got up and walked to the front doors. "I'll be back."
I was walking through the city as I made my way to the Xyrus Orphanage.
Ah, it might be a good time to sell all the extra swords I made. I should visit Bishop and Kaspian.
I pulled out the mask and cloak I'd recently created from my dimensional storage. The mask was all white and the cloak was all black with a stealth feature I built in, when I remembered the Nightmare Fox cloak or whatever it was from the early chapters.
Put in quite the drain on my mana, if I do say so myself. Still not as bad as Kamish's Wrath. I can almost fully form it though.
"Bishop. It's nice to see you so lively. I'll take the usual five." I greeted the man who worked at the armory. I used Sound and Wind magic in a sepcial way to alter my voice, making it sound deeper than normal.
"Ah, Regal! It's nice to see you too! I have the usual prepared for you on the counter." He walked in from the back room covered in sweat.
I grabbed the bag of gold coins and the bag of beast cores next to it. "A-class?"
"Of course! Five of them, to be exact."
"Pleasure doing business. I'll be back sometime soon." I shook his hand.
"Thanks for the swords!" He waved me goodbye as I made my way to the Adventurer's Guild Hall next.
________________________________________________________________________________
As I walked into the building, I was greeted by Ava, the head manager of the Adventurer's Guild Hall. "Sir Regal," She bowed. "Mr. Bladeheart is in his office currently."
"Thank you, Ava."
I made my way over to Kaspian's office as I took off my mask.
"Kas," I opened the door. "It's nice to see you again."
"Ah, Kuro. Good afternoon. It's nice to see you too." He put the papers he was looking at down. "Please, sit down and have some tea with me." He invited me to sit down in the chair in front of his desk.
"So, how's Claire? I heard she'd be at Xyrus too." I asked. Claire Bladeheart was Kaspian's niece. She was a few years older than me and Arthur, so she should already be attending Xyrus Academy.
"Ah. I believe she's just begun her admission to Xyrus Academy not too long ago. I believe you said you'll attend when you turn ten, yes?"
I nodded. "By the way, Kas. Do you have any S-class cores of the four elements respectively?"
He nodded. "I do."
"What are they?"
He pondered for a moment. "I believe it's the Phoenix Salamander, Kraken, Wind Walker, and Earthen Serpent."
I pulled a bag of the swords I had in my dimensional storage out. "Here's a smaller payment. I'll pay you the rest later when I adventure officially."
"Oh, I know you will, Mr. S-Class Adventurer." He smiled.
This guy.
"I'll see you later, Kas." I walked out of his office.
I then made my last trip to my first home, the Xyrus Orphanage.
________________________________________________________________________________
"Head Mother Meredith," I pulled her into a hug. "It's nice to see you again. Where's Mary?"
"Ah, Mary's inside with the kids. Would you like to see them? And I told you to just call me Meredeith." She smiled, amazed at my growth.
"Of course, I'd love to come in. Can't stay for long though. Sun's almost setting."
I stayed almost an hour after the sun had set.
"Where were you, young man?" She scolded.
"I'm sorry, Mother, the kids and Mary wouldn't let me leave."
"You're lucky you're stronger now, or I would've done a lot more than just scold you." She rubbed her temples as she sighed in exasperation. "Oh, what am I going to do with you?"
________________________________________________________________________________
I woke up extra early in the morning, while Lilia was still sleeping. I walked into her room, coating my footsteps with Sound magic just to make extra sure she wouldn't hear me.
I raised a Sound barrier above her, and placed my hand over her chest area.
Arthur did it, so I can too.
I was going to attempt at the mana injection technique he did to help Lilia and Ellie speed up their awakening in the original novel.
Gotta keep the spreading even. Not too much, not too little. Keep the ratio between the four elements even.
On the side, I combined Sound and Wind magic to compel her.
"Lilia. Tell me if you can see any lights." I said.
"I can see a lot of lights..." she mumbled.
"Gather them into one group. As many as you can."
I thought this God body was just to help me withstand future forces. It turns out, I can see the inside of others' bodies, where their cores are supposed to be. Convenient. I could see it without using mana. The particles were moving, slowly, gravitating towards the slightly growing sphere in her sternum.
This went on for a while until I was too tired to carry on. Sweating, and mana core practically completely drained, I stopped injecting my mana and relayed one last order.
"Keep gathering those lights until you can't anymore."
I looked at her partially forming core once more. It grew slowly, bit by bit, until it finally stopped.
Good. Now, she'll awaken even without Arthur's help. He'll still do it anyway, though, as he'll make a deal with Father, using her awakening as payment.
I walked out of her room, to the backyard to do my daily training.
________________________________________________________________________________
I trained in the backyard even after the sun had long risen, and Father had come out to check on me.
"Kuro, breakfast in ten minutes." He said.
"Alright." I wiped my sweat and headed back inside to wash up.
The maids had already prepared my bath, even though I said it wasn't necessary.
After washing up, I headed back downstairs to the dining room and ate breakfast with my family and the Leywin's.
"So, Uncle Rey. How's the Auction House?" I asked.
"It's going great! Wanna visit sometime?" He looked up from his plate.
"How about after breakfast? You work today, right?"
"Yeah, I do. Wanna join us for training? I could use some sword help, too. We recently got some new augmenters who use swords, and I don't have that kind of knowledge."
"I'd be glad to help."
After breakfast, I went over to the Helstea Auction House with Reynolds to check out the new recruits.
"Boys, this is Kuro, the boss's adopted son. He'll be joining us today for training," he introduced me to the new recruits.
"Hello. It's nice to meet you all. My name is Kuro. Please take care of me."
"Hey, Captain, are you sure he'll be able to handle our training regime? He doesn't even look ten," one of the recruits commented, eyeing me suspiciously.
"You're right, he's not even ten. However. He'll definitely be able to take our regime. Why don't you tell 'em, K?"
K? Did you just call me by my nickname?
"Right. I'm a mage."
The recruit laughed. "You? A mage? That's funny. Why don't you stand aside and just watch us, huh?"
I felt a little annoyed being called weak when I could literally wipe the floor with him.
"Would you like to confirm whether I am or not?" I challenged the annoyingly irritating recruit.
A tick mark appeared on his forehead. "Huh?! You wanna go?! Yeah, I'll fight you!"
Reynolds looked at me, unsure.
I smiled. "Don't worry, Uncle Rey. I expected this to happen."
Short story is, I whooped his ass in thirty seconds flat. Didn't even need to pull out the Nightfall Gauntlets.
I kneeled down to the man, stunned that he lost. "Do you believe me now? Or do you need more convincing? I'd be happy to oblige either way." I smiled.
Safe to say the rest of the recruits believed I was a mage after the fight.
"Ah, Kuro! Why didn't you tell me you brought him over for training, Cap?" A voice came from behind.
"Vice-Captain Jack!" The recruits greeted the man.
"At ease, recruits. But anyway, Captain? Mind explaining?" The Vice-Captain asked.
"Yeah, sure. Kuro here, doesn't only have a talent for hand to hand combat, he also has experience with the sword, so I asked him if he was willing to come and train the new sword users we recruited."
"It's nice to see you again, Vice-Captain Jack." I shook his hand.
"Mr. Helstea's doing well, I assume? And I told you to just call me Jack." He returned the greeting.
"My father's doing excellent. He's still expecting Lilia to awaken so he can have a mage in his legitimate family, but I told both her and him not to worry about it too much and just let it happen."
"Good to know. Alright boys, let's get on with training! We've already lost enough time with this bold guy over here choosing to spar with the owner of our workplace's adopted son." He glared at the recruit who had challenged me.
It goes without saying he visibly stiffened when he let the fact that, though adopted, I was still Father's son, sink in.
After training was over, Reynolds directed me to the new sword users. It was almost a joke to call them true sword users upon seeing their skill, but they've got the spirit.
But there is a pretty talented kid among them. His name's Alexander, and he's the firstborn son of noble house Lestro. For a family of nobles, the Lestro noble house knows to keep an open mind, unlike most nobles of the same standing. Or, really in general.