18 Reaching 3rd stage

It had been 9 months since Nate joined the camp and he had been absorbing level two mana crystal for 6 months. The mana inside of Nate had been ever growing and he had swiftly managed to reach the 2nd stage in just two months after starting his magic training.

While his progress slowed down considerably it never stopped either. He had been experiencing mana outbursts once in a while so he knew he was going to break-through into 3rd stage soon. The 2nd stage had disappointed him a bit but seeing his break-through was close he was excited about his new summons and had started to focus more on absorbing mana from the crystal as well as the atmosphere.

His 4th semester of training began, which focused on the understanding of human anatomy. He was being trained to become an assassin but training for a single year was not enough but the guild didn't have enough time invest on Nate.

The guild had accepted the task from the kingdom itself and was expected to send 50% of their men towards the border as the war as going to break out soon. They could choose to keep Nate away from the conflict and train him for later but the war was a great opportunity to train the new blood.

Only Baldy valued Nate and said a few words for Nate in the guild but aside from that Nate was just another guy who awakened magic after that incident from a year ago. Nate wasn't the only one to have a surprising awakening as many others did as well and they all had a distinct talent that separated them from the ordinary mages or warriors.

After absorbing the level two mana crystal Nate stood up from his meditative position and headed towards the dining hall for breakfast. A disappointed look was plastered in his face as he failed to break through and his mana was razing inside his body because of it.

The outbursts were not lethal during the low stages but they would pose to be a danger in later stages. It would come down after depleting the mana in the body but the mana pool would be too great to spend on a single moment after reaching higher stages and they would start to tear the body apart.

Depleting mana also meant making oneself vulnerable which was good during the time of wars.

After having breakfast, Nate headed towards the field where Baldy was waiting for him. "Failed again huh, I told you to slow down. The outbursts are not lethal yet but that doesn't mean they don't do damage at all. If you keep on pushing for early breakthrough then you'll have a fragile foundation. They will make a difference when pushing for higher stages....."

"I know, I know. Let's begin today's training." Nate interrupted Baldy and summoned daggers in both of his hands and got into a fighting stance.

Blady shook his head as he couldn't do much with Nate's case. Nate was simply too obsessed with breaking through or about finding out which his next summon would be.

Blady then started to teach how to move and attack an enemy and where the weak points are. When attacking with the intent to kill many would choose to attack neck as it was the human body's most fragile point.

Head was protected by skull and heart was protected by the rib cage. Attacking the neck was the most efficient way to kill someone but that would only happen could break past his opponent's defenses. The surely wouldn't stay still and allow someone to cut their throat open.

Going for one hit kill wasn't always an answer so Baldy had started to teach Nate about human anatomy. Attacking the back of spines, joints and key muscles of limbs to hinder movements and such. Besides that, he was sparing with Nate as well but he was letting do all the attacks as he pointed out the mistakes and how to improve it.

Two months were left in the 1-year training and Nate was improving his dagger skills. As for gunplay, he was on his own as Baldy didn't know how to use the gun and archery techniques would work with guns.

At least his accuracy was increasing with his pistol on stationary target as well as moving target as Nate fired his pistol at target hurled into the air by one of the camp's assistants in the air.

Nate was not disappointed with his progress in accuracy as he himself knew it was impossible to master gun-play in a single year.

He had slowed down his urge to break-through as well and focused more on meditating during morning sessions to keep his mind calm which would become chaotic soon after he would start sparing with Baldy.

Nate had learned a lot from Baldy but he was always lacking when he spared with Baldy. His way of attacking was becoming more faster and refined but was always slow for Baldy. It was frustrating for Nate as his attacks were dealt with ease and Baldy always weak points to tell him about.

'Hyaaaaa'

*Clank*

*ting*

With a loud cry, Nate moved and attacked Baldy with twin daggers in his hand. He looked like a dancer as he moved and spun around with the sound of metal colliding as his music. Baldy used a dagger and blocked both of Nate's dagger with ease.

*Bang*

Nate's one had dropped the dagger and summoned a pistol and fired towards Baldy. Baldy suddenly disappeared from Nate's sight and appeared behind him. Baldy kicked Nate's butt forcing Nate to fall in his face as he laughed at Nate.

"You brat, Nice try. Keep improving like this and you might just survive the war. hahaha" Baldy laughed as he looked at the sweaty Nate who had dirt all over his face. Nate had been working on fast summoning as tried to change weapon during the combat in an instant but even the lightest pistol would require full second before he could complete the summoning and the heavy pistol such as desert eagle would require 3 seconds.

That was excluding the time it required him to aim while bringing out his arm from behind, it would require full 5 or 6 seconds to complete this technique of his. This technique would work on most people as they didn't know how pistol's work but Baldy was already used to it.

Unless it worked on Baldy, the technique was not useful in the eyes of Nate. The time for execution was improving as well but it had yet to reach the satisfactory mark.

Nate stood up and again launched his attack with a reply to Baldy. Words were not useful in assassination being silent and swift was the key. But after a full day worth of training Nate had to shout out in frustration to bring out his energy and keep him motivated.

*Thud*

"Okay, that's it for today. We'll continue this tomorrow." After kicking down Nate for who knows how many times Baldy stopped and ended the training session.

"I'll see you tomorrow kid. hehe" Baldy chuckled as he looked at Nate struggling to get up. Baldy went out of the field without waiting for Nate's reply.

Nate slowly picked himself up and went to get a shower. After a refreshing shower and a hearty meal, Nate jumped on top of the roof and sat down with a mana crystal in hand.

After his failure to break through a month ago, Nate stopped trying to break-through and started to absorb more mana and compress them in his mana pool. After holding his break-through for a whole month, he decided today was a good day to reach the third stage.

Before he could finish absorbing the whole crystal, the mana inside him broke free spreading through his whole body. New and more violent energy ran through Nate's body and Nate smiled as he knew he had successfully managed to advance into the third stage. The fatigue he had accumulated though-out his training vanished.

*Ahh* Nate let out a satisfied groan as he enjoyed the feeling of breaking through. Nate didn't waste his time and completely absorbed remaining mana inside the crystal and started focus on calming down the mana raging inside him.

From a window from different building Baldy stared at Nate's direction and let out a smirk. "What a monster. I wonder if the world is ready for him." Blady said as he looked at his bandaged shoulder. Nate's attack during the day had worked but Baldy used his mana to block the blood from flowing out.

He didn't want to spoil Nate show he acted like Nate's attack didn't work but only Baldy knew how much effort he needed to waste to keep himself safe from the bullets.

Aside from that Nate rate of learning was high as well. Baldy was shocked as he saw Nate unconsciously use mana to enhance his movements. Nate wasn't proficient in it yet but was starting to use it before Baldy even taught him how to do so.

On top of the roof, Nate calmed down taking a deep breath and summoned his new weapon. "Please be an AR, Please be an AR" Nate chanted as he called out his new weapon with closed eyes. His smile dropped as he felt a cylindrical object in his hand. The weight was even lighter than the pistol and it had no trigger.

Opening his eyes he saw the objected in his hand and started to cruse out loud while gritting his teeth.

A row of information appeared before his eyes.

{M84 also know as a flashbang is a stun grenade that flashes out blinding light upon detonation. The stun grenade also let's out loud "Bang" of 170-180 decibels. The M84 features a magnesium-based pyrotechnic charge inside a thin aluminum case....}

Nate looked at the grenade in his hand with light disappointment but this thing had more uses to him than a shotgun.