The Knights Path...

10 minutes later, Leo stood on a dirt floor, which was used by the family for training, across from Albert. Selena and Maria had followed Leo to his training but sat out of the way, so as not to be a bother.

"The first thing I am going to teach you is not how to wield your weapon but instead how to cultivate." Albert stopped for a second while taking a glance at Leo and was satisfied when he saw him paying close attention.

"The two most common paths of cultivation are the Knight Path and the Mage Path. We, the Kingsmiths are a family whose source is capable of cultivating the Knight's Path. Any questions so far?" He asked.

"Yeah. What exactly is cultivation? Like other than just proceeding through the two paths." Leo responded.

Leo knew what power you could gain from proceeding down the knight or mage path, but he was curious about what cultivation actually was.

"Mhm, good question. Well, cultivation is the process of becoming a higher existence than you are currently."

"Everyone or at least every human, begins at Existence rank 0 or the proper term for it would be Sanctum-0. But by cultivating you can become a higher Sanctum existence."

"Did that answer your question?"

"Yes, so how do I cultivate?"

"The Kingsmith clan uses mana to cultivate aura, this is the path of the knight. Mages use mana to cultivate mana within themselves, but we don't need to focus on that, only the knight's path."

Looking toward Leo, Albert had a little smile seeing that he understood everything.

'Ha… It's alway nice teaching smart people.' He thought to himself.

"Let us begin with the knight's path ranking. It goes as following:

Squire -(0-Sanctum)

Elementary Knight -(1-Sanctum)

Spark Knight -(2-Sanctum)

Flare Knight -(3-Sanctum)

Flame Knight -(4-Sanctum)

Blaze Knight -(5-Sanctum)

Blaze knight being the highest and Squire being the lowest. And these can be further broken down to Base, Intermediate, and peak."

After explaining Albert stopped speaking to let Leo absorb all of this new information, as well as give himself a break for a second.

Hearing the knight rankings, Leo engraved them into his mind. Determined to not forget them.

Then he heard Albert speak again, "By the way, I am an Intermediate Stage Flame Knight."

"Oh? I could tell you were strong the first day we met, gramps!" Leo was glad Albert had told him his rank as it now gave Leo a visible path to walk if he wanted to beat him.

Then Leo asked something that had been on his mind for a while, "How strong is my mom?"

After thinking for a second Albert spoke, "Well, Celia and her crazy personality created a lot of opportunities for herself so she was able to reach the Base Flare Knight rank at the age of 25."

"To put that into perspective, Alanna is Peak Flare Knight rank and she is 44." He added.

Even without knowing how difficult advancing in cultivation is, he could still tell that his mother was considered a genius. This knowledge caused Leo's heart to clench, realizing once again just how much she had sacrificed for him.

'I won't disappoint you, mom…' he swore in his mind with a determined expression.

Seeing his grandson's determined look, a smile appeared on Alberts face. He was satisfied with Leo's newfound determination.

"Anyway, that's enough of an explanation." said Albert, then he added.

"Here take this. It's the core of a mana beast. It will help you sense mana for the first time." He said as he took a crystal like sphere out of his pocket and handed it to Leo.

"Sit down and I will guide you in meditation."

Following his grandfather's words, Leo proceeded to sit down in a yoga-like pose. He tucked his feet beneath each other and sat on top of them.

"Now what?" Asked Leo.

"Be quiet and clear your mind of all thoughts."

Leo did as he was told. He had done meditation before when he was stressed for some exams but he would have never thought that the skills he gained from that would be used in this way.

"Feel the ground beneath you. Bring your heart to a calm. Good… Continue like this."

Leo quickly fell into a meditative state before feeling something around him.

Seeing Leo's reaction, Albert spoke. "What you feel right now is mana, now try to guide that feeling towards you."

Leo then began to slowly but surely guide the strange feeling towards his body. But when the feeling reached a few inches from his body, it flew into him.

He was surprised but seeing as Albert didn't stop him he continued.

Soon he felt the mana in his body which he had just gathered, converge onto one point and circle it.

The mana began intertwining with one another and was becoming a sheet over what it was circling, which Leo assumed was his source.

Eventually the sheet of mana was finished and it proceeded to hug Leo's source as if trying to merge with it.

When it did that Leo felt a burning sensation go throughout his body for a moment before it disappeared. Leo then opened his eyes and was instantly surprised.

Everything was brighter and he felt like he could see farther. He could even tell many little details about things he wouldn't have been able to before.

'So this is what aura can do…' Leo felt like a whole new world had been opened up to him, a world which he had only taken one step into.

Leo's reaction told Albert that he had succeeded in acquiring his aura, but instead of speaking this time he pulled a dulled knife from his pocket and proceeded to throw it at Leo at an unbelievable speed.

Leo reacted unconsciously and snapped his hand towards the blade, catching it before even turning towards it.

'How did I know that was coming?' Leo asked himself.

It was a strange feeling, he knew that something was coming his way but didn't see it. It was like his body instinctively told his brain to react. Seeing Leo's confused expression, Albert explained.

"The reason you 'felt' the knife coming was because of your aura. It felt danger and informed your body, then your body did what was required to protect itself. This is one of the most helpful features of aura, Enhanced Senses." He explained, while pointing at Leo's body.

This caused Leo to turn his attention downward and noticed that his body was glowing.

"You cannot currently control your aura, therefore it is showing outside of your body. As you can tell, it is pretty inconvenient." Albert continued.

"Yeah, glowing like this is definitely inconvenient," Leo nodded in agreement before adding, "So how do I control my aura?"

As those words left Leo's mouth he felt a chill run throughout his body. A chill which would cause even the bravest of men to flee, but to Leo this chill was a chill of excitement not horror.

Leo then heard Albert speak, "Hehe, the fastest way to control aura…is by fighting under pressure!"

As Albert spoke these words he released some of his aura causing Leo's body to stiffen. Soon Leo lost control of his breathing and his aura began to become unstable.

Leo turned towards Albert and was met with the sight of the man covered in a blue aura. But was this just a simple blue aura? No! Albert aura demanded authority and seeked obedience!

Leo begins calming his breathing, which in turn also calms his aura.

Albert was watching this sight with satisfaction. He had known that Leo would be able to regain his calm eventually thanks to his Kingsmith blood, but Leo had regained his calm earlier than he had thought he would.

While looking at Leo, Albert happened to catch a quick glance at his face and saw a familiar distorted smile plastered on his face.

'Haa… As they say, like mother like son. No, maybe in this case the son is even crazier.' He thought to himself.

Shaking away his thoughts, Albert shouted at Leo, "Attack me, boy!"

Hearing his grandfather's words, Leo didn't hesitate to unsheathe his sword and dash at him.

Leo didn't have any sort of technique or plan of attack at the moment so he just sent a kick towards Alberts abdomen, but as he had expected, it didn't reach its intended target.

Instead it was stopped by Albert lifting his knee and lowering his elbow, trapping Leo leg in between them. Albert then exerted a little bit more force with the hopes of only slightly injuring Leo's leg, so he could show another feature of aura. But was surprised when he was met with Leo's natural strong body.

'He must have inherited that man's blood as well…haha, my grandson really was born for battle!' He thought to himself.

Pulling his leg out of Alberts pinch, Leo attempted to place some distance between the two of them, but this was unsuccessful as Albert had pursued him.

Lifting his hand into a chopping shape, Albert concentrated a little amount of Aura into his hand and began to bring it down onto Leo.

Leo lifted his sword in an attempt to deflect the Aura enhanced chop coming his way, but right before Alberts hand met his sword he abandoned this attempt and instead focused on observing Alberts actions.

Albert was surprised by Leo's action to not defend himself but it didn't change what he was going to do as he brought his Aura enhanced hand down onto Leo's shoulder, causing a crunch sound to resound throughout the training ground.

Off to the side, Selena and Maria were observing the battle and when they heard the crunching sound, they both cringed.

"Is big brother going to be alright?" Maria asked in a worried tone.

She may have not known Leo for long, only a few hours, but she had already taken a liking to him. He already kind of felt like a big brother to her.

Selena hesitated to respond as she wasn't so sure herself if Leo was going to be alright. All of a sudden the two girls heard Celia speaking from behind them.

"My son will be fine. He is much tougher than he looks, trust me." She said.

Turning around, the girls saw Celia and Alanna entering the training grounds, side by side.