Family Adventure

(I am once again asking for reviews here as a shameless author, please help.)

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Waking up groggily, Michikatsu's eyes were met with the scene of a rising sun that he had quickly grown attuned himself to. Lying still for a while, he decided to wake up, quietly so that Artoria doesn't wake up.

While it may seem that he did that since he cared for her but no, he only did that because he wanted to yell at her later for being late and enjoy her frustration.

Spending his time watching the populace below, his mind entered a state of tranquility, enjoying the calm and quite atmosphere before he remembered the task that he had yet to finish.

The Calibration of a weapon was an easy task for someone like him, but what he wanted was an adaptive weapon that also helped his student. An adaptive weapon required tuning of the weapon to an incomparably higher level than just setting it at a fixed point.

Keeping this in mind, his mind raced while also using the 3 souls he had as his subordinates as a network to have a faster processing speed alongside using the Dao of time to speed himself up to almost 15 times. While he could do everything on his own, he was currently a mortal entity with a material body, so he would die if he fried his brain which made him use the other souls as auxiliary processing units.

…

After the weapon was finished, he also embedded in it an ability to change shapes, and to some extent size as well, but that would depend on Artoria.

YAWN…

Today, they were going on a hunt and since Artoria would be tagging along as well, Michikatsu had to complete the weapon quickly, which he did, though at the expense of a little mental fatigue.

After getting ready, he opened his door like a ghost and silently went on his way to the group which he assumed would in the hall, or in their respective rooms.

"Up already Mike"

"Yeah"

Michikatsu was fairly certain that his Dad was an early riser, so he was surprised at all when he found his father to have already polished up his blade like he did every time he woke up after a nap or a deep sleep. 

On his way to the hall, he came across the rest who joined them on his way, but there was still no sign of Artoria, which made his smirk only grew wider, thinking on how to tease her more.

"Does anyone know where Artoria is?"

"No, mother"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU WAKE ME UP?"

We all looked at the teenage girl on the door, waiting for the breakfast to be served. Following her gaze, all their eyes landed on Michikatsu, whose smirk didn't leave his lips.

"Why should I?"

"YOU…"

"Sit down Artoria, we should have the breakfast first"

"…Yes Father"

Michikatsu's lips formed a literal 'V', making the others giggle a bit while his cousin fumed with anger.

The Breakfast was a fairly noisy one, unlike many other Noble and Royal families, the Nasca family was far too friendly, though that could not be said if an outsider was present. It was a quiet and loving family, but they were still royals who held great strength and pride.

"So what are we going to hunt outside again?"

"I think you know Mike"

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"Here"

Artoria took the blade that was handed to her by Michikatsu. It was a broad two handed blade with a gem at the end of the handle while the blade had diamond structures with blue filling and a golden outline. (Image here)

[Ding…

 An Item that can be bonded to the soul has been detected!

 Would you like to bond with it:

 Yes/No]

Choosing 'Yes' without hesitation, a bond was formed between the two quicker than words could tell. She was jumping in excitement like a little child, as even if it had been 19 years since her birth, her consciousness was trapped into her dantian for almost a decade, inhibiting her mental growth.

[Ding…

 A soul-bound Item has been detected!

 Would you like to name it?]

Being the excited child she was, she didn't reject it.

[Please choose a name for the item]

"Excalibur"

Hehe… she grinned from ear to ear, thrilled at obtaining a new weapon. But by the time she recovered from her enthusiasm, she looked to find that the others were already gotten ahead, and in a fit of desperation, she ran towards the, like a child running after their parents in an unfamiliar place.

Why would she not, after all, this was her first time outside of the Royal city's borders. And being her, no one would want to be left behind, especially if they were on their way to hunt monsters.

"How could you leave me behind like that?!"

Artoria was huffing, exhausted as she finally caught up to her cousin, while whining about him leaving her behind. Michikatsu however just ignored her, and continued walking without even seeming to notice her, while inwardly laughing at her. 

"Hey", Artoria's tone was unusually serious, "How come I have this much stamina? I was bedridden for 10 years right?"

"Why the fuck do you think I made you break through the 2nd Realm yesterday?"

She gasped, "H-how Vulgar"

Even if she did think that his words were far too improper, she did understand what he meant to convey.

The 2nd Realm of the Mortal Province, also known as the 'Body Strengthening' Realm as the name suggested, strengthened and nourishes the Cultivator's body. So, had she not broken through, she would have been even weaker than an average human half her age.

Soon, they found the others ahead waiting for the 2. Then, from the data they had received from a month's worth of surveillance, they split up into two teams, targeting two prime spots where monsters were recently popping up. 

One had 'Michikatsu', his paternal Uncle 'Sumiro', his grandmother 'Nika' and his cousin 'Artoria' who was assigned with them due to the reason being that she was a cultivator, and it would be best if she learned from another one like Michikatsu.

While the other had 'Reynolds', his younger brother 'Claude', and his father 'Marco' who could attend only because he had left a clone of himself in the Kingdom which shared both their senses so he could instantly know if there was any sort of trouble and could teleport back with the Extra Skill 『Spatial Motion』.

…

"Let me show you how it's done"

Tsukuyomi in hand, Michikatsu called out to Artoria, prompting her to closely observe him as he takes on the Giant Bear before him. 

Clenching his blade which he made identical to Artoria's 'Excalibur', he jumped at the beast twice his height. 

The bear tried to hit him with its claw, but Michikatsu used his legs to jump of the claw and onto its face, slashing both its eyes before jumping off of it. Now that the bear was blinded, he quickly took his chance and drove his blade into the beast's head, killing it.

The other 3, especially Artoria, were dumbfounded at the sheer skill he displayed. Artoria could tell that those movements were something she could replicate with her current physical ability and sent a knowing gaze at her cousin, thanking him for showing her the way.

To their unspeakable surprise, he then seemed to revive the fallen bear, but as a shadowy one. Sumiro was on guard but calmed down when Michikatsu revealed that to be his ability that he developed after reaching the 4th Realm. (Image here)

He then found another beast of the same race and ordered Artoria to have a go at it, who reluctantly agreed. She tried to replicate his movements and ended up killing the beast, though with much difficulty and a few bruises that her grandmother quickly healed with a spell.

This continued again and again, with Michikatsu teaching her many arts and techniques that she could use to fights, not limited to only sword and the likes. During this, his Legion also expanded to more than a 100, which he named just as numbers, not bothering to assign a special one to each different shadow. 

They included 'Direwolves', who then fled to another region, along with some sub-species of 'Bears', 'centipedes', and many others along with a lesser Dragon.

Unlike True Dragons, other Dragons are usually just cheap imitations that came into being when Velzard was killed by Kokushibo and a small part of her essence was also cut of due to his unparalleled power that defies logic, or rather, used to.

Due to very small amount of essence that spread into the world, there are only of 2 digits in numbers since they usually only spawned near high Magicule Areas. Not to mention much of the essence was already accumulated in the Dragon Lords. 

However, Sumiro and his mother were perplexed at Michikatsu's behavior. He had an air not that of a child, but rather like that of a bored deity, doing things on a whim for his own pleasure. But they quickly buried these thoughts at the back of their heads, after all, such a child was bantering with his sibling couldn't be a bad person.

Michikatsu had taught Artoria some uses of 'Excalibur'. She could use it to store 10 times the Yi she could store herself, since it was an adaptive weapon that grew with her. 

He also told her how to infuse Yi into her body specifically to a separate part of her body to boost her strength, though it required the use of Excalibur since only from the 3rd Realm can a cultivator have the ability to manipulate mana rather than just being able to absorb it.

And the last thing that he told her about Yi was how to use Excalibur along with using Yi to release ranged slashes that extended outwards.

"Let's head back"

"Okay Michi"

Seeing the sun beginning to set, they decided to turn back at meet up with the designated spot where they were going to meet the other group.

"Hello there"

!!!

An extreme sense of dread washed over them, as they look to the back at the one who was releasing such menacing Aura. The Aura was nothing short of Demonic, except it was so oppressive that Sumiro could almost call it godly. Artoria collapsed under the pressure which the others were fairly tolerant to it, though Nika was struggling.

Their eyes were met with 2 golden eyes, adorned with red pupils and black sclera. They belonged to a man with short black hair in a dark princely attire, looking at them with a devilish grin. Without a doubt, the person was at least an Arch daemon (Image here)

Michikatsu's eyes remained frozen, staring in the eyes of the intruder, who did the same. After all, how could he not remember his own student.

The cultivator had instantly guessed who it was the moment he felt the foreign Aura. It was the Black Primordial,

Noir…