Over-Mind

Damon had grasped the basics quite quickly, but Umbra was very thorough in her teachings, and though she was internally happy, she kept a passive expression and kept her praise to a minimum.

She did not want him to grow complacent, especially in these early stages.

Umbra reached into the air and produced a series of scrolls, which she handed to Damon.

"These are the pages from the official guidebook that specifically focus on the various stances and their effectiveness. I have also included my personal experience and tips and tricks on judging which stance is best for each situation you may find yourself in, based on your stats." Said Umbra.

Damon took the texts and felt bubbling excitement within. He could make better use of these texts than even Umbra imagined.

"Thank you, teacher, I will make sure to study them carefully." Said Damon.

Umbra smiled and nodded.

"Much better than some boneheads who don't see the value in studying theory." She said.

William twitched slightly in his meditation but did not respond.

"Stances are the foundation, and we build on them with correct footwork." Said Umbra.

"Each stance has optimal ways of moving associated with it. Stepping backwards, charging forwards, and even shifting your weight can break the effectiveness of your stance if not done properly. You must maintain your stance whilst moving, and you must ensure that if you break your stance, it is only for the purpose of entering another one." Continued Umbra.

As was her habit whilst teaching, Umbra paced up and down the dueling platform.

"Once the stances become second nature to you, we will move on to learning the set of footwork techniques that work best with each stance." Said Umbra.

"How long would that take?" asked Damon.

"Normally a few months, but based on today, I'd reckon a single month will do." Said Umbra.

Damon had grasped the stances quite quickly, but there was still some thought required in adopting each one, and slight adjustments from Umbra were needed as well.

Based on what she had seen, it was not too much to expect someone as talented as Damon to become comfortable with each stance in only a month.

Damon nodded his head, but internally, he frowned.

"Great, that wraps up training for today." Said Umbra.

"William, I hope you had a good rest, from tomorrow onward, we resume sparring." Continued Umbra as she walked away from the training field.

William lay down on the floor, his legs stretched out and his hands clasped on his chest.

"What are you doing?" asked Damon.

"If I sleep out here I'll probably catch a cold, won't I?" asked William.

Damon laughed.

"Do you think she'll let you off even if you had a cold." He asked.

William joined Damon in his laughter as tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.

______________________

The rest of the day passed on as normal.

They bathed after the training, went to the dining hall for dinner, and then everyone went about their own devices.

Damon retired to his room. William had long since moved back into his own room, and Damon's cot had been replaced with a grandiose bed.

A desk had been set up in the corner of the room, and Damon made his way there.

He did not get round to reading Umbra's notes and annotations, but by the time dusk set in, he had finished reading the main text surrounding the stances.

"I need to perfect this as quickly as possible." Damon thought to himself.

If he remembered correctly, his mother would be assassinated in around five months. Although things were different now compared to his previous life, and Umbra was now staying with them, he was still not completely assured.

This was because the assassination would occur during an event held outside of the capital. If possible, Damon planned to dissuade his mother from attending, but failing that, he would need to convince Umbra to attend with them.

To give him the best possible chance of persuading Umbra, Damon would need to have her take him on as her disciple. He could not afford to wait until after he had awakened.

He needed to display overwhelming talent in swordsmanship, talent that surpassed Umbra's already absurd evaluation of him.

Getting up from the desk, Damon made his way over to a corner of his room where simple stone platform lay.

The platform was a cylinder that was about a foot high. The top of it had a diameter of around two feet. It was made of a smooth, grey stone, like marble, but less glossy and with no patterns.

This was a channeling stone. It was a rare material which had a strange property. It attracted mana from the surroundings, absorbing and then releasing it in specific oscillating pattern.

This released mana had the effect of relaxing the bodies of those who came in contact with the stone.

Spending a few hours on the stone had the effect of boosting healing and calming the mind. It also promoted the body's natural gathering of mana, though this was to a negligible extent.

Such stones were ridiculously expensive, but as a prince of Aristia, Damon had access to one.

In his previous life, this would have been impossible, but things had changed to an extent, mainly due to two things.

Firstly, the incident with Kerron from when Damon had first met his father had allowed Ariel to remove the first Queens oversight of their finances, using Kerron's punishment as a bargaining chip.

Even with this, however, there had been difficulty in obtaining resources such as this channeling stone, mana stones, and even weapons and armor. They were classified as restricted goods as there was a military connotation to them.

Through this, the first Queen had still managed to maintain a monopoly on the supply.

However, thanks to Umbra's presence in the manor and her testimony of the bet that had led to Clifford's death, the first Queen's hold on the military officials in the capital had weakened, and Damon now had access to such goods.

Once he sat on the channeling stone, Damon closed his eyes and thought back to earlier in the day when Umbra was demonstrating the stances.

In his mind, he pictured the True-Sight view of her movements. Which muscles had tensed and relaxed, which mana veins have been stimulated via the movement and down to which nerves had fired off and which synapses had been activated.

Damon circulated his mana as he forced himself to recall every detail. He felt his mana running dry at a furious rate as it pooled about his eyes and was absorbed into his brain.

Veins around his eyes, neck and temple writhed under his skin, becoming visible as his blood flow increased.

Mana and aura could be used to 'overclock' almost any part of the body, but it was a dangerous endeavor.

Doing it right would leave one exhausted and with potential micro-tears in the muscles and veins in the area that mana was pooled.

Doing it wrong could cripple the user.

The only reason Damon dared to try something like this was because he had confidence in his ability to do so, and because he used True-Sight as a guide.

In his previous life, he had discovered that he could reverse the flow of aura required for True-Sight, and in doing so, recall and replicate what he had witnessed whilst using True-Sight.

It had taken him years to perfect this, and he had only been so cavalier to try it because there had been a healer in his previous party.

At the thought of his previous party, Damon trembled where he sat. A murderous rage bubbled up from within him and the glowing blood thirst disturbed his concentration.

He had to bite his lip and force himself to calm down.

The fact remained, however, that he had need the healer's assistance.

The her, he had managed to achieve the feat of pooling energy in his brain.

This was with aura, which was harsher than mana and more difficult to control on an intricate level, not to mention that he had not been able to use his mana veins to guide the aura.

To try it now, with the experience he had and using mana flowing through mana veins, Damon was more confident. Especially as he also had a channeling stone as support.

Damon felt blood begin to trickle out of his nose, but he ignored it, focusing on what he was attempting.

In an ideal world, he wouldn't have risked this before his awakening. He was sure that the baptism energy of the awakening would unlock True-Sight to its full level, but he needed to take this gamble.

To save his mother.

Beads of blood began to pool at the corner of his eyes, and he felt his mana running dry, but he persevered.

Thoughts of his mother, who he had never been able to appreciate in his previous life, flooded his mind.

Her gentle demeanor, her knowing smile, her stonewall defense of him.

In her eyes he could do no wrong and there was nothing he was unable to do.

He would not let her die.

Not again.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to keep pushing forward, lacing his mana veins with all of the mana-threads he had stored up.

The threads dissolved, releasing their mana and allowing him to keep pushing despite his quickly drying mana pool.

Pain racked his body, but honestly, this was nothing.

It was nothing compared to the years of running and hiding. Learning to fight whilst being hunted by his countrymen.

It was nothing compared to the pain of slaughtering his fellow man.

It was nothing compared to the pain of betrayal.

It was nothing compared to the pain of losing his mother.

PING!

Damon's status window popped up in front of him.

Damon looked at his updated status window, focusing on his stats.

Stamina: E (Low)

Speed: F (High)

Strength: F (High)

Durability: E (Mid)

Agility: E (Low)

Mana: E (Mid)

Aura: --

Remaining Stat Points: 0 (35)

Innate Abilities: True-Sight (A), Mana Sensitivity (Pinnacle),

Class Abilities: --

Sub Class Abilities: --

Miscellaneous: Mana Control (C-), Mana Circulation (D+), Mana Threads C+, Over-mind (D), Iron Will

Remaining Ability Points: 0 (14)

Success!

Although it wasn't enough to increase the stat, he was sure that his durability had improved. Proof of that was the new 'Iron Will' skill.

The fact that it had no rating meant it was a temperament, as opposed to an ability, but this distinction wouldn't be visible to him until True-Sight upgraded.

He also had an unexpected gain in mana control improving form D+ to C-.

The most important thing, however, was that he had managed to awaken Over-mind.

Although it was only at D rank, it would help his training by leaps and bounds.

Damon closed his eyes and activated Over-Mind.

His mana flowed in the reverse as it would have for True-Sight, and he focused on the thought of Umbra performing the stances.

Within Damon's mind, a vast, blank space was produced, and he found a hologram of himself floating in that space.

Opposite him was a hologram of Umbra, complete with her mana veins.

The hologram of Umbra started performing the stances, and Damon's hologram overlapped with hers.

As his hologram in his mind-space was moved, like a puppet on strings, whilst overlapped with Umbra's, Damon's brain was firing off signals, activating the specific nerves to ensure that his muscles were contracting and relaxing in the real world, following what Umbra had done.

His mana flowed through his synaptic gaps, dulling the signals such that his muscles only twitched, allowing him to stay sat on the stone.

What he had observed was slowly being ingrained in him as muscle memory while he meditated.