-Chapter 7- Anguished Breath

Arthur Leywin P.O.V.

Kaspain has come to the Helstea manor to officially start my training, he asks "Where is the training sword I gave you?"

I remember my mom mentioning he left me something like that after I had passed out.

"I believe my parents know where it is, I haven't seen it yet. I'll go get it" I respond, I get up and head back inside and search around my room. I don't see it in there so I check my parent's room, There I find it on the top of a shelf. I pick it up and look at it. It's too big for me to properly wield but the craftsmanship is polished. It would fit someone around the age of 10 or so. Looking at the guard I notice a small crest attached to it, I recognize it as the Bladeheart family crest.

I finish investigating the wooden rapier and carry it back outside, I return to my original spot.

"Ah, it appears you have found the training sword, good."

"The craftsmanship on this is refined and well-made, it's certainly something I can't miss."

"I had the person who makes my weapons carve that for when I trained my last student. That sword is yours now, it's just right for my student to have such a weapon while training."

So he had a previous student? I wonder who. That's exactly what I then ask, "Who was your previous student?"

"I trained my niece, Claire, she is around five, maybe six years or so older than you."

He begins to speak on the topic again. "But now, before we start your training I wish to explain to you something." I nod my head to show he has my full attention. He takes something out of his dimension ring, What looks like a small dog tag necklace military used to wear in my previous life. He walks over and hands it to me, "This necklace and the crest on that sword both signify that of Bladeheart lineage. From here on you officially have the full backing of my name and family. As long as you don't tarnish the name you are free to go by a Bladheart and use its privileges to propel yourself to new heights." (haha get it? To new heights, like the second book title... I'll shut up)

He continues speaking, "It seems you already have the support of the Helstea family which is certainly very beneficial, their ties with the royal families and their ever-expanding business can serve to be useful. But I do recognize that you do see them as a family so I wouldn't expect you to use their name for your gain. That's one of the many reasons I permitted you to use my family name as your own.

Hearing this I was certainly surprised to get a powerful benefactor this early in my life. It is immensely useful for my mission of protecting my new life. I look down at the dog tag necklace in my hand, imprinted on it is once again the Bladeheart crest, there is a mana signature coating it making me think some kind of artificer had enchanted it with something. I put it around my neck as if to show Kaspian I accept his support. I tuck it underneath my shirt to not have it swing around everywhere while I train.

"Good" he replies after watching me put on the necklace, "now for training, I plan to teach you my sword style using a rapier. Although I won't be able to teach everything about it due to your elemental divinity being with fire and not wind."

"Actually," I cut in, "I wanted to talk to you about that, my elemental affinity doesn't just cover fire"

He looks at me, lifting an eyebrow in surprise, "Are you a dual-affinity augmenter already?"

"No, I mean, sort of." I lift my hand and summon water to coat my hand, I then cancel that and coat it with wind, then I finally coat it with earth. "I guess you could say I'm a quadra-elemental augmenter." Looking at him I had expected him to be more surprised, but he looked more excited than anything. 'Are all high-ranking adventurers like this? '

He finally speaks after seconds of silence after my mini-performance with all four elements, "Well I guess that opens our options with what kinds of training you can do?" As if it was a joke he then asked "By any chance are you a dual augmenter, conjurer, and can shoot around spells like its second nature."

"I'm pretty sure I'm just an augmenter."

He realizes we've been sidetracked from the main point and returns to the topic at hand. "I plan to train you in my sword style of using a rapier including how the element of wind can be incorporated to make it stronger, I'm sure with your skill with the elements at a later time you can find ways to improve upon my sword style with new elemental attacks or even just using a sword." He summons his rapier from his dimension ring and gets into a stance.

This stance was different from the one he had used back when we fought, making me think he was going easy on me. He continues explaining, "This sword style I will teach you I will simply call Anguished Breath."

In my mind, I can't get out of my head how corny it sounds. It does sort of sound cool though, It reminded me of those video game moves from my previous life, stuff like 'Punishers Blade' or 'Unstoppable Fist,'

Kaspian demonstrates a series of movements with his rapier attacking the air in front of him as if he had been fighting someone. The movements are all so fluid and elegant, almost like the air around him parts so he and his blade can pass, I'm starting to take back ever calling the name corny.

The rest of the day he has me train and practice the basic movements with the rapier since I already knew how to wield a rapier from my experimenting with new weapons from my previous life I advanced quickly soon moving onto the advanced movements. But before long the sunset and today's training ended.

***

I went back to my room and before going to bed I purified my mana core, concentrating on my core I saw my dark red core with several cracks on it. Meditating I slowly remove the impurities in my core, soon enough the cracks break away and soon reveal a solid red color. I was now on the solid red stage.

I decided to read some more of my book The Encyclopedia of Dicathen and open to chapter five and read.

Chapter 5, The royal families.

...All three kingdoms have a monarch system in place with a king and queen having control of the politics of the country.

...The dwarves King, Dawsid Greysunder, and Queen Glaudera Greysunder are currently in power in their country Darv. They have no blood-related heirs

...The elven King Alduin Eralith and Queen Merial Eralith are both ruling over the country of Elenoir, they rule alongside the former king of elves Great Elder Virion Eralith. They have one heir, their daughter Tessia Eralith.

...Finally the human King Blaine Glayder, and the Queen Priscillia Glayder. They rule over the country of Sapin. At the time of the publishing of this book, they have one heir, Curtis Glayder, their son, and a child on the way.

After finishing that chapter I realized that it wasn't of any real use to me. Knowing this information didn't really help me but it was still good to know. I shut the book and went to bed anticipating the next day.

***

The next few weeks went by with my training going well, I had finished learning the normal fighting style with the rapier and now am working on the basics of Anguished Breath. I hadn't expected it to be so hard to learn, Kaspian had refused all of my previous skills with the sword calling out all its downsides, such that it wouldn't be good for fighting a collection of enemies. Knowing what I know it was to be expected since wars were something of the past in my old world, the battles of armies against each other rarely ever happened.

After training, I go eat dinner with my family and the Helsteas. My mother was now noticeably pregnant, It was a few months in by now, my younger sibling should be here early next year. (It's currently late summer in the latter half of July.)

"Hey Arthur, how is your training with Kaspian Bladeheart?" Vincent asks practically leaning over the edge of the table. It's sometimes hard to believe this man was a famous noble, he reminds me of my father very often through the way he acts.

"It's going well, I am learning a lot on how to use a rapier." I am enjoying my time learning under such an important figure, although I was learning how to use a different type of sword that I preferred.

"What stage core are you at?" my dad asks.

"I just recently reached the solid red stage so I still have a long way to go." Since I had the benefactors all I needed was the power and ability to accomplish my goals.

For the rest of dinner my family kept asking questions about my training and progress, my father was amazed to hear the name of the sword style Anguished Breath, but my mom and Tabitha both agreed it was a corny name.

After dinner, I took a stroll around the house and saw Lilia meditating. She is persistent in trying to awaken the mana core. Thanks to that reason she will be able to awaken it so soon, but the worry of the beast cores having a bad side effect still lingers in my mind.

Putting that to the back of my mind placing that as just an unreasonable concern, I use mana to sense how far along her core is, just taking a rough estimate I'd say it's around thirty percent formed. I had made sure to explain to her that this form of training had to be kept secret and not to tell anyone. It would be less than ideal for soldiers of the royal families to take us to learn our secret.

I go to my room and practice the Anguished Breath basics some more before going to bed for the day.

There is a lot of progress to be made not just in training but aging this wretched body to be at least a little older. I hate being the size of a damn toddler.

I'll continue training with Kaspian and soon I can explore this wonderful new world.

-several months later-

(HELL YEAH TIMESKIP!!!!)

____________________________________________________________

If you want to find more TBATE fanfics or just want to get pinged on the news or new chapter updates for this series please join this discord server if you hadn't already