Change of plans 12

John walk in front of the crowd and lectured, "The overall prowess of each person is commendable. However, the efficiency of using the soul force is lacking, all of you are depending too much on your acute senses, instinct and good eyesight."

"This perse is not wrong but this drill, is mainly for you to rely on your soul sense to determine the targets and dodge the attacks."

"In case you are left in a very sticky situation where you can rely on your five senses, having a well-trained soul sense, can save your lives."

Diane and the rest of the immortals listened to John and they all agreed with him.

"Since our race is blessed with superhuman reflexes and superior senses, this is our greatest strength! However, our greatest strength is also our biggest problem!" he stated

"Having to rely on our superior senses, we then neglected to enhance our other sense, and that is our soul sense!" he added

"By removing our reliance to our sights, we could then focus on strengthening our other senses, look closely."

John wear the blindfold and started firing at the targets, he was able to hit the targets but missed the bullseye, "i am purely relying on my four other senses, " then he spread out his soul sense and started hitting the targets.

bang!bang!

All the targets were hit dead center!

"This is what happens when I use my soul sense!" the guards have their eyes wide open in shock, having live demonstration is better than purely oral lectures.

Then suddenly the blindfold lit up, "now I will restrict all my other senses, smell, hearing and touch." then he spread out his soul sense

Bang!bang!bang!bang!

The targets were all hit on it's center.

"Even if my senses are gone if I have my soul sense I could still accurately hit the target, " then he made examples of firing at the targets with one or two of his senses blocked.

Everyone had a new understanding of the training regime. The guards felt embarrassed, 'how could we doubt our prince?'

"To tell you the truth, you are very talented. It's not your fault in general, since we are born with such amazing gifts, it's great that you can train them up to this point. That is the reason why we need to focus on other areas, to unleash all of our hidden potentials." he added

Jonathan felt very proud of his son, 'what more can I ask for? I can leave the empire in his care after retirement.' he thought

Alfred, George and Mario, we're happy talking about John. Mario is all praise for John, then he told them "old friend, I'm having trouble right now!" he said

The two other men looked at him and asked "its rare to see you troubled godly blacksmith" Alfred jokingly said

"Yeah, for a very long time I can count the amount of time you said you're in trouble," George added

"It's because of John, with his brains, he could complete his second training in less than two months. At this rate, in less than 5 years, John can graduate from my tutage" sighing he replied

Both Alfred and George looked at each other shocked by Mario's honest reply.

'Is it easy to be a blacksmith? It's not! The art of smithing is the same as alchemy, it requires constant practice and crafting to polish one's skill.'

"I don't know what to say, when it comes to this grandson of ours. You can never use normal logic" Alfred honesty said

In the middle of his lecture John suddenly stopped and stood in daze, all the mana and elements from ten thousand kilometers came rushing into his body.

Everyone is used to this, they kept silent as John absorbs everything. His cells were like injected with steroids, excitedly devouring the mana and elements. After 10 minutes, just when everyone thought his breakthrough is over, the vortex of mana and segments grew bigger to a hundred thousand kilometers. Johns cells have an insane amount of capacity, after all the refinement, he needs an insane amount of mana and elemental power to advance. Just when they thought he would complete his breakthrough, John opened his eyes in disappointment.

'Just when I had enlightenment on the element manipulation arts. Tsk! I didn't break through.' he thought dissatisfied with the outcome

Everyone's eyes twitched looking at his disappointed look. 'Ah, being with this boy can sometimes trigger your nerves! To be even disappointed with his enlightenment.' they thought

"Ah my grandson, can you at least leave the dissatisfied look on you face when you're alone? How many of the people here have wished they have your luck?" Alfred softly murmured

John examined his body and notice the abnormality of his nucleus, inside it is like a small solar system, the center is the mana storage and the metal, lightning and fire elements swirl around it like planets. On this dantian, the third element is trying to incorporate with the two elements and is now in disorder.

He slowly sat in meditation, he rotated the elements making a circular pattern and divided it into three equal parts then after an hour he completed the process. At this rate, I could break through in one month. He stood up and saw that everyone is looking at him as if looking at a monster.

He felt awkward, then he bowed "thank you for watching over me!"

Then he can continue "where was I at, ah yes, the main purpose of this training is not just the sensing part, but manipulation of the trajectory of the bullet."

"While I was training, I noticed that the bullets can also change it's trajectory like that of an arrow, the extent of control, that I have not fully grasp but it's more than enough to not miss my target."

"I want all of you to train this as well, my promise is to train you thus what ever I learn and discover I will not hold back in sharing it." he added

The guards felt touch, to think they still doubt their prince.

Diane and the rest were interested after listening to John, the gun is a new weapon to them, and they were used to using the bow and arrow, they always have wondered if it's possible to change the trajectory of the bullets like that of an arrow. Now, however, they were able to learn a new thing.

John fired a shot and they saw the bullet hit two targets relatively opposite each other. They knew it is not due to any skill, with the target's distance and location is impossible to hit it.

"This is my new discovery!" He excitedly said,

"By leaving a bit of soul force to the bullets you could change the trajectory of the bullet, the only disadvantage is, if the bullet went past your soul sense range it's impossible to remotely control the bullet; and the limit of the manipulation of bullets depends on the amount of soul force you attach to the bullets."

"In my case I could only do it twice, but it's only changing the trajectory twice, this is the reason we need to enhance our shooting skills, so that you will have more attack options, and maximize the use of this technique." he added

"If ever this technique is mastered, like a master archer every attack would be unpredictable and has high accuracy," Diane said

"Include this method in our training regime, the more techniques we learn the better. All contributions will be recorded in our annals to honor the efforts of the inventors and creators." Jonathan declared

Then George spoke, "when shall we start the mass crafting of these weapons?"

"That my friend I can answer, " Mario interrupted

"By the end of the third month of this retreat, we will immediately put it into action. But the speed of completion depends on how fast my disciple could finish creating the parts!" he proudly said

John is speechless, why would the responsibility fall to him?

"This will be the next part of your training, you will craft each part of the weapon until the end of the retreat, this would be the best time to master your crafting technique and apply what you have learned. Your accuracy must be 100% on every part" he ordered

"What kind of insane training is this? Who could do such a feat?" Alfred complained, even the blacksmiths were shocked by Marios training plan.

Even for them, they will have difficulty accomplishing 100% accuracy, this requirement is very strict.

"Hmf... Who asked him to be my disciple?" he said

"Was it you who asked my grandson!" Alfred retorted

"Its indeed I who asked him, but my only disciple can never be ordinary!" he proudly defended himself

It is indeed a very difficult task, even for him, this requirement is hard to accomplish with this very limited amount of time. However, he has great confidence in johns talent and skills, and is confident that he could accomplish this task.

"I can do it, gramps! Don't worry, I will accomplish this task!" John resolutely replied

"That's my grandson for you! Hahahaha" Mario laughed

Alfred is gobsmacked with this old friend of his. George patted his shoulder also not knowing how to respond.

'Ah my granddaughter, with how outstanding the prince is, there is no doubt that girls will line up to him. After this retreat, these immortals and saints would certainly push their granddaughters and daughters to make a move on the prince. I must make plans to solidify her position.' George thought, not only him even Diane's friends were having the same thoughts. 'We can't let our daughters be left out, this is a race for the prince's favor!'

Jonathan held his head high, 'tsk! Being a father for this genius son is indeed overwhelming, I must train harder as to not lose face to my son!' he thought

Diane Is over the moon, her son is not just a decoration, but an actual think tank for the empire. Not to mention he is just 2 years old. She knew that after this retreat these immortals and saints would try to push their daughters and granddaughters to a relationship with John. She suddenly got excited, ohhh... How many grandchildren would I have with John.

Jonathan saw his wife, and guessed the reason she's smiling, 'poor son of mine'

Alfred then ordered, "ok now, every one proceed with your training, we don't have much time,"

"All blacksmiths will gather at my workshop after your training. Don't you dare embarrass your selves in front of me grandson, keep your spirits and motivation high at all times, this is the new era for us blacksmiths!" he shouted, all the blacksmiths left for training

The people dispersed and continued their training, everyone willingly followed and are enthusiastic about it. Many have broken through their bottlenecks, and there is no signs of it stopping, they were all like horses on steroids, wanting to make their training even harder, pushing their selves to the limit.

John, training regimen became the gold standard for the elites, not just the elite, it has been the only standard of training applied to the empire, this is a story for later. Seeing John perform, everyone knew the benefits of this style. Not everyone can be a skilled archer, but with the gun, there are lesser requirements for talent. They were delighted to have this weapon, when it came to firearms, John's words are absolute. Now if John says left no one would ever dare go the other way.

...

Another month passed, almost 90% of the people who trained on the island, have made 2-3 breakthroughs in the last month.

Meanwhile, John has been busy on his task of crafting the weapons, the furnace of Mario's workshop never rested along with the sound of hammering. In this 1 month, John is able to complete 1 million barrels with rifling.

The blacksmiths trained with him, even the older ones trained like beginners, but no one complained, they have their own pride as blacksmiths and they all aim for Marios level. There is no room for their pride here, everyone knew about it, they all worked hard doing their best to master their crafts. Mario had been patient in teaching them, pointing out their errors, and guiding them on the proper method. However, their ears now have calluses as Mario never ceases to praise John for his excellence.

How could they complain, their prince has been hard-working, even with his talents never did they saw him put down his hammer. He is like a machine, doing the exact same thing over and over again, with Mario's eyes he could easily spot any difference from his work.

Three of the immortal blacksmiths can breakthrough, their smithing levels have been stagnant due to do different bottlenecks. The main reason is that they incorrectly interpreted the teachings of the barbarian blacksmith's inheritance, this led to a chain reaction completely ruining their foundation. After Mario guided them to the right path they started from scratch, in just two months they were able to reach their previous levels. Mario instructed them to guide the weaker smiths and that they should now train on their own, they were very grateful to Mario for his guidance.