Mihila sighed. What does she want? What could a mother ask for when her son is already this outstanding? But it seemed like nothing had changed. Soverick must have gone through hell, physically, emotionally, and mentally for him to make those records. She knew they weren’t easy because she had a file on their training regimens. So how had Soverick broken all this record and just saunter up to them as if nothing changed? It was not natural and it was honestly starting to get to her.
She would have been more concerned about his behavior if he had not been like this before he entered the battle academy. He is the same gloomy, pessimistic boy that left. He still had the same annoying ticks and behavior. How had he not changed considering he had spent almost 50% of his life in the battle academy? He is just a two-year-old battle sage monkey not a disillusioned old man for mother high heaven’s sake.
So what does she want? She can’t even tell him she is proud of him because it wouldn’t matter at all. He doesn’t care if she is proud or not. A little emotional shift will be enough for her.
So she will prod him a little. But she mustn’t push him too far because she knows he will do whatever he wants anyway. She starts with something he is very open to, a deal. Soverick considers most things in view of profit or losses. He checked up on his siblings and now he wants something for it. She intends to use that to lure him.
So she says, “I’ll give you your permission if you promise to answer my questions honestly.”
“I promise nothing. I don’t owe you anything and I have paid my dues.” Soverick said immediately.
“Why don’t you humor me? You have somewhere you want to go and time is running out. This won’t take long. Imagine going to ask another titan for help. It will take more time.” She tried to convince him.
He finally accepted. “I will answer as I see fit.”
“Of course, you will.” Mihila rolled her eyes. It wasn’t what she wanted but she understands it was what she is going to get from him.
“How was your training?” She asked him.
“Efficient.”
“How do you feel?”
“Fine.”
She noticed that she wasn’t getting what she wanted so she decided to try something else that might get to him.
“How do you feel about not breaking all the records for the secondary stage of training?”
“Nothing.”
She tried again, “I noticed that you have a record for a win in the first ranking battle. You fought someone around the 300th rank and won. Yet you didn’t beat the 14th milestone fight. Did you fail?”
“No.”
“What do you mean by no? Did you not try it at all? Were you scared of failure?” Mihila asked hopefully.
“They didn’t want me to. They said, I’ll make all the records too difficult for others, that I should leave just one for them to aim for in the future.”
“Is that so?” Mihila couldn’t believe her ears.
The school didn’t want him anymore so they sent him away quickly. They didn’t even give him a graduation ceremony but they have a resonable reason for it too. Should she be angry or should she be laughing? Someone began laughing beside her. Kayla was laughing hard. She was rolling on their platform and cackling. It was an unsettling sight.
‘Maybe the training finally got to her?’ Mihila wondered.
“Can we go now? I have some inkling about what you’re up to but I don’t want to deal with that right now. I have things to do and places to be.” Soverick asked her.
She gave up. “Let’s go.”
Soverick got on the platform and sat down cross-legged. She took him to the family council to perform the proceedings for him to participate on behalf of the family in the war. They were given directions, authorization, and a means of identification so that they would be recognized at the divine dungeon. Unauthorized people are not allowed near it.
She got Soverick some necessities too. A spatial storage ring, some healing and recovery medicine. A very powerful spear for a vitality core stage and light armor. The armor is completely black and made with very tough leather. It will allow protection against cutting and slashing weapons but it won’t do anything against blunt damage.
Weapons for the vitality core stage are usually unimpressive things. At the vitality core stage, you can’t amplify the weapon with your mana yet, so weapons are just sturdy, sharp, and durable without any enchantment engraving. The weapons rely on their innate properties and craftsmanship, unlike mana weapons that can be enhanced with mana.
The spear that Soverick got is unadorned and could be called a pole with a sharp blade cast with very heavy black metal. The weapon was very heavy, so heavy that it could crush boulders with little effort. Of course, a lot of effort has to be spent in wielding the spear at all. It was even too heavy for Soverick to swing about, but he had waved away her worries when she tried to have it changed.
He had said, “I know what I’m doing.”
She couldn’t argue with that. He had to know what he is doing or he just stumbled into making so many records. That would be one heck of an impossible coincidence.
It’s now that she understood Ghoto’s unhappiness for being unneeded by her kids. She doesn’t have much of a future on the path of refinement anymore. She only has her husband and her kids, but her kids don’t need her in their life. She never wanted kids but she is looking forward to having more. It will be more difficult to achieve now that she has a body of law but she will try.
‘Hopefully, they will turn out better than the first batch.’ She wished secretly.
So they left the Ghastorix Main city and into the plane proper. Mihila didn’t have to come with him, there is a transport system put in place by the family for their arrangements but she insisted on going with him. The fact that she would be leaving immediately while the family’s arrangement will wait for others before taking off convinced him to humor her.
Soverick watched the plane intently as they passed by. He had never been outside of the Main city until now. He had heard a lot and had expected more but what he saw was a little disappointing. The entire plane had lost whatever serenity it had in the past to the demon invasions. These little red-skinned creatures abound and could pop up anywhere. They had turned the plane upside down.
They are like a multitude of mishapen rats. Each one is insignificant and easily killed, too many of them and they had officially become a nuisance. Mihila killed them like stepping on ants. But she grew bored of the repetition.
Their platform was silent. Mihila was thinking about something. Soverick was meditating and simulating combat strategies. He found the mastery of seamless to be similar to the battle instincts of a mage. A battle mage has to use every little spell wisely by chaining their effects to achieve a grander goal. So he was figuring out how to chain the basic spear skills or thrust, defect, and so on into a fighting style for when he becomes a mana entity. Kayla had been silent ever since her little outburst of emotions.
“Who do you think will win between us?” Kayla suddenly asked Soverick.
“You.” He answered.
“Why?”
“Because you are a mana entity. You have awakened your divine ability and you have opened your spirit realm. You have too many advantages over me and that’s just what I know. I know for a fact that you outclass me in raw power. I do not know your mastery of a weapon. Until I know more, I think you will beat me in a direct fight.”
“Hmm,” Kayla nodded. “But that’s for now.”
Soverick assented. “Yes, that’s for now.”
Then Kayla asked Mihila privately. “Who do you think will win between Soverick and me in a fight?”
Mihila considered the question seriously. “You are stronger, faster and your divine ability makes your perception better. So you are faster than him and his movements will further be slowed down by your eyes. Your fight will end in a draw at best.”
Kayla’s eyes flared up for an instant before dimming again. “Why a draw?”
“It is about mastery with weapons. You have raw power on your side and he has skill on his side.”
Kayla was confused for a while. “Wait a minute. Do you mean to say he is more skilled than me with the spear? But he is only at the vitality core stage.”
“He should be at the seamless step already and you must have noticed that buff in his steps. He is stronger than he looks. So a draw at best but a loss is still possible.”
Kayla didn’t cry when Mihila beat her physically and berate her emotionally. But Mihila’s recent words stung deeper than she could tolerate. A tear leaked out of her eye.
‘How?’ She asked herself.
She couldn’t understand why the boy that she watched grow up suddenly became better than her. Is the battle academy that good? Could they be feeding the students special food that makes them better? Or is Soverick that good?
She doesn’t know so she asked Mihila. “How is he so strong?”