"Good place. So, what are we gonna do?" asked Angus excitedly.
"What are we gonna do? Of course doing physical training. Like I said before, the foundation of a weapon master is by having good body strength." explain Balrug
"Okay, but could you not achieve it by simply enhancing it through mana?" asked Angus.
"True. Normally, you could easily enhance the body strength through mana. But, there are a few flaws to this technique. Did you know what it is?" asked Balrug as he tested Angus.
"Hmm… the enhancement will be reverted back after not being supplied with enough mana." Replied Angus immediately as he also realized this kind problem from the start.
Although mana is different, it is similar to chi and every person has a limited amount of it. Once they empty their mana pool, they will turn into slightly stronger than ordinary ungraded people.
They need to meditate or rest for a while before recovering their mana a little bit. This kind of problem always plagues many people be it from his past life and in this world. This is why mana control and conservation is very important.
"Good, you also realize this problem. There are a lot of ways to enhance body strength but few of them could really last for a long time."
"What I am going to teach you is a hidden secret technique from my clan to enhance your physical strength permanently." said Balrug in a serious tone.
Angus looks confused for a few seconds before asking, "Okay, but what do you get from this?"
Hearing this, "What's in me? Hahahaha… you are a really interesting kid. You are more mature than your peers and some those final year blockheads." Laugh Balrug heartfully
"Well, I just believe there is no free meal in this world. So, you must be getting something from this, right?" replied Angus
"In normal cases especially dealing with other dwarves you are right, however I am already old and fulfilled most of my dreams." [Balrug]
Now, I just want to pass my technique and smithing skill to good seedlings. What's a better candidate than a future weapon master such as yourself?" explain the old dwarf.
Hearing this, Angus feels of having a complicated feeling. It is because he never truly achieved his own dream in his past life and reached this state.
Although Angus has two lives, he is nowhere as old as the dwarf in front of him. From the books he read, he found that the dwarf race also has a long lifespan around 150 years.
Moreover, that's an approximate age of the ungraded people one. For the graded one, their life span also increases by many times.
If not for constant war with the monster, this world may be more crowded than on Earth in his past life due to many people having long longevity. For people like Balrug who is very old, he has all the time enough to achieve few of his dreams.
"Alright, kid. Enough for the introduction. Now, wear this bracelet." as Balrug gives him a bracelet.
"My technique to improve physical strength has a harsh requirement and you need to do it without the help of mana at all. This bracelet will seal your mana pool to help you train without mana." explained Balrug.
Angus didn't think much and wore the bracelet. He instantly feels his control over mana is being cut off, but he still has access over heritage chi energy.
Then, Balrug ordered Angus to put on a lot of weighted clothes. The clothes are almost the same like combat training clothes but it is enchanted to become more heavy than usual.
After that, Angus was ordered to do all kinds of exercise such as running around the room, push ups, sit ups, and others basic exercise.
Looking that Angus could do all the exercise without problem, Balrug finally is certain that Angus already possesses extraordinary strength compared to other people.
"Alright, you can stop running." Ordered Balrug.
"Huff… finally, I thought the training would be this kind of boring thing." replied Angus.
"Well, sorry to crush your hope but the training will be this kind of boring thing except the weight will increase more." saying Balrug while he took other heavy weighted clothes.
"Whaat?!!" [Angus]
"Well, what do you expect? Some secret movement training, perhaps? When you are training your physical body there is nothing better than doing direct continuous training." [Balrug]
"This… No, you are still hiding something. Just by doing exercise and wearing heavy weighted clothes may increase your strength but there is still a limit for this mundane exercise. There is no way your secret technique is this way." rebuked Angus.
"Hooo… as expected, you notice these things."
"Then, this training is useless. Now, show me the real training."
"Nope, it is not entirely useless. You need to reach your body limit first before you can use my secret technique."
'Ehh…. wait a minute. I am still a kid and my body is still in a growth period. This means it will take a long time or years before my body reaches its limit. This old dwarf cheated me!!' Thought Angus inwardly.
Meanwhile Angus doing his mundane training, Duke Victory keeps being busy to arrange many things especially for the investigation team matter.
After they come back from the Roundel city, Duke Victory becomes the delegation leader of Heart kingdom for the investigation team.
The investigation matter is important since it pertains to the safety of the heart of the kingdom that is located near the border of dark forest.
The king himself could not go since he needed to always be inside the kingdom in case of something emergency or being attacked by countless monster waves. He is the last defensive line for the Heart Kingdom.
Therefore, King Leon needs strong yet loyal people to handle this matter. That's why he chose Duke Victory as the delegation leader of Heart Kingdom.
Duke Victory will leave for a certain period of time. During his absence, he needs to make sure nothing is going wrong, especially the safety of his family.
Remembering his family, 'Urg… There is also Angus's matter. Damn, so many things to do and little time to achieve.' Grumble the duke silently.
After thinking for a while, the duke wrote a piece of letter before ringing a bell beside his desk. *Tring*
Immediately a butler came inside his study room, "Is there a problem, my liege?" said the butler.
"Yes, Pavon. Please send this letter like usual." commanded the duke.
"Certainly, Is there anything else?" asked Pavon.
"Yes, I will be absent for a certain period of time. My dear sister in law will come to stay during this period of time. Make sure there is… not too much trouble during this time."
"As you wish, my lord." before Pavon excused himself.
After the butler gets out from the room, the duke begins to contact the other allied noble he thrust to gather his team through his magical communication.
The technology in this world is based on mana and also quite advanced despite having a middle age european culture.
Communication technology has also already developed quite a lot. People only use letters for most of the important matters. Letters in this world hardly could be decoded and hacked rather than other communication methods.
Unfortunately, people in this world still could not conquer the sky that led to not developing a far away wireless communication technology.
However, they still could contact one of each other through magical communication tools as long as they are not too far away.
While having meetings about the investigation team, many other countries also begin their preparation for the incoming war with the monster especially the one that borders monster habitat such as Dark Forest, Deep Blue Ocean, Desert Saga, and many more.
Although the monster overlord resides in the Dark Forest, there is still a huge chance the other monster will also launch an attack.
All of this has happened countless times since the ancient times. Monster overlord has the power to command all the monsters from far away through unknown means especially the intelligent one like the current case.
Fortunately, only bellow fifth grade monsters that could be controlled otherwise if the other monster overlords attack together the civilian society will be doomed and extinct a long time ago.
However, this is also an opportunity for certain people. This situation benefits war merchants and adventurers. War Merchants always sell things related to the weapon and arms which will be profited a lot during this time.
As for Adventurers group, they are a group of brave mercenaries that hunt monsters to sell their carcass and monster core.
In this time period of monster overlord, there will be an abundance of low monsters lurking near the perimeter of the kingdoms. This will make a good source of income with less risk compared to the need of going inside the monsters habitat to hunt them.
This is also the reason why some strong kingdoms choose to live near the border monster habitat. This place may be risked for a monster wave, but also a source of resources and income for the kingdom itself.