Free Web NovelChapter 9: Training and Study
Six months later, after three auctions, Priam possessed more money than any ordinary Mage on that planet could ever hope to have.
10% of everything went to Flaris’s family. Naturally, after she showed the first pills to her parents, they nearly went insane and demanded to know where they had come from.
She simply said that she had met a mysterious alchemist and that he had given her those pills to sell. According to her story, she was the only one capable of contacting him and would be responsible for delivering the profits.
Priam had asked her not to reveal his name or any details, so Flaris would never speak about it, not even to her own parents. After all, 10% of everything already represented an absurdly high profit for them, on top of the enormous prestige they would gain.
Since nothing bad would happen and everyone would profit immensely, there was no need to know anything beyond that.
In the end, when Priam received everything, he gave 5% to Flaris, even though she refused with all her might. He didn’t accept her refusal and practically forced her to keep that share.
"I’m not saying it a second time. Keep this ring, or be sure that Dinthy will... accidentally... find out that you used to like spying on her..."
"SHUT UP!" Flaris exclaimed and quickly covered his mouth, nervously looking around.
They were at the training field near the buildings, and she was afraid some servant might overhear it.
"You... Fine! You win this one!" Flaris huffed indignantly, but eventually took the spatial ring containing her share in silence.
"Another thing! Why the hell don’t you want to touch me? During training, you kept running away from me every single time. What, did I become some kind of sick pervert to you now?" she said in a tone of subtle anger, staring into his eyes.
Priam let out a soft huff, but didn’t answer. It was true, he had a serious problem he had only recently discovered...
He couldn’t stand being touched by a woman who held any kind of affection for him. The moment Flaris touched him, images of a woman he deeply hated would surface in his mind, making him pull away, consumed by hatred.
He felt this wouldn’t affect him if it was a woman he didn’t care about in the slightest. He could fight a woman without any problem... or so he hoped.
Because of that, during training with his cousin, he even used his Anima to escape and keep her from getting too close. As for his mother, she was the only one he didn’t reject.
’Damn... I need to fix this. Or... I’ll live forever as a virgin.’ he thought, worried.
After earning so much money, Priam and Flaris could buy practically anything available on that planet.
Unfortunately, Flaris warned Priam that the planet they lived on was extremely poor. Everything truly valuable belonged to the Ylisse Clan and couldn’t be bought. As a result, that entire fortune was limited to purchasing pills, at best, mediocre equipment, and Ether Crystals.
Priam was initially shocked to learn that in this world of Mages, traveling between planets, galaxies, or even universes was completely normal. Flaris tried to explain the concept of a universe to him.
"In short, in our universe, there are around 2 trillion galaxies. In each one, there are several hundred billion solar systems; about a third of them have habitable planets with people living on them. All of that only encompasses a single universe, which is a closed location separated from the others."
"Using certain special materials and high-level teleportation inscriptions, it’s possible to travel between universes. My demonic family, for example, lives in a demonic universe, which I’ve visited several times."
Priam swallowed hard and nodded, still stunned. For someone who had lived on Earth, where people believed they were the only existing lifeforms... imagining a world this vast was terrifying... actually, it was so vast that it was impossible to imagine properly.
...
The days of intense training passed slowly, and all the money he had earned was extremely useful. Priam needed as many Ether Crystals as possible to level up quickly and make up for the time he had lost.
He had already spent months studying the basic knowledge he had purchased and was certain that all he needed now was to accumulate as much of that energy as possible. With so many resources at his disposal, he could increase his levels rapidly and without worries.
That was what he thought.
Unfortunately, Flaris shattered his excitement.
"You can’t level up too quickly. Even an Arcanist Mage, who theoretically doesn’t possess significant physical abilities, should never advance too fast. Our physical bodies have limitations that can’t be ignored. Every time we reach a new level, we need to spend several days, or even months, allowing the body to absorb the changes and adapt properly," she explained while looking at him with extreme seriousness.
"If you go too fast, Ether can easily spiral out of control, and you’ll suffer severe internal injuries."
Priam sighed. He wasn’t at risk of suffering such damage because he could activate the system’s domain and control Ether perfectly. However, if something like that happened in the middle of a battle, for example, the situation would still be extremely dangerous.
Because of that, the wisest choice was to do everything calmly and properly.
Thus, every day, Priam and Flaris trained together with increasing intensity, while he put the Basic Combat Mastery he had purchased from the system into practice. It didn’t take long for Priam to discover the true pleasure of intense training. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
Furthermore, now that he no longer had to worry about money, his mother also began watching their training sessions and helping them.
Whenever Priam completed 100% of his muscle training, he would take advantage of their presence to ask questions about the things he had been studying through the knowledge he had acquired.
There were many things that, even with all the theoretical information, were still difficult to understand without practical experience. Seien, despite not possessing great power, had been born in the forest among her race and was an excellent hunter, as well as extremely experienced.
Thus, every day, Priam completed the three daily missions and deepened not only his understanding of the basics of Magic and Energies, but also Combat Mastery.
***
With each new dawn, Priam would get out of bed glowing with excitement and run to the training field.
After months of doing this, training and pushing himself to the limit made him feel more alive than ever before.
One day, at the end of training, Priam finally felt confident enough to ask directly about his mother’s family.
She looked her son in the eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"I’m sorry. They’re extremely stubborn and value the purity of their race’s bloodline above everything else. When I decided to marry your father, I ended up being cast out... your grandparents and uncles probably..."
"It’s alright, they don’t deserve my time," Priam quickly interrupted, cutting off the bad atmosphere that had begun to form.
His mother truly was incredibly unlucky. Her race seemed to be made up of extremely stupid people, capable of casting her out over something so insignificant. After all, Priam’s father came from the most powerful clan on the planet and could have helped her entire race prosper. Yet they simply ignored all of that.
After Seien entered the Ylisse Clan, she ended up being mistreated by her new family as well. It was difficult to imagine just how lonely and lost she must have felt, especially after her husband left and failed to return for so long.
She had only managed to remain strong because she was a woman who refused to be broken. After learning all of this, Priam secretly hoped that his father had an excellent reason for disappearing. Otherwise, he would never forgive him.
Priam also heard more about his father. He couldn’t help noticing the light of longing and genuine love in his mother’s eyes with every word she spoke.
Boey had been a talented alchemist since childhood and possessed another humanoid bloodline that granted him the power to manipulate fire. He was recognized by the main clan very early, and everyone wanted him to enter a beneficial marriage to strengthen the family.
The main members of the clan married other races specifically to produce increasingly powerful descendants. Most of the time, demonic races were chosen, as in Flaris’s case. However, many powerful humanoid races also formed alliances.
Boey’s future had seemed predetermined from an early age, but... during an expedition across the planet in search of a rare herb within the forest, he was attacked by a powerful beast and nearly died.
Fortunately, Seien saved him.
That was how everything began, and not long afterward, the two fell in love.
That was the reason everyone in the clan rejected Seien.
As punishment, they even sent that talented alchemist to a remote city, where he became responsible for managing an insignificant branch family.
Boey’s son could have been born with a powerful demonic bloodline, or something similar, in addition to inheriting his father’s alchemical talent. But in the end, he chose a woman who, in the clan’s eyes, had almost nothing to offer.
Fate didn’t help either. After all, Priam was born with nothing and also proved to be pathetic as a Mage. Naturally, everyone blamed his mother for it.
After that introduction, Priam asked more about his mother’s race, wanting to know if they had anything worthwhile for him to learn. After all, Flaris couldn’t teach him much, since her best abilities were exclusive to demons.
Seien calmly explained. Her humanoid race lived within the planet’s forests and was known as the Charming Elves.
Upon hearing that, Priam’s eyes changed slightly. After all, the race name displayed by the system was completely different. But seeing his mother’s expression, he realized she wasn’t lying... she probably didn’t even know that her race had another name.
This race hated cities and preferred to live amidst nature. That was because their natural ability allowed them to subtly communicate with plant spirits. Besides easily finding valuable things within the forest, they could also discover where their targets were and what they were doing, allowing them to wait for the perfect moment to hunt them.
Priam was surprised because this race possessed the rare ability to control nature energy.
According to Seien, at low levels, this power helped locate things within forests. At intermediate levels, it granted a Mage a terrifying ability to purify and regenerate injuries. At high levels, it became possible to create wood and use it in battle in various ways. freeweɓnovel.cøm
However, the Charming Elves could only control nature in the most basic and simple way possible.
The entire race survived through hunting and the individual skills of its members. Because of that, Seien was extremely skilled with daggers, bows, all types of light weapons, and even mastered an unarmed combat technique called Light Fists.
Priam already knew that, because during his childhood, his mother had taught him many things about hunting and how to move through forests. However, for Mages, that kind of knowledge wasn’t particularly useful.
Seien felt bad for not having anything valuable from her race to teach Priam, since he hadn’t inherited her bloodline. But when she saw his eyes light up upon hearing about combat techniques, she was happy to at least instruct him in that area.
Combat techniques were simply practical knowledge of how to fight, something any Mage could learn.
