Vince’s training routine thus started, and he soon found himself not doing anything but training. Since he had already finished reading all the books in the library, he found himself training even in his free time, as there was nothing else to do.

Today was one such day. Vince woke up at dawn and went to the dining hall. The attendants, who were used to see him there at this hour by now, would serve him a healthy breakfast. Once he was done with breakfast, he made his way towards the training grounds.

There wasn’t much noise at this time since only Vince from the lord’s family was up at this hour. Usually, another two hours would pass before anyone among the family besides Vince woke up.

His instructor, who had gotten used to Vince’s sleeping schedule by now, was already waiting for him in the middle of the training field. He had already prepared anything they would need. There were wooden swords, a pile of stones paired with a backpack, and a few Mana Crystals.

What the wooden swords were used for is self-explanatory. The stones and the backpack were used to make him train stamina, as he would run for a while with the backpack filled.

The Mana Crystals were used instead to make him practice mana affinity. In fact, even if one was not a cultivator, that didn’t mean he couldn’t use Mana. It only meant he had no mana stored in his body, so he could not use it without a mana source.

Well, no matter how hard one tried, if he was not a cultivator and did not possess a body with a high affinity, there was only so much he could do with Mana. Using it in combat was just a faraway dream.

“Vince, come. We will always start with mana manipulation because you must be in peak condition while practising it. If you don’t want to encounter a bottleneck early on, you must have good mana control.”

“You always talk about bottlenecks, but I never asked exactly what they are, instructor Tyrak. Would you be kind enough to enlighten me?”

“Oh right, I never told you. As you know, cultivation is not a linear process. Someone’s cultivation does not always increase at the same pace. It’s rather made up of what you could call a big staircase. Each step of the staircase represents a Stage of a realm, while reaching a new floor is reaching a new Realm.

While it’s true that there’s an increase in power within the same Stage, it’s nowhere as big as the increase between Stages. The bottleneck is the last bit of the step in our metaphor. It is the last bit before the new step begins, which represents the breakthrough. In short, it’s when you can’t improve anymore within the same Stage without breaking through the next one.

But the problem is that breaking through is nothing easy. Bottlenecks are a very stressful moment for every cultivator. Once you reach a bottleneck, you are never sure if you’ll ever be able to take that next step required to go to the next Stage. The bottleneck before a new Realm is even more frightening. Breaking through to a new Realm is way harder than breaking through different Stages of the same Realm. And mana manipulation is fundamental in the Awakening Realm. This Realm is characterised by the need to form and improve a Mana Core. The better your Mana control, the easier it will be to make a denser Mana Core.”

“So, to form a Mana Core and become a cultivator, it’s necessary to have some degree of Mana control, right?”

“Exactly. It’s also the same reason why it’s hard for someone of humble origins to become a Cultivator. While noble families know how to train their offspring and grant them the possibility to attain a good enough Mana manipulation ability to become cultivators, mortals do not. Without even considering innate talent.

I never explained talents either, so now it’s a good time to do so. There are a total of four innate talents that anybody has. They are Soul, Heart, Mind and Body. It is also known that there’s a strong correlation between the parents’ talents and the child’s. But measuring them is no easy task.

Legends say some people are capable of getting to know someone’s talents by touching them, but they are considered rumours. For sure, there has never been such a person in the Flossen kingdom. And since there’s no way of measuring those talents, usually only the parent’s cultivation base is considered to approximate how talented someone is.

Talents make one’s cultivation road easier to tread. Therefore people with high cultivation bases are considered very talented. There are also other ways in use to estimate how talented one is, but it’s still way less accurate than considering the parents’ cultivation base.”

“Okay, I think I got it. Now, should I start with the same drill as always?”

“Yeah, here’s your two Mana Crystals. Unluckily your father won’t provide us with more than two a day, but as you may know, they’re not cheap. You should thank von Sideria for making you a priority in training. Only the heir gets as many as you do, you know? Some of your brothers only get two or three a week.”

“I’m starting my training then.”

Seeing how little the brat cared, Tyrak could only stroke his beard. Vince was utterly clueless about how hard to acquire Mana Crystals were.

Vince thus clutched with his little hand one of those Mana Crystals and extracted a fraction of the Mana contained inside. He then proceeded to make it go around. Certainly, an average person would overlook the Mana, but any cultivator would instead see a stream of light.

This light was shining with a light blue hue and made up different shapes. It sometimes made vortexes, other times circles, while sometimes it kind of resembled the movement ocean waves make instead.

Not long after, the Mana Crystal shattered into many little pieces, and all the light disappeared. The first time this happened, Tyrak was flabbergasted, but he was used to it by now.

“I still have no idea how you manage to shatter all those Mana Crystals. Usually, they would lose their colours once the Mana inside is completely used up, but you always end up making them crack.”

“Don’t ask me; I have no clue either. I’m merely following Instructor Tyrak’s commands.”

‘Well, I actually might have an idea, but there’s no point explaining to him. And it’s merely a theory anyway…’

Once the second crystal shattered as well, Vince moved onto his swinging routine. He only made simple strikes, but even so, he was not happy at all.

‘I’m still not used to this body. I have to get used to it quickly… I soon might have to fight with dangerous foes.’

“Young master, shouldn’t you start training more complicated techniques now? Your swings are pretty much perfect by now… But a single swing will never get you anywhere.”

‘Cannot disagree more. It’s like telling me to learn how to paint a masterpiece but telling me at the same time not to practise brush strokes. A good painter needs to know how to do good brush strokes and not make a single painting.’

“Don’t worry, instructor. I’ll start training techniques soon enough. But I still don’t feel quite confident enough with my swings.”

“Ahh, fine. Once you are done, we are going to lunch, and this afternoon you have your body training, okay?”

“Yes, instructor!”

After roughly one more hour, Vince went to the dining room. This time he wasn’t alone at all. There were many of his brothers and sisters as well. The long table was already filled with countless dishes carrying big servings of many types of delicacies.

After bowing to all the various consorts, he sat in his place and started eating as well. Once he was done, he went back to the training field to complete his routine.

Tyrak gave him the backpack filled with rocks and had him run for a few miles. Stamina was considered essential no matter how you specialised later on. Both close range and long-range fighters need a lot of stamina.

Among cultivators, there were many specialisations based on what the cultivator could do best. However, everybody learns close quarters combat first since, in the Awakening Realm, using any spell for combat was pretty much impossible.

And since most people won’t go past the Awakening Realm in their lifetimes, training to become a mage when there was no guarantee you would ever be able to actually become one wasn’t something many were willing to do.

Once he was done with the body training, he did his biddings and left. As usual, he went in the furthest part of the mansion’s tenure, where he was alone. And he started practising mana manipulation again.

‘I want to specialise in magic. Even though it’s often considered a class made for the cowards who don’t have the galls to fight head to head, a mage is an undoubtedly powerful class. Without considering that, nothing stops me from picking up a sword if I’m a mage. I know sword fighting already, while magic is new to me. I want to explore its possibilities.’

Every time he had some free time now, he would do this instead of reading. But there was one thing that always stayed true. Vince’s curiosity was boundless. His thirst for knowledge one few could compare with.

And his days went on like this until…