More than two weeks had passed. Nothing much had changed with Aria's daily life.

In the morning, he would start with a simple workout beside his beloved pond and return with some poor fish.

If he was being honest, these fish could no longer make his stomach satiated. But what could he say? His stomach grew up with the fish. It was its function as a quantity control. So, he was quite reluctant to let them breed without control.

After breakfast, he would join the guards to train, especially to train his physique and unarmed martial art.

By noon was his favorite time. He would explore the streets around. Hunting and tasting all kinds of food available.

He returned in the afternoon, again doing his exercise. Ending the day by spending his time with his mom.

His father once said, "You can be whatever you want but one thing, don't be stupid."

It was also his purpose there. Two years ago, his mother started teaching him all kinds of basic knowledge, making sure he didn't become someone illiterate. And he surpassed it with flying scores.

There were always difficulties learning something new. But once the pattern was found, it's easy peasy.

Then, why did he still there if it is no longer needed? Well, that's just his mom.

Of course, when his father and Rosalind heard what happened to him, they showed some concerns.

However, seeing Aria could care less about that, they were relieved and returned to their normal behavior. And that's how it went for the two weeks.

Now? Now everything wouldn't be the same anymore, because the big boy would start his academy life.

…..

"Come on, brother, we've arrived."

Two people got off the carriage. It paused in front of a huge gate like many other carriages and left immediately after.

Although the place was quite spacious, looking at the so many carriages in the line, it would not fit if all of them were there at the same time.

"Wow, the traffic is so heavy."

Aria who wore a sky blue uniform felt quite nostalgic. He couldn't remember how many years had since he last wore such a uniform like this. Of course with totally different styles.

He looked at the front, at the top of the gate. There were big words written there; ‘West-Steinriver Royal Academy ‘.

“It will be very crowded later on. Every year there would be at least a thousand new disciples attending the academy."

"Along with the number of old disciples, it will reach more than six thousand people. Not to mention the number of teachers and staff.”

Rosalind explained and threw some useless info dump as she pulled her brother towards the gate.

“They should just make a dormitory to lessen such traffic. It will be quite troublesome and stressful to experience this boisterous situation every morning,” Aria curled his lip.

Rosalind snorted at the idea, “We talk about managing a bunch of six-year-old kids here, like you."

"If I was one of them, I would never put myself into that kind of clear disaster. There would be huge work to be done, and their parents would mostly disagree. Not until they are older and become independent enough to let them go."

"Look, almost all the students who came by carriages. It would be different if all these kids are ordinary people.”

“Hey, don't put us together,” Aria was displeased with that.

“Okay okay, my giant little brother,” Rosalind giggled.

“Here we are! As you just said, my independent brother doesn't need his older sister to take care of himself, does he?”

Rosalind teased him, then pointed him to the lines of kids in the distance.

Several staff and teachers were also there, giving some instructions and keeping the group of kids in order.

"There, the acceptance of new students. I have friends to catch up with, see ya!”

Rosalind waved her hand, leaving her brother alone.

Aria sighed and strode toward the crowd.

'I feel like a wolf in a flock of rabbits,' he thought inwardly.

…..

The acceptance ceremony, orientation period, and several other boring things he had to go through as a new student, after that his life as a student officially began.

Apart from boring subjects like ethics and morals, dogma about the Divine Sword Empire, and a few others, Aria was more interested in this world geography and PE-type subjects, with physical and weapon training.

Apart from the Divine Sword Empire he lived in, there were still four other such Empires and other smaller kingdoms.

All of them were within the banner of the Human Federation Alliance. Hmm, interesting, wasn't it?

It's implicitly said there were other non-human federations or associations. Even though there was no explicit information, whether due to his limited access or being deliberately concealed, Aria already made such an assumption.

Those Empires had their own characteristics with their unique inheritance. For example, the Divine Sword Empire was famous for its spiritual weapons, which became a special trait for the members of the Royal Family and a select few people, including his father.

What kind of inheritance that was, there was no detailed explanation, let alone regarding other empires. That was the fate of a lowly commoner, all access was very limited.

"Then, what's the point of building a library this big if everyone's access is restricted."

Aria complained in his seat. Since there was nothing else he could get, he immediately got up and left the place, trying to release his frustration at the next weapon training.

There was one more subject that he was quite interested in, called spiritual meditation.

It's not only meditation that was taught there, many other things were introduced, such as the spiritual space concept, its development, and all its intrigues.

Even though it's just basic, weren't they at the basic level too?

It's just all of that could only be learned after passing the first hurdle, which was being able to do spiritual attunement by meditation to a certain level.

It's nothing much of a challenge for his classmates. With a bit of time and a little effort, it's done.

What about him? Easy to guess, he failed big time at the very beginning.

As someone who had no affinity and ultra-low perception, he couldn't even feel a little bit of the spiritual energy around him without some kind of medium.

Even he put his all, meditated without sleep for seven days straight, it was all for naught.

His huge body was on par with his seniors who were almost graduated, even slightly bigger than some of them. Plus a 'fool' image in that class, making the impression of his classmates on him as a big bully at the bottom rung of the class.

Who wanted to be friends with someone like that? But, that kind of treatment from his class really saved him some trouble to swat some annoying flies.

Back to the topics, then what function of his [Soul Map] if he still had this kind of problem, even though it's only two weeks? This was the solution he could come up with.

The first time he was able to unlock [Soul Map], he was at a loss.

As the name suggested, it's like a map, like a star map. It was dark with some faint white dots, like stars that were spread sporadically.

And that's all there was to it. There were no words, no information whatsoever like its sibling next door who was very user friendly.

He thought that there was a malfunction, or maybe the system needed to be re-updated.

Until the next afternoon when he finished practicing with his wooden sword. He checked it again on a whim, hoping for a miracle happened.

Sure enough, one of the dots seemed to give off a slight pulse of light.

Even though the light was extremely dim, but compared to the condition of the other dots, Aria could easily spot the difference.

Even so, there was no more sign other than that bit of luster. But that alone made him delighted.

At least he knew there was a possible direction he could try to get out of this predicament.

From then on, he discarded his archery training and focused solely on his physical and sword training.

During these two weeks, the light was getting stronger, even though it just stopped there. But that's alright because he was still steadily making improvements nonetheless.

…..

“Alright, enough explanations and pleasantries from me. You can choose one of the various weapons over there."

"But keep in mind! Think carefully about your choice, because it will be your benchmark and assessment for at least the next year."

"Don't be greedy and overestimate your own abilities!”

The instructor for this weapon class was a mustached man with the stature of a soldier. He gave clear instructions to the forty children in front of him.

Aria, who had his own choice, picked out a training sword the same size as his practice sword at home.

Unlike the one at home that only used a wooden sword, almost all weapons here were made of steel. Only a few special weapons were made of other materials, such as bows.

The swords had the most number because the majority of people chose this as their main weapon.

At first, Aria wanted to choose a sword of familiar size. But his eyes caught a broadsword that was quite dusty lying in one corner of the room.

Obviously, this sword had not been touched for a long time.

Of course, which child wanted to swing an object that might be taller than him. Let alone swinging, maybe it was already taxing just to lift it.

Aria with a thoughtful look stared at the broadsword, then glanced at the sword in his hand. His mind was imagining himself swinging this sword, which could only be categorized as a shortsword or a bigger knife with his size.

“Hm, indeed, it looks a bit comical,” he mumbled.

"After you guys are done, gather here quick!"

Shouted the instructor from a distance who wanted the kids to speed up what they were doing.

"Alright, it's you, then," Aria made a decision.

…..

After making sure each child held a weapon, they were divided into groups based on the type of their weapon and its range.

'Oh? It's been years since I saw a new kid brave enough to use that broadsword. Interesting.'

The instructor was surprised to see Aria carrying a broadsword. And again, he was not so surprised by his decision with his size. He only hoped that this child would not give up halfway.

After listening to the instructions given, Aria started his practice.

Different from other sword users, where they could make movements such as swinging, stabbing, sweeping, or other basic combinations of them, the instructor gave special advice for Aria to focus on one move until he could master the sword perfectly.

Knowing his practice wouldn't be any more interesting than usual, Aria could only grumble.

Even so, he still took it very seriously. The reason? Just twenty swings he already felt the difference.

Even though he had predicted the weight of this sword would be quite a challenge, he didn't expect that just a dozen swings would be enough to make his arms sore.

Only then did he realize why the instructor had asked him to focus on just one move.

Now, he didn't even dare to let his guard down. The slightest loss of focus could cause him and those around him injured with a weapon of this size.

They practiced on a fairly wide field so that the distance between them was quite spacious.

Moreover, several medical team and assistants were on standby at the side. Being more cautious could never go wrong.

Aria continued to swing the broadsword from above his head down while taking one step forward.

When the swing stopped abruptly, he took another step back to his original position, which was followed by the broadsword back over his head, ready for the next swing.

Aria was lost in his unwavering concentration, focused solely on his swing. His gaze was sharp straight ahead, movements in his peripheral vision became meaningless.

And when the swing started to reach a staggering number of two hundred times, even the assistants watching him were quite amazed by his tenacity.

.....

“Huff… Damn… my arms feel like it's going to fall off…”

No matter how many swings he made, he had to give up in the end. Otherwise, he would only hurt himself as he felt he was losing his grip. He had lost count of how many times he swung, which no longer mattered to him.

Part of the broadsword's body stabbed into the ground, while he leaned against it, trying to catch and re-organize his breath and slightly relieved his sore arm.

"Looks like I'll have to optimize my muscle's modification."

He muttered. As if remembering something, he immediately pulled his mind inside and opened his [Soul Map]. There, one dot shined so brightly, no longer pulsed dim light like before.

And what made him so delighted was the information he got.

---

Soul Map

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Sword

Basic - Weapon Type

Awakening: 2/100 Energy Required

Effect: N/A

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