"Does your stomach still hurt?"
"It's okay, Mom. I'm feeling better now."
"Okay, but if there's something wrong, you have to tell mom."
"Okay, Mom."
“Besides, why do you suddenly have digestive problems in the morning. Did you eat anything weird yesterday?”
"I'm not surprised if brother eats food carelessly. You should hold yourself back a little, don't eat too much outside. Just give your sister the money and I'll secure it for you."
Aria was now lying on his bed with a blanket covering his whole body up to his face.
Standing beside him, Alisa saw her son with a little worried. While Rosalind only sent scathing criticisms about her brother's habits.
Of course, she was also worried. It's just that the way she expressed it was quite unique.
Alisa had carefully checked the condition of her son immediately after a maid reported that Aria had problems with his stomach.
He had been in the toilet for too long, which was very unnatural. Even though Alisa didn't find anything wrong with her examination, but Aria looked a little pale after leaving the place.
Actually, Aria was okay. His body was perfectly fine after he came out of the toilet. It was his heart.
This morning, he made an embarrassment of himself. Luckily, the maid didn't go into detail with her reports. So, her mother had no idea what kind of spectacle he made earlier.
Alright, he just wanted to forget that nightmare. Perhaps he had to bribe some maids and guards who watched him this morning to close their mouths?
…..
A week later, Aria tried the same thing, again. Even though there was a risk of making him a joke again, but he had to know the ins and outs of this ability.
So far, he had only modified two parts of his body, of which only the ventriculus he had modified to perfection.
The second one, the muscle, he put aside first after realizing the effect would not be visible yet. At least before he modified it to the maximum and activated an unknown limit ability.
He took a week as a buffer so that the new fish could breed more. In addition, he needed to change the channel of his secret pond to suit the size of the swordfish, which was originally built for a smaller one.
A week later he got better results.
Although with [Hyper Eating] he could maximize all the incoming food to be digested in an instant. But if he gave a few more seconds for the next meal, he would optimize it even more.
The result of digestion was to continuously break down the food by the acids and enzymes that it secreted continuously until it almost reaches zero waste. He didn't need to take a dump.
Although it would be a waste of time, at least it was a solution to protect his butt hole from stretching too wide. He almost pushed so hard that his intestines came out.
And of course, the results were quite satisfactory. For [Physique], he could harvest around 50 points per day. While [Soul Map] was only 1 point.
It was quite a difference, but better than the previous results.
Of course, Aria wasn't satisfied yet, but this was enough for the time being. He only had to wait three months to feel the fruits of his patience and hard work.
…..
Three months later, a chubby boy sprinted as fast as he could to gain momentum while swinging an almost a body-high broadsword from over his head at the man in front of him.
But the man didn't budge. With a relaxed expression, he placed a regular sword with a much smaller size above his head horizontally to stop the incoming broadsword's aggressiveness with one hand.
"HAA!!"
*TING*
The sound of two metals clinking loudly sounded and made the two hands of the boy who was holding the sword almost fall off from the sheer force.
“Not bad, good power, but not focused enough. It would be better if you stopped screaming. It won't help you in any way, but give out yourself to your opponent."
The boy didn't give up. As if heeding his opponent's words, he stopped making noises with his mouth.
He drew his sword as fast as lightning towards his chest and delivered a thrust towards the opponent's chest.
“Your grip is not stable enough.”
His opponent swept the thrust to the side with ease.
“Use your feet to step forward, don't stay still. That will give your thrust a better range and lethality.”
The boy just nodded slightly acknowledging his mistake.
Then, he continued to launch a barrage of attacks from various sides. Sweep, thrust, stab, various basic movements of swordsmanship he had learned, he took it all out.
Along with the broadsword's size and his seemingly abundant power, his attacks were quite dangerous and could overwhelm anyone.
It's just, the opponent was a master who easily countered every single one of those attacks with simple moves that didn't seem to use up the slightest bit of energy. Too easy.
And again, he didn't forget to instruct the various details that were lacking and the weaknesses of every move the boy made.
Hundreds of attacks were launched but always failed to touch the edge of the opponent's clothes.
.....
“Ah, I'm really spent!”
Aria lay on the ground, sweat bucket. His breath hitched. He just threw his sword carelessly.
“Your strength is good, but there is not enough coordination in every move. What you're swinging is a sword, not just a piece of metal.”
Garreth didn't hesitate to criticize his son based on the sparring earlier.
"I know, it's just I'm having a hard time converting some of the sword moves you teach with this jumbo sword."
“That's why I suggest you return to normal sword size. The essence of using a heavy sword is different from ordinary swords. You still don't understand that."
"So, will you tell me?" Aria glanced at his father who was still standing looking down at him.
Garreth shook his head.
“It's not a matter of being told or not, you need a lot of patience to practice it by yourself."
"Try to accumulate knowledge bit by bit,” he paused, and continued in a low voice, “it would be better if you had a sword affinity.”
“See, that's the end of the matters,” Aria shrugging his shoulders.
“I just need more time to learn it. Perhaps next month, six months maybe, or it can be next year. It's just only a matter of time."
Aria didn't hear any reply from his father. He turned to look at his father who was staring at him. It's just that his mind didn't seem to be here.
"What's on your mind, dad?"
Waking up after his thoughts were interrupted, Garreth returned his focus to his son's face.
"Nothing, it's okay to put the effort in your sword practice, just don't push yourself too hard."
He smiled slightly, but there was a hint of guilt hidden in his words.
Aria who was still lying down, propped his body to sit after his hearing caught that. He stared into his father's eyes for a moment, before saying seriously.
“You and mom are the same. Stop blaming yourself! My situation is beyond anyone's control. You know it yourself this is the only way I can do to make up my lack of affinity and perception.”
“Besides,” Aria smirked while making a posture by rolling up his sleeves, revealing his upper arm.
He bent it to show his unexistent triceps, “I am stronger than most kids.”
“All you have now is a pile of fat.”
Garreth laughed at his son's attempt to comfort him, “Seriously, you really need to slim down. You need a diet."
“It's not that I don't want to, but I can't,” Aria muttered in a low voice, barely audible to his father.
Diet was never a choice in his book. That would be counterproductive to his objective that requiring him to eat as much as possible.
He could only maximize various exercises and other activities to burn excess calories in his body.
At first, it worked quite well. His body became a little slimmer. A pile of fat here and there began to turn into body muscles.
Even though his body wasn't quite ideal yet, at least his sister no longer scorned him as a meatball or fat pig.
However, after the appearance of [Hyper Eating], that balance was destroyed. All his efforts were no longer able to keep up with the rate of incoming calories.
And stopped using this ability was unthinkable. Unfortunately, he could only use it once a day. With the reciprocity he got, the side effect of being obese could only be endured for a while.
"That's why I want to train more intensively. If allowed, I want to attend the special training regimen of your guard regularly.”
"That's going to be difficult."
Garreth frowned at his son's request, "It's dangerous and I don't think you can protect yourself yet."
"Oh come on, dad. That's the excuse you always make. I won't swallow it now,” Aria rolled his eyes.
“Some of your guards are almost on par with me, even in terms of strength I can surpass them now. So what? Those guards can still follow the training, why can't I."
Garreth was speechless. He couldn't make a retort to reply to his son back.
“Besides, it was not an individual activity. There were more people to support each other."
"As far as I know, there's never been any casualty other than a few minor injuries here and there. It's hardly risky at all."
Aria continued his arguments.
“But you should know that what you are dealing with are wild beasts, some spiritual beasts that are still vicious," His father made a reply.
“Exactly, that's what I meant. That's what I really needed, that kind of experience to push myself more. Come on, Dad! Allow me! Please believe me!”
Garreth who saw his son's pleading became hesitated.
“But, it will still be difficult,” he paused, “with you mom.”
Aria rolled his eyes again. This time he was trying to find a way, racking his brain, how he could provoke his father to confront his own wife.
“You can't be that scared with Mom, right? Come on, Dad! You are the head of the family!"
"The one who got the Royal Aegis title was you! So many people cannot be compared to you!"
"Those members of the Royal Family have great respect for you."
"And you don't dare to face one woman?"
Aria put full effort in his words to encourage his father to face his wife like he was about to step into the battlefield, without fear.
Garreth twitched at the corner of his eye hearing his son spouting some nonsense.
“But that woman is your mother.”
"Of course, she is my mother, but so what?"
Aria was so fiery with his words to motivate his father. However, suddenly his body felt cold, the chills crept down to his spine.
"Oh, what's the problem with I am as your mother?"
Aria's body stiffened at the sound that just came from behind him. He turned his head cautiously.
“Mom," he gulped, "It was nothing!”
"I insist! What happened, son? Are you tired of your old mother already?” Alisa put her hands on the side of her hips while bending down, glaring at her son who was sitting, closer.
The sweat that had subsided, again, dripped down Aria's forehead. He was put under tremendous pressure from his mother's question and stare.
“No… Nothing,” he was stuttered, not daring to look his mother in the eye.
“Uhm… Uhm… It's Dad. Yes, dad has something to tell you, Mom. We just discussed that.”
Aria turned his gaze to his father, who was actually stunned after being pulled by his son's words.
"Oh? What's that?" Alisa raised her eyebrows, also looked at her husband curiously.
“I'll let dad say it,” Aria signaled with his eyes at Garreth who had been kept silent.
Garreth widened his eyes, unable to believe that his son had just thrown all the trouble to his face.
“I will give time and space for you, husband and wife, to talk to each other."
Aria hurried to his feet wanting to escape from that place. He did not have the heart to witness his pitiful father who would be abused by his wife at any moment.
Also, he didn't want to be affected by his mother's verbal bombardment.
'That brat would be the death of me.'
Garreth could only stare at the back of his son who was quickly running away from the red field, while he had to face his wife who was now waiting for an answer with her glaring eyes on him.
'Poor me.'
…..
That night, before he went to sleep, Aria used this time to activate his first [Soul Map]. After three months full of patience, it's finally here.
Soul Map
Sword
Basic - Weapon Type
Awakening: 100/100 Energy Required
Effect: N/A
Execute The Awakening? Y/N
He willed it to be processed. A moment later, the change occurred around his body, one to two meters radius.
“This… Spiritual Projection?”
Unlike the [Physique] modification, Aria didn't feel any pain or discomfort in his body. What he felt was similar to the first time his hand touched the crystal ball.
"So all these awakenings are like the first time getting affinity?"
Aria closed his eyes and focused on his spiritual space.
Now, it's not the same as before. Even though most of it was still dominated by darkness, he could see a sword that looked very ordinary and did not have any conspicuous characteristics.
It was hanging in the midst of the darkness. The handle was pointed up and the sharp tip was hanging down. Everything was metallic gray right down to the hilt. Although the metallic luster was a bit dim, not very bright.
Aria didn't have many opinions about this. Now, he turned his attention to his [Soul Map]. In that dark sky, there was only one spot that he was most familiar with.
Now, the white light emitted was much brighter, so that some of the nearby dots were barely visible by the shimmering radiance.
Soul Map
Sword
Basic - Weapon Type
Innate Modification: 0/500 Energy Required
Effect:
- Sword affinity
- Slight perception enhancement in swordsmanship
- Slight perception enhancement of spiritual energy
Innate Ability: Locked (1/5)
Sword Chain: Unavailable
'Hm, nothing surprising,' Aria didn't look very happy or disappointed. It's good for him to be able to start from here.
He scratched his chin with a thoughtful look, continuing to pay attention to the notification.
'At least this feature doesn't mock me.'
“Now, it's time to start with his self-torture,” he muttered with a bit nervous.
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