latury Town was surrounded by three separate types of terrain. There was a relatively small mountain to the north and vast forest spanning from the towns northwest to the south and even spreading to the zone between the south and southeast. In the southeast, east, and northeast of the town were grassland planes with many hills across the land and a few sparse trees every here and there. The mines were to the north, and there were few monsters there; thus, Vincent went to the southeast to try and hunt some monsters in the plains. To Vincent's misfortune, he soon discovered that the beasts would escape the moment they noticed him. This alone wouldn't be so bad if the terrain was better, but the lack of foliage made hiding very difficult for Vincent. He eventually decided that remaining in the planes was nothing more than a act of futility, so he headed to the forests. At first, it was more of the same. The beasts would notice his presence and immediately escape, until one did not. The problem is that the beast that didn't choose to escape hadn't yet been seen by Vincent. A lone wolf jumped out of the bushes, leaping at Vincent. His reactions were slow, but his reflexes had kicked in just in time to save his life. He slashed at the wolf, who pelted itself onto the sword. However, Vincent failed to stop the wolf's momentum, and its claws scratched his cheek.

Vincent touched his cheek, seeing blood on his arm. He looked down at the dead wolf, it looked old and ragged, and it seemed like it was starving and hadn't eaten in days. To Vincent's surprise, he actually felt pity for it, even though it tried to kill him. Some parts of him pitied the beast. Vincent had killed before, but they were always bugs or possibly plants yet he'd never killed anything close to a wolf. He felt sad and even disgusted with what he had done, but it was him or the wolf, and even if it were to happen again, he'd still kill the wolf. He also had to keep his promise to his father, and he would nor let anything stand in his way. The next few hours were relatively uneventful, with most creatures escaping, while some attacked Vincent yet all dieing to his blade. Each time he felt disgusted, but what he didn't notice that each time he killed his shame and self disgust from doing so reduced each and every time.

Later on, Vincent encountered his first monster. As Vincent walked in the forest, he stepped on a twig. At first, he didn't even notice it, but he soon did when he lifted his right foot. As he looked down at the strange twig, he noticed it start to wriggle, and soon a long, thin, orangey-pink tube struck out from the ground. It darted towards Vincent, but he barely managed to swing his sword in time to cut it in half. White blood was spewing all-over. The blood stuck to Vincent's sword like some sort of instantly hardening glue. Vincent asked the guard next to him. "Norbert is this a Grubble worm?"

Norbert (Family Guard): "Sorry, but under your father's orders, I may not tell you."

Seeing the guards lacklustre response, Vincent looked down at his foot again and looked at the twig he stepped on. It was the exposed part of the worm. It seemed his weight was sufficient to crush the worm and cause it to bleed. The sticky white blood glued his boot to the ground, making Vincent unable to leave. Vincent had to waste over half an hour just to free himself from the disgusting remains of the monster and the ground. Vincent mumbled to himself as he tried to remember what he knew of grubble worms. "I think I heard in rumours that Grubble worm blood is used in construction, and now that I think about it, I've learned why firsthand."

Norbert remained silent as he followed Vincent, being diagonally behind him. as the two continued onward. As time went on, Vincent fought more and more creatures, he even defeated a pack of Jackals that thought he would make a tasty meal, as well as a few monsters, the most being Grubble Worms. as evening was about to come. Vincent and Norbert started to head back to Palatury Town. However, their return was halted with a loud roar. Norbert raised an arm to stop Vincent, as he quickly moved to put himself between Vincent and the place the roar came from. Norbert raised his spear and awaited for the threat to arive, Vincent was about to ask about what made the noise, but Norbert immediately shushed him. It seemed like Norbert knew what the threat was, and he deemed it sufficiently dangerous to consider it as a real threat to Vincent's safety. Soon it emerged a an Ogre! Orgers are a species that had originally started out as the offspring of ancient trolls and ancient orcs, but with time they evolved into multiple independent and sperate species as well as a wide variety of subspecies. They are larger than orcs yet smaller than trolls, but they are also smarter than trolls yet dumber than orcs, which weren't all that smart to begin with. While most orcs lived in groups, some did live alone, and this orc seemed to be one of the latter. It looked at Vincent and Norbert with its three eyes as it roared again so loudly that it would make a lion retreat in fear without looking back even once. Its big, sharp fangs were visible in its open mouth. Each fang was as big as a banana, and the 5-meter-tall ogre was as big as a small tree and as tall as a giraffe. This ogre had an uncharacteristically high amount of arms, as it had two arms on each side. Its bright green skin looked unfitting when compared to the darker green forest around it. The ogre stomped on the ground and then charged at the two humans in front of it. It was armed with four clubs, each the size of a cupboard, and with four arms that meant four cupboard-sized clubs. Vincent thought he would die at that moment, then and there. As the Orge charged towards him its arms swung around, smashing in half any tree that got in its way. Each time the orgers took a step, the ground would tremble in turn, as if even the ground feared the orge's might. And the ogre wasn't walking but charging at Vincent and Norvert at full speed! But as all hope was lost, a blue aura surrounded Norberet, and his spear started to glow in the same dark blue light. He charged at the ogre at speeds far beyond what Vincent believed to be humanly possible. In an instant, it was all over, with Norbert's spear immediately followed by his whole body going straight through the ogre, who exploded into four chunks flying in separate directions, followed by a rain of blood.

Vincent: "What was that‽"

Norbert: "It is a weapon art, in this case a spear art. Once you master a weapon to a certain degree, you may learn or possibly even create your own weapon art."

Vincent: "Wait, so if I master the sword, I could do stuff like that!"

Norbert: "Yes young master, that is correct. However, most warriors fail to achieve this ability, even in the most powerful nations, only about one in ten warriors can achieve this, and in the weaker states, it may be one in a thousand or worse."

Vincent: "So I can learn magic by getting really good at the sword!"

Norbert: "No, weapon arts are a force separate from magic, though there are similarities and some items may be affected or have an effect on both forces, they are still to sperate things. Magic and Weapon Arts are fundamental forces of our world. Few chose to try and master both, and even fewer succeed."

Vincent's eyes began to sparkle more and more, as if a new world had opened before him. He had a new power he wanted to achieve, another goal to strive for, and one that would help him achieve his other two goals, which were getting recognised by the king in a way that would lead to him being awarded land. As well as his other goal of defeating Wolf. Vincent thought for a second before he asked his next two questions. "Which is harder to succeed in, and which is harder to train?"

Norbert: "It's probably considerably easier to enter entry-level magic as most people who try succeed in being able to use magic, although a tutor or the ability to read and self-study are generally necessary. Thus, even if it's not that common, there are many people who become magic users who achieve the ability to use magic, although the magic in question is often very simple and weak. The clear majority of magic users are mediocre at best, with a small few who are actually capable of doing anything impressive, but compitant magic users are a real danger to any enemy on the battle field. Meanwhile, unlike with magic users, even merely being able to use Weapon Art is quite the achievement. Comparing both is unfair, as that would be like comparing a novice spearman who's just started to use a spear to someone such as myself. A Weapon Art is superior to mediocre magic, but it gets more complicated with more advanced magic. If you're asking about getting stronger, then reaching the higher levels of magic is far harder than unlocking more weapon abilities, but medium-level magic should be a fair bit easier. My understanding of magic is rudimentary, but I have worked with many magic users over the twenty years I have served as a guard for your family. The highest levels of magic far exceeded what can be done at the highest levels of weapon arts, at least in the current era, as no one knows what the future may hold. Once, when magic was just emerging, Weapon Arts rained supreme. But they have a major limitation: most can only use one to three weapon arts, mostly only in their weapons of choice, but some managed to do so with multiple weapons. Weapon arts are generally weaker than magic, and the number of arts you can learn are fewer. A sage may know a thousand spells, but even the most powerful Weapon Arts user in the kingdom since its foundation had only 32 arts. There is no real limit to how many arts you can have, but even having only one is rare, and having more than ten is enough to make the bards sing songs of your greatness for at least three to four generations, if not more."

Norbert stopped talking as the two returned to town. Vincent soon went to sleep with his mind set on even more goals to achieve.