Once Julius finished up his meditation attempts and his perception training, he would eat dinner and start on his mana manipulation training. The current goal was just for him to learn [Mana Manipulation]. Julius had considered the idea that he should learn how to manipulate mana without the skill. Edwin quickly dissuaded him from the thought.
[Mana Manipulation] was too important of a skill to not have. It was the one skill that everyone had. The advantages it gave were too enormous to ignore, and only an idiot never gained the skill.
Was it strange that Julius wanted to try it anyway?
Edwin taught him mana manipulation techniques that had him pull a small amount of mana from himself and try various activities such as writing his name in the air with it or making general shapes. All the while, trying to not waste a single bit of it. If he lost control for even a second he would have to begin again.
After several days of practicing every night for several hours, he finally got the prompt.
Would you like to learn the skill [Mana Manipulation]?
Congratulations, skill [Mana Manipulation] acquired.
Edwin was right. The difference was substantial. It wasn't like [Spatial Perception]. [Spatial Perception] didn't feel like it became more effective after he received a skill for it, it mainly lightened the mental load it had on him. Julius could feel the skill activating and assisting him in manipulating the mana. The best thing he could compare it to was the difference between playing a video game with aim assist on versus having it off. It was slight and you still needed to do the majority of the work. But some of the smaller adjustments were taken care of thanks to the skill.
It was an amazing skill.
So obviously Julius decided to get rid of it. It was painful to remove a skill, but he finally managed after an hour of attempting.
Would like to remove the skill [Mana Manipulation]? Notice: This action will remove [Mana Manipulation] from your current skills.
[Mana Manipulation] has been removed from your current skills.
Several months went by and during this time, Julius had finally gotten into good enough shape for Edwin to decide to teach him how to fight. They started with unarmed combat, an important skill that many nobles didn't focus on. Julius didn't blame them for not wanting to. Getting hit sucked.
One moment you think you're fine, then all of a sudden you overextend and take a fist to the face. Or sometimes you get tripped up and take a foot to the face. There are other times you are just too slow to react and take a spinning backhand to the face.
What was Julius trying to get at? He got hit in the face a lot. However, the second he overprotected his face Edwin would punish him and land a shot in his gut.
For those who had never been hit in the liver. You feel like you just died. You forget how to breathe and how to stand on your two feet. For several hours a day, Julius would get folded like a lawn chair in the training yard. Some of the other members of the house who wanted to train in the mornings often watched them off to the side.
It became a game to bet and see how long Julius could last against Edwin.
Julius knew in his head, that he was improving rapidly. His tolerance for abuse had certainly gotten better. The problem was that whenever Edwin thought he had as well, he would raise his strength and start hitting harder and faster. So, although Julius was incomparable to himself before, he somehow continued to get even harder beatings.
Edwin was truly a sadistic teacher, he would make him run around until he was ragged. Heal him. Beat him senseless. Heal him. Beat him some more. Heal him. It was an endless cycle of beatdowns.
With that being said, Julius had to admit, that Edwin's training paid off. He looked at the most recent notice he got after the last spar.
[Unarmed Combat] has reached threshold. [Unarmed Combat lvl 3 -> Unarmed Combat lvl 4]
There was something undoubtedly satisfying about being able to see his progress quantitatively. Julius was getting a bit worried for himself. At the beginning of these sessions, he would actively avoid getting hurt. Now, he didn't care about getting beat up, he became desensitized to the pain. All that mattered to him was managing to land a hit on Edwin.
Not that it ever happened of course. The only hits Julius ever got in on Edwin, were the ones that Edwin allowed him to. Edwin would purposefully leave an opening for Julius to exploit, but Julius had not managed to catch Edwin off guard on his own.
Julius found himself eating lunch with his uncle, Lukas. This has become a daily occurrence for both of them. While both he and his uncle had busy schedules, they decided to make time to have lunch and dinner with each other every day, if possible. Edwin also ended up joining them, who took a brief respite from his trainer mindset and just relaxed with them.
During this time, Julius had learned many things about each of them. He learned stories about how the two of them met during their travels. They met while doing an extermination mission the Adventurer Guild had posted. His uncle was still a Tier 4 at the time and Edwin was with a separate group who were all Tier 3's. The extermination was for a colony of Stonegorging Ants, a threat that could vary from Tier 2 all the way to Tier 5. It was important to deal with any colonies before they grew to such dangers. Otherwise, the local environment and nearby towns would be in danger. Luckily for them, scouting put the ants at around a Tier 3 or low Tier 4 at most. As such, his uncle was one of the leaders of the extermination party, where he noticed Edwin's talents.
There weren't many shadow affinity users in the Empire, but their usefulness was unanimously agreed upon. Not many were born with the affinity and those that were usually belonged to Clan Genshen. Clan Genshen did not hold any noble title, but they were known for their strength and abundance of shadow affinity users. They were elites who specialized in assassination, scouting, infiltration, and going into dangerous places alone. The clan recruited many commoners who found out they had the affinity, it was known that shadow was an extremely difficult affinity to train on your own. As such, most chose to join Clan Genshen.
Edwin was different. He had learned his entire path practically on his own and had garnered a reputation for himself already. Coming in the top 50 of the Inter-Academy was quite an achievement, that on top of his affinity, had him receiving many offers by powerful groups before and after his graduation. However, Edwin didn't choose any of them. Instead, he decided to become an adventurer with three of his friends. As fate would have it, when Lukas and Edwin met, two of his party members were going to have a baby and planned to settle down. Which meant that their party was going to be disbanded. Therefore, Lukas made Edwin a very generous offer to come and work for House Hyperius.
After lunch, Julius started on the most challenging part of his day. While he had been able to enter into a trance on occasion, he couldn't do it consistently or for very long. With [Spatial Perception] active, it had taken him months to be able to do this much. On the bright side, using his skill in this way had done wonders for its progress.
Edwin also told Julius of a way to see his skill levels. Julius had taken to calling it his status. He mentally envisioned what he wanted to know and it popped up in his mind.
Name: Julius Von Hyperius
[Spatial Perception lvl 9] (Rare)
[Unarmed Combat lvl 4]
It wasn't too helpful now but Julius expected that once he filled out his skills a bit more, he would be thankful for its existence.
For the past months, Julius had been trying to meditate and reach a trance to start absorbing mana and condense his core. The few times he was able to succeed, he saw a space that was around a quarter filled with liquid and the rest of it occupied by a dense fog. It had slightly lowered over time as his attempts to manipulate mana failed and inevitably some of it dissipated. However, not by much to Julius's estimations. While some of the fog had dispersed a little, the liquid remained untouched. This led him to believe that the amount concentrated within the liquid was vastly superior to the other mana, both in quantity and quality.
Julius had been trying something different for the past week or so. Before, he had been attempting to meditate by clearing his thoughts and ignoring stimuli. However, he had an idea. Instead of clearing his thoughts, he wanted to find a balance. Just like a state he sometimes got into when he practiced mana manipulation, he would try the same for this.
Julius sat down and started to focus. Not on his inner core, but outwards. He used his perception to focus on everything around him. Every pebble, every drop of water, every crack in the stone, he focused on everything. Once he reached a state of total concentration, he took a deep breath, imagining the vortex from his baptism, mana surged into him.
To his surprise, it worked, which snapped him out of his trance. But Julius understood something now. For Edwin and others, clearing their mind was easier for them. For Julius, he almost needed to do the opposite. He needed to fill his mind with so much there wasn't space for distracting thoughts.
In that revelation, Julius heard a ding.
Would you like to learn the skill [Focus]?
Congratulations, skill [Focus] acquired.
Julius immediately attempted to meditate again. To his shock, it baffled him how hard he found it just mere minutes ago. Now it was like second nature. [Focus] allowed him to reach this state without struggling and he could still think while in his trance. He should have gained a skill much earlier.
He was going to have to remember to ask Edwin about this skill later and how common it was.
For the first time since his baptism, he was able to cultivate mana. He would now be able to condense his core and reach Tier 1. This would allow him to practice more mana extensive techniques, without worrying about recycling it.
Now that Julius was able to cultivate, he sat down and got to work. He maintained the same method he used during his baptism, the only difference being that he didn't have an orb that directly provided him with mana. From now on, he would need to learn to absorb mana from the environment, which was much slower and tedious. But after an hour of meditating, he received another notice.
[Focus] has reached threshold. [Focus lvl 1 -> Focus lvl 2]
The past several months had been a difficult grind, but now Julius felt it was worth it. This feeling was what motivated Julius to train harder. The feeling of improving.