Three days had passed, and both boys had successfully gone through their punishment. Leon, their father, started sword training for Silva and Mike.
Quin had already been far ahead when it came to training and was now a rank ten after several years of training.
His growth was fast compared to normal people, and his father had high hopes for him. Mike, on the other hand, was a level three, a growth achieved just by growing up.
He gathered experience by simply growing, so there was no training behind his level. The same could be said about Silva; he didn't have any physical training behind his leveling.
"Alright, for the next five years of your life, you both will train in the sword. It doesn't matter if you want to learn magic or anything else; you have to prove yourself with the sword first.
If you ever want to learn magic, then in these five years that you will train, show me that you deserve to be heard, that your requests deserve to be considered," their father said. He took two wooden swords and handed them to them.
He already knew about Silva's stats, but he didn't want to weaken Mike's spirit, so he kept that information away from the others.
It would be a big blow to Mike's pride if his younger brother was several times stronger than him.
He knew he wouldn't be able to keep this hidden for long because the difference would most likely show during their training, but he hoped that it would push Mike to go further when that happened.
"Alright, today you start with practice swings; you have to do it till the sunset, no breaks until dinner," Leon said.
Mike wanted to complain about how insane the training was, but then he saw Silva already swinging, so he reluctantly started as well.
Silva had been reading books for years now, but he was yet to get any action. His skills and magic had been dormant for all this time.
He was eager to do something that involved combat, so he swung his sword without wasting any time.
This motion continued for over an hour, and fatigue had started to set in slowly, especially for Mike. Sweat had started trickling down his face, and his face was getting contorted.
Silva kept pushing, slashing downwards, and with every slash, his movements became smoother and more refined until finally...
[Sword Mastery lv1 x10]
As soon as that notification came through, his sword movement became ten times better and faster.
It was as though he was slicing through air; the sound of his sword cutting the air was crisp and sharp.
His father, who had been watching, saw this change, and then he understood how naive he had been.
Silva was not in the same league as Mike; his speed of growth was not something Mike would be able to overcome through determination.
He just watched Silva transition from a novice to a better swordsman in an hour, while Mike was still struggling to breathe.
Still, he decided to let it play out for today and see how it would go, but that was a very bad mistake on his part.
Because after over three hours of slashing, Silva finally leveled up to level eight, he got extra free stat points added to the ones he had before.
So he decided to put all his stat points into his stats today. He had been keeping them because he had not started combat training yet, but now he had started.
**Race:** Human (50%), Dark Dragon (50%)
**Legacy:** Dark Dragon Legacy (Awakened)
**Magical Affinities:** Summoning, Darkness, Abyss Magic
**Free stat points:** 100
[-Scale Hardening lv4: Cover yourself in dark dragon scales for five minutes, 200% increase to defense and strength.] x10
[-Dragon Eyes lv4: See energy forms, lasts for five minutes.] x10
[-Speed Comprehension lv2] x10
-Abyss Magic: Gate of Hell, sacrifice your blood to open a powerful gate to consume the souls of your enemies. Effect multiplied by ten.
-Consume: Eat the soul or parts of the soul of any being to gain strength.
"Let's assign twenty stat points to all my stats," Silva said. He received a sudden surge of strength as his strength and all stats increased far past the fifty mark.
His sword became faster and more refined in that instant; it was like he had been a veteran for quite a while.
But it didn't stop there as his swordsmanship leveled up as well to level 2, and that caused another exponential increase in his skill.
His sword became so fast that his father had trouble keeping up, and that was when his father knew that it would not be for the best if these two even spent time relatively close together.
"Silva, stop!" He called out. Silva immediately stopped swinging.
"Come over here, please," Leon said.
"Your sword, it changed multiple times over the period of your training. I don't know how you did it, but the way you swing is no longer that of a child.
And the strength behind your swings sadly surpasses even mine. I think I know the reason for all this, but sadly I can't tell you yet. Keep your training up and get stronger, and I'll tell you.
But for now, you can't train with Mike. I'll arrange for you to start another training; it will be something that matches your level.
I feel like if you keep on training with Mike, the difference in abilities will kill his spirit."
"I understand, Father. I'll do my best to train harder," Silva said and left.
He knew that the thing he wanted to tell him was about not being their son, but Silva felt like it was too early for such information.
It didn't matter to Silva, though; that information was already with him. He saw everything the day he was born.