Being awakened was an . . . Interesting experience.
Ever since awakening, my life has been day-long sessions of study and training. After all that commotion with the Blade and Forger families, it was decided that I would spend weekdays with the Forger family and weekends with the Blade family.
Special events like birthdays, balls, and commemorations of both families must be accompanied by your truly's presence.
And besides, legally I'm now known as Marcus Forger Blade, or Marcus F. Blade for short.
Anyway, when with the Forgers, I would be stuck with tutors almost every hour of the day. Luckily, my mother stepped in and managed to buy me a little free time, which she quickly filled with mother-son bonding time.
On the weekends with the Blades, he started training to a worrisome extent. And in order to make sure that I was in a good physical state, they even made the Forger family free some time for me to train my body.
For now, besides swordsmanship theory and basics, I only really trained my body and adapted my body to physical stress.
And after a year of this, I still haven't used any of my profession skills.
[
Name: Marcus Blade
Age: 6
Rank: G-
Talent: S+
Profession: Cosmic Forger (SS)
Strength: G+
Speed: G+
Stamina: G+
Vitality: E-
Magic: F
Willpower: D
Charisma: A+ (This stat is completely unrelated to mana or combat, this stat cannot be evolved)
Skills:
→[Blade's Basic Sword Art (G)] (21% proficiency)
→[Forger's Crafting Arts (G)] (38% profiency)
→[Magic Arts (G)] (19% profiency)
Profession Skills:
→[Cosmic Forge's Flame (A)] (0% proficiency)
→[Cosmic Forge (SS)](0% proficiency)
]
That wasn't really hard to understand, really. From a young age, the most important thing to drill into an awakened was habits.
Habits like waking up early, waking up at the slightest disturbance, a basic understanding of the duties of the awakened, and other habits that serve well for the awakened that will encounter battle, like me.
So while I was enriching my knowledge about forging crafts and fencing, as well as learning a tiny amount of magic, I was also doing a small project of mine.
When one received a profession, they received an innate understanding of it. Like everyone else, I too had that understanding. And with it I began an experiment.
An experiment that would last a decade.
Basically, there was a magical theory that stated that it was possible to link magic spells and objects with blood, and my [Cosmic Forge's Flame (A)] allowed me to change the shape and use of anything that did not possess a soul.
My plan was to plant a tree and let it grow while feeding it with my blood, then once it reached its maximum size and magical properties, I would use [Cosmic Forge's Flame (A)] to shape the tree into an item, not sure what yet.
The tree species was a rare, magical species. Albeit rare, it was not incredibly powerful, it was, however, unbelievably sturdy. Even as an infant of a single year of age, it was already as sturdy as some wooden swords used in the Blade family for training.
Perhaps because of my unique way of watering it, the tree was growing with a reddish tone to its trunk and branches, and the small leaves were now of a bright red color.
They looked quite unique in his opinion.
At this moment I was, once again, watering the tree with my blood and water. For a while I kept taking care of it, making sure that it was in good condition.
"Taking care of your tree again, Marcus?"
"Hm? Yes, Mother. It's growing healthy."
"I see, but when exactly are you going to tell me why you want to grow a tree? It's been a year, and you still haven't told me."
"It's a surprise. It would be ruined if I just told you like that, no?"
"I see. Well then, may I know why you request your teachers to meet up with me instead of being a good boy and studying with them?"
"Well, you are an archer, right mom?"
"Kind of, yes."
"Why are you an archer?"
"Ah! It's because of the profession I got when I awakened, it's called [Forging Archer (B)]. It allows me to link myself with any creation of mine and turn it into an arrow."
"Wait . . . any creation?"
"Yes, if I cooked a stew, it could classify as a creation, and therefore it could be turned into an arrow."
"What about me?"
"Yes even yo- No! Why would I turn my son into an arrow?!"
"It was just a question, mo- Owowowow, stop pulling my ear!"
She then spent a few seconds molding my face with her hands out of frustration. Damn, she had strong hands.
'Seriously, I was just curious.'
"Fhuu, so why that question all of a sudden? Don't you want to be a swordsman, like your father?"
"While I want to be a swordsman, with such a broad profession, I feel that it would be a waste to just learn one form of combat. I already convinced Father to teach me hand-to-hand combat in the future. And now I am asking you to teach me how to shoot a bow."
My mother's eyebrows shot up as she widened her eyes.
"Well, I suppose I could teach you, but the other things take priority! And you are still too young. Unlike what people think, archery is not for those with weak bodies, we will have to adapt your training exercises!"
"Wha-?"
'Why did they put myself into?'
The smile on my mother's face right now is outright scary. Is this what happens when she gets excited about something?
"Don't worry, my baby boy. Mommy will turn you into the best archer there ever was!"
"Huh?"
While that was cool, I didn't ask for such great aspirations! I just want to know how not to suck at archery!
Still looking at my mother's smile at this very moment.
'It really is hard to say no to her now. Well, I guess I'm going to become the greatest archer ever then.'
And although Mother's enthusiasm was quite overwhelming, in the upcoming days, archery lessons became one of, if not the most enjoyable times I spent.
Also, archery is way more complicated than I thought. The different types of draws, bows, and arrows were quite something, at times I even had to spend some time to study them in detail.
Anyway, things were going great, at the very least.
And with that another year passed, and I was now seven years old. Another great milestone for the great me, I suppose.
Not much changed in my daily life, to be honest. Still training and studying.
The only change was most probably the fact that I started actually training with weapons. I finally started practicing the Blade family's sword art and how to shoot arrows with Mom.
And the feeling of shooting your first target or swinging a sword at a mannequin was sooo good. It was not a feeling of power, but rather, it just felt really cool, you know?
Not that being cool was a great measure of proficiency, but it did good to my self-esteem, at least.
Anyway, after two years of being awakened and being trained by the two families, there were some things that he was able to learn.
Some of them he was already aware of, thanks to his meta-knowledge of the novel. Things like aura being an energy from my physical stats, like strength, stamina, and vitality, a.k.a., physical energy, and the power of my soul.
Or like how magic stats were determined by mana pools. Mana being the merge of natural energy and, once again, the power of my soul.
I also learned about some things that I didn't know before.
Like how intent was used to draw magic circles and other types of magecraft.
Or how exactly to form cosmic energy.
In the novel, cosmic energy was presented as something like a cocktail between mana and aura, but it was so much more. During my magical lessons, I had become quite attuned with my intent, and using my profession skills, which allowed me to use cosmic energy instinctively, I was able to understand that even intent was being mixed in.
So cosmic energy was a mixture of mana, aura, and intent.
That increased my proficiency by quite a bit.
And it was about to increase even further.
"Wait, you are not kidding?"
"I am not."
At the moment, I was with both my grandfather and my father. I had just finished a training session with them when my grandfather said something crazy.
"I will be bringing Andrew Swan to start your Awakened Training. We can train you how to wield a sword. Your mother can teach you about the bow and arrow. The Forger Family can teach you forging and magic. But, with such a wide array of skills, I am afraid that we cannot teach you how to balance it well enough. That is why we decided to hire him as a tutor."
Andrew Swan was a pretty famous Awakened. Not really because of his strength, nor was it because he belonged to a huge family. He possessed a profession called [Mimic (A)] that allowed him to copy any skill, including profession skills up to S Rank.
Supposedly, he started off with a simple D-rank profession. However, he was so talented with it that it evolved outside its boundaries, eventually reaching A Rank.
But, for me? His importance was way, way bigger than just that. Andrew Swan was not just a strong Awakened. He was the first named character in the novel to die.
Because he had taught someone, the true reason why he was able to evolve the rank of his profession.
*****
Author's Note: New Chapter, sorry for taking so long to update, personal life and stuff. Anyway, I'm back and as you might notice, they way mana and aura work in this novel is pretty similar to my other Novel's mana and aura. Coincidence?
Why don't you go check it out to make sure?
->Unsealed Demonic Dragon Goes to the Academy(36 Chapters)
And if you are into Fanfiction:
->Transmigrator Competition(28 Chapters)
->Unusual Wizard in Hogwarts(7 Chapters)