Edited by: Black Jesus
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A small girl could be seen collapsed on a grass field. The surrounding guards could only watch with worried faces since no one dared to near the girl. It was Delilah. She had just finished running the laps that were assigned to her and even added a bit more. After Delilah finished, she recalled the time and knew that within a few moments Marvin would arrive for the start of her magic lesson. Delilah took this time to rest and collapsed on the floor. Before she did, however, she told the surrounding guards not to touch her or send for help as she was okay.
A few minutes went by, and Marvin could be seen running towards the premises. Earlier he had been making his way leisurely, but when he noticed the little princess collapsed on the floor, he panicked. He pulled out a talisman that was enchanted with a slow healing spell and used it on Delilah. This was arranged to maximize Delilah's time training. She would recover through the talisman while receiving magical lessons. Delilah soon got up. Marvin used an attributeless spell to clean her and her clothes.
"Princess Delilah, are you all right?"
"Yea, I fine Sir Marvin," Delilah then got up and fixed her appearance. After that, she gave a ready expression towards Marvin.
"Since you're ready we'll start today's lesson then. I'll assume that you've already read through Merlin's classic. Today I'll have you practice the mana sensing realm. Follow the technique in the book. With the mana vein and me overseeing you along with your talent nothing should go wrong," said Marvin.
Delilah nodded then sat down cross-legged. She focused her senses trying to feel the mana in the surroundings. Delilah decided to focus on the weird feeling she felt when she came to the training ground. She had subconsciously entered an ethereal state when she had come in contact with the mana.
When Marvin saw this he was stupefied. Ethereal state! Delilah actually possessed the ability to enter such a state! Marvin recalled the information regarding such a state. This state was an innate ability that would help a person comprehend magic related things at an enhanced rate. A person would receive double the results with half the effort at least compared to ordinary people. The ethereal state was comparable to an advanced grade {Spell Comprehension}. That was just a grade 1 ethereal state at that. Also whoever possessed it usually would have weak spell comprehension. But anyone would choose it over spell comprehension.
Marvin then recalled her celestial grade affinity for summoning magic and dual physical attribute. This princess was truly a genius among geniuses. Their small kingdom would just hold her back as they would not be able to nourish her potential. After she came out of the state, he would hold a conversation with her regarding what plans she had for the future. Although he knew he was not in a place to do so, he could not bear to see such a genius potentially waste it's talent away.
Time soon passed, it was not until an hour later that Delilah woke up. She was just on the brink of being able to manipulate mana when she got distracted and felt a weird sensation as if she could sense the outside world and time again. She opened her eyes and was surprised to see Marvin intently staring at her.
"You're finally awake."
"Finally?" asked Delilah puzzledly. She felt as if she had closed her eyes for only a couple of seconds.
"Yup you've been in the ethereal state for nearly an hour," replied Marvin with a gleaming expression. Such a long time was rare for someone at her age. This meant that her ethereal state was at least grade 2. Marvin was excited.
"An… hour? Ethereal state?" Delilah was very confused now.
Marvin then took the time to explain to Delilah about the peculiar state and what it meant. He also went over the detail regarding spell comprehension and how people who possessed the ethereal state should not focus on that. After that, his expression then turned a bit serious.
"Delilah, what do you plan to do in the future?"
"The future?" muttered Delilah. To be honest, she had not thought all that much about the future. She was just focused on the now and had set her goals to become powerful As soon as possible to help her find a cure for her grandmother.
"Have you thought about going to study at a central empire?" Marvin soon noticed Delilah's confused expression. He assumed that she had not yet learned about the bigger world.
To sum up, what Marvin then told Delilah, the continent that they were on, Clarity Continent, was divided into 5 territories. The north, east, south, west, and central territories. The Ancient Flower Kingdom lay in the West territory and was one of the 10 kingdoms in it. Unlike the north, east, and south territories they were not governed by one force such as an empire for example which led to constant strife in the West territory.
But when Marvin mentioned the strife in the western territory, he quickly changed the subject. He then began to explain the central territory. The central territory was the largest territory, and similar to the layout of the continent was split into 5 areas. The central state lay in the middle surrounded by the 4 outer states. Marvin did not know much about the central state but just knew that any so-called genius here could be considered normal there and that they were so strong they did not involve themselves in worldly affairs or power struggles.
But Marvin did know about the 4 states. Although not as powerful as the central state, each state was just as powerful as the northern, eastern, southern, and western states put together. And unlike a kingdom or empire, the head power of each state was their state school. Underneath the advanced state school was a number of standard schools.
Marvin himself had studied at a standard school in the western state. However, he did not have the talent to move on to the advanced school. When he mentioned the advanced school, he showed a longing expression.
When Delilah learned about how the world was so big, she became dumbfounded. She had spent her previous time cooped up learning spirit formations, and since she showed talent in it, her grandmother just let her be.
But she soon decided that she would head to a state as soon as possible. She would be able to grow stronger and maybe find a cure for her grandmother.
"It's now time for the lesson here to end. Look over Merlin's classic some more and since you have the ethereal stats you don't have to look over the flower compendium for now as we know the situation regarding spell comprehension. Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."
Delilah sent him off and then rushed back to change her clothes. Although Marvin used a spell to clean them, she still felt a sticky sensation. As she was running Delilah heard her stomach growl. She realized that she had not eaten in a day! When she recalled the time, she was happy. Right about now was dinner time. Dinner in the royal palace was held rather late since it wasn't until later in the evening that the queen finished her work. Delilah had always grumbled about this, but for once she was thankful.
After cleaning up she rushed towards the dining hall. An aroma of meat instantly met Delilah. Her mouth started to water as she knew that today's menu was BBQ meat. Delilah ran towards a chair, sat down, and began ravenously devouring the food. She completely ignored her grandmother who was at first going to reprimand her but soon turned down the notion when she saw how hungry her granddaughter was.
Delilah could bring big adult soldiers to shame the way she was currently eating. She had reached a new level of voracity. She continued using her hands to stuff as much food down her tiny mouth as she could. Delilah felt like crying as she tasted the sweet, oily BBQ meat.
She soon finished everything on the table, bones included. When Delilah's grandmother saw this, she even thought that her granddaughter was a monster. One who wouldn't even spit out bones afterward either. Her thoughts were soon interrupted when Delilah blatantly blurted out, "I plan to leave for the central territory soon to study at a school." [ED: lmao she even ate the bones?!]
Her grandmother was taken aback. She then realized that it must have been Marvin who told her about it. Queen Lily was planning to send Delilah away for her safety too. She rejoiced that she didn't need to convince her granddaughter to leave. Queen Lily just nodded back. She double checked with Delilah first, and then both came to a mutual a. As soon as Delilah became an apprentice classman, she would set off for her journey.
Delilah then concluded her night with a medicinal bath and studying Merlin's classic. Like the day before she stayed I. The library overnight. However instead of studying she had fallen asleep.
It was soon the next day. Today was the day that Delilah would start off with a new goal. That was to reach the apprentice level as soon as possible before heading off to a state school. A central state…. she longed to go there as soon as possible.
Delilah quickly refocused and got up. She set the weight of her enchanted garment from 100 to 160 pounds then proceeded to head to breakfast. After eating breakfast, she noticed that there were less baked goods than previously but shrugged it off and started making her way towards Roy. She wore a white training jumpsuit, and a few hours later she made it to the indoor training field while also beating her time.
Roy nodded approvingly. He then assigned her to weight training. He decided to skip agility training as her natural attribute allowed her to be way above average. Today was the first time he got to see her train. Roy was surprised. Delilah could be seen carrying a large boulder above her head squatting up and down speedily. Roy wondered if something had happened or if she was just naturally a determined girl. To be so committed and hardworking at such an age, Roy really had to applaud her. He was however that she was pushing herself too hard.
"Stop," said Roy when he notices Delilah almost collapse on the floor.
"What's the matter with you?"
"I need to get stronger as soon as possible," replied Delilah with a determined expression.
"Why?" Roy was confused. Why would the princess who was so naturally talented need to progress even faster than her natural rate?
Delilah hesitated and decided that it was best not to tell anyone about her grandmother. If anyone knew that the kingdoms strongest expert and repelling force was currently ill, then that would spell disaster both internally and externally. She then told him her goal of wanting to head to the western central state to study at a school. Roy was not too surprised as he knew how much of a monster the little girl was.
He then thought things over. Although he had prepared the toughest regime for her, there was still another way to speed up her training. That was to Qi endurance training. This type of training required a person of at least the advanced rank with precise control of Qi. He or she had to control it and have the other party train while enduring the pressure of Qi. Although it was relatively safe and had many benefits, it had strict requirements for the other party. The other party had to be a genius and have strong endurance. This meant that the other party had to be no older than 10 years old and the persistence of a 10-year-old child was usually not high. Especially to the type of excruciating pain that Qi endurance consisted of. This was why it was rarely used.
Roy then explained all of this twice making sure not to leave out a single detail to Delilah. He had already talked this over with the Queen, and she had told him to let her do it if he saw she had the will to endure it. Queen Lily did not know Delilah's plan to get stronger as soon as possible so that she could find a cure, so she also didn't know the level of Delilah's determination. She did, however, know that Delilah had unnaturally strong willpower, even compared to adults.
Delilah readily agreed, and it was decided that she would start Qi endurance training with her strict regime. Thus began Delilah's days of brutal training where she recovered while training in her ethereal state, tempering her heart and magic streams with mana. Her busy days passed and soon two months had gone by.
With Qi endurance training, a strict regime, medicinal baths, and nutritious food, Delilah had reached the peak of the body tempering realm. Her strength had also doubled as she instead of possessing 500 pounds of strength per arm they were each at 1000 pounds resulting in a whopping combined 2000 pounds of arm strength. Her leg strength was also at a whopping 1500 pounds on each leg.
However, the scariest thing was Delilah's speed. She could now reach the indoor training field from the royal palace, in what previously took her 4 hours, in a mere single hour. As for magic, she had also reached the peak of the mana sensing realm. Her heart and mana streams throughout her body were completely tempered. This would have usually taken a year for a genius but what helped her the most was her ethereal state. With the guidance of Marvin, she could now hold the ethereal state for up to 4 hours. These results in her physical empowerment and magic were not just due to her innate talent but strong preference.
Delilah stood staring out the bedroom window looking towards the sunset. Today was the first break she had in two months. She, at first, was lost and didn't know what to do, but soon remembered something that she had no time to spend on. That was spirit formations. Today, Delilah would resume her studies in spirit formations and discover the many applications regarding spirit power!