"Are you really going to enter another arena? Just because cult slaves are well controlled, they are not weak. Many fighters get beaten up by them, apart from the fact that you are a magnet for calamities I even told my aunt and mother that there is a high chance the cultists will attack the arena to free their people."
"Your support is always appreciated, it warms my heart Hilda, but stepping into this arena gives me a great chance to improve my skills and knowledge of my elements."
Hilda is not very happy with my decision to join a new fight club, she is right to be worried as I do attract some trouble and as the arena has cultists trapped, she is afraid that I will meet some important and powerful figure again, who worships an evil god.
I can't tell her but reassure her because I have this fear too, with my past experiences it would be very stupid to think that something like this can't happen, mainly because I'm absolutely sure that this arena is a kind of trap to catch more apostles of gods evil.
I tried to turn this conversation around by hugging Hilda and kissing her neck, but Hilda didn't change the topic of conversation or push me away. It wasn't a difficult result.
"Don't try to advance any further than that or I'll show you how I've improved my combat skills, I don't understand why you're so excited to fight in the arena. It's good practice, but I doubt you'll get much help improving your elemental mastery, you should focus on the training the headmistress gave you, haven't you made good progress on it?"
"Yes, but there are also some setbacks that can hamper my training or complicate it. Fighting in the arena might end up helping me more than simple practice can and I won't be spending too much time on it."
"I still worry about you, even though the imprisoned apostles are at a great disadvantage not all of them are weak. To many that can be dangerous, as far as I've managed to discover warriors of the elements ice, lightning, death in addition to the more common elements, and these warriors have gray and green cores."
"They are the elite who were being nurtured to be important figures in their congregations, they were only captured because their congregations were attacked by red nucellus warriors who had support from several green cores. Had they not been targeted by groups of elite hunters from the noble families who were lucky enough to buy the information from these cultists and apostles of traitors, these strong warriors in the arena would never have been captured."
"I doubt it will be pitted against this type and enemy, only fighters who became famous fighting the weaker apostles are considered to have such tough enemies. The purpose of the arena at the end is to humiliate the apostles and make money, because of this many of the apostles are not in their best condition during the fights."
"Don't be so sure Ulric, a lot of fighters have been defeated by apostles they may not have been hurt too much, but most fights can end up with fighters winning but that percentage is very close to fifty percent. And it takes a long time for the body of the apostles to start failing because of the internal wounds that accumulate in your body."
"The healers are instructed to heal the external wounds completely and the severe internal wounds, but they always leave scars on the apostles. These small internal injuries are accumulating to the point that their body is weakening, there was one of the apostles who after having his body healed after an intense struggle did not get up from the bed anymore because his organs were failing, he died in agony in bed from a disgusting cell."
"But that kind of damage takes a long time to appear, so you shouldn't expect your opponent to be weakened."
"Okay, I get your point, Hilda. I will be very careful with my fights and move around the city, always in large groups to avoid the chance of being killed by some calamity that I might bump into."
She's really worried about me, but that's because the city isn't so safe. Last week you hear rumors that a noble family has been attacked by worshipers of an evil god.
"We've talked a lot about my bad decisions, how's your training going? You too have been completely occupied with focused training like mine."
"Like yours? No, I am making preparations for my advancement, my way of training is very different from yours, Ulric."
"Serious? You know I'm focusing on my elemental energy, so I'm really curious how your training is so different. Isn't it an aura focused training?"
"My path is not aura or elemental energy. I focus on my spear and body, but the path I chose is very special and I decided on it before awakening my core, Ulric."
"Now I'm even more curious, how does your training work?"
I thought Hilda was focused on her aura, she always spent a lot more time training her control over her than her elemental energy. If it weren't for her custom spear, she wouldn't have the ability to use her element as easily as she does in fights.
"As I said before I focus on my body and cast, but to be precise it's the resonance between the two. I spent a lot of time training my spear art and aura because those are my main weapons. Do you remember the aura weaponry those three elves used during the rune matrix labyrinth?"
"Yes, but those were no ordinary weapons, teacher Frey has friends who have very strong opinions about them."
"Yes, it is a very controversial subject. Several years ago, one of the rune blacksmiths masters who was able to create some of the really strong aura weaponry, which unfortunately ended up causing the death of many innocents, is a refuge in my family. The master runesmith known as Ice heart was persecuted when blamed for his creations that were responsible for tragic events, he fled and isolated himself from the community for a long time."
"My grandmother the matriarch of the family knew him and helped him hide in our family, he uses a false identity until now so don't tell this story to other people. But while he helped my family with some high-quality works, he focused on his research, he didn't give up on making aura weaponry that works, but over the years he created a project completely unlike anything that ever existed. "
"And this project is the way you are training, Hilda?
"More or less, the path I've already chosen has been taken by other people, I'm just modifying it to have a greater chance of success. The common part of my path is my art of strengthening my body, core and my spear art the uncommon part of my path is my spear, aura and elemental energy."
"My arts of strengthening my body and core are quite complicated and have a lot of steps, they are not popular because their perks don't stand out enough, each step pro sounds like a strengthening, but they're not amazing. The arts cultivated until the end will strengthen my body and energy in a very impressive way with attributes that are very important to me, but to achieve this it takes a lot of time, effort and money."
"They consist of strengthening the quality of my body and core and the attunement between them, a person who completes these arts is capable of having a very resistant, strong body and extremely attuned to their aura and elemental energy. My nucellus will be able to contain much more aura and elemental energy than normal and it will have a quality improvement."
"Some people still train in these two arts, but it's quite rare. I train them because they will help me match my weapon to a much greater degree than normal. My current spear is not normal, it is a kind of embryo inside it has the core of what will be my green spear, this embryo is made of very rare materials and has a ridiculous number of engraved runes that not only makes this embryo amazing but also causes him to be connected to my core"
"This embryo is the innovation that the ice heart master created; it is not an aura weaponry but an extension of my own body. When I reach the next level in my two arts my body and core will strengthen enough for my aura and elemental energy to resonate with my body and core altering them."
"Usually this means that the initial stage of these two arts is complete, but upon reaching this breakthrough the embryo that is inside my current spear that has been feeding on my energies since I awakened will also resonate with my body and core. When that happens, he will not only be attached to my body and nucleus the embryo and his material will be a part of my body despite being outside of it."
"When my body and core are strengthened by the strengthening arts or when I advance to the stage of my core and its color, the embryo will become stronger with me and our bond will become even stronger. According to the ice heart master my future spear will basically be a second core of mine, it will be my aura and elemental energy within it strengthening the spear material."
"When I fight using it, I will be able to wield power far greater than any weapon could have wielded. The only weak point is that if my spear breaks, I'll be screwed, the master assured me that upon reaching the third stage of the arts and reaching the red core my spear will be able to heal itself, it will reach a transformation point that the addition of materials will be optional my aura and elemental energy will be the energy source to repair the spear and strengthen it."
This is insane, this path that Hilda chose is completely abnormal. She's basically linking her life with her weapon and waiting for the weapon to come alive; this is really a spear path I don't think even a warrior has followed a path that would make him connect that much with his weapon before.
"Isn't that too risky?"
"Do you really have the guts to say my path is risky? Your elemental energy has hurt your body, Ulric, this is not normal at all. I've never heard a report or even a joke about a warrior being harmed by his own elemental energy, it doesn't happen, somehow you made an extremely common path dangerous, my path can be described as extreme, but it is so much more I'm sure yours, stability is the focal point of my path because if it weren't for me, I would never have agreed to follow him."
"Okay, I won't say any more about your path, but I'm just having some technical difficulties with my elemental energy. I'm solving this setback; I've simply progressed too fast with my elemental energy for my body to keep up."
"And is this supposed to be normal? Not even the high elves who have an extremely high affinity for the elements of nature were able to have a warrior that their elemental energy is so freaky that it can hurt your body like yours is capable of doing."
"Are you talking about the mutant elves who end up dying early because the elemental seeds in their body are so strong that they end up injuring the rest of their core? You really are comparing me to these living bombs."
"Yes, because your elemental energy is very weird, Ulric."
I spent the rest of the day arguing with Hilda, I know she's doing this because she's worried about me, but I'm fine. I just need to temper my body more so that it is more compatible with my elemental energy which seems to have strengthened very quickly, which will take a while is very painful, but it is nothing as complicated as making a spear become a living being and being a second core.