'Had Rebecca just heard those words come out of her father's mouth.'
'Had Rebecca just seen her 7 year old brother manage to slap her father.'
'Had Rebecca just noticed the cut on her father's right cheek begin to bleed.'
These thoughts kept repeating in her mind as she walked behind her father who was carrying Ray over to dining room table. It was an elegant rectangular table that could seat twelve people one at each respective head and 5 on each side. One head was close to the window and the other was close to the door.
He set Ray down on the seat closest to the head of the table near the door.
"Fetch some water, Fen." Rowan said to the maid who had come along on the journey with him. She left for a minute and returned with a glass of water.
She handed it to rowan.
He proceeded to splash Ray with the water, waking him up!
"Ahh where am I?!" Ray said abruptly as he awoke but he quickly realized he was in the dining room with His father and sister.
"Oh, never-mind." Ray said and shook his head to get rid of the drowsiness.
"You did very well, Ray!" Rowan said with a wide grin. "You managed to slap me... and you managed to make me attack 4 times." Rowan grin faded a bit but he still held a smile.
Rebecca chimed in. "your fight was quite the spectacle brother!" She then turned to her father.
"Do you think he could participate in the upcoming tournament?" She asked.
Rowan asked the same question to Ray. "Do you think you can reach top 10 in the Solaris family's tournament?"
"Forget the top ten I'll reach first in the Solaris family's tournament with some more training!" Ray said confidently.
"I'll believe you and let you participate, so let me explain." Rowan decisively chose based on Ray's confidence. He then explained how the tournament worked.
{The Solaris family tournament was called the sun tournament. All the family members of the Solaris family [rank-C]{ Basic stage } and below.
It was a solo battle tournament which had a maximum of 150 combatants. There are 3 different battles.
First is the preliminary where a 50 person free for all takes place, once ten people are left in each arena it moved to the next battle.
The next battle is the duels. Random numbers 1 to 15 will be drawn and they will fight whichever person draws the same number.
The last battle is a choice fight, everyone will pick their position and if it goes unchallenged they will not have to fight for it.
Each person has 3 chances to challenge whoever wins gets the position.}
"So who should I be worried about?" Ray asked as he though about what his next training strategy.
"I'll tell you the main four." Rowan said the described them.
The most popular and youngest genius is named Jack Solaris of the 2nd branch which is known as the law enforcement branch.
His nickname is the Red Sky child because of the red clouds that hang around him.
He has duel elements which are both rare elements [Hell flame] and [cloud wind].
He is only 15 and has long straight blue hair as well as dark blue eyes. He's a sword practitioner who's reached advanced sword mastery.
The next one is Cain Solaris of the 4nd branch which is known as the research branch.
His nickname was The Mad Disciple because of his master the Mad Scientist.
His element is called [abyss ocean water].
He is a real recluse who only goes out with a mask so no one knows what he looks like. His weapon is potions that have crazy effects.
The third one is his own sister Raven known as the beautiful mountain. She is regarded as the most beautiful combatant.
Her element is called [stone earth].
Her main weapon is a rusty old morning star that is the only weapon that hasn't broken under her brutal attacks.
The last one is the strongest out of the four.
She is Belle Solaris of the 1st branch which is known as main family. Her nickname is the Burning Rose.
Her element is [Sun flower flora].
She has glowing green and red hair which was complimented by her purple eyes. She uses a magic staff given to her by the head of the first branch.
After hearing this Ray thought it was best if he trained some more.
"Thank you for telling me this father. I will take the top spot and bring pride to our branch." Ray said as he stood up and put his fist to his chest. He there left and went to train.
As Ray walked out Rowan yelled out to him.
"The tournament is in four months so train your hardest!"
------
As soon as he was out of earshot the two began talking.
"Are you sure we should send him in without telling him that it's life or death in there?" Rebecca asked her father with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Although he is special, coddling him will not make him stronger. In order to become even stronger he must rise to challenges such as this." Rowan said with resolution written on his face.
He then asked the maid to prepare the carriage to leave.
------
Greg reached the training ground and asked Arthur how to create the mana storage rune.
Arthur explained that he had to focus on the intent of the rune and then write the rune with his own energy and the more energy put into writing the rune then the stronger it will be.
He showed him the rune and told him to write it on his left arm.
He also taught him a rune to attract more solar energy. This rune was called [bring sun].
Ray did as he said and focused solely on what he wanted the rune to do.
He gathered all the solar energy in and around his body. He the focused it on his finger making it glow bright. He then pressed his finger to his left shoulder.
The pain was immense!
Ray gritted his teeth and held in his screams then continued to write.
10 minutes of immense pain followed and finally right before the 11th minute he finished. He let out a pained sigh of relief. He could feel the solar energy around him flowing into his mana core, then after it was full. the flow moved to the rune.
It was successful.
However he was not done there he cultivated his mana core until it reached the advanced grade of rank-E.
After that he began to write the same rune in a circle around a large rock. This took all night since he had to take a break to replenish his mana core after each rune.
This lasted until nightfall however during the writing Ray got better at using and controlling the solar energy on his finger.
Each rune was written better than the last and after nightfall he used the solar energy he collected in the storage rune.
Finally he completed the circle after 4am. Arthur was impressed by his dedication since writing runes for so long can cause a crazy amount of pain.
Ray thanked him and fell asleep on the large rock.