Over the course of that month, Clarence had a fulfilling experience with his mother. He felt like he had gained a shit ton of knowledge and could stand above everything on the final day of the month. His arrogance had peaked to the moon and had no intention of coming back.
But his mother brought him down to earth by showing him how vast the study of professions truly is. She just did one single experiment and his world view had turned upside down.
She literally made a silver-white cloudy substance in under a minute and pushed it towards the corpse of the rank three badger which she told him to take out beforehand.
In front of his very eyes, as soon as the substance got absorbed into the corpse, it started twitching and was soon back on its four legs.
But the worst part was that the badger turned around and started attacking him as if it was able to recognise him. He had to fight the badger without any preparation as his mom had no intention of helping.
Be that as it may, he was able to defeat it again and this time more easily than before, as he hadn't stopped improving throughout this month.
Even after defeating it, he was afraid to go near the corpse. He had come to understand the difference between him and his mother. While he was just tinkering with objects on how to make them work better or how to more effectively construct them, his mom could already revive corpses, or at least that's what it seemed to him.
"Never be overconfident in yourself, take every step in a battle with prudence. One wrong step due to your arrogance might be all that the opponent needed to activate the trap below your leg.
Calculate. Every. Move."
That's what his mom had told him after the fight. It was the final lesson of the month and also the one which impacted him the most. He had read about it beforehand, experienced it firsthand in the mountains, but it seemed that it had still not gotten to his head.
"Maybe I really am born to be on top?"
Clarence immediately hit himself on the head after thinking about it. He then resolved to practise humility from then on, as he didn't want to die a stupid death.
As he was walking towards the garden to lie down and watch the moon. He met his dad along the way, who asked,
"Done with the studying young man? How was it?"
"Gruelling"
"Want to spar to let out some steam?"
When he heard that, Clarence exaggeratedly lifted his head so high, he almost couldn't see straight and replied,
"Are you worthy?"
Almost instantly as he said that, he felt a flick on his forehead with tremendous force behind it. Because he had tilted his head so high, he immediately fell backwards.
"Fucking Bully, restrain yourself to my realm and I'll beat your ass."
His father smirked and replied,
"Sure, I'll restrain myself to your realm. If you could push me out of the circle, it's your win."
They changed course to go to the battle grounds and picked up their respective choice of weapons.
After both of them took their stance, Clarence immediately took off and attacked his father, signalling the start of the battle.
*****
Clarence was panting heavily while lying down on the ground. Besides him lay his father, who had a normal breathing rhythm.
Both of them were silently gazing at the moon when his father broke the silence and said,
"That is your 499th loss. Do you still feel no shame?"
"I won last time. You lifted your seal for a moment to stabilize your footing. I sensed that you know."
"You were using a rank two dagger while I had a normal longsword, I was using only one of my hands while my specialty is using dual swords. On top of that, I had completely suppressed my physique to function like a mortal, while even your mortal physique was equal to a rank one's. Remove the handicaps and I'll beat your ass just like today.
I had handicapped myself to allow you to go to the mountains, and purposely lifted the seal to check your mana sensitivity. The talent of mana sensitivity is of no use if you can't pick up the changes in your surroundings and deduce them to use them to your advantage in a battle. It was a hidden test in order for me to allow you to go to the mountains.
Got any excuses now?"
You couldn't even hear a single word from Clarence's mouth right now. If his eyes weren't open and moving, you might have thought he was asleep. It was as if he had completely ignored his father's words.
In reality, Clarence just felt like dying from embarrassment. All the joy and arrogance he was feeling came crashing down. He felt so aggrieved that he resolved to defeat his father one day.
Unfortunately, he vowes to himself about this everyday but had yet to see a result. He had been setting the same goal from the very first loss but still hadn't seen the result.
"No words, mister? Hah, bark more, where is your voice? Hahahaha"
His father was already making fun of him but he couldn't do anything about it. He was afraid he'd say something and would be made fun of again, so he just lay there down quietly gazing at the moon practising Buddhism.
After Lysander had his fill of making fun, he asked in a leisurely tone,
"So, how confident are you about the entrance ceremony?"
"Enough to fuck everyone"
"War isn't won by the population , my son. Calm down"
"I am definitely taking the first prize. Although I feel that I might have a chance of losing, but as long as I win the first few battles, I feel like I can grow fast enough to defeat everyone in the entrance ceremony."
"I see, wanna bet?"
"Of?"
"You'll get a surprise if you win, but you'll lose your rank four daggers if you fail to grab the first prize."
"Alright"
Internally, Clarence was a little scared as he knew that never once did he take out his rank four daggers out of their sheath after coming home. It meant that his father already knew about the daggers or probably scanned it with his divine sense after he came home.
He showed no reaction on the outside but was feeling a little relieved that he had used the system and exchanged all the items while in his spatial bracelet.
All the items disappeared and appeared in his spatial bracelet. Never once did he take them out. And he was a little thankful for that now. He was also glad that he didn't try out the simulation feature of the system.
He didn't know what might have happened if he had done, but he knew one fact.
The system and the golden blue energy were something no one should know of.