Aion spent one month doing heavy physical training and got used to wearing the heavy equipment that most people used to wear while fighting. While wearing armor wasn't all that bad, Aion concluded that he would never wear full plate armor and focus on defense. It was just too hindering for his mobility. He didn't have the resources or the connections to get one particularly made for him, but he would focus on getting that at some point.
After the training that was practically heavy lifting, Aion showed some results while sparring with his brothers. Blocking and dodging their attacks became a lot easier, as expected. Training the basics was really the most effective way to proceed.
The battle tactics instructor and Aion's mother were running out of things to teach Aion as well, so he was starting to obtain a lot of free time in the afternoons. At first, he used that to look around the capital for buildings that he could buy. It didn't take long for him to find some residences on sale. Living in the capital was expensive, and some people wanted to move to the countryside due to it.
Although he bought the first residence in a place that wasn't much visited, after doing some repairs and adding an upper floor to the building, some people began to visit the area since it looked like someone rich was going to move there. Aion made sure never to let anyone see that he was upgrading the house with magic and that had been difficult since he couldn't just use brick to perform the upgrades.
Regardless, it took two months, but Aion finished the repairs and sold the first place that he had obtained for twenty-five gold coins. Again, he used the guild as a middleman, and the buyers frowned when they saw him, but they liked the place, so no problems happened after that.
Aion kept looking for places like that for buying since, most of the time, he couldn't rely on the guild since people didn't want to lose twenty percent of the money obtained. In order to make use of his time, Aion also trained Furtivity and trained to learn how to use that skill without the system… It was pretty hard since it used mana instead of stamina, and aside from the magic on his mother's side of the family, he couldn't use magic well yet.
"This system has a crazy potential, but dividing the skills like this sure is troublesome… Still, I guess some difficulty is supposed to be expected," Aion thought.
That kind of training was hard but quite fun. One of the parts that Aion liked the most was the part where he waited for people to blink while looking at him, and then he would use Furtivity to disappear from their sight. When people with good instincts were the target, it was hard to accomplish that, but most people couldn't follow him once he succeeded in getting their rhythm.
Regardless, Aion's source of income was improving nicely, and after six months, he finally had enough money to buy an inn in the capital that had six rooms for fifty gold coins. Just by keeping the employees, he already freed himself from a big problem. The only issue was the fact that the place wasn't making a lot of money. Every day, the inn only made around twenty copper coins, so Aion would have to wait for almost twenty-five years to recover his investment. That was too much of a long time.
With that in mind, Aion reformed the building in the next two months and then added also an extra floor, increasing the number of rooms to ten. After that, he put a fancy statue in the lobby of the inn to attract customers, and it didn't take long for the place to bustle with clients, making the earnings increase by three times. He did that once again in the next four months and obtained another inn that basically gave him the same amount of income.
"I guess it is time to focus on my training… the inns will grant me two silver coins daily, so money won't be a problem for a while," Aion thought. "I need to talk with mom about this… and I guess father as well."
Artemisia had a feeling why Aion was training so much, and while pained her heart a little, she couldn't bring herself to stop Aion from doing what he wanted. It was better than training for one day to rebel against the kingdom for her, after all.
"Mom, I am planning to train at the dungeon," Aion said. "Georges and Elio soon will join some battalions, and I won't progress as much by training by myself."
"I can see in your eyes that trying to stop you is a waste of time…" Artemisia said and then sighed. "Still, the guild only accepts those who are ten years older, and they control that dungeon."
Aion nodded. Things were peaceful later, so they had more than enough manpower to control the monsters inside. They had no reason to let an eight years old kid enter the place and fight monsters. He could use his father and tell him to go with him like he did when all the boys were around, but that would be pointless since his father would see him fighting.
Aion also could train with his father since he wasn't that busy these days, but Aion wanted the materials that he could get from the monsters. In the end, Aion decided to use his Furtivity. Since Jagger put some distance between him and his father, they wouldn't talk about the subject if Aion entered the dungeon without permission.
"If you think you are ready and you think that you can convince Jagger, then you are free to do so," Lexus said. "Still, within the walls of the capital, you are relatively secure. While outside, you might find people that won't think twice about showing prejudice toward you or worse."
"I will welcome those fools with open arms," Aion said.
Lexus frowned when he heard that… it was weird to hear that from an eight years old kid if anything. Still, Lexus couldn't tell what his son was going to do… he killed two people before to rescue his brother and showed no signs of fear or regret for taking two lives. Even the most well-trained soldiers have a hard time adapting to that kind of reality in the beginning of their careers…