Walking with my sister into the castle and navigating ourselves in the corridor, we spot our parents getting ready to enter the dining room.
`They must have been together after my training, so he'll probably know I've advanced,` I thought.
My guess was probably correct since I could spot a small appreciation as soon as his eyes landed on me.
"Let's eat," says my father. We all nod, and the maids push the door revealing an already fully set table.
We all gracefully take our sit, befitting the noble etiquette, and the maids start serving our food with an amazing synchronization just like they have done this thing hundreds, which they have.
We start eating, and my father starts the conversation by saying;
"Amelia informed me that your mana had a breakthrough," he says in between eating.
Before I could even answer, my sister congratulated me pretty excitedly.
"Congratulation Michael!" she says with a beaming smile plastered on her face like she was the one who broke through.
`They truly are alike,` I say as my mind drifts off to my sister in my previous life.
"Thank you, Liz," I answer with the same smile.
"Elizabeth, don't make a fuss while eating," says my mother.
"I'm sorry, I was just excited," answers my sister without her smile leaving her face.
"Yes, father, I did," I answer my father's previous statement.
"Don't get too worked up over a small achievement. As you already know, breaking through to higher ranks gets harder as you progress."
"I know, father. You don't have to worry."
"Good. Also, don't forget your sword training. It is as equally important as your magic," my father finally advises.
"Yes, after lunch, I will go and train our sword technique," I answer my father, and he smiles with a prideful look when mentioning our family's technique.
The lunch afterward was pretty quiet, with no unnecessary talking. We all finished our food, got up from our seats, and courtly left the room, my father probably in his office and my mother back to her chambers.
"Michael, why didn't you tell me you broke through?" asks my sister with a slight pout.
"I couldn't tell you. Imagine beating you at chess and at the speed of breaking through," I say with a rather playful smile.
"God, I hate you," she says and leaves, not before punching my arm.
After my sister left, I headed towards my room again, changing outfits to a more training appropriate one, consisting of a loose black shirt and loose black pants accompanied by black leather boots.
Even though I just ate, I don't feel full since when one has awakened, his system changes completely. I don't mean his status window but his body as a whole.
On my way towards the training grounds, I nod towards all the maids and guards stationed in different places inside the castle, who politely bow to me.
While absentmindedly walking, a young guard, probably at the age of 20, comes up to me and says,
"Young master, the floor on the training ground is flooded due to the continuous raining the past two days."
"How high has the water risen?"
"It's not that much, around 10 centimeters. I just thought that it would probably block your movements while training," he says with a serious face.
"Hmph. Don't worry. Since it's not that much it won't prevent me from training. It may even be more beneficial. I appreciate you warning me anyway," I say to him with a slight smile.
"It is my duty, sir," he responds, still with a serious face, bows his head, and leaves.
Upon arriving on the training grounds, I spot the floor completely covered with water.
`It won't prevent me much since I will just review the moves from the Draconic sword and get a more familiar feeling since everything is still like a memory to me.'
I head to the sword stack and pick one wooden sword up.
"This will do," I say while swinging the sword feeling it cutting through the air.
So the draconic sword art is a sword art that Nathaniel Dacre invented. The story of my first ancestor is widely known in the kingdom since he was the one who elated our status from commoner to nobility. He was born around 300 years ago, and he rose from commoner by defeating a dragon with the sword art he made, thus naming it draconic sword art, which was also why The king bestowed him the surname, Dacre.
This tale nowadays is mainly treated as fictitious since no one has ever seen a dragon let alone fight one. Even the history archives don't have a record of a dragon being seen. The same also goes for our family's library and archives since very little is known about Nathaniel and there doesn't exist any record in which he admitted to defeating a dragon.
Some nobles even speculate that Nathaniel was a hidden bastard son of a noble at the time, and The king bestowed him a title of nobility to show the commoner populace that even while being a commoner, you can still rise with enough merit, hard work and of course, talent.
I'm more prone to believe the second version since not a single record has been seen, even in our household, where Nathaniel has submitted the events that transpired at the time.
Setting off those unnecessary thoughts, I focus on the sword art
This sword art is really powerful, and many have sought it through the years. Alas, they failed miserably.
The sword art consists of four moves.
The first move is a barrage of attacks from horizontal and diagonal slices to forward thrust. It's called Illusion swing since the attack appears so fast and makes the opponent think it's an illusion.
The second move is a single attack that focuses more on one very powerful move. It's called Charge since the sword charges or is imbued with mana and delivers a powerful attack on the enemy.
The third move is a simple slice of the sword. The thing that makes it destructive it's that it allows the user to imbue their affinity on it. The thing that makes this more special it's that it doesn't have a requirement of a specific affinity to use. Every element can be imbued, and that is what made this sword technique so sought after by everyone. The third move it's called, Integration.
The last move is one that I can't use since it's required from the user to have a fire affinity, the same one as Nathaniel, which I don't. But maybe one day I can change it to become suitable for my ice affinity.
Getting in stance I start by performing the first move, and I unleash a barrage of attacks while I'm getting completely drenched by the water that has flooded the floor, nevertheless continuing. Mid the barrage, I immediately change to a second move charging my sword with mana and unleashing a powerful slice that travels across the room and destroys the wall on the other side.
`I should put a little less mana. I forgot that I had a breakthrough a couple of hours before.`
I throw the sword that is currently in my hand since it broke from the previous powerful attack and go to the stack and pick another one.
Getting in stance yet again, I continue performing the first and second sword moves alternately while slowly imbuing more mana on my sword.
`I won't perform the third technique today 'cause I might make this room completely out of ice from all the water that's in here,` I think amid my training.
Getting all the unnecessary thoughts out of my head, I continue performing the first and second moves, getting lost in the feeling for a considerable amount of time until I feel something swelling up inside me. I focus on this feeling, still performing the moves with even more dedication until I hear the same sound inside my brain;
"Clank."