The wind blew hard as Dante walked towards the knight's training grounds. His family had a private one which had a better facility for training physically and with mana in general. However, there was quite a high chance he would be forced out by one of his other family members.
Although Jason was on his side now. Dante also was knew that his loyalty was weak, if he were granted amnesty and safety by his siblings as well as his family. Jason would be eating out the palm of their hands, betraying Dante without a second thought.
Their relationship was flimsy at best, this was not a viable option for the long run.
The knight's training grounds were a separate location from the main house of demiscue. They were 20 minute march from the estate. On this special morning it was very cold and Dante was only wearing a light training gear.
It consisted of a stretchable black shirt absorbent of sweat. Light brown trousers with a belt and light armour which contained a brown leather pad for his shoulder.
When he arrived he finally saw the large arena. It was mainly a large stone platform in the middle with barracks to the right. The barracks were massive as they hosted the hundreds of knights that were living on site for the house of Demiscue.
There were many of these large stone platforms, some held weapons, whereas others held training dummy's or weights. On the far left however, were mana enhancement rooms. They were miniature rooms with thick walls and a bed and fountain inside.
You would only visit those rooms if you exclusively wanted to train your mana alone, by cultivating and meditating. The water and bed were so you were sustained without any disturbance.
Finally there was a large dirt path circling the entire training grounds. This would be for stamina and running.
It was currently 5 am and no knights were up yet. It seems for the next while he was alone.
"It's best there are no disturbance."
He walked up to a certain platform in the middle it held all the weights a person would need. After searching for a few minutes he found the items he was looking for.
***
"Fuck..."
Dante said in a low tone under his breath.
Below his clothing he had added extra sand bag to increase his weight. He had placed them onto his chest, back ,core, shoulders, arms and legs.
He had barely managed to walk to the start of the running area when he could feel the full effects of the sandbags. If he didn't correct his posture to be straight. It would be difficult for him to even breathe as the weight will make it uncomfortable.
There was also one main thing he needed to remember. He cannot fall over under any circumstances. If he were to fall down.
The weight of the sandbags on his chest and body would not allow him to stand up and worse of all it would slowly start to crush him.
But what is risk without reward. Doing these types of trainings would give him the most benefits. He started to move his legs and run.
***
Roughly an hour had passed when he stopped running, Dante had to take multiple breaks in between however he knew that his muscular endurance and stamina had improved substantially.
It was 6:03 am now and the sun had come out when in the middle platform something had caught his eye.
Golden blonde hair fluttering in the wind , Bright blue eyes focused on each strike.
That's right, Dante's eyes widened as he remembered her. Silvana Aegis. The Golden Shield of the Empire.
Currently, she was worth nothing now but would be a key pillar in holding of the Demons in the future.
In the future the demons would take over a neighbouring kingdom next to the continent of the empire. The emperor had ordered a mandated issue, ordering large families to give up 80% of their knights and armies to serve the empire. Silvana had been chosen as one of those given up.
Edward was the Hero of light, destined to save the world. However Silvana was a different type of Hero. Despite Edward being corrupt yet strong. Silvana would end up saving millions with her brave death in the front lines of the demonic invasion.
She perished alone whilst she bought enough time for thousands of soldiers to escape and taking down thousands of demons in the process.
Edward had hated her as he could never entice her to join his harem. What's worse to him is that although Edward had a higher standing, she still had a large influence of the soldiers. So in order to maintain his power and control he had sent her off to the front lines in the pretext of "Protecting the Continent."
In Dante's views most heroes were a hypocrites. However, she was one of the few exceptions. Living her life entirely for the good of the continent. With her action's to prove it, her sense of justice is incredibly admirable.
However, It is incredibly foolish in his eyes. Death is still death, what's the use of dying if your opponents still stand...
She wielded a large great shield in one hand and a lance in the other.
The most impressive thing about her was her Unique set of Family Technique she developed herself.
'Payback series'
It was an incredible form of techniques fully utilising her GrandShield and Lance. It's full effects would be taking the damage of attacks and retaliating with her lance with the 'payback' damage.
Essentially becoming a living reverse technique.
These techniques are what allowed her to live for so long in the harsh life of the frontiers.
He had only seen her a few times in his previous life. She was also ridiculed for her weird fighting style in the beginning of the academy. However they soon stopped when her talent bloomed in the examinations.
From then on she seemed quite cold and closed off as those that bullied her tried to recruit her into their factions.
It seems at this point in time she was still developing her abilities. She swung her lance towards the straw dummy, enhancing her first step along the way.
It was the technique [FlashStep (F)] The first step would be enhanced allowing the user to attack swiftly.
Dante judged her with his eyes analysing her training. He couldn't find her shield anywhere so he assumed she was only training with her lance right now. She must have only recently awakened, as despite not having been awakened himself, he could still sense her aura.
Using his intuition, Silvana was currently at the edge of High F Rank. She could soon break through into Peak F Rank...
Nevertheless, Silvana never once acknowledge his presence in the time he spent watching her form. She did notice there was another person with her. Yet it did not matter, at the end of the day they would not be enough to keep up with her. So talking would be a waste of effort.
Most of the men and knights her age who spoke with her only wanted one thing. It was due to her looks which was with exaggeration beautiful. She held different goals to them so in the end they just ended up bothering her.
"RAGHH" She truck the target hard once again, this time using multiple steps.
Dante nodded he had seen enough. He walked up to the other platform a little bit away from Silvana, deciding to pick his weapon. He was proficient in all types of weapons but he used the spear most.
Infront of him was a large amount of mid quality weapons, he walked over to where the spear was and picked it up. It felt quite weird and unfamiliar to his hands...
Yet Dante just blamed it on the quality of the weapon.
After taking up a stance. He decided to use an old spear technique which he was quite lucky to learn from. It was the [5 Star Spear Technique (A)]. Although he found it hard to master, it was still quite useful to learn. It was nothing compared to his grandfather's skill with the spear his techniques were SS class. [Heaven Splitting Spear God (SS)] that's what many people called it.
It was a shame however. As he never took in a disciple and never passed the technique down to anyone else. Leaving the legacy to die through him.
After swinging for a little while and trying to replicate some techniques, he simply could not.
'Something is wrong...' Dante could feel it. It was as if he was blindfolded and told to hit a target 1000 meters away.
Every swing felt unfamiliar as if he were a baby trying to walk. 'What the fuck happened?'
When he tried to spin the spear, his grip was loose and clumsy, leaving the spear to go flying in the air.
Dante clenched his teeth as he gazed at his palms in a mix of confusion and disappointment. Even when he first started learning the spear he was not this bad.
CLANG!
Silvana glanced at Dante and the spear which dropped on the ground, Her expressions were neutral as she steadily breathed in. Although, deep inside she was slightly disappointed. How could a person be that untalented with the spear. Although she used a lance she could easily do better with the weapon on her first try.
'Sweat more in training to bleed less in war.'
'A person who works hard can change their situation. Seeing as this man showed up here to train early, he must possess the will to train. Even with his lack of talent he may be able to change his future.' She thought as she went back into striking the dummy.
Dante's thoughts continued to spin but was interrupted by a message from the system.
_______________________________
{Side effect activated}
Technique: [Heavenly Demon Sword Arts (SS)]
Effect:
Sword Bound:
- For deciding to learn such a technique. The Host's fate is bound to the sword, any other weapons shall be restricted. All proficiency and experience of the others have been wiped completely and shall never be earned back again. In return, the sword will be like an extension of one's body, blood and family. The sword is all you have known and the only path you walk on. At the same time you feel as if you have trained in the path for thousands of years yet none at all. Remember.
'The closer you get to perfection, The further you stray from it.'
________________________________
'What?' Dante was shocked by this message.
'What kind of bullshit is this?'