He opened his eyes to find a drastically different scene than what he was used to. He was used to the wide open area of the grasslands but at this moment he was deep in the heart of a forest. He sat up straight and looked around, his gaze landing on a stranger he had never seen before. The stranger, strangely had lush purple long hair going down to his shoulders. He was tall and muscular although not as muscular as Adam and he had a serious face which was a stark contrast to Adam's smiling face. He had a purple hue in his pupils and he had an aura of power that always encircled him.
"You're finally awake. Listen up, whoever you were with previously abandoned you in the forest, am guessing he thought you were dead. It's safe to say he's not returning for you. So from now on I'll be your mentor, I'll train you and make you as powerful as they come so you can survive in this world." The man said while handing him a brand new pair of clothes.
"Umm sir may I ask a question?" Alsvid asked as he put on his blue shirt and black trousers that the man gave him.
"You may call me Kage, you'll earn the right to know my real name when you're powerful enough." The man said.
"Right, Kage, this is supposed to be a last man standing program, so why is it that everyone I've met so far has not killed me immediately they met me?" Alsvid asked.
"Good question kid, the answer, people like me and your former mentor have already killed your type of apparition before so we thought to stick around and help you grow in power while others don't see you enough of a threat to kill you immediately. Be glad you're alive and stop questioning." Kage said sternly.
"Ok sir." Alsvid replied.
"My name is Alsvid by the way, nice to meet you." He said.
"Ok Alsvid, first lesson, leen to not get attached, things like name, age, hobbies will get you attached and this could make it hard for you to kill someone you consider close to you in this world. Take now for instance. If I asked you to kill your former mentor you can't because you think you are close but look how quickly he abandoned you when he thought you were dead, didn't even verify before tossing you aside. First lesson am going to teach you is to never get attached. First, were going to need a nickname for you. What comes to mind in terms of fake names." Kage started his lessons immediately.
"Umm, there are a few that come to mind, but the most prominent one is Monarch." Alsvid replied honestly.
"Good, from now on, your name is Monarch, not Alsvid, Monarch, no one should know your real name, you are monarch. I will hammer that name into your very being." Kage said.
For the rest of the day kage made Alsvid rehearse and believe in his personality as Monarch. He would respond only to Monarch and no other name. At the end of it Kage cooked some unknown meat with some unknown vegetables and they ate. The next day they went over the rehearsal they did the previous day and after a sufficient amount of time they set out to an unknown location. On their way Kage was teaching valuable lessons about essence.
Adam was crushed but tried his best to hide his pain while Nathaniel felt the worst kind of guilt he had ever felt in his life. Adam had tried many times to comfort him but he knew Adam was suffering way more than he was which caused him to feel even more guilty and destroyed all of Adam's chances of cheering him up. Adam despite everything decided to play the role of a trainer once more as he started teaching Nathaniel everything he knew but he was also doing a few things on the side.
The first day's lesson was essence control same as Alsvid. They went over all the steps multiple times until Nathaniel had no difficulties performing said steps. From the he revised the steps to the skill known as the charged strike where he trained Nathaniel to specialize in that skill very well. He then requested the help of Nathaniel. His last battle has killed most of his summons and he desperately needed to create new ones.
The concept for the new summon was simple and had way too many problems to be useful. Basically, it was a very muscular humanoid creature that used essence to heal from any and all injuries. That ideas was scrapped quickly because after the incident with the old man they realized they needed more offense than defense.
Their second idea was a little to glass Cannon to work with Adam's build. It was a humanoid creature that could create and control flames that burnt hotter than the sun and that was all. Such a being would be destroyed long before it could make a move on the enemy and as such was scrapped immediately.
The third idea was a little more promising. It followed the concept of holy saint a little bit but instead of being a saint, it was a being wearing an Oni mask. It had the ability to summon Oni demons to fight for the user. It was an amazing concept but as a summoner and upon witnessing how easy the old man went down Adam chose to scrap the idea as well. This prompted Nathaniel to ask why he didn't just create the summons he already had before to which he replied that his apparition doesn't allow him to create the same summon twice, there would need to be some differences. So instead of helping him create new summons, Nathaniel started trying to help improve the old ones.
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