"Well then …", Renny began to speak, perched in the middle of the living room on a small brown leather chair, "You have each grown to new heights since arriving at the main residence. I suppose it's time I should start to explaining to you exactly what I needed you all for".
Renny stood from the chair and walked to the far left of a line of men and women. He peered down at the first girl, Melissa. Across the 8 years she had grown from a timid but knowledgeable child, into an incredibly beautiful woman with an intellect nobody could hope to match.
She now stood at a shallow 5'4 and her long white hair was still tied in the scruffy bun behind her head. Her features only served to sharpen over the years, and coupled with her new thick, black rimmed circular glasses, her appearance of a refined scholar was cemented. She was now 19 years old and had demonstrated the capability to set out into the world alone, yet she remained in the residence for a very specific reason.
Next up was Rebecca, who similar to Melissa, only served to grow more beautiful the older she grew. Now 20 years old, her long white hair had been cropped neatly at her shoulders and she had a single strand of hair dropping across her forehead. She seductively swept her hair to the side, licking her lips as she stepped forward.
"Uncle Renny, get to the point", she said, startling Renny.
Renny let out a breath of air intended to be a scoff, before gently brushing past Rebecca, "I see you still have that nasty habit of using your appearance to lure others into a false sense of security".
In this time period, it didn't take long for Rebecca to fully understand just how far a good appearance could take her. In order to make up for her prior weaknesses, she began learning a specialised martial art from one of the guards stationed at the gate. It didn't take long for the once prideful girl to abandon that very pride, turning into a terrifying woman who even noblemen that visited the estate would shy away from.
Her attitude wasn't at all surprising, after all, she was now arguably one of the more talented of the Van Belched line.
Renny continued to move along the line, taking his time. He faced down at a boy who was barely shorter than him now, gently placing his hand on his cheek, "Look at you, who could've guessed you would turn into such a monster", he whispered calmly, "Well … Pavlor".
Pavlor looked back up at his father with dead eyes, his white hair had been dyed with black at the tips and his eyes were decorated with deep bags beneath each eye. His once feeble body now stood proud, chiselled as if it was carved from stone by a master sculptor. Pavlor removed his blue button up shirt, tossing it to the floor.
'It's nearly perfect …'.
Renny thought to himself, looking his son up and down. Pavlor's body underwent a complete transformation during the training, leading to him having the perfect balance of muscle and fat. He was still skinny, but in theory he couldn't be called that anymore. Each arm was toned to near perfection, each thigh perfectly maintained, his torso shaped into a V with his pecs and abs perfectly aligned and prominent. Pavlor had been transformed.
This of course, wasn't without its fair share of torture.
To help with his weight, Milo quickly devised a meal plan for the boy. To say it was harsh and gruelling was an understatement. Having understood early that Pavlor's body couldn't hold much muscle, Milo decided to abandon the idea of eating meat on a consistent basis, instead he traded it for nuts and grains that they foraged for themselves.
Not only did this make Pavlor's weight decrease at the start, it also made putting it back on near impossible. It was through this harsh method that Pavlor developed such a sturdy base for his muscles, after all, what better base was there for muscle than a thick underlayer built upon nothing at all. Turning nothing into something was by far the hardest part of his training, but having accomplished this, Pavlor's body reached new heights.
The 14-year-old now stood with pride, knowing the body he sculpted was a testament to his hard work.
Renny continued past Pavlor, glancing down at the final boy from the corner of his eye, "And you …", he attempted to reach out his hand but hesitated, "I'm not sure I even want to reach in there anymore, your aura is downright terrifying".
Milo let out a chortle, "Damn uncle, you can't be possibly scared of little me, right?".
Milo stared at his uncle, his eyes narrowed as his terrifying gaze swept Renny up and down. Milo stood at a whopping 5,6 at 12 years old and had spent the last 8 years honing everything about himself.
His body was something that could be considered perfection. He slipped off his black shirt, earning an audible gasp from everyone present.
'It still hurts …'.
Milo brought his hand towards the middle of his chest where a deep scar ran from his right shoulder all the way down to his left hip. Even his overwhelming muscles couldn't conceal the red skin that continued to cling to the wound. This wasn't the only drastic difference for Milo.
His white hair was now longer than Melissa's and swayed just by his tail bone. His expression continually looked as if he was bored of everything, with his top eyelid dropping over his deep blue eyes constantly. Even the air that surrounded him seemed to hold so much authority that he became completely unapproachable to those who wanted to speak with him. It was no surprise, it was almost unheard of for a 12 year old boy to reach the Ascent 3 stage after all.
After his initial training with Pavlor, it was finally at the stage he could completely leave it in Marcos' hands, Milo started to train his own abilities to see how far he could take his body. Somewhere along the way, he had begun to completely shatter checkpoints in development when it came to mana.
It came to light when he was only 10 whilst he was comparing each of his attributes.
The weakest of his affinities was earth without a doubt. Even after all of his training, it took all of the focus and mana Milo could muster just to conjure a stone golem. When he eventually reached this point, he could only maintain it for a few moments before its inevitable collapse.
His water didn't fair much better than that. He could pull the moisture from plants and the atmosphere, but he could only use that to form a small water bullet. If he tried going over the capacity, he would lose control and it would explode in his face. A lesson he was forced to face countless times.
His talent finally began to spark when he experimented with wind for the first time. Wind was an attribute that was fairly simple on the surface, but if you spent some time and dug a little deeper you truly began to understand just how terrifying it was. Using his past experiences and knowledge he had gained through books in his new life, Milo focused his wind to create a vacuum of space where everything was swallowed up.
It was no easy feat and to accomplish it, he was forced to sacrifice using wind in an attacking manner. He had tried to combine it with attacks, but each time his core would exert all of its mana for defence, leaving no room for attack. At the start he was sure this was a hurdle he could overcome, but each time he failed he reached the conclusion that this was a natural barrier that nobody could breakthrough.
He had a lot of questions for his uncle at this point, but training came first.
That led him onto his second most successful attribute, fire. Fire was a straightforward and destructive element but could be taken to an extreme when wielded properly, which is exactly what Milo did. He started off with a small flicker, then consistently added more and more oxygen to it.
That was when he had his first breakthrough in strength, after some more trial and error he was finally able to add enough oxygen to the flame to take it to a new level, creating a blue flame that was hot enough to melt a person. Of course, this was a technique he kept under wraps and would only show to Marcos.
Standing in front of Renny, Milo allowed his mana to slip from his body, wrapping himself in a deep black aura with his long white hair bouncing behind him.
"Well … my masterpiece", Milo said, spinning a few times.
A smirk pulled at Renny's lips as he pushed against Milo, "Fucking hell", He choked out, "The mana is so thick you can hardly breathe. How are you doing that?".
Milo shrugged, "Don't know, just worked somehow".
Milo's features became warped behind the aura, with new pieces jutting out. From the top his head, a pair of black horns now stood, from his back, a pair of small wings were sprayed out across the room, at the tip of each finger and toe, a thick claw was now displayed. His mouth was covered by a black mask causing his voice to become slightly muffled.
This was the result of his training with his best attribute, dark. Milo stepped forward, the air around him warping with each step, "I call it draconic armour", he said as he released his mana causing those in the room to visibly relax.
Not knowing how to properly create anything in this world, Milo drew upon his previous life's experiences in order to come up with his attacks. The first thing he focused on was his old bloodline, which was what prompted the inspiration for this draconic armour.
'Not that it's in anyway comparable …'.
After thoroughly examining the development of the children, Renny led them through the hall and into the dining area, where a banquet of meats, veg, fruits and pastries were laid out. Renny took a seat at the head of the table, Milo and Pavlor sat together on the left and Melissa and Rebecca sat on the right.
Milo picked up a leg of some sort of animal and took a bite, "So … what do you want?", he asked with his mouth full.
Renny scratched at his cheek, "Well it's not now …".
"Just tell us", Milo said again, taking another bite from the leg and stuffing a small chunk of bread into his mouth.
"Royal selection …", Renny mumbled.
Melissa slammed her hands onto the table, "Ah! I've heard about that!", she interrupted before Renny had a chance to finish what he was saying. Melissa shot a quick look towards Milo, then turned her attention back to Renny.
'What is she up to now …'.
"It's a national tournament held between every noble house", Melissa began the long-winded explanation, "Noble children aged between 13-16 are all eligible to participate and through the tournament they can raise their rank".
'So that's what it was'.
"Its in the royal capital and even the kings own children are said to be participating in this upcoming tournament. In all likelihood, the king and queen themselves will be in attendance, therefore almost every single noble in the kingdom is obligated to attend and showcase their very best talents", Melissa finished.
Renny responded with a small nod, "Right you are. That's where Milo and Pavlor will come in. Using you two we can quickly increase our rank and impress the king".
'Is it really that easy though …'.
Milo twirled his fork around in his hand. In his experience with tournaments like this, it was very rare for a low-ranking house to show up and actually compete. Not due to lack of talent, but because in these cases the higher ranks did everything they possibly could to gain even more favour with the king.
'If that is the case, they will probably feed the children elixirs to temporarily boost their strength, not to mention …'.
Milo understood why the kings own children competing would change the tournament. Would anyone in their right mind ever raise their hand against the prince or princess, even if it was just an exhibition tournament to showcase strength. Milo would, but he wasn't sure about the others.
He had heard that the king was quite a pain in the ass. Should anyone harm his beloved successor, odds are even the child would be punished alongside his entire bloodline.
'What a funny situation this is'.
Milo dropped his fork, sending a clanging sound echoing throughout the hall. He walked towards the door, waving his hand, "I'll do it if you tell me when it is Renny".
Pavlor quickly chased Milo towards the door, prompting Melissa and Rebecca to follow him as well.
Renny let out a sigh before calling people in to clear the plates, "It's next year, so you can train some more".
Milo pushed the door open, "That's fine then", he said as the door slammed.