Grace and Joren both looked in the direction where the voice came from noticing Glenn staring at them wide-eyed with his mouth open as if he wanted bugs to fly in.
While his hand was shaking, he slowly pointed over at Joren attempting to speak, but nothing came out. He knew how skilled Grace was since he'd been training her for the past four years. But Joren? The only thing he knew was that Joren managed to awaken his mana and slightly create aura.
"How?" Glenn finally spoke. "You were-You-Have you always been able to do that?" he stammered. "You couldn't have because of the slave collar! So how?"
It makes sense why Glenn would be reacting this way. You're telling him that a 10-year-old who has barely started learning mana can perform spells that usually take years to learn and understand? It sounds crazy. Grace, who is 13, was finally able to solidify her mana three months ago and even then, she can't casually create mana balls or arrows as casually as Joren did.
"Umm, there was a book in the room I slept in that talks about the basics of aura. I just practiced what was in the book."
'That shitty book? He became this skilled in one month simply because he read a book?' Glenn's eyes almost popped out of their socket when he heard what Joren said. All of that was impossible unless...unless he was a magical genius.
*Sigh* "It appears that you are far more skilled than I assumed. Well, this is a good thing for us since that means we don't have to spend as much time teaching you how to use aura. We can get straight into teaching you how to use a weapon." Glenn said.
"So Joren, what kind of weapon do you want to learn?" He asked
"What can you teach me?" Joren asked back
"Good question. I have learned a few weapons throughout my life. Swords, daggers, knives, spears, archery, and hand-to-hand combat. Those are what I can teach you." Glenn affirmed.
"Woah! That's cool! Can I learn all of them?" Joren's eyes were sparkling with amusement. Who wouldn't want to learn various amounts of weapons and combat?
'Imagine all the cool things I can do to my opponents by knowing multiple weapons. I could embarrass some of them with their own weapon of choice. Oh yeah, I need to learn all of them and I need to learn them NOW!'
"Slow down there Joren. It's good that you want to learn them all 'cause trust me, knowing how to use multiple weapons can help you out in the long run, but you have to start with one first. Take me for example. My father was a hunter and sold animal skin, fur, and meat for a living. He taught me what he knew which included learning how to use daggers, knives, and archery. It was only later, around 15, when I developed mana. I went to the academy and that's where I learned how to use a sword. After I graduated, I joined the knight's order where I then learned how to use spears and further developed my unarmed combat skills."
"I'm learning how to use a sword, that's my primary weapon. Uncle Glenn told me it's good to know at least three forms of combat. My secondary weapon is a spear and my tertiary weapon is daggers." Grace spoke
"That's right. And even for Grace, I mainly teach her swordsmanship since that's what she will mainly be using. So Joren, what would you like to learn?"
'I still know my martial arts from my past life, but using them in this world will only get me so far, not because they are ineffective, but because I simply don't know this world's standard type of combat. So if I want to use my world's martial arts, I should learn the unarmed combat of this world and then combine the two.' Joren thought
"I want to learn the sword like sis. Um as for my second weapon, I want to learn unarmed combat. And for the last one, I want to learn archery." Joren spoke. He's always thought swords were cool. Watching a ton of fantasy anime spoiled him when it came to swords. Archery was something he also found interesting. While he didn't care for it in his past life, he did enjoy a cool archer in anime, especially when magic is involved. As for unarmed combat, that was his favorite. Nothing feels better than to beat the shit out of someone with your bare hands.
"Okay good. Now that you've made your choice, you can't change it. Regardless of how you feel, once we start training, you can't change to another weapon outside of the three you've chosen. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Uncle Glenn," Joren replied
"Good, now, both of you, let's go to my house. Training starts now."
...
Arriving at Glenn's home, they were greeted by Lauren who preceded to kiss Joren on the lips. At first, he was horrified. Lauren was kissing him right in front of his sister and her husband. But when they both saw this, they acted like it was the most normal thing in the world.
'If they not stressing about it, then I have no reason to either. Now gimme your sweet lips baby.' Joren started kissing Lauren back
After the kiss, they went to the backyard where it looked extremely different. Previously, it was just a neatly kept yard with a few rocks and tree branches here and there. There was a small fence that allowed trees to hang over. But now the entire grassyard was replaced with smooth stone brick. The once small fence was now tall and completely blocked trees from view apart from the very top. Off to the side were two training dummies and a weapons rack.
Grace and Joren looked at each other in disbelief. Not because of how nice everything looked, but how quickly Glenn's backyard changed.
'How the hell did his backyard turn into the fucking YMCA overnight?! That fucking tree is still there though.' Joren was literally practicing out there yesterday so he was pretty sure it didn't look like this when he left.
"Uncle Glenn, how in the world did your backyard change to this overnight? I didn't even hear any construction." Grace asked, her mouth agape.
"Dwarves," Glenn stated
Instantly, both Joren and Grace returned to a neutral expression. If some unexpected construction takes place and you don't hear or see it, especially for something as small as a backyard, it's definitely the work of a Dwarf. They are known to work fast, hard, and efficiently.
"How did you even contact a Dwarf to do this for you?" Grace asked.
"Well, he's in the Human kingdom selling some goods. After you guys went home, I left to purchase something when I ran into him. Long story short, I helped him out, we made small talk, treated him to alcohol and he repaid me by remodeling my backyard." Glenn gestured to the newly crafted training grounds.
'Wait. If he could make this in a night, maybe he could craft weights for workouts.' Joren turned to Glenn and asked him a question
"Is the Dwarf still here?"
"Yes."
"Do you think he can create something to help out in our training?" Joren went on to explain the workout equipment that he wanted. Dumbells, benchpress, and leg-press, and wrist and ankle weights. Those are the only things he needs right now.
Glenn didn't understand some of his explanations so he had to get pen and paper to draw and label what he needed. Once Glenn finally understood, his eyes lit up. He realized that the workout equipment would be a huge benefit to our training so after Joren finished drawing and explaining, he took off to find the Dwarf leaving Grace and Joren alone.
"Since Uncle Glenn is gone, I'll tell you what you need to do for right now. Go and get that wooden sword over there." Grace spoke with a feeling of authority.
After he grabbed the wooden sword from the weapons rack, he ran back over to Grace and awaited further instructions.
"Good, now you must practice vertical sword swings. Your hands should be slightly higher than your head. You need to distribute force equally in both hands so you don't perform a bad swing. Since you're right-handed, your left foot needs to be behind your right one. After that, come down with your sword and push off your left foot. So it should look like this." Grace demonstrated.
"Sword at the center, legs aligned. Raise the sword with equal force. Slash downwards while pushing off your left leg." After the demonstration, she told Joren to try.
Although he did know a bit about vertical sword swings, he still needed to practice them. He spent the next two hours practicing his sword swings while Grace had to correct his posture and form a few times.
Glenn still wasn't back, most likely training to get the Dwarf to make the workout equipment. Because of that, Grace started training on her own after she saw that Joren got into the rhythm of things and didn't need her help.
Finally, after another hour, Glenn came back with a large cart full of items with a short man pull it from the front.