Reformation

Midgard Kingdom,

Cold winds were blowing. The sky was azure blue, and some cloud could be seen. The sun produced only a little amount of heat which failed to elevate the cold in the kingdom.

Inside a large palace which was situated at the center of the kingdom.

Knock, Knock

A woman in maid clothing knocked the door lightly, "Prince, it's time for the breakfast." she said.

"You can bring the food here." a voice came from inside the room. Hearing this the maid brought many dishes inside the room, but she didn't find anyone inside.

After putting the dishes on the table, she said, "Prince, the food is served."

"You can leave now." a voice came from the bathroom, hearing this the maid left quietly.

In the spacious bathroom, a young boy lay afloat within the depths of a generous bathtub. This 14-year-old lad, with a hint of youthful plumpness evident, particularly in his rounded cheeks. Eyes closed, he reclined effortlessly on the water's surface, relishing a moment of tranquility.

"Ahhh... what a relief!" he exclaimed before emerging out of the water. After getting out of it and drying himself off, he left the bathroom and headed straight to the mirror. Gazing at his reflection, a small smile played on his lips. "My hard work is paying off," he noted with a sense of accomplishment. However, as he scrutinized his body, his smile waned. "I lost so much weight that my body can't even heal these stretch marks," he sighed, noticing the marks on his stomach.

While wearing the shirt, he went to eat the food placed on the table and started to eat it while looking at the city outside, "I think I should start eating beast meat, so that I can gain strength faster and recover."

Eating beast meat enhances the user's abilities, depending on the quality of the food they are eating, but digesting the meat also requires a lot of energy, so most of the people eat it after doing intense training, or before doing any training.

Finishing all the dishes on his table, he came out of his room and walked towards the training hall, this was his first time going to the training hall. Since he wants to digest beast meat, he has to increase the intensity of his training which he can learn from the instructor in the training hall.

When he stumbled upon the training hall, Alex's eyes lit up with excitement. He was always eager to learn new things, especially when it came to combat.

Inside the training area.

Many peoples were running, punching in air, some were waving their swords, spears, and some were meditating at a corner below the trees.

At first, the warriors and mages were taken aback. They had never seen a prince so eager to get his hands dirty by coming to the training hall where peoples bathed in dirt and sweat daily.

Suddenly Alex's gaze landed on person not far from him on a person who was lifting weights madly, like his life depended on it then it shifted to the little white light ball not far away from the man.

He rubbed his eyes and looked carefully at it, "What is that white thing?"

Looking around he noticed that no one was paying attention to that ball like thing, he then came to a conclusion that he must be the only one to see that ball.

'Is this some kind of delusion or is it the talent I awakened. But I have never heard of such kind of unique talent. It is even different from our hereditary talent.' 

But then thinking of such a unique talent he was excited. 

'This talent must have awakened during this month of training.' since he didn't come out of his room that much, he didn't know that he got such a thing.

Alex looked down at the small ball, perplexed. He had crushed it effortlessly, but as he examined it further, he felt a strange sensation in his body. It was like a normal buzz, except that he didn't feel anything.

After that little buzz he felt strange, curiosity piqued, Alex began to explore further, searching for more of these bubbles. To his surprise, he found several more scattered throughout the hall, each one identical to the one he had just crushed. About ten minutes later, some guards and knights stopped there training as the noticed the anomaly, but none of them was brave enough to go forward and question.

As he picked up another bubble and crushed it between his fingers, Alex felt the same strange sensation of power coursing through his body. It was a feeling unlike any he had experienced before, and he couldn't help but wonder what other powers he might be capable of harnessing.

The guards captain came forwards, he bowed respectfully to Alex and asked, "Prince, did you lose something here?"

As Alex was moving here and there with his sight on ground below, they thought that he have lost something.

Alex shook his head and said, "Nothing, I was just watching your and others performance, now you can get back to your training."

The captain nodded and backed.

By the time he had crushed the last ball, Alex was practically buzzing with energy. He felt invigorated and alive, as if he could take on the world. It was a feeling he never wanted to let go of, and he knew that he would do whatever it took to continue harnessing this newfound power.

As he left the hall, Alex couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement for what the future held. He had unlocked a new power within himself, and he was eager to see where it would take him.

Alex then gave up on those white balls and came out and started to move back to his room.

Alex said while moving forward, "Bring food in my room and after that we will go out of the palace for a walk."

"And from now on bring some beast meat, now the normal food is unable to satiate me."

The butler was shocked, but he still nodded and ran towards kitchen to bring food for Alex.

After entering his room Alex let out a sigh and then carefully looked at his hand and then clenched them, he felt that his strength had somewhat increased. Then he noticed something at corner of his sight, after focusing a little bit on that he was surprised to see a screen protrude in front of him, some white words were inscribed in the black screen.

-----------------------------

Strength : 30

Agility : 25

Dexterity : 30

Mana : 30

[Basic martial master]

Skills : Basic Swordsmanship [25/50], Basic Spearman ship [14/50], Lower-level mana breathing [22/50]

 ----------------------------

"I got a status window, without even awakening, but how? And it is even different from what I have been told." as he was thinking about this, he heard a knock on the door.

"What is this Basic martial master? And where is the rank that status screen normally displays?"

Alex retracted his gaze and said, "Come in."

The butler then opened the door and came inside, after putting the food on the table he moved towards the door and stood there.

Alex then sat at the chair and started to eat the food.

'Judging from his reactions, he doesn't seem to notice this weird screen.'

Then suddenly a thought came in his mind, he said, "Sebestian, is there anything that can measure strength, available here?"

"Yes, prince, currently we have a special device through which we can check measure the stats of a person."

'Noticing Prince's strange behavior, visiting training area and asking about stats... Looks like now Prince is serious about increasing his strength.'

'Finally, prince will be able to use his talent in correct way rather than wasting it on others.' thought Sebestian.

Sebestian happily answered, "Yes Prince, you can check your stats in the status screen, but since you haven't gone to awakening trial, you can only use rune table for now, but it will be less convenient than status screen."

Alex just nodded to his answer and continued eating. After finishing the food, he stood up and said, "Let's go, we will take a tour in the kingdom."

Sebestian nodded and said, "I shall prepare a carriage for you first, Prince."

Alex shook his head, "No! when I said a walk, I literally meant walk."

"But-" Sebestian wanted to say something but Alex stopped him and motioned him to start walking.

Alex came out of the palace, after some time of travel, he blended with the crowd. The butler was walking behind Alex and some guards were also secretly following them from distance.

As he was walking through the crowd, he saw different kinds of peoples skinny, fat, burly peoples some radiated powerful auras while some were normal looking, some were eying on other people's things.

As he was moving through the crowd, he came across many stalls, shops and merchants, some were selling herbs, others were selling weapons, foods and other miscellaneous items, he was able to identify some things but many of them were out of his scope.

.

Alex returned to the palace smoothly.

At first, he was casually strolling in the market, he unknowingly picked many balls of different colors, which increased his strength.

As he picked more and more balls, he started to notice different intentions aimed towards him, but before those people could make any move, they were swiftly taken down by the guards following him.

He was quite shaken by the incident. 'I was just roaming in the market, but who would have thought that so many people would target me?

'Haah... there is no use thinking about it now.'

After sighing, he checked his attributes.

'Open Interface' as Alex thought of this a black screen immediately appeared in front of him.

-----------------------------

Strength : 35

Agility : 25

Dexterity : 32

Mana : 30

Skills : Basic Swordsmanship [27/50], Basic Spearman ship [14/50], Lower-Level Mana Breathing-II [14/100], Basic Mana Strengthening [2/50], Basic Mana Control [10/100]

-----------------------------

Hmmm...

'But still, I don't know who these stats work in the real world, I have to ask Sebestian about it later and compare them to others, since this isn't showing me my rank the stats must also be different.' after that he glanced at his stats again then closed the stats window.

As he came out of his room, he didn't have to search for his butler, as just as he came out Sebestian greeted him.

Alex nodded and asked Sebestian about those stats and mana.

Sebastian brought Alex to the study room and started explaining the basics of mana and how to gather and control it from the surroundings. From then on Sebestian taught basics to Alex for a week.

On the seventh day, while meditating Alex covered the tip of his finger with mana causing Sebestian to be surprised. After he finished his meditation smile bloomed on Alex's face, he then showed it to Sebestian.

Sebestian was thinking that Alex will take at least some days to sense mana around him if not months, this is if Arthur have at least C-grade talent, which he obviously didn't have. And to gather mana from surrounding, it will take at least a month of practice.

In some minutes, Sebestian noticed that some specks of mana were moving towards Arthur body, although the amount of mana was pitiful it was still more than was a normal person can do.

Sebestian was shocked to see the advancement he said with delight, "Prince Alex! You can gather mana! You must have finally awakened your talent, and it must be either A-grade or it can even be a S-grade." Some tears started to pour from Sebestian's eyes.

"After his Majesty returns to the kingdom, I will inform him about this. He will personally hold a ceremony to assess the prince's talent." Alex smiled with a little arrogance in his face.

After some time, Alex discarded the whole thing and returned to his room.

At night,

Alex was excitedly looking towards the moon he was laughing inwardly.

Alex sat on the windowsill of his room, gazing out at the city below. The moon was full and bright, casting an ethereal glow over everything it touched. From his vantage point, Alex could see the entire city spread out before him, with its winding streets and towering buildings.

It was a beautiful sight, but also a sobering one.

'At least I will be able to live happily in this life. I will find a much better girl than her.'

Hahahahaha...

As Alex was dreaming about many things, he suddenly heard a very faint sound.

At this moment he felt something, a little tingling in his whole body. He tried to move and see behind but to no avail, he wasn't fast enough, but he saw something dark near him.

Pat!

Pat!

A head rolled away from Alex, as the headless body fell. There was something peculiar about the situation, Alex was standing in his position, but his pupils were white, it was like he was frozen there.

Out of nowhere, an enigmatic figure materialized in the room, seemingly composed entirely of darkness. It appeared as if light couldn't penetrate the shroud surrounding this mysterious being, rendering them nearly invisible.

"Heeh, you think you can take the incarnation under me, you must be dream..!" as he talking to himself, half of his body disappeared like a sudden glitch, but it came back in the next moment.

"Wh..at the?"

"I don't ha... much t... " he pointed his finger towards Alex and a black beam shot towards Alex from his finger.

As he did this, golden blood started to drip out from his mouth, the person said in astonishment, "Why is... it backfiring me.. s.. much?"

A smile suddenly formed in his face, "Ther... must be... something spec..ial in this place." after that he disappeared from the room.

...

...

Haah...

Alex took a deep breath as he touched his neck. 

"What just happened?"

But then he looked in front of him and saw.

[ System upgrade will now begin ]

[ Countdown : 2 years ]

---------------------------

-Alex Stormbringer, second prince of Midgard Kingdom. 

-Five siblings in the royal lineage, three boys and two girls.

-Alex's mother, the second wife of King. (currently alive)

-Hereditary talent of Stormbringer family, different degrees of lightning manipulation and related to it.