Newfound abilities (2)
Being able to see the nodes of all creation is an extraordinary ability, so much so that limitations were guaranteed to exist.
Firstly, I can only perceive nodes that are within my current comprehension. The nodes in higher-level objects, creatures, and spells remain invisible to me due to my current limitations.
Secondly, while I can perceive nodes, how to utilize them is entirely up to my judgment. For inanimate objects and spells, this poses no issue, as the nodes present are always impotent components.
However, when the node is located on a person, it becomes a different story. Nodes register on feints the same as someone's true movement.
The last limitation is the drain on my stamina. To process all the information from my enhanced eyesight, I need to channel mana through my brain as well.
While this constantly consumes mana when active, the passive regeneration from the bloodline ability more than compensates for it. The issue lies in the mental fatigue and strain on the enhanced organs.
Fatigue naturally dissipates with sleep, but continuous use of this ability demands excessive sleep each day. Wasting more than seven hours on sleep each night is not acceptable.
The strain on my organs is the primary concern. Human eyes, ears, and brain are among the most sensitive to damage, even when compared to our already frail physiques.
Thankfully, this limitation is only temporary. Awakeners at and above the S rank become progressively less human.
Until I reach this rank, limiting the usage period to around two hours a day would allow for the strain to recover day by day.
Rose and Claire both noticed that my performance tended to wane after sparring for two hours. As usual, they ended the sparring part of training today around this mark.
"It's already that time? What a shame your stamina is so poor…" Claire once again made a nonsensical comment.
'You are physically more than an entire rank above me. HOW IS THIS POOR STAMINA?' Claire was certainly aware of the absurdity of her statement. Anyone with common sense would give her a look upon hearing it, just as Rose did.
'She really isn't honest with her feelings.'
Sigh…
With the joint training sessions ending for the day, Rose switched back into maid mode. "Young miss, do you plan on training for the rest of the day again?"
Silence.
"Young miss, you start your first year at the academy in four months. If you two trained like this all day, you wouldn't be able to prepare properly."
With Claire having a renewed motivation to improve her skills, nobody said anything about her being engrossed in training for the past month. But it was a different story if she continued to neglect her other responsibilities.
"I'm aware…" Her crestfallen tone hinted at a reluctance to return to her usual schedule. Not that she had much of a choice in the matter.
Normally, children attend a preparatory school before heading off to their respective academies. In Claire's case, she took her third and final year off to gain experience as the heir of the Raven family.
Taking a month off from this was one thing; close to half a year was an entirely different matter.
Although strength is important, not knowing when to use it or making excess enemies is just plain foolishness.
Michael, and by extension myself, were among the few elites who did not enroll in a preparatory school. Michael not only had already mastered the material to be taught, but he also actively participated in the Raven family's business ventures. There was nothing to learn at one of these schools.
Additionally, he would have angered many of the elites with his indifferent demeanor. To some of them, simply being ignored was considered a grave insult to them and their house.
Although not enrolling angered some of them, people that irritable and irrational were not worthy of being pawns.
'Trash like that is worthless… Ironically, the leader of those bastards is one of them.'
"Michael, don't slack off without me being here." Claire's nagging snapped me out of my thoughts.
'Her opinion of me still isn't the best… oh well. Even this much is enough for now.'
Not bothering to answer her, I turned away to clean up and prepare for tomorrow's excursion.
* * *
The Next Morning
***-***-****
Ring… Ring…
"Young Master? What did you need?"
"Be out front in an hour with a full set of equipment for me."
With a short pause to process why I had made such an order, Rose asked cautiously, "Do you intend to enter a dungeon? Shouldn't you wait a while longer?"
"I don't plan on clearing it; I am only going there to gain experience."
Although she sounded reluctant, an order was an order. Us being slightly closer did nothing to change that.
"Okay… But I ha-"
"You have to be there? I know, just don't intervene unless I am going to die."
Clink…
Huuu-
"Nagging truly is annoying. I guess I need to be stricter with her."
An hour later
"Young Master, I have prepared an E-rank nanotech bodysuit and longsword."
"Good, I assume we are headed to an F-Rank Type I dungeon."
As we talked, both of us got into the luxury car. There was no need for anyone else as Rose was perfectly capable of driving.
"Even this much is pushing it. How would you go into something more difficult?"
'With Kinetic conversion, an E-rank would have been fine. Not that I can show that ability to anyone.'
Dungeons are rated from F to SSS. The higher the rank, the harder and rarer the dungeons become.
While humans can be rated as G, there are no dungeons of that rank. The mana held inside one alone makes it impossible to quantify a dungeon as G rank.
Dungeons themselves are a conglomeration of space attributed to mana that links our world to other-worldly areas.
There is not much known about their formation besides a higher mana concentration. The Rune magic involved is beyond mortal comprehension; the only gleamable fact is that Space magic is heavily involved.
Contrary to the knowledge about dungeon formation, information related to exploring them is readily available.
Type I dungeons have no conditions for entry or exit. Entry is permitted regardless of one's rank, but too much mana usage by them could destabilize the dungeon.
Type II dungeons have a limit to the rank of the person entering them but do not forbid them to exit even if it's not cleared.
Type III dungeons have clear conditions but no entry conditions. Similarly to Type I, too much Mana emitted inside could destabilize the dungeon.
Type IV dungeons have both entry and exit conditions.
Each of these four types can be determined by the mana signature given off by the dungeon. While the specific conditions have to be manually investigated, all proper guilds are given a device to determine the dungeon type.
There are also Type V dungeons. Unlike the other four, it is impossible to determine their type beforehand. These are mutated dungeons. Once someone is inside, the rank could change or entry/exit conditions might be randomly added as well.
The only way to deal with them is by overpreparing everything. Extra provisions and equipment, as well as being above the required rank, are needed if the dungeon type allows it.
Still, these only help. A vast majority of those inside Type V dungeons do not make it out alive.
Thankfully, Type V dungeons are extremely rare. Partially because they tend not to occur for Type I dungeons, which are the most common.
Hence the reason why we, like many others, try to only enter Type I dungeons if training is the main goal.
Had we been after a physical reward, the other types would have been more lucrative.
After a short 30-minute drive, we arrived at an F-Rank Type I dungeon located just outside the city sector of Ausiat.
The dungeon itself was under the management of the Raven Guild. As such, a dozen or so awakeners acted as guards and staff.
Normally, some of them would have been inside. But with a scion of the Raven family coming here, all of them left the dungeon obediently.
With all of them having prior knowledge of our arrival, the identification procedure quickly moved along.
Most of them recognized Rose as well, which only served to hasten their duties.
Having finished checking our identities within a minute, I entered the dungeon with Rose following behind.
"Rose, make sure to keep your aura restrained. The monsters running away upon sensing you would be a pain."
With a curt nod from her, we went on our way.
After walking for around seven minutes, we encountered our first monster.
An F-Rank shadow goblin.
Although physically weak for its rank, its affinity with darkness allows it to partially meld into shadows. While this does not grant intangibility, perceiving them does become vastly harder.
However… stealth-type enemies are easily dealt with once their stealth has been found out.
With a quick wave to Rose signaling I'm aware of it, I walked straight by the creature.
After only walking 4 steps past the shadow goblin, it made its move.
Leaping from the shadows was the goblin, dagger in hand. Seeing that I did not immediately react, a grotesque grin spread across its face.
Once it reached just one meter away, my sword flew out of its scabbard like lightning.
Not expecting its prey to react, the shadow goblin was unable to react in time and lost its head to a swish horizontal slash.
Despite being my first monster encounter, it truly was…
"Boring." After muttering that, I shook the blood off my blade with three rapid diagonal slashes.
My new swordsmanship art was displayed more by removing the blood than when the blood was drawn.
After sheathing my sword, I placed the carcass inside my space ring. The monetary value of the F-ranked goblin was minuscule compared to the money I had access to. Xavier's obsession with money made me unconsciously collect the corpse.
For the next hour, Rose and I silently continued along the dungeon. Every few minutes, we would walk into a goblin. At first, there was only a singular F-ranked shadow goblin.
Going deeper, we found small groups of two and three. Still, this did not change their fate at all.
Shing… Squelch…
For every swing of my sword, one of their lives was lost.
Soon, we encountered an F-ranked shadow goblin.
Similarly to handling the others, I waited until they were within a meter's range to visibly react.
However, unlike the F-goblin, this one was able to react to and block the initial slash.
While the goblin did manage to block my first attack, the force sent vibrations throughout its arm. This dulled its ability to properly position its dagger to block my follow-up.
With my second stroke, the goblin's hand rolled off. Being a low-ranked monster, it was unable to deal with the pain and exposed itself to a sudden decapitation.
Had I enhanced my eyes with mana, I would have been able to quicken the process further. But doing this would only serve as a crutch in the future.
I aimed to develop a swordsmanship style that utilized nodes, not something dependent on my enhanced eyesight.
This dependency became more apparent when facing groups of F-ranked shadow goblins.
Dealing with two was easily manageable. Three was not.
Even if I never was hit by their daggers, the lack of efficiency in cutting through the nodes made incapacitating a goblin in the gap between another attack difficult.
After sidestepping their initial attack and swiftly decapitating one of them, another threw its dagger at my heart.
In the time I took to block the dagger, the goblin took out another and ran toward me. The other goblin being half a pace in front of the other reached me first and took the chance to try and slash my leg.
Swinging my sword downwardly blocked that attack, but not in time for a counterattack. The second goblin tried to impale my back with its spare dagger.
I quickly jumped forward near the first goblin which had yet to recover. Taking the opportunity, I slashed its head in half along with part of the goblin's shoulder.
Before the other goblin caught up to me, I kicked its dead comrade's corpse at it.
Its shock and lack of vision allowed me to swiftly impale both of them through the heart.
The fight itself ended in 30 seconds. And Rose looked proud at my results.
On the other hand, I was annoyed but not crestfallen over the results. Using what was left of Michael's original swordsmanship or enhancing my eyesight would have yielded quicker results. I was trying to discard the former, and not turn the latter into a crutch.
Using either of those would have nullified the purpose of coming out here to train. The goblins, although far weaker than Claire, came at me with the intent to kill, which exposed the inadequacies of my new style.