Ambition

Nine wasn't the only one feeling somewhat embarrassed about his choice of techniques. Forty-five too clutched her technique books close to the chest and avoided talking about them in depth. Well, one of them specifically.

She had stuck with Ten throughout their exploration of the library's second floor, and her friend knew what she was keeping hidden. Thankfully Ten was a good friend, and despite the teasing looks she gave her, she didn't reveal anything to the others.

Forty-five had acquired a book on the seduction arts. It sounded bad, but was in truth just long term qi practices to enhance beauty and a few simple charming techniques. She had proven herself quite talented at the traditional arts of nobles, having held herself to a harsh standard due to her origins, and she felt it was likely she'd be required to blend in with higher class crowds and acquire information or perform discrete jobs such as assassinations.

Atleast, that was what she told Ten. There was certainly another reason.

Ten had teased her a bit while they were alone, asking if she was planning to seduce somebody, but Forty-five denied everything. In reality, they were both children and talk of 'seduction' started and ended at making boys like them.

Of course that was her only utility art, the rest being focused on combat. She had been using qi to carry her will and control a flying sword for years now and was already well versed in using qi to fight indirectly. What she lacked was the means to affect the world directly with her qi. And so the arts she chose would aid in that endeavor while benefiting the use of her flying sword.

As they left the library, she overheard Thirteen and Four talking about some duel to decide the best among them, and her gaze found its way to her best friend Ten. If she had to split her group into two, she would put Ten, Thirteen and Four together as 'fighters', while she always felt herself and Nine fought more so out of necessity.

That was okay, and she knew there was nothing wrong with that. But she found herself wanting to be like them. To join that half of the group.

One year they said. In one year, I'll challenge Ten too. She decided.

As Forty-five was making plans to train, Thirteen was doing much the same. He now had three new techniques to train in addition to everything else. He would need help with them, he couldn't do it all alone. The combat applications of Unhindered Motion would require the aid of the Helpers, while the Steel Body technique was better trained with the help of others as opposed to doing it in solitary. As for the Sanguine Control, only that one he could do alone for now, as he needed to bond his will to the blood in his body. But even that would later require sparring partners to master its application in combat.

This is going to be an especially hectic year.

The eighth generation was given a week of no regular classes to learn the foundations of their new techniques, after which they would be able to learn through experience in applying it to their standard combat lessons.

Thirteen and his friends split up shortly after leaving the library, each off to either the dojo or the clearing at the back of the mansion.

Thirteen wandered towards the Helpers lounge while trying to maintain multiple thought processes. He thought of the best training plan for his new techniques, while also monitoring the vicinity of all nearby footsteps, and focusing on whatever one was closest to him.

It couldn't be called an efficient way of thinking. Not yet. Instead, his thoughts slowed to a crawl as he often lost track of where he was going or what he was up to in devising his training plan.

Nevertheless, he kept at it and found his way to the Helpers lounge, just a lot later than he expected.

Currently, there were only about 20 children left in the eighth generation, more having been assigned elsewhere each year after not making the cut. What was left now was the best among them, and only two had failed to remain from last year.

With the lack of students, a lot more helpers found themselves without a direct student to advise, and so were free to help when needed, much like those excess helpers at the start of the first year who were not assigned a student.

When he reached the Helper's lounge, Thirteen knocked twice on the wooden door before opening it. Quite a few eyes turned to look at him as Thirteen surveyed the room. Eventually he found Melia, his personal Helper, and approached her amidst the many ongoing conversations.

"Good afternoon Helper Melia." he said respectfully.

"Thirteen. You picked your techniques?"

"I have. But to train them I'm going to need at least three helpers with steel shields and metal rods."

Melia raised a brow at his requirements, but soon looked around the room.

"Elena, Alderan. You busy?" She called out.

The two she called were not the helpers Thirteen was expecting, but instructors. Elena was an instructor that helped with qi cultivation and its uses in combat, while Alderan was Thirteen's greatsword instructor. The man was very large, and Thirteen was already regretting his plan as he sized up the man's built muscles.

"Im free, what do you need?" Elena asked as Alderan nodded.

Melia looked to Thirteen, silently prodding him to speak.

"Well… I need you to hit me. With metal rods. At the same time."

Silence.

——

In the open clearing behind the mansion, three adults, two women, one man, could be seen with large steel plated shields, beating a young boy with steel pipes as he failed to defend himself.

This was Thirteen's great plan to train all his techniques at once. Doing his best to keep track of all three iron rods, Thirteen used every part of his body in defending himself, deflecting and blocking rods, trying to redirect them to interfere with each other, or trying to position himself in ways that would inhibit the helpers movements.

At the same time, he would strike at the steel plated shields in their hands whenever given the chance, producing loud and harsh bangs as his fists gradually bruised before turning bloody.

To attain a steel body, he would need to be struck. To attain hands like weapons, he would strike metal. To learn the Unhindered Motion and control a fight against many, he would need practice, and mastery over its footwork and fighting forms.

As he defended himself, Thirteen maintained the Steel Body's breathing exercise, activating his body and forcing it to remember the strikes and adapt. Like this, his body would be more receptive to harsh conditioning.

Using his right forearm to swipe against an incoming rod from a safe direction, he redirected it to tangle with one other before striking the shield of the third helper, Melia, with such force that it interrupted her movement slightly and bought him a fraction of a second to defend against her iron rod.

That was probably his greatest achievement in the past few hours. Immediately afterward he was beaten down until he could no longer exhibit the control needed for his footwork.

Bloody and bruised, Thirteen wasted no time speaking with the helpers as he forced his legs to cross and closed his eyes. The best time to bond his will to his blood was when his heart rate was high. The Sanguine Control technique bonded will to blood through the heart, in a method very similar to something done in the Grand Life Tome's third stage which Thirteen had not yet achieved.

He focused on his heart, treating it as the core of his will, concentrating all of his intent on making it so. Then, slowly, he imagined his will being spread with each pumping of his heart, flowing through the arteries of his body. As if his blood was his will, and his will was blood. When he opened his eyes minutes later, Thirteen experienced a strange feeling in which he was cognizant of both the exterior world, and the channels of his blood, as if he were in two places at once.

Taking a deep breath, Thirteen stood once more, his healing having taken care of most of his injuries. The Helpers were skillful people with incredible control. They knew how to bruise and injure without causing major damage.

"Again." he said with false resolve.

'I swear to all the spirits, If this doesn't bring swift improvements within half a month, I'll do it the normal way.'

The helpers each exchanged a glance. Alderan had a praising look in his eye, while Elena seemed hesitant. To Thirteen, Melia looked like… She was having fun?

*gulp*

Thirteen continued to suffer through a hell of his own making until he was truly exhausted beyond swift recovery. To put it in technical terms, he had run out of expendable lifeforce with which to heal his body should he continue.

Hobbling back to his dorm, Thirteen sat on his bed and found a lifebloom, those beautiful flowers filled with vitality, and sucked everything it had from it. Once he advanced to the third stage of his body cultivation, these lifeblooms would no longer suffice to replace the vast energy he used to cultivate, but they would continue to work for now.

Closing his eyes, he absorbed the external life to replenish his own lost stamina and lifeforce, which he then expanded once again to cultivate his baseline. A vibrant aura emanated from Thirteen, filled with the power of life. Nine, who silently meditated on his own bed adjacent took a deep breath and felt revitalised.

This was the side effect of Thirteen's current stage of cultivation. His baseline had been improved so greatly that it was difficult to push it any further, often leading to the expulsion of most of the lifeforce used to cultivate. Soon, his baseline would become so extremely vast that this aura would emit at all times, his body no longer a large enough vessel for the expendable lifeforce produced.

Soon, but not yet. Thirteen finished cultivating and that aura vanished, leaving only a very subtle emanation surrounding him.

Now exhausted once more, Thirteen put it off no longer and slept deeply.

The next day he would continue his hellish training routine, and the day after that, and after that, for the entire week that he had been granted without classes he would continue this training. When classes continued, Thirteen trained like this whenever viable, though often leaving himself enough leeway in his stamina to perform anything else required of him that day.

Sometimes, he would opt to forgo that intensive method, and instead assume a horse stance as he was simply beat, training only his Steel Body technique.

Other times he would only focus on practicing the physical techniques of Unhindered Motion.

No matter his method of training for the day, Thirteen would always try to practice the mental exercises of Unhindered Motion, would always practise bonding his will to blood, and would always cultivate the baseline of his life force at the end of each day.

Gradually, Thirteen became better at dealing with pain, as his body hardened, and then weeks further after that, he became able to manipulate his blood outside of his body. Now that too needed to be trained everyday.

It had to be said, Thirteen truly did love seeing himself improve. It was the only reason he enjoyed the estate's lifestyle; his ability to recognize improvement worth every bit of effort he employed. But over the next year, he pushed even that to its limits, eager not only to beat his friend Four, who he knew was also training like mad, but to prove himself capable before the eyes of his instructors.

Thirteen would become a knight. He knew this without a doubt, and dared say he would awaken more than the barest requirements for knighthood. But that was no longer something to strive for, it was something certain in his eyes. Instead, Thirteen aimed to become a Blade of Demia, the most feared weapons of the kingdom, each bearing the might of an army.

And so, excluding the two times he was tasked with further missions outside the estate, he never went a day without giving it his all to master every technique and power he had. Not until one year to the day, when he would do battle with Four.