8 Chapter 7

Third person's POV:

"So this twerp looking one here is our infamous "The Blessed"?", The noble boy standing beside Claire addressed Vigor.

He was very tall and big for his age. He had squinted brown eyes, large eyebrows, brown hair, with a blond streak in the middle.

"Hey, don't be rude!", Claire elbowed him for a scold as she turned her gaze back to Vigor:

"Sorry, my friend didn't mean it. Right Theo?"

"Yeah yeah, not at all…Some introductions then shall we? The name is Theodore, house Maxwell.", he extended his hand out for a handshake.

'And I wish to have dinner in peace….'

"Vigor of house Kinsteel, I have no means to be rude but as you can see: I'm really trying to enjoy my food right now and I don't want to stand up either. If you two really want to say anything, I suggest sitting down already. ", Vigor responded in annoyance.

"Oh, okey-doke, thanks Vigor.", the Bladeheart girl with a carefree attitude immediately agreed as she occupied a chair next to him.

'Wait! No! I take back what I said!!!', Vigor with a panicked expression, yet it was utterly too late for him.

"Haha, quite a big mouth huh?", Theodore followed her as well, taking a seat opposite to Vigor.

"Here, we are sitting. Handshake now?", Theodore kept his hand forwards with a grin of provocation.

Vigor let out a sigh, begrudgingly gave his hand out:

"Pleasure to meet you then."

Theodore grabbed his hand as he applied as much force as he could to crush Vigor's hand bones with a tight squeeze that he thought would hurt him badly.

This was Theodore's way to assert his superiority of strength over other noble kids to intimidate them. Especially with the annoying brats whom he considered bothering his friend Claire.

However, his grin soon disappeared as he realized how hard and rough Vigor's hand was, showing it was the result of consistent physical training. And of course, unlike other ordinary children, the firstborn of Kinsteel's expression remained unshaken by Theodore's devious trick.

Suddenly, Vigor slammed the Maxwell boy's hand down on the table with just a slight strength from his wrist.

"Thanks for your "friendly greeting". If you don't mind, I wish to continue eating.", Vigor replied with squinted eyes, let go off Theodore's grip.

Claire noticed the reason and began to glare at her friend with judging eyes.

"Ouch!! Wow hoho, not bad! Not bad at all, kid.", Theodore retracted his sore hand, massaging it as he now looked at Vigor with interests.

"Theo! Why do you have to be such a meanie to anyone we just met every single time?!",Claire pinched Theo's ear to punish him.

"Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch Ouch! I only wanted to test him! I'm sorry, Claire!! Ooouch!!!"

And thus, Vigor "experienced" another socialization(against his will) with his new "friends", Claire Bladeheart and Theodore Maxwell, as both of them constantly chatted and asked about Vigor's experience with awakening and magic due to their great dream of becoming a mage and being able to use magic, just like princess Kathyln.

'First time at a party: worst experience ever in my second life.', Vigor died from the inside.

The party soon came to an end, Blaine appeared on the stage and said good bye after taking another speech to send his gratitude to the guests who joined.

Vigor returned back home with his family, finishing a mentally exhausting night.

"Son, we need to talk."

The moment Vigor was returning to his room, Benjamin called him out, his voice was as calm and deep as ever, but based on his expression, the topic he was about to discuss definitely would be a serious matter.

"Right now father?"

"Yes."

"Can we.....discuss it tomorrow, tonight's party just exhausted me by every level."

"Oh please, we all know that there's no way a simple banquet like this can physically exhaust a child with orange core like you."

"Well not exactly in terms of mentality."

"Come down here young man, before I'm letting your mother take her turn to call you out by her 'own way' instead."

With zero hesitation, the black hair kid jumped down to the first floor, not even using stairs. He enhanced wind magic to his feet and landed safely just like last night when he escaped through the window.

He followed his father to the living room where his mother was sitting on the sofa and waiting in silence. After a long series of questions regarding Vigor's progression the party came from Selena, she was glad that Vigor actually made some friends. Little did she know, her son was suffering the whole time.

Benjamin directed the conversation back to the main topic, starting with him asking:

"Vigor, have you ever wondered about our family? How were we and our ancestors capable of holding a craftsmanship of armory and weapons that could be compared with the level of Dwarves themselves?"

"According to what I've read in the history book of our family, it's stated that our ancestors collaborated with the best dwarven forgers in order to improve Sapin's military armaments after the human king and the dwarven king signed the treaty to become allies. So our ancestors learned from the dwarves' blacksmith skills and improved them for our own, I guess?" Vigor responded with his hypothesis.

"Well, that is partially true. But not all of it."

Benjamin said as he raised his right hand with his palm up and focused his mana at it. Instantly, pieces of dark brown rock enveloped his hand entirely from his wrist to his fingers, creating a sturdy clawed gauntlet. Subsequently, catching Vigor off guard was his father's rocky gauntlet that began to emit cracking sounds coming from it. The sounds were similar to brittle scraping of….metals.

Vigor's eyes widened in disbelief , bewildered as he spectated every single inch of the gauntlet lost its earthen color and was replaced with metallic. Until the process was finished, Benjamin folded and stretched his fingers multiple times, making the sounds of metallic objects clanking at each other. His gauntlet was now turned into pure steel as no sign of earth mana on his hand could be confirmed by Vigor.

"As you can see my son, there's a particularly special reason why we are called ....'Kinsteel'."

(A/n: Yea. Their house's business is about forging steel into weapons and armors. Their unique deviant is creating metals, steel. And the bonds between the members(kins) are as strong as steel.)

Vigor's entire figure stayed still like a rock, not moving an inch of muscle as he attentively continued to receive loads of information from father. He would be a big liar if he said this new life of his wasn't full of surprises. The revelation of his bloodline's "classified distinctive metal deviant" along with an extra dramatic show off coming from Benjamin made him visibly bewildered.

'HOLY SHIT!!', Vigor immediately thought about all the extraordinary potentials he could do with this ability if he could achieve it like his father.

Benjamin carried on with his usual stern voice and his face's expression now pouring even more seriousness into the topic.

"This is our legacy, our power, our ..."steel". However, I will reveal more to you about our deviant tommorrow and teach you about it later as you are being closed to the age of unlocking it too. The matter that mother and I agreed to discuss with you as soon as possible is related to this continent's unpredictable future awaiting us." Benjamin emphasized as he lowered down his steel wrapped hand and dismissed the augmentation spell.

"Our history, we were the first and only human mage bloodline born competent for accessing this…."strange and unique metal deviant". At the early time, before the First War between three races occurred, our ancestors were discriminated against and despised by our own race, taking their suspicion of our 'actual identity' as dwarves."

'Welp, another day, another world, another racism coming from homosapiens.' Vigor sighed internally, too speechless at how humans in TBATE world took racism to another whole new level.

"As time passed, peace faded, conflicts occurred, the three races that once united together to protect themselves from mana beasts started the war. Initially, humanity was the one to suffer the most severely. Dwarves had a network of ores mines lying deep inside their mountains to forge the highest quality armaments. Elves had their superior affinity to the elements, enabling them to utilize magic the most effective among all.

Humans on the other hand were greatly underprepared for battles despite being advantageous in number. Not to mention, the king of that time suddenly died because of sickness, leaving his naive and inexperienced heir to claim the throne. The human's side kept facing losses and damages until our ancestors dedicated their lives to aid the army with a mass production of weapons via using their metal deviant, changing the tide of war and saving millions of lives.

Although war ended with no clear victor , our ancestors had succeeded in protecting our homeland and hence, they were conferred as nobles by the king, received praises from people like holy saviors. Haha, "quite" opposite to what they had been treating us from the beginning right?", Benjamin ended the last sentence with sarcasm in his tone.

"Decades of serving under Sapin royalty and we managed to build enough wealth as well as power. When the time had come, your grandfather departed to Valden with a sole ambition.

Valden experienced too much destruction in the Second War, resulting in becoming a wasteland, the kingdom's governors showed no interest in it, nor planning to rebuild it as they were convinced that it was far from saving.

Thus, we proclaimed our authority here, completely broke free of the Glayders whose leash had been put on generations of ours."

Vigor began to notice the irritation in his father's tone.

"I can tell that you find the royalty unbearable?" Vigor pretended to be surprised as he still remembered clearly what Blaine attempted to do when he just awakened and how his father reacted to the human king's offer 5 years ago.

"Utmost hypocrites, liars, murderers, greedy bastards. Words simply aren't enough to tell how terrible they are."

Then, Benjamin explained further more about Lances to Vigor. Though there were details which Vigor already knew such as about the artifacts capable of triggering silver core mages into white core but at the same time, puppets bound to the royal family, the dark side of Lances' purposes in the past shocked him to an extent. Former kings once used Lances to destroy many villages of elves and dwarves, kidnap them for slavery, elders, adults and children alike.

"He tried to convince me that you are the most valid candidate for the Lance position, when you just awakened for a week. But, it will never happen, my son. I will never let it. No one in our family shall become someone else's chattel, remember it!", Benjamin emphasized his statement as Vigor nodded.

"Good. As I was saying, to our tradition, the path for your future would be to succeed me. One day I will discuss this matter with you more in private. But even right now, I am well assured that with your phenomenal magic growth, our business will rise higher than any of Kinsteel's generations before under your management.

Blaine cannot risk ruining the relationship with our house due to our business being essential to the kingdom's economy. If he is truly a king with some certain, sufficient wit, he will respect my decision to choose you as my successor."

"Yet, he still went to recruit me when I was just a toddler? I guess wit is something he doesn't have much of.", I shook my shoulders.

"Hahaha. Perhaps so.", The head of Kinsteels chuckled for a moment, but his face soon returned back into his seriousness.

"However, things aren't so simple. There is a reason why he's ready to take you away from us despite being the king, which he must know too well that our inheritance played the big role in maintaining the kingdom's production of armaments. He was willing to take risks, prioritizing your potential to become a weapon to swing by his will…..So he can prepare for a future full of uncertainty incoming....

In the recent meetings with the Royalty and all the houses of Sapin, we were continuously receiving more and more proofs about the existence of…another continent."

Vigor pretended to be in absolute shock as he widened his eyes at his father's revelation.

"Adventurers found objects made from types of metal and wood that don't exist on this land lying in several dungeons. The artificters are still researching about them, and they spotted the fingerprints akin to those of humans, elves or dwarves.", Benjamin explained with a grim tone.

'So, they have begun to find out about Alacrya….I don't know whether it was sooner or at the same time compared to the original novel's timeline. "They" were already here for a time far longer, with Cynthia Goodsky as one of their spies decades ago and Cadel even directly came to the Beast Glade to kill Sylvia, but only now did they leave the traits for Dicathians to spot them, showing that their activities and movements in this continent are increasing at a pace too fast to be entirely covered.', Vigor thought to himself.

Benjamin continued:

"Friend or foe? The difference between overall powers of magic and development of science and technology? Same or different species? We do not know a single thing about them, which forces us into the rough situation where we have no choice but to prepare ourselves to the best of our capabilities. Since the worst scenario would be…

"War.", Vigor finished.

Benjamin nodded his head in agreement with his son:

"Correct, my son. In time we will have to prepare with the kingdom to face that ugly scenario, but most of all, I need you to be prepared , the sooner, the better. The potential danger can appear right in front of our door at any time and mother and I will do whatever we can to protect you. But it is also very, very crucial for you to be able to protect yourself and be on your own as well. We know you're strong, but strength in magic alone is not enough, what you also need is its practical knowledge that can be applied to real life circumstances."

Selena chimed in:

"And the esteemed Xyrus Academy is the only location better suited to gain such expertise. When you awakened , the director, Cynthia Goodsky, showed interest in you too like everyone. However, she asked for your enrollment in her institution more respectfully than king Blaine did. Regardless of the age gap between you and the other students, she stated you may enroll anytime you wanted. And given your immense potential as a wizard, she would be more than happy to sponsor you for a full scholarship.

For me and my father, we couldn't agree more, as both of us graduated from Xyrus Academy afterall. Its quality in nurturing and teaching future mages for Dicathen is undeniable. Not to mention, it will also be a very big chance for you to make many friends.

So….what do you say, my sweetie?"

The reincarnated boy stayed quiet instead as he peeled his eyes away from his parents. He looked down at nothing in particular as different inner thoughts flooded his mind, making him have to choose his next words very carefully.

"Father, mother, you two have always been supporting me as well as wanting the best things for me. So I thank both of you, very much." Vigor responded after a brief moment of silence.

"But….if possible, and under reasonable conditions of course, father, mother, I want to become an adventurer first."

What?! No, absolutely not Vigor!! Who gave you that terrible idea?!!", Selena refuted immediately.

Although Benjamin's first thought was also to disagree with his son's choice, he remained patient to wait for Vigor's reasons.

"Never in my life will I have my 6 year-old first child go slay mana beasts in dungeons alone!!! Over my carcass first if you ever dare to attempt it!!", Selena yelled, but it wasn't out of anger. She wasn't angry with Vigor at all but overall very protective and utterly hated his idea.

The atmosphere became heavy, Vigor did not dare to oppose his mother and everyone went into silence for a half a minute.

"My love, we should hear what Vigor has to convince us. I'm not saying I support his goal right away but at least listen to him first?", Benjamin spoke out.

Selena breathed out heavily as she nodded her head, awaiting for Vigor's explanation.

"Mother, I don't plan on becoming an adventurer straight away tomorrow and most importantly without any preparations. Of course, I will train as hard as I can, even to the extent that I think you both know the time for me to surpass your levels as a mage is coming soon.

Training alone would only improve my prowess but without ever knowing how to use it against a threatening situation, like being attacked by mana beasts for example, then all of my efforts would be in vain.

You say I need to arm myself with useful knowledge, and I believe getting it from real life experiences in dungeons is the best for me. The experiences that I think the Academy does not provide for me.

Moreover, I want to become an Adventurer before attending the Academy. With the current age difference, I think it's very hard to make friends and who knows? Maybe school isn't suitable for me apparently, as…I still want to spend time with you right now.", Vigor said.

Vigor's last statement made Selena's expression considerably softened, as she adjusted her feelings down to be more rational with her son's wish.

As the conversation prolonged, Vigor explained his plan in detail to his parents. His preparations, not just simple training but also the necessities he needs to bring along with: weapons, armor, communication scrolls, food, etc as well as precautions for his safety, which is the top priority of his father and mother.

Benjamin and Selena were truly surprised by how much their son thought about this intention of his, considering he was a noble boy who got

pampered and protected well for his entire life, never can imagine that he has a goal to be independent on his own so early.

It lasted for about an hour with Selena added more conditions that Vigor must do, such as always calling via communication scrolls for…everyday, and must visit home after every 2 months. And also, the hardest thing for Vigor to convince them was when he would leave.

But finally, he managed to make them agree. Another part of his plan in attempt to save this world's fate: completed.

_______________________________________

Vigor Kinsteel's POV:

Approaching the familiar dusty stone staircase leading straight to the Alchemy lab, I made my way to find my grumpy uncle. The closer I walked , the more clearly I heard a variety of different noises inside the room. There was loud laughter and even..... animals' screams?

Touching the gray metallic doorknob with some gold textures, I twisted it to open and saw my uncle, along with his clients in white lab coats.... who were laughing in amusement, chatting while drinking beers and eating various snacks.

Furthermore, the most surprising thing is that they were watching.... two small mana beasts fighting in a cage. One of them takes the shape of a reptile similar to a lizard, with dark brown rock spikes protruded in a straight line from its head to its tail. A terra salamander, no bigger than a wild cat, class E, facing its opponent, a gray fur deerhound at the same class as it. However, the deerhound's body size signifies that it's a young one, not fully grown up yet, although it was still bigger compared to the salamander.

"Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!" The crowd cheered and yelled in union, making the lab filled in hustle and bustle as if I was entering a noisy bar for low classes.

"2 gold coins on the lizard's win!!!"

"3 gold coins on the doggo!!!!"

Slipping through the alchemists who were beginning to place their bets at the two gladiators, I reached my hand to uncle, who was also in a hype to watch the battle like every other audience. I karate chopped at his shoulder with slight force to get his attention.

"Ouch! Who's that? Oh ,not now brat, can't you see that I'm busy right now?" Uncle grumbled and took another gulp of beer. Somehow, it took about several seconds before he figured it out himself.

*PFFFFFT* "BRAT!? WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?!"

My so-called "genius uncle" panicked at my presence, spitting out the smelly liquor at a client of his during the process.

"Young master?!" Everyone else started to notice my presence as they hurriedly bowed. Dead silence fell on the room as no words was coming out from the crowd, leaving only the noises of two mana beasts tearing each other apart.

"A nice tournament you have over there I see." I said with a smirking face.

"What are you knuckle-heads waiting for?!!!Party dismissed!!!clean everything now!!!"

As uncle ordered, the staff group ran away to hide their drinks, some organised the stuffs back to their places. Then, uncle wore a mask which constructed to resemble a crow's head with glass goggles as its eyes and unplugged potion with moss-like green liquid inside it. He poured a small portion of it into a device akin to a sprayer in my previous life and sprayed in the iron bar cage where used as the arena for the salamander and the deerhound.

Instantly, the two beasts fell down to the ground after the greenish gas that uncle sprayed made contact with them. Paralyzed, both of them. However, uncle seemed to be unaffected, probably because of his bird-like mask that had the capability to protect the wearer from inhaling the gas.

'Wait, no. They were more likely falling asleep, he anesthetized them.'

Excitement dwelled within me as I watched the two unconscious mana beasts being dragged away by the alchemists, maybe back to their separated cells. This is exactly what I'm here for.

"My dear kind-hearted and trustworthy nephew, you didn't see anything yet, alright?", uncle walked to me after finishing his job with an obviously fake friendly smile crept on his face as he took off the mask.

"I don't know anymore. I might have seen too much."

"No you sure as hell haven't.", uncle emphasized, trying to keep his composure in anger.

"And I wonder how father will react if he knows about this little "party" of you guys." I scoffed.

Looking at his weak expression, I proceed with a devious grin:

"What do we have? Some alcoholic appetizer drinks, some delicious apple pies and chips. And yes, two berserk mana beasts in a same cage not being used for experimental purposes but for violence entertainment instead. Father is going to love this! You should invite him to join."

Uncle let out a heavy sigh before pleading me in desperation and fear:

"Please don't tell your father. He will have my ass kicked out of the house."

"Maybe I won't iiiffff.."

"State your deity-damned condition.", Uncle urged me with impatience.

"..You teach me everything about poisons."

________________________________________

To my expectations, uncle was more shocked than a homeless man under house arrest the moment I told him how I, after an enormous amount of arduous efforts, had successfully convinced my parents to let me become an adventurer. They also agreed to invest in me for another 2 years of training and preparations.

In fighting tactics, apart from mindlessly grinding for my core to level up to the higher colors, using potions was also considered as an interesting one in combat or I could say, a game changing one. Healing potion, mana potion, strength potion, resistance potion, each one with different given effects will grant the drinker significant advantages if they are used smartly.

Out of all types of potion, the one I gained the most interest in was poison. Deadly, effective, unpredictable.

Having accepted my terms, uncle would teach me fundamentals and advances in not just poison using but also how to brew them. By far as I know, today's first lesson showed that Alchemy is really similar to chemistry, which sadly was the subject I sucked the most back when I was in military school. Nevertheless, the blessed brain of mine did help the studying process become easier.

(A/n: I hate chemistry)

"Alright brat, today I will introduce you to the types of poison. Their uses, their effects and then some of the most basic examples of them. Due to the suddenness of yours to urge me to do this lecture and for safety measures, we will only focus purely on theory today. Based on how good or terribly bad your process is, I might consider letting you have practice in brewing poisons. Did I make myself as clear as day brat?"

I nodded back in affirmation right away, determined to learn from him.

"Take notes down, I won't remind you a second time if you missed out anything." He said as he began to read out loud and write on the blackboard simultaneously.

"There are four types of poison in total. A poison's type is determined by the way in which it is applied.

1. Contact Poison

Contact Poison is smeared on an object or article of clothing, where it remains potent until touched or washed away. Any creature that comes into skin contact with the poison is affected and remains potent until it is touched or washed off.

This is probably the most dangerous poison type if it cannot easily be detected. A poisoner might smear contact poison on the underside of a door handle, the lid of a chest, or around the outside of a cup.

While adventurers can minimize the risks of contact poison by wearing gloves or using the Shape Water spell to wash anything suspicious they plan on manhandling, anything a person's bare skin could touch is a potentially lethal threat.

2. Ingested Poison

Ingested Poison requires a creature to swallow an entire dose to suffer its effects. The dose can be delivered in food or a liquid and could either be highly noticeable or virtually undetectable without sampling it first.

3. Inhaled Poisons

Inhaled Poisons take the form of powders or gasses that take effect when breathed in. They could be administered by blowing the powder into the victim's face, or releasing gas into a room.

The resulting cloud dissipates quickly after taking effect, but holding your breath is ineffective, as inhaled poisons affect nasal membranes, tear ducts, and other parts of the body.

4. Injury Poisons

Injury Poisons can be applied to weapons, ammunition, trap components, and other objects that deal piercing or slashing damage and retain their potency until delivered through a wound into a creature's bloodstream or are washed off the weapon.

A creature that takes piercing or slashing damage from an object coated with the poison is exposed to its effects."

He stopped his talking and finished writing brief information about the 4 types of poison, letting me take a moment to note down everything. Before resuming, he took a half-drink cup of beer and took a sip.

"Now moving on, we have these following basic yet important ingredients..."

____________________________________

"So, how was the first day studying Alchemy? I'm still surprised that you take an interest in your uncle's field." Mother asked me with slight curiosity.

"It was great, turns out uncle Trevor was not a bad teacher after all." I replied.

"Really? What did you learn?"

"Well, just some basic stuffs about potions for today. And I learn that all of them will come in handy for my dungeon raids. Uncle said that I might as well learn how to make them for my own some day." I answered her without spoiling too much details.

As mother and I departed since she had some other works to do, I walked to the living room, father was already there sitting comfortably on the chair.

"Father, what did you tell me to come here for?"

"You said that you require to have your skills sharpened to every limit during these two years, didn't you?" He shot me back with another question.

"Yes, I wish to improve all aspects of mine. To the very best if possible."

"Very well then. In order to become the best, you must learn from the best. That's why I have managed to choose a person who are right now considered as one of the best among Sapin as your mentor."

"Wait! What about Terrion?!"

"Oh don't worry boy, I won't replace him. The idea is that Terrion will train you in archery. On the other hand, this man will specialize in the art of spear and fire augmentation. And even more, if you are lucky enough, he can definitely help you unlock lightning deviant." Father said with enthusiasm, indicating that he put a decent amount of trust in this individual.

"Master Kinsteel, your guest has arrived."

Suddenly, Alfred, our family's old butler, opened the door and informed us. Trailing behind him, I saw a tall muscular built male in noble uniform. He had platinum blonde hair, fairly combed over to his left. His appearance along with his piercing light green pair of eyes emitted an aura of imposing authority.

"Vigor , meet the heir of Otis Vayhur, head of house Wykes, our close business partner. Bairon Wykes."