Chapter 44: Evolution Requirements

Lucius nodded his head and walked forward.

"That was an impressive fight, Lieutenant John." Lucius said.

"Haha, no need for the formalities, you can just call me John." He replied.

"Alright… John." Lucius spoke.

"That's good. Now we should get to it." John said, before picking up a wooden sword from the stands.

"Take this, it's a weighted training sword. It will help you get used to an actual sword's weight while also being able to practice well." John replied.

Lucius took hold of the blunt sword and could tell that it was still a bit off balance. But it wasn't enough that it could be problematic.

"I'll show you some moves and we can start from there. You just need to imitate them for now and when you are well versed in them, we'll start improving your form." John stated.

Lucius nodded his head and they got to practice. The time passed by rather quickly in the training and Lucius gave it his all. He did not have the same stamina as he did in his past life and since this body had only recovered recently, there was still a lot of improvement needed.

Though Lucius was content that it was not causing him that many problems. The other guards had long since went back to their own duties and only Captain Donald had stayed till the end.

He did not speak anything and was simply observing Lucius from the start till the end of the training.

~huu~

Lucius took some tired breaths as he put back the training sword on the stand.

"You are surprisingly better than the first time I taught you, Young Master." Donald suddenly spoke.

"Oh? You taught me before?" Lucius asked.

"Indeed. When you were a child and were just starting to learn the art of swordsmanship, I was one of your teachers. I did not teach you that much though. Your main teacher was Master Frank." Donald replied.

"Master Frank? Who was he?" Lucius asked, feeling curious.

"Master Frank was one of the best swordsmen that were ever born on our lands. Sadly he passed away five years ago from old age. Even the count himself learned from Master Frank back then." Kiana was the one who spoke this time.

Lucius was intrigued by this as not only he learned more about the Inanis family, but also about the title of 'Master.' He knew there was a specific requirement for one to have it and it probably applied in multiple fields.

"Indeed, Master Frank was perhaps the best teacher I had as well. He taught many people and was even one of the official royal instructors of the Grantz kingdom before he retired." John added.

"You were taught by him too?" Lucius asked.

"Indeed, even captain Donald was taught by him, if I remember correctly," John replied.

~Sigh~

"He was one impressive man, with swordsmanship that spoke for itself. Even though he was gift-less there were many gifted who still feared him." Donald spoke.

Lucius nodded his head in understanding and realized that this must have been an important figure in the Inanis family and even the kingdom, since so many people knew of him, that too one that was gift-less.

"By the way, captain Donald… what is your gift?" Lucius asked curiously.

"Oh, my gift? It is a rare ranked gift called Tremor stomp. It does what it means, creates tremors." Donald said simply.

And just as he did that, Nexus activated and Lucius could see new information.

Gift Name: Tremor Stomp

Rank: Rare

Description: The user can stomp the ground and create tremors. The area of effect is determined by the amount of Aether used.

'Hmm… this confirms it. But now to see what other information is there.' Lucius thought.

He slightly squinted his eyes and more information was added to the list with a drain on his Aether.

Type: Emission

Evolution: Possible

Evolution requirements: 10x Stampeding Bull rune crystals + 5x plow worm rune crystals + 100 Aether Crystals

~thud~

As soon as the new information appeared, Lucius trembled and fell to the ground. He felt a wave of extreme fatigue washing over him and knew that he had overexerted himself.

"ASHER!" Kiana shouted before coming to his aid.

John and Donald did the same and helped pick him up. They sat him down on a chair and Kiana checked him for injuries.

"Are you alright?" Donald asked.

"Yeah… I just overexerted myself in the training I think." Lucius replied.

Kiana turned and looked at John with a pissed look which sent shivers down his spine.

"Ah, seems like we need to change the regimen a bit. From tomorrow we will reduce the practice time and I will let you strengthen your body more." John hurriedly spoke.

He knew that if he let the young lord get hurt or sick, if not Kiana, Countess Lita would have his head. He had been married for five years and knew better than to earn the ire of a woman.

Kiana eased her expression after hearing his words and nodded in acknowledgment. Lucius witnessed the entire thing, but did not say anything. He was simply content in finding out more about his gift.

'So as long as I have sufficient information beforehand, nexus can reveal more information. For the rare rank gift, I need to know the name, description and rank so that the rest of the information can be revealed.

I need to test more and see what other ranks are like. If just a rare ranked gift made me this tired, it's likely Epic ranked gifts may be out of the question for now. I should start with the common ranked, and uncommon ranked gifts.' Lucius thought to himself.

With all that done, Kiana and John helped Lucius back to the mansion. It was going to be time for dinner in an hour anyway and thus he just decided to take a bath first, since he was sweaty anyway.

After the bath was over though, Lucius wanted to know more about the rune beasts. Particularly the ones that were told by the Nexus as being required for an upgrade.