13 Chapter 13: The Preparation

Robert watched as his mother went out of the Grand hall in order to look for Ra. Unfortunately for Astrith, Ra already left so her search would be for naught.

"This is the first time I've seen my mother like that. Scary as fudge." Robert said to himself.

Robert then proceeded to enjoy the rest of the day as it was his birthday party after all. He actually saw Lisa again near the buffet, and they chatted for awhile until Astrith came back with Vulcan who seemed to be very down as of the moment. The reason? Sadly, Robert did not ,and could not ask as his mother was still emitting quite a scary vibe.

The party ended, and the various visitors proceeded to leave the castle in order to go back to their own homes. Lisa also bid Robert farewell, and said that she hoped to see Robert soon.

After all the guests left, Astrith called out to Robert.

"Robert, we need to talk." Astrith said.

"Yes, mother?" Robert said

"Your father and I talked about it, and decided to send you to the academy at a later date." Astrith said.

"May I know the reason why, mother?" Robert asked as he was curious as to why they were moving the date. He originally expected to be entering the academy in a few months.

"Unfortunately, we can't say the reason, but do not worry. You'll just go to the academy once you turn five years old. A year isn't too long, and you better prepare yourself." Astrith said.

"Prepare?" Robert asked.

"For the next year, your mother and I will train you intensively especially since you received the essence of the [World Tree] as it will show its effects as you train." Vulcan interjected.

"Will I die due to the training?" Robert asked as he could feel that the training they'll give him will make it seem like he would wish he was dead.

Astrith and Vulcan suddenly coughed at the same time.

"Of course not! Do not worry!" Vulcan said loudly.

"But-" Robert tried to say, but was interrupted by his mother, Astrith.

"No buts! Be at the courtyard after breakfast tomorrow, and do not be late!Do I make myself clear?" Astrith exclaimed as if she was a general ordering

"Yes ma'am!" Robert said as he saluted. He felt as he should not complain further.

"Good." Astrith nodded in approval.

"Also, your father and I have another thing to say to you." Astrith added.

"What might that be?" Said Robert.

Astrith and Vulcan looked at each other, and smiled. Robert was confused until he heard what they wanted to say.

""Happy 4th Birthday, son. We love you!"" Astrith and Vulcan said simultaneously though Vulcan's seemed a bit shy when he said it. They then proceeded to give Robert a hug.

[Awwwwww, your parents are so sweet :) .] Megumin suddenly said.

"Awww shucks. Thank you, mother and father!" Replied Robert albeit a bit shy too as he didn't expect a greeting at this timing.

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(The training part will be a time skip due to the fact that it won't really be that eventful.)

The intensive training of Robert started the next day. It mainly consisted of hand-to-hand training and sword training in the morning and magic training in the afternoon. The difference compared to the usual routine was that during the morning training, Robert was made to train his physical body intensely especially considering that he was just a four year old boy.

Luckily, a Royal Demon race body was different from an ordinary human. Robert won't stunt his growth with this intense training, and in fact, due to his bloodline and essence from the [World Tree], he actually grew to reach 5 feet as a barely five year old boy.

For his magic training, Robert asked his mother if there were ways to improve his mana capacity as he felt that it was quite meager, and luckily there was. Robert was actually surprised that what he needed to do was similar to some novels read in the past.

He just needed to cast as many spells as he could until his mana ran out, and waited for his Mana to feel back up, and then repeat the process. It was simple, but the reason it was so simple was because of the essence of the [World Tree]. If he had been a normal demon race without the essence then what he needed to do for increasing his mana capacity will definitely be complicated.

The essence helped quicken his magic progress, and also gave him the ability to absorb the Mana from the surroundings easily. He just needed to learn how to execute and control the absorption by using a breathing technique which his mother taught him. The breathing technique was called "Gaia Breathing".

Robert also learned many adept level spells, and even some expert level ones though the Mana expenditure of the expert level ones was quite big so he can't rapid fire them. The adept level spells were a different story though as he could do rapid fire bursts with them.

Robert also surprised his melee combat teachers as he developed something that usually only experts or long time warriors would have, and that is a "Sword Field". This field can be called as the territory of a swordsman, and that he has control over this particular area. This is possible as when the "Sword Field" is active then that means that one has pushed his concentration and senses to the utmost. Think of it as being as in the zone.

Robert can also do this without a sword, and he is reminded of something called the "Seikuken" in his past life from an anime/manga called History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi. The range is shorter, but it basically has the same function. Once Robert learned this, he thought about training to achieve something similar to the "Ryuusui Seikuken" which came from the same manga.

His mastery for the "Sword Field" is currently at the beginner stage, and the stages for sword and hand techniques is like this:

Beginner - Warrior- Expert - Master - Saint

Robert has also refined his melee skills to reach warrior stage, and his reflexes to also be at the Expert stage. Robert also asked for a movement technique, and his teachers looked at him, and smiled. This caused Robert to shiver. His teacher collaborated to make his training even more gruesome. This is due to the fact that they decided to give him a movement technique called "Minute Subtlety" which utilized something similar to the "Sword Field" in the sense that he needed to concentrate to the utmost limits though the difference lied in execution.

This time, he needed to move his whole body with minimal movement to dodge the strikes. Though the training was gruesome, he actually liked it as the "Minute Subtlety" seemed to be something that he needed to do something similar to the "Ryuusui Seikuken".

Truth be told, Robert has been thinking about recreating a lot of other bulls**t from his past life which he read from manga and novels, but sadly he didn't have the time and energy for it due to his training.

Of course, Robert didn't forget about studying, but this was done less frequently as Robert already reached an academic level far beyond his age.

Megumin also commented from time to time like complaining about how inhuman the training was though Robert reasoned that he wasn't human anyways. Megumin also frequently commented on when he would learn an "Explosion" spell which caused Robert to rub his temples as he remembered the original Megumin and her antics.

The training continued as time passed.

Now, 1 year has passed, and Robert just turned five years old.

To be continued.....

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Author note: Sorry, if this part was quite rushed, but I didn't think that a training arc would be interesting, and so I decided for a quick time skip. Let me know what you think.