Chapter 680 Alaric’s Days of Hellish Training Begin

“Here is your guild card. As you can see your current rank is cooper, which is the lowest. But as I explained earlier you need only successfully complete five jobs to reach the next rank. Now good luck and we here at the guild are looking forward to great things for you.”

After taking the guild card form the receptionist Alaric stared at it with gleaming eyes for a moment, before practically running on over to the request board.

However, before he got far, Marcus rushed to catch up with him and stopped him from continuing on.

“Lady Irene, what is the matter? I just wanted to go and look at the requests now that I am an adventurer.”

Sighing Marcus shook his head and told Alaric that now was not the time for that.

“We are not taking any jobs yet; I need to assess your abilities before then. And right now, what is most important is saying farewell to your mother. Just like for your school you are going to be away from her for a while, and I am sure it would help alleviate some of her worry if you had a proper goodbye.”

Turning back around Alaric could see his mother slowly approaching them. And while she had a smile on her face, it was more forced than normal. It was clear that she was actually very worried no matter how much support she had shown.

Taking Alaric with him Marcus headed back over to Bianca and their group exited the guild hall and returned to the parking lot where their carriages were parked.

Once there, mother and son had a lengthy goodbye before Bianca came up to Marcus one last time.

“From this point on I will be trusting you with my son. I know you will probably not be able to prevent him from getting hurt, but all I ask is that you bring him back alive and in one piece.” Bianca said with a few tears falling down her face..

Seeing how her worries were showing, Marcus made sure to assure her that he would do everything he could to make sure Alaric did not meet his end.

“You can trust me, Bianca. I will take good care of him, and when he comes back, he will undoubtedly be stronger.”

With Marcus’ assurance, Bianca took her leave and waved goodbye from the carriage window as she drove away.

“Now Alaric, the first thing we are going to do is go to my mansion and assess your abilities. Once I am done with that, we can gear you up with some proper equipment for an adventure before going to grab some requests.”

Alaric’s eyes lit up as he heard this, and the lingering sadness from saying farewell to his mother disappeared in an instant from his growing excitement.

One more carriage ride later and Alaric was at Marcus’ estate which he had visited a few times before when meeting with or picking up Lilia.

‘Okay, now what is his status.’

Having received Alaric’s permission, Marcus for the first time since originally spying on the boy and Lilia years ago read his status.

‘Well, he has leveled up a bit, but still not all that high. His skills are more expansive than I thought they would be, but all are at level one currently.’

Now knowing Alaric’s status, Marcus understood that he definitely had his work cut out for him.

The boy was currently level eleven, which for a thirteen-year-old was good. Though not uncommon for a student at the royal academy at Alaric’s grade.

He also had some useful skills like wind magic, ice magic, and the rare smoke magic. Along with the swordsmanship weapon skill.

However, each of these skills were still level one, and the swordsmanship was not a superior skill, so it was not the weapon he would be most talented with.

Other than those four skills though, his others were more academic and had to do with his schoolwork, like arithmetic and etiquette.

‘Well, he does have three magic skills which is pretty good, not to mention his blessing of smog that gives him a boost to his smoke magic and also stealth related skills.’

Having assessed Alaric’s status Marcus next told him to show off his magic.

‘Wow that was mediocre.’ Was all Marcus could think as he watched Alaric use his spells.

He knew four tier one ice magic spell, three wind magic spells, and only the singular system given tier one smoke magic spell. His chanting was pretty average and was by no means fast. And to Marcus who was able to cast spells without any verbal components it seemed unbearably slow.

‘The power behind the spells is also not that great, but I guess it has been a while since I have seen someone low level using magic. I suppose that it is pretty rare to be able to throw out city block leveling spells with ease.’

“Alaric give me a moment to make a few things. In the meant time feel free to head into the mansion and rest for a bit. I will be back in a short while.” Marcus said when he was finished observing Alaric’s magic.

Leaving Alaric in the care of his maids, Marcus headed to his workshop and quickly pulled out a bit of bronze he kept there.

‘It has been a while since I used any of this.’ Marcus thought as he did a few test swings with a hammer to get used to the feel of the metal.

Once he felt he was ready, he quickly forged a generic bronze sword that was the right size for Alaric, and for himself a bronze scythe.

‘They turned out pretty well for a couple of rush jobs.’ Marcus thought as he inspected both weapons.

Neither of them was enchanted in anyway, but his high skill level had allowed him to make the weapons to their peak, and there was no doubt they were impeccable weapons for lower leveled individuals.

With the bronze weapons stored in his item box, Marcus headed back to his manor and found that Alaric was currently drinking tea and eating cookies being served to him by Stella.

Yet his peaceful teatime soon came to an end as Marcus took out the bronze sword he made and handed it to Alaric.

“Now let me see how good with a sword you are.”

Taking the bronze sword Alaric looked ecstatic and gave Marcus a big smile.

“Lady Irene, did you just make this? Is it an enchanted blade?” Alaric said with an exhilarated tone.

“Yes, I just made it, but no it is not enchanted. For now, it is just a test sword for me to see your skills. Now follow me back into the yard so I can see what level you are at.”

Enthusiastically Alaric exited the manor behind Marcus, and as soon as they were outside, he began showing off the training forms he had been taught at the academy.

‘Well, he is competent enough, but I would say he does not really have much talent for using a sword. It really will be best to figure out what weapon he has the most innate skill for.’

After viewing what Alaric had been taught at the royal academy for a half hour, he told Alaric to stop and rest a bit.

“Okay I think that is long enough. Pick up your sword and get ready. We are going to spar a bit.” Marcus said as he took out the bronze scythe he had just made.

Seeing Marcus’ weapon Alaric took a step back again and went paled face.

“Um Lady Irene, there is no way we can spar with these weapons. They are bladed and sharpened. In the academy we use practice weapons that do not have any sharp edges and are padded to prevent major injury.” Alaric said with a look of unease on his face.

“No need to be worried. I will make sure to not hit you with the blade and will hold back on any strikes to not do any real damage. As for me, you need not worry. Even if you hit me that sword cannot cut me.”

With Marcus’ assurances Alaric tentatively got in position, but he still looked a bit nervous about attacking with a real weapon.

“Hurry up and make your move. I can tell you now that no enemy would wait for you to finally get the nerve to strike. I have experienced the pain of hesitation a number of times in my earlier days. Now hurry up and attack or I will.” Marcus said to Alaric in a cold voice.

Gripping his sword tighter and clenching his teeth, Alaric after being egged on by Marcus finally ran forward and began swinging his sword.

For the first few attacks Marcus simply dodged, before sighing and causally swiping the end of his scythe’s pole forward.

Wham!

In one fluid motion Marcus had slapped Alaric’s hands with the butt of his scythe, and the young boy let out a yelp of pain and dropped his sword.

“What are you doing? That should not have been nearly enough to knock your weapon from your hands. Now pick it up and try again.”

However, in response to Marcus’ order Alaric just glared at him, and said, “Lady Irene that was a foul. You are not allowed to hit your training partner’s hands.”

Sighing once again at the indignant look in Alaric’s face, Marcus now knew that while the academy taught proper form, they were too lax in other areas.

“I am training you for real battles. I can tell you that beasts, monsters, and especially humans will not abide to any code of conduct while fighting for their lives. Now grab your sword, and the next time you come at me halfheartedly, I will hit you harder.”