Back at the Rothschild family house, a white haired man laid on a king sized bed with gold rims and a meticulously carved frame, a woman with long dark hair similar to that of Ava's sat on the edge of the bed with a calm expression.
"We have to consider his proposal". The man started.
"I, as the patriarch of this family am obligated to put the well being and it's prosperity first". He continued
"My daughter is not some chess piece that will be moved about however you want". The woman retorted with furrowed eyebrows.
"Greg is a strong warrior, he's already at C– rank and is the heir of the Vandemire house, there is nothing to lose here". He calmly responded as he closed his eyes.
"Luke, are you seriously suggesting we marry off our daughter to a man she doesn't even love just for a little rise in power?". The woman looked at Luke as his eyes were closed with hidden anger.
"Astoria, it's not like I'm happy with this arrangement either but–"
"But nothing, Luke how could you even entertain the thought?". Astoria interrupted
"If I was married off to the Belvedans like I was supposed to, would any of this exist?" Astoria gestured as she stared at the now wide eyed Luke.
"That.....that was different". Luke muttered with a weak expression.
Sighing, Astoria continued with a gentle tone, "No matter what Leon told you, Miriam is still our daughter and it is our duty as parents to make sure we provide the absolute best for them, not for our peace of mind, but for their happiness".
Cupping his cheeks with a warm smile, Astoria stared into Luke's eyes and gave him a light kiss on his lips, "I'm always prepared to go any lengths for the prosperity of our family, but our kids is where I draw the line and I expect you to do the same thing as well".
"Haaa.....you always have a way of persuading me". With a sigh, Luke rubbed his forehead and lay on the bed.
Chuckling, Astoria removed her heels and continued, "Besides, I think she has someone she likes"
Luke's expression changed as he sat up with a jolt, "Who is this man?". He asked carefully.
One would think he would react calmly to this news considering the fact that he was suggesting he married off his daughter to someone else a minute ago.
"Fufufu, I'm sure you already know him". She answered with a teasing smile as she looked out the window.
"That boy toy?". He asked with an incredulous expression, "My daughter would never have feelings for such a man". He added.
"Are you sure about that?, remember she went against Oliver for him, and you know just how much she loves her big bro". She responded with a teasing smile.
"I can never allow such a man near my daughter's heart". He muttered with an unreadable expression.
"Aww, you look so cute when you're serious" Astoria laid down next to him and continued , "I'm against the idea for now but you can never tell what the future holds".
"Besides, he's gone off on a year long journey to prepare for the tournament no?, I'm sure he'll surprise us when he returns". She added.
"You sound awfully confident about this boy". Luke said with narrowed eyes.
"Don't look at me like that darling, I'm just saying, for someone as weak as that to be able to withstand Oliver's aura – even if it's a tiny amount, without a change in expression, he's worth looking forward to, am I wrong?". She explained with a small smile on her face.
"Well, you do have a point but I'm sure he had a few tricks up his sleeve". He defended
"Don't we all?". She retorted with a smile.
"...."
Luke turned silent as he sank into deep thought. Astoria closed her eyes with a smile as she rested her head on his laps.
"If he manages to come back alive and increase his rank, I will give him a little leeway with our daughter". Luke finally said with a neutral expression as he stroked Astoria's hair, "But I will not allow any form of an overly friendly relationship, a cordial greeting once a day is enough". He added
"Fufufu, so cruel". Astoria chuckled lightly as she rubbed her head against his large hand with a smile on her face.
Luke looked up at the ceiling with an unreadable expression as his thoughts raced.
*
Back at the inn, Laura had been waiting for Clark to return and was practicing her apology for what she said.
"Clark!, you're back, I'm sorry for...urgh, no that doesn't sound sincere"
"Clark, hey, look I'm really sorry for calling you a stupid mortal....hmmm, it's okay but it sounds clichè". Laura mumbled as she walked about the wooden floor with her bare feet.
"Haaa....this is haaarrdddd". She groaned as she ruffled her hair and sat on the bed.
"Where are you, Please don't do anything stupid.....". She muttered to herself in a low voice as she hugged her knees with a vulnerable expression.
A few hours passed and there was no sign of Clark and panic slowly crept into Laura's heart.
'Is he okay? What if he's run into a powerful foe and is in serious trouble?' Laura's thoughts raced, worry etching itself across her face and her chest tightened as she thought of the unpleasant possibilities.
'But....what if he just doesn't want to see me?'. Sadness overcame her previous emotions as tears formed at the corner of her eyes.
'I messed up big time, he'll never forgive me, but if I could see him one more time, I'll be able to tell him how I truly feel...'. She thought to herself as a weak smile appeared on her face.
Laying down on the soft bed, she closed her eyes to sleep, although she didn't need to sleep, her spiraling emotions took a heavy mental toll on her.
'Please be safe, Clark....'. Thinking this far, she fell into a deep sleep for the first time in her long life.
*
In the forest, a bare bodied, muscular man could be seen swinging a scythe as sweat ran down his body.
"Hyaaa" "Hyaa". Panting heavily, Clark brushed his hair backwards and stuck his scythe on the ground as he fell backwards and laid on his back, barely keeping his eyes open, he muttered, "Weapon status"
*******
Weapon in use: Aether scythe
Weapon rank: Mythril – touched
Weapon proficiency: 27%
********
"At least I'm getting somewhere, good thing the day and night cycle here is longer than average, I basically have an extra year to train if my calculations were correct."
During my stay in the Rothschild family house, I noticed that a day here is around forty eight hours, which was approximately two days on earth, so that meant I had an extra 24 hours every day and in turn an extra year to train.
Thinking about my experiences this far, a thought came to my mind.
"How do I increase my mana and other stats". I muttered as I lay on the ground and stared at the blue sky with a troubled expression.
*********
[Ding!]
[Host has asked a question in relation to the world]
[Answers can be provided to the host]
[Use 2 out of (5) free trials?]
[Y/N]
***********
My eyebrows raised a little as I watched the system continuously flash with notifications in response to the question I asked.
Giving it a little bit of thought, I chose to click on the 'Y' option.
**********
[Ding!]
[2 out of (5) free trials used!]
[Upgrade.ath is downloading]
[1%....39%...67%.....100%]
[Upgrade.ath is fully downloaded!]
[A comprehensive guide on how to upgrade host's skills shall be transferred to host's memories via memory transfer]
[Y/N]
[Beginning transfer....]
************
To be honest I still had mixed feelings about the whole memory transfer thing ever since the incident with Miriam but I couldn't just do an info dump on the readers now could I?.
Clearing my thoughts, I prepared to receive the data from the system.
********
[Transfer in progress...]
[1%.....76%...81%.....100%]
[Transfer complete!]
Remark: Your brains aren't fried.....yet 👀
***********
"Treasures and cores, huh". Sorting through the extremely detailed ways to upgrade different stats, there was a vital ingredient that was mentioned in each procedure, the core of a beast or a treasure.
'Do wyverns have cores?'. I asked myself as I thought of the possibilities. 'I don't want to tear open those wyverns I killed if I could help it'.
Call me soft- hearted or whatever, but I just couldn't bring myself to slice open the wyverns I killed a while back, especially the one that I poured a piece of my heart out to before putting out of its misery.
'But that doesn't mean the next wyverns I'll hunt are gonna die a peaceful death, oh no, I'm going to use every single part of their body, from their cores to their flesh'. A wide grin formed on my face as I imagined what wyvern meat would taste like.
Sitting up and using the handle of my scythe to prop myself upwards, I opened up the manual for battle mages that I sto– borrowed from the Rothschild house before leaving, and began studying their movements, attacks and weapon techniques.
Flipping through the pages, I found the scythe section and after a few minutes of study, I assumed the position of the figure in the book and prepared to learn my first scythe–related skill.
"The Crescent Slash is a low mana consumption, medium ranged technique that entails the user infusing mana into his scythe and swinging it in a horizontal arc while maintaining a stable position". Muttering the basic overview of the Crescent Slash technique, I tried infusing mana into my blade.
Closing my eyes, I tried visualizing the mana as my novel MC's did, luckily, it worked as I could sense something similar to air– but thicker, flow through the mana passages in the scythe as the runes engraved on it glowed with a light blue hue.
'Badass'. Opening my eyes, a grin formed on my lips as I inspected the glowing scythe.
'Now, I put my left leg backwards, right knee slightly lowered, right hand on the shaft, left hand on the head'. Memorizing and adjusting my position to be in accordance to that written in the book, I cleared all thoughts and swung the scythe with calm eyes.
*Swoosh* *Swoosh*
A light gust of wind blew across the patch of grass that I was laying on and a few rocks moved, but other than that, there wasn't anything else noteworthy.
"If I increase my mana input, the effect should be higher". Sitting on the ground again, I studied the manual with a focused expression and took mental notes of the major points.
"Good thing wyvern cores– alongside a few others, when prepared together, increase mana capacity and vitality, if I can get my hands on those materials, I could increase my stats and master skills more efficiently".
Closing the manual, I prepared for the battle I had with Greg the next day.
'I wonder how Laura's doing....'. In the midst of tactical training and defensive techniques, my mind often wandered to the yellow headed girl who always had a smile on her face.
'I've got to focus'. Shaking my head to get rid of the thoughts, I channelled a bit of mana to my feet and jumped to a nearby tree to get a bird's eye view of the terrain that'll be used for our battle and see if I could use it to my advantage.
Squinting my eyes, I assessed the terrain calmly and a grin appeared on my face.
"This might work". I mumbled to myself as I jumped downwards with a wicked grin still on my face.
"Time to set some traps, hehehehe"