Nephis looked at him and contemplated. This time, she remained silent longer than usual.
Sunny felt a bit nervous under her gaze, knowing that he was being evaluated.
After some time, she took the soul shards and nodded.
"Okay."
Sunny smiled, congratulating himself on a successful deal. Reinhard was smart enough to understand why he asked for tutoring from Nephis instead of him, so any kind of conflict wouldn't start because of that, and he himself had received a lot while not giving much in return.
"So when do we start?"
Nephis shrugged.
"Now."
Sunny glanced at the sun, which was already almost gone. Were they going to train in complete darkness? It wasn't really an obstacle for him. Changing Star, however…
"We will start with some words. That will be enough for today."
After hesitating a little, she added:
"Cassie, you listen too."
Sunny glanced at Reinhard from the corner of his vision.
While he was not directly looking at her, Sunny noticed him being quite interested.
Nephis proceeded to teach him about the two aspects of combat. The mind and the body.
Training the body was simple, but once one reached a high enough level, it was the mind that decided the winners of a battle.
And through that reasoning Nephis asked Sunny, and by extension Cassie a question.
"What do you think the essence of combat is?"
Sunny hesitated. The… essence of combat? What might it be?
If it was some other Legacy, he would have been tempted to say something stupid like "honor", "valor" or "duty". But he already knew that Nephis did not fit into the image of a noble aristocrat he had in his mind. She wasn't someone who followed empty words.
After a minute or so, Cassie finally answered:
"Victory."
And almost at the same time, Sunny said:
"Survival."
***
It was a few hours past mid night.
Reinhard sat alone in the darkness, near the edge on top off the headless statue.
With [Nocturne Vision] activated, he was currently contemplating the earlier conversation Nephis and Sunless had.
He scoffed internally.
"What do you think the essence of combat is?"
A poorly framed question.
If taken literally, it had no clean answer. Combat was too complex to be reduced to a single word. So what she really asked was different—
What do you prioritize when you fight?
That made more sense.
Nephis's answer had been the most straightforward.
Killing.
And yet it was short sighted.
Then there was Sunless.
His answer was survival. It was expected and yet second only to Nephis's in short sightedness.
There were many situations where mere survival was equivalent to failure.
After Cassie and Sunless, Nephis had turned to him.
Reinhard wasn't fond of debating abstract questions, even though he liked thinking about them. So he gave the most functional answer available at the time.
Victory.
That got the point across.
But now, with hours of silence and nothing demanding his attention, the question returned.
Victory.
It was a good answer. If he killed someone in battle, survived, and still achieved his goal, then he had won.
The bigger picture had been taken into consideration.
It is easy to believe this answer came from a seer.
But Reinhard wasn't a seer, he wanted to think deeper.
Essence of combat...
After a few seconds, he finally got his answer.
I know what it is.
The essence of combat is, simply—
Gain.
Victories and defeats were irrelevant in the long run; what truly mattered were the gains and losses.
A person who had nothing to his name might lose a battle and yet gain experience and clarity, while the victor might end up counting his losses.
Reinhard smiled to himself.
Yeah, that sounded right.
Combat took place to gain something—position, knowledge, advantage, or simply survival. The outcome people called "victory" was only a surface-level judgment of that exchange.
'Sometimes it aligned with actual gain, sometimes it didn't.'
***
When morning was almost upon them, Reinhard witnessed something that surprised him a lot.
Sunless, Cassie, and Nephis were still asleep. Reinhard, still seated, was now resting after his soul essence control training.
How much time will it actually take for me to do this without the attribute?
At least a few weeks of continuous training, and considering he could only manage a few hours per day, full adaptation could easily take months.
[New attribute acquired.]
[Attribute Name: Nocturnal Vision]
Well, at least I am growing stronger every day even without soul shards.
Minutes passed. Just as the sun began to peek over the horizon, Reinhard heard the Spell's voice once again.
[You have acquired a new attribute.]
Huh? I didn't ask for anything though.
Wait! Isn't it supposed to say 'New attribute acquired.'?
Reinhard summoned his runes and immediately checked his attributes.
Attributes: [Fated] [Battle Master] [Favored by Fate] [Nocturnal Vision]
Everything seemed normal at first, but he had an inkling on what was different.
No way...
And so he tried.
[New attribute acquired.]
[Attribute name: Far sight]
Attributes: [Fated] [Battle Master] [Favored by Fate] [Nocturnal Vision] [Far sight]
[New attribute acquired.]
[Attribute name: Soul essence control]
Attributes: [Fated] [Battle Master] [Favored by Fate] [Nocturnal Vision] [Soul essence control]
To make sure he had checked twice.
There is no mistaking it...
I have completely adapted to [Nocturnal Vision].
It was easy to understand why. Nocturnal Vision was the attribute he had used the most since arriving in the Dream Realm.
Even after the first few hours, his natural night vision had improved slightly. Now that several days had passed, that gradual adaptation had reached completion.
This is so fucking cool.
Reinhard was tempted to laugh out loud, but settled for a quiet chuckle.
***
Reinhard heard a scream.
He rose instantly, head snapping toward the source.
Cassie shakily stood up from her spot, her blond hair were in a mess, she was stretching her hands out, for a second Reinhard thought she was reaching out for him, but after a few seconds he realized she was just moving aimlessly, and if that went on, she would fall into the dark sea.
What is happening to her?
He stepped forward and took hold of her right arm.
"Calm down, Cassie."
That seemed to have worked quite effectively, Cassie stopped walking, her aimless eyes focused on him, a few tears fell down.
He had to admit—she looked unsettling, especially with the dim pre-dawn light.
"R-Rein?" She whispered.
Her grip tightened around his arm as she spoke in a low, urgent tone.
"I—I have to te—" Her voice cut off abruptly, as if she had just realized she was about to say something she shouldn't.
A moment later, her knees gave out. She slumped forward, leaning into him.
Reinhard got tense.
He knew she was a seer, and that she received visions in her sleep.
And now she had woken up and had showed such a strong reaction to him.
There was no way that vision was good.
Fuck, am I going to die soon?
He didn't move to embrace her. Instead, he stood rigid and glanced to the side.
Nephis had her long sword summoned, she was cautiously facing there direction.
Sunless was in a similar situation, but due to him being able to see in the dark, he had long dismissed his sword and was simply looked at them with bewilderment.
"I got her." Reinhard said before any assumptions could be made. Then he helped Cassie sit down in the center of the platform.
He crouched down infront of her, Sunless and Nephis stood behind him.
"What happened?" Nephis asked.
"She suddenly screamed and started walking aimlessly." After a brief pause, he added, "I suspect it was a vision."
"She also tried to tell me something… but stopped midway."
Reinhard would have preferred to leave that last part out, but his flaw ensured he didn't.