Julius did some studying on the techniques, even though he wasn't an expert, he still applied simple logic to know that two of the three techniques were focused on strength over speed but Kiri didn't seem to be the strength type so he decide on teaching him the blue pheasant rising move set. this technique focused on speed but still had a couple of strength moves to suppress opponents. it had 14 different sequences, 10 emphasized striking your opponent from multiple angles, while 2 were defense and counter moves, and the last two were the main finishing moves .
Now that Julius was done with that he laid down and rested for a while. He wasn't in a rush and he was enjoying warmth of the fake sun shining on him. ' hmm this what I've always wanted a place I can peacefully idle away but now that I have such a place something is burning making me want to move around and work out' no matter how hard Julius tried he couldn't bring himself to fully relax. he turned side to side, changed his laying position, but nothing he did was making the feeling go away. Though Julius didn't feel like he was being affected him being social and not being able to get into his idle mindset was due to absorbing a part of Gabriel soul before taking over the body.
Julius finally gave up and decided to start thinking of his future plans. he didn't know anything but at least he had a couple years to stay in school even if he stayed to the last year that would only give him 8 years. Julius thought for a bit longer and decided to look through the rings his siblings gave him. He already picked on studying runes but he didn't know how successful he would be at it so he decided to pick up black smithing too. He first decided he would try his luck with mastering runes but a back up plan is never a bad idea.
He took out a book titled" introductory to runes" the book was basically elementary level knowledge so it only contained a basic explanation of what runes are an about 700 rune symbols. This was consider elementary so it was for kids who were barely starting off. Most rune masters usually start learning about runes as early as they can read and by the time they are 12 this elementary book was nothing more than a small refresher for them. Julius then checked a couple of other books and he found that the four books went from lowest level to the highest public available knowledge. High level runes are treated as a close kept secret since some were personally made by a master of at least the grandmaster level of skill.
Reading through the book Julius found it easy to remember the rune symbols even if he read them one time. combining these symbols were like coding. depending on what you put where you can get different effects. To create a rune one need a writing tool to being, the more skilled one got the more effective they became and not needing tools. Julius pulled out a rune drawing pen and some rune papers getting ready to practice. He took out the second book that had another basic explanation about how to combine runes. Julius started practicing the runes for fire but his first attempt ended in failure before he could even write a single line now that his Aura punctured through the paper. grabbing the second paper he lowered the amount of Aura he released and kept adjusting til his Aura was controlled enough to mark the paper without damaging or fading away. The translucent drawing of the rune was more help than Julius could think. The marking seems to indicate how much Aura he could pour into the paper so the rune could activate. Controlling his Aura so precisely was the harder part of the task. in a couple of Horus Julius went through hundreds of rune paper without any success.
Julius was starting get frustrated but his mind was getting to satisfy an itch. After exhausting his mental energy he finally inscribed a low class fire rune. Julius stared at the rune gleefully ready to fire it. He aimed the rune away from himself and injected his Aura into it to active the rune.
the paper sizzled a little and an orange fire ball shot out. the fireball went about 10 meters and burst into a 3 meter explosion that lasted for a few seconds then went out. the fireball seemed it would be effective against people who were a lower rank than him. The precision wasn't the problem since he could trace the rune perfectly. The problem was his Aura wasn't strong and his input was barely enough to get it to activate.
After succeeding he left the small world and checked the time. He still had about thirty minutes before he had to meet up with Kiri. Julius got into comfortable position and sat crossed legged. He was gonna test his theory if condensing more Aura would be beneficial for his strength or it was just a stray path.He circulated his Aura and started the process to absorb more of the world energy to condense into his Aura. Something he noticed during the process was that this worlds energy wasn't nearly as strong as the one he came from but it was still more than enough for someone low ranked like Julius. He kept forcing the energy to condense itself more and more til he felt like he couldn't anymore. he repeated the process three to four more times till he was satisfied. He couldn't work till he achieved another forceful break through as he he needed a minimum requirement of energy receivers before you could even try to forcefully break through. if they tried without having a certain amount of energy in their body they would do irreversible damage to their energy channels.
*knock knock*
Julius received a knock on his door a few minutes after he was done mediating. getting up Julius stretched his arms and unlocked the door. Kiri was on the other side of door standing respectfully and slightly wary look o this face. " come on in" Julius said as he made way for Kiri to walk in " thank you" Kiri replied as he walked in. Julius noticed there weren't any honorifics this time as Kiri tried speaking naturally.
as they made it to the couch Julius pulled out the blue pheasant rising move set and put it on the table. " this what I have picked out for you to learn. this set matches your style from my judgment but if you want I could bring out a different. give this a read a tell me what you think" Julius said as he reclined back into his chair. Kiri had his eyes glued on the blue pheasant without even touching the book he could tell it was a very high rank skill set. He was hesitant but when he glanced up at Julius all he could see in his eyes was warmth and no other motive than what Julius had said so far. This was when Kiri decide he was done being a coward and would stand with Julius no matter the conflict. putting his head down Kiri said"tt- thank you" his voice cracked a little but he kept the tears from flowing.
" let's get to practicing." Julius answered as he got up and walked into one of the facilities available for training that came with the VIP room. the room was the size bigger than even the room he was sleeping in but it made sense for the training room to be this big. Julius planned on practicing his sword technique while kiri studied the two books (the energy absorption technique and blue pheasant). Julius started of with one of the main techniques Gabriel was practicing. the technique was called the twin star splitter. it was the only technique his family had from his ancestor but nobody but Gabriel ever had interest in it.
the core of this technique was to use one sword to trap someone into your flow and the other sword to deal the critical strikes at any moment. the technique was difficult to even master the first set of moves. unlike the blue pheasant technique that had set sequences for attack and defense the star splitter depends heavily on the judgment and finesse of the wielder. the first sequence was combo moves where the technique didn't require the core principle of the technique but set the foundation for the user to increase their judgment capabilities.
Julius took out two swords the caught his eye earlier when he looked through the rings. He pulled out the two Celtic swords. the swords had a simple pattern one with a dragon and one with a tiger extending across the blades. the weight was decent and the reach was optimal for his height right now. He wanted to use a couple of other swords his siblings had dumbed into the rings but he wasn't skilled enough to use blades that weren't the same type.
steadying his breathe Julius started executing the first sequence from Gabriels memory. He swung the sword in his right hand then pierced with left, the next move was to swing up the piercing sword and cross with the other sword making a "X" on where the blades crossed. after crossing the blades the next step move the first sequence was slash both swords in the same direction with the right sword delaying slightly behind the left to deliver a heavier blow using the momentum created by the swing of the left sword.
Julius was effectively going through the twelve moves of the first sequence when he got the twelfth step he would have to pierce both his swords inward or slash out depending on the circumstance. if the sequence was done perfectly the opponent would be trapped in an endless storm of sword strikes coming at them. the first sequence was to look like a madman striking without a gap in his striking. If Julius could comprehend this deeper meaning his skill in the sequence could be considered mastered. This required that Julius willingly threw away a part of his sanity to not fear the sequence interrupted. Julius kept practicing the moves til his was soaking wet in his own sweat. even though he had felt exhausted in this moment he always felt extremely comfortable. The more he exerted his body the more comfortable he felt resting.
Kiri in a corner of the room to give Julius some space was deeply concentrated reading the absorption technique. Kiri didn't have a naturally strong body but if nurtured correctly he would be a scholar of high order. Even though this was his first time reading it his comprehension was getting deeper and deeper as he read. in the 5 hours he spent reading the book taking slight breaks to watch Julius practice. He really admired Julius for his ability to completely get lost in his training and not even stop after all these hours just to show improvement every time he started the sequence from the beginning.
After Kiri got a solid understanding of his technique he also practiced the few sequences he was capable of understanding. Julius was resting at this point almost draining all his Aura and physical body of energy. He watched Kiri perform the moves for the first few times it seemed like kiri was just swinging his sword around aimlessly but as time went by he seemed to grasp the moves and started connecting them. This wasn't what Julius was expecting from the previous conversation between them and the other boys Kiri wasn't talented but at this moment he was performing the newly acquired technique at the same level as Julius who had a longer practice time.
Julius felt a tingling sensation across his whole body getting excited to train with Kiri who seemed like an unpolished gem. after a few hours of the boys training and resting they finally felt satisfied. Julius was laying on the floor taking deep breathes when he finally sat up and said" Let's get some food". Kiri also sat up hearing Julius and said " yeah I just need a quick shower" he lift his arm up and took a sniff then waving his hand around his nosey. " Hahahah, you right we should handle that first". the boys got up and went their separate ways to take care of their business.
...
1 hour and some change later
The boys were making their way down stairs wearing black sweats and slime fit hoodies, it was Julius clothes had lent to Kiri so it wasn't as fit, making their way down the explored the hotel along the way. This hotel seemed to crater to nobles mostly so most of the things around were superficial decorations that felt repetitive after a while.
Making their way into the dining room they could feel all the cold eyes on them. The rest of the dining room was full of people dressed up in suits and dresses. The two casually dressed boys wearing slippers stuck out like a sore thumb. Julius walked to an open booth paying the looks no mind, while Kiri looked like he would dig himself a hole and jump in it. " their a bunch of rich kids with over inflated egos don't mind them" Julius said in a exasperated manner. stretching himself out in the booth waiting for someone to come take his order.
Kiri sat properly in his side of the booth when a waitress finally came to take their orders. passing them both the menu she said " what can I get for you gentlemen". She had a bright smile and didn't show any disdain like the rest of the people in the dining room. Looking over the menu Kiri had a picked out what he wanted from the menu so now they were just waiting a Julius.
Julius looked at the menu realizing he didn't recognize any of the names from the menu. when he ate at his family they had different types of dishes he knew. he didn't want to pick something that wasn't to his taste but he could feel that he was taking up time so he just called out for four different dishes. the waitress getting their orders and left.
Julius sat up properly so he could get some information from Kiri. " What are some things we could do before the 15 days are up?" Julius asked kiri.
"I think I could breakthrough to bronze by that time if we keep the same pace." kiri replies
" I think I could making it to the 5th level but I'm gonna need more time to get to silver rank" Julius replied . " that should qualify us for at least 4th tier in the academy" kiri said
" 4th tier? what do you mean" Julius asked
" You didn't know before we get our classes the school tests to determine what tier talent we we have. There's 5 tiers in the academy. the 5th tier is the lowest while the 1st tier is the best. at least that's how it's supposed to be " Kiri at the end of his sentence seemed to lose vigor in his words.
"what do you mean at least how it's supposed to be" Julius got a general understanding of what the tiers were but now he was left with another question. " the academy let's high nobility access to the resource for the talented student while making it difficult for talented commoners to have a fair chance. if you are a noble it's pretty much a guarantee you get into Tier 2 and 1 without taking any sort of test." Kiri answered Julius question pretty bluntly since the academy didn't even try to hide it. The academy was funded by the nobles so the beloved that commoners should at least be happy with the chance they are already given. There have been many talented students who have attacked the academy due to grievances but the academy stood firm under the support of the nobles and twisting the narrative
" sounds like a sh*t school, hopefully we can find something fun to do while we are there" Julius said passing off everything Kiri had just said. He never expected a fair system seeing power meant absolute rule. Those students with grudges should've just waited til they were strong enough to face the wrath of the nobles before acting. Kiri on the other hand felt murky about the whole thing. He knew the academy was a great opportunity for him but he knew it would also come with some trauma.
The waitress came back with a cart full of food and the boys started digging in. Julius ate without care knowing he was starting a new journey while his friend Kiri was resolving himself to face the difficulties he would come to face the next 8 years.