Thwack. Thwack.
Neo met Richard's strikes blow for blow with his wooden sword on a fine morning, the familiar rhythm of training having long since become second nature. Unlike the relaxed posture Richard had maintained at the start of their sessions eight months ago, he now moved with focused intensity, circling Neo as he sought any exploitable opening. The problem was, Neo barely had any.
Thirty minutes of continuous combat, and neither showed signs of stopping. Neo fought with his entire body, having long abandoned the simplistic notion of using the sword as a mere striking tool.
Now he flowed between movements—thrusts and slashes, jabs at joints, even well-placed kicks when the situation demanded. He had spent eight months forging his weak body under the constant weight of Transcendence, and though his spiritual energy remained halved and the extra pressure still existed, he had adapted so completely that it felt like his normal weight now.
Unlike the naive boy who had first stepped onto the training grounds eight months ago, his eyes held none of that earlier innocence. They were sharp, focused, fixed on a single goal: landing even one bruise on the Grim Reaper's skin. Eight months of training with Richard, and he still hadn't managed it. He refused to accept that.
Neo, wearing his usual black training pants and nothing else, his now-toned upper body laced with mysterious tattoos that seemed to shift with his movements, blocked a strike aimed at his neck from the left.
Wielding his sword in his right hand while stepping closer, using his left elbow to deliver a quick blow at Richard's elbow joint, aiming to disrupt his balance.
Richard, however, saw this coming and retreated several steps. But Neo had already anticipated this and matched his movement, his True Sight fully active. The ability wasn't just for observing relics—it allowed him to perceive every nuance of Richard's physical combat skill. Every twitch, every reaction, every subtle shift in posture fed into his instincts, ingraining experience directly rather than forcing him to calculate each strike.
Richard noticed Neo's anticipation and wasn't surprised. He had observed this adaptation from the very first week of training, though back then Neo's physique couldn't keep up with his perceptions. Time had solved that problem. What had worried Richard was whether Neo, with his late start in combat training, could ever match noble children who had been drilled from the moment they could hold a sword upright.
"Not today, kid," Richard smirked, parrying a thrust that came after his retreat.
Neo didn't give up. He took several steps back before launching into a flurry of attacks. Richard always kept his left hand behind his back during their spars, a handicap Neo intended to exploit. He went in with a wide swing, which Richard blocked as expected, returning an attack simultaneously. Neo kicked at the hilt of Richard's sword, halting his follow-through, then adjusted for a downward slash aimed at Richard's shoulder.
Ring.
The signal ended their training for the day. Neo collapsed to the ground, exhausted. That had been his maximum duration for maintaining True Sight in combat before the disorienting headache set in.
"Nice work today, kid. You were almost there." Richard's mocking smile made the compliment feel like its opposite.
Neo lay on the ground, catching his breath as he thought about the upcoming banquet. The High noble Sapphire Clan was hosting, and due to the long-standing friendship between their clan and the Tasher family, they had received an invitation. Richard intended to honor it, seeing the event as an opportunity to ease Neo into the Blackstone Empire noble society.
"Tell me a little about our trip for after the banquet, at least." Neo had been asking for weeks, but Richard always deflected.
"Hehe... you'll know when we get there."
Neo knew Richard was messing with him, exploiting his naturally skeptical nature for amusement.
"I see you've reached Rank 1 already. Pretty good." Richard nodded in approval.
Neo simply closed his eyes and let the morning sun warm his exhausted body. "Pretty good? I broke through from an Acolyte to an official Rank 1 ascendant in eight months, all without using spiritual energy for anything but meditation, and all you say is 'pretty good'?"
Richard turned away from the complaining Neo, hiding his shameless expression. "So? You've only just caught up with the students you'll be competing with at the academy. While a majority of them are Low Rank 1 ascendants like you, there will definitely be some geniuses who break through to the Peak of Rank 1 before the exams start."
Neo twitched at his words and asked in a mocking tone, "And who was it that made it forbidden to train with spiritual energy during my entire training period?"
Richard's tone shifted abruptly. "It seems my 'grandson' has become a little too disrespectful. You need some discipline to adjust that tone."
Turning around, he discovered Neo already far away, running toward the mansion.
"Tsk... that brat." Richard looked up at the sky, amused. He had always wanted a son, but his wife could only give him a daughter before she died.
So, the idea of having Neo assume the Tasher name for appearances wasn't entirely unappealing—especially given the talent the boy possessed.
"That damn Grim Reaper. Must he always resort to violence when he's losing an argument?" Neo muttered to himself as he ran toward the building. He still needed to shower and dress before they left for the Sapphire Clan's territory.
Richard had already briefed him on the necessity of the banquet. Neo hadn't refused, knowing it was for his benefit. He couldn't simply walk around declaring he'd escaped from the Templar Empire—that would make things obvious for spies, who would sell the information and cause trouble for both him and the Tasher household.
"At least someone understands that violence is key," Pandora suddenly replied, still angry at Neo for her own reasons.
"Bullshit. You just want more souls in the soul space," Neo said matter-of-factly.
"And what's wrong with that?" Pandora fumed. "You keep messing around with the materials from the Blue Merchant—one experiment after another."
Neo smiled wryly. "Of course, there's a reason for that."
He hadn't given up practicing with the Forge to reform materials. With it, he could combine materials of various qualities and elements, birthing entirely new substances. He could even manipulate the form the material took with a little effort.
So far, he'd stuck with Rank 1 materials, using tiny quantities to test limits by mixing one with another.
But Pandora kept insisting they forge relics. She wanted to know what she was truly capable of, especially with her lack of memory. He wanted that too, but he couldn't just go around killing people because he needed souls for the Forge to succeed.
He had never tried channeling spiritual energy into the altar, either—since that would mean breaking Richard's rule. He had to admit the itch was hard to ignore, but he'd maintained his discipline after seeing how strong and respected the Tasher family was for their training methods.
Over the months, he'd learned they possessed a special bloodline, though when he'd asked both Richard and Helen, Richard clearly knew and refused to say anything, while Helen was completely oblivious to the term.
He walked straight to his room, receiving greetings from all the servants along the way.
> System, display status.
A translucent screen materialized before his eyes:
Name: Neo Ilyad
Rank: Rank 1
Titles: Creator
Awakened Element: Fire (20%), Darkness (10%)
Creator Relic: Pandora's Forge
Bonded Relics: World-Split Blade, Space Key
Bloodline: The Creator's Bloodline
Bloodline Abilities: True-Sight, Creator's Physique, Transcendence
Transcendence Cycle: 252 days
Souls Collected: 1
Neo studied his status, noting the minimal changes. His elemental affinity growth came from time spent tinkering with both fire and darkness elemental stones, allowing his body to come into contact with pure, refined elemental particles.
But in eight months, the change was barely negligible. The other change was his Transcendence cycle, now past 252 days—a little over eight months—making him consider turning it off to see what effect the bloodline ability would produce. Still, he maintained his patience.
Stepping into his room, he found a black noble outfit laid out on the bed.
"Hah... she didn't forget to pick something out for me." He was referring to Helen, who cared more about his appearance than he did.
After a quick shower, he summoned Pandora's Forge and stepped inside. Appearing within, he smiled at the space that no longer looked empty. Rows and rows of experimental Rank 1 alloys and combined elemental materials lined the shelves. He walked closer and picked up his favorite creation.
It was almost like a memory metal, black in color, formed from mimic metal and various dark elemental stones. The small piece he held currently represented 100 spirit stones' worth of materials, and he'd only managed to produce such a tiny amount. Still, his resolve remained strong as he looked at the dark liquid in his palm.
It suddenly shifted, turning into a dark metal ring on his palm, then a very short dagger, and finally a wristwatch on his right hand. Neo chuckled to himself. With this quantity, he could only form small objects from imagination.
Yes—'from imagination'.
He had started with a base metal called mimic metal, which could change form at will as long as the user bonded with it using spiritual energy. Its initial hue was a silvery, mercury-like color. First, he'd attempted to fuse several fire elemental stones, but the metal imitated the fire element's hot nature and became unbearable to use against skin without scalding. Next, he tried darkness elemental stones, which created a mimic metal that absorbed physical damage—but only to a limited extent.
That still wasn't enough. As he studied his creation with enthusiasm, he realized the mimic metal's rank severely limited how much he could dilute its properties without failure. He decided to add more elements to the experiment.
The mimic metal's only attribute was adaptability—nothing else. No durability, no defense capability, no attack strength. It was useless on its own. But with the darkness elemental stones, he'd managed to give it defensive capabilities without losing adaptability.
Deciding to add a metal that could boost offensive capabilities, he tried everything. Heavy metals that could cross with other heavy metals broke down upon touch and made the mimic metal lose adaptability. Light metals barely added any damage capability. Then he finally found the perfect material: Swiftmist.
This was, by all means, a Rank 2 material due to its absurd speed enhancement properties. But its nature made it notoriously difficult to work with. Though it looked like gray metal, refining it took sheer luck—applying fire made it slowly dissipate into mist, hence the name.
For Neo, this problem was practically nonexistent. The Forge altar allowed him to manipulate materials on a molecular level, and with the System's aid, he could easily track the process, eliminating the risk of unstable molecular structures causing failure.
He combined Swiftmist with the darkness mimic metal, producing the current creation in his hand. Not only did it possess defensive capabilities from the darkness element, but it had also developed a speed attribute that positively reinforced the mimic metal's adaptability, affecting the speed of form changes.
Neo nodded in satisfaction at the sight. He picked up a few metals left lying around, placed them on the shelf he'd built in the Forge, and labeled them. Deciding this wasn't the time to start another round of tinkering, he exited Pandora's domain, unsummoned her physical form, and proceeded to dress.
He smiled at himself in the mirror. His body was far more toned than a few months ago, his dark hair longer than it was, and his green eyes sharp. "Not bad. Not bad at all."
He dressed in the black and white noble outfit bearing the Tasher family crest on its chest—the symbol of a flame burning red.
Tsk.
Pandora clicked her tongue at Neo without saying a word. He didn't bother asking why.
Deciding he looked good enough, he stepped out of his room and moved toward the main hall. He stopped right before the archway and breathed deeply.
'Hah... It's going to be a long day.'