As Relia and Hale entered the tent just as Ren finished wiping himself, Aria greeted the two.
"I greet Lady Relia."
Putting a hand on her chest, Aria bowed slightly, not too much, not too little.
Relia, surprised at the level of etiquette, promptly returned the greeting with a demure smile.
"Yes"
On the other hand, Hale, a knight captain far from noble pleasantries, was unconcerned.
Instead, his focus was on Ren, who was lying on the bed.
"How are you doing, bo-... Ren?"
Hale was about to call Ren "boy," as he had when they first met, but he changed it, causing Ren to tilt his head.
"Ren?"
"Isn't that your name? After what you showed, calling you 'boy' wouldn't be appropriate, now would it?"
"Ah, yes."
Hale had changed the way he addressed Ren.
Of course, they only met recently, so it didn't really bother Ren, only rousing his curiosity.
'Is that the cause?'
A fragment of what Ren believed was respect was seen in Hale's eyes, probably from the test they had earlier.
It was an impressive performance, especially from a rank 1 against a rank 5.
In fact, to others who didn't know about Ren's past life, it must have looked like a miracle that he did that much, even if all Hale received was a light bruise.
Although the gap in the first 3 ranks wasn't that large, after that, the difference was like heaven and earth.
At rank 4, you would get the normal increase in mana output, absorption, storage, and control.
But this increase was multiple times higher than normal, in addition, mana started to take aspects of the element the person used the most.
Since the four basic elements of Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth were most commonly used, mana took the aspect of one of those elements.
For Hale's heavy mana, it clearly took aspects of the Earth element, but Ren also felt aspects belonging to other elements as well.
Since the mana saturated the body, it made the body mighty durable; even a rank 4 mage would be able to take a couple of seemingly fatal hits and still survive.
Regardless, rank 4 saw an exponential rise in their stats, dominating the lower ranks.
Even Aria and Ren, despite their experience, would be hard pressed fighting a rank 4 head on, even if they were rank 3.
Then what about a rank 5 like Hale?
The difference was even crazier!
'At rank 5, your body will reconstruct itself, which transcends your human limit, and with mana that can touch upon the mind and soul, it adds another layer of power.'
It was clearly a hard place to reach, yet under various conditions, even the talentless could reach it.
That was, unless you were talking about the rank itself, what stumped most people wasn't the rank, but the wall to get into the rank.
'Even if you had talent, failure was common.'
'But we will have to reach it, right, Ren?'
'That's right, especially with my fate.'
With Ren's fate of [Seed of Self Annihilation], he would die after a certain number of days unless he ranked up.
Aria's eyes flickered at Ren's words, glowing with an unusual intensity.
As the pair were messaging each other, Ren got up from his bed. He smiled and greeted the two.
"Thank you for accommodating us and treating my injury."
The tent they were currently in was large; if it was used for maximum efficiency, more than 10 people could probably sleep inside.
Yet it wasn't used in that way; only two foldable beds were inside.
Ren had just gotten off one of the beds, but he noticed another bed that had a wooden staff leaning on it.
It was clearly Aria's.
In any case, the tent and the bed weren't theirs, and who else could they have gotten them from if not Relia?
So obviously, Ren thanked her.
Although Ren didn't know noble etiquette, he at least knew how to be thankful.
Relia reacted, nodding with a smile.
"You're very welcome. If you have any problems, ask my butler Thetford. He has quite a striking beard you seen him before, right?"
"Yes… I think so."
In Ren's memory, an old man, far from looking like a butler and more like a knight, appeared.
His grey beard implied a deep wisdom and a potential for a life changing talk if the time ever came for Ren to speak to the old man.
'Isn't he the one who interrogated us?'
Ren had indeed remembered correctly; Thetford was the one who questioned them as they were surrounded by knights.
At that moment, Aria spoke with a calm expression.
"Is there something you need, Lady Relia? Captain Hale?"
In actuality, Aria knew why Relia was here, but decided to ask anyway.
That was because she didn't know why Hale was with her.
Relia took a glance at Hale with slight curiosity in her eyes.
Even Relia didn't know why Hale visited; the two just coincidentally found each other in front of the tent and decided to enter together.
"You can go first, Hale."
Hale bowed slightly in response.
"Thank you, milady."
Hale then stared at Ren, his lips curving with a smile, causing Ren to frown.
"That technique you used… it grows with your rank, doesn't it? It's good, especially for a rank 1, but a single technique isn't enough."
Ren nodded instinctively at Hale's words.
Techniques were very similar to spells, such that they required mana and the correct elemental [Discharge] to use.
But techniques were used more by warriors than mages since the power they exuded was typically affected by the physical strength of the user.
Learning and using techniques was how warriors got stronger.
Among these techniques, the most sought after were those that could grow with the user, such as the [Century Fist] Ren used on Hale during his test.
So just as mages wanted multiple spells, typically warriors wanted more techniques.
That was if Ren was typical.
Ren had a whole library of techniques in his head, and [Era Fist], which the [Century Fist] was a part of, was one of many growing techniques that Ren had at his disposal.
"Yes, a single technique isn't enough… but Sir Hale, I've said it before, I won't be your student."
Hale stared at Ren for a couple of moments before asking a question,
"You said you had a feeling. Is that really the reason you refused my offer?"
Ren had mentioned previously that he had a gut feeling that he would regret his decision if he became Hale's student; it was a feeling honed through many years of hardship.
"Yes, that is... I apologize if it sounded rude."
Ren wasn't one to lie, especially in a situation such as this one. In fact, if he did lie, Hale would probably catch him with his supernatural senses.
If he wanted, Ren would even allow that lie detecting device that Thetford had used on him to be used again.
Eventually, Hale sighed with a shake of his head.
"No, you weren't rude at all; in fact, I was the rude one. I'm sorry."
Hale smiled at him as he apologized.
'He's apologizing?'
The lively man gave a very uncharacteristic gentlemanly smile.
'And… he's damn handsome!'
'Ren?'
'Isn't he?'
'I guess… Why is this important?'
'If there's something to admire, then admire it! Lady Relia is beautiful as well.'
'Then what about me?'
Aria's eyes sharpened for a moment, causing Ren to shudder.
'Aria?'
'What?'
'You're beautiful too.'
At the words, Aria's eyes softened, her lips curving up.
'Obviously, I am. The most beautiful in the world.'
'I didn't say all of that…'
'Ren.'
Her eyes sharpened once more as Ren chuckled internally.
'Eyes like jewels, your smile like sunlight! I can't help it! My heart, oh my heart! Am I falling in love?'
'Hehe, don't fall too deeply now.'
Aria's eyes calmed as she smiled, her lips curving slightly higher than before. Ren couldn't help but smile as well.
As they bantered through their messages, they(only Ren) came to the same conclusion.
Hale's well sculpted face, the unusual grey hair, and green eyes made for quite a exoticly lethal combination.
Far from the boisterous personality he showed when they first met, Ren and Aria couldn't help but be surprised.
Yet looking at Relia, the surprise seemed unfounded.
Relia didn't seem to be surprised, as if this was normal.
'Isn't he a knight?'
Even if Hale laughed loudly and spoke straightforwardly, he was still the knight of a noble household.
In fact, he wasn't just any knight but a captain of a knight order and of a ducal household.
Even if he didn't know or was unconcerned with etiquette, he had to at the very least know sincerity.
And Ren had no reason to refuse such sincerity.
"I accept your apology; if anything, I should be thanking you."
Hale's rank 5 mana was nearly impossible to control.
Ren had only managed to control it since Hale willingly handed it over, as well as his years of experience.
Inch by inch, as the rank 5 mana moved throughout his body to use the [Century Fist], it also pushed the mana control of his body to its limit.
Just like how damaged muscles grew when they were healed, Ren's mana control would grow after he recovered as well.
This would skyrocket his speed to rank 2 and even rank 3!
'It was still dangerous, Ren.'
'But it worked, didn't it?'
Naturally, Hale also knew what benefits Ren derived from his test, which led him to bring up what Ren would receive if he 'landed a good hit'.
"You said you wanted to know the prophecy I heard, right?"
Hale had mentioned that the reason he tested Ren was because of a prophecy he was given by a lady.
"Yes, you mentioned a Martial Sect, didn't you?"
Hale nodded.
"That's right, the 'Martial Sect' is what I call it, but it recently changed its name to the Martial Union. Ah, I heard your story from the knights you don't know much, do you?"
Other than Relia, who knew they were from Earth, to the rest, they were just kids taken from their homes by an evil mage and were new to the outside world or the Rael Empire.
Hale smiled and explained the union to them in an oddly detailed manner.
The Martial Union, just as the name implied, was a gathering of Martial Artists to exchange skills and keep the advancement of martial arts afloat.
It was founded by an individual called the Assimilating Blade thousands of years ago and was first called the 'True Martial Sect',
But it wasn't the only Martial Sect, and there were many others like it vying both for power and glory,
Yet due to the special properties of the sect's martial art, it persisted until the present.
While other sects broke and fell apart from time to time, it continued to prosper and grow, absorbing the martial arts of those fallen sects.
Eventually, it changed its name to the Martial Union.
This was because it was the only remaining martial arts group on the continent.
Because in some way, they touched or assimilated all of the Martial Arts in the world.
"If we're following tradition, it's supposed to be the True Martial Union, but internal problems stop that."
Despite absorbing other sects, it wasn't easy to completely absorb the sects.
The True Martial Sect's martial art [True Assimilating Sword] was a sword technique, but martial arts encompassed all weapons, even your body.
So, the True Martial Sect was forced to create branches that represented these formerly fallen sects and their weapons, and to rename itself.
Thus, the word "True" and "Sect" representing the individuality of the group was taken out, and the word "Union" was put to show unity and acceptance of all martial arts.
"It's more like an alliance than an actual sect now."