Minor Troubles

Of course, the return journey had been slower, as more than a hundred people and food were stolen by bandits. When they reached the town, William left the despairing villagers and kidnapped women for Hurim to take care of. He hurried to the castle.

At the castle, William also had some questions to ask Theo. These questions tortured his mind because of what he had encountered on this mission.

When he reached Theo's study, he saw that Theo was reading something on a small scroll.

He bowed and sat quietly across from him. After a while, he began to speak.

"Father, I have completed the mission you gave me."

"Well done, was there a problem?"

"No, everything went according to plan and we wiped out the bandits." William pretended to think of something and continued speaking.

"Why don't we erase Baron Seth and his two squires?" he said.

Theo sighed briefly. He slowly placed the scroll in his hand on the table. In clean handwriting, the scroll said, "William Aureus, Report on the Bandit Mission." In the title was written.

"William, what did you encounter?"

" Matama village." He said, "In the Matama Village, they killed women, children, and all the adults who did not surrender to them. In a very murderous way."

"I understand. It is a sad thing. Even now, I wish I had sent you the first day." He sighed again. He rang the bell on his desk. After a while, a maid knocked on the door and entered. She bowed respectfully.

"Bring us the 'Wild Tea' of the Black Forest." He said.

After the maid left, he turned back to William.

"William, although your body is like that of an adult, you are still small. Especially for this world, you are much smaller."

"Father, you too have just entered the iron level. What do you mean, you're small?" William obviously did not understand. That's why he asked such a useless question.

"Let's leave warrior cultivation aside, that's not the point. Our main topic is how wild the world we actually live in is."

Then the maid came. She brought a pot of tea and two wooden glasses. After pouring a glass for each of them, she left.

After Theo took a sip, "This tea is special, it increases qi." He said.

After taking a sip, William truly felt that he had regained some qi.

"Anyway, I want to tell you this. If you want to follow this path and become stronger, you will definitely see sights like this in abundance. Maybe one day you will be like these people."

"Never!" said William.

"Make no decision yet." Theo raised his hand.

"Actually, you can look at it this way, let's say you got together with your friends and went hunting. You found a very valuable treasure, so how do you know that they don't want to kill you, even if you don't want to? So you might have to get blood on your hand one day, maybe unwillingly." He said. His face was serious. It was as if he was giving a lesson from father to son.

"I can even say that you have already started walking, albeit somewhere on the side of this road. After all, you killed those bandits, didn't you? Perhaps some of them had never been killed before? Did you kill them all without question?" he said.

William was surprised. He guessed that his father had sent someone to watch them. After thinking for a while, he said, "Then I'll think about it when the time comes." He said.

"You must think quickly, my son, or you may be the first to die."

"I will be!" said William. Then, as if he remembered something, he took two leather scrolls out of his chest.

"We found these in the tent of the Iron Level bandits. In particular, the earth element defense technique gave us a defensive power close to the iron body," he said.

It was clear that Theo was waiting for them. Immediately, his eyes lit up and he took the scrolls from William's hand.

After looking at them for a while, he said, "Good! They are useful for our business." He said.

"You can cultivate these fire steps yourself. It will increase your speed."

"I thought so too, but I don't want to lose the fire sword." William was slightly annoyed.

Theo looked at him strangely, as if surprised. "Huh? What do you mean, I don't want to lose the fire sword?"

"I'm currently practicing the fire sword technique. If I cultivate it, won't I lose the fire sword?" he said.

Then Theo hit his head with his hand. "My stupid head! Of course, we didn't teach you anything after you reached the Iron Level. Do you feel anything when you meditate now?" he said.

Surprised, William said, "It's just that my missing qi is regenerating, but I can't improve. Said.

"Of course you can't improve!" shouted Theo.

"Then let me tell you again."

William straightened his seat so that he could listen with all his attention.

"William, there are countless techniques in this world. Some techniques have been specially modified for beginners. The reason for this is to ensure that even those who have not yet become Iron Level have the power to defend themselves. The fire sword and iron body that you use are examples of this. But things change after you become an Iron Level. You must choose a meditation technique for yourself. This meditation technique is only specific to the level you are at. It allows you to progress through that level and can bring some additional benefits. For example, the sharpness or piercing of the iron body. The Metal Body was originally a technique of the Iron Level, but at your grandfather's request, it was adapted to the Meridian Level. That's why you have to use a different meditation technique at the Iron Level. Do you understand?" he said.

William also began to wonder if he was an idiot. How could he not think of this until now? For almost a few weeks, his cultivation had stayed at the same place without making any progress. He was in this state right now because he was only using a very low-level meditation technique.

"I understand." He nodded his head.

"There are also techniques. Mind you, these are just 'techniques.'"

"The more powerful and comprehensive techniques a person knows, the more powerful he is. The technique of meditation is unique. You can't practice more than one at a time, except in special cases, but you can learn more than one of the techniques that can give you attack, defense, and various abilities at the same time. For example, you have an affinity for fire, so if you learn both Fire Sword and Fire Steps, they would make a good combination," he said.

He took the last sip of tea from his glass.

"I can only tell you that when you go to the Academy, you will realize how many techniques there are. The more compatible and complementary techniques you learn, the stronger you will be.

"I understand, Father. Then won't you give me a meditation technique?" he said.

"No. You cannot use our meditation techniques. I don't want you to do anything after this. In two years I will send you to the academy. Take some time for yourself."

William frowned. He was a little angry. 'Who knows what these two years will cost me,' he thought.

"Am I going to sit around and do nothing for two years? What will I do if my peers are stronger than me in those two years?" he asked.

Theo let out a long sigh. "Ah! William, you have no idea how far ahead you are, son. Your peers are still busy chasing pleasure, almost all of them still begging for mother's milk. There's a reason the Academy set the age limit at fourteen," he said.

Still, William felt a little insulted. He wanted to be as strong as possible. Therefore, he had to plan extensively for the next two years.

Theo put the fire steps in front of him and smiled. "For the next two years, I will send you on occasional missions to gain experience." He said.

William took the scroll with a somber face. Nevertheless, he bowed respectfully and left. Then he wanted to go and play with Wilson. When he got to his mother's room, Wilson was playing with his little wooden horses while his mother was reading.

William asked as he played with little Wilson. "Mom, what is it like to be a mage?"

Sophia bent the corner of the page she was reading and closed it. After thinking for a moment, she said, "I don't know how to describe it, but I guess I'd call it 'magical,'" she said.

William spoke sarcastically. "I know it's magical too, Mom."

Sophia cut him off immediately. "No, I didn't mean it like that. I just wanted to describe it that way because it is difficult and full of secrets. First of all, there is a language called the language of magic, a 'magical' language in itself. In fact, most mages only speak this language. Even most warriors," she said.

William was surprised to hear that it was a language of mages. He asked because he wanted to know right away.

"Can I learn it?"

"Yes, if it's just a language, you can definitely learn it." He said.

The two of them decided that they would start training tomorrow. William kept saying, "I wish I had asked sooner. After playing with Wilson for a while, he went to his room.

First, he had to make a plan. He didn't want to waste two years.

He sat down at his desk in his room by the window. He took a quill and parchment and drew a timetable. He wrote 'tomorrow' at the beginning and 'second year' at the end. Then he began to fill it out.

First, he would learn the language of magic. After that, he would study the Fire Steps technique, which he had not learned yet.

After writing down the technique, he still had 1.5 years left. This was the time he planned to do the things he wanted to do in his old world, but couldn't. Also, he did not know how often Theo would assign his missions, so he wrote at intervals.

Some of the things he wrote about during that year-and-a-half gap were learning how to use various weapons, blacksmithing, and certain musical instruments that he certainly wanted most. He remembered so many songs from his other world that it would have been a great loss not to introduce them to this one. The music played by the bards in the streets and at the few banquets his father had given, seemed very boring to him. He had seen a guitar-like musical instrument in this world, and he especially wanted to learn it. He even wanted to go further and have a special one made for him. He would have to find a good carpenter. He wanted a guitar made of white ironwood. He wondered what his voice would sound like. He didn't want to die of boredom, because there weren't many means of entertainment in this world. In fact, after he finished writing the plan, he immediately took out another parchment and started writing down all the songs he remembered, one by one. He would let them taste the music of the place called 'Earth'!

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This chapter is short, I know. All the rest of the chapters are at least 2.5k words.