I'm getting tired of writing about Aion's early life so I'm gonna start time skipping any thoughts on that? Not planing to make any drastic jumps maybe a year or two, have some events happen then go twards his entrence to the academy. If anyone has any suggestions please send me a message or comment.

Chapter 14: Genius or moron

Aion walked to his teacher who was sitting peacefully.

“Teacher.”

“You used the Soul Rune technique show me what happened.” Aion knew his teacher would ask him so he showed him everything from the moment he started to when he awoke.

“Kid things got a bit exciting in here too and the space although not by a log got smaller.” This made sense after all this was his soul and he had used parts of it as “ink” it inscribe the runes.

“Teacher, the technique isn’t strong.” Following his words Aion showed his teacher the fight between him and Iris.

“Kid who told you that you could let your guard down when you’ve never fought another person on equal terms. You assumed you were stronger and threw your hard earned skill away. This should be the first and last time I should have to tell you this, never underestimate an opponent.”

Aion knew that what he had done in the first exchange was wrong and although it was only a minor setback in the fight, it still wasn’t correct to put all his faith in a technique. Following this David trained Aion’s hand to hand combat skill and told him that the extra moves he was incorporating from other techniques were good but incomplete.

This was because Aion hadn’t really practiced the techniques extensively just attempted to integrate them into his own fighting style. After five hours of training David sat Aion down for a verbal lesson rather than continuing their sparring.

“I've shown you the techniques I have and your grandpa showed you his, make sure you memorize them all and take what you can from the basics and build up from there. That way your combat skills will improve.” Aion understood this well as his abilities drastically improved by incorporating the Falling Stream’s Sword technique, but before that he had two things to ask his teacher regarding what his grandpa had told him.

So Aion showed his teacher two separate sets of images of his grandpa’s two requests one was to see the soul rune technique in order to make sure nothing would happen to Aion as a result of it and the method for Aion to form a core.

The second one was his offer to give David a way out of Aion’s soul in exchange for the technique Gaia’s Embrace. David quickly agreed with the first, thinking that Ban would have a better understanding of the technique and told Aion that he would release his spirit three hours after he woke up.

As for the second one he told Aion to first memorize Gaia’s Embrace and that he would have an answer before he woke up, naturally Aion had already memorized both Lightning Tyrant’s Body and Soul Rune. Aion sat down and began memorizing the book as he had a great memory due to his powerful soul it would be quite easy as long as he went over it a couple times.

“Kid I've made my decision, if your grandpa can restore my body or give me a new body then it's fine,but if his solution is to disperse my soul then no. As for the outcome I'm trusting you as my disciple to handle it.”

“Un!” Aion was rather happy as he trusted his grandpa to help his teacher and would make sure it happened.

“And the last thing I need to tell you, when I release my spirit we will have to coordinate in forming your core. I'm assuming you want to use Lightning Tyrant’s Body?”

“Un.”

“Good, remember three hours after you wake up we’ll start.” Ban that night didn’t sleep instead headed to the nearby forest to collect some more meat as Aion’s appetite that day seemed to have grown to match five grown men.

And with everything that happened he felt it more appropriate to do something, truthfully though someone of his level didn’t really need to eat or sleep as the body could be better nourished with elemental energy.

Through the corse of his life Ban had rarely slept often replacing it with gathering elemental energy in order not to waste time on something he didn’t need. But that had stopped when he reached the peak of the master stage as he didn’t know how to continue in order to improve.

After hunting some wild earth boars and storing them in his holding bag where they wouldn’t rot he began to walk back and ponder on the runes inscribed on Aion’s left arm but couldn’t make any sense of it. He could be considered a master of arrays and formations being proficient in all seventh ranked arrays and having understanding of some eighth ranked ones.

But regardless of his knowledge he could not figure out what the runes meant or how it was possible to strengthen a person without a core. At dawn he woke up Aion and served him a rather large breakfast for a five year old, a portion equal to two adults, but Aion only ate half before announcing that he was full.

“It seems your appetite has gone down from yesterday.”

“Un, Grandpa I talked to teacher.” Aion was ready to tell his grandpa what his teacher told him in order to have sufficient time to prepare to condense his core.

“Teacher said to show you the Soul Rune technique. And to give you Gaia’s Embrace with conditions.” Ban wasn’t surprised that David had set some conditions and knew that Aion was an honest child who would need them to be followed.

“Makes sense, tell me your teacher’s conditions and I will meet them.” Aion told him what his teacher needed with the exact words he had given to him.

“Those are all doable, I'll just need some time maybe two years, but I give my word that I will be able to give him a new body. Just that the body will need to be of a child, as I'm unwilling to sacrifice a human child and I'm sure he is as well. It will have to be the body of an elemental beast. But it will take some time most likely around two years before I find a suitable beast.”

Aion heard this and told his grandpa that he would begin to copy both books onto some blank papers. Actually Ban knew a way to do the transfer almost immediately but had no living elemental beast on hand or any idea if the young knight would have a preference in terms of what beast’s body he wanted to take over.

The biggest reason however was that he wanted the knight to keep training Aion for a while longer and pass on any skills or techniques. After Aion finished copying the techniques onto some pre-prepared blank books and handed them to his grandpa one was immediately stored. Ban held the copy of Soul Rune in his hands and opened it to begin reading every word without missing anything or nay possible hidden meanings.

As he finished reading the book Aion had copied Ban was dumbfounded he didn’t know if he should call the man a genius or a moron. The creator had endlessly praised it but truth be told it could only raise a persons strength to be equivalent to someone slightly better off than a someone who forcibly raised their cultivation through external means.

On top of that, it only had such means for the human stage as the creator seamed to forget the fundamental two large difference between stages. The first was that there was a simple difference between between to form that elemental energy took, for the human state it was a gas, grand a liquid, and master a solid.

As such continuing to add more gas like runes would be pointless. The second was that at the grand stage a person would be able to release his or her spirit to further strengthen their attacks.

The maker also forgot one other crucial thing, he himself had been at the master stage, meaning that his body had been cleansed and nurtured by master stage elemental energy. So further strengthening of his body would make it obvious that no one at the human stage would be a match for him even if he only inscribed a small amount of runes And had no core.

But if all the boasting was ignored, the technique itself was an ingenious way to strengthen a person and their soul, Ban was even preparing himself mentally to use it. But he noticed something even more terrifying in the array used to combine the soul and elemental energy to creat the runes, namely only one out of every five hundred people would survive the process of inscribing the first rune because of what it did to the body.

It wasn’t about how strong a person or their soul was it was a mater of luck, after that the rest would be unbearably painful but had almost no chance of a fatality. Ban then decided that he would modify the array after studying it more, to higher the chance of survival although it would probably lower the effects to about a third.

“Aion it will be extremely painful and you were lucky to survive doing this but I suggest you continue if you think you can, with this and the Lightning Tyrant’s Body technique you might truly one day be unmatched in the world.”

“Un Grandpa, I will continue.”

“Remember to try to form your core with the lightning element though don’t hope for to much as you had an elemental affinity it might not be possible.” Aion then remembered that the crystal at the test had turned gray but decided that he would still try to form a lightning element core.

Once inside his room Aion began to begin gathering lightning elemental energy in preparation for his teacher to release his spirit and help him form his core. From what he knew all he would have to do is direct the energy through the spirit and into himself and the spirit would take care of the rest.

After some time David's elemental essence spirit appeared and Aion quickly began to work on moving the lightning elemental energy through it and then towards himself. Aion had complete focus and remembered to circulate the lightning energy through his body before bringing it all together in the area next to his heart.

But as he did so and released his control giving it to the spirit nothing happened. Like it had in the past any energy Aion tried bringing to himself would dissipate. The only thing left to try was the gray elemental energy, but the results were the same no mater what he tried.

Aion finally resigned himself to the fact that he would never have a core as he didn’t have a spirit and the blood essence in him was too weak to cause a core to naturally form in his body. The only thing he could do was focus on the Soul Rune technique and raise his proficiency in battle and his tactics as head on confrontations would likely result in his death.

Others being stronger than him was nothing new to Aion and from early on he had learned that he would need to be smarter than his opponent to survive. Just that recently he had hoped to be able to fight his way through everything that stood before him like some of the savage berserkers or kill without ever being seen or even noticed like a skilled assassin.

The only benefit that remained from the boastful words of Soul Rune’s created was the ability to instantly activation two arrays that where inscribed on ones soul for every twenty seven runes, what would be the equivalent of a rank.

So Aion was determined to chose the most suitable arrays for him and inscribe them in his soul before writing the twenty eighth rune. The only thing he could do at this moment though was see what arrays he could activate with the gray energy.