Chapter 13: a small match

Tal watched over his son as he put on the vest and sat down in order to try and precise the ki that was entering his body.

“Fang, the first level of a ki refiner is care refinement. As you know this is the time in which a ki refiner creates his ki core in order to contain and self replenish his or her own core.”

Seeing that Fang was listening to him Tal continued.

“For this level it is normal that a child spends at least five years. The reason for this is simple, you want your core as large as possible. Although some may be able to form larger cores than others the normal period of time for one to spent on this level is five years. This is not something that can be changed, even if you feel that you’ve reached the limit of what you can do before the five years are up you are to still continue. After you move on to ki circulation your core will be set and you will no longer be able to grow it.”

Seeing that his son understood Tal sent him to his room to begin his ki refinement. For a normal five year old child this step was considerably difficult because one needed focus and a certain amount of discipline in order to focus on ki refinement and core creation.

Creating a core in itself wasn’t that difficult because the vest would help lay the groundwork and the rest was just patience, but that’s the part that would trouble children. Patience was rare in a child and often times a child would have a small ki core because he or she couldn’t wait to circulate his or her ki. Tal had no droughts that his son was a mature child and wouldn’t do anything so detrimental to his growth but as a parent he still worried.

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It had been three years since Fang had received the vest. Sitting in his bed he let out a small sigh.

‘Master it’s been almost half a year since your ki core stopped growing. Why don’t you just move on to the other levels with your control over mana you should be able to move up to at least the third level in an instant.’

Fang shook his head disagreeing with East. It was true that his ki core had stopped growing, it was however by no means large. Although he didn’t know how much compared to others Fang felt that his ki core could be bigger.

Currently it resided just under his diaphragm and was the size of a small nut. According to his father the speed of his core’s growth was exceptional but that was only because he had East assist him in manipulating mana while converting it into ki.

“No I feel that I could make it grow more, also I promised father and mother I would wait until I was at least ten.”

‘Fine but don’t blame me when you waste two years instead of moving on to the higher levels of ki control.’

Fang looked at East who rested on his lap and smiled warily. She had in her body a large flow of ki but no core on top meaning that she would have to have at least reached the break level. Sadly she only had limited access to that wealth of power. On top of which she would, from time to time, show exceptional control over mana and multiple arrays.

“That’s no problem. Were we doing a thing today?”

East hearing him say that shook her head.

‘Master your father is going to beat you with a stick. Last week he told you that he was planning to take you to the palace in order to meet the king and the prince. Apparently he was there when you had your aptitude checked.’

Remembering his plans with his father Fang quickly got dressed in his most formal attire. He wore a set of elven clothes his mother had specially prepared for him. His pants were a normal blackish gray color, his shirt was lined with the images of leaves turning to as but devoid of any fire, and his coat was similar to his shirt but with the exception of having a black flame lining the bottom.

Although they seemed odd he was one of the few half elves with the fire element and the only known ash variant in history making it somewhat difficult for his mother to make something appropriate. Running down stairs to the carriage that had already been waiting for him Fang quickly got in and told the driver to depart.

“Young man I don’t mean to criticize but next time you might want to be on time your father will be upset if you don’t arrive on time.” The driver was the same one that would pick up his father from time to time so Fang had met him on more than one occasion.

“Yes.”

With the carriage reaching the palace didn’t take long and he would still be on time to meet his father if only just barely. Once in the palace he was quickly guided by a guard who had been sent by his father.

“Fang you're just in time, I was afraid you had gotten caught up in something.”

“No father I arrived here smoothly.”

Tal nodded and began walking while taking his son with him.

“Now we will meet the king, as the high general normally I would meet him in the audience chamber but the prince insisted that it would be better to meet in the king’s study, in a more private place. So while most formalities can be dropped he is still the king and you are to behave properly. Is that understood.”

Fang nodded, his mother had taught him basic etiquette and the baring he would need to show according to his status.

“Yes mother taught me the basics.”

Tal nodded but immediately had another thought. What could his wife who would never bow her head, even in front of a saint magician know about etiquette? following this thought he began to sweat on the inside and thanked the prince for insisting on having a private meeting.

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King Balford sat with his youngest and most promising son, prince Baldare. His pride in his son was something he took great joy in. After all his son had great potential and with all the backing of the dwarven kingdom it was almost certain that he would reach the Saint level.

Even now he was considered a young genius having learned to use level two spells after three years of studying under one of their elders. His talents weren’t limited to only that however as he made great progress in both earth magic and fire magic all the while learning to harness his variant magic of lava.

And although he could only cast two or three level two spells before tiring out it was still praise worthy for someone to do so in three short years. The king however didn’t understand his son’s small obsession with the boy Fang, from what he knew the boy made steady progress but didn’t show anything great enough to equal him to the prince.

“Son why do insist in meeting the boy, Fang? It’s something I can’t understand.”

The prince looked excited as he sat there waiting for the high general and his son to arrive.

“Because father, you told me not to provoke the boy due to his mother but he shouldn’t have any special rites after all his father despite being the high general isn't a noble. And while that has gained him trust and the favor of many nobles they should not be allowed to do as they please so I'll just show him that without his mother to protect his he can’t do those things on his own… Don’t worry I won’t go too far, just a friendly challenge.”

While the king worried a little he didn’t fear for his son’s life, even if he were to upset the blood elf the royal family had a saint magician and hundreds of break level ki refiners. And while a great number of them would be lost in a battle to the death the blood elf wasn’t that crazy, at least he hoped so.

Hearing a knock on the door the king signaled his guard to open the door. The guard let in two men one being the very familiar high general Tal and the other being a young boy of a medium build with ash gray hair and carried himself with a very strong demeanor. the high general gave a slight bow before speaking.

“King Balford thank you for having us here.”

The boy simply nodded showing little respect for the king or the prince. The King frowned inwardly, he was not a warrior king for having fought political battles but wars against humans. And while he usually acted to avoid wars at all cost because he had seen what happens in one he couldn’t help but want to hit the child who showed him no respect.

“Nonsense you are always welcome here and you should also bring your wife along next time I have only met her once during your wedding.” The prince was just staring at Fang with a visible scowl.

“Humph, Fang Fae was it, you should show respect in front of your king and prince.”

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Fang looked at the prince who had spoken to him and nodded to him as well in acknowledgement to his words but did not change his attitude one bit.

‘Hahaha master I think you made him mad.’

He wasn’t exactly sure what he had done but he was almost sure that he had yet to say anything offensive. As for bowing and kneeling his mother had clearly instructed him to never do so to another.

Her reasoning was that the world was in the end run by power. a kingdom could tax and rule over it’s people because it had an army to promise security for it’s citizens or to dominate them. Organizations were run by those in power and those with influence. And because she was considered very influential in the grand scheme of things he would never have to kneel in front of any kind of person, only those willing to sacrifice a great deal to deal with her and her friends who would follow.

“Ah that’s an interesting pet, what is it?”

Sensing the tension that his son was starting The king spoke up.

“Her name is east, I'm not sure what she is, mother says that she’s a lesser dragon.”

Both the king and the prince were surprised at hearing that Fang had with him a lesser dragon.

“... Who gave you a lesser dragon?”

This time it was the prince who asked as he wouldn’t believe that Fang had captured and tamed a lesser dragon on his own, after all no matter how small the creature still had dragon blood within it.

“I caught it.”

The prince not believing Fang’s words spoke up once more. “Ha that’s a funny lie next time why don’t you try a better one.”

Fang not feeling irritated by the prince’s words in the least simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Hmph, you think you're special and can tame a dragon then prove it. Have a match with me, the palace has special training grounds we can use.”

Tal looked at the prince who seemed irritated and wanted to stop his son from fighting him. In his mind his son was fairly good at ki refinement but the first level of ki refinement was considerably weaker than what a level one magician could do, on top of that the prince was capable of using level two spells. Unfortunately his son spoke before he could calm the situation.

“That’s fine.”

Fang had only one thought and that was that he would have his first fight against someone other than East. While east was strong and had a variety of spells she could use he had long become use to her patterns.

:)