After hearing Dante's words, both masters looked at each other and nodded solemnly. The mana instructor bid farewell with a respectful bow before departing, finally leaving the child alone in the great training hall with his new mentor, Master Fer.
"Well, boy. Now that you've made your choice, I will be your master from today onward," Fer declared, breaking the silence as he crossed his enormous arms. "Let me make it clear right now that I won't go easy on you... This path is not easy; it's filled with pain, sweat, and sacrifice."
The old man paused, fixing his gaze on Dante as if trying to find the slightest trace of hesitation or regret on the young heir's face. Finding none, he continued.
"Before we begin, I'll explain the limits of this path. As humans, we only know three realms, but mastering them will turn you into a physical monster. Listen carefully:
REALM I is Vital Awakening (Martial Apprentice). This is where you're truly going to suffer. It is the phase of blood and extreme effort. First, you must go through Vital Accumulation, where we will stimulate your body's latent aura by pushing it to its absolute limit through fatigue and pain. Your body must forcibly learn to retain vital energy instead of dissipating it.
Then comes REALM II, Martial Opening (Novice Warrior). This is the moment when that physical effort becomes controllable energy. The 16 meridians of your body will be unlocked so that aura can flow consciously. Completing this step will grant you a brutal increase in strength, reflexes, and pain tolerance. Of course, there is a tremendous risk: since you still won't have formed your core, the aura will be unstable. Failing the opening means muscular collapse, internal hemorrhaging, or permanent disability.
Finally, the last step to becoming a true warrior: Core Forging (Awakened Warrior). The definitive transition from a simple fighter to a true martial being. This is where the dispersed aura condenses into a central point. From this milestone onward, you will no longer depend solely on your physical endurance; your aura will begin regenerating on its own."
Fer finished his explanation while keeping his eyes fixed on his student. In this world, although the path of Aura did not have as many known realms as mana, each advancement represented a qualitative leap in destructive brute force. Refined mages often looked down on warriors, but a martial artist with a core was no joke to anyone; if a warrior attacked at close range before a spellcaster could recite a spell, the battle would end in the blink of an eye.
Dante looked at his master with a determined expression, his eyes shining with an inner fire that did not belong to an ordinary child.
"Hehe, boy... I like that look," Fer let out with a loud laugh that echoed through the hall's walls.
By the time lunch arrived, the morning session had concluded.
"Boy, go eat and get some rest. I'll see you right here in an hour to continue," Fer said, giving him a resounding pat on the shoulder before leaving to take his own break.
The moment the master crossed the door, Dante collapsed heavily onto the cold stone floor, trembling from head to toe.
'Damn... Even if these are only basic exercises from my past life, they're not things you can do lightly in the body of a six-year-old child,' he groaned mentally, feeling his muscles burn. 'Running, push-ups, squats, planks, horse stance... Damn it, I'm going to die before I ever see the protagonist.'
Suddenly, the light footsteps of a servant interrupted his agony. The woman knelt beside him and extended a small crystal flask containing a glowing liquid.
"Here, young master. This is a high-grade fatigue potion."
Dante looked at the flask as if it were a genuine lifesaver. He snatched it from her hands and drank the contents in a single gulp. Although the effect was not immediate, he slowly began to feel the extreme exhaustion numbing his muscles fade away, allowing him to catch his breath again.
"Please take the tissue regeneration potion as well," the servant added, offering him a second flask to heal the micro-tears in his muscles.
Dante took the bottle and drank it just as quickly, licking his lips as he fully regained his physical composure.
'Being disgustingly rich is amazing,' he muttered to himself, forming a smile of pure satisfaction.
Commoners who attempted the path of Aura had no choice but to train until they collapsed, recover naturally over the course of days, and drag along physical aftereffects. In the process, many ended up with irreversible hidden injuries or something worse. But that was the immense advantage of having access to his family's unlimited resources: medical-grade potions served on a silver platter after every round of exercise.
"Young master, lunch has already been served," the servant announced.
Dante was a little surprised, but quickly understood that his father had made sure he would not waste time going all the way to the main dining hall; Lux wanted absolute efficiency. He did not mind in the slightest, and his eyes lit up when he saw the dishes the servant and the rest of the staff were carrying.
A group of maids placed before him a banquet filled with steaming platters of wild beast meat. Although they were not high-level magical creatures, the nutritional density of the meat was perfect for repairing his body and accumulating vital energy at a ridiculous speed.
'Definitely...' Dante thought, taking a huge bite out of a juicy piece of meat while feeling vigor return to his veins. 'It's freaking amazing to be rich.'
After finishing lunch, once the maids had cleared away the dishes, Dante sat cross-legged on the floor to wait for the remaining time before resuming his training.
The accumulated exhaustion was so great that Dante felt himself drifting off to sleep. Time passed without him even noticing, when suddenly he felt a heavy hand touch his shoulder. Looking up, he found himself face-to-face with the imposing figure of his master.
Dante let out a long sigh and stood up, mentally preparing himself to continue the ordeal.
After long and agonizing hours of uninterrupted exercise, the sky began to darken, finally marking the end of the day. Dante lay sprawled on the ground, completely incapable of moving a single muscle.
"Well, my dear student. It was a great first day! See you tomorrow," Fer bid farewell with a huge satisfied smile before leaving the hall.
Dante did not even have the strength to complain. Fortunately, a group of maids immediately entered the room; one of them, to his eternal gratitude, brought the potions necessary for his accelerated recovery. With his body feeling a little lighter after drinking the elixirs, he was quickly escorted to the baths to clean himself.
Once the bath was finished with the maids' assistance, Dante headed to the dining room to have dinner with his family. He had not even taken two steps into the room when he was lifted into the air and wrapped in an extremely soft embrace while a voice full of anxiety bombarded him with questions.
"Son! How are you? Are you alright? Does anything hurt?" Lucía exclaimed with an obvious surge of concern. The woman inspected him from head to toe with meticulous attention, as if searching for some serious injury.
Lucía had wanted to see her son during the afternoon, but her husband had strictly forbidden it under the argument that her presence would only interfere with and distract the boy from his instruction. Because of that, she had spent the entire day consumed by anxiety, thinking about how much her little one must be suffering. Although she had never practiced mana or aura herself, she knew perfectly well how destructive and painful military training was, especially the physical path.
"Don't worry, Mom, I'm fine," Dante replied with a reassuring smile. Deep inside, he felt a pleasant warmth at his mother's genuine concern.
"What a relief..." Lucía sighed, visibly calmer, before placing a tender kiss on Dante's forehead and settling him into his high chair.
Dante looked at his father, who was already seated at the table, and simply nodded subtly in greeting. Then he shifted his gaze toward his stepmother. Unconsciously, his eyes settled on the woman's enormous belly.
'It seems it won't be long before my future half-brother is born...' he thought, shivering slightly as he remembered that baby's troublesome fate in the original plot.
Marla clearly noticed Dante staring at her stomach, but she did not care in the slightest. Instead, she greeted him with a carefree smile and a rough nod of her head.
"Hey, little one, not bad," the barbarian praised while serving herself a generous portion of food. "You trained all day without stopping and without shedding a single tear. You'll be a formidable warrior in the future. Whenever you want, you can ask me for combat advice."
"Of course," Dante replied politely.
He knew perfectly well that, in terms of close-quarters combat and Aura control, barbarians far surpassed average humans. Furthermore, although it was extremely rare to see a barbarian with talent for the path of mana, they should not be underestimated as a race of simple brutes. They possessed a terrifying passive racial ability called Fury, which, once activated, complemented Aura perfectly, turning them into true killing machines on the battlefield. Marla was the living embodiment of that danger.
"Well, darling, you must be very hungry. Here, eat," Lucía intervened, placing a plate in front of him and pulling him out of his thoughts.
"Of course, Mom!" Dante replied cheerfully.
Although the natural path of mana had been permanently closed to him and he still could not officially channel Aura, Dante smiled inwardly. The first steps toward claiming his own power in this new world had already been taken.