What?
I looked to Mai, as did she to me, but neither of us seemed to know about this. "H-Han, that's a lofty goal," was all that came out of my mouth.
"I am well aware, Father. I am not asking you to immediately instate me as the heir apparent. Instead, I am simply making my commitment known. When I request to learn something, it is not a simple whim of a child, but the next step in my journey to become worthy of the position in which I seek."
He was dead serious. If he were any other kid, I'd have dismissed it right away. Hell, even the short speech he just gave would make me think someone was just feeding him lines or something, but when it came to Han? There was no question these were his words.
My attention turned to my other children. They were all uncharacteristically quiet now, but I understand why. For noble children, they get along quite well. No, even when compared to normal brothers and sisters, they get along swimmingly.
Additionally, the topic of "succession" hasn't ever really come up as far as I'm aware. Mai and I have a long life ahead of us, so it honestly didn't need to be something any of them even thought about.
That begs the question: Why? Why does Han want this?
I turned back to Han and stared into his big lavender eyes. He was barely blinking, even though the sun was blasting straight through his long deep, nearly black, purple eyelashes.
"Sigh, I can arrange for someone to teach you martial arts," I began. Han's eyes lit up slightly, but I continued. "However, there are some conditions, Han. Learning both magic and martial arts is not an easy endeavor. Thus, if you decide to do so, every week you will have to take at least one day of rest."
"But-!"
I raised my hand, cutting his complaint short. "There are no buts in this conversation, young man. Either you accept my conditions, or focus on one thing at a time."
"..." he picked at his lip, something he does whenever I see him thinking hard about something. "What constitutes 'rest'?"
"No magic training, no martial arts training, no studying."
He continued to think, and after a few moments, he nodded. "Alright, I can do that. Thank you, Father."
.
.
.
POV: Johan
Was that a good trade?
Learning martial arts would only increase the health of my body, increasing my ability to stay awake longer, recover faster, and think better. Why would Father require me to take a break every week?
Wasting a day did not sit well with me, and it would be exceedingly uncomfortable to do. At least, I think it would be.
On the bright side, at least I'll have someone competent teach me. The trade off of missing one day a week is still, by my calculations, wasting less time than if I had gone on to learn everything on my own.
Though I tried to suppress it, the thought that right after breakfast ended, I would begin to learn martial arts had me almost bouncing in excitement. Magic was something that interested me in an almost artistic sense. The creativity possible even with low level spells was nearly unlimited, even more so as you progress.
Martial arts, however, is something of a marvel in its own.
For one, it is something every single human is capable of doing, regardless of some arbitrary affinity that one may or may not have. To become proficient in martial arts, you need something more than talent or genetics.
You need dedication. Something I have in spades.
Something about the accessibility and the near unlimited competition has made learning the craft equal in my mind to magic.
From what I understand (meaning the little research I've done here and the extensive descriptions given through the novel), martial arts consists of two core "things". First is the actual moves/arts one performs.
Through circulation, saturation, and other internal manipulations of mana mages aren't typically concerned with, paired with patterns of movement and positioning, your body is capable of accomplishing feats that surpass the superhuman. For example:
Let's say you must climb a wall. It's a 90 degree slope, so straight up, perfectly smooth, and has no corners to speak of. How would you climb it?
Suction cups? Ice picks? Build a big ladder? Well with martial arts, you're capable of just… walking up.
Another example. Let's say you need to cut a rock in twain. Naturally, you'd expect to accomplish something like that, you'd need a saw, hammer and chisel, etc. Instead, you have a blade of grass.
Naturally, that would mean doing so is impossible unless your body is strong enough to do so without the grass. Let's say, however, that it isn't, and you must use the grass. How now could such a thing be possible? Well, with martial arts…
You'd just cut it.
The novel described this part of martial arts in far greater detail, but even so, reading something like that doesn't mean I can replicate it, or even understand the underlying concepts.
If it stopped there, I'd be interested, but not as much as I was in magic. What seals the deal is the next piece of the puzzle: Cultivation.
Cultivation is not a simple concept in this world. Its closest comparison I can make is that it is almost like creating a build in some RPG.
Martial techniques are categorized similar to spells. "Stars" constitute difficulty and complexity (the more stars = the more complexity), ranging from 1-star to 9, same as magic. For normal techniques and spells, their use isn't all that different. Need to cut something? Use a cutting technique (martial arts) or create a blade of wind (magic). And so on.
Cultivation techniques are fundamentally different. For a human, you are only capable of handling one single technique per star-rank. And, once you have completed the steps to master one, it will permanently alter the physiology of your body.
The process of doing so results in something aptly named a "build". Based on the primary effects of each cultivation technique, your "build" is categorized in a few different ways.
The simplest to explain are the four primary categories: Strength, Speed, Endurance, and Sense. Strength prioritizes strength, muscular power, explosiveness, etc. Speed prioritizes… speed… as well as dexterity, flexibility, etc.
Endurance focuses on durability, muscle mass, skeletal density, VO2 max, etc. Sense "simply" focuses on the enhancement of the five senses, as well as all the internal faculties that promote their use.
The last category is simply a way of describing those who combine multiple categories. Many builds, particularly ones with more than two stars, will eventually deviate from a particular category in at least one technique, but this doesn't mean they are a hybrid. Only if two or more paths are equal in number of techniques will this last "hybrid" category be applied.
There are obvious pros and cons to each. A pure strength knight[1] might be able to dish out impressive damage, and even put out decent performance in speed and defensive capabilities, but their body will likely give out faster than their power suggests, and they might be limited in terms of their dexterity or top end speed, making their strength useless in fights where they cannot match said capabilities.
A pure speed knight might be able to dodge everything and hit everyone, but they might gas out quick enough that neither matters. Who cares if you can hit someone if you do no damage?
A pure endurance knight might be able to go on for days and recover from what-would-be life-threatening injuries, but they may have issues even hitting their opponents, let alone damaging them.
Pure sense knights are special cases. Compared to the rest, the nature of their path (provided they use literally no other categories within their build) means their physical strength, speed, and endurance cannot keep up. What makes up for this is their ability to detect things nobody else can, or react to things faster than what should be possible.
Hybrid knights have different problems. Instead of dealing with the weaknesses of their chosen categories, they lack the top-end performance for each. Sometimes, top-end performance isn't needed, and that's where hybrids shine. But when it is…
They're left wanting.
Well, all this would be true… actually, it is… just not for one person.
Will Turner.
"Long Ago"'s protagonist is someone who is unable to use any form of elemental magic. This isn't a death sentence, but it is uncommon. Even those who have never cast a magic spell in their lives and solely focus on the way of the knight still usually have one affinity, but he doesn't.
Funnily, the "tradeoff" he gets completely outweighs the, quite frankly, minor inconvenience not being able to use magic entails.
Simply put, he is capable of handling multiple cultivation techniques at once. Two per rank, to be exact.
What does this mean exactly? Well, if he, for instance, decides to be a "Strength Knight", he is able to still enjoy the same perks a speed-endurance hybrid would enjoy, but with the ability to use the full capacity of the strength category on top of that.
His very existence breaks the power balance of the entire planet, but that's Will Turner for you.
Father informed me that my martial arts teacher would be waiting in the manor's North-wing training grounds, which gave me roughly a dozen minutes to contemplate which path I should take.
Pure speed was appealing to me. As a mage, I have other ways of dealing damage, particularly so when I learn spells related to elemental void. Even darkness can deal damage if used properly, though its physical structure is more suited for restraining and, to an extent, blocking.
A strength-speed hybrid might make up for some of the downsides there, enough for me to take more advantage of darkness magic, but I feel that splitting my focus any more would have detrimental effects. Not to mention the fact that I will eventually learn to utilize elemental void magic.
Not much of this element was explored in the original novel, but just the concept alone proves that it has the potential to be extremely deadly.
On the top of my list currently has to be sense. On one hand, it will only help make me a better mage, giving me greater senses, reaction speed, and whatever else I learn to focus on. The only downside is the fact that I'd be behind on peak physical performance.
Though… I could always train more. If I closed the gap even just a little bit, especially with sense type cultivation techniques that marginally enhance the potential of my body's strength and speed, it may be enough.
Whatever the case, I'm sure my meeting with Friedrich today will be insightful.
[1] The martial arts version of a mage.