By the time Lawrence was running his final lap, old memories he absolutely did not want to recall suddenly came to mind.
It was one day after his parents had died, back when he was living at the orphanage.
A fight broke out with a classmate at school who had mocked him by calling him an orphan bastard.
Hyeon-seong did not endure the classmate who poured out harsh words and jeered at him.
Full of venom from his difficult life at the orphanage, Hyeon-seong charged at him immediately, but with his small build, the boy was not someone he could beat.
That day, he got beaten like hell.
What was even more miserable was that no one stopped the fight.
No, far from stopping it, they watched him get beaten, enjoyed it, and laughed at him.
That day, Hyeon-seong was left battered in both body and heart.
But that was not the end.
The next day, he, the one who had been beaten, received a greater punishment than the child who had hit him.
It was unfair.
He appealed, saying he was the one who had been mocked and beaten black and blue, but no one took his side.
Back then, when he had to run lap after lap around the school field alone, his rough breaths and hot sweat soaked his entire body, and endless boredom and loneliness filled his heart.
After that, running remained a painful memory and became one of the things he never wanted to do again.
But now it was different.
He had never imagined that facing running again would be this enjoyable.
‘Heh! So this is why everyone says life is interesting.’
A smile lingered on Lawrence’s face.
Meanwhile, Martin could not hide his astonishment at Lawrence’s appearance.
In truth, he had not thought Lawrence would be able to run one hundred laps.
Considering Lawrence’s current physical condition, it was an impossible goal.
If it had simply been training to build stamina, he would not have set such an unreasonable target.
But in order to feel mana, it was necessary to push the body to its limit.
In that regard, Lawrence could be said to be in an advantageous position.
Since his current physical condition was so poor, it was clear that his body would reach its limit with only a little movement.
That did not mean mana could be felt all at once.
One had to steadily go through this kind of difficult training, then one day grasp a small clue and carefully move forward.
But Lawrence lightly surpassed Martin’s expectations.
At the moment when his stamina ran out and he was about to collapse, he rose again, and he was running faster than he had at the beginning.
There was no mistaking it.
A power other than stamina was clearly acting upon Lawrence’s body.
And that power had to be mana.
As a knight who had awakened mana himself, Martin knew very well just how remarkable what Lawrence had accomplished was.
None of the knights he had seen had ever felt mana this quickly and used its power.
‘As expected, he is the lord’s son. It is only natural for a lion’s cub to be born beneath a lion. Everyone did not expect much because he is older, but with development this fast, I have a feeling he will surely become someone great.’
The greatest genius Martin had seen until now had been his lord, Jason, Lawrence’s father.
But that thought was shattered right here and now.
Because he had witnessed with his own eyes the birth of someone with talent several times greater than Jason’s.
Martin’s heart had already begun to pound with anticipation for what kind of feats Lawrence would perform in the future.
He could not help the corners of his mouth trembling as an uncontrollable laugh kept slipping out.
A small territory on the frontier, neglected even by the kingdom and now completely forgotten by people.
In this remote territory, where not even merchant caravans entered, a single hidden dragon was slowly opening its eyes.
Huff! Huff! Huff!
After finishing all one hundred laps, Lawrence panted heavily.
Because he had run with a weak body, his waist bent and his shoulders heaved with each breath. Even so, his face was full of smiles.
That was how much the power of mana he had felt for the first time was like a new world.
It felt as if he had found a toy he would never tire of, even if he played with it for the rest of his life.
“You worked hard, Young Master.”
Martin, who had approached Lawrence before he knew it, held out a towel he had prepared in advance.
“Whew~ What’s the next training?”
Lawrence asked while steadying his breathing.
“There is no further training remaining, so you may simply rest.”
“Oh, really? It feels a little disappointing to rest like this….”
Since there was still a long time before the sun set, Lawrence felt disappointed that training was already ending.
In his current mood, he felt as though he could run again if told to do so.
“Resting well is also important training. If you overdo it for no reason, it may interfere with tomorrow’s training. And we will not simply be resting. Since you have felt mana, what you must focus on now is mana breathing.”
Soon after, Martin explained the basic mana breathing method.
“Mana is a second life energy. Sit in a comfortable posture, breathe deeply, and focus on finding mana. You must accumulate the mana that enters with the air inside your body. This is the basic mana breathing method.”
As Lawrence listened to Martin’s explanation, he drew air deep into his lungs.
And he tried to find within the air the feeling of mana he had sensed while running.
‘Ah, so this is the feeling.’
Because his Mana Affinity was excellent, Lawrence could immediately feel the mana dissolved in the air.
He could faintly feel the mana that entered through his breathing moving through his body and settling into his mana circuit.
“This breathing method is the most fundamental technique for feeling and using mana. You must practice steadily until it can happen naturally even while you sleep. If you master this breathing method alone, you will be two steps ahead of others.”
Lawrence carved every word of Martin’s explanation deeply into his mind without missing a single one.
Lawrence knew well that the foundation was the most important part of everything.
That was why this could not be emphasized too much.
New knowledge and techniques would be piled on top of this foundation, and it would become the basis of his development.
Without a foundation, it would be difficult to learn new things, and even if he did learn them, he would have no choice but to fail to understand them properly or forget them easily.
“Once you have mastered this basic breathing method to a certain extent, the lord will separately teach you the mana cultivation method passed down through the family. That is instruction on how to take in and use mana more efficiently.”
The unique mana cultivation method passed down through the family was, together with swordsmanship, the power that supported the count’s house.
In particular, the mana cultivation method was treated as a secret among secrets, so important that it was transmitted only to the heir.
No matter how loyal a knight of the family might be, the core of the mana cultivation method was never revealed.
“Then today’s training will end here.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Lawrence playfully gave a modern-style salute to Martin, who had announced the end of today’s training.
Martin was excellent as a knight, but he was also not lacking at all as an instructor.
Although he had never taught anyone before, his eye was keen enough to accurately grasp Lawrence’s current condition, and he had an extraordinary ability to establish a training plan suited to it.
More than anything else, what made him excellent as an instructor was his attitude.
Martin taught Lawrence diligently and with all his heart.
The attitude he showed alone was enough to be worthy of praise.
Under his guidance, Lawrence grew rapidly day by day.
In the body that had not possessed even a single proper muscle, decent muscles now settled into place.
He still looked slender, but inside, he was filled solidly with complete muscles for real combat.
His firm and flexible muscles had been trained enough to perform any movement without difficulty.
He did not easily lose his balance in any posture, and his ability to recover from an unstable posture was also good.
Muscles trained in this way would surely become the foundation for quickly learning any technique, and they would clearly be of great help in actual combat as well.
And finally, swordsmanship was added to the training that had focused mainly on the physical conditioning Lawrence had so desperately wanted.
Whoosh!
The force with which Lawrence swung his wooden sword was fairly fierce.
It was enough that a cat leisurely resting beneath the warm sunlight was startled, bristled the fur on its back, and warily watched Lawrence.
“Young Master, keep going exactly like that. You are doing very well right now.”
With a satisfied expression, Martin approached Lawrence.
He demonstrated swordsmanship with a serious attitude and explained the basics of mana.
“Think of the sword as an extension of your arm. Just as mana flows through your body, mana must naturally flow through the sword as well. It may still be too much for you to put mana into the sword, Young Master, but remember this for now. Mana does not merely make the body stronger. A sword that receives mana becomes harder and sharper.”
Under Martin’s guidance, Lawrence performed thrusts and slashes, the most basic training in swordsmanship, and tried to load mana into the sword.
He learned that feeling mana, understanding it, assimilating with it, and placing his will into mana were more important than anything else.
If he succeeded in placing his will into it, mana would naturally follow Lawrence and display its greatest power for him.
Even though the training was difficult, Lawrence wore an expression as if he was enjoying himself to death.
Unlike his previous life, in which he had been busy just trying to survive day by day, the pleasure of his current life was completely different.
He used all his time entirely for himself, nurtured his talent, and felt a tremendous sense of achievement from developing.
‘Was moving my body and growing stronger always this fun? It feels like I’ve discovered my true aptitude. If I had known it would be like this, I would have tried becoming an athlete or something.’
It somehow felt unfair that he had completely lost interest in exercise because of an unjust punishment back when he was in school.
If he had chosen a path in sports, it might have been difficult to participate in the Olympics, but he suddenly thought that he might have been able to win a gold medal at the National Sports Festival.
‘Well, I didn’t have the money or leisure to exercise anyway, so there’s no need to feel wronged. And besides, that’s all in the past now.’
Whatever the past had been, the current Lawrence was happy.
That was enough.
There had been many changes in the Status Window through training alone.
All his stats had risen.
The person he had been when he first began training and the person he was now were clearly different.
“Martin, there’s something I’m curious about…….”
“Yes, Young Master. Please speak freely.”
“Swordsmanship training is important, of course, but shouldn’t I experience real combat with monsters at least once?”
As Lawrence’s level rose, greed arose in him.
And since he was using the game interface, if things went as he expected, hunting monsters would be the way to raise his level quickly.
Moreover, was the low-level period not the section where leveling up was the fastest?
And since he had not experienced it directly yet, his desire to try it himself was strong.
“Real combat?”
Martin, who had a serious personality and did not often reveal his emotions, answered with his voice raised.
Just from his reaction, it seemed he had never even thought about it.
Well, as a knight of the House of Count Romanov, how could he carelessly throw the family’s heir around?
“Sparring with me is sufficient for now. You are not yet at the level where you should engage in dangerous real combat, Young Master.”
“I see.”
Lawrence obediently nodded.
Even objectively, Martin’s words were correct.
But even though he knew a way to raise his level quickly, he had no intention of staying still like this without using it.
Moreover, the fact that the knight order’s tyranny was worsening by the day was also one of the reasons Lawrence wanted real combat with monsters.
Knight Commander Juan had recently been acting so arrogant and insolent that it was hard to watch with open eyes.
A knight had duties and honor that had to be upheld by his very existence.
Even a free knight who had not sworn loyalty to anyone was fundamentally supposed to resist injustice, protect the weak, and realize justice.
How much more, then, should a knight who had sworn loyalty respect his lord, follow him, become his weapon, and go first onto the battlefield?
However, Juan was now ignoring his lord and acting as if he himself were the master of the Romanov family.
Lawrence could no longer leave Juan and his gang alone as they disregarded his father.
And these days, Martin was not always stuck beside Lawrence while he trained.
Unlike at the beginning, because Lawrence’s skills had improved quite a bit, Martin left him to train independently.
Martin also had work he needed to do.
He had to personally guard Lord Jason and assist with his duties, and he could not neglect his own training either.
So, like today, he would briefly watch Lawrence in the morning, or Lawrence would devote himself to training alone according to the plan Martin had set for him.
“Young Master, I will take my leave now.”
“You worked hard today too.”
“Yes. Then please train diligently.”
Even after Martin left, Lawrence did not stop swinging his sword at the scarecrow.
But today, his concentration was not the same as usual.
Anyone could tell that his thoughts and body were moving separately.
Then Lawrence’s pupils grew clear, and firm resolve filled his eyes.
‘It feels a little early, but now is the time to act.’
Having decided something, Lawrence ended training earlier than usual.