Eight Years Old

Time passed and Kaden continued to train a little bit everyday. He wasn't the most motivated individual, but he was persistent none the less. Finally a year later, at five years old, Kaden managed to attain the first layer of the Five Flowing Arms. Now he could be considered to having taken a step towards mastering this technique. Still, there was a total of five layers and this was merely the first.

But at least now, he had something to show for it.

Demonstrating the technique his arms almost blurred, attacking at great speed. With just the first layer completed it wasn't a very strong technique, only a little better than the Gold Piercing Fist. The technique focused on speed rather than strength, so the blows weren't all that strong. Still, if the system was right, learning this technique so young would make him overall faster in the future.

It was like the steward Edward had said. Certain things could strengthen the body in various ways, just like cultivation.

Regarding cultivation, he had also entered the third stage of Body Tempering.

Ever since that first nightmare, he hadn't experienced any other ones. When he asked the system, it hypothesized that he needed to be stronger before he could link with his other memories. Judging from what he'd learned so far, he wasn't quite sure he was interested in that at all. But with nothing else happening, he stopped thinking about it. Unsure if he even believed that that nightmare was even a former memory in the first place. After all, the only thing he had to go of was the system's words, and it even said itself that it hadn't heard of it before.

…

Three years later, Kaden was at the young age of eight. He'd continued his training in the same manner, reaching the second layer of The Five Flowing Arms. Just increasing it by one more layer had taken him a whole three years, but at least it could now barely be considered a high-tier technique. His cultivation had proceeded much more smoothly, with regular exercise to aid his vortex in drawing in spirit energy, he'd reached the fifth stage of Body Tempering.

The family was very satisfied with his performance, but hadn't changed their minds on making him the heir. Due to his personality and own actions, he'd also become much more distant to his father. Now Lynwood spent most of his time with his other son Zandr.

But now he would truly be entering the world. When children turned eight in the Empire, they would enroll into an academy. For Kaden who had been bored at home for years, this was an interesting prospect. Even more lucky was that due to Zandr being born a few months after Kaden, he would miss this year's enrollment period.

He was eager at the thought of spending going places without his younger brother. Despite his best efforts, Zandr had grown very attached to him over the years. Kaden kept pushing him off, but he would return every time eager to spend time and play with his older brother. A bit like a puppy. You could kick it, yell at it and neglect it but it would still come back time and time again.

But now he would be gaining a certain degree of freedom and other various things that came with turning eight in the academy. Like his own personal com device. Something necessary for all students attending an academy.

A com device was a tiny wearable computer that was worn on the arm. It acted as a communicator to send messages to other people over long-distances, had an UPLink connection that allowed one to look up anything, it also functioned as proof of one's identification and identity. Finally due to that very same UPLink connection, it was a way to enter the Empire's virtual world.

As tradition, Kaden received such a com device for his birthday, sporting black and blue colors. The family color was present in almost everything. It was the same with his school uniform.

Every student was required to wear a school uniform. For most students it was black and white, but prestigious families would replace the white color with their family color. They also had the family crest present on the right chest and both shoulders. Naturally, Kaden's school uniform was black and blue with the Arkatal family crest depicting a blue phoenix stuck right on it.

The Arkatal family was located on the Empire's capital planet, Aldera. The richest planet, housing most of the prestigious families in the Empire.

Still, it was by far the minority that were eligible to wear custom uniforms. Even if it was the richest planet, there were still a wide variety of people staying here. Some were extremely well off like the Arkatal family, while others only barely managed to stay. Some only here because they had given birth to a talented offspring that would be attending the capital's academy. Or because they worked somewhere on the capital planet.