Chapter 8 - Warriors (1)

"...Are mages stronger than heroes?" Shin asked. A small corner of his mind doubting his choices about becoming a warrior.

Hendrick thought for a moment before replying. "Hmm, well they both have their pros and cons."

Mages were famous for being a one man army, but the majority of them lacked power against in a one on one battle and their defenses were limited to the strength of their mana shields.

"Granted that a warrior and a mage is on the same level. It is more likely for a warrior to beat the mage in a one on one battle. However, the mage will likely excel the warrior in a battlefield." Hendrick explained.

"Of course there are exceptions to every situation." Hendrick continued.

Poseidon was infamous for being powerful in a one on one battle. This was due to him being able to call upon the ancient spear: Neptune. A transluent and blue trident that the mage god could control at will. It's original form was a giant spear of over 100m in length but it could be condensed all the way down to 2m long.

Neptune's Tunnel.

This was the name of the giant tunnel within the mountain ranges of the southern continent. The day that Gaia awakened into a 10 circle mage god, Poseidon issued a challenge to battle her.

He couldn't be helped. The dragon god was too powerful and Chronos, the old fogey, never even crawled out from his tower.

In an all out battle, Poseidon condensed his spear to the extremes to just under 2m and flung it with all his mana. The spear had turned into a giant jet of water that bored through 4 mountains and created a 30m wide, 30m tall tunnel that was kilometes in length.

Thankfully he purposefully changed the trajectory of the spear, else Gaia might have very well died that day.

The tunnels were now occupied by dwarves and famous for having natural elemental crystals of the water element growing out from the walls and ceilings.

"The peak of the one man army of a warrior is non other than our one and only emperor, Emperor Leon." Hendrick spoke with shining eyes. "The peak of a warrior are granted the title of Hero."

Leon Steelheart. The Hero of a thousand blades and the current emperor of the empire.

With a thousand blades at the will of his fingers, Leon Steelheart was famous for creating giant storms of blades and sweeping through the battlefield at a might that even archons would shudder at.

"But before I go deep, let me explain the warriors for you. This I can tell you in more detail. Let me tell you about the journey you are about to take" Hendrick smiled.

Warriors, unlike mages, only had 5 stages.

They started at the Initiate level where it was divided into 3 parts.

The bone, blood and muscle of 3 tiers

There was no specific order one had to follow in this level but a lower initiate had a sum of 3 tiers, mid having a sum of 6 tiers and a high initiate having 9 tiers.

This meant that a mid initate could have cultivated 5 tiers of muscles and a single tier of bone only.

Of course this was strongly unrecommended for the majority of weapons but some weapons naturally needed more developement in certain areas to wield.

The bone was responsible for tenacity which was how much beating one could take. It was also closely related with blood, which was responsible for one's stamina, as both of these played a huge role in natural regenerative abilities.

The final area, muscle, was for strength.

Once a warrior fully strengthened their body to the limits, they could then start gathering Ki. A form of energy similar to mana but in a much more primordial and unrefined state.

The reason why one required to train their body to the limits was because in order to gather Ki, one had to draw this pure and violent energy through their bone, blood and muscles and into their core which was located in their abdomen.

Without sufficient strength in their body, this violent energy could rip apart the various body parts and cause long term damage.

And the majority of normal soldiers and mecenaries were at the mid to high initiate level.

One a warrior gathered enough Ki, it'll condense into a red gas in their core. This proved that they have entered the Meister level.

This was where the majority of graduates of the academy, knights, and leading positions within the army was at.

The Meister was further divided into 3 tiers of the gaseous energy's density within their core.

The least dense form was red, then orange and then yellow.

Meisters were able to manipulate this Ki and further strengthen the bone, blood or muscle. At the yellow stage, the High Meister, one could even exude the Ki all around their body as a wispy layer to defend themselves against magic to an extent.

Once the yellow gases were further refined and condensed further. They would turn into green liquid droplets. This change in stage also meant that the warrior would go through a qualitative change.

By this time, the warrior should've had enough practice in manipulating the Ki and they would be able to start control the Ki even outside their body and perform something like a Ki Slash, a wave of sword light of condensed Ki that a warrior would slash out to cut enemies far away.

This stage was called Weaponmasters. Sword users becoming Swordmasters and bow users becoming Bowmasters and so on. Green, Blue, Purple liquid droplets for another 3 tiers.

Around the peak of Weaponmaster was when a warrior would tap on the doors of a 'Truth'

"I am currently a High Swordmaster. The 'Truth' I have gained insight upon is... The truth of sharpness." Hendrick held out a long stick which soon started to glow with a purple light.

He then dropped a piece of stone which he pulled out from his pockets above the stick.

Sssk!

Shin's eyes opened wide in shock as the stones were cut clean in half. The stick hadn't budged an inch and wasn't sharp at all but the cut surface of the stone was flat and smooth.

Hendrick smiled and then swung the stick in the air.

He then pointed towards the direction he slashed at and gestured at Shin to take a look.

!?

The wall at the end of the arena now had a long cut of around a meter in length in the angle at which Hendrick slashed at.

"My truth chases after the essence of sharpness. For me it simply ampifies the sharpness of an object by condensing my aura as sharp as possible around the weapon but the end of this road is... Cutting through even the hardest metals with but a finger." Hendrick explained.