Apprentice

Everyone rejoiced, they ate and drank wine. Jonathan toasted with everyone of the guests, he was so happy, never would he expect that his son would be this excellent. As his father he only felt proud of him, he knew that he would surpass them in the very near future, but who cares, its his son!

Diane cant hide the joy in her face, she is surrounded by her friends Macy, Tina and Myles. While John is with his grand father. "Boy how could you be so heavy?" As he carried John in his arms

"Grandpa, does your back hurt? You know i can walk. Hehehe" he said to Alfred jokingly

Those who heard him, couldnt help but laugh

"Who do you think your grandpa is? Just a few tons is nothing" he proclaimed

"Kidding aside how did you get this heavy?" He asked again

"Our weight is directly proportional to how concentrated our power is." He paused

Everyone stopped what they were doing and focused all their attention to John

Then he continued "as you know the BGBTA would help our bodies get stronger, and in the process of concentrating the power in our cells the more we progress the more concentrated it is, mainly due to the amount of metal element being compressed to our cells, making it heavier."

"The heavier we are, the more concentrated our powers are. Thus during your practice, the goal is to compress this power as much as you can, the more compact it is the stronger your power becomes."

"In you case gramps, now that you have reached the silver level, i advise you to sacrifice two more levels and compress it to bronze level, this will be the limit of your compression. Then its the right time to start increasing it once again." He said

"Why do you say so?" Asking as if he is not convinced, but in reality he was trying to help the other immortals as he knew they wanted to learn more about it

"Its because you dont look younger when you started training the BGBTA, and your vitality didnt increase much, you might have thought that if you lower you cultivation level too much it might affect your strength."

Then he confirmed "am i right?"

Alfred was shocked by what he heard. Indeed he is concerned that by doing so, his strength would plummet.

"That is where you are wrong gramps, by doing so you might have ruined forming a perfect foundation for you BGBTA."

Another bomb was dropped, Alfred had cold sweat falling on his forehead, 'damn i almost ruined my foundation, ahhh good thing i have this adorable grandson of mine'

"Your strength would not decrease but would rather increase, and your injuries would have healed faster" John honestly said

Alfred is now scared, 'how stupid am i to hold back my self!' He regretted doing what he did.

Then John said, "my father the king and my mother queen is the best example. They sacrificed all their power in order to concentrate their bodies, they may be iron level warriors in you eyes but their strength is twice or trice as much as most of you!"

They all looked at Jonathan and Diane, indeed though they are iron level warriors now, their strength is more explosive than before, they felt an invisible pressure coming from their bodies.

Most of the immortals made the same decision as Alfred thus they were thankful that John enlightened them. If not they would have regretted it all their life.

While others rejoiced, as they made the tough decision of sacrificing all their power to concentrate their strength. They felt stronger than before but due to their low level of BGBTA training they thought they got weaker, but it was opposite as they now learned the truth.

Some of the immortals who were previously embarassed to ask guidance from John, approached him and asked several question regarding the difficulties they encountered while training the BGBTA. However John didnt mock or looked down on them, instead he carefully explained the details and joked with them, then he asked Alfred "gramps sorry, im supposed to enter the army few days ago, but i got delayed."

Alfred just smiled "No worries, tomorrow pack up and start your army training"

When the immortals heard their conversation, the were touched, if John is anyother prince, with his talents, he would never join the army starting from the lowest rank. Not to mention he is to enter under a different identity, not as a prince.

To John who was a previous soldier, he also started as a regular recruit, thus he never bothered starting from scratch. He reached his previous peak not through connections but through his own efforts, thus, he liked this setup even more.

The immortals liked how humble and down to earth John is, making them open up to him even more.

Then an old acquaintance of Alfred, Mario came to him "prince, by any chance can you tell me what is your preferred weapon?"

Mario is the empires best black smith, he knew that John never touched a weapon and focus solely on hand to hand combat like his father, Jonathan, none the less he still asked.

John wasnt able to react in time, he knew from the records that this immortal is very moody and stubborn even his father has no way of making him willingly follow his commands.

He looked at Mario "gramps, thank you, i wanted to weild an ax and a hammer! Hehehe i like a very big one too!" He gestured with both his hand how big the ax and hammer he liked, Diane who is watching him, can help but giggle. Seeing his childish acts makes her happy. Though he acts mature most of the time, he is but a child.

Then he is lost in his own world while he imagined himself weilding the ax on one hand and a hammer on the other chopping and pounding his enemies, "i will carry it to the battle field chopping and smashing enemies and obstacles that comes my way" he said while moving his hands in a chopping motion.

"I saw my gramps, weild his ax while sparring with dad, and he looked so cool" he is now looking at Alfred with fervent eyes

"Hahahahaha... indeed i look domineering while weilding my ax" he delt proud knowing that his only grandson revered him

"Why do you also like the hammer?" Asked Mario

"Well gramps, imagine going into the battle field smashing the enemies shield with my hammer then chopping him with my blade, how cool would that be?" He excitedly acted out with passion

The old men and his parents were laughing at his comical act. But when Mario saw the innocent and untainted look in his eyes purely wanting to express his wishes. He was moved

"Prince John, i shall gift you with an ax and a hammer..." everyones eyes and mouth opened in shock, 'is Mario this generous?' Of course not he is in fact the most stingy person they knew, yet today he willingly wanted to gift to weapons, 'he must have something on his mind.' They all thought

" i only have one request from you" said mario as he watch Johns reaction, 'indeed he has his plans' they all have the same conclusion

Everyone were expecting what his request would be, 'could it be materials, herbs or pills?'

"If its within my capabilities i wont refuse!" John declared

"I want to take you as my apprentice!" Mario said

It was now Johns turn to be shocked, he had plans to learn smithing, but it was beyond his expectation that the best blacksmith of the empire asked him to be his apprentice.

Not only John but everyone of them were shocked,

He looked at his parents waiting for them to accept in behalf of him.

But they just smiled and "you can make decisions on your own" Jonathan said

"I John Gold am willing to be your apprentice, i swear upon the heavens that i would never tarnish my masters name and be the best in my profession, my master for a day my father for life" he knowtowed in front of Mario, after his oath is made the heavens grumbled accepting his oath

Mario is very satisfied by his apprentice, tears of joy fell from his eyes. He lived far too long but never had an apprentice, many tried and begged to be taken by him as his apprentice but he didnt take any of them due to his high standards. He was worried that John would not accept his proposal, thus, he had thought of many ways to convince the boy.

'After a very long time i finally found a worthy apprentice' its already known that many of the barbarian race cultivation methods got lost in time due to the events that happened. However it is different for the black smiths, they didnt record their manuals in books, every mentor would imprint their knowledge to the chosen inheritors through soul imprint and during train the apprentice after. Using this method there is no need to worry about it being lost.

However if the mentor died and is not able to train his apprentice, he would be left on his own to comprehend the smithing methods and techniques. This what happened to the blacksmiths, when the planar war destroyed the original race home land, many records were lost, but the blacksmiths still had the complete records of their craft, thus they were still able to craft weapons and armors for the race.

He waved his hand two objects appeared from his space ring double bladed ax and a huge war hammer appeared on his hand, its has a double crescent shaped blade 1 meter wide, with a 2 feet spear head on its eye, its handle is 3 meters long, with round knob.

The hammer is like a sledge hammer with a 1.5 meter round face with its face tapering towards the head and eye, it looks like an hour glass. The head has a spear head of 2 feet long, the handle is 3 meters long with a round shaped tip like a ball.

It was indeed like what he imagined an over sized ax and hammer, just looking at the size its very intimidating. He couldnt take his eyes off of it, he looked at Mario "gramps is this really for me?" He asked excitedly

"Really really?!" John confirmed

"Its my gift to the prince, and my apprentice, this two are the best of my creations" he smiled as he replied, there was a proud look on his face as he offered his best creation

"This is awesome!" however he did not take it, he looked at his parents, asking them for their decision. But he didnt hide his joy and excitement looking at the ax

His parents smiled "hurry up John accept it, its your grampa Marios gift" Jonathan urged him

"Yehey!" He summersaulted in excitement, as he hurriedly went to Mario and took the ax

When Mario handed him the ax and the hammer, he wanted to remind him that its heavy, but to their surprise John held each weapon in his hands, swing it. Mario is initially shocked of how strong John is, this ax weighs 10 tons, same with the war hammer but he is swinging it like it was paper.

Alfred on the other hand, got irritated, he went behind Mario and kicked his friend from behind.

"2 years ago when i asked for this ax, to gift my grandson you threw me off your door!" Alfred said

Mario stood up scratching his head "well, why would i give it to you, i never recognized the prince 2 years ago." He said

"My creations are the product of my blood, sweat and effort, why would i just give it to you as a gift to your grandson? How will i know if he is trully deserving of my Marios weapons?" He said smugly

"Now he is my Marios apprentice why would i not gift him the weapons" he said

Alfred cant retort to this, he knew his friend Marios temperament, he is willing to offer his creations to those who deserves it and would never budge if he doesnt recognize you. Not to mention being taken as apprentice by his old friend, he knew his standards and wont take just anyone who asked him. This alone proves that his grandson is worthy in his eyes.

"Still we grew up together, fought and shared wine together, stubburn old man!" Alfred said

"You wanna fight with me?" Mario stretched out his right arm and the hammer tattoo lit up as a huge hammer appeared, it was double headed hammer, its face is 2 meters wide, with a 4 meter long handle

Alfred did the same and took out his ax its has a single one meter long blade and on is poll is a sickle and a spear on its eye.

However when they saw John enjoying himself playing with the ax, they lost interest in fighting.

"Prince John, this ax and hammer is a magical artifact of legendary grade, items of this grade have their own spirits and it grows with its owner." He said

He knew from Regurs memory the value of such artifact, barbarian weapons are unique, because they grow with their owners. Even the basic weapons crafted by barbarian smiths would grow with their owners and grow stronger. The more enemies it kills the stronger the weapon becomes. Thus it acts like a natal weapon, of every barbarian warrior.

John felt the ax and hammer, cut his palms with the ax blade, he held both weapons on each hands, the blood is sucked by the weapons as the blood flow from his wound. The ax and hammer turned pitch black, and there was a pulsating heart beat coming from the weapons. He held it tightly with his hands, slowly, vein like cracks of gold and blue are seen coming from the handle where he was holding, it ran across the waepon. The ax blade changed its color to blue while the hammer had the veins intertwine like a web across the weapon.

"From this day forth this two are my natal weapons!" He lifted his left hand holding the ax "i shall name you mayhem!" Then a bot of lightning struck the ax and the weapon flew from his left hand and floated above his head, then he did the same thing to his war hammer "i shall name you destroyer!" Another bolt of lightning struck destroyer and floated with mayhem.

The two weapons flew to his heart connecting to his body, as natal weapons it will be nourished by the owners flesh, blood and soul. Making it stronger along with the owners.