“Alessia, you have awakened your warforce but you need to understand what it is.”

“It is the bloodline power within us. It exists in most of the population of protos whether it be humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, gnomes, etc. It is generally awakened at the age of 10 and the reasons for that are still unclear. However, some like you awaken earlier and are considered geniuses. Others who cannot awaken it at all are just normal people, insignificant to people with warforce”

“But do not be complacent. What matters is how you train. If you are lacking in discipline and commitment, you will forever be useless, despite being a genius. If you have discipline and commitment, you will be a genius even if you’re not actually one. Remember these words well and engrave them into your heart girl”

“Now, Warforce is divided into 5 levels, namely - Awakening, Iron rank, Silver Rank, Gold rank. And weaponmaster. There is another level above that and that’s the WARGOD. There are precious few wargods in the world and each one of them is capable of destroying a kingdom on their own. Never, ever anger a wargod.”

“Now as to what each level means”

“Awakening is when you awaken the warforce within you for the first time. It will manifest itself in a surge of energy which will enhance your body in a certain aspect, or multiple aspects at once. It can be speed, dexterity, agility, strength, toughness, endurance, stamina, height, weight, an extra limb, your 5 senses, and if you’re lucky - you might even be gifted with a special skill like some people have in the past 300 years.”

She remembered herself asking Leonidas at this point whether he had a secret skill and when he nodded, she excitedly kept pestering him to tell her what it was, only to be refused time and time again.

When she awakened her warforce, all her aspects were boosted tremendously and this allowed her to grasp difficult concepts and then execute them perfectly since her body could keep up, albeit barely since she was still too young.

She smiled as she thought of how easy her awakening was. Faustus had just gotten beaten up and when she found him, for the first time, she saw a tear slip out from his eyes, a tear that ignited a rage within her that she never knew she had. A rage that caused her to heat up with a flush that lasted for nearly 2 days. While the people thought she was feverish, she was actually undergoing her awakening.

She winced as she remembered the incredulous look on Leonidas and his iron grip on her shoulders when she told him that her awakening took so long. To put it in perspective, according to him, normal awakenings only take an hour or two. Someone extraordinarily gifted might take 7-8 hours but multiple days was as rare as the feather of a phoenix.

She mentally recited to herself the words Leonidas said after he got back onto the lesson,

“Once awakened, there are 5 stages to each rank. Each is marked by a star. At awakening star 1, you’ve just started your training. If you don’t train though, you will forever stay at awakening star 1. Only if you practice and practice till it becomes like breathing for you to control the energy that is warforce will you be able to advance.”

“Advancement for the awakening stage is increasing the concentration of the warforce present in you, something that is measured by a stone called the “Force stone” which changes colors according to your rank and shades of colors according to your star within the rank. For awakening, every 20% concentration in warforce density will cause your star to improve by one. The colors respectively are called bronze for awakening, silver for silver rank, gold for gold rank, red for weaponmaster, and violet for wargod - Very easy to remember right?

“Your goal should be at the very least to be a gold rank knight like me. It’s difficult but not impossible. But first, Silver rank knight should be your aim for the time being since that means you will officially become Knighted.”

“From awakening to iron rank, from iron rank to silver rank usually takes a person 10 years. A short period of time for us Proteans who can live till 300 years on average. Some people like you who have an extraordinary warforce can even live till 500 years. Some of those old monsters are the ones who are right now the wargods of Protos. But they worked very hard to be where they are for the gap between silver rank and wargod is one that can take up to a hundred years or more to train to!”

“Now you need to recognize how powerful your enemy is before engaging and for iron ranks it is difficult to recognize since all they can do is utilize their warforce to enhance their body and in rare cases their mind, though mental stimulation with warforce can often be dangerous if not done properly. So remember awakening is your foundation and each star increases the warforce within you. Iron rank utilizes that warforce to enhance your foundational strengths or to turn weaknesses into strengths. The advancements in iron rank are recorded by the force stone again and how much warforce you can inject into it.”

“Silver rank on the other hand is easy to identify since the warrior can cover himself with a layer of protection, called the forceshield. The stars in silver rank can be identified even without the force stone, as each 1 cm of the thickness of the forceshield denotes a star. So a 5cm forceshield thickness would denote a 5-star silver rank knight. Silver rank as I said before is when you become a Knight. Understand Alessia?”

She remembered nodding vigorously and mentally making a pledge to herself to become a knight as fast as she could.

“Now Alessia, Gold-ranked Knight is where a Knight becomes truly deadly on the battlefield. He can use the forceshield to launch ranged attacks called bladeglows which are basically extremely sharp sword strikes over a distance. This depletes the thickness of the forceshield unless the warforce capacity of the Knight can cover both the expenditure of ranged attacks and maintaining the forceshield simultaneously. So be careful and know yourself well. But I guess this is too early for you but knowing your opponent’s weaknesses is always helpful. In Gold Rank, Each star is identified by how far your bladeglow can extend. Each star is an increase of 1 foot in range. “

“As for a weaponmaster? He can imbue his swordglow into any object and make it extremely sharp and utilize it as a weapon. I’m not too clear on how the advancement of stars is measured for weaponmasters since they are quite few in number, though not as much as Wargods, they’re still quite scarce. “

“This also means that I know next to nothing about wargods, other than the fact that they are an army of one. If you ever see a wargod, run Alessia and don’t bother looking back.”

“Now to recap this, awakening makes you stronger than average humans with each star measured by the force stone, iron ranked gives you the ability to enhance your abilities with each star measured by the intensity of the color in the force stone, silver ranked gives you a forceshield with each star denoting 1 cm of thickness,gold-ranked gives you bladeglows with each star giving you an extra 1 m of range, and weaponmasters can imbue bladeglows into anything.”

She remembered young Alessia wondering when would she ever reach the level of weaponmaster or even wargod! Then wincing, she also remembered the fist that made her head throb as she innocently asked Leonidas the question, “How do I train so that I can become a Knight as fast as I can?” and Leonidas answered with his fist.

The true answer was pain. Lots of pain. For a year, she underwent rigorous training for her body and mind with little else.

For in the words of Leonidas,

“True training will only begin when the vessel is ready.”

Shaking her head and bringing herself back to the present, she found herself already standing at the Entrance of the East Tower where Faustus and his brother resided.

Striding in, she came across Ares, Faustus’s personal attendant, who currently had a dejected look on his face.

“What happened to you,” she asked with concern in her voice

“I laid out the formal attire for honorable Faustus but he took one look at it, said no, and changed into his usual black outfit.”

Blinking her large eyes, Alessia could already imagine how angry Lady Courtesy would be.

She was about to knock on the door to Faustus’s room when the boy in question walked out, almost face to face with Alessia.

Embarrassed, both of them leaped apart and then looked at each other and laughed.

Faustus was now dressed in a black tunic with matching trousers and a dark blue cloak thrown over him.

“Honourable, you forgot the family badge!” said Ares.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that. Call me Faustus!” said Faustus exasperated.

“Honourable Faustus”

“No, I mean... Never mind..”

“Honourable Faustus?”

“You can really stop it now.”

“But Honourable Faustus, you still haven’t taken the badge!”

“Oh give it here” and taking the badge he pinned it on his breast above his heart. The badge itself was sapphire blue with a black dragon breathing flames onto a spear. It was the symbol of the House of Drayke, one with a rich legacy going back to the founding of the KIngdom of Leon.

It was they who were at the forefront of every war! It was they who fought and bled all over the future Kingdom of Leon until they reached the area which became Draconis CIty. It is they who still stand guard against the neighboring empire of Hagaria and its ferocious armies. It is they who are beloved as the heroes of the Kingdom.

The House of Drayke.

Legend says that the founder was a dragon who transformed into a human and melted a giant gem into a spear with which he forged what would become House Drayke.

Alessia looked reverently at the badge before she quipped, “I can see that you’ve really taken some effort to get ready”

Laughing, Faustus replied “If I didn’t, mother would have had me for dinner”

“You do know I was joking right?”

“What?”

“Lady Courtesy is going to have you for dinner” and with that Alessia put her hands behind her back and began strolling away.

“Wait, don’t you have to change?” called Faustus from behind.

“No, I am a warrior and my armor is my dress.”

“Shame..” murmured Faustus underneath his breath.

“What did you say?”

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”