Ancient Imperial Calendar Year 1802
It was dawn.
Richard was giving his student, Ricardo, aura training.
He had been teaching Ricardo aura and swordsmanship for the past two years.
After meditation, Ricardo transferred the aura from his body to his sword, swung it, and managed to cut his target in two.
It was a perfect cut.
His aura control was now flawless, and this was the first time in history that a child had perfected aura control with just two years of training.
"Congratulations, my Lord. You have perfected aura. However, you must not neglect your practice; otherwise, you will lose control over time and have to start from the beginning."
Ricardo looked at his master.
He was used to his praises, but this time he was proud of himself.
After two years of effort, he could now use his aura flawlessly.
"My Lord, now that you have completed aura control, I will teach you aura shaping. This technique allows you to shape your aura into armor, weapons, or even something as simple as a cup. It is as difficult to learn as aura control."
This was something Ricardo was unaware of.
A thousand years ago, there was no such thing as aura shaping.
Curiously, he asked his master to learn more about it.
"Master Richard, who discovered aura shaping, and when? I've never heard of it before."
Upon his student's question, Richard decided to explain the history of aura shaping before moving on to the training.
"Very well, young Lord. But listen carefully, as it will be a long story."
Aura shaping emerged 800 years ago.
This technique was invented by the Ashbrum Dynasty, distant relatives and allies of the Kislavein Dynasty.
The Ashbrums kept this technique hidden from the world for a full 300 years and used it as a tool to expand their dominance across the continent.
However, 500 years ago, the 36th Lord of Kislavein, Horkan, became obsessed with learning this technique.
He sent an ultimatum to the then Ashbrum Lord, demanding that the technique be shared with Kislavein; otherwise, they would attack with all their soldiers.
Naturally, the Ashbrums rejected this ultimatum, and the Kislavein-Ashbrum war began.
This war brought great devastation to both Dynasties.
As a result of the war, both sides suffered heavy losses.
The Kislavein Dynasty won the war and gained a large amount of war reparations, half of the Ashbrum lands, and the Aura Shaping technique.
However, the 500-year friendship between Kislavein and the Ashbrums came to an end, and a blood feud began between the two dynasties.
This feud lasted for 200 years.
The 44th Lord of Kislavein, Orsman III, married Larisse, the daughter of Ashbrum Lord Loderyk XIII.
He returned the lands that Kislavein had taken from the Ashbrums and ended the blood feud.
However, the aura shaping technique had already spread across the Five Lands during the past 200 years.
Although the feud between the two Dynasties had ended since then, the tension between them never disappeared.
Sometimes they came to the brink of war, but aside from minor conflicts, no full-scale war ever broke out.
Ricardo was deeply impressed when he heard the history of the aura shaping technique from his master, Richard.
He wanted to learn the technique immediately.
Richard began teaching the details of the technique.
"First, gather your aura in your hands, Young Lord. Imagine in your mind what you want to shape. My advice is to start with what every beginner prefers: you can make a small ball. Compress your aura and focus on the shape in your mind to mold your aura."
Ricardo, who listened carefully to his master, was unable to shape his aura in the first few attempts, but eventually succeeded.
Shaping aura was not as easy as he had imagined.
Richard had imagined that his student would succeed on the first try, as he had previously sensed his aura in just a few seconds.
He thought the same would happen when shaping aura, but he was somewhat disappointed when Ricardo had to try several more times.
Ricardo quickly managed to shape his aura.
As Ricardo looked at the aura ball in his hand, he began to dream of one day making a sword out of aura.
He would work even harder until he became invincible and strong enough never to be killed again.