We walked through the cobblestone pavement, which had various turns that led to different buildings and locations within the estate.
We took a left turn that led towards the training grounds. We greeted the soldiers and servants that we encountered along the way.
After a 10-minute walk, the grandeur of the training grounds unfolded before us.
A colossal, round building with imposing, matte black walls and two colossal, silver doors in the center. The two guards, standing like sentinels, bowed and ushered us in with a grand gesture.
Stepping into the training grounds, the very air seemed to change. A palpable sense of pressure enveloped us, a stark contrast to the outside world.
The training grounds of the Shatten family were not a place of mere mud and grit; they were a theater of refined, lethal artistry, where steel and will were tempered by the flow of raw mana.
If outside the air was soft and peaceful, here it was rough and heavy.
The air itself was different here, thick and humming with spent energy, carrying the sharp, clean scent of ozone that followed a lightning spell, mixed with the ancient smell of sun-warmed stone and polished leather.
To an outsider, it might taste like a coming storm. To a soldier or warrior of the Schatten family, it tasted like home.
The ceilings were high above us, probably 100 meters high or more.
The grounds were meticulously laid out, a testament to the precision and pride of the noble Schatten lineage.
The floor was not dirt, but rather interlocking stones of dark basalt and white quartz, forming the family's crest—a black sword with an obsidian dragon coiled around it, its sharp fangs bared in a roar.
The stones were scarred, not with mud, but with lingering, faintly luminous burns from misdirected spells and the ghostly, etched grooves where mana-blades had carved their passing.
Instead of wooden obstacles, there stood standing stones of blue-veined marble, humming with embedded containment runes.
These "Ward-Stones" absorbed stray spells, their surfaces flickering with captured light when struck by a blast of fire or a shard of ice.
Moving between them were not just recruits, but silent, articulated dummies or mannequins of enchanted brass and obsidian—the "Echo-Sentries"—their movements programmed to duel, dodge, and provide a relentless, magical opponent.
Some of them carried different types of weapons, while some could even act as a mage, opponent, and cast spells.
All of this is possible thanks to the combined effort of both mages and runemasters to create an efficient, helpful, and realistic battle training for the awakened, sharpening their skills.
The more harsh battles they face, the more they are pushed to their limits, the greater the experience and improvement.
As we walked towards the center, I looked at the soldiers.
Here, the soldiers trained in pairs, their movements a dance of breathtaking physicality and precise magical control. Their hands might be wrapped around the hilt of a sword while simultaneously weaving intricate glyphs in the air. A point-blank kinetic pulse followed a parry. A feint masked the gathering of fire in their off-hand.
The focus was absolute. You could see it on their faces, sheened not with sweat from mundane labour, but with the psychic strain of channelling immense power through their bodies.
Their eyes glinted with the faint, characteristic hue of their mana affinity—a soft amber for geomancy, a sharp silver for aeromancy, a deep blue for hydromancy.
This was not a place to learn simple brutality.
It was a sanctum where the body became a weapon, the mind became a conduit, and the very soul was honed to a razor's edge, all in the pursuit of a single, ancient ideal: the perfect, seamless union of sword and spell.
As we reached the center, we saw a tall man with broad shoulders guiding the soldiers with their training. He was Jian, one of the generals of the Schatten army, and also my uncle.
His white hair was styled with long locks that reached his neck but never touched his shoulders, perfectly balanced and neatly cut. Plus, he had deep red eyes like mine.
"Good afternoon, Uncle Jian," we both greeted him
He looked at us and gave us a warm smile. "How are my nephews doing?"
"We are doing alright, just excited for our first training. Father told us to come and meet him here," I replied
"I see, and oh, about your training, I'll be taking over for the time being because he is still busy with the family matters."
They were both a bit disappointed that their father was not there to train them personally, but they shook off those feelings.
"My training is a bit different from your father's. Are you sure you can keep up?"
"Yes!" we replied
"Alright, good spirit," he clapped his hands. "Get changed into training outfits and we'll start in 5 minutes."
We quickly changed into our training outfits.
"I'm pretty sure you guys already have basic knowledge about what mana is.
Mana is a magical energy, the very essence that shapes our world. Every living being has mana, even if they are not an awakened one.
The moment we are born, mana already exists in us. Mana is everywhere, it permeates all existence—the fabric of reality, the air, earth, living beings, and the space between."
Vladislav nodded in agreement. 'It is exciting, far easier to understand compared to the couple of books I read before, I guess a far more experienced person is like a library,' he thought.
"Even though we all have mana, not everyone can use it for their favor because they simply do not have the talent, or their previous ancestors did not have the talent to go far in the awakened world, therefore downgrading their descendant talents," Uncle Jian said
"The higher one's talent or ranking is, the higher the chances of their descendant inheriting their powerful bloodlines." he stopped for a couple of minutes to let the information sink in.
He then continued, "But bloodline doesn't really guarantee that you will be strong because you have to put effort into it, work hard to rise through the ranks.
A bloodline shows your potential, but not a confirmation that you will indeed reach that rank, even if you do whatever you want.
That's the mistake many geniuses make: they become cocky and grow complacent because they have potential, and as a result, they stop working hard.
Such an attitude gets you trampled and killed in this world. You're my nephews; that's why I'm warning you two not to fall into that path." He looked at us with a serious face.
"I mean, it's true, if you're not disciplined and expect things to just fall into your hands, then you're a fool. Just like an eagle has to hunt for food for itself and its chicks to not starve because food doesn't fall from the sky." Vladislav said.
"I understand, Uncle, I—no, we won't disappoint you," Vladislav reassured him.
"Yeah, I always had a suspicion that if I wanted to become strong like dad, I'd have to train like hell, and there is no fun in just doing nothing, I'm not that kind of person after all," Athelstan smiled
'These brats are not normal after all, to think they could already think like that at such an age,' Jian thought in his head
"Good, it's great that we are on the same page." Uncle Jian smiled at them
"Oh, right, where are we? If one can't awaken through the normal process or doesn't have talent, there are three ways to achieve awakening:
The first option is to be forcefully awakened by someone at the grandmaster rank and above because they already possess that much authority at that rank, having inherited the powers of their bloodline.
The second, which is really rare and complex, is being blessed by a god, and yes, gods do exist."
Vladislav's and Athelstan's eyes widened in shock.
Athelstan stuttered," I thought gods were supposed to be a myth because there wasn't really much information about them in the history books."
"Same, I never really found much about them," Vladislav added,
"it's because you're not needed to know much about them at your current stage, and not all the history books are in the library. Most of them containing such information are safely kept by the family.
However, we don't have all the information about them; we probably only know half a quarter or less about each of them.
We believe that if we want to uncover more about them, we have to explore more the Terres d'horreur, or better called the Lands of horror, since it covers 80 percent of the world and only 10 percent has been investigated."
He continued, " And that's when the third and last final option to awaken comes in place, getting the Ancient relics that can be found deep in that accursed place that could grant you power like skill, abilities, etc. But that would be possible if someone came out of that place alive, that is.
Only people from rank seven and above were allowed to venture into the deeps that place, not alone, but with a team of seasoned awakeners, because going alone was suicide. Even sovereigns fear that place."
Vladislav was holding his chin with his hand, thinking. Damn, gods do exist, and the cursed lands are so terrifying to the point of scaring a Sovereign, even. What kinds of things are there? Uncanny shit is going on there.
"Well enough of that, I already told you more than I was allowed to tell you," Uncle Jian said
"How many tiers in the awakening systems are there, and state them if you know," he asked us.
I raised my hand.
He nodded, and I proceeded to answer.
"There are three tiers: The foundational grade, which is tier 1, The proficient path, which is tier 2, and The Elite Echelon, which is the third and last tier."
"Correct, but also not correct because there are two more tiers above, but you don't need to know for now." Uncle Jian replied
"Well, as you know, under those tiers, there are ranks which also have sub-tiers. We start with tier 1 since you are in that very tier."
"The Foundational Grade tier is the start of everything. It has three ranks only:
1- Dormant
2- Channeler
3- Adept
You are at the very first rank, which is dormant. In the dormant rank, the individual possesses untapped, sleeping potential. They cannot sense or channel mana, though I believe that you two have experienced strange, unexplained phenomena around them.
This is a state of being, not a level of skill. Well, I believe it shouldn't take you long to break through to the next rank if you work hard." Uncle Jian said
"Well, since we cannot train with mana yet, I'll train your bodies and push them to the limit to make them strong. Your body is your foundation. Think of it as a small bowl. Since you have weak bodies, it is currently empty, as you cannot channel mana. So we need to make the bowls strong and resilient enough to hold all the water without breaking.
Therefore, you are going to run 1km, 100 squats, 100 push-ups, and 100 pull-ups every single day in the training grounds." Uncle Jian had a broad grin on his face.
"Ah, we are going to die," Athelstan said as his face turned pale
"Yeah, we're cooked." I gulped, and I started sweating
"Haha, come on now, where did all that. What motivation did you have to go to? You'd better start now and finish before dinner, or you will restart again," Uncle Jian said as he moved and sat down on a chair and started drinking juice with cookies that a servant had brought minutes earlier.
The brothers' faces looked as if they had seen a ghost.
"Yeah, he's indeed a demon, no wonder the soldiers called him that," Vladislav said
"No pain, no gain, I guess," Athelstan replied with cold sweat and a wry smile.
"We'd better start now, so we don't miss dinner." Athelstan finished his sentence and started running.
"damn it, my body is going to be all sore," he gave one last complaint and started running alongside Athelstan.
********
A/N: I will write an auxiliary volume at some point to explain some of the concepts and ranks.