Lane, in a strange way, understood nothing at all.
Approaching Lane, Stoney said, "Kid, hand me the stick in your hand for a second."
Lane handed him the stick. After taking it, Stoney stood calmly in place. Then he lifted the stick with one hand and swung it. The stick moved so fast in the air that it shattered before the blow could even fully land.
Lane was watching carefully. There was something different in Stoney's body movements. At the same time, the way he circulated his aura was also unusual.
Throwing the shattered piece of wood in his hand to the ground, Stoney said, "Kid, do you understand now how it's done? If you didn't forget what I told you yesterday, I'm sure you can do it."
Lane was tired, but he wanted to try one last time. He took the stick and looked at it calmly.
He thought to himself:
"When Stoney swung the stick, instead of applying direct force to it, he swung it at an incredible speed. The stick itself shattered because it couldn't keep up with the pressure in the air. And instead of focusing the mana in his body on one single point, he used his whole body. It was like he activated everything as if it were a perfectly functioning system."
Lane pulled one foot back and raised the stick to the level of his head. As he calmly took deep breaths, he sped up the process of circulating his aura. His blood flow had clearly increased.
Whoosh!
Lane swung the stick downward from above his head. The stick did not shatter, but dust rose around from the force of his movement.
Hitting Lane on the head with his hand, Stoney said, "Hey runt, what are you doing? I told you to shatter the stick, not do something like this. You even put out the fire."
Lane asked:
"Master, I tried to understand your movements, but there's one thing I can't fully piece together in my head. I understand that you use your whole body... but in that case, how does the stick shatter?"
Stoney answered shortly, "That's something you need to figure out yourself. If I explain it, there'll be no meaning left."
After that, Lane threw himself onto the ground.
"Master, I'm very tired. I need to rest a little today."
Stoney smiled faintly and agreed.
After eating dinner, Lane and Stoney withdrew to their own small tents. While looking up at the sky at night, Lane was thinking to himself:
"What am I missing? I only understood three things my master did. Using the whole body, circulating the aura through the entire body, and swinging at extreme speed... but why does the stick shatter on its own? Why?"
He questioned this for a while longer. Then the way he used his scythe came to mind.
"Wait a minute... I saw something similar in that too. If I recreate it again in my memory, maybe I can understand the reason."
Lane began to recreate that movement in his mind. But what appeared before him was not what he expected. The technique he saw in his memory was a movement a hundred times harder than what Stoney had just shown. The weight carried by that strike was terrifying. Lane became mentally tired just from trying to remember that movement.
"I wish I had never seen that movement... How did he do that? It's like I saw something completely different."
Lane then got annoyed, laid his head down, and fell asleep. The next morning had come. Lane first went for a run in the forest, then started doing push-ups. After finishing his run in the forest, he contacted his own castle through the communication device.
Morris connected and spoke, "Hello, young master. How are you?"
Lane, breathing heavily, said, "I'm fine. How are you?"
Morris's voice became more careful this time.
"My lord, your voice doesn't sound very good. Are you alright?"
Lane let out a short breath and said, "Yes, yes, I'm fine. It's just that that senile old man made me run forty laps through the whole forest. Forget that. Tell me, is there anything new?"
Morris began to explain the developments since their last conversation.
"Young master, the number of soldiers has been increasing quite a lot lately. By your command, we have now formed twenty-two battalions. Recruitment is still continuing. The training is also continuing the way you wanted."
Hearing this, Lane was pleased. Then he immediately moved to another subject.
"Good. Now, are you dealing with the task I gave you before I left?"
Morris replied:
"My lord, for now I am continuing the task you told me, but nothing unusual has happened."
Hearing this, Lane thought for a brief moment.
"I guess I exaggerated this matter in my head. It doesn't seem like anything will come of it..."
Then he collected himself again and said to Morris,
"You keep continuing the task for now. But be careful. Absolutely."
Then he asked about something else:
"What is Sara doing? How are things?"
Morris began to explain:
"My lord, she is working very hard. She is personally training the soldiers. She is also teaching them what she learned from her father."
Hearing this made Lane happy. He was pleased that Sara was not sitting idle. Immediately afterward, his tone became serious again.
"Morris, expand the trade. Right now, purchases and sales have already increased excessively. Establish a trading company. Open small branches everywhere and take control into your hands. Expand the spy network as well. Have them double the work of gathering information from around us. Also, give me the information about the Kingdom of Greyford."
At that, Morris began to report the information they had gathered about the Kingdom of Greyford and the royal family.
"Young master, according to the information obtained, the relationship between the Kingdom of Greyford and the Kingdom of Durnwille is not good at all. Greyford has set its sights on Durnwille's coal mines. Because of Durnwille's rich coal deposits and strong mercenaries, the tension between the two sides has grown even worse recently. According to the information we obtained from the child spies, they wanted to betroth Princess Jenna, the youngest of the Kingdom of Greyford, to Durnwille's eldest son. But that intention did not come to pass. King Theodore of Greyford wanted to sell his own daughter like breeding livestock, but the eldest son, Darin, prevented it. Right now, serious internal struggles are taking place within Greyford."
Lane's expression shifted slightly. He had listened carefully to everything that was said. Then he spoke slowly:
"Good... very good. I now know where we will make our first move. Send the best fifty soldiers to the Kingdom of Greyford. Let there also be ten spies among them. We will establish our first major branch there."
Morris found this decision somewhat strange.
"Young master, why are we starting there first?"
Lane answered:
"Why do you think the Empire is not interfering in the situation between these two kingdoms? Because it serves their interests. We are going to ruin that. By using Durnwille, we will resolve the issue with Greyford. I think it is time for the new warriors to appear now. They need to shine, and we are the ones who will make that happen. You will only run things from behind the scenes. And without leaving a single opening."
Morris immediately understood the matter.
"So you will both solve the problem and, at the same time, establish trade relations with the kingdom as a condition."
Lane answered at once:
"Bingo. You understood correctly. You already know very well what we need to do from here. There will be two groups. The first will go to Durnwille, the other to Greyford. Like I said, choose the best ones. Send the ones I trained. The rest haven't even finished their training yet. Right now, we have a little over a hundred active professional soldiers in our hands. The child spies are almost at that number as well. Recall all of them and tell them to focus on this mission."
Then, after a short pause, he added:
"If there's no problem within the village, I need to get back to my training."
Morris said that everything was fine and cut the communication.
The moment the connection ended, Lane muttered to himself:
"Ah... so my first chess pieces will come out of the Ardent Empire, huh..."
A devilish smile appeared on his face. But that expression only lasted for a moment. He immediately collected himself and started doing push-ups again. About two and a half hours later, he had completely finished his training.
Afterward, Lane took the stick in his hand again and began to swing it. Compared to yesterday, today his movements were more proper and more controlled. As he continued swinging, his attention suddenly shifted completely to the stick. He had noticed something during the movement.
Without wasting any time, he threw aside the thick stick in his hand and picked up the thinner one instead. As he prepared to apply the same thing he had done yesterday, he began to think to himself:
"Yesterday I sped up my blood flow, and at the very end I caused the energy to explode at a single point. That's why it failed. I'll circulate the aura through my body, but I won't speed up the blood flow that much. I'll move together with my body. Calm like I'm running, but using controlled strength like I'm doing push-ups."
The moment Lane swung the thin stick, the stick shattered completely inside his hand before it could even move through the air.
Lane had now grasped the logic.
"So that was it... being able to stay calm. When you get excited, you can't gather your focus."
He immediately went and picked up the thick stick this time. He wanted to try the same thing with that one too. At that moment, Stoney was watching him from a distance.
Lane swung the stick. This time the stick did not completely shatter, but it had begun to break from the inside. It was obvious that if he swung it one more time, it would come apart.
Stoney's eyes widened slightly. He thought to himself:
"Damn it... did the kid grasp it on the second day? Isn't that a bit too much? Even I took a month to learn it. And people used to call me a genius. Then what exactly is this kid? Is it because of that thing inside him...?"
When Lane swung a second time, the stick finally shattered completely.
This time Stoney walked toward him.
"Well done. It looks like you've learned it now. You've grasped how to circulate your power and how to stay calm. From now on, I will teach you techniques. But I can't teach you the cutting part."
Lane nodded in acceptance. He was happy deep inside, but he tried not to show it too much outwardly.
Stoney took his own spear. Then he began to perform the techniques one after another.
Lane's eyes had widened. He was watching him eagerly, giving the whole thing his full attention.
Stoney's movements were not ordinary. Each technique looked more settled, heavier, and more threatening than the one before it. There was not only power in the way he swung the spear; there was rhythm, balance, timing, and a deeply established mastery. Every movement was sharp and clear, as though it had been forged through years.
At the very end, Stoney brought his spear down in a terrifying thrust toward a single point, as if it were descending from the sky itself.
The ground shook all at once.
A crater twenty meters wide formed at the point of impact. The shockwave released from it hurled Lane backward. Lane used all his strength just to force himself to remain on his feet.
Dust spread into the air. For a short while, everything became impossible to see.
When the dust slowly settled, Lane looked at the crater before him. The sight in front of him left him silent for a moment.
Approaching him, Stoney spoke:
"This is my own self-developed spear technique. Sky-Piercing Thrust. From now on, these are the techniques you will learn."
Lane took the spear Stoney had given him. Then he began to perform the movements one by one without using aura. While performing the first techniques, he was completely focused on understanding the form. He was trying to settle the balance, stance, and flow of each movement.
He somehow managed to do the first technique.
He completed the second one with difficulty as well.
But by the third technique, his body could no longer endure it. He lost his balance and fell to the ground.
Watching him, Stoney spoke:
"Right now, you are doing the first two techniques in terms of logic, but you still need to improve a lot more. So for now, master these two techniques."
Lane nodded in agreement. Then he sat down on the ground and began to rest.