The next day came and it met Ren stretching lazily in bed. He yawned for a few seconds, feeling like he just rested after a stressful day.
Then the memories came rushing back and realization struck him.
No, not about Lilith. He had already put that behind him.
He remembered that today was the beginning of his training in the art of Bloodbinding.
Yesterday, even though he hadn't been physically exhausted, he had surprisingly slept through most of the day, waking up in the evening. After he'd woken up, he had eaten a large meal, feeling like he still needed more sleep.
He'd hit his bed once more and was now feeling his new self on the new day.
He could feel the difference in his body. He could feel the way his blood hummed with energy. He was still getting used to it.
After having his bath and breakfast, he made his way to the training yard, where Darius was already waiting.
His older brother stood near a rack of weapons, casually inspecting a wooden blade. The yard was quiet, the only sounds being the distant clangs of soldiers training elsewhere in the castle grounds.
"Took you long enough." Darius said, glancing up with a grin. "Didn't think you would be coming. From how you looked yesterday night, I fully expected you to sleep for half the day again."
Ren rubbed the back of his head. "Didn't expect the trial to take so much out of me."
Darius smirked. "Welcome to Bloodbinding."
Ren matched his smirk.
With a chuckle, he gestured for Ren to stand in front of him. "Today, we start with the fundamentals."
Ren nodded with all the attention he could muster. He knew some details from the lorebooks but this was different. This was directly from the source.
"Bloodbinding is an incredible tool. It can turn a Knight into anything they want. An unkillable healing focused duelist, a walking fortress, or even a living nightmare on the battlefield. But there are limits."
Ren nodded, listening quietly.
"The first thing you need to understand is synergy. A Knight isn't powerful just because they slap a bunch of enhancements onto their armor and weapons."
"A truly powerful Knight understands the importance of building their enhancements in a way that works together. If you try to cram too many mismatched effects into your equipment, you'll only make yourself inefficient."
Darius paused, then continued, "For example, if you bind your boots to make you lighter for speed but bind your gauntlets for brute force strength, you'll constantly be working against yourself."
"One part of you moves too fast, while the other part is too rigid. You'll feel unbalanced in combat. Then, you'll need a third enhancement to bridge the gap between the two."
"That's why the truly powerful Knights develop a build, an approach that makes all their enhancements work together."
"Look at me for example. I'm built like a tree already, so I don't need strength as much." He gave a self deprecating chuckle.
"That is why my enhancements are for speed and movement. One to make me fast on land, another to make me fast in the air, and one to give me clarity of thought as I exceed speeds humans shouldn't reach."
Ren absorbed the words, thinking carefully. So it's not just about power, but strategy. So one can say that in Bloodbinding, going for power makes you weak but going for synergy makes you powerful.
Darius stepped to the side, grabbing a nearby training sword. "Now, let's talk limitations."
"The most important one is that Bloodbinding is personal. You can only actively use equipment that you, yourself, have bound with your blood. If someone else picks up your gear, they won't be able to use any of its active abilities. The best they'll get are passive effects."
"So if I Bloodbind a weapon, no one else can use it properly?" Ren asked.
"Exactly. Now, there's an exception to this rule, one that comes into play when you reach Rank 4. At that level, you'll gain the ability to lock your weapons and armor to your bloodline."
"That means no one outside your family will even be able to lift the weapon properly. It'll become unbearably heavy, unresponsive, or even actively reject the user."
Ren frowned, considering the information he just received. "So if a Knight reaches Rank 4 and binds their weapon like that, it's permanently locked to them or their descendants?"
Darius nodded. "Exactly. And our family has two such objects."
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Two?"
"The first," Darius said, "is the gate to the private grove. The gate protects the whole grove and only those with Ross blood can unlock it. That's why we don't worry about outsiders sneaking in."
Oh! Ren's eyes widened as he remembered how Darius had opened the gate to the grove without a key. That explains it.
"And the second?" He asked.
Darius hesitated, then shrugged. "The Ross family sword. But that's a lesson for another time. When you're ready, our father will show it to you."
Before Ren could ask anymore questions about the sword, Darius continued.
"There are dangers to wielding a blood-locked weapon, but you're nowhere near that level yet. For now, we start small."
"Before you create your first Bloodbind, you need to get a feel for the energy you'll be using and the best way to do that is in combat."
Darius reached behind him and grabbed something from a nearby chest. When he turned back, he was holding a helmet.
"This," he said, handing it to Ren, "is my old helmet. It has a passive enhancement, one that speeds up your rate of thought. It won't make you physically faster, but it'll give you more time mentally to process things."
The moment he touched the helmet, Ren felt a tingle run down his arm as the energy within him reacted to the energy inside of the helmet.
He could already tell that while the thing wasn't very powerful, it was active. "Since it's a passive effect, that means I can use it, right?"
Darius nodded. "Exactly. By using it, you'll be able to instinctively understand the way bloodbinding works."
"Now, put it on. We're going to spar."