The Next Morning...
Ethan picked up his Arcphone from the nightstand and saw Isabella’s message glowing on the screen.
Isabella: Heyyy
Ethan smiled immediately and typed back.
Me: Hey
He stared at the message for a moment, debating whether to add more, but decided to keep it simple. He set the Arcphone down gently on his bed, still grinning like an idiot.
Then he turned his attention back to the system screen hovering before him.
The Academy was only open five days a week, and today was the sixth, which meant no Belsorth today.
With the addition of the 3,000 experience points he’d gained from completing the self-imposed objective "Make it up to Isabella in grand style," his total experience points had climbed to 28,950.
First thing he stared at were his summoner skills.
He decided to ignore the Bond skill for now. Sharing thoughts with his summons was intrusive enough, but it was serving a good purpose.
Instead, he mentally commanded the system to level up his Borrow skill.
The 9,000 experience point cost to move from Level 2 to Level 3 was a significant leap that felt almost unfair, but he felt in his gut it was going to be worth it.
[Borrow Skill has leveled up to Lv.3]
[Borrow Lv.3 → You can now borrow any one accessory from any of your summons. Accessories include items, weapons, or equipment they possess]
"Hm..." Ethan nodded slowly.
He wished there’d be more for nine thousand whole experience points, but hey, you get what you get.
[Total Experience Points: 19,950]
Next, he looked at his other classes. He decided to raise his Magi-Engineer class talent to A-level using 4,500 experience points.
[Magi-Engineer Talent has leveled up to A]
But instead of stopping there, he raised the talent even further to S-level by using up 5,500 more experience points.
[Magi-Engineer Talent has leveled up to S]
[Total Experience Points: 9,950]
He decided to go all the way because as someone who had just taken over as CEO of Stark Industries, he wanted to be more than just a CEO who sat behind a desk barking orders.
He wanted to take part in the innovative development of their products. But most importantly, he wanted to bring something new to Stark Industries.
If this world was going to develop even further, he wanted Stark Industries at the forefront, leading that charge.
Guardian, Ranger, and Warrior weren’t effective classes at the moment, or at least he hadn’t started training in them yet, so he let those be.
The Saber class, however, always gave him an annoying itch. Especially because the legendary sword in his possession had been completely useless so far.
For a moment, he gave it serious thought.
And the only thing his mind kept bringing him back to was talent level. Talent level had to be the reason the sword wouldn’t reveal its true strength.
He sighed, then stood and walked toward the balcony as he commanded the weapon to materialize in his palm.
He muttered to it, "One more time, Ragnarok. You’d better do something this time, or I’m dumping you and settling for weapons from my summons."
With a thought, the system then assigned the required experience points to raise his Saber class one more time.
[Saber Talent has leveled up to S]
[Total Experience Points: 3,450]
He stared at the double-edged sword, willing it to do something, but nothing showed up on it.
Ethan slammed his left palm against his face, dragged it down slowly, and was about to vent his frustration when suddenly he felt an energy spike that made his grip on the sword tremble.
He held onto it steadfastly as white miasma started evaporating out of the blade.
Ethan’s face broke into an excited smile.
[Ragnarok has accepted you as its wielder]
[Bond Process will now begin... 1%... 2%...]
[Bond Process halted at 2%]
"Huh?" He made a weird face.
[The Soul Within says: "You lack the skills of a swordsman, but there’s potential."]
Ethan couldn’t help but chuckle. But it was a lot clearer to him now.
The sword truly did have a soul. It only decided whether it was worth revealing itself to you if your talent level was acceptable. However, to truly bond with the weapon, you still had to be skilled as a saber.
[Ragnarok has granted you the skill → Battle Sense]
[Battle Sense → When wielding Ragnarok, your combat instincts, reflexes, and swordsmanship movements are significantly enhanced beyond your natural ability]
A part of Ethan’s mind somehow quickly understood this, because right then, when he decided to test the skill out, he found his body moving in a fashion he had never trained for.
His legs shifted naturally into proper stances as he swung the sword in different directions, almost choreographed. His footwork was precise and his posture, flawless.
[Battle Sense best complements a skill you already possess]
Ethan got more excited as he moved, swinging the blade around with increasing confidence.
He stepped deeper into his room, and without realizing it, he made a horizontal slash through the air.
The slash traveled forward, cutting cleanly through his large bed and splitting it into two halves.
"Fuck..." His eyes widened as he stared at the split bed.
Thankfully, it had missed the side where his Arcphone was resting.
Ethan raised the blade to look at it and nodded approvingly as his grin returned.
He didn’t mind the damage the sword had just done. That goddamn bed could always be replaced.
"I say we’ll take you for a real spin," Ethan muttered while staring at the blade.
Then he made it vanish back into his inventory and took steps out of his room.
——
Ethan walked downstairs with his device in hand. He had just replied to another text from Isabella when Valerie and Francesca greeted him from their respective corners.
"Good morning, Master Ethan," Valerie said with a respectful nod.
"Morning, Master Ethan," Francesca said warmly.
Ethan nodded and greeted them back. "Morning."
Francesca’s eyes lit up with curiosity. "So? How did the date go last night?"
Ethan smiled. "It was wonderful. I’ll come tell you all about it later."
Francesca’s face brightened even more. "Oh, I can’t wait!"
But Ethan had only said that to buy himself some peace for now. He wasn’t ready to sit through all of that with Francesca just yet.
On the other hand, Eduardo wasn’t around because he’d gone to meet the person handling their accounts at the bank.
Ethan walked all the way to the large expanse of land at the back of the manor, deciding this would be the best place to actually practice and test his progress thus far.
And the perfect opponents were going to be his summons.