The next day, early morning.
The sound of sword practice echoed through the training grounds of the Duke’s Mansion.
*Huff, huff, huff.*
Ian stood in the wide training ground, continuously swinging the sword in his hand.
Many maidservants stood behind him.
‘No, no, there’s no progress at all.’
‘At this rate, I’ll just be an extra during the entrance test for Adelan Magic Academy in one month.’
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Ian opened his System panel.
[Status Window]
Host: Ian Saint Yola
Realm: Second Tier
Strength: 105
Speed: 32
Magic Power: 97
Defense: 20
Skills: Basic Swordsmanship LV2 (Low-grade), Fireball (Low-grade), Water Dragon Spell (Low-grade)
‘The attribute points haven’t increased at all, either.’
According to the original story, one needed a strength of at least the Third Tier to have a chance of passing the test.
With his current strength, which barely reached the Second Tier, he was far from meeting the threshold to pass the entrance test.
“System, System, come out quickly.”
“What is it, Host?”
Since the System had brought him into this world, there must be a function that could make him stronger, right?
‘Since you call yourself a system, you must have a way for me to get stronger, right?’
Ian asked with an expectant gaze.
If he could get stronger without any effort, who would ever want to train?
**[Sorry, Host, the System currently does not have the function to make the Host stronger. Therefore, improving your strength can only depend on the Host themselves.]**
‘Useless.’
Ian cast a disdainful glance at the System and complained in his heart.
‘Sigh, I still have to find a way myself.’
Immediately after, Ian continued to swing the sword in his hand, attempting to train his swordsmanship.
In truth, Ian didn’t really know how to improve his strength in this world.
After all, when playing games in his previous life, increasing combat power just required leveling up and adding points, but there were far more factors to consider in this world.
Therefore, he could only perform the training he believed might improve his strength.
Since he was the son of the Sword Saint, he should have inherited at least a little bit of his father’s talent, right?
“What’s wrong with the Master today? Did he wake up this early just to practice his swordsmanship?”
“I don’t know, but it’s a good thing. The Duke must want to see the Master working hard, too.”
Seeing Ian continue to swing the sword, the maidservants behind him all showed shocked expressions.
They truly couldn’t believe that their usually lazy Master was having such a diligent day.
It wasn’t that the maidservants were making a fuss over nothing; rather, the previous Ian had been an extremely lazy existence.
If Lord Deere hadn’t supervised him, Ian might not have even joined the ranks of Mages by now.
This was also the reason why Deere was secretly disappointed in Ian.
Ian’s talent wasn’t good to begin with, yet he spent every day slacking off.
Not only could he not compare to the younger generation of nobles at his level, but he couldn’t even compare to some children from commoner families.
This often made it difficult for Deere to save face when talking about his son with other nobles.
If it were just poor talent, Deere could have accepted it, but Ian’s character was equally terrible.
In the past, whenever a servant in the Duke’s Mansion made a minor mistake, they would face Ian’s abuse.
This included, but was not limited to, whipping them, forcing them to eat meals mixed with stones, and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him human trash.
This caused the servants of the Duke’s Mansion to fear him greatly, making them avoid him at all costs.
Even the maid responsible for waking Ian up in the morning only dared to call his name while trembling in a voice as soft as a mosquito’s buzz.
She was terrified of displeasing Ian and suffering his abuse.
Aetherinra had only woken him up previously because she saw that he hadn’t arrived at the main hall for a long time.
But the current Ian made them feel very strange, as if he had become a different person.
Not only had he become more diligent in practicing swordsmanship, but even his attitude toward them had improved significantly.
At the very least, he hadn’t made things difficult for them when he woke up this morning and had even greeted them.
If it hadn’t happened right in front of them, they would have certainly thought it was a lie.
How could the Master be so polite?
“What are you all doing?”
Suddenly, a pleasant voice drifted over.
Upon seeing the newcomer, the maidservants put on respectful expressions and answered.
“Lady Aetherinra, we are accompanying the Master while he practices his swordsmanship.”
The person walking toward them was Aetherinra, who had just woken up to practice magic.
Although Aetherinra wasn’t Deere’s biological daughter, she had been adopted by the Duke’s Mansion since childhood, and the servants had long since regarded her as their mistress.
Unlike Ian, Aetherinra never used her high status to oppress the servants and was very approachable.
Therefore, the maidservants’ attitude toward Aetherinra was more of respect rather than the fear they felt for Ian.
“Practicing swordsmanship?”
Aetherinra frowned.
Had she heard correctly?
That lazy Ian was actually practicing swordsmanship?
She raised her eyes and saw the figure of Ian swinging his sword, although his movements were extremely non-standard.
“You’re swinging the sword wrong.”
“You should grip the hilt at the two-thirds mark and then swing the sword down from above your head with force.”
“That way, you can channel the Sword Magic Power in your body and achieve the effect of training your magic.”
Seeing Ian’s error-filled swinging motions, Aetherinra couldn’t help but step forward to correct him.
Hearing this, Ian swung the greatsword according to her instructions.
Sure enough, he felt a faint surge of magic power within his body.
“Thank you.”
Ian didn’t look back and replied politely.
“There’s no need to thank me. This is basic common sense for cultivating magic power.”
Aetherinra didn’t pay much attention to Ian’s thanks.
What puzzled her was that Ian didn’t even know this most basic method of cultivation.
One had to know that in this world of swords and magic, both Swordsmen and Mages needed to train their magic power to exert their strength.
However, there was a distinction between the two: the magic power cultivated by a Swordsman was called Sword Magic Power, while the magic power cultivated by a Mage was called Spell Magic Power.
‘Wait, this voice sounds a bit familiar.’
The first time he heard it, Ian didn’t recognize who the voice belonged to, but by the second time, he realized it sounded like Aetherinra.
He turned his head and, as expected, Aetherinra appeared in his field of vision, dressed in white magic robes.
“Why did you come here?”
“To practice magic.”
Ian looked to Aetherinra’s left and right.
Not seeing Veronica’s figure, he asked with some confusion, “Where is Veronica?”
“She hasn’t woken up yet.”
Upon hearing Aetherinra’s words, Ian felt a sudden urge to drag Veronica to the training ground.
‘She’s the protagonist, yet she’s so lazy. Can’t she learn from me and come out to train as soon as the sun rises?’
Ian complained in his heart.
At this moment, Veronica, who was sleeping soundly in bed, had no idea that her laziness had caused dissatisfaction in a certain person’s heart.