Chapter 8: Solo Training Results

Soon enough Alaric and Mom reached Dad's office and found her rummaging through paperwork, which he assumed were important documents before making a warm smile.

"Look at this, someone's happy. I know you love seeing me, but what happened?" As they walked closer, Mother asked.

"Amora, I just got the results! The Merchants guild accepted my request to raise my rank! I'm no longer a wood merchant, I'm a bronze merchant now!" Dad announced with a smile on her face, the happiness exuding from her was heartwarming.

When it comes to merchants just like adventurers there's a guild for them. One might ask, why would they join the merchants guild? Well, the answer is actually quite simple, they make things easier.

When it comes to working as a merchant there are two things that are common problems, paperwork, you have to deal with a lot of documentation, especially permits to deal with many products in many areas, and some places won't even allow your entry if don't have affiliation with the merchants guild.

That leads us to the second problem, distrust, building a reputation as a trustworthy merchant in a sea of scammers is not easy, and most have no option, but to deal with small villages for a very long time before they make enough to get around that problem.

Most if not all that work can be avoided by joining the merchants' guild, unfortunately for most wanting to be merchants, not only do they have high minimum requirements, but they are also very strict and do not support any full-on scams, though they seem to turn a blind eye to more subtle or minor 'misleading' merchants might engage in.

They take care of your documentation, give you a certificate so customers are much more likely to trust you, and even spread your product's reach since, in this world, you don't get more international than the merchants guild.

Though they do take 30% of International sales done through them, and that's it. So long as you reach their requirements, you can join.

The only other thing you should worry about is that once you reach a certain rank if you're income is not good enough, you'll be demoted to a lower rank more appropriate for your income or straight up have your membership revoked. It all vastly depends on the circumstances at play.

After all, they have a reputation to maintain, and if you're not up to standard, you get cut off. Those are the reasons why not only most merchants aren't affiliated with them, but the ones who are, most have low ranks, because of precisely how hard it is for most to live up to the standards set for higher ranks, even with the benefits they offer.

(Rising in the ranks as a merchant is very useful, especially since Bronze-rank merchants are comparable to Knights, who are the lowest tier of nobility in terms of status. I'll have an easy time once I put my own deals on the table.) Alaric thought to himself as this opened many opportunities for his future.

In his mind, Alaric too planned to be affiliated with them when he started his own business, as it would just make the process that much easier.

"Congratulations Loralaine! I always knew you would make it! We have to celebrate immia-... Actually, since we're already calling Ross, why don't we make it a family party and call Numia and Litia as well?...

"I wish Melvania and Rylith could come as well, but what do you think, my love?" Mom moved in closer to hug Dad before she began rambling a bit.

"It sounds nice, but what's this about Ross? Do you mean your brother?" Dad as she hugged Mom back, their relatively large breasts pressuring each other.

"Oh yes! I talked to little Alaric and we came to an agreement. I'll call Ross and his party to help with training him, and as long as he doesn't slack off, he can go on." Mom explained.

"You gave in easier than I thought you would, oh well, let me get started with the letters, and if everything goes right, they should all be here in 2 to 3 months. Until then, let's get ready on our end." Dad let go of the hug and began working on writing the letters while Mom left the room to go and start some of her own preparations Alaric assumed.

Not having much to do there, Alaric said goodbye to Dad and headed to his room, so that he could at least continue his magic training.

"Look at what we have here! It's my beautiful grandson! Come here, and give Grandma a hug and a kiss." Alaric heard Grandma's voice and before he could respond, he was hugged by her six arms and suffocated by her breasts.

Similarly to the game, older individuals didn't really look that old, it was as if they lived by anime rules. Then again, his parents were old enough to be grandparents.

"Hi, grawdma!" He spoke the best he could in a slightly muffled tone, as he was being suffocated.

"Ericka, let our grandson breathe, you'll suffocate the boy to death at this rate." Grandpa called to her as she noticed me having trouble.

"Shut up, Chandra, I know how to take care of my grandson." Grandma loosened her grip on Alaric, before showing and pointing to her cheek for him to kiss and so he did.

"Just look at you, all grown up, last time I saw you up close, you were this big. And now you're already a third of my height.

"Tell grandma, you already got yourself a little princess, didn't you? That's why you're always so busy." Grandma asked.

This might've made Alaric sound extremely short, but his grandmother is 3 meters tall, so It wouldn't exactly mean much to be shorter than her.

"Ericka, the kid's 10, what are you talking about? He probably still thinks that girls are either disgusting or boring." Grandpa responded before he could.

"Oh, cut it, Chandra! What do you know? Besides, can't you just let me talk to my grandson in peace?" Grandma retorted as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh really? Then go ahead. Alaric, tell us, do you have a girlfriend?" Grandpa seemed to have given up.

"Hum... Not really, I'm not looking for one yet." He couldn't help but answer despite how awkward it felt to think about it.

(I don't think I'm worrying about romance anytime soon… However, I'll probably have a bright future in this new reality…) He smiled awkwardly to himself.

"See, what did I tell you?" Grandpa immediately said.

"Ah, Chandra! Enough of your drama. Now, sweetie, I heard you're a good student. Grandma's really happy to hear that, so here's a little something for you. Just don't tell your parents or sisters." Grandma sneakily gave me 3 large bronze coins, as she talked to Alaric before winking at him.

When it comes to money in this planet, the currency here was called Kiri and there are many coins to represent the different values of Kiri. Copper coins being one for one with Kiri, and large copper coins which are equivalent to 10 copper coins. Then High copper coins valued at 20 copper coins and start copper coins valued at 50 copper coins.

Bronze coins are equal to 10 large copper coins. Large bronze coins are equivalent to 10 bronze coins. From what Alaric knows this should go on from Bronze to Silver, then Gold, and finally to Platinum. With the same normal coin, large coin, high coin, and star coin system. That was just what was commonly used.

"Thanks, grandma!" Alaric showed his gratitude and hugged her again. Before keeping the money in his inventory by pretending to pocket it.

"Well, I have to go talk to your mother. Stay healthy little Alaric." She told him before leaving.

"Honestly, she's too much. Anyway, how's everything going, little man? I heard you were training in your room." Grandpa stayed behind and asked.

"Yeah, I've been trying to get stronger." He responded.

"Oh, is that so, may I know why?" Grandpa inquired with her arms crossed.

(Because it will end badly for me and all of us If I'm not up to the challenges ahead, and even besides that, I'm in a race for the throne of the Omniverse, it would be stupid not to try and get stronger in this supernatural reality full of dangers beyond our scope. Not that I would tell you that, Gramps…) Alaric thought to himself.

"I'm just trying to catch up to my elder siblings." He answered.

"Sibling rivalry... That's a decent motivator, I guess. But is that really the only reason? You know you can tell Grandpa." Grandpa insisted.

(What else can I tell her to stop this… I guess something more childish will work…) Alaric concluded.

"Well, that and I read that only strong and powerful individuals can have harems." He replied with a bit of acted-out shyness.

"Hahaha! Spoken like a true Nyx! Blood is in fact thicker than water. Don't worry, grandpa's got your back, if you need any help just tell me. Good luck, kid." Grandpa patted me on the head before turning around and leaving.

(It worked… Nice, time to get back to training.) Alaric sighed in relief.

From then on, he went to his room and began focusing on his training routine again.

Now that he had the Mana Manipulation and Mana Operation skills, he could just jump to trying to cast magic directly, but that would be too risky. His skills were still at their weakest state and any spells he tried to cast could very easily just go unstable and blow up in his face.

As such he decided to instead increase the level of at least one of his skills before he began actually casting spells, since that had high chances of him either getting injured or caught, and it was not time for that.

Having all that into consideration, he began practicing Mana Manipulation and Mana Operation, which without casting a spell went back to mediation, but this time instead of just expanding one's mind, you're instead reaching inside into a mindspace where you can visualize and control the whole process, without having to put it into action in the physical world.

It was all about mastering the flow of one mana through one mana circuit and two cores to their maximum efficiency for the best results.

As he did his best to dig into his own mind space, the fruit of his years of meditation training finally appeared.

[Master! Congrats! You've just improved your meditation skill, into Intermediate Meditation]

[Intermediate Meditation: The Skill to heal oneself as well as achieve a higher level of concentration and mind state accessing his mindscape through the act of mediation to an intermediate degree.]

Immediately as he received the notification, he could feel himself entering the mind space, now isolated from the outside world. While he was training for all these years, he was also asking himself what element, he should try to learn first of the 9 central basic elements, which are the most common and simple to understand and grasp control over.

This refers to respectively, fire, water, earth, air, darkness, light, positive, negative, and neutral.

Each element on its own is a whole journey for the majority of mages, especially since very few understand how or care to gain an affinity, beyond the ones they were born with in the first place. As these 9 elements are the only affinities one can get through training.

After thinking about it for a while, Alaric decided to go with water as it can come in handy in many situations being one of the most versatile elements.

Despite a part of him wanting to start with fire or light because of their superior firepower or darkness for subterfuge and espionage, it was ultimately safer to go for water because of how essential it could be in most situations.

Decision made, he began trying to create a water sphere in his palm, that being one of the simpler Novice tier magic spells, known as water ball(minor).

"Water Ball(Minor)." He chanted and this conjured a small ball the size of a pinky finger before it started trembling and it burst.

This continued for a long time with him failing attempt after attempt of making a stable one. They would appear in his palm and start shaking before bursting into a puddle on the floor.

For the rest of the day, he couldn't get a single successful one, but he was slowly being able to make them slightly bigger before they self-destroyed.

Eventually, Alaric had to stop since unfortunately despite having little to no physical strain on the body, and lack of enough mana to go any further than that, aside from the fact it was very mentally taxing to do, so he immediately fell asleep once he was done.

That was the result of after 20 tries.

-The next day-

After waking up and taking care of his basic morning routine, he went back to his physical training routine with the warming-up exercises, followed up by the weights, and the running. At the end of that, he took another bath and proceeded with the lessons with Mom before having his dancing lessons.

That part of the day over, he focused on his magical training once more until it was too taxing and he had to sleep. He got closer to getting it right but was not quite there yet.

As it was the course for him since he reincarnated, this became his new daily routine, and it went on for a while. Not too aware of time, it just flowed, and when he noticed it had been a month since he started training his water affinity.

Finally! Alaric could cast a full water ball in his mind space, though it would explode 3 seconds after it was complete, this was still an amazing process from the beginning where he couldn't even make it bigger than a pinky finger. While now it was as big as a soccer ball.

This put a smile on his face and reinforced his motivation to continue this training. Aside from slowly increasing how many times he could do it before passing out from mana exhaustion.

-Later-

Tomorrow it will be 3 months since the beginning of the water affinity training. His relatives are also supposed to arrive tomorrow which works well since he just managed to complete his training!

With a water ball floating above his hand, he could only look at the notification that appeared with a smile.

[Master, it all paid off! You just acquired the water affinity! And Water Magic(Novice tier)!]

"Yes!! I did it! Finally!" Alaric celebrated.

After so long! He could finally actually use magic! It was a long path, but he was happy! It felt good to finally get there even if just by a bit.

Leaving the mindscape he rested on his bed despite not being out of gas yet today, he decided to give himself a break and just relax as he waited for tomorrow to come, but not before he tested out his newfound power.

So he left his room and went out to the backyard of his house, and found the nearest tree before he used aimed his hand at it, and used his new spell.

"Water Ball(Minor)." He chanted as he cast the spell at the tree.

*Bam!* *Splash* *Crack*

"Hahaha! This is great!!" A smile formed on his face as he looked at the result.

The result was that the once normal average-sized tree now had an indent the size of a basketball, being cracked inward. After witnessing this, he tried the same on two other trees and it worked out the same, there was no doubt it was magic and quite destructive at that.

(This is much more intense than I expected… especially for water magic… maybe I underestimated its ability to be powerful offensively.

(Considering how magic works, I should be able to reshape a spell with my mind using visualization, but I'll try that tomorrow, today I've done enough.) Alaric concluded, being satisfied with the results.

Taking this chance, he decided to look at his status screen.

[Status Screen]

[Name: Alaric Nyx Trexus(Lofn)

True Name: OmniLayer69

Age: 10

Sex: Male

Species: Human | Sub-Species: Earth Human(Otherworlder)

Affinity: Neutral, Void, Chaos, Order, Isekai, Reincarnation, Creation, Mana, Water

Bloodline: Trexus Lineage, Nyx Lineage, Lofn Lineage

Physique: Blessed Human Body

Soul Rank: Mortal(Inferior: I+)

Soul grade: 17th

Level: 1

Exp: 0/25

Titles: Reincarnated Individual; Otherworlder; The Holder Of Order and Chaos; The Spawn Of Sin and Virtues; The Only Apostle Of Isekai, Reincarnation, and Lesser Creation; The Lucky Pervert; The Antithetical Existence; The Fallen Pinnacle Of Lust; Reincarnator; Omniverse Ruler Candidate; The One Appreciated By G

Phase: 0

Tier:0

Ascension:0

Job: Harem Collector, Isekai Grand Apostle, Reincarnation Apostle, Creation Apostle, Celestial Container, Hero

Class: None

Stats:
Strength: 5 -> 10
Dexterity: 7 -> 12
Vitality: 5 -> 10
Magic: 2 -> 7
Willpower: 2 -> 7
Agility: 3 -> 8
Charisma: 69 -> 72
Luck: 9

Undistributed Stat points: 0

Attributes:
Hp: 100/100 | Mp: 45/70 | Sta: 65/90
Attack: 6 -> 11
M.Attack: 2 -> 7
Defense: 6 -> 11
M.Defense: 3.5 -> 8.5
Speed: 5 -> 10

Characteristics:
Diplomacy: I
Influence: I-
Talent: D+
Divine Power: 0
Spiritual Power: I+
Profane Power: 0
Meta Power: 0
Psionic Power: 0

Unique ability/s: [Double Exp.Lv -], [1/2 Exp Requirement.Lv -],

Innate ability/s(Racial skills): [Adptability],

Superpower: Checkpoint.Lv-1(Rank I),

Active skills: Intermediate Meditation.Lv H, Mana Sense.Lv I, Mana Manipulation.Lv I, Mana Operation.Lv I,

Passive skills: Mortal Core(2).Lv I, Mana Circuit.Lv I,

Resistances: Order Tolerance.Lv 1, Chaos Tolerance.Lv 1,

Magic:
•Water Magic(Novice Tier)
-Water Ball(Minor)

Unique Magic: None

Extras: Lustful Harem Ruler System(Owner), Blessing Of The Higher Celestial Of Chaos and Sin, Blessing Of The Higher Celestial Of Order and Virtue, Blessing Of The Lower Celestial Ruler Of Isekai, Blessing Of The Celestial Of Reincarnation,

Inventory: Large Bronze coins x5, Bronze Coins x35]

(This is looking good, not only did my training bear fruits, but it seems I can keep going. Great, just like in AF I'm sure I'll be able to reach the level 1 stat cap in no time.) Alaric was proud of his growth so far, his time to take a break was on point.

After that, he went back to his room and decided to rest, lying on his bed.

Unfortunately, his relaxing moment was short-lived.

"Alaric! Quick! I need your help!" Lilian in a manner unlike her, just comes in shouting without any warnings.

Chapter end