After Arthur finished doing his stances, Glorielle told him, "Good, now swing your sword 1,000 times to build muscle strength.
Power might not be everything in a fight if it is not overwhelmingly superior, but it's extremely important; you can never have enough of it."
Arthur just nodded his head, already feeling the dreadful time he would go through every day from now on.
Glorielle did not train; she still had her ribs broken by the Cursed Herald. So she sat down near Abner as she watched over Arthur to make sure he wasn't slacking off.
Abner and Glorielle had some small talk while everyone else was training; he asked, "What do you think of Arthur? Does he have talent for the sword?"
Glorielle told Abner, "He's not bad with that danger-premonition ability of his; he will be an excellent swordsman... if he doesn't die before that."
Abner nodded and asked, "Are you sure you're fine? You took a direct hit from a fallen monster."
Glorielle nodded and answered, "Thankfully, it's only my ribs that broke; if it wasn't for me enhancing my armor and the claws hitting with the blunt side, then my lungs and even my heart could have been cut by the claws of that thing."
Then she saw Arthur slowing down and told him, "If you slack off, I'm going to let Naamah teach you instead!"
Arthur didn't know why, but he had a sudden urge to swing his sword faster after that, so he did; he was too tired to question it.
After doing their training, they just rested, talking about some trivial things. Kaelen asked Alec, "So, how did the Awakened who watched over you react when he saw you become a middle-aged man?"
Alec smiled as he recalled the awakened's reaction: "Heh, it was a young awakened who watched over me; he was about the same age as me, so when he saw me become almost as old as his father, he was shocked!"
Alec then laughed, "When I woke up, he even called me sir despite being a year older than me!"
And they continued chatting about whatever they had to share to pass the time,
Glorielle had a passion for drawing, dramas, and watching Dreamscape battles, especially the tournaments held in it. Her dream was to one day become a Saint Why? She just wanted to look extremely good!
(I don't know when the Creator who had the ability to make them became a Master since it wasn't stated, so I will just assume he is at this time if it's stated to be wrong in canon then whatever it's a fanfic.)
Kaelen had a passion for fashion and also liked the Dreamscape tournaments; he wanted to win one himself at some point, but his biggest dream was to surpass his father and become Supreme.
Alec wanted to become a Master or a Saint since they had longer lifespans to regain his youthful appearance.
He was passionate about the law and had been studying it; if he had not been infected by the nightmare spell, then he would have become a lawyer.
After they got back to the waking world, he wanted to join the government and serve the people.
Abner's ambition was high; he wanted to turn the dream realm habitable for regular people and bring all of humanity into it because he believed that slowly people would be driven out of the Waking world by the Nightmare Creature's,
And that the dream realm where Gates won't spawn in the middle of populated cities would be safer. His goal was to become strong enough to save humanity—to become a divine Ranked Human!
Naamah actually wanted to become an author and an independent awakened to satisfy her sadistic tendencies on poor nightmare creatures.
None of them except for Arthur could imagine her as an author to them; she just looked like a serial killer in the making!
Brave just wanted a lazy, peaceful life where he would go hunt a few nightmare creatures to sell a few soul shards every now and then. He wasn't very ambitious.
Zane wanted to become an Ascended because, in the real world, he had lost an arm when a sudden gate break happened. Had the government arrived any later, he would have died after he becomes an Ascended; he also plans on joining the government.
When Arthur revealed his dream of starting his own clan, they all nodded with a divine aspect he would surely be able to do so when he became a Master or a Saint
As they continued talking, Arthur felt a little alienated after all; he was from hundreds of years ago if the Shadow Slave's universe and his own were the same, which was not impossible.
He had transmigrated, but after experiencing that, believing he had never left home was too much? True names even hint at the person's fate, so for his name to say he's "not from this era," instead of "not from this world," means that he likely is from the past.
Noticing his weirdly gloomy expression, Zane, who rarely talked, asked, "You seem a little down. What is it?"
Arthur told the truth in a misleading way: "I just spent so much time reading books I don't even recognize anything you guys talk about; it makes me feel like an old man."
Naamah asked curiously, "What kind of books do you like?" Arthur's face froze, remembering all of those erotic books he usually spent over 10 hours a day reading.
He was such a degenerate; he has no problems using even something like Berserk as "material." He eventually replied, "Well, I'd rather not talk about it."
Naamah and the rest were curious but didn't pry; eventually they decided to split up; Kaelen, Alec, Brave, and Glorielle would stay and defend the castle.
Well, Glorielle would just stay since she was injured, while Arthur, Abner, Zane, and Naamah would go out and hunt.
As they left the castle, Arthur checked the runes of his sword memory again.
Name: [Starlight Legion Sword]
Rank: [Awakened] [II]
Type: [Weapon]
Item description: [The Starlight Legion fought not for glory, but for hope that the light they fought so hard to get would not leave them in eternal darkness again].
Arthur thought to himself, 'One of its enhancements lets it glow, and I still don't know the other Glorielle is quite generous to give this to me for free.'
As they wondered the dark city, they soon found their prey, a carapace scavenger. Zane shot an arrow at its arm, immobilizing it as he told Arthur, "Now it's only got one claw. Try to fight it for a bit experience is said to be the best teacher after all."
Abner nodded along while Naamah said, while smiling, "Kindly," to Arthur, "But I get the kill, you understand, right?"
Arthur didn't have a problem with it and nodded; he had a weird urge to do it too, as if his survival depended on it; he just thought it was a little weird but didn't pay much thought to it.
The Carapace Scavenger rushed at Arthur, who parried the hit and thrust into the Scavenger's mouth, but the scavenger dodged and retaliated.
Arthur took a step back and slashed at one of the scavenger's legs. He couldn't cut it off, but it definitely affected the mobility of its leg.
The only reason Arthur was fighting so well was because his opponent could only attack him with one arm,
So he didn't need to make any complicated decisions; just dodge and parry the arm and attack after! Eventually, after having cut two legs of the Scavenger along with the arm, Naamah took the kill.
They collected the soul shard and the meat as they continued hunting. When they found a weaker opponent,
Zane would immobilize it with his arrows to allow Arthur to gain some confidence and experience in battle.
After they killed the Carapace Scavenger and two Frenzied Blood suckers, the Awakened Monster version of the Awakened Demon Frenzied Man-eater, they headed back to the Bright Castle.
They didn't do much after arriving; there was basically nothing to do other than talk.
Kaelen had used some small nightmare creature parts that couldn't be eaten, like the teeth, horns, and claws that they had no blacksmith to turn into weapons, and made them into makeshift pieces.
To play the legacy version of chess called the Death Game with Glorielle while the rest waited for their turn talking or resorted to playing games like Tag; they were that bored!
Eventually, Arthur remembered something and told everyone, "I forgot to mention this, but I know how we can awaken without the spell."
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Abner asked, "You're not joking, are you?"
Arthur shook his head. "I wouldn't joke about something like this; the people awakened before the nightmare spell by learning to control their essence,
filling up their body with essence either by refining it themselves or killing nightmare creatures to use their soul shards as a shortcut and then forming their soul core slowly through meditation, kind of like cultivation novels."
Arthur smiled as he said, "We might have to do things backwards, but it's not making it any easier; forming the soul core is the easiest part while controlling essence is the hardest"
Kaelen asked, "Are you certain this works? This... this could be revolutionary!"
Arthur nodded. "I am sure it should work. I guess we will have to learn how to sense our essence first, not like we have anything else to do."
Although they weren't sure if Arthur was pulling some sort of joke, they didn't have much to do; learning to meditate won't be a waste of their time, since they have nothing to do in the first place.