Mordgeist went to the newly awakened youths and warned, "Never reveal the full extent of your battle spirit unless it's absolutely necessary, especially if your battle spirit is rare or powerful enough to stir envy. Jealousy and greed, after all, are powerful poisons. And in this world, they kills more surely than blades do. There is no shortage of incidents where people were killed for their battle spirits in our region."
The Stone Village was located in the northern region of the Leon Kingdom.
As it was home to three strong clans and possessed a handful of supreme battle masters, it was considered the strongest village of the Leon kingdom, but compared to its cities and towns that were protected by City Lords and Town Masters respectively, it was nothing worth mentioning.
One must understand the two mentioned were not inherited easily. One had to have at least reached the stage of supreme battle master to become a Town Master. To become a City Lord, it was even harder. One had to be a level above supreme battle masters to be even considered for that position!
"The kingdom of Leon had seen its fair share of entire families being wiped out just because one member had a battle spirit a powerhouse desired. Even clans as strong as ours have fallen trying to protect a gifted heir from shameless thieves and bandits. So remember this well. Caution is your first armor. Silence, your second. Keep your secrets well guarded."
"We will remember your teaching, elder."
Although not everyone was in the same position as Jon.
Even if they revealed the ups and downs of their battle spirit, there was no certainty they would lose their life.
However, it would definitely be detrimental for their future.
Once the effect of their battle spirit becomes public knowledge, it would be easy to prepare a counter against them and beat them in a fight.
So naturally they took the elder's advice seriously, choosing to hide their true abilities.
"Good," Mordgeist nodded at their obedience.
"Listen carefully. Battle Spirits require a special kind of energy to spring into action. We call it mana. You can think of it as their food. Without being fed mana, even the strongest Battle Spirit will lie dormant, powerless, useless, and too exhausted to do anything for you. The technique I am about to give to you will help you obtain that food for your Battle Spirit. Practice it diligently the moment you return home. Once you have mastered it, come look for me in the inner courtyard," Mordgeist said, handing each of them a copy of the Basic Mana Cultivation Technique.
Immediately after, he dismissed them.
As Jon and Melody were returning home, someone blocked their path.
"What do you want, Nathan?" Jon frowned, looking at the young man blocking their way in displeasure.
"There's nothing I want from you," Nathan replied. Pointing at Melody, he added, "I came looking for this young lady here."
Melody was a bit taken aback as she had never had any sort of interaction with Nathan.
Furthermore, she didn't like him one bit. She even secretly hated him.
In her heart, anyone who dares cause trouble for her young master was a person worthy of her disdain!
"Whatever you want to say, make it quick," Melody said in an annoyed tone.
Unaware he was already deemed unlikeable and hateable, he looked at Melody sincerely and proposed, "That's good. I don't like beating around the bush so I will cut to the chase. We are both geniuses others can only look up to. At least among the third generation descendants of the Mountain Clan and their retainers, there's no one who can achieve as much as we can. I think we will make a perfect pair if we got together. What do you think?"
Nathan didn't know Melody had already given her heart and body to Jon. Even if he knew, he would've still proposed to her despite feeling like he would die of anger.
There was quite a simple reason behind it.
Now that the clan knew Melody could be cultivated into a Supreme Battle Master, they would not hesitate to invest in her and deepen her loyalty to the clan.
It had happened before. In the past, another lowly thing had somehow made its way into the Awakening Trial and earned recognition for their supreme potential.
From historical records, he knew that person had ended up becoming the Grand Protector of the clan two hundred years ago.
Considering how similar Melody's situation was to that person's, unless she was assassinated in her youth, she would become a Supreme Battle Master by her thirties.
Owning her in the present was no different than investing in a future where he would have a powerhouse as strong as the clan patriarch under his control.
That was no doubt the only reason he had come to propose to her.
Honestly, if Melody didn't have the potential to reach the Supreme Battle Master stage, he would have disdained her too much to even interact with her.
He was a descendant of the Mountain Clan. A slave was not worthy of his attention!