Ren spent weeks practicing the stances, and his manipulation as he had expected became stable, he had even grown far enough that he could fire up his aura without taking a stance. Shen, Ryuk and Gan had just been positions that worked up and awakened dormant mana vessels, and once they were utilized well enough, the stances became obsolete. Over this period of incessant training, Ren crossed over to the next step, body reinforcement.
Mana could be used to reinforce the body, making it stronger and tougher, improving physical abilities, however, over the course of weeks, Ren had only managed to be able to reinforce his parts body to increase their durability and pain tolerance, any attempt to boost his physical prowess always resulted in mana projection and waste. Maintaining a vibrant enveloping aura led to so much waste that he would be exhausted in about five minutes. With attempting to reinforce a particular part of his body, mana simply erupted from said focused part, and he's left drained. Clearly, there was still much work to be done.
Ren had just finished his morning practice, and had downed a cup of milk when he spotted Eldrad, ascending towards his place. He hurried to meet the old man, and as he did, he noticed someone by him, a young man, one that was no older than eighteen, a face Ren had not seen before. Aside from his bright youthful face, the other thing that stood out the most about him were the fine clothes he wore. Ren instantly knew that this other person was not like the others, he was different just like how Erigald was.
"Daysdawn," Ren exchanged greetings with the chief.
"Ren, meet Gudion, son of Semael and Desmet." He leaned forward as if he intended to whisper a secret to Ren, but he retained his volume, "He's a knight, and he's visiting."
"Daysdawn," Ren uttered to the young man, nodding to him.
A knight was interesting, but not interesting enough to warrant his attention.
"He brings items from the capital and all various places in the kingdom and sells them to us."
'Ahah! So that's why he brought him here.
"You mentioned that you wanted a dog some time we spoke. Well, he has brought a variety."
"You should come see them." The young knight spoke.
Ren simply wore an undershirt, and a pair of old trousers of wool, no more dressing ostentatiously, and though he knew the people would not mind anymore now that he's friends with them, the idea that he would look so much better than them made him greatly uncomfortable. Even such basic clothing denigrated the outfits of the others.
The three walked down, chatting with Ren, and asking a couple of questions about knighthood. Ren suddenly brought up the time that he spotted many men of the village sparring with wooden sticks in the advent that they recruited when the knights passed, but that never happened. The knights had meant to pass and shortly sojourn at Tunish, but skirmish at another end of the border prompted them to change direction, and the eager men were left disappointed.
Gudion chuckled when Ren brought it up, confirming that it was quite a customary thing and that was exactly how he got recruited.
The children flocked to the group as they approached the village, which was no surprise as they were the current most interesting people.
"Beast slayer! Beast slayer! Beast slayer!" Ren heard the children cry, and he looked on to this Gudion fellow thinking that he was some big shot, only to realize that they were calling him that name. He had slayed the dreaded devil pig, and he had been dubbed that name.
A scolding from Tuarine had them quickly dissipate.
"You should go easy on them." Ren commented. Sometimes, he forgot just how impressive Tuarine was, she was a master at Junjun, learning the nation's martial arts as a child, and winning gold for the nation's junior category twice, earning silver five times,and gold once in the women's category, besides the current woman's champion, she was the strongest woman's Junjun martial artist. She was a woman that would totally crush him.
She clicked her tongue in annoyance and turned away, leaving the group. With how impressive everyone said she was, Ren was certain that she should be able to live fine and well in the cities, athletes back on earth were usually paid well, and he hoped the world Enesh was the same, regardless, even the capital would pose no challenge for her should she move, but instead, she chose to remain in boring backwater Tunish.
He had come to appreciate the large village, but the only reason he still remained was because of his farm and house, and besides, he had not gotten a grasp of Eldrad's geography, he did not even know the closest community to the village save that Tunish bordered a hostile nation, and despite so, was terribly unshielded. The people would not stand a chance should an army approach.
They got to Gudion's home, and just beyond his wooden fence were a few wooden cages. Gudion's home was a notch better than the other homes in the village, his was a noble house compared to the others, and that was no more than because he was a knight. Knighthood was a certain path out of peasantry, and it was no wonder that the peasants desired to be knights, little did they know that it took more than swinging swords to be one.
"Ma, Pa, I am back."
"Semael and Desmet." Eldrad uttered once the door came open to reveal them. They were old, as old as Eldrad was, at least they looked that way.
"Son, Eldrad, and…" Desmet spoke, squinting her eyes at Ren, she suddenly gasped. "Is he the newcomer I hear so much about? The great beast slayer?"
The two barely got out of their homes but since they were oldies needing assistance, their place was a prime destination for caring children, and children knew well how to tell stories.
Ren chuckled, "That's just what the kids call me."
Ren and Gudion left Eldrad to his elderly discussion with his friends to check the dogs that were available.
"Dogs are not as common as you may think, they are not rare either but usually mostly knights and Nobles own them."
"I see five cages, two are empty. Who purchased the two that are not here?"
Gudion smiled, "Erigald, who else could purchase a dog not to mention two? Eldrad made me know that only you could afford a dog aside from him, and that you wanted one. Let's get to business, one for a silver and two copper coins. Two for two silver coins. A good bargain if you ask me."