Chapter 2: Weak
After he helped his parents around the farm Pride would go to that hill to train himself. The area at the hill was spacious and had a nice view. He could see a mountain range far to the West, past Shierna's borders. The villagers didn't really come there expect to sometimes chop wood or collect berries from the nearby forest. Sometimes he would see the village chief's granddaughter, the only other child around his age. She had red hair, freckles and a nice smile, making her a very cute child. He would wave at her and she would wave back. They never talked though. It seemed she liked some berries in this area and that was the reason she came so often. Since she was busy Pride thought it best not to disrupt her. Besides it's not like he was just playing like everyone thought. He took this training seriously, even though he couldn't remember ever training a day in his life.
He carved the stick into a shabby wooden sword and chopped some logs with an axe. He have made an improvised training ground by himself with a dummy to practice his swings on, made of wood and a sack of dried up grass with a broken bucket for a head. He also hanged small logs with ropes around tree branches to practice parrying and dodging blows from random directions, while moving around the tree.
'This isn't really working...'
He was dissatisfied.
'My instincts and battle sence are still there. The thing I am lacking most is power.'
He wasn't even ten years old yet. Of course he would be dissatisfied with his current physical strength. With that in mind he started to think that all of his efforts until now were pointless.
'Dodging, parrying and hitting. I don't know if practicing these will actually make me any stronger...'
His inexperience showed. He never had to train a day in his life. At least as far as he could remember. The drills he made the Demon Lord's army do, were mostly sparring and mock battles.
"Hmmmm..."
He pushed his brain to think what he was lacking. 'How do weaklings become stronger...?' he thought and an image flashed in his mind.
It was an image of a young human hero he fought in the past. Although he was much weaker than Pride and other heroes that came after him, he managed to hold against him for a long time. He remember how pissed he was at the time. The young hero couldn't match him in strength but he was able to avoid Pride's blade, moving around while muttering something to himself.
"In other words, he was using Skills."
Magic power resided in every living creature, with the exception of dwarves who are said to be cursed by some God. With that magic power, everyone can use many different Skills, enhancing their strength, making their weapons sharper and the like. Those with abnormally strong magic power, affinity towards the elements and a great volume of magic power - otherwise known as mana - could become Mages and could learn Spells. Skills were very important and kept a secret among fighters although some did pass their skills to their decedants. To learn a skill you had to join a guild. There are many different guilds, such as the Rangers guild specialized in bow and arrow and stealth Skills, the Swordsmen guild which specialized in sword and strength skills as well as the lesser known Defenders guild which specialized in a fighting style with heavy shields. Unfortunately to join those guilds and to hire a master to teach you a skill you needed money. Some people liked to mix around their skills, joining different guilds to learn different skills. These people of course were rich. There were also unique ones that the users constructed themselves but most of them were either weak or variations of existing Skills. Rather than waste time making a skill that could be a complete failure or even unusable, it was better to join a guild. It was not a sum of money only the rich afforded.
Pride looked at his shirt for a moment. He only had two sets of clothes that his mother made for him. They were already worn out with ripped parts stitched together everywhere. He was also begging to outgrow his clothes.
'As if I can ask for that kind of money...' he thought with a smile. The sum wasn't much indeed, but the Raigon family were very poor. His father explained that he fell in love with his mother and his parents disapproved. Pride's father became furious when his family insulted his soon to be wife and left home without receiving anything from them. Since Pride's mother was an orphan, they had to rely on themselves to make do with what little they had, which led them to this village. 'Also even if I could find the funds, there is no way any guild would take a child seriously even if I showed them the money. My only choice is...'
He stood straight and took a deep breath.
"Hell's Path: Pride!" Pride shouted and took his chance. He was trying his hardest to envelope himself with his magic power, his fist shaking from clutching with all his strength and his teeth gritting with an unpleasant sound. Then...
"What the hell...? This is..." a white mist like power was enveloping him. Pride was astonished at the results.
"WEAK!!" he yelled. "What the hell is this? It has no weight. It's almost like air. I used all my mana and I can only barely move my fingers."
His magic power was not strong enough to use this skill and force his body to move with it alone. The strongest someone's magic power, the stronger the Skills he could. Mana could increase with training, but the strength of magic power was determined the moment you were born. There was nothing he could do to overcome this obstacle. Demons were born with both strong magic power and a significant amount of mana, making them strong mages, but humans...
Pride released his magic power and was suddenly sweating and panting loudly. It felt as if he was about to fall. And he did. After using the Skill all his magic power disappeared from his body and the process of regenerating his mana back from zero, took all his stamina in an instant. He needed more training to overcome this, but for now he had bigger problems.
'Should I try my other skills after I recover?' he thought. He was light headed and wheezing but this failure didn't let him feeling down.
The reason was simple. Even if he did succeed in using this skill, it was too dangerous. This skill literally teared his flesh and broke his bones to achieve strength and speed beyond his limits. Never mind the fact that he was just a frail young human, a broken bone could prove fatal to him if he couldn't keep the Skill activated. Especially without a Shaman or a Cleric around to heal him. His failure didn't keep him down but the fact that his magic power was so weak compare to before was a shock. But it wasn't weak in human standards. Demons were just that much stronger in comparison.
'From the skills that I know, one that doesn't need much mana and can be used even with weak magic power...'
Pride racked his brain.
"..."
"..."
"None!" he said with blank eyes.
Pride stared at the sky. He could see the clouds floating in the sky. The Sun was about to go down, dying the sky in a beautiful crimson.
"..."
'Now that I think about it...' He said with a hand to his chin, deep in thought.
'The village chief's daughter is kind of cute... She is a bit older than me but I am sure she is going to be a beaty when she grows up...'
"Hmmm"
"..."
'Should I just marry her and take over father's farm?'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone