Starting With an SSS-Rank Swordsmanship Talent

In Zurcath, Lucas was overseeing the reconstruction of the damaged buildings when a subordinate came to him with a letter.

“My lord, we received a letter from Midgard. His Highness sent it.”

Hearing this, Lucas stopped what he was doing and took the letter. He wondered what his son had written for him.

With an expectant gaze, he removed the seal and quickly read the message.

The first line was just the usual greeting so he didn’t have much of a reaction, but upon reading the second paragraph, his eyes suddenly widened.

What?! There’s no way this is true!

He was in disbelief.

In his letter, Alaric wrote that he had advanced and stepped into the realm of Venerables. He even boasted about mastering a second domain.

Lucas’s first thought was that Alaric was messing with him, but there was this anticipation in his heart, hoping that it was real.

“Bring Sherwin here,” Lucas instructed the messenger.

“Right away, my lord!”

While he was waiting for Sherwin, Lucas fell into deep thought. The most update n0vels are published on novel✶fire.net

Alaric is definitely strong compared to other Transcendent Knights, but he had only advanced to that realm several months ago. It then occurred to him.

From what I remember, Alaric has already mastered the ice domain. His advancement might not be fake news after all. He let out a smile.

A quarter of an hour later, Sherwin finally arrived. “My lord, do you have any instructions for me?”

Looking at the old Transcendent Knight, Lucas nodded. “Yes. I want you to confirm something for me. You will understand if you read this.”

He didn’t bother to explain and just handed him the letter he received from Alaric.

Confused, Sherwin took the letter and carefully read the message.

A moment later, he showed the same reaction that Lucas had earlier.

“This…”

Lucas smiled wryly while shaking his head. “I’m not even sure if this is true so I want you to head there and confirm it with your own eyes.”

Sherwin was quick to regain composure. He nodded to acknowledge the command. “Your subordinate understands.”

“Good. You may go.” Lucas waved his hand.

“You can bring a few people with you, but don’t bring more than ten people.” He added.

The fewer people he brought, the faster the journey would be.

Sherwin understood his intentions. “I will select our fastest riders to follow me. You can rest assured, my lord. We will bring you the information in less than ten days.”

“Alright. I will leave it to you.”

…

Other than Lucas, Leighnard, Giovanni, and even the emperor received the same message.

Just like Lucas, Giovanni couldn’t believe it either. He thought that Alaric was intentionally messing with him in his boredom.

On the other hand, the crown prince and the emperor thought differently. The crown prince found it surprising, but he believed the content of the message to be true. Meanwhile, the emperor seemed to have expected it. He just chuckled in amusement when he got Alaric’s letter.

…

Another week went by in a flash. In the past seven days, Alaric’s entire focus was on searching for materials about the destruction element.

He sent Mathilda and a few others to look for books, but they weren’t able to find what he was looking for.

With no luck from the search, Alaric tried to understand the element by himself. He interacted with it every day using his mana as if to familiarize himself with it. However, it was still as stubborn as before, refusing to listen to his orders.

At this moment, Alaric was on a mountain a few miles from Midgard. He came here for the sole purpose of training his control over the new element.

His face was covered in sweat as he conjured a black void on top of his palm. It was a small, only the size of a ring, but the pressure coming from it was so intense that it caused the air to violently fluctuate.

Now, let’s summon the destruction domain…

With a grim look, Alaric lifted his left hand, while keeping his control over the black void on his right.

He injected mana into his left hand to summon a second black void.

Small, dark motes of light circled on top of his left palm and slowly formed another black void.

Alaric could feel his mana being rapidly drained.

With a snort, he pushed both palms together to merge the two black voids, but like opposing forces, the two voids seemed to reject each other.

Sweat trickled down Alaric’s face. He could feel a burning pain in his palms, as if he were directly holding the sun.

The pain was unbearable, but he pushed through with gritted teeth.

In the next moment, the two voids finally merged and multiplied in size.

Alaric’s surroundings reacted with the black void. Small rifts started to appear around him, with each rift seemingly giving one a look at the boundless universe.

With a twist of his fingers, Alaric controlled these rifts.

When the nearby trees touched the rifts, they were quickly torn into shreds!

Seeing that he had destroyed the greenery, Alaric immediately retracted the domain.

He had only unleashed the destruction domain for a few seconds, but it had destroyed a huge portion of the nearby trees.

So powerful!

The only problem is that it consumes a huge chunk of my mana every second. With my current mana pool, I think I can control the destruction domain for about a minute. He could only use it for a limited time, but with the level of destruction it could bring, he believed that he could kill an army composed of one hundred thousand soldiers in just half a minute.

I wonder how effective this domain will be against other Venerables. He beamed, unable to contain his excitement.

Suddenly, he felt a familiar presence approaching from a distance.

He turned his head and saw Galanar rushing towards him on his horse.

Alaric furrowed his eyebrows and mumbled to himself. “Did something happen while I was gone?”