Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn swung his sword, attempting to identify that elusive feeling his father talked about. Refix had warned him that it had taken him years of training and additional inspiration when instructing Reivyn to gain the Weapons Master Skill to finally figure it out. There was a major difference between him and his father, though. Reivyn had already seen his father use the Transcendent ability, and Refix had been operating blindly. With a mentor to guide him, Reivyn was confident it wouldn't take years to reach Level 101 in Weapons Master.

Reivyn's actions were rote, and he let his mind wander. He wasn't being lax with his concentration on his sword swings, however. It was deliberate. Refix had mentioned that it may be a subconscious awakening, so Reivyn alternated between intense concentration on even the most miniscule muscle movement and letting his body just do it's thing without supervision.

This training session was the latter.

Many things that he thought he had figured out but wasn't a hundred percent certain of finally made sense. Pieces of the puzzle that made up his life were falling into place. Some of the interactions with others that he had thought he had figured out turned out to be a bit different than he had expected. He had assumed it was his Abyss Affinity that Galwit had picked up on, but thinking about their conversation and what his father had told him made him realize the truth.

Reivyn thought back to the conversation about his Bloodline that he had with his father.

"Our lineage, both your mother's and mine, are ancient," Refix said. "We can trace them back hundreds of thousands of years. That might seem like a huge span of time to us, considering we're so young, but when you take into account the lifespan of Tier 6, 7, even 8 individuals, it's not as many generations as you might think."

"We have Tier 8 ancestors?" Reivyn asked in surprise.

"Many of them, though not for a long time," Refix nodded his head.

"But wait, that shouldn't affect our Bloodline unless they were already Tier 8 when they had their children."

"Yes, that's true, but we know for a fact that the founding ancestor of the Vynn line was Tier 8 before he had any children. My side of the family assumes our founding ancestor was the same, but we're not entirely sure. Most of the specifics of our history were deliberately lost over time, and after discovering some truths along your mother's and my journey, I understand why."

"How does one deliberately lose history?" Reivyn asked.

"They didn't write it down, and they didn't pass it on word of mouth," Refix shrugged. "That's not important. Don't focus on the wrong part of the story."

"Sorry," Reivyn sheepishly replied.

"Anyway, my ancestors and your mother's ancestors stood on opposite sides of a grand conflict hundreds of thousands of years ago. Nobody knows the reasons for the conflict or who the other side was. All we know is that they were driven off and they abandoned my ancestors. It's not clear if my ancestors had already switched sides or if they surrendered out of necessity, but they ended up swearing allegiance to the Vynn family.

"You might think that our families have been intermarried ever since. Marriage is a useful tool for clans and nobility to garner support and loyalty. That isn't the case. My family had capitulated, and they were seen as mere servants. This part of history wasn't nearly as important to the Vynn family as it is to mine, so they didn't keep detailed records of our circumstances. It eventually just became something taken for granted until another one of my ancestors was eventually elevated to nobility through meritorious deeds.

"That happened about 15,000 years ago, and we've been working on elevating our status slowly over time ever since. We eventually became one of the most trusted branches of nobility in the Vynndin Empire, reaching the rank of Marquis. That's the highest rank nobility could achieve without blood ties to the imperial family. For whatever reason, our families still never intermarried.

"There has been no union between our families until your mother and I, and that wouldn't have happened without the tragedy that struck. I was a ceremonial bodyguard to your mother, and one of the purposes was for us to interact and see if there was a rapport that could be nurtured, but there was nothing that really brought us together before we fled for our lives.

"I'll be honest, and I'll throttle your neck if you ever betray me in this, but your mother was a bit of a spoiled brat."

Reivyn's eyes widened. He sat back, pursed his lips, and mimed sealing them shut with his fingers.

"Your secret opinion of mom is safe with me," he said.

Refix smacked him in the shoulder. They both chuckled after a moment.

"Wait... that reminds me of something," Reivyn said, tapping his chin in thought. "The Masked Man said that he was responsible for everything I had accomplished. I had dismissed what he said as trying to get into my head, but what if that's what he meant?"

"Hmm? What if what was what he meant?" Refix was confused.

"He claimed he orchestrated the Dungeon Breaks, which led to you and mom getting together, which led to me being born. Maybe he was saying that without him, I wouldn't even exist, and thus, he was responsible for everything I accomplished. The way he spoke was... weird to say the least. He sounded like a narcissist."

"Yeah, I can kind of follow that logic. It's definitely the thinking of a narcissist, though, for sure."

"Anyway, continue," Reivyn waved his arms at his father.

"Yes, well, it's a decent segue, anyway," Refix cleared his throat. "So, to understand the full picture, it needs to be said that not everyone in ancient times capitulated to the Vynns. There were other families and even branch families that didn't agree. They scattered to the wind, seeking survival on their own. One of the main driving factors for the split was refusing to lose our heritage. My ancestors decided to throw in completely and forget our past. The others weren't willing to do that.

"So, the Masked Man appears, as we know now, and caused the Dungeons that were usually the lifeblood of the Imperial Capital to Break and turn into its doom. The perpetrator left some clues behind, and that's how we discovered his existence and started chasing him.

"Now, I've never told your mother this, but the clues he left behind were related to the branch families that splintered off from mine all those years ago. I told your mother that I dispatched some subordinates to research their origins, but I knew what they were from the beginning. Your mother had a burning desire for revenge and closure, and I felt the weight of responsibility. It was possible that a distant relative of ours had destroyed the Vynn Imperial Capital and their family."

"You sure have kept a lot of secrets from mom," Reivyn snorted.

"You have to understand. Your mother and I weren't together in those days, and those facts were mostly immaterial. Why would I reveal something to her that truly had no bearing on us, but could sow the seeds of doubt in her mind anyway? It was better to keep the truth hidden. Now it's been so long, there's no reason to bring it up again."

"I was just teasing you, dad," Reivyn said with a smile. "I agree. It would have just complicated matters if you had said, 'this might have been caused by one of my ten-thousandths cousins.' You said the splinter happened hundreds of thousands of years ago. There's no relationship remaining."

"Glad you see it that way, and it's the truth. Anyway, the clues had been set, but they weren't like a trail or anything we could follow. For that I had to use my knowledge of my family's past to find other clues left by those that had left pointing to where they had gone."

"There were clues to where they had gone that lasted hundreds of thousands of years?" Reivyn was skeptical.

"You'd be surprised. They were bread crumbs deliberately left and preserved with magic. They left them in the hopes of one of us seeking them out and joining them, though I imagine their existence was forgotten over time. The only reason I discovered them was because I had some records and knowledge and I was deliberately seeking them out personally and with our subordinates' help.

"We followed the trail over the years. Often times we would lose it and have to spend a year or more looking for the next thread, but it eventually led us to Garoq. We didn't arrive in Haluville out of chance."

Reivyn's eyes opened wide in realization.

"The Dungeon in the mountains and the cult," he said. "Are you saying the Abyssal Cult is our distant branch that splintered in the past?"

"No, the royal family of Eldiar are the descendants of the branch family," Refix denied. "Putting together what we discovered with what I knew, the cult was likely descended from an extremist faction that left with the branch family. Finding out the Abyssal connection from the royal family of Eldiar and the cult finally revealed the truth of our heritage and why it was deliberately lost.

"My ancestors were from the Abyss Realm, and they fought against the Vynns in a Realm invasion. For whatever reason, they were left behind in a Realm they weren't compatible with, and they chose to surrender and fully integrate into this Realm. The branch family didn't want to lose their ties to their home Realm, so they left, but they didn't have the backing of a powerful imperial family. They would have been pushed out of the better Regions wherever they went, and they eventually declined to where they're now the lords of a Tier 2 Region."

"That makes what Galwit said to me make more sense," Reivyn admitted. "He mentioned he noticed a Bloodline resonance, and I just assumed it was my Affinity. But why would there be a Bloodline resonance after so many years?"

"So, you know the basics of how Bloodlines work, but there are other unusual factors that can affect them, as well. For instance, we believe you are an atavism because of the combination of two powerful Bloodlines. Over the years, our Bloodlines have diminished for various reasons. One of the main reasons is having children before reaching a sufficiently high Tier, something that happens all too often to many families, even in their prime.

"I was Tier 5 and your mother was Tier 4 when we had you. That's the minimum threshold for maintaining the strength of a present Bloodline, but it's not a guarantee. Me being Tier 5 - I think, I don't know for sure - was probably the minimum for the chance at atavism. Basically, because we were strong enough and we had strong, ancient Bloodlines originating from Tier 8 ancestors, you won the lottery and returned to your roots.

"But it's even more than that. Tier 8 Bloodlines have a maximum of 90 thresholds, and you have 100. The combination of two Tier 8 Bloodlines from two separate Realms joining together must have boosted you to exceed the previously believed maximum. I can confidently say that you're the only person in the entire Realm with a 100 threshold Bloodline."

"What about Kailey and Riley?" Reivyn pointed out his two sisters.

"We've helped them unlock their Bloodlines, and they're not atavisms. Their Bloodline is only 50 thresholds. Still more than your mother and I, but not the apex."

"How many thresholds do you and mom have in your Bloodlines?"

"Forty, but we've also unlocked Level 2 of our Bloodlines. There's a third Level, but we don't know of anyone who's ever unlocked it. The treasures required to unlock Level 2 of our Bloodline included Tier 6 materials, already. Unlocking Level 3 might require Divine treasures for all we know. You have another advantage with your ability to siphon Experience towards your Bloodline, but I imagine the requirement will be prohibitive to say the least."

"That's for sure," Reivyn said bitterly. "Level 2 says it needs ten billion Experience. That's enough to get me through most of Tier 8!"

"And you have a higher requirement for your Bloodline than we do. If you didn't have access to an Experience siphon, you would probably need Tier 8 materials. I bet the rewards for Leveling up your Bloodline will be immense, though. You'll get it one day."

"Yeah, one day."

"Speaking of atavism, I suspect Vyria is also an atavism," Refix said. "She's mid Tier 4, and her Sword Soul that Xudrid mentioned isn't enough to account for her Stats. Her soul strength would only affect her Skills, but she's got some monstrous Stats. I didn't have to seal nearly as much of my Stats when fighting against her as I did you. You should definitely continue to nurture a relationship with them. It would help a lot to have friends in high places when you go to explore the higher Tier Regions in the future."

"That's not the only reason I would befriend them, dad," Reivyn rebuked.

"Do I look like that kind of person?!" Refix was taken aback at the accusation in Reivyn's voice. "I'm just being pragmatic and reminding you not to get so caught up in this war and your own training that you forget about them."

"Right. Sorry."

"No problem. Speaking of training," Refix rubbed his hands together with a gleam in his eye.

Reivyn came back to the present, swinging his sword. He had allowed himself to get so caught up in his memory that he had completely zoned out. There wasn't a miracle, though. His sword slashes were still just regular slashes. He still had a long way to go until he breached Transcendence, though his bonus from the Legendary Feat would help out.

He continued to swing his sword as he let his mind wander once again. The mention of Vyria's Sword Soul affecting only her Skills as well as the revelations about his Bloodline and ancient ancestors led him to ponder about his interaction with the Masked Man some more.

The more Reivyn thought about it, the more Reivyn realized the man had been putting on a facade. He acted as if he was playing a villainous character. He rambled on about how he was responsible for Reivyn's accomplishments and how he was going to be a hero to his people. He had grand plans for consuming the essence of their Realm, and he said he was only allowing Reivyn to live and grow so he would be a whetstone to his generals.

Then he went and gave him a huge gift of natural treasures that balanced his soul under the guise of punishing him for disrespect.

None of it made sense, especially with the revelation of the existence of Sects and a Tier 6 empire. The Masked Man, if he was as powerful as he seemed and claimed, would absolutely know about the stronger people who existed in the Realm. Why would he need to nurture some kid in a Tier 1 Region into a whetstone when better, easier options already existed?

And the things he said hinted that Reivyn's existence had been deliberate. The man knew about Refix's ancient history, maybe even better than Refix did at the time. He knew where to find the cultists that had ancient ties to his ancestors, and he spoke of influencing fate, directly and indirectly.

There was still a lot of missing context for Reivyn to fully understand what was going on, but he realized that it was much more complicated than he had initially assumed. He couldn't for the life of him think of a possible reason the man would have orchestrated things to bring about his birth if that had been one of the man's goals.

Hmph, I might be falling into a bit of narcissism, myself, Reivyn snorted. Everyone's the main character of their own story. I might be inflating my own importance simply because I'm me. I might have just been a happy accident, tangential to that guy's plans, for all I know.

---

Reivyn peered down at the Conscripts busy at their training. Prince Allik had been receptive to his suggestion, and he had sent proper instructors over to supervise the youngsters. Now, with proper military orders, even those that had been reluctant to join in previously were busy with drills.

Reivyn often found himself wandering up to the wall to watch the Conscripts when he had a free moment. Watching them brought him back to his earlier days in Magron, and he reminisced about his time with his friends.

I wonder what Knight-Captain Reifold and Knight-Lieutenant Brand are up to these days, Reivyn idly wondered. I hope these conflicts don't reach them. Tier 1 Regions are not prepared for a conflict like this. These Tier 4 empires aren't ready, much less the lower-Tier population in the subordinate kingdoms.

Thinking of them, I wonder if Josn will get recruited to one of these war-zones. The Church of Light isn't the only church in the Realm, but they do span multiple local groups as far as I know. I don't know what sort of stance they'll take, or if the invaders will mess with the various churches or not, but if they are dragged into the conflict, he has proven to be a competent battle commander. Maybe I'll run into him again some day.

There's very little chance I'll ever see Melissa or Larissa again. They were talented, but from what my parents said, it wasn't enough to keep up and make it all the way to the Tier 4 Academy. They'll be focused on bringing their family up with them to the Tier 3 Region, surpassing the main family their branch is from one day.

Lin and Ren are likewise are unlikely to ever meet up with me again. I could care less about Ren, but Lin wasn't so bad. Maybe a bit aggressive, but that's fine.

I hope I don't run into any of them in a future war-zone, other than Josn, as that would mean something catastrophic happened. Even if they don't get displaced from Garoq by an invading force of their own, if they're called up to fight somewhere, then things have really gone bad.

Like with Will and Simmon, Reivyn understood that he wouldn't be friends with everyone forever. The memories evoked from watching the Conscripts drill brought a lot of his past relationships to mind, but he understood that they were from different worlds, now. Not every friend or acquaintance was meant to be kept forever, and that wasn't a bad thing. Everyone had their own lives to live.

Teilon and Kimberly were a bit different. They had been taken under the wing of his parents, and they had apparently stepped up to the challenge and performed above expectation. Reivyn was eagerly awaiting the day he would reunite with his two oldest friends. He didn't know if they would be interested in joining him in the mercenary company, but if they weren't, they could probably lead part of the training division.

Running Dungeons was one of the main ways to improve stagnate Skills and gain quick Levels. He would need to set something up for his own people. The groundwork had already been laid with the agreement for access granted by Kefira's dad, but he would need to set up the logistics for it, too. From what Refix said, Teilon and Kimberly were quite experienced when it came to Dungeon delving, now.

His mercenaries were made up of Adventurers with their own Dungeon delving experience, so they wouldn't need to be held by the hand. They would still need oversight and leadership, though, and his current officers already had enough responsibilities.

The more he thought about it, the more he like the direction his mind was going with it. He would have to get their opinion, of course, but from what he could remember, they weren't super into the military lifestyle despite their time as Conscripts themselves.

Reivyn found himself smiling as he watched the Conscripts drill below. Maybe he would send some of his own people over to give them some instruction on small-unit tactics. Even though he wasn't directly involved, he was beginning to better understand his father's feelings about recruiting people and helping them develop themselves. It was quite rewarding to see others strive for and reach their potential.