First Steps

"Ngaaa!"

"Wraaah!"

"Ya!"

Thomas was resting one of the hands on his chin, as he sipped his beverage, watching the young boy trying to make something of his new present.

"You do know you don't need to shout those words every time you swing it, right?"

"Shut up, old man. It's unavoidable! I think I'm almost getting it!"

"Oh?"

"Wraa! You don't sound convinced…"

"To be fair I haven't seen a trace of my unique skill until my bind sword was level 10 or so… Of course, it could be different for you. You do have the bloodline of a strong family, which has bound great weapons for generations, after all."

Josiah was already panting, and after all, he just swung his weapon repeatedly. His blood didn't seem to hint any other interesting bound with his blood.

'That old vile bastard… 'it could be different for you', but you are not believing this at all are you?' He observed.

Josiah had a sudden idea:

"Maybe if I drip some droplets of blood on my own above it?"

"No! That's a taboo!"

"Wait, it works!?"

"You bet the heavens it works! The weapons are bound to blood after all, but doing this practice repeatedly addicts the weapon. After a while, you are not going to be able to use it properly without having to shed your own blood above it every single time."

"Mister Thomas, what schedule did you follow to master your own technique quickly?"

"Well, I never said I got it quickly. When I first received it, I kept trying to level it up the most I could. Though I was very young… Oh, not as young as you are, little master... But I was young enough to not know how to deal with creatures properly."

"I know how to deal with creatures!"

"…"

The old man stood up.

"All right. Let's try something productive then. Instead of trying to summon the good moods of your bloodbound, let's start by merely leveling it up, shall we? It shouldn't take more than a month to reach lv 2."

"THAT much!?"

"Hey young master, if leveling up was easy the levels of the soldiers overall would be far bigger… Your mother wasn't called 'The Great Mirild' for nothing, you see… Tell you what: I still have some time tonight. Let's try to look for something you can train on."

Josiah and the servant when out of their calm house in the back of the farm and ventured inside the nearby woods, where there was the hill they often went to whenever they needed to talk about their 'first son of the emperor' secret business. This time, however, they deviated from the path and Josiah followed the man past the shallow river that cut the woods. It was said there were wild creatures living past that stream.

"After this, it's a land without law. We humans set our smell here and it stays on the waters. Most creatures search for other ways around when they reach here, leaving the whole farm area untouched. It's like a natural territory distinguisher. But we are walking past it now."

'I fear nothing.' Josiah thought. 'We've fought those things before.'

It didn't take long and they started hearing a rustling sound coming from the leaves.

"Shh!"

Thomas caught a small dagger he had with him. He prepared to throw it to the enemy. Josiah touched his arm, nodding his head:

"Let me do it."

"Master?"

"We are here to train 'me', right?"

Thomas was sure he would miss, but gave in, anyway. As expected, Josiah's throw was accurate, aiming for the right spot, but it didn't take into consideration that the animal would run when the dagger was close enough, which caused the attack to miss.

The creature revealed itself: it was a brown family-sized insectoid thing resembling a mix of a cockroach and a crustacean. The head had a large pincer thing on the middle and several similar ones all around, which it probably would use to try and grab its prey.

"A quockpete! Master, retreat. Let me handle this."

"But…"

"No buts. This is out of your caliber."

"But let me try. Even if I fail, you're here to back up, right?"

Josiah pushed the old man around and withdrew his bind sword.

"Young master!" It was too late as he advanced. Thomas thought to himself:

'The stubborn boy… He may be skilled but he still acts like a four-year-old, after all. And he does it at the worst times possible.'

The quockpete didn't binge. It just followed Josiah's movements with its big round eyes, waiting for the perfect time.

Josiah kept expecting it to advance toward him, so he was visibly reluctant to start an exchange a wide swing. He kept using small feints trying to lure it as he did previously with the other monster that invaded the farm. But this one wasn't giving in.

'Screw, it. I'm just going to attack it!'

Josiah swung his weapon hard, and as soon as he undefended his body in the middle of the strike, the front pincer of the thing extended and grabbed Josiah's chest. He dropped his weapon on the floor.

"Young master!"

Thomas had to draw his own blade. The enemy, now with the little kid on its pincers, didn't have any reason to face the old man, so it started preparing to turn around to run away.

The servant swung his sword at the quockpete when he was about five feet far away. Somehow the blade managed to hurt its carapace, causing it to balance enough to almost let Josiah go.

The creature started running fast.

"Come back here!"

Thomas ran the best he could on that hilly terrain, swinging his blade from the distance. Once in a while, the big insectoid would suffer a small crack on its carapace and its movement would be compromised for a short while.

The terrain started becoming very diagonal, almost like a cliff.

'That's not good. This thing can outrun humans in this type of land.'

"Josiah!" Thomas shouted.

"I know…" He answered. Josiah was partially immobile as he was being carried by the pincer, but he could still sway his body in order to make it harder for the enemy to move.

He waited for the terrain to become abruptly steep then moved his body the most he could. The thing trajectory became unstable and then Thomas delivered a strong blow on his own.

Josiah was dropped, rolling on the floor down the cliff. The enemy also got its body turned around and started being dragged down as well.

Josiah managed to embrace himself in some twigs that were popping out the floor, and Thomas slid down catching the thing with his hands.

"What!? Old man, I'm dying here and you are saving the thing instead!?"

To be fair even if the cliff was steep enough to be hard to walk on, it's not like falling from it would be a straight fall, so Josiah was exaggerating a little.

"Young master, get up. We are going back." Thomas was visibly irritated.

The short hunt ended right after. The servant started going back to the farm, carrying the monster in its hands. When it was being held immobilized upside down and out of the floor it was almost harmless.

"I told you 'not' to try it, young master…"

"Haha. But we did it."

"I did it. Had you obeyed me you could have tried and strengthened your weapon on an enemy up to your expertise."

Josiah couldn't think of a proper reply.

"Hey, Thomas… The way you cut through its carapace by distance… Is that an uniqueness of your sword?"

"Something on that line, yes."

'He really doesn't like talking about it heh?' Josiah pouted.

"Young master… Let this never repeat again. From now on we are going to train and level up your sword. We are also going to work better on your tactics, but we are going to do it my way: after work... With me supervising... And with you listening to what I have to say, understand? Otherwise, we are not going to reach anywhere."

"Uh… Sure…"

"Not like that, young master. I need to hear more sincere compliance. Promise me you are not going to do that again. That you are only going to train under my eyes and not try to act on your own."

Josiah stopped and put on a decisive face:

"All right, old man. I promise. I am not going to try to defeat beasts on my own!"