Hiro left Aleus in an enthusiastic but somber mood, the latter had new knowledge. To understand it, practice was necessary. Eager to practice Aleus was, but he did not have the time.

  Hiro travelled through one of the garden's many rock paved paths, his destination, the palace training quarters. He had nothing in particular to do at the moment. So he took the chance and started to deliberate over Aleus's offer, of being taught to manipulate life force. Of course he had agreed but he had some misgivings.

  (Learning to use life force, I'm still a bit reluctant since I haven't fully grasped my new abilities, Spiriton included. But this could actually be a great advantage in future battle, there's limited aspects I can draw power from.

  Right now I'm only using two of four at their max, my physical body and will. Meaning two mostly untouched, which after adding results in a direct increase in power.)

  Hiro had this thought before finally dismissing his hesitation, as someone from a World where stepping into multiple fields or paths was detrimental this was quite the decision. However he was not without hope, this detrimental effect was only something experienced by those still starting out.

  Was he, Hiro, such a person? He wasn't sure, Hiro was someone at the peak of his former World but he was now confident to say he wasn't at the absolute peak of swordsmanship. So the question remained, had he mastered this path enough to try and be a jack of all trades while not restricting his future growth.

  (This isn't something I can know for certain, but B One should. Fortunately this is something I can ask without consequence.)

  Hiro pondered while he finally asked.

  "Is my rank high enough to seriously develop other paths without consequence?"

  "Not really, but there won't be any of the kind you are worried about. At most, you'll only become slower at advancing and mastering your swordsmanship ranks."

  B One explained plainly, Hiro's eyes brightened as he released a sigh of relief. Now he could start on any path without a worry, it was definitely something to wary of.

  Although having multiple paths as a starting point was advantageous, it held little future potential and a person would at most reach grandmaster rank of everything before being unable to advance anymore.

  Hiro's steps began to move with greater momentum than before, soon he could see the training quarters at the end of his path.

  "Sir Hiro welcome, how can we be of service."

  Asked one of two attendants by the entrance, upon his arrival at the training quarters, it was the same one he'd been to before with Aleus. A large hall like building, inside there were seats situation at three of the four high walls. At the center was several sparring platforms, to the side of each was an assortment of weapons and training golems.

  "Take me to a private viewing room."

  The attendant nodded in acknowledgement as he took the lead guiding Hiro up the stairs, alongside the first wall of seats. After bringing Hiro to a room, the attendant gave him a key set before informing him of a rune inside the room. The rune was used to communicate with the attendants working at training quarters without the need to travel around the place to make requests.

  Hiro thanked him for the information then watched him leave before finally unlocking the door and entered.

  "Spacious and luxurious, definitely a place nobles would use to view the training as entertainment."

  Hiro assessed after sweeping the room with his gaze, there were few sofas facing a glass wall that revealed the scenery below, depending on proximity. Before the sofas was a medium rectangular table. While other walls were well decorated with portraits, one or two weapons of exceptional design were hung on each. There was even a cabinet with gold cups and several bottles of what Hiro assumed to be wine or alcohol at least.

  Clearly this room was meant for more than one person, but Hiro did not mind or find fault with the attendant, per his words the request was fulfilled.

  "I thought I'd get a single person room or is it that there aren't any, but it doesn't matter."

  Hiro dismissed as he moved to sit down at the best seat. Epsilon was unequipped and placed against the table. Hiro then leaned forward with his hands resting on his thighs, his gaze moving towards the platforms with activity.

  The scene unfolding before his eyes was more than what mere eyes could see, with life sight, Hiro could see more than the physical, even when that supernatural aspect was within physical objects, something superior to merely seeing spirit bodies.

  On the first platform he saw a single person fighting against a golem, from the looks of it he was trying out combinations of his martial arts and a flame rune. His fists were clad in flames as he struck the golem, while at times it was his legs. And in the case where distance was physical beyond his reach, his punches would shoot out head sized flame punches.

  But this was only the physical observation, Hiro's true focus, life force, revealed a different story all together.

  He had come here to observe rune warriors sparring using their craft, by doing this he could get an idea of what to expect once he started learning under Aleus.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Sure they would not be using it the same way he intended or was limited to, but how different was it from a person wielding a weapon and a person only wielding their body. Wasn't the former simply channelling the same energy, just through an external source rather than themselves.

  "I wasn't sure before but now I am, the appearance of life force is based on the aspects that makes it up. The planet's life force is mostly vitality thus it looks like a blue light, the same is true of golems but with hints of other colors.

  While the life force of humans and similar living beings is a perfect white light when all the aspects are balanced, this hue changes slightly depending on what a person is lacking. Like this rune warrior, when he gets injured and vitality drops, the faintest green can be seen tainting the white light life force. And again, when he uses life force to power his runes another aspect is consumed, not vitality or lifespan. The former would cause an increase in the invading green while the latter would cause visible aging as it continues to decrease.

  But there's also something else happening, every time he's in close range it becomes purple but the quantity remains the same, I can only guess it's simply converting some aspects into a single aspect, of course not completely, that would cause death.

  And it's likely this aspect the rest are converted into increases physical strength, vitality perhaps? No, it would be blue.

  However the greatest discovery of all is, everything is done through thoughts."

  Hiro stated his evaluation aloud. He could tell that since it was done through thoughts observations could only reveal so much about life force manipulation, but he wasn't disappointed. He was glad in fact, this meant it was something he could learn in a short period, while being combat applicable at the basic level.

  Compared to the technique, death's door blazing strength, which wasn't thought based, in fact it wasn't combat applicable, on a case by case basis of course. This technique was the type that required activating certain pressure points, in the heat of battle who would be generous to let their opponent have this opportunity. Fortunately for Hiro, after becoming a supreme grandmaster he had complete control over his body and could activate pressure points across his body without even touching them.

  (Although my analysis doesn't show how to control one's life force, I can see it definitely is something worth investing time into and learn, even with my time constraints. And I should continue to identify what colors of life force correspond to which life aspects.)

  Hiro had long since determined that it was was an absolute necessity to learn how to control life force, but now he actually wanted to. In fact he was planning on juggling all four domains, will, physical, life and soul.

  He had one minor and one major reason for this.

  He was going to leave this World for another, who knew what the trend there was. Being versatile would definitely help with blending in. Of course his decision was based on the major reason, although he was going to Worlds he was clueless about, Hiro had his assumptions and was confident in them being fact. And these assumptions were why he didn't outright reject the idea of using life force, despite at the time not viewing it as positively as he did now.

  "B One, humour me. Perhaps my assumption is wrong so I have to ask, there isn't any quick way of growing the will, beyond what I know, is there?"

  He asked, hopeful but not expectant.

  "There are but nothing that will be useful for the power you are aiming for."

  B One replied simply, not going into details.

  Hiro's eyes dimmed, it was as he had assumed or nearly as he thought things would be.

  "There really aren't a lot of ways to grow the will.

  Mastering a path is the common way, it not only causes growth but the quality of the will improves as well. This grants abilities with respect to the path. But it's a crawl in comparison to other methods, tirelessly spending years mastering a path to increase in its rank, not to mention the limitations of talent.

  And then there's the quickest method, mimicking nature, adding life force and soul force to an already living entity, their will consequently experiences instant growth. Of course it comes at the cost of the will's quality remaining unchanged, hence no abilities are gained or improved."

  Although he only spoke of two, Hiro knew of more methods, like the one that caused his acquisition of sacrifice. But these weren't reliable and were like the former, leaning more towards improving the will's quality than quantity.

  From B One's attitude Hiro assumed these other methods he wasn't aware of also fit this bill or were accompanied with serious drawbacks.

  "You make it sound as though, you can only choose one of two. In fact they complement one another."

  Noted B One, but he said this knowing what Hiro meant.

  "True but how easy can the quickest method be to use."

  Hiro knew of this method long before he even became a sword sage. In fact back in his home World, most people of sufficient strength knew of it. But no one could make use of it, it still boiled down to the ingredients, life force was abundant while soul force was only found in some living beings.

  Even if there was a fiendish individual, hell bent on taking this shortcut to power, slaughtering all living beings to harvest souls, at best what they would end up with after collecting all the souls and combining it with life force then added the two to themselves, was a power increase equivalent to the total strength of grandmaster, will wise.

  (But now, if I follow this path laid out for me, I'll be able to gain soul force and life force that will bring my will to an unprecedented level of strength.

  But how can it be so easy to have these two ingredients in the same World, at such quantities, unrealistic. I'll probably have to travel to two more Worlds at least.)

  This was one of Hiro's assumptions, since he had to become strong there was a limited number of ways he could go about it. Increasing his physical body's strength didn't have much potential or versatility, so it had to be the will that was his focus of growth. But to increase its growth he had to increase the quantity of his life force and soul.

  There was no telling which one he would encounter first, the World abundant life force or the rare soul force. But probability spoke for itself, soul force was scarce in Worlds thus safe to reserve its plans for the future.

  But regardless of the whichever of the two was increased within himself first, it would not benefit him until both were successfully added to his own, causing his will to experience growth. Of course this was under the assumption that he couldn't use neither of the two at the time.

  (If I learn to use life force and it happens to be the first boost I get then it also means a significant increase in power before I even complete the process. Physical body, life body and will, these will be my backbone at the time which will definitely make acquiring the last, soul force, much easier.)

  Hiro gathered his thoughts, preparing for the Worlds he would travel to in the future.

  Be it life force or soul force, the quantities he was imagining weren't something one could encounter at random. Thus he assumed conflict would arise over their acquisition, and considering the significance of the power increase, then he, Hiro, would definitely be an ant among behemoths in comparison to the top competitors.

  (Fortunately I don't have to brute force my way through the obstacles.)

  He consoled himself as a cold light flashed in his eyes, hoping for ease but expecting difficulty.

  Before leaving he watched several other sparring platforms, improving his understanding of life force.