Chapter 7: Goal
After Martos left, Baines set his long-planned strategy into motion.
First, he dispelled all the Ashenfall energy he had gathered in his body.
And as expected, it didn’t lower his swordsmanship rank. To track his progress, he instructed Eye to record his current state:
[SWORD RANKING: SWORD KNIGHT]
[HEART CORE: ASHEN-ORIGIN: 0-STAR]
[MIDDLE CORE: ORIGIN ARTS CULTIVATION: 4TH STAR, AURA KNIGHT]
In the power scale, there is a different level for skills and aura. The skill ranking represented how far and deep one had gone in their techniques and skill, and for aura, it represented how much energy one had gathered.
For example, a sword master who lost their arm can no longer perform their skills however, their aura remains. Likewise, if a sword master loses their aura, their skill could remain. But they needed each other to be complete.
He named his technique Ashen-Origin because he was using Origin Arts to absorb the natural energy called Ashenfall.
Now, he was going to use Ashen-Origin on his heart. Maybe the sad part was that he couldn’t track his progress because he couldn’t even use the first technique of Ashen fall until he reached Sword Master and attained five stars in Aura.
Baines then laid out everything he had gathered from his family’s underground treasure. He extended his hand, summoning a dark red blade from his wrist that extended over his clenched fist. Releasing it, he summoned it to his other arm.