[Leonidas' point of view]

 “Rise and shine!” aunty Eliza shouted at 6 AM in the morning while standing in the door with a big toothy smile on her lips and her hands on her hips.

Both me and my sister woke up with a startle. We looked at each other with sleepy faces and then at the cause of this racket, the big muscle-head.

“It's too early in the morning!” I voiced out my complaint.

“What are you talking about, Leo? The sun is up!” she said pointing at the window, through which the first rays of light slipped inside.

“Not in this room!” I retorted and then pulled the cover over my head.

“Umu!” my sister agreed.

This pair of twins were anything but morning people. We loved to get a good nice sleep under our cozy and warm blankets. Yup! That was the law in our room! It always had been like this, and yet... for some reason known only by the gods, today was the apocalyptic day when it was ignored.

Without even a single drop of mercy, this brutish aunt of ours pulled the cozy blanket off of me, letting the mean cold air bite my little toes.

“Uguuu!” I groaned and glared at her.

She then moved over to Cassandra's bed and pulled off her blanket as well, earning her another glare.

“Get up you two! Time for training!” she told us in a loud voice before leaving our room with our blankets as innocent hostages.

The two of us weren't happy and kept glaring at the door.

“Umu! Emergency supplies!” Cassandra said and then pulled another blanket from under her bed and cuddled up in it.

I narrowed my eyes at her.

What sort of emergency were you expecting for you to need an extra blanket?! I scowled in my mind, although what I wanted to ask was if she had another one.

Then the door opened again, and our aunt called out to us “Come on, you two! We don't have all day!” she then noticed the difference between my bed and my sister's “Cassy, where did you get that blanket? Give it here and get ready! Meet me outside when you are done.” she told us and stole my sister's blanket again.

“Uguuu!” Cassandra glared cutely at our aunt, who completely ignored her.

Serves you right for not having an extra one for me too! I thought.

After aunty left our room again, I let out a sigh and I understood that going against the brute woman was going to get me nowhere. My peace and quiet as well as my treasured moment of sleep under a cozy and warm blanket were all washed away by the racket made by our loud aunt and the biting cold of a morning breeze.

With a grumble escaping our lips, we got up, we got changed and then went outside to partake in this sudden morning training session. We were bit grumpy because as I said before, we weren't of the morning type.

Despite our current abilities and rather strict training regime, we still received plenty of free time to play and act like normal children. We were also allowed to sleep for as long as we wished, therefore, it became an unspoken rule in our house not to wake us up until it went past 8 or 9. During rainy or simply clouded days, it was harder to tell when that time was.

Being so rudely woken up by our aunt was by far no fun at all, and both me and my sister had a 'I want to sleep more!' expression on our faces. I didn't know about Cassandra, but I was thinking about skipping out on this lesson if it wasn't interesting.

“Are you two ready?” aunty welcomed us with a big grin on her face.

“Blanket. Now!” Cassandra demanded while holding out her open hand.

“Young lady, if you can't even handle waking up early in the morning, what will you do when you will be inside a dungeon and will need to constantly be on your toes, ready to jump up the moment a monster got too close to your camp?” she asked raising an eyebrow at her.

And with this, she shut us up. There was no way we could give her a comeback even if we were to put both our heads together and even thought about it for a long time. Aunty was right... Here, we were safe, but out there, we didn't know what sort of monsters awaited us.

“Now! Today is very special, you know?” aunty told us.

“How so?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

True, we were woken up quite early in the morning, but I highly doubted this was the reason.

“As usual, Leonidas, always the doubtful one.” she let out a sigh and hung her head low.

“I didn't doubt anything! I just asked a normal question. It's not something to get depressed over!” I retorted.

“True! True! I misunderstood!” she got back up and showed us a bright smile.

Why do I feel like my words were for nothing? I grumbled in my mind.

“Leaving aside brother, what sort of training will this be?” Cassandra asked.

“Today, I will tell you about what Blessings are used for!” she declared as she ruffled our heads.

“Ungh! Stop that!” I complained.

To put it bluntly, we were taken by surprise by her words. Until now, this was the first time when I heard that our Blessings could have some sort of use other than a passive one better known as talent. So far, all we knew was that we had some skills the gods offered us the moment we were born and that they were meant to help us carve a path in life for ourselves. I never thought that we could 'use' these Blessings as some sort of Active Skill.

Then again, maybe I am getting a bit ahead of myself. Aunty mentioned neither an Active nor a Passive ability. I thought and then I asked her “Erm, aunty? What do you mean by 'used'?”

“It means willingly activating your Blessing and use it like a Magic Spell or Skill.” she replied.

When we heard her, we looked with big eyes at her.

“To think that I would be able to impress the both of you... Today is a happy day!” she said and wiped away an invisible tear from under her right eye.

“Blessings can be activated and used in a similar way to real skills? Why weren't we told about this before?” I asked surprised.

“I read about this in my books, but... I thought the authors were just exaggerating the importance of their Blessings?” sister asked.

“Some of them yes, but just as Leo pointed out, there are Blessings out there, especially those from the God of War, which offer an active ability besides the passive ability through which you are able to perform better in that area. In general, it depends on each individual what sort of skill you get, but at the same time, there are strict categories separating combat ones from non-combat ones.” she explained, but I could bet my desert on it that mother helped her remember this complicated explanation.

“Like the Blessing from the God of Art?” I asked.

“Correct!” she pointed at me and smiled.

“So, what Blessings does aunty have?” asked Cassandra.

Despite her being our close relative and teacher for so many years, this was something I never got to find out. The [Status Window] spell couldn't be used on anyone besides me and those in my party or who were my slaves or pets. And even then, I still wouldn't be able to see them because [Blessings] appeared in a Special Window, which only the owner could see if they cast the spell on themselves...

“I hold the [Blessing of Combat] from Kreatull, the God of War, and another one, which is of no importance.” she waved off the last one like it was nothing, but there was something that caught my attention.

“Why 'Combat' and not 'Battle' like sister's?” I asked.

“Even if one receives the same Blessing from the same god, it can manifest differently. As such, there are what are known as 'Common' Blessings and also 'Rare' ones too. The most common Blessing from the God of War is the [Blessing of Combat]. The rare one is the [Blessing of War], but I have never heard of the [Blessing of Battle], so I believe it may be of the rare or even legendary types.” she sort of explained.

“Erm...” I was having a bit of trouble understanding, but from the looks of things, there were three types of Blessings.

“Legendary?” sister asked instead of me.

“Hm...” aunty was scratching the top of her head “Just think of it this way: For every 100 children, you will find at least one that has a common Blessing. For every 10000 children, you will find one that has a rare Blessing. As for the 'Legendary' ones, you might find only one in the entire country every 100 years or so.”

“In other words... aunty's Blessing isn't that special?” I asked tilting my head to the left.

“That's a harsh way of putting it, but yes... There are many like me who hold the [Blessing of Combat].” she nodded.

“Is there a difference between them?” sister asked.

“There is very BIG difference in HOW you use them and HOW SKILLED you are in using them. Even if you have only legendary combat Blessings, it can be considered as useless or non-existent if you have no idea how to use them to their maximum potential. So keep that in mind, little ones. It's not the rarity of the Blessing that counts but how you use it!” she said with a smirk as she lifted a finger up.

“Umu! I will!” sister nodded.

“Then, will you show us now how to use a Blessing?” I asked.

“Of course! This was the reason why I woke you up so early in the morning, after all!” she replied with a big smile on her face.