Magnus smiled as Atticus bowed, the sincerity in his appreciation evident, and this time, he made no effort to conceal his smile.
Atticus, however, remained in his bowing position, unable to see the warm gesture from his grandfather. After a brief moment, Magnus began to speak, his voice measured and composed.
"Good. We shall start your lessons immediately," Magnus declared. He gestured toward the floor in front of him, prompting Atticus to sit cross legged. Without hesitation, Atticus took his place.
Magnus leaned forward and began, his tone direct, "First, let's start by getting rid of your foolish mindset regarding perception."
Atticus's lips subtly twitched at the blunt manner of his grandfather's speech. To be honest, this was the longest time he had heard the man speak.
Atticus hadn't spoken or interacted with him enough to formulate Magnus's personality. But from what he had seen so far, one thing was certain: he sure was blunt.
Disregarding Atticus's mild embarrassment, Magnus continued, "From what I've observed, you mainly utilize your eyesight when training, and you believe that by always pushing that to the limits, your perception will grow accordingly, right?"
Atticus nodded in response to Magnus's inquiry. This was how he had always trained, and he didn't see anything wrong with it because it had always worked for him. Every single time he uses his perception, he had always focused on his eyes, receiving all the information with his sight.
"Your approach," Magnus stated firmly, "Is flawed, deeply flawed. While it's true that pushing your limits can enhance your perception, you are focusing solely on one facet of your perception"
"Training like that is completely superficial and you would eventually reach a bottle neck you won't be able to pass no matter what. You are basically wasting the potential of perception."
Atticus remained rapt and attentive, absorbing each word that flowed from Magnus's lips.
"Perception extends beyond what you currently understand," Magnus emphasized,
"It encompasses more than just your visual observations, extending to every one of your senses. It's about how you interpret and understand the world around you, not only through your eyes but also through sound, touch, taste, and even smell."
"In order to utilize the full potential of your perception, you must train and refine each of these senses."
Giving a brief moment of respite to let the information sink in, Magnus continued, "During battle, an individual utilizing the full potential of their perception can 'see' beyond their eyes, 'hear' beyond their ears, and 'feel' beyond touch. They would be able to anticipate every one of the opponent's movements before they are made, detect any hidden threats, and respond swiftly to anything."
Atticus absorbed every piece of information coming from Magnus's mouth. He had never thought perception had such depth. Atticus had always subconsciously believed that his perception was mainly dependent on sight and only followed what he thought was the best way to increase his perception, which was by straining it until it grew.
This was what he had found out when he first awakened his perception. When he had fought the life weapon's avatar and died countless times, his intelligence, which he had tried hard to increase over the years, spiked. This was exactly why he had adopted that training program.
But one couldn't blame Atticus much. Ever since he had awakened his perception, he didn't have anyone to guide him or explain its intricacies, mainly because he had never told anyone about his awakened perception in the first place.
He had basically only followed the superficial explanation the system provided him without bothering to do more research on it. 'This is a huge lesson; I'll do more research on every single one of my stats after this,' Atticus thought. He wanted to be sure that perception was the only thing he missed.
If not for Magnus, Atticus would have continued training the same way, unaware that he was only hindering his own progress. He would do a thorough research on every one of his stats.
Even though Atticus had just discovered these aspects of perception, he recognized how important it was to train all of them in tandem. It was simply about creating a stable foundation for future developments.
Every single one of these aspects complemented each other and could be extremely useful especially in battle.
Utilizing each of them in battle, Atticus would be able to observe his surroundings with pinpoint accuracy, detect even the subtlest of sounds in the environment, revealing everything and identifying opponents in the area even without being able to see them.
With an enhanced sense of touch, he could have heightened tactile perception to help him gauge any changes in the environment.
Lastly, he would be able to detect any and all scents in the area, identifying hidden poisons or threats.
These were all profoundly important aspects he had been neglecting for a long time. A fact that was anger inducing.
Once again, Magnus's words brought Atticus out of his thoughts.
"Now, your bloodline," he said.
"Although I've observed that you still train your bloodline appropriately, I noticed you don't seem to understand how important it is."
"Bloodlines are an integral part of who you are. They define you at your core. Without having absolute control and understanding of your bloodline, reaching the pinnacle will remain unattainable," Magnus emphasized.
Atticus took everything single thing Magnus had said today seriously. After the incident at the Raven camp when he had received that power boost, Atticus had seen the enormous potential his perception had.
He had subconsciously assumed that it was the most important part of his power that he had to train to get stronger, which is why he had been putting more focus on training his perception than his other abilities.
Although he still trained all of his abilities, it wasn't up to the same intensity as he does for his perception.
Seeing Atticus nod, conveying his understanding,
"Good," Magnus continued, "Now let us proceed to the core of our training."
