“Your slash lacks power Zeph. Use your muscles”
“More muscle? What do you mean Davy?”
“Eh? Iud it is impossible for me. You do it.”
I was panting heavily, my hands were clutching my long sword which I had brought from my world. We had been practicing our sword strikes for almost three hours. Wolf had taught us the basics of swords and had showed us one of the easiest move, burst strike. A strike were one closes the gap between the enemy using speed above human capabilities and thereby using the momentum to deal a powerful slash on the enemy. Burst strike was usually easy to activate, but for a novice like me it took a while before my rush could gather the required momentum. And so the other two were helping me train.
“Zeph, the problem is not actually your speed but your stance. The way you hold your sword parallel to your body with both the hands makes the rush a difficult thing. Why not try wielding it with your dominant hand and also a little away from your body. Ah yes just like that, see is it not easier to wield it like that. Now tilt your body a little so that the sword hand comes in the front. Good. Now give it a try” Iud explained to me.
Nodding my head, I took a deep breath. Focusing on the dummy which was 5metres away from me, I activated the skill.
“Burst strike”
My body leaned forward a little, I could feel mana gather in my leg as I put force on my legs and dashed forward. My body felt lighter than before and I could feel the air hitting my face blurring my vision a little but my eyes had been trained to identify even the smallest of targets during my archery days. When the distance between the dummy and me were approximately 1meter my right hand holding the long sword came down on the dummy with tremendous power.
‘Slash’
The dummy was cut in half diagonally, the upper portion fell to the ground with a thud while the lower portion which was tied to a stick was oscillating cause of the force I had applied. I looked at Iud and Davy who were both smiling at me.
“That is it boy, that is how you do it.”
I smiled at the two. These two were geniuses when it came to swords. When the instructor had first showed us this move, Iud and Davy could replicate it perfectly on their first try. Wolf was extremely fascinated and happy in having two geniuses swordsman among his two students. Me on the other hand was what one would call a failure. My burst strike could not even make a dent on the dummy and so I was made a laughing stock on the very first day.
This embarrassment forced me to ask my two friends to help me train and so they agreed, but on one condition. And the condition being that I had to train in them in magic spells. When I explained to them that I can only teach them how to meditate to improve mana flow and control they happily accepted my offer. And so we had been training for a few hours. First I showed them how to meditate, to calm their mind and feel the flow. After a couple of hour long trial, the two wereable to slightly feel the mana flow. Once we finished the meditation we began with my sword training.
With my last try being a successful hit, I tried the move another five times to let my body remember the feeling but on the fifth try my watch vibrated and a notification opened up.
‘ding’
New skill unlocked: Darclyt Hidden Arts (Passive)Beginner Level 1(0%)
The sword technique created by the best swordsman. This technique is considered to be the strongest technique created by combining the five sacred arts and the five dark arts. The technique is well sought for but is not taught to everybody that desires it. Capable of bringing chaos and hope at the same time, this hidden arts is passed down to the weak so that may rise and protect the weak.
+5 to prestige for learning a hidden god rank skill
+2 to other stats
Designation changed to Darclyt Novice
A new designation has been assigned to you. You are now a Darclyt novice, one who practices the hidden art of swords. People who practice’s sword techniques will recognize your power while some might even challenge you. You are still too inexperienced to have apprentices under you.
+2 prestige
5% cost reduction for swords
+2 to other stats[/tr]
New Designation Assigned: Darclyt Novice (Passive)Beginner Level 1(0%)
New skill unlocked: Burst Fang(Active)Beginner Level 1(0%)The sword technique that uses speed as a base to create momentum to deal a massive attack. As proficiency increases number of strikes can be increased. Attack power increases with each chain strike. Also usable with a combo move.
+5% STR and AGI
20MP/use
“A new designation and stats boost? Status window” I called out. Iud and Davy stood beside me wondering what would appear.
STATUSNameZephire CalmorRaceAlien HumanLevelInfant(1)DesignationDarclyt NoviceFaithNoneGaurdianLevel 8AffinityMatterEssenceSuperiorHealth: 540Mana: 830(40000)Strength: 34Agility: 34Stamina: 21Vitality: 14Wisdom: 14Intelligence: 23Luck: 10Prestige:4SkillsAir strikeBeginner Lvl1(2.87%)MeditationBeginner Lvl1(43.54%)[td2]Mana flow and controlBeginner Lvl3(51.87%)Darclyt hidden artsBeginner Lvl1(0.98%)Burst FangBeginner Lvl1(2.31%)
“Wow, so this how the status bar of an alien looks like. Meditation as a skill? But why is it at beginner lvl1? Should it not be higher since you are already something like an expert in it?” Iud asked, his right hand supporting his chin and his left eyebrow lifted.
“I think it is at beginner lvl 1 cause I am an alien. May be the skills or actions I do in this world is counted as valid. Open meditation”
[b] Meditation (Active)Beginner Level 1(0%)The art of finding one’s true self. Meditation is considered as a way to attain enlightenment and so is practiced by many to attain control over one’s mind and body. Mediation helps to control mana and essence flow, there by deciding the power of spells as well as the limit of mana one can use. As the proficiency in the skill increases, the mana level of the person who practices increases (usable mana level. Currently you are able to use 830mp of your total 40000mp. As you meditate more, the mana level will increase).
5% increase in MP per every up
‘This is new. Does that mean only those who meditate can increase their usable mana? No that is absurd. If that were he the case then they would have included meditation in the curriculum.’
Turning towards Iud who was still staring at my meditation window I asked,
“Is this the only way to increase the mana capacity Iud?”
Surprised by the sudden question, Iud stared at me for a while and then replied.
“No, not at all. I must say that this is the first time I have seen a method different from the conventional ways, meditation eh. Anyway, the answer to your question is no. There are other methods which are much more common than meditation. One is to increase your intelligence by allotting status points or reading books, this is the most common but also the slowest way. But this method is the most followed as books are available to anyone who wishes to read, provided you are either a student or adventurer. The second one being items that increase your mana level. This method is not so common as the mana increase is not permanent. If you unequip the item, then the effect is lost. Only adventures use this method as us students don’t usually come across such items. Third method is drinking a mana elixir, this method too is used by adventures only, that too only the rich ones for a mana elixir costs 1000AG even for the cheapest one. The cheapest elixir only increases the mana by a hundred or so. The costliest one is around 100000AG and increases mana by 10000 points. The final method being, drinking the blood or tears of a level 9 or above guardian which too is nigh impossible, both for students as adventures. Guardians usually do not trust their owners easily. It takes ten to twenty years for the bond between the two to be strong enough for the guardian to give you the blood or tear, but by then the adventure would have already hit his mana limit. Now the new method, meditation. This method is time consuming but a sure way to increase your mana level. The proficiency percentage seems to increase really slowly and so I assume that it might take hundreds of hours of meditation to increase the level by 1. But when I look at your mana flow and control skill, it is already at level 2. So I am guessing that meditation improves your mana flow quickly and so this method has more than one benefit”
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“Hm! I see. In that case we should devote a little of our time for meditation every day. Better flow control will let us improve our spells but at the same time it will help me reduce the power of my spells so I do not stand out much.”
“True! Then we shall meditate for 30min every day, any more than that then I and Davy might fall asleep. Once the mediation is over, we can start with the sword training and spell casting, may be one hour for each of it.”
“Fine with me. What about you muscle head?” I asked Davy who was exercising his biceps while we were talking.
“Who are you calling muscle head? Anything is fine with me as long as I can get stronger” Davy replied while he was still concentrating on his exercise.
“Good. Then it is fixed. No let us go back it is already time for dinner” Iud urged us to return.
---***---
Next morning, I and Iud were once again together. We had our water affinity classes and were now in the C block, sitting at the last bench. That day were taught skill called petals. Water affinity basic spell unlike the air affinity basic spell were comprised of only offensive magic. In short water and fire purely offensive while air and earth were semi offensive and semi defensive. Life affinity skills were a fusion of offence, defense and restoration spells.
Our teacher for the subject was Carmine, another beautiful young woman just like Natalia. Dressed in a light blue robe and holding a wand in her hand she darted into the room with a bright smile. Her voice felt so sweet that I thought she was singing all the time. Her braided long hair was hanging from her shoulder which she occasionally played with during the class. Her way of explaining things were good, explaining things as well as clearing our doubts, not that Natalia was bad.
Water petals and water spear, these were the two basic spells that were supposed to be taught to us. Both were offensive but at the same time with different characteristics. Water petals were a spell were a large area was targeted while water spear targeted a single point. The first skill was much tougher than the later as one had to create a large number of water bubbles. These bubbles were to be controlled at the same time and directed towards the target. The attack was unidirectional, that is the petals could not change its direction once it was fired and so firing from a long range would result in giving the target to dodge it with ease.
Water spear was a spell which summoned a spear of water which can be wielded by the user like a normal spear but at the same time projected towards the target/ unlike the air slash, where the sword was to make the slashing easy, the water spear spell did not mold the surrounding water into a spear but instead summoned a spear made of water. As to where it was summoned from, we were told not to worry about it.
Once the theory classes were done with, the students were asked to walk to the practical area and practice the spell. This time I tried to reduce the mana output as much as possible so that I would not stand out much. Some of those who attended the air affinity class with me also had water affinity classes and I could feel their intense stare on me. With all my effort I tried using the spell and luckily the spell did not work as the mana output was too low. I continued the façade for another five to six times to make sure that others had given up on me. Once I made sure that no one was watching me anymore, I increased my mana output little by little. On the seventeenth try I could produce three to four petals while others could mold more than thirty at once. I kept increasing the output slowly once again and thereafter every time a cast the spell the number of petals increased by three or four. On the twenty sixth try, the number petals I could mold reached sixty which was then considered normal by my teacher.
Iud who was beside me nudged me, grinning. I smiled back at him. He knew that the number of petals I could mold was for more than the sixty I had with me now.
---***---
After noon was a free period for us three as we were content with the sword and so we decided to spend our time meditating and practicing pour skills. We practiced till five in the evening, by then we three were dead tired. Even though our mediation skill did not level up, all the other skills leveled up by one
Once we returned to our room, we had a bath and then our dinner. Still having plenty of time left before I slept, I decided to read one of the books in our shelf. The book I selected was about the ten sword arts. Five sacred arts and five dark arts combined to give the Darclyt technique and so I decided to find out more about the ten ancient arts. But all I could gather from the book was only the names as the rest were different stances and other complex technical things.
Once I finished skimming through the book, my watch vibrated and a window opened up.
‘Ding’
New information acquired
Sacred Arts
Divine Goddess
Sacred Palm
Heavenly Fall
Moonlight Wind
Formless Life
Dark Arts
Blood Dance
Inferno Earth
Black Fist
Crimson Despair
Formless Death
Acquiring relevant information has caused you to improve your understanding of the hidden technique.
Books about Darclyt: (1/34)
+1 level to burst strike
+5 to INT
The final window gave me a shock and so I showed it to other two. They too were surprised and so decided to read the book as well letting their burst strike go up by a level too. We then tried reading books on mana and affinities but nothing happened. And so we came to the conclusion that not all books gave us stats boost.
---***---
Earth affinity classes were conducted by the beautiful brunette Lisha. The basic spell for earth was sandstorm which was a defensive spell aimed at blinding the enemy. The spell was effective against enemies that could not construct a full barrier around them, in short only against low level opponents. This skill was mainly used it individual battles or tournaments and not during monster hunt. The reason being monsters have special eye lids that protects their eyes against dusts and hence the skill is practically use less against them.
The afternoon session was reserved for those who practiced maze and so the three of us began to train ourselves. By the end of the training, my air strike and water petals were at level 3, while sandstorm skill level up to level 2 and my burst strike as well as mana flow were now at level 4.
---***---
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