The next day, Simon woke up, he felt sluggish but the discipline of the old man forced him to rise.

“Simon… take up the stick,” the old man was already awake, stretching his arms again, it seemed that he found more sticks around the shore it was just scattered around the beach.

“You'll teach me sword now?” the boy asked although he knew what was going to happen next.

“No… it's impossible to teach you… you are an idiot… rather it would be much more of a guidance… you have to discover your own sword style,” the old man said, he took up another sword.

“... I don’t understand,” the boy said, of course, he didn’t.

The old man walked a bit farther from where they slept, he started drawing a circle.

“Stand in the middle,” the old man said, Simon went into the middle.

“I’m inside,” the boy said as he excitedly went inside the circle along with his stick.

“The footwork, arm bridges, and fighting without counter-attacking, you should naturally able to arrive at something,-” the old man said. He then pointed to Simon his sword. Then he released blood lust, and Simon naturally tensed up. “-Don't go out of the circle,” the old man said.

The old man attacked with a horizontal sweep, and Simon dodged by sidestepping just on the edge of the circle.

“It’s not over,” the old man said, using the shift Simon instantly faced the old man’s attack. It was another side sweep.

This time Simon parried using his stick, and the attack goes over his head.

The old man smiled, he gazed at Simon, it seemed that the boy was already in a stance and he didn’t even notice it, it was a natural stance that Simon came to.

“That’s just perfect,-” the old man said, Simon, holding the stick in 2 hands, one hand forward with wide open feet. A stable stance. “-Boy remember that stance,” the old man smiled tapping his sword on his shoulder.

“This is my stance?” the boy asked innocently.

The ability to immediately react to the attack in any direction was from the daily training against the adventurers and with the old man sometimes, how to read attacks was from the arm bridges, the arms and shoulders could only move at certain angles, and Simon not breaking the stick was from the egg training.

“Simon… do you remember what makes a sword strike?” the old man asked.

“Position, Momentum, and … spots?” Simon answered but he was not sure of the last one.

“Close enough… you are an idiot, so I will have to train you in a hard way, from the daylight into the twilight we will spar… you should be able to slay the wyvern after 4 days,” the old man said.

Simon gulped… finally, he was a swordsman. “Oh… and you breaking the sticks means that I will decrease your next meal,” the old man added at the end. He smiled looking at the boy's reaction. It was always food.

“I see… are we going to start now?” the boy asked, he was ready determination of not losing food stirred him.

“Yeah…” the old man went back to his stance, Simon had seen his stance during the time he fell down the dark chasm.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” the old man suddenly asked, catching the gleam in Simon's eyes.

“What do you mean?” Simon replied, puzzled, unable to see his own expression.

“You're smiling, you idiot. Are you enjoying this?” the old man demanded, his own face breaking into a fierce grin.

“Aren’t you enjoying it too?” Simon shot back, his voice tinged with a mix of challenge and camaraderie.

“You bet I do...”

The old man attacked, but Simon parried it, the old man began doing his flash steps without magic, and the boy was taking it well.

“You can attack too boy,” the old man instructed.

“You are too fast,” the boy spoke his honest opinion.

“You have to commit… remember… Think first from the beginning of your movement and into its end then move without hesitation,” the old man kept giving instructions as he was attacking.

Of course, Simon remembered this… he was just waiting for something.

“What is your next move boy?” the old man asked as he kept on overwhelming Simon with his quick attacks.

“Got you,” the boy spoke with certainty, he dodged the attack and hit the old man in the shoulder… the stick broke apart though.

“No!!!” Simon disappointingly grunted as his stick scattered into the air.

“That fucking hurt” the old man glared at Simon… the old man was vindictive, and the boy knows it.

The boy immediately ran into the spot where the other sticks were but was too slow.

“OUCH!!!!” and Simon got hit on the shoulder too.

“But you said I can attack!!!” the boy complained without remorse.

“Shut up, take a stick and we will go at it again!!!” the old man was clearly pissed, the boy almost teared up but he still took a stick.

Stolen story; please report.

“... Sorry,” Simon said.

“No problem…-” the old man said so. “-And I will never say sorry to you, you little shit!” The old man smiled, was it a fluke? Did the boy foresaw that move? Is he training a monster? The old man went back to his stance and Simon too.

“Time to play dirty,” the old man said. Simon gulped again.

Their screams echoed at the beach.

<--->

Two days later, a boy ascended up to the Sky-chime Plateau, the way to the plateau was actually easy, it had a path to follow so one could walk on it though it would take a bit much longer.

On the other hand, one who was used to climbing mountains could take the straight-up climbing to the ridge side.

Simon took the easy one, the old man said that he would be following after him as he was packing up their things so that they could move quickly.

Clutching a wooden sword carved into a smooth curve, slightly longer than his own body. His clothes were ragged, and his body was bruised all over, the telltale signs of his earlier training sessions.

The wyvern who noticed his approach warned him with a screech but it was to no effect.

“Think from the start and follow through? No that was wrong… Think first from the beginning of your movement and into its end then move without hesitation… yeah that was it,” the boy smirked.

To add more difficulty to his mission, the boy had to down the wyvern in one strike. Well, the wooden stick that would break with a hard hit was instilled with enchantment with 'just one strike.' it won't break. 'Isn't that interesting?' the boy said as he examined the wyverns.

Since their warning was not heeded the wyverns started scowling, the largest of them all finally reacted and flapped its wings. Simon was already on his stance. The wyverns started floating into the air, since Simon was just a small boy the wyverns were totally underestimating him.

They flapped their wings in a regal fashion and scowled at the boy waiting for it to run away… but the boy stood his ground.

Since the mutated wyvern was the leader, the largest of the pack, the first attack was for it to take, it began flying higher and higher, and with a good angle it glided down, it would end in one fell swoop.

“... It's not even thinking,” Simon muttered.

It's just that the sword spars against the old man were just harder… fiercer and trickier.

The monster approached, and its glide down created sonic sounds, the boy dodged by a wide sidestep, and by the second step, Simon was already floating into the air, he aimed at the wyvern’s neck. The wyvern’s attack missed and Simon landed a blow on its neck.

The wyvern lifelessly crashed into the rough edges of the plateau. It was dead.

The wyverns that were flying along with the mutated wyvern were surprised, they started expressing their anger, and they were going to get revenge. Then another human appeared nonchalantly walking into the plateau.

“That was good Simon… no need to kill the others,” the old man approached Simon who was still in his stance.

He had just arrived taking his sweet time, he didn’t need to say words, the mutated wyvern’s face said it all. He then gazed at the other flying wyverns.

“Use your blood lust… drive them away,” the old man said.

Simon glared at the wyvern releasing his intention to kill. The wyverns shivered and they began flying away.

“Let’s take a part of the claws and take it with us,” the old man then walked closer examining the landing crater of the wyvern.

It would be enough proof to show in the adventurer’s guild. The achievement would be under the name of the old man, the adventurer’s guild would be so surprised if they knew that this boy fell down a wyvern, a mutated one at that.

Simon and the old man followed the trace of the crash landing of the wyvern. Half of its body is about to fall off the plateau. The old man used his sword to plant the wyvern’s tail into the ground, the boy carefully threaded on the side of the edge of the plateau, he needed to flip the wyvern around for its claws to be exposed.

“Check the bones… the space where it meets has a soft bone, let your carver do its job,” the old man instructed Simon in cutting off the mutated wyvern’s claw, they didn’t need the whole one only one of the 3 claw on one foot.

“It came off!!” Simon said raising the claw in the air.

The old man raised his thumb and Simon walked back into safety. It was impossible for them to bury the large monster, rather the old man released the tail letting the body fall off the plateau, there were ridges there, it should do the trick.

“Let’s go back, that claw could be exchanged for a good amount of money, let’s buy you a sword,” the old man said.

It had been almost a week since they left, and the boy now had the basic knowledge of sword fighting in terms of the old man’s standards.

“I want a large sword,” the boys said.

“Large sword it is,” the old man smiled fiercely, well as long as the boy doesn’t break it immediately then it will be all good.

<--->

They were back on the beach again, the battle didn’t take that much time. The 2 decided to celebrate since Simon slayed the wyvern with no sweat at all. He allowed Simon to fish around, the boy was already good at swimming.

In a few moments, there were fish on the sand. The old man had to clean it again through the seawater.

…

“That’s a lot of fish,” Simon said, the old man had already begun cooking the fish over the campfire he made.

The fuel for the fire was already prepared earlier, a day before Simon went for the wyvern, they had to dry down the leaves of coconuts and wood they picked up on the beach.

“The hell are you saying boy, you are the one who caught it all,” the old man said.

In a few minutes, the fish started smelling good. It was a sign that it was already well cooked, the 2 had been eating fish since they stayed on the beach so they could tell with just the smell.

They began eating, there was no need for condiments although the old man still had them in his bag. Fresh fish just tasted so good.

…

“Are we going to train again tonight?” Simon asked, it seemed that the boy had his fill.

The old man smiled, “You like the sword Simon?” the old man asked as he was putting the sticks they used to eat into the fire.

“It's fun… I think I like it” Simon said so with a smile.

The old man stood up. “I see… take your stick…”

The old man instructed Simon though Simon already knew.

“I’m going to teach you the sword dance,” the old man said.

“Sword dance?” the boy repeated.

The sword dance is an ancient custom.

Sword on chest, swing down… the challenger has the initiative to attack the champion.

“Thwack!!!!”

“That was a good strike Simon… the goal of the sword dance is to disarm your opponent,” the old man said, he pushed Simon back, and the boy retreated.

“This is the most profound way of fighting between 2 swordsmen… you can’t hit the opponent, only disarm them… come,” the old man went into his stance, his eyes inviting Simon to start the attack.

“Disarm…” Simon said he didn’t know how the hell to disarm a swordsman.

“Oh by the way, the winning party is allowed any request against the loser… don’t worry boy, the first one is a freebie… but the next one is not,” the old man spoke with an intimidating voice.

They began trading blows, unlike before, the old man was skillfully parrying the sword strikes from Simon, though the boy knew he was stronger than the old man, the old man’s footwork and skill with the sword so far exceeded him. The sword dance made this more predominant.

“Don’t stop thinking Simon… when you landed a hit on me was that a fluke?” the old man kept on talking.

“I don’t know…” but the unfamiliar way the old man was fighting was making Simon lose his momentum.

“And that’s it,” the old man predicted a horizontal slash from Simon on his right side.

The old man stepped in and put his wooden sword’s other end (The Hilt that he was holding) directly hitting the same spot on Simon’s sword, the wooden sword slipped off Simon’s hands.

“Huh!!!?” Simon was sure that his grip was strong enough to hold the sword.

“That is one way to disarm an enemy,” the old man said.

“I don’t understand,” the boy said so… of course he didn’t understand what happened.

“How about another one?” the old man said, using his stick he flicked Simon’s stick back to the boy.

“Okay!!!” the boy excitedly agreed.

The old man smiled… after that hit on his shoulder earlier it changed something inside him… the thirst that he had been looking for, the reason he couldn’t stop being an adventurer…