An hour after setting in, Lucian emerged from the depths of his bathtub once again feeling fully refreshed. He pulled the plug and let all the water drain out before stepping out, making sure to dry himself off thoroughly before getting into any of the good stuff. While his dorm was considered quite good for the conditions of this world, the insulation and ventilation weren’t exactly top notch so he had to cover up quickly if he didn’t want to catch a cold.

‘Now, let’s see if that was enough time to fully receive the effects of the herbal mixture!’ Lucian gulped down a glass of water as he thought to himself.

He wasted no time in pulling up his stats, checking through them thoroughly.

[Name: Lucian Verdan. Age: 12. Sex: Male. Vitality: 1.01, Agility: 0.69, Strength: 0.6, Mind: 0.1. Status: Satisfied, reinvigorated. Body is in peak state.]

‘Yes! It actually worked!’ Lucian had a rare moment of emotion when he saw his vitality surpassing the 1.0 mark. This was something to be celebrated after all, as it meant he had just officially taken his first step towards becoming an Apprentice Knight!

After this, all he had to do was push his Agility and strength to the same point, and he could confidently call himself A knight. Though, he wouldn’t be a very strong one. But this didn’t matter to Lucian — he wasn’t interested in the strength the Knight training could give him. Instead he was much more interested in what he could learn and gain from becoming a Mage!

After all from what he had learned during his short tenure in this world, it was that Knights paled in comparison to Mages. They couldn’t even be compared on the same level, it would be a disrespect to the Mages to even consider this. And this was including the fact that Mages didn’t even focus on strengthening the physical body — to them this was just a side effect not even related to their main path!

‘I mustn’t waste any more time here though. Taking such a long bath meant reducing the amount of sleep I’ll get tonight by an hour. I can’t sacrifice my time spent training, so I’ll have no choice but to cut back on sleep.’

Now that Lucian had confirmed his suspicions and taken a big step toward his goal, he set his mind on his next task — practising either his footwork, or sword techniques. He thought it through for a little while before settling on footwork though, as the time he’d have to spend on it was shorter, and it would be easier for him to focus on getting the techniques and movements right while there was still some daylight above.

If he left footwork till last, then he’d have to practice it in the dark, well into the night. He’d much rather choose to practice his sword techniques under such conditions than his footwork. He wasn’t yet at the level where he could control the movement of his feet to such a degree required for the technique without keeping his eyes on where he was stepping, after all.

***

*Cough*

“Hahh… haahh..”

A few hours later, a sweaty and sticky Lucian stood out on the open grass, away from the hustle and bustle of the main areas of the academy. He’d just spent the last two hours going over the footwork provided by the AI improved Knight training method, and quite frankly… he was horrible. He kept tripping over himself, missed multiple steps and had to start over again, and even nearly tripped backwards onto the nearby path, potentially risking a serious injury if his neck or head slammed into the ground.

However, this embarrassing performance wasn’t entirely Lucian’s fault. Well, not the new Lucian at least. The easiest way to put it would be that his body was too frail and weak to keep up with the training methods described in his memories. They were designed to be used by people already above 1.0 in their stats, so it made sense why he struggled so much. That didn’t make it any better for Lucian though.

However, he could feel that his body did improve from this intense workout, and his wet, sticky and frankly foul smelling clothes were evidence of that. Despite his best efforts turning out to be the worst he could have imagined, it didn’t stop him from working his hardest. For as long as he could remember, this was how his brain worked. No matter the outcome, he had to put his best effort in.

Lucian moved over to the side after taking a few moments to catch his breath. There, a few metres away from him, lay his old and rusty training sword. This thing was heavily neglected by his predecessor, along with the rest of the equipment he was wearing. Lucian was even annoyed to find out that they weren’t even used at all ever since he was enrolled into the academy. He spent a good 5 minutes or so during a short break from his footwork training to check through his memories, and found no recollection of ever having used them.

Scowling, he picked up the sword and patted some of the residual dust off. His actions when training his footwork earlier had already removed the dust and dirt from his leather armor. He didn’t exactly need to wear the armor when training, but he wanted to get used to the feeling. Not only would it make it easier for him to manoeuvre during battle if he was already used to the flexibility allowed by his armor, but he would also know exactly how his sword techniques and footwork paired together.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

There was no use training in his normal everyday clothes if when he actually encountered any danger out in the wild, or found himself caught up in a battle one day, and he had to get used to the feeling of moving with heavy equipment on the spot. That would only put his life at unnecessary risk.

Step.

Step.

“Oho! If it isn’t everyone’s favourite Lucian!” An annoyingly irritating voice interrupted Lucian while he was mid preparation.

Lucian glanced over at the approaching voice, and saw a fully kitted up Sofia sauntering over his way, this time without her servant by her side. However, Lucian wouldn’t be deceived by such an appearance, as he had no doubt that he would be hidden nearby somewhere Lucian couldn’t detect him.

He frowned when he saw the sword in Sofia’s hands, as well as the spotlessly clean armor that coated her body. It was clear that not only were they both of higher quality than his own, they were also much more taken care of. But the main concern for Lucian was that they were real — not just training equipment.

Sofia’s sword looked sharp enough to slice a man’s arm clean off, and he had no doubt that she could perform such a feat effortlessly with her level of strength. She was an Official Knight already, so it probably wouldn’t take much effort for her to do so either. Lucian just wondered why she was approaching him so late into the evening, with the sun already starting to set.

As far as he was concerned, nobody rarely ever came to this place, which was the exact reason he chose it as his training spot. Who’d have thought he would end up in this kind of situation though? Not him, that was for sure — or else he would have avoided this place entirely. Lucian wasn’t exactly in the mood for crossing other students at the moment. In fact, his idea was to ignore them all completely until the Mage selection came around, but it was clear that the universe had other plans for him.

“What does the esteemed Lady Sofia want from me so late into the evening?” he questioned in the calmest tone he could muster.

“Nothing much, you just happen to be occupying my training area.” Sofia replied matter of factly, maintaining her stride towards him the whole time.

‘Her training spot? How come I didn’t know of this?’ Lucian queried to himself, but his memories held no answer for him.

In fact, there was a good reason he didn’t know of such a thing. It had much to do with the reason this place was known to be empty at this time of day. The very reason it was empty was because it was common knowledge among the masses that Sofia used this place to train. And there was one very simple reason Lucian wasn’t aware of this. It was spread through word of mouth. For Lucian, who kept to himself and rarely ever left his dorm except for when he was required to, how was he supposed to learn of this fact?

“I’m very sorry, I didn’t realise this! I’ll leave now.” Lucian gave his sincerest apologies and picked up his sword before making his way past Sofia. Unfortunately, he was unable to do so before being stopped mid stride.

“Not so fast,” Sofia spoke, holding her shining silver sword in front of Lucian, acting as a barrier between him and his way out of this situation. She made it very clear that she didn’t intend to let him off so easily.

“Since you’re already here, I could use a training partner.”

Lucian watched her for a moment, trying to judge her reactions as she kept her sword in front of him. He hoped he could spot a glimmer of humor or sarcasm in her eyes, but it quickly became clear to him that she was deadly serious about what she said.

He let out a begrudging sigh. Lucian had been meaning to avoid meaningless fights during his remaining tenure in this academy, but he couldn’t control the thoughts and wishes of others, especially when they far outclassed him in both strength and status.

Lucian had already done his research after his encounter with her in the canteen the previous time. She was the child of the Count the teacher was referring to during his lesson, and her father, Count Nessus, was the man Lucian’s own father served. It was quite a difficult situation for Lucian at the moment.

If he refused to accept Sofia’s request to be her training partner, then she 100% had the pull to have him removed from the academy entirely. If this happened, then forget becoming an Official Knight in time for the selection, even if he somehow became a Grand Knight during this period he wouldn’t be able to even attend the selection!

“Sigh, Alright then. As you wish Lady Sofia.” All Lucian could do was sigh and accept this fate.

Shing!

The moment the words slipped out of his mouth, Sofia didn’t even give him a moment to prepare before her sword met Lucian’s, sending him reeling backwards and nearly knocking him to the ground.

The clashing of the swords created a crystal clear sound that could be heard from a good distance away from the grassy area. A few curious eyes nearby even turned to look at what was going on. They laughed in amusement when they saw Lucian being unwillingly pulled into a spar with Sofia.

“Hmph! As I thought, you’re exactly the weakling everyone made you out to be!” Sofia held her sword with one hand and laughed as she watched Lucian nearly trip over his own feet.

Lucian remained silent and instead asked his AI to send the training of his sword techniques straight to his mind. The process took less than a second, and he frowned as his mind struggled to process the large intake of information. Sofia took his struggling expression as annoyance towards her, which only fuelled her laughter even more.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, her sword thrashed through the air towards Lucian once again, aiming directly for his shoulder this time. She didn’t intend to deal a mortal wound to him, as that was against the rules of the academy, which even she had to follow despite her status.

But that didn’t mean she couldn’t injure him somewhat!

“Hrahh!” Lucian shouted, and his legs moved in a strange formation, allowing himself to barely dodge the incoming attack by a hair’s breadth.

‘Oh?’ Sofia had a momentary lapse of surprise after seeing Lucian pull such a move off, even stopping her mocking laughter midway.

“Pah!” Lucian took this opportunity to launch a counter attack back at Sofia, aiming directly for her sword, rather than trying to deal a flesh wound to her like she intended for him.

He had absolutely zero intention of taking any chance at injuring her, despite the low likelihood it would even happen. If it even entertained the idea of getting him into trouble with the academy and perhaps even resulting in him being expelled, he was having none of it.