January 14th, year 782 of the Imperial calendar
"No."
Baffled by the unexpected answer, I asked her.
"Why?"
"You have no foundations and muscles. If you train alongside me with your current body, you're going to vomit in the first 2 minutes."
Krista, despite looking more frail and petite than me, actually had quite a bit of muscles.
Thanks Mana and Status, a person's muscles are compressed, unless they deliberately chose not to do so. As such, the frail looking girl you see on the street could very well end your existence in one punch.
I haven't really noticed it until now but I was rather frail, maybe even weaker than the average 10-year-old.
Thus, to build my muscles, Krista sent me to the knights for training. Their daily training regiment is supposed to be effective in building muscles quickly.
Their training was... running.
Well, I grossly underestimated their training. It was hard, really hard. I couldn't believe I was making fun of their efforts just months ago. I was no expert but even I could tell that running around the huge training ground while wearing heavy armors would take a lot out of anyone.
Well, it was too late now. I've already resolved myself to actually get stronger this time. Thus, I joined the knights in their training.
I had no idea why they had heavy armors that perfectly fit me but I have a sneaking suspicion that Krista was partly responsible for it.
The first day of training didn't go so well for me. The training was even more gruesome than I thought. My leg muscles were basically non-existent so I was exhausted after just 2 laps. However, the knight captain, who was observing the training ground, shouted at me and basically forced me to run until I puked.
After that, I had to clean the armors myself. Doing so was supposed to build the muscles in my arms, or so the knights said.
So, after cleaning the armor and running until I puked 2 more times, my first training session was over.
Holding the long sword that the knights gave me to run with on my bed, I thought back to the time when I snuck outside the mansion, imagining which actions I could have taken differently. To be honest, after reflecting on what I've done, I realized that I was really lucky to have not met anything other than Horned rabbits and goblins.
Goblins were kind of weak, and rabbits had overly simple attack patterns. If I had met a Mana boar, my frail self with no prior fighting experiences would have been killed on the spot.
Leaving those horrifying thoughts behind, I thought back to my fight with the goblins. I concluded that mentality was one of the most important aspect in combat.
If I hadn't been so enraged and over-confident, I would have probably beaten them pretty easily. I could have taken out the archer as soon as I knocked the sword goblins away, kill those sword goblin and slay the petrified club-wielding bastard.
Even when I was poisoned, I would have taken off my sunglasses to scare off that club-wielding goblin if I was in my right state of mind.
Thinking about what I could have done in those situation really made my past-self seemed like an arrogant prick who didn't know his limits.
Well, that's why I decided to absorb the [F - Emotionless] skill book. My emotions would not be able to affect my judgement and thinking if I used the skill, and I have already abandoned my plans of being the protagonist so no needs to save it for that heroine. Plus, I needed that boost in power.
I held the book up and infused my mana in it. The skill book it up slightly and melted into my skin. It was a bit freaky but I ignored it as Status popped up to announce that I've successfully learned the skill.
As I was exhausted, I left the problem of testing the skill out to my future self.
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***
January 15th, year 782 of the Imperial calendar
I got the chance to use the skill the very next day.
I was training like yesterday, running while wearing heavy armor. As I was nearing my limits, however, I activated [F - Emotionless].
The effect was much greater than I expected. Immediately after I activated the skill, the world lost its color and turned gray. I couldn't even feel surprised at the change since the skill erased all my emotions. Apparently, it also ate away all my sensation of fatigue and pain. That means I would be stronger the more wounds I accumulate. It was a pretty masochistic skill if you ask me.
Since I didn't feel any fatigue or pain, I kept running. I ran for another hour, I think. The knights were cheering for me, as I ran for much longer than I did yesterday. That was, until I suddenly dropped to the ground.
The knights rushed over to help me. As I was still under the effect of the skill, my face was completely emotionless. Mistaking my expressionless face for something serious, they quickly called the healer over.
As it turned out, since I couldn't feel any pain, I ran until my leg muscles were completely torn. Well, I didn't need the anyone to explain it to me though since as soon as my mana was almost emptied out, the skill deactivated on its own. I felt pain, excruciating pain.
Luckily though, the healer used life magic: [Major heal] on my legs which subdued the pain significantly. Though it still hurt like hell. He had to use the healing skill on me periodically for 2 days straight before I could move my legs again. Although the pain were still there, the knights still judged that I had healed enough to continue training.
Due to that whole fiasco, I never used the skill again during training.
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***
September 28th, year 782 of the Imperial calendar
About 8 months had passed since I started training.
Apparently that the incident on my second day of training helped me to develop my calve muscles quite a bit, so my muscle training was cut short by 3 months, not that I was complaining.
I didn't know whether they properly trained me or just kept me there to do errands like carrying weapons or collecting failed products from blacksmiths. Well, I was still much stronger than I first started so I couldn't complain to anyone. I was just glad now that I'm freed from being their errand boy.
Thus, I was finally able to start my close-combat training. Not with Krista yet though, since she had been training for years, and I have just barely started.
I wanted to learn magic and swordsmanship simultaneously but my newly-appointed instructor who was also the knight captain just told me that learning one thing at a time was more effective.
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First thing he did was to teach me was various sword styles. He was going to see which sword style fitted me best. Well, I tried all of them, even the [I - Imperial standard sword style] which was so simple that even a 5 yeas old kid who hasn't awakened Status could learn it.
Well, I failed spectacularly. I could not even get into the stance properly. That was not to say I absolutely had no talents in swordsmanship. Far from it, I was talented. Very talented according to the knight captain that supervised me.
What led him to discover that the brat that couldn't learn the Imperial swordsmanship was a swordsmanship genius was my spar with a knight. I was pitted against a knight squire 8 years older than me. I complained about the unfairness of the match but my instructor just told me that it was the best way to improve my swordsmanship. Though personally I just thought that he was doing this so that I would quit trying to fight with a sword.
The match started. My movements were stiff at first, but I slowly got into the tempo of the battle and apparently gave him some troubles.
My instructor stopped the battle before things got heated though and told me that I could not learn any types of standard swordsmanship. However, he also told me that I already had my own sword style which was mere steps away from being recognized by Status as a proper battle art.
"Your style, it's deadly." He said.
"No wasted movements, fast and concise strikes aimed at the opponent's vital spots, a style made for killing." He continued.
The only thing that was keeping it from becoming a proper sword art was my lack of physical strength. So, I came up with an idea using the trash Marcos' memories.
Now, in his world, 'Earth', there was a physicist named Isaac Newton. He was the genius of the century or something like that. However, what helped me was one of his findings. He called it the 'Newton's third law of motion': when two bodies interact, they apply forces to one another that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
So, essentially, my idea was to utilize the force that the enemies' strike exerted on my sword, and the rebound of me clashing blades with them. I also used the centrifugal force to conserve and add more force to my strikes. With the bullshittery of mana, a new battle art was born.
==
[III - Roteare style]
Sword art created and developed by Swordsman Theodore Gray. The art is fast and concise, with strikes always aiming at the opponent's vital points. It specializes in using the force the enemies use in their attacks and the centrifugal force against them. As such, the practitioner will look like they are constantly half-spinning left to right from an outside perspective. As this sword art is dependent on the opponent's attacks, there are no named movements. The effectiveness of the art upon mastery is currently unknown.
==
As to why its name wasn't [III - Gray style] or something like that? Well, I had no idea. Maybe the god in charge of naming battle arts found that naming a sword style 'Gray' was bad.
Well, not that I'm complaining though. 'Roteare style' sounded much cooler than 'Gray style'. And I was pretty sure there was already a battle art named 'Gray style' out there.
Although the sword style was barely qualified as a III rated battle art, it was rated III nonetheless. My instructor was really surprised when I showed him this. He kept telling me that I was a prodigy or something.
According to my instructor, the style looked really funny as I was basically constantly doing half-spins when practicing the art.
Well, other than looking ridiculous to most people, the style also had some other weaknesses.
If the opponents weren't actively attacking me, the resulting power would be lower than usual since the sword art relied on the force of their strike to increase my own power. Furthermore, as my back would always be exposed to the opponent whenever I do the half-spins, I would leave myself open to attacks. Thus, I would be severely disadvantaged if the opponent was crazy fast like Krista or if I was fighting multiple opponents at once.
I asked my instructor to teach me footwork to counteract this weakness somewhat. I should be able to rotate faster if I had proper footwork.
After practicing my sword art for about a month, I started the dagger training with Krista.
I specifically requested to learn advanced parrying though, as the rebound I would get from parrying strikes with my off-hand dagger would be enough to activate my battle art.
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***
February 17th, year 783 of the Imperial calendar
About 5 months passed since I created my sword art, it was finally time for me to learn magic.
That was not to say that I wasn't practicing magic during my close combat training. Using the mana control book that mother gave me, I learned how to circulate mana effectively inside my body. Thus, my mana recovery and concentration speed that were above average due to my [F - Mana blood] skill were boosted even further.
As I was reading through the book, I found something strange. It was a silver pocket watch hidden in the thick cover. The watch looked quite old as it was rusty in many places and its face was cracked.
The clock still worked, though, despite there being nothing powering it.
I assumed that it was an artifact and brought it to an appraiser affiliated with Irene Nightshade.
==
[Pocket watch of ????] (Grade - ????? artifact)
A pocket watch made by an ??????? ???? after he made a deal with ?????. The clock ???????? the user ?? ??? ???? when ????????????
==
I've never seen that many question marks in my life.
The appraiser gave the watch back to me and seemed very dejected though. He had never failed an appraisal before or so he claimed. His pride took a big hit from this, not that I care about some middle-aged man's emotions though.
I decided to keep the watch with me. After all, only my mother could have put the watch there. Thus, I kept it as a memento of my mother.
Mysterious pocket watch asides, I began my magic training earnestly.
I started with the magic I had the lowest affinity with, wind.
It was pretty easy to manipulate wind mana as it was one of the four basic elements. The only problem was, my wind magic was pitifully weak. I found it extremely hard to use the mana to form spells.
Even the most basic spell, [Gale], which utilizes wind mana to deliver a series of cuts to the opponent was extremely hard for me to cast. Even when I successfully casted it, its attack power was too low, barely being able to sever fire woods.
Once again, the trash Marcos' memories of his old world helped me.
As it turned out, wind was the result of airs moving around. Thus, I only used wind mana to manipulate the air around me. It was several times easier than using wind mana to emulate wind like every other wind mages does.
My way of using wind magic made it several times easier to cast spell and reduce the mana cost of such spells by a large amount.
Thus, my wind magic was now on the same level as mages with intermediate wind affinity. Although a high-affinity wind mage would still beat me.
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***
Next up was lightning magic, my favorite.
What I didn't understand though was that my magic instructor was looking at me with pity when he found out that I had a high affinity with lightning.
Apparently, lightning mages were looked down upon in the Empire, they were especially ridiculed by aristocrats. Lightning mages could rarely ever do ranged attacks since every spells they cast would just disperse into thin air as soon as it broke contact with their bodies. Thus, lighting mages were often tasked with recharging generators and the such.
Basically, being a lightning mage means you are as good as a walking battery.
Well, I knew the reason for the unfortunate circumstances of my fellow lightning mages, and it was once again thanks to Marcos' memories. As it turned out, the air is resistant to electricity. Electricity is formed by movements and interactions of particles people in Marcos' world called 'electrons'. The air has to be ionized by electricity first before it become conductive. Thus, you needed a colossal amount of lightning mana just to launch a lightning spell a few meters.
To fix this problem, I came up with a unique spell, [Lighting spear].
Basically, I created a vacuum using air magic. As my air magic was rather weak, I could only create one thin line of imperfect vacuum at a time.
I then agglomerated lightning mana into a spear 5m long.
After that, I manipulated lightning mana to make two parallel electrical field in the vacuum which were tasked with replenishing and enforcing the spear's power while travelling through the imperfect vacuum.
Only then could I launch the spell.
As I could only manipulate lightning mana in a 20m of me, the spear could only travel 20m unimpeded. Beyond the 20m, however, the power of the spear would gradually decreases, before completely dispersing at around 50m.
It was good enough, as lightning mages typically couldn't even launch spells for a few meters.
My magic instructor was baffled and asked me how I did it. Well, I did explain it to him but he didn't understand anything. I guess this world was not yet ready for science and physics
Well, the way the spear launches somewhat resembled a railgun. Speaking of railgun, I was reminded of a certain character in an anime Marcos watched. She uses lightning to launch coins from her hands like railguns.
So, I did exactly that. I ordered a blacksmith to make me silver bullets as silver was extremely conductive and was pretty decent at conducting mana.
I prepared to launch the spell with my thumb as the trigger and the four other fingers as the barrel. Actually, I didn't need to use my hands at all. It would be much more effectively If I had used a gun since it actually had a barrel. And the 2 parallel electromagnetic fields I could have created in that real barrel was greater than what my fingers could handle.
I wanted to look cool though and the character definitely looked cool when she did it with her thumbs and fingers.
Thus, I decided to use my hands.
I put the bullet between my fingers, aimed at a nearby boulder and focused lightning mana.
I flicked my thumb to give the bullet its much needed initial force. The bullet flew out with a pale white trail, electricity crackling behind me as to compensate for the recoil. As a result,
"ARRRRGHHHH!!"