There were four major schools inside of the Water Rider Academy. The strongest ones belonged to Elder Krakatoa and Elder Kahua. However, that was because Elder Kawena had only just returned to the academy. Now, for the upcoming academic year, there would be a third contender for the title.
Furthermore, in addition to Lady Naia’s school, which had snagged one of the most promising first-year students from last year, a new school had emerged and left everyone speechless with its momentous victory: Professor Iakopo’s school.
Usually, a new school would have started from the bottom ranks, and it would have taken years, if not decades, to develop into a powerhouse like Elder Krakatoa and Elder Kahua’s schools. That meant that Lady Naia’s school should have left behind the title of weakest school in favor of Professor Iakopo’s school.
However, after the events in Placid City, many students scrambled to join the man’s school despite his infamous reputation for being the most rigid teacher among them all. They had all heard about Professor Iakopo humiliating the Sword Demon with a secondary Affinity and not his main one, Space Water.
Even after the filtering that the man had operated, he had gained enough students, including strong nobles, to surpass both elder schools and cement itself as the third most powerful and fearsome school there was. Furthermore, it was commonly believed that given Professor Iakopo’s extremely demanding requirements and relentless drive for training, he would soon be challenging Elder Krakatoa and Elder Kahua’s hegemony as the strongest schools in the Water Rider Academy.
Truth be told, the fact that Lady Naia’s school was once again the weakest would have bothered Fiora in the past. Even though Lady Naia was Principal Kaimana’s main assistant and probably the strongest person her age, one generation after Professor Iakopo and Elder Krakatoa, the old Fiora would have still felt the weight of not being in the best school there was.
But the Fiora that had almost died to Apicalia’s poison in Placid City, the Fiora that had to swallow her pride and fight alongside Talia, that Fiora didn’t give a bullfish’s horn about which school was the strongest on paper. In fact, she was almost happy to be in such a weak school, knowing that people in the future would be underestimating her.
Plus, unlike the other schools that had many students, Lady Naia’s school was small enough in terms of attendance that she would routinely, alongside all the other students, get private lessons from the woman.
Point in case, Lady Naia had brought Fiora out to give her a brief lesson on something they had been working on for the past month, waiting for the Water Rider Academy school year to start again. While some people chose to sail back to their families, some just remained behind. Fiora missed her mother, but she also knew that she needed power and that this was a golden opportunity to get a jump start on all the nobles who had been training for their entire lives and had had access to all the best resources one could find.
“You have mastered the Overdrive Spiral,” Lady Naia said, “but you need to bring it to the next step so that you can have a strong single attack that you can use rapidly.”
Fiora had gained an extremely powerful Skill when she had killed Talia with it. However, Fiora had also given up several Skills and fused them into this one, which meant that her other attacks had been weakened. Lady Naia had told her that instead of just seeking power through Skills, Fiora needed to work on her fundamentals, which is what nobles would have done in her place.
Lady Naia had been very flattering, telling Fiora that not many nobles had her talent and that in another life, she could have easily been chosen if nurtured the right way. That had sort of depressed Fiora more than cheering her up. But Lady Naia told her that despite the nobles having a huge jump start on her, the progress one would make while having a Class was much larger than the progress one could make before having a Class, which meant that, in her own opinion, Fiora had still all the time in the world to become the strongest caster. A Chosen-level caster.
But Lady Naia had insisted that Fiora had to focus on refining her own control over magic instead of relying on Skills, which in the long term would cripple her magical control, not her magical abilities. And that’s why Lady Naia had explained to Fiora that a simple Sun Water spear was all she needed to focus on. Fiora needed to achieve utter perfection with that one simple Skill before moving on to anything else.
And that for the past eight months had been Fiora’s full focus together with a few dungeon dives alongside Agalei and other students from Lady Naia’s school, which Lady Naia herself had organized.
“Overdrive Spiral is the refinement of the casting cycle of a spell. Let me now explain for the umpteenth time. Using Overdrive Spiral also means wasting time, which a caster doesn’t have the luxury of once your aim is on point and your control is as well. Speed is something that every caster should strive for. If someone targets you during a fight and you cannot defend yourself while your teammates are busy, you’re as good as dead.”
Fiora thought back to when she had fought the Placid Cross Boss and how useless she had been when the extremely fast boss had attacked her directly.
“If you have mastered the spear, today I will teach you two more Skills,” Lady Naia said. “As I’ve told you, the casting process has to be perfected by focusing on the formation of the spell itself. Just recirculating the spell more times to achieve Overdrive Spiral isn’t enough. You have to work on the individual components of any spell. Once these components are perfect, once they’re flawless, even straining them by using Overdrive Spiral to its maximum efficiency, the spell should be cast in less than a second.”
Fiora knew these notions by heart, word for word. Lady Naia pointed at a target 200 feet from them, which Fiora had found absurd when she started training with the woman, but now was nothing but the normality.
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“Go ahead,” Lady Naia said. “I only have half an hour before I have to teach a group lesson.” Lady Naia was relentless in her care for the students since she didn’t come from a noble family but had grown up poor. Only Principal Kaimana managed to extract her from the class in which she had grown up.
Fiora’s arm shot in front of her, holding her four fingers extended vertically. She used them as a reference to aim and to cast a spell. In the blink of an eye, a hyper-condensed Sun Water spear shot from her fingers so fast she could barely see it leave her body. A second later, it impacted the distant target, making it explode on impact as the condensed energy of the Sun Water sphere was released.
“My, my,” Lady Naia said, taking Fiora by her shoulders and giving her a hug. Unlike the very formal and stiff elders, Lady Naia was very physical and very nurturing with her students. “Incredible, Fiora. Some of my students will never master their casting ability to this level until they graduate. It took you eight months, and you started very much behind where most nobles are once they arrive at the academy.”
“Thank you, Lady Naia,” Fiora said, bowing her head.
“This will help more than you can understand as you’ll need to cast more and more complex spells,” the tall, beautiful woman said. “Now, I would usually wait to teach these Skills until the last year, but since you displayed such an incredible talent, Fiora. I would make you, with your permission, a personal student of mine.”
“I would be honored to,” Fiora said.
“You understand, personal students have greater duties toward the School and me? I understand that what happened last year with Elder Kawena might put you off such a proposition.”
“Milady, you’re not Elder Kawena,” Fiora said. “I would gladly be more involved with the School.”
“Great,” Lady Naia said. “Then, it is time to explain how the [Chainmail Shield] and [Blink] work. Once you master them, expect to be able to take on a Boss roughly your level on your own.”
* * *
Fiora wasn’t the only one who had been subjected to special training.
Takai stood on his Mana Board in the midst of a storm—a real one, in the Deep, as he tried balancing over the large, swelling waves and holding his sword between his hands.
“The Heavenly Heart Rending Technique doesn’t depend on your level. Endurance will help, young Takai, but your power will be fully dependent on the Skill alone. The first level, Tearing, is a rough tool.”
Takai stood on his Mana Board in the midst of a storm—a real one, in the Deep, as he tried balancing over the large, swelling waves and holding his sword between his hands.
“The Heavenly Heart Rending Technique doesn’t depend on your level. Endurance will help, young Takai, but your power will be fully dependent on the Skill alone. The first level, Tearing, is a rough tool.”
Takai’s arms wildly trembled as he held onto the hilt of his sword, trying to stay still despite the disturbances surrounding him.
“Tearing will only allow you to reach the power of a Level 30 warrior. It is the first step into completely leaving behind notions of class levels and Skills. Those who practice the Heavenly Heart Rending Technique need not worry about anything else than bringing the technique to its higher levels. The moment you unlock Sundering, the second level, you will be able to defeat monsters like the boss that the students met in Placid City, and you should be able to kill monsters of Level 50.”
Takai’s entire body shook as he heard that.
“If you reach the 3rd Level, Cleaving, then no monster, not even the Kraken, at least in its first stages, will be able to resist your sword.”
Takai’s concentration finally fell apart, and he lowered his arms, breathing heavily. Principal Kaimana nodded to him and raised his hand, slashing at the waves around him. In a second, the water split and calmed. The clouds in the sky were torn apart, and the sun shone widely around them.
“There’s a 4th level of the Heavenly Heart Rending Technique, Severing,” Principal Kaimana said. “Not even I could reach it, so I won’t be able to teach you anything about it. Sundering, however, is the second level, which requires you to be unconcerned with your surroundings. It requires the user to be completely detached from everything. You are much closer than I expected you to be.”
Principal Kaimana had been personally training Takai in the past 8 months nonstop after telling the boy that he thought his time would soon come to pass and therefore wanted to teach Takai as much as he could.
“Severing,” Principal Kaimana continued, “is beyond my understanding, sadly. But as far as Cleaving goes, it’s just the next step of Sundering. You will need to detach from the metaphysical component of your surroundings, the emotions, and the care you have for others. The Heavenly Heart Rending Technique only cares about justice. Therefore, if Tearing is about disregarding anything but justice, then Sundering is the complete focus on justice despite the external circumstances, and Cleaving is the complete focus on justice despite what you feel about the people around you. I have no idea what Severing is. Not even in my old age, not even after battling the Kraken 6 times, could I tell you, young Takai, about Severing. I am deeply sorry about that.”
Takai didn’t really understand why the principal thought he had it in him to unlock what such a legendary warrior had not managed to do in his lifetime.
As usual, Takai just listened to the old man, not really knowing how to engage in a conversation and not really having anything of importance to say. Principal Kaimana extended his Mana Board, making it almost as large as a vessel and gesturing for Takai to get on top of it. The young man did, and they started moving again, probably going back to the academy since soon, the second year would start.
Principal Kaimana sighed. “Young Takai, I have not been talking about your father because I do not consider it proper for you to listen to his life from my mouth. However, I feel like before my time comes, I would like to say a few things about the man you know as the Sword Demon.”
Takai’s ears perked up.
“The day will come, young Takai, when you will meet your father again. And he will not recognize you. When a father thinks that their children will grow to become exactly what they are, and they face the stark reality of finding out that they are nothing like them, not even a broken reflection of who they are, they usually undergo the following thinking process. They might find themselves having to choose between finally recognizing that their child is not who they are, or they might try and force their life, the shape of their soul onto them.”
“Sometimes,” Principal Kaimana said, looking in the distance, “fathers have to make choices for the good of their children that their children will never, in a million years, understand.”
Takai didn’t understand the last bit. The principal spoke in such a mysterious manner, so unlike the straightforward Cultist ways of the old man.
“I don’t understand,” Takai said.
“You will.” Principal Kaimana smiled bitterly. “We can never escape our own blood,” he said, seemingly speaking more to himself than to Takai.