Chapter 106
Tempest made a face when they landed on the same clearing where she humiliates herself previously.
“It area is part of my residence. No one will bother us when we train here.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Your faces say it all.”
“I’ll have you know I’m an inscrutable ice block. No one will know what is on my mind by reading my expression.” Tempest shamelessly brag.
Cardis gave her a disbelieving glance before saying, “Let’s get to the point - weapon for physical combat. What type of weapon do you want to train in?”
Tempest didn’t clarify the issue either. Instead, she turned into an eager puppy as she describes her perfect weapon. “I want a big-ass broadsword, like Cloud’s Buster Sword. The bigger the better. I want everyone to know how strong I am. Everyone knows strong cultivators carry a heavy weapon to showcase their physical strength. My sword has to be big, strong and sharp. I want to be able to cut through the opponent’s weapon like a knife through butter. When I’m fighting, the opponent takes out their sword and I take out mine and then wha la, I break their sword with my super-duper big, heavy sharp sword. Then I beat up to a bloody pulp and laugh in their face. Then I kill them. Ahahahaha.”
Cardis closed his eyes, wondering how he can disavow all knowledge of his little Successor. It can be done. The Elders of the Eternal Spirit Guild thinks the puppet is his Successor. He can toss Tempest into the regular mage pool the guild routine accepts and train and pretend he doesn’t know her. After a few years, he’d announce Kataigida died and no one would be the wiser.
Her stupidly adorable face does have its charm.
“You mean something like this sword?” An enormous monstrosity of a weapon appeared before Tempest Sword in the Stone style, all shiny and beautiful.
Tempest began to oohhh and aaahhh over the weapon, her clear and bright eyes wide with appreciation and infatuation. She pokes here, tapped there, acting like a connoisseur seeing the most precious gift in the world.
She turned her puppy dog eyes towards Cardis, silently asking permission to wield the weapon. At his nod of assent, Tempest tried to pull out the weapon.
Like the legendary Excalibur, the sword won’t budge an inch no matter how hard Tempest tries.
Oh, lords did she try.
One hand He Master of the Universe pull out the broadsword method - failed.
Two hand Inuyasha method of pulling out a broadsword method - failed.
Two hand Tempest I-don’t-care-about dignity-just-give-me-broadsword method - failed.
Two hand If-I-can’t-pull-it-out-I’ll-dig-it-out method - failed with disastrous results.
The earth around an upright sword holds the sword in position. When Tempest tried to dig around the sword to move it, the sword follows the law of gravity and falls down, right on top of the unlucky little mole digging around it.
Tempest was squashed flat. To rearrange the famous word of a certain nerd, “Help, it’s fallen and I can’t get up!”
Cardis was watching Tempest’s antic with a bemused air tinged with resignation. On one hand, his little Successor is adorable with her silly little ways. Did she really think she can get a sword by digging it out of the sand? Apparently she thinks she could. The proof is a squashed midget squirming under a gigantic sword weighing over seven tons. On the other hand, the adorable silly little girl is the Successor fate gave to him. He can’t return her for a better Successor.
“Cardis help!”
“Finally figured out you can’t do everything by yourself?”
“Get this off of me. It weighs a ton.”
“Seven tons actually. You’ve instinctively cast [Weightless as the Wind] when the you saw the sword falling on top of you.”
“It’s still heavy.”
Cardis summoned his swords and swung it around in several arcs. There was beauty and grace when Cardis demonstrated his swordsmanship. His hand was nimble, his wrist flexible and his arm strong. Every move he executed was simple, yet complex. Complex yet simple. Calm and steady in defense, explosive when attacking. Each move reflects the unusual personality of the man wielding the sword.
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Tempest was entrance by the moves Cardis displayed. Tempest doesn’t know too much about swordsmanship but even a newbie like her can tell Cardis is skilled with the sword.
Whack.
“Ouch. Quit whacking me on the head. Even one as brilliant as I can become a fool after one-too-many whacks.” Tempest complained. She needs to put an end to his habit of hitting her head when he wants her attention.
“Did you get anything out of playing around with my big sword?”
“I don’t know why but that sounded so wrong coming from you.” Tempest eyed her teacher warily. Tempest had forgotten the man was a pervert who flirts with any female in his line of sight. It is only when ambiguous remarks comes out his mouth like that cheap innuendo did she remember to put her guard.
“Get your head out of the gutter.” Cardis ordered, affronted. He really needs to drill it into that head of hers, flirting isn’t a crime. “Well?”
“Well what?”
“So intuitive yet so stupid.” Cardis grumbled.
“I’m right here.”
“It’s exactly why I’m saying it.” Cardis once again regretted being picky with his Successor. If he wasn’t so picky and went with the mediocre mage everyone advised him to train then he wouldn’t be in this predicament. “Gain any insight to your weapon yet?”
“No.”
“Do you need everything spelled out for you?”
“It’s best to be straightforward. Ambiguity leads to misconception and misunderstanding which eventually leads to big trouble.”
Cardis just takes it as if he was training an idiot, “A weapon reflects the cultivator. Do you think a puny Red Mage like you can wield a large broadsword? You can’t even pick it up, much less hold it. Look at those puny muscles. How long do you think it would take for you to temper your body to the point where you can wield large weapon types? Keep in mind we cultivate the heart, not the body as our immortal potential.”
Tempest looked at her scrawny arms and legs dejectedly. “Never.”
“Good. You’re not a lost cause after all.”
“Hey!”
“Listen up. The spirits handle our cultivation. They are the ones who combine ambient mana with elemental energy. They are the ones who circulate the mana throughout our bodies. They are ones who strengthen our bodies. Since it is the spirits who handle our cultivation, then they are the ones who get to choose how our body is tempered. Metal and earth spirits favor a strong robust body. Plant and water spirits favor flexibility. Wind spirits favor speed and fire and lightning spirits favor explosive strength.
“I’m a fire, earth and wind mage. I have a relatively strong defense, high agility and I can burst with explosive strength. I can wield the broadsword you saw before and for a time it was all I had. I become proficient with the broadsword, but it took me four hundred years before I became good at it. For comparison sake, those who cultivate the body as their immortal potential takes less than two hundred years to become proficient with the broadsword. Those geniuses groom by the large sect can master the broadsword in less than fifty years.
“My weapon of choice is actually the sabre. I’ve spent four hundred years barely mastering the broadsword and it took me a mere ninety years to master the sabre. Of course I’m speaking of general mastery of a weapon, not the deeper mastery. And before you ask, no I’m not going to into the levels of weapon mastery. We’re mages first and foremost. Don’t forget that Tempest.”
“So you spent four hundred years doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results? Isn’t that the definition of insanity?”
“After the lecture, that is what you get out of the lesson? Questions about my sanity?”
“Hey, I wasn’t the one spending four hundred years practising with an ill suitable weapon and expecting great results. You could have picked up a cheap sabre and practise with that you know.”
“I was trying to illustrate a point!”
“Then you should have stuck with a hypothetical instead of setting yourself as the poor example.”
Cardis groan in misery. Tempest’s strange thought process is giving him a headache. He changed his mind about teaching her the basic first then sending her out to practise her spells. He’s going bury her in heaps of spells then toss her to magical beast in the mountains.
“By the way, when can I choose my weapons?”