When Maria arrived back inside the game, she was still at the previous place she had logged out, which was inside Ultima's Domain in the Void Sea Realm. She had logged off for a long time so she had missed out a lot of time to train but to the Primals, that little bit of time she had missed wasn’t anything significant. They’ve lived for eons and since time immemorial, so a few months was nothing to them.
Odin was waiting nearby on top of his horse and when he saw Maria suddenly appear, he immediately got off and walked over to greet her.
“Disciple, you have returned.”
“Yeah, sorry about disappearing for so long. Something happened that needed my immediate attention,” Maria replied.
She expected to be scolded but Odin just nodded and said, “That is fine. Now, however, we can focus on your training again.”
“Eh? Oh, yes, of course!”
“You’ve been training for so long and you’ve acquired the Supreme-series of all three of your fundamental battle skills. However, do not be proud, this just means that you have finally stepped onto the path of true weapon mastery.”
“Yes!”
Before she had to stop playing due to her health, Maria had indeed accomplished the feats that Odin had said earlier. She was quick in attaining the [Supreme Sword Mastery] skill and thanks to that, her other weapon mastery skills became easy to train and progress, so she attained the [Supreme Axe Mastery] and [Supreme Scythe Mastery] skills not long after. To normal players, learning another mastery skill really wasn’t needed because they would typically use only one weapon, and swapping weapons mid-battle wasn’t something just anyone could do adeptly.
Maria was able to do precisely this because of her Calamity’s special feature that allowed it to change forms immediately during battle without any delay. It made it plausible for her to adopt a multi-weapon and multi-technique battle style. There was also something else that happened when Maria achieved the Supreme-series weapon mastery skills. She had unlocked a new hidden resource which was called Aura.
It wasn’t shown on her status, but Aura depleted both her MP and SP gauges whenever she used them. Apparently, Aura was the prerequisite that Odin wanted her to fulfill before she stepped on the true path of the Sword, Axe, and Scythe. It was why he said that this was only the starting point for her. Anything before that was just a build-up towards this and now, things would start for real. And by for real, Odin meant this.
“Take up your arms, disciple. Now, you will spar with me!”
“Eh?”
“Oh, did you think that we’ll only be doing some boring sword slashes and the like? You won’t be able to get any better if you do not take your practice to the real stage, little one,” Odin amusedly said after seeing Maria’s surprise.
“No...in fact, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I just didn’t expect I’d be using you as my grindstone,” Maria replied as she pulled out her Calamity and transformed it into its sword form.
She had just returned to the game after being away for 2 weeks so she really wanted to stretch her body. Odin’s offer to spar with her was just what she needed. Odin smiled underneath his helmet after seeing Maria’s enthusiasm. It was without a doubt that he was definitely much stronger than her but even in the face of this disparaging adversity, his little disciple didn’t back down and instead was eager to fight.
Odin pulled out his Zantetsuken and held it aloft. He took off his helmet and threw it behind him. Sleipnir caught the helmet with its nose before flipping it onto the saddle on his back and neighed as if to cheer the both of them on.
“Are you ready, little one?”
“Yes!”
Odin kicked up a small pebble into the air as the two squared off. Once the pebble fell to the ground, Maria dashed forward, leaving behind a sonic boom as she appeared right in front of Odin and cleaved her Calamity down on him.
“HIYAAAAAHHH!!!”
Maria still hadn’t completely mastered the use of her supersonic speed during battle, but if it was just to move around in a straight line to approach or move away from her opponent, she could at least do that. Odin didn’t even lift his sword to block Maria’s strike. He wasn’t even surprised at all that she had approached him in that manner. All he did was slightly turn his body to the side and Maria’s attack missed and struck the ground.
She had wrapped Aura around her blade and this caused the ground she struck to explode. Of course, since this was Ultima’s Domain and the Void Energy used to create it was much sturdier than anywhere else, the resulting explosion from her attack didn’t really destroy the surrounding area. All it did was create a small crack on the ground where her sword had struck. Maria wasn’t surprised at all that Odin had easily dodged her attack so she didn’t hesitate in her movement as she changed the grip on her sword and using her forward momentum, pulled it out of the ground and spun her body around as she sent a sweeping strike in Odin’s direction.
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“HNN!”
Maria wasn’t pulling her punches in this spar. Her opponent was many times stronger than her and if she tried to half-ass this, Odin would probably scold her so she attacked him at full power but didn’t use any of her spells or abilities. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but she had completely forgotten about them. During the past months, she had only been using her Calamity so she had forgotten all about her other skills.
Before, she had to use her [Nightmare] skill to attain her supersonic speed but now, she didn’t need to do that. That was how much progress she managed to attain during her training. It wasn’t only that but the techniques of her attacks using Calamity. Now, she wasn’t constrained in using just one form at one time. She could now constantly swap her Calamity’s form and she chained her attacks together in one flowing motion.
Even though she was doing all of this, she still couldn't land a single blow on Odin who hadn’t once lifted his sword to block or hit her back. All he’s done so far was dodge all of Maria’s hits using just the minimal amount of movement in his actions. It did frustrate Maria, but she could only laugh because it was futile to even be frustrated at all. Frustration wouldn’t do any good for her but instead, hinder her thinking and movement so she pushed that feeling down. Instead, she decided to enjoy this moment. It wasn’t every day that she found an opponent whom she could attack without holding anything back and not have them die too early.
As the battle progressed, Maria was so invested in honing her weapon techniques that even after she remembered having other skills, she didn’t use them except for her [Nightmare] skill. In her Nightmare form, Maria’s strikes sped up to the point where her chains of attacks began to form a whirlwind around her as she didn’t slow down but continued to speed up. There was a smile on Odin’s face as he raised his sword and began deflecting Maria’s attacks this time instead of just dodging them.
“Good! You’ve forced me to start using Zantetsuken!”
“HAAH!!!”
Maria didn’t respond but continued to attack Odin instead.
“Hohoho, it seems you’ve become very focused!”
Maria hadn’t been able to play for a week so she sincerely missed the feeling of being in her game avatar. She was releasing all of that pent-up desire in this battle. Their fight went on for about 30 minutes before Maria’s Nightmare form wore off ahead of time since she was using her skill and Aura simultaneously, causing her MP and SP to deplete faster than usual.
“Good! That was very good, little one!” Odin laughed and praised her uproariously.
Maria was completely exhausted and was floating listlessly in the air as her entire body felt sore but a feeling of satisfaction and pleasure accompanied that soreness. Using the new VR Capsule had definitely brought a lot of changes to her gameplay. Before, she felt like there was some delay between her movements but now, that delay had completely disappeared and there were times where her body would react even before her mind commanded her to do anything.
This was the advantage of the Capsule which now allowed for reflexive movement to occur so it was like instead of just her mind, Maria had brought her entire body into the game. Naturally, if anything bad happened to her inside of the game, no adverse effects would happen to her real body as the Capsule now prevented things like that from happening. With her ‘body’ brought into the game, it gave her a different feeling when she moved her avatar. She couldn’t quite place what that feeling was but it was a good thing.
Maria quickly recovered from her exhaustion after her MP and SP filled up. She got up from her resting position and readied her weapon again.
“Round 2?” Maria asked as she pointed her weapon at her Primal master.
Odin smiled widely and said, “Let’s go!”
For the next few months inside the Void Sea Realm, Maria and Odin sparred continuously with little breaks in between, however, it wasn’t just sparring. After their battles, Odin would sometimes have Maria sit down and meditate to reflect on their earlier battles, especially after he saw that something had changed in her fighting technique. Whether it was positive or negative, Odin would make her reflect on their battle and he would sometimes stop the fight midway to have her do this since it was important.
He would also give her some key points to look out for and meditate on and this helped Maria progress so quickly as her weapon mastery skill’s ranks soon reached S-rank, the prerequisite rank she needed in order to evolve her skills to the next level. However, once she reached this point, Odin suddenly said that their sparring sessions had now come to an end.
“W-Why? I’m so close to reaching the next level!”
Odin patted Maria on the head and said, “I know that, but I feel that you’ve been inside of the Void Realm for too long.”
“Huh?”
“A normal creature, no matter how powerful they are unless they have a little bit of divinity in them, cannot stay inside the Void Realm for prolonged periods of time, or else their souls will start to adapt and assimilate Void Energy,” Odin explained.
“And how is that bad?”
“Once a being's soul is tainted with Void Energy they cannot leave this space...forever.”
“What? Really?”
“At most, they can send an incarnation of themselves to the other plane through a Pact but their true body cannot leave.”
“O-Oh...does that mean that I’m about to reach my resistance threshold?”
“Yes, you’ve spent almost a year inside of the Void Realm. If you go past that year, I’m afraid your soul will soon become tainted with Void Energy and you won't be able to leave.”
“...”
Maria had a dejected look on her face but this was bound to happen sooner or later. Not everything lasts and she understood this. Besides, even though she would have loved to spend more time training here with Odin, she still had a quest to finish and people on the other side were waiting for her to return. At least now, she can return more powerful than ever but she was still feeling just a tad bit reluctant to separate from Odin.
“You’ve learned so much from me and I am proud to have you as my 6th disciple!”
“A-And I’m glad to have had this opportunity to be your disciple.”
“Hahaha! As most would!” Odin chuckled and said before continuing, “Now, for your graduation ceremony, I will impart one of my techniques onto you. You will only have a week to comprehend this technique but I have no doubts in my mind that you’ll succeed.”
“I’m ready!”
Odin nodded and sheathed his Zantetsuken before moving over to Sleipnir and putting on his helmet. He turned to Maria and said, “We should move locations now. I do not want to destroy Ultima’s domain.”
“Okay!”
Maria turned towards the inner depths of Ultima’s Domain and bowed while inwardly thanking the Primal for letting her use her place for the past few months.
“Alright, let’s move.”
Sleipnir abided by Odin’s command and immediately left Ultima’s Domain with a sonic boom and Maria followed after them. She still had to struggle to keep up with Sleipnir but it wasn’t as bad as before. Also, during her last few months of sparring with Odin, she had mastered control over her speed and she was now able to move agilely in battle while going supersonic. Her level hadn’t changed, but Maria had grown so much more powerful than before that the disparity between her present and past self was comparable to the sky and the earth. That was just how much she had improved and this was only in regards to her technique.
If she added all of her skills and spells into that equation, she was now like the moon...but still, there was always someone better. If she compared and saw herself as the moon, then Odin was the sun and she was so, so, so far away from his level. Not once during their sparring sessions had she managed to land a blow on him as all of her attacks would be deflected, dodged, or parried. The disparity between their skills was just that large.
Maria knew that Odin had many other titles than just the Allfather or Iron Blade. He definitely had other titles like Sword God or Blademaster or whatever. He only used one weapon and it was to the extreme and now he was going to impart one of his techniques onto Maria. She couldn’t help but become a little bit giddy from thinking about it.
“I wonder what awesome technique he’s going to give me!”