14 Training

"Char! Where were you yesterday? Didn't I tell you that you can't go home until you kill the skeleton within ten minutes ten times?" Mr. Browned Called out to Char in their next class.

He had returned to tell Char that he could go home and try again tomorrow, but when he returned to the field, he could not find the young man anywhere.

"I had high expectations of you because of your hard-working attitude, but it turned out I had misjudged you," he told the boy.

Mr. Brown thought that Char had given up after the class was over. He did not know that the boy actually finished his task.

"Excuse me, Sir. I had finished the task you assigned me, I had killed the skeleton ten times," He tried to explain to the man.

"You killed it within ten minutes??? Imp—Show me then, prove it to me that you can kill it in ten minutes," The man about to say that it was impossible for him to clear the task, but he told him to prove it instead as to not let him know that the task was impossible.

"Of course, Sir," He summoned the skeleton and told it to stand still.

Char picked up his training sword and swung it a few times. He corrected his grip a few times so he won't miss his strike.

He widened his stance and channeled his mana to the magic circle, activating it. Mana gathered around his arm and sword, sharpening his attack.

With five consecutive vertical strikes, most of the skeleton's bones had been cut in half. His precision was uncanny.

The muscled man was slack-jawed as he watched Char breaking the remaining bones with ease. It took him two and half a minute to cut the remaining bones.

"What? How is that possible? His sword can cut through so many bones! Was the physical boost always that strong?" M. Brown started to doubt himself.

"Moreover, he can actually strike with such precision, I don't know what he is if not talented!" Char's performance impressed him.

"Too bad, he summoned a skeleton. If he summoned a dragon then being a duke would not be a dream for someone as talented as him," the man lamented.

"I'm done, Sir," Char pulled him out of his musing.

"Ah, yeah. You did well, as expected of our academy's former genius," the man hurriedly said.

Char could only grit his teeth when the man mentioned 'former genius' to him. The muscled man suddenly realized his mistake and changed the topic.

"Now, since you can already kill it within ten minutes, we move to our next training, you will need to do the same but the skeleton will fight back this time."

The man had seen potential from his sword technique, but as an instructor, he could already see a flaw in the technique. It required a high concentration and precision that hitting an actual target in combat situations was impossible.

"Even if I become stronger, I'm still far behind the other in the elite class, I need to work harder!" Char resolved himself.

"You can fight back now, we will do it like sparring," he instructed the skeleton.

Once he said that, the skeleton's jaws clattered as it moved, it was as if the skeleton was laughing, it finally had the chance to fight back.

For a second, Char thought he saw a light inside the skeleton's eye sockets, but when he concentrated, it was nowhere to be seen.

Both of them were armed with a training sword. The fight started with Char activating his magic ability; the mana gathered on his sword and he swung it at the skeleton's head to split it in two like he usually did.

Clang!

The sword was pushed to the side by the skeleton's sword; it parried Char's strike to the side, while its downward momentum continued, it only hit the air since it was diverted to the side.

His last move was too big. It made him unable to defend in time when the skeleton hit him in the face with the pommel of its sword.

Char fell to his back with his nose broken and bleeding. It was painful; he activated the regeneration magic to heal himself.

"Fuck! Why is this skeleton suddenly becoming so strong?" he forgot that he had told it to keep training its swordsmanship and magic while he sleeps.

The skeleton movement was still slow and inflexible, but it somehow could still move efficiently while wielding the sword.

Char gave up on splitting the skeleton with his first strike and fought it normally to find an opening first, but to his dismay, he kept getting beaten and had his bone broken by the skeleton.

"Why do I feel like it is taking revenge on me?" he lamented as he tried to recover from his broken arm.

His swordsmanship was improving with each fight, but he still could not break all the skeleton's bones within ten minutes.

While the skeleton did not use its magic to attack him, it actually used its magic to defend against his attack so its sword would not get cut or pushed aside.

He tried to cut the skeleton's arm that wielded its sword, but when he could cut it, he received a skeleton punch on the face; it sent him tumbling back.

In the end, even after the class ended, he still could not finish the task; Mr. Brown found him still trying even four hours after the class ended.

"Char, that's enough, continue again tomorrow!" he told him.

Char could only reluctantly give up. He directly went to his bed to sleep. He could feel his muscle aching from all the training.

"I can still feel the phantom pain of my bone-breaking," he lamented as he rubbed his arm.

"I can't believe, I'm actually worse than a skeleton in sword fighting!"

Even though the skeleton had the advantage of not feeling pain or tiredness, Char still could believe he had lost against it.