Chapter 10: I want more training, MORE!
As he couldn't forget what he heard, he decided to ignore it completely 'let's just go there already'
walking outside of the rift, he followed the directions that his phone's map said and reached a sports center 'from what I searched, it's a huge building with multiple training spots. Each place is used for diferent sports, and as for boxing and swordsmanship, they are on floor 1' as he entered the building, he showed his card at the reception desk and got on the elevator.
After reaching floor one he decided to first test swordsmanship before boxing, after entering the room he looked around.
He saw a lot of simple swords for training at the back, sorted out on multiple holes. Some swords were made of wood and some with metal.
At the left multiple sacks with cuts on their body some filled with cotton, others with hay and some were directly made of wood and metal. Some people were practicing their cutting and piercing abilitys with their swords.
At the right he saw a some people sparring inside circles made on the floor. Some attacked fastly and moved swiftly, some attacked with all they got and some others attacked slowly but steadily, pushing their sparring partner outside the circle.
And at the front of all, there were instructors. Some instructors were talking to training people, some giving advices to people who asked questions and some instructors directly sparring with people.
Aster first went directly to an instructor to ask for help "hello, I'm new here, can you teach me some of the basics?" he was very direct.
The 35 year old man stared at him and got up "let's grab a sword first" while the two went to grab a wooden sword he asked some questions "first of all, what do you know about swords?"
"I know two things, that they are for close combat and that they can be of all sizes"
"... that's all? Really?" the instructor was stunned "I tought you would know the basics. First of all, grab the sword with both hands and stand straight" as Aster followed orders, the trainer continued "now do some simple swings"
"ok!" and he started moving his sword 'and slash, and slash, and slash....' He continued slashing while hearing the trainer's advices.
/skill "simple slash Lv1" has been obtained/
/simple slash Lv1: slash damage and speed +0%/
"good, good, you are doing better, now let's continue with other things. What do you think is important for swordsmanship?"
"having a trained body, right?"
"yes, that's correct. But it's not only that, you need to have good breathing and balance. For the breathing, you need to control it, cordinating it with your movement. And for the balance, you need to learn first the basic footwork. What do you want to start with?"
'mmh, I think my breathing is good, but let's test it with swordsmanship' "I want to test my breathing first"
"ok, it's really simple. You just need to breath at the same rhythm while using the swords. Now let's see how long can you mantain your breathing's rhythm" as he said that Aster started swinging his sword with a constant breathing. And he continued for 20 min.
"ok, that's enough. You have good breathing and dexterity, so you don't need to train it for now. Now let's go with the basic footwork, first stand straight and move your left foot backwards....."
And as he started teaching him, Aster listened clearly and focused on understanding it and doing it.
-30 min later-
/skill "basic footwork Lv1" has been obtained/
/basic footwork Lv1: while using it, movement speed and evasion +0%/
After learning the basic stance, the advancement, the positiong of his feet and all the other basic things, he was finally able to obtain the skill.
"ok, it seems that you got it. Now after learning these two things we should look on how you use a sword against someone, let's go to the sparring circles" as they went towards a free circle, Aster looked around seeing people fighting against other people with wooden swords, sometimes winning and later losing, but they didn't stop unless they had to go away. After reaching a free circle, they entered it "ok, try to defend yourself from me. 3, 2, 1, now!" as he ended the countdown, he fastly got closer to Aster. As aster predicted the attack with his premonition, he fastly moved his sword to stop the trainer's sword from hitting him, but after defending himself constantly he started feeling discomfort on his body
"ok, let's stop for a moment. While you have good reflexes, you are slowing down, that means you are doing something wrong while defending yourself. Try to identify what you did wrong"
'what did I do wrong?... I'm breathing calmly and using the footwork correctly, is it my arms?' "I think I know the problem, let's continue" after observing his arms while defending, he saw how much they moved too much, sometimes unbalancing his body and having to put extra force on his muscles.
After seeing that, he calmed himself and tried to defend himself by moving less and less, until he was able to protect himself without any discomfort.
"amazing, you are a fast learner, that means you will reach places in the future kid" the trainer said, surprised on how fast Aster was learning from his mistakes.
"I'm not a kid, in just a year I'll awaken"
"then you better train a lot, that way you will have better opportunities in the future. Now let's reverse this, attack me and I'll defend myself, if you hit me then you can go train with other people" the trainer said while putting a defensive stand.
"ok" 'let's try it' after getting ready he started attacking the trainer, but he wasn't even capable of hitting him after multiple times.
*pant* 'it's harder than I tought' Aster started to concentrate on the ways the trainer defended himself, trying to find the weaker area to attack while not stopping attacking. After observing for some time, Aster continued attacking until he fastly changed his movement and hitted the trainer on the knee.
"ouch, didn't expect it to get hit there like that, you did good. Well I suppose I should go to wait for more people then, bye bye" before going away, he said something else "also, if you want to fight with someone you can wait in a circle or go to another one with only one person inside" after saying that he went to the area where the trainers waited.
/skill "simple swordmanship Lv1" has been obtained/
/simple swordmanship Lv1: sword affinity +0%/
"thanks" 'what a good man. And now...' while thinking about where to look for someone to train with, a person approached him.
"hey, wanna train with me?" said, the slightly blonde 20 year old girl, while smiling at him.
"oh ok, but I have to go to the bathroom first, wait a sec" as Aster said that he went fastly to the bathroom and while at it, he observed his skills.
/passive skills/
/pure breathing Lv4>9/blood production (awakening) Lv25/understanding Lv7>10/premonition Lv2>4/the six senses Lv2>4/multi-task Lv15>20/calligraphy Lv1/evasion Lv1>8/remembering Lv1>3/simple swordmanship Lv1/mana storage (sealed) Lv1/
______
/active skills/
/adrenaline rush (awakening) Lv25/fast thinking Lv8>11/cultivation Lv1/deep slumber Lv1>4/bullet speed Lv1>4/relaxation Lv1>2/blood manipulation Lv15>16/flesh manipulation Lv1>2/roar Lv1>2/strong punch Lv1>2/strong kick Lv1>2/simple slash Lv1>5/basic footwork Lv1>5/
"ok, it's going well, but I have to awaken blood production and adrenaline rush." 'let's see... blood production... the blood is created inside the bones, let's try observing how it's made' while staying for a bit inside the bathroom, he felt the blood produced by the marrow inside his bones. He felt that his blood was different after awakening and obtaining blood production, he felt it's quality increased from before, making it capable of slightly storing energy inside of it. He observed it until he knew how it worked at it's fullest and to try and enhance it even more. After 1-2 minutes, he was finally done.
/"blood production" has evolved into "blood creation Lv1"/
/blood creation will now give +0,5% more/
/blood creation Lv1: blood quality +25%/
'now I can accelerate the creation of my blood Whenever I want. But by doing that, my metabolism will increase by as much as my blood creation'
After alredy awakening his skill, he went again to the sparring circle.
"I'm finally back, let's spar now. But first, let me introduce myself. I'm Aster, a newbie swordman who will awaken in a year"
"I'm Sophie, a midly experienced swordman who has awakened mana a year and a half ago, but of course I will not use it while sparring with someone who hasn't awakened yet, and now that we have introduced ourselves let's fight alredy!" Sophie said with a lot of excitement "For your first day and to be able to defeat a trainer, you must be stronger and more talented than other people, so don't hold back with me!"
"ok, ok" Aster started observing his opponent 'she looks strong and her body seems to be in a very good shape, some cm taller than me, while she is a bit thin her muscles are noticeable, and while looking at her eyes I can see a fire in them. Yep, she seems to be a battle maniac, perfect to train my skills fastly'
As the both of them took their positions, Sophie said "the first one to win 10 fights will be the winner of this training. 3, 2, 1, NOW!"
Because she wanted to test Aster's strenght first, she entered a defensive stance while Aster got closer to her. He slashed towards her torso, and when that didn't work he changed towards other parts of her body.
As she observed the strenght that Aster's body was capable of using, and after that, she stopped her deffensive stance and started attacking.
Aster felt danger coming from multiple sides and dodged them fastly, but as he kept dodging she was getting used to his movements and started predicting his next steps. And as Aster dodged to the left, he felt danger coming to his head, he tried to stop it with his sword but the hit was so strong that his sword fell from his hands, hitting him in the head.
*smack* "OUCH! that hurt..." said Aster as he fell down.
"of course, that's why I told you to don't hold back, now we are 1-0"
"ok ok but I alredy told you, I'm new with the swords, so I need to get used to it" he was getting up after recovering from the hit "now let's continue"
And they continued to fight multiple times, and as time passed, his skills were leveling up, making it harder for him to lose. After several losses, he was finally able to win a fight.
"finally, you've won one battle out of the seven we had. Now keep it up and let's continue!" Sophie said, almost screaming it.
"OK!" Aster yelled, alredy getting infected with her fighting spirit. And as Aster continued to fight and after some time he, noticed something with his skills.
/"premonition" has evolved into "prediction Lv1"/
/prediction will now give +0,5% more/
/prediction Lv1: future knowledge +25%/
/"simple swordsmanship" has evolved into "evolving swordsmanship Lv1"/
/evolving swordsmanship will now give +0,5% more/
/evolving swordsmanship Lv1: sword affinity +25%/
/"basic footwork" has evolved into "evolving footwork Lv1"/
/evolving footwork will now give +0,5% more/
/evolving footwork Lv1: while using it, movement speed and evasion +25%/
/"simple slash" has evolved into "strong slash Lv1"/
/strong slash will now give +0,5% more/
/strong slash Lv1: slash damage and speed +25%/
/"adrenaline rush" has evolved into "power rush Lv1"/
/energy rush will now give +0,5% more/
/energy rush Lv1: while activated, strenght, speed, mana and thinking +25%/
After Aster noticed his skills evolve, he was hitted on the chest.
"10-4, I win" Sophie said happily "that was some good fights, but I have to go now. Next time you come here search for me to train some more, bye bye" Sophie turned around, put the training sword on it's place and went away.
*phew* 'she is a monster while fighting. Now let's go see the boxing part'
-meanwhile, outside the training grounds-
Sophie was on her way to her house when she was stopped by a huge well dressed man.
"good evening, lady Sophie. Where have you been?" the man adressed her with delicacy.
"Fuck off, I don't want to talk with you" but Sophie was the opposite while responding him "I don't want you telling my father about anything that I'm doing"
"... lady Sophie, your father cares about your well being"
"yeah, yeah, and also for his 7 other children, right? Now let me go home"
"..." *sigh* "ok, lady Sophie" and as they ended their conversation, the man dissapeared and Sophie went home.
-some hours later, at Aster's room-
"today was a really productive day, the boxing training wasn't that hard but still helped me out a lot, and at swordsmanship I met to a strong training partner" 'If I keep doing things like this I'll get myself strong very fast... well as a low-mid awakener, of course, there's still the higher ranks of power. I think they were: low>mid>high>peak>false king>true king. And the titles of true king is taken only by the first three kings'
Aster was thinking while grabbing some things before taking a shower 'we will study that on grade 9, so first I have to train as much as I can'
And so, he washed up and went to sleep.
as for the next days , he trained as much as he could. From training his skills on the forest, in the training grounds and even on his house, he focused on all his skills. He evolved the two last remaining skills, multi-task into multi-tought and remembering into mental library.
After they evolved, their levels slowed down, making it harder to increase on power. But he still continued, reaching monday again, the day to recieve the results of the exams.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I think I'll put on every chapter all the skills here.
/skills Lv-/
/obtainment/skill silencing/skill library/skill sealing/
/passive skills/
/pure breathing Lv9>23/blood creation Lv1>12/understanding Lv10>24/prediction Lv1>16/the six senses Lv4>18/multi-tought Lv1>14/calligraphy Lv1>16/evasion Lv8>21/mental library Lv1>14/evolving swordmanship Lv1>17/mana storage (sealed) Lv1/
_________
/active skills/
/power rush Lv1>15/fast thinking Lv11>26/cultivation Lv1/observation Lv8>19/deep slumber Lv4>13/charged jump Lv4>19/bullet speed Lv4>19/relaxation Lv2>16/blood manipulation Lv16>29/flesh manipulation Lv2>23/roar Lv2>14/strong punch Lv2>21/strong kick Lv2>21/strong slash Lv1>19/evolving footwork Lv1>17/