Chapter 7
Alex:' I can train my magic manipulation and meditation later on, for now, I should go in the main courtyard to see if I can find an instructor that helps me.'
When he arrives in the courtyard he sees several people training with different kinds of weapons, there are swords, spears, bows, shields, and even axes, all of these weapons are made of wood so that even if they were to hit someone for error, the damage wouldn't unrepairable.
In the middle of the courtyard, there is covered in scars, he is wearing a sleeveless shirt, with black pants and what looks like sandals, his eyes are stone cold while looking at the people training, and if someone were to resist the cold aura he emits and look at his face they would see disgust.
Alex understands that he is the instructor and he approaches him.
Alex:''Excuse me sir.''
The man turns towards Alex, the height of the man is around 1.90 meters, while Alex is only 1.75 meters, so Alex had to bend his head to look at him.
The man is surprised by the fact that he can watch him in the eyes, without shivering, but he ignored it since it isn't a hard thing if you have the right skills.
Man:''What do you want kid?''
Alex:'' I was told that here you can train your combat skills, are you the instructor?''
Man:'' Yes, my name is Roshi, you will call me teacher, go choose a weapon, and then I will help you unlock the skill for that weapon.'' He says while indicating a rack full of wooden weapons.
Alex:'' Do I have to choose only one?''
Roshi looks at him, usually new arrives only pick a weapon, this is the first time that a new face wants to immediately practice multiple weapons.
Roshi:'' No, it will take longer but you can pick how many weapons you want.''
Alex approaches the rack, and he begins to look for weapons that interest him, the first weapon is a long sword, one of the most common weapons but also one of the most versatile ones, the second pick is a short bow, and the third one is a halberd.
He gets back to Roshi, with these weapons in his hands, on his back a quiver with some wooden arrows for the bow.
Some of the people training look at him as if he was an idiot, choosing 2 of the hardest weapons to master and then a bow, one of the most useless weapons unless you have arrows and you know how to use it.
Alex gets to Roshi and shows him all the weapons he chose.
Roshi:''Intresting picks, let's begin, first we will unlock your Longsword swordsmanship skill.''
He snatches the other 2 weapons and the quiver from Alex's body and leaves them on the ground.
Roshi:'' Go towards those training dummies and hit them with a two-handed slash, when you are able to leave a dent on its body the skill will appear.''
Alex listens to Roshi and does as he said, he goes towards the dummy, and replicates the sword fighting position he always saw in animes and films, he also applies the same theory he was reached when he practices karate, which is to never leave weak points or easy targets.
He puts his right for right behind his left foot with the side of the foot in front of the hell of the left foot, the left foot instead points at the dummy, his right hand holds the lower part and his left hand the higher part, he raises the sword and...
*TING
Just like we all expected the sword when entered in contact with the dummy was repulsed away.
Roshi was behind him and his face was full of surprise.
Roshi:'His stance is perfect for a beginner, what he lacks at the moment are strength and technique.'
Roshi:''Kid you s-''
Before he could finish, the sound of something tearing could be heard, the sword on Alex's hand is pointing at the ground, and a smile appears on his face when he sees a tear in the clothes of the dummy.
He immediately opens his status and in the combat skills part, there is a new skill.
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<Skills>
Combat skills:
Basic Longsword swordplay Lv.1
You know how to swing a long sword and not hit yourself, when you use a longsword to fight you receive a minimal boost in strength, agility, dexterity, concentration, and intelligence.
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If before Roshi was surprised, now he is shocked, if not even scared.
Roshi:'It took him 2 swings...2 SWINGS, I had to practice the basic for more than 12 hours to unlock the skill, and in 2 swings he unlocked the skill.' Even though he is shocked, in his face, there are no emotions.
Alex:''Teacher, is this enough?''
Roshi:''If you unlocked the skill then yes, now let's practice your halberd skill.'' He says while tossing the halberd at Alex, curious of how long it will take for this one.
The halberd is way heavier than a long sword, so it takes some seconds for Alex to adjust himself to the weight, he grips the halberd in the lower part, near the ending but still leaving his pommel free so to be able to use it as a weapon, and in the middle.
Roshi:'' The theory is the same, you put a dent in the dummy, skill unlocked.''
When he sees Alex ready to begin training, he also begins to count the swings.
1 swing
2 swings
3 swings
4 swings
And at the fifth swing, another tear appears on the dummy.
Roshi:'...5 swings, am I dreaming or something? I would love to ask who blessed him, but unless to wants to say it, I can't ask'
While Roshi is thinking to himself, Alex reads the new skill the unlocked on his status.
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<Skills>
Combat skills:
Basic Halberd mastery Lv.1
You are able to not be crushed when using a halberd, good job, when you use a halberd you get a small boost in strength, and a minimal boost in agility, and dexterity.
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Roshi:''G-Good job, the last one is the short bow, this one will be different, to unlock the skill you need to consecutively hit a target with the arrows, if you were to miss even once, you will have to retry, for a short bow you will need to hit the target 5 times.''
Alex picks the bow and copies Legolas's stance.
He pulls an arrow out of the quiver, he attaches the arrow to the string, he pulls the string, and when he feels that the string is about to break he releases the arrow.
The arrow flies, but it doesn't hit the target, it flies near but not near enough.
He tries again and again, the arrows sometimes hit some times they don't.
After more than 1 and a half hours he is able to hit the target 4 times in a row.
Roshi:'' The last one.''
Alex takes a deep breath, readies the arrow, he releases the arrow and it hits.
Roshi:'' Good job, you have unlocked 3 combat skills in a day, it isn't an easy task since the last most talented kid was only able to unlock two in a day.''
Alex:'' That you teacher, I think that for now, I will continue to train my swordsmanship, do you have any suggestions?''
Roshi:'' Find a partner, fighting is the best way to develop a fighting skill.''
Alex immediately thinks of Gustav.
Alex:' I will ask him if I can become his sparring partner when I see him.'
Alex:'' One last question, what is the best way to develop the mana manipulation skill?''
Roshi's face is now covered in fear.
Roshi:'He must have arrived yesterday, and in less than a day he unlocked his mana, and also unlocked 3 combat skills, he is no genius, he is a monster.'
Roshi:'' You shouldn't ask me for that instead you should go to the Magic teacher, he is in that room.'' He says while indicating a red door with the word "Library" written on it.
Alex bows and then goes towards the library, when people see him already leaving they think that he has given up, and when they see him enter the library they see him as an idiot even more.
The library is way bigger than what would someone expect, it is divided into two levels, and the only light inside the room is produced by lanterns, in front of the shelves, near the door, there is a woman seated on a chair with a desk in front of her reading a book.
Before Alex could move, he feels as if something is trying to squeeze him and make him go away.
Alex:'Is this a test? To see if I have mana? Unluckily for her, I do.'
Even though he knows how to manipulate mana, the density, quality and precision of the energy attacking him are too high, so he can only partially lessen the pressure he is put under, but he still can't move.
The woman seeing that Alex is still inside and still standing puts her book down, the moment the book touches the desk the pressure disappears.
Woman:'' You just unlocked your mana core, you should meditate more, and train your mana manipulation skill.''
Alex:'' I know teacher, but I don't know how to train my manipulation in the correct way.''
The woman looks at him, she raises her hand a suddenly a book begins to levitate and goes towards Alex.
The book arrives in front of Alex and he takes it, the name of the book is " basic mana absorption and manipulation techniques".
Woman:'' Come here and begin to read the book, then choose one of the techniques and use your mana manipulation while meditating to train.''
He listens to her, he goes near the desk and immediately begins to read the book.
The book is enormous, and he sometimes has to ask for help from the woman to understand some words.
When he finished reading the book, he first checked his status, noticing that basic studying reached level 16 while his basic common language got to level 20, then he checked the time, and it is only 10:23, so he still has almost 4 hours, he checked the time because he thing he is about to do is going to take a while.
The book described how people apart from meditating, could collet mana from manipulating their mana in a certain way, the common way was to make your take the shape of a whirlpool and pull mana towards you, the higher your mana manipulation the higher the effect, in the books it was also said that there is a way to absorb the mana from the dead beast, but it didn't explain how.
Alex closes the books and immediately begins to meditate.
When opens his eyes he is again inside the dark world with his red mana core in front of him, this time he doesn't waste time trying to approach it, but instead, he tries to shape in a whirlpool by following the instructions on the book.
First, attract the maximum amount of mana you can attract from the core in a cone shape.
Second, make the cone rotate, the higher the speed the better it is.
Lastly, direct your hands towards the core, and enjoy.
Just like how the book described, a steak of impurities was being removed from the core, and the color was slowly going from deep red to light red, it continued like this until Alex felt as if his whole body was being pierced by a hot knife, he tries to resist but the pain is too much.
He is forced out of a meditation state, and he feels like he has been working out for hours.
Woman:'' You lasted much longer than I expected, and even only the fact that you were able to do it on the first try is surprising, the reason why you feel like that is that you have exhausted your mana, but you have in exchange you are much stronger than before.
Alex opens his status and oh boy if it changed, the first major change happens to his mana core.
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<Status>
Alexander Kingstone
Age: 17 years 8 months 27 days
Race: Human
Affiliation: None
Class: None
Core: Light red 56/100
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And the second major change happened to his mana manipulation and meditation skill.
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<Skills>
Secondary skills:
Basic Meditation skill Lv.23
Basic Mana manipulation Lv.33
You can manipulate mana, thanks to this skill you receive a minimal=>small reduction in magics mana cost.
Resistance skills:
Pain resistance Lv.7
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After relaxing for some minutes, the pain disappeared, he checked the time, he still has 20 minutes before the begging of the daily job, so he can ask the woman for some questions.
Alex:'' Excuse me miss, I just wanted to thank you for your help and to also ask if there are any books on how to manipulate mana in their elemental part.''
The woman doesn't speak and she does the same thing she did for the previous book, another book appears, this time its name is " Baic elements for dummies".
Alex:'' Can I take it? I will return it when I finish it.''
The woman nods.
Alex bows to the woman and then gets out of the room with the book in hand.
When Alex gets out a small smile appears on the face of the woman.
???:'' What did I tell Morgana? A monster.''
Morgana:'' He surely is a monster, but he isn't as arrogant as those idiots that call themself geniuses.'' She says while looking at Roshi
Roshi:'' Hit and sunk.''
Morgana:''... He might be able to inheart my technique.''
Roshi:'' Oh this is new, but if he is going to inheart yours, then I also give him mine, after all, he uses a long sword just like me.''
Alex is unaware of those speeches, and the only things that he has on his mind at this moment is...
Alex:' Let's hope I don't have to wash the bathrooms.'