Chapter 11 - What the hell is this training?!

"Hmm… I see... So you too understand the greatness of swords, huh! Fine, then. I'll accept that explanation of yours! I know that you are hiding something from me but if you are not going to talk about it then I shouldn't pester you about it, or at least not yet…" my brother smirked again. He seems to be in deep thought of something while smirking. Yeah, I don't like that.

I smiled nervously as I got chills when he smirked just now. I wonder what he was thinking at that time…

"Alright then, I think we should start training! Hmm… I wonder what we should do first… Oh right, let's start some basic physical training, how about that?"

Physical training? As in exercise? If so then it should be fine. I nodded and we immediately started. We started with 100 sit-ups, then push-ups with the same amount, squats with the same amount, and lastly running around the castle for maybe somewhere around 10 km? I'm not really sure how far we run but I just knew it was long. It was tiring but ever since I've been properly training this young body of mine, it wasn't as exhausting as what I would normally be expecting.

"Ok, that should be done… Now, this would become our daily warm-up routine from this day onwards. Since you are still quite young but you are more fit than what I initially expected, the daily warp-up would consist of: A hundred sit-ups, a hundred push-ups, a hundred squats, and at least 6.5 miles of running should be good."

Wha- This is crazy! This is what we are going to do every day for warm-up?! Is this guy serious?! I'm still 5, you idiot! Even I wouldn't be too harsh on my body like this, and yet he has the audacity of making this my daily warm-up?!

Isn't the average length of training by athletes per day 5-6 miles? How do you expect a 5-year-old like me to go beyond that?!

I only managed to go this far because I have the [Extra Skill: Enhanced Stamina] and I somehow managed to increase its rank from <Baron> to <Count> from all of these months of daily exercises. I guess it would be a good way to get stronger physically but still-

Also now that I think of it, why does this training remind me of some anime… hmm…

Anyway, this is nuts. But I guess I did this on myself when I got forced to fight back at him, but this is too extreme for a warm-up for a 5-year-old.

"And adding to that, we would also be swinging a hundred times with a sword because I primarily use a sword so it's the only thing I can teach you." Great, and now he adds this. I can't believe all of this is going to be my warm-up from now on.

Wait a minute, now that I think about it, didn't he say… I should check it out.

"Um, Aniki, you said this is what I'm going to do every day because I'm young right?"

"Yes, what's wrong?"

"Um, what about you? What is your daily warm-up like?" I'm very curious. After all, he said that this much was for young children like me that were stronger than usual so I'm curious as to what is his then.

"Hmm… Maybe somewhere around 3-5 times as much as you? It depends on my mood if I wanted to stick to the usual 300 everything with 20 miles of running or if I wanted to go beyond that…"

What?! Is he insane or something?! Isn't that too much for an 8-year-old kid like him?! God, if he is this crazy about training every day, no wonder he is so flippin strong then. This guy is a beast. I had a shocked look all over my face the entire time I listened to this monster of a guy and he just laughed at my expressions. This brat!

"Now, now. Let's start swinging swords. Let's do a hundred as I said before. Although I doubt you will get tired from doing that considering how much you blocked my attacks before, at least it will increase your strength and control over it more."

True, a hundred swings are basically nothing to me if I'm to be completely honest. Heck, even five-hundred swings are doable for me. I mean, it is due to the passive effect I have from [Unique Skill: Swordsman] that lets me able to use any type of sword with no problem at all even if I didn't learn how to use them but there are things that I need to learn in swordsmanship. Like sword skills, sword styles, sword dances, sword or weapon auras and so much more. Plus, I have knowledge about using swords, mainly kendo, from my previous life so I can use swords pretty well. Then again, I probably won't be able to beat my older brother in sword fighting if it comes to talent.

After I did a hundred swings, we started the class for real. To be honest, it's been quite a while now ever since this class started but we still haven't done any lessons yet until now.

"Alright then, I guess we should start the class then. Ok, first of all, our time is greatly limited since we took quite a while doing warm-ups, I should probably change the schedule after this, so we would only do one lesson for this day. Now normally we would only do basic swings and stuff for this lesson but since it seems you already know that, we should do a harder one. Hmm, first of all, do you what is sword aura?"

"Not really, I know what it does but I don't know how it works exactly or how you are supposed to make it."

"Alright then. That is what we will learn for today then. This is very important because learning this will be pretty useful, especially in battle."

So we are going to start with sword auras, huh. That's new. I thought it will be one of the last ones I need to learn but I guess it's different here. From what I know, personally, sword auras are basically coating your sword with something similar to your aura and then adding whatever elements you want to make it stronger or something. That is what I think is how sword auras work. I wonder how sword auras work here.

"Now then, first. Do you know how to cast [Body Enhancement], right?"

Of course, I know that. That is one of the first spells that anyone can learn. It is pretty simple and it is pretty useful as well. Oh wait, now did I think about it, did I not use [Body Enhancement] on me when I fought him? Well, that's pretty stupid for me to do. I should probably remember to cast it on me whenever I fight.

There is also that one type of [Body Enhancement] that uses your aura and mixes it with something to do the same effect but I wonder why he is talking about it. Wait, don't tell me he is talking about-

"Huhuhuhu, from the look on your face, it seems you understood what we are going to do, right?"

"B-But, will that actually work?!"

"Of course, after all, that is how you start making a sword aura. It is less refined than the actual thing but this is what you need to learn first before you start learning actual sword auras. Learning this will let you learn sword auras quicker, trust me. Plus, you seemed to be talented in magic from what I heard from our sister so you should be able to learn it quite quickly."

Dammnit, so it is true. I've actually never thought of that but that actually makes sense. First of all, the [Body Enhancement] spell is under the [Normal Type] of magic. [Normal Type] is basically any spell that uses the raw power of magicules without any elements or basically any raw energy that doesn't have anything in it. It's easier to think of it as a blank sheet of paper with nothing on it which you could then manipulate to turn into what kind of element you want. If he is thinking what I'm thinking, it means that I'm supposed to cast [Body Enhancement] or something like that on a weapon to create a pseudo-sword aura. Maybe I could also use my aura to make this as well.

After all, an aura is just some kind of force, or energy, or pressure that one exerts depending on how strong they are. Auras are kinda like a [Normal Type Magic] or pure energy which changes depending on what you add to it, like [Demon Lord's Haki] which is an aura that Demon Lords possess due to their incredible strength and can cause a lot of negative magical effects to anyone who feels it due to the added magicules in it causing a lot of harm to anything who can't resist it.

However, manipulating aura is different than magic, as it cannot be 'acquired' like you can from getting a skill but it needs to be achieved by directly manipulating the energy, which is called [Arts]. Is this guy for real? So he is basically telling me that I need to learn [Arts] to learn how to use sword auras. So I need to learn this first, huh. I could at least try to do this since I can feel the flow of magicules and such from [Magic Sense] so I could probably feel the energy as well. The problem is how am I supposed to manipulate it.

Maybe I can try this. I closed my eyes and started to concentrate. I need to imagine the energy around the area and in my body and manipulate it to flow into my sword and condense itself, just like manipulating magicules. After all of the energy condensed into the sword, I need to spread it to coat the entire sword. Gently even it out to cover the whole sword and-

"Woah, what the hell?! You already succeeded it on the first try?!"

Eh? What is he talking about? I already managed to do it?! I mean it's just a pseudo-sword aura but it should be good, right? I slowly opened my eyes without losing any of my concentration and there I saw it. Invisible energy in a form of some sort of blob is coating my sword, it feels kinda heavy for some reason.

"Well, at least I made something of a sword aura, right?"

"No, you are wrong."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"Tomo-chan, you didn't make something similar to a sword aura, you managed to make a real sword aura!"

"What?!"