Realms Of the Sword

After viewing his attributes, together with Byakko, Alvin left the forest and headed for [Isshin Sword Dojo] for his late afternoon physical training!

After getting there, to his surprise, he was informed that Master Koshiro would be personally supervising this afternoon's training so he was sent to an exclusive training room.

Upon getting there, he saw a middle aged man sitting cross legged on a cushion with his eyes closed.

"Sit!" without even opening his eyes, he spoke.

Startled, Alvin immediately rushed and sat on an empty mat in front of Master Koshiro. He was the only apprentice here currently.

"Master Koshiro, what are you going to teach me today? Do you intend to impart profound sword arts to me?" Alvin asked as he sat down cross legged in front of Koshiro.

Koshiro glanced at Alvin, "Will you even understand them even if I taught them to you? Without the corresponding realms, you would be doing more harm to yourself than good. We're going to discuss the various sword realms and how you can quickly raise your understanding in them to consolidate your strength."

Looking at the sword strapped at Alvin's waist, Koshiro continued "Aaron has already informed me that you seem to already have already gone through some basic combat training and have a very good foundation in swordsmanship, so we will have to skip that and move on to the next stage. That is why I asked to meet you today. Do you know about the realms of swordsmanship?"

Alvin shook his head. Even though he knew that this world had its own swordsmanship realms, knowing about it from the TV show and having an actual practitioner describe it is totally different. So he said no.

Koshiro was quite surprised at this answer since he could see that Alvin had received some form of basic sword training and had pretty sturdy foundations. He nodded his head in appreciation and started to explain,

"The realms of swordsmanship can be divided into six Stages with each stage further divided into initial stage, proficient or advanced stage and peak stage. The first stage which is the enlightenment stage is only the beginning and it's the transition from a person who uses a sword into a sword apprentice. That's the stage you are now!

The second stage is the actual beginning of mastering the sword. One has to comprehend the 'breath, frequency or rhythm of objects'. In this realm, even with an ordinary swordsman can cut steel which is impossible for a sword apprentice. At this stage, the sword apprentice advances to become an official swordsman! The range of materials that the swordsman is able to cut will determine whether a swordsman is in the initial stage, advanced stage or peak stage.

By swinging the sword with sufficient force and speed with the aid of very strong focus gained from the second stage, strong wind in the form of a compressed air projectile is created, allowing the swordsman to cut at long distance. This is known as a Flying Slash Attack (Tobu Zangeki). This is the third stage. The degree of control of your flying slash attack will determine how far you are in this stage. Being able to send only a straightforward slash usually signifies the initial stage. Controlling your flying slash attack to turn in spiraling fashions signifies the advanced stage whilst someone at the peak stage can even launched the air projectile like a piercing blast via a sword thrust. This is the Great Swordsman Stage.

In the third stage, the highest realm is when a swordsman can cut objects with the same length as his or her sword. When a swordsman is able to break this limit and cut big objects such as whole buildings or ships, the he or she has broken into the fourth stage and officially become a Sword Master!

The fifth stage requires the swords master to sense their own compatible elements and attach them to their attacks. This is a very special stage since this can be achieved by going through normal hard process to sense their special sword intent which comes with its attribute. Some swordsmen take the easier route by eating an attributed devil fruit which helps them directly skip this stage but makes it more difficult to reach the sixth and final stage. So it's usually very hard to find an attributed devil fruit eater reaching the peak of swordsmanship. By comprehending one's own attributed sword intent, one will reach the Great Sword Master Stage!

The last and final stage is comprehending special sword domain which helps the swordsman to send their flying slash attacks further. The further a swordsman's attack can reach the bigger his or her sword domain is. This is known as the Sword Grand master Stage!"

Having spoken thus far, Koshiro felt thirsty so he drunk a cup of water and asked, "I hope you grasped most of the things I just explained?"

"Yes, Master Koshiro. The first stage is basically enlightenment. The second is sensing the frequency or breath of all things. The third is generating a flying slash attack. The fourth is cutting objects longer than the swordsman sword. The fifth is attaching an attribute like fire or lightening to an attack and the last is sword domain. Divided into stages, they are Sword Apprentice, Swordsman, Great Swordsman, Sword Master, Great Sword Master and Sword Grand master! I hope I got it all right." Alvin smartly answered.

"Good job kid. You basically grasped all the essentials. Do you have any questions?" Koshiro asked.

"I have two main questions. I want to know whether there is a stage above the sixth stage. The second question is that I want to know which stage Master Koshiro is at."

"Well, there is no one ever documented to have ever surpassed the sixth stage so I cannot say for certain whether there is or there isn't. As for your second question, he he…." Koshiro smiled and stopped here, and with a strange smile, answered, "You'll know when you advance into the Swordsman realm…"

"Oh, I know Master Koshiro is really strong!" Alvin wasn't really surprised by this answer because he knew master Koshiro was very strong and was not expecting him to tell him his actual level.

"Ok it's getting late. Let's end today's lesson here. Tomorrow you shall begin your real swordsmanship training." Koshiro ended the Lesson and left the training room with Alvin.

As Alvin was walking out of the [Isshin Sword Dojo], he suddenly received a System Prompt:

[Ding! New information about swordsmanship gathered. Updating System Database….]

[Ding! System Database Successfully updated! New Attribute, 'Sword Realm' added to Player's attribute Panel]

When he saw this notification and looked at his attribute panel he saw the new 'Sword Realm' attribute:

------[Sword Realm: Sword Apprentice]---------