Augmentation

"The usual rules apply for this sparring session." Elias towered over Sebastian as he went over the rules again. "You've done this for the past few days so you should be familiar by now. We use our weapon of choice. If your opponent surrenders, is unable to fight, or the weapon is knocked out of their hands then the spar is over." Elias held the wooden long sword in one hand. With his physique, it looked like any normal wooden sword.

"I understand. I'll be in your care again." Sebastian looked confident compared to a week ago. He now properly held a regular length wooden sword with both hands. Out of all the weapons that he tried, he found that a regular sword was suitable for his fighting style. He wasn't confident yet with wielding two swords so he was content with one sword for now.

"When I say begin, the match will start and when I declare it finished, both of you must stop immediately." Rivie was overseeing their match as usual. It may have been because of the assessment incidents that she was a bit more cautious than before. In this regard, she was the best arbiter.

Sebastian slowed down his breathing and focused the mana inside him. '[Augment] Reinforce eyes, open nerve synapses, partially block pain receptors.'

"Begin!"

As soon as Rivie gave the signal, Elias took the offensive. He tightened his muscles as he dashed explosively towards Sebastian. "I can see you use [Augment]! Let's see how you fare with this!"

'Tense right leg muscles, tense left calf, tense right arm and shoulder. He's going to spin and lead with his centrifugal force! [Augment] Reinforce right arm muscles.'

Sebastian raised his wooden sword to block his right side. As soon as he was just able to raise his sword, Elias came like a hurricane. A few steps before colliding head on, Elias spun to his right side and placed all his weight on his long sword. He was surprised that Sebastian was already blocking him. Elias had a lot of power and strength, but he was by no means slow.

Bam!

'[Augment] Reinforce leg muscles.'

Sebastian used the force from Elias' strike to spin. Planting his right foot firmly on the ground, his left foot drew a circle as he aimed for Elia's temple.

"I can see your kick! You should be faster than this!"

Sebastian's foot almost hit Elias' temple if his hand didn't block it cleanly. He firmly grasped his hand as he held on to Sebastian's ankle tight. "You are unbalanced now!" Elias started the motion to swing his long sword horizontally. At this range, Sebastian looked like he would be unable to block it.

However Sebastian wasn't planning on blocking it in the first place. He calmly shifted his entire body one step back - it looked like he merely did a simple hop. This small movement was enough to break Elias' center of gravity. He stumbled a few steps, in the process releasing Sebastian's foot. He took a couple of steps forward before he was faced with Sebastian's wooden sword to his neck.

"Finished!" Rivie emphatically shouted. Even if they used wooden weapons, she somehow treated their mock matches with urgency as if they were real.

"You really fight unconventionally using your agility and flexibility. It always seems that you use my strength against me. This is your win." Elias calmly put his wooden long sword back into the weapon rack as he wiped the sweat off his furrow. The mock match was their ending routine to their morning lessons. He was really impressed with Sebastian's explosive growth the past week. He was definitely a far cry from the person he one-sidedly beat to the point of exhaustion a week ago.

"With Rivie's guidance, I was able to hone my [Augment] skill. I used it to read your muscles and to prepare myself. If it wasn't for that, I would have been broken in half by your spinning strike." Sebastian also put his wooden sword back on the weapon rack, drinking a mouthful of water after.

"Your [Augment] skill is really impressive. It makes up for your deficiencies. Considering that you never had a serious close quarter combat since a few days ago, your growth has been really good. Before you finish the training regimen, I want you to try using two swords. It will be really different from handling a single sword."

"I agree. If I am to deal substantial damage to an enemy, then I would like to try wielding dual weapons. If I can manage that, then I feel that I would be more efficient to the party."

After lunch, it was Rivie's turn. As usual, she administered her lessons about mana and magick while Elias attended to the adventurer trainees. She stood facing Sebastian in the courtyard, exuding her mana in a calm demeanor.

Sebastian appeared to be meditating as he was coursing his mana throughout his body. He was slowly manipulating the mana in his body to reach all the nooks and cranny within. Being able to manipulate his mana at a fast speed was the base of his skill which they appropriately dubbed [Augmentation]. While he was doing this, Rivie was enveloping him with her mana. She did not want to risk him discharging his mana accidentally again. If needed, her mana would act as a blanket to seal his. It was technically difficult, since manipulating your own mana to affect another person's mana needed a lot of processes in between.

When Sebastian opened his eyes, he was staring at Rivie's smiling face. "Now that your mana manipulation is at this level, let's try to hone your magick abilities."

Sebastian quietly nodded as he opened his hand and called out "[Light]". He produced a ball of glowing light as he moved it around him seemingly at will.

"Well done. Also well done for remembering to call out your spell name. Remember that when you are in a party the other party members will be unable to know what you are planning or casting. There is no requirement to chant loudly in this world, but when you're casting destructive spells, it's important that you don't hit your party members by accident. Letting them know beforehand is a proven method for them to cooperate and anticipate as well."

Rivie moved aside as she stood beside Sebastian this time. "Hit the practice targets in front of you with elemental spells this time. Remember to call out your spells - make it a habit."

Sebastian nodded as well. He knew that he needed to be calm when using magick. Being literally burnt by his mana etched a deep respect for it. He then channeled the mana to his hands as he mentally processed what he wanted it to do. "[Fireball], [Ice Lance], [Lightning Strike]." He deployed offensive elemental spells in turn as he called them out. They looked a bit weak, but it was also due to him consciously limiting his mana.

"Well done. I can see your self-control and it is indeed commendable. You kept in mind that we are in a courtyard. If you had used a lot mana there would definitely be accidents." Rivie motioned for Sebastian to sit down and have tea with her. The herbal tea she provided during her lessons were infused with mana replenishing leaves so that they both wouldn't suffer from mana burn out.

"You have definitly improved since the last few days. I feel as though we were pushing you hard in the early days but you managed well. Human growth is really impressive no matter what era or what world you are from."

"It's also due to both of your teachings. I've learned that most fledgling adventurers don't even have the luxury of having a personal tutor unless they were from a noble lineage."

"That is true, but you are a Forgotten One. You are important to this world in more ways than one. We might not be desperate as we were centuries ago, but you still have exotic information that can affect the world. Speaking of which, how is your interactions with the rest of the city, have you gotten used to it yet?"

Sebastian chuckled to himself. Rivie definitely acted as his therapist especially after the assessment incident. She kept asking and was genuinely worried about his adjustment to his current environment. The second half of her lessons was usually about her checking on his mental state. He was grateful for it considering his support systems in this world could be counted on one hand.

"Yes, I'm adjusting quite well. I've been talking with some of the common folk in the marketplace, in some shops, and even in the adventurer's guild. It definitely helps when I tell them that I'm from the countryside. They take time to explain things to me although there were times when they tried to swindle me from my money."

"Well it can't be helped since we can't tell people blatantly that you are a Forgotten One. It would definitely cause an uproar and they might even have you give lessons or have an audience with nobles for days on end. Seeing as how you wanted to be in the frontlines or adventuring, Leo, Elias, and I thought that this course of action was important. Do you still have money left?"

Rivie was of course referring to the pocket money given to Sebastian by the previous Forgotten One. The previous Forgotten One personally experienced started off with nothing in this world and had to start from the ground up so he set aside a couple of hundred pieces of gold for the next Forgotten One, namely Sebastian.

"Yes, I still have it. I don't have anything that I want to buy or personally need so I don't spend much aside from the usual toiletries or food. The amount is really extravagant as well so I don't think I can use it up easily." Considering that 1 gold coin was equivalent to 100 silver coins, and 1 silver coin was equivalent to 20 copper coins, he had enough to last him for his lifetime even if he didn't do anything and just lazed the days away. This was also taking into account that a piece of freshly baked bread only costs 15 copper coins, and hard bread costs 5 copper coins. Even if he bought mediocre adventuring equipment, they only cost a few silver pieces. It was definitely more than enough. He could even buy a house immediately if he wanted to.

"Ah yes, this reminds me. Elias has decided that starting tomorrow you will start training in group combat since you might be close to adventuring by yourself soon. You can look forward to that."

This declaration caught Sebastian by surprise. He started to wonder who his party members would be and how they would manage group tactics as fledgling adventurers.