Advancements and Problems

After the first read through of the guide on arcane blacksmithing Jien had a lot to think about as he worked to imprint the knowledge with the use of his spell. It took him the better part of a month and a half to finally absorb all of the text from both the formation and blacksmithing guides. During that time he continued to work hard on his training routine with his mentors. They continued to push him harder as time went on and he often found himself with less time to absorb the knowledge between necessary rest and training.

Still, the harsh training did allow him to make some small breakthroughs. The weight training allowed him to gain better control of his movements, allowing his performance in combat to become smoother and more precise. He was forced to try and always act in a way to not waste energy and effort. This in combination with Emily and Mark constantly pushing him just a small bit past his very limits allowed him to grow at an astonishing rate.

Jien, unlike many other noble descendants had not been forced by his father to train from a young age. This was something that many lords would look down upon as it was considered highly important to prepare their children for the time that they would be thrown into the fires of the endless war. However, Earl had decided to let Jien live his childhood as a child rather than forcing him to be a warrior from the time he could stand. This in turn meant that Jien would have to work harder than all of those that had been trained for such a long time, just to make it to the same heights of prowess.

By pushing Jien to his utmost limits and beyond on a consistent basis Mark and Emily were making up for the time lost during his childhood as best they could. His consistent and steady growth was bringing him closer and closer to the level of his peers but his skill was still a rough gem waiting to be polished. Some of the other improvements beyond his physical prowess were related to his use of mana. As they continued to increase the level of mana restriction on the items that they had him wear his control of mana was becoming stronger and more refined.

Where he once would be struggling to pass his rapier to his off hand now he could do so with only moderate difficulty. This wasn't a matter of physically passing the blade but more of controlling its' movements using wind spells. This of course was far from a perfect solution, most of the time too slow to allow him to spar with his full potential. Still, he did on occasion manage to succeed in maneuvering the blade using wind spells to sweep the rapier quickly into his other hand to then act. Not to mention that his improvements in the use of his off-hand were improving greatly as he went along. being forced to continuously use his off-hand during his daily life had led to the habit of doing so whether he intended to or not. Of course, his off-hand was still sloppy. No amount of effort would make one ambidextrous in such a short time if they were not so originally.

Despite the strain of his training he had finally managed to make it through imprinting all three beginners guides and this had brought a bright smile to his face. Every time he thought of a material, theory or concept from one of the three guides he would receive not only what he was looking for but also a swarm of supplementary information. At times this wave of extra information would bring up interesting points and at other moments it would bring him close to a headache. This ultimately led Jien to a single conclusion, though he may be able to imprint a vast pull of knowledge into his mind, that didn't mean that he would be able to process that amount of information all at once.

For the moments that he would touch on a topic that had vast amounts of connected knowledge it was like he was standing in vast crowd with every person talking on varying points at the same time. He wondered how those who used this spell in the past managed to control this sensation. Did they just grow used to it over time? Was there a trick that would allow him to only pick out what was most relevant to his thought process? Did the previous users of the spell just go mad due to imprinting too much knowledge? He wasn't sure of the answer to any of these questions and the only ones that would be able to help would be the lich archon or the god of tomes himself. However, he didn't have the ability to reach out to the archon on a whim and the god of tomes had been silent for a vast period of time according to the archon during his unsealing rite.

Jien wasn't sure how to approach the issue so he decided to take a break from imprinting more books until he had figured out something. Instead he turned his focus in two different directions. The first was on meditation to try and enter the mindscape yet again without casting the spell to record more knowledge. The other was to use the knowledge that he had already imprinted from the three guides and anything else that may be useful to work on his personal solution to somehow blend Serpent Vine into his version of the fencing style.

Jien wanted to see what was occurring in the mindscape when he was overwhelmed with information. If he could manage to enter that space again and see it for himself he felt that perhaps he could come up with a solution for the issue in his own way. The second goal was because he had not given up on adding the serpent vine despite his advancements in using wind spells to control the blade when it was free of his hands. Sure, if he managed to perfect the method to a large degree it would be great, but no matter how he thought about it, having the blade able to control its' own actions would be better in terms of conserving energy and mana. He just needed to understand how to make the Serpent Vine do what he wanted it to.