8: Life Pt. 3

Taking a deep breath in I lifted the wooden stick in my hands and brought it down in a straight line. Making sure to bend slightly at the waist I maintained a rough horse stance with my feet spread underneath me. Stabilizing myself once again as I repeated the action. Each time I swung down I made sure to take the time and check my posture. Looking over at the figure of my mother teaching Finn and Mari using her real longsword as an example. Usually Dan and Eren would join us but they were accompanying a priestess to the market.

Now that I had grown a little bit more at 5 years old I was allowed to join in their training sessions. Not that mom was necessarily against it; she just thought that I shouldn't start training until I grew some muscle so that I didn't hurt my body. She knew that in Orario there wasn't much for people like us to do other than become adventurers. As well with the current state of the city she would rather every one learn a little self defense. She even roped in a couple of the priestesses, who are all now armed with shivs, and taught them how to stab someone from multiple positions in case someone tried to kidnap them.

All of this because, not only is Daedalus Street is sketchy as hell, but also because Evilus has become more of a threat then ever. Over the past few months Evilus has started to become more blatant. More specifically they have begun attacking guild members and even setting off bombs in public areas. The surge in activity after the Zeus and Hera Familias left was one thing, but now they seem to be trying to enter the next stage of their plans. Something I don't actually know and that worries me. I wasn't the biggest fan of Danmachi when I was still alive and that pushed me to train. However, one other thing pushed me even harder.

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'I. WAS. NOT. ABANDONED. THANK YOU GOD. Or gods... Or goddesses... ROB?'

My cheat was here! kind of. I don't have any clue on what system I got or whether it'll even be useful but I was hyped. The loading bar appeared the day after my fifth birthday and don't let anyone trick you, I was not cackling on my bed. However, that was not all as I actually can access a small part of the system, which is my only guess as to why it showed up now. Although, it didn't tell me anything about the system as a broken neon blue inventory screen popped up. It legit cuts off into a pixelated void about 5 spaces to the right. Currently I have 25 storage slots, 5 columns and 5 rows, and I can't move the screen or access anything past the cut off.

I did a couple of tests to make sure the bugginess didn't mess with the stuff that I put in as well as a couple of use tests. Thankfully as long as I don't put anything in the half cut off squares to the right I can use the 25 normal ones just fine. I'm never getting the half a cookie I put in the glitched box back though. It's there but the cute chibi image of the item displayed is similarly buggy and I can't take it out. Though I did fill the good slots with what I had available as a poor five year old, namely: a backup shiv, a throwing shiv, one of the actual throwing knives off of the edgy guy, and some food. It seems to be a pretty standard gamer inventory with time stop and the common limitation of not being able to store living things. I was kind of disappointed that it didn't maintain the motion of objects but at least it's something.

"Ori, are you listening darling? We are switching over to gap closing techniques."

"Ok mom."

Getting back into position I continued to practice a series of thrusts and movement techniques. Mainly shuffles and lunges while every so often there was a slide/dash. Very distinct movements that must be defined and specified according to both my past martial arts teachers and my mom. That's another thing I have been working on. Now that I can walk around with proper balance I've been trying to bring some modern knowledge into my training. Some of the modern martial knowledge has lead me to strengthening my joints and working on my flexibility with a series of "workouts" I used to do. Practicing some of the basics as well, like how to actually throw a punch, made sure I wasn't useless without a weapon. It also helped build that muscle memory and instinct into this new body. 

"Mari! You crossed your legs again during that shuffle! Don't think I didn't see that!"

"Finn! make sure you are in stance after a lunge! Otherwise you leave yourself unable to defend against attacks properly!"

Even though mom only has her right hand left she makes sure to teach us properly. She even has Bea come over to demonstrate the traditional longsword stances that require both hands. The poor dog girl had her arms give out within 15 minutes as mom had her hold that position until we all got it. Thankfully I haven't been berated nearly as much as the others and trust me, mom is not favoring me. My past experience meant that once I got used to doing the motions in this new body; the only thing I had to worry about was stamina.

Thankfully no one really said anything about it, attributing my talent to being moms child. The only thing that messed me up is I was never formally taught how to use a longsword. My training was in dual blades, spear, bo staff, and katana. Only a few katana stances or katas matched up with what we were doing. I was going off of what I had seen and copied online and being carried by the katana experience. As well, this was elven swordsmanship which focused more on speed than anything and is unique even in Orario, not to mention comparing it to earth's English swordsmanship.

Finishing up our practice for the day the sun loomed over us. It seemed at least two or three hours past noon and we had the rest of the day off. Although after breakfast, cleaning, class, training, and chores we didn't have much time in our days for much else. The now 12 year old's both collapsed to the ground while mom smiled lightly as she gave me a lap pillow. The bright sun seemed to shine through her blondish white hair in an enchanting array of colors. 

'Damn, elves are OP. I wonder if my hair does that too?'

Mom played with my hair absentmindedly as we all attempted to recover our breaths. After a few minutes though Mari was the first one to speak up, "Don' fall a sleep Finn. We still need to pick up the bread in like 40 min."

Finn grunted in response, too tired to do much else.

"Can I go with you guys today?"

Mari and Finn both looked at me for a second before just looking at mom. She had an apprehensive look on her face but I wasn't going to let her deny me again. I've been stuck inside this church for the past 5 years and I was getting sick of it! Even if Evilus is active it's not like walking out for 5 minutes in a relatively safe section of Daedalus street would kill me. So putting on the tone that I've been practicing for 4 years I reached up towards her.

"C'mon mom~. I haven't been outside at all! I wanna gooo~"

"I know but-"

"It's literally like 6 houses down! You can see it out the window..."

Tearing up slightly I pouted and tried to channel the inner anime girl inside of all of us. She seemed to physically be blinded by the strength of my pitiful face as all her arguments fell apart by her son's machinations. With a small sigh and mumble I couldn't quite catch, "Ok."

"But, you two-"

pointing at Mari and Finn.

"are taking your swords."

POV, Leana Marcellus:

Waving to Orio as the kids walked over to the neighbors house I couldn't help but clench my hands in worry. It wouldn't actually be the first time Ori had walked around but that was both with me and we didn't go further than the gate. However, I know it would be bad for my cute little son's development to be sheltered by his mother at all times.

"They'll be ok. Ori is right, we can watch over them from here."

Bea tried to lessen my worries but I had experienced loss many times before. I know we are all just one mistake away from death.

"I know, and I know I can't just leave the church unprotected with Verda out as well but... I can keep an eye from the gate, right?"