Upcoming War

"NOW RAISE YOU SWORD AND FIGHT ME! YOU CANNOT USE YOUR TECHNIQUES! THAT IS ALL! NOW FIGHT!"

Arthur was stunned for a moment but nonetheless, he unsheathed his sword and attacked Joseph. Without techniques to rely on, although his attacks were powerful it was worse than a trained soldier so Joseph easily evaded his attack without much effort. Upon dodging, Arthur fell down on the ground getting dust all over his clothes.

Arthur got up and once again struck Joseph but the latter once again easily evaded the attack. Then, again and again, Arthur kept on attacking Joseph but falling right after.

"You put too much on strength in your strikes. Now you need to limit how much strength you put in each of your strikes. For practice, cut this piece of paper in half while it is falling down." Joseph took out a piece of paper and threw it in the air. Arthur smiled thinking it was an extremely easy task but when his sword touched the piece of paper it wasn't cut but was instead it went along with his strike.

Arthur realized at this time it wouldn't be such a simple task to do. "I'll leave you to this Arthur, once you have completed this only then we would be able to do basic training. You only have a week " Basic training? Then this task would only be the tip of the iceberg.

This week wouldn't be easy for Arthur as he came from the modern world without holding a sword in his entire life before coming to this world. Day in and day out, he kept on swiping and swiping his sword until he couldn't feel hands anymore from all his strikes.

Within this week while Arthur was trying to cut the paper in half, Rob's research was coming through as he would be finished at the end of the week exactly the deadline of Arthur's task. With all these things happening this week one could say that things have been pretty busy.

The deadline was nearing and Arthur still hasn't progressed much since day one. Tomorrow has Joseph's deadline and Arthur has extremely conflicted knowing that he had no progress since Joseph had given him that task.

Arthur laid on the grassy landscape looking at the bright clear sky with his heads resting on his arms, "Just what am I missing? I've been swinging non-stop these couple of days but what am I missing exactly?" Arthur sighed as he looked at his sword wondering on what he should do.

One of the girls advised Arthur, "Although I may not be knowledgeable in this matter might I suggest using a certain amount of strength? A strike which is not too strong or too weak and a strike which saw neither too fast nor too slow." Since Arthur had nothing else to do he followed one of the girls' advice.

This time he struck the falling paper with a weaker strike than before but that strength was converted to speed. Upon the sword hitting the piece of paper in midair it was sliced in half. "So, just power isn't needed but also speed, huh? I should've had known this since I used speed while I was in the tournament."

Joseph walked out of nowhere using Wisp Movement to appear there. "You finally got it, albeit it took you a week! Now once people understand this they still have to refine their usage of power into speed which would take a few months just to completely grasp the concept but you already did it in an instant the moment you heard her advice. This just shows how peerless you are!"

Arthur felt that all his efforts up to this point were futile as all he did was strike recklessly at the piece of paper as it fell down. Joseph put his hand on Arthur's shoulder, "Hey don't look so down, all your efforts this week wasn't all in vain as it also improved your stamina and familiarity with your own sword." Arthur realized that every word Joseph spoke were all completely true.

"As proof, here are your new stats and honestly this is extremely heaven shattering development"

Status of Arthur Reeve:

Guild: Adventurer's Guild: Bronze (Recruit)

Body Strength: 260 -> 300

Soul: 115 -> 140

Mental Strength: 150

Magic: 5

Talent: 7 -> 10

Rank: Unranked

Will:

- Will of Evolution-when exposed to a certain environment/ attribute will show signs of resistance and talent growth

- Will of THE ??? - Growth Tantamount to the ???

Arthur gripped his sword and got prepared to strike Joseph, "So, can I test my swordsmanship now?" Joseph nodded and just simply stood there and used his Rock Hardening Technique. Arthur dashed at Joseph with his sword. Now since Arthur had learned to convert power into speed he did so and his strike was faster and more deadly than before even though he used less power.

Joseph didn't dare look down at Arthur even though Arthur only has a body strength of 300 and him at body strength of 600 with Rock Hardening Technique, his understanding of how to strike has reached an unbelievable level where body strength did not matter and it could inflict damage to those even higher than his body strength.

Joseph tried to evade knowing the danger of this strike but was perplexed upon seeing Arthur's sword being swiped towards him. It was too fast, way too fast for someone who just realized this method of striking. Even with Arthur's body strength of 300 he still would be able to kill someone's body strength at 400 easily without much resistance. Although this was strong it was considering the fact that Arthur still hadn't used his Techniques, Arthur may be able to put up a good fight against Joseph at this time.

Joseph dodges the strike by a hair's breadth, even still Arthur wasn't done with his strike, Arthur then immediately prepared another strike but Joseph yelled out, "STOP! You've already proved yourself! Dear God... if you are already this terrifying by just learning a simple striking technique how scarier would you be once you learn the basics?" Joseph pondered on what would happen as his growth was unbelievable, and this growth all came from his Will of ??? - Growth Tantamount to the ???. Just who was ??? for this youth to be able to rise in such a short amount of time.

"Now Arthur, remember the scrolls which I showed you before?"

"The techniques of Wisp Movement, Rock Hardening and Full Strike?"

"Yes, scrolls aren't the only way for people to know techniques. There are too many ways to learn techniques and you could even make one for yourself which could grow alongside you. Now I give you the decision to either learn a sword technique from me or to create one for yourself."

"C-Create one for myself? Let me think..."

"No worries, even I can't create one for myself since it is too complicated. But I believe with your understanding of everything you could do it right now. It may be too optimistic but that's my thoughts. Choose one because there is a war coming."

"A war? When would this war happen and between whom?"

"In 3 weeks, the Hidden Bandit Guild backed by an unknown guild will attack this kingdom backed by the Silent Assassins Guild. Since I am hated by the Hidden Bandit Guild because I killed the majority of them and you are hated by the Silent Assassins Guild because you nearly killed their prodigy, we must expect that both sides will track us down and kill us. The Adventurer's Guild: Bronze will be aiding this kingdom so we can't expect protection from them."

"Where did you know this information exactly?"

"First, the information on war came from the other stalker that we brought to Rob's store. After that, I went and called my contacts to investigate and it seems that King Rhast as expecting this as well. And the last one, Rebecca filled me in more some details. Now, what do you choose?"

"I'll just learn your technique since we don't have much time."

"Wise choice, Arthur. Now follow me I've already set up the place where you will learn the Wisp Swordsmanship Technique. This technique needs the person to know the Wisp Movement Technique, which you obviously have and it is an even more refined technique than mine."

Arthur followed Joseph, while on the trip they went from the outskirts of the city to the mountains filled to the brim with trees. The further they went into the mountain the quieter it seemed it was as if the animals were afraid of something in the deep forest.

After another hour, they finally arrived at the destination and what Arthur saw was a simple waterfall that had water with a dark blue tint, a small cottage by the side, a lot of training dummies full of marks left by arrows and swords and, a ghostly man by the window of the cottage that seemed very faint.

Joseph went to the window where the ghostly man was peeking out of, "Father, here is the youth which I told you about that could change the fate of humanity. Arthur here needs to learn Wisp Swordsmanship from you as he has already reached your level of understanding of the Wisp Movement Technique." Arthur's jaw dropped while Joseph was talking as Joseph was extremely old and this person was apparently his father.

A ghostly man stood up and unsheathed his sword and without hesitation attacked Arthur, "Let's see how well you fare against 3 blows! If you manage to survive 3 blows from me I will teach you Wisp Swordsmanship but beware I was at Intent Rank when I was alive!"

This man who was apparently Joseph's father was Intent Rank when he was alive then that would mean that even a single finger could kill him. There would be no reason to hold back at all since his opponent was too strong for him.

Arthur used all of his techniques at once and tried to parry the first attack. The exchange did not end well for Arthur because the strength of his opponent was overwhelming causing Arthur to be sent to the wall at an extremely fast speed. Arthur spat out blood as his body collided with the solid rock wall.

"Hmph! Not bad! Although I only have 1/10th of my stats right now you managed to deflect half of my body strength which is around 1500." A smile on the ghostly man sent shivers down Arthurs spine.

Then wouldn't that mean that his body strength right now would be around 3000? How bloody scary was that! And he only had 1/10th of his peak strength, wouldn't that mean that Joseph's father at his peak had 30,000 body strength! This was the average body strength of humans? How could this little kingdom compare to them then? How extremely futile was this?

Joseph's father dashed in without a second thought and tried to slice Arthur in half but the latter had used Wisp Movement and only his afterimage was hit. "Not bad! Not bad at all! It seems that Lil' Joseph actually found a plausible heir to this technique."

Plausible heir? How could I be a plausible heir when I was just sitting back at home 3 weeks ago? Such thoughts roared in Arthur's mind but were instantly cleared when he realized he was supposed to focus on the battle.

"Prepare for the final strike, kid! Since you use Wisp Movement I'll see how good you are compared to me!"

"Wisp Movement"