Chapter 22

Sitting at the lounge with Romani, Da Vinci, Ritsuko and Mash after the end breakfast. Adam attended the debrief and basically talked about what Ritsuko and Adam did in the Singularity to make a written record about their mission.

Once that was done, which took about half an hour. Everyone is free to leave but before Adam could leave and was probably heading to the training room to polish his skill that had accumulated quite some rust, Da Vinci called up to him and requested him in her workshop for an important matter.

"Hmn. Did you already finish creating Director Olga's body?" Adam wondered and made a random guess as to why Da Vince needed him.

"Oh, no. The body had long been created. What took time was the calibration process." Da Vinci replied and hummed as they arrived at her workshop.

"Come over here."

Da Vinci beckoned and entered another room which looked quite spartan with little to no furniture or decorations and only a few devices and a pod lay in the middle where a body with Olga's appearance was lying naked although only her neck and above is visible from the pod.

"I figured you should be here when I inserted the Soulstone." Da Vinci said before she got to work, interacting with the devices. Then when she is done, she produces the Soulstone and opens the pod and places the Soulstone on a magic circle that appears on the chest of the body.

Without much fancy flairs, the Soulstone submerged into the body and then for a few silent minutes they waited, the eyes suddenly opened and her first expression was that of shock as she took in her surroundings before her eyes ended on a familiar figure.

"Da Vinci?"

"Indeed, it's your beautiful and genius Da Vinci-chan. Welcome back to the realm of living, Director Olga." Da Vinci greeted Olga with excitement, partially because she technically performed the miracle of resurrection.

Olga then climbs out of the pod, unaware of Adam standing behind her. She tried moving her limbs in amazement that she is in fact still alive instead of dead while also having some headache as the missing memories started pouring back in.

"Hmn, your body might feel a little different because it is technically a golem made out of a Homunculus. So, your strength might feel different. But nothing a few therapy sessions couldn't fix." Da Vinci answered the unasked question of Olga as she looked in wonder at her body.

Not only is Olga much stronger physically, her magic circuits are of top grade connected to what she could only assume to be a Magic Core. She can be said to be a top class Magus that would make even those old monsters in the Clock Tower feel green in envy. However, that also made her realize that she lost the Animusphere Family Magic Crest. But still, she is grateful enough to the fact that she is alive.

"I see… Thank you, Da Vinci." Olga pushed aside the matter of her loss of Animusphere Family Magic Crest because not all is lost as she still has the knowledge of Animusphere Family Magecraft in her mind and their lineage's inheritance had not been severed.

"Oh, no. You thanked the wrong person. After all, even if I could create you a new body. It would be useless without the Soulstone that preserves your soul." Da Vinci shook her head and denied the thanks. "In fact, the person you should be thankful to is Adam that is standing behind you."

"Huh?" Olga turned around and finally noticed the three meters tall man in white robe watching her interaction with Da Vinci in silence.

"Ahem. Before you turn around. It may be wise to put on something first." Adam coughed and grabbed a smaller robe out of his Inventory before giving it to Olga.

"Huh?" Olga looks confused for the second time before she looks down at her body to find her still in her birthday suit.

Naturally, Olga quickly covers her body in embarrassment before snatches the robe from Adam and orders him to turn around. Adam complied with the order and turned around for a few moments until she said it's alright to turn back.

Once Adam turns around, he sees Olga sitting back at the pod with her hands covering her burning red face while complaining that she couldn't marry anymore and wanted Adam to take responsibility for it.

"I find it quite unfair that I should take responsibility for accidentally looking at your naked body and frankly, I can't say I am attracted nor am I interested in marrying a little girl." Adam shut her down bluntly while Da Vinci was enjoying every moment Olga left shocked and flabbergasted by what Adam said.

"Anyway, if my presence is no longer needed here, I will leave." Adam said before leaving the room before Olga could order him to stop.

"You! Stop snickering at me and help find me a wheelchair or something." Olga shouted embarrassedly at Da Vinci who was hiding her face away from Olga.

———

After leaving Da Vinci's workshop, Adam headed to the training room as he initially intended until Da Vinci interrupted him.

Once he arrived, he heard the sound of metal clashing against metal. It was Cu and Artoria sparring while Mash sat on the side watching with a notebook and pen writing down notes.

"Ah, Adam senpai! Have you already finished with Da Vinci?" Mash asked and offered the seat next to her.

Adam replied with a grunt and sat next to Mash while looking at her notes. Mostly about how to fight from what she observed from Cu and Artoria. Seeing the mistake she made, Adam decided to make a comment.

"Observing their battle is fine. But to copy their techniques is something that will only doom your endeavor, Mash." Adam said which knocked her out of her revere at the sparring.

"Why?" She asked, looking confused and worried.

"Why, you asked? It's simple. What weapon do you use? What weapon Cu and Artoria are using?"

Mash looked puzzled for a moment and looked at the spar and identified the weapons used.

"That's right. While some of their techniques like footwork can be helpful for you. Most are not since they are catered for their chosen weapon. As for you who wield a Shield. You require a different set of techniques which fortunately I might be able to help." Adam said as Shield is indeed part of his arsenal and one of his abilities allow him to basically learn how to wield even the most exoteric weapon effortlessly.

"Eh! Really? Adam Senpai could help me get better at using my shield?" Mash looks quite excited, probably because of her view of him as a master at everything partially due to the duel he had with the Valkyrie where he wielded a wide array of weapons including shields with great expertise.

"Of course, why wouldn't I help improve the capabilities of my allies?" Adam questioned with his eyebrows cocking upwards. "Anyway, let's move to another room. I will try to impart my technique to you." Adam said as both of them moved to another room.

For their training, Adam first drilled her about the importance of stamina. After all, no matter how good her technique is, without adequate stamina to maximize it, her technique might as well be useless. Especially so when Mash is a shield user which has to soak up attacks for the team that is very stamina intensive and she will get tired quickly as injuries accumulate.

After teaching her the stamina practice appropriate for her, Adam then start to teach her the basics of wielding shield. From how to parrying and blocking effectively to deflecting attacks and advance footworks since being a shield user didn't mean she should be stationary all the time waiting to be attacked. That is the same as asking for death.

Finally, method on how to effectively weaponize her shield considering it was too big for her to wield another weapon alongside it, making the shield her main and only weapon unless she is willing to swap it out for a sword.

"Remember, because your shield is basically unbreakable. It is an excellent weapon since you don't need to worry about bending or breaking it. Make use of its weight and leverage it properly and it would perform excellently in bashing and thrusting. Make sure you aim it at their weak points like the neck, you can easily incapacitate them or crush them to death." Adam explains while demonstrating by bashing the practice dummy into pieces. "Of course, before you can do that. You need to work with your strength first."

"I see…" Mash replied while fervently taking down notes.

Mash learned a lot from Adam in the past two hours they spent. At the end of their practice, Adam offered to spar with Mash to give her a practical test for all the knowledge she learned. She did well and managed to incorporate most of what Adam taught which left him impressed at her learning ability which was excellent.

But once Mash was done, Cu suddenly walked into the room with Artoria follow behind him as she made her way to the bench and sat down, awaiting for a good show.

"Master, you wouldn't mind sparring with me, right?" Cu said, which reminded Adam why he is here in the first place after he got distracted by Mash.

"Sure." Adam answered.

Mash joins Artoria at the bench while Cu gets on the sparring ring with a feral and eager grin. But before they start, she noticed Adam didn't put on his power armor and instead only arm himself with Titansword.

"Not gonna wear your armor, Master?" Cu asked with a slight frown, thinking Adam isn't willing to fight at his best.

"No, I wish to shake off the rust accumulated on my skill. Using borrowed power to compensate will only hinder my effort." Adam shook his head before he smirked. "Also I don't need my power armor to simply defeat you."

"Oh, I will make you regret your choice, Master." Cu said as his frown disappeared and was replaced with eagerness as he get into his stance.

They stared at each other for a moment, taking in every detail of their opponent, from the smallest movement to their breathing rhythm to the muscle twitch. Then in the next moment, both vanished and a loud clash between steel echoed through the room but their figure had already vanished and were executing their next moves.

Cu with his spear have an easier time poking into Adam's defense since he is a much larger target. However, that couldn't be much further than the truth. Cu couldn't find any gap in his defense. No matter where he tries to land his attack, Adam is ready to parry or block. It went on for a while and they clashed more than a few hundred times. Even as Cu increases his speed, hoping to outpace Adam. He would keep failing miserably as Adam could keep up with his speed that he prided effortlessly with minimal movement.

Then after five minutes of non stop attacks, both retreated for a moment to reassess their opinions. Cu knew his speed couldn't be used to his advantage and decided to try another to outwit Adam. Instead of speed and precision, Cu uses everything he has to breach Adam's impregnable defense.

In the second bout of their clash, Cu utilizes complex footworks and techniques. Circling around Adam to poke holes in his defense and bait him to make mistakes. However, he underestimated how truly skilled Adam was or perhaps it was his intuition at work. Whatever it is, Adam felt like a giant mountain before Cu. The feeling was quite familiar, it reminded him of his Master that teaches him how to fight.

"I swear, your Intuition is bullshit, Master." Cu complained as he surrendered since he couldn't do anything to break Adam's defense and Adam wouldn't take a proactive approach during the fight.

"Sounds like a sore loser to me." Adam shrugs and smiles with an irked Cu but he wouldn't go for another round knowing he would lose anyway. Instead, Cu wants time to come up with a way to defeat Adam.

Next, Artoria also wanted a turn to spar. Their spar is way different than Cu which is more focused on techniques. Artoria having more raw power could keep up with Adam and their clashes are more intense. Not to mention, Artoria have very good instinct to predict the flow of battle which made it much more intense as predicting can only go so far before they reach a stalemate and decided to settle it with explosive powers which Adam came on top after Artoria exhausted all her methods barring her destructive Mana Burst and Noble Phantasm.

"It was a splendid battle, Master." Artoria is very satisfied with their spar and so does Adam and the other two watching as the experience could only be described like two lions mauling at one another. There is no flair and only pure raw power.

*GROWL!*

The noise was like an angry dragon roaring which caused everyone to look at Artoria while she was looking ashamed.

"It's about time for lunch. Why don't we clean up and go to the cafeteria?" Adam suggested and everyone agreed as they left the training room.

—————

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