Chapter-4

At night, after doing the exercises which was left and finishing the training quest. Theron started to meditate. He focused on controlling his mana to flow to his core. His martial bone started to glow and flicker. Theron guided the mana inside, and a small chunk of it successfully entered. However, as he continued, the flow diminished until it stopped altogether. The bone glowed brightly, causing a purple patch on a part of the core to burn and turn to ashes. In its place, a faint whiteish-blue transparency remained, though it was dim. The purple patches began to regenerate, but the glowing bone burned even more brightly, causing the growing patches to catch fire.

They were in a deadlock.

Surprised by these developments, Theron carefully controlled some mana to pass through the patch, successfully navigating a small straight line. Whenever the controlled mana approached the purple patch, it started to grow, but the fire would come again and burn it but the mana inside the martial bone would lessen a bit as well. Because of the years meditating and controlling mana since he wasn't able to use his core, Theron had a very good control over mana. The martial bone, like a hungry child, fed off it. Slowly, it started to feel full, and when it was satisfied, Theron used it to burn another patch of the purple substance and it was successful. He tried to feed the martial bone more mana but the mana intake was getting slower. He stopped after feeding t the martial bone with a substantial amount of mana making sure just as precautionary measure.

The next morning, Theron sensed a layer of oil on his body and detected a pungent odor in the air. Investigating, he realized the smell was coming from him.

"Blurghhh"

He quickly went into the shower to clean himself. As he was going to brush his teeth after showering, he looked at the mirror to see a handsome young man, His entire body displayed a healthy hue, with well-defined muscles.

"Is this me?"

Touching his face and the person in the mirror, he was genuinely surprised. He dressed himself up and even his oversized clothes now seemed a bit fitter. He didn't look that much different from before as his face was covered by his hair and his form being covered by his still a bit oversized clothes.

 __ __ __

(At the library)

Though there wasn't another quest to read the Basic Swordsmanship book, he took it and read it again as to get it thoroughly. Though he read it at the first time and almost remembers everything from it, he read it a second time just to see if he could find the essence and to make sure his moves were in the correct form when he executes them later when he does his quest. As he was reading the book,

"Excuse me"

"Umm, yes, of course"

Hearing the melodic sound, he felt a sense of déjà vu as he looked up to see Seraphina in her casual dress, the same attire she wore before.

"I would like to borrow this book"

He looked at the book which she was borrowing and knew that it was the same book as before and knew his thought was right. Seraphina Veridale, a person who was very talented on the way of the sword but on academics on the other hand, she could be said to be ranking at the top 20, that is counting from the last. She had trouble imagining and concentrating on studies. "Yes, you just need to write your name, the date of return and your signature"

She looked at him but didn't respond for a while but just looking at him curiously. He waited for a moment before asking her again.

"Umm, Miss?"

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry. I just got lost in thoughts a bit"

After the borrowing process was done,

 __ __ __

'Why do I feel like he's changed'

'He looks more healthier, a bit handsome, ahem'

'And he is indeed reading a book about swords'

'I thought I saw wrong but it was right'

'Why is he reading it again'

'I wonder how good his academics are'

'Since he is reading it again, he should be the same as me'

Thinking that she was not the only one like this, she felt happy and went to her friend. A girl who was reading a book at a restaurant nearby.

Elysia Stormshade, sat at the restaurant table engrossed in her book. Long purplish-black hair cascaded down her shoulders, matching the deep hue of her glasses. Elysia had an air of quiet elegance, and her sharp features were accentuated by her focused gaze behind the lenses. She wore a simple yet stylish ensemble, a purplish-blue dress that complemented the color of her hair and her eyes. Her slender fingers gracefully turned the pages of the book. 

"Did you finish borrowing the book?" Elysia asked without moving her eye contact from the book.

"Yes"

Seraphina said as she sat down. 

"Elieee, I found someone who is similar to me"

"You said that there wouldn't be one similar to me"

"Last week, he was reading a book and this week he was still reading the same book"

Elysia was not surprised and said,

"Its definitely not like you, the person should just be rereading the book"

"Whereas you can't even concentrate on a single page"

She said as she knocked her friend on the head. Seraphina brushed the place where Elysia hit.

"Why would you hit me?" She said as she had a face that was about to cry.

"I didn't even put any mana in it," Elysia said as she put on a questioning gaze.

"What's weird is, though,"

"You know that person that I talked about before that was said to have no mana core nor martial bone" Seraphina said as she thought

"Umm, I think I remember, was it from the Silvercrest family" Elysia looked a bit curious and replied

"His name is Theron if I remember correctly, currently ranked 2nd on academics"

"Yes, yes wait what" Seraphina nodded in affirmation before having a surprised expression

"2nd"

"Yes, 2nd, you thought he was similar to you" Elysia said as she held a teasing expression and Seraphina pouted,

"You said he was reading a book"

"What is the name of the book" Elysia asked curiously

"Umm, it was something related to swordsmanship"

There was silence on the table as Seraphina said that.

"Hahahahaha, you are joking"

Looking at the unphased face of Seraphina, Elysia stopped laughing and 

"Are you serious, Sephi"

"Yes"

"Is it that he doesn't take the written exams seriously at all"

Both of them were curious but Elyisa continued

"Don't contemplate about it"

"Just study, written exams are coming very soon"

Seraphina hearing that had an ashen face as she said

"You said you would help meeeee"

"Yes, Yes, I will help you Sephi"

Elysia sighed as she said it.

 __ __ __

Theron back at his room after eating, got the wooden sword he had bought from a shop after closing the library.

He looked at his affection points to see that it had increase and checked the favorability tab of the system to see that there was another person there and that the favorability of Seraphina had increased again for some reason he didn't know.

[Elysia Stormshade]

[Favorability: 0.02%]

[Emotion: Curiosity, Rivalry]

"Wasn't she her best friend" "Did they talk about me or something" "Probably not"

Theron started to recall the techniques he had read in the book. As he stood in the training area, he took a deep breath, preparing himself mentally for the tasks that lay ahead.

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Quest Progress: Swordsmanship Basics

Practice Sword Forms: 0/10 sets

Execute Basic Techniques: 0/10 successfully

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He began with the sword forms. The pages from the book flashed through his mind. The wooden sword sliced through the air. Theron focus intensified as he progressed through his first set. sweat dripped from his face as he executed it. it took him almost 25 minutes to finish it as he was just a beginner and he restarted each specific stage inside the set whenever he did something wrong.

As he continued on, his fluidity increased as the time it took dropped and by the time the 4th set was finished only an hour had passed.

He stopped doing the sword forms and started to do the techniques. 'The first technique, a straightforward downward cut'

'The second technique, a defensive parry'

He executed each of the ten techniques and then started to focus on each one till he perfectly executed each which took him at least 30 minutes. He finished four of them which took him 2 hour and a half since his body though was getting better still lacked in stamina and had to rest at times. He continued on for 2 more hours before going back to his room to rest since it had already passed midnight. He had noticed that no one usually comes to the training area and remembered that his elder brothers would just train in the academy training area if they trained.

This would continue on for 3 more days before he finished. This time, Seraphina didn't return the book the day after she had borrowed.