Spear Boy Meets A Fallen Blade

(Apologies for not updating yesterday, as my dog, who was 17 years old, died, and I did not have the motivation to write. I hope you all can forgive me for that. I hope you all have a nice day.)

(Cao Cao POV)

The land of shadows is a place of endless horrors, with some beasts appearing from what looks like pure nightmares, from large werewolf-like beasts to contorted monstrosities, with some having multiple eyes and some being covered in pulsating human flesh. 

Some have evolved to use various elements, like the electric werewolves that can use lightning as a defense mechanism when threatened. Or the blood lickers, which were giant worms that tried to burrow into your flesh and eat you from the inside out.

Luckily, due to my training with armament haki along with mana skin, they could not breach my skin but did get very close on a couple of occasions due to the constant danger. I have been improving at a considerable rate as with constant clone training and fighting these beasts, I have reached High class in a month of training. Specifically, it has been seven weeks since I arrived here, and I still have eight weeks to go before the witch of Dun Scaith can train me.

It also seems like I have had a stalker for the past couple of weeks as it seems that the woman has had enough of me dodging her attempts to learn my location and has been following me, and now we have been playing a game of cat and mouse for weeks now. Thankfully, I can control what can be taught to others via my archmage essence as just by watching me use my techniques, she could have learned them, but due to my innate protections, she can't without me allowing her to.

While she can learn any weapons-specific techniques, she can't learn any of the Magics or spiritual reinforcements or techniques I use, like haki and sorcery, as well as my form of chakra. But my spear techniques are where we enter a grey area, as while they are my skills, I do not know if she can copy them without my defenses activating.

Regardless, that has simply turned from fear into more motivation, as while she may learn my techniques, I can create more and not use them. Realizing that my basic Sojutsu (Spear Arts) skill was seeming to give me diminishing returns without a teacher, I edited the skill and turned it into something new. 

And after spending two million LP out of the 8,467,200 LP I have saved, I evolved the skill into spear arts mastery from Everyone Else Is A Returnee. The skill was Rank D, but I held my current skill level, and now I practiced my spear arts to their limits.

The skill itself came with basic knowledge of how Yu Illhan started out, and as I replicated his process and trained with this skill for another week, my LP stores returned to 7,676,800 LP upon realizing that a week had passed. I was training for a week straight, and I took a breath. 

I decided to buy a new skill just in case that skill was Madness Resistance, and since it was a sub-skill of Mental Resistance, the cost was lowered to 50,000 LP and immediately shot up to my current Menatl resistance level of A.

Now, the land of shadows could not touch me with its voices and corruption as my mind remained clear other than Cato and Celestine watching me train in rapt attention. Celestine herself said (Cao Cao, that was amazing! The way you moved the spear with such precision and grace yet power-filled its being was immaculate. Where did you learn such a style?)

"Well, I read it in a book and tried to replicate it in the real world." I could feel Celestine deadpanning me with Cato saying ( Are you not worried about the witch copying or learning of this style of spearmanship?) Shaking my head, I mention to them, "Don't worry, I have had my clones keeping her busy as wood clones are nearly the same as me, so she has been following one for the past week."

I understand that she may not have been fooled, but even if she were only gone for a day, she would struggle to learn what I just did. Even after training with Spear Arts Mastery for a week, it has only gone up to C rank. 

This makes sense as what I remember from the source material, he trained for not a year, not a decade or a century, but one thousand years. Even a fraction of his skill shows me great promise. Truly, that guy is worth looking up to, as not many could live alone for one thousand years without going insane or becoming a murder hobo.

Sending a small amount of thanks to the guy, I swear I felt someone sending me a thumbs up from somewhere, and as I looked around, I saw no one, and even with chakra sensing and haki, there was still nothing.

Taking a moment to rest, I sat on the ground and began to meditate and focus my energy, which I have been doing for a while now, to perfect my control over my core and the power within. In the beginning, it felt like it could power a small house; now, it felt like a power plant ready to implode at my beck and call. It is still growing as I age, and with that, I focus on controlling the circulation of my energy as I do not want to cause rampant property damage when I fight.

The process itself is aided by blank and archmage, making me a prodigy in all esoteric magic systems, but anything can be better other than omnipotence, of course. Regardless, I sit there for an hour, focusing on clearing my mind and spirit so as not to create an imbalance between my body and soul. Everything has to be in balance for continuous improvement to be made. I would rather be a jack of all trades and master of all rather than a glass cannon with a mastery over specific fields, and it is more fun that way.

Knowing myself, if I ended up in a world like Konosuba, I would have taken the adventurer class to learn every skill in existence. While it would have taken time, it would have been worth it in the end as mastery of overall forms of skill would make someone nearly unbeatable other than through simple overwhelming power.

The grind is eternal, after all, in Isekais.

It is a bit of a paradox in a way as well. I do believe that skill does trump pure power. There does become a point where it becomes nonsensical as if a mere human who, if mastering all forms of martial arts, thought something like Tiamat or Great Red would simply be blasted out of existence.

(It seems you are thinking rather deeply, Cao Cao. Would you like to enlighten us on your thought process?) Cato asked, to which I simply said, "Simply trying to keep myself busy, Cato, as when one has time and training, a moment of deep reflection is often needed."

I could feel Celestine yawing as she said. (While that is a smart outlook, it is rather dull when you say it like that. But it's your life, and we are simply here to help.) Nodding, I stand up and prepare to continue training, but then a new signature appears in my haki range, which has grown considerably as my sensing range has increased to the size of a small country like Great Britain. 

Honestly, the greatest problem now is trying to control the senses so that I don't take in too much information at once, but I still do this as a means of training my mind to resist such mental stress.

The presence is seemingly making a beeline towards me and turning to face it. I see what looks to be a mangled horse combined with various body parts. If it looked similar to anything, I would equate it to Ludwig The Holy Blade. 

This Beast looks at me with a small sign of intellect hidden under centuries of blood and warfare. As we stared at each other, our wills clashing to see who would bend, he broke the stare down and rushed at me with his ravenous claws aiming right at me.

As I dodged under him, he tried to slam down onto me, to which I used my spear to try and slash him across the stomach, and as I got up, Celestine seemed to recognize him ( It can't be. How can he be here?!)

"You know him Celes?" I ask as the horse beast jumps into the air to slam me into the dirt, but I use my portal to dodge it and, after doing so, cut a gash into his right side. His screams of agony echo through the land of shadows as Celestine continues ( That cloth I could recognize anywhere he is Ludwig the Holy Blade and wielder of the Sacred Gear: Shining Moonlight. He disappeared after the last crusade in 1291, and we thought him dead, but since his scared gear never reappeared, many assumed him to be alive.)

Looking on top of his back, I saw a decrepit sword on it, but I could sense a faint power emanating from it, and as I rushed him with armament haki and man skin active, I used a blast of holy fire to force him to back off and after doing so portaled behind him and climbed onto his back and grabbed the sword, throwing it off his back and onto the ground. 

The sword then made a small indent as it slid into the ground, and the Beast was not happy as it charged with more ferocity than before. Every one of its strikes fell entire forests as I had to use a good amount of speed and soru to dodge with some telekinesis to aid in my evasion.

As I grabbed the sword, I forced some mana into it and ited it in a beautiful green fire, which gave the veast pause, and as it approached the now active sword, I almost heard him say, "My.. Moonlight… You Never Abandoned Me." He then picked it up, and the sword, growing in size to match his form, stared down at me as he asked, "You kill me, yes?"

Nodding as he desired an honorable death, he charged with his blade in hand, and as I went to meet him, a moonlight-infused blast hit me in the chest, sending me flying. I used my telekinesis to slow myself down, thanking mana skin and Haki for keeping me together as well as my healing factor. 

The man then ran towards me with a focus and intensity I had not seen before while roaring like both a man and a beast and swinging his sword like he never let go of it.

Standing back up, he was already upon me, to which I fosusd my mind and, using my spear arts, parried his strike and cut him vertically, leaving a deep gash from his stomach to his upper body. His guts begin to spill out, but he keeps fighting, to which I ignite the spear in holy light, and he seems to pause as if remembering something. "Yes..This Light Was Just Like Him."

Using this moment, I jumped into the air and brought the spear in my hands right through his brain, and as he staggered, his legs gave way, and he fell, leaving a deep crater. His sword resting beside him glows in that green light and then begins to disappear as the Beast says one final thing: "Tread... Carefully... Young…One.. Do.. Not... Let... The… Mission... Blind… You..Like.. It… Did… Me…"

He then closes his eyes, and I watch as his body disappears, is absorbed in the land of shadows, and is gone forever. His body will remain as a beast, but his mind and soul have moved on to the next life. Staring at the disintegrating body, I nod in respect for the Holy Blade as, according to Celestine, he was the Church's greatest warrior when fighting the armies of the devils during the Crusades. But it seems that his bloodlust led him to the Land of Shadows to fight what he deemed as evil forever.

The Holy Blade, or The Shining Moonlight, began to disappear, and before it did so, I grasped the green orb of light and placed it in my pocket space. I will find a worthy user for this sword, but for now, Ludwig will rest forever and find peace in the waking world. Walking away I returned to my camp and rested and waited for my training with Scathach.

(Scathach POV)

Watching over the battle I saw between that Beast and the young boy, I felt some small inkling of an emotion I had thought I had lost a long time ago, but I immediately pushed it down and watched. The battle was definitely difficult as the Beast was most certainly high class in power and speed, and when he picked up that sword, it rose to peak high class for a few moments, but due to the monster's rustiness and failing body, he died but he went with honor.

The boy then somehow grabbed the sacred gear before it could disappear and placed it somewhere I could not sense. He definitely shows promise, as even I am somewhat fearful that I shall have little to teach him soon enough. The Land of Shadows does tend to bring out the greatest skill from all of those who enter, at least those who survive.

Keep living, child, for I shall be watching.