28 Direction

Donis went to the Academy like normal the next day. The classes are still boring, yet necessary for everyone else in his age group. He would spend his time in class daydreaming about the different scenarios he would go through later in life. He explored ideas of valiantly saving maidens from bandits, beating monsters heroically, or even becoming a hero himself.

When he wasn't deluding himself in fantasies he was practicing magic that wouldn't be noticed by the others around him. He'd be playing around with mana conversions on the inside, charging and expending his extra mana bar, and exploring the intricacies of the effects of his abilities.

He realised that the time spent truly contemplating his skills was just as important as actually leveling them up. He found out that with the [Mana Charging], he could store specific mana types in his [System] independent of his raw mana stat. He could eliminate the accumulation time required for some of his spells, thus achieving the novel-favourite: instant casting!

Yet he had no real offensive spells, so this was just a commodity right now. Everything will come in due time. He was at the most prodigious Academy, he'll learn everything properly, he's sure of it.

The class that he found even easier than any of the magic classes was the Physical Training class. The lecturer, Erin Vorrhard, greatly admired Donis for his ability to keep up with him at all times. He thought the boy must have been incredibly helpful to his family growing up, seeing how he was so incredibly fit. Donis on the other hand was so incredibly grateful to the [System] for once, giving him basically a free pass to this class.

He knew it was a free pass only for now, but he still put in the effort for later. He wanted his body to eventually be a powerhouse of its own. In case something were to ever happen to his magic reserves, or something unforeseen were to happen. Maybe the [System] will also give him new quests, or new directions in magic, or maybe it already has and he's just not looked into it.

Afterwards, there was the Weapons Class with Ronoroa Aden, which all of the kids looked forward to. It not only gave them the physical break they wanted, but it also ignited their imaginations, each kid being the protagonist of their own stories, with their own weapons, with their own villains.

Donis had been stumped in the class for a while. Ronoroa had long explained the weapons of past and present generations, putting great emphasis on swords and all of their archetypes. The lecturer himself had been a dualwielder. Two beautiful white swords that were both [Rare] and identical in stats.

-Sword Light-

[Level: 40]

[Damage: 208]

[Grade: Rare]

[Runes: Light Phantasm, Frostbite]

[Enchants: Lightweight, Self-Repair]

Ever since Donis's [Ocular Inspection] has hit 4/5, he was able to see the level and damage amounts of the weapons he would inspect. He couldn't quite understand why that was, but he's not complaining about the added info.

The idea of wielding a sword with magic was incredibly appealing to Donis right now. Casting spells with his left hand, hacking monsters with his right hand was the epitome of heroic in his mind. Yet, there was another, deeper, part of him calling him to another weapon.

It looked like a sword in the image, but with an almost appalling sickle-like top. He felt a weird connection to it, an almost instinctual beckoning. Donis thought it must be one of his corrupted memories having some influence on him again.

'Maybe if I pick it up, I'd be able to remember something? I'm not sure if I can un-corrupt my own memories this way, but I should give it a try at least,' thought Donis while still looking at the image of the weapon in front of him.

Donis stood up and went over to the lecturer who was currently sitting down drinking some tea while the students mulled over their options.

"Master, may I try out the Fascine Sword and the Khopesh Sword weapons?" said Donis politely.

Ronoroa taking a long sip took a second before he answered him.

"Hmm. The Fascine Sword is a regular type of sword, useful in almost any situation. Offense and defense are average. Mastery of the sword will be useful in learning other swords. Not a bad choice. Yet, you also request the Khopesh sword, why?"

"Well, the Khopesh sword.. looks really cool.." said Donis, not able to find a good enough reason for the master in front of himself.

"Hahah, okay. I must warn you, the weapon while looking 'cool' is actually an incredible weapon for combat. It can hook on to targets arms and legs while blocking, it can be used to dismember, and decapitate. Are you sure you want to arm yourself with such a vicious weapon?" said Ronoroa with an empty gaze.

"I'm not sure, I want to try out both weapons right now, so I can get a feel for them. The Khopesh seems to be a scary weapon, but it also has a weird attraction to it," said Donis while smiling.

"Very well, wait a moment."

After a few seconds, Ronoroa gave Donis both weapons which appeared out of the ring on his finger.

'It seems anyone worth their salt has one of these rings. Thank god I have my inventory, no one can take it off of me,' thought Donis.

Walking over to the training dummy, and throwing a few practice swings, Donis noticed his hands feel weirdly natural holding both. He couldn't explain it, but it felt like he had always known how to place his palm and fingers on the hilt of both swords.

Using his instincts, Donis attacked the training dummy in front of him, and ended up slicing the Fascine style sword about half way into it. Yet his surprise didn't end there, as a notification popped up.

-[General Sword Mastery 1/1,000] Acquired-

-[General Sword Mastery 1/1,000]-[0% EXP][Sword mastery over common sword types. Pre-requisite for sword-type skills.]-

Feeling elated, he swung again at a different spot on the dummy, sinking an inch or two deeper than previously. Immediately being able to perceive the difference in quality of his skill with just gaining the ability, Donis because even more excited.

He picked up the Khopesh and that familiar feeling only increased. He turned to a different dummy and swung with a seemingly practiced motion. The dummy got cut cleanly in half, while the sickle-like top cut the straw arms off before even doing anything else.

-Corrupt Memory Recovered. [Khopesh Sword Mastery 50/300] Acquired.-

[Khopesh Sword Mastery 50/300]-[0% EXP][Khopesh sword mastery. Pre-requisite for Khopesh only skills.]

'Wait this unlocked a corrupt memory? What?! But I don't remember anything else outside of how to wield this weapon. Does it mean it only recovered part of the full memory? Who the fuck was I before all of this?' Donis thought to himself.

In the real world, Donis had been staring intently at the now stump of a dummy for over a minute. Ronoroa walked over and patted him on the shoulder laughing heartily.

"Young one, to be able to not only dismember, and to cut the dummy in half you must have practiced with the Khopesh for a long time. Why didn't you just say so? You could have saved yourself some effort."

"Uh master, this is my first time holding a weapon.. heh," said Donis sheepishly.

Ronoroa laughed even harder at the idea. "Well then, I guess you've earned the right for me to know your name. You just might have a warrior spirit in this school of mages and scholars. Out with it."

"Donis, master."

"Donis, I shall remember your name. Now go, the weapon you choose is yours to keep."

"Master, may I actually keep both? I really really like them both!" beamed back Donis.

Ronoroa just laughed harder and nodded to the boy. It's been a long time since he had seen any kid such as this. The amount of potential in him was tremendous if what he said was true. Yet Ronoroa didn't quite believe him, no kid could so accurately hold either of those weapons on their first time. He felt something was wrong, but there was no need to make a scene out of such a small event.

'If he continues to say he's never held a sword I'll just get old man Lorenzo to check him out for me. God knows that man loves his gossip, and this'll be far too juicy for him to pass up,' thought Ronoroa to himself.

***

At Donis's home.

Donis was happily swinging his new swords around, entranced by the feeling of such familiarity. The comfort of the grip, the feel of the steel. Everything just felt so natural to him he couldn't get enough.

After inspecting the weapons, he wasn't disappointed, but more bored by their stats. Sure he got them for free, and they're just training weapons, but he wanted really cool and strong weapons that he saw Ronoroa hold.

'Breathe Donis, everything in due time, don't try to get ahead of yourself just yet. These were free, when we graduate, or start working, I'll be able to get some better weapons,' thought Donis to himself as he swung at a nearby tree trunk.

-Khopesh Training Sword-

[Level: 1]

[Damage: 9]

[Grade: Basic]

[Runes:]

[Enchants:]

-Fascine Training Sword-

[Level: 1]

[Damage: 8]

[Grade: Basic]

[Runes:]

[Enchants:]

'Wait, don't I actually already have a sword skill learned from when I was younger?' thought Donis as he quickly opened the greyed out skill column.

Perusing through the multitude of seen skills, he soon found it and was surprised he actually had two sword skills, with one ready to be learned.

[Flashpoint Strike]

[Intermediate]

[Cost: 30MP]

Blue flames envelop and then condense into a razor thin veil over the sword for a singular strike, exploding forth.

[Air Pulse]

[Novice]

[Cost: 12MP]

An air infused attack that locks on and pierces the target from long range.

The [Flashpoint Strike] was still completely greyed out, but the [Air Pulse] had a light sheen over it, so Donis tried to will the [System] to learnt the ability for him. A feeling of euphoria enveloped Donis once again, the pseudo memories filling his mind on how to cast the ability.

Looking back at the ability in his status window, he noticed it now had scalable levels since it was learned.

-[Air Pulse]-

[Novice]

[Cost: 12MP]

[Level 0/30][0% EXP]

An air infused attack that locks on and pierces the target from long range.

Donis unable to withhold himself from trying the skill, began guiding his will and controlling his mana throughout his body how the pseudo memories showed him. Donis charged the [Air Pulse] into the Fascine sword, looked at the wooden stump he had been hacking away at earlier, and released the building pressure.

A golden light shot out from his sword and hit the stump, splintering it lightly. It cost almost nothing, had decent damage without being level one, and was completely un-charged by any specific mana type. Shivers ran up and down Donis's spine. He knew that this was definitely the right direction for him. To become a battlemage, he'd need a sword in hand.