Chapter 9: Enlightment

Vikram Continued hitting the training dummy for four more hours and during that time he also realized that it was very difficult to increase his sword proficiency.

Sword Proficiency -LVL 1(2/1000)

While training Vikram glanced at his sword proficiency. At first, he thought that he would end up increasing his sword proficiency by a lot but that didn't happen. After increasing by one his proficiency remained as it was throughout the five hours of his training.

At this point, he no longer felt like hitting the training dummy anymore. He stopped for a breather and checked the time in the real world.

"It's already late in the evening?" Vikram said to himself as he logged out of the game and got up from his bed to prepare dinner. He didn't feel like eating something heavy today so he decided to eat a cup of noodles instead.

Vikram slurped the noodles as he watched the news like every day. After finishing his meal, he threw the plastic cup in the trash and took out a can of beer from his almost run-down refrigerator.

*KLINK*

Opening the can with his finger he sipped the beer as the fuzzy liquid entered his mouth which was followed by a bitter taste. Carrying the bottle along with him, he went back to watch the television. Seeing the advertisement going on, he changed the channel and suddenly paused as he saw a beautiful woman on the screen smiling at him…more precisely the camera.

"So, Miss Jane tell us, how do you feel knowing that you're the most powerful magician known in the world of Odyssey?"

The woman smiled gently hearing the words of the person who handed her the 'Most Powerful Mage Award' as she replied "Odyssey has become an important part of my life and I believe it's the same for many of us here. I can't thank the game creator enough for opening the door of immense opportunities to all the players of the world. As far as being the most powerful magician in the game, I still have a long way to go and there are also plenty of professional players who like to remain lowkey and have not revealed themselves. In short, I will not let the title get to my head and will do my best to improve my skills so as to not let you all down."

The woman said as she got down off the stage while the audience clapped for her. Seeing her Vikram couldn't help but be mesmerized by her beauty. Regaining himself after a few minutes, Vikram couldn't help but chuckle at his wishful thinking. He gulped down the can with a single sip and threw a well-aimed shot directly towards the dustbin.

"YESS!" Vikram cheered himself up as he saw his shot going right inside the dustbin. With a better mood now, he went towards the bed. It was around 8 P.M currently so he planned to play the game for a few more hours before calling it a day.

Entering the game, he found himself standing right where he left. Looking at the scarecrow in front of him, it was currently nighttime in the game and there seemed to be no sign of the instructor anywhere.

Even though it was night time Vikram wasn't affected much because he just wanted to hit the training dummy with his all before going to bed. Inwardly he knew that he was just wasting his time in doing this but he couldn't help but feel deep inside that he was onto something.

The more he swung down his sword on that training dummy the more he felt that with the next swing he'll be relieved of this feeling but that didn't happen, unlike his expectations. He planned to postpone the dummy hitting in future if he didn't gain any results during this time.

Vikram grabbed his sword with both hands as he looked at the dummy while lifting the sword high up in the sky before slashing it vertically downwards on the training dummy. Vikram soon lost himself to it and this time his avatar's satiety meter was quite high which meant that no notification was going to come to wake him up from his state this time.

Vikram continued on slashing down on the training dummy soon losing himself to it. By the time he regained consciousness, it had already been morning and his satiety notification once again came almost depleted. Vikram quickly went to the nearby bakery and bought a few stacks of bread for one bronze coin.

Eating up the bread his character's sluggish movements became normal again as he went walked back towards the training hall. At the entrance, he saw the instructor standing there. The moment their eyes met the instructor smiled at him and said "I see that you've been training here all night but this won't do, even though you have the dedication you need to ask others if you're not sure about how to proceed. See this."

The instructor unsheathed the sword that was lying on his waist as he walked towards the training dummy. Vikram followed him as well. "Look carefully. This is how you do a proper downward swing." Said the instructor.

Placing his one leg forward by an inch he raised his hands that were holding his sword as he slashed it down with full force. Vikram couldn't help but be amazed seeing such a downward slash done by the instructor, it was incomparable to his slash. The sword slash had a hint of superiority in it, something which his sword lacked. Thinking about it more he finally understood where this superiority stemmed from.

It was confidence. Confidence in one's skills. Even though the instructor's stance was the same as his, his slash was ahead of Vikram's by a large margin and the reason for this was that the instructor had confidence in his skills.

"Seeing your face, I believe you understand what I was trying to tell you." The instructor said.

"Yes, it's confidence in my ability. I need to show that in my attack…but unlike you, I only know one move so how can I be confident…" Vikram inquired.

"You have practised this one move more than 10,000 times today only. If that's not enough to make you have confidence in that slash of yours then swordsmanship is not for you." The instructor said.

"So much?" Vikram finally realized how much he had swung his sword downwards today and was left surprised by it. He started feeling a sense of admiration for himself for being able to stick to doing just downward swings for so long and with that he slowly gained confidence in his ability.

Enlightenment Gained

Sword Proficiency- LVL1(3/1000)

Seeing the message Vikram couldn't contain the smile that formed on his face as he walked forward towards the training dummy to give it a try.