It's Story Time!

Currently, Alice was overseeing Luka with her arms crossed behind her back, staring at the human boy who was doing his hardest to follow her commands. 

Victor retreated in his tent made of unknown material, so there was no need to disturb the cripple for the moment. Besides, Alice was currently enjoying the moment of peace without Victor acting like a smartass around her. Luka was much easier to play with…

"Right there, you need to use your feet as you swing. Don't just use your arm strength when you swing your sword."

"Like this?" Luka took a deep breath before he lightly swung his sword horizontally while holding a solid grip on his handle. At the same time, he jumped forward, leaving behind the sound of the air being sliced apart. 

"Hyaah!"

Using a tree as his target, Luka ran to its side while his sword cut through the bark of the tree, thanks to the weight behind Luka's movements as he pushed his sword at the tree.

"See? Just by taking a simple step forward, you are able to make a large slash without winding up or using too much strength. As long as you can hold on your sword, it will hurt anyone who gets attacked by that move. You got an edge, use it to your advantage."

Luka stopped on his steps and stared back at the tree that he used as a target. On the side of the tree, there was a scratch that traveled for a good deal of the perimeter of the tree, while leaving behind an inch of depth. A smile appeared on his face at his successful attempt, while Alice slithered forward and observed the traces of Luka's attack.

"Not bad for a beginner…" Alice commented before she stood straight up again and faced Luka. She patted the scratch that Luka left behind and started to speak.

"This move you have used is one of the basic techniques I know of: Demon Decapitation. For a small newbie like you, this is the best technique you can learn now. You don't have muscles, but you have agility. 

Using your speed, you can charge in and cut the target's neck by jumping at them. It's said that the Dark Elf Zack was able to cut off the heads of 100 humans using that move. She was like a comet piercing through the firmament, leaving behind stellar trails of blood."

Hearing Alice's description, Luka couldn't help but cringe. "Err… I was hoping you could teach me a more… Hero-like technique?"

Alice scoffed at Luka's request. Hero-like technique? What kind of Hero-like technique would the Monster Lord teach him? Even if she knew one in particular, she would not hand it over even if she was under the threat of death. Quadruple Giga can't fall in the wrong hands, absolutely not.

"Beggars can't be choosers."

"That's true…" Luka hesitated. "But my image as a Hero…"

Alice felt a headache from listening to this brat and silenced him. "Shut up! We're practicing it right now, whether you want to or not."

"...Yes…" Luka replied with a sigh.

Alice scoffed again and slithered away from him for a couple of meters. "In normal circumstances, a swordsman has three pillars of support: Strength, Technique, and Weapon.

Without Strength, no matter what technique you use, you will find challenge only against your peers, while your sword will be unable to leave a single scratch against stronger monsters.

Without Technique, there is no way you will be able to hit anything that can move. Even large monsters like Dragons inside a cave can easily move away from your pathetic swings.

Without a Weapon, needless to say that you will not even be able to attack. A swordsman without a sword is like a human without a heart.

Of course, even if you lack one of them, you can be a swordsman by using the other two foundations as your base. If your strength can lift mountains and your techniques belong to a master swordsman, you could defeat your opponents in an effective way. However, it's clear enough that you lack in everything. You have the strength of an imp, barely any technique, and your sword is made out of simple metal, and it isn't even forged perfectly."

Luka looked down on his iron sword. This sword was forged by a friend of his back in Ilias Village. It was a custom-made sword for someone of his size, and it was entirely made of iron. Of course, steel was too precious for him to pay for, and the blacksmith couldn't even use it properly if he wanted due to his lack of talent.

Still, it accompanied him for 5 years, and was unwilling to let go of it, even though he hesitated when thinking about the blood it will be tinged with in future… If only there was a way to make it stronger…

"However, that is the case only for normal swordsmen. Even if you can master the three foundations, there is a serious difference between being a Master Swordsman and a Swordmaster. 

It is not impossible to increase the three foundations past their limits, but it would require an herculean feat to do so. Even Granberia isn't able to do that despite being a genius. After all, finding a material stronger than meteorite is virtually impossible, and she already reached the peak of her technique and strength as a dragon.

Even so, she is the strongest swordmaster in the world. Do you know why? That is because there is actually a fourth pillar that is able to support one's swordsmanship by itself, even without the previous three foundations: Intent.

If you have the intent, you will be able to manifest a greater strength than your body could possibly unleash, using the 100% of your strength without a technique aiding you, and slicing apart your target using a simple wooden stick. 

Of course, that is not possible for you to ever attain at the moment, and probably for many years of intense training. Intent is not something a Master Swordsman can easily attain, after all. However, what I am telling you is that your willpower is the foundation of your strength. You will not be able to cut a rabbit if you don't want to, right?"

"I understand." Luka nodded in agreement. What Alice was telling him is the same thing that Victor told him many days ago. As long as he doesn't falter, he can do it no matter the time.

"Techniques use far more concentration and stamina than normal attacks, so don't use them consequently if you want to keep up your energy. Also, be careful of the timing. Once you have performed a skill, you will need to recover your balance and footing. 

In that time, someone could easily assault you and you won't be able to dodge. It is better for you to use your techniques when your opponent is distracted or you feel confident striking them.

Since your stamina sucks, you will be able to fully utilize Demon Decapitation less than 5 times before you get tired. Of course, this is only a basic technique; other techniques that you might be able to learn in future will certainly require more stamina, and some might even be too much for your weak body to perform without tearing a muscle or two.

In the end, because techniques require concentration and a greater deal of stamina, you have to be careful when you are under special conditions. When you are bound, when the terrain is too soft, when you are charmed… When you are not in your best condition, you better give up using techniques as you are not proficient enough for that. You will simply get yourself killed if you try to use techniques under bad conditions."

"I see, that sounds reasonable." Luka agreed with Alice's words.

Alice nodded and continued. "Anyway, how do you usually guard?"

"Well, I anchor myself to the ground and block the attack, like a turtle would do when in danger."

Alice shook her head in exasperation. "You really need a total reset… How are you supposed to block attacks from monsters that are physically stronger than you? Only an idiot does that. 

Defense is good, but you are not Victor. Unlike him, you can perfectly move your legs and dodge. Veterans know when to dodge and when to defend, sometimes using both; while experts can easily take in account timing so that they can parry the incoming attack, and throw their opponents off balance before counter-attacking them. 

That is too much for you to learn, so you will have to stick to defense and dodge. If you can avoid an attack, do it; you got legs for moving."

"Oh… I get it!"

"There will also be moments when the enemy will be forced to use their strongest attacks because they have no other choice. Certainly, there are also smart ones who would rather flee than squeeze every drop of their stamina against you. 

However, confident opponents are more likely to strike you with all they have if you annoy them enough. If you can dodge their strongest attack, they will have no choice other than to recover their stamina or magic so they can attack again, and in that chance you can easily deal strikes to their weak points. Many monsters give signals when they are going to use their most powerful attacks, use that at your advantage."

After giving a long explanation to Luka to help him reach the minimum level as a newbie fighter, Alice let out a long sigh. "...Let's end tonight's training at that, then. Remember everything I said, they are the very basics for a good swordsman."

Luka nodded and sheathed his iron sword back on its sheath. He sweeped one arm over his sweaty forehead and exhaled a breath of air as he and Alice turned back to the middle of the camping zone.

Alice looked around her surroundings, shifting her gaze between the campfire that was still burning, Luka's triangular tent that was enough for a single person to fit in, Victor's larger tent made of artificial material that took a large space, Victor himself who was lying inside a blanket using an unknown gadget on his hands, and the few trees that were left untouched between the large spaces that the lumberjacks of Ilias Village and Iliasburg cut open.

Seeing that Alice was focused on her surroundings, Luka pulled out from his traveling bag a raveled bag of leather that he bought before leaving Ilias Village. "Alice, are you not going to use a sleeping bag?"

Alice simply shrugged him off with a wave of her hand. "I don't want to be covered by something so restrictive…" She slithered closer to the closest tree to the camp and patted one hand over the bark of the tree. "...I'll just sleep here."

After saying that, she slithered around the tree and climbed it up. Her long tail spreaded over the tree's branches and her body lied over the strongest of those branches. A lot of leaves fell on the ground due to her movements.

Alice shifted her eyes on Luka, more precisely on the silver ring on his finger that was reflecting the fire's light back at her face. "...By the way, idiot. Where did you get that ring?"

Luka's right eye twitched as he replied. "My name is Luka."

"You passed five years of your life training without doing any result, be lucky I am using 'Idiot' rather than something much worse. Anyway, I feel something faint from that right, where did you pick that up from?"

"Oh…" Luka sighed and stared down on his left hand, which was holding the silver ring Alice was talking about. "I don't know what you are talking about with that 'something faint', but I got this from my parents. This is my mother's keepsake…"

After hesitating a bit, Luka continued. "Ten years ago, she died of an illness…"

Alice paused and registered what Luka said. A couple of seconds later, she closed her eyes and sighed. "I see… My condolences about that."

"Eh? Ah…" Luka blinked in surprise at Alice's sudden shift of tone. "...Thanks…"

Seeing his reaction, Alice snorted. "What's with that surprised look on your face? We're the same as humans in that respect. We both are sad when a parent dies."

"Of course… That's right." Luka nodded in agreement, as that made a lot of sense for him.

"How about your father? Is he still alive?"

Luka paused and sighed in exasperation. "No… He died before my mother did."

A wry smile appeared on Alice's face. "Ah… I see. Your father went off to fight the Monster Lord, and never came back. That's why you took up your father's wishes, and trained to be a Hero. Did I get it right?"

Surprising Alice, Luka narrowed his eyes in what felt like anger at first sight. He clenched his fists and replied. "Sorry, but you're wrong. My father wasn't a Hero at all… That guy died because of his own stupid mistakes…"

Alice blinked in surprise and commented with a softer tone. "Hmm… That's unusual. Someone whose head is filled with sugar and rainbows, to say something like that…"

Luka sighed. "Enough about me, what about you? Why are you here?"

Alice hung over the branch of the tree where she was lying in silence, before she laid her head on her arms and looked somewhere else. "I… I'm the only daughter of the Fateburn family. I wanted to see the world, so I set out a few days ago."

Luka suspiciously stared at Alice. It couldn't be just that, why would a lamia go all the way to Ilias Village if she wanted to see the world? It would be better if she looked around Sentora. "...Really?"

An unusual grin appeared on Alice's face. "Basically."

"...!" A doubt appeared on Luka's mind. "You couldn't possibly… You aren't inspecting the human cities in preparation for an invasion… Are you?"

"Now that's an interesting idea…" Alice commented before she pulled one arm back inside the foliage where she was hiding in, before retrieving a book out of it. "Look at this book! This forbidden book contains everything about the human world. Geography, environment, food… it has it all!"

"Hmm?" Luka narrowed his eyes and saw the title on the book's cover. "Ah, the Traveling Guild's World Traveler tour guide…"

"Exactly." Alice pulled the book back inside the foliage and continued. "Thanks to this world, I can know everything about this world… Or so I thought. No matter where I looked, I couldn't find anything about this 'Pizza' Victor talked about…"

"Speaking of which…" Luka turned towards the largest tent and called out. "Hey Victor, do you want to join the conversation?"

"Hmm?" Victor turned his head away from his phone and turned it off, before pulling it back inside his inventory. "What conversation?"

"We were talking about random stuff in general. Even when you were staying at the inn, you said only a couple of things about yourself. Where do you come from?"

"In a small island far away from these three continents. Since there is a great distance between my hometown and this place, the culture and stuff like that is completely different. What I am used to is different from what you think, and your culture and practices are mostly unknown to me."

"I heard about an island in the outer sea called Mimic Island, are you talking about that?" Alice asked with some doubt.

Victor shook his head. "You will not find it in your maps because it's normally unreachable."

"Then how did you get here?" Luka curiously asked.

"Teleportation."

""Teleportation?"" Both Luka and Alice repeated in synchrony, and Victor nodded in answer.

"If I knew where I was going, I would still have my left leg. Instead, while I was playing around by myself, I suddenly and somehow teleported in front of a falling tree, which snapped apart my leg before I could get out of the way…"

"Ouch…" Luka flinched. "That sounds really bad…"

"That's because it is." Victor replied. He sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Anyway, I was mostly fine by myself… My father works on construction sites, my mother works as a cleaner, and I was still a student. I was two years away from finishing my school's programs and finally get a diploma, but then a fucking epidemy hit the entire place."

"Huh? You're still doing school?" An amused smirk appeared on Alice's face. "I already finished my homeschool at the age of 13 and you are still going on? Aren't you ashamed of that?"

"Fuck you, I bet you couldn't do elementary algebra, not to talk about abstract algebra, binary operations, identity elements, inverse elements, and polynomial functions."

"..." Alice stared at Victor with a blank expression. "...What?"

"Here you go. Anyway, if you want to have a place in my society, you have to go through 12 or 13 years of school depending on which type of high school you pick. If you want to have better degrees, you have to go through Universities." Victor sighed and continued his story-telling.

"I could have learned more, and maybe have a better possibility to get that diploma in 2 more years, but I don't think I would be able to do that with the epidemy spread out around. You wouldn't believe me when I tell you that humanity can get more stupid than you two ever seen before."

"What happened?"

A grin appeared on Victor's mouth when Luka asked that question. "You would be laughing if you knew the entire story… Anyway, as I said before, there was an epidemic that we called COVID-19, or simply Coronavirus. It spread out because some dumb idiot thought it was a good idea to eat a bat without properly cleaning it, and soon affected the entire region.

Now, let me ask you, what would you do if there was a lethal pandemic that affects both humans and monsters without exception?"

"I would make sure that monsterkind would stay away from each other to avoid the spreading of this virus, and then work on a cure for that. Because of the various kinds of monsters, the virus has a great chance to mutate even further." Alice replied with a logical tone.

Luka nodded along and said. "I would set rules in my inn and hole myself inside, both for my and everyone else's benefit."

Victor nodded. "Good. Now, back at my place, in response to the threat, the government decided to set up new rules. People had to clean their bodies often, wear a protective mask whenever you had to get out for work to limit the spreading of the virus by stopping your saliva from coming out when you talk or breathe, and people who had nothing important to do had to be quarantined back in their own houses.

Meanwhile, sick people would be immediately sent to the hospitals, where they will be taken care by the staff that is heavily guarded against contact with air and other people, and they would also often change their suits so that they can stay as clean as ever. There were many deaths, but soon we managed to stop the disease on its step. Still, that took more than a year."

"Huh?! More than a year?! How is it possible?!" Luka asked with a surprised tone.

"Here's the funny part." Victor replied. "These fucking 'apes wearing human skin' complained about having to wear a mask when they get out, and they would often leave their homes and attend to large group meeting without masks, protections, and always in contact with each other. 

Not to talk about people who thought that the 'cure' the government was trying to create was some kind of injection that will cause them to be controlled by the said government, and people who keep screaming about having the right to ignore those new laws."

"...What?" Alice frowned and asked with a disbelieving tone. Victor grinned and nodded at her.

"That's the level of intellect people back at home have reached. And… oh boy ...I have so many stories to tell you about how dumb humanity is. Unfortunately, it would take the entire night telling you only about what the people in my place did in the previous year. 

If I was the Monster Lord, I would have focused all my military forces to that place alone for more than 50 times with all the crap I kept hearing there. To be honest, I am kind of glad that I am now here, although I miss my family and also my ability to walk. It's more relaxing here, and I don't have to hear about stupid women complaining about the word 'Woman' being sexist because it contains the word 'Man' in it."

"...It sounds like a terrible life. How did you not get mad?" Alice asked with a cringe expression on her face, and Victor naturally replied.

"Trust me, it had been hard holding back my suicidal and genocidal thoughts. Still, despite the conditions of the brains of those people in particular, there are also many things that are better than here. For example, the lifestyle, technology, and the variety of stuff you can find there… Anyway… *Yawn*"

A yawn escaped from Victor's mouth, making him pause in the middle of his last sentence. "I'm closing up here. Good night, guys." Victor zipped down the entrance of his tent and closed it.

"Good night, Victor, Alice." Luka replied as he unfurled some ropes and let his tent's entrance close up by a piece of cloth.

"Hmph." Alice simply hummed and comfortably lied on the tree she was on.

And thus, Victor was able to survive his first day in a journey as a cripple…

…

Victor Luis' (future) Trivia Book: Swordsmanship

Swordsmanship, a practice that many people certainly know about… You have to be living as a caveman if you don't know about swords. 

Basically, it is the practice of swinging your sword with precision and strength at the same time. A swordplay can be called part of swordsmanship when it is better than a normal person fighting barehanded. After all, one wields a sword because of things they cannot do with their bare hands.

However, in more complicated terms, swordsmanship involves four concepts that summarize the overall power of a swordsman.

The first is actually wielding a sword. It is called swordsmanship because you have to wield a sword, after all; it doesn't make a sense to wield a hammer and call it swordplay. The materials and sharpness the sword possesses are both instruments used to calculate the level of the sword that is being wielded. Both of them are important to a swordsman: Solidity so that the sword won't be too brittle to break with a swing, and sharpness to inflict actual damage on your opponent. 

The essence of a swordsman is 'offense', there is normally no defensive ability among swordsmen. You either dodge the incoming attack or rebuke with your own.

A sword is used to inflict harm, not to protect people. That's what shields and armors are made for.

The second is the power behind your arm. Powerful swords are normally heavier than normal swords, unless you are lucky to find a light but durable material to forge one, so one needs the strength to wield the sword with ease.

However, that is not all. Although holding a sharp edge is useful, that works against enemies that are much softer than the material used to forge your sword. No matter how sharp it is, a scissor being held by a small child will never be able to pierce through a wall of steel, they are simply too weak to put enough pressure on the scissor to slice through steel.

It is easy to cut through flesh, but armored opponents are harder to defeat.

The third concept is technique. As mentioned before, one uses a sword because it is better for them to attack with a sword rather than a fist. After all, which one will hurt? A normal punch or a sword slash?

However, against trained people, you can only defeat them through skill. Martial Artists, for example, are able to see through your movements and know your next moves. But against skilled people, they can hardly do that, as they are trying to keep up with the sword slashes incoming.

Also, technique mixed with strength and sword can unleash a power many times greater than normal. Between a master of the sword and a barbaric dragon, the former will almost always win.

These three concepts together form Swordsmanship for common people. However, once you have reached a certain level, you can hardly increase your battle strength.

There is only so much you can do before your technique cannot improve anymore, being able to foresee your foes by more than 5 moves through your instincts and eyes, while also unleashing your greatest potential.

Your body is still human or monstrous, they also have limits of strength you can reach before your body cannot go beyond that level anymore. Trying to increase your arm strength by a kilogram would be a titanical task to accomplish then.

Also, no matter how many materials might exist in the entire universe, a normal person could get at least an iron sword. The strongest known material in the world is Meteorite Ore, and beyond that, it is impossible to reach.

This is what separates a Master Swordsman and a Swordmaster, the accomplishment of mastering the fourth concept: Intent.

Although it is called Intent, it is different from what it could mean. The real intent is utilizing your mind to affect the world: Killing Intent is a clear example of that, but this kind of intent is different.

This is not the result of practice, or achievements; this intent is actually your natural Inner Power. Every lifeform in this world possess Inner Power, and accessing that power can increase our overall power, finesse, and sharpness to new realms of possibilities.

You could coat your sword with your Inner Power, refining it so thin that the sharp point cannot even be seen with a naked eye; you could increase your arm strength beyond what is humanly possible and still not manifest any kind of muscular damage; you could even infuse your eyes with it to look as far as you could, having no problem to see a single grain of salt in distilled water.

The quantity of Inner Power depends on the person in itself. The age of 25 represents the peak of a human, while it greatly varies among monsters. It is basically the age where your growth has reached an end. Your lifespan represents the quantity of Inner Power you possess.

As for quality, it is the same for everyone at first. However, young people can compress more Inner Power, which will let them overwhelm their older peers' Inner Power.

Have no fear, however. Utilizing Inner Power at an old age doesn't incur you any permanent or temporary damage, but you will have a great lack of it. It is proven that the ability to control your Inner Power increases a human's longevity to way beyond what is scientifically possible, although Immortality is still a step too far.

Turning back to the previous argument, Inner Power is what other Swordmasters call 'Instinct', they either call it like that to sound mysterious or they aren't actually Swordmasters. Once you have reached that level, you will also understand the difference.