Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 60

“Usually, someone who is apprenticing for the guild would only use daggers, the need for anything else is only the result of a lack of ability. But in your case, things are obviously different.”

“Ideally, you would capitalize on the versatility of your weapon creation skill and master a variety of weapons. However, the number of weapons and styles that I can teach you mastery of is somewhat limited. Ultimately, the choice of what weapons you want to use is yours to make, but I can make a few suggestions based on what I am able to teach.”

Victoria looked at him as though her question was genuine, which he couldn’t understand. Not only did he have no idea what she could teach him, but she also just proved that everything he knew about weapons was incorrect.

Still, so far, Victoria had tried to lead him into thinking things through on his own. It was possible that this was just another example of that, and that the only right choice in the situation was to ask her for her suggestion and do as she advises. “What weapons would you suggest?”

Victoria gave a nod, as though approving of him asking her. “The first would be the sword and dagger. It would be your defensive fighting style. Focusing on quick movement, and deflection of the opponent’s weapon while also utilizing any skill with the sword that you have already picked up. It will also capitalize on your Blade Dancer passive’s ability to block incoming projectiles with two separate weapons.”

Her choice was slightly confusing after she had just gone over why swords were only good for mana fodder. But he wouldn’t complain about actually using the sword training that he had already put so much time into.

“The second choice, and the reason the first choice is so viable, is dual wielding daggers. I know several different fighting styles that utilize daggers, but the one I have in mind is focused on mainly on evasion and killing blows. Basically, you would go from a sword and dagger to two daggers by breaking up your sword at an opportune moment to go for a killing blow, possibly aided by your teleportation skill.”

Dual wielding daggers made the first choice far more reasonable after the explanation on swords that she had given him. And he could already see how the quick change up in fighting styles would throw an opponent off in the middle of a fight.

“For solid offense, my choice for you is the spear. The range will give you an edge in close combat, and the pierce attacks will penetrate armor, mana shields, and combatants with high constitution far easier than a slash from a sword would.”

When she mentioned the spear, he immediately thought of Aiden’s fight in the arena. He had no objections to learning how to use such an overbearing weapon.

“My last suggestion is for taking on multiple enemies at one time with the situational awareness from your Blade Dancer skill, and is an idea that will need to be tested. Ideally, it would be a spear with an extra spearhead on the other end of the shaft and be used like a glaive. A weapon like that has a lot of weaknesses, mostly because of the lack of versatility in its use, but your blade creation skill can make it useful.”

Her description was somewhat confusing, but based on the weapon having a regular spear at its base, he could see where she was going with it.

Victoria saw his thoughtful expression and nodded. “A double-sided glaive has several downsides, but when played to its strengths, is useful in several situations. Basically, any time you get cornered while using the glaive, you would destroy one of the spearheads and instantly switch to the spear style I teach you.”

He thought it over for a moment. It was common knowledge that a double-sided blade was just as likely to hurt the attacker as the attacked, and the same would likely hold true for a double-sided glaive. Still, he would still try it. He had only used swords thus far, and increased versatility from learning four different fighting styles would increase his fighting strength drastically.

Dante nodded to Victoria. “They all sound good, and I’m willing to try out the glaive if you think it might be useful in a fight.”

Victoria’s expression didn’t change much, but she seemed satisfied. “Let’s begin making the weapons then.”

After that, the two of them spent almost two hours tweaking the weapons he created.

He hadn’t thought that it would be such an arduous process, but even the most minute detail had to be perfect before Victoria approved of one of the designs. Especially when it came to the daggers.

He didn’t see how, the dagger was exactly like Victoria’s. A narrow, one-sided knife that that was a few inches over a foot long, while the blade itself was around nine inches.

But every time he made it, Victoria instructed him to take several different strikes and stabs, then she would make the most insignificant adjustments in the length or width of the blade. Towards the end, it seemed preposterous, he must have created dozens of daggers, changing the sizes by the absolute smallest amounts.

When he finally received Victoria’s approval, it was a massive relief.

The other weapons were fairly easy to make. Victoria didn’t have too many specifications for the sword. So, after a few alterations, they settled on a thin shortsword that had a blade that was slightly over twenty inches long.

The spear was even easier. Victoria already knew what the rough size of the shaft should be, so after that, they only needed to work on the spearheads.

The spearheads themselves were thin, leaf-like blades that had small bladed guards attached to stop his opponents attacks, or their bodies from getting caught on the shaft of the spear itself.

Finally done adjusting the weapons to her liking, Victoria glanced over at the sun, which was just beginning to set. “We will start with the sword and dagger. To learn the spear style, you will need to complete the second sequence of the spectral attunement. For the daggers, the third sequence. And to learn the glaive style that I know, you will need to be able to complete the fourth sequence, which may not be feasible. All of them focus on extremely quick, deft movements that will be impossible to learn otherwise.”

Victoria created two mana manipulated lights. “Make me a sword. The same size as yours will do.”

He did as she said, then handed over the sword.

Victoria received the sword, glanced over it momentarily, then pulled out a dagger for the other hand. “Alright, now let’s see if I can teach you how to keep yourself alive.”

After that, the two of them began going over the different forms. The use of the sword and dagger still played to his strength, which was speed, but was far more balanced than when he used the two swords. Instead of attacking or defending with two swords at the same time like he had before, he led with the sword and parried with the dagger.

One nice thing, was that all of the sword training he had gotten from Archie still applied. Several adjustments were needed to allow for quick maneuvering of the dagger as he swung the sword offensively, but he was catching on to the new style quickly.

After a few hours, Victoria stopped him. “That’s enough for the night, go get some rest. We are going to enter the mountain range early tomorrow morning, and you’ll need to be awake and alert if you don’t want to get yourself killed.”

Dante released a sigh, then looked in the direction of the massive mountain. He didn’t see how a mountain could be so dangerous, but if Victoria thought that it could kill him… it didn’t leave much room for doubt.