The next day.

D’vina called Aleen again as she promised; this time at 5:00 am.

Aleen spent the last 24 hours recovering from the aftereffects of the body-enhancement drug. Fortunately, after 24 hours of rest, most of the fatigue left his body.

Now, he was standing in the courtyard while waiting for D’vina to begin her instructions. For the record, Claire was beside him hearing the lessons.

Aleen asked D’vina if she was fine with it, but she said that she didn’t care.

“Let’s begin then.” D’vina said. “Take out the sword you bought.”

Aleen nodded and took a sword from his storage ring. It was a beautiful black sword of a meter of length, and with a sharp and slender blade. The sword was worth seven hundred coins, and it was the most expensive of the things Aleen bought. Aleen also bought a silver cuirass and two forearm guards that came together with the sword as a set for a price of three hundred coins.

According to Leona, the sword was made of a special alloy that gave it greater hardness and resistance while boosting its capacity to receive mana. The armor, on the other hand, could absorb the user’s mana to generate a barrier able to stop weak attacks.

The name of the sword was ‘Dark Night’.

Aleen could not help but think that the name was a bit chunni, but he liked it despite it.

When D’vina saw the sword and heard Aleen’s description, she nodded with an expression of satisfaction.

“That is a good sword, suited even for a level three. Mm, you can use it for a while.” She then grabbed her greatsword and stood up at the other side of the screen.

“Today, I will teach you mainly two things, beginning with the basic offensive sword moves. Look carefully, first is the horizontal slash.” Taking a step back with her left leg, she slashed with her sword to her right. “Next is the vertical slash.” Now, she recovered her posture and took a step forward, before slashing fiercely towards the ground.

Without stopping, she retracted her sword and thrust it forwards at great speed, before moving the sword back and using it to stab an imaginary enemy. “It’s called thrust and this other is called stab. Lastly, there is the upward slash.” Taking a deep breath, she swung the sword upwards and stopped it when it reached a certain height. “Do you understand?”

Aleen was able to follow her movements thanks to D’vina slowing down deliberately; but even with it, he could not understand it completely.

“A little bit.” He said while grabbing his sword with a hand. “Let me try.”

Taking a deep breath, he did his best to remember D’vina movements and slashed various times. “Horizontal slash, vertical slash, thrust, stab, upward slash.”

D’vina frowned deeply when she saw Aleen performing the movements. Once he finished, she let a deep sigh and spoke. “Okay, we better begin with the horizontal slash. Look carefully again.”

D’vina slashed to the right once more; this time slowing even more and explaining to Aleen every one of her movements. When Aleen then performed the horizontal slash, she corrected his mistakes carefully.

When she finished with the horizontal slash, she continued with the vertical slash. Like that, the pair spent one hour simply perfecting the basic offensive sword moves.

In the end, Aleen was able to get a basic grasp on how to perform the moves correctly.

“Have you memorized them?” D’vina asked. Aleen nodded softly and showed the movements once for her to see. D’vina nodded briefly when she saw them. “Well, we'll have to do with it for now. Now, I will teach you the second thing. Tell me, Aleen, what do you think is your greatest weakness?”

Aleen thought for a moment and remembered Elvila's words. “Is it my attacks?” He said.

“You are right.” D’vina nodded, slightly surprised that Aleen found the answer for himself. “Though you also have troubles with your defenses, at least you can make use of your skill to escape if it's necessary. Your attacks, however, are almost useless against an enemy with a slightly strong defense.”

Aleen agreed. He remembered what happened when he faced the two level three and his attacks were unable to hurt them.

D'vina continued speaking when she saw Aleen agreeing. “Of course, it’s different if you can use again the attack you used against the level four; but if I’m not wrong, you are unable to use it again, right?”

“Yes...” Aleen smiled thoughtfully. “I tried to use it again later, but I was unable to.”

“I suspected so. Actually, that attack used too much mana, so you probably will be unable to use it again before reaching level four, at least you comprehend it as a separate skill.”

Seeing Aleen deep in thoughts, D’vina shook her head and interrupted him. “There’s no point in worrying about it now; instead, let me teach you something that can help you.

“The style of swordsmanship I use is called ‘Supreme Sword of Bringing Calamity’, and it was created by my father. The move that I’m going to teach you is part of it.

“Of course, though it’s part of my father’s swordsmanship, this move is actually a method to manipulate mana. My father called it ‘Sharp Blade’.”

Before Aleen could process D’vina’s words completely, the sword on her hand was filled with mana.

Immediately, a white glow filled the weapon and it began to hum with a sharp sound. Aleen got the impression that the weapon was ready to cut him at that moment.

“Did you see? It’s ‘Sharp Blade’. Now, follow my instructions…”

Aleen did not hesitate to follow D'vina’s words.

Aleen had to admit that D’vina was pretty good as a teacher, because, after ten minutes, he was able to get the catch of the move.

To be honest, ‘Sharp Blade’ could be considered a variant from ‘Weapon Reinforcement’. The only difference was that, instead of filling the weapon with mana, the goal of ‘Sharp Blade’ was to use the mana to increase the vibrations of the blade; and like that, increase the sharpness behind the attack.

In ten minutes, Aleen was able to reach the point of making the sword vibrate ten times per second.

D’vina nodded in approval when she saw it, but she then told him that if he wanted for the technique to be useful, then he had to produce at least one hundred vibrations each second; and apparently, producing another vibration became harder the more you advanced with the technique

Aleen’s excitement faded away when he heard it.

Once D’vina finished explaining the technique to Aleen. She put her sword in the ground. After it, she crossed her arms and put a serious expression.

“Now that you finished learning what I wanted to teach you, it’s time to speak about the other thing I wanted to speak about. Aleen, how much have you advanced with your skill?”