"And then he was like, 'pow,' and 'wham.' And I was like, 'oh, no,' and then 'yes, yes, yes!' Then the other guy was like, 'blurgh, cough cough,' and the fight was over." Seth was animatedly explaining the final match of the tournament from the day before. He was throwing shadow punches and moving his body back and forth as he narrated the fight.

Seifr looked at him with an expressionless face and said deadpan, "Your story is so rich and detailed, it's amazing. Have you ever considered quitting cultivation school and learning to be a story teller? You could enthrall.... dozens over your lifetime." At this point, he could hold it in no longer and cracked a smile. It had become fairly routine for them to poke fun at each other, and sometimes Seth made it almost too easy.

"Ha. Ha. Point is, it was amazing. Though my favorite is still the fight where Kohl got his ass handed to him. So refreshing," Seth spoke in a carefree manner. He did not care if other nobles heard a simple merchant's son bad mouthing the governor's son. Most of the nobles were too intimidated to approach Kohl, and many did not like him anyway. Politics. One thing those of common blood have here that the nobles don't, solidarity.

The commoners and nobles actually got along just fine for the most part, especially in the school; however, there were clear demarcations in the groups of nobles. The noble children affiliated themselves with other houses who shared the same political views, and shunned others who did not. It made for a fairly interesting dynamic.

"So where's Raeq? I haven't seen him since I got back," Seifr asked.

"Oh yeah, can't believe I almost forgot. That beast got promoted early to 3rd Class as one of his rewards for getting first in 2nd Class rankings. He and the other first rankers are also getting a one-hour personal tutelage from Master Kveld, and not a lecture. The instructor said that Master Kveld is going to assist them in balancing their ki and give pointers on their Kung Fu. If I had known that, I would have punched that one girl right in the face - much like how you handle the fairer sex." Seth stuck his tongue out as he brought up his trump card again. "I mean, you did show up back to the dormitory yesterday after your supposed date covered in blood."

Seifr rolled his eyse before saying, "I told you already, something weird happened with that Ki Sword. I'm still not sure what it was." Seifr had the Ki Sword strapped to his back. It could not fit in his personal chest, and he did not have anywhere to store it safely, so he opted to just carry it around. A lot of other students carried weapons around on them, so it was not out of the ordinary.

Seifr and Seth parted ways to begin their training. Running with a weight on his back was definitely a new experience for Seifr, as he felt the scabbard bouncing around and affecting his center of gravity. This is annoying, how does anyone do this? Seifr was growing frustrated at his inability to keep his sword still on his back. There was nothing to do about, though, but grit his teeth and keep moving. He was sure he would get the hang of it eventually.

Midway through the day, still struggling with his sword strapped to his back, Seifr was approached by Instructor Nalai. She walked up to him and addressed him, "Seifr, I've been watching you make a damn fool out of yourself all day with that sword on your back, and I can't take it anymore. Come with me." Even though the words she spoke were harsh, the look on her face was gentle. Seifr knew she was going to help him, so he was immediately grateful for the interruption.

Instructor Nalai led him to the third floor of the 2nd Class Hall. He had actually never come up here before, and now that he was stepping onto the third floor for the first time, he realized he had never even noticed. There were more training dummies set up on this floor, but there were considerably less of them and they were spaced out much further apart. He instantly realized this was for training with weapons. One did not want to place training dummies too close together when dealing with weapons lest someone lose control and accidentally stab someone else training.

"For one thing, if you're going to wear a sword or blade on your back, make sure you have the straps tightened to a degree that it won't bounce around all over the place. Come on, Seifr, that's pretty common sense." Seifr winced at her disapproving tone.

"Yes, Instructor. But in my defense, I just got this sword yesterday, and I haven't yet gotten a harness that fits me. This one was borrowed from an older student," Seifr explained.

"That brings me to my next point. This is a katana; a curved sword. It's worn on the waist. If you had a straight blade, I would recommend wearing it on your back. Removing and returning the katana to a scabbard on your back is much more complicated than it would be for a longsword. Here, let me show you how it's worn." Instructor Nalai had Seifr remove his harness and hand her the sword. She demonstrated how to thread the scabbard into a belt, and then she showed how to use the sash on the robes to prop the katana at an angle so it did not constantly bang against his leg.

"Ok, now that you're wearing the sword properly, what you're going to do next... is take it off and put it on again," Instructor Nalai unceremoniously ordered Seifr. Seifr gaped at the female instructor for a second before doing as he was told. Upon trying to get the sword set through the belt and propped up on the sash, Seifr realized instructor Nalai was right in making him do it again, because he could not figure out how to get it set right again. He sheepishly glanced at Instructor Nalai, and she chuckled at him before assisting him again.

Seifr spent the next 45 minutes doing nothing but adjusting the scabbard over and over. Instructor Nalai even made him wear a blindfold of all things at one point. After she deemed him competent enough to dress himself, she showed him how to carry himself when he walked, ran, and maneuvered to create as little drag from the sword as possible. Seifr remarked at how adept she was at these movements after an hour of walking, dashing, jumping and running while maintaining the proper bearing, and she gave a small chuckle before replying, "My cultivation has always lagged behind those in the same age group as myself, so I always had to work harder on technique. One of the reasons I was accepted as an instructor here is that I'm a recognized Blademaster. The only reason I'm not famous is my relatively low cultivation base. And that's not me bragging, it's the simple truth." Seifr was amazed when he heard this.

"And you're going to teach me?" Seifr was very excited about this prospect.

"Yes, and no. As your personal instructor in the 2nd Class, I'm here to give you guidance in seeking the correct path. This is in a very general sense, as I have many other students who also need my guidance; however, that being said, I can give you simple instruction once a week like today. I'll spend more time with you today so I don't have to in the future. I'll show you all the proper forms and have you go through them in a very basic way, then I'll have you focus on them in order. As you advance in proficiency, I'll instruct you in the higher forms. The very first form is the draw, and you will practice the draw at least ten thousand times before I'll be satisfied enough to give you proper instruction on the next form."

Instructor Nalai was not joking. She showed him all of the forms and basic strikes, had him go through them slowly and made simple corrections until, in her estimation, he was no longer abysmal at them, and then she instructed him to draw the sword from the scabbard, assume the proper stance, and then return the sword to the scabbard... over... and over.... and over. "If you haven't performed this move at least ten thousand times by this time next week, don't bother showing up for your next instruction," Instructor Nalai informed Seifr.

Seifr was dumbfounded by this seemingly impossible task. Well, if I think about it, it takes about four seconds to perform the draw and sheathe the sword, and as I get more proficient, that time will pare down even further. That's 15 draws every minute. That means I can do about 900 draws an hour if I'm focused. Yeah, 10 hours over the course of a week is completely doable. I'll do an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening every day, that will be close to 14,000 draws and sheathes. Seifr set his determination, and he continued practicing the draw as Instructor Nalai made her leave to attend to her other duties.

That week flew by, with Seifr adhering to his strict regimen of exercise, lectures, and now sword practice. He spent the majority of his time training, but he would occasionally get to spend time with either Seth horsing around, or with Celia wandering around the city. It felt like their relationship was deepening, but he was not sure. He had never even held her hand and was not sure how to broach the subject.

He also eventually started experimenting with infusing ki into his sword again. The crazy event from the first time he did it did not repeat itself, and he actually failed to notice any kind of change in the sword at all when he did this. He always made sure he was in seclusion when he performed these experiments. He started doing everything with the sword in hand: exercising, attending lectures, during his free time, eating, cultivating, and even sleeping. His sword was never put aside.

Seifr learned that the school held a tournament event once every three months, and that the latter two tournaments of the year would be with weapons. Seifr stopped focusing on his Kung Fu in favor of his swordplay as he was confident in the foundation he had built so far. He would occasionally practice a little so as not to get rusty, but for the most part it was all sword play from now on. Seifr decided to skip the next tournament so he would be better when he fought in the third tournament with his sword.

Time continued on and four months passed in the blink of an eye. Seifr managed some small mastery of the various sword forms and strikes, and he managed to build his cultivation back up to the 7th Mortal Realm. He had had a noticeable increase in cultivation speed ever since he had started cultivating with the sword being balanced on his legs. I don't know what my attribute is, or if this sword even has an attribute. Maybe it's a placebo effect and just having the sword unconsciously makes me more efficient at cultivation. I really don't care, all I know is that it's good. This increase in cultivation speed was not accompanied by a drop in battle prowess like the previous increase after the ki vortex, so he knew that he was still purifying his ki at an amazing rate.

There were only two months left before the next tournament, and Seifr was growing more and more confident that he would be able to beat Kohl this time.

~

"I've been feeling these weird fluctuations that I'm having a hard time pinning down recently. Do you know anything about that?" Master Kveld was at his usual spot standing in front of the window in his office, idly tapping on the glass. The irreverent middle-aged man that was in his office during the ki vortex incident was again sitting in one of the chairs with his leg draped over the arm and swinging back and forth.

At Kveld's words, the man froze momentarily before sheepishly saying, "I may have given that young student something..." He trailed off and stared at the ground.

Master Kveld stopped tapping on the glass and turned to face the man before prodding, "Out with it, Loryn."

Loryn refused to meet Kveld's eyes as he said, "...Caelaevus."

Kveld's eyebrows rose to the top of his head in astonishment. "You what?! You gave him Caelaevus? I thought that was one of your prized possessions? And what could have possibly gone through your mind..." Master Kveld slowly came to a stop in his diatribe as he realized something. "Wait, was he able to activate its attribute?" Loryn nodded his head. "Well, what was it? You've had that sword for over 200 years and you never made heads or tails of it."

Loryn finally met Kveld's eyes and furrowed his brow as he answered, "That's the strangest part. He clearly activated it, and there was definitely an effect on him, but I couldn't sense anything. He just stood there and stared at it, dead to the world around him, for about 10 minutes before he collapsed to the floor. I have my suspicions what it could mean, but I don't want to voice them just yet. Though you can be sure that that is the source of those fluctuations you can't identify. Let's wait and see what happens before making any decisions"

"Hmmm... Yes, you're right. Let's wait and see, first. No harm in that." Master Kveld faced the window again and returned to tapping it idly.