Chapter ten: the sword tyrant - a study of magic swordsmanship

A swift five months have passed since that fateful day I woke up in a hospital bed and came to this world. I’d like to believe I’ve adjusted relatively well to this newfound situation and body of mine but being an adult in the guise of a child is, as expected, quite difficult. Maybelle has told me on numerous occasions my speech is atypical of children, though in the same breath told me she preferred this version of me because it was easier to talk to. I suspect this was more due to the fact our roles have sort of been reversed and she was the one being spoiled by me like a little sister, not that I had any problems with this set up.

My mother espoused similar sentiments on my personality on a few occasions with no further thoughts on the matter. There was a sliver of guilt in my heart that perhaps I was robbing her of the chance of being a proper parent, but if needless hardships of parenthood can be avoided isn’t that a good thing? As for my father, he’s a rather difficult case to solve. There are many days in which he’s away from home on special assignments and duties for the military, and on the rare chance that I manage to run into him I’ve found his personality… ‘challenging’ to converse with. Not saying he was a bad father or anything of the like, but he was way too serious to talk to and his expressions hardly changed so I had a hard time gauging him. I suppose being paired with mother equalizes their dynamic. In the end though, I believe both are model parents who think of family first, and in that manner, I’ve come to respect the both of them from the depths of my heart. At the very least, I know in my heart of hearts that my previous self was nowhere near the either of them in terms of maturity.

Outside of family, Sherry and her family were the only ones I had any real interactions with. I’ve tried making conversations with the local children when we go down to the park but in the end, I couldn’t really get through to them on anything. Children are both smarter and stupider in various ways. Speaking of which, as expected, Sherry’s progress has slowed down considerably after changing from magic based lessons to physical training. She’s a lot better in terms of physical capability than she used to be, yet even then I’d say it was only a little better than the average adult of this world – which is good for a child but nowhere near what I want her to be at.

[Sherry Sinclair]

Level: 33

Race: Elf (Elf Aspect)

Health: 1930/1930

Mana: 6365/6365

Stamina: 1785/1785

Physical Attack: 35

Magic Attack: 675

Critical hit Chance: 19%

Critical Damage: 1.4x

Physical Defence Pierce: 4

Magic Defence Pierce: 33

Physical Defence: 45

Magic Defence: 107

Magic: 372

Wisdom: 329

Dexterity: 155

Strength: 150

Agility: 203

This is what her current stats look like, and her capacity for magic is even stronger than my father’s who’s at level 57. That’s not too surprising since I’ve also taught her various mastery skills to boost magic damage and maximize the efficiency of her magic stat. Still, that innate mana is quite monstrous at her level. This is no longer the status of a child, in fact she’s around the upper ranks of what an adult would normally reach by their peak.

“Maybe I really am making a monster,” I quietly thought to myself. However, it was doubtful she’d maintain this extreme level of growth all throughout her life so there was probably nothing to worry about; she was still bound by the rules and internal logic of this world unlike how I received my powers. The main difference between her and I was a fundamental difference in constitution. Simply put, my body was that of a game character’s while hers was as a resident of this world.

“Uugh… Corentin you liar,” Sherry uttered under her breath. We had begun training with the sword for a while now, though the only things I’ve taught her were how to swing it. Perhaps it was because of this lack of excitement that her mood had been sour for the past few days. I tried to lighten her spirits by relocating our usual training locations from the park to a secluded area of the hot springs guild castle. There was also the added benefit of privacy which I preferred.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

She looked at me for a second and turned away with a pout, “it’s nothing.”

“Doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“Hmph! You said you’d teach me magic swordsmanship yet the only thing I’ve done this entire month is swing this sword around!” she retorted while wildly swinging around her wooden practice sword. “You lied to me!”

“Hmm, I guess you have a point. Maybe it is time we tried some actual combat techniques,” I gave in.

“For real?!” her eyes lit up like it was Christmas.

Truth be told, since this was my first time teaching someone anything, I had a hard time grasping just when she was ready. The best I could do was get her base stats up to the minimum requirements for learning the swordsmanship skillsets. Since the game had no strict classes and we could learn any skills at any time, there needed to be a way to prevent players from getting all the most destructive skills early on. The developer’s idea to fix that was through putting stat requisites for learning certain skills. For a base swordsman to begin learning any skills they needed 150 strength, 150 dexterity, and 150 agility - the magic swordsman skills also asked for a further 250 in both magic and wisdom.

“Okay, okay,” she certainly had the necessary stats so there shouldn’t be any problems. “Then to start off, let me show you what my version of ‘magic swordsmanship’ is like.” I gestured the masked servants to bring out several hay targets and set them at a distance. After gathering my thoughts, I asked her a question, “Sherry, what do you think differentiates a magic swordsman from a regular swordsman?”

“Huh? Umm, well a magic swordsman can use magic?”

“Can you elaborate?”

“Like, they can shoot out spells in between their attacks? Also, I think you said something about making yourself stronger with magic?”

I see, that certainly was a logical idea of the skillset, however, “if it’s only at that level, then anyone could do it. Learning simple bolt magic doesn’t take too much time and boosting your physical capabilities through magic is also quite common.” I’ve spent a bit of time researching over the internet how most people fight, but moderate physical boosts and bolt magic were very common and quite effective. “No, the difference between the two is far deeper; it’s on a fundamental level. You could say it’s an ideological dichotomy of the same artistry.”

“I… I didn’t get any of that.”

Right, sometimes I forget I’m talking to a child since she’s so knowledgeable about magic now. “What it all boils down to is a distinction on how each one views their swords and what the ideal swordsmanship is,” as I started to explain I firmly drove my wooden practice sword onto the ground blade first, and after a brief second it began to pulse out a gentle white light. This light covered an approximate distance of 100 metres. “To a regular swordsman the sword is an extension of themselves; once their sword is broken so are they. There is nothing more fearsome than when this type of swordsman becomes serious, be sure to remember that fact. However, no matter how sacred a sword is, to us as magic swordsmen they are just tools. This in itself is not an erroneous mindset; you can still respect your tools without the need to personify or deify it. That said, our sword is not just a sword, it is an ‘anchor’; a medium in which to process powerful magic. Indeed, you could say it’s more akin to a staff or sceptre in how we use it.” I pointed to the wooden sword affixed to the ground as it continued to release its mysterious white pulses, “this is no longer just a mere sword, the moment it was planted into the ground it became a ‘ward’.”

"A ward?"

“It’s a type of magical support item. There are many varieties of wards and their effects. The simplest ones are passive support items that may increase your magic damage or mana recovery rate. Others can cast shields that repel opposing elements, or just erect a general barrier. There are also kinds that attack opponents if they get too close," I explained. Wards were a subcategory of support magic known as ‘summons’, and were popular skills players liked to set up before facing off against a huge boss. I personally did that as well since they were so convenient. In any case, I returned to the sword, “this sword has now become a specialized ward that constructs barriers in the form of itself.

“Eh…” I could already see was lost. Maybe it was just easier showing her.

“Imagine it summons an invisible mould in which you can inject mana into it to create a duplicate sword,” after telling her I instantly created an imitation wooden sword identical to the one planted in the ground. “The weight, durability, sharpness, and any other properties are replicated when creating a duplicate. By all metric this is no different from the original, however the one distinction is that it’s made of mana.” I moved over to one of the hay targets and slashed it down. Even with a wooden sword I could easily cut down something of this level. “And because it’s made of mana you can do a lot more things with it.”

This time I stepped back and tossed the sword straight into another hay target, yet it wasn’t cut down or pierced, instead it exploded upon contact. Large blue flames erupted on the target as the ground beneath us trembled for a second. When the smoke was cleared and the dust settled, the only thing left was a pile of ashes and a large crater where the target used to be.

“What?! The sword exploded?! Wait, you have another one?” she commented and as she turned back to me, she noticed the same wooden sword in my hands despite already having thrown it. “Wait… what? Didn’t you just throw that?”

“I did, and this is another imitation,” I spawned another sword and threw both of them at the same time causing the same level of explosion twice more. “As long as you have the mana and the original sword continues acting as the ward, you can create as many imitations as you need. This technique is known as the ‘Infinite Armament’. And the technique to make the sword explode is called ‘Sword Cannon’.”

"A- amazing! Magic swordsmen are amazing!"

“So, do you understand now? The Infinite Armament is a technique that goes against the virtues of a swordsman who treat their swords with reverence. We fight in the exact opposite manner, viewing our swords as expendable as long as the original persists. Use that fact to your advantage,” of course, both interpretations of swordsmanship are valid. To demonstrate the power of the Infinite Armament, I spawned ten more wooden swords appeared and they floated around my back. “Remember this fact, Sherry, that the swords you generate are still made of mana, and in the same way you control Flare Bolts, with enough training you can control these swords even without touching them.” The swords that flew around me moved about as if they had a mind of their own. Seeing how she nodded, I decided to finish off the lesson by throwing these ten swords at the remaining hay targets. Some of them exploded, some of them just cut the targets down with exceptional precision and speed. At my level the speed of these swords were slightly faster than a bullet being shot out of a sniper rifle. I don’t think Sherry would ever get to that point, but she could probably reach the speed of a handgun bullet. “Actually, there was one more thing you can do,” I summoned another wooden imitation and after that the original suddenly disappeared from the floor.

“Huh? What happened?”

“It’s a simple position shift. You can swap the original sword’s position with any of the imitations, however doing that will cancel out the effect of the ward, so be careful how you use it,” though I say that all I’ve done was demonstrate these skills. I still had to teach her these frightening and destructive abilities. “In any case, with a bit of creative inspiration you can do a lot more things. It’s just a matter of application.”

She nodded furiously and with glee.

“Oh,” I let out a small chuckle, “but to use these techniques effectively requires a lot of stamina, so be sure to not neglect physical training, okay?”