Q: What affects Victory the most in the Fall?

A: Other than the bone-chilling cold, there was the ice creatures surge, such as Ice Myra from Frostlands.

- - -

Do you know how many times a professional stage performer or a magician practises a trick successfully before showing it in front of an audience?

The answer is at least ten thousand times, and I was talking about successful tries, not the half-assed failed ones. In those ten thousand tries, the trick became almost second nature to the performer that he could perform even with close eyes. In a sense, the swordsmanship or the arts we learn in the academy are just the same.

To master an art, you have to be successful ten thousand times. Talent may play a big role in learning, but only with perseverance and hard work would you be able to master the art.

I have learned many things in my life and was good at a few of them. From Coding, which was my profession, to cooking, playing video games, and playing musical instruments such as guitar, piano. I was capable of these few things, but I never had the urge to become an expert in any of those. Well, no one could blame me. My life was not dependent on it then. Unlike now.

Narrowing my eyes, I surged the spirit force into the thin line on the blade and kept at it until it became a little chaotic for me to control. Sweat beads dripped down from my face as I swung the sword.

A surge of force was released from the sword and attacked right at the chest of the test dummy. It left a couple of inches of deep mark on the stone dummy, indicating the slash was potent enough.

If it was any normal person in place of the dummy, that person would be cut into two pieces easily, and it's just with the surge of force.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead, cheeks, and noticed many girls from the knight department were watching me. Well, I could not blame them, as the face I own now was something far more handsome for its own good. Though I would be lying if I say I did not enjoy the looks—girls were giving me. Other than the loathsome looks I get whenever I got out, this is quite refreshing. Thankfully, most of the freshmen knew nothing of my infamous character, nor did they suffer in Scar's hand.

It was a new thing to me, and I did not know if I will ever be fed up with this.

Maybe after ten thousand times.

Well, at least, they gave me the motivation to keep working on the slash techniques without a break. Don't think I'm pathetic. It's only natural for humans to want to get the reverence and likeness of others. If that's not the case, then it's weird. Only the one that stands above all, or a madman, does not care about what others think. I am none of those.

On that note, I have never been like this before. Yes, I cared about others' views of me. It would have bothered me if my colleagues thought I was a lonesome weird pervert who has nothing going for him. But that was all an insignificant part of my life. I had almost become indifferent to it in my old world. Not entirely, but almost; yet here now, I was getting motivated just from the gazes of the girls. I finally comprehend the purpose of cheerleaders.

Sorry, girls. I already got Yasmine. But you can all cheer for me if you like.

Releasing the breath, I concentrated again. The ones I was training currently were the slash techniques of the Knights. It has mainly two basic slashes: Half-slash and Full-slash. Both of the slash techniques were widely spread throughout the realm, and one needed to master both of them before he could get the title of a Knight. Though there might be a few unique techniques that a few grand knights created for themselves, which far out-classed the two basic techniques, but that was a story for another time.

Scar actually mastered the Half-slash at the age of 12, while many squires could not even when they were adults. If one thinks that is outrageous, then he would probably scream to learn the next. After only two months in the academy, Scar mastered the Full-slash as well. Even Yasmine, who got the highest score of her years, took over two years in the academy to master both slashes, so you could guess how much of a monster Scar was.

Luckily for me, my practice was going well, and I had to thank Scar for that. I was successful in the Half-slash hundreds of times, though it's still far away from the mastery level. It might be because of the residual instinct left in the body that I did not feel many hindrances in learning the technique. All I need is: keep my concentration on the straight line of the blade and force out spirit energy. Then make the slash, releasing the force at once with the momentum—I built up.

While I was pretty good at the Half-slash technique, my Full-slash was terrible.

Full slash was similar to the half slash technique, but it's not the spiritual force you attack with the full slash, but your element. Fire was for me, and my fire attribute was not just any fire. Ignoring the Ember in my blood, Purgatory was the most unruly and devastating flame in the realm. You could guess why it was so problematic for me.

Despite that, it was not that I can't make Full-slash. Actually, I have a more successful rate with full-slashes than half-slashes, but I fear I might kill someone accidentally. I am not very good at controlling how much power I would want to attack with.

Then there were the Flame Stances. I barely practised them as I already had my hands full with the slash techniques and the sorcery. My body kind of had some instinct on those moves, but I had no one to teach me how to improve them. So, I could only drop them for now.

Don't believe what's written in some web novels, Swordsmanship is not an easy skill to pick. It is more than just swings and slashes where all one has to do is scream the name of the move. With no one's help, it's almost impossible to become a true swordsman.

Scarlet flame blazed my sword, and I tried all my efforts to condense it into the thin line of the blade. Within the blink of an eye, the flame fluctuated as I made the slash instantly.

The high slash of fire assaulted the stone dummy as I shook my head. Still too powerful. I fear I might injure Kyle or Ben accidentally after they are ready for the practice again.

"Boss, you will turn that sword into a scrap within another hour at this rate," Julies said, throwing a wet towel at me. "You have taken a new hobby of destroying swords instead of wasting money on drinks. I wondered which one of the two is more expensive."

Probably the later, then again, at least, the training would add something.

I caught the towel and looked at the sword. It was a fine sword, but nothing else. It cost me six dynes and with that, you could guess it was not something specially made to adapt with spirit force, much less the fire attribute. With each swing I make, I'm burning my money with it. And I already wasted 5 of those, just as good swords.

"It would last a couple hundred more swings," I said and took a seat on the rock on the sides. 'I need a better sword, and I know where to get it.' Though it will be a little troublesome.