Yale was also very happy to have learned a healing spell that he could use.
Since Wyba's mother died, he regretted that he hadn't been able to use a healing spell.
Furthermore, he had planned to ask his sister to help him improve the spell. Yale wanted to master Basic Healing as soon as possible.
Although Yale didn't intend to be a healer, he considered that being able to heal was very important since it wasn't possible to have always a healer in the proximities.
Yale didn't fear his own injuries because he had Auto-regeneration, but he didn't want to feel powerless again in front of a similar scene like the one in the Beast Trial.
The next class was the Poison Class, Aizu had her books, but Yale was worried because Swordmad was still in possession of his own books.
Swordmad left too quickly the previous night after the lesson and didn't have time even to return the books to Yale.
The poison teacher didn't seem to be the type of teacher who would give Yale another set of books.
Yale didn't worry that the teacher got angry with him, if a teacher dared to harm Yale, Swordmad wouldn't be lenient with that teacher.
Yale was more concerned about wasting the hour without doing anything. He already felt that he had wasted too much time in other magus classes.
Mastering only one spell was the requirement to advance to the 2-star mortal, and Yale knew that it wasn't necessary to master any other spell before reaching Rank 1 in the standard paths.
He also knew that the reason for the teachers not teaching more spells to the beginner class was that the newcomers needed to focus on practicing and increasing their level instead of only learning a lot of spells. However, Yale still felt that if every day would be the same, he would just waste his time.
As Yale was pondering about the magus classes, the door opened.
However, who appeared wasn't the middle-aged teacher.
The one who entered the class was Swordmad, who had come to return Yale's books.
Swordmad had been discussing about the Mysterious Expert with Sainac since the last night and lost track of time.
When they finished, Swordmad realized that he didn't give back the books to Yale.
Yale sighed in relief and thanked Swordmad.
Then, Swordmad left the room, and Yale started to read the books although the teacher hadn't come.
Aizu imitated him. She had been planning to share her books with Yale because they had too many books to read, so there wasn't any problem with lending a book she wasn't reading.
However, Yale never thought of that option, although that would have been an excellent solution to the problem if Swordmad hadn't returned the books in time.
The teacher only came when the class already exhausted more than half of its time.
However, no one spoke until the class ended, and the teacher left as silently as he arrived.
The Darkness Elemental Class was also a boring one. Yale didn't manage to get any new insight nor learn anything new.
After the last lesson ended, Yale left the class with all the books of the Poison Class again.
In the Poison Class, the teacher didn't say a word, but he learned much more by reading those books than in the other lessons, excluding the Healing Class, which was still the best.
Although Yale and Aizu went to the same destination, he needed to reach the training grounds soon, so he used Quick Wind on himself and ran at top speed alone.
Swordmad praised him for his speed and didn't bother about the books as he already knew the reason. However, he didn't take them into his space artifact like the previous day. He only told Yale to put the books where they didn't disturb the training.
Their training season was the same as always, but Swordmad detected something in Yale's swordplay.
"Yale, I detected that your swordplay improved again."
There was no way that Swordmad didn't notice that kind of change.
"I had a few insights this morning that let me improve a bit."
The battle against George had been harsh when he hadn't been using any skill, but the reward of improving his swordplay was worth of it.
"Very good. However, your improvement this time wasn't like the others, you reached an important threshold."
Swordmad was very pleased with Yale's pace.
"An important threshold?"
Yale knew that his Sword Mastery was at the Apprentice level ten, but he didn't realize that there was an important threshold in that level.
"Yes, a critical threshold and one that had stopped a lot of people. Once you have advanced past this threshold, you will be considered an expert in the sword."
Yale, at that moment, understood that the Apprentice level eleven probably didn't exist, and the system would change the Apprentice part after he reached the next level.
"It's hard to become an expert in the sword while staying in the Mortal Rank. Training alone wouldn't suffice."
"Then, what can I do?"
Yale didn't want to stop improving his swordsmanship until reaching Rank 1 just because of that.
"If you want to be able to reach that stage while you stay in the Mortal Rank, I have a method. I was able to become an expert in the sword while staying in the Mortal Rank, the method I will tell you is the one I used."
Yale wasn't surprised to hear that Swordmad managed to do it in the past. If Yale could reach the threshold while in the 2-star, there was no doubt that Swordmad in his young days wasn't worse than him.
"What you need now is a change of perspective. Until now, your swordsmanship has been focused on the techniques that suited you the most. However, that isn't enough to become an expert."
Yale heard Swordmad with all his attention, what Swordmad was saying was true, Yale's swordsmanship based on a style suitable to him.
"Devising techniques that don't suit oneself is a difficult thing, but there is one shortcut that could help you. The method is teaching others about the use of the sword. When you teach someone else, you need to focus on a style that suits the other and not yourself. That will expand your own view about the sword and pave your way to become an expert."
Yale didn't expect such a method. Furthermore, he was already planning to do that since he would be teaching Aizu after the lesson with Swordmad.
Unconsciously Yale was about to do the same Swordmad did in the past to reach the expert stage. Even without Swordmad's help, Yale would have ended up doing the same anyway.
"Of course, that isn't the only possible way, but it is the only one I recommend to you."
Swordmad felt that asking Yale to teach someone was a bit difficult due to his age, but that was the method Swordmad considered the best despite not being the only one.
"Don't worry, master. You can call it a coincidence, but after our lesson, I will teach about the sword to my classmate, Aizu. She is the girl who started to live in my sister's house today."
Swordmad didn't expect Yale's words. Even without his advice, Yale was already planning to teach someone else.
"Excellent! Without knowing it, you chose the same road as me in the past. Of all the students I had in my life, you are the first to do that."
Although Swordmad and Yale weren't the only ones that decided to teach someone swordsmanship while being in the Mortal Rank, most people wouldn't think about doing it since their main worry was reaching Rank 1.
"Don't overpraise me, master. I wasn't thinking anything about reaching the expert stage by teaching her. I didn't even know about the existence of an expert stage before."
"That's exactly why I said that you are the same as me in the past. I also didn't know anything and only wanted to help a friend to improve in his swordsmanship."
Yale had difficulties to believe that he was that similar to the past Swordmad, but that was something that made him happy.
"I will leave now, good luck in your first lesson as a teacher."
Swordmad left, and a few minutes later, Aizu arrived.
She knew that Yale was training with his master before their lesson, so she didn't want to disturb them by going too early to the training grounds.
Yale didn't want to lose time, so he went straight to the point.
"Let's start with the training. First, I want to see your current ability, show me your moves."
Aizu started to execute moves with her wooden sword and left Yale speechless.
She had said that she was average in her class, which made Yale think that such sword class had a serious problem if Aizu wasn't lying.
Aizu's ability with the sword seemed inexistent from Yale's point of view, and he didn't dare to imagine how she was with other weapons given that she had said that she was even worse.
"It seems that teaching her will be a challenge, but I gave my word to her. I will teach her, and then I'm sure I will reach the expert stage in Sword Mastery."
After Yale thought those words, he told Aizu to stop.
That kind of swordsmanship was hurting Yale's eyes. That demonstration was enough to let Yale know Aizu's level.
The truth was that Aizu was really average, but Yale's level was too high, so an average ability for a ten years old girl seemed like an inexistent ability in his eyes.
Yale was used to fighting with George, who was extraordinarily talented in the sword, or he practiced with Swordmad, who was a true master of the sword.
He didn't even look at his own classmates' abilities.
If he observed them, Yale would have seen almost the same scene as Aizu's show of ability.
That was the same reason why he felt the magus classes boring, his insight was superior to almost all the students, and their demonstrations couldn't help Yale. The first day he improved a lot due to his lack of basic knowledge regarding the elements.
However, remembering and understanding all in the first try wasn't usual. For the other students, those repetitive lessons were necessary to learn the basics of the elements.
"Let's start by making you forget everything you learned about the sword until now. Your foundation is wrong. No matter your talent, if you have such a flawed foundation improving will be difficult."
In Yale's eyes, Aizu lacked a good foundation, and that made it difficult to improve more. Thus, Yale planned to start again from the basics.
"I tried to learn how to use the sword by myself. It is my foundation too wrong?"
Aizu asked with a shy voice, hoping that yale's answer wouldn't be too harsh.
"Completely wrong. It is difficult to have a good foundation without someone teaching you, so don't feel depressed. Starting again with the basics would let you improve faster afterward."