I was still standing there and tried to keep the feeling I had while I experienced that one sword swing.
"How long would I have to train."
I looked at my hands thinking about how I would need to move them, how fast, how powerful, how precise and how much practice I would need, how many years until I would be at that level.
*BOOM*
The top part of the tree like monster, multiple times stronger than me... it finally fell down and it was so loud that I had to deactivate me sense of hearing quickly or otherwise I might get hurt by the pure sound of that collision.
"Cleanly cut in two, a seemingly perfect swing that reached multiple kilometres, able to cut even a mountain in two, like a knife would cut butter. No even cleaner!"
Now that I think about it I began to tremble by the pure sight of what I just witnessed.
"Wait a second-"
That guy. He just left after slicing a whole fucking mountain and this giant monster in two?!
What if anyone saw it or gets here, is it normal to have that much strength, or what? No it can't be normal after all the environment looks too peaceful for such strong people to just walk around everywhere.
"Shit!"
I had to go, if somebody were to find me here at this moment. I would definitely be questioned unable to answer basically anything. After all I don't even know the name of that guy.
"But I should use this opportunity, shouldn't I?"
I grabbed the sword from my back and stood exactly where the mysterious swordsman stood. You could tell where he stood by the markings he left just by standing here.
Although my sword is way bigger and probably harder than the katana I should be able to try to replicate the strike as good as possible. Thinking about it the material his sword is made of should be incredibly hard, after all the strength of his grip should've been enough the destroy the sword if he's able to slash a mountain just by using the pressure from one swing of his sword.
I stood there holding the sword with one hand, which wasn't too hard considering my current strength.
I couldn't draw the sword, like he did, after all this sword is something you wear on your back, because it's too heavy and would impact you while fighting if you wore it on one side of your body.
But what I could do was looking at the exact angle of the slash from where I am standing right now and trying to get faster and faster while still swinging at the same angle.
I could tell that he had to be a master, otherwise I would just realize how weak I am exactly and that catching op to him wouldn't ever be possible like this.
"Let's concentrate."
I tried to cut off all of my senses and my emotions and just tried to think back at what I saw, the one slash he showed me.
While still remembering that feeling I opened my eyes and tried to perfectly replicate the swing.
My sword was following the exact angle of his slash, of the cut in the mountain and the monster.
I had tried to swing slowly but accurate for the first time and although I didn't think it would work it really looked like it was almost a perfect replication of the swing.
I tried it again. I closed my eyes and only concentrated on the swing. I opened my eyes and swung my sword, this time faster at a moderate speed like a normal human would still be able to swing a normal sword.
And it looked like I succeeded again.
So I tried it one last time and closed my eyes for the third time. I exactly pictured the scene before my eyes and opened them. Sweat was dropping from my face and my muscles were getting ready, my veins were showing on my whole body.
I began to swing the sword with my full strength and as fast as I could.
And although the swing was obviously weaker than the one I pictured it seemed like the angle was correct, at least if I completely concentrate on one single swing.
"I guess this is enough for me."
The swing seemed exactly like the swing of the mysterious swordsman... well only at the first look. Of course besides the obvious difference of speed and strength there was one other crucial thing that my swing didn't have...
It didn't feel right.
The feeling I felt when I watched the original swing was a feeling of fear, admiration, strength and all in all just something heaven defying, something perfect.
But my swing completely missed that feeling, which isn't surprising. After all it's just a copy, nothing more than someone way weaker trying to copy something they see. I lacked experience. And I lacked originality, determination, will and basically everything that you need to create a technique.
I don't have the ability to recreate this technique perfectly because I lack understanding, It's like singing a song knowing all of the words and the exact notes, hitting every tone. But there would still be something missing... emotion, you are sometimes able to feel a song, the feelings conveyed by the singer or the Komponist, It's not something that you are able to have if you don't have a connection with it.
And I believe that that is exactly what I am lacking.
Nevertheless this slash is still something that will help me in the future. It's a feeling of how a sword should feel and knowing that feeling can let you differentiate between a good swing, or something that just seems good, but wasn't really created with blood sweat and experience.
"Well I should go."
I turned my back and just left this place following the river away from everything that had happened on this day.
But that day, it was the first day I really felt like I could understand swordsmanship at it's core and a memorable day in my life.
Nonetheless I had to keep moving on and had already lost too much time.
So I wandered along the river while using my magic, training my swordsmanship and trying to kill beasts if possible only with bow and arrow.
The days passed and I didn't know where I would come out, but either way, coming here was the right decision all along and I was now sure that I would be able to be relatively safe against most opponents, like street bandits or other scum that would try to kill me.
Less then a week after leaving the battlefield, if you could call it that I finally was about to achieve a goal I wanted to achieve since multiple weeks.
"Darkness, surround me."
I opened my eyes and my shadow and my hand had the exact same depth of darkness, I couldn't tell where my hand and where my shadow was, it was completely hidden!
"Finally. This should suffice to hide against most opponents to at least hide before they find me."
It wasn't too important of a skill, because I don't plan on primarily fleeing from battles, but it was also a good skill to try my control over my magic and from now on I should be able to improve this skill more and more until it will finally become something I could also use offensively.
"Well I already observed the change in environment and if I am right about where this is going, then it would really be interesting."
As I moved further and further, always alongside the river my assumptions turned out to be true.
"Well is this good or bad? Well at least I know where I am."
I was now moving a lot faster and only killed the wild beasts, when I was hungry and needed to eat something, well I don't need to really fend them off or anything either way.
After all they are actually scared of me, or at least that's what it seems like. That's mainly, because I don't encounter the big bears anymore and the wolves also got back to their weak state is what it seems like, well I would be surprised if it wouldn't be like that.
"It should take about one day more?"
I was confident in my improved speed and stamina, so instead of taking multiple weeks to get to the mountains I only took a few days to get back and although I knew the environment around here this time around I was still happy to be able to see the results of my training once again in this way.
And on the next day, probably in the middle of the day the sun was standing at it's highest point and I began to see the end of the forest.
"I guess I am going to be back again in a few minutes."
I left the safe darkness of the forest behind me and for the first time in over half a year really stepped out of the now familiar and friendly darkness and stepped into the pure sunlight not surrounded by trees anymore.
"Oh I still recognize "that"."
I headed to the hill in front of me and just wanted to get up the hill because of the feeling of nostalgia. And when I now easily went up the hill in less than a minute I was able to see Raiken in front of me, but this time I wouldn't just go there as a little boy, weak and not knowing.
This time I would enter Raiken with the experiences I had made and happy to explore the kingdom's capitol now in all of it's magnificence.
And you never know, maybe I will even encounter some special opportunities this time around.
"Well it doesn't matter. Let's head on back to Raiken!"
And with those words I made my way down the mountain and towards the gates of Raiken with the wind in my back and the sun following me in the endless sky.