My second match was upon us, I decided together with Ri to buy two secondary skills, a C-class skill, called "Wind Cut", as the name implies, it is a wind-based skill, in detail it is based on the creation of a sort of crescent with the wind, with the curved part that is sharp, for now it has a range of up to 7 meters.
The second skill is D-class and is called "Improved Breathing", and it gives a 10% bonus on my stamina.
Actually, at the beginning it won't be very useful, in fact, my stamina, being 12, would have increased only by 1.2; but if I ever get to have 100 stamina, it would mean an increase of 10, which is not bad at all.
Assimilating the acquired skills was easier than I thought, the purchasable skills were delivered in the form of candy, and to assimilate them you just had to eat them and wait a day or so.
Even using them was easier than expected, it was as if, after having assimilated them, my body knew how to use them in a natural way.
The thing to train was therefore how to use them in a fight.
In the following days, I trained every morning with Liza, getting closer and closer to the visualization of my inner world; while in the afternoon I trained with Ri and in the evening in the gym.
"Today is the big day ..."
I woke up at 9, the match was scheduled for 11.
This time we did not make any particular strategy, Ri had told me that this fight would have been easier for me than the previous one, also because my opponent, called Sorgh, had a distance-based power, called "Riflescope" and a secondary ability that allowed him to accelerate his punches.
11 o'clock, I found myself for my second time in a ring of the Arena, ready for my second match.
The opponent was about as tall as I am, with blond hair and blue eyes, he was certainly handsome, but he didn't seem like a threat to me like the challenger in my first match had been.
And so it was.
In this fight, I really understood how much I had improved.
It all finished in three moves: My opponent quickly approached me, trying to throw me a fast hook, I easily dodged it and twisting my body kicked him to the right of his head, causing him to stagger until he fell unconscious.
The crowd turned on.
I looked at Ri's face, she too, who rarely hinted at emotions, had a very happy face and at the same time full of ambition.
[The next day - 5 am]
As usual, Liza was in my room at this time.
"I heard that you won your second match yesterday, now you have reached 16 FP ..."
"Yes ..."
Even though we had been seeing each other for a while, our relationship did not change much, she always seemed very distant.
However, she was less angry and during this period I reevaluated her, even if at first she seemed irritated by training me, she hadn't skipped a single day of teaching.
I thought that she was probably someone who didn't trust people and that it would take time to get closer.
"You know, after your last fight there are many people who see you as a promise ..."
"Ah"
Actually, Ri had already told me this too, she told me that other sponsors had been interested in me, however, I decided yet not to accept any.
"Well, sit down, let's start our training."
Liza began pouring her mana into me.
'I'm used to it now ...'
That day I felt very good, also because I had won the day before.
I tried to use a different strategy than usual, I didn't focus on mana, but I let my mind travel where it wanted, after a while my mind began to follow my mana linked to Liza's, my thought was as if accompanied by hand from mana.
I felt good, free.
The mana was accompanying me through a tunnel and led me to a huge room without walls, with a huge sphere in the center, I felt a huge force coming from it.
I cautiously approached this sphere, until I could walk on it, the surface was desert, reddish, with sometimes dunes and other times hollows.
'is this my inner world?'
I was neither hot nor cold.
The more I looked at this "world" the more I felt like I was looking at myself in the mirror.
In this "world" I felt "me", my person, my spirit, and my mana in its entirety. A feeling impossible to put into words from what was abstract and so different from what one normally feels.
I opened my eyes again.
"You did it!"
Liza smiled, she seemed very happy for me, which left me very surprised, almost uneasy.
(if sometimes I write Lise instead of Liza it is a typo, they are the same person)
"Ahem ... well, after all, I'm the one training you, sooner or later it had to happen."
"Ye ..:"
I was still a little shaken, a part of me wanted to return to that world so "calm".
I told Liza about my feelings and the appearance of my "world".
"Mmh, the desert is not a bad sign actually"
"Oh really? I thought it was a bad omen. "
"In reality, every world, of every person, is special in its own way ... and then you are just starting out ... actually, normally the first form of the inner world is spherical and smooth, but you told me that yours had dunes and hollows and that the surface was sandy ... especially this last thing is truly incredible. "
"Why?"
"Well, think about it ... it means that you were able to visualize your world as an infinity of parts gathered together ..."
This sentence contained the true essence of this technique, "visualization of the inner world", one of the keys to this method it's just the visualization, and mine was already very detailed. I would have improved the world in appearance by training.
"Try to see your MPs now."
I did as she said.
.
.
.
34Mp
.
.
.
"34 ?!"
They were more than triple what they used to be.
"This is because you fully understood your current power, you said it yourself, when you stood in front of your world, you felt your mana in its entirety ... however 34 ... you are really talented ..."
"Really?"
"Yes, after I first viewed my world I had 56Mp"
"Well, then it's not that much, is it?"
"But you don't know what my power is ... my power is based on mana, while yours, from what I understand looking at your fights, is based on predicting the opponent's moves, right? That really makes you ... complete"
At that moment, I didn't even think about her understanding my power, I was just focused on what her words might mean for the future, and she was probably thinking the same too. Could I have become the key to getting out of this place?