The next morning came by fairly quickly since Arnold had a lot of things bugging him. He had too little time but a lot of things to do.
The first thing he wanted to do, before hearing about the dungeon expedition that the final years went on, was to go to the World Tree Forest and find the Hiisi Elder and persuade it to give him its ring.
The Hiisi elder probably didn't even need it. Why would it need such a magic item when it can control nature itself. Although it helped in boosting one's affinity with magic, Arnold wasn't certain if it was the same for elemental magic. All creatures born in the World Tree Forest could only use elemental magic and not much else.
The Cardinal Artifacts mentioned in [The Artifacts of Old and Monsters through Time] stated that the jar, ring, necklace and crown of the Cardinal were made only for arcane magic users.
Which was why the Hiisi elder didn't need the ring.
Arnold could've had the ring in hand right now but had to deal with the dungeon incident first. Now that he heard that it was dying it was in his best interest to find the pure martial skill book as soon as possible.
Arnold felt this way before… Like the world itself had too many problems that he couldn't face alone. Not only his personal problems but the things that could have an impact on the people around him.
Doomsday was around the corner unless he was able to control the situation by releasing dummy dungeon monsters.
The dungeon was originally supposed to appear during the middle of the story—in other words when Luke and Arnold were at the peak of their power.
Luke was already the leader of the Hero Party and Arnold built a domain for himself that acted as a stronghold. At 20 and 23 respectively. Arnold had also gathered powerful subordinates who could even stand on equal grounds with Flora or any of the other core members of the Hero Party.
Their powers were equal if not greater than the two most powerful organizations on the entire continent—Serz and the Murim Martial Alliance(MMA).
Of course, they were able to stop the invasion of the offspring of the Star Beast. But it wasn't without sacrifices. Luke didn't have his holy sword yet so he couldn't fight full power. He couldn't protect everyone but was able to save millions.
In this world, there existed no Hero Party and Arnold didn't have those subordinates at all.
Imagine the disaster that would befall this empire.
That was the situation that Arnold had to solve. He couldn't do everything on his own so he turned to Selia—a level cap monster lord.
"…." Arnold looked over the empire absentmindedly from the second floor window.
The first class they had was swordsmanship. Rodrick was supposed to teach them the full power of Aether.
Arnold admitted that he was curious but wasn't interested in going anyway. As mentioned before, he had too many worries.
'I passed by Celeste earlier in the hallway…' he remembered when he exited his room, 'she didn't even acknowledge my existence. She was enjoying her time with the disciplinary committee's leader.'
Those two looked like the ideal couple. The thought of "don't they fit each other better" crossed his mind but he knew that wasn't right of him to think so.
Celeste von Penston had been in love with Arnold ever since they were children, that was the truth he had to learn in the midst of the other problems he was facing.
Marriage wasn't on his mind at all. Especially if it didn't hold any worth and it had more cons than pros.
"Here you are," Rodrick suddenly appeared behind Arnold while he was dazed, "Why are you standing here? Everyone should be at the training grounds already."
He turned around, "I don't feel like going…"
"You should come because you serve an important role in today's lesson."
"Huh? Important role?"
"You want to know what it feels like to have endless power, right?"
That was definitely what he wanted. A power that was endless.
Power that could make any mortal a god.
'I need as much help as I can get for the big fights that's to come at the end of the semester.'
His mind was suddenly changed just from hearing "endless power".
Arnold nodded at his professor.
"Then let's go."
◇
◇
Stella was born the daughter of Duke Drakan Ayried and his cousin Ruella Ayried.
Stella's mother was from a branch family of the Ayried House. She inherited her mother's long red hair and her father's fierce eyes that seem to glare at the entire world with killing intent.
She grew up never really seeing her father much aside from her birthdays and her coming of age ceremony.
She only knew that he was one of the best sword instructors on the entire continent. He wasn't a sword master himself but he could teach anyone how to handle a sword, regardless of what class they preferred to pursue.
Many had praised him for his strict but helpful teaching methods that could turn even the laziest person into a dedicated soldier.
Stella heard this and that about her father but she herself was never really taught personally by him.
It was like he didn't want to teach his own daughter.
Stella brought up this worry with her mother, who responded with:
"Your father doesn't want you to become strong the easy way. If you had trained under him then you wouldn't have been so dedicated to becoming stronger. You wouldn't even care about improving yourself even if you meet someone stronger. Do you know why? Because you would know that your father will always be there to help you."
Stella's goal was to surpass the First Hero. Be it swordsmanship or power; she wanted to become strong without blessings from gods.
The Ayried family didn't preach to a particular god anyway so there was no way that someone in their family would be born with a blessing.
Stella was obsessed with getting stronger. Better. Her mother's words would always resonate inside her head when she trained every day.
"Everyone, let's begin," Professor Rodrick returned while Stella was lost in thought.
She turned her eyes towards his left.
A certain young man was standing there.
The one she wanted to crush more than anything:
Arnold.
◇
Stella breathed deeply before she picked up the sword.
Her ritual whenever she trained was to rid herself of any unnecessary thoughts. Of course, this was never successful unless she was alone.
If only she was focused then she would be able to use all her power efficiently and not lose control.
"Arnold will be helping in today's lesson seeing as how only he is able to use the second stage—Sword Intent to its fullest potential."
"Ugh…"
"Damn…"
The students groaned in displeasure.
Rodrick smiled wryly, "Now, now. I already said that only a few of you can use it but can you use it as if it were a separate limb?"
He looked at Arnold. The two nodded to each other.
Arnold went towards the dummy that was standing in the middle of the courtyard.
"Just watch how Arnold materializes his own weapon out of nothingness."
'Out of nothingness…?' Stella looked intently at Arnold who was pointing his arm towards the dummy's chest.
A screech sounded as white energy engulfed Arnold's hand.
Stella's mouth gaped.
Arnold swung his hand at the dummy's head, severing it completely.
It was a clean cut.
"W-Wha…"
"How did he do that!?"
"S-So this is Sword intent…"
"Sword Intent is known as an extension of your own body when used as a weapon," Arnold made the energy vanish as he spoke, "What you just witnessed is what the professor will teach all of you."
"But first," Rodrick spoke again, "You must complete step one: cleanly slice wood into two parts. You may only strike it once. Arnold will show you what I mean by that."
Rodrick threw a copper sword at Arnold. It seemed rusted at a glance and the handle was at the verge of falling off.
'Won't that sword break? The blade looks so brittle…'
Arnold covered the sword in the same energy from before.
Stella noticed that his posture had changed. He wasn't particularly different when he didn't have a sword before but now he was.
His form was perfect as if he had done this hundreds of times to perfection.
A single draw of the sword to strike down his opponent(in this case his opponent being wood).
Arnold held the sword as if he was going to draw it out of its sheath.
He exhaled and closed his eyes.
The entire class was watching in silence. Everyone was waiting to see how effective coating one's blade in Sword Intent was.
Arnold lifted his head and focused on the wood that was placed on the table.
He swung his sword, a magnificent arc of white energy was left behind in its trail.
Stella, and the rest of her classmates, was hit with a powerful gust of wind.
They closed their eyes for a second due to the wind so they couldn't see how he cut apart the wood.
But…
"T-That's insane… He cut apart the wood…"
"The surface of the cuts is so clean and smooth…"
"As you just saw, Sword Intent's most useful ability is to sharpen any object, be it a stick or even a dull sword. The first demonstration was what I want you all to achieve for today but this is the first step." He lifted one finger, "But remember that you must be creative when using this power since it greatly impacts a sword's durability. See?"
He pointed at the sword Arnold used.
White flames were turning the sword's blade into ash and it scattered into the wind.
"A good sword will probably last around five swings. Swords of the highest quality will last even longer. Be careful using it on your household swords. The purpose of Sword Intent is to make yourself a weapon when you don't have one and sharpen any object to use as a sword. So using it on your own weapon is idiotic."
'So professor is saying that I shouldn't use it on this either…' Stella touched the hilt of her household's heirloom.
If she were to use Fire Lily to increase its power then there was a chance that it would cause the sword to disintegrate just like the rusty copper sword Arnold used.
'Which means that it's a risky move to use that power.'
That may be so but it was a useful power whenever her aura reserves were empty. She would be able to keep on fighting even if it's not at her full strength.
Warriors—especially swordsmen—needed a lot of cards up their sleeves.
Mages had magic sheets, potions and summons to fight while swordsmen had aura and Sword Intent. There has to be some kind of balance between the two classes even if their stats were infinitely different.
Stella raised her hand.
"What would you like to know?" her professor asked.
"Is aether a power that can oppose magicians and their magic?"
"That's a good question. Unfortunately, I myself am not sure since the power is unreliable in a fight against a mage," he showed his finger which was bandaged up, "This is as far as I can manage. Perhaps I would be able to win against a professor who uses magic. But that's if I even manage to hit them on the first try."
"But professor's entire body was filled with that power. How does that work?" another classmate asked.
"No, that wasn't aether in its entirety. I was only focusing aether at the tip of my finger. The energy surrounding my body was the technique's first stage—Breeze."
"I-I see…" the student who asked the question looked even more confused.
Arnold was taking notes from behind Rodrick. Stella couldn't help but notice this.
'Humph. Even if he already mastered Sword Intent, that doesn't mean I can't surpass him.'
Her end goal was to become stronger than Promethius but Arnold was her first target to surpass.
Arnold suddenly lifted his head and stared in her direction.
He looked at her in confusion.
**
'Why is Stella glaring at me like that? Is she holding a grudge from what I said yesterday?'
How childish, he thought while shaking his head.
But still, there was a type of passion and determination burning in her eyes.
Arnold would never know what she was thinking about at all.
"Let's begin with the first lesson!" Rodrick spoke after everyone picked up their own weapons, "This technique isn't hard to learn but mastering it is an entirely different mountain to cross. So first I'll have all of you draw this rune on your swords."
He held up a piece of paper. On it was a symbol of runic language. It stood for Sword Intent.
'Huh, so it's this easy to learn Sword Intent now. Arnold had to go through years of hellish training to get to this level.'
But as the years went by, so did old methods of training. Nowadays anyone can use magic by just buying a magic sheet or imbuing their staves with spells; something like this was never possible a hundred years ago.
"The rune is called [Everlasting]. I asked lady Melissa to modify the rune to be used for this training."
'Everlasting…'
Meaning that it would never fade away unless the rune was tampered with.
Arnold had to admit that it was a great way for the students to learn the power without any limits. They could switch it on or off anytime they wanted. The source of the power wasn't coming from their bodies but the rune. But their only goal is to control the power.
'Why didn't Sebas just let Arnold learn it like this…'
Considering how Arnold was far more powerful than all of them, he could somewhat understand why. Perhaps the old methods were better than the new methods for some people.
"Draw the rune into the blade of the swords. Once you're done I want you to hold the swords out in front of you. The feeling of handling Sword Intent for the first time won't be pleasant."
Saying it won't be pleasant was sugar-coating it. Their insides would scream at the unfamiliar power.
Since all of them had some variant of aura—like Arnold(dark blue) and Stella(red)—it meant that the two different powers would battle for which one would stay and which one would go.
The process would make the user go through abnormal amounts of pain, though. Every person capable of using Sword Intent experienced the same thing unless they didn't have aura.
'For some reason, Rodrick left this out of his explanation.' Arnold couldn't help but pity his classmates.
"Aether—or just Breeze as a whole—is a power that comes from one's soul so it is known as a Soul Power," Rodrick covered his own sword in Sword Intent, "I want you to think carefully before uttering the rune's name. Do you want this power? How badly do you want it? Think about that."
If Rodrick said that the power would afflict them with insufferable pain then many would give up. That was why he probably changed his way of speaking.
'A soul power. It's my first time hearing of it. That book—something through time or whatever—never mentioned something like this.'
Arnold heard something similar to steel grinding against each other.
He turned his head and saw a beast chomping down on its fangs. Of course, it wasn't a beast but Stella Ayried who was gritting her teeth.
'This ought to be interesting.' Arnold thought with a smirk.
Stella was the only one who seemed determined to use the power.
She took a deep breath before uttering, "Vealis…"
That was the runic word for Sword Intent.
Almost immediately after a deafening scream came out of her throat as white flames erupted from her sword. Stella's eyes turned back as blood dripped out of them.
She was about to fall forward but she put one leg forward and managed to stay upright.
'What the heck. What kind of monster are you?'
Arnold could tell from how her entire body was exuding thick white energy.
'She's definitely going to become a major power in this empire one day.'
She was known as none other than the Hero Party's [Red Demon].