Next up, I am back to swordsmanship. After over two months of repeating this schedule nearly every day, with the only exceptions being monster hunting and large group training days, it has become quite a repetitive one. Train, increase skill and personal levels, repeat. Several times a day, every day, without even a break at night.
That I have not slept in months is a rather absurd thing, especially when I consider that the time that would have been spent on it was spent training. Truly, my training regimen has been almost comically brutal. Day and night, endless training… yet, I have yet to tire of it. The feeling of getting more powerful has become like a drug to me, to be pursued at all costs. I realize with some consideration that my biggest problem with an earlier deployment is not that I am losing training time necessary to stay alive, but that my growth rate will decrease due to being occupied with other matters. Where growing in power had once been only a method to increase my chance of survival, over time it has become more than that. Power has become a goal in and of itself, and I am unsure whether or not it is a good thing.
Sure, the pursuit of power was the corrupting force in many a cartoon villain, but to say I am not already corrupted would be untrue. Objectively speaking what sounds worse: a man who pursues only power or a man with the goal of punishing the world for its sins?
[Of course, however evil it may sound, the world deserves punishment. My delivery of it is hardly evil, for it is just. How may justice be evil? Honestly, what is the point in even considering this right now? I am merely enjoying the feeling of growing in power, how do I not know that this is only subconscious joy at acquiring greater means to further my other goals, hm? I think, for now, I should just appreciate that I do not tire of training the way others do. To be able to train without fatigue, day and night, how could I complain?]
Today is a proper teaching day in Reinhart's class, with him devoting the hours to teaching us increasingly obscure and niche methods and motions that may be of use in battle. While a bit greedy on my part, I much prefer the other days, when Reinhart devotes his efforts only to our spars. This is especially true considering that I wanted to test my new post-naming abilities on Reinhart, but I suppose that will have to wait for tomorrow.
While my strength and magical increases were already mostly tested last night, against Lector it is nearly impossible to test any potential increase to my swordsmanship. Though, even if my actual skills have not increased, I will definitely be more capable if only for the increase to my strength and speed.
That I have no opponent worth dueling against with all my ability is quite a shame. Against Reinhart, I may not utilize my magic, while against Lector my sword is fully off-limits. Of course, unlike with Reinhart, duels with Lector are exceedingly rare. As he puts it, I am still so far from his level that there is little point. And considering some of the stunts I have seen him pull off, I fully believe him when he says so.
Take his demonstration on the first day of class as an example. Multicasting, one of the elements being the higher-leveled metal, while simultaneously condensing and shaping both a cube from the metal and a sword from the flame. Not to mention, the cube had maintained form when cut, meaning that Lector had fused a proper solid from the infinitesimally small metal elemental particles in the atmosphere. Though I remember him looking slightly tired afterwards, he was clearly far from his limit while partaking in a task that would leave me with a minimum of a nasty backlash from magical exhaustion should I even succeed.
Still, I do look forward to the day when I reach his level of power and can actually duel him. Not because I have any desire to completely crush him in an endeavor to which he has devoted his life; of course not! I just want to practice with magic in a duel-like scenario for once, that is all. I swear!
Speaking of my master, I have his class next. Being sure to continue to follow orders, especially important now as he'd surely see if I approached his class by foot, I fly to his class, challenging myself to go as fast as possible.
Where the journey by foot, currently a walk across the entirety of the complex, had taken me close to ten minutes even with my strengthened body propelled by air, the same trip is over in only a minute with flying now. [Flight really is an amazing skill. And while it can be accomplished by a lower-level straight magic mage, the mental energy exertion is too immense to be sustainable and the effect is rather difficult to control. Compared to flying through careful manipulation of the wind elements, a high level elementalist would be able to maintain a superior flight for many hours before needing a break. I guess that elementalism really does have its uses, and a good thing too, considering my inability to utilize straight magic].