"... you will all die."
"...!?"
"...!?"
"...!?"
Please tell me I heard him wrong! Maybe he said you will all fly? Fly?
I looked at our teacher's face but he was smiling. For what!? What's so funny!?
"Sigh, you guys didn't let me finish..."
We didn't let you finish!? You stopped right there!
"You will all die on the battlefield of you're not trained on how to use your weapons properly. Today I'll be teaching you on the different sword techniques."
Phew...
I let out a sigh of relief in my mind before turning my attention to the lesson.
"You see, in every warrior that has chosen the path of the sword there is something called a sword path that will awaken in them. That sword will is a magic cluster of information in the brain that releases a 'sword path' that each swordsman will train with."
"Each sword path is different and the chance of it being the same with another person's is 40%. You can make your own sword paths however these auxiliary paths are known as technique. So you can say techniques are man made sword paths."
He paused a little to let all the info dump sink in and he continued after five minutes. I already ordered Carlos to save everything the teacher was saying as a note in the system. Another function I found out during [General Class].
"For an example, I have the [Deceit Sword Path]. It mostly specializes in feints and the technique I use is the [Four Wielding] technique. A specialty of the Razan's" He smirked.
He paused again and two minutes later he spoke again.
"Let's do an exercise. It's a test to check if you have a sword path. If you don't it's okay. Not everyone get it on the first time."
"Hold your breath everyone and puff out your cheeks. Hold it for ten minutes while closing your eyes. Circulate mana around your head. Don't lose concentration for a second."
We all did as he said and puffed out our cheeks and started to circulate mana around our brains. The hall was eeriely silent for those ten minutes. Then I heard a sound.
~THUD~
Uh?
~THUD~ ~THUD~ ~THUD~
What's happening? Those sound like... bodies! I felt a tap on my shoulder and I saw the teacher lookout down at me. In a comforting tone he said,
"Don't worry, you'll get it next time"
Those words hit me like a mallet. The what I saw next made me open my mouth wide.
Everyone was on the floor with their eyes open looking like they were in a trance. Rachel too, though I couldn't see her eyes properly. Then they started to wake up. One after the other.
Some were sweaty, some looked scared and some looked happy.
"You have all seen it" the teacher said on the platform.
Eh!? When did he leave?
"Your sword paths" he smiled.
"You there" He pointed to a boy with blue curly hair. "What's your sword path."
"I-I heard [Icefall]?"
"You there" He pointed to another kid.
"Fire burst path"
"Zoro Style"
"Ken style"...
The sounds of different voices saying their paths echoed in my head. The teacher stopped at Rachel and didn't bother asking me and some students noticed and started some whispers.
I won't lose hope. Maybe I'll get it the next time I try.
"[Ice style] [Lightening Blade]"
I looked to my side. Rachel had two sword paths. Sigh, maybe I'll be a mage who casts spells from the back of the team as support.
Life is never fair.
As expected everyone had started to whisper and gossip. It stopped abruptly when the teacher asked "Any questions?"
The hall was silent and a student raised her hand. "What of our path skills? When are you going to teach us?"
"Ah, about that. You're going to have to make your own skills. Don't be disheartened, I can give you some skills from other classes that you can try to copy a little but the rest is up to your imagination."
~BRINGGGGG~
The bell was rung and I started to drag my feet to the door. It was time for magic class but I wasn't taking any magic class. I passed the door on the way and seeing that I heard whispers.
"...he not only pathless but he's not taking magic class too"
"...he maybe elementless"
"...I bet he's got an artifact that made him disappear back then"
"... let's steal it"
"... yeah!"
I didn't let those bother me. I smirked under my mask. Since I had a lot of free time since I didn't take the magic class, I would go see the martial arts teacher.
†
"Damn cobwebs"
I was currently lost in a bamboo forest when I found myself in another cobweb. There were mists here and there but I didn't let that deter me. The GPS on the watch on my wrist wasn't any use.
It was the cause of all this anyway. I continued to walk and then I felt something. I looked down and I saw the grass behind me caving in little by little.
Quickly, I jumped back and as I did the 'ground' beneath me a second ago caved in leaving a gaping hole in it's place.
~GULP~
"I better be careful" I warned myself.
I continued to walk straight into the mist with my senses more alert than before.
~WHAM!~
"Gah!"
I was thrown onto the floor like a ragdoll not without coughing out some blood in the air.
"What the heck!"
I looked back and I saw a log tied with some type of rope. Something was odd.
I was hit by an energy but the scary thing was that it wasn't mana. I stood up and I checked the hanging log. I touched it and tried to feel for the strange energy but it was gone.
"Weird. Was I hallucinating?"
I turned around and I continued walking though I still looked back to see if any logs were still coming at me.
~WHISH!~
No way! I was caught! Again!
This time a rope was tied around my leg to a bending bamboo tree. I didn't notice it because I kept looking back. Now I'm in the air flying like superman.
The tree had catapulted me accross the sky and I could see the whole forest and even the school when I looked closer.
Then I did the most normal thing every human does when they're being flung across the sky.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
You didn't think I'd do some smart ass genius trick thing did you?
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"Oof..."
I hit the ground face first but thankfully my handsomness was protected by my mask. You see it has some protection runes on it.
More importantly, I found myself in what looked like a traditional japanese house! It looked like I was in the courtyard and there was lot's of space.
Gosh.
~ko~ ~ko~ ~ko~
I heard the sound of wood hitting wood and the shuffling of feet from one of the doors. I have to admit, I was scared.
The door was slid open and out came an old man. He looked like 6 feet and his muscles were packed. In every way he looked young except for his grey hair and a few distant wrinkles. For some reason, it felt like it was wrong to call him old.
He had a smirk on his face and said,
"You only escaped one out of three traps, Kevin Paragus..."