Our journey lasted for several days, during which I encountered things that my eyes had never seen and had only heard about in legends.
creatures of amazing beauty, little fairies with bright wings, strange birds with colorful plumage, foxes with many tails, white deer with long Horns swaying on their backs, giant and luminous insects , and also we encountered powerful and scary monsters, big wolves with giant fangs, bears with thick skin like metal , three-headed snakes that spit acid and intelligent talking creatures like orcs.
Everything in this world is different, everything that is scary, is more horrifying here... even humans .
I saw my friends fighting Those monsters, as if they were playing with kittens, power beyond imagination, brute force that cuts monsters in half, cold eyes that do not budge from bloodshed, and the most terrifying of them all is magic.
Absolute and unlimited power, devastating weapon, impenetrable shield, and miraculous cure, seeing this made me feel awe and astonishment, but another feeling came through me that I could not figure out what it was...
After finishing the fight I used to go near the den to collect everything that was useful and store it in my gate.
Most of what I found was crumbled bones, torn clothes, human heads not long after their death, with features that tell of their last moment.
All these scenes aroused in me fear and nausea, with its repetition and getting used to it, my idea of this world has completely changed.
Not all people are strong, not everyone is lucky to be born strong. I wanted to become like them, confident of themselves, not afraid of what will appear to them, confronting them with steady and confident expressions.
I took advantage of every opportunity on this trip to gain experience, the magic training with Dara paid off wonderfully, with her explanations I was able to absorb what I was reading in the library and understood how to use my magic better, even Donal taught me how to use my ability to spy and assassinate. I'm still a beginner, but she says I'm doing a good job.
But...
I forgot something important. Something I loved and used to do because of the bad events I went through, my mind got distracted.
Oh i remember...It's the SWORD.
I completely forgot about it. It's been about two years since I carried it. I don't know if I still remember everything I learned from Evon. Perhaps I should ask Edgar to train me.
Edgar was standing beside his horse while patting it, His eyes looked lost as his mind sank into thoughts.
-"Edgar... Edgar!"
- "Hey, Raiden, I didn't see you."
He said while smiling nervously.
-"can i ask you something??".
- "Yes, but I don't guarantee you the answer."
-"It's okay, you were an apprentice knight with Evon right?"
His eyes widened, then he was silent for a moment.
-"That's right..why do you ask?".
-"Good, I was wondering If you could teach me sword ."
Edgar sighed with relief and then said:
- "It would be my pleasure to teach you, but I recommend Horner, he is a brilliant knight."
- "What? Horner is a Genius Knight? I thought he was someone who only relied on brute force?" .
- "That's what people think. Listen, he's about to go hunting for dinner. Go with him and notice how he uses the sword."
- "Good idea, I'll go with him, but what about you, aren't you as strong as Evon ،Weren't you training mates ?".
He laughed an exhausted laugh
-"Haha, I'm not, I was a loser ,that's why I joined the mercenaries...".
Is this true?, but he looks strong??.
He continue saying:
- "Come on, hurry up, or he'll leave without you."
I went straight after , to go with Horner.
Luckily he agreed easily. We headed deeper into the forest where animals abound.
I watched him every step he took, every now and then he looked at me and smiled.
Then suddenly he stopped moving
- "Shh, there's a prey near here.".
What? I don't feel any mana close.
After a few moments, a deer came near us!!.
I can feel the mana of any object within thirty meters, do he feel it more than that distance?!.
He whispered in a low voice with an arrogant smile on his face.
-"Look and learn".
huh?
He took his sword out of its scabbard and pointed it at the deer
In the blink of an eye, without realizing that the sword was no longer in his hand, it had already pierced the deer's heart.
He went towards the deer, pulled his sword and said:
-"Did you notice it?"
-"Yes i did , It was not muscle strength, but mana."
-"Yes well done"
I noticed and felt it, the terrifying mana that flowed towards his arm.
-"How did you manage to do this?"
-"Just as you have the awareness of the mana surrounding you, I have the awareness of the inner mana. It's just that i have reached a higher stage of awareness, which is CONTROL."
-"control?"
-" It means controlling mana and directing it to one of the parts of my body and make it stronger."
- "Does this also mean that you can strengthen your senses as you did before when you heard the deer?".
-"Yes, I can, but that's a different matter. I didn't strengthen my senses, I just felt the surrounding mana."
-"This is impossible. I feel the objects surrounding me in a large distance, but I did not feel his presence."
Horner sighed and said:
- "You don't understand how it goes, the outer mana is not bouncy, but rather moves just like the air. For example, if I move a step, I push the mana that surrounds me, and it in turn pushes the mana that is near it, and so it pushes until it reaches the mana that falls in your diameter."
- " T.t.that's right. I was focusing on high mana, ignoring low mana like in the air."
- "Good, looks like you got it."
He's right, I focused on creating portals and ignored that I was a space magician and what my magic could do.
I used to think that Horner was just a muscular person who didn't bother thinking, I have to change my view and judgment of people, and now that I'm sure, I'm going to ask him to train me.
I bowed to him and said out loud
-"Please be my master and teach me sword "
He was silent for a moment, then said:
- "Okay, we'll start tomorrow."
that easy?
It doesn't matter, I will extract from him all his knowledge and experience that he got in his entire life ,
I am passionate about the training.
- "Ooi, hurry up, it's time to go back."
-"coming".
....the next morning...
-"Aaaaah".
-"What's that sound".
Elvis asked in surprise as Donelle answered him:
-"It's Raiden, training with Horner".
- 'What? He will die at his hands, who told him to do so?".
- "He's the one hiding there."
Dara said while pointing at Edgar who was already feeling regret
-"Didn't you know, Horner is ruthless, you saw how he treats the rest of the mercenary trainees,Why didn't anyone stop him? ".
Edgar said in a regretful tone, lowering his head:
-"I have no excuse, I didn't think through it"
Dara was giving Edgar a murderous look, and trying to calm Elvis down while gritting her teeth.
-"take it easy, Elvis, Horner is a good coach. We just have to stop him from exaggerating and kill Raymond."
- "What are you waiting for, let's go now?".
Everyone went to check on him, They imagine all the bad conditions that could befall him, so that Dara brought with her some healing potions,
but everyone was amazed at what they saw.
He had some injuries, but he was standing, he was able to block some attacks, he fell, but he got up again.
Edgar stopped the training before Raymond collapsed. He sat him under the tree, then gave him something to drink.
-"How's it going with the training?"
-"It's hellish, not like I expected it to be easy, but I think it's that difficult. Despite this, I had fun and learned new things."
Elvis was admonishing Horner for the hard training, but he smiled and said:
-"Don't worry, he's strong. I was surprised by his abilities. I can classify him as a third-class knight."
-"third-class !?".
Everyone said in a surprised tone,
he continue :
-"That's right. He has a solid base and superb swordsmanship techniques the likes of which I've never seen before ."
Elvis said after turning to me:
-"What?, aren't Herodotus's family only magician, do they learn the sword?".
- "It's true, I was not allowed to learn the sword, but I was secretly training with Evon."
Edgar suddenly grabbed me and said:
-"Did Evon train you?"
-"That's right, he said that he was influenced by my desire to learn the sword despite the obstacles, so he trained me since I was five years old, but I stopped two years ago because of what happened to me."
Edgar patted my head and said while smiling:
- "You must be special to him, because he wouldn't train anyone, not even me."
Horner said loudly and grinned:
- "That's good. The training will be different next time. I will make you the strongest swordsman, even more powerful than Evon."
We continued traveling for several days until we saw a large town looming on the horizon.
Donelle grinned and said
-"Hey, Raiden, do you see that town over there, one of our headquarters is there"
Headquarters?!