Kayden thought for a moment and decided to accept the man's proposal. Without school, he had time to do something for leisure like this activity. It wouldn't harm him at all and might make him have a fun time learning something else outside of magic.
"I would love to, but I don't have any weapons and I don't have the wherewithal to buy one", that was true, Kayden never had money or cared about it. The man seemed to expect that kind of response from the boy.
"Don't worry, we'll use the warehouse," as he spoke, he guided Kayden to one end. There was an almost camouflaged door, it had the same color as the wall. The trainer opened it, and as Kayden poked his head through the door, he found himself in another square room, only this time much smaller, about 10 meters wide, with several weapons hanging on the walls.
"You can choose anyone to train here, you just have to remember to return it at the end of training", from that sentence, the man began to explain the difference between each weapon in the warehouse.
After a few minutes of being presented with all the possibilities, Kayden chose one that was his love from another life. Since Nicolas started listening to the novels, he fell in love with the katana. There was always a character in some work using it.
"I want the katana ", as soon as Kayden said that, the coach promptly handed him one of the katanas. It had a standard style with a yellowed wooden handle and a silver blade. Its blade was approximately 70 centimeters and, with the handle, reached an incredible value of 90 centimeters.
"This is a good choice, but it is difficult to learn how to use it, its techniques are from another era, one already lost by humanity", the coach approved the boy's choice and presented the weapon to him. "The katana has an extremely sharp and curved blade, which allows for precise and effective cuts. The curvature of the blade helps to distribute the force of the blow along its surface, increasing the efficiency of the cut."
After taking it in his hands, he realized that the weapon weighed something around 1 kg. He tried to swing it and... almost fell over with the sword. The man took a slight leap to the side. It wasn't today that rookies messed up. If he wasn't careful, Kayden's weapon could have wound him.
"Sorry, I'm not used to it. She looks light, but when she's shaken, her weight becomes heavy," Kayden apologized quickly, embarrassed.
"Don't worry, for anyone who has never used a weapon it's normal. They tend to make these mistakes. Come on kid, I'll teach you the basics and give you some exercises," the trainer hustled Kayden out of the room and closed the door. They returned to their starting position.
The man took the sword and began to explain the details to Kayden.
"First, remove it by lifting the back slightly and then pointing to the ground, unsheath the blade", he showed the correct way to remove it.
"Second, grip the katana with both hands, leaving the thumb and forefinger of the left hand extended and the other fingers encircling the hilt. The right hand should encircle the hilt just below the left hand, with the thumb over the blade." As he spoke, he demonstrated the footprint.
"Now I'm going to teach you the art of sword known as Kenjutsu. We don't know who invented it, but it was in our world long before magic. Experts say it even predates several great constructions and empires." (All information is true (: Hope you enjoy a little knowledge).
The trainer passed the katana to Kayden and asked him to try the same moves he demonstrated. At first, Kayden was clumsy, and as the minutes passed... he was still clumsy.
"Don't be discouraged, the art of the sword takes years to be polished", the trainer encouraged the boy.
Unbeknownst to him, Kayden already knew this. In his past life, he had contact with a novel where humans fought against the gods in a tournament, and, in one of the moments, a swordsman carrying a katana was put to fight. When he appeared, he was old and wrinkled. The audience even booed and asked if there was a mistake. But he just replied:
"Why would I be young? I'm not at the peak of my age, but I'm at the peak of my ability."
Returning to the present, Kayden continued training only in removing the blade and wielding it. He never wanted to be a swordsman, but after a few hours, he felt something inside him change. He enjoyed wielding the weapon.
The problem is that it would be even more difficult for him to progress in this path than that of a conventional image. This raised some doubts about what he should do, and again the magical animals came to his mind. There were numerous examples of animals with strong physical and magical strength.
After finishing practice, Kayden returned with Ryan. The whole way there, he was silent and thoughtful. He didn't know what to do, he seemed more and more confused. There was no path he could safely explore, all known alternatives lead to failure in the end.
"Is that it? Was I born a second life to be mediocre? Just one more in the crowd? I refuse to believe this, I'm going to make it through this life, whatever the cost." As soon as he got home, he immediately went to the library, he would read every book there in search of answers.
1 month later...
During that time, Kayden practically lived in the library. He halved his mana training and just carried on with the trainer as normal. He read every book about magical animals that existed in the place. There were 2 to 3 titles per day. Heimer taught him speed reading techniques to accomplish this feat. Every second he spent there, he was more certain that this was the answer to his problem.
He also slowly fell in love with the art of swordsmanship. His skills were still average at best. From the beginning, he only managed to learn one more move of the coach's technique. But that was all right with his conscience, he knew the progress was slow but palpable. Other than cultivating your core, it felt like the effort fell into an endless and meaningless abyss.
Kayden was at the library as usual, devouring a few more books. The book in particular demonstrated how theoretically the beasts could consume mana to improve their own body. Unfortunately, there was no proof and it was just a theory. At that moment, Heimer came through the door and addressed Kayden.
"Kayden…" Before Heimer could continue, Kayden let out a small cry of fright.
"Jesus, Heimer, please don't scare me like that." Kayden had his heart in his mouth for a moment. This drew a small smile from Heimer, who loved to get into these little pranks.
Sitting down in a chair lazily, Heimer leaned across the table. The boy was 11 years old and was getting closer every day to reaching rank 7. Seeing that Kayden had his attention on him, Heimer said:
"I found David Nakir. He lives in a town to the south, about 3 hours away by train. He has a small mansion outside the city." Heimer took a while to find the guy, it was like he didn't want to be found.