Chapter 15: Months of Training Begins... Killing Squad
Ruthar swung his sword frantically, recalling the textbooks and methods he had been taught.
Understandably, Hendricks had begun teaching him swordplay in his room. Thankfully, it was very spacious and easy to swing his sword around.
They had taken these measures because of the spies Kithara and probably Tomaha had on them.
Even though Tomaha was confident in his abilities, he took these countermeasures to make his win more secure and satisfying. He didn't want any surprises coming from Ruthar.
'That's why Hendricks suggested teaching me sword use in the open training grounds and sword Art in my room.'
However, Hendricks couldn't always come to teach him in his room to avoid arousing suspicion in the spies' hearts.
Today was a day Ruthar had to train alone with the notes Hendricks had given him. This was the first month of his training.
Ruthar paused his movements, breathing heavily in exhaustion. He raised his sword to view the dark purple energy surging through it, distributed unevenly and imperfectly.
'Shit, I am still progressing too slowly!'
Ruthar sneered, dropping his sword and going back to the floor to do a few pushups.
This was part of the training manual. Since sword arts took a lot of strength and endurance, he was to do at least ten a day. But just to be sure, Ruthar made sure to do twenty, or sometimes he would go until his body eventually collapsed in exhaustion.
All was still part of his training, and this made him consume a lot of food in one go. Luckily, that was available too.
Ruthar got up after he finished his exercises. He stared around the room with some sort of ignominy.
'My sister trains harder than this every single day! I feel so much worse as I hit my limits after a few hours.'
Ruthar was about to recline his back to the wall when a thought grabbed his determination back to light. He recalled Elara and his future as a slave and knew he couldn't rest yet.
"I have to keep on going!" With renewed strength and determination, Ruthar grabbed his sword by the hilt and began to swing it once again.
***
Six hours...
No.... Eight hours.
Ruthar lay on his back, staring at the ceiling in wonder. His body was sore and already stiffening up.
Training beyond his limits had turned out to be more of a pain than he thought.
'Think, Ruthar, there has to be something else I can do to boost my training.'
No matter how much determination he had, Ruthar guessed this would be the best he could do. No human can lift a truck off the ground no matter how much training they do.
After long contemplation, Ruthar concluded.
'I was never really from here, just reincarnated...' He furrowed his brow in exasperation. 'Why was I even reincarnated in the first place?'
He stared for another hour or two until his eyes began to give away, and the hands of sleep pulled him into a world without worries and...
He heard a loud chiming sound in his ears that forced his eyes open widely.
[Go to the Library and search for a certain book]
Ruthar sat himself up before reading the notification twice.
'What sort of book and why am I being told this? Is this some kind of cheat?'
[Elevation Art of the Soul]
Ruthar's eyes lit up in surprise. 'That book can't be in this castle, how is that possible?'
Unable to hold back his anxiety any longer, Ruthar got up to his feet and walked up to his door, mind bugged by thoughts. He opened the door slightly and made sure to check the hallways carefully before going out with caution.
Elevation Art of the Soul was a book that a character in the novel learned from and became powerful. Sure, the author did a time skip when the character first got the note, but by the time he was done with it, he became unstoppable.
He was very troublesome but fun to read. Thanks to him, Ruthar had a lot of fantasizing done about women and hot springs.
Finally, Ruthar got to the library door, pushing it open and silently walking in.
The library was very wide, more accurately 'humongous,' so it would be difficult to identify if anyone was in. Ruthar had to be cautious and also watchful not to get caught or at least seen.
[Search the shelf right before the wall]
'Shelf right before the wall? This thing is worse than Google Maps.'
Ruthar strained his eyes, counting the shelves present in the dark. There were eight on the side of the room he could see. Without hesitation, he ran to the shelves and began to search through them one after the other.
After a long search, he found nothing matching the title. However, he found some interesting picks he just had to take to read later.
'No one can blame me for taking such books to cool off my mind.'
He stared at the titles of the two books. 'How to Seduce a Woman-' and 'Best Women Beguiling Perfumes to Use and How to Use Them.'
He placed them under his arm and continued his search to the next wall.
'This section is about sword arts and energy control. If it's anywhere, it has to be here.'
Ruthar strained his eyes and made sure to read the titles twice this time not to miss a thing.
He read through the first shelf and found nothing. The next two presented nothing, making him lose hope a bit.
'Could this be a system scam?'
He asked himself before stopping at a large tome embedded between its fellow books. What he saw made him read the tome's name three times.
'Elevation Art of the Soul, thank goodness I found it.'
He grabbed the book, but before he could pull it, he heard a slight creaking of the library door as though someone was sneaking in.
He was curious and in danger, so he chose to check, racing silently and leaning out by the shelf he hid behind before peering at the door.
It was far and really dark, but he could discern it... Three figures in total black with scabbards strapped to their waists. They looked like ninjas, but Ruthar knew what they really were.
'Mercenaries.... Baka, I should have known the spies wouldn't let me off that easily. Kithara has sent death coming my way.'
Ruthar reclined his back to the shelf where he stood and thought of his options.
He couldn't run without getting killed easily, and fighting a bunch of experienced ninja-type freaks after watching a lot of ninja movies spoke badly. He would just get killed in a flash.
Kimara was out on missions, so he was perfectly lying like meat to be eaten.
His eyes widened in shock as the three men vanished without a trace. 'Flash...'
He gulped momentarily and concluded.
'I'm dead.'