A new training hologram appeared infront of me, looking exactly like me.
I used my skill "Weapon Transformer" to use the only weapon i was genuinely comfortable using.
A butcher knife.
I used to work for my parents butcher shop in my past life to help the business, which was why I was more comfortable using this weapon.
"Alright.....Artist's Beauty..."
I quickly muttered under my breath.
Swordart "Artist Beauty":
First move: "Sketchs beginnings":
My body automatically moved the butcher knife around almost as if I was drawing something around me.
It was although i was using my weapon as a tool to draw, as though i was discovering art for the first time.
I moved my weapon around, slowly yet mesmerising.
It looked as though watching a child slowly becoming a true genius. As if a new genius had just been born.
It felt as though I was sketching the air around me, it was...
Beautiful.
My long, wavy hair flowed with my body as if my weapon was guiding the air around me.
As I glanced at the hologram, they couldnt move a muscle as they were too busy watching me move.
It was as though a flower was blooming right infront of their eyes.
I took that opportunity to quickly attack them as I ran towards them and sliced their head clean off.
I looked around, and for a split second i could see a fraction of myself still using the swordart.
"Damn....This swordart is pretty weird..."
I started to dislike this swordart quite a bit, mainly because it was only focused on distracting.
But i had to be fast enough to attack the opponent while they were still in the trance.
"Ugh...It looks so weird to just dance and swing my weapon as if i was drawing...."
I could feel the second hand embarrassment get to my head.
I glanced at the two other versions of me who were just watching the area i just was when using the swordart.
"....Does the trance last this long?"
I was a bit surprised at the result but still felt like I disliked this swordart.
"Hey!! Can you guys hear me??"
I waved my hand in front of their faces.
They finally woke up as their eyes went back to their original colors.
"Are you two okay? Im pretty sure a butcher knife isn't a beautiful weapon to look at-"
"How.....How did you use that swordart better than me?!"
I was caught off guard by Sora's sudden outburst.
"Huh? The swordart description did say that you can only get this once you understand the true meaning of art....? I don't understand whats the issue, shouldn't you be better at using the art than me?"
I was genuinely confused by her outburst, i thought she was more experienced in her own swordart than me.
Soraya just averted her eyes away awkwardly, her short black hair flowing slightly as she was still flying.
Sigh....
"Sora, whats your issue exactly? Why are you shocked?"
"YOU- YOU USED "ARTISTS BEAUTY" BETTER THAN I DID AND I HAVE HAD THAT SWORDART FOR YEARS!! AND YOU DID IT FIR THE FIRST TIME WITH A DAMN BUTCHER KNIFE YET STILL USED THE SWORDART BETTER THAN ME!! THATS MY ISSUE!!"
Ah.
Now i got it.
She's simply jealous that I used her own swordart better than her even though I barely had any experience with it.
I couldn't even blame her to be honest as i sort of felt the same towards artists younger than me back when I was in high school.
Thats probably also why Soraya looked awkward, almost like she sort of understood Sora in some way.
"I'm....sorry.....for being better than you??"
I genuinely didn't know what to say.
I have no social skills what did you expect?
I glanced back at Sora, who was extremely angry but she knew she couldnt really leave me since she was awake so that meant she could only stay 5 feet away from me.
Feeling around my surroundings, i could feel that i already wasted most of my mana.
Well that was to be expected as I did use a grade 7 skill meaning i wasted a lot more Mana compared to if i simply used a grade 4 skill.
"S....you should probably apologize to Sora correctly instead of adding something like what you added after saying sorry...Just say "i'm sorry" and dont add anything else..."
Glancing back at Soraya, who was still a bit shy, I sighed as I decided to just get this over with.
"Fine.....I'm sorry, Sora-"
Geez these names are confusing at times, I almost called her Soraya for a second.
Thankfully, the long haired soul looked at me up and down, seemingly not hearing me accidentally call her something else, before glaring at me again.
"I'm forgiving so i'll only forgive you once, but you better not use that swordart ever again-"
"Yeah no i'm in your body now so you can't exactly tell me what i can and can't do."
I blatantly interrupted her before she could continue her sentence.
It was the truth, i can't just stop using a swordart just because she's bad at it and i'm somewhat good.
"It's the reality of the world, some people are simply more skilled or talented than you."
I continued.
"You just have to accept that instead of staying jealous."
I looked at Sora calmly, hoping she would understand...
..And as expected of an immature teenager, she looks like I just insulted her entire family bloodline.
I forgot I was speaking with a teenager with no common sense for a second.
...And i'm talking like i'm any better than her.
I'm just glad this body isn't famous or else I would have actually been fucked.
"So uhh...Sora...Is the school you go to any good? You know how i'm a bit stupid..tehe~?"
Scratching the back of my neck slightly, trying to act dumb and innocent since i wanted to lighten up the mood..
..And this was the only way i could do it since i don't have any talent in being hilarious.
If someone was reading a story of my life, they would probably think I was a boring and plain protagonist.
Its totally not because i heard people call me an NPC because of how boring i was in my past life-
Yeah totally not that-
"Ugh....Well if you really want to know, Kanita High is the best school out there that offers good scholarships if a student is smart enough to go there."
I nodded, trying to look interested in what she's saying.
"Thankfully, I got a scholarship because of how intelligent i am for anything academics so you don't have to worry about anything about written exams!!"
She spoke with a smug smirk on her face as if saying "i'm better than you in terms of exams"....
..And she wasn't exactly wrong, I did fail like 40% of my exams in my past life so i can't even fight back against her.
"Are the tests hard or not? I heard they were pretty hard to complet if you're weak"
"..I don't know this is going to be my first year at Kanita High?"
Speaking with a slightly dumbfounded at my statement, she looked at me as if I was stupid enough to have thought that she had the ability to see the futur or something.
"Uh...Ok..."
I glanced away, but thankfully my dumb questions lightened up the mood a bit.
"So....You must be really dumb or close-minded to not know any of these important information, I bet you don't even know how Arcania was even created."
Her tone clearly implied that i was extremely stupid.
The worst part was that i never specified this information in "Systems Interest" so i genuinely didn't know much.
"M-mind explaining to me...how arcania was made....?"
She looked at me with disappointment in her eyes as if I was an ant with no intelligence.
"Well, fine."
Sighing as she put her left hand on her hips, she started explaining more in depth this world and the city of Arcania.
Though my main goal here is to just make her less angry at me and instead use her academic knowledge to help me, I was still interested as i never specified any details about the worldbuilding back then.
"This city started getting built 50 years after the demons first attacks happened as people and civilians back then didn't know what to do except protect their homes or live in a bunker, so the government decided to create an entirely new city."
"The government didnt want to use an already existing city as it would take a lot of time to change everything, so they managed to find a way to make man-made islands that can float above water. They build this island in the middle of the Pacific ocean."
"Slowly, they built more and more islands, slowly attaching them to make a complete continent of approximately 15 million square kilometers in 2020. Now in 2476, Arcania is around 16 million square kilometers, being able to hold quite a lot of people."
I fought the urge to yawn as she continued info dumping.
"The government created a new society to take care of heroes called Nova Unity, or simply called Nova. This agency only have the best heroes working for them, working hard to protect us and make sure all civilians are safe!"
I nodded before asking an absolutely random and obvious question.
"And is there a villain agency or something?"
"Hmm...Surprisingly, no! Although there are people who made contracts with demons thinking that that'll make them stronger. Based on our research, this rumor is completely false as it only benefits the demon in charge as the human is essentially just giving up their souls and body for a demon to control."
"Almost like that human is simply a puppet with no thoughts of their own no matter how strong their Mental stat is."
I was caught off guard by her comment on the Mental stat.
I feel like that stat isn't exactly something useful to have as if demons can just take control of humans no matter what their Mental stat is...
..Whats the point of having that stat anyways?
Also, i don't think popular novels back then even had a Mental stat...only a select few did have that stat.
Mine included.
I wonder what use it has anyways as i think it just means something close to mental fortitude.
And its apparently hard to upgrade since it's not easy to truly have a strong mind that isn't shocked by many things.
"Sora...Are there other species that exist or are humans the only species that exist?"
"Well, now that you asked, each planet has their own species! Earth is inhabited by humans, Underhell is owned by demons, Imagitan is owned by elves, Ogmoren is inhabited by Ogres and Dwation are owned by dwarves...Those are the species we currently know about."
"Each planet are extremely far away from each other, and the only way for anyone to travel through planets are to use portals, but the main issue is that portals take a huge amount of mana or demonic energy to create. Even S ranks are unable to make a portal by themselves without fainting from mana exhaustion."
I nodded as I listened to her, taking this opportunity to absorb some of the mana in the air to get some of my mana back.
I was also purposefully asking these basic questions as i knew that Soraya, a version of my past life from before i starting writing, probably didn't know anything from this world.
I was just killing two birds with one stone, I get a reminder of how this world worked and the past version of me gets to understand this world à bit better.