"I think this will be enough for today," Gracian said as he, as was his habit, rested the flat of his sword against his shoulder. "I'm not some monster to tire you out the day before the exam," he added, sighing as he put his sword back into its sheath.
"Thank you for your teaching," Theo muttered, struggling to produce a single word through his swollen lips.
Today marked the seventh day since his lessons with Gracian started.
Every day, after completing the obligatory morning guard duty at the camp's perimeter, he would rush back to mark off the daily step-marching exercise. Then, for an excruciatingly long hour, Theo would do nothing but repeat the very basic sword strikes, all to the rhythm and beat set by the camp's instructor. Then, and only then, was he free to either study for the tests, practice his swordsmanship, or pretty much do whatever else he believed would give him an edge over his fellow cadets.
Contrary to most of his colleagues, however, rather than using this time to keep honing his basic abilities or studying for the exam as important as the marathon from a week prior, Theo would then dutifully march off to the dueling grounds…
Only to pretty much get beaten over and over again.
The training formula was pretty much the same as back when he was still trying to convince Gracian to help him. They would meet up, do a short warm-up routine, and then just… bout.
They would duel again and again, with Theo's only break coming in the form of Gracian patiently pointing out his mistakes and areas to improve.
Each day, for five long hours, Theo would get beaten up to the limits of what he could recover from overnight. By every reason or logic, rather than harsh training, Gracian's regime was outright torture. A torture no sane man could endure for more than a day or two.
For Theo, however, pain was an old friend. And with every doubt, just like his flesh would gain a new bruise from where Gracian would twist his sword to strike him with the flat rather than the edge of his blade. Yet, for every bruise that would mark his body, he was pinning down all the bad habits that he had gained in his original lifetime.
Fixing them was a whole different matter, one that neither Gracian nor Theo had any hopes of resolving within the short time they were to work together.
No.
All Theo's bouts with Gracian did was help him pinpoint the mistakes he never knew he was making.
The slight shift of his body weight throwing him off-balance if the strike was heavier than he expected, a weakness a skilled and observant opponent could easily develop and then exploit. The way Theo's grip on his weapon would be too stiff in some cases and too relaxed in others. Theo's tendency to make his body follow the path of the strike, leaning into the attack more than he should…
There were those and a thousand other mistakes that Theo committed on a daily basis, mistakes as deeply ingrained into his brain as were all his other proper habits.
With every bout, however, more and more of those mistakes made up Theo's list, allowing him to — with time — fix them.
Today, however, was different. Because Gracian's lesson, instead of the full five hours, lasted merely two. And it was because one of the two exams Theo still had to take was going to take place on the morrow.
"Thanks for the mercy," Theo said while spitting the blood from his mouth — a consequence of Gracian's sword grazing Theo's bottom lip after the young man's extremely narrow parry. "But with tomorrow's exam, I might also be late for our lessons, so, if possible…"
For Theo, as painful as those lessons were, they were outright invaluable. And while he already had the plans for the rest of the day, the perspective of losing out on the few hours of this precious opportunity to learn…
"No means no, kid," Gracian smiled, shaking his head with a hint of inspiration behind his curving mouth. "I admire your dedication, but I don't want you to lose out tomorrow because you will be too tired to think," he stated, only to then lock his hands behind his back and push his chin up as he looked at Theo along the bridge of his nose. "And there is this one matter I need to attend to today anyway, so it's not like I can afford to teach you as usual today."
'So that's the real reason, huh?' Theo thought, not quite naive enough to voice this thought out. 'And judging by the glint in his eyes…' Theo squinted his eyes a tiny little bit. 'A booty call, isn't it?'
"Well then, if such is the case," Theo stated, only to put his sword back in its rightful sheath before bowing down. "Thank you for the lesson, senior!"
"You really are something else, kid," Gracian chuckled only to then wave Theo away. "Also," he said, right as he turned around, "don't rush that exam, just not to be late for tomorrow's practice. And with that said…" Gracian hesitated for a little before shaking his head and fully turning away.
"Good luck tomorrow," he called out, not even looking back as he walked away.
"Thanks," Theo mouthed, still bowing, only raising his head a good while later.
'Now then, should I go out to the city and do this by the books, or…' Theo's eyes darted away from his senior's back and over to the massive forest making up roughly a third of the camp's border.
In the direction of the camp's gate, right the way Gracian took, there was the nearby city, one of the capital's satellite towns. It was filled to the brim with all sorts of jobs, of both official and not-really-official nature. And for someone like Theo, with a desperate need to test several theories for how his plunder ability might work, it was a treasure trove of criminals he could lawfully catch and then sell for profit at a local guard's station.
Going the other way, however, meant… unknown.
There was no telling what monsters lurked in the forest's depths. What was the one thing that Theo could be certain of, whatever he would find in the forest's depths wouldn't be something someone on his official level, mere first rank, could survive against, not to speak about actually winning.
One way offered predictable missions, guaranteed remuneration upon the quest's completion and was generally a much safer, more reasonable route to take.
The other way, however… Just like it was one big unknown when it came to the dangers within, the rewards Theo could reap from just a single trip, if lucky, would be greater than what he would be able to achieve when working as an adventurer for weeks if not months.
Still, it would be a greedy move to pick the forest. And according to Theo's memories, he did, in fact, go with the safer choice back in his original run at life.
"Haaah…" Theo sighed again, hanging his head low as he looked away from the camp itself and turned his eyes over to the huge, thick woods just ahead. "How can I expect my fate to change if I'm only going to do exactly what I did in the past?" he asked himself, gritting his teeth at the mere idea of repeating all the mistakes he made back in his original life.
'Wouldn't that make me an idiot to do everything the same way I did, repeat the process exactly as it originally happened… and then expect some other results to show up?'
This wasn't a problem that applied just to this one, single instance. It was a full mental shift of the paradigm that Theo diligently followed in his original life.
'If all I ever do is follow the cold reason, aren't I bound to end up exactly where I did in my original life?'
Theo sighed out before pushing himself further and further, soon leaving the relatively more open areas of the forest as he reached its outer core — a part of the biome where nature suddenly flexed, changing from the sparse, flowery mix of low-growing vegetation and just a few trees overlooking them, to no less than a full-blown jungle!
'With that line of thought, doing away with reason and just following my guts is the only way to change the future, isn't it?' Theo thought, quickly recalling the bloody scene that made him so desperate to make sure that memory never had any chance of turning into reality in this timeline.
Theo then sighed before delving even deeper into the forest, braving straight into the forest's outer core.
'A hunt in the woods it is, then!'