***
[System: Condition Check]
[Conditions Fulfilled: 461/512]
[Calculating Range]
[Plunder possible]
[Do you wish to plunder:
***
For but a second, Theo's gaze lingered on his master's face as his fingers held the man's throat.
"…"
The moment came… and went.
Theo relaxed his hand and retreated two steps, staring blank-faced at his senior.
"That was…" Regaining his voice, Gracian coughed before managing to get even one full sentence in.
'Should I?'
Theo took a breath in.
From a certain angle, this was the end goal all along.
Despite not knowing anything about his newly gained talent, Theo never forgot about it.
He could recall the feeling from when it first happened. And for some reason, he could tell that besting his opponent was likely the way for it to activate.
But now, Theo breathed out and relaxed, allowing the adrenaline-filled moment to pass.
Just like that, the visual prompt shattered into a thousand pieces before scattering in the winds as if it was never there.
'No.'
Theo's expression grew cold, as if an overwhelming bout of exhaustion took him over.
'This is a bad idea,' the young man thought, thinking back to the parts of the novel he could clearly remember.
The novel that spoke of the future of this whole world, making it pretty much prophetic text.
Only for those memories to be prophetic…
'The more I interfere, the further the events will stray. And from the rules of the butterfly effect…' Theo sighed before stepping back again, fully dispersing the last of his thoughts about the ability to plunder Gracian's great talent.
'Contrary to me, whose death only afforded me one line in the novel, Gracian…'
At this point, Theo held his breath a bit, only to then slowly exhale it out.
"That was a good bout," Gracian finally spoke again.
'He is not only related to the five geniuses, who were all considerably big side characters, but was fated to ultimately fall at the protagonist's hand, giving him great insights that allowed the main character to grow his swordsmanship even further.'
Theo gulped his saliva as he finally managed to calm himself down.
'And I already plundered one of his skills,' he thought before shaking his head a little. 'I shouldn't go as far as to take away his swordsmanship talent, lest the story of this world's future would change.'
Theo took in a fresh breath before stretching his back.
"Maybe, but I've still used a crutch, didn't I?"
Theo sent his mentor an eye.
"Well, the results speak for themselves," Gracian shook his head, still reeling from the unexpected loss in the encounter. "Still, for you to be able to fight on that level right after the exam…?" he raised one of his eyebrows only to put his sword back into its sheath before crossing his arms over his chest.
"No more bouts today?" Theo asked, baffled by Gracian sheathing his sword.
Normally, all his mentor did would be resting his blade against his shoulder. He didn't come to explain just what was Theo's biggest mistake…
By every means, just by hiding his sword away, Gracian managed to make the situation extremely unusual.
"No, not for today," Gracian shook his head. "I know it won't sound like the usual me, but everyone needs rest. And I'm not going to push you any further than I already did. It's best if you just rest and think about our last duel for now."
Gracian turned over to Theo, closing the distance his student previously retreated, placing his hands down on his shoulder and then looking Theo deeply in the eyes.
"What was different? What changed? How did it feel? What things did you ignore? What stuff did you prioritize?"
Gracian spat out a series of questions.
"You need to think back on all of those, figure out all the differences. Honestly, noting them down would be for the best too."
Gracian shook his head.
"Crutch or not, you managed to land a proper hit on me. And to make that happen, it wasn't just a matter of you compensating for what you lack in swordsmanship with something else," Gracian shook his head again, this time also pursing his lips together. "What you needed to make that happen was a change in mindset. And this small change is what I want you to focus on for the rest of today, for it will be much more beneficial to you than just trying to figure out how to slightly improve the way you swing your sword or move your feet."
A moment of silence followed as Theo stared at his senior, not sure if he was to expect some further nuggets of wisdom or if Gracian had finished by now.
"With that being said, I don't really get why you would rely on a crutch like that," Gracian ultimately shook his head before going right back to the very same mindset he showed before… although without the addition of the killing intent in his vibe and a generally much milder approach.
And hearing this, there was only one thing Theo had to say straight from the top of his head.
"Not everyone was born equal in this world," the young man said while locking his eyes on his senior's face. 'Which I now know all the better, with how there indeed are ranks to the talents people can have…' he thought, recalling the details of the two prompts of his latent ability and how it classified both of Gracian's skills in ranks, but ranks different than the ones humans used to grade people's talent.
"Some are born with talent, some are born without it. And while there's a level that both can reach with the only difference being the time it takes them to do so…" Theo shook his head. "There is still a level beyond which one without a talent can never reach. And what you demand of me, this perfect kind of duel in which I make no mistakes and act out every tiniest movement of mine to perfection?" he asked, only to shake his head a lot more energetically than before, all the way to then cross his arms over his chest and lean his head over his shoulder as he gave Gracian a tired look.
"Whether you like to accept it or not, talents do exist. And I'm simply aware that when it comes to talent, I didn't get much luck."
"Talent?" Gracian almost moaned, ready to roll his eyes at the motion. "That's one hell of an excuse to ignore the areas you are still not good enough at!" he claimed while opening up his arms and ending up with pointing his hand straight at Theo's face. "Talent this, talent that. If you think your missing talent is the only reason why you cannot assume proper form and keep it throughout the bout…"
"It's not that I can't," Theo shook his head again as he interjected, "but it's more on how it will take me much longer than the time we can spend training. This limit is something I'm fully aware of, hence why I accepted this kind of training. Not because it's effective short-term," he stated while looking directly into Gracian's face, fully aware of the weight of his words when spoken right in the face of the man teaching him, "but because it gives me enough material to look back on and study."
Theo shook his head for one last time before relaxing his hand and turning around, ready to take Gracian's advice and take the rest of the day to look back on just how different their last bout was to all the ones before it.
"The improvements you expect me to make in the short two weeks we can train together are the improvements I'm hoping to implement over the next few years that I will spend at the academy. So, it's not like I'm giving up on all that you taught me just so I can get that sweet, sweet taste of victory," Theo turned on his heel, moving away from the dueling grounds before he could even finish making his point.
"I'm just aware of my own limitations enough to know it will take me years to improve on the things you advise me on."