Seeing that Asher was determined enough to learn from him, Nathan told the twins to leave for the day. He also told them that he would lecture them on another training ground within the estate. His sword art required a strong body and mental fortitude, and the way he would train Asher would definitely harm the unawakened twins if they stayed in the vicinity.
“I will train you for a week straight without stopping. Here, take this,” Nathan threw a bracelet towards Asher. “This has everything you will eat during the training. You will get no sleep and only this much food and water.” Nathan made the barrier around the training ground stronger.
“So, what do I need to do?” Asher asked Nathan.
“First, I need to push you to your body’s limits before we start anything,” Nathan said as he increased the pressure on Asher. He limited the pressure so Asher could still move but doing mutiple things at the same time was a difficult task.
“Whooooo! I’m ready!” Asher took a deep breath and adjusted to the pressure.
They began the duel again, but this time Asher didn’t start with basic swordmanship. Instead, he used his own sword art on Nathan. Asher kept dodging Nathan’s strikes and tried to attack his vitals. Although Nathan could easily throw him, he still showed some openings intentionally for Asher to try to exploit.
“Keep your mind sharp. Don’t lose focus!” Nathan increased his speed a bit.
*clang* *clang*
Asher kept getting pushed back and Nathan struck the sword from above, forcing Asher to block the strike. But the moment Asher blocked it, Nathan kicked him in the gut, making him fly towards the barrier’s boundary. The force behind Nathan’s attack was greater than what Asher could handle for now.
*cough**cough*
Asher was on the ground coughing, but he got up and took his stance. Nathan kept attacking and made Asher fall to the ground again and again. Nathan smiled, seeing Asher stand up despite being thrown around multiple times. Their duel lasted for an hour.
Blood was dripping from Asher’s face and he had multiple small wounds on his body. Despite being a wooden sword, Nathan’s attack was sharp. Asher was not holding back anymore, but his Rank C sword art could not handle the sword god. He was still only an early F Rank, so there were limited things he could do.
“Try harder, brat. If you give up now, you’ll never learn this in your life,” Nathan said as he waited for Asher to get up again.
“I-I’m ready!” Asher had a calm expression but his mouth was full of blood. His arms were tired from blocking multiple attacks, making his reaction sluggish. Nathan kept attacking Asher’s blind spots to measure his reactions. Nathan was surprised to see that Asher, despite his state, could still react well enough.
The floor around Asher was covered with his sweat and blood. Although this much amount of bleeding would not harm Asher much, but he would still feel weak losing so much blood during the fight.
“It’s enough for now. Sit down here with your legs crossed,” Nathan stopped.
ƥαṇdα- ηθνε|·ƈθm
Asher sat down and closed his eyes, removing his shirt. He felt Nathan’s boiling mana flood into his body. The moment Nathan channeled his mana into Asher’s mana veins, Asher felt a huge amount of pain. But this amount of pain was bearable for him.
“This? His mana veins are already widened!!,” Nathan was surprised by Asher’s body. He didn’t know that Asher’s new bloodline had already recreated his mana veins to support his new abilities. Asher was capable of being both a mage and swordsman, and his huge mana pool and dense mana veins would not hinder his progress in either path.
Nathan’s mana was flowing through Asher’s body, unlocking some of his blocked veins. His mana was forcibly opening the blockages, a process so dangerous that only Nathan, with the help of his bloodline’s ability to control mana, could perform it. Thin threads of mana could be seen throughout Asher’s body if someone looked through his skin.
Asher’s body was releasing blood from his pores. This was different from awakening, as Nathan was disrupting the natural path of Asher’s mana circulation and creating new paths by forcibly opening the blocked veins.
<Host has increased Strength +2>
<Host has increased Mana +3>
<Host has increased Strength +1>
<Host has increased Strength +1>
<Host has increased Mana +2>
<Host has increased Mana +2>
Many notifications popped up, but Asher carefully felt what Nathan was doing. He was sure that even his dad and Ivar could not do this. And he was right – this was only the foundation of what Nathan would make him go through before starting to teach him his sword art. After an hour, Nathan stopped and said,
“Try to channel your mana the way I just showed you, but control your breathing while doing so.” Nathan stepped aside as Asher, who was sitting shirtless and covered in bruises and blood, focused on channeling his mana from his mana core. He felt all the previous pain and tiredness leave his body as his stamina increased rapidly.
“How?” Asher was surprised that a normal mana circulation method could achieve this.
“This is not any normal circulation technique, brat. This is something only I know in this whole world, and only someone with the blood of the Greville can learn this technique without dying. Our mana-manipulating bloodline abilities allow us to perform this technique without damaging our mana veins and becoming cripples,” Nathan explained.
“But dad would have achieve this much as well,” Asher knew that this was not the difficult part of the training.
“You are correct. My sword art is not something you can master,” Nathan knew that Asher would not be able to learn his sword art.
“Though you can learn it and apply it to your own art, creating something new,” Nathan, who was a greatsword user like Arthur, knew the limitations of his sword art.
“What is a sword to you, boy?” Nathan asked as he looked at Asher.
“A sword is a medium to reflect my inner self,” Asher truthfully answered, as his sword art was an imitation of his inner madness.
“Correct. A sword without intent and will is a useless piece of metal,” Nathan said as he took a wooden sword and slashed the air in the training ground, breaking the sword due to the sheer force of the attack.
“This is what brute force will do to you, but if you reflect your own self in it, even the weakest sword could kill the mightiest,” Nathan said as he took another wooden sword and slashed the air again, causing a massive crack in the training ground. He waved his hands, removing the dust that rose due to his attack.
“You saw it right. In our previous duel, I changed the trajectory of my sword without changing its momentum, which should have been impossible to begin with,” Nathan looked at Asher, who nodded. He still couldn’t comprehend how Nathan managed to do it.
“Do you know the difference between a sword and a greatsword, apart from their size?” Nathan asked.
“Their center of mass is different, which makes swinging each of them completely different from one another,” Asher replied. He had tried to learn the greatsword in his previous life, but eventually chose the sword because it suited him better.
“That’s right. This also results in different momentum between the two weapons in each swing,” Nathan added as he demonstrated his technique to Asher. He slashed the sword diagonally, but at the end of the swing, his sword moved in the opposite direction without losing its original momentum.
“This is the first technique of my sword, and I call it the phantom swing,” Nathan told Asher, who was observing the technique, trying to understand how it worked.
“Although there are other techniques, they are not suitable for you as a single-handed sword user,” Nathan advised.
“Do you remember the circulation technique I taught you?” Nathan asked Asher.
“Try closing your eyes and sense the mana distortion in the space around you,” Nathan suggested. He stepped away from Asher to give him room to sense the mana in his surroundings.
“This kid, he’s a monster. He learned what took me days in just an hour,” Nathan muttered to himself.
Asher closed his eyes and held the sword. He tried to sense the mana particles in the space around him. He could sense millions of small globs of white particles, but the concentration required made him feel slightly dizzy. Despite feeling nauseous and his head heavy, Asher’s high intelligence stat, which was way above the average person’s, allowed him to persist for a short while.
<Host has increased Mana +1>
Opening his eyes he looked at Nathan and asked,
“What’s next?”