I suppose I expected more than I should have.
"Once we're at the port, we'll take a carriage and we'll-"
Our journey had just extended a fair bit.
Shirushi port was something I always wanted to visit. Apparently, the Honeycrisps there were said to be really delicious and cheap. In fact, during the right season, people threw away overripe honeycrisps because they had so damn many! Okay maybe that was just a rumor but still!
But I didn't want to go there like this… By the time we'd reach Shirushi port, it'd already be too damn late. It'd take another eternity to get to Axel, then to Xanir, then to the academy. What if something happened to Den in the meanwhile? Besides, it wasn't like my journey was going to end at the academy, I had more shit to do!
Frankly, I didn't even want to think about it.
Don't die Den, don't die….
"Are you even listening?" Alustur poked at my forehead.
"I am… but what were you saying again?"
He exhaled. "You need to train. Even now you lack basic self-defense skills. If I wasn't present, you'd be dead."
"But you are here."
"Yes, and I'm saying I won't be always; it's a miracle you didn't die in the ocean. You need to learn how to protect yourself. And you need to learn it better than you've ever had to."
"Right…"
"Now then, do as I do," he first showed me basic sword stance and then swung around a couple of times. "Do that till midday."
Huh?
"You want my arms to fall off?"
"We'll discuss that once it actually falls off. Begin. Or would you like to die?"
I grumbled and cursed him a couple of times but the dude only smirked.
Swing!
Swing!
Swing!
"Won't it be better if I just focused on the knives or magic instead?"
"Focus."
"Yeah, yeah."
Swing!
Sufficed to say, my boring days were just becoming a literal fucking pain.
But hey, at least we now had loads of Tuna.
***
Alustur only made me practice in the morning. He didn't teach me any particular style or skills, he just wanted me to get accustomed with the sword. I had a feeling he was going to be drilling me really hard once I had a better grasp but I was going to worry about that crap when I actually got to that stage.
Well, it's not like this body will be able to keep up.
I rolled my eyes and stared at the sea. Alustur's stole- borrowed book was fairly informational and although most of it I couldn't practice, some really were a boon. The boost in particular- was awesome.
I needed dense mana regions for it to properly work but I was getting a hang of it even when the mana wasn't dense. The effect wasn't as prominent but at least it was sort of working.
As long as I used the technique right, I could in theory boost my spells by 20%. If I could save that much mana, then that was wonderful.
Or would have been if I had more mana. Beggars can't be choosers. Still, this was good and eventually I'd be able to pull off actual spells without much if any mana input from me.
These scales though… the scales did a couple of things for me. One, they made my skin more resistant to damage and two, they increased my actual mana capacity somewhat. I still didn't have as much mana as a normal guy but it was way better than having nearly nothing. At this point, I could be counted as somewhat normal.
It did make me worry though- what if there was a massive drawback, I wasn't aware of yet: Alustur seemed to be hinting at something disastrous. Same for the boost thing. Why wasn't it practiced in the rest of the world?
Anyway, worries aside, there were some other things I needed to know. But the crew weren't answering.
So, I went up to the pirate girl instead.
"Hello Kayla," I said.
"Hello Sol. How are you doing today?"
"I'm doing good, how about you?"
Felt like I was doing a conversation practice in school.
"Good," she said, keeping up a smile. She didn't dress in minimal attire anymore. Her shirt fit her well and whenever she moved, the toned muscles peeked out and with the addition of her chest pressing against the shirt, it kind of looked hot. I wasn't going to tell her though. "You usually avoid me, so what's up?"
"You're not talking like a pirate?"
"I was originally not a pirate, and right now I'm not one either, so."
"Right. Ahem. So, what happened to your captain?"
"Oh, he survived. And as per our deal, he lent me to you."
"Yeah, I figured that bit out. But you didn't really have to, right? So why did you… why did you come on this journey when you know, I was just…" I had no idea how much she knew so I was being vague intentionally.
"I wanted to come with you. I don't know, the way you wanted me felt nice."
"Huh… just so we're clear, I only plan on using your strength-"
She was hot, sure, but I was a child.
"Yeah, I know kid, I know lustful men when I see them. You're not that lustful."
What do you mean, 'that'? "Mmhmm."
"Aww, so cute," she continued. If she wasn't holding the helm, she'd have probably picked me up like a toddler and babied me, or at least that's the vibe I got from her.
So, I left the girl and went to the other side of the ship- to her brother Arnet.
"Hello."
"What do you want?"
Oh wow, he was straight to the point at least.
"I wanted to know why you came along and why you're cooperating so well."
"I heard you stood up for my sister. I don't care much for the pirates. But my sister- if she wants to go with you, I go with you. Does that satisfy you curiosity?"
"It does actually," I said. "Thank you."
He didn't bother.
The guy was only nice when his sister was around. Whenever she wasn't, he became a brusque old man. I had a feeling he had a crush on his sister but it was probably just mad respect or something.
We had to be positive in our lives after all.
My days were going slow. Practice, eat, read, practice, eat, sleep, repeat.
Some days when storms brewed, I danced around the ship and waved with the waves, trying not to fall over; other days, I fought hard with dehydration, then there were days when nothing happened. Alustur sometimes disappeared for a couple of days and brought back fat tunas. He knew I couldn't eat anything other than Tuna, so he was trying extra hard to keep me fed; I needed a lot of energy for practice, or so was his excuse but I had a feeling he couldn't eat the tack stuff either so it was probably for the both of us. I suppose I had to thank him somehow. Just saying 'thank you' wasn't going to cut it. Regardless, it was what it was.
"You have improved," Alustur said in our morning session during week two. "What style would you like to learn?"
If I took Kayla's optimism and Arnet's pessism and balanced them, we were almost there and it would take a couple more days to reach the port.
"Whichever one's easier."
"No style is easy. Each style has been developed with a particular intent in mind. Some who's goals align with said intent, thrive."
"Well, my intent is to find a style that's the most convenient for me in any situation and is super easy for me to learn, and impossible for others to best me; got anything?" I spoke so smugly, I myself, expected him to give me a slap. In fact, my hand had lifted up to cover my face instantly.
I suppose my body understood just how much of an absurd demand I was making.
Alustur stared at me and quite normally too. Yet, something… no, he was disappointed.
"Sorry," I said. "Which style do you think would work?"
"Try all three. But I think you'd do well with Northlander," he said.
The three styles-
Northlander- a style where sword masters utilized hidden knives.
Fencemaster- a style were sword masters used only rapier-like stuff and were a master of thrusting
And Highlander-a style where big swords were used. I sort of knew them and I knew Alustur taught them well but frankly, I was never interested in learning swordplay. I liked swords but I didn't like fighting with them.
Alustur used a mix of all three but mostly focused on the Highlander style. Which was fine and good and all but I didn't have enough talent to be thinking about this stuff and he knew that. Yet, he still insisted I train hard.
Sigh… so out of pure respect, I decided to humor him.