Chapter 27: The Test & The Journey (Part 6)

Three days ago...

Rei was sitting on the floor inside of his room while looking at the instructions book for [Spear Arts].

Rei focused his mind and aura at the same time, he continued to focus and memorized the technique and everything else that was within the pages but before that...

"I need to know the basic of the basic [Spear Arts]..."

Rei mumbled and lay his back on the floor, facing the ceiling.

'It seems you are having a hard time understanding it.' Ray's voice came out inside of his mind.

"Yeah...well I did read the demonstration from the first page to the last one, but in the end I still don't get it of how to wield a spear."

Listening to what he said, Ray chuckled "Hmmm...I see...it seems you need to understand the weapon first before starting it."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?"

"Let's start with a question first...how do you defined a sword, Kiritsuka.'

"Huh? What?"

'I said, what do you think swords are."

"Hmmm...a sword is a weapon, that was used for cutting or stabbing something."

'Now, what about a spear?'

"A spear...hmmmmmm...a weapon that can only stab or thrust at people?"

'Those answer is true but half way of the true answer, like you said...they are a weapon that are meant to be used like that, but that's one of the purpose of those weapon you know.

'Let me explain...first, a sword is like having another hand...a dangerous one. It can reach your enemies and cut or slice them open. They can be used to block as well to protect so you won't get hurt.'

'However, swords have short range despite being an extension of your hands, and cannot be used to apprehend someone completely without hurting them.

'But what about a spear? It's just a long pole with a blade sticking on its tip...but that's exactly its advantage. It can reach the enemy that was far from you, you can use it to keep your distance with it, and you can use the pole to knock them unconscious as well you can block any kind of attacks from any direction using just the pole with minimal movements.'

When Ray explained, Rei remembered about his fight with Nel, "You mean like Uncle Nel did?"

'Yeah, so think about those weapons like your own body, attain those feelings when you trained your sword to the limit...and finally...you will achieve something you so desire.'

"I see...now I get it...but the question how come you know all about this when you never hold a spear before?"

Ray smirked in his mind, "I never said, I never hold them...I said I never 'use' them before."

"Huh? What do you mean by–?"

"You forgot what your job are?"

"....!?"

Rei widened his eyes as if he realized something then he rose from the floor and took the book with him. Ray could only smile watching this young boy finally noticed something.

Rei didn't say anything as he left to the family workshop. Hee searched a spear's blue print in the cabinet, learning it in a second.

And then...

*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*

He began his work...

******

After a few hours, Rei was surrounded by trees as he stood inside of the forest.

Rei was holding onto something, some kind of lengthy tool wrapped in cloth.

He pulled off the fabrics, revealing a nice iron spear that matched his height.

For a moment...he stared at the weapon in his hand and began to close his eyes.

He released a bit of his aura around his body that was slowly sipping through his hand and towards the spear.

*BZZT*

A rejection...his aura couldn't cover the spear but somehow he still felt that he could slip it through.

"Why did it reject it?"

'There's a rejection because you never use a spear before. You need to try and actually use a spear before you could put your aura on it."

"I see..."

After hearing his explanation, Rei decided to get into his position and hold his spear together while trying to remember the feelings of his fight with Nel, of how he hold that spear and how he focused his mind.

Then he start demonstrating the skill [Spear Arts: One Strike] from what he remembered in the book and how Nel did it.

He moved his spear slowly to get the feelings right, then thrust his spear towards a tree in front of him with one hand.

He tried it again...moving it slowly and steadily, focusing his mind...then...

"HUFT!"

*SWOOSH* *TAK*

He suddenly thrusted it against a tree...but the result was not that satisfying. It didn't completely penetrate the thick trunk, stopping right on the tip of its blade.

Then a surge of pain came over him, "U-ugh..!"

His muscle that, most of the time was used to handle a sword mosf of the time, was trying to adapt because the way to use a spear was completely different than that of a sword.

[Notice!]

["Pain Resistance" has been activated]

As a notice came out, the pain slowly got reduced bit by bit. Rei took a deep breath, holding his spear steadily.

After that, he started striking his spear towards the tree once more.

*TAK*

When his spear touched the tree, he changed to his other hand to perform the strike.

*TAK*

He changed it again, starting to get the hang of it.

*TAK*

The pain was gone after a minute...but it came back when he struck the tree with his spear.

*TAK*

His body began to sweat...

*TAK*

His red aura automatically activated and covered his whole body...

*TAK*

Changing hands after another slowly exhausted him...despite having [Pain Resistance]...he could still feel the pain each time he struck his target.

*TAK*

'Again...'

*TAK*

'Again...'

*TAK*

'Again...again...again...again...again...again... again...'

*TAK* *TAK* *TAK* *TAK* *TAK*

As he continued to strike relentlessly, the color of the blue sky gradually changed into orange. He had been training since morning.

*TANG*

When he reached one hundred on each hands, he fell down on the ground while letting go of his spear. He couldn't move his body, it felt very heavy as if the earth's gravity kept him in place.

His fatigue point already hit the limit. He tried to grab on his bag that was nearby to take out a bottle of potion.

He took a sip to regain his energy back slowly, then finished it to heal his body completely.

"Ughh..." Rei groaned, getting up from the ground and taking the spear again.

He looked at the weapon, trying to see if he could use whatever left of his aura and...

*BZZT*

"Ughh..."

There's still rejection but...

"Still rejecting...–Huh?"

Rei widened his eyes when he sees some of his aura managed to slip through.

As Rei about to smile, he shook his head.

'No...it's not the time to be happy yet, I need to train more to reach that level.'

"Houston, help me with the training."

'Heh, then make sure you don't die twice in a day.'

He broke a sweat, "Hey…take it easy will you."

Rei then wrapped his spear with its cloth back then took his bag. After that, he walked back home just to be scolded by his mother.

******

Rei continued his training with Ray at night and he's currently blocking Ray's sword with his spear.

*TANG*

"Uggh..."

"What's wrong!? Is that all you got!"

"Haaa!!"

*TING*

Rei deflected his sword and jumped backwards to keep his distance while spining his spear around.

Then he gave him multiple strikes with his weapon, but Rei dodged it with minimal movement by moving his body to side by side a bit while deflecting some of his strikes.

*SWOOSH*

*SWOOSH*

*TING*

*SWOOSH*

Rei didn't stop striking with his spear as he tried another direction, spinning his spear around him and swung it towards his right side using the pole.

'Hm?!'

Ray widened his eyes as soon as he noticed it and quickly blocked the incoming attack.

*TANG*

But...

*BAK*

Ray kicked Rei's left side that was left unguarded, making him flew away a bit as he regained his posture back then jumped backwards to create some distance once again.

Rei breathed heavily, he's still releasing his aura when he stared at his opponent. But in a few seconds, his aura ran out as he fell down to the floor.

"Haaa....haaa...haaa...Break Time!"

Ray sighed and sheathed his sword, taking a seat on the floor next to him.

"That was quite an unexpected strike you did there."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah, you caught off me guard...I was certain that you are going to keep striking me like that since you're still learning how to use a spear."

Rei chuckled and smiled, "Well I remembered how Nel used his spear and how varied his attacks are...so I just tried to imitate it, but never knew you could still block it."

"No no, it was good to change your attack variations to catch your opponents off guard. But still, you left your back unguarded and there should be a lot of variation of how you perform it."

"Hmmm...I see."

"For example...it's like hmmmm...ah! rock-paper-scissor."

"Huh?? Why?"

"When you play it, you choose either rock, paper or scissors right?"

"Uhhh...yeah?"

"So let's say I use rock on you and what will you do?"

"Paper, naturally."

"Now then, I'm gonna keep using rock 3 times at least and for the next one, what am I going to choose?"

"Hmmmm...maybe between rock or scissors?"

"Correct and at the same time it deceives your opponent..." Ray smirked.

"Wait, hang on—why??"

"How about we bet, I'm gonna use rock all the time in the game with this hand" Ray said while lifting his right hand. "And if you can win 4 times against me, you can have break time all you want, but if you lose…youre gonna have to keep training with no breaks."

"O-okay? But I don't plan to lose anyway." Rei was confused but he heard a challenge so he won't back down to that at least.

Rei get up from the floor and they started the game,

First match Ray used rock and Rei used papers, Ray lose.

At the second match, Ray used rock again and Rei used papers and this went on to the third match. Rei had won three times but he felt like something was off.

At the final match...Ray used paper and Rei used rock.

"Huh?!"

Ray won.

"See?"

"I-i was certain that you're gonna use–..."

"Scissor isn't it?"

"But you said you can only use rock all the time! This is…this is foul play!"

"Oh you sweet summer child…" Ray smirked as he shook his head, "I said that I will only use rock all the time with [this hand]" He said while showing his right hand.

Rei noticed that the one he used just now was his left hand.

"What?!"

"There are two things that I erased about what you thought just now." He spoke as he showed him one raised fingers, "First is that I erased the possibility of using paper."

"....?!"

"And secondly, is that, I erased the possibility of using my other hand."

"....?!" Rei felt like his eyes couldn't get any wider than this.

"With only a few words, I made you fixated on those words and made you stop thinking the possibility of using it."

"Just like in a fight, it's a matter of mind game and deceiving your enemy...using a pure habit like that and finally when their guard is off, you take those chances~"

As Ray explained, Rei who was left dumbfounded felt like a fool because he fell for his tricks.

"Uhhhh...I understand, so basically I need to create a habit for my opponent to see as a feint and change my pattern in the middle of the fight?"

"Exactly, that's my student for you."

Rei nodded and Ray suddenly stood up from his seat, "...And that student of mine is going to have no break until he can learn how to use spear."

"Huh? W-wait! I-i thought that was a joke!"

"You accepted the bet though~ so no more complaining...~" Ray showed him a devilish smile.

Rei was in the verge of tears, "N-noo...iyaaahhhhh!!!"

After that...that was the last time his voice could be heard.

******

On the second day, Rei continued his training from day to night. He continuously struck his spear to the tree over and over with no rest.

Each strikes slowly getting stronger. He didn't care about how exhausting it was since he could keep his vitality back in action by drinking a potion.

His aura also getting even stronger and his spear eventually accepting his aura as it's already halfway there from engulfing the spear whole.

At night, he was training with Ray inside of his mind. He fought as if his life depended on it like usual but still got his ass kicked in a matter of second.

The only improvement was that he got a few hit in and lost from exhausting himself.

******

Finally, the third day...

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*CREAK* *BOOM*

The booming sound of a large tree falling down to the ground echoed around the forest and the one who was standing in the midst of all the other fallen trees was Rei.

"Haaa....haaa..."

His body was covered with reddish aura but there wasn't a single piece of clothing to cover his toned upper body and the sweat making his skin seemed to glisten under the sunlight.

On his hands was a worn out the steel spear which definitely had seen much of his training these past few days.

Rei eventually took a deep breath to steady himself, calming down his beating heart and the adrenaline pumping in his veins before slowly letting it out through his mouth.

"Finally..."

And as if on cue, he heard a sound

.

.

[Notice!]

[You learned skill "Spear Arts"]

[You acquired skill "One Strike"]

.

.

"I learned it..."

After that, his body gave out as he fell down to the ground with satisfied look on his face.

'Congratulations, Kiritsuka. You did it.'

"Yeah, it was hard...but it was all worth it...fighting with you for the whole night without a break, plus trained myself by constantly using aura and spear at the same time."

Ray laughed, 'Hahaha, you did a great job on that one. But you still need to learn other skills than [One Strike] you know.'

"Yeah, I know...I have four days left to teach those kids before leaving." Rei spoke while getting up and drank the potion from his bag.

'Yeah and don't forget to prepare your equipment.'

"I know, been there done that. I used the material that I got from those monsters two years ago, and now I can finally wear it."

'Well that's true, but after this. We still have to train again.' He spoke, "This will be a hellish path for you.'

"Yeah but knowing that...I'm glad I chose this." Rei mused as he began to walk back to home.

'What do you mean by that?'

"Hehe, do you know that in my world there is a story about getting into another world?"

'…that's the first time for me to hear, what about it?'

"In that story, the protagonist always had cheat powers when they arrived at those worlds. They fought and attained happiness using it."

'Uhuh?'

"Exactly before I met you, a god came up to me and he offered me a wish before I was sent to this world."

'Ohhh, that's the first time you tell me about that.'

"Yeah...I totally forgot about that since we kept training and nothing else for that whole 2 years..."

'Hahaha...sorry about that.' Ray laughed nervously.

"Well it's fine."

'So what do you wish for?'

"Heh, I wish to become a knight." Rei smiled as the wind gently brushed his hair.

'Huh? A knight?' Ray widened his eyes seeing his smile.

"Yep, a knight...with no cheat power and no shortcut...but with my own strength."

Ray chuckled, 'With your own strength huh...that's crazy.'

"Hahaha, the god said that I was interesting!"

'Well that too, but why would you refuse to get that kind of power? Most people would gladly receive it....even for me.'

Rei slowly looking up to the sky, "There was once saying... [There is no shortcut in this life. Enjoy the meeting of the path that you chose, the one who walk through all of it could see the end of their journey]."

"It means that if I rely on those powers as my shortcut, maybe I won't be meeting these people and knowing how hard it is for others to become stronger. Right?" Rei spoke with smile.

Ray sighed and smiled back, 'Yeah, what you told me is true...if you hadn't choose it, probably we won't even meet.'

"Hahaha! That's true!"

'Hmm…how about you tell me about your world, I'm quite curious about it.'

"Hehehe, after we finished training first."

'Hmm? Okay then.'

The two of them then proceed to another topic in his mind while Rei went back home with a smile. after this whole training was out of the way, they spent their remaining days with ease.

To be continue...