Eternal Swordsmanship

"[Eternal Swardsmanship]. What a thing. Can I level it up with skill points? Let's try."

A flash of light once more shone on the blade of the sword. This time it was golden in colour. One skill point had been removed from the [Status] screen and a new skill appeared. It was [Eternal Footwork].

"Ohhh, a complementary skill, interesting. I wonder what this sword really is." This wasn't all, however, as James could suddenly recall two sets of movements from the depths of his memory. One was centred on his feet and balance, whilst the other concerned the sword.

James, lost once again in his world, tried performing them. He failed. His sword was way too heavy for him and his skeleton legs were too clunky to perform such a complicated move. But he tried. He failed, again and again, once even on the sword itself which gave him a new hole and made him lose 4 HP. Nevertheless, he continued on practising until finally, he completed it.

[You have completed the [Eternal Swardsmanship] whilst being an inferior lifeform. An appropriate reward will be given.]

[1 stat point, 1 skill point, title [Sword Seeker] and the skill [Inspect] have been awarded.]

[The Sword commends your efforts.]

"Wut?"

...(a few minutes later)...

So, the title gives me a chance to learn a swordsmanship when facing somebody, which isn't really useful right now. The [Inspect] skill, showed him the status of things and the commendment was just that, a flowery string of words.

James put the status point into strength, which made him lose 1 more continual point of Mana, Upon further inquisition, he had found out that Mana was the reason he could even move. The remaining skill points remained unused as a precaution since he had yet to use the skill shop. His new status looked like this.

____

Name: James

Level: 2 (5/400)

Race: Skeleton

Title: [First blood]; [Balancer]; [Sword Seeker]

Health: 12/12

Mana: 1/3

Attributes: STR 2; END 2; AGI: 1; SPT 1

Talent: [Undead]

Skills: [Deduce lv 2]; [Regrow lv 2]; [Move lv 2]; [Throw lv 1]; [Sneak lv 0]; [Eternal Swordsmanship lv 1]; [Eternal Footwork lv 0]; [Inspect lv 1]

Free stat points: 0

Free skill points: 2

____

Things were looking good. Now, stronger and with a proper weapon, James finally felt like he had a chance at his second life. The [Inspect] skill proved itself to be very useful. Unlike [Deduce] which used his own knowledge and senses to find information about an object of interest, [Inspect] consumed 1 MP and gave out rudimentary information similar to that of a game. An example would be when he used it on his sword.

[Name: Sword of Eternity(locked)

Form: greatsword

Durability: 90/(unknown)

Skills: [Skill inheritance]; (unknown)

Effect(s): 5% experience boost with inherited skills; (unknown)]

James wasn't too happy with all the locked and unknown parts but beggars can't be choosers. It was obvious that the sword held secrets and that with time, they were sure to resurface.

Feeling satisfied with himself, James decided to continue hunting whilst trying to figure out the [Skill shop] option. He had naturally tried saying "Shop!" and "Open!" with various other words, but none seemed to work. Maybe he needed to unlock something more before he could finally use his Skill points to acquire new skills.

....

Some half an hour later, in another darker part of the dungeon caves, James spotted his new prey. It was a lone wolf-like creature that he had seen running in small packs before. This one seemed to be an alpha of some sort since it was a bit bigger and solitary. Wanting to stay on the safe side of things, James used [Inspect].

[Name: (none)

Level: 5

Race: Lizard-wolf

Health: 20/20

Mana: (none)

Attributes: (Unknown)

Skill(s): [Bite lv 3]; (unknown)]

"Haah, fuck me. Well with the sword it should be much easier." At that moment the wolf noticed James. Its lizard tail along with all of its hair raised itself. The great silver eyes of the wolf locked onto the skeletons figure.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, why, fuck..." James started cursing. All of his prior battles involved sneaking to his prey and one-shotting it with his stone. This was going to be his first heads-on engagement. He readied his sword and stood in the starting stance of his Eternal Swordsmanship.

The wolf, now that it had seen James, relaxed and looked almost pitifully at him. It let out a few short barks, almost as if laughing.

"This fucking mutt! It's laughing at me!" James found himself getting lost in sudden hate and bloodthirstiness. He wanted to kill it, to kill the foul creature even if he died himself. He was already dead, however, only the wolf would feel pain and this brought him great pleasure.

Full of sudden euphoria and strength, James launched himself first. The wolf, surprised by the fact that a bag of bones had decided to attack first. reacted poorly to the sword. With a flash, a giant gash was formed on its front leg, red blood staining its grey fur. Enraged by the sudden pain and the bugs disrespect, the wolf opened its maws and lunged forward to bite the skeleton.

Too late, James had used his footwork to escape to the side of the wolf, from which he promptly made another vertical slash. This time he missed, slashing nothing but air. The wolf, now alert and enraged by pain, knew better than be hit by what it had before deemed easy prey.

Using the energy of his downward slash, James pulled his sword back upwards and continued into a horizontal one, making a cross-like shape in the air, just in time to ward off the maws of the wolf.

Down, up, horizontal, spin, thrust, pull back, repeat... a sword dance started to form. James continually used his sword without pause, until, finally, the wolf bled out from its wounds. It seemed like its pride hadn't allowed it to escape the engagement.

[350 XP received.]

[Congratulations! You have killed a high-level pup of the Lizard-Fenrir. You have received extra XP and a title [Blood Hunter], you will be able to receive a higher occupation.]

[Level up!]