Chapter 41: Grinding III
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
The repeated sound of swords clashing resounded in the training room as two boys wielded their weapons and fought in a serious manner.
One of the boys, the silver-haired one was finding it hard to properly hold the new type of weapon that he had never used in his life.
On the other hand, the other dark green-haired boy was getting more and more surprised at the quick way his sparring partner was coming to learn the way of swords considering he was just a newbie at it.
They both danced in the room with their swords as the sparks of their battle revealed a marvelous sight.
Gradually, Felix was getting used to the way of handling a sword but he knew that his opponent was holding back and letting most of his attacks divert in the last second.
After a bout of few minutes, his sword escaped from his hands at a strong clash as he fell back on his butt onto the floor.
"Ouch!", he cried out in pain as the hard floor hit against his ass.
Looking at the dejected expression on Felix's face, Steve smiled and walked over placing the sword on his shoulder.
"Are you sure you're not a newbie at swords?", his tone impressed.
"It's my first time, yes. Did I do good?"
Felix asked patting his pants as he stood up.
"Better than a novice."
Steve swung his sword in the air as he said.
"But your problem is that you don't wait to find an opportunity to strike and just swing the sword as fast as possible."
He narrowed his eyes and held his sword above him before releasing a bright energy from his body that gathered on his sword as he slashed to the side.
The sword ejected a curve of light from its blade which hit the wall strongly and dissipated.
"If you fight with warriors who can project aura into their attacks, then you won't be able to resist them before getting defeated."
Felix widened his eyes as he looked at the pure form of aura that Steve had mentioned before to him.
Even though warriors used aura to strengthen themselves, only the really talented could manifest it in their attacks and use them freely. Something the guy in front of him did easily as proved by all the bragging he did of himself.
Steve turned to look at the boy in his eyes and grinned.
"So, do you understand what you have to do now?"
Felix was still confused but he voiced out.
"I should try to find an opportunity while fighting?"
"You can also do that, but the thing you have to take care of is to.....", Steve suddenly stopped talking as he narrowed his eyes and contemplated while rubbing his chin.
"Umm...You know what, just forget what I said."
He blinked as he actually didn't have any advice to give him as his dumb brain failed to form a proper sentence that could sound cool as well as make it seem like something said by a professional.
Felix twitched his lips with a strange expression on his face.
He knew that Steve was not that great of a teacher and didn't have a knack for explaining, but there was no one else he could have fooled to help him by just praising them a little.
He decided to do something a bit different with his sparring partner as he gave an idea.
"How about this? We'll battle in a slow manner with you attacking me in various directions whereas I'll predict your movements and block your hits."
Steve pondered about it and nodded as he agreed.
"Sure, we can do that."
This was why Felix liked using this guy. He agreed to everything as long as it was not something unreasonable without doubting or raising any suspicion.
Both of them got ready and fought again with their swords as they tried several other methods of training for Felix to get familiar with the way of handling swords.
Steve kept changing his power output and made sure to keep up with the weaker Felix as they engaged in sword fights.
Training for more than two hours, the two boys fought with vigor and zeal pushing their bodies to their limits. In the end, they slumped on the ground staring at the ceiling after getting their bodies exhausted.
"Damn, you can really fight without stopping huh."
Steve uttered between his breaths regaining his stamina while resting.
"Huff....I'm already at my limit...Huff....I was just....Huff...pushing myself to keep up....with you..."
Felix was too exhausted to even speak as he had been fighting until now with only pure willpower with no energy remaining in his body.
"You crazy bastard.", Steve replied with a chuckle finding it hard to believe a newcomer could make him show his true strength with sword combat.
In the fight, he hadn't used any aura or arts, but still, the kid had managed to push him enough for him to be serious in the fight.
They two rested in silence for five minutes before they felt hungry as if rats running in their stomachs.
Steve got up and pulled Felix up by holding his arm. They had enough training for today and wanted to go get some rest.
"Let's go back, we can continue our training tomorrow.", he said and picked up his thin sword.
Felix nodded and he too picked up his short sword before following him out of the room.
They changed the stand back to green color and went to the second floor limping with their tired bodies.
When they were just about to part for their rooms, Steve stopped and asked him curiously.
"By the way, Felix. When are you going to start doing missions?"
Felix paused at his question and raised his eyebrow before thinking about it.
"Hmmm, maybe when I'm just about to advance to rank 1, that's when I'll start doing missions to breakthrough with actual experience."
He answered and asked back in question.
"Anyways, why do you ask?"
Steve just smiled as his voice trailed out as he entered his room while chuckling,
"Well, it's a secret which I'm sure later you'll be surprised of."
Staring at the closed door with confusion, Felix had no idea what he was talking about so he just shrugged and decided it was another of his comments to make him seem mysterious and cool.
He walked ahead and entered his room, removing his clothes before going into the bathroom for a relaxing bath.
"Sigh...It's already been more than two weeks since I've come to this world."
Sitting inside the bathtub, he wondered about his life after transmigrating in this world.
Even though it was laced with dangers and terror, he felt much more alive than spending his life in the same monotonous way of everyday struggles.
Especially growing stronger, it was a different kind of feeling than just getting rich in his previous world. As even though you'll have a nice life if you get rich, you're life would still not be in your own hands as you could lose all your fortune in a single day.
But getting stronger physically and being able to fight against other enemies made him realize how amazing it was to keep moving forward and achieving more than he could.
It was an addictive feeling. Making most of the cultivators greedy for power and thus resorting to all kinds of schemes and violence to get things done their way.
In all of this, the silver-haired boy also had the deepest of desire.
The desire to never be at the mercy of anybody else. And have enough power to make everyone fear to even think of making him surrender.
After cleaning his body, he came out of the bathroom, dried himself, put on his clothes, and walked out toward the dining hall.
He didn't waste any time as his body was already starving and tired, so he took a plate full of food and emptied it, before taking another plate and filling his stomach to the brim.
Coming out of the dining hall, he stumbled his tired body into the corridor and reached inside his room.
He jumped onto the bed the moment he entered and went deep into slumber awaiting a grueling schedule of more meditation and training tomorrow.