Chapter 155: [155] Training Session

Very early in the morning, before the first rays of light slipped through the dark clouds above, before the cocks had awoken to sing their merry song…

While the bountiful number of fools in the world still slept…

Eliron was asleep…

BANG!

Thunder raced across the sky, sending a violent tremor through the room, and accompanying it was a heavy wind that howled as it blasted past the curtains.

Eliron stirred in his bed, sat up straight and blinked.

His mouth still tasted sour, his eyes were half closed as he tried to blink out the sleep. For a few seconds, he just sat there, staring into the darkness without moving.

Then he let out a dragged sigh and jumped down from the bed, the cheap hay bed creaking as he stepped down.

’Waking up is always the hardest part of the day…’

While when it came to hard labour, Eliron was king, waking up was often a tug of war.

This was because nearly every night, he spent hours working on his mana capacity and using mana breathing.

And although meditation was meant to be ’relaxing’, gathering mana particles and shoving them into your core was anything but that.

He walked over to the counter and grabbed some mint to chew on, the stem sticking out of his mouth like a toothpick.

He took his brand new sword, taking a second to admire it, strapped it to his waist and left Ash in the room, his hands clasped behind his back.

The streets of Kingsbridge were practically empty, even the shops that opened for twenty four hours, namely, the pubs, were quiet.

So Eliron enjoyed the peace and quiet as he strolled through the streets, moving towards the gates.

On his way, he was stopped by a few patrolling knights.

“Good morning.” The man who seemed to be the leader greeted him.

He was a mature man who seemed to be in his late forties, and had a few grey hairs sticking out of his hair.

“Quite an odd time to be up isn’t it?” His eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion.

Eliron noticed that they all seemed to be a little jittery.

Their hands hovered around their blades, and their gazes would periodically dart from place to place.

’Hmm? Did something happen?’

Eliron laughed, not letting any of his suspicion show on his face. “These old bones need to be serviced, lest they fail me.”

The knight cocked a brow. “Old bones?” Then his eyes shifted to Eliron’s ears.

“Ohh, I apologize elder. There was a rather terrible incident recently that obliterated the terrain of a nearby forest…”

“You see, the cost of repairs is already going into thousands of gold coins!” He sighed. “Baron Pete has instructed us to arrest anyone suspected of the act.”

’Oh… this again.’

The knight scratched his head and laughed dryly. “You’re a wood elf so I guess there is no reason to suspect you.”

’Huh? What the hell do you mean by that? Why won’t you suspect me??’

Eliron smiled blankly and tapped the shoulder of the man, a little too forcefully…

“That’s alright son…”

Thwack Thwack!

“Keeping the city safe is of utmost importance to knights.”

Thwack Thwack! TWWACK!

The knight tried to hide his discomfort with a smile, but when he could no longer bear it, he laughed and stepped back.

“Ahh, you’re very strong for your age sir.”

Eliron waved his hands towards them. “It must be the exercise. Have a good one!” He waved as he walked away, leaving the knight confused.

’Tsk, what does he mean it can’t be me?’ Eliron cursed internally.

’I guess rumours of my exploit have not reached the knights yet. Emma must be the quiet type…’

Eliron left the city of Kingsbridge behind, and kept walking until the city resembled a distant pea, after which he diverted into the forest.

“Alright, this place should do…” he muttered as he grabbed his sword, the blade still in its sheath.

There were two reasons he had gone through the trouble of waking up this early.

On normal days, he would be meditating, building his constance, while on some days he would be memorising skills.

But today was different…

He was out for two reasons, number one was to polish his sword skills.

After his fight with the sword demon, Eliron was able to see the loopholes in his technique, many of which he was planning to fix through practice.

Just because the skill was SSS Rank didn’t mean it was flawless, and even if the skill was flawless, the user may not be.

The fight with the demon had been an enlightening experience which served to illuminate his faults.

Although Eliron was growing at an amazing pace, it reminded him that it was not enough.

Not when monsters like the titans and Yggadsril still exist…

But through consistent practice, he would seal these gaps in his technique and raise them to levels even greater than their original owners had intended.

As for the second reason, it had to do with the new ’tattoos’ he had become the unwilling carrier of.

Today, Eliron’s plan was to see just what power was hidden within those marks.

“Let’s get started…”

Swish!

Eliron swung the blade in a clean arc, the sword whistling through the air with a loud shrill.

The wind blew forward, rushing past the trees and blowing them back.

Eliron adjusted his position, dealing several more strikes, wide sword arcs gleaming in the air.

’Not fast enough…’

His sword slashes were still nowhere as fast as the demon’s.

Satoru was right… if he had known Eliron was able to use supreme sword aura, the battle would have ended very differently.

Although the element of surprise was still a part of every battle, it was not something Eliron wanted to rely on.

Swish!

This time Eliron unleashed seven slashes in the space of a second, the wind vibrating as he cut through it.

He changed his stance.

The next time he did seven… nine… eleven… twelve.

’I’m still a little stiff…’

Eliron cracked his neck then stretched, staring at the vast forest before him.

“Let’s go for a run.”

Vwooosh!

Eliron suddenly charged through the trees, slicing every slight blemish he could see on the trees, his eyes scanning for anything he could cut.

He was moving so fast that his senses were distorted, he was swinging with so much vigour that each time he did, he felt a shock pass through his muscles.

Yet, he did not stop.

Eliron imagined the visage of the sword demon in front of him, the winter shogun standing in front of him like an immovable mountain.

’What could I have done better?’

His attacks had been sloppy, his blade lacking the weight of resolve.

What do I want? What is it I desire?

Eliron continued his charge, but the more he raced forwards, the more the visage of the demon seemed to elude him.

They were not on the same level.

Eliron intensified his speed till he felt as though his legs were on fire.

He was also slicing off the branches of trees so fast that the arcs were like flashes of light, training both his speed and precision simultaneously.

What is it I desire?

A blade weighed with the heavy weight of resolve was far heavier than any sword.

So what was it? What was his resolve?

“Strength!”

The power to be an unshakable force in this world.

In his last life, he had been at the bottom of the food chain, an insignificant person seen as worthless.

In this life, the wood elves were a joke, the weakest race among all races, the most bullied, the most disrespected…

Eliron desired the strength to change their fate, he had the resolve to rewrite their history.

“Supremacy!”

His goal was not to just push the elves to a better life, his goal was to make them the pinnacle of all races, a force to be reckoned with.

And finally…

“Money!!”

In his past life he was as poor as shit, in this life, Eliron wanted gold, lots of it!!!!

But that was not all Eliron had on his shoulders, his desires, his resolve, they strengthened his blade… but that was not all.

The leaves flashed past him, multiple slashes ripping the forest apart, even though the blade had not yet left its sheath.

…the hopes of the entire elven people rested on his shoulders, the wishes of countless people were riding on his success.

Their dreams, their aspirations, their hopes.

All of these gave Eliron more drive than he could even hope to fathom.

Now all he had to do was draw from that endless well.

The shogun in front of him vanished, replaced by a large indomitable tree.

Eliron unsheathed his sword, the black blade blacker than the night itself.

Unknown to Eliron, the sword mark on his hand flared brightly.

“Phantom Sword Art.”

The world itself seemed to fracture.

Ghostly blue aura clothed the blade like a veil, the archaic patterns lighting up like a beacon.

SWISH!

Multiple dark slashes carved through the air, moving so fast that they left afterimages in its wake.

Eliron blitzed past the tree, his feet finally grinding to a halt.

Smoke was slowly emanating from his burned shoes, his heart was pounding like war drums in his ears, his breathing was like the wheezing of an elephant, and his body was covered with sweat.

Booom!

He smiled as the tree suddenly burst apart, crumbling to the ground like dominoes.

“T-twenty five…” he said breathlessly.

He had just split a second into twenty five parts and unleashed twenty five individual strikes in that very instant.

’It’s not enough…’

Clap Clap Clap!

Eliron suddenly froze as the sound of clapping reached his ears. Then he turned around, his eyes widening as they landed on them.

“You…”

Lightning streaked through the skies, and as though to mark the start of a very terrible day, rain began to fall.

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