Chapter 207: Explosive

The excitement from the battle died down after a couple of days. Lexi also spent most of her time repairing her Arcana.

The durability of her axe has reached a critical level due to Calliope's elemental swords. This also prompted her to use some permanence enhancement items or perhaps defense burr that can be purchase for a high price…

As for Nika, she just continued practicing the other skills of her Revolver… She's mostly relying on her energy bullets but she still has smoke bullets and impact bullets… She wasn't using them since the smoke would also hinder her vision and she thought that it can only be used when she needed to escape or something.

Her impact bullets, on the other hand, are mostly used to push away her target instead of penetrating them like the energy bullets.

Finally, Rufus Magnolia continued his training with Reiji to master the way of the sword through Kendo.

This is a long and arduous path but Rufus is willing to take on it as he's fully aware of how strong can a swordman be.

If he became as good as his master, not even Nika's invisible bullet would give him a hard time…

Perhaps, only his master's other students would give real trouble to him.

Pah! Pah! Pak!

"Oop--!"

Rufus managed to block the two hanging blocks of wood but was still hit by the third one on his head.

"Master… Are you not increasing the speed when I'm getting used to it?" Rufus couldn't help but ask after noticing something on the pattern of their movements and changes in their momentum.

"It's just your imagination… If you're too engrossed, in one thing, you'd normally lose sight of the other elements in your surroundings. You just need to improve your spatial awareness. You can do it."

Reiji replied as he encouraged the young man.

In truth, he's really changing the speed of the blocks of wood a little but it wasn't much. It's not like he's petty or wanted to hit Rufus multiple times because it's fun, but he wanted to just put the speed that Stella and Diether are used to… 

After more than an hour of training with the Hanging Wood, they have to train his footwork.

Not just the different types of Ashisabaki but on how he transitions them…

"The key is the shizentai or the natural stance. You must remember that all Ashisabaki starts from this basic stance…"

"Yes, Master."

Rufus answered as he recalled the shizentai…

'Place my left foot one foot-width to the left and one foot-length to the back… The lift my left heel gently…'

Lifting his heel allows him to easily gain momentum from the basic stance so it is extremely important…

After getting into a good form, he continuously practiced all the Ashisabaki until he got used to them…

'This is difficult…' 

Rufus smiled wryly after trying all the ashisabaki with sword techniques…

If it's only about moving his feet. He can do it perfectly… His Nusumi-ashi or stealthy footwork and Fumiko-ashi or thrusting footwork even gained praises from his master… However, if he moves while thinking of executing a Waza, he's making some mistakes on it…

Reiji who was watching him just let him be… He should be able to think of a solution by himself since it's his body…

In the meantime, he checked the recently completed mission from the guide.

[ Congratulations! You have completed the Holding On Mission! ]

[ You have received 100 Skill Points ]

[ New Mission Created ]

[ Wielder's Blood ]

[ Consume 1 pint of blood from your Wielder. ] 

[ Reward: 250 SP ]

Reiji was quite surprised that the mission related to taking blood from his wielder arrived this early. He assumed that it will happen after he completed his ongoing Blood Thirst mission.

Nevertheless, he felt that this is not a good time to take some of his blood since it would affect his current training. He's not in a hurry now that he's a Unique Rank and he's even planning to do some things that he couldn't try before as he was lacking an Appraisal Skill.

With this ability, he felt that he should be able to do a lot more things than just being a sword and trainer for his wielder.

***

'Hey, Reiji... How long are you going to stay here... Did you get attached to the Tower?'

Odette suddenly connected to him. Reiji and Rufus just finished their today's training and were about to take a rest...

'Mhmm... I still have something in mind with this kid... Anyway, are you leaving?' Reiji replied. He's already used to Odette's miraculous ability. 

He has been trying to defend against this sudden communication link or whatever it was called by building up his Mystical Energy around him, but it hasn't been successful so far. At most, it would just hinder them a bit and would still connect to him after trying a bit more.

In the end, he decided to just leave it be since there's no harm done yet in this link.

'Yes... Yui accepted a mission outside... We'll be leaving in a week... Of course, we don't have plans of returning here... We already got the Cursed Mask.'

'Is that so? Good for you... Just make sure that the Chalice wouldn't send someone to finish you off. Who knows, he may be waiting for you guys to leave the tower before dealing with you, right?'

'Hey, hey! Don't give us such a bad omen... I'm sure that he wouldn't care about this.' Odette suddenly said but she also felt worried that it might happen.

The Cursed Mask seems to be related to the Execration Organization based on how it reacted after Reiji destroyed the core of the Defense Array. She also doesn't want to be involved with the Cursed Arcana but this would also help her strengthen her current vessel and help her wielder even more...

Anyway, they just have to be careful from now on. If they needed to hire mercenaries to guard them just to ensure their safety, they wouldn't hesitate to do so.

For the remaining week they have here, Odette completed her promise and made Reiji aware of all the things he needs to know about the Mystical Energy and how to train them.

Due to this, Reiji had learned a skill on how to identify a Sentient Arcana or even a Blessed Arcana...

[ Arcane Sensitivity Lv1

Allows the user to detect the presence of Arcana, whether they are Sentient, Blessed, or Cursed. The higher the level, the wider the effective range.

Unable to level up using Skill Points. ]

This is the second skill that can't be upgraded by his SP aside from the Mystical Energy Manipulation that he received from the pond.

This is all thanks to Odette's amazing teaching skills... He actually didn't think that he would be able to learn an ability like this.

This is such a good memory before being separated from the two.

***

Two months had quickly passed after the battle between the Sun Fire Knights and the Arcanist Tower. 

Rufus had visible improvement during the two months but he still had a lot of things that needed to be worked on.

Reiji had also found out that Felix and the two other Necklace Arcana had decided to become official members of the Mind Collection after getting a lot of benefits from them.

Apparently, the number of their skills has increased as well after staying with the old Sentient Arcana residing at the mansion. Aside from that, they are even inviting Reiji to visit them again as they have suggestions for his new servants… 

They heard that he's looking for two evil people to become his followers and they seemed to have caught people suited for the job.

"Well, Ruthren has a lot of things on his hands since he's alone… I guess it's time to add more servants."

Reiji said kindly. After all, Ruthren must be getting tired of running around as well. He wouldn't be lonely anymore if he has two more juniors with him…

As he informed Rufus about his plans, a messenger from the outside has arrived in the Tower…

He's carrying a newspaper and seemed to be in a hurry…

All the Arcanists who saw the man were curious about the news he brought from the outside. Although newspapers would be sent to the tower, there isn't much information about it aside from the programs of the nobles, their lifestyle, and a little bit about the capital's situation.

If there is news about Arcanists, Magic Items, or ownerless Arcana, it would only happen at least once a month so it's not really exciting for them… After all, that news is most likely outdated already.

'Master… Do you have an idea why he's acting like that?' Rufus asked. Though he knows that his master is not omniscient, he just couldn't help but ask since it became a habit for the past two months.

Of course, Reiji couldn't give a definite answer as well.

However, later that day, they learned that the man was bearing a piece of explosive news with him… 

The Erliente Dukedom has officially declared war against their Kingdom!