I closed the door again and then looked inside. The room was big, around double the size of the classroom. The floor was made out of cobblestone and the walls had a metal sheet covering them. The ceiling didn't have a lamp hanging on it; instead, it was coated with flat magic lights; like the one, I saw at the cafeteria.
The room also had many human-shaped training dolls and a number of swords.
'Wow' was the reaction I had. This room was looking good, I actually knew how it would look like since Leon once came here to practice in the novel, but reading the words and seeing it, in reality, are two completely different things.
The room was not what I'd imagined. With metal sheeted walls and white magic lights that covered the whole ceiling; this room was more on the modern side than medieval.
Actually, there are many things here that do not fit the medieval time period like steel, instant coffee, and clothes like hoodies. But then again, it was the result of loli_pop's trashy world-building skills.
He was confused about whether he should go with an urban setting or a medieval one; in the end, he decided to mix the two together. Though it's not like I have a problem with that, I mean, I don't know how I would've survived without coffee.
'Anyway. Better focus on what I came here to do.'
Yes, what I was going to do was important, especially for an event that was going to take place in a few days.
I moved forward and picked up a sword among the many that were placed on a shelve. The one I took was a slim, double-edged long sword; I chose this one mainly because it was lightweight.
Today I was going to do an experiment, that's why I was here. First I did a few practice swings to gain control—I was still not the best in sword arts.
I then held the sword straight with both my hands; I tried channeling my mana through it but it didn't work as usual. "It really won't work I guess," I mumbled.
Then I closed my eyes, focused, and then opened them again. The air around the sword's blade begins frosting, white flakes appearing on the blade. Slowly the blade started to freeze as a layer of ice appeared over it.
Right now, I was using elemental magic.
The ice first covered the whole blade and then several spikes formed on the sides. The ice also made the edges of the sword sharper and more aerodynamic. Then it stopped.
Now I had my very own magiken sword in my hands. The blade was fully covered in ice and was emitting cold, white smoke.
So what if I can't use my mana directly to increase the aspects and strength of the sword? I can do the same thing indirectly with magic by adding the power of the elements to the blade.
'Let's get onto the testing now.'
With the sword in my hand, I moved toward one of the human dummies. I stood before it and adjusted my posture and sword. Then with a powerful upper-left to lower-right slash, I buried the sword's blade deep into the dummied shoulder.
It went inside almost smoothly but stopped after reaching the tip of the ribcage. I pulled the sword out from the dummy and when the sword was out, the dummy healed itself, and the cut I had left vanished.
This happened because a part of the body of slimes is used in the making of these dummies. Though slimes don't heal themselves, their body is like a combination of melted rubber and jelly. Adding some automatic healing magic spells in the mixture does the trick and there you get these dummies that are impossible to destroy to an extent.
Also, I didn't know this because of loli_pop's novel. I had seen these dummies before and after that, I did a bit of research about them in the library; there I found this information in a book about healing magic.
Leaving that side, I wasn't getting the results I expected from this sword. The sharpness of the blade was not much good as your normal sword and the extra weight of the ice was making it slow; at least, for me who uses light swords.
I have seen the other students practice with real magiken technique, the sharpness and swiftness of their swords are two or three levels above the normal swords. I was still not able to get onto that level with this ice sword.
p I delivered some more blows to the dummy to test it out but the result was the same. In the end, I gave up on this one and melted the ice by breaking the spell; the sword in my hand went back to normal.
I was going to try a different element now; it will be fire. I was hesitating to use this because I think the fire can melt the blade and it'll cause problems for me.
But still, I want to have at least one way by which I can counter the magiken swords.
I concentrated and activated my elemental magic. Soon a flame covered the sword's blade, the flame was of yellow color and I tried my best to keep the temperature of the flame as low as possible to not melt the blade.
Then when the flame was stable, I slowly increased the temperature carefully and the flame's color turned from yellow to reddish-orange.
I clenched the handle of the sword tightly and swung it toward the human dummy; it was a straight up-to-down swing. The sword, starting from the throat, slashed the dummy all day down to its abdomen and opened its flesh.
"Tch! As expected," I muttered.
The cut was deep but it was just the same as one of the normal swords; there was no difference. I kinda already knew this since setting a sword on fire won't do any good; the fire will only work as a good way to show off.
Other than that, you won't have any advantage with a burning sword unless the temperature is too high. But then again, it is not possible because it'll melt the metal and that'll destroy everything.
"Sigh, I need to find some other way."