CH 82

Moving and Swinging

The bonfire light shone in the night forest.

The passengers of the carriage were conversing after dinner.

Swoosh.

The sounds of something cutting through the night air.

After departing from Gasebabar, we camped on our way to the first town of Mesebabaro.

If I continued to send magic energy into my sword, it would become harder to maintain.

But if I did not send enough into it, the sword would be too heavy for me.

After testing it several times, my prosthetic leg became unstable. It was not able to bear the weight when I swung the sword with both hands, when there was not enough magic energy in it.

“Woah!?”

My swing had become sloppy, and I lost my balance and fell to the ground.

I had left Gasebabar right after acquiring the Mine Breaker. I had to move, or I would never be able to use Reverse Age again.

Of course, I probably shouldn’t have stopped at the dwarf country then, but it was in the past.

“Are you alright?”

One of the guards asked, and so I raised a hand to show that I was fine.

It had become hard to continue sending magic energy into it, and so there was not enough. After all, every time the amount changed, the sword felt different in my hands. While the sword arts skill did help, it could not cover for it entirely.

When you use magic, your magic energy rises in that moment. And up until now, I had had to use a fixed amount for an extended amount of time.

“Hah.”

I couldn’t help but sigh at the difficulty of swinging a heavy two-handed sword, while having to adjust the amount of magic energy.

This will be quite a struggle, I thought while looking down at the blade.

Even after arriving in Mesebabaro, and staying at an inn, I continued to swing.

“Hah…”

My muscles were starting to get sore from the continued training. ‘You must not use healing magic on sore muscles.’ That was Father Zenrima’s teaching. While it was effective, it apparently did not help with muscle growth.

Of course, magic energy training was my goal now, so if I couldn’t swing anymore, then I would use it. However, as magic energy did not recover with healing spells, it was not like I could continue swinging forever.

Besides, it was not a bad thing if I could train my body at the same time, so I would avoid using it as much as possible.

And while slowly increasing the amount of magic energy, I continued to swing my sword behind the inn.

We then departed from Mesebabaro, crossed the border, and reentered Megidos.

On the road, I mostly just slept in the carriage. This was so I could recover as much strength and magic energy as possible.

My status said that I was ‘27.’ At this point, I didn’t want a dramatic change in age. However, I did want to go back just a little more. Besides, I wanted to see if it would affect my leg.

The passenger carriage stopped, and I woke up and looked around. A familiar cave and camp site came into view.

By tomorrow, we would arrive in the city of Meseroro, where the road split into three. I adjusted Mine Breaker, which hung on my shoulder, and descended from the carriage.

I would take a break from swinging today. I did not want to overwork. It was on days like these that I would have liked to work on my light magic skills, but if I cast Heal on myself, then it would also heal my sore muscles.

And so I took my knife and approached the passengers.

“I’m trying to raise my skill level. Would you mind getting injured?”

“I refuse!”

I see… That’s too bad.

Well, perhaps it is fine to have days where I do nothing, once in a while. I thought as I gazed into the fire.

When I looked up, there was a pale blue moon in the sky, and constellations I didn’t know. Then I looked back down into the bonfire.

(Fire is the same in any world.)

The thought entered my mind, as the night passed.

I rested at a Meseroro inn as well, and my body felt light again. From here, I would take a carriage to the west, towards the border town of Meizanne, in the Rabahusk direction.

It would take three nights and four days to reach it, but thankfully, there was a farming village just one day away. And others after that, so we would not have to camp outside for three whole nights.

After leaving the city, the vast gray wildlands stretched out like Megidos for the first day, but then the amount of green gradually increased. And by evening, it was practically a prairie.

We somehow managed to arrive in the farmlands before nightfall, and I got a room at the village inn.

Swoosh.

I created a light in the dark space behind the inn, and began to swing. That’s when I noticed that the control of my magic energy was more stable than before. Yes, it really was important to rest. I could feel it now.

Perhaps I can do it then. I thought, as I added more movement to my swing, transitioning to my form training.

“Gah!”

I was stable for a while, but once I became tired, the magic energy was disturbed, the weight of the sword shifted, and I fell over. Unlike swings, the movements were bigger, so if the magic energy is disturbed, then my whole body loses its balance.

While I still had a long way to go, I could see progress. And lay there on the ground and clenched my fist.

There was a large river running through Meizanne, which acted as a border line.

And the roads and farming villages were built along the river. There was a lot of green in the surrounding area now, and the occasional rocky mountains made a strong impression.

Cultured farmlands, proclaiming that they were human territory. You could see far off into the distance, which meant there were fewer instances of monster attacks.

Even if they did attack, they were usually goblins of strange color, and dagger wolves, which had elongated tusks that came out horizontally from their face. Such monsters were nothing but target practice for the Adventurers with their bows.

Apparently, the majority of Adventurers here were equipped with them. It was very impressive, seeing them shoot down monsters while on horseback.

Watching them made me want to buy a bow as well, even if I was no good with them. However, I had no time to train with one now. My priority had to be to use my sword first.

Our carriage journey towards Meizanne was now on its fourth day, and the distances between villages was becoming shorter.

That was proof that we were close to the city.

“You can see it now.”

The driver said. And when I looked outside, in spite of there still being some distance, I was able to see the brown walls.

So that was Meizanne. It was quite a large city.

“Ohhh. It’s you.”

I was used to getting such reactions from guards when showing my Adventurers plate now. I then went through the gates and entered Meizanne. Within the walls, the buildings were made of a combination of wood and stone block. And while simple, there was a standardized look to the city.

As there were a lot of rock mountains, there was probably a quarry somewhere.

Because of this, the guild building gave off a proper and strict impression as I walked in.

It was almost evening now, and there were many Adventurers resting. I waited in the line in front of the reception desk, made my report, and picked up a guide of the city.

For three weeks after leaving Gasebabar, I had done little but practice moving and swinging. However, I wanted to see if I could fight now, so I thought that I’d stay here for some time.

“Hyah!”

From the next day on, I spent my time in the guild training grounds.

“Yah!”

Compared to when I first started to use Mine Breaker, the fluctuations of magic energy were smoother. There were no sudden rises and dips. Though, it still shifted.

On top of that, due to consistently swinging, I had gotten used to handling a two-handed sword.

So there was much less of a burden on my body.

“Ha!”

The amount of time I could maintain the magic energy was extended, and the strain on my body decreased. This meant I could swing the sword for longer. And that accelerated the speed at which I improved with adjusting my magic energy.

By the time I had spent a full week in Meizanne, I was able to train while doing my form practice for long stretches.

Yes, I should be fine in actual combat now.

I entered the main guild building from the training grounds, and checked the quest board before ripping off one that interested me.

And I took that to the counter.

“I would like to accept this one.”

I said as I handed it over.

It was an E-Rank quest to hunt some murder bulls.

I was not going to do anything reckless just yet.