CH.101 First Sword Practice

CH.101 First Sword Practice

Alice came back to the entrance wearing simple pants and a long sleeved shirt. Good. She realized what kind of clothing she would need for sword practice. Actually, we have no practice swords. That might be a problem.

“You seem ready.” I said to Alice.

“Yes, let’s go.” She said as she took my hand and pulled me outside.

“But if we are going to practice sword skills, we need some practice swords. And I don’t have any.” I told Alice.

“Don’t worry. We can just play around with some sticks.” She said as we walked to the backyard.

Sticks? Hopefully that won’t end up with us getting something like a blunt weapon skill.

(It’s not about the weapon, it's how you use it.) Laura told me. (Using a stick like a bat and bludgeoning things will eventually net you the blunt weapon skill, but wielding one like a sword with stabs and slashes will still help to gain the sword technique skill. But I still recommend finding some wooden practice swords for next time.)

Yeah, add that to the list of things I need. Practice swords. I could use some cards to make us swords, but that just sounds like a great way to get one of us hurt badly. Well at least I could get us some teachers.

I activated my DiaDhank and pulled two cards from the collection.

“Performance of Sword. St. Joan.” I called out their names to summon them. We don’t have that much time and I honestly think a two hour session will be more than enough, so I just summoned them at the same time instead of one after another. And I’m sure I can find someone else to take their place if we can keep going after the two hours.

“Hey you two. We need some practice and I was hoping you would help us.” I told the two of them.

“Master. I knew you’d come around and join the way of the blade.” Performance of Sword greeted me.

“I shall imprint all of my knowledge about swords onto Master.” St. Joan said.

“Ooh. You have access to such good teachers Brian.” Alice said as she looked at our teachers.

“Yes I do. Lucky me.”

“Master, keep your arms closer to your body and keep your gravity centered better. You’ll fall over if you stand like that.” St. Joan was instructing me. I was actually wielding her sword for the practice as I wasn’t sparring or anything. I was just swinging a sword around.

“You need to keep your feet moving. Don’t stop. Stopping means you are an easy target.” Performance was showing Alice how to do a basic combat dance. Alice wasn’t holding any weapon at the moment, but was just focusing on footwork.

“Master, are you even trying? You are just swinging at random. Focus on every strike.” I heard my drill sergeant call as I took a second to look at Alice.

I did as instructed as I really rather not get on her bad side. I also don’t want to give up before Alice. Training like this will be a lot harder on her than me, as she has lower stats than I do.

We had been practicing for about half an hour when we took our first break. Alice was tired but also excited to keep going. We were currently snacking on some cookies I still had from our date, and some cool juice that Jenna brought us. At least the cookies haven’t gone bad yet.

“After the break we will switch. Master will go with Erza to practice footwork and Alice will be with me practicing sword technique.” St. Joan told us as we were downing our drinks.

Erza was the name Performance of Sword wanted to go by after I asked her about it. Her full card name isn’t really suitable for day-to-day use.

... no reaction. Why didn’t it work?

(Master, there is no water for the spirit to form from.) Laura told me.

... Excuse me what? So I need water to summon a water spirit. Well that sucks.

(You could use a water attribute monster as a host for the spirit.) Laura told me.

I see. Well, that doesn’t really help. I want that bath first.

But for that, I need a monster that can help with it.

(Laura, give me a recommendation.)

(How about Aqua Spirit? You will have to sacrifice one water monster to summon it, but it will gain a free sleeve when summoned that way.) Laura told me.

(Sure, that sounds fine.)

I took out two cards from the collection. Aqua Spirit and Penguin Knight. The penguin was going to be my tribute.

“I summon Aqua Spirit.” As I called that out, the Penguin Knight in my other hand disappeared and turned into small particles of light that gathered around Aqua Spirit and made a sleeve for it.

Spoiler

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Then, from the card that appeared on the floor, a cute lady with short blue hair and turquoise skin. She was on the shorter side, standing at just around 150cm. She was dressed in an aqua blue dress and had cute little mermaid style ears poking from her head.

“Oh Master, what can I do for you?” She asked.

“I need a bath. Can you make one for me?” I requested.

“Of course. May I wash you Master?” She asked.

... I guess that would be fine. She isn’t underage or anything, right? She is small, but she doesn’t seem like a child. And she speaks like an adult, so it’s fine.

“Yeah, I guess you could.”

“Thank you, Master. I’ll make you shine.” She said as she used water magic to fill up the bathtub.

“You don’t need to polish me. Just cleaning me up is more than enough.”

I enjoyed my bath, getting washed by a pretty lady. Or I would have if an intruder didn’t interrupt it.