Once again, Lucius found himself dusting off the old tomes his father had left him. However, unlike before, this time he was determined to learn from them.

  The books had been his father’s attempt at founding a sword school. Having grown up a commoner, Baron Ironside had developed his own sword technique based on his lived experiences.

  He had kept a journal of all he had learned throughout the years, but the notes were messy and to call them loosely organized would have been an understatement.

  So in an attempt to organize his discoveries, he had developed the 3 books that would define the tenants of the new Ironside sword style.

  The first book focused on mana techniques, offering insights into perception and channeling. The second book focused mainly on footwork and posturing, the backbone of any good sword style. And the final book in the series was devoted to the actual sword techniques which were built upon the foundations laid out in the first two entries.

  Lucius found the first book to be the least helpful. He had already developed an incredible level of mana perception for someone of his age, and his channeling technique was nothing to scoff at either.

  But out of principle, he decided to try the technique his father had inscribed in the book. Lucius flexed his muscles, using the tight sensation as a focal point for channeling his mana.

  With mana sight he could see the flow of mana clashing into his muscles, the red streaks were absorbed quickly while the other colors saw varying degrees of resistance.

  There was nothing wrong with the technique, yet Lucius couldn’t help but find it too simple. Regardless, Lucius would not let the feeling side track him. Perhaps the simplicity was the technique's strength, but it was a question for another day.

  With core lock the technique would gradually become more efficient, the muscles finding less and less streaks to resist.

  With the existence of his mana frequency modulation technique, Lucius no longer feared the effects of core lock, and even considered them beneficial for performing quick sword arts.

  Once the mana had been gathered, the book called for it to be released in a burst. The burst could be channeled into a sword, fist, or really anything.

  It appeared swordsmen relied on the forceful explosion of mana, to empower their techniques. Lucius recalled the rankings of swordsmen, and remembered the connection between core layers and one’s ability to obtain ranks.

  Since a mana core with more layers could release a higher volume of mana in a shorter span of time, it was no surprise that someone with more layers to their core could release a much more forceful burst of mana.

  It was not long before he had moved on to the second book. It emphasized the importance of balance and posturing in battle.

  Within only a few pages, Lucius had regarded the second tome as the most important in the series.

  The book was inscribed with a variety of stances. Some focused on a tighter guard and agile defense, others a forceful stride and subsequent strike.

  Depending on how the swordsman positioned themselves, their posture could be used to reinforce their techniques, and could even be used to bluff an opponent.

  Even with something as simple as footwork, Lucius could tell there was levels to this shit. He followed the diagrams his father had scribbled into the book, widening his stance and lightening his feet.

  He adopted numerous different postures as described in the text, observing each one's strengths and weaknesses. With the guidance of the book, he had come to the same conclusions as his father.

  Relieved to discover that his father’s style was built on more than just brawn, he continued to practice the stances for several days to come.

  Unlike some of the other sword schools he had read about, Lucius found his father’s school incredibly versatile. Whereas some schools would focus on developing highly advanced techniques for specific aspects of the sword, his father’s school focused on all aspects of a battle.

  Like a jack of all trades but a master of none, his father had tried blending all the schools into one. It was not a flashy sword school by anyone’s standards, but there was something so beautiful in its minimalist approach.

  Slowly Lucius had begun to recognize the strength of his father’s technique. Instead of developing a special move, his father had focused on perfecting the fundamental movements that any swordsman relied on.

  The genius of the school was that it had no need for a finishing move. Any such move that invested so much power into a single strike would inevitably leave an opening for the opponent. By wielding fundamentals and exploiting that gap, his father had become an almost unparalleled swordsman in the Kingdom.

  The style embodied the essence of a perfect swordsman, a sword master who did not need tricks to cover up his weaknesses. The only problem with the school was that it was almost impossible to learn.

  His father had been a nearly 40 year veteran of the sword, surviving countless battles with almost every creature imaginable. Only after overcoming his fear of death and engraving the techniques into his bones did he achieve the perfection he was looking for.

  In other words, Lucius could read all he wanted to, but there were some skills that couldn’t be mastered from a book. Only through countless battles could he perfect the techniques to their optimal state.

  The final book in the series explained how to wield the sword. Having practiced the stances and forms from the second book though, Lucius found the sword to act more like an extension of his body.

  But that was not to say the third book had nothing new to teach him. From the angle of the sword, to the length he projected, there were countless techniques to deflect an opponent’s blade and reinforce his own.

  For example, by parrying the tip and utilizing the length of his opponent’s blade as leverage, deflecting the blade would be much easier than striking near the middle.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  There were also explanations for how to chain attacks and manage the momentum of his blade. With a wooden sword, Lucius practiced the techniques in the courtyard, observing how they affected the weight of the blade.

  And by the end of the month, he felt ready to challenge his father again. He by no means considered himself a master yet, but many pages were difficult to practice without an opponent.

  Yet even still, he knew his father would be able to recognize his efforts through posture alone. When his father had next returned home, he challenged him to a duel.

  The two made their way back to the courtyard while his father re-iterated the rules, “Remember, land a hit on me or force me to use my other hand, you win.”

  “Begin” Baron Ironside signaled the start of the duel with a word. Yet this time Lucius approached more cautiously. Once again his father made no attempt at the first move.

  Lucius changed his stance, adopting an agile posture with a one handed grip. With one foot in front of the other he inched close to his father like a fencer, looking for gaps in his defense.

  “Adopting a light posture for a quick if not shallow strike? Good choice for a first strike duel, but that is no rapier, boy.” With a stride he closed the remaining distance aiming for the tip of Lucius’s sword.

  Noticing his attempt at disarmament however, Lucius quickly pulled his sword in and shifted his posture to a defensive position. With a high guard and wide stance, he adopted a two handed grip and deflected the incoming strike.

  “Goading me into an attack and switching to a counter stance, good move.” Lucius noticed a smile crack on his father’s face and wondered if it might have been the first time he ever saw the man smile.

  Baron Ironside continued his strikes, chaining the momentum of the previous to inflict heavier and heavier attacks. “Blocking is not the only way to stop an attack. Avoiding often requires less stamina.”

  Lucius lightened his stance, offering a greater share of agility in an effort to dodge. His father chained the strikes into a vertical slash with enough force that Lucius knew he couldn’t block it.

  With a quick burst of mana to his feet, he managed to escape to the right of the blow and perform a counter strike as his father’s sword hit the cobblestone.

  The strike was just short as his father retreated in the nick of time. “Remember, never fully commit to any one attack. It is not the strongest animals that survive, but the most adaptive.”

  Despite his improvements, Lucius knew his moves were still sloppy. If his father had not held back, he would have already been on the floor. If the Baron intended to use the match as a lesson, then he would certainly allow Lucius to win at some point.

  But as the duel went on, Baron Ironside only grew faster and his strikes heavier. Lucius increasingly struggled to dodge and deflect his blows, landing him numerous small injuries in the process.

  With a final strike, so fast that Lucius couldn’t even see the tip of his blade, his father disarmed him and declared the match over.

  But before Lucius could fret his father spoke, “You win.” With a smile on his face and two hands on his sword, he congratulated Lucius.

  Lucius collapsed on the floor in a ragged mess, exhausted from the duel that had seemed to last an hour. His father hadn’t broken a sweat in the 3 minutes it had taken him to school his son, but it would have been concerning if he had.

  “Well done, I’m glad to see you have decided to take the sword seriously. From now on you will have sword lessons every day. When I can not be here, I’ll assign you an instructor in my stead.”

  He offered a hand to Lucius to help him off the ground and Lucius gladly took it. “You are the future of this house son, and I will give you all I have one day— I only ask that you protect this land.”

  Lucius nodded his head in a solemn vow, and his father dismissed him for the day. Lucius spent the rest of the day accumulating mana while meditating on the duel.

  His movements had been clumsy and the weight of his sword slowed them greatly, but in spite of his failures, his father had heaped praise upon him. Lucius couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, undeserving of the praise. But it was only his second time holding a sword, so perhaps he was being too harsh on himself.

  Three years passed as Lucius continued studying the sword. With no new spells to study, he found himself increasingly falling into his swordsmanship training. But he had still not given up on his spellblade training. With no spell-books for spellblades, he had resorted to crafting his own spells.

  With his limited knowledge on the subject however, he found little success and most of the spells amounted to nothing more than parlor tricks. The only one he considered potentially useful was ‘flame sheath’. He had dubbed the spell as such because it was just that, a way to encompass his sword in flames.

  While it looked impressive at first, the spell didn’t offer any fancy abilities like throwing fire balls. It literally just coated the blade in fire. But even so, it was progress.

  A flaming blade certainly had its use. And more importantly, the spell would not interfere with his ability to cast other sword arts outside of the mana it consumed.

  As he turned 13 however, he had reached a crossroads. He had nothing left to learn from the Ironside library, and his instructors had nothing left to teach him. The difference between Lucius and his instructors remained solely in their battle experience and mana core layers.

  It was evident that Lucius would have to leave the nest if he ever wanted to learn to fly. Luckily his father had come to the same conclusion. With the approval of his father and despite Elena’s protests, Lucius had been allowed to obtain an adventuring license.

  Adventuring Licenses were issued by the Adventurer’s Guild, a multi-national organization that managed dungeons all over the Alarean continent. What were officially called dungeons, were really just spawning grounds for monsters.

  Abandoned mines, cities, you name it. When people left, monsters moved in. And so adventurers would brave these spawning grounds in search of ancient treasures. But unlike the tales they had read as a child, they were more likely to find an early grave.

  In fact, most of the treasures recovered by adventurers were actually just what remained of the parties before them. But even still, like a gambler to the casino, adventurers just couldn’t help chasing their greed.

  Not every dungeon in the Alarean continent was owned by the Adventurer’s guild, but most were. Many ancient sites were more trouble than they were worth and so most countries found handing over control to the Adventurer’s guild to be the best option.

  The guild would help manage the monster populations, and the host nation would receive a portion of the profits that the branch office would produce. It was a win-win situation for most nations and so over the years, more and more dungeons had become managed by the guild.

  Despite being an alluring occupation, most adventurers were not what you would call particularly rich. Around 90% of the wealth the guild generated was from only 10% of their members. Most adventurers struggled just to remain afloat while the most skilled ones would become the guild’s poster children and success stories.

  Lucius however was not interested in the wealth to be made. It was a nice benefit to be sure, but he was after something far more valuable: combat experience. Outside of a soldier or highwayman, adventuring was the only way to obtain combat experience.

  And the icing on the cake was that adventurers got to pick and choose their battles, a luxury not afforded to a soldier. So with the starting funds of 5 gold that his father had lent him, Lucius had found himself on his first shopping trip since reincarnation.

  Only it was the highest stakes shopping trip he had ever been on. Every piece of equipment could mean life or death in the dungeons. His first stop was a weapons smith. The Ironside family owned plenty of quality swords, but they were all made for an adult.

  At the age of 13, Lucius would need something a little shorter, to accommodate his smaller size. So he stepped into the weapons smith’s shop and removed the hood of his cloak.