Rohan’s lectures moved from practice swings to real time combat against respawning monsters. Vivi was instructed to fight only with the techniques and methods taught. Her footwork had to be perfect, and her swings had to be calculated. Each mishap in a fight earned her thirty more minutes of practicing her stances.

  Vivi felt hindered by having to follow techniques so thoroughly. She understood the strengths and benefits of foot placements, and she was starting to understand the physics behind swinging a sword, but defeating the monsters would have been easier if she was allowed to just swing hard and wildly. But she understood what she had to do. Her reckless and savage fighting had to be trained out of her.

  Vivi still utilized Rohan’s techniques to their aggressive limits, pushing monsters into corners before forcefully cutting them down. A defensive fighting style didn’t suit her in the slightest. She never knew when she was allowed to make a counter-attack, or when her opponents had windows of weakness she could punish. It was easier to just stay on the offense, forcing enemies to react to her.

  Her fighting style led to a few close calls. A ghost-blade read her attack and countered in an angle Vivi hadn’t anticipated. She had no way to block. Lucius had to use his old trick, appearing from her core to block the ghost-blade’s attack.

  Rohan had scolded her for that one, sending her straight back to her foundations for the rest of the day. By now, Vivi should have been skilled enough to never lose to ghost-blades even without ether. She did win most of the times, but she often blundered. Inconsistency was her weakness. She sometimes felt like a genius of battle, while other times, little goblins totally outsmarted her.

  Still, Vivi considered practice a success. She was learning. Slowly, but definitely steadily.

  Alisa’s lectures went even better. After some weeks of trying, Vivi finally managed to use a single wisp of ether to strengthen two body parts at once. Her chest, and her stomach…

  The results weren’t impressive, but it was progress nonetheless. Alisa said that it would still be too difficult for Vivi to utilize her learnings in real time combat; she’d need at least a month or two of practice more before channeling would improve her fighting, but Vivi was starting to understand the basics.

  Thus, after six more days of practice, Rohan and Alisa combined their lectures. Vivi was now allowed to channel a single wisp of ether while she fought with monsters.

  This made fighting exponentially more difficult. Vivi had to focus on many intensive concepts all at once, while having mastered none of them. One wisp and one monster. Most times, that wisp was exhausted after just a couple of swings, slipping like a jumping fish from the river Vivi tried to shape.

  Throughout the fights, Vivi was allowed to collect the ether of each monster they killed. Some went to Lucius, but his ether reserves kept slipping from his core. He claimed that he was still far from his maximum, and that his scarlet powers would require a lot more ether to activate. But despite his claims, and despite his attempts to keep more ether inside, he couldn't stabilize his reserves over 4500 ether.

  Each time he lost ether, he was visibly upset. He asked Vivi for more ether to try again, as if rising his limits was merely a question of practice. Vivi wasn't sure if she believed him, but she wasn't fond of losing so much ether to nothing.

  After some discussion, Lucius agreed to let Vivi start working on her debt. While Vivi’s skills improved, her debts began moving down alongside. She was now only 14359 ether in debt.

  Practice was frustrating, but it was also satisfying. Channeling ether was especially pleasing for the body and mind. Vivi often continued practice even when she wasn’t supposed to. Feeling a wisp of ether flow within the body was cathartic, like a bath after days of hard work in a smithy.

  As for that work in the smithy, Vivi was forbidden from spending days on end immersed in work for the time being. Aang gave her a maximum of ten hours in the smithy every other day. Vivi spent her time carefully. In her ten days, she crafted four weapons in total.

  The first three were daggers. Vivi shaped tiny veins and asked for the smallest crucible Aang could find. Crafting inside-carved daggers was almost more difficult compared to swords, since the area that Vivi had to work with was smaller with daggers, requiring more intricate movements.

  She showcased the finished dagger to Alisa, who surprisingly, declined it on the spot.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “It’s a good dagger,” Alisa said, “but it’s not for me. The shape will throw me off. I’ve practiced my throws with these exact daggers for over three years now. If you want to replace my daggers, they better be of the same shape and weight.”

  Vivi was surprised to have her work declined, considering that the demons had eagerly eaten up anything she did so far. However, she didn’t get mad at Alisa. A proficient runesmith listened to their customers' requests, so long as their customers were reasonable. Alisa had a totally understandable reason for wanting something different.

  For the next attempt, Alisa lent her daggers for Vivi to use as a reference. The daggers were slightly curved, and one of them had a hook by the tip. They were both made out of dark mithril, making the blades relatively light. Each hilt was a specific size, made to fit Alisa’s hands.

  With the references, Vivi got to work crafting inside-carved replicas. She chose lightweight ether roots to make sure the weight was similar, and she tried her best to make the shape right during the blacksmithing process. She took two days to finish the daggers.

  Alisa looked far more satisfied with the new daggers and said she’d put them to the test.

  For Vivi’s next sword, she created another crush weapon, this time a two-runed greatsword with crush and sharpness runes, made out of simple green mithril. She didn’t have time to work with more intricate metals. The blade was intended to counter faster skeleton monsters, as she already had a crush and strength greatsword to counter larger boss monsters and slower skeletons.

  Her fifth sword… Vivi started work on another three-runed sword.

  The project quickly became a failure. On the second set of veins, the stalk she was shaping made slight contact with the main branch, which caused the stalk to swerve off path. The mistake was unrecoverable. Vivi had no reason to move to the third set of veins, as the second had already ruined the sword.

  Lucius looked confused as Vivi threw the veins aside. He’d been excited to see a three-runed sword come together. But in reality, shaping a three-runed sword required far more than just the decision to make one. Vivi would require days upon days of attempts and practice in between to get herself to the level of accuracy required to shape three sets of veins together. She wouldn’t get a three-runed sword done on a whim. The failure was upsetting, but Vivi got over it the next day.

  The same schedule took all of Vivi’s days with a quick collection day in between, passing normally and without issues. Practice continued, and the Hollows readied themselves to defeat the boss that killed one of their friends.

  ***

  After ten days passed, the Hollows gathered on the upper levels of the gnoll mineshaft. Most members were present, having gathered underneath the cloak of the Elder Gnoll’s hostile ether.

  The members stood in a circle. Vivi was next to Alisa and Rohan, facing Aang and Ven. Eem, Lydi, and Feni were present as well. Eem sat curiously on Feni’s shoulders.

  “It’s time, then,” Aang said. “Has everyone grown used to their new weapons?”

  Rohan took a proud stance with his one-runed sword. He’d repaired his set of armor with the Union’s blacksmiths, speaking with his visor up. “I have placed Practice into combat, taking swings and fighting various monsters. Through extensive tests and results, and though it pains me to admit the faults of Black Rose, I have concluded that this sword is amazing, and far surpassing Rensfig’s work.”

  Alisa sighed. “Give this idiot a sword and plate, and you’ve got yourself five hours worth of knightly rambles and dramatic speeches.”

  “Everything I said is true,” Rohan said. “Vivi’s swords are the pinnacle of knighthood.”

  “Sure, Rohan,” Alisa said. “I do agree, however. These daggers are a huge improvement. It took a while to get used to their power, but I am now confident in wielding them to their full potential.”

  “What did you name them this time?” Ven asked with a funny smile.

  “Pink Bunny,” Alisa said as she lifted the strength dagger. Then she showed the crush dagger. “And Jam Muffin.”

  Ven shook his head, but laughed. He had his hand on Solace, the two-runed adamantite katana, currently sheathed. Rensfig had crafted a scabbard for each one of Vivi’s weapons, as the others couldn’t access spatial storage. Aang let Ven wield Solace, as Ven had dueled as a serious hobby back in his younger days. He always used a katana.

  Aang wielded the crush and sharpness green mithril greatsword. He’d asked Vivi to name the sword, to which she called it Skeleton Cutter, since the sword was created to counter skeletons. It would also work against gnolls, though a crush rune could spray wisps of ether everywhere when cutting open lesser monsters.

  Vivi’s old crystal mithril sword was offered to Feni. Neither alchemist knew how to swing a sword, but Feni said she would feel safer if she at least had a sword to defend herself from stray gnolls. So the sword went to her.

  Vivi herself held the crush and strength dark mithril sword in spatial storage. She had yet to show the sword to the others, but she’d tested the sword on lesser monsters, deeming it more than operational. Lucius was already wagging his tail within her, eagerly awaiting a rematch against one of the gnolls.

  “Looks like everyone is ready, then,” Aang said. He frowned at the tunnel below. “And so are our enemies.”

  A threatening aura of a charging gnoll could be felt from below. The same murderous intent that nearly killed Vivi on their first trip had Alisa not saved her.

  This time, Vivi stepped forth. “Let me handle this.”

  She called forth her dark mithril runesword and faced the ravenous, disgusting hyena-faced creature. Ether flowed within her body, wisps rising from her eyes. She waited for the right timing as the gnoll charged.

  The gnoll jumped with its claws aimed at her face.

  Vivi went into stance, and her ten days of practice slashed into the gnoll’s skull.

  Patreon!