Chapter 57 — Warrior’s Spirit

  Toren found Warnel practicing his sword swings a ways into the orchard, sweat forming rivulets on his brow and pale arms. The [Haberdasher]’s shirt and armor were draped over a low branch nearby.

  “Looks like you’re ready to learn an art,” he greeted the wiry man whose torso had probably seen more of Horevi’s light in the brief moments since sunrise than in all of his past lifetime.

  Startled, Warnel spun and slashed with the sword. “Who-?”

  Toren dodged and slapped the flat of his practice sword on the man’s shoulder. “Maybe we should work on perception Skills instead?”

  “Ah-! Toren! You surprised me.”

  “Morning. We starting with a spar?”

  Warnel grimaced at the very-sharp and very-naked blade he had just swung without looking, but didn’t apologize.

  Idiot could have cut Emina or one of the girls down if he wasn’t more careful. Then again, maybe he swung because it was a man’s voice when he’s used to living with only women?

  “Get something out of your [Sword] Skill?” Toren asked.

  Sheathing the real sword and going back over the tree to swap for the wood one, Warnel nodded and gazed off down between the rows of fruit trees. “Yeah. Just basics to practice. Swings, stances, simple forms.”

  “Good.” Toren nodded, mostly to himself at how that mirrored his own experience as an apprentice training for the [Hunter] Profession. “Having basic understanding of forms will help. Arts take the forms and merge them with a cohesive martial concept. Go ahead and show me your basic sword form.”

  Warnel took a stance and started slashing through an efficient set of basic moves that connected the swings in ways that trained the muscles beneficial for strength, flexibility, and accuracy.

  While observing,Toren used [Mana Sensing], intending to look for inefficiencies in the [Haberdasher]’s mana flow and buy time to work through the sword stances and forms that [Berserker Weapon Arts] provided, but an issue jumped out at him right away.

  “You ate two bowls, didn’t you?” Toren asked wryly when Warnel successfully completed the first set.

  The look Warnel gave him was enough of an answer.

  “Ah, don’t worry. If you’re still in a bad way after learning this sword art, we can put that mana to work processing the tree I felled yesterday. It’ll be good for refining our strikes against a mana-reinforced target, and we can make more training tools out of it, weights and stuff. The rest we can use to make this place more defensible. A gate and stacked logs to funnel attacking beasts would be a good start. Could cut a few more trees down and put up a palisade for if the barrier fails. Should be good physical conditioning for all of us.”

  “So, what’s the art?” Warnel pushed, impatient, the mana growing denser the longer he stayed unmoving.

  “Beserker Weapon Arts.”

  Warnel groaned. “Of course it is.”

  “At least the first stance will be easier for you to complete with how much mana is already overflowing within you,” Toren chuckled.

  The middle-aged [Haberdasher] waited for the rest of the explanation with resigned eyes like he was standing before a [Priest] sure to hand down an unfortunate divination.

  Not wanting to disappoint, Toren took up a stance. Slightly bent knees, arm and chest muscles flexed, fists clenched. “The first stance: Warrior Spirit. Clench your muscles, especially your gut. Agitate your mana throughout your body and fill it with your intent. Anger, aggression, desire to kill, determination are good starting points.”

  Toren took a deep breath. Roiling the mana around his body with all his bitter rage at the sorry fate Yana, Avril, and Owen had been given by the gods of this world and how his own future still hung under threat, he forced the imbued mana outward with the shout.

  “Haaaah!”

  His mana filled the area around him, crashing into Warnel and the nearby trees, fluttering hair and leaves as it passed. Interestingly, the helm muffling his voice didn’t seem to interfere with the art’s effect.

  For his first time attempting the stance, Toren was rather pleased with the result and not above rubbing it in, smugly adding, “The goal would be to refine your intent into something more esoteric, embodying your interpretation of the art itself, that you would imbue into your movements and attacks. Maybe something like ‘harmony with fate’ or ‘one with the cut’.”

  That last bit was total bullshit like from a bard-sung swordmaster, and keeping a straight face was challenging with the disbelieving, ‘you’ve gotta be kidding me’ expression Warnel had fallen into.

  As if a great moment of solemnity had arrived, Toren motioned to the wiry man. “Your turn.”

  “...”

  Certain he was being made an idiot of, Warnel warily gathered his determination anyway and assumed the macho pose, barechested and all, and shouted.

  “Haaaah!”

  To Toren’s surprise, a faint pressure from the [Haberdasher] did stir the surroundings. He really hadn’t expected the man to achieve more than looking ridiculous on the first try. Even so, the range and effect were…

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Ah, an opportunity.

  Laiya was practicing sneaking, trying to step quietly and keeping tree trunks in their line of sight as she tried to spy on their training.

  “Er… not a bad first attempt. But you’ll need to put more spirit into it,” Toren suggested. “Think of the people who caused you and your family to be in this situation.”

  Maybe he should have expected at least this much with the [Mana Transfer] training the Hatterwicks had undergone to ensure they would be able to keep the claim stakes fully charged and not end up like Levish’s family.

  “Haaah!”

  A respectable pulse of pressure tinged with aggression spread outward from the man this time—even if the shirtless [Haberdasher] still looked like an unmuscled goof raging at fruit trees.

  “Wow… Dad, I had no idea…”

  Eyes darting to Laiya, who had arrived with two training spears in hand, Warnel shot him a betrayed glare.

  Don’t want to get snuck up on and embarrass yourself in front of your daughter, get better at awareness! Toren wanted to rib but instead chose the path of mercy and moved on, “Practicing putting out an aura like that is important for the Art. The next step is maintaining the agitated mana and pushing the fierceness into your strikes. I’ll demonstrate. Laiya, if you could stand closer to the tree.”

  “Ah, sure.”

  Agitating and imbuing his mana as with the Warrior’s Spirit stance, Toren began to work through the [Berserker Weapon Arts]’ primary sword form, filling each step and strike with his full intent to kill his opponent—whether fate, jungle threats, or scum like [Debt Collector] Surlin.

  Several sequences into the form, with the Skill guiding his movements, a pressure similar to the shout from the Warrior’s Spirit stance began to build outward from him. Feeling more confident in both the Art and his repaired knee, Toren flowed more mana and focus into each sequence of moves.

  Each step a declaration. Each cut a strike.

  With each swing, Toren became more sure. Relying on [Burning Blood], he had definitely been using the art wrong before.

  After a second time through the form, Toren stopped.

  With a lot to think about, but not wanting to ruin the impression he had given, he looked to Warnel and sagely advised, “For now, just copying the motions while keeping in mind that there is a greater meaning to be grasped will be enough to get you started on the path.”

  As was her father, Laiya was staring at him with wide eyes.

  “Your turn, Laiya. Like your father did. Agitate your mana imbuing it with your desire to harm your target and use the shout to shove the imbued mana outside your body. Once you can do that, you can learn to harness the same imbued mana for your weapon strikes. With each attack you perform, the cumulative pressure and the power carried will grow.”

  He was confident Laiya could learn the base stance just as readily as her father had, so he left it to Warnel to coach her on Warrior Spirit and not show up the man in front of his daughter, tempting though it was…

  ~~~

  Name: Toren of Theravos

  Race: Human

  Age: 20

  Profession 1: Level 7 Burningblood Berserker (3200/14000)

  Mana: 90/112

  Strength: 16

  Constitution: 14

  Dexterity: 14

  Agility: 12

  Wisdom: 12

  Intellect: 8

  Will Power: 18

  Perception 15

  Appearance: 8

  Charisma: 8

  Luck: 10

  Attribute Upgrade Points: 6

  Traits:

  Sacrificial Guardian

  Abilities:

  Burning Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Mid

  Control Blood (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low

  Flurry of Blows (Rank 1) Proficiency: Low

  Ability Upgrade Points: 6

  Profession Skills:

  Severe Wound Recovery 6

  Focus Rage 4 → 5

  Combat Awareness 6

  Berserker Weapon Arts 1 → 2

  Pain Tolerance 6

  Physical Conditioning 6

  Intimidate 4 → 5

  Skills:

  Danger Sensing 3

  Stealth 18

  Mana Sensing 14

  Wilderness Harvesting 12

  Theravos Language 11

  Religion 10

  Meditation 5

  Bone Strengthening 3

  Divided Focus 5

  Hunting 20

  Archery 19

  Running 13

  Wound Binding 8

  Arithmetic 4