The Protagonist Already Knows

A hole appeared in his wooden sword right on my mark.

Simultaneously, dozens more marked spots appeared on his blade.

As a small, unnoticeable piece of his wooden blade fell to the ground, I stepped backward, narrowly avoiding a counter-punch.

Expecting my retreat, though, Grey jabbed his blade right at my left shoulder.

While his blade entered one of my blind spots, vanishing from sight, I took a deep breath, feeling a small golden silk slowly stretch out from the golden orb rotating in my stomach.

All I thought of was one of the new marked spots on his blade.

Then, recalling the exact length and width of his blade, I placed a replica of it above my left shoulder, filling up the blind spot.

As the golden silk extended into my palm and into the hilt of my blade, all I thought about was the exact spot on the blade I wanted to hit.

Then, with pinpoint accuracy, my sword surged upward, diagonally across my chest and up to my left shoulder.

*CRACK*

In the next second, as I felt my sword halt abruptly before continuing to fly upward, my vision suddenly returned to normal, the pitch-black gaps in my vision being filled by color.

And there...right above my left shoulder was a wooden blade...cut completely and cleanly in half like a chopped tree trunk.

The other half of the sword dropped to the ground in between us.

Holding the now-broken and blunt sword, Grey blankly gazed at me before sighing and falling to the ground.

"Ah...you were tricking me. That was...never your blind spot, was it? You just wanted me to believe it was..."

"..."

I shouldn’t...correct him, right?

Avoiding his gaze, I awkwardly said while retracting my intent, feeling the golden silk vanish.

"Yeah, something like that."

Gazing at Grey’s defeated figure, I couldn’t help but pause for a moment.

The only reason I had been able to keep up with him was that I had forced my eyes to completely ignore his body and focus on his blade.

But...what would happen when he advanced to the stage I was currently at, and the blade became part of his body?

Would looking at not only his body...but his blade cause me to lose sight?

How exactly...would I fight him without going blind, then?

Pushing that thought aside for a moment, I glanced around, seeing our other six classmates also engaged in spars.

The area around them was blank, so it seemed like I could only see their manifested images if I was fighting them.

Though...after scanning the figures around me for a moment, I could easily tell only one other person had reached the same stage as me.

Haerin.

Her broadsword’s movements were so overwhelmingly explosive, starting off slow before, in an instant, speeding up to the point where my eyes couldn’t even catch it, while maintaining pin-point accuracy.

At that moment, snapping me back to reality, a sudden voice sounded from the hall entrance to the coliseum.

"Good, it seems like everyone here has formed their weapon art."

Everyone suddenly halted, even those in the middle of a spar.

Entering the coliseum, Grandmaster Kim ignored everyone’s blank gazes and continued while standing in the shade.

"Upon completely creating your weapon art, all of you have manifested or created a motif that represents your style of fighting with your respective weapon."

"That means all of you have officially started the Path of Martial Arts and become ’A Loose Thread.’ "

Perhaps noticing everyone’s curious gazes, Grandmaster Kim smiled and continued.

"However, the next stage of Martial Arts, known as ’Threadbearer,’ does not require creating something but refining and improving an already existing concept."

"The relationship between you and your sword."

"First, you must learn how to place complete trust and faith in your sword, allowing it to wield and act on your intent."

"Then, you must perfect your technique in your respective weapon: for example, with the sword, making your slashes, jabs, feints, and thrusts their most perfect form."

"You must perform these moves over and over again until there is no longer any room for improvement. Even if your sword could be a millimeter more accurate or a millisecond faster, you must continue refining it."

"Sometimes, you may even have to start over from scratch. Do not hesitate to tear apart your previous techniques and start anew."

"It is during this stage that most Martial Artists reach a roadblock."

Beside me, Grey suddenly raised his hand and asked.

"About the first part of Threadbearer...how do you place your complete trust in your...sword?"

Scratching his chin, like some sort of elderly man, Grandmaster Kim thought for a moment before answering.

"Hm...if I could, I would tell all of you to fight a life-or-death battle with your weapon against some sort of opponent. Of course, if you did that and survived, you’d likely automatically reach this faithful connection with your weapon."

"..."

The coliseum went silent for a moment as Grandmaster Kim continued.

"But, alas, for now, I’d suggest all of you think about what power your sword actually gives you while continuing to train."

Turning his back and walking out, Grandmaster Kim said one last thing.

"Starting tomorrow, I’ll be supervising every class to ensure everyone’s weapon technique is up to par."

At those words, everyone’s expression lightened, as I heard a mutter from Grey.

"Why are we happy he’s finally doing his fucking job!?"

Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I helped Grey up and asked.

"Do you guys just leave whenever...?"

Nodding his head, Grey sighed and said as Grandmaster Kim’s figure vanished from sight.

"Yeah, wanna head to the dining hall?"

...

...

...

Finding an empty table, I sat across from Grey in the busy dining hall, relatively packed with students.

Since, according to my status menu, I couldn’t yet break through to E- rank, my only way forward for now was to continue training with my sword.

Then, this Saturday, I would head to the Dungeon I had bought successfully on the marketplace.