Chapter 67 – Grinding Daily
Five months had passed in the relentless monotony of the sea voyage, yet for William, each day was a battle. He had become a walking clock, a training machine with a singular purpose: to grow stronger. He rose with the first hint of dawn, the sea breeze still cold against his skin, his first stop being the deck.
With sword in hand, William began his warm-up. These weren’t gentle motions, but the initial forms of the 24 Plum Blossom Steps, which were finally revealing their true power. He had dedicated this year and a half to mastering this technique, and although with effort and perseverance he had reached the seventh step, he still felt far from fully mastering it. Each lunge and cut, executed with lethal grace, sought perfection in a dance of blade and body. The metallic clang resonated in the morning silence, a constant rhythm marking the start of his day. Then came mana training. He raised his hand, and a small fireball danced in his palm, bright and controlled. He launched it against an imaginary spot on the mast, feeling the flow of energy. Immediately after, the translucent blue glow of his mana shield emerged around him, a protective bubble testing his reaction speed and his defensive mastery. He repeated the sequence again and again until sweat drenched his tunic and his muscles trembled from the effort.
"Faster, William! The enemy won’t give you a break!" Angel’s voice, his mind’s companion, urged him. "Your reaction time has improved by sixteen percent. Your control over fire mana by four percent, but it’s not enough. If you want to defeat Roderick and not be humiliated again, you must move!"
"I know, Angel," William replied mentally, his breath ragged.
Afterward, he headed to the stern of the ship for sparring with the sailors. Brannik and Renno had become his regular partners, and while at first the fights were more a mockery of his injuries, they had now become intense sessions where William honed his swordplay and magic in real combat.
"You almost hit me with that fireball, kid, haha, but you’re still too slow!" Brannik shouted, narrowly dodging a fiery projectile William launched while blocking Renno’s sword strike with his own blade.
"Don’t get cocky, old man," William retorted with a tense smile, activating a mana shield around his arm to cushion an impact. "I’m getting faster every day."
"We see, we see," Renno snorted, launching a combined attack with Brannik. "It’s as if your injuries never existed. What kind of sorcery did you use to heal so fast?"
William shrugged, blocking another blow. "Let’s just say I have a good healer. Besides, a true mage recovers from anything." Of course, he wouldn’t tell them about Angel or the strange energy that had accelerated his recovery, which he’d noticed thanks to the recordings. The scars from his initial wounds were barely a memory, almost completely faded.