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I followed Headmaster Hugo down the long hallway.
A room at the very end of the hallway.
As I opened the wooden door and entered, a space with several magic circles drawn on the floor appeared.
"The magic circles in this room are designed to react only to my mana."
"Yes."
Well, it's a common magic circle.
Making it react only to the mana of a specific person isn't a big deal.
'Huh?'
But wait a minute.
"Excuse me?"
Hugo Moulton stepped onto one of the magic circles.
"Come here."
Davion asked again.
"Mana, you say?"
"That's right."
The greatest swordsman on the continent.
The only 9-star swordsman in the Kingdom of Alkancia, Hugo Moulton.
But he has mana?
Not internal energy?
"Haha. Why, are you surprised that I have mana?"
"Well... usually swordsmen don't cultivate mana. I heard it affects the internal energy gathered in the dantian."
"Don't you cultivate mana, internal energy, and external energy all at once?"
Well, that's true.
"As I mentioned, I have a rather unique constitution."
"Step onto the magic circle first. I'll tell you the rest at the personal training ground."
Davion went to stand next to Hugo Moulton.
Mana burst forth from Hugo's hand.
Whoosh.
The surroundings brightened, and the two moved to a wide open space.
"This used to be the site of an abandoned building on the north side of the academy. I use it as my personal training ground."
Here and there in the rather wide open space, the remains of cut-off buildings and piles of stones were scattered randomly.
All of them had traces of being sliced as easily as tofu with a sword.
"It wasn't an open space from the beginning. It gradually became an open space as I used it as my personal training ground."
"Amazing."
There were traces of several noble's castles being sliced through with a sword.
"You were curious as to why I have mana, right? It's nothing much. I just cultivated it a little out of curiosity in my later years. It's insignificant compared to the magic professors."
"Curiosity?"
"That's right. It's been over ten years since I was called the greatest swordsman on the continent. What else is left for an old man who can't climb any higher but curiosity? Sometimes I envy Head of the Magic Department, Sirims, who still has rivals."
There is only one 9-star swordsman in the Kingdom of Alkancia.
It is Headmaster Hugo Moulton, who is standing in front of Davion right now.
On the other hand, there are two 9-star mages.
One is Sirims Andrian, the head of the magic department, and the other is the chief court mage.
Davion had also heard that those two were long-time rivals.
"Can you use Aura?"
"I haven't learned it yet."
"But your internal energy is close to 5-star?"
Accurate.
"It hasn't been a few months since I picked up a sword. I heard that Aura manifestation is included from the second semester."
"Haha, really. It hasn't been a few months since you picked up a sword and you're about to have 5-star internal energy... You're quite unique."
"Anyway, take a good look as a preview. Today, I will show you everything from manifesting Aura on the sword to the ultimate of swordsmanship, the Mana Sword. If you can feel something from today's teachings, your swordsmanship will grow exponentially."
Davion suddenly had a question.
A unique constitution is a unique constitution, but after all, he is still just a first-year student who cannot even manifest Aura.
The interest of the head of the magic department, Sirims, was rather understandable.
His magical abilities are so outstanding that he can't help but attract attention.
But that's not the case with swordsmanship.
He couldn't understand why the head of the academy would specifically call him out like this to teach him the ultimate of swordsmanship.
"But why would you go to such lengths for me...?"
Headmaster Hugo gave a kind smile.
"I'll tell you after the demonstration. It's also related to the fact that I cultivated mana."
Hugo Moulton's one-on-one demonstration lesson began.
Woong.
As Headmaster Hugo injected internal energy into the sword he was holding, a resonance was heard, and a blue light enveloped the sword.
"This is basic Aura. It is created by injecting internal energy into the sword."
Davion concentrated and watched Hugo Moulton's demonstration.
It was a one-on-one lesson that all the swordsmen on the continent would envy, and he couldn't waste this time.
"Here, you can now add the attributes of the four elements. You are majoring in magic, so you know the four elements well."
Whoosh.
The Aura that had formed on Hugo's sword turned into flames and blazed.
Before he knew it, the flames disappeared, and water droplets formed on the sword.
Splash!
Hugo Moulton lightly swung his sword, and a wave gushed out as if he had cast a water element spell.
Next, the sword froze solid.
"Once you manifest Aura, this process will be a piece of cake for you. You have a much better advantage than other swordsmanship students who have been swinging swords all their lives. Because you can already handle the four element spells. Giving attributes to Aura is not much different from giving attributes to mana."
Woong woong.
This time, wind swirled on Headmaster Hugo Moulton's sword.
"The wind element Aura is the method that can attack the furthest, depending on the internal energy and proficiency of the caster."
Headmaster Hugo quickly swung his sword.
Swish.
Thud.
The wind element Aura was embedded in the pile of stones in the distance.
Pat, pat.
Next, Aura turned into stone and stuck to the sword.
"Actually, this isn't used much. There's no idiot who would bother making a sharp sword out of steel and then turning it into a stone club."
Only after showing how to give all four element attributes did Headmaster Hugo withdraw the Aura from his sword.
"How is it?"
The natural change of Aura attributes that Hugo showed.
It was amazing.
But...
"Hahaha. You can't answer right away, so you're an honest fellow after all."
"Well..."
"I like you more and more. I'll answer for you what you couldn't answer. You're wondering what's the point of imbuing the sword with the ancient four elements, right?"
Headmaster Hugo accurately pointed out Davion's inner thoughts.
'Anyway, he's an old man who can see through people's minds.'
Imbuing the sword with the four elements like that looks amazing.
But in fact, it seemed completely meaningless to Davion.
Wouldn't it be enough to manifest the four element spells in the first place?
Swordsmen can't do that, so they imbue the sword with the four elements.
Besides, magic has a much wider range of uses than Aura.
With magic, you can create more diverse shapes of flames, spread the flames more widely, and shoot the flames further.
The same goes for the remaining element spells.
"It looks amazing that you can do this with a sword and internal energy. But I have much more mana than internal energy, so it seems more efficient to use four element spells than to use these Aura attributes."
Hugo Moulton nodded.
"That's right. Creating flames with a sword and sending out wind. This is the realm that swordsmen want to reach, but it's not for mages. What I'm going to teach you today is the next level."
Mana Sword.
Davion had read about it in swordsmanship textbooks.
It said that by injecting mana into the sword to create vibrations, and matching the vibration range with the mana waves around it, resonance would occur.
"Watch carefully."
Woong.
Hugo Moulton's sword began to vibrate finely again.
After a while.
Clang!
Surprised, Davion stepped back.
The sword that Hugo Moulton was holding shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions.
Davion quickly created an ice barrier.
The broken sword pieces were deeply embedded in the ice barrier.
On the other hand, the sword pieces that flew towards Hugo's body fell to the ground powerlessly, as if they had hit some kind of steel wall.
"Inject internal energy to create vibrations in the sword. It's the stage right before manifesting Aura. But if you match this vibration with the waves of mana surrounding the sword, resonance will occur, just like now."
"As soon as the resonance occurs, the sword breaks completely."
"That's right. It's difficult up to this point, but even if most swordsmen somehow manage to create resonance, they can't move on to the next stage."
Hugo Moulton picked up a new sword from a stand next to him.
"Right before causing resonance, if you push enough internal energy into the sword to protect the sword with Aura, the sword will not break even if it resonates with mana. Instead..."
Woong.
The same situation as before.
Hugo's sword vibrated, and the frequency was matched with the mana waves.
Buzz, buzz.
As resonance occurred, the resonance sound echoed through the space.
But this time, the sword did not break.
The internal energy that Hugo Moulton had pushed in became a blue Aura and was protecting the sword.
"At least 8-star or higher. You have to push in that much internal energy to prevent the sword from breaking in a resonance state."
8-star, huh.
Davion's internal energy is now just short of 5-star.
He has to gather more than eight times as much internal energy as now to become 8-star.
In terms of mana points, he needs more than 900,000 points.
It's still a long way off.
'I also have to increase mana and external energy. Can I invest 900,000 points in internal energy alone?'
It didn't seem easy.
Even if he combined all the mana he had gathered for 10 years in the 3rd playthrough, it wouldn't be even 300,000.
He had gathered mana points faster than ever in this playthrough, but even so, he had only gathered about 300,000 points.
So far, Davion has gathered a total of about 600,000 points.
Of that, 400,000 is allocated to mana, 120,000 to internal energy, and 90,000 to external energy.
Of course, he did get a double experience acquisition ticket in this playthrough.
Still, instead of investing 900,000 points in internal energy to become an 8-star swordsman in order to use that Mana Sword, he thought it would be more efficient to aim for a 9-star mage and invest points in mana.
"This sword, which has resonated with mana, can cut through anything, and the attack range is also much wider. An enemy facing this Mana Sword will lose his life to an invisible blade."
Headmaster Hugo lightly swung his sword.
Woong.
As the sword was swung, the resonance sound echoed even more intensely.
And.
Whoosh.
A pile of stones more than 10 meters away was cut off as it was.
'Oh...'
It was definitely different from when he saw the four element Aura.
With a sword like that, it's worth wanting.
But Davion's head was still calculating point allocations and spinning complicatedly.
Then Headmaster Hugo opened his mouth.
"You were wondering why I cultivated mana, right?"
"Ah, yes. Headmaster."
"I wanted to experiment. What happens when you push mana into a sword. Whether you can evoke Aura on a sword with mana."
A new approach.
He's the greatest swordsman on the continent after all.
Hugo had explored new areas without settling for reality at a point where he no longer had any competitors or goals.
"But I failed. Unlike internal energy, the mana that flowed out of my heart did not flow into the sword."
'Too bad.'
It was a shame.
If he could push mana into the sword, he might have been able to use something called the Mana Sword.
No matter how much he calculated, it didn't add up to allocate 900,000 points to internal energy to give an invisible blade to an opponent far away.
'It's better to become an 8-star or 9-star mage and cast a more powerful wind element spell.'
Headmaster Hugo lowered his sword.
The resonance sound that had been ringing in his ears disappeared.
"But Davion."
"Yes, Headmaster."
"I have a feeling that you might be able to do it."
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