The sword felt heavy, it felt heavy and slippery. He didn’t need to use it to know that when he slashes with it, it would be the sloppiest slash he did in a long, long time.

Shesmu instinctively knew what was happening. He knew what was happening to his body, to his mind—he knew it. However, he couldn’t accept it.

“Heyo.”

“Young’un!”

“Are you okay?!”

However, the old man’s words fell into deaf ears. Shesmu’s eyes didn’t even respond to only shouting, only glued to his sword. 

“Did the sword scare you? Don’t worry, it will be even scarier to your opponents!” He then paused for a bit before continuing. “But if holding this sword is that overwhelming to you, maybe you should rethink your decision to be a warrior. You can always go through the purification ritual at the church and you can choose another profession. We can go there together if you want to.”

“No,” Shesmu plainly said.

At his remark, Leonard raised an eyebrow.

Shesmu stood up, his intense gaze never leaving his sword. With scrunched eyebrows, he raised it and slashed at the air.

After performing his move, Shesmu closed his eyes and bit his lips. It was now confirmed. He had lost his ability to hold the sword.

His skills, his techniques, everything he had spent tens of thousands of hours practicing, day and night. It was all gone.

Shesmu stayed silent for a couple of seconds before taking a deep breath. He then screamed with all his might.

The scream—no, the war cry, was so feral in nature, so powerful, it made the instructor back away. However, while the scream was powerful, it held no sadness, no self-pity in it. It was a scream that challenged the world.

Shesmu’s scream left Leonard awed. His eyes widened and he started laughing uncontrollably.

“What a scream! Haha! I like that! That scream had such vigor in it, such energy! You’re going to become a fine Swordsman, I can already tell!”

After a loud laugh and his iconic greeting pat to the back, Leonard finally became serious.

“Well, we already had our fun, now it’s time for me to show you the basics of a warrior. What I will show are the basic skills that every holder of the warrior class should master, so look attentively.”

Leonard summoned a training dummy in front of him, before materializing a sword in his hand too. The sword was the same as the one he gave Shesmu, prompting the latter to think that this was the only type of sword these instructors could summon.

“First of all, I’ll show you how a normal slash looks like.”

Leonard took a deep breath in as he raised his sword towards his back. His eyes focused, and in the blink of an eye, Leonard slashed diagonally at the training dummy. In less than a fraction of a second, Leonard slashed and went back to his fighting position. A number appeared above the fighting dummy glowing blue, 9000, showing the damage that the dummy took from Leonard’s slash. He then took a deep breath out before looking at Shesmu and saying.

“This is a normal slash, now let me show you an empowered one.”

However, Shesmu just half-heard those words. His focus was still on the training dummy that has just been slashed. He could barely see Leonard move, let alone his slash. Since his reflexes and muscle memory were gone, he expected his kinetic vision to also deteriorate.

But Shesmu wasn’t worried anymore. When he first started playing Ashes of Gods, he couldn’t even see the instructor move, let alone his slash. That means that at least some things carried over the time jump. Maybe his predictive abilities, or maybe just some of his knowledge that is ingrained in his subconsciousness made him look at where he needs to look without him actually reacting to anything. 

Whatever the case may be, Shesmu knew that his starting point is still higher than in his past life, much much higher if you consider his knowledge about quests, mechanics, and classes. There was no reason for him to fret, he already reached such heights in his past life without anyone’s help, what now when he has such a massive lead over everyone else?

Leonard took a fighting stance, preparing his empowered slash. However, before making any moves, he continued his explanation.

“Now, it gets a bit complicated. You need to free your mind, let out all distracting thoughts and think only one thing: “Empowered Slash”. It needs to be imprinted in your brain, your soul even. Only then will the skill activate and your inner power heed your call. Here, watch and learn.”

Leonard’s sword glowed red. The previously dull looking sword emanated an air of danger and sharpness. Leonard slashed swiftly, leaving a crimson afterimage as the trail of his sword. This time, the number that appeared on top of the dummy was glowing red, and looked much bigger and more imposing than when Leonard did a normal slash with his sword. But maybe, most surprising of all, was that the damage reached 30000, more than three times that of Leonard’s normal attack.

As Leonard finished his speech, a red notification reached Shesmu. At the far upper-left of his vision was his Hp and Energy bar and next to them was a small plus sign. This sign had a red exclamation mark next to it blinking. Focusing on the plus sign, multiple tabs appeared in front of Shesmu. Selecting the Skill tab, a table appeared in front of him.

New Skill Acquired

Empowered Slash

Empowered Slash

Tier: 0

Level: 1

Cost: 30 Energy

Base Damage: 50 + 125% Attack Damage.

Looking at the basic description of the skill, Shesmu just casually closed all of the tabs. It’s not as if he didn’t already know every information that was present there.

Bringing Shesmu out of his reverie, Leonard continued explaining.

“Here, now that I have shown you how the mighty Empowered Slash looks like, try your hand at it and see how things go.”

Leonard then took a step back to leave room for Shesmu to hack and slash at the training dummy to his heart’s content. Shesmu then took a step forward, holding his sword with two hands.

Let’s start with a simple empowered slash.

Thinking those words in his head, Shesmu then thought.

Empowered slash!

Shesmu felt parts of his body heat up, especially his arms and abdomen. Weird green energy invisible to the naked eye went through his stomach and then reached his hands before seeping into his sword. Shesmu’s sword glowed bright green before his hands automatically slashed the training dummy. 

87

Looking at his damage, Shesmu wasn’t disappointed or anything. This was the damage of a standard Empowered Slash. Sure there were ways to make it do even more damage, but this isn’t what Shesmu was worried about at the moment. What concerned him was something more fundamental, a technique that he considered his bread and butter with how flexible it was.

If this does not work, then I really don’t know what to say.

Shesmu readied his stance, his sword at the level of his forehead, then he slashed. It was a normal, diagonal two-handed slash, and if someone had seen it, he wouldn’t think twice about it. But just as the sword was about to get into contact with the training dummy. Shesmu thought.

Empowered... Slash!

Immediately, that weird green energy surged from his stomach to his arms, then to his sword. Glinting with that familiar green light, Shesmu’s sword slashed the neck of the training dummy. Above the dummy, a big red 175 appeared.

If anyone was in Shesmu’s shoes, they would be overjoyed at the sight of such an incredibly high damage. It was double the normal empowered slash! However, Shesmu’s face was gloomy. He closed his eyes and bit his lips. Even this one move, he thought. 

Shesmu took a few breaths to calm his heart before opening his eyes again. This time, they shone brighter than ever. He held his sword firmly and slashed again.

Yorth

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