I woke up to the sound of the birds singing next to me. They seemed to be pleased by the aroma coming from the kitchen below. I remembered seeing a couple notifications from the system before I slept. I was too exhausted to bother with them. Let’s see what we’ve got here.

 

‘Congratulations! You have performed memory skill extraction. A new skill has been unlocked for you in the Lightning Bond Skill Tree.’

 

I quickly opened the skill tab to see the first skill I ever unlocked. Lightning Bond|Rebound was a skill I could use without accessing Lightning Transformation. When emotions are strong, they can be turned into a power that can top an overwhelming enemy. I remember the ability being one of my biggest assets.

 

They say that calm rage is the best power. The only thing about this skill was the drain it took out of me. Taking one's emotions and turning it into power takes a heavy toll on the mind. I used this power when I needed to finish a fight that I had a low chance of winning.

 

Rashomon and Ourbouros were big assets, but the power that ran through me was even tougher. An Xcell Arc was a representation of the ‘soul’ while the power that ran through the body was the ‘blood.’ Skills that used the body itself were often stronger than Xcell Arc-based skills.

 

I suppose this is a good thing for the fights to come. I got up and reached for my uniform as my phone rang. It was an unknown number, but I answered anyway/

 

“Hello, is this Shinjeo Curato?”

 

“Yeah, what is it?”

 

“Director Quinton has settled the matters with your school. Later today we will come to get you ready for the Institute. Please wait patiently as all matters are sorted out.”

 

“Alright. Thank you.”

 

I ended the call and sat in my bed again. It was as good of time as ever that I should be doing some “image training.” It wasn’t an uncommon technique, typically shared throughout those who used marital arts and ether users. It was only the extent one could use it which could depend on its efficiency. 

 

My master had perfected image training to the point where she could feel every single thing she imagined. The intensity of the training I witnessed caused me to strive for the same results. It took me years of countless days meditating. I was able to reach the realm, almost above my master, but by then many people were stronger than me one hundred fold.

 

“I’ll test it here, Hiiragi should be a good image to train against for now.”

 

I imagined a figure similar to Hiiragi. By far she was one of the strongest schwalbes early on. She had the capabilities to switch between two weapons, similar to me as an all-rounder, she could deal damage from ranged or close combat.

 

“Let’s begin.”

 

The Hiiragi Shadow began shooting a rain of bullets from her twin revolvers. I infused a bit of ether energy to my leg muscles. Let’s see if I could be any faster than usual doing this. I began running from the bullet spray, but it seemed I still couldn’t outrun all of them. Hiiragi’s bullets had tracking capabilities to an extent. I suffered a bit of damage, but I had dodged about forty percent of the bullets.

 

“I’ve got a long way to go.”

 

‘Lightning Transformation: First Stage’

 

Lightning started to surge forth from my body and I felt that my speed had doubled overall. As a Schwalbe you have stats, usually a normal person has stats, but is unable to see them. Stats could be raised in a variety of ways. Depending on how high your stats could reach, there were things that could be thought to be impossible to the normal human beings. I had the skills to boost my own body. There were all types of body enhancement, but my skill tree was adept at taking transformations and synergizing them with skills.

 

“Woah! You could have killed me!”

 

I backed away from the bastard sword in front of me. She had switched to close range since she couldn’t hit me with her bullets. I took out Ouroboros and slashed down towards where she stood, but she managed to pull out her sword and defend against my attack.

 

“I’ll handicap myself to close-range attacks for now.”

 

I wanted to see my capabilities without relying on Rashomon for support, so I used the style similar to my master’s. She was a master of all weaponry, especially with the one-handed sword. The only difference between styles and skills was that they had to be learned. Martial Arts were effectively the only techniques exempt from the system, although some cases were exempt from that point. Her swordsmanship was called Imperial Arnis Style, it was based on the martial arts from the Philippines, it was pretty much the same as traditional Arnis, but she created new techniques and combined them with techniques from other forms. Martial Arts could effectively create new and better ways of fighting, It’s like taking the engine and starting it up. That was what Martial Arts did for Schwalbes, it made all the difference.

 

“Imperial Arnis Style: Cross Hakbang.”

 

As she went for another strike at the left, I took a step to the right and slashed sideways toward her blind spot. She fell back as I went for another blow.

 

“Imperial Arnis Style: Rush Redonda.”

 

Ether energy flowed with each strike focusing toward one point on her body. Usually Redonda would only be used when using weapons similar to a stick or a staff, but my sheer speed made up for the weakness the sword had using this technique.

 

“Time to finish this.”

 

“Imperial Arnis Style: Bikil and Balitok”

 

I ran up to the shadow and kicked towards her center of gravity and slashed twice towards where she lost balance and backflipped away from her.

 

“I guess Balitok wasn’t needed here.”

 

Bikil was used to cause imbalance in an enemy, and I used the imbalance to strike with my sword. Balitok was used after to back away from the enemy and create distance, I used it here in order to see if I needed to follow up with any more attacks.

 

“It’s over now.”

 

The Shadow slowly dissipated and I heard a bell ring at my front door.