How I spent my first morning as an E rank, by Alex Bladeheart.
To start with, I woke up earlier than most.
By that time, my lap was freed of Alice, which I suspected was Rita's doing.
After a quick morning stretch, I unraveled the bandages around my skin, and they coiled around me as thin cloths soiled with my blood.
Grabbing the bundle of cloth now littering the ground, I walked to the bathroom and tossed them in the bin before grabbing my brush.
As I did, I ended up catching sight of my reflection.
I was the same as ever, blonde, short, and blue-eyed, which seemed to have dimmed in color. The only thing that had changed was my facial expression, which seemed to have grown much stiffer.
It was like all the previous joy I felt had been dragged out of me, leaving me a mere emotionless husk.
There were few exaggerations in my account, but I wouldn't lie about one thing.
I felt empty.
A spark that had once been in my heart seemed to have been snuffed out — a psychological effect of what I had done.
"I wonder if there are any children therapists around."
Thinking so, I quickly brushed my teeth and left the bathroom.
I then left the recovery room for my original room, where I changed into my training attire and left for the courtyard.
The sun hadn't yet risen, leaving my surroundings bleak and quiet.
Just as I liked it.
With my sword at the ready and a few breathing sessions, I began simulating a cutting path, which I followed by enacting a swing.
One... two... three... four...
Eventually, I traced about fifty perfect cuts before moving to stabbing.
I began with a step and followed along with the movement of my sword, which flashed forward like a bullet and pierced the air before me.
"Could be better!"
Thinking so, I activated my talent and toggled the increase of my martial abilities by five.
My senses sharpened like usual, and my grip and stance grew more stable, and before I knew it, I began stabbing the air like a maniac.
Each thrust was swift, and the redraw was fluid and without delay.
"I could be a good spearman if I wanted."
Smirking proudly, I began to mix the swing and the stabbing together.
Like I wanted, my sword would slice through the air after which I would move one foot forward, carrying the momentum to stab ahead.
Cut and stab... cut and stab.
I did that for almost thirty minutes till I was left drenched in sweat, and yet I didn't feel an increase in my efficiency.
"I guess just training doesn't cut... hehe... cut."
In some way, reaching a point where you found your own joke funny was a sign of insanity. Well... I'd say they were right.
After all that, I found myself infusing my blade with my aura, coating it in a colorless glow.
I currently lacked a color or intent, as it was dubbed, hence the only special effect I was allowed was the bland kind.
Twisting my sword arm and moving my sword in a circular motion, I slashed at empty air, sending the concentration of aura gathered around my sword to linger at the tip before ejecting from my sword and leaving a shallow cut on the grassy pigment.
"Another!"
Enjoying the sight, I gripped my blade with both hands and swung it up at the skies.
Another aura slash, this time much larger, flew out of my sword and cut through the air before eventually diminishing and dispersing into formless aura.
"Dad could cut the clouds... I guess I'm far from such strength for now."
Disappointed, I stabbed my sword into the ground, opting for aura training for now.
I began with basic reinforcement, drawing out as much aura as I could muster from my weak core and flooding my whole body with it.
Ignoring the drowsiness from such overflow, I began to perform a light jog around the yard.
The first step seemed to stretch time and space, but just as my body moved along, someone grabbed me, sending the energy about to launch me coursing through the ground and leaving a lasting crack.
Confused, I glanced back and found Rita, shaking her head at my display.
"When counting, you start from 1, you don't jump straight to 10."
"I was experimenting," I explained, but she wasn't convinced and pointed at the ground now housing scars.
"Your reinforcement was spread out. Had you propelled yourself at such speed and mistakenly crashed into something, you would have been injured."
As usual, Rita was a worrywart, which I found kind of sweet.
"Then educate me, dear sensei."
Bowing courteously, I commented.
"....Just raise your head!"
Patting my shoulders with a flustered but equally annoyed expression, she responded, and I obeyed.
She then cleared her throat for a moment and sat on the grassy ground.
I followed, and she began to explain.
"Young lord, I'm sure you are aware aura is an amplifier."
"How could I forget such an important fact after you literally drilled it into me."
I still remembered my first week in this world and how I desperately jogged around the mountain, subjected to doing numerous exercises so I wouldn't look like a scrawny little kid.
While underneath all of that, my personal trainer, Rita, would recite that fact to my face — it was like a taunt made to remind me how shitty this life was for me in particular.
"Ahem... anyway, aura increases the strength of what it engulfs, but how high the increase is depends on the concentration. A low concentration — that is, a full body reinforcement — will lead to an all-rounder's build since the amplification is spread out. As for the higher concentration, this is activated by selecting a specific part you want to enhance."
To demonstrate her point, Rita enhanced one finger with aura and stabbed it into the ground.
It dug quite deep before she retracted it back and followed by enhancing her whole body and jamming that same finger into another part of the ground.
As she redrew her finger, she gestured for me to have a look, and like her explanation, the full body enhancement had led to an overall less effective dug compared to the first, concentrated dug.
Finding such knowledgeable insight,I soon went back to my training as Rita left after imparting such facts to me.