All those times I was relaxing or thinking of a plan I was mentally using Mana Breath.
Since I had used it so much beforehand I had the technique memorized which is why even if I didn't have a mouth or body to actually breathe with, I could count the seconds and after a couple of decades it became natural.
Unfortunately, all that time I was using Mana Breath it didn't transfer to the real world. Had it, I would be the weakest ranker with the highest amount of Mana.
If I had used it for the entire century I'd have over half a million Mana putting me far pasted Z rank!
Yet the world is cruel and my Mana didn't even go up a single decimal.
However, I did manage to master the skill during that time which is more than I could have ever hoped for.
It was an unexpected gain that I took advantage of in a poor situation.
Therefore, recalling all the hard work I've done over the years I began using Mana Breath.
The moment I did the first set of breaths it felt so natural like I had just found something I'd lost.
Going through the whole thing I waited a minute and when I got a notification that my Mana went up by 0.001 I smiled as I knew my strength would increase many times faster.
Now that I had everything prepared it was finally time to do what I had first set my mind on.
"Miss Smith?"
Hearing my voice Miss Smith stood up in front of me. All the while I was busy she was patiently waiting for us to begin and now that I was ready she already had her hand on her scabbard.
"We have three hours before classes start. Why don't we see how much you can learn in that time?"
I nodded.
Still breathing with Mana Breath I calmed my mind devoid of any extra emotions and raised Nightfall in front of me waiting for Miss Smith to make the first move.
"Here I come!"
As soon I heard her I lowered my center of mass and took a fighting stance as I prepared for any incoming attack.
Staring at Miss Smith I watched her closely to see where I should defend from.
Yet while I had my eyes locked onto her figure it only took a split second for her to vanish from my sight.
In that scenario I would have been surprised however I was already sent flying and didn't have time to think about such things.
Rolling around on the ground I eventually caught myself and quickly stood back up in the hopes that I would be able to defend against the incoming attack.
Unfortunately, that wouldn't even partially come true as the moment I stood on my two feet I was knocked backward before I could even ready myself.
Flipping in the air I waited before I crashed down into the hard floor before attempting to use my hands, feet, and sword to stop me from sliding even further away.
Thankfully, that tactic worked and I was quickly able to stop the momentum I had been building up from Miss Smith's attack.
Kneeling down on the floor my senses were completely messed up as all the rolling I did caused my brain to get dizzy.
As the world was spinning I tried to focus my attention on a smear on the floor to try to get it to stop but that wasn't working and through the swirls, I saw I flash before I was sent flying for the third time.
Once I landed I was not feeling good or confident in my abilities.
Since I hadn't made use of 3rd Person POV as I had done with Willow I had no idea when or where Miss Smith's next attack would come from.
This made me feel so incredibly weak as I couldn't even survive a single clash without the help of an ability.
Luckily all this time I didn't get the wind knocked out of me and with a minute just passing the skill activated. As a small yet significant amount of Mana entered my body I felt my stiff muscles relax and my mind become even sharper.
Therefore before I even knew if an attack was coming or not I threw myself to the left and spun around using the built-up speed to rise to my feet.
Once I was up I didn't make the same mistake as last time as I instantly held Nightfall horizontally so that I could block most attacks.
My quick thinking seemed to work as for the first time in this battle — if you could even call it that — I felt my sword make contact with something.
Nonetheless, the force behind the attack was far too strong and I was sent sliding backward.
As my feet dragged on the floor by the time I was coming to a stop my balance was so far off that I fell on my butt completely and utterly defeated.
'Well, that was horrible.'
Still sitting on the ground I waited until Miss Smith walked up to me.
"You are weaker now than you were when you fought Willow yesterday! How does one get worse?"
I signed.
"I don't want to use any tricks to fight against you. I want to get stronger on my own without having to rely on anything else."
What I said was true. I didn't want to rely on my ability as it would only give me an hour window to win. Even then my victory wouldn't be guaranteed and if I didn't get it done in that time I would be completely defenseless.
That's why I wanted to learn everything I could about the sword.
Hearing my response Miss Smith grew a smile on her face.
"Do you truly want to learn all you can about the way of the sword?"
I didn't even have to think about that question before answering:
"Yes!"
She nodded.
"Okay, we will start with the very basics then, although I don't know how you managed to get into Griffin in the first place with your poor skills."
"A certain group helped me."
She fell silent before starting up again.
"First things first let's analyze what happened during our short clash and see where you went right and wrong."
"Okay."
"Before I answer for you, don't you try. The best way to get better is to learn from your mistakes."
I paused to think back to the battle and play through the entire event marking all the bad things I did.
After a couple of minutes, I had far more things I did wrong than good.
Once I had it analyzed I began explaining:
"From the start, I should have been prepared for an attack rather than waiting for you to make the first move and then react to it."
She nodded seemingly agreeing.
"The first time I got back on my feet I should have done something similar to what I did the second time."
She nodded her head up and down.
"Umm, I should have found a way to break out of the combo so that way you wouldn't be able to hit me every time."
This time she didn't have much of a response but still seemed to agree.
"And uh, that's about all."
Miss Smith fell into deep thought before finally speaking up.
"Okay, now that I have a bit of understanding of how far developed you are I can come up with the best plan to get you stronger."
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