Liu was taking care of Verte like usual, looking as if she was a real mother.
I poured some fruit juice, which had a bit of alcohol in it, inside of the cup and brought it to Liu. This beverage was prepared by Brodon and it was very tasty.
'A Fifteen years old person is considered an adult in this world, but I don't think I would be able to handle too much alcohol so I will refrain from drinking it for now… I don't want to end up like Timothy…' I thought to myself.
I walked over to Liu and handed her the cup, then I started the conversation.
"Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Are you having fun, Miss Liu?" I said.
"A little."
Liu's answer was still brief, but I noticed a change in her tone.
'It was a bit soft, wasn't it?' I wondered.
There should have been a lot of topics to talk about but at times like this, I always fail to come up with an interesting one.
"I am glad to hear that," I replied.
However, when I was thinking about what to say next, Miss Liu continued to talk. "I've never seen everyone like this before. They always put me before their own needs," she said.
'She just smiled a little, didn't she?'
I thought, and I was shocked by what she said, to say the least. 'I really can't read this woman…'
I didn't miss this opportunity to tell Liu what I thought about her. "Miss Liu, I like that character of yours," I said. "Even if you don't say it, you think about them. However, some people are dense and won't understand if you don't say it out loud… Hahaha!"
Man, that was very awkward. 'But at least and tried… This is the first time I said something like that to a person in particular. Was that a good compliment?'
Liu's eyes widened when she heard my words but then she regained her usual composure. "I guess…"
The conversation reached a dead end again. I didn't know if it was a good time by I decided to give the gift to Liu. "Miss Liu, I have a little gift for you…" I said, handing a little box to her. "It's nothing extravagant but it's beautiful."
Liu inspected the bluestone that glowed faintly and then put it back inside the little box.
"…Thanks," Liu said.
I glanced at her as she looked curious about the stone, and a thought crossed my mind. 'I know that you like weird things... I mean, like to collect stuff, Liu.'
"It's a fragment of a crystallized Dragon heart," I explained. To be precise I retold Liu what the shopkeeper said but I didn't mention that.
"It's beautiful."
It seemed like she liked it. 'I heard that girls appreciate gifts… I wonder if that if that's the case.'
Liu wasn't the kind of woman who would express her feeling of joy by jumping around, so just that little word said a lot. "I am glad you like it."
I glanced at Liu's face and she looked more distant than usual. I wondered if I managed to change something.
The party continued for a while, and Timothy began to sing out loud and then the others followed him. I didn't know the song but I went along with the flow.
'When you got to know him, he is that not such a bad guy…' This thought crossed my mind as I looked at Timothy who became the mood maker of the party.
Even Yelena who looked stern usually turned into a comedian. I guessed that this was due to the effect of the alcohol. 'I should be careful with this stuff, I might spill out everything unexpectedly…'
It was around midnight that everyone fell asleep.
*****
The next day, even the Ma?ra was still having a hangover she kept her and began to train me.
But…
"What the hell is this?"
"This is just a sword that you will practice with," Ma?ra said nonchalantly.
"What? This thing looks like something that a bodybuilder would use..." I complained.
"A body what? Anyway, you are lacking in every aspect. From now, swing this a hundred times, to begin with. And so you know, a swordsman swings his sword every day for a purpose; It's necessary to get familiar with the weapon that you use. Now enough talk, and get to work!"
I think like I am starting to hate the word basic as I looked at the ominous-looking sword that looked like it weighed more than hundreds of kilos.
In the end, I didn't complain and swung this sword a couple of hundred times every day.
After that Ma?ra watched over me and instructed me on my footwork, stance, etc...
Every day, she wouldn't let me rest until I collapsed. She nagged at me every time I messed up or slacked off.
I wanted to learn the technique already but she said that it could wait.
In the end, I was back to learning the basics again. 'Basics, basics, basics... Aaaaa!'
Learning the basics was always very tiresome no matter how many times I did it. Still, I didn't have the choice if I wanted to grow stronger. And according to Ma?ra, I might have the talent for this.
But after five days, I finally asked Ma?ra. "How long are we going to continue with the basics?"
"Mmm? Forever? I mean, you need to train every day if you want to hone your skills so you won't get rusty, and today we all add something to your usual training."
"... Another basic?"
"Yes, another basic... But this time it's related to the technique that you want to learn."
"Really? Finally..."
"My master said that if you want to learn this technique then you need to awaken your seventh sense," Ma?ra announced.
"What? That's very cliched..." I said out loud. 'Like, for real? All of that hype and the secret was just that?'
"You don't look impressed but as you can see, only two people could manage to learn this technique... It's not decided yet if you will learn it or not." Ma?ra didn't seem bothered by my reaction.
'Why is she grinning?'
"You learn fast, and in just a week you managed to learn all the basic skills… From here, you just need practice. I am not a master and I have taught everything I knew so I can't teach you some other famous sword techniques or something like that, apart from this one. And Everything will depend on you, and you alone, if you can manage to learn it by yourself or not. " Ma?ra explained.
I felt like it was such a letdown. I expected something more grandiose, more mystical. "That again?"
Ma?ra remarked the dejected look on my face and continued. "Yes. Do you know what my master told me after I managed to learn the basics? He said: 'There's no secret training for this technique because the answer is already within you.' After he said that, everyone else left because they thought he was just messing around. As for me, I had nowhere else to go and I stayed."
I was getting very impatient. "Great, another enigma. Just tell me how did you manage to learn the technique? Please don't say something like you practiced the basic every day for five years or something like that…"
"Yeah, I did that, but I also managed to awaken my seventh sense," Ma?ra added, but it didn't help at all.
"But what is this seventh sense? Miss Ma?ra, you are bad at explaining things… Trying to sound mysterious doesn't make you cool, you know…"
I didn't know what Ma?ra was trying to do but it looked like my remark hurt her feelings. "This kid! Hmph! If you are that impatient then I will tell you. In this world, those who possess the gift awaken their sixth sense… That means that they can sense the presence of primordial particles around them and inside their body. As for the seventh sense, you have to sense your life force."
"Lifeforce?"
"That's why I told you that it would be quasi-impossible for gift holders to learn this technique because their seventh sense is masked by the presence of primordial particles inside their body, and they don't need to learn it in the first place. I don't completely understand your situation but you said that your body is like a normal human's, so you may have some hope, but as I said, this technique burns your life force. The more you use it, the more you grow weaker."
Ma?ra's explanation began to make more sense, but it was still foggy.
"I know, but I am prepared. So, tell me how to awaken this seventh sense?" I asked, steeling my resolve.
Ma?ra looked me in the eyes and began explaining. "One way to awaken your seventh sense is to push your body to the limits by training, but that is not enough, because everyone would have learned this technique if that was all. The trick is really simple, but you need to have a certain quality, you need to be able to sense the neutral primordial particles around you. After that, it's easy peasy, you just control the neutral primordial particles and boost your life force, which is the source of your body's vitality, with the power of these particles. Unlike what people think, neutral particles aren't useless, these are a pure form of energy."
That was almost too easy, I think like I missed something. "Let me process a bit…"
"Okay, I finished my job, and I suggest you use a blindfold while training for now. Good luck kid!"
Ma?ra ran off somewhere after she finished explaining the trick behind the technique.
"Hey! That woman… So what do you think, Cristal?"
The trick was very simple and I thought that Cristal should have already thought about such a thing. So, I wondered if she missed that.
"It's simple indeed. It's so simple that I didn't think about it."
"What? You seriously missed that?"
"I don't have this so-called life force, so in a way, it is beyond my understanding. Still, what that woman said made sense. This must be the clue that the master received from that mysterious man. And if that was the case, then it's very concerning."
What Cristal said made sense because she was an artificial life form. 'Well, everything seems easy when you know the trick, but it seems like I just expected too much because I read too many fantasy books. When I think about it rationally, it was not something simple at all.'
And…
"Yeah, you are right. I know that I am being paranoid but what if this man knew that I will come here and I will be the one who will perfect this technique?" I said, feeling a little bit concerned about this mysterious man.
"Don't get full of yourself, master. You are not that famous; no angel announced that you will be born in this world." Cristal said.
'Was that a joke? Did Cristal just try to make a joke?'
Still, I was seriously considering the possibility that this had something to do with my presence here. "That was not a joke, you know."
"I know, but you don't need to be bothered about such a thing as of now," Cristal replied.
Well, it was not the time to theorize about such a thing. There were only a few days left before my duel with Liu and I needed to be able to control this neutral primordial particle by then.
"Yeah, you are right. Let's do this."
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