“That is better. But you still need more ferocity and to think of your moves quicker.”
“Your feints are not going to work if you keep your eyes glued to the spot you are aiming for.”
“Don’t overcommit to an all or nothing attack unless you are certain it will connect or have no other option. Otherwise, you are just asking to be countered.”
Whack!
“Pughh!”
After Alaric put his all into a single thrust from his sword, Marcus easily side-stepped the attack. He then brought the pole of his scythe up and hit the boy square in the stomach, which caused him to make a pained noise as the wind was knocked out of him.
Instantly Alaric crumbled to the ground and held his stomach in pain while tears streamed down his face.
“Minor cure.”
Crouching down Marcus placed his hand on the boy’s back and cast his tier one healing magic spell to help him recover.
In just a few moments the pian that Alaric was experiencing was gone. But it was swiftly replaced by anger which he directed at the one who had hurt him.
“Lady Irene, what was that for?! I was doing everything you said but you still hit me really hard.” Alaric said with an indignant look in his eyes.
“Yes, I did. You made a fatal mistake, and I am making sure you never do again. It is better to deal with a little pain in training than get killed in battle. You wanted to be strong, so I am doing what is needed. I imagine that if you were to train under a knight after your graduation, they would give you similar training. What you have experienced so far at school is only a foundation to become stronger. Normally you would have been taught at a slower pace, but you said you wanted to be strong, and that means accelerating your growth by intensifying your education.”
Hearing what Marcus said and seeing the look in his eyes that was asking if he wanted to quit, Alaric gritted his teeth and dragged himself.
“I do want to be strong Lady Irene. And if this is what is necessary, please continue teaching me.”
Smiling, Marcus was glad to see that the little bit of pain he had put the boy through was not enough to make him quit.
“That is good. You will need to keep up that drive. This is not the last time nor the worse pain you will feel on this path.” Marcus said with a grave expression.
For a moment Alaric winced and rubbed his stomach, but he stayed strong and asked that they continue.
“Sorry but we are done for today. I simply wanted to assess your skills. You have promise with magic, but your sword ability is only average. We will not be pursuing it any further. Instead, tomorrow we will go to the Blazegram Forge and find what weapon you are most suited for.”
Hearing that he had potential with his magic Alaric grew a bright smile, but it quickly faded when Marcus told him he was only average with the sword.
“But Lady Irene, I head that all the coolest knights and fighters use swords. It is the weapon most of the boys at the academy use along with spears, but I am no good at all with those.”
Alaric looked very attached to using a sword, but Marcus could only shake his head.
“Sorry, but you are not cut out for wielding a sword. You could work hard at it and get pretty good, but for those that work just as hard and have talent you will see an enormous difference. Trust me, at first I wanted to use a sword as well, but I found my best weapon and have never gone back.” Marcus said as he brandished the bronze scythe in his hands,
Seeing Marcus do a few quick moves with his scythe, Alaric’s eyes began to widen, and he was easily captivated by it.
“See, any weapon can look cool in the hands of one proficient in using it. Tomorrow we will find your best weapon.” Marcus said before heading back towards his manor.
Alaric quickly followed behind and asked Marcus a question he did not really want to answer.
“So how did you figure out that Lilia is best with gauntlets? I have seen her fighting and she is pretty amazing.”
At this question Marcus smiled awkwardly as he thought about how to explain this to Alaric.
‘Do I just tell him a lie? No if he asks Lilia later, he will figure out the truth. I just do not want him to lose some drive if I tell him that Lilia got a lot of her best skills from skill orbs I gave her.’
For Lilia, he had given her any number of rare and valuable skill orbs, but he had no plan to do the same for Alaric and did not want the kid expecting them if he told him that was what Lilia had done.
“Well Lilia was a bit of a special case, but for me I figured it out by testing out a bunch of weapons and getting a feel for them until I found the one I liked best. That is what we will do tomorrow and then I will personally make you a new weapon.”
Luckily Alaric got distracted when Marcus told him he would make him a new weapon, and the kid started going off about what kind of unrealistic powers he would want it to have.
After that they spent the rest of their day in leisure, but at night while everyone else was asleep Marcus came up with a comprehensive plan for Alaric’s training.
“That should do it. Now the only problem is if I can have him ready on time to enter the special dungeon towards the end of summer.”
With a plan written up, all that was left was for Marcus to enact it and hope it would be enough to get the kid from level elven to around level forty in a few months.
When the next day came as soon as breakfast was finished Marcus loaded Alaric onto his carriage and they headed over to the Blazegram Forge.
Once there, Marcus made his way to the store front where weapons were sold and got permission to let Alaric test them out.
“Wow there are even more weapons here than in the academy’s storehouse. And all of them are enchanted. Oh, those over there are made of mithril.”
Like a kid in a candy store Alaric began running around looking at all of the weapons that we for sale.
“Alaric we are not here to blay games. Now I have set up all the most common weapons over here. Try each one out and get a feel for it.”
Going down the line Alaric tried weapons from clubs to scimitars, but he did not have much better talent for any of them.
That was until he picked up the long staff that was often a favored weapon for magic casters.
It was clear that Alaric had an innate talent for the weapon when he swung it around.
His feel for its balance was above what he had shown with any other weapon.
“I believe that is the one for you Alaric. I am sure you can tell how much more natural it feels to use.”
Holding the staff in his hands Alaric gave it a few more swings and there was no doubt he could feel that it was the one that felt the best to him.
Now having found the weapon that most suited Alaric, Marcus told the kid to come with him to the forge where he would make him a new weapon.
“Just go ahead and sit over there and make sure not to get too close. I am practically immune to heat, but you could easily get burned.”
After giving this warning Marcus lit up the furnace in his private room at the forge and began pulling out supplies to use for making his staff.
Unfortunately, while bronze was easy to get, the elemental crystals he wanted to use were all far too high quality to use in a beginner’s weapon.
‘Guess I will ask Gurrom if he has any.’ Marcus thought before leaving momentarily.
“Yeah, I have some low grad elemental crystals you can have. No need to pay me for them, just consider it a favor.” Gurrom said before heading into his private room and digging around for a bit.
Soon enough he came back with three low grade elemental crystals of the elements that Marcus wanted.
“Thanks for this Gurrom. If you ever need a favor, feel free to ask. But I am surprised that you have a smoke elemental crystal, they are not common. Where might you have gotten it?”
“Oh, I picked that up on my most recent trip where I went around to rediscover myself. It was around the area of a volcano, which is pretty much the only place you can find them. Only other place I could think of might be an area that often experiences wildfires often or something like that.” Gurrom said before telling Marcus exactly where the volcano was.
Having what he needed now, Marcus headed back to his own workshop and got started on making Alaric a new weapon.
It was easy enough for him to quickly turn a bronze ingot into a staff, which he embedded with the three elemental crystals and the core of a level twentyish monster.
Once that was done, he added a few basic formations. Though he did not use celestial platinum, since Alaric was in the room, and he felt it would be a waste for this weapon that he would replace when Alaric was a little higher than level twenty.
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