I clenched my jaw, unable to deny any of it.
I knew this weakness would catch up to soday.
And today, it finally did.
"But I’ll comnd you for not letting go of your sword until the end."
Julian’s voice sounded oddly distant.
Praise, comfort—none of it reached .
My first defeat.
It stung far deeper than I’d imagined.
A sharp, heavy ache settled in my chest, bruising my pride more than my body.
I realized my hand was still gripping the sword so tightly my knuckles had gone white.
But then—
"Congratulations."
Julian’s voice changed—lighter, almost pleased.
I slowly opened my eyes and followed his gaze down to my sword.
Zzzzzz—crackle...
A faint vibration ran through the blade.
A soft shimr, subtle yet unmistakable, began forming along its edge.
A faint aura, barely visible—but undeniably there.
"You’ve beco a Aura Sword User," he said quietly, almost reverently.
I stared at the glowing line along my blade, breath caught in my throat.
I can...
I can finally use aura.
Fwoom...
The faint aura flickered again, like the first spark of a long-awaited fire..
But still I can’t believe it.
I stared quietly at the faint aura wrapped around my sword.
?
Using aura?
That shouldn’t have been possible. No matter how desperately I trained before, no matter how many tis I tried, aura was sothing forever out of my reach.
With magical power so low it was practically an insult, I couldn’t even dream of touching aura.
Honestly, I had given up a long ti ago.
That was why I turned to items—Dream Orbs, enchanted artifacts, anything that could compensate for what I lacked.
It was around then that I stopped pushing my swordsmanship any further.
I had convinced myself that no amount of effort would change the reality I was born with.
And yet... here it was.
A flicker of aura, clinging to my sword as if it had been waiting for this mont.
"...I’m an sword user?"
Still in disbelief, I slowly lifted the blade.
The aura coating it was faint—thin, unstable—but undeniably real.
I never imagined I could ever step foot on the path of a swordsman who wielded aura.
Sure, my magical power grade had finally risen to sothing close to average...
But that alone shouldn’t have made aura manifest this easily.
"Louis has aura...?"
"No way. I can’t even use aura. How is he...?"
The people around were staring with wide, stunned eyes—mirroring exactly how I felt.
Because no matter what anyone said... this didn’t make sense.
And yet the truth shimred before us, trembling faintly on the edge of my sword.
Even among the freshman class, only about ten percent are sword users.
So it’s no surprise that everyone is shocked I manifested aura before they did—especially when my magical power is lower than average.
Honestly, I was the most surprised.
"Don’t get full of yourself just because you’ve beco a sword user," Julian’s mocking voice cut through my mont of excitent. "At best, you’re just a little better than a common rcenary."
I heard him clearly, but his words didn’t bother .
What mattered more was how I managed to manifest aura in the first place.
To manifest aura, you have to gather magical power and force it through the blocked wall of the dantian—located deep in the lower abdon.
Only by breaking through that barrier can one beco a true sword user.
From that mont on, the nature of one’s magical power changes completely.
The dantian is like a natural filter.
The scattered magical power circulating inside the body gets drawn in, purified, and transford into clean, refined magic.
That pure magic becos aura when overlaid onto a weapon.
So a question naturally arises:
How in the world did soone like break through my dantian?
It’s commonly said that breaking through the dantian requires an enormous amount of magical power.
And obviously, I wasn’t exactly overflowing with that.
Still, as I kept pushing more magic into my dantian, the aura clinging to my sword grew brighter—sharper.
Sothing warm and electric began flowing through my body.
So this is what using aura feels like.
But after a mont, I realized why the sensation felt so familiar.
The flow of aura... wasn’t much different from how my magical power moved when I used the Dream Orb.
Almost identical.
"You’ve finally beco a sword user! Congratulations, Louis!!"
When I returned to my seat, Elena greeted with the brightest smile I’d ever seen from her.
She looked genuinely happy, like she was celebrating her own achievent.
"Thank you," I said, unable to stop a small smile from forming.
"But Louis, your aura... it was yellow?"
Usually, aura wielded by non–mages appeared as a transparent blue.
People had different magical attributes, sure—but aura itself didn’t usually show colors like magic did.
Yet mine had clearly been tinged with yellow.
Probably the Dream Orb’s influence. I’ve used it far too much.
"Aura? What’s that?"
Lisa tilted her head, looking completely lost.
"Aura is—"
Elena jumped in, eager to explain, her hands already moving animatedly as she began lecturing.
While she talked, I tuned them out just a bit and focused inward again, continuing to circulate my magical power.
It flowed smoothly, gathering and swirling around the dantian below my navel—warm, steady, and unmistakably different from before.
A small step forward.
But a real one.
As I continued circulating my magical power, feeling out the new changes in my body, a strange sense of clarity settled over .
My dantian was... different now.
Clearer.
Lighter.
Almost as if a blocked, murky pond had suddenly been drained and replaced with fresh water.
I exhaled slowly.
So this is the difference between before and after becoming a sword user.
My body felt a little lighter, my senses a little sharper—like the world had gained a touch more detail.
Not overwhelming, but unmistakable.
"Louis."
Julian’s voice called out again, this ti without mockery.
I looked up, and he was studying —really studying —eyes narrowed as if searching for sothing he couldn’t quite understand.
"That breakthrough you had..." He paused. "It wasn’t normal."
I blinked.
That was the first ti he’d ever spoken to without the usual condescending tone.
"What do you an?"
He folded his arms, thinking.
"Breaking the dantian usually requires explosive magical power or intense external pressure. But in your case..."
He tilted his head slightly.
"It was too smooth. Too... clean."
Clean.
Just like how Dream Orb magic flowed.
I kept my expression still.
I couldn’t exactly tell him I’d been using a borderline cheating artifact every night.
"Is that a problem?" I asked.
Julian clicked his tongue. "No. Just... unexpected."
Then, his eyes sharpened.
"And unexpected things are dangerous."
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