"Damn, I didn't expect I'd have to take this out again," Godwin grumbled as he rummaged through the storage room.
Dust had piled up so much that it whirled around every ti he moved.
"Cough."
Live a little cleaner, will you?
I coughed and stepped back.
And then, a short while later.
"Found it."
Godwin erged from the storage room, closing the door behind him.
In his hand, he held a sword.
A nacingly large and heavy blade.
It was the typical sword used for beheadings by executioners.
Despite being cleaned of blood, the sll of death was still strong—enough that I might have shivered if I believed in ghosts.
"We might as well start now," Godwin spoke with a hint of irritation.
But of course, he wouldn't teach carelessly.
He's a man who keeps his promises.
"Start whenever. I prefer it to be quick."
"Fine. Let's start with the stance. Watch carefully."
Wooosh!
With a fierce motion, Godwin's sword swooped downward.
I could feel the imnse power.
Yet the motion was simple.
To the untrained eye, it looked no different from a normal swing.
But that couldn't be further from the truth.
"Show it to again."
Hush!
Wooosh!
Godwin repeated the sa motion twice more.
Then he asked, "How about it? Did you rember sothing?"
"I seem to grasp the motion."
"Well, the motion itself is simple. But it's not as easy as it looks."
aning, there's a hidden point that's not obvious at first glance.
Godwin nodded at .
"You have a sword; try swinging it."
"Will do."
I drew the sword I brought.
It was Max's sword, originally.
As befitting a rich brat, he had a pretty good sword, so I kept using it.
I recalled the motion I had seen earlier and took my stance.
And then.
Swish! novel hosted m,vle mpyr
I swung the sword.
But.
I could imdiately tell sothing was lacking.
This wasn't it.
There needed to be sothing more to the cutting motion.
"Twice more."
Swish!
Swipe!
Following Godwin's instruction, I swung twice more.
Of course, it felt no different from the first swing.
Because it wasn't sothing I could correct on my own.
"Do you see what's wrong?"
"The core seems to be missing, though the motion is similar."
"You've got so sense. Maybe it's because you're an academy student."
Godwin lifted his sword again.
"Pay attention; I'll explain."
This ti, he swung the sword slowly.
When the sword was perfectly horizontal, he stopped.
"Right here."
"Here?"
"Yes, it's here that you add a very quick, additional force."
Whooom!
Whooom!
Godwin's sword sliced through the air with renewed strength.
"Understand?"
"This technique isn't a single cut; it's a splitting strike. It's too fast to notice at a glance."
"A splitting strike...?"
I was surprised, hearing this for the first ti.
So you apply force twice to split the motion into two beats?
What is this?
Isn't this way harder than learning skills in a ga?
In the ga, you can learn skills easily with just a few clicks.
Hence, I had never heard of splitting strikes or anything like it.
I was only praised as a quick learner, but here, it was completely different.
I had to learn the skill with my body, my movents, my senses.
That's why I couldn't properly follow the first motion.
It's tough right from the start, very tough.
But the sense of accomplishnt when mastered will be imnse.
"Right, from that position, apply force and split it into two quick strikes. Watch."
Whooosh!
Whooom!
Godwin demonstrated twice more.
After hearing the explanation, I started to see sothing I hadn't noticed before.
During the cut, the strength intensified, and the sword fell sharply.
That must be the power of the splitting strike.
"Give it a try."
Before Godwin could finish speaking, I moved first.
Swiing!
Swish!
Swiish!
I attempted the splitting strike, but the sound of my blade cutting air still wasn't satisfactory.
The timing was off, and I wasn't used to adding a sudden force in the middle.
I kept recalling Godwin's movents and timing as I continued to cut.
After how many attempts of swinging at the empty air...
Whooosh!
Finally, a cut with proper strength erged.
At that mont.
[You have learned 'Executioner's Strike.']
-A strike with the resolve of an executioner to kill a condemned prisoner in one blow.
-Proficiency 0.1%
'Finally.'
A notification window popped up to inform that I had learned the skill.
Because I had executed the motion precisely for the first ti.
Now, the Executioner's Strike had beco one of my skills.
But.
'This isn't nearly enough.'
Proficiency 0.1%
It's simply not usable in real combat.
To be decent, the proficiency has to be at least in the double digits.
The proficiency of the Focus shot I practice daily without fail is just about 10% now.
Of course, even when it was less than 1%, the concentrated shot was so advanced that it was as powerful as a mid-level skill.
But the Executioner's Strike is not on that level.
It's just the beginning, and constant training is a must.
"Huh, I thought it would take days, but you know how to handle a sword better than I thought."
It was much quicker in the ga, though. Let's move on to the next step then.
I know what this is.
Because it's the sa training we did in the ga.
Still, I followed the rhythm.
"What's the next step?"
"Splitting a fixed object."
_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
"Are you sure it's here?"
"According to the map, it seems to be the right place."
"Ah, which crazy person asked for logs to be delivered here?"
"Definitely a crazy one. But a crazy one with a lot of money; what are you going to do about it?"
"Co on, let's finish the job quickly and drink to our heart's content."
A group of burly n carefully placed the logs on the ground.
They repeated the process not just once but several tis.
Before long, 100 logs were laid out on the ground.
Only then did the n catch their breath and dust off their hands.
"Good job, everyone. Let's go down."
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