“Teacher, can you show me your swordsmanship? I heard swordsmanship is the most powerful skill in the entire world.”
‘Oh, right, a demonstration. That reminded me.’
“Zhu Dong, wait here. Teacher is going to fetch something.”
“Okay, Teacher!”
Watching Ajimi’s retreating figure, Zhu Qiu suddenly felt this teacher was pretty decent. She just didn’t know how strong he actually was.
‘If his strength is decent, I really do want to learn seriously from him. After all, I’m the only swordsmanship student at this academy. I should get the teacher’s undivided attention, right?’
Before long, Ajimi came back with a silver heavy sword on his back and a pitch-black “stake” in his hands. He walked up to Zhu Qiu and planted the “stake” into the ground.
“Zhu Dong, this is the training stake we use for testing. I’ll demonstrate for you now.”
Ajimi stepped back and gripped the heavy sword with both hands.
“Ha!”
He swung the heavy sword behind him in a full arc, did a simple charge-up, and slashed the “stake” in one strike.
In that instant, a string of long red numbers appeared above the “stake.”
“-100001!”
“See that? That’s one of Teacher’s normal attacks. The number on the ‘stake’ represents approximate damage. Red means a critical hit; white means no critical.”
However, Zhu Qiu wasn’t focused on the size of the number. Her attention was entirely on the fact that hitting this “stake” produced numbers.
She’d never heard of such a thing in the Human Race.
The strange and wonderful things of the Dragon Race kept refreshing Zhu Qiu’s understanding again and again.
‘A thing this good, and I only just found out about it. I wish I’d discovered it sooner.’
“Hm? Zhu Dong, don’t space out. You’re the only swordsmanship student in our academy. You need to be more serious.”
“I know, Teacher. Thanks for the reminder.”
Hearing Zhu Qiu’s soft, adorable, and utterly harmless voice, Ajimi’s heart trembled.
He began to have doubts.
‘Should I really let such a fragile little girl learn swordsmanship?’
‘Can she even learn it?’
‘It seems… no matter how you look at it, swordsmanship doesn’t suit her.’
Ajimi looked at Zhu Qiu’s determined eyes and didn’t know how to refuse her.
“Teacher, don’t space out either. Can you give me a sword? I want to try too.”
Because of her height, Zhu Qiu could only poke Ajimi’s thigh.
‘Since she wants to learn this badly, I’ll take it seriously too.’
“Alright, wait here. I’ll go get you a sword right away.”
“No need to bother, Teacher Jimi.” Zhu Qiu tugged at Ajimi. “Just let me borrow the sword on your back.”
“This sword? Better not. This sword is very heavy. You might not even be able to lift it.”
Ajimi assumed it was a child’s joke and didn’t take it seriously.
“Teacher Jimi, are you looking down on me?”
Zhu Qiu put her hands on her hips, a little unhappy, though she didn’t show it on her face.
“Of course not. Teacher is just thinking about your safety. It’s fine, I’ll be right back.”
Ajimi didn’t give Zhu Qiu a chance to keep talking and sprinted off to fetch a sword.
In just ten seconds, he came back holding a small iron sword suited to Zhu Qiu’s build.
“This sword fits you well. Now, follow Teacher’s example and show me your swordsmanship talent.”
Zhu Qiu took the sword, looked at it left and right, but no matter how she looked, there was no smile on her face.
“Tsk… This sword is finely crafted, but isn’t it a bit too short? It doesn’t even reach my chest. So short, this is really a small fry sword.”
She planted the sword into the ground and compared it with her height.
‘Whatever. Let me first try out this training stake.’
Zhu Qiu pulled the sword out and casually swung it at the stake twice.
Two white numbers appeared.
“-5000.”
“-5000.”
Then she imitated Ajimi’s move and gave a simple charged slash.
A string of red numbers appeared.
“-50000!”
“Whoa, this training stake is so fun. From now on, if I want to know whether my strength has improved, I can just look at this stake.”
“Thanks, Teacher Jimi!”
Zhu Qiu smiled happily.
To her, this was like Bole meeting a thousand-li horse.
As for Teacher Ajimi, he had been frozen in place for a while now. It was unclear if his soul was still with him.
“Teacher, the test is over. What do we do next?”
Zhu Qiu asked, but got no response.
“Teacher?”
She asked again and poked Ajimi’s thigh.
Just then, Ajimi suddenly, without any warning, put his hands under Zhu Qiu’s armpits and lifted her up like a child, raising her high.
“Genius! A genius not seen in ten thousand years, and I actually got to meet one! Hahaha!”
He didn’t care about his image at all, laughing excitedly in front of Zhu Qiu.
Those few test swings from Zhu Qiu just now had already enchanted him completely.
People always said magic learners were the talented ones. He never thought swordsmanship learners could be too, and he’d actually encountered one.
Ajimi was overjoyed, completely changing his previous impression of Zhu Qiu.
Truly, never judge people by appearances. Maybe a person’s appearance was meant to fool you.
“Teacher! Put me down!”
Zhu Qiu struggled violently in the air. She hated being treated like a child, especially being held up like this.
“Oh, oh, right. I got a little excited. Sorry about that.”
Ajimi rubbed his head apologetically.
After that, his eyes were full of light, as if he had new expectations for the upper limits of swordsmanship.
‘This is truly rare. I need to probe further to be sure.’
‘After all, this little one has such talent at such a young age.’
“Zhu Dong, have you been exposed to swordsmanship before?”
“Of course I have. Swordsmanship is my favorite thing.”
Zhu Qiu didn’t hide anything and told the truth.
She was here to learn swordsmanship, not to show off or humiliate others, so honesty was the best policy.
“Then… how long exactly have you been practicing swordsmanship?”
“Hmm, a bit over a decade. Not that long.”
“A bit over a decade?!”
Ajimi was astonished. “Achieving this result in just a bit over a decade? Your talent is even greater than Teacher’s. I’m sorry. Teacher shouldn’t have doubted you before. I swear, starting today, I’ll nurture you properly.”
With Teacher Jimi’s words, Zhu Qiu was completely reassured.
‘It seems coming to this so-called First Academy of the Dragon Clan can actually teach me something after all.’
“Thank you, Teacher.”
“Since we’re going to nurture you properly, let’s end today’s lesson here. See you tomorrow.”
“But Teacher, didn’t you say you’d nurture me properly? It’s been less than half an hour. Aren’t the other magic classes still in session?”
“Huh?”
Zhu Qiu wondered if she’d misheard.
“Don’t worry about that. The reason we’re ending early is that Teacher needs to go forge or find a suitable exclusive weapon for you. I’ll search first; if I can’t find one, I’ll forge it myself. This is very important. With a good weapon, swordsmanship can reach even greater heights.”
Teacher Jimi spoke with great conviction, and Zhu Qiu agreed completely.
“I understand, Teacher.”
“Alright, then class is dismissed. See you tomorrow morning.”