My New Life in TBATE

Dedication to Training

{3 Weeks Later}

*woosh*

*woosh*

"Haa, 100" I breathe out as I drop to my butt and begin focusing purely on meditating. It's been 3 weeks since I've moved in with the Helstea's and while I do still visit the orphanage, I've already started to throw myself heavily into training. What I just finished now was my 10th set of 100 swings of the new wooden sword Vincent got me.

I had recently got mana rotation down to where I could unconsciously use it, like Arthur I can only rotate about 20% of what I could if I was focusing. However I noticed something surprising, my mana rotation potential increases whenever I have my sword with me. A staggering increase of being able to absorb mana up to 50%!. It seems the "bond" I've formed with sword since coming here also acts a focus for my mana rotation.

I can also do something that Arthur couldn't, as long as I'm hitting that 50% I can also purify my mana at the same time. It's still not as efficient as if I was purely focusing on it, but even just tiny gains over these next multiple years will be a huge boon. I'm excited to see my mana core progression with this cheat level ability.

Needless to say now all my exercises I kept my sword on me. Running? Sword was in my hand as I noticed that's when I get the full 50%. However if I was doing push-ups it was more practical to strap it to my back. It gained me curious looks whenever the servants or my new family would see my constantly holding my sword, but I just shrugged it off. And since I couldn't just walk around with my sword in my hand I've resorted to while it is "sheathed" on my left side, I always have my left hand rested on the handle. I say sheathed loosely here because it's still just a rope belt with a loop for my sword to slide through and sit on my hip.

I can't wait to see what kind of gains this method will bring me as I become more proficient in both mana core and sword skill. Alright breaks over, time for my laps around the mansion before finishing off with yoga like stretches. I'll be honest I don't quite know what I'm doing, but I've just been using stretches I sort of remembered. Mostly I've just been making sure to increase my flexibility, steadily.

And don't worry while I said laps around the mansion, there's a little more to it than just raising my stamina. I'm also practicing using my wind magic more and more, by having it cushioning my foot falls as well as give me a little boost with each step. Sort of like walking on air but not as drastic. It's also a fun focus exercise as while I'm doing that I'm also using my wind mana on my body to counter the draft force anyone naturally has.

Anything in motion will have some sort of draft or force pushing it back, especially as the faster it goes it becomes more obvious. Which lead me to figuring out how to counter that with wind magic, but not only that it lead me down another path. If I could counter it, couldn't I also reinforce it?

While I'm not a conjurer so it will be a while before I can apply it to my opponents, that's not the case for myself. Which is how I've added my own variation of "weighted" training. The extra force I have to push against will act similar to if I was weighed down, but not effecting my form as much. As it's more like I went from trying to slice water to slicing jello, and I can increase the difficulty until eventually it's the equivalent of slicing through metals.

That's the theory anyways, for now I've just been using this knowledge to counter the draft meaning my sword faces no resistance as I slash it. Of course this is just testing the feeling as it would be counter productive to train with no resistance whatsoever. But I found that I can take 100% more swings when I have no resistance, compared to normal resistance.

I haven't found any practical ways to add fire into my routine though. I can coat my fist and my sword in flames, but that makes it where I can't concentrate on using my wind magic to counter the drafts. It's something that I'll definitely have to work on if I want to use my dual elements efficiently. For now though I'll continue to train them and think of how to activate their deviants, surely with my modern knowledge of how things work it shouldn't be too hard.