The Unbidden: A New World (1) (Long Parts)

Chapter 3 (Part 2)

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Almost two months had passed since we first arrived at the city. During the weekdays, I practiced my swordsmanship with Raugr and Jayde, and the weekends I would practice different abilities and spells at Vel'Nysa's. My sword handling skills greatly improved during that time.

I went from simply swinging a sword around and practicing different stances to actual sparring. I was pitted against other new mercenaries, adventurers and soldiers from the end of the first month on.

I felt skillful. During my first few sparing matches, I was evenly matched with my partner. After I familiarized myself with the different defensive and offensive stances, I was able to quickly get the upper hand against most of my opponents.

At a certain point, however, Raugr insisted more experienced swordsmen spar me, to which I got my rear handed to me. I felt myself reach a sort of plateau at that point. The only skill I felt kept developing was my ability to swing the sword faster and more interestingly.

I ended up buying a gilded steel short sword from a foreign land for an entire gold and carried it around sheathed in a dark brown leather with the pattern of a wolf burned into it. The sword was my main physical weapon in-case I needed it. I also nabbed about fifty-five silver worth of cheaper swords to bring to Vel'Nysa's.

Over the past several weekends, I continued testing the limits of my abilities and refining the current ones. After practicing enough, I was able to make a rock bolt launch at such insane speeds that I had trouble seeing it as it moved. When it impacted the wall of the room, it left a crater almost two feet wide and half a foot deep.

Thankfully the room seemed to repair itself every day, so there weren't dozens of craters pock-marking the room. I thought Vel'Nysa would have a fit were that the case.

Additionally, I was successful in attempts to add elemental effects to my swords. There was an inherent excitement when it first happened, but then I came to the realization that the effects didn't work as I thought they would.

When trying to create a fire sword, I ended up heating the blade itself to white-hot temperatures. It was good for cutting soft things, but when I tried using it against other metal, the results were lackluster, to say the least.

As for water, I was easily able to have water coat the blade in either a tight or loose form. The problem I encountered was that it didn't really do anything besides cover the blade. I figured it'd be useful to keep blood off, but not much utility otherwise.

I did have significant success with using the air. At first, I was at a bit of a loss. When I initially created a tight, fast current around the blade and tried swinging, the sword nearly ripped from my hand and just floated in the air while the tunnel acted like a giant fan.

I found out that I was thinking too much about physics and how it can affect things. Thankfully, Thea made this universe at least a little forgiving toward me.

When I just envisioned the gale-force wind being attached to the blade and casted the spell, I was able to successfully swing it and not have a powerful wind blasting me in the room.

I did feel a bit cheated though. If I just ignored how things normally interact with one another, then I could realistically do anything it seemed. I didn't bother trying to do anything extremely crazy as a result, not unless I needed to.

I also managed to create a sword in likeness to mine made purely of water. I made certain to bring a bucket of water so my lips didn't chap as I sucked the moisture from the room and used it to make the weapon.

Barring how water normally worked, I made the water blade so sharp that it was making clean cuts through the wall. I ended up doing the same thing with air. I enjoyed the air blade the most because it was almost invisible if there wasn't any dirt caught in it.