Today, I’ll train with the knife until it gets dark.
I really want to secure food too, but aside from wild grasses and berries, I have no means to get meat. So, along with practicing the knife forms, I decided to practice “Knife Throwing” as well.
Normally, practicing multiple things without a 【Skill】 to memorize the proficiency state is inefficient, but right now, I’m really lacking in ways to “live,” so I wanted even a slight “trump card.”
First, before I forget, I carefully trace and repeat the knife forms I learned yesterday.
Feld said that because I have a foundation in 【Body Enhancement】, I’ll learn quickly once I can use the forms, but I’m not that optimistic, so I thought I’d perfect the forms and speed up the learning as much as possible.
In the first place, 【Skill Level 1】 isn’t something easily obtained.
If skills popped up after just a few days of practice, even ordinary people would have acquired a large number of combat skills by the time they became adults.
So, what level is 【Skill Level 1】?
That woman’s “knowledge” of common sense told me, even though she wasn’t familiar with close combat.
For example, what level is 【Swordsmanship Skill Level 1】? It’s about the level a child who attends a town’s swordsmanship dojo for several years can finally acquire around the age of 12 or 13, when their body is developed.
To get from there to 【Level 2】 requires practical training and a level of skill that makes fighting for life a profession.
Level 3 is the level that can be reached by professional soldiers or knights who have been in service for more than ten years, and at this point, they can confidently call themselves “warriors.”
But that’s the level that ordinary people can reach as a “job,” and to go beyond that, it’s said that training that sacrifices personal life and talent in that field are required.
Generally, no one acquires Skill Level 1 before the age of 10, and no one reaches Level 3 around the age of 20.
So, for me to gain a 【Skill】 while still young, I needed to train the forms perfectly and accurately, in a way that children couldn’t possibly do, rather than just practicing recklessly.
Sharpening my mind, I repeat the corrected forms slowly but accurately.
Children are surprisingly focused. Ordinary children are fickle and don’t last long, but because I “understand” that it’s necessary for survival, my concentration didn’t waver.
“…Haa.”
After repeating the dagger techniques for about two hours, I felt fatigue and thirst in my body and exhaled.
Moving my body, which was about to collapse, with the power of will, I reached for the leather water bottle and lightly licked the water, and I was concerned that the water was getting old.
I should have replenished the water in the morning when I was able to use 【Water】
The Mana I can use today is… Hmm? When I think about the remaining Mana, the necessary information comes to my mind from “knowledge.”
Even if Mana is consumed, it seems that it recovers by about 10% per hour in this world filled with Mana Particles, and 20% if you are sleeping.
If so, even if I consume it until the limit, my Mana will be fully recovered if I sleep for about five hours.
Probably two hours have passed since I last used Mana, so I should have recovered about 2 or 3 of my Mana Capacity of 13.
First, I wash my hands in the river, throw away the old water that smells like leather from the water bottle, and bring my fingertips close to the mouth of the water bottle. I chant 【Water】 while paying attention to the remaining Mana, and pour the water in little by little.
With my current training level, the water I can produce with Mana 1 is about a cup. I use 【Water】 once more, wondering if I can do a little more, and my head sways slightly.
But now I know that Mana recovers by 10% per hour.
It seems that Mana will gradually increase if you acquire Magic skills or use Mana, but right now I have too little usable Mana to even practice.
Then, isn’t there a way to speed up Mana recovery? …I’ll think about that later.
After drinking water and recovering my energy, I decided to practice knife throwing next.
There are two types of knife throwing: the direct throw, which throws straight, and the rotating throw, which rotates. The direct throw is used to hit a close target, and the rotating throw is used when aiming a little further away. …Apparently.
Even with Body Enhancement, the limit for knife throwing is probably 10 meters. Beyond that, it should be more efficient to use a bow normally.
First, I try aiming at a tree trunk 2 meters away. The grip doesn’t change whether it’s a direct throw or a rotating throw. Only the way the arm is swung and the timing of release change, so I tried throwing the knife using a direct throw that flies straight.
Bang.
“…………”
Before it even sticks, the knife is slammed into the ground. It seems that you throw using the forearm, but how do you make it fly straight?
Well, I have no choice but to practice, but after repeating it several times, I understand that a seven-year-old doesn’t have enough muscle strength. I need a special throwing weapon… a throwing weapon like “senbon.”
Why does that woman have such useless knowledge?
Change of plans. I’ll give up on knife throwing for now and switch to throwing stones.
The reason I was so particular about knife throwing was that it required both 【Dagger Arts】 and 【Throwing】, and I could train both at the same time. To throw an axe like Feld, you need 【Axe Combat】 and 【Throwing】.
Since all I need for throwing stones is the 【Throwing】 skill, I should be able to use it.
When I was thinking about how to throw, knowledge of a slingshot came to mind. It seems that this can be easily made if you have a string and cloth or leather.
Another change of plans. It seems that even children can produce relatively high power, so I decided to make one. That woman used to hunt rabbits with it when she was young, so I know how to make it.
In the process of making the slingshot, I realized that I didn’t have any string. Should I cut the cloth into long strips and use it as a substitute? Will the strength be okay? I also need a part to hook my finger on, so it seems better to have a string… Thinking about that, I rummaged through my luggage and found the hair I had cut off.
I kept it thinking I could sell it, but it’s about 30 centimeters long, so if I twist it together, I might be able to use it as a substitute for string.
First, I tie a few strands together at the base and braid them like a braid. It became quite distorted. It came undone when I pulled it hard. After repeating that several times, it was completely evening by the time I was finally able to braid it neatly.
…I’ll go pick Blackberries.
It was quite dark when I finished picking Blackberries, so I hurried back to the usual tree.
My Mana should be recovering a little soon. Among the wild grasses I collected in the morning, something I had been drying on a rock by the river was quite dry, so I squeezed it into a ball and used 【Spark (Fire)】 to light it a little.
Insect repellent grass. I tried using it because it was in that book.
Originally, it’s used as incense, so I don’t know if this is the right way to use it, but I’ve been in the forest for a long time and I’ve been worried about insect bites, so I hope this will improve it.
I put it at the base of the tree, surrounded by stones. This level of fire won’t be very noticeable, so it should be okay.
I climbed up the tree, and since I can still see a little, I made the slingshot and then had a supper of just berries.
In the dark forest, I could see the light of a bonfire towards the campsite. Of course, I didn’t go to see it, but hid while holding my breath.
…But I was a little curious and turned my attention towards the campsite. Could this be used for the training Feld was talking about, feeling the Mana Particles in the atmosphere and reading the signs?
I strained my eyes in the direction of the campsite and tried to feel the surrounding Mana Particles, sharpening my senses.
As I stared intently trying to feel the Mana Particles, I felt like something was there. Could I be starting to sense the presence of small animals?
Maybe it’s a “fairy” or “Spirit” that I heard about in fairy tales when I was little.
As if that thought was a trigger, a certain “knowledge” came to mind.
It is said that the Mana Particles in this world are created by Spirits. If that’s the case, then there might really be small Spirits around here.
But, wait? There are as many types of Spirits as there are attributes. If, as I assumed, Mana Particles are converted by touching those with attributes, then the source of that conversion is the Spirits. If that’s the case, which Spirit is creating the Mana Particles that fill this forest?
Since it’s a forest, is it the Earth? Or Water? Since it’s night now, maybe the Spirit of Darkness is creating it.
When I think about it that way, it’s strange, but I feel like the power of the Spirit of Darkness is overflowing in the forest. There’s moonlight tonight, so if my eyes get used to it, I can see the outlines faintly, but perhaps because I came to that conclusion, I noticed a part that felt particularly dark in the darkness of the forest.
The light of the distant bonfire caught my eye, so maybe that’s why it looks darker?
…Is that really the case?
Once I became concerned about it, the darkness and the other parts started to look different.
If that’s the power of a Darkness Spirit—Mana Particles of the Darkness attribute—what about the other parts? The trees look particularly different, so are those Water or Earth attribute Mana Particles?
If Darkness is ‘blackish,’ what color are Water and Earth? In my mind, Water is ‘bluish’ and Earth is ‘yellowish.’ If that’s the case, then Light is ‘whitish,’ Fire is ‘reddish,’ and Wind… what color would that be? Considering the remaining colors, maybe a light ‘greenish’ hue.
While pondering such things, I focused my eyes, imagining the Mana Particles around the trees as ‘yellow’ and ‘blue.’ Strangely enough, the trunk of the trees seemed to have a mottled pattern of yellow and blue, and the area around the distant bonfire appeared red.
“…How strange.”
The gentle breeze rustling the leaves felt faintly green, and when I strongly imagined the ‘colors,’ the forest, which had been just darkness until now, suddenly felt like it was filled with colors.
It might just be my imagination. It might be an illusion that my brain is showing me just now.
But if this is really happening…
I took a deep breath, inhaling the surrounding Mana Particles, and as I matched my own Mana to the ‘colors’ of the surroundings, I suddenly felt like my presence, which had been floating until now, had melted into the forest.
Just how skilled is each level of Swordsmanship?
It’s a rough estimate, but I’ve tried to compare it to modern terms.
Level 1: Skilled enough to consistently place high in prefectural high school kendo tournaments.
Level 2: Skilled enough for college students or adults to participate in serious tournaments.
Level 3: Skilled enough for police officers or self-defense force personnel to place high in national kendo tournaments.
Level 4: Skilled enough to win major tournaments for adults.
Something like that, perhaps?
Next time: Part 2 – Searching for a means of combat.