Creak
Amanda opened the classroom door and saw that a teacher was currently teaching English, the classroom instantly froze as she entered. She ignored the teacher, her eyes scanning the room until they landed on Victor sitting among a group of girls, which made her eyebrows twitch.
"Miss Selene, I need to borrow Victor for today," Amanda said.
The teacher looked at her in surprise at the sudden interruption, then nodded.
"Sure. Student Victor, go with Miss Amanda," Miss Selene said.
Victor stood up with a bitter smile and waved at the girls before following Amanda out.
A few minutes later, Victor was trailing Amanda through the corridor in silence until she finally spoke in a neutral tone.
"So, what on earth were you thinking? Did I not tell you not to act recklessly?" Amanda said, displeasure clear in her voice.
"I couldn't help it, Miss Amanda. He was the one who came and provoked me," Victor said, spreading his hands.
"Hah, at least your personality hasn't changed after losing your memories. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing," Amanda sighed as she led Victor to a private training room.
"Miss Amanda, where is this place? It doesn't look like the normal training area," Victor said, raising an eyebrow at the thick metal walls and high-tech environment.
"This is my private training room. I use it to train myself, and I'm going to train your swordsmanship here," Amanda said indifferently, eyeing Victor in front of her.
"Huh? Aren't you a Mage Bloodline user?" Victor asked in surprise as he looked at Amanda.
"I'm a Sword Master myself as well. I may not be as skilled as the Knight Bloodline users, but I'm still better than most beginners," Amanda said nonchalantly.
Victor could only stare at her with a dumbfounded expression.
"Miss Amanda, when did Mages start learning to use a sword?" Victor asked in puzzlement. From both his memories and what he'd heard from classmates, he knew how much Mages looked down on Knights. He couldn't fathom why a Mage would willingly learn swordsmanship.
Amanda rolled her eyes at him.
"Before I say anything else, Victor, do you remember how swordsmen are ranked based solely on their sword skills?" Amanda asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Eh? Sword users have rankings?" Victor blinked in obvious surprise. In his past world—and even in this one, from what little information he'd gathered—Rankers were only classified in terms of Tiers. He hadn't expected there to be additional ranks.
"Sigh, I should have expected you forgot this as well," Amanda muttered before continuing. "Everyone, including Mages, can learn swordsmanship. But unlike Knights, they cannot use special weapon skills, and for them it's ten times more difficult to learn. That's why even if some Mages want to train in close combat, they usually give up due to the difficulty and the time it consumes."
She paused and then listed calmly, "The ranks go as follows: Sword Novice, Sword Apprentice, Sword Expert, Sword Master, Sword Grandmaster, Sword Saint, Sword Overlord, Sword Monarch, Sword King, Sword Emperor, and finally, Sword God."
"For Knights, this makes things even harder. Other than having a high-ranked bloodline, they also need to polish their swordsmanship in order to master high-ranked weapon techniques. That's why most Knight Bloodline users focus on honing their sword skills before attempting the Trial."
Victor nodded slowly.
'Sigh, Knights sure have it rough,' Victor thought, feeling a sense of pity for Knight Bloodline users.
"What about me? What rank of swordsman was I? And what about Mister Smith?" Victor asked curiously.
Amanda's eyes narrowed at the mention of the last name.
"You were a Sword Saint—the youngest and fastest to ever reach that rank before becoming a Ranker. Eric is also a Sword Saint. The reason he hates you, other than you being a commoner, is because he was once considered the most talented. Out of jealousy, he challenged you to a spar, but you defeated him easily," Amanda said, looking at Victor.
"How petty," Victor grumbled under his breath. He suddenly stopped, turned to Amanda, and asked urgently, "Miss Amanda, what rank was I when I defeated the Mages?"
"You were at the Sword Saint rank," Amanda replied with a cold smile as she watched Victor break into a cold sweat.
"Miss Amanda, is it possible for me to reach Sword Saint rank in two weeks? I mean, I used to know the techniques already, right?" Victor asked, swallowing hard.
"Unlikely. It took you years to reach that level, and you trained like a madman," Amanda said calmly.
"No way…" Victor's shoulders slumped. He then turned his eyes toward her again and asked, "Then is there any way I can recover my former strength quickly?"
"Yes, but those treasures are only found at the top levels of the Tower, and I don't have any. Who told you to be so reckless? Just train hard. That way, when you get beaten, at least you'll be able to fight back," Miss Amanda said nonchalantly.
'Damn, I'm so screwed,' Victor cried out inwardly and fell into a daze.
Woosh
Victor snapped out of it when he felt the temperature of the room rise all of a sudden. A flaming figure appeared, clad in crimson flame armor, holding a longsword made entirely of fire.
"Woah!" Victor exclaimed in shock.
"This is a spell I created myself. This knight has self-consciousness and has copied my sword skills. It's at the Sword Saint rank, but you can use it for training. It will start with skills comparable to a Sword Novice," Amanda explained.
Woosh
"Damn!" Before Victor could react, the fire knight lunged at him.
'At least give me a sword! Akasha Eye!' Victor cried inwardly as the knight's movements suddenly slowed due to the Akasha Eye. He managed to roll across the ground, grabbing a sword from the rack. As soon as his hand closed around the weapon, glowing lines of text appeared before his eyes.
[Ding Dong]
[Akasha Eye detected: Novice Class Swordsmanship]
[Learning Novice Class Swordsmanship…]
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