He's serious. Master's is really serious.
Seeing the cold look on Kaelis's face, Bell quickly realized that his master was not joking.
Kaelis's casual tone from earlier is gone—he's in "teacher mode."
Gritting his teeth, he found the strength to push himself off the ground.
"Look alive!"
"Huh?"
Vrrrrr!
The air ripped…
The reverberating sound of a cross shaped windslash coming at him made bell freeze for a second before diving out the way.
Cough! Cough—
Clang!
"Gaaaaah…!"
He was interrupted as Kaelis quickly uses that opportunity to slam his side with the blade's blunt area, blasting him further.
"Steady your breathing and don't be distracted in a fight!"
Bell quickly recovered and jumped into a defensive stance.
Though it was unsteady…
At this rate… I'm gonna die!
He was breathing heavily from being beaten down twice. Not to mention the heavy weight boring down on his psyche.
From the beginning, Kaelis was pressuring Bell's mind by releasing a bit of sword intent and as will he be doing for the rest of their sparring sessions in the future.
This will allow Bell to be able to operate under extreme stress.
Focus. Focus. Focus…Above!
He crossed the swords above his head once more as Kaelis appeared above him and slashed down.
Ting!
Sparks flew as the blades met…
But as before, the force of the exchange made Bell's knees buckle and his arms trembled.
Kaelis's body flickered, appearing beside him with his sword raised overhead.
Out of the corner of his eyes, Bell spotted Kaelis's actions and dashed away intending to create distance.
But…
Thwack!
"
Moving faster, Kaelis swung his foot and stepped square in Bell's chest forcing a 'Guh—' from his throat.
The kick had knocked the wind out his lungs…
Dropping his swords, Bell keeled over on the spot, wheezing for air before throwing up everything he's eaten since morning.
Kaelis simply watched on.
Moments later…
Sucking in a large breath and with trembling arms, bell stretched for the swords again, intending to continue.
But seeing him having difficulty standing, Kaelis shook his head.
"Take a break. You won't be able to continue any further for today."
He then walked over to the basket they brought with lunch and snacks before bringing it over to Bell's position.
"Here is water, drink it."
Kaelis fed him the water seeing as bell arms were still shaking.
"Thank…you…" Bell thanked weakly.
"Don't sweat it."
Looking towards the sky, Kaelis deduced that the time was around mid afternoon so they decided to head back.
~~~
"…You know… you did pretty good for your first spar."
On their way back to the farm, Kaelis decided to start a little conversation to lighten Bell's mood.
"I…did?" Bell wondered.
Currently, he was lying limply in Kaelis's arms in princess carry due to him being incredibly weak.
"Mhm. Normally, after becoming an apprentice, you would still be doing routine drills with the occasional light sparring." He explained.
Becoming an apprentice only means you know the basics of fighting.
At that stage they would be focusing on reaction, perception and rhythm flow through sparring with their peers and the corrections of their master.
"But as you can see. I won't be doing that. And you did well."
Hearing this, Bell chuckled depressingly at his misfortune.
Who told him to ask such a demon to train him? Ah, it was me…
"I couldn't do anything though…" He said self-deprecatingly.
He hasn't even managed to attack once or even defend properly. Just stood there taking a beating.
"Hahaha! The whole point of me doing that, was to directly ingrain it into your bones." Kaelis chuckled.
"Training your reaction and getting you familiar with unusual rhythm is what gives you the edge in fights you know. Going so hard against you gives you experience too. You usually don't get it until you reach adept-class."
"How unfortunate…" Bell muttered.
"Just so you know… I held back quite a lot."
Bell shot him an accusing glance, too weak to muster a glare. "Really? I didn't feel that though. I thought I was gonna die."
"Of course!" Kaelis puffed out his chest proudly.
"I pride myself on being the best teacher a student can ask for. I held back enough for you to barely see my moves and train your perception. Your body can catch up later."
"So we'll be sparring from now on?" Dread spread across Bell's face.
"Yep. Our goal is to get the techniques drilled into your body and what better way than to beat them into you."
Silence fell as they continued their journey.
After which bell finally asked a question he had from the very first time they met.
"Master… how strong are you?"
Earlier, Kaelis had said he was holding back—but even without the blessings of the gods, he had been moving impossibly fast.
He reminded Bell of the heroes of old.
The ones from the Age of Heroes, who had attained unimaginable strength through sheer effort and will alone.
And then, with Kaelis's peculiar ability to make swords appear out of thin air, a childish thought crept into Bell's mind.
Is Master… one of those heroes?
A small spark began to grow inside him, a mixture of awe and something else he didn't fully understand yet.
"How strong am I, huh. I don't really know."
Kaelis's strength grows in direct proportion to the volume of his soul.
At the very start of his journey—back when he was only seven, before his soul had ever taken the shape of a sword—his soul was just like anyone else's:
a simple cube, each side one meter long.
With his unique ability, he could expand that cube by studying and understanding different attributes and materials.
And every increase in the soul's size directly translated into a boost in his physical power.
Since his physical strength is tied to the volume of his soul, even a single added meter causes a massive jump.
He still remembers the first time his soul grew from one cubic meter to two—the change multiplied all of his physical attributes by eight.
It kept growing like that over the years, to the point where he eventually stopped keeping track.
He honestly couldn't remember the exact size anymore.
But if he had to make a guess… his soul was probably somewhere around eighty-plus cubic meters by now.
According to the information from his ability, once his soul reached a large enough size, he would eventually be able to compress it back down to its original one-meter form.
If he achieved that, the soul's "new" one-meter size would carry the power of its full, uncompressed volume.
This in turn would massively increase the quality of his spirit, along with the potency of his attributes and the strength of his swords.
"Let's just say, I'm very powerful."
"Mm-mm."
Not long after, they reached the farm…
They did not pause and directly went into the house.
"Do you want me to wash you?"
Kaelis joked as he placed Bell on the sofa in the living room.
"No! I'm fine!"
Even if he was weak right now and couldn't really move, having someone else wipe him down was way too embarrassing.
"I was just kidding. I'll leave you to your own devices then. I'll go wash my clothes." Kaelis waved him off.
Sitting by the well in nothing but his underwear, scrubbing his white robe clean, he suddenly realized it was about time he made himself more clothes.
"Hmm… I've got thread and needles in my subspace, the dye's almost finished, and I still have that machine… yeah, that should be enough."
And just like that, time—as always—slipped by quickly.
Chapter 46 end.
————————————————————
Mc soul is 87m^3.
87x87x87=658,503
So mc is 658,503 times stronger than peak human parameters.