As he stood above the defeated Human Puppet, Elias was about to strike it down when he realized something.
"If I defeat the Human Puppet now, I will only have an hour to learn something new if the rewards are Skill Book and Sword Manual. Wouldn't it be better to use the opportunity to learn the Weapon Skill during this time instead of during the break time?"
As he pondered the idea, Elias realized it could actually work. He could still access his Skill Books. In the same vein, learning Magic and reaching the Transformation Stage would be greatly beneficial for him as well. It would even be easier than mastering new Weapon Skills as the former only needed him to concentrate and train how to control his Energy. In contrast, the latter usually needed him to read Skill Books before he could learn anything new.
He turned his gaze towards Human Puppet Ver.3, casting a menacing grin on it. Despite being a literal puppet, the Human Puppet seemed to tremble in fear but surely that is his imagination.
"Now, I won't destroy you so easily. Instead, you're going to become my training dummy until I learn all of my Weapon Skill and Magic."
-x-
Unfortunately, Elias couldn't pick up the stands from the training puppet as they all disappeared whenever the challenge started. So, he had to make do with standing near the Human Puppet and beating it up with the Weapon Skills and Magic he planned on learning.
"Now, Sword Block should be the last one I learn, as there is no reason to use it at the moment. So, I should start with Energy Thrust, then Energy Thrust II, and then Magic. After that, deepening my mastery of Heavy Slash if I can with my current Sword Mastery. Then, right before learning Sword Block, I should see if my theory is correct."
Now with a plan, Elias started things by chopping the limbs of the Human Puppet. It grew, unfortunately, but still took time. If he had to estimate, it would take roughly 5 to 10 minutes for it to fully grow into properly functioning limbs.
"Now, Energy Thrust is just like Energy Slash, but instead of slashing, it's thrusting… " Elias read Energy Thrust I Skill Book and easily understood due to his high Sword Mastery.
After understanding the basics, he began practice, unleashing Energy Thrust on the growing limbs of the Human Puppet. Unfortunately, it was not strong enough to cut the limbs, but it did get close to severing them. So, Elias did it multiple times, all aimed at the same spot, which cut the limbs and let him practice his accuracy, killing two birds with one stone.
Of course, each use of Energy Thrust consumed his Energy, so Elias had to be careful not to reach the state of Energy depletion. With his high Sword Mastery, it did not take long for Elias to learn everything he could from Energy Thrust I Skill Book.
And so, it's time to read the Energy Thrust II Skill Book.
"I see, I need to move the Energy in a better flow if I want to decrease the amount of time it takes for me to unleash it. And I could make it stronger as well …"
As time passed by, Elias continued reading Energy Thrust II Skill Book, occasionally practicing what he managed to glean before resuming his reading. Of course, his concentration during the reading session is not the best as he needed to watch the Human Puppet in case it managed to get its limbs back when he was reading.
After almost an hour of practicing Energy Thrust, Elias decided to stop for now, as understanding the latter pages would require a better Sword Mastery and an environment where he could practice without worrying that his prisoner (re:victim) could escape.
"Let's stop learning Energy Thrust for now and go back to Magic." His voice showed his excitement, as Elias couldn't contain it, feeling like he returned to being a child who wished to be able to use Magic.
"I should learn Earth Aura first, then go back to Water Transformation," as Magic Transformation is far more difficult than Aura Manifestation, Elias decided learning his other Inborn Affinity would yield faster results, and he would not need to split his attention, much.
So, Elias focused on Earth, trying to get a feeling of it. Unfortunately, being born on a floating city made it hard to get a place that had genuine Earth and dirt. Thankfully, his parents had taken him on vacations to places with actual dirt so he could imagine it.
He remembered picnicking on the beach where he built sandcastles. He remembered walking down a trail, stepping on the ground as it stained his shoes. More memories filled his mind as Elias felt the pulled Energy strands taking the form of Earth.
He watched as his fist was covered in brown Aura, his hand feeling like it was holding, yet not holding soil. Elias willed for it to harden before he punched the Human Puppet's face. The punch was strong enough to almost caved the face, proving to him that different Affinity has different effects.
"That checks the list, and now, for the test," oh, Elias could spend more time here, but he really wanted to keep being the first in defeating the challenge so he couldn't train for much longer.
As for what he wanted to test, Elias pulled an Energy strand and transformed it into Water Aura. Afterwards, he used Energy Slash, using the transformed strand instead of his regular Energy.
Unfortunately, the first attempt failed, with the only result being him wheezing while almost losing about a quarter of his Energy. Yet, he could feel that he could truly fuse his Magic with Weapon Skill.
"I have two more tries, then I will stop." He decided. That's the maximum number of tries before his Energy reserve was truly emptied. And having no Energy while still fighting the Human Puppet is not a good idea.
The second attempt was closer than the first one, but it still failed at the last part, when he was fusing it. On his third and last attempt before he destroyed the Human Puppet, Elias decided that instead of fusing the Energy from Energy Slash, he would replace it completely with Water Aura.
So, Elias pulled as much Energy strands as he could without tiring himself out, turning them into Water Aura before pouring it into his Energy Slash. This time, it worked, the En- Water Slash slamming down the Human Puppet and almost completely severing it, no doubt the Vitality of it almost reaching the zero-mark.
Elias smiled at his success before turning back his attention to the Human Puppet, ignoring the new achievement,
[SKILL
Using Magic Aura to replace Energy resulted in Weapon Skill changing Attributes and having greater power + 10 Knowledge Points]
[Congratulations player Alisnair on being the first person to use Magic to change Attributes of Weapon Skill
+ 50 Achievement Point]
"Time to end your suffering,"
And so, after two hours of beating the Human Puppet to the point of being considered a war crime, Elias finally ended it miserable … life? by using an Earth-empowered Heavy Slash on its head, almost flattening it completely.