I felt trapped. But that feeling wasn't real. It was just my body craving for the usual routine I follow in the real world.
It's been over a year, I don't know the exact time here, but just twelve or some hours have passed in reality.
I felt hunger, yes. Because my mind craved food more than my body did. My mind thirsted more than my throat did, because I had not touched, smelled, or drank anything in the Orochi's mind realm.
Sleep was minimal.
Death turned into a routine.
Pain inflicted on my body didn't really hold any meaning other than the hunger and thirst I craved.
I felt I was dying of suffocation, not the deaths inflicted by Orochi.
During this year, I had mastered all forms of Kage, the shadow stance. Ichi-ni-san-shi-go.
The second style that Orochi made me master, along with Kage, was Kasumi no Kamae, the deception art.
Warriors use a mixture of sight, hearing and aura sensing during combat. Kasumi exploits the delay in the sync of those senses.
It's a desync error. By the time the opponent even processes I moved, it's already too late, and to top it off, I even use Kage (The shadow steps.)
---
I slightly shifted to my right as a slight, black aura pulsated from the ground beneath me.
A blue aura sword was manifested in the place where my neck was just a blink ago. I could feel its heat on my face.
"At least you're able to dodge for instant deaths," Orochi called out. "That's a major leap, I must say,"
"Just dodge? You consider that a major leap for dreadful suffering and repetitive training of a whole year?" I asked, staring into his eyes.
He chuckled and nodded slightly. "Oh I say that's quite impressive,"
"You didn't dodge an attack of some knight or clearance six magician." He looked back in my eyes and spread his arms.
"You dodged from Orochi. Yamata No Orochi," he stated, as I took a step back again, another sword manifesting at the place I was.
"I feel like I'm a pretty good teacher, I taught you all of this in a year," He said, and moved using shadow steps.
"Well, how do you know, maybe I'm just a good learner…"
He was fast. Even after learning the same technique, I couldn't follow him properly. The only thing I was able to see was his blurry afterimages, which was a decent progress considering my previous deaths, where I'd be dead without even noticing him move.
"But you still…" He clutched my face with his palm, appearing right beside me, and slammed me to the ground, the flesh of his own real body.
I died… again, with my head crushed miserably, but I could at least see and hear him move.
"You still rely on guesses…well, they're getting close as we train, but guesswork wouldn't cut it," Orochi said, as I cracked my neck, popping the neck joints, and manifested my katana in my hand.
"But the good news is," he said, waving his sword. "You're way stronger than an emenant-ranked knight, and probably more stronger than the previous Ymir Celestie,"
"From the way you're announcing this news, I assume this is the end of our…first training session?" I asked.
"This would do for now, I wouldn't want my disciple to die so early, would I?" he said, and pointed at my head.
"Oh, and I would need your study on sixteen-fold arrangements of magic circle structures, as our first official transaction," he stated.
"You have my word," I nodded, and he snapped his finger.
*Snap*
The world started shattering. As if I were living inside a mirror. The cracks in the glass of the world grew at a tremendous rate.
A branch led to several others, and those led to several others, multiplying until it all started to crack down into complete darkness.
Some time passed, and I tried opening my eyes as the sunrays hit the lids of my eyes.
I opened my eyes, shielding myself from the bright sun above me.
I was back at the place where Orochi had made me enter his mind realm.
I was lying in the centre of the forest path with no trees to shelter me from the sunlight.
"Morning sunshine," Orochi spoke.
"That sounds romantically creepy coming from you. Save it for the goddess," I replied, rubbing my eyes.
I felt like I just had the best sleep of my life. I felt refreshed and anew.
"On second thought, why don't I just kill you, you're just a human either way," he said and sat beside in the centre of the patch, feeling the hot sunlight.
"Just a human? That's literal racism." I said.
"Don't bring that white and black concept among demons and humans. Demons are clearly superior, and we're not limited to size, shape, or colour." He replied.
"You guys must have a lot of teams then…we just deal with two kinds in the mortal realm," I murmured.
"…"
.-.-.-.-.-.
"Oh, how I feel so alive again." The first thing I did upon reaching my office was take a warm shower, and order a feisty meal to cure the hunger and thirst of wine that my mind craved so badly.
Orochi had already left, and now I was staring at the file of the students that I'm going to assist in the expedition, which I had completely forgotten, because it's been over a year for me.
I was remembering everything, every piece of information about the life I was living a year ago. From the matter of Krells, to Matthias, Victoria, and of course, the expedition as a punishment for letting the kids in my class gamble.
A day had already passed in reality, which meant tomorrow was the day of the Vanguard expedition.
"Tomorrow…hmm…" I murmured and started reading the names of each and every cadet, knight, and teacher who is going to be a part of the team.
"As they say," I mumbled, pouring wine into my empty glass.
"Vanity of vanities, all is vanity~"
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Author's Note :
I feel like there might be a bit of confusion in the power structure of this world, but I haven't really tapped into the real thing yet.
Although I have not yet received a single issue, complaint or any kind of confusion or inquiry on the structure, I'll just summarise it for my readers in a simple manner.
So what's the power structure up until now? –
We have Magicians. Clearance One to Clearance Six. Six being the most powerful ones, and one being the beginner of magic. Most of the people, even adults, get stuck at Clearance four and never get past that stage. People beyond that stage are highly respected individuals.
We have Knights, or warriors, if they're mercenaries or are not partaking in a security position in any noble household or church.
So, a knight without a job in any noble or church establishment is just a warrior. Just like our main character, Ymir.
Registered, bound, tempered, emenant, gravitant, and transcendent for knights or warriors. Most don't get past emenant stage. Those who do are highly respected. And unlike mages, there's not a single transcendent knight alive.
Ymir here is an official emenant-ranked warrior, but his powers exceed his rank because of his innate power 'Perception.'
Perception is a power to alter something he can perceive and draw in his own mind realm, which he calls a blank canvas. It's in the early stages of development.
Lastly, we have the martial arts of Orochi, which Ymir will inherit.
These are not power levels, but martial art forms. The more he practices, the more he'll achieve, so it's not based on aura power, but perfection of his own skills.
Orochi's martial arts derive from the legendary mythological story of Kusanagi, the sword inside Orochi's tail. To master it, I've created a structure inspired by twelve different forms of martial arts. Kage and Kasumi are just the beginning.
Thank you…I won't interrupt your reading experience from now on. I just wanted to come clean on the structure and clear any confusion, if there was any.
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