Supreme Swordfiend

Tracking down Mike was a task for tomorrow- roaming the woods by night was still beyond Leon. He'd managed to arrive back at the cottage while he'd been lost in thought, Zerasos was up and moving again, having taken a seat at the ping-pong table, surrounded by an impressive amount of paperwork..

The devil shouted a greeting over his shoulder as Leon began his nightly routine of stripping out of his armour, each piece carefully being placed against the wall as he went, his swords lain down flat on the ground, ready for the trials of the coming days..

"Nice job today kid! No training tonight, after we're done here you need some rest- you've got a big day coming up tomorrow. Get outta that stinking armour and take at look at this!."

Taking a sniff at his equipment killed Leon's rebuttal- the armour had been through hell and some stenches just didn't wash out. Down to just his tank top and sweatpants, Leon approached the lain out documents the devil had spread across the ping-pong table.

It was a cluttered mess, seemingly with little care given to organising the layout of information. Some papers were maps with various areas circled in red, some were transcribed interviews with former Tutorial participants but the bulk of the table was taken up by a thick collection of loose papers, each one detailing a potential strategy to be used in a dungeon called 'Trial 1'.

Zerasos put both hands down on the table, waiting for Leon to ask what all the fuss was about.

"We ever gonna actually play ping-pong? Or is the net just for decoration?"

The devil's veins flared, red light bursting forth from his body, his tone harsh as he responded.

"Very funny kid, this whole warrior schtick doesn't work out, you could be a comedian! No we aren't gonna play fucking ping-pong- Trial 1, the toughest dungeon in the woods. Also, the last dungeon in the woods. Alright, I need to give you a quick dungeon type rundown so you know just how scared to be."

The devil grasped for another loose sheet, reading from it in the tone of a particularly bored teacher.

"Here we are, let's see...okay. Restrictors. Murderholes, they clam up when you walk in and won't let you out until you kill their boss. Low variance in layout and encounter design, mainly corridor filled with packs of enemies- easy clears. Next, scenario types. They'll drop you in and give you a clear cut goal- achieve it and you can leave with some tasty loot. They can be tricky, but failure isn't always fatal. Lastly, traditional types. Something strong gets locked away, you head in to kill it. You can leave this type whenever you want and they give zero loot- they're unpopular and deadly."

Zerasos incinerated the paper with a flame from his finger.

"The last type you'll find here- a mix of all three. It'll lock you in, give you a goal and expect you to die. A death wish dungeon. I know you normally like to run in all gung-ho, confident that skill alone will see you through."

Leon's eyes narrowed. Was Zerasos really that against him just giving this dungeon a go? The devil noticed Leon's hardening expression and placated him before continuing to explain.

"Don't get me wrong, you're good enough to do that for most challenges- but not this one. Trial 1- Thousand Man Slayer is built to break you. Whoever designed this place must have had a cruel streak a mile long. You're gonna be dropped in front of a bridge, guarding a river crossing, some archaic trial by combat dictates the enemy army can only send up one warrior at a time to try and take the bridge. The dungeon expects you to kill exactly one thousand attackers. They start weak, weaker than you when you arrived here. Each one gets stronger until the dungeon finds your physical limits. Then it starts pushing. Sends a fighter that's faster. Then one that's stronger. Smarter, wiser, tougher to kill. Starts finding your weak points, grinds down your mana, counters your insights, breaks your weapons and rends your armour. If you make it to the thousandth fight you'll be left with nothing more than broken steel and tempered grit, forced to fight an opponent that has been tailor made to defeat you."

Leon could see where this was going.

"Waiting for a but here Zerasos."

"You've been waiting a couple days on that butt and you still don't have it? Alright, alright, settle down, I can take a hint kid. You can win- so long as you keep that Tsunami technique for the last fight that is. The bad news is this dungeon won't grant any experience- instead you'll get some truly high quality loot. We're talking stuff even I would be interested in! It'll refine your combat style as well, something that you need- you're developing habits that don't work against humanoid opponents, we need to fix that. Not even mentioning the potential Fame point you can get for this- no one expects a Trial attempt on Day 3."

So far everything tracked with Zerasos advice up to now- the devil had a keen grasp of Leon's limits and knew when to send him after the next challenge. Still, now was as good a time as any to see if Leon's trust had been misplaced. A little test, to make sure the devil wasn't sending him off to die.

If Zerasos seemed unbothered he would reconsider heeding his advice, as he expected the devil to be shaken by this revelation- Leon having access to outside information that wasn't filtered through him would invite consequences from the System. The devil clearly enjoyed bending the rules but Leon doubted he shared the same sentiment towards outright breaking them. Even if he knew Leon had acquired information that could harm his interests, he wouldn't show a negative reaction if his plan was to have Leon was going to be dead within twenty-four hours via Trial dungeon.

"Makes sense- I'm sure that none of the other Tutorial participants, like those pansy mages or that one pack of idiots who rely on grouping up to fight are strong enough to take on this challenge. How'd that announcer put it? Oh yeah- I'm 'undeniably one of the frontrunners'."

Leon hadn't known it was possible for a devil to pale, the jet black skin of Zerasos visibly lightening, the devil's liquid fire veins dimming down to a low enough luminescence that Leon was able to see each flicker of the flames within as they flowed through the devil's body. It was a confirmation- if the devil had been intending to betray Leon he wouldn't have reacted so strongly.

Zerasos seemed genuinely shaken, a rare state to witness. When he spoke though, it was with a shaky confidence.

"Eh, no biggie. You seeing that stuff doesn't matter kid, nope doesn't matter at all."

"Relax Zerasos- I'm not interested in getting you in trouble."

"Good, cause you couldn't even if you were. Understand? Good, here a mana aspecting guide. I technically can't tutor you myself, I'm still under a weird non-intervention clause the System wouldn't budge on. Read it and learn to do it in the next hour then hit the hay- it's not hard and you'll need it to stand a chance tomorrow."

The devil went for a round of comfort steaks, while Leon thumbed through the sheaf of papers. Obvious bribe aside, he'd doubted Zerasos would have betrayed him at this juncture- still he'd needed some reassurance. With the rest of the multiverse treating all this like a game any assumption that these foreign beings had only the Tutorial participants wellbeing in mind could be fatal.

Mana aspecting, from what he could understand, was entirely reliant on his affinities. He wouldn't be able to sense a type of mana without the appropriate affinity. For now that meant he was limited to water mana. While he had a sword affinity skill, he doubted there was such a thing as sword mana. He also had no direct way to use any of this hypothetical sword mana, while water mana could directly double his effective power with the Shifting Tides Style.

Perhaps in the future he could investigate sword mana but for now his time was too limited to afford any distractions. He needed to maintain his focus on boosting his power.

The first step was visualisation. The stronger his mental image of water the easier it was to begin sensing it among the unaspected mana that he had been absorbing until now. An easy enough step, since water was in the air all around him Leon could simply adapt the method he used for absorbing regular mana, focusing on the water vapours rather than his own breath.

The physical presence of the desired mana type was also required. For example, without a source of fire nearby he wouldn't be able to draw upon any fire aspect mana. In this regard air, earth and water were all exceedingly suitable affinities due to their near omnipresence in the environment. Perhaps on other planets it would be more logical to develop a fire affinity. He couldn't imagine Zerasos' home world having much water.

Leon entered the hot tub, focusing on the water he was submerged in. Eyes closed, he imagined all the water evaporating, transforming into water vapour that filled the air. He then exhaled, Leon adding his own water vapour to the air, focusing on that invisible gaseous form of water to guide his meditative state.

That tipped him over the edge allowing him to reach his goal. Beneath the usual ambient mana, there it was. Mana that was far more pliable, quicker to respond to his desire to absorb it. Mana that felt like the summer rain, a cleansing warm embrace from mother nature, while simultaneously feeling like a waterfall, full of primal might, uncaring for the whims of a mere human that sought to restrain it.

It took him minutes just to coax the first drop of water mana towards him. It was a slow agonising process, a battle of wills fought between the ineffable power of water and the determined swordsman.

When it finally flowed into him, entering his core, he felt the water mana resonating with him. Akin to a man who had found an oasis after weeks wandering the desert, Leon drank greedily of this new mana, filling his core with water aspected mana as fast as he could. Each drop resisted less than the last, until eventually he reached parity with his unaspected absorption speed.

He felt his insight, Water's Power resonate with this mana and knew that this was a way to advance his understanding of water- developing his current insight and perhaps comprehending a new one with enough effort.

There were downsides however. If Leon ever developed insights that were not related to water he would have to split his limited mana pool to make use of another type of aspected mana. He would also need to develop another visualisation technique and rely on his own efforts to subdue the raging will that seemed inherent to aspected mana. Perhaps, this was the advantage mages enjoyed- greater mana capacity and regeneration allowed them both to do more with less and also gave more to work with.

It took him nearly the entire hour to fill his drained mana pool. Once completed, he towelled off and settled in for bed. One last thought struck him before he drifted off.

"Any new dinos tomorrow Zerasos?"

The devil shrugged, nonchalant, crystal in hand, though all the sounds it was so obviously producing were inaudible. Leon presumed Zerasos had set up some sort of sound isolating field, a clever trick.

"Lucky for you, no- velociraptors and carnotaurus get a re-stock but that's it."

Leon drifted into another sleep, dreaming of a greatsword. While Zerasos had his ideas for Leon's goals he had his own. He'd do that dungeon first thing, track Mike down and get that greatsword.