Nar scampered to obey. I didn’t even see him move!

  “Do you think midnight means the end of training?” the master asked him, grinning with a wicked glint to his eyes. “Not to you! Not if you want to succeed, Nar. Now show me you have what it takes!”

  Nar stumbled to pull his sword from his inventory and lowered himself into stance.

  “Good. It's painful, but it's starting to sink in already,” the master said, nodding approvingly. “But let’s see how long you can keep that up. And if you can, watch my feet, apprentice! It’s vital you get it right!”

  And having said that, the master blurred and the next thing Nar knew, he was reacting to his [Instinct], and the master was right on top of him. A storm of blows followed, and within a matter of seconds, Nar had forgotten all about his basic stance and the passing step.

  “Don’t just retreat!” the master called. “What do you expect to gain by just defending? Sooner or later, you’ll tire, or make a mistake, so fight back! Open your eyes! There are plenty of openings!”

  Nar grunted in reply and stopped moving. He tried to hold his spot, but the master easily bent his back backwards, throwing him out of balance.

  “Not retreating means more than just standing still,” the master said, raining blow after blow upon him. “It means countering, re-positioning, and attacking. Anything that allows you to retake the advantage is what you should be doing when you lose the offensive. Now, COME. AT. ME!”

  Nar snarled through his teeth, and when next he moved to block the master’s blade, Nar hit with double the amount of [Strength] as before, sending it careening to one side. Without missing a beat, he charged forward, bringing his sword around in a blindingly fast horizontal swipe.

  However, the master’s longsword moved as though it had a mind of its own, and smoothly deflected his movement.

  “That wasn’t bad!” the master said. “Getting a weapon out of the way can be one of the very few reasons to actually attack your opponent’s weapon, rather than your opponent themselves. But always remember, your opponent can easily pull a second weapon from their inventory and surprise you with it! Better to always aim your attacks directly at them, or to defend from their attacks, however briefly you need to go on the defensive!”

  Nar, not willing to give up his brief, even if failed offensive, pulled on his attributes and chased the master backwards with a flurry of blows of his own. In the back of his mind, he knew that the master was simply entertaining him, but he couldn’t let up. At the slightest hesitation, the master would effortlessly retake the offensive.

  “Not bad, we can definitely work with this,” the master said, his voice and tone the same as when they were talking, sitting on the floor. “Now slow down, and watch my feet. Watch my sword.”

  Almost begrudgingly, Nar did as the master told him, and his movements slowed, his grip on his attributes relaxing, and he glanced down in between strikes. At first, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

  “These are all steps that you will learn, and they are all in their most basic form,” the master told him. “Passing step into basic stance. Advance step. Retreat step. Gathering step into triangle step. And… Crossing step!”

  The master pushed Nar backwards, and his legs crossed and then propelled him forward into a thrust that whistled through the air with the promise of a bloody end. Nar’s [Instinct] blazed in his mind, and Nar just about parried his master’s longsword.

  This is real [Instinct]! Nar suddenly realized. He’s actually aiming to hit me!

  However, his master’s blade did not move as far and wide as he had expected, and he felt the sharp lick of the blade in between his ribs.

  “Your blade is made of two halves,” the master said, pressing on and unbothered by the dark stain that spread from Nar’s side. “The first half goes from your cross-guard and up to half your blade, and it is called the strong. This is where your grip is at its strongest, and this is where you want to block your enemy’s attacks! It’s also not where you aim for, when you want to deflect or parry their blows, else, you see what happened, yes?”

  “Yes, master!” Nar shouted, ignoring the burning on his flank.

  If the master wanted to test his grit, and real pain was a sacrifice he must commit to, then Nar would oblige him. He had suffered far worse in the Climb and kept going, and if this was just the level of training he needed to make his path work, then… He had HP, and healers aboard the Scimitar. He would heal from anything.

  “Good! Now for the other half, from the halfway point of the blade to its tip, it's called the weak!” the master said, and his longsword shifted into a blur of fast slashes using only the aforementioned half of the blade. “The weak is not where you guard! Your grip is at its weakest here, and any touch will send your blade shooting out of your control!”

  And having said that, the master stepped forward, his blade gliding across the back of Nar’s sword. As it reached the halfway point, Nar felt his grip weakening, and despite putting all his [Strength] behind it, it was as though the blade did not want to obey him. The master pushed it completely out the way, and barreled into him with his shoulder.

  Nar stumbled backwards, coughing, taking a full ten steps before he came to control himself again, but the master was already on top of him.

  “However, the weak is fast! Therefore, the strong is to guard, and the weak is to attack! Now, come on!”

  The master’s footwork was dazzling to follow. It carried him out of attacks, and back into the fray to counter with his own lightning-fast strikes. It taunted Nar. It tricked him. It carried the master from strike to strike, to slash, to thrust, to retreat, and the master’s longsword, despite being basically the same as Nar’s, behaved like a completely different weapon in the master’s hands.

  The Master of Blades followed every strike with a second one, and if Nar didn’t move fast enough to attack in the small, tiny space after that second strike, he would miss his window and have to wait again. But the strikes came from everywhere, even as the master’s torso remained upright, and his head level.

  Crystal… Nar thought, finally realizing what was happening. He’s just showing me what my own fighting is going to look like…

  And in a blur that was almost too quick to follow, the master stepped in, pushing through his guard, and the strong half of his blade halted at Nar’s neck.

  Nar swallowed at the sudden cold line against his skin, and looked down at his master. Even though Nar stood a good head taller than the golden skinned man, he felt that he was the one looking up at the colossal man before him, and the weight of his master’s stare was something unlike anything Nar had ever faced. Who knew how many years of experience the master had? Who knew the stories of his many battles, and the countless foes he had felled?

  The blade in his hands whispered the promise of that final sleep to Nar… All the master had to do was press on the blade, and Nar’s head would fly off his body, as simple as that.

  I’m so far… Nar realized, looking up from the blade and to his master’s gray eyes as he stepped away. I’m so far away from where I need to be.

  And he had been right. This was the man that was going to teach him how to use his sword. No, more than that! This was the man that was going to teach him greatness, and open the way for what Nar needed.

  Named Few, he thought.

  “It seems my point was driven home,” the master said, smiling.

  “That’s my fighting style,” Nar said, breathing hard. “Isn’t it?”

  “It is,” the master said with a short nod. “It’s a straightforward style, no flourishes or tricks needed. And by that, I do not mean to say that flourishes and tricks are substandard sword techniques, only that they’re not for you. This fighting style is precise, controlled and powerful! It’s versatile in its defense and offense, quick to change in between both, and more than capable of dominating the battlefield, especially once we add in your aura and upcoming active skills to it. Now, what do you think?”

  “Yes!” Nar shouted, still gasping for air. “I want it!”

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  The master chuckled. “Good, you won’t regret learning The Art of Longsword Fighting. It was created by a long-ago forgotten master of the longsword, but it has remained the de facto style for countless eras since. And while it may seem counterintuitive to learn stances and steps, and later on numbers as well, all these moving parts will become ingrained into your body and mind, and eventually become second nature. When that happens, you will know a completely different level of wielding the sword, one that no amount of attributes can ever give you. Then, you will be able to truly call yourself a swordsman.”

  “Yes, master,” Nar said, bowing.

  “Now, onto the next item of the night…”

  The master beckoned him forward, and they moved back to the center of the room.

  “Watch.”

  The master raised his sword in front of him, and bright green light engulfed the entirety of the blade.

  “This is what you are aiming for,” the master said. “[Sword Aura], the next iteration of [Aura Attack] for sword paths. It looks like [Aura Attack], but it is to [Aura Attack] what aura pathways are to aura channels. It's the beginning of the true starting point of this tree of skills for the sword, a tree that branches far and wide. Our real goal is far beyond [Sword Aura], however, it is here we, sword wielders, must all begin.”

  Nar reached slightly forward to look at the aura covering the blade. Rather than one uniform light, Nar saw with his [Sight]’s aid, that it was made of an uncountable number of lines shooting forward towards the tip of the blade at great speed. The master hadn’t revealed his affinity, so he bit his tongue, not knowing if it was rude to ask.

  “I was hoping to get you started tonight, since you have both arm pathways unlocked, but 1AM is pushing it for an intro session. Your body needs rest,” the master said, his aura retreating back into his hand, and he stashed away his sword. “We will start tomorrow.”

  “Yes, master,” Nar said, struggling to keep the gratitude off his voice.

  Despite hungering to try the skill the master had just shown him, he wanted nothing more than his nightly hot shower, to throw on his pajamas, and to pass out. Between the stance and step drills within the Blades Hall, and later on, opening his second pathway with the Teacher of Mastery, the addition of the Master of Blades brutal instruction had left him barely standing and bleeding from several cuts, which seemed shallow enough to already begin healing, thanks to his hybrid tank [Constitution].

  “Before that, though, one last thing,” the master said, stopping him with a gesture as Nar was about to store his weapon. “Can I please see your sword?”

  Nar paused at the sudden request, but then handed it over.

  “Thank you,” the master said, taking it from his hands.

  The master raised the sword to his face and to Nar’s surprise, rather than look at it, he brought the sword to his left ear, and Nar held his breath, unsure of what the man was listening for.

  Within moments, the master lowered the sword, and this time, considered it with his eyes, even go so far as to pass his fingers across the shimmering, purple cloth tied to its guard, with a touch that was both gentle and reverent.

  “Climbers don’t get to choose from a wide variety of weapons. As I mentioned, this means that many of the apprentices will receive a new weapon at some point after their third assessment, if they are invited to join us for the two year delve,” the master told him, as he passed a hand over the scarred, burned blade. “By then, a lot of affinities will have unlocked and begun changing their classes significantly, and for those that haven’t, we will have a lot more data to go on with. Meaning, amongst other things, we will know then what weapons best compliment them... For you, however, and what you aim for, the longsword fits you like a glove. You will not be amongst those changing weapons, though the question remains on whether you need a different longsword.”

  The master handed him the blade and Nar took it, uncertain.

  “Did… Did I damage it?” he asked, a sudden tightening closing around his throat.

  That was his sword. It was what had kept him and his party alive, and despite its purple sheen reminding him from time to time of things best left forgotten, that sword, with the strap of his dad’s cloth tied around its guard, was also the last thing he had left from home, to remind him of his dad. To get rid of it, even for something better… It wasn’t an appealing prospect to Nar.

  “Damaged?” the master asked, frowning. “Oh, you mean the blade is not smooth anymore? Ah, don’t worry about that. If anything, you’ve reforged this blade to be even stronger than it was before. No… The blade is perfectly fine, and in fact, by carving out your own pathways into it, you’ve created a weapon that is, in itself, attuned to you from its inception. Usually, someone forges the weapon and the auramancer then needs to go through a period of attuning the weapon to them. It’s what soulbound means in your weapon, and it goes for gear as well. The fact you made the pathways yourself means that this longsword will respond much better to your aura than any other auramancer weapon you might get your hands on.”

  “Then… What is wrong with it?”

  The master sighed. “Because you carved the pathways yourself, the sword will one day gain your affinity as well, when you unlock it. That’s how it goes. However, the sword will likely maintain its own affinity as well.”

  Nar’s frown deepened. “It has an affinity? Do you mean the hunger?”

  “Yes, it has the affinity of hunger, and it is the same kind of affinity as we auramancers have,” the master said. “You must have cut your way through a lot of cannibals… Your whole party has hunger affinities in their weapons.”

  Nar clenched his jaw at the sudden influx of memories.

  “Yes… Yes, you did,” the master said, his tone growing darker. “And you gained a Hunger AUC for it, which in an auramancer’s weapon awakened a hunger affinity. Unfortunately, while a skilled weapon upgrader could have removed the affinity from the blade, by carving the pathways yourself and flooding it with your own aura in such quantities, you also further awakened the hunger affinity of the sword. Medium Hunger is what it is now, and it’s impossible to remove anymore.”

  “That’s bad, is it?” Nar asked, staring down at his burned, scarred blade. “Hunger… It doesn’t sound good.”

  The master crossed his arms. “Rather than bad, it’s… Well, it requires a firm hand, shall we say. A hunger affinity means that this sword will react and strive to give you what you most desire, and even if that desire is pure, the sword can quickly influence you into going too far. Someone can want nothing more than to protect their family, and they can devolve into a raging murderer who kills anyone who even looks in the direction of their loved ones, as they perceive threats everywhere.”

  “Crystal…” Nar whispered.

  “On the other hand, hunger will push you towards your goals. True hunger will keep you going while most others will have long given up… So, it’s a constant balancing act,” his master said, raising his hands up and down to emphasize his words. “Between letting the sword's affinity drive you forward, and letting it take over.”

  Nar nodded. “Do… Do I need to give it up?”

  “The consensus amongst all the masters and K, is that you should keep it, at least for now. We want to see how you react to it, now that its hunger affinity is stronger, and the reason for that is that you carved your own pathways into the blade,” the master said. “I cannot stress how important that is! With the guidance of a skilled upgrader, and perhaps even a forger, you can continue what you started… You could make proper pathways of what you crudely created, and you could continue to add further pathways to the sword. We auramancers, and aethermancers for that matter, go through multiple weapons and gear in our lifetimes as we grow stronger, and our paths shift and take shape, but since you were the one who started this process, you could also continue it. Like you, the blade also has potential, but only as long as you can prove to us that you can handle the risk. For the stronger you make this sword, the stronger its hunger affinity will be...”

  The master considered the stunned silent student before him. He had pushed him tremendously already, demanding trust and faith, and giving little in return other than his words and promises. He planned on delivering on those promises, of course, he was not lying when he said he could see what Nar could become… However, he was not giving him the entire story either, and that was not just for his apprentice’s benefit.

  It ate at him, to do what was needed to, but he would carry out his duty. And he would push the boy as much as he needed to be pushed.

  “You don’t need to decide now,” he said. “Go through the three assessments. Unlock the [Sword Aura] and the other active skills we discussed. Then, see how you feel about the sword, and how the hunger affinity affects you, and if you are invited to continue on with us, you can decide what you want to do about it. Is that acceptable?”

  Nar took a deep breath and nodded. “Yes, master. Thank you.”

  And surprising Nar, the master offered him a short bow in return. “We’ll do great things, you and I, but you will need to trust me. Everything I do is to make you stronger, and stronger than you can even begin to imagine at this stage… If you give yourself fully, and wholeheartedly to me, I swear by the Crystal, I will open the doors to the power you seek.”

  Nar bowed once more, and deeper.

  “Thank you, master, for accepting and teaching me. And I trust you, and I swear by the Crystal, I will do anything it takes to not disappoint you.”

  The master smiled and crossed the distance between them to squeeze his shoulder.

  “You will not disappoint me, Nar. I’m sure of it,” he said. “Now, off to bed with you. We only have eleven days left for you to grasp the basics of [Sword Aura], and learn to cycle while fighting, which you didn’t even think about when we sparred, did you?”

  Nar hung his head, his cheeks burning. “No, master, I’m sorry.”

  His master boomed with laughter. “We’ll expand on your own initial efforts and beat aura cycling into you, and all the other apprentices, don’t you worry. And if we can start including some proper footwork and stance, all the better.”

  “Yes, master.”

  “Now, straight to bed. Tomorrow, instructor Koh has something special planned for squad 8.”

  Nar gulped. “I can’t wait for it, master.”

  “That’s the spirit!” the master said, chuckling. “Good night, apprentice.”

  “Good night, master,” Nar said, bowing once again.

  Nar’s mind swam as he made his way back through the ship’s darkened and eerily silent corridors. He had discussed so many things with the master, that it all floated around in a big jumble of thoughts.

  The sword.

  Skills.

  Aura cycling, his pathways and his very aura.

  His as of yet, unknown affinity, with no signs or certainty for when he would unlock it.

  His first assessment.

  The Art of Longsword Fighting.

  The life of the BNs who chose to live in the Nexus.

  And above it all, the secret his master had demanded of him… He would never be able to tell his party about it, and knowing that he would have to keep it hidden from them weighed heavily upon his mind, and the thought of lying to them twisted his stomach into a knot. But he had no choice but to hope that the benefits he expected to reap and bring to the party would outweigh this one thing he kept from them.

  Still, he thought, as he wandered the late, dark corridors. How does he know that everything is going to work out?

  The only thing that came to mind, was that the masters actually did know what his affinity was, or at least had a pretty certain idea of it already, and they were choosing to keep it away from him…

  He shook his head.

  That can’t be true… he told himself. For now, I’ll just have to trust the master, and hopefully, one day, this will all make sense.