Taking the Water God's Successor as a Disciple

I felt that the Water God Style was a very passive school. Absolute defense, reflecting all kinds of spells, and the five great secret arts that no one except the founder had ever fully mastered. It looked incredibly powerful.

But in an actual fight, what if the enemy simply refused to attack you and eliminated your companions first?

The current Water God's only recorded achievement in the novel was being killed when Orsted pierced her heart with a hand blade. The Sword Realm of Deprivation was also merely scratching the surface against highly defensive opponents. Orsted had not even drawn his Godblade, and it seemed he had not used mana either. He had simply used battle aura to defend against every attack, then swaggered right up in front of you.

Most importantly, the stone tablet had already listed the Seven Great Powers.

Technique God—Laplace

Dragon God—Orsted

Fighting God—Badigadi

Demon God—Laplace

Death God—Randolph Marianne

Sword God—Al Faryon

North God—Alexander Ryback

There was no Water God on the list. In other words, the Water God Style could not even defeat the North God Style.

So I could not simply train the Water God Style to death. I still needed to make my own changes.

According to Master, the ranks of the Water God Style could be divided like this:

Beginner: Master the fundamentals of swordsmanship and use battle aura to cover the entire body.

Intermediate: Capable of fighting ordinary knights, with more proficient control over battle aura.

Advanced: Consciously use battle aura and learn the technique of "Flow."

Saint Rank and above: Begin coming into contact with the five great secret arts.

But I had no way to use battle aura. Yes, just like Rudeus, I could not use battle aura. I did not even know what battle aura was. Although I trained my body, the human body had limits. In real life, no matter how much someone practiced swinging a sword, they probably could not split a huge boulder in half with one slash like Paul had taught Rudy to do.

So I needed to find another path and carve out my own way by combining mana with sword techniques.

If I used mana in place of battle aura, then I should currently be at the advanced rank of the Water God Style. I could consciously use mana in my attacks and apply it in actual combat. I could even create my own sword techniques.

However, there was still a vast difference between mana and battle aura. Although I could make the final result look the same, their driving cores were different. It was like electric cars and gasoline cars. Both could drive on the road, and electric cars were not necessarily slower, but the difference between them was worlds apart. They could basically not be considered the same kind of thing.

"If you become stronger in the future and forge your own sword path, then it should no longer be called the Water God Style." Those were Master's exact words.

What she meant was that Isolte was still her successor of the Water God Style. She had accepted me as a disciple because she saw something different in me. My sword path could serve as a reference for the Water God Style's development. No school could remain unchanged forever. Otherwise, it would slowly sink into history and eventually disappear.

Her words gave me a great deal of inspiration. I also remembered that the founder of the Water God Style had been a Water Saint Tier mage in water magic. Perhaps that was the main reason why the first founder had been able to create and master the five great secret arts of the Water God Style.

A day of practice was not too different from before. Every morning began with physical training, followed by empty swings with wooden swords. Then we practiced the Water God Style techniques we had already learned. During this time, Master corrected our mistakes in posture and exertion. Once we had become proficient with our current techniques, she would teach us some new ones.

Finally came our daily sparring. My opponent had now been fixed: Isolte.

She was a very strange girl. She rarely showed any expression and rarely spoke. She seemed extremely bad at socializing. Whatever Master told her to do, she did.

During our first match, she struck the unprotected parts of my legs. At first, I thought she was trying to put me in my place, but in reality, the places without protection were exactly where my defense was strongest at the time. I had judged a gentleman's heart with petty suspicions.

However, she seemed particularly invested in learning swordsmanship. She was very serious about her daily training and sword practice, every stance and movement perfectly standard. Master usually only corrected my improper forms. I had never seen her go over to Isolte and correct any mistakes in her posture. All I could say was that she was an exceptionally talented person for learning the Water God Style.

Our daily sparring was the only time we communicated. At the very least, after taking our stances, we would bow to each other. I could sense that she really liked sparring with me, even though she had never expressed it. I could see her excitement in her expression and how quickly she rose when our matches began.

And after I defeated her, her expression became even more excited—or perhaps more energized. But if she defeated me, she would look slightly troubled instead. It was baffling. Why was that? Was she secretly an M? Did she like getting beaten by me? Did she feel uncomfortable all over if I did not beat her up?

Although I had such doubts, I would not take the initiative to ask her about it. A five-year-old girl was not worth my attention. I was not a pervert from the Prodia Tribe. I had no interest in a five-year-old brat, even though I was also a four-year-old brat about to turn five.

After studying at the Water God Style dojo for a week, our daily sparring ended one day, and I sat on the steps outside the dojo to enjoy the breeze. Unexpectedly, Isolte sat down beside me as well. She spoke to me quite naturally.

"Junior Brother, what rank is your magic? It looks very powerful. Can you teach me that method of applying magic to swordsmanship?"

What was this? I had gotten excited for nothing. At first, I thought the little girl had finally taken a liking to me. But she was still just a sword fanatic. She probably had no interest in anything other than swords!

"Senior Sister, the magic I apply to swordsmanship is achieved by using Silent Casting to control the corresponding mana. You also need to be able to cast the relevant spell.

"At the very least, you need to reach the intermediate level in that type of magic. For example, my Void Flash combines the intermediate wind spell Wind Blade, 'Wind Boared,' with the advanced wind spell Wind Boared, 'Wind Boared.' If you need to chant, it will affect the speed at which the sword technique is used, making it impractical."

"It's fine, Junior Brother. Please teach me. Although I've never encountered magic before, your Senior Sister is very talented. I'll definitely master the magic you mentioned quickly."

I looked at her with half-lidded eyes, feeling that she was showing off. But after thinking about it, there was no harm in trying. Maybe she really did have talent for magic. Besides, it could bring me closer to a beautiful girl, so there was no harm in teaching her.

From then on, after our daily sparring, I stayed at the dojo to teach Isolte magic, starting from the very basics. Master Leda Reia saw us studying magic but surprisingly did not stop us. She even looked pleased. I did not understand it. When we slacked off slightly during sword practice or got our posture wrong, she would mercilessly greet us with wooden swords. Yet now, she did not forcibly stop us from learning magic.

"O swift spirits of wind, release your violent breath upon the earth! Raise a vortex, devour the dust, and crush the enemy before my eyes. Wind Gale!"

Pfft!

"No, no. You need to feel the mana inside your body. Let it circulate through your body and drive all the mana within you, not just that tiny bit in your palm. With your current total mana, that little amount won't accomplish anything. It's supposed to be Wind Gale, but from where I'm standing, you just cast a fart into your hand."

Sighing, I held my forehead. The gap between people really is huge. The first time I cast magic, I already knew how to rotate the mana throughout my entire body before casting. But this operation was still too difficult for Isolte. She had studied for an entire week and had only barely learned how to mobilize mana. She was still far from properly using mana to cast magic.

As I remembered, Rudeus had taught Sylphie when she was five, and Sylphie had learned very smoothly. Why was it so difficult when it came to me?

Slowly. The little girl's face had turned red from my criticism. This was probably the first time she had encountered something she was not good at. She looked like she was studying very hard. Every time she cast magic, I could feel how seriously she gathered mana. But when someone was bad at something, it was naturally harder to learn. Eris had probably been the same way when learning Fire Ball.

And so, the days passed one by one.

A month later, summer had arrived. Although the Aras Kingdom was at a relatively high latitude, summer was still scorching hot, and naturally, there was plenty of rain as well. After two weeks of heat, a torrential downpour finally arrived. The rain poured down like a breached heavenly river, while violent winds howled and the curtain of rain merged into one. It struck the bluestone pavement and sent splashes flying everywhere. The air was filled with water elements. Water and wind magic were what I was best at, so with the storm raging overhead, I stepped into the rain to see whether I could better hone my sword techniques in such a natural environment.

Without an umbrella, the raindrops struck my body like little stones. They did not hurt much, but they allowed me to personally experience the heaviness of water. The wind howled, and the water rode the wind, crashing even more loudly against the stone slabs. I closed my eyes and let my thoughts settle. Shutting off my hearing, I tried to use my body to sense the powerful water mana in the air.

I imagined the blazing sunlight evaporating the water elements of the ocean into the sky. Vast stretches of cumulonimbus clouds formed overhead, and cyclones arose from the temperature difference between their inner and outer layers. Through that constant rotation, a massive typhoon took shape.

The kinetic energy of a typhoon was enormous. If I could concentrate even a fraction of that kinetic energy, it would possess tremendous destructive power. Holding my wooden sword, I formed a huge vortex at its tip. I absorbed the immense water elements in the air and compressed them again and again. I had no idea how many times I compressed them. At the sword tip, a deep blue water ball tinged with black formed. This water ball was much larger than an ordinary Water Ball. I tried to throw it out like a Water Ball spell, but failed. Because it had been compressed so many times, the instant it left my mana control, it collapsed and dispersed into a large pool of water.

I tried forming another water ball like that, but this time, I did not throw it. Instead, I used mana to condense it into a thin membrane and attach it to the upper half of the sword. It looked as though an apple had been skewered onto the sword, somewhat ridiculous. I swung this sword at a rock. With a bang, the instant the water ball touched the rock, the rock shattered into powder. I had no idea what principle was at work, but it felt incredibly powerful. This water ball would probably be difficult to create in the modern world. Water molecules were not easy to gather and compress, but water elements were.

I was a little delighted. This kind of destructive power was exactly what I needed right now. If I ever had the chance to fight Orsted, ordinary slashes and ordinary magic would not be able to break through his Dragon God Battle Aura. It would be just like the sword Eris had thrown at him—it had been deflected without him even needing to defend.

As long as he used a weapon or a hand blade to receive my Water Ball Slash, unless he dodged it, if he took it head-on, I guaranteed that whether it was iron or any other metal, it would immediately turn into scrap.

At present, this technique had two key problems.

First, it required rainy weather, when there were enough water elements in the air. Otherwise, there was no way to gather so many water elements. I could barely make do with another pond or pool, but the efficiency of forming the water ball would become slower, because water elements dispersed in the air were easier to gather. Water elements already condensed in a pond had to be dispersed before they could be compressed and gathered again, which would inevitably increase mana consumption. If it really came to it, once I learned Water Saint Tier magic, I could fire off a Cumulonimbus in advance.

Second, because this compressed water ball had a greater mass than normal water elements, it needed constant mana control. Therefore, it could not be used for ranged attacks. Furthermore, Disturb Magic could easily interrupt it. Disturb Magic was manageable, since very few people could use that spell. I had not encountered it yet, so I would consider how to resist it after I had seen it. As for its inability to attack at range, I needed to think about that more.

While I was deeply lost in thought amid the rain, two people in the dojo room stared at each other. "Master, did you see that? The water ball Junior Brother condensed only touched that rock, yet the rock turned into powder. What kind of magic is that? It's so powerful."

"I have never seen it either. But Isolte, your Junior Brother's magical attainments are far greater than his swordsmanship. I do not know why he has never used battle aura. But being able to apply mana to sword techniques is an extraordinary thing.

"My own Master once told me a secret of our Water God Style. The first Water God, the founding ancestor who mastered the five great secret arts and created the Water God Style, was not only godlike in swordsmanship. His magic was also among the best in the world. At that time, he was already a Water God Tier mage.

"Since the first Water God, no generation of Water Gods in our school has ever mastered all five secret arts. That is the limitation of our Water God Style. It could be said that we have never surpassed the Water God Style's bottleneck. All we can do is continuously draw closer to it."

"I had you learn magic from Dolin because I hoped you could reach heights no Water God in history had ever reached. If a school has gone several thousand years without improving its martial arts, then no matter how powerful its swordsmanship may be, it can only eventually head toward extinction."

Isolte nodded seriously. Although she did not particularly like learning magic, she had to learn it well for the future of her school. There was nothing in this world that could be gained without effort.