Fifth Birthday

Spring passed and autumn came, and Rudeus and Hilde finally welcomed their fifth birthday.

In this world, a fifth birthday was a rather important milestone. Since birthdays were not celebrated every year, they were generally only specially celebrated at five, ten, and fifteen.

On the day of their birthday, the family held a small celebration.

Aside from a lavish dinner, the adults also presented gifts one after another.

Paul's gift was swords.

Each of them received two. One was a real metal-forged sword, a little too long and heavy for a child, and it had already been sharpened; it was a true sword that could be used in battle. The other was a wooden sword that was just right to wield.

The meaning of the real sword was simple and clear.

"You must have the resolve to draw your sword."

That was what Paul said.

As for the wooden sword, it had been prepared for the sword training that would begin the next day. After all, they had already agreed that they would start learning swordsmanship from the age of five.

Zenith's gift was a thick book.

It was Traveling the World, written by the adventurer Perugius, and was said to be a book recording most of the world's terrain and cultures.

Both Rudeus and Hilde were extremely satisfied with this gift.

After all, while this world did have papermaking, it did not have printing, so books were basically circulated through copying by hand, making them exceptionally expensive.

It was something wonderful that could help people come to know the world.

The two of them decided to take good care of the book.

It was worth mentioning that when Roxy saw this book, she showed a surprised expression.

When asked why, she said it seemed she had met the book's author, Perugius, before. He could even be considered her first teacher in magic. This world was far too small.

Next was Roxy's gift.

Rudeus and Hilde each received a magic staff.

The structure of the staffs was not complicated: a rod with a red magic stone embedded at the front. Magic stones could amplify the power of magic to a certain extent, but for simple staffs like these, the degree of amplification could basically be ignored.

By convention, a master was supposed to make a staff for any disciple who could use magic.

Because Rudeus and Hilde had been able to use magic from the very beginning, Roxy had ended up forgetting about it. Rudeus, however, felt that this slightly unreliable side of hers was also a charming point, and his affection for Roxy increased greatly.

Hilde's evaluation of this was:

Dis damn nasty.

The next day, their formal sword training began.

There was no need to hire an additional swordsmanship teacher. In terms of swordsmanship, Paul was already an expert who surpassed ninety percent of the swordsmen in the world.

"Swordsmen" basically referred to swordsmen of the three great schools: the Water God Style, the Sword God Style, and the North God Style.

The three schools each had their own characteristics.

The Water God Style was a sword art whose main concept was "defensive counterattacking." It had the longest tradition and the largest scale, and was most popular in the Asura Kingdom.

It was said that if one reached the highest realm, one could counter every attack, even magic or ranged attacks.

The Sword God Style was born during the Demon God War. It was a sword art emphasizing speed and aggression, with "one-hit kill" as its concept.

If a one-hit kill could not be achieved, then one adopted a war of attrition, running and striking, searching for an opportunity amid constant movement.

Because the first Sword God's performance during the Demon God War was said to have left everyone else in the dust, he even directly opened the age of swordsmanship after the war ended, and the number of swordsmen increased greatly.

It was worth mentioning that

the first Sword God had once defeated the first North God.

Then there was the North God Style, which was likewise born during the Demon God War.

Though the first North God lost to the first Sword God, this did not mean the North God Style was weak. In fact, unlike the Sword God Style, where "the first generation was the strongest," the North God Style was "growing stronger and stronger," with each generation's North God stronger than the last.

Rather than a set of techniques, the North God Style was more like a form of tactics. It adjusted basic techniques according to each person's traits, emphasizing "doing everything in one's power and using every means available to defeat the enemy fair and square." It had the broadest spread and the most users, and was popular among adventurers all over the world.

It was even said that a certain immortal Demon King on the other side of the world was also an Emperor-class swordsman of the North God Style.

Generally speaking, as long as one could obtain an advanced ranking in a certain school, one could be considered able to stand on one's own, and even among adventurers, one would count as being at the very top level.

And Paul was advanced level in all three great schools.

Aside from that, there were also types who did not belong to the three great schools but used swords to fight. They would be classified as warriors.

If Hilde had to put it, choosing to use swords while leaving spears aside meant the people of this world must have been kicked in the head by a donkey... But according to historical records, in the Demon God War around five hundred years ago, the infamous Superd Tribe had used tridents as their weapons, so spears were also considered weapons of demons.

...Forget it. In any case, that was just how the setting worked.

Leaving aside the issue of swordsmanship schools for the time being, the most fundamental basics were required by every school, so no matter what, they had to focus on basic sword swings and practicing standardized movements.

Paul brought in tree stumps from outside to use as targets, chopping them into simple human shapes to standardize their movements and the situations for launching attacks.

After that came endless repetitive training.

Once they were somewhat practiced, they moved on to actual sparring, training footwork and shifting their center of gravity.

At first glance, it seemed like nothing but swinging a sword, but the details were packed with information.

Paul was a genius when it came to swordsmanship, but even talent could not cheat through the most basic of basics. No matter who you were, you had to start from zero and train bit by bit. First came understanding the elements, then standardizing the movements, and after that, carving those movements into your muscles until they became muscle memory.

That said.

Once it came time to demonstrate more technical moves, the situation became something else entirely.

"Hah!"

With Paul's sharp shout...

The huge stone being used as a target was cleanly cut in two.

"Whoa—"

Rudeus and Hilde applauded in amazement from the side.

"All right, you get it now, don't you?"

Paul smiled as he explained to the two of them. "Basically, you just [step forward with a whoosh and then cut down with a swish] like this, and you can slice through stone. Rudeus, you try showing me."

"Like this?"

"Huh? That was [step forward with a zip and then cut down with a thud]. Totally wrong. You need to make it lighter. Hilde, you try!"

"Like this?"

"No, no, that was [step forward with a whoosh and then cut down with a crack]. That's completely different from what I just showed you. Are you two idiots or what? Sigh, can't be helped. I'll show you one more time, so watch closely. It has to be [step forward with a whoosh and then cut down with a swish] like this for it to count as the standard motion..."

"..."

"..."

After this utterly incomprehensible teaching continued for a while...

Hilde looked at Paul and nodded meaningfully.

"What, Hilde, did you actually understand him?" Rudeus was deeply shocked.

Hilde shook her head. "No, I just realized that Paul is what you'd call an instinctive type."

"Instinctive type?"

"The kind whose body gets it before theory does. They learn naturally just by following their instincts. And because of that, even though they can do it, they're really not suited to being teachers, because people like that don't understand theory at all. They run completely on instinct."

"Like Naruto Uzumaki, right?"

"Right, exactly."

Hilde nodded without thinking, but soon seemed a little dazed.

Naruto Uzumaki... who was that?

Rudeus did not notice Hilde's brief daze and continued putting his energy into swordsmanship training. He was still taking swordsmanship seriously. Although he had told Hilde before that magic was flashier than swordsmanship, there was also such a profession as magic swordsman in this world, so perhaps it could become one of his future options.

However, reality was cruel.

The gap between Rudeus and Hilde in swordsmanship seemed even more obvious than the gap in magic.

Two months later.

While Rudeus was still learning the correct posture...

Hilde was already able to cut through stone with a sword, just like Paul.

However, when it came to Hilde's achievement, Paul felt a little helpless even after praising her, because in his eyes, Hilde's moves were still full of flaws. The angle of the cut, the speed—there was plenty of room for improvement.

And as for why she could still cut through stone despite having so many flaws...

The answer was that she was simply that strong.