Chapter 356 Knight’s Training
When Abel came out of the teleportation portal, there was nothing wrong with Dark Valley’s protection circle. There was something new, though: the stone giant grew back to its original 10-meter height.
As Flying Flame and Black Wind were playing amongst themselves, he decided to put back the protection circle of the Dark Valley. At the same, White Cloud started calling him through the soul chain. It had noticed its master’s appearance, and it wanted to report to him that everything was normal around here.
Abel felt like relaxing a bit right now. While he was thinking about that, he noticed how slender his elven arms were. He could change back to his human self now, and he was very eager to do so. He didn’t like being shorter and losing all the muscles he had built up since childhood.
Before that, he must shed off his elven armor. He couldn’t fit inside it if he was in his human form. When he was taking it off, he couldn’t help but feel that someone might be watching him over the distance. It should be fine, though. White Cloud was scouting in the air. If there was an elf or humans around, it would take no time to tell him about it.
When he removed all his clothes, he put them in the portal bracelet and pressed his hand on the transformation necklace that he was wearing at his chest. He started saying out the enchantments–generating a green light that surrounded him. Unlike the last time, he was transforming into a different species. It hurt a lot as he was turning himself back to his human form. His body was probably getting too used to being an elf.
This pain eventually wore off. Soon, his muscular features and height two metres appeared. Abel was getting back into his original body. He felt very good about it. He wasn’t becoming stronger, faster, or smarter, but something just felt liberating at this moment.
It had been a while since he did his last knight’s training. He gave up on it a while ago since he decided to become a wizard. If it wasn’t for the golden combat qi he accidentally got, he might just give up on being a knight completely. But, now that he had his muscles, he really felt like doing some exercises.
To resume his old training workout, he took out a light long sword from his kong kong spiritual beast bag. It was the parting gift his father gave him when he was accepted into the Harry Family. He had countless magic weapons to choose from, but this was the one he felt like using right now. He also got himself a steel s.h.i.+eld, which, apart from the unicorn crest on it, was not special or impressive in any kind of way.
With a light step to his front, he practiced slas.h.i.+ng his sword with his right. It felt like he was back at the Bennett Castle when his father’s eyes would watch over him as he continued his training. He would practice stabbing, sweeping, kicking, cutting, and many other standard motions. He would do them in a sequence, with movements that were so close to being standard that they were perfect.
Something felt different about today’s practice. If he could describe it, it would be that his sword had a will of its own. When he stabbed, it would become vigilant. When he slashed from top to bottom, it would be in a fury. Even his s.h.i.+eld was like this. Sometimes, it would remain as calm as the waveless. Sometimes, it would burst like an erupting volcano.
Without giving it a second thought, he scanned on his snake’s self-recovery belt with his power of the Will. By emptying an entire bottle of the purple soul potion, he decided to put his brain into overdrive simulation mode.
He started waving his light long sword faster. None of the moves that were performed were his secret knight’s techniques. He was only using his fundamental moves. After repeating the same sequence several times, a thread of golden combat qi suddenly came out. It was growing out of his sword, and it would dance where the blade was slas.h.i.+ng.
When he tried to slash at a stone that was in front of him, the golden combat qi acted like a whip that split the stone in half. He tried doing a side sweep, which created a larger streak of golden combat qi that blew the shattered pieces away. Black Wind was busy playing with Flying Flame, but seeing the whip made it freeze in fear. It was a domestic canine, after all. It had an instinctual disdain of whips.
Just when Abel thought that Flying Flame wouldn’t care, it started moving away as well. It started following Black Wind, which was already moving away to watch what he was doing. They weren’t sure what their master was trying to do, but they knew that it was for the better if they didn’t interrupt him.
Abel was in a weird place right now. The soul potion he drank was supposed to make him think much clearer than before, but his moves became really messy when he was practicing how to use his s.h.i.+eld and sword. He understood why this was the case, however. He was getting closer to becoming a knight’s head commander, which was the first time he made this much progress as a knight.
That reminded him of Hoover. Hoover was a man who could smile confidently in the presence of an advanced wizard. Wizards were supposed to overwhelm knights, but he overcame that limit through years of disciplined training. But what was the force that drove him? Even if Abel knew, he’d have to figure out his own build on his own.
Could it be fire? Abel thought about combining the element of fire with his knight’s ability. He could already cast fire element wizard spells now, but something was telling him that he shouldn’t make a fire build.
Was it the element of ice, then? Ice was good as a defensive option. It was also much easier to control than fire. It was not good to be combined with his knight’s abilities, however. Ice simply didn’t have the offensive traits that the knights were after.
As for lightning, it was not really the most consistent thing there was. The damage it could deal was always randomized. And even if the Horadric Cube could guarantee maximal damage every time he cast a lightning spell, it was just impossible to combine that maximal damage with his knight’s technique.
He canceled his options one by one. It seemed that even the soul potion couldn’t help him figure out what he wanted. Perhaps he was being too persistent in creating a knight’s build. He probably had too much bias for it. It’s the cla.s.s he grew up with, after all, and even if it wasn’t the best cla.s.s there was, it did help him survive out of a lot of difficult situations.
When Abel felt like there weren’t any better ideas, a grey shadow suddenly came out of his soul. It was something that he was very familiar with. Whenever he traveled between the Holy Continent and the dark world, he would also feel its presence around him.
It was the “power of the dimensions.” He wasn’t sure why it would come out at a time like this. Maybe it was his subconsciousness that was calling for it. When he tried to control it, he realized that he could move it around at his will. He could also move it out of his own soul and combine it with his golden combat qi
That just gave him an idea. With this new combined force, he jumped from the ground and slashed at the area in front of him. He was doing this while aiming at a stone which, surprisingly enough, was instantly split in half like b.u.t.ter. That wasn’t the end of it, though. For the next few swings he tried to do, every rock within an 80-meter radius away from him, whether large or small, were all split in half.