Sorcerer Manual - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Causing Trouble

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

“Hyah!”

With a loud yell, Ingrit raised her wooden sword high and took a step forward. She poured all his strength into the sword and slashed at the armored dummy in front of her!

Crack!

With the sound of the armored dummy cracking, the wooden sword stopped at the edge of the ninth ring.

Ingrit retracted her wooden sword and resumed her vigilance. Following the breathing technique taught by the school, she exhaled a white mist and quickly recovered her energy.

“At this rate, I should be able to summon the Sword Slash Spell Spirit within this month,” Ingrit thought.

As a sorcerer university that had been passed down for hundreds of years, Sword Flower University had already developed all sorts of guiding techniques for the training of sorcerers. The armored training dummy in front of Ingrit was a tool specially used to train swordplay apprentices at entry level.

The outer appearance of the armored dummy was a wooden stake, and the core was marked with ten-ring symbol. The material was extremely hard. If an apprentice could cut through the tenth ring of the core with a single strike, it meant that his swordplay had advanced enough to summon his first sword spell spirit.

Generally speaking, a swordmaster could summon three types of one-winged spell spirits. They were “Sword Slash”, “Sword Thrust”, and “Sword Slice” respectively. Ingrit, who was training in sword slashes, naturally wanted to summon the “Sword Slash” spell spirit.

Ingrit took a second or two to regulate her breathing. At this time, the armored dummy had already recovered to its original state, as if Ingrit had not broken it at all.

This was the strength of the training ground of Sword Flower University—no matter how serious the damage was, all the armored dummies in the training ground would quickly recover. As long as you still had the energy, the armored dummy would be at your mercy. After all, it wasn’t the armored dummy that would crawl out of the training ground on wobbly legs in the end.

Boom!

As Ingrit continued her sword slash training, she suddenly heard the door of the training ground being blasted open. She could not help but look over. Although the apprentices in the training ground were shouting and sweating profusely, this was actually a very orderly place. Very few people dared to make a scene here.

If anyone dared to cause trouble here, there would be dozens of swordplay apprentices who were tired of suppressing their Sword Aura and eager to engage in an “intimate physical exchange” with you.

Last semester, Ingrit had a few pursuers, but none of them dared to talk to Ingrit on the training ground. After all, if Ingrit so much as frowned a little at such disruptions to training, the hot-blooded apprentices nearby would immediately jump out to uphold justice.

Hot-blooded, reserved, aggressive and full of male hormones. These were the labels of the training ground.

There was a famous joke in Sword Flower University: “Some guys practice swordplay in the beginning to pursue girls, but later on, they practice swordplay in order to compete with other guys. Maybe it’s not that love lost to strength, but rather, compared to the complication of love, the simplicity of strength makes it easier to pursue?”

But tonight, complicated love took the initiative to step into the territory of strength.

A strand of hair that emitted a ruby luster appeared at the entrance. Her skin was so fair that it was dazzling, and her facial features were so exquisite that she looked like an artist who had meticulously polished them. She had a slim waist and long legs.

A rose that should have appeared at a banquet abruptly bloomed in a training ground full of swords.

But what caught the attention of the swordplay apprentices the most was the training wooden sword in her right hand.

“Sonia?”

When Ingrit saw Sonia cross half of the training ground and find an unoccupied armored dummy to start training with a wooden sword, she was full of confusion.

Although she did not have any ill feelings toward Sonia, from what she knew, Sonia was the kind of person who would never touch swordplay.

Unlike the elegant and graceful female swordmasters in “fantasy epics” and “knight dramas” on holograms, in reality, female swordmasters had to train their physical fitness to levels even surpassing that of males to summon spell spirits and master spells.

It needed no mentioning that their hands would be full of callouses from wielding the sword. Arm, leg, and even waist muscles would become even more robust and developed due to training. Displaying gorgeous swordplay using beautiful little hands that lacked any muscles, as those actresses did on the hologram, was absolutely impossible in reality.

Even the sword spell spirits would never approve of a physically weak swordmaster. Since she was young, Ingrit had heard only too much news of spell spirits escaping on of their own accord when their swordmaster became old and weak.

Although there were also people who said that female swordmasters had a “beauty of strength”, according to Ingrit’s own observations, there were far more men who pursued female water sorcerers than those who pursued female swordmasters.

Moreover, she herself admitted that the dainty-looking water sorcerers like Sonia and Louis were more attractive and refined than herself, a swordsman who was like a rugged man.

She wasn’t unhappy about that. After all, while she was training, Sonia and the others were doing makeup and skincare. Everyone got what they wanted.

That was why Ingrit was so surprised. After all, if Sonia were to only train her swordplay now, wouldn’t it be a waste of all her previous efforts? Not only would it delay the progress of her studies in the School of Water Sorcery, it would also affect the appearance that she had always been carefully preserving.

But when Ingrit noticed a handsome young man not far from Sonia, who was wiping his sweat and still wearing a full set of training clothes despite the hot weather, it dawned on her.

Felix Vosloda was a first-year student in the same batch as them. He was a genius apprentice in the School of Swordmastery.

Although Felix was still training hard to summon the first nascent spell spirit like Ingrit, he was different from Ingrit who was only trying to summon the most basic sword spirit. What Felix wanted to summon was the spell spirit passed down by his family in secret, the “Wave Sword”.

The nascent spell spirit of every sorcerer was of utmost importance, and it would even decide the future development direction of the sorcerer. Therefore, families with conditions would try their best to find suitable cultivation methods for genius clansmen to summon the most powerful and most suitable nascent spell spirit.

Even though Ingrit came from a small noble family in the countryside, her family also passed down a secret method of cultivating her spell spirit. It was just not suitable for Ingrit.

The “Wave Sword” was undoubtedly stronger than the “Sword Slash”, and the intensity of Felix’s training was undoubtedly superior to that of Ingrit. The reason why Felix was praised as a first-year swordplay genius was because his swordplay techniques and training intensity far exceeded his peers.

Last semester, Ingrit lost to Felix in an end-of-semester combat session in the School of Swordmastery, but she accepted her defeat fully. After all, not only was he more talented than her, he was also more hardworking than her. He deserved to be called a swordplay genius.

However, compared to his swordplay skills, what the girls were more interested in talking about was Felix’s other side.

Even though Ingrit came from the countryside, she knew that the Vosloda Family was one of the Five Pillars of the Astra Council.

The Duke of Vosloda was also known as the “Star Casting Duke”. He controlled the most advanced steel factory in the Astra Nation, and his business covered civilian and military use. He held a pivotal position in all three worlds, and he could be said to be the most powerful person in the nation.

As the second son of the duke, Felix should have gone to the University of Truth to study, but for some reason, he came to Sword Flower University. Many people secretly guessed that he was not favored by the duke.

However, even if Felix was not favored, he was still a direct descendant of Vosloda. No matter how poor he was, he was still a member of the top class. Naturally, many people wanted to use his stepping stone to climb up the social ranks.

And Felix’s social skills were as remarkable as his swordplay. He changed female companions almost every week. He changed women faster than he changed clothes.

At its most frequent, Ingrit even noticed that all the female companions who came to the training ground to find him for five consecutive days were different. It really made Ingrit feel both disdainful and impressed—how did this person have the energy to do other things after high-intensity training?

She only wished she could melt into her bed after her trainings.

Felix was skilled, good-looking, and had many scandals. He was undoubtedly the focus of the training ground. If Sonia had a special purpose, then her only target would be Felix.

But in the past, when the dormmates were still on good terms, they once talked about the boys in school. Louis, Adele and Sonia all made it clear that they’d keep a respectful distance from Felix.

After all, a playboy like Felix would definitely end up being arranged for a political marriage by Duke Vosloda. If they approached him with any expectations, they would undoubtedly just become another insignificant member in his band of ex-girlfriends.

Although Ingrit, who had fantasies about love, didn’t like their blatant utilitarianism, she also admitted that their judgment was correct. No girlfriend of Felix’s had been able to go past more than a week’s tenure in a year.

Could it be that Sonia was not here for Felix? But apart from Felix, no one else could catch her eye…

While Ingrit was thinking, Sonia had already begun her training assiduously.

“Hyah!” Combined with the breathing technique, Sonia slashed her sword at the armored dummy, but it did not even pierce through its skin.

Ingrit observed for a moment, then shook his head. The grip of Sonia’s dominant hand was unstable and the grip of her auxiliary hand was weak, her steps were loose, her body was sluggish, and none of her movements were decent.

She didn’t even change into training clothes that were convenient for exercise. She was still wearing a bright and beautiful casual outfit.

Even her loud cries sounded like she was whining.

Rather than coming here to train, it seemed more like she came here to attract attention.

No matter what her goal was, it was not training.

Ingrit stopped paying attention to her and continued with her own training. Sword training focused on the unity of the mind and body. Focus was the most important of all. She had to dedicate all her mind and soul into every strike. How much strength was used, how much strength was left behind, the turning of the shoulders, the swinging of the wrists, the movement of the feet… Only when all the details were clearly understood could it be considered a strike.

There was no point in slacking off. Every bit of effort a swordplay apprentice put in was not for others, but for themselves.

Only when an apprentice had enough talent to trigger the resonance of the Illusory Realm could they summon a spell spirit from thin air, and cross reality to obtain a pass to enter the Illusory Realm, hence becoming a true Illusory Wing Sorcerer.

At Ingrit’s current level, she would need to take a break every three strikes. Every thirty strikes, she would need to stop and relax her muscles. Swinging 900 strikes in two hours would be considered completing a training session. Furthermore, her fatigue would accumulate to the point that she would fall asleep the moment she touched her pillow after showering.

“Hyah!”

“Hyah!”

“Hyah!”

After a few minutes, Ingrit could no longer suppress the anger in her heart. She looked at Sonia with dissatisfaction. In those few minutes, Ingrit had heard Sonia swinging her sword dozens of times without any rest. It was simply reckless.

It was only natural for Ingrit to be angry. This was akin to sitting for a serious and highly difficult examination, when suddenly, a sloppy candidate received the paper and started answering without even looking at it, saying things like “it’s so simple”, “too easy”, “how can anyone not know the answer” meanwhile. Others would definitely think that the candidate was causing trouble.

Sonia’s actions right now were tantamount to causing trouble.

However, just as Ingrit was about to warn Sonia, she realized that she was wrong. Although Sonia’s movements were still rough and amateurish, her every move strictly adhered to the requirements of the Swordplay Codex. Every strike exhausted all her strength, and sweat dripped down the bridge of her nose. She was absolutely not messing around.

Moreover, compared to a few minutes ago, Sonia’s swordplay had improved significantly. Her wooden sword could even cut into the edge of the armored dummy!

Although her swordplay level was still worse than everyone else in the entire training ground, she seemed to have some foundation in swordplay. Only people who had practiced for at least a few months could have such an imposing manner!

‘Had she practiced swordplay before?’ thought Ingrit.

However, she still didn’t think Sonia was here to train. If she kept consuming stamina recklessly like this , Sonia would be too tired to stand up in a few minutes and fail to achieve effect in training at all. She might lose weight, however.

‘I understand now. She must be here to shape her figure! I’ve heard of this before!’

Instantly, Ingrit felt that she understood Sonia’s purpose, but she also felt that Sonia could not hold on much longer.

After all, even a swordplay apprentice like her, who had trained for many years, could only swing her sword 256 times at one go in 11 minutes.

For a rookie swordsman like Sonia, it was already very impressive that she could last for a few minutes without stopping.

Ingrit was a little tired, so she stopped to rest. She counted the number of times Sonia had swung her sword, and made plans to give Sonia some pointers if Sonia’s movements deviated. Although she did not think Sonia would switch her major to the School of Swordmastery, it would still be nice if she could improve Sonia’s interest in swordplay even a little..