Chapter 21, Part 1: Zane Bladeheart
The morning air in the city was cool and brisk. Kaelus arrived promptly at the location given by Guild Master Aethon. The place seemed to be an old training grounds, largely deserted, with just a few target dummies made out of straw scattered around the perimeter.
He found a man waiting in the corner, sitting on a wooden bench, who seemed to be his new instructor. Zane Bladeheart was a man in his early forties, built with the wiry, practical muscle of a career soldier. He wore simple, dark leather armor, a longsword sheathed at his hip, and carried an aura of quiet, lethal confidence.
"You must be Kaelus Wyndhelm," Zane stated, his voice calm and deep. He focused his attention on the ornate katana strapped to Kaelus's waist. "The shape is not ordinary. Would you mind if I look at it?"
Kaelus unstrapped the sword and handed it to Zane. The swordsman carefully inspected the curved, single-edged blade.
"It's my first time to see this kind of shape. What do you call this type of sword?" Zane asked, running a thumb carefully along the spine.
"It's a two-handed sword called a katana."
"Katana, huh? It broadens my horizon just by looking at its shape. Also, it's humming with power. This must be an artifact, and a high rank at that. Am I wrong?"
"You're right, Mr. Zane."
"Where did you get this?"
"It's my family's treasure," Kaelus replied, opting for the safe, vague answer.
"Alright, alright," Zane said, returning the katana to Kaelus. "I want you to use your sword, Kaelus. Don't hold back on the attack." Zane then walked over to a nearby weapon rack and picked up a simple, wooden longsword. This is more than enough, he thought, assessing Kaelus's eager stance. "I need to test your combat capabilities first before teaching you, so you may go all out."
Zane took a simple, relaxed stance, his feet shoulder-width apart, holding the wooden sword casually at his side. He used no visible mana.
Kaelus, taking the permission to go "all out" seriously, instantly channeled Wind Magic and charged with his signature Gale Dash. He flashed across the dirt, closing the distance in a nearly instantaneous rush, bringing his sharp katana in a vertical cleave aimed for Zane's shoulder.
Zane didn't move a muscle until the very last moment.
With a slight shift of his weight, Zane sidestepped the Gale Dash, the katana whistling through empty air. Before Kaelus could even register the miss, Zane's wooden longsword countered, landing three lightning-fast taps on Kaelus's hip joint. The strikes were precise and immediate, hitting the same exact spot three times in less than a second. The force, channeled purely through Zane's refined technique, was enough to completely disrupt Kaelus's balance, causing him to stumble and fall to one knee.
Kaelus immediately pushed off the ground, using a small burst of wind under his feet to regain his footing and retreat a few paces. He channeled more mana, readying a protective shroud of swirling wind around himself.
"Better," Zane commented, his stance still relaxed, not a fragment of mana shimmering around him. "But predictable."
Kaelus tried again, relying on a series of rapid slashes, augmenting each swing with Wind Magic to increase speed and force. Zane met the powerful, enchanted katana with his simple wooden stick. The fight became a dizzying display of raw magical speed versus absolute martial mastery.
Zane's movements were efficient, his footwork flawless, and his defense impenetrable. He defeated Kaelus not through magic or strength, but through a perfect understanding of momentum and positioning. Kaelus would attack from the left, only for Zane to use minimal effort to displace the blow and leave an opening on Kaelus's right flank. Kaelus tried every trick his speed and mana provided—feints, rapid changes in direction, and even using gusts of wind to cloud Zane's vision—but nothing worked. Zane saw everything, predicted everything.
Finally, during a complicated horizontal rotation from Kaelus, Zane simply shifted his footing and used the wooden sword to hook the curve of the katana, twisting the blade out of Kaelus's stunned grip.
The artifact clattered onto the ground. Kaelus stood panting, disarmed and utterly defeated, having lost the entire skirmish without Zane ever needing to draw upon his mana.
Zane stepped back and picked up the katana, handing it hilt-first to a bewildered Kaelus. "Lesson one concluded," he said. "Your magic makes you fast, Kaelus, but you rely on it as a crutch. Your sword skill is nonexistent."
Kaelus slowly pushed himself up, tasting the dirt. He had lost, utterly and completely, in less than a minute. His defeat was total, yet enlightening. He realized that if he wants to be stronger, he must learn and polish what he has now.
Chapter 21, Part 2: The Viridian Sword
The sun beat down relentlessly, marking the midday point. The old training grounds shimmered with heat. Kaelus and Zane were resting on the wooden bench beneath a small, thatched straw roof, both drenched in sweat.
Zane broke the heavy silence, his expression thoughtful. "Kaelus, I've got a question that's been nagging at me."
Kaelus, still trying to catch his breath, just nodded.
"Why didn't you use the power of your sword artifact?" Zane asked, gesturing toward the katana. "When you charged, I felt the raw mana in your movement, but the blade itself was inert. I figured you must have a tactical reason for fighting me without it."
Kaelus genuinely looked confused. "The power of the sword artifact?"
Zane was visibly surprised. "You mean to tell me you haven't refined that blade yet? You didn't bind that katakana to yourself?"
"Katana, Mr. Zane," Kaelus corrected automatically. "And is this thing needed to be refined?"
Zane leaned back, staring at him. "What kind of question is that? So, up until now, you've been swinging that high-rank artifact around as if it were just a piece of sharp metal?"
Kaelus, truly baffled by this gap in his knowledge, asked, "How do I refine this sword?"
"Simple, but it takes patience," Zane explained. "You need to supplement it with your mana until the artifact's core recognizes and accepts your spiritual signature. Once it's bound, it will only obey you, and it will finally unlock its true power. That artifact is far from normal, Kaelus. The power inside that blade is immense; I could feel my own mana trembling when I touched it."
Zane stood up. "First, the basics." He spent a few minutes teaching Kaelus a basic refinement technique: how to gently probe the artifact's core and then slowly introduce his mana signature without overwhelming the intricate magical structure.
"Anyway, I have duties to attend to now. I'll go ahead and see you back here tonight. You can use this area to refine your sword." Zane left, walking with the silent movement that only his integrated magic could provide.
Kaelus looked down at the katana in his hands. Refine this artifact? Mr. Grolnuk never mentioned it. Perhaps the artificer assumed a mage of his supposed rank would already know. Well, no matter, I may as well start.
Kaelus took a meditative seat in the center of the training ground. He drew the katana, placing the tip against the dirt, and began the intricate process of channeling his energy.
The Refinement Process began by gently coaxing his mana out of his dragon core and directing it into the katana's hilt. He needed to flood the artifact with energy, saturating the core of the blade to awaken its latent abilities.
As Kaelus channeled more and more mana, the atmosphere around him grew heavy. The artifact's core—the dragon scale—began to actively resist his mana. A glowing, almost translucent holographic image of a colossal verdant dragon took shape, hovering just above the blade. The dragon was powerful, ancient, and seemed to regard Kaelus with profound disapproval, silently communicating that it deemed him unworthy to wield even a fraction of its power.
Kaelus realized that for the dragon scale artifact to acknowledge him, he couldn't use his generic human mana. He needed to activate his pure dragon mana. Closing his eyes, he resonated his core, shifting his mana flow from human channeling to the ancient, overwhelming current of his bloodline. A new, smaller, fledgling wind dragon image shimmered into existence behind Kaelus, a projection of his own true form.
The colossal verdant dragon image shifted its gaze, assessing the true nature of the small figure below. After a moment that stretched into eternity, the verdant dragon seemed to nod and agree. Its massive holographic form compressed into a single, intense point of light and swiftly blended into the katana's form.
Hours passed. Finally, with a sharp, resonant hum that vibrated through the ground, the katana accepted his essence. The blade's physical appearance began to rapidly transform: the dark iridescent sheen faded, replaced by a deep, scaly handle and a brilliant viridian green color running down the length of the steel. Kaelus knew the green represented the dragon scale Grolnuk had mentioned, but now he knew there was a true connection.
The refinement process had taken hours, but the result was a weapon countless times stronger than before. More surprisingly, the sword adapted to his physical built; its weight was now perfectly balanced, neither too heavy nor too light, feeling like a natural extension of his arm.
Kaelus stood, testing his grip. He performed a normal, non-magical, experimental swing.
Suddenly, a clean, translucent arc of wind-mana shot off the blade's edge. The flying slash traveled with lightning speed and cut a distant straw dummy, positioned near the border of the training ground, completely in half. Kaelus hadn't intentionally used a spell; the sword had simply channeled his raw wind magic into a concentrated attack.
He couldn't contain his excitement. He laughed internally, imagining the look on Zane's face when he saw this. With this newly refined katana, I can trash Zane's smug face tonight!
Kaelus looked again at his scaly, moss-colored sword. It deserved a proper name. He smiled, christening the artifact: The Viridian Sword.