Tung Tung Sahur began swinging his club from above down to below with both hands.
Once, ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times...
Sometimes he was in front of me, sometimes beside me, sometimes behind me. But I could always clearly see what he was doing.
He was slightly leaning his torso forward, his knees slightly bent, and swinging the club down without using all of his strength. As he lifted the club, the muscles/woods in the front of his body stretched, and as he brought it down, the muscles/woods in the back of his body stretched. Once his attack was over, he would pull the club back to himself with the remaining strength and swing it again.
"Never use all of your strength, little one. After attacking, you need to bring your weapon back to its starting position as quickly as possible to defend or counterattack. Big moves mean big openings. Now, try it!"
I raised Sekiryu based on my observations and then swung it downward.
Ding!
[ Current skill mastery: 1% ]
Tung Tung Sahur continued swinging his club from above to below. Even while making my movements, I could see what my master was doing.
"Spam it, little one. You'll get used to it, but you'll need to train when you wake up too."
I continued swinging my sword from above to below and pulling it back to the starting position. My movements became more natural, and my skill mastery gradually increased.
[ Current skill mastery: 2% ]
While Tung Tung Sahur continued swinging his club, I noticed details I hadn't before. I began to notice things like how high he lifted his arms, the angle at which he swung his club, and how he gripped the handle. I started applying these details, and my mastery skyrocketed.
[ Current skill mastery: 4% ]
[ Current skill mastery: 5% ]
...
[ Current skill mastery: 6% ]
At this point, my progress began to slow down. I had fixed most of my major mistakes. I started noticing the small errors and kept swinging my sword.
[ Current skill mastery: 10% ]
As Tung Tung Sahur continued, he started speaking, "Even though I told you your sword is like a club, a club doesn't have cutting power. Your sword resembles a club with blades on its edges, but the edges are too thick and rough to cut.
Sekiryu is a very crude weapon that will tear through skin with great force, and damage muscles, bones, and internal organs. Cuts and tears are very different things, little one. A cut heals easier because of the clean edges, but the tear from Sekiryu will destroy tissues and create irregular wounds that will tear apart the edges and it will be more painful.
Your weapon's true weight is around 500 kilograms. In here, you can build some mind connection, but outside, you must train your body and everything you're working on here, or you won't be able to use Sekiryu.
Anyway, you've learned this movement well with your sword, little one. "
[ Current skill mastery: 11% ]
"And don't forget, you may have reached 11% quickly, but getting from here to 90% will take you years of repeating this movement. After 90%, even a 1% increase will elevate your technique to a whole new level but if you don't have talent, even if you train for decades, it won't even increase by 1%.
However, we've been training for about 3 hours now. You'll wake up soon, so let's finish the training here. When you wake up, work on developing your body, find a wooden sword and a stick, and practice the movements we've done. Concepts like getting tired, seeing, and feeling are really different here. It will be much harder when you wake up.
We'll see each other in the next training, little one."...
It felt like waking up from a dream. I was sleeping in my bed.
When I woke up, my mom was already up, preparing breakfast.
After a while, my dad woke up too, and we started eating together. Mom sat next to me, and dad sat across from us. Usually, my mom focused on taking care of me at the table while dad did most of the talking. Just like always, while he was chatting away...
"Dad, I want a wooden sword and a wooden club."
My mom froze. And then
"Daigo, are you proud of your work?"
She already knew her son wasn't ordinary, but while all the other kids asked for plush toys from the nearby towns, her son's interest in weapons cut her deep.
After seeing the terrifying smile on my mother's face, my father quickly grabbed me and rushed out.
"Hahahahaha! That's my boy! Get ready, Hope! We're going to get your sword and club right now!"
I said goodbye to my mom who gave me a helpless look and left the house.
We entered a building at the center of the village, an armory! Rows of weapons made from all kinds of metals lined the shelves. I picked out a wooden sword and a wooden club roughly the size I wanted.
My father took me to a training ground where a few people were practicing. Standing tall like a proper instructor was Uncle Kato.
"Kato! My boy asked for a sword and a club this morning! Must be trying to impress the ladies in the village, huh?! AHAHAHAHA!" my father shouted loud enough for everyone to hear.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Kato and a few of the warriors joined in laughing with him.
When everyone suddenly turned to look at me, I felt a little embarrassed. Even the black leaves on my head seemed to droop slightly…
Then I started swinging the wooden sword. After three to five minutes, I was completely out of breath. I took a short break, then picked up the club and began swinging it. I could feel the resistance of the air — it slightly slowed down my strikes.
I couldn't control my movements like I did in the dream. My small body wobbled with every swing of the sword or club, and sometimes I even fell.
Kato looked over and said while laughing, "Daigo, your son is going to be an incredible warrior when he grows up."
They began watching me closely. My movements weren't those of a 6 years old who had just picked up a weapon for the first time. My starting stance was stable. I stretched my body correctly during my swings, and I was even making a faint whooshing sound with each strike.
Kato came over and began giving me advice. He focused the most on my breathing. I was tiring myself out more by breathing irregularly.
Right… I wasn't breathing in the dream.
After some weapon practice, I told Kato I wanted to strengthen my body, and together we prepared a daily routine. It mostly involved push-ups, crunchs, squats, chin-ups, running, jumping, and stretching.
I was already looking forward to sleeping again!