Chapter 21: Training Partner
Setting aside past deeds and focusing solely on strength, hiring a professional warrior like Sven to teach swordsmanship to someone who had never learned it before would be prohibitively expensive even for nobility.
This opportunity was both extravagant and rare.
Yet Wade didn’t need to pay a single silver coin to have Sven as his training partner.
Though he hadn’t obtained that extraordinary longsword yet, in a sense, this was even more valuable wealth.
After all, a sword was merely an external object that could one day break or be lost, while learned skills and knowledge would forever belong to him.
Wade understood this principle well. As a baker, he was skilled with kitchen knives but had never studied swordsmanship.
Wanting to improve his sword skills, he raised his blade and faced Sven beneath the burning church.
When killing pirates, he had always attacked from behind, never engaging in proper sword combat.
Basic slashes and thrusts could be used instinctively by anyone holding a sword – if one could chop carrots with a kitchen knife, they could kill with a sword.
But against a true swordmaster, Wade’s rudimentary skills would become fatal weaknesses.
A baker busy daily with ovens and cabinets naturally wouldn’t worry about someday needing to face a swordmaster in combat.
But Wade was now a skeleton. If he still wished to cross through that door into the outside world, he’d better strengthen himself.
To navigate human society, trace that dice’s secrets, find a way for his true body to leave the wasteland, and reach places with sunlight and white clouds, he would inevitably face countless threats.
As undead, skeletons were inherently viewed as evil enemies by humans.
To confront these threats, he needed to grow stronger.
There was one truth in Sven’s beliefs that wasn’t wrong:
Only absolute power could bring victory.
Tricks and schemes were last resorts. If Wade had been stronger than Sven, why would he have needed elaborate plans to lure Sven to the reservoir, exhausting all means to kill him?
Even just reaching Iron-rank professional warrior level would have made killing Sven far less strenuous.
Becoming stronger was essential, which was why Wade now stood before this memory fragment.
Starting with basic sword swings, he would learn combat methods.
“Begin.”
The memory fragment finally moved. Sven’s shadow raised a knight’s sword and stepped forward.
Wade saw the blade trace a circular arc before his skull split in two. A red “DEATH” character seemed to float before his eyes.
“Again.”
Refusing to concede, Wade reset the scene and challenged once more.
This time he prepared for Sven’s opening circular slash, ready to duck while considering counterattacks.
The moment he dodged, his skull shattered.
The memory fragment broke patterns – starting with a circular slash but fluidly transitioning into a double-arc slash when Wade bent down.
Caught off guard by the variation, Wade was cleaved apart.
Completely outmatched, the gap between them was terrifyingly vast.
This was good – it meant Wade had much to learn from Sven.
No need for discouragement – what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.
This was just a “dream” after all – situations like having one’s skull shattered without dying only happened in dreams.
How many could train swordsmanship through death like Wade?
Opportunities were fleeting and precious.
Possessing such unique advantages, he must cherish them properly.
Wade challenged Sven repeatedly. On the twelfth attempt, he dodged the first strike.
He learned to predict attack angles by observing Sven’s wrist movements.
So when someone’s wrist adopts this posture, the sword swings this way.
Gradually improving, on the thirty-sixth try he survived the second move.
Probably coincidence, but he actually parried that overwhelmingly powerful vertical slash using proper technique.
Remembering this feeling, he tried replicating it until, by the fifty-sixth attempt, he could deflect sword force about one-tenth of the time.
Progress felt wonderful despite the unpleasant cleaving sensations.
On the one hundred twenty-sixth attempt, he first wounded Sven in direct combat.
He realized something – he didn’t need to wield his sword like a human. As a skeleton, he had more attack angles in life-or-death struggles.
This injury occurred when he automatically detached his right arm to slash Sven’s ankle.
New progress.
Though dying repeatedly, Wade felt pleasure, gradually discovering enjoyment.
He wanted to continue, but time was up.
He sensed Mia awakening, already hopping on his ribcage.
The burning church fragmented as flames condensed into fireballs, the dream turning blank again.
Wade’s “rest” was sufficient – refreshed, he could rise and move about the cave.
Today’s training duration equaled his previous rest periods of tossing the dice 26,500 times.
Before leaving, he examined the dice one last time.
The heart’s crimson staining progressed faster than expected – about one-tenth saturated. This coloration occurred every dream, but the initial complete staining had taken far longer than ten days.
Why so fast now?
Had the previous complete staining opened a channel, accelerating the process?
Wade recalled the day the door opened, comparing it to past rests.
He remembered the last skeleton he defeated while digging – the sixty-fourth.
After consuming sixty-four skeletons’ soul fires, that day his cracks fully healed, achieving new bodily control.
Had this transformation charged the dice to open the door?
If he advanced further, might new developments occur?
Questions filled Wade about this mysterious dice:
Where did it come from?
Why did it appear in his dreams?
Though currently unknowable, he set understanding it as a long-term goal.
Before awakening, he summarized as usual:
Current objectives were honing skills and renovating his new home.
Then patiently waiting for the day the heart’s surface filled completely with crimson.
At this rate, it wouldn’t take long. Then he’d attempt crossing through that door once more.