New World - A New Beginning

This new teacher of mine had warned me that I wouldn't be leaving the dojo until I had mastered the technique, which gave me approximately one week. If I took any longer, the raid might have to be canceled, and I didn't want the blame to be put on Katherine.

"Bind Circulation acts like a living shield around you. By training your body and mind to absorb small bits of bind at all times, you'll be able to heavily reduce the toll of using large scale spells," instructed Yu.

The concept wasn't complicated, but putting it into practice was a lot more complex than I imagined. Multitasking was something that was required to survive on Earth, and calculating various things during a fight was what helped me live for so long.

Even so, observing an opponent and absorbing bind were two phenomenons that had nothing to do with each other.

The training mainly consisted of sparring whilst maintaining a flowing stream of bind entering my body, but adding the extra task was forcing me to reduce my overall effectiveness in battle.

"Don't focus on it, just accept the flow," instructed Yu as our swords clashed, his calm demeanor soothing any doubts I might've had.

A river of bind was the basis of the manipulation that I was using, but there was something off about it. A river wasn't an endless cycle, the stream inevitably coming to an end at a larger body of water.

My mind always circled back to the water, feeling like it was the gateway to understanding bind circulation.

What if I created a cycle with separate steps, going through each one individually but always ending at the start point.

If I created a vortex with my core as the center point, I would be attracting all the bind around me. I could then convert that excess bind into enhancing bind, improving my speed, strength, and reflexes simultaneously and constantly.

I disengaged from the sword lock, smiling at the realization.

"It seems like you've understood," said Yu, not even surprised I learned it within a week.

"Yea, I did," I answered, releasing a massive force around me as bind began to enter my core. Like a programmer coding a computer, I programmed myself to consistently manipulate small amounts of bind at a time, enhancing my own body.

I launched myself at my opponent, tapping into the near-unlimited pool of bind I had created. Before Yu could even raise his sword, I electrified the bind around me, small shocks sparking within my body.

BOOM

A massive shockwave rippled through the air as I appeared behind Yu, my ears ringing from the attack. I had just broken the sound barrier, and I could tell my bind was already regenerating. The Fei looked at me, a simple smile of disbelief spread across his face.

"I want you to have this," he announced, heading towards the wall of the dojo and taking down a glinting longsword.

"Why?"

"Consider it a gift. You are my only pupil after all," he explained, clearly proud of his teachings, and the student he had raised in such a short amount of time.

"Thank you," I said, not knowing how else to thank him but to express it with words.

The crimson weapon gleamed with dignity, a fearsome image of a king long passed flooding my mind as I grabbed the sword. I turned around and swung the longsword, a deep vibrating echo humming throughout the dojo.

I smiled. This sword was something that would be extremely valuable and considering it was a longsword, it meant that I didn't have to find a replacement for the old one I lost a while ago. I had been renting weapons for the countless domains that I had cleared alongside Katherine, and now we were sure to save money if I had my own.

Yu looked at me, understanding that I had to leave immediately.

"Go on now," he instructed, bowing to me with respect as I exited the room and made my way down the road towards the inn.

I entered the small room, the door creaking at my arrival.

"Welcome back," smiled Katherine, not even remotely concerned that I had vanished for the last week.

We both chose to ignore the discussion about my whereabouts, focusing on what lay ahead.

"Did you get any news from the party?" I asked as I packed my things, preparing to head to the meeting spot we had all agreed upon.

"We'll be six," responded Katherine, her stuff already prepared.

"Four attackers?"

"Yea."

"How good's our healer?" I asked, trying to visualize the entire party before meeting them.

"A-rank, I don't know when he got promoted though."

"Let's hope it wasn't recently."

"Well, knowing you, you'll probably save the day and solo the entire domain if things go wrong," teased Katherine. I chuckled, understanding where she was coming from.

"Will he be there?" I asked. Katherine raised her eyebrow at the question.

"Hugo? No, he won't. You seem to really dislike him, huh?"

"He's just another danger I have to keep tabs on," I explained, heading towards the door with my small amount of luggage.

"I want to believe the incident a year ago was an accident," said Katherine, following me through the entrance.

"I'm sure it was," I responded, turning around to face the girl, "but I'm not so sure about the next time."

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about him for now," consoled Katherine. I nodded, heading outside the inn and towards the rendezvous point determined beforehand.

"By the way," added Katherine, touching my shoulder, "nice sword."

She winked at me playfully, not even surprised that I had received another weapon that appeared to be extremely powerful. I sighed, realizing that this partner of mine accepted so many unusual things about me.

We arrived at the domain, the sight of it stirring up memories from a year ago. We were facing another cave-domain, but I could immediately tell the monsters weren't insects.

I looked at Katherine for answers, the girl usually being extremely well-versed in the types of domains and monsters within Auroria. She looked at me, a dumbfounded expression spread across her face.

"This domain's been invaded," she told me.

I realized the threat we were about to face, and whether or not the rest of the party would be prepared for a task like that. If this domain had been invaded, that meant that the monster currently residing within it was strong enough to take on the entirety of the inhabitants that dwelled in it previously.

If a single monster could do that to an A-rank domain, this meant that we were no longer dealing with an A-rank monster.

This was AA-rank.

"Should we cancel the mission?" I asked, aware of the high possibility of death.

"I don't think we have a choice. The beast is an invasive type, so it'll attack settlements nearby until it's stopped. What if it attacks Orun?"

I scowled at her reasoning, agreeing with everything she said. We'd have to take down this AA-rank boss as a six-man A-rank party.

Could we really even survive this?