Published at 11th of September 2026 7:07 am

Chapter 1102: Same

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

A couple of minutes later, Asher dropped and landed on his feet. He rose, then closed his eyes as he exhaled, as though expelling the stress that came with this training.

Two and a half months had passed now. At this moment, he had already decided to increase his training period by another month or two, depending on the progress from the other training chambers.

Asher turned around and walked out of the training room, his steps silent. The moment the door closed behind him, his Astra energy came alive as he felt filthy at this moment. After all, he had neither showered nor brushed his teeth for the past freaking one month. And adding the fact that he was constantly exercising on top of that, Asher felt like a pig.

Unknown to Asher, the system that resided in his soul felt the intense urge to make fun of its Host, but alas, the system was a good ’person’ and decided not to make fun of this purple-haired boy, as it didn’t also want to break his focus.

The system could only file this moment away for another time.

"Phew! Now I feel human again." Asher spoke aloud for the first time in two months and two weeks, as he was also testing whether he had suddenly gone mute after not speaking for so long.

He immediately stripped naked as he changed into a new set of clothes, as now was the only opportunity. After he was done, his eyes shifted towards the last door that was on the right, the Swordsmanship Training room.

He stared at it for a moment, then walked into it. For this training, he wasn’t exactly trying to get his Swordsmanship to the next stage, as he had only just recently stepped into his current realm, and another breakthrough would take time. He only wanted to deepen his knowledge for now.

The room was the same as the Physical Conditioning room and the Astra Veins Cultivation room, same walls, same floor. Asher exhaled as Virelass appeared in his hand. He held her with two hands for a moment as he closed his eyes and stayed still as though he was either waiting for something or trying to get into the zone.

But it was neither. Even he himself didn’t know why he did that, but it didn’t matter, as the next moment, he opened his eyes and began his training.

Unlike what some youngsters might do during training, Asher didn’t try any flashy or cool moves or anything of the sort. To him, swordsmanship remained all about foundation... cut, slash, cleave, stab, thrust, repeat. Just simple motions, as without a strong foundation, whatever world-ending or galaxy-shaking sword technique one created, at the end of the day, a true swordmaster would easily see through such an attack.

There was a difference between a strong person wielding a sword and an actual swordmaster. They weren’t the same thing.

His hand rose above his head as his rapier rose, then fell. He didn’t stop; it rose and fell, then rose again, fell again. Repetition, constant, same posture, same angle, same weight, same motion, same breath, same mind, same thought.

Although the rapier couldn’t slash, Asher’s rapier, Virelass, wasn’t a standard rapier. His was a soul-bound weapon that possessed razor-sharp, tooth-like edges that could tear, hack, and rip flesh apart, and even perform a perfect slash. So, while those who used the rapier and were familiar with the weapon might not need slashes and rely on thrusts and stabs, he didn’t.

Time seemed to blur as Asher seemed to fall into a trance, his hands rising with the same timing and falling with the same timing. He seemed to be a broken machine that was on an endless loop of some sort, his eyes seeming to lose their light as though conscious thought had vanished.

An entire day passed. He had spent an entire day focusing on a singular motion... the slash.

And through this time, he hadn’t taken a single step. His hands and shoulders felt a bit sore, but it seemed as though he didn’t notice. Even Virelass didn’t hum, as though she understood that her usual humming would break the remarkable state of concentration he had fallen into.

But concentration was just concentration. It wasn’t enlightenment or like falling into a trance where one comprehended some technique from the myriad heavens or whatever that happened during trances and enlightenments.

Asher’s body suddenly stopped as though his concentration had been broken. He didn’t move, his body still as though he was a log of wood. He remained like that for a couple of minutes. Virelass seemed to grow a bit worried that Asher had stopped swinging, but she said nothing.

As ten minutes passed, Asher moved once more, but this time, his legs moved as Asher took a step forward and unleashed a thrust. The moment he unleashed a singular thrust, his body remained in that motion for a moment, then he reversed his steps as he stood up straight once more. Then, the next second, he performed another thrust as Virelass streaked forward.

The air was displaced gently as the thrust didn’t carry or possess too much power. After all, this wasn’t an attack meant to kill, but to perfect. And with that, Asher repeated the same motion over and over without stopping. As another day passed, he stopped, then transitioned into a cleave.

He swung Virelass diagonally, from up to down, from down to up, from left to right, from right to left. He performed each one after the other as he didn’t stick to just one cleave. His speed remained constant, as he didn’t suddenly increase his speed, then slow down.

Days passed yet again as Asher transitioned into the stab. Although stabs were usually done by weapons like knives and daggers, the stab was highly effective for the rapier. Although at first glance it might look the same as the thrust, it wasn’t nearly the same, as anyone with a discerning eye could tell the difference.

A week had passed as at this moment, Asher was now focused on defensive basic techniques. After all, one couldn’t train the attacking techniques and leave behind the defensive ones. One could never be a true swordmaster if they tried to take shortcuts or learn half of a whole.

He moved between parries, then blocks, then deflection. As time moved on, he began to train both attacking and defensive techniques together. He transitioned from slash to parry, from parry to stabs, from stabs to cuts, from cuts to blocks. Unlike before, where his speed was slow, this time, his hands and body blurred, frowns now appearing on his face as though he had missed an attack he should have blocked or parried.

It was as though he was sparring or fighting with some unseen enemy. And indeed he was, as at this moment, Asher was fighting a Shadow FatelessPen. He had replicated the image from his mind and their time in the separate space FatelessPen had created.

His body weaved through the space as he practiced his defensive and attacking basic techniques on Shadow FatelessPen. This wasn’t a true battle to see who would win, but a spar to learn and make corrections from.

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