18 Chapter 18: Perfect Sword!

Once I had gotten over my embarrassment, I was curious what that trance-like state was when I grabbed the sword, and I figured Great-grandmother would know.

"Great-grandmother, do you know what that trance-like state I experienced earlier was?" Asked Elif as he continued to swing the sword, seeing if he could somehow enter that state once more.

"What you had just experienced was what we call an epiphany. An epiphany is a trance-like state where you gain insights into something, and it doesn't necessarily have to be related to cultivation; you could gain an epiphany into anything." Answered Celeste in her calm voice once more.

"Well, seeing how surprised Illumia sounded, I'm going to assume experiencing an epiphany is something special, or am I wrong?" Stated Elif.

"Special doesn't describe how miraculous it is to enter such a state; experiencing an epiphany can happen to anyone; it doesn't matter the talent a person has, nor does it matter how strong someone's will is, and that's why experiencing an epiphany is such an amazing thing, as it's impossible to increase the odds of someone entering the state of epiphany."

What Great-grandmother said disappointed me, as I thought since I'm incredibly talented, I would be able to experience an epiphany again, considering it felt wonderful to be in that state, though it seems like I won't be so lucky.

"That's lame, but if experiencing an epiphany is supposed to increase my understanding of something, why do I still not know much about the sword?" Asked Elif in confusion.

"An epiphany increases your understanding of something, but it doesn't allow you to suddenly know something you didn't know before. Using the insights you've gathered during an epiphany, you would develop your own theory that would allow you an even deeper understanding of something; in your case, it's the sword. Though in your case, the epiphany you experienced allowed you to take your first step into becoming a sword master, as you now have sword intent." Answered Celeste as she took the sword from Elif's hands.

Even when I no longer had the sword in my hand, I could still feel the sword that was now in Great-grandmother's hand; in fact, I could feel every other sword close by me, albeit slightly.

"I can feel all the swords around me. Is this because of sword intent?" Asked Elif, not really knowing how to feel about it.

"Yes, awakening sword intent is the very first step into mastering the way of the sword; usually, it would take genius's months of dedicated hard work to achieve sword intent, yet with the epiphany you had, it took you no longer than ten minutes." Stated Celeste with a smile on her face as she set the sword back on the rack before snapping her fingers, causing all the shelves of various weapons to disappear before reappearing. Yet, the difference now was that every weapon was a sword.

Seeing what Great-grandmother didn't shock me as it wasn't that special to see things suddenly change from a snap to me anymore, though if it were yesterday, I would've been surprised. Still, even though the weapons are now only swords, It doesn't seem to have decreased the number of weapons.

"Since you'll be using the sword, it's time to pick one out." Declared Celeste.

"I'm not going to use the sword I had before?" Asked Elif.

"Goodness no, that sword you picked up was merely an Earth-rank weapon; the only people who use them are commoners in the army as they are easy to mass produce. As a Prince, you have an image to uphold, and having a measly Earth-rank sword would be disgraceful for a Prince of the Elven Empire; besides, that sword would become obsolete once you reach the Saint realm." Said Celeste in a distasteful tone before urging Elif to find the sword he wished to use.

Walking around, I once again start picking any sword I see that catches my eye, they all feel great to hold, but I don't know how to tell which sword I want; even the ugly-looking swords feel great.

'Wait! What if I use my ability to search for the sword I want? If it were before, It probably wouldn't have worked, but now that I can sense swords with my sword intent, I might be able to sense the sword meant for me!' Thought Elif, feeling proud of himself for coming up with a genius plan; at least, he considers it a genius plan.

So closing my eyes, I tried sensing the sword I wanted, but I didn't even need to do anything as immediately after I closed my eyes, every blade I could sense released a shining light of various intensities. Some of the swords gave off small amounts of light, while a few of them gave off an intense light that overshadowed some of the smaller ones, and some lights even flickered between intensities.

'Well, It looks like my idea worked, as I can now differentiate the sword that seems more compatible to me, but the range I can cover doesn't cover every single sword; it seems I'll still have to walk around. At least this is hundreds of times quicker than before.' Thought Elif, thankful that his idea worked and that he could shorten the time to find the sword meant for him.

So I continued walking around the racks looking for the perfect sword; I've come across a few that really stood out compared to all the others. Still, before I settled on one of them, I wanted to make sure there wasn't a sword I missed that had even better compatibility with me. After ten minutes of walking around, and almost finishing the search for the perfect blade, I finally found the sword that was meant for me; when I stepped within its range, that was the only light I could sense as it was so intense it completely overshadowed every other sword, even sensing it seemed to hurt like I was staring at the sun.

'So that's where you've been hiding!' Thought Elif, excited that he had finally found his perfect sword.

Quickly running, once I arrived right before the intensely shining light, I opened my eyes to see a slightly curved long sword; the blade was pure silver with a dark black hilt attached to it; inspecting it closer, I could clearly see my reflection within the sword. Reaching my hand out, I grab hold of the sword by the hilt and carefully remove it from the rack.

"What type of sword is this Illumia?" Asked Elif, still fascinated at the sword in his hands.

"That sword is of the Katana family, or more specifically, an Ōdachi; it is a weapon made for cutting through large beasts as quickly as possible, your highness." Answered Illumia as she eyed the Ōdachi that was even taller than her in Elif's hand.

"Oh, to think you would've picked up that sword is quite interesting, to say the least." Said Celeste as she also eyed the sword before focusing back on Elif.

"Hm, is there something special about this sword, Great-grandmother?" Asked Elif with a raised eyebrow.

"That sword was found many Eons ago by one of our ancestors; it's a very rare type of sword that'll increase in rank as long as it's given enough resources. But the reason why it's special is because of the material it's made out of, which is Immortal Gatrum, one of the most precious metals in all of existence. Even an existence like ours only has less than a hundred kilograms of it, though what's even more astonishing is that a blacksmith was capable of forging with Immortal Gatrum." Stated Celeste, which slightly surprised Elif but caused Illumia to be utterly shocked, as only someone on her level would be capable of understanding how precious a sword like that is.

I don't fully understand how rare a sword like this is, but what I do know is that I want this sword.

"So I can still have this sword, correct?" Asked Elif, as held the sword close to him protectively while he eyed Celeste, but when he brought the sword close to him, the sharp blade nicked his wrist, which caused blood to emerge.

"OW!" Yelled Elif, as it was the first time in his life he had ever been this badly hurt, he quickly brought the sword away from his wrist and, in the process, almost hit Illumia, who had casually dodged the accidental attack.

"Great, now I'm bleeding, and the blood is going to ruin my-"

I stopped talking as I saw the blood that was on the sword get sucked up, and it seemed I wasn't the only one who saw what had happened as well.

"Did you see that as well, Queen Celeste!?" Asked Illumia while eyeing the sword.

"Yes, I did, but for something like that to happen, I don't know what to say." Answered Celeste as she took the sword from Elif's hand and rested the sword's blade on his wound, which made Elif uncomfortable, but he didn't say anything as he was also curious about what happened.

With the blade on my wrist, the three of us watched how it sucked up all the blood that emerged from me, and only after a couple of seconds did it stop absorbing my blood; Great-grandmother then removed the blade before covering my wound with her hand.

"There you go, Elif, and like what Illumia said, these are weapons meant to kill, so be careful." Reprimanded Celeste, who had removed her hand from Elif's wound that was now healed.

"Sorry, Great-grandmother." Apologized Elif as he rubbed his wrist where the wound previously was in surprise.

I was about to question Great-grandmother on how she healed my wrist, but it didn't seem like the sword was finished, as the Ōdachi started shrinking in size till it was the same height as me, then the hilt changed from black to purple along with a black tassel hanging on the end of the hilt.