57 Frustration

Though he was getting his shit kicked in on a near-daily basis, Paul had been enjoying his stay at the Sword Sanctum. He could feel his strength increasing with each passing day, and, due to his talent and increasingly handsome appearance, he was more than a little popular with the ladies.

"Are you going to be okay? I used Healing Magic, but it can't help recover fatigue..."

Instead of responding to Paul's words, the blue-haired girl sharing his bed just stared off into space with an absentminded look on her face. Paul had gone easy on her, but they still went at it for three hours and in more than a dozen different positions.

Shaking his head, Paul allowed the girl to bask in her pleasant daydream as he focused on wiping his body clean using an old towel and some ice-cold water. Getting his shit kicked in by the Sword God every day left him feeling more than a little pent up. Fortunately, most of the girls within the Sword Sanctum were more than happy to help him relieve some stress.

Though it had only been a month or so since his arrival, Paul had made the rounds of nearly the entire female student body. If he had been a complete asshole, he could have even slept with girls who were already in a relationship. Fortunately for their boyfriends, Paul was kept apprised of the relationship status of most of the girls by those he slept with. His actions already caused a lot of people to resent and outright hate him, so he did his best to avoid fucking the brains out of other peoples' lovers.

Once he was finished with himself, Paul brought his most recent 'victim' back to her senses by tossing the cold rag onto her stomach. A startled gasp emanated from her throat as Paul said, "I'm going to head out for training. I'll stop by before sunset, so you can sleep here without having to worry about being late."

Though she nearly threw the rag back at Paul's face, the blue-haired girl, Selena, adopted a smile when she heard his 'considerate' words. She had heard the rumors regarding Paul being an absolute beast in the bed, and, while that turned out to be an understatement, he appeared to be as kind as the other girls had said.

"Thanks...and last night was incredible..."

Adopting a rather brazen smile, Paul sent Selena a wink as he said, "I still have a long way to go. Fortunately, I have a bunch of incredible girls like you to help me out..."

Though Selena was only seventeen-years-old, she had a voluptuous body and features reminiscent of a young woman in her late teens or early twenties. She also had an innately melodic voice, so he had really enjoyed her 'singing' the previous night.

Rewarding Paul's praise with a peal of bell-like laughter, Selena made to clean herself as she said, "Good luck during your training, Paul. We're all rooting for you."

Nodding his head in affirmation, Paul quickly finished donning his black bodysuit and white gi before heading towards the door. Before he could leave, however, Selena called out to him, saying, "Oh, yeah. We're coming up on the ninth month. The Beast Race's mating season generally starts around the third week and continues for a couple of weeks. It's become something of a tradition for all the guys to compete for the girls they like around that time, so you should prepare yourself."

Though he was already well aware of the upcoming mating season, Paul still nodded his head in response to Selena's words, saying, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." before continuing on his way. Gal didn't have anything better to do, but he hated to be kept waiting. If he showed up even a few minutes late, Paul knew he would pay the price. The first and last time it happened, Gal had literally hurled him down the slope of the mountain...

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"I take it you've prepared yourself...?"

Though Paul wasn't late, the fact he had stayed up having sex meant Gal wasn't going to go easy on him.

Instead of saying anything, Paul adopted a low stance with his sheathed sword in his left hand. He had recently been trying to incorporate the drawing techniques of the Sword God Style into the Flowing Sword Draw taught to him by Reida. Paul had noticed the similarities between them at the start of his training, so he was trying to pursue the 'absolute defense' in the form of an offensive strike that exploited the gap in his opponent's attacks and guard.

Snorting through his nose, Gal began to release his Touki as he charged toward Paul in a manner reminiscent of a tempest. Strong wings followed his every movement as he began trying to slap Paul's head, all while the latter endeavored to dodge and use his sword to deflect Gal's bare hand.

Similar to Armament Haki from One Piece and Reiatsu from Bleach, Touki provided the user with superhuman strength, speed, and defense. If the Touki of one person was demonstrably stronger than another, they could block even full-force sword strikes with their naked skin. Magic could get around this, but Paul didn't want to imagine what Gal would do if he tried to use a Water Ball in the middle of a mock sword fight.

The condition Gal had set for Paul to 'graduate' from his daily beatings was to leave a single mark on his gloved hands. Touki could also protect equipment and shields, so Gal's black leather gloves might as well have been formed from Adamantine with how much Touki he possessed.

Fetting fed up with Paul swatting away his hands, Gal stopped trying to smack him and instead charged him like a bull. More accurately, he used his shoulder to impact Paul's chest and send him crashing into one of the giant boulders people used by Sword Saints to practice cutting through stone.

"I'm starting to get tired of this, kid. You've been receiving my 'guidance' for a month and still haven't awakened your Touki. How did you manage to reach the pinnacle of the Advanced Rank with such mediocre talent?"

Instead of being offended by Gal's remark, Paul adopted a wry smile as he wiped away the traces of blood from his lips and said, "I can be really stubborn..."

"Is that so...?"

Causing alarm bells to sound within Paul's mind, Gal placed his left hand on the hilt of his mythical sword, the Windpipe. While its name sounded a little lame, it was the masterwork of the greatest Blacksmith to have ever lived, Yulian Jalisco, better known as the Forge God. The latter had used the hardest bones of a mountain-sized King Dragon to produce a total of 48 swords. Among those, the Windpipe was ranked 6, a suitable weapon for the sixth-strongest fighter in the entire world.

Before Paul could fully comprehend what had happened, Gal appeared behind him in an instant, the golden blade of his Windpipe fully drawn as he softly muttered, "Don't die, kiddo..."

As if it had been waiting for his words, a tremendous shockwave tore through the area between Gal's previous and present location. At the same time, a literal geyser of blood erupted from a deep cut that ran from the center of Paul's chest to his right shoulder...

Fortunately for Paul, his Lesser Regeneration had been active from the start of the fight. Gal had also made sure his attack didn't hit anything too important, so while Paul invariably collapsed into the snow, he was still alive despite experiencing the legendary Longsword of Light...

Seeing steam rise from Paul's body as he slowly yet visibly regenerated, Gal's expression became solemn as he stabbed the shellshocked youth in the leg. Paul had been rendered senseless by the Longsword of Light, but the added pain of being stabbed in the outer thigh was more than enough to bring him back to blood-curdling reality.

Screaming in pain for the first time in a while, Paul instinctually drew his Black Sword and swung it towards Gal. The latter was more than a little surprised by the appearance of Paul's red and black blade, but the latter might as well have been moving in slow motion in the eyes of the Sword God.

Fortunately for Paul, Gal was nothing if not a man of his words. When he attempted to stop the Black Sword with his hand, the ridiculously sharp blade easily penetrated the back of his glove and hand. This was largely due to the fact the Black Sword increased attack damage by 20% while also providing a reasonable CRIT chance, a phenomenon nearly identical to the effects of Touki.

"Not bad, kid...and that's a pretty good sword you have..."

Though he was momentarily tempted to seize Paul's sword and add it to his collection, Gal didn't believe in 'bullying' or taking from those weaker than himself. He also preferred curved blades over longswords, so there was that as well.

Giving the Black Sword one last glance, Gal sheathed his Windpipe and said, "From now on, you're to spend all your free time in this place. If you can't cut through the smallest boulder here within half a year, you should just give up being a Swordsman. As 'resolute' as you are, your time would be better spent pursuing something you're actually talented in..."

After observing him for a month, Gal had concluded that the only reason Paul had managed to reach the Advanced Rank was because of the time and resources he had put into his training. Sure, he was a prodigy, but his talents appeared to lie elsewhere. Based on the clamor coming from his room each night, it wasn't too hard to imagine where...

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Due to the severity of his injuries, it took Paul nearly twenty minutes to fully recover. When he finally pushed himself to his feet, his complexion had paled considerably due to a combination of blood loss and the frigid temperatures. In spite of this, he manifested the Black Sword in his right hand and swung it, full-force, at one of the larger boulders.

Unlike typical stone boulders, those transported for use within the Sword Sanctum were a composite of granite, quartz, and other extremely hard minerals. It was even possible to find diamonds in some, as, unlike in his previous world, non-magical gemstones weren't considered particularly valuable in the world of Mushoku Tensei. After all, what was the use of a 'normal' rock when Mana Crystals and materials such as Mithril existed?

Despite swinging his sword full force and even triggering a critical attack, Paul was unable to cut through the boulder. He managed to shatter off a rather sizeable chunk, but that had less to do with his Touki and more to do with how broken the weapons empowered by Visions were.

Exhaling a weary sigh, Paul returned the Black Sword to his Vision before picking up the sword his father had acquired for him as a coming of age gift. It couldn't be compared to the weapons from Genshin, but it was a high-quality blade with excellent edge retention.

Swinging his unnamed sword with as much speed and strength as he could manage, Paul had to clench his teeth as the feedback from the impact ran through his hands and up his arms. Weapons empowered by Visions weren't just durable and lightweight; they had excellent shock-absorbent properties. At the very least, Paul hadn't felt any significant feedback during his previous strike.

Instead of swapping back to his preferred weapon, Paul pumped more Mana into his Lesser Regeneration as he began swinging his sword as a man possessed. He was sick and tired of people telling him he either had a talent for someone else or no talent at all. He already knew he wasn't a prodigy, but their 'advice' still pissed him off. Thus, even if it was to spite Gal, Paul was determined to cut through the largest boulder present...he wasn't going to give up just because some asshole with a sick fade told him to...

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