Chapter 167: One Blade, Four Forms

After the meal, Siegfried led Zac to the back of the mansion, where a large open training ground stretched out before them.

He walked to the center, turned around, and looked at Zac. "All right, kid. Show me what you’ve got."

Zac nodded and took out the Flame Slasher he had borrowed from Armani.

Siegfried’s eyes immediately moved to the weapon. "Is that sword really yours?"

"No, I borrowed it from Armani."

"Hmm. She let you borrow her weapon?"

"One of her weapons," Zac corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Still, that’s surprising."

"Anyway, show me what you can do. I want to see everything. Your footwork, your swings, how you distribute your strength, how you move your mana..."

"Wait. You do know mana coating, right?"

Zac nodded.

"Right. Silly question." Siegfried walked back and sat down on a nearby bench, waiting for Zac to begin.

Zac took a deep breath, then started.

Horizontal cuts, downward vertical slashes, and thrusts that pierced through the air. He moved through the fundamental sword movements one after another before repeating the entire sequence with mana coating.

After going through everything three more times, Zac finally stopped and looked toward Siegfried, who was watching him intently.

He nodded. "Yeah. Go ahead."

Zac remained standing there with a blank face.

Siegfried made another gesture with his hand. "Whenever you’re ready."

Zac scratched the side of his head. "Well... that’s it."

Siegfried blinked. "What? That was it?"

He stared at Zac. "Kid, you just showed me basic sword movements."

"Well... those are the only things I know right now."

"What?" Siegfried frowned. "Don’t you have a swordsmanship technique?"

"Well, that’s where we have a small problem."

Zac hesitated slightly. "You see, I only received my first actual swordsmanship technique yesterday, and I haven’t had the time to properly learn it yet."

Siegfried slowly shook his head and released a long breath. "Kid, you’re putting me in a difficult position here."

He looked directly at Zac. "You came to ask me to forge you a sword before you’ve even learned how to properly use one?"

"Is it really that bad?"

"No, no. Your form and movements are practically textbook-perfect. The problem is I can’t forge a sword perfectly suited to you based on fundamentals alone."

"If I’m making a weapon specifically for you, I need to understand what your swordsmanship demands from that weapon."

"For example, some sword styles are aggressive. They rely on heavy blows and overwhelming force, so the weapon needs to accommodate that."

"Others focus on speed and precision. Their users may need a much lighter sword because their entire fighting style depends on rapid changes in direction."

"I could keep listing examples all day. Some styles emphasize control; others favor elegance, defense, endurance, assassination, counters... everything matters."

He looked at the sword in Zac’s hand. "For a swordsman, a sword isn’t merely a piece of metal. It becomes an extension of their arm."

"Now imagine suddenly feeling as though your own arm wasn’t compatible with you. How would that feel?"

"Like it wasn’t my arm."

"Exactly." Siegfried nodded. "That’s what an incompatible sword feels like. No matter how good the weapon is, it never truly feels like yours."

He looked at Zac again. "You said you received your technique yesterday, right?"

"Yes."

"Are you certain it’s the technique you want?"

"The technique you intend to master and continue using throughout your life? The foundation you’re going to build your entire swordsmanship around?"

Zac nodded again.

"Have you gone through it? Do you understand how it works?"

"Curriculum-wise. Yes! I have."

"Can you explain it to me?"

Zac nodded, but a faint hesitation surfaced in his mind.

The technique was absurdly powerful, the kind of thing that could inspire greed even in most generous people.

Armani hadn’t shown any interest in taking it from him, but Zac couldn’t assume everyone would be the same.

Still, after hearing about Siegfried’s relationship with his father, and knowing the man was willing to forge an unimaginably valuable material into a weapon for him, Zac made his decision.

"Fine." He looked at Siegfried. "My swordsmanship technique is called Eternal Seasons."

Siegfried’s expression became more attentive. "Hmm. That’s quite a name for a technique. I hope it lives up to it."

"It uses the four seasons as its foundation. There are four different forms, and each one is based on the characteristics of a particular season."

"Four completely different forms?" Siegfried asked. "Or four stages of the same style?"

"Four different styles of swordsmanship."

"Hmm." Siegfried rubbed his beard. "That’s a first for me. Continue."

"The only one I currently have is the Summer Form. It’s the first of the four."

"Summer focuses on power. Heavy, fierce attacks. The idea is to overwhelm the opponent directly, break through their defense, and control the fight through pressure."

"So frontal combat. Forceful and aggressive."

"Yes."

Siegfried nodded, then suddenly stopped. "Wait." He looked at Zac. "Did you just say you only have one form?"

Zac nodded somewhat awkwardly.

"Do you know where the other three are?"

Zac remained silent.

Siegfried stared at him. "Kid... you’re really starting to worry me."

"Sigh...You’re planning to build your entire swordsmanship around a technique when you don’t even know whether the rest of it still exists."

Siegfried shook his head. "Other than not having that annoyingly righteous side, you’re just as reckless as your father."

For several seconds, Siegfried said nothing and simply sat there, thinking. Eventually, he looked back at Zac. "You really are an incredibly troublesome child, do you know that?"

"I’ve been told."

"I’m sure you have." Siegfried rubbed his beard again. "All right. Let’s work with what we have."

He thought for a moment. "You said every form embodies the nature of its respective season, right?"

"If Summer is heavy, fierce, and direct, then assuming the creator actually based the technique on the characteristics of the seasons instead of simply giving the forms fancy names, the others should differ considerably."

"Take Autumn, for example. Autumn is associated with stronger winds, so I’d expect something sharper and faster. A style built around precision, clean attacks, and perhaps speed."

Siegfried continued thinking.

"Winter should probably be almost the opposite of summer. Quiet, restrained, and concealed."

"Something suited to ending a fight before the opponent even understands what’s happening. Perhaps something resembling an assassination style."

Zac’s stare intensified.

"And Spring..." Siegfried paused. "Spring represents transition."

"I’m not entirely sure how that would translate into swordsmanship, but if the pattern holds, it should be fundamentally different from the other three."

Zac continued staring at him. "He just explained almost the entire technique."

[What did I tell you? People who’ve spent decades at the top didn’t get there by looking impressive.]

"No kidding."

Siegfried remained completely unaware of Zac’s brief conversation with the system.

He was still thinking through the implications of the technique. "Interesting. Mhmm... Very interesting. You don’t actually have one type of swordsmanship but four, all within a single technique."

"Is it really that bad?"

"Not bad in a bad way, but yes. It’s bad."

"Really?"

"Most swordsmen naturally lean toward a single approach; at least no one can have two different types at the same time."

"Someone who specializes in direct combat will usually choose or develop a sword style that complements it. Heavy attacks, overwhelming force, breaking defenses."

"On the other hand, someone who specializes in assassination would favor speed and concealment. They wouldn’t need a sword designed to survive a prolonged exchange because, ideally, there wouldn’t be one."

Siegfried looked at Zac. "But your technique is different."

"If my assumptions about the other forms are correct, Eternal Seasons combines several fundamentally different schools of swordsmanship into one system."

"And learning something like that would be incredibly difficult, more than difficult, actually; it’s impossible."

"Why?"

"When you learn a particular style of swordsmanship and practice it day and night, your body gradually adapts to it."

"The movements become ingrained into you. Your muscles, balance, reflexes, posture... everything slowly adjusts until your body becomes perfectly suited to performing that style."

"But if you suddenly switch to a completely different technique, your body has to adapt all over again. You would need to practice that new style repeatedly until your body reshaped its habits around those movements."

"And if you then returned to the previous style, you might no longer perform it as naturally as before. That’s why most swordsmen eventually lean toward one primary type of swordsmanship."

"But it’s still your choice. And if someone really created a technique consisting of several completely different sword styles, then I assume they also created some way for the body to adapt to all of them."

"I just hope you manage to obtain the rest."

Zac nodded slowly.

"So... is that going to cause problems when you make my sword?"

"Well, yes." Siegfried smiled faintly. "But I’d call it a convenient problem."

"I don’t understand."

Siegfried sighed. "Listen, kid."

"If you only had that Summer Form you described, I could forge a sword specifically suited to it. A weapon designed around heavy, aggressive combat could greatly enhance that style."

"But if you later switched to something like Winter, then the same design would slow you down instead of helping you."

"To put it simply, specializing the sword for one form could make it worse for another."

Zac began to understand. "So since I’m planning to learn all four..."

"We don’t specialize in the sword at all."

Zac looked at him. "So you’re going to make me a simple sword?"

"Simple doesn’t mean inferior, kid. That’s just a stereotype people use to convince others that everything needs to be specialized."

He waved a hand. "Anyway, let’s not wander too far from the point."

"A proper one-handed longsword. Suitable length, weight, and balance, built around versatility rather than one specific purpose."

"It won’t provide an overwhelming advantage to any single form. But you also won’t need to change weapons every time your swordsmanship changes."

"The same blade should be able to move from aggression to precision, concealment, endurance... whatever your technique demands."

"So an average, normal sword is best for me?"

"Hey!" Siegfried glared at him. "Don’t call my future masterpiece average. Anything I make is a masterpiece."

"Fine."

"Good." Siegfried nodded. "Then the first problem is settled. Now show me your elemental affinity. Channel it the same way you would during an actual fight."

Zac nodded, and mana surged through his body.

Thin arcs of lightning crackled across his arm and flowed into the sword. A moment later, the entire blade was wrapped in flickering blue-white electricity.

"Lightning." After studying it for a few seconds, Siegfried fell into thought. "I can incorporate a lightning gem into the weapon’s core. It should increase your attack power considerably."

Zac nodded.

[Idiot! Don’t let him]

"Why?"

[Are you an idiot? Did you already forget the greatest advantage of your bloodline?]

Zac’s expression changed. "Right."

Siegfried immediately noticed his reactions. "Is there a problem, kid?"

"Actually... can you not use the lightning gem?"

Siegfried frowned. "Why not?"

"Well... it might cause problems later."

"If you’re worried about the quality of the gem, don’t be." Siegfried folded his arms with a smug face. "You do know who I am, right? I can get some of the highest-quality materials available on the planet."

"No, no. That’s not it."

Siegfried’s expression became serious. "Kid, if you know something that could be my masterpiece, then you’d better tell me now."