A year passed.
[Parry]
Now, I was able to parry ten sticks in the span of a single breath. I could feel my own improvement, but I couldn’t feel myself developing a new skill. I didn’t know when it would happen, but I was sure it would. I just had to keep working hard. And when it did, I would be able to stand on my own two feet as an adventurer. That would be when my adventures began.
The thought alone made my heart sing with excitement. I found myself giddily looking forward to each new day, with hope for the future ringing in my chest.
✦ ✦ ✦
Three more years passed.
Excluding my time spent on necessities such as hunting and tending to my field, I was still training from morning to night, pushing myself until I was on the brink of exhaustion.
I’d long since exchanged the sticks for wooden swords of my own making, having figured that they’d make for better targets. All of my attention had been devoted to parrying the countless weapons as they flew through the air, and now...
[Parry]
I could parry a hundred wooden swords in the span of a single breath, even with my eyes closed. It felt like I’d gotten a little stronger, but I still hadn’t developed a new skill. And my time away from the mountain had taught me that skills were everything in this world.
“I guess I haven’t trained enough.”
Even the realm of a rookie adventurer was still beyond my reach; as I was now, going on adventures was a dream within a dream. With that in mind, I resolved to be even stricter with my training.
✦ ✦ ✦
The weeks and months went by, and before I knew it, another ten years had passed. I’d kept up my strict training without missing a day and continued adding wooden swords to the point that I could no longer say how many were strung from the trees. I’d stopped counting a few years ago when I’d passed a thousand.
I devoted myself to my training, keeping my mind empty as I parried wooden swords over and over again. All I ever did was parry.
[Parry]
I’d reached the stage where I could parry a thousand wooden swords without even swinging my own, but I still couldn’t feel myself developing a new skill.
“I wonder how much training real swordsmen must go through...” I mused aloud. I couldn’t even imagine it. Adventurers seemed so far beyond me now that my head spun at the very thought of becoming one.
I didn’t have a shred of talent—that much I already knew. That was why I’d tried to make up for it with hard work, but I could feel that I was finally reaching my limit.
The guildsman had told me that I needed to learn a skill to become an adventurer, but I was twenty-seven now and still without one. Even the most run-of-the-mill adventurer needed skills, but no matter how much I struggled, they were beyond my reach.
However, I still couldn’t give up on becoming an adventurer and exploring the world.
“Talk about a foolish dream...”
I’d chased it knowing that it was foolish—or at least, that was what I’d thought. Anyone else in my shoes would have accepted that it was time to look for a different way of life...but I still couldn’t lose heart.
And so I descended the mountain and made my way back to the royal capital. I needed to visit the Adventurers Guild again.