It was a glorious achievement for me, but I knew it was only the beginning of what I could achieve by wielding a sword. My hand was numb from holding the sword excessively, but the marks it left were reminders never to forget it again.
I looked up and saw Diego, who had the same smiling expression on his face, but this time he seemed a little prouder. "What now?" I asked, hoping to learn more.
Diego went to pick up his greatsword, which he had placed in a corner during our fight. He thought for about a minute and then started his explanation. "Fundamentally, your swordsmanship stands on a very solid base, thanks to your master. If you want to grow and become a true swordsman, you need to learn techniques and gain experience. The question is, what do you want to do from now on?"
I thought for a bit and said, "I need to gain experience." Techniques seemed very useful to learn and could open many paths ahead of me, but I could learn those by observing other awakeners and copying them as I followed. However, fighting experience wasn't something I could collect in a short time.
Diego said with a grin, "Then come to the guild in the morning. It's time to profit off our disciple, after all."
Although I was a little surprised by what he said, he was enough of a teacher to be trusted, so I said, "I will go there tomorrow."
Since it was getting darker, I excused myself and started heading back to the church. As I walked, I began thinking about the week I spent learning swordsmanship from Diego and how different it was from self-learning. During those times, [Advanced Learner] showed its more powerful side by helping me understand the movements with ease. This also advanced my understanding of how this trait worked.
With [Advanced Learner], I could learn skills as long as I could grasp and apply the concept without an issue, just like answering a math question using a formula. On the other hand, movements that Diego showed me through teaching could be understood with simple observation, just like a page filled with only explanations.
That meant I didn't need to know anything to learn normal movements and swordsmanship, unlike how I needed some prior knowledge to acquire skills. With those thoughts in mind, I reached Arkena and went straight to the church for a good night's sleep, knowing that tomorrow wasn't going to be any easier than the previous week.
The next day, I woke up early, took my time, and washed myself with water in the church's backyard. I then sharpened the sword, which had become dull after the training session.
After the sun brightened the ground and I prepared everything, I headed to the adventurers' guild as I had promised, with an excited mind. I was thinking about what Diego was going to teach me, though I guessed it was something related to monsters.
I reached the guild and entered the building. The familiar odor was the first thing that hit my nose, and by looking around, I could see people like myself. The number of adventurers in the building seemed higher than usual, but I didn't find it strange and brushed it off, thinking it might be my mind playing tricks after not coming for a long time.
I noticed Diego in a corner, which wasn't too hard due to his large build. Despite the guild being crowded, nobody seemed to approach him, which I guessed was because of his infamy.
I approached him with a warm smile and bowed slightly while saying, "Greetings, Master."
"If you were a minute late, I would have gone. Better be faster next time, Ethan," said Diego, with his usual happy expression, though using a heavier tone.
"I won't do that again. What are we going to do today?" I asked politely.
Diego placed his hand into his pocket, pulled out a piece of paper, and said, "We are going to do this mission for the next three days."
I looked at the page, which was all written in a language I didn't know, prompting me to say, "I can't read this."
"Oh yeah, I sometimes forget that you've lost your memory, so let me explain. Each year, around this time, monsters begin to spread out from their original habitats to expand their domain. By doing so, they attack the surrounding villages and farms, and nobody wants that. Right now, the guild is preparing for the monster raids that will start in about a month, which is why there are more adventurers present," he explained thoroughly.
I considered that useful information and then said, "What does that have to do with this mission?"
"We are heading to the forest to decrease the number of active monsters in the vicinity, which will help with the raid."
"Very well, when are we going?" I asked, thinking we would have a little briefing first, like my time with Myer's team.
"We are leaving right now," he said with a smile, which seemed a little more sinister than usual.
"Okay."
Soon after the conversation, we started heading to the forest. Along the way, Diego was quiet, unlike the time we spent fighting, which was a little strange. I was hoping to get a little more information about the upcoming action we were about to undertake and how this would help me gain experience, but I decided it wasn't the right time to ask.
We walked into the forest as planned and took a different path that I had never taken before when I went hunting, which was expected since I was in Myer's team, and we only did low-tier missions.
As we got deeper into the forest, the trees became denser, and the soft ground turned rockier. All the while, I sensed that someone was watching us from the shadows, but it seemed to be nothing more than hallucinations from going too deep into the forest.
"Do not be at ease in this section of the hunting ground, or you'll regret it. There are many monsters far more capable than you are," said Diego, as calm as ever.
"Are there any monsters stronger than you in here?" I asked, concerned.
"I'm not a fool to enter a losing battle, so there aren't any around here... but this statement isn't something to be so trusted."
A noise sounded from a corner, which made me a little unsettled. I tried to warn Diego, especially after hearing about the monsters that might be living in the forest, but I stopped after seeing what was making the noise.
Boing-! "Heh, it's a slime," I said with nervous laughter.
Slimes were one of the few neutral monsters that wouldn't attack anyone unless threatened. Although they are considered F-rank monsters, their slime liquid is used by many alchemy-related classes in my world.
F-rank dungeons were heavily monopolized by the government due to being one of the few dungeons with safe access for normal humans to conduct research, so slimes weren't very accessible. Additionally, since slimes were too weak, they would be killed by other monsters in dungeons above F-rank.
"Slimes are a bit rare in Arkena, due to not being in the best condition for their normal habitat. For an amnesiac, you know a lot about monsters," said Diego, leaving some additional information for me, who had lost my memories.
"I don't know. I guess they meant a lot to me," I said, trying my hardest to sound natural.
"I believe that."
We continued our path after the slime encounter, and as I walked, I began to think about Diego.
He was a strange man, and as I grew to know him more, that did not change. His expression, unchanged most of the time, felt too dull, like talking to a game NPC, but that wasn't the case. While we were fighting, although his expression was unhinged, something would change, just like meeting his eyes.
He was a true master without anyone to dispute it, but simply being in front of him, I knew he was someone far greater than what met my eyes.
Thud-! In the middle of my thinking, Diego placed his hand on my shoulder and dragged me down into a hiding position.
"What's happening?" I asked, knowing I missed something.
"Shh! You don't want to wake him up, do you?" he said, with a seemingly excited smile.
I looked over the bush to the sound of heavy breathing from a sleeping figure and returned in surprise. A gray-skinned monster, bigger than Diego, was sleeping on a boulder, holding a giant hammer in its hand.
"That's a troll," I said, trying my hardest not to sound loud.
A troll was a C-rank monster, with many skills related to crowd control and health buffs. They were considered too tricky to be handled by a single person, so a party of at least five C-rank awakeners was required to enter a troll den.
"Yes, that's a troll... and our hunting subject for today," said Diego.
"Are you serious? We need to leave and tell others about this," I said, trying to control the situation.
Although this world didn't have skills, if that troll was equivalent to the troll in my own world, Arkena could be in a very dangerous position; plus, from what I had seen from Diego, he shouldn't be able to defeat that monster... or so I thought.
"Haha, I guess I really didn't show my disciple my true strength. That was my fault," he said with a grin.
I was confused, which made me say, "What do you mean?"
"Well, there's only one thing to say." He then stood up and began to walk towards the sleeping troll.
I tried to stop him, but he was simply too much for someone like me to handle. As he got close enough to the troll, he said, "It's time to show our Ethan why they call me the Mad Hunter."