The next day I find myself heading to the Favonius Knights headquarters at about 5:30 ensuring I would not be late.
Arriving I see a glint of pink only to see Varka in a pink provocative dress, putting on a shit eating grin I speak "Oh~ Grandmaster Varka I didn't know you were a man of fashion!"
Varka spins around immediately glaring at me with a death stare, the empty eyes and pure anger in his posture is impossible to hide with simply a blank face.
Cackling I then get to business "So, what am I doing today?"
Sighing he says "Sword Training, good luck"
After which he briskly enters the headquarters hoping for nobody to see him. Unfortunately for him he seems to have forgotten that a week before he leaves he needs to give a speech...
After following him and constantly bombarding him with 'very pretty' comments while laughing he tells me to just get to the training ground and wait for somebody to address me.
"Gladly" I say as a last remark as I navigate through the far too long hallways eventually reaching the training ground. I am now forced to just sit around, or at least in theory.
Rather I decide to take a wooden sword to try some of the moves I saw in fencing and fighting tournaments before.
Swinging the sword a few times I find it odd how I don't even feel its weight. It is light in fact I might be able to send it over the surrounding 20 meter high wall without issue.
I spend the time just testing by feel several stances and my balance, adjusting my feet and stance to where I feel I wouldn't fall over as easily.
Soon I see Jean walking through the door and head straight for me, walking up to me she speaks "For today the morning I will be your instructor, in the evening Kaeya will take over.
"... okay noted" I say a little bewildered that even with her punishment she was willing to train me.
Nodding at my response she picks up a wooden sword and simply charges me, now I realize that she simply wanted to take out her anger on me.
4 hours pass by as I am beaten the entire time, it takes me about 2 hours before I am able to effectively block even a single one of her strikes.
Now I find that the beating is only increasing as she stops holding back, or at least that is my guess as her strikes become more precise and physically stronger.
I barely can parry a single strike at this point.
2 more hours pass and the rest of the knights who had originally come to train have started to leave for lunch while I am still getting abused.
I then see Kaeya coming up and Jean finally relents likely walking off to endure her punishment.
I start to feel relieved only for Kaeya to simply start the same routine as Jean, an hour passes and I am on the brink of tears when I notice Kaeya looking around and finally stopping he then speaks
"I've heard of Jean's punishment and seen Varka... you are extremely lucky that this is the worst that has happened to you so far" finishing he gives me a hand so that I can stand up from the ground after falling due to the bruises.
"Their punishments are well deserved, plus I picked them specifically to go against their personalities. It is obvious they would want to get back at me, I don't mind as much though as long as I am improving." I say, think a bit, and then continue - "although if you also join in I might start developing not my own fighting style but one that specifically targets the Favonius swordsmanship"
"...That actually does make sense... maybe you do need a bit more variety" he speaks while lost in thought.
"Anyway from what I told you requested me and Jean specifically to train you if not Varka, why?" then asks Kaeya while turning his attention onto me
"Ah well that is simple, you are vision holders, so when I get to a level when I am able to somewhat keep up with your sword play I will of course request that you start using your elemental abilities. I ask this because that is a native power of this world, and it I have no experience with it I might as well turn into a corpse then" I explain, a little bothered that I couldn't shorten the explanation without losing context
"... I see, alright, in theory that makes sense, so let's try it in practice" saying this Kaeya then spins around to my direction and sending a wave of frost likely meant to immobilize
"Shit, no fair man!" I complain while dodging the constant waves of frost and ice shards flying at me.
This is more or less how the rest of the day ends up until Kaeya technically is free of work and decides to drag me along to a tavern.
Originally he wanted to go to Cat's Tail but after finding it closed he decides to drag me to the other side of town to Diluc's establishment.
Honestly I find it extremely curious how Cifera seems to enjoy simply accompanying me most of the time unless I give her a specific task.
Now that I think about it, could I ask Cifera to kidnap someone or to just troll them?
Probably worth a try but just not now.
Entering Diluc's establishment at about 7:00pm I am invited to a table only to see Venti sitting in a corner pale and soulless noticing my gaze Kaeya spots Venti and drags him over.
"Hello" is my simple greeting as I stand up to shake his hand. He shakes it seemingly still out of it.
Kaeya then asks "So what drunken stories of wonder does our bard have this time?"
This makes Venti shiver and start repeating "I'm not drunk!" several times.
This appears to bewilder Kaeya until a waiter comes over asking for an order, for me I say "Surprise me pleasantly and preferably without alcohol" this makes Kaeya give me a look to which I say "Never liked the taste of alcoholic drinks, they almost always are a bit offset from my preference"
This time even Venti gave me a wtf look, but honestly I don't truly care then I ask "How come you've been looking so lifeless friend" I ask looking at Venti and probing for a name.
The server the intervenes "He is Venti, a very famous bard here in Mondstadt, usually he loves to drink but lately he has gone on a sobriety streak and he hasn't been all that joyful ever since that started"
At this I am surprised "Well I am not a big fan of alcohol but that sounds like you're going a little to fast trying to get rid of an alcohol addiction"
Venti pauses for a moment, color returns to his skin, after which he seems to give me a stare of blunt disbelief.
Tilting my head I ask "Is something the matter?"
Unknown to Sane, ever since he had spoken to curse Venti at the statue. Barbotos had been under constant surveillance by death. Although after he spoke, death seemed to gain other plans all of a sudden.
Venti seemed to regain his composure after a moment and started a drinking game between the 3 of us. I had of course refused but due to the insistence of the two I eventually gave in.
2 barrels of wine later I find myself barely tipsy while the other two are flat out knocked asleep.
Looking at myself I debate to why I have such a tolerance only for even my slight tipsiness to leave, making me almost completely sober.
Sighing I decide to drag both to the knights headquarters where Jean is still working for some reason at fucking 10pm when she wakes up at 6 am.
Like damn, does this woman just live in the office or something.
Jean is unsurprised to see both Kaeya and Venti flat out, but is curious how I managed to stay out of the drinking game. I say that i didn't and that I actually won, I had also payed the bill but I was gonna wring out every last penny of that from Kaeya who had promised to pay.
After dropping off the two drunk idiots I then head back home where I am greeted by a worried mother. No scolding this time but she asked to at least send Cifera to give her a message on where I was smiling I hug her but almost immediately I head to sleep since I still needed to wake up early.
Next Morning I find myself repeating the training schedule and at the end of the day I end up simply returning home early.
Having returned home I choose to use the gacha spell again this time I get a 'Orichalcum sword of Awesome'.
Really it was an Orichalcum sword but who ever made it did a terrible, terrible job. The sword can be described as a typical fantasy sword, barely functional if not outright harmful for the wielder.
Might as well go to the black smith and see if he can reforge it, thankfully it is a broadsword, a bigger one at that so there was quite a bit of metal to work with.
...
...
Oh! Lemme first make a design and also have some of it become an armor chest piece so that I can get the most of it.
Maybe I should also get 'Magic' Ore to allow the sword to better wield elemental energy if I ever get my hands on a vision, I will not be stupid and use a dillusion.
Making my mind up I head back to the knights headquarters.
After a chat with Jean she gets one of the leaving Knights to guide me, this obviously makes him grumble but he does lead me to the blacksmith who was still working.
Walking up I ask if he knew any spots for Magic Ore, he does point them out but asks why am I looking for it.
My answer is simple, I want to smelt down a poorly made broadsword and add some magic ore piece to have better cohesion with elemental attributes.
I even made a concept drawing for the blade.
This makes him curious and he asks to see the broadsword which I do show to him. He is surprised to find that it is made of an unknown to him metal, he asks where I got it but i just shake my head refusing to answer.
Instead I show him the design and asks if it is possible, he agrees but asks what the notches in the blade are for.
I tell him that I plan to add electro crystals into those points until I am able to wield a vision. He then asks if he can keep the rest of the metal after the sword but I refuse showing him the chest armor and potential shoulder pads if there is enough material.
If not I suggest to create a skeleton and fill in the rest with white iron which he agrees is a smart idea if the metal itself is any good.
He does end up giving me a few spots on the map to find the stuff and before he can suggest for me to just pay for it I am already out the door. I make it outside the city by 7:00pm and ask Cifera if she can enlarge herself and carry me.
She does so and we are able to quickly collect the ore after I stole a pickax from the blacksmith.
Returning to the city by 7:30 I make it back to the headquarters by 8:10 but at this time the blacksmith has already left.
I come back to my room and decide to sleep since there really isn't all that much more that I can do.
2 days of training pass by and it now Sunday again. The last two days were the same routine of just swordsmanship practice since it was discovered that I have a faster recovery rate than normal.
It is also likely how I survived the armor and didn't end up flat out drunk in the tavern before.
I had commissioned my blade and armor 2 days ago and supposedly due to the metal's uniqueness the blacksmith refused to work on anything else.
The weapon and armor piece became some of his masterpieces although not really his greatest work.
When rated by an appraiser he put it at a high 4 star because it leaned in far too much into elemental abilities, but if I ever do get a vision it will be one of the better five star weapons.
This news spread like wild fire considering four star weapons were considered rare and five star ones are merely legends told by people.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Word Count 2.2k
A/N This is an admittedly boring ch but I wanted to cut through some of the training as well as give the story some feel for progression rather than *Oh lOOk HerE iS TravEler aLreAdy in InaZuM' or some shit.
I will say that my next chapter will be more entertaining.
Also do please drop a few powerstones so that my fic gets recommended to more people.
As always comments are like a drug. Now have a good day/night!