Chapter 45 - Sometimes There Is No Shortcut

"Damn it. This is taking longer than I thought."

Liam moved, slashing down at the bear one more time. His other hand swiftly took out a piece of fruit and popped it into his mouth to recover his stamina.

Though his health was not taking a hit, his stamina was dripping like water from a rusty bucket. So he quickly chewed on the fruit while the rest of his body continued moving with ease.

However, he still didn't show any signs of stopping or speeding up his attacks.

He took his time and only used a certain type of attack which was a straightforward sword slash, at least that's what it looked like to others.

He had other stronger attacks in his arsenal but weirdly he continued to use only this single attack, despite the amount of time it took.

It almost looked like he was stalling for something or simply passing his time wastefully. In reality, Liam was not either of those things. In fact, he was training.

If he did this same training somewhere else, the target wouldn't last this long. It would have died in his hands within a second, and the training wouldn't be as effective.

But thanks to the bear's strong defense and it being an elite field boss, it became a perfect target for him.

Liam did not intend to let this opportunity slip by and trained to the best of his abilities and as for what he trained… it was nothing fancy.

He had no knowledge of any advanced sword techniques. If he had, he wouldn't have died such a pathetic death in the first place. Rather what he had and what he knew were the basics.

And in his previous life, because of his very low which might as well have been non-existent mana affinity, he wasn't able to practice this particular skill.

However, in this life, he was one of the blessed few. Though he was not born with a constitution that could make others envy him, he was surely going to get here very soon.

And that meant, his mana absorption, mana manipulation, and mana usage would be top-notch at worst. So how could he still not train in this special technique?

After all, this was the basis for one of the strongest abilities everyone chased after and the foundation of one of the most powerful classes, the battle mage!

Though Liam did not intend on becoming one, he nevertheless wanted to perfect this technique as swordplay was already drilled into his bones. It would only be a waste if he didn't try and combine it with the other thing that could bring out the full potential of the sword.

And that was mana!

Just like his spirit sword techniques that relied on his inherent spirit and soul strength, there were also arcane sword techniques. These relied on mana.

To be more specific one had to combine the power of mana with the strength of the sword.

And Liam was currently practicing this exact same thing!

Since he had personally not used this move before, he was also a novice just like the others, so he was struggling a bit, unable to execute it immediately.

At the same time, he already knew the basics and also had seen these kinds of moves being used several times, so his progress wasn't too slow either.

With every slash of his sword, he was improving tremendously and gaining a lot more experience in this technique.

He even managed to almost achieve success a few times, leaving behind charred marks on the gigantic black-furred beast.

However, before he could get any further, the enormous black bear couldn't hold out any longer and charged towards him with everything it had.

Its red eyes further darkened in rage and it shouted letting out an earth-shattering roar. Its speed and agility, not to mention strength, all of a sudden increased by leaps and bounds.

Liam instantly pulled back. Every boss monster deteriorated into this enraged state when their health was reduced to the last 5%.

So he treated this part of the fight more carefully and focused on evading. He also used some of his other long-range skills [Lightning bolt], and [Fire ball].

The bear king was more susceptible to these two elements and combined with Berat's attacks, almost the entirety of its thick black lustrous fur was burnt down and its body riddled with several injuries gave out.

The rest of Barabara's health was also quickly brought down and the huge grizzly fell back with a loud thud.

Experience points and notifications chimed in one after the other, but Liam clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Tch. Tch. It won't respawn for another ten hours. So no point in staying here."

He had to continue his training with another new target. He kicked the bear's body into position and then brought down his sword to cleanly sever its head in one swift move.

"Alright. This quest is taken care of. Time to head to the city." Liam tossed the bear's head into his inventory.. There were a couple of equipment pieces that had also dropped which he casually tossed in as well.