Chapter 557 - I’m Here To See Someone (1/2)

Zhang Heng never thought that the first item he would get would be a wakizas.h.i.+.

He hadn’t even started on the main mission yet but had already completed one side mission and even obtained a piece of novice equipment.

In all fairness, the knife was of relatively good quality. Even though it was no acclaimed sword, it was finely-made, much better than the one he had, which looked like a fake blade. Of course, when compared to a renowned sword like the Mikazuki-Munechika, the wakizas.h.i.+ was, to some extent, a little inferior.

Moreover, short swords like this one were more suitable for hand-to-hand combat. When the enemy was plenty, short blades weren’t as ideal as an uchigatana or a tachi. Zhang Heng wasn’t too concerned about one-on-one combat. He was looking to obtain a proper sword in case he found himself in a one-to-many situation.

But since a sword had been presented to him, he decided to accept it anyway.

This quest was similar to Master Builder, the previous special quest. It focused specifically on honing his swordsmans.h.i.+p, which was why other items were not allowed to be brought in. He could still access his skills, but many of them weren’t very useful in the Edo period, which meant that he had to hone his swordsmans.h.i.+p.

But perhaps during the process of creating the quest, the developer did think it possible for the players’ sword skills to be at Lv.3—Zhang Heng was walking around Kyoto like a video game boss character rather than fighting monsters and leveling-up like a rookie. Low-level monsters were insignificant to him.

In the end, Zhang Heng stuck to his decision to join Koyama dojo so that he could deal with the Choshu warriors should they come again and challenge Akane. On top of that, being attached to a school would make it easier for him to go around and challenge other warriors to duels. Otherwise, his only other option was to explain that he learned his way on the sword by killing people in Na.s.sau and that the founder of the school was a red-haired female pirate named Annie.

Akane filled Zhang Heng in on the rules that had to be followed when practicing Koyama Myos.h.i.+n-ryu. Basically, they were not too different from other schools, where they all advocated courage, benevolence, upholding samurai morality, and the likes of it. Zhang Heng remembered the general idea of it. Although he was not too interested in these sorts of things, he figured that since he had joined the dojo, the least he could do was show respect. He listened to Akane’s teaching and explanations as patiently as he could.

Akane dutifully chose a fine day to bring Zhang Heng to pay respects to the dojo’s ancestors. To his surprise, the dojo’s founder wasn’t Akane’s father but someone named Koyama Iwa. Akane had no idea who this person was either, and all she knew was that he was the founder of Koyama Myos.h.i.+n-ryu, and a.s.sumed that he must have been an ancestor of the Koyama lineage.

Zhang Heng had no interest in finding out more about the man. Koyama-ryu was a small school. Even during Akane’s father’s era, it was not particularly famous, at least not to the level of Ois.h.i.+ s.h.i.+nkage-ryu, much less the likes of Hokus.h.i.+n Itto-ryū, and Tens.h.i.+n Shōden Katori s.h.i.+nto-ryū.

To Zhang Heng, Akira Kokoro was a little too metaphysical. In his opinion, there was no difference between Koyama’s swordsmans.h.i.+p and that of other schools—the combination of basic physical fitness, training, and experience. No matter how strong and invincible your mind had been trained, there were still others who would be indefinitely faster and more robust, and you would find yourself unable to defend against their attacks—this was perfectly demonstrated during the duel between Akane and Yamada.

Of course, it was only Zhang Heng’s first day as a Koyama dojo member-he wasn’t exactly in the position to be disparaging the school’s core principles. On the other hand, Akane Koyama was surprised that a skilled fighter like Zhang Heng had no knowledge of basic training methods. And from what she observed during his battle with Yamada, his moves were also bizarre, very much inclined to Western schools of swordsmans.h.i.+p, something she attributed to his travels overseas.

However, during a conversation with Zhang Heng, she discovered that Zhang Heng’s swordsmans.h.i.+p did not have a formal system, and to put it nicely, was just bits and pieces put together. As a matter of fact, this guy would stab and strike wherever he felt was right. When fighting an enemy, he would think on his feet. Could he really be telling the truth? Was he really self-taught?