The practice of the blade arts called "Purple Lightning" wasn't particularly difficult. Roa excelled in speed, making it easy to master. In just half an hour, he had grasped the basics of the technique.
However, mastering the basics was just that. To unleash the full potential of Purple Lightning, he would need more practice.
Even so, Greyworth was once again amazed by Roa's terrifying talent.
After teaching the initial form, Greyworth didn't continue with the next sword move. Instead, she said to Roa, "Besides the Blade Dance, there are many other things you need to master, such as techniques for controlling Divine Power, methods for communicating with spirits, tricks for employing spirits, and even the use of Elemental Waffe. You need to learn and master all of these."
Roa nodded, and Greyworth began to teach him in detail how to control Divine Power and the techniques for communicating with spirits.
Divine Power, as an energy, didn't need much explanation. Roa had excellent control over himself. After an hour of familiarization, he had completely mastered Divine Power.
The essence of Divine Power was very similar to magic power, but compared to magic power, Divine Power focused more on the useful application of so-called Spirit Magic.
So, all that remained was the step of communicating with spirits.
"Communicating with spirits is not an easy task. An ordinary spirit user must calm their mind, eliminate distracting thoughts, and then concentrate…"
Before Greyworth could finish speaking, Roa held out his hand, watching something like fluorescent light gather at his fingertips.
Greyworth fell into thought.
Roa curiously asked, "What is this?"
Greyworth said to Roa, "Spirits, just some of the lowest-level spirits. Don't be proud just because you can do this. Looking at the amount, you've only attracted the smallest…"
Before Greyworth could finish, the fluorescent light on Roa's fingertips surged. Then, an extremely terrifying scene unfolded. A large group of fluorescent lights scrambled, like sharks smelling blood, and swarmed towards Roa's location.
The firefly-like light particles, like dancing butterflies, all surrounded Roa, constantly sticking close.
Greyworth stared in astonishment at Roa, her lips twitching.
These spirits were like mad bees and butterflies – literally. She even felt that the spirits had been poisoned the moment they saw Roa.
After her initial surprise, Greyworth simply said helplessly, "Roa, try to communicate with them."
Roa raised his finger, the dancing fireflies floating around it, drawing a graceful arc in the air. Roa asked in confusion, "How do I communicate?"
Greyworth casually said, "Give a command. Your words will automatically be converted into something they can understand, but this process…"
Before she could finish, she saw Roa extend his hand in a dramatic pose and say to the empty dirt ground in front of him, "May the blessing of the great flame descend upon where you desire! Fierce and violent flames, burn away the immense grace! 'Fireball'!"
But as soon as he finished speaking, the spirits gathered together, but didn't turn into a fireball to scorch the ground as Roa had imagined.
It seemed that these low-level spirits couldn't directly cast spells on his behalf as Roa had thought.
Greyworth said with some curiosity, "What is that? Spirit Magic? But Spirit Magic requires the injection of Divine Power, and these lowest-level spirits can only help you with simple tasks. Don't even think about using them for combat."
Roa said "Oh," and then controlled the spirits in his hand, making them fly into various shapes. Looking at the various spirits in the air, Roa inexplicably felt like laughing.
He wanted to use the spirits to write the letters "s" and "b".
Greyworth stared at Roa expressionlessly, glanced at the constantly dancing fluorescent lights, and said to Roa, "I have a feeling you're thinking about something very bad."
Roa returned to his original calm expression, his face becoming serious, and said to Greyworth, "Does this mean I've passed?"
Greyworth rolled her eyes at Roa and continued, "More or less. Now that you can initially communicate with spirits, let's talk about your Blade Dance."
Greyworth paused slightly, then stared at Roa's eyes and said, "Let me see your Blade Dance."
Roa nodded, not refusing her request. Honestly, Roa was also curious whether the techniques of Sun Breathing could be considered a Blade Dance. Roa held the knight's sword at his waist in his right hand.
"This Blade Dance was taught to me by someone else. I've inherited his will. Honestly, I don't know if it can be considered a Blade Dance, but I'll show it to you now."
After speaking, Roa began to take a deep breath.
Although this world didn't have that mysterious power, and it wasn't necessary to maintain long-term breathing like in the Demon Slayer world, Roa subconsciously retained this habit.
Divine Power began to circulate. Roa tried to use Divine Power to activate Sun Breathing, thereby replacing that mysterious energy.
The process wasn't smooth, and the feeling of awkwardness was very strong, like Mitsuri Kanroji coming to the world of Mushoku Tensei.
This was normal, after all, the two didn't belong to the same power system.
However, with a slight change, it should still be possible.
Roa began to recall the power that flowed through his body when he breathed in the Demon Slayer world.
That unknown power followed his lungs and was conducted through his heart into his meridians.
Then, it was a fierce burning. Flames rose in his body and were finally transformed into that immense power.
Roa recalled that feeling, controlling the Divine Power to flow along the original meridians. In the end, Roa imagined the scene of Sun Breathing dancing, the flames rising on his body, burning away all the filth in the world.
Seeing that Roa hadn't moved for a long time, Greyworth didn't urge him. She stood there with a faint smile, watching Roa.
Then, under Greyworth's astonished gaze, the knight's sword in Roa's hand changed.
The original golden patterns were constantly burned away, and flames began to wrap around the blade.
Greyworth murmured, "This is?"
Now this knight's sword was already in Roa's shape. The flames wrapped around the sword began to spread continuously, and with Roa's every breath, the surrounding temperature began to rise continuously.
Roa began to constantly recall the techniques of Sun Breathing.
From the First Form of Sun Breathing, "Dance," all the way to the Twelfth Form, "Flame Dance."
An outline formed. This was a Blade Dance of extreme splendor.
The fact that the techniques of Sun Breathing themselves could be passed down in the form of Kagura Dance was enough to show that it was a Blade Dance that was gorgeous enough in itself.
Roa had a smile on his lips. He didn't need to improve this set of techniques much at all.
What he needed to do was to transform other people's things into his own, transform them into the things that suited him best.
The right hand holding the knight's longsword exerted a slight force, and the Divine Power around Roa began to distort continuously.
Under Greyworth's gaze, Roa's body moved.
The right arm holding the sword was raised, and scorching firelight rose. Then, Roa recited the first form of this sword technique.
"Sun Breathing - First Form: Dance!"
The knight's sword, wrapped in flames, slashed down, drawing an arc close to a perfect circle. Then came the Second Form, the Third Form, and finally all the way to the Twelfth Form.
"Clear Blue Sky."
"Raging Sun."
"Dragon Sun Halo Head Dance."
"Flame Dance."
The afterglow of the setting sun shone down, and new firelight rose again. The flames grew larger and larger, eventually becoming a raging fire.
The flames burned and rose, and Divine Power perfectly replaced that power, allowing Roa to successfully perform Sun Breathing once.
Moreover, the current Sun Breathing was a level stronger than the previous Sun Breathing.
Roa's golden hair danced constantly with Roa's movements. Every time he swung the longsword in his hand, he could bring up scorching heat waves.
Greyworth's brow furrowed tightly. This was a Blade Dance she had never seen before, and the feeling this Blade Dance gave her was one of splendor.
Like a dancing fire spirit, like a child of the sun, and behind this gorgeous Blade Dance was hidden terrifying power.
Seeing the end, even the well-informed Greyworth exclaimed from the bottom of her heart, "If the Fire Elemental Lord saw your Blade Dance, wouldn't their current terrible mood become happy because of your Blade Dance?"
Roa frowned slightly when he heard what Greyworth said, but he didn't take her words to heart.
The current goal was still to hone a Blade Dance that belonged to him.
Roa tirelessly began to perform Sun Breathing again and again, and the feeling of awkwardness was constantly dissipating with each performance.
In the end, the entire forest only had Roa's constantly dancing figure.
Swinging out the last sword, Roa's right hand holding the knight's longsword trembled slightly. With his current physical fitness, performing Sun Breathing so many times was still a bit too much for him.
And nearly one-tenth of the Divine Power in his body had dissipated.
Greyworth had been staring at Roa's figure, and even after he sheathed his sword, she continued to stare at Roa's face.
Roa noticed Greyworth's gaze and gently exhaled, "What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
Greyworth circled around Roa, her expression somewhat strange, "I'm really curious now, where did you come from?"
Roa casually replied, "I'm also curious, where exactly did I come from."
Greyworth ignored Roa's flippancy and continued, "With such exquisite Blade Dance, such vast Divine Power, plus your identity as a male Spirit User, it would be hard not to attract attention if you appeared, right? But I've never heard of your name, not even once. So, who exactly are you?"
Roa didn't speak, only raised his eyes to meet her gray gaze. Greyworth was staring intently at Roa's eyes with a stern look, her aura emitting powerful Divine Power fluctuations. The violent Divine Power pressed towards Roa's location, but Roa just calmly looked at Greyworth and said, "Who I am isn't important. You need me, and I need you, don't we?"
Greyworth gave Roa a deep look, and finally patted Roa's shoulder, "I hope so."
After saying those words, Roa originally thought their relationship would become strained, but Greyworth naturally began to instruct Roa on the techniques of being a Spirit User.
"You've completed the initial communication with wild spirits and the ability to command low-level spirits. All that's left is the technique of Spirit Magic, but you don't have a contracted spirit, so Spirit Magic is useless to you. Secondly, Spirit Magic requires a long period of study to be effective, so I don't recommend you make Spirit Magic your learning goal."
Roa nodded. He had the magic of Mushoku Tensei, which could completely replace Greyworth's so-called Spirit Magic.
Greyworth paused, glanced at Roa's serious expression, nodded slightly, and continued, "Your true strength lies in that Blade Dance you just performed. As long as you learn to communicate with higher spirits, the ability to form a contract with a spirit, and then learn the techniques to summon and command your contracted spirit, and then obtain your own Elemental Waffe, then you will definitely be one of the top Spirit Users on this continent."
Afterward, Greyworth began to explain the things that Spirit Users should pay attention to. Roa kept her words in mind, and asked questions when he didn't understand. In this way, Roa constantly improved his knowledge as a Spirit User.
Time passed bit by bit, until nightfall, the two were still standing in the Spirit Forest.
However, compared to the morning, the Spirit Forest at night was much more terrifying.
If the Spirit Forest during the day was heaven, then the Spirit Forest at night could be called hell.
The surrounding trees were entwined with a gloomy aura, and a dark shadow would occasionally drift past. In short, if this were a timid person, they would probably be scared out of their wits, right?
In fact, the Spirit Forest at night is indeed very dangerous. Although most spirits in nature are harmless, the dark spirits at night are very dangerous.
These spirits would even directly attack the Shrine Maidens who stayed in the forest, enhancing themselves by devouring the Shrine Maiden's flesh and blood and absorbing the Spirit User's Divine Power.
However, since Greyworth and Roa dared to stay here, they naturally had their own confidence.
Roa raised his eyes, looking at the restless black mist. Several pairs of eyes in the depths of the forest seemed to be staring straight at Roa, the greed in their eyes unable to be concealed.
Roa expressionlessly unleashed his Divine Power. The vast Divine Power crashed towards the depths of the forest like a landslide, and all that could be heard were screams. The evil spirits surrounding Roa fled frantically like frightened birds.
In the blink of an eye, the gloomy atmosphere disappeared, and the forest fell into deep silence.
To be precise, it didn't disappear. They were still squatting in some unknown corner, but this time they didn't dare to stare at Roa so nakedly as before.