Slaughterer's Ode To The Blade

Time passed.

11 months after the first major exam, Eiji will now be a second grader!

The fourth and final exam was tough. But it was the same as always, the only difference was that there were too many questions!

The written exam took a whole day!

While the physical exam was held the next day.

It has already a month that he has become a second grader.

At the first day, they were given a wooden katana each. Now they were finally taught swordsmanship!

Although it was just foundational swordsmanship, they were happy they finally have a sword, even if it's wood.

The morning classes now consists of just 30 mins of reading and another 30 for writing.

Then an hour of arithmetic, a small break then history and ethics.

The afternoon class would be swordsmanship and ki practice.

There were no changes in Eiji's class, they were the same classmates as well as the teacher.

Only the classroom changed, from the last third of the left side of the hallway to now the last third room of the right side of the hallway.

There was wide staircase at the end of this side that goes to the second floord where the third and fourth grades classrooms were.

They didn't dare go in there and disturb the seniors or they might get bullied, so they just played in the areas they were allowed to.

Today is Sunday.

There are no classes today.

Two days ago was the first day of the month and he was given his monthly subsidies.

Because he was a second year now, the money given was now increased by two hundred gins.

He now have 1,200 Gins every month.

Not much but can still survive.

But Eiji now knew that he was growing and to become strong you need to nourish your body

And hard tack soups with a single tomato really isn't that helpful in giving energy for the body.

Eiji looked for another way to get money.

Then he stumbled in the library.

There were a lot of books in there and a lot of different genres.

He found the book from the last school year and even the books for this year, which he would now frequently read to be ahead even slightly from everyone.

He then found a book called 'The Wilderness Survival Guide V.1'

It was written by a ronin swordsman.

In the book there were a lot of things that can be helpful for him if he ever was in the wilderness.

Then as he read that book, he suddenly remembered that right over the space in the training grounds, there was a wooden fence that separates the school from the forest!

And in forests there are a lot of animals that can be eaten and even fruits and herbs!

Then with that idea, Eiji found the V.3 of the book that has the instructions for forests, then he took his papers and pens and copied the contents in the book.

Since you can't take the books outside the library, you are allowed to copy them, but there is a part of the library that can't be copied which was the sword arts pavilion.

In there, there are a lot of sword techniques, and now that he is a second year, he can actually get in and find a single technique that suits him.

But since teacher Muri told them that he'll be teaching them a sword technique that is mainly used by the swordsmen of Masamune kingdom, Eiji wanted to practice that first and then find another when he is done mastering the first technique.

After that faithful day in the library, Eiji now frequents in the forest to hunt some food.

He even did what the book says, and laid some simple traps in there.

Sometimes he would get a live prey the next day, sometimes nothing. But with the abundance of the resources in the forest, he found some fruits and vegetables that were fine to eat.

Now he forages and hunts in the forest. He can now just buy bread, then a bit of salt and sugar, and he now always has a full course meal everytime.

Eiji walked slowly in the forest. He knew that it was dangerous here. He had read it in the books and even saw a huge jaguar one time that ate the rabbit that got caught in his trap.

That day, Eiji just resorted to fruits and veggies. He didn't dare to disturb the eating predator.

As Eiji walked slowly in the forest, he found some berries and fruits and put them in his burlap sack.

As he navigateed in the forest he finally arrived at his first trap.

There was nothing in here.

But Eiji wasn't disappointed, it was a bit near the loud training grounds, so small animals dont usually linger around here afraid of the loud noises that the children makes when training.

Then he walked a bit more.

In the second trap he saw a bloody marks.

He knew that something was caught in here but was eaten. Eiji was a bit upset, his traps didn't just helped him, it also helped other predators in the forest.

Then Eiji walked in to his last and further trap.

*Cluuuckk!

*Cluuuckkk!

When Eiji was arriving near his last trap he heard a clucking noise.

'Got one!'

He knew that his last trap caught a fowl!

Fowls here were huge!

Even just a single leg can make hime full! So a single fowl can feed him up to two days and maybe more!

When he came to the trap, he say the huge fowl hanging upside down with a rope bound in its leg.

It was clucking and desperately trying to escape when it saw Eiji.

Eiji took out his wooden katana.

*Swoosshh!

*Bam!

Eiji accurately struck its head with his wooden katana, and the power of his full swing caused enough blunt damage to kill the bird.

"Nice! If I use that salting technique on this bird, its meat should last me for a week!"

Eiji happily bagged his game.

As he was taking the fowl from the tied rope in its feet, Eiji did not know that there was something that was approaching him from above!

End Of Chapter.