The Undead's Routine Training

An unfamiliar ceiling—or rather, a pure white space.

That's right, the Sacred Chamber of Time. When Sei sat up, she discovered Ria sitting cross-legged and watching her.

"… What on earth happened…?"

"Gallach requires an enormous amount of magic power to handle. The moment you touched it, all your magic power was absorbed and you passed out."

"Please tell me these things beforehand…"

She stood up. She was fine, nothing wrong. Her magic power had recovered.

When she used Identify on herself, she found a new entry in her Gifts column: High-Speed Magic Recovery.

"How long was I unconscious?"

"About four hours. Now then, shall we begin training?"

First came running. While regulating her breathing, she also paid attention to the circulation of magic power within her body as she ran.

By the time she was completely exhausted, Ria started smacking her on the rear. Desperately gasping for the thin air, she kept running until she collapsed.

A katana was placed in Sei's hand as she lay sprawled on the ground.

"Alright, time to start practice swings."

"J-just a little break…"

"The enemy won't wait for you. Get up! Get up, I say～!"

Guided by some unknown force, Sei stood up.

Wobbling, she raised the katana and swung it down.

And cut her own left leg.

"Heal"

Her leg healed instantly. Moving it around, there was nothing wrong.

"You learned through pain. Now, practice swings again."

Feeling the weight of the katana, she continued her practice swings. This time, slowly and properly, so as not to injure herself.

Ria made detailed corrections to her posture and footwork, but didn't do anything unreasonable like before.

After having her continue kendo-style practice swings—striking men, do, and kote—Ria demonstrated sword techniques targeting the shins and fingertips.

Even parts that wouldn't score points in kendo would cause loss of combat ability if actually cut with a real blade.

"But in this world, there are many who won't die just from having their torso cut. Some even have two or more hearts. The head is the surest target, but even then you can't be certain unless you destroy the brain."

Indeed, this explains why even anti-materiel rifles couldn't be relied upon.

And again, Ria and Sei sparred.

She could see Ria's wooden sword attacks coming.

Being able to see them didn't mean she could block them, but it was a marked improvement from yesterday.

Still, in the end, every bone in her body was shattered and she collapsed.

"Restore"

Once her entire body was healed, Sei received verbal instruction from Ria on what she had done wrong.

Standing up, she slowly traced through the forms.

This wasn't kendo. This was kenjutsu.

There was also iaijutsu practice. Until one gets used to it, even the simple act of drawing a sword from its sheath is difficult.

"Since you have Infinite Storage, I'll teach you how to handle weapons other than the katana."

Fundamentally, there was nothing that couldn't be cut with a magic power-infused katana, but weapon compatibility still mattered.

First, the spear. Its reach was longer than a katana. This allowed one to attack from outside if the opponent specialized in close combat.

Then came axes, warhammers, whips, halberds, and even novelty weapons like a snake-belly sword.

After trying everything out, she ended up having her head crushed by a wooden sword and dying, then rising again after a while.

"How was that? Shall we try simulating opponents using various weapons next?"

Her heart was pierced by a spear, her neck crushed by a warhammer, and she died yet again.

"Shall we try unarmed combat next?"

To Ria, who was in such a good mood she might start humming, Sei asked while still sitting on the ground.

"Um, what about shields? In games, when defeating enemies with a party, a tank is essential."

"Shields, huh. I don't use them. I can teach you a little, but…"

According to Ria, it was better to defend with magic than with a shield.

First was the magic power barrier. Wearing magic power directly around one's body to block enemy attacks.

Then there was barrier magic. Since it was cast as a spell, it required constructing a magical formula.

The best approach was to use the magic power barrier in sudden situations and barrier magic when there was time.

"Well, for actual combat I'll prepare gauntlets for you, so you can use those as a substitute for shields."

Despite claiming to be bad at it, Ria held a katana in her right hand and a large shield in her left.

Sei swung her katana at her, but it was blocked by the shield, deflected, and when her stance broke, a katana swing came in.

Her head was cut off, and Sei died again.

And then came hand-to-hand combat training.

Apparently, if you're going to engage in combat against people in this world, this was actually the most effective.

In conflict zones, weapons were commonly used, and in peaceful regions, few people learned martial arts to begin with.

Ria was as skilled at this grappling-inclusive hand-to-hand combat as she was with the katana and spear.

She was thrown, choked, put in joint locks, and struck.

"It's the best for holding back."

Saying so while applying a chokehold, Sei lost consciousness before she could even tap out.

When Sei woke up, she was still in the Sacred Chamber of Time, and she broke into a cold sweat at the training that seemed far from over, but Ria had apparently grasped Sei's level of exhaustion.

"We'll do something that can't be done here. Let's head outside the village."

With that, she left the room. Going down the stairs, Carla was at the counter looking at what appeared to be a ledger.

"I'm stepping out for a bit. Lunch might be a little late."

"Understood. Sei, please be careful."

Carla smiled. Older women are great! Even if she was pregnant.

Sei bowed her head and followed after Ria. Three steps behind, not stepping on her master's shadow.

The two headed toward the outskirts of the dwarf village. Before she knew it, there seemed to be more non-dwarf races around.

"Where are we going?"

"You can't ride a horse, can you?"

Indeed she couldn't. Sei's family home wasn't in Ritto or Miho.

"There are various means of transportation in this world, but in rural areas, horses are the fastest. Well, if you learn flight magic that's faster, but being able to ride a horse is important when you get caught up in wars and such."

Where Ria led her was a stable near the village gate. Brief greetings were exchanged between the caretaker and Ria.

Inside were horses of course, but also giant lizards and even wyverns.

Riding a wyvern would be romantic, she had thought, but frankly, it was scary. The horses' round eyes were adorable.

"Which horse do you think is good?"

"Can I use Identify?"

"Yeah. Go ahead and choose."

Sei chose the horse with the highest intelligence.

In contrast, Ria chose a horse with high agility.

"Listen, horses are proud creatures, but they also look down on others. Approach from an angle and try lightly patting its neck."

In response to Sei's movements, the horse nuzzled its face against her. How cute.

"Also, horses are timid creatures. Don't make sudden movements at first."

Holding the reins as the horse came out of its stall, Ria tightened the girth and placed the saddle.

"Alright, try getting on."

With Ria's assistance, Sei mounted the horse. It was surprisingly high up and a little scary.

"Straighten your back and relax your shoulders. Hold the reins lightly. Don't rely on the stirrups too much."

Ria herself elegantly leaped onto her horse and headed out of the village.

Stone-paved roads stretched out, with grasslands on either side.

"Follow me. For now, just let the horse do its thing."

When Ria's horse moved forward, Sei's horse followed. Smart.

Crossing gentle hills, they gradually picked up speed.

Sei wasn't doing anything herself, but it was somehow becoming fun.

That's why, when Ria's horse suddenly stopped, she went flying from the saddle with that same momentum.

"When stopping, you tighten the reins."

That was something she would have liked to know beforehand.

The horseback riding lesson continued until the sun reached its zenith.

Perhaps because she had chosen a good horse, by that point Sei had become able to make the horse go in the direction she wanted.

After noon, the two returned to the village and put the horses back. At that time, Sei was told to brush the horse.

"Just riding isn't enough. You need to brush them and communicate."

Told this, Sei brushed the horse carefully.

Returning to Ria's house, magic lessons began after lunch.

Back when she was on Earth, Sei couldn't help but feel sleepy during classroom lectures, but lessons in this world were enjoyable.

Carla was a good teacher, and most importantly, she taught one-on-one.

"Necromancy is magic that creates, manipulates, and controls undead. It's not a particularly tasteful type of magic, but demand for it never disappears."

Do you know why? Carla cast her gaze at Sei, but having come from a world without undead, Sei didn't know.

"Undead don't get tired and don't complain. They're similar to robots on Earth."

Though apparently, higher-ranking undead possess intense egos.

"Additionally, in this world, vampires aren't treated as undead but as a race. Progenitors live longer than elves, so there are many powerful individuals among them."

Zombies and skeletons were basically trash mobs, she was told. The weakest monsters in this world were said to be zombies, but many people avoided fighting them because they smelled bad.

"What about goblins?"

"Those aren't monsters but a demon race. You don't see many of them in this city, but they live normally in society."

Here, Sei's interest shifted to the differences between races, so Carla's lesson turned to general knowledge.

"If we divide the intelligent life forms of this world, they are: dragons, gods, humans, demi-humans, demon races, and demons. Among these, it's said that demi-humans were created by good gods and demon races by evil gods, but the current situation is different."

Humans were said to be inhabitants of a destroyed world who came to this world 6,000 years ago.

The hero Ars, summoned to this world 4,000 years ago, defeated the Demon King and then united the demon races, spending 1,000 years civilizing them and building good relations with humans and demi-humans.

Now, goblins, orcs, ogres, and vampires were all respectable members of society.

However, recently evil gods and demon gods had been reviving, and there were active movements to bring the demon races they had created in the past back under their control.

Furthermore, the evil gods were creating new races and summoning demons from other worlds.

"Isn't summoning from other worlds bad?"

For Sei, who had been told to kill the hero, it was a perfectly natural question.

"Good question. However, demons come from worlds that don't intersect, so there's supposedly no danger of world collision."

"Or so Rana said."

Well, if a divine dragon said so, it was probably true.

It was surprising that goblins, the fodder mobs of games, and orcs, who played such active roles in eroge, lived normal lives, but she would just chalk it up to being another world.

After that, Sei had knowledge about many demi-humans and demon races drilled into her.