Author's Reincarnation in a Fantasy Setting

"Five minutes huh?" I mumbled as I looked at my hard right. 

It was now covered in the black shadow-like material that went up to my shoulders and stopped there. At this moment I was feeling an immense increase in my overall power hence I decided to test it out. 

I turned toward the target dummies placed in the training room. I was going to ask Req to materialize the sword so I could use it—since she was the only one who could create the Requiem sword while still being present in her human form.

However, just as I thought about the Requiem sword it automatically materialized in my hand. 

"I see. These types of things can certainly prove to be useful," I said. 

After that, I raised the sword up and then slashed it down toward the human dummies. 

"Dark Edge," I said. 

A big arc of dark energy was released from the blade and it flew toward the targets at an insane speed before colliding with them and slashing all ten targets in half at once. 

Using Dark Edge was much easier now and the attack was more powerful than before as well. Those were quite obvious things that had improved in this form of mine. 

"Req," I said. 

"Yes?" 

"Attack me."

"Huh?" she seemed confused. "What do you mean?" 

"I want to test my defensive capabilities," I clarified. 

"Ah, you meant it like that," she said. "Fine." 

She went and picked up one of the swords present in the room for herself and then went into a battle posture. I myself turned toward her, straightening my back and planting my feet on the floor—going in a defensive posture. 

"Here I come," she said and dashed toward me right after that. 

Her speed was insane. I knew she was holding back but even then I wasn't able to see her clearly—it's like there was a blur effect surrounding her body while she was moving. And I'm sure I wouldn't have been able to see even that if I wasn't using Requiem's power. 

She came close and raised her sword to deliver a blow. I took a step back and obstructed the blow with my blade. A second after that a shockwave was released, knocking everything down present in the training room. 

Then she backed off a little only to come back at me with a barrage of slashes and strikes. It was hard but I was somehow able to keep up with her speed and block her strikes. 

The spar went on for maybe thirty seconds and after that she stopped for a bit and readjusted her posture, also giving me some time to rest. 

"Increase your speed a bit more," I implied. 

"Are you sure? I mean, that may be a little rough for you," she said. 

"No, I can handle it," I said, and I meant it. 

"Okay then."

She came at me again and naturally this time her speed was much faster than before. At this point, she was basically looking like a blur of colors to me. 

I wouldn't have been able to defend against her. But well, that was only because I was not using my skill since I wanted to test how much I could handle without it. 

'[Foresight],' I said internally and activated my skill. The skill was now at level 2 and allowed me to see 0.2 seconds into the future. 

Right as the skill was turned on I was able to see multiple Req's and was able to predict her attacks. I moved back a few steps to adjust my posture and then began to obstruct Req's attack, blocking her sword with mine. 

Soon we reached such a speed that multiple shockwaves were going off and destroying things inside the training room. If it hadn't been for the strong walls I'm sure the entire building would be getting wrecked by now. 

"Faster!" I said to Req. 

Since this was in the middle of a spar she didn't say anything to that and simply increased her speed even more. 

"Magiken!" I said, releasing my magiken. 

The blade of the sword glowed in black as a dark mist surrounded it and my body received another buff with the magiken. I was able to see her more clearly and my body was able to keep up with her better than before as well. 

The spar continued. At times she stopped and changed her attacking pattern and every time she did that I had to adapt to that in order to defend. 

However, all this didn't go on for that long. Once I hit the five-minute mark the shadow-like material on my hand disintegrated, indicating that the extra power I'd gained from the Requiem sword was gone now. 

"How long will it take before I can use it again?" I asked. 

After the training, both Req and I were sitting on the floor leaning against the wall. 

"Hmmm. You are using about 10% of Requiem's full power so I'd say in your current state it's safe to use it only once in a day," she replied. 

"I see. Meaning I can use it three times a day if I'm ready to see death again, right?"

"Yeah…though I wouldn't recommend doing that. Even if you didn't die you'll be out of mana for quite a long time, and in the middle of a fight that can create a huge difference," she suggested. 

"I know. I'll try to use it one time a day or maybe it won't be needed at all. I was just counting my options if I ever got into a rough situation," I clarified. 

"Sigh. Fine I guess," she said, and then rested her head on my shoulder. 

"What are you going to do now?" she asked. 

"Well, actually there are a lot of things that I have to do. But first I have to take care of Akumi and for that, I'll have to put in some days to master Eclipse and get a hang of Requiem's power," I explained. 

Nothing much had changed from before. I still needed to gather money to get my parents a house, I still needed to become as strong as I could, I still needed to deal with Akumi, I still needed to find a way to end the plot of the novel and finally get out of this hell. 

However, for some reason now that Req was with me I wasn't stressing over it like before. I was able to think about it calmly and create a well-defined plan. 

'I guess…knowing that you have someone you can rely on really helps.'

I thought to myself. That was something I never thought I would think.