Chapter 699: Sword Dance Teaching, Do You Want to Dance Too?

"Then, without further delay, Miss Liu, let us begin the lesson."

Among the capture targets encountered, Liu Li Ang was the one with the least progress, somewhat cold and not close to people; when the happiness values of the other capture targets were already double digits, hers was still single digits. Broly was eager to curry favor with her, reached out and grabbed the female elf's hand, and began teaching her hand-in-hand how to exert force and the technique of borrowing the opponent's strength during the collision of attacks.

"Eh?!"

Liu had her hand grabbed by the boy, caught somewhat off guard. She subconsciously tried to pull her hand back, but Broly got straight to the point too quickly; right from the start he explained the practical details of the borrowing-strength swordsmanship from just now, making her realize this wasn't him being arrogantly rude, but that he possibly simply didn't know the elves' habit of not allowing their skin to be easily touched by others.

【He just purely wants to teach me things quickly...】

Liu's face turned slightly to the side, her pointed ears twitching twice, but she stopped her own subconscious motion to pull her hand away.

"Miss Liu, are you listening?"

Seeing her absent-minded appearance, Broly quickly raised his hand and waved it in front of her.

"Ah, I'm listening!"

Liu reacted and hurriedly answered.

"Then do it once following the technique I just said. When an opponent launches a frontal attack like this at you, how should you borrow strength to counter strength?"

Broly stood before the female elf holding a sword, posing to use a demonstrative frontal thrust, wanting Miss Elf to demonstrate his teaching from just now once.

Liu: "..."

She had been distracted just now; how would she know what to do? She just subconsciously raised her wooden sword to block.

"Eh, Miss Liu, I said borrow strength to counter strength, not let you use your own force to block the opponent's attacking force. Doing it that way, you won't be able to learn my Phantom Sword Dance."

And she soon received the Saiyan boy's helpless evaluation.

"Uh, sorry, Mr. Broly, could I ask you to teach me once more?"

Liu's face reddened somewhat. The boy before her didn't stint on imparting his secret technique to her, yet she had been somewhat absent-minded over the trivial matter of having her hand held.

It was just like a teacher seriously lecturing in class, while she as the student hadn't listened properly, making the high-morality Miss Elf feel she had been a bit disrespectful to the other person.

"It doesn't matter. Miss Liu can learn slowly. I guarantee I'll teach you."

For the capture targets acknowledged by the Crystal Palace, Broly always had sufficient patience.

"For example, responding to a frontal attack, you must follow the opponent's force momentum, and through this way of rotating the wrist to exert force, transform the other's force into your own force.

Of course, it's not telling you not to resist the opponent's attack, but to let you deflect the opponent's force, grasping the initiative of power in your own hands.

If the opponent's force goes left, you lead it left; if the opponent's force goes right, you lead it right; if it's straight down the middle, neither left nor right, you can step back and lead it backward; if you can't retreat, then turn your body, creating a force bias toward the center of gravity..."

Broly stepped forward, once again grabbing Miss Elf's hand, and his hand-in-hand meticulous teaching method was almost like chewing up the knowledge points of borrowing strength and feeding them to the other to eat.

Liu was manipulated by the Saiyan boy — palm, wrist, and forearm — being taught the force-exertion techniques for different situations. This made her feel like a toddler tottering along learning to walk, while the other was like an adult protecting her by her side, afraid she would fall on level ground.

"Ah, Mr. Broly, I can understand what you're saying. You don't need to teach in such fine detail."

【Especially the hands, stop pinching my forearm, it's a bit numb~】

"Good, then let's practice once more."

Broly thrust straight with his sword again, and this time Miss Elf could deflect the force on his sword, but she braced against the blade to the right, then pulled it toward herself, then flipped her wrist to draw a sword flower reversing the attack direction, counter-thrusting toward Broly's side.

Of course, since she was only doing the force-exertion movements Broly taught, it wasn't a real counter-thrust; upon reaching the boy's front, she actively stopped.

"Very good. Responding to a frontal attack, your upper body's limb movements are learned. Then let's teach the lower body's limb movements."

"Eh, I have to train legs too?"

Seeing the boy prepare to grab her legs, Miss Elf was frightened and hurriedly retreated.

"Of course. The upper body is important, but the lower body is even more important."

Broly nodded. The Phantom Sword Dance was named Phantom Sword Dance because it separately contains swordsmanship and dance steps. The hand's rotating-force movements must be flexible, but the lower body's footwork must also keep up.

Otherwise, once encountering an enemy with powerful strength, the hand movements can't rotate past the opponent's force, and are directly broken by brute force. That would be very embarrassing. But if paired with force-dissipating dance steps, it can greatly increase the fault tolerance rate.

As the creator of this move, Broly had tested it in practice. As long as the rotating-force and force-dissipating techniques pass muster, using this move to deal with enemies whose numbers are two to three times higher than his own is completely no problem.

And if the opponent is a big dumb guy who only uses brute force, dealing with them would be even easier. They would be exhausted alive in a sword dance where each sword is faster than the last, each sword heavier than the last.

Of course, the Immortal Demon King — that kind who can't be killed and is also a physical strength monster — is another matter.

"You just say it and I'll listen. Don't grab my legs."

"Uh, that works too."

Seeing Miss Elf's red-faced appearance, Broly didn't insist on grabbing her legs. Although directly touching to feel the other's leg muscles exert force would let the other learn the Phantom Sword Dance's dance steps faster, who told her that single-digit happiness value wasn't enough to do that?

"Right, the waist must also twist along. Do I say it and you do it?"

"Mm."

Liu nodded.

Broly said nothing more and directly began doing decomposed demonstration movements.

Liu followed behind doing them together, looking a bit like learning to dance.

After finishing practicing the footwork for responding to frontal attacks, it was situational application problems.

Still a frontal straight sword thrust.

Liu once again deflected the attack, and her posture of borrowing force to swing the sword became more natural and flowing.

"Next is the limb movement teaching for responding to side attacks..."

From left to right, from right to left.

From top to bottom, from bottom to top.

Finally, there are also attacks coming from behind.

And after teaching these, it's only responding to attacks from short swords, this kind of similar medium-short range weapon.

To be able to borrow strength against all of them, one must still adapt to medium-long range weapon attacks, even long-range attacks like bows shooting arrows.

Is it hard to learn? In terms of decomposed explanation of each movement's borrowing and dissipating effects, each movement is not hard to learn. But putting them all together and actually applying them in real combat? That's quite complex. If one doesn't have sufficient talent, one must practice until it becomes muscle memory.

"No matter how much theoretical knowledge you learn, it's not as good as directly conducting real combat practice. Miss Liu, you've already learned all the basic movements of the Phantom Sword Dance for responding to medium-short range weapons. Let me be your practice sparring partner. With an attack speed you can accept, let you get used to the Phantom Sword Dance's use."

The Turn Undead sound of bells quickly rang out, and this time it was no longer messy, chaotic sound, but same-frequency rhythmic clashing-of-swords sound, sounding a bit like a classical music dance piece.

And Bell and Liliruca and the others, who had been continuing their training, once again stopped their training movements, their attention drawn to the two people over there who were like they were using swords to dance a waltz.

Of course, dancing a waltz is merely a parable; it refers to the situation where the two's swords clash then separate, then they step on exquisite footwork to clash together again, that kind of repeated joining and parting.

One cooperating with the female elf in feeding moves, one using the leverage and redirection techniques just learned from the Saiyan boy to practice moves, the scene looked incomparably harmonious and beautiful.

Broly, during this process of feeding moves, looked toward the Pallum girl's side, only because he had received a prompt message of Liliruca's Happiness Value decreasing, at the time when the elf lady being fed moves had her Happiness Value growing.

Orario neared dusk; at four fifty-five in the afternoon, the practice dance woven from swordsmanship finally stopped.

"Hmm, the general leverage and redirection movements you've all mastered; the rest is just practicing them into your body's instinct."

Broly sheathed his sword and spoke.

"Broly-san, thank you very much for your instruction."

Liu sincerely gave thanks, and on her normally cold face there was no longer the coldness of before, but instead a blush hung there — the joy of having grasped a new, powerful sword art.

"You're welcome, as long as you remember the promise between us."

Broly waved his hand.

"I won't forget."

The elf lady nodded, gradually calming her excited mood.

"Broly-san, in the future when you have free time, can I come over to this side to find you to practice swordsmanship?"

She thought a bit and asked.

Learning swordsmanship, and whether one can completely proficiently use that sword art, are two different matters.

Liu, who also had considerable attainment in the swordsmanship aspect, realized the importance of having a good sparring partner.

Additionally, for the purpose of probing for her friend, she wanted to interact more with the boy.

"That's naturally fine; in the future when you have time, Miss Liu you can come find me anytime.

Or, you can also join my party, and go Dungeon Diving with me and such."

Broly very much welcomed this somewhat cool elf lady's joining.

"Mm."

Liu nodded.

"Right, Broly-san, can I ask you a question?"

She asked again.

"What question?"

Broly looked at her.

"My friend, Xier she's a bit concerned about you; don't know how you view her?"

The Happiness Value rise brought by unreserved teaching let Liu directly ask the boy his opinion of her friend.

"Speaking of Xier Jiejie, she's a very gentle, very cute girl.

The food she makes is very delicious, I like it very much.

ヾ(ｏω)ノ"

Broly answered honestly.

"Is it liking the food or liking the person?"

Liu pursued the question.

"I like both the food and the person."

Broly still didn't hesitate.

"So, Broly-san, you actually have favorable feelings toward Xier, right?"

"That's natural."

"Good, I understand; I'll pass the message to Xier for you."

Liu spoke, raising her head to look at the sky already nearing dusk.

"The time's not early either; I should head back to the Tavern side to help out. Broly-san will also come over to our Tavern side to eat in the evening, right?"

"Mm."

Broly nodded.

"Then tonight's meal I'll treat."

Liu indicated she'd treat tonight, then waved her hand and bid farewell.

"Lili, are you somewhat unhappy?"

After the elf lady left, Broly walked over to the Pallum girl's side and directly asked.

"I'm not unhappy at all; Broly-san you just go ahead and teach that elf lady some profound sword techniques."

【Clearly very unhappy……】

Bell and the three people of Takemikazuchi Familia internally retorted.

"If Lili wants to learn, I can also teach you."

"Eh, really?"

"Of course, however, Lili you must solidify your swordsmanship foundation, because Phantom Sword Dance counts as advanced swordsmanship; without sufficient swordsmanship foundation, it would be comparatively harder to grasp."

Broly answered, conveying a meaning to the Pallum girl — not that he wouldn't teach, but that she currently still couldn't learn it.

"Then at that time, I also want to be like the elf lady just now, and dance with swords with Broly-san, okay?"

The Pallum girl asked.

"Of course, however if Lili just wants to dance, I can dance with you right now."

Broly took Liliruca's hand and led her to dance two segments in the Courtyard.

【Liliruca Arde, Happiness Value rising……】

Just like that, the Happiness Value that had just dropped came back, and even exceeded a little.

Between capture targets, occasionally there would also be unhappy moods due to some imbalanced matters.

At such times, one only needs to grasp the point of unhappiness and coax properly.

Lili was unhappy because of her and Miss Liu's sword dance; the reason was the dance, so just dance then.

【Unhappy, then hold hands and dance...】

Bell noted in his heart, feeling it might be useful later.

If Anna-san ever gets angry at him, perhaps he could do just that.

【Hey hey hey, us outsiders are still here, is this really not treating us as outsiders, or not treating us as people?】

Takemikazuchi Familia, Kashima Sakura thought in her heart, while Hitachi Chigusa stole glances at him, and Yamato Mikoto watched the Saiyan boy holding the Pallum girl's hand and dancing, thinking in her heart: 【If Takemikazuchi-sama could also hold my hand like this and dance with me once...】

The three each had their own thoughts; Liliruca only now noticed the gazes of others looking over, and hurriedly shouted: "Broly-san, enough enough, Lili is already satisfied, we can't delay training."

"Eh, that's enough?"

"Mm."

Just now the jealousy was jealousy, but now being stared at by a crowd, Liliruca also felt somewhat embarrassed.

"Training, huh? The hour isn't early either, let's stop here for today."

Broly stopped, looked at the sky above, and said.

"Uh, okay, thank you for today's guidance, Broly-san."

Kashima Sakura thought training would continue, didn't expect it was already over, and bowed in thanks.

"Thank you for the guidance."

The other two girls also reacted, bowing in thanks together at the side.

Their good attitude made Broly say a couple more sentences.

"You're going to the Middle Floors; besides these basic positioning trainings, I have a suggestion for you."

"Broly-san, please instruct us."

"Go learn about the monsters and environment knowledge of the Dungeon Middle Levels; sometimes mastering enough Dungeon intelligence may be more important than improving your own personal abilities."

Broly had suffered a loss at Goliath's place, so he gave this suggestion.

"Uh, we know this too, but we don't have the capital to learn this information."

The three of Takemikazuchi Familia made eye contact; Yamato Mikoto said somewhat helplessly, intelligence information is of course important, but who would teach such precious Dungeon experience knowledge to others for free?

As for purchasing intelligence, honestly, their Takemikazuchi Familia doesn't fare too well in Orario; even funds for equipment repair, purchasing medicine, and maintaining normal Familia operations are somewhat inferior compared to other Exploration Familias.

And this is the true portrayal of low-level Exploration Familias in Orario; Yamato Mikoto and the others diving into the Dungeon to kill monsters won't have such high drop rates, let alone successfully subjugating a Floor Boss and earning a lot of Valis at once to directly establish a luxurious Familia residence.

Mm, Broly Squad's drop rate is actually quite abnormal; normal Adventurer parties don't have that high a drop rate.

"My Dungeon Advisor is a responsible person; she regularly holds classes for Adventurers, teaching some Dungeon knowledge, free of charge."

"Eh, there's such a good person?!"

"Her name is Eina, however, most Adventurers don't really like studying..."

Broly recalled being taught by the Half-Elf miss before, the fulfilling feeling of his brain being stuffed with all kinds of knowledge.

Even now there's a bit of lingering fear; from this point, he actually counts as someone who doesn't like studying complex and tedious Monster Studies, Dungeon Environment Studies knowledge.

"Mm, if you don't mind your brains being filled with all kinds of Dungeon knowledge, I think I can recommend you to go listen to her class; there's one tomorrow.

And Eina-san also very much welcomes every Adventurer who goes to learn Dungeon knowledge from her for their own safety."

For the Half-Elf miss, realizing her self-worth as a Dungeon Advisor is more important than gaining actual benefits.

Broly was invited again the day before yesterday to attend tomorrow's class; pity the schedule couldn't be arranged, and he probably won't dive into the Dungeon recently.

But recommending some studious Adventurers to go, Eina-san would probably be happy too.

"Ah, if it's like that, then we're truly grateful beyond measure."

Hearing this, Yamato Mikoto and the other two hurriedly expressed thanks, not knowing at all what kind of teaching they would face.

"Tomorrow morning after you finish class and eat lunch, come over to our side for training."

Broly finalized tomorrow's training arrangements for the three; the Takemikazuchi Familia three thanked and bid farewell.

"Bell, Lili, how was the experience of actual combat with Lv. 2 Adventurers?"

After the three left, Broly asked the Pallum girl and white-haired boy.

(Chapter End)