Prologue

An Interview with the Leading Experts on the Manual Activation of Arts

“Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to gather here today, everyone. Let me start by introducing today’s interviewees. First off, we have the man of the hour: Veteram, Guild Master of Freelea’s Adventurers’ Guild.”

Mr. Veteram (henceforth will be denoted as just Veteram): “[sighs deeply] Do you have any idea how busy I am? If it wasn’t you asking, I wouldn’t even have bothered to come to this interview.”

“Ha ha ha, sorry about that! It’s just that right now the entire world’s attention is focused on Freelea’s Adventurers’ Guild. We know your time is precious; we’re grateful you allowed us to interview you at all! The more people we can inform of the truth, the better.”

Veteram: “The truth, you say? I sure hope you plan to actually publish the truth and not distort the facts.”

“Oh, but of course! That’s why I’ve brought a Recording Crystal, and we have Erina here to stand witness as a neutral third party. I sincerely wish to have an open dialogue about the nature of manual Arts activation with you.”

Veteram: “Yeah, that just makes me more suspicious.”

“Well regardless, let me introduce the other guest we have here today! This adorable up-and-coming rookie fought his way through to the finals in the coliseum’s most recent tournament to determine the world’s strongest fighter. Let’s all welcome...Radd!”

Mr. Radd (henceforth will be denoted as just Radd): “A-Adorable? Uh, I mean... Never mind. It’s a pleasure to be here! I’m Radd the adventurer!”

“We’re glad to have you both. Now, Radd—I heard that on top of making it to the finals in the last tournament, you also cleared a mid-ranked dungeon just one month after becoming an adventurer. I have to say, that’s quite the accomplishment!”

Radd: “That’s right, I did do that! Although that was all thanks to our master’s guidance. Oh, and speaking of which, our master is—”

“Sorry to cut you off there. I’m sure your master is a very fascinating person but we can’t be getting off-topic. We’re here to discuss manual Arts today!”

Radd: “Huh? But...”

“At any rate, I’m proud to say the world’s foremost experts on manual Arts are gathered here in this room. Today I’d like to interview you both on what kind of impact the discovery of manual Arts activation will have on the world. I’d also like to pin down just who was responsible for discovering this new technique!”

So, Just How Impressive is Manual Arts Activation?

“All right, let’s jump right in. Many people are claiming that this is a monumental discovery that will change the nature of adventuring from here on out, but what do you think, Veteram? I’d like to hear your objective analysis as a veteran adventurer and Guild Master.”

Veteram: “Hm? Oh yeah they’re absolutely that big of a discovery.”

“I-I see you’re confident in your assessment. But is activating Arts manually really that different from using them normally?”

Veteram: “At first I wasn’t too convinced about the value of manual Arts myself. But after testing it out for a bit, I realized just how huge of a difference manual activation made. It’s like night and day compared to automatic activation—for simplicity’s sake I’m calling the old way of using Arts automatic activation.”

“Could you be a bit more specific? What exactly makes manual activation so special?”

Veteram: “I met a lot of adventurers who were desperate to learn new, more powerful Arts back when I was an active adventurer myself. At the time, I thought they were all fools. After all with automatic activation, once you start an Art you can’t make any other motions, and most Arts have you stand in place for their duration. Even the most basic sword Art, V-Slash, has this drawback. If you use it carelessly you’ll get smacked in the face before the skill gets to finish.”

“In other words, automatic Art activation is high risk, high reward.”

Veteram: “You could say that, but honestly the risks are way too high for the reward. Basic Arts are already pretty slow, and the more advanced ones take even longer to finish. I remember one guy who was over the moon because he’d learned this powerful five-hit Art, but frankly it was suicide to use in actual combat despite how strong it was.”

“I see. That does make sense. But there’s also Arts that let you move like Gale Slash, aren’t there? Are those just as dangerous to activate automatically?”

Veteram: “It’s true those Arts let you move faster than you normally could even sprinting at full speed, but they’re just as difficult to control as other Arts. Everyone who’s tried using Gale Slash on auto mode has had one shared experience. Can you guess what it is?”

“N-No I can’t say I’m too familiar with—”

Veteram: “They weren’t able to stop themselves and slammed headfirst into their opponent.”

“I-I see. That does sound pretty bad.”

Veteram: “Right? But manual Art activation doesn’t have those drawbacks. You’re free to move however you want while you’re swinging your sword, and you can control how far you move with mobility Arts as well. Take V-Slash for example. You no longer have to stand around like an idiot while you make the V with your sword. In fact you can purposely make your first slash miss and then close in and land a hit with the second upwards slash to throw your opponent off guard. Or if you’re facing multiple weaker foes, take down one with the first slash, then dash forward to take out another with the second.”

“Basically you’re given a lot more freedom with manual Arts activation?”

Veteram: “That’s right. The best part is you can cancel an Art midway if you activate it manually, so if it’s a multihit Art you can afford to land just the first blow then retreat to safety if it looks like you’re about to eat a counterattack. I can’t overstate how useful that is.”

“O-Oh. I see. I suppose that would be quite useful.”

Veteram: “This might be an arrogant way of looking at things, but automatic Arts are extremely one-dimensional. It’s like a child’s idea of what fighting is. You stand in front of an enemy and draw a 2D picture of your attack right in their face. However manual Art activation adds an extra dimension of depth to Arts. I mean it quite literally when I say manual Arts are on a completely different dimension than automatic Arts.”

Turns Out, Manual Art Activation is Quite Technical! It’s Not at All Easy to Master!

“I can tell you value manual Arts quite highly, Veteram. I suppose as a Guild Master it’s only natural to be excited by the possibilities of such a promising new technique. Now I’d like to hear your thoughts as a currently active adventurer, Radd.”

Radd: “O-Okay!”

“No need to be so nervous. Since you’re an active adventurer I imagine you’re using manual Arts daily while out questing. Would you be willing to tell us how they feel to you, compared to automatic Arts? How they’re better, how they’re worse, if there’s any problems with them, and so on.”

Radd: “Well, the biggest problem with manual Arts activation is definitely how hard it is I think.”

“Fascinating! Do tell me more! In as much detail as possible!”

Radd: “O-Okay... I’m probably the wrong person to ask about this but to break it down, as long as you know the skill and meet the activation conditions for an Art you can activate it automatically without any effort. But manual activation is different. You have to memorize the Art’s movement and reproduce it pretty accurately or the Art just won’t come out.”

“That sounds like a pretty harsh restriction! Does that mean if you mess up in the middle of a battle...”

Radd: “Y-Yeah you’ll be in a tough spot. Oh but even if you mess up your attack is still a normal attack. It’s not like you end up just standing there.”

“Even so, it clearly puts you at a disadvantage, correct?!”

Radd: “Well...yeah I guess. But if you practice enough and actually learn the motions you’ll pretty much never mess up.”

“I see. But if I’m not mistaken you mentioned that learning manual Arts activation is quite difficult.”

Radd: “Th-That’s right. It’s hard. I can still only use a few Arts manually, and I still can’t do the more advanced techniques with them like changing the trajectory of my attack by adjusting the starting angle and stuff.”

“Ah you’re referring to what the Guild’s guidebook calls Flexing* and Sweeping, correct?”

Radd: “Y-Yeah, that! Also you can chain Arts one after another or redirect them mid-Art if you know the right skills...”

“Double Arts and Switch Turn, if I’m not mistaken.”

Radd: “I’ve been...