"So, do you give up and admit that I'll be able to train you" Akiza smiled from the back of her black rose dragon
"Yes you win, did you really need me to say it for you to know that?" Nero grumbled, having dodged the dragons first attack only for Akiza to activate ivy shackles which slowed him down, forcing him to go into his ice king mode to freeze the ivy covering him, for Akiza to counter him again by activating black garden and summoning phoenixian cluster amaryllis to reduce the effectiveness of his ice, thawing the ice on the ivy and brambles that were holding Nero in place "can you deactivate your spells? the thorns are starting to hurt"
"Good that you have learned your lesson" Akiza smiled teasingly, all of the plants that were holding Nero in place suddenly becoming illusionary as if he had been held in place by holograms all this time
"So what kind of training are you going to be giving me teacher?" Nero asked while rubbing his arms that had marks from where the thorns had pushed against his skin, the only place not having scrathes being his left forearm that had been protected by his duel guantlet
"My training will be split into 2 parts, the first will be getting you used to using your new powers to be able to change your cards from holograms to the real thing and being able to move objects without touching them" Akiza stated as her black rose dragon brought its head down for her to place her hand on "the next part will be using those cards in order to fight against the monsters, spells and traps in my deck, doing so will force you to think ahead more, something you seem to not be very good at doing considering that facing a new enemy you went straight in for an attack rather than waiting to see what they can do and formulating a plan based on their abilities"
Looking at his duel guantlet Nero realised that there were already a few cards in the deck slot, taking them out he looked through them
"These are all equip spells" Nero commented "and not very good ones, legendary sword, original bamboo sword, axe of despair, these are all just attack boosters, where are my good spells like raigeki or lightning storm, I could take out anyone with those, monsters like blue eyes and dark magican who could join me in battle and traps like mirror force, I would be unstoppable with those"
"Ok firstly why not just ask for the god cards if you're going to ask for rare cards like those" Akiza sighed "secondly even if you did have those cards you wouldn't have the ability to manifest such powerful cards into physical form, thirdly most those cards wouldn't work well in the dungeon on the floors you are currently on in the narrow corridors and lastly equip spells are the best starting point for you as it will allow you to get used to focusing in materializing your current card while in the midst of battle, there's nothing worse than expecting a card to materialize and protect you only for it to fail, believe me I know"
"I guess I can't say anthing back if you give me all those reasons" Nero replied with a awkward smile, realising he had gotten to excited again
"Good to know that you're not the kind of guy who gets to carried away" Akiza smiled
"Not anymore" Nero whispered to himself
"Alright then, your first training is to properly manifest a card, chose one and activate it and focus as you do so" Akiza ordered him
"Ok then, let's go with axe of despair" Nero stated, placing the card into the spell and trap card slot in his guantlet, the axe from the card appearing before him
"Alright now grab ahold of it"
"Seems easy enough" Nero shrugged, reaching out only for his fingers to slip right through it
"It seems you didn't focus hard enough" Akiza pointed out "try again, this time focus harder and maybe use a less powerful card, the stronger the card the harder it is to materialize"
"Ok then let's go with legendary sword" Nero declared, playing the card with the sword appearing in the same way as the axe did "ok take two" reaching his hand out and grabbing for the hilt, feeling his hand touch something Nero's face lit up, only for his fingers to slip through it seconds later
"Better, but you lost concentration at the end there" Akiza praised "this is why you need this training before you try to use your abilities properly, this time use your original bamboo sword"
"Alright third times the charm" Nero claimed, focusing as hard as he could as he didn't want to fail again with the weakest equip card that he had
With the bamboo sword appeared from the card in front of him he reached out gingerly and slowly gripped the swords hilt, the weight of the bamboo blade being transmitted to him
"Not bad, most psychic duelists can take months before they are able to get to the point of being able to touch the cards that they use" Akiza claimed, smiling at her students progress
"What!" Nero exclaimed, the sword slipping through his grip as he lost focus
"Sorry I thought I would just show you how difficult it is going to be to pass the first part of your training let alone the second part" Akiza giggled "lets do the training that psychic duelists start out with, lifting small rocks off of the ground"
Responding to Akiza's words a selection of different sized rocks appeared in the training space, ranging in size, shape and weight "once you are able to lift a rock of this size you should be able to manifest your cards much easier" she stated, sitting on a rock that was large enough to reach her knees
"For the sake of my curiousity, how big a rock can you lift?" Nero asked
"Let's see" Akiza tapped her finger against her chin "in order to manifest a monster you need to be able to move the mass that comes with it so I would say that I am able to pretty easily lift one of this size" she answered, standing next to a rock that was twice the size of her black rose dragon "this is about the right size for my bloody rose dragon so..." stretching her arms out the giant rock that had reach the level of a huge boulder rose into the air "I can do this without to much difficulty" dropping the boulder back down "but I was powered up by the crimson dragon and have had these powers since I was young so I don't expect you to be able to do anything like this anytime soon, just focus on being able to maintain a sword first" she winked
Looking at the sword floating next to him and comparing it to the boulder Akiza had just moved all Nero could respond with was "yes teacher Akiza" in shock as he tried to move the small pebbles on the ground, barely able to make them move.