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Davion watched Bonita's sword dance without blinking.
A sword dance pouring out everything she had built up.
Every day after school, she practiced swordsmanship with Bonita, Nubes, and Bellum, but.
It was the first time Bonita had shown such a sword dance.
When he rescued her from the mercenaries surrounding her and facing death in the Penon Mountains, he remembered what Bonita had said.
"I mean it. I will never forget that you saved my life. I will repay you someday."
Bonita was now repaying Davion for saving her life.
Of course, just showing him a sword dance that poured out all her lifelong training like that.
That single demonstration wouldn't allow another person to absorb Bonita's swordsmanship.
Some might gain some enlightenment, but no one could absorb swordsmanship just by watching a sword dance once.
However.
Davion was different.
Bonita already knew that fact well.
That's why she was performing a sword dance just for Davion in a public setting.
At first glance, it looked like she was dancing with a sword, but.
Davion could accurately discern what Bonita's sword tip was drawing.
The path the sword tip took. The sword path.
Strength and softness.
Speed and leisure.
Depth and shallowness.
Numerous changes and continuous flow hidden within.
Everything was engraved into Davion's pupils.
'……Amazing.'
Even Davion clicked his tongue in amazement.
How could she achieve such a feat at the age of seventeen?
If inner power disappeared from this world.
If all swordsmen had to fight with swordsmanship alone.
How many people could face Bonita with a sword?
No.
Would there even be anyone?
Conversely.
If Bonita had the best inner power.
How many people could face her with a sword?
Davion quickly put away distracting thoughts.
He had to engrave Bonita's sword dance into his mind without missing a single detail.
Fortunately, 'Eye to See Sword Path Lv.37' was not just a skill that increased dynamic visual acuity.
It also greatly helped to vividly engrave the sword path seen with his eyes into his mind.
Moreover, thanks to the sense-erasing training method he learned from Mons,
He didn't need to capture all the other movements in his mind.
He just needed to capture the movement of the sword tip.
For a long time.
No one in the stadium could think of stopping Bonita's sword dance.
Even Professor Stella Cloud was just staring at Bonita's sword dance with a blank look.
The judges were the same.
Whoosh!
Bonita shook her sword greatly in the air and stopped moving.
Bonita's gaze was fixed on Davion.
Davion nodded once.
Bonita responded by nodding her head minutely as well.
One of the judges looked at the documents on the desk.
"Is the student's name Bonita Portis?"
"Yes."
The judge, who put down the documents, looked at Bonita.
"Impressive. Really impressive. After seeing the student's sword dance. No matter how young you are, I can't speak informally or treat you easily."
Other judges also exchanged conversations among themselves.
"It was by far the best swordsmanship demonstration I've ever seen."
"That's right. Our swordsmen all dedicate themselves to swordsmanship training from a young age, but. Once they reach a certain level, they tend to rely only on inner power."
"Well, inner power covers a lot. Movements that transcend human limitations, auras, and so on."
"If we're talking about pure swordsmanship, there may not be many swordsmen on our continent who have achieved as much as Bonita Portis."
The oldest-looking judge nodded.
The terrifying gleam that seemed to penetrate the world had faded, leaving only a soft gaze.
A judge speaking for the first time since the promotion examination began.
"Elton Academy had a treasure hidden. No, if it's such a genius, it's only natural that they're here. Well seen, Bonita Portis."
"Thank you."
Lex's swordsmanship demonstration, which had already disappeared from everyone's memory.
In fact, Lex had been diligently performing the Plumen Marquis family's swordsmanship style even while Bonita was dancing, just starting with a slight time difference.
The problem was that no one was looking at him.
Next, the aura manifestation test followed.
From 3-star onwards, the ability to manifest aura is also evaluated.
Bonita and Lex easily created a moderate level of aura.
The judges finished a short meeting.
Unlike the 1-star and 2-star examinations, the time it took to get a unanimous vote from the five judges did not take long.
"Lex Plumen, Bonita Portis. Both are informed that they have passed the 3-star swordsman promotion examination."
The students below the training ground cheered and applauded.
Lex's gang made the most fuss, rushing out to congratulate Lex's promotion, but.
Most of the congratulations were for Bonita.
"Lastly, Davion Naone. Get ready."
At Professor Stella's words, Davion stood at the starting line for the first physical ability evaluation.
A simple evaluation of going around a flag about 20 meters away and returning.
Ding.
A new notification window appeared in front of Davion.
'There's another quest?'
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[Achievement Quest: Receive a Scout Offer from the Swordsmanship Association President]
―Reward: Dignity +15
=====
Davion raised his head and looked at the judges' seats.
The man who looked the oldest among the five judges.
Unlike when evaluating Bonita's sword dance, he was emitting an enormous gleam again.
'Is that old man the president of the Swordsmanship Association?'
Being recognized by that person would raise his Dignity stat by 15 at once.
He must be an amazing person.
If Dignity rises by 15 at once, it's an event that would cause a stir in the world.
'I was just going to pass the exam appropriately.'
He had a reason to show them a good performance.
Davion turned his head and looked at the fluttering flag.
'An achievement quest that raises Dignity by 15 wouldn't be easy.'
Even Bonita, who received rave reviews for her best sword dance, didn't receive a scout offer or anything like that.
Davion was usually careful about allocating points, but.
Now was the time to show something.
'Point Breakdown.'
=====
[Mana Points: 62,000]
―Mana: 407,246
―Inner Power: 130,326
―Outer Power: 94,390
=====
He allocated 40,000 of the remaining mana points to Inner Power. 22,000 to Outer Power.
=====
※Since Mana, Inner Power, and Outer Power have all reached six digits, they will now be displayed in units of 1,000 points.
[Mana Points: 0]
―Mana: 407K
―Inner Power: 170K
―Outer Power: 116K
=====
'1,000 unit display? Did this exist?'
This was a phenomenon that didn't exist in the previous playthrough when he only raised Mana.
'Well, that's not the important thing.'
His dantian was burning hot.
He vividly felt the sensation of muscle fibers snapping and reattaching.
"Start!"
Along with Professor Stella's shout.
Davion's body shot forward.
Bonita, Bellum, and Nubes opened their mouths wide.
"What, what is it!"
"What's happening!"
The other students were the same.
While they were surprised and looking for Davion, who had suddenly disappeared.
In the blink of an eye, Davion had arrived at the flag.
At the same time as passing the flag, Davion's two feet firmly stepped on the ground.
Crackle!
Davion's two feet dug into the ground.
Davion stopped after being pushed back about 2 meters.
Whoosh!
Davion's figure shot out again.
The same was true when returning.
In the blink of an eye, Davion entered the starting line.
The arena began to stir.
"Oh……."
"Did you even see Davion move?"
"No. That's why I'm like this."
"Was he that good? That fast?"
"Is that the movement of a 5-star swordsman?"
"He didn't go around in a circle, he went straight and came straight back. Look at the ground that's been torn up over there."
"No, I was wondering earlier. How did he suddenly become a 5-star swordsman?"
"He hasn't become one yet. He's still in the promotion examination."
"Hey, isn't he going to pass the exam? It's Davion Naone?"
"I guess so."
The commotion subsided at Professor Stella's voice.
"Next. Standing long jump."
Davion stood in front of the starting line again.
This time, instead of jumping to the flag, it was a test of doing a long jump towards the flag from here.
Davion bent his knees and pulled his butt back.
The standing long jump preparation posture that ordinary people do was not necessary.
The muscles in the front of his thighs were tightly contracted.
His knees straightened.
Davion's body shot forward like a spring.
Thud.
The place where Davion's feet landed.
The flag that was placed for the running evaluation earlier was standing right next to him.
"He jumped to the flag in one go!"
"If that's the case, why didn't he jump and come back in one go earlier too?"
"If you're that good, running might be faster than jumping in one go? Because you keep kicking off the ground and increasing your speed."
"Is that so?"
"Anyway, it's amazing. That distance in one go……."
"He didn't even have any special preparation movements?"
Davion returned to his original position.
"Next. Bare-handed breaking."
Dozens of 3cm thick marble slabs are stacked vertically.
The evaluation content is how many marble slabs are broken by punching them.
The students who took the 1-star promotion examination couldn't break even one slab, or barely broke one.
If they had been told to break only one slab in the first place, they might have all succeeded, but it was not easy to break them because dozens of them were stacked.
Bonita broke 4 slabs, and Lex broke 5 slabs.
So far, Lex Plumen's record of breaking 5 slabs was the highest.
If Nubes had come out, he would have easily broken the record, but.
Nubes was not a candidate for this promotion examination.
Since he is only focusing on Outer Power, he may not be a candidate for promotion even next year.
Davion stood in front of the marble slab.
Inner Power of 170,000 and Outer Power of 110,000.
Davion was also curious.
'How many slabs can I break?'
There have been times when he allocated points to Outer Power out of necessity, but.
This was almost the first time he was seriously using his strength.
The reason he allocated 70,000 points to Outer Power during summer vacation was to pass through the poisonous cave.
He has never used Outer Power to break anything or use his strength.
'I'm curious too.'
He raised his right arm and slowly brought his fist to the marble.
After pulling his arm back a little to create distance between his fist and the marble.
He spread the Inner Power of his dantian throughout his right arm, fist, shoulder, and waist.
At the same time, the muscles honed with Outer Power twitched strongly.
Whoosh.
Davion's fist split the air.
The moment his fist and the marble slab touched.
He used Outer Power to beef up the muscles in his right arm.
If his fist is pushed back by the collision reaction, the force will not be transmitted to the marble as much.
Wham!
The sound of Davion hitting the stone slab echoed widely in the training ground.
Davion's fist, continuing to enter even after splitting the frontmost stone slab.
The marble on the side touching his fist scattered into powder.
The large marble slab cracked and split from the point where Davion's fist touched it.
One slab, two slabs, three slabs, four slabs.
Davion's fist continued to penetrate the marble slabs.
His fist stopped after stretching his right arm all the way out.
He had already penetrated the thickness of six or seven marble slabs.
The cracked marble slabs belatedly fell to the ground.
Bang, crash.
The sound of pieces of marble slab falling to the ground continued to echo.
"What?"
"Why does it keep breaking!"
Crack, crack.
Even amidst the front marble slabs falling to the ground.
The sound of the rear slabs cracking did not stop.
Everyone stared at the splitting marble slabs with surprised eyes.
It was.
Davion was also the same.
'Is it this much?'
It was the moment he first realized the power of 116,000 points of Outer Power.
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