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After a long wait, Davian's turn finally arrived.
Ding.
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[Quest: Defeat a 4-Star Swordsman using only Swordsmanship.]
―Reward: 4,000 Mana Points (x2)
―Reward of 2,000 Mana Points (x2) from 'Defeat a 2-Star Swordsman Quest' will be awarded together.
―Reward of 3,000 Mana Points (x2) from 'Defeat a 3-Star Swordsman Quest' will be awarded together.
―Total Reward: 9,000 Mana Points (x2)
―Experience Double Acquisition Ticket Applied. Final Reward 18,000 Mana Points
=====
Davian's eyes widened as he stared at the notification window.
'18,000 points?'
He received 1,000 Mana Points as a reward when he won the sparring match against 1-Star Swordsman Branton.
It seems that the reward increases like this: 2,000 points for sparring with a 2-Star Swordsman, and 3,000 points for sparring with a 3-Star Swordsman.
This sparring match is against a 4-Star Swordsman.
If he wins, he gets 4,000 points.
'Moreover, it seems that if you win against a higher-level swordsman, you also receive the rewards for the lower-level quests.'
And...
'Since I got an Experience Double Acquisition Ticket, the total reward I'll get from this quest is 18,000!'
It was an enormous number.
It's only the midterms of the first semester of freshman year, but he's getting 18,000 points for one sparring match.
'I don't know who the opponent is, but I have a reason to win no matter what.'
While he was having these thoughts on the sparring stage, his opponent came up on the opposite side.
A familiar face, though he was seeing her for the first time.
Dark brown hair and the same color eyes.
A female student from the 3rd-year A group smiled brightly at Davian.
"Hello? You must be Davian."
"Are you perhaps...?"
"I'm Pione Amandria. Bellum Amandria's older sister. I've heard a lot about you."
That older sister who supposedly told Bellum all sorts of things about the swordsmanship department beforehand.
But the one who left out the fact that she would be beaten to death by a 3rd-year in the swordsmanship department during the midterms.
She was standing right across from Davian.
"Why, are you relieved? Because your opponent is your friend's sister?"
"......"
"Don't get your hopes up. I won't go easy on you just because you're my sister's friend."
"Yes. You don't look like you would."
"Hehehe. You know me well. Shall we begin?"
Bellum, sitting in the 1st-year camp, was glaring at Pione.
"That sly fox."
Nubes asked.
"Who? The senior fighting Davian right now? Why is she like that?"
"Ugh, don't you have any sense of observation?"
Bellum grabbed Nubes' cheeks and turned her face towards her own.
And then she turned Nubes' face back to look at the sparring stage.
She did that twice.
"Okay, now do you feel anything?"
"Amazing. You have the same hair color?"
"Ugh, you're so frustrating."
"What!"
"She's my sister! Can't you tell we look alike?"
Nubes slapped her palm with her fist.
"Oh? Ah! That's right. You do look alike."
"You're so slow."
"Bellum, your sister is fighting Davian right now?"
"Yeah."
"That's good, Davian. That's great."
"What is?"
"She might go easy on him since he's her younger sister's friend, right?"
"If that were the case, she wouldn't have told me the midterms were like this in the first place. Pay attention, Nubes."
"Is that so...?"
Pione slowly raised her wooden sword.
"Don't blame me."
"You too, Senior."
"What? Hehehe. Just like Bellum told me. A confident freshman, Davian."
Pione's sword rushed in quickly.
'Fast!'
It was beyond what he had imagined.
He had raised his Sword Path Vision skill to level 7, and he had trained in swordsmanship with Mons every weekend.
He was confident that even if he couldn't win easily, he would at least be able to see the sword path.
It was Davian's delusion.
Thwack!
Pione's sword forcefully struck Davian's left shoulder.
'Ugh.'
It was a clear case of carelessness.
It couldn't even be compared to the sword of Rex Plumen, who was renowned among the freshmen.
It was a mistake to be so sure that he could see the movements, even if he couldn't keep up with them.
He felt like he now knew how much Mons had been holding back when they trained together every weekend.
'So this is real swordsmanship.'
Davian regained his stance.
Pione smiled and asked.
"How is it? Manageable?"
"To be honest, it's more than I expected, Senior."
"Hehehe. What, did you think anyone could be in the 3rd-year A group?"
Pione rushed in this time from the opposite side.
It was impossible to tell where to block because it looked like there were not one, but four or five wooden swords.
'It would be easy if I just put up an Ice Wall. Damn it.'
He couldn't use Four Elements magic in the swordsmanship department midterms.
He quickly turned the wooden sword and defended the right side vertically.
Clang!
The wooden swords collided.
His hand was tingling and numb.
Then he saw Pione turn her body around in the opposite direction.
'The other side!'
Thwack!
"Ugh!"
Even if he knew, there was no way to block it.
Before Davian's wooden sword could turn back to the left, Pione's wooden sword, which had quickly spun around, struck his side.
"I was going to alternate sides so it wouldn't hurt as much. Why are you blocking so that you get hit on the left side twice, Davian?"
He didn't feel any malice or wickedness in her expression or voice.
But it was clear that she was enjoying this situation.
Davian was reminded of when he was young and saw a cat playing with a mole.
It was a cute cat with a mix of yellow and white fur, and it was so excited that it was jumping around by itself, playing with the mole.
He thought it was cute, so he stood behind it for a long time watching.
When he got closer, the mole's face was covered in blood, and one of its paws was torn off.
'I'm exactly like that mole.'
Thud!
Clang!
Thwack!
If he failed to predict the attack route, he would be hit by the first attack.
If he somehow managed to predict the route and block the first attack, a follow-up attack would come immediately.
...There was absolutely no way to block this follow-up attack with Davian's current movements.
He was only managing to block it maybe once out of every three times.
Davian had no choice but to be helplessly beaten by Pione.
Davian glanced at the large hourglass placed on one side of the training ground.
Half the time had already passed.
Other students would have already given up or thought about how to just endure the remaining time.
But Davian was different from the other students.
He didn't think about how he only had 15 minutes left to endure.
How could he get through the many quests that lay ahead if he couldn't even overcome this small trial?
His opponent was just a nineteen-year-old student.
Thwack!
He barely managed to endure being knocked backward.
He kept thinking about the mole.
The mole that would have felt the fear of death in front of the cat's play.
It would want to dig into the ground and run away, but it couldn't run away because the cat had torn off one of its paws.
'Wait a minute.'
He had never thought about it when he was young.
Why was one of its paws torn off?
Why was the cat playing with the mole after tearing off one of its paws?
'It tore off the paw because it kept digging and trying to escape. To play with this fun toy more safely.'
Davian decided to become the mole with a torn-off paw himself.
To make the cat think that he was now a toy that couldn't even run away.
Thud!
His right thigh.
Thwack!
His left calf.
Davian began to give up his lower body while somehow managing to block the upper body attacks.
Pione opened her mouth with a pitiful expression.
"Davian. It hurts less to be hit in the thigh than the side, right? There's more muscle and fat there."
"......"
"But you're wrong. You lack experience. You should have protected your lower body even if you had to give up everywhere else. Because if the damage accumulates in your lower body and it stiffens, you won't be able to do anything."
Thwack!
Pione, who quickly rushed to the side, struck Davian's back with the wooden sword.
"See? Your movements are getting slower now. It's not easy to move your legs, is it? You were blocking pretty well earlier, but now look, you're even giving up your back. It's all because your lower body is getting dull."
Thwack!
"But I acknowledge your mental strength. You don't seem to have as much stamina as that big guy from Group B. It's amazing that you're enduring and holding on without collapsing."
"......"
Thud! Thwack!
Pione was right.
Because the shock was accumulating in his lower body, his body wouldn't move as he wanted it to.
This was because all movements start from the lower body.
As his movements became dull, he was now unable to block upper body attacks as well.
Nubes, who was watching this, turned to Bellum.
"She's really not going easy on him at all."
"It's annoying that she didn't tell me about today beforehand, but if she went easy on her younger sister's friend, my sister would be in trouble when she got back."
"I guess that's true?"
"Yeah. It can't be helped. By the way, Davian is really enduring well. He's fallen down four times, but he's getting back up every time."
Nubes nodded with a proud face.
"You have to acknowledge Davian's mental strength. Look at him keeping up with swordsmanship while doing magic studies."
"That's true. He might be the only one besides you who can endure for 30 minutes."
"I don't know. I'd rather Davian just lie down now. He has weak physical strength and no muscles, so enduring and standing right now must be a huge challenge."
"I agree. Come to think of it, how is he still standing there like that?"
Of course, Davian's physical strength was still terrible.
But there were two things that Nubes and Bellum didn't know.
Medium, who had somehow slipped out of the infirmary and was watching the sparring.
"I'm dying to go over there and touch him."
The infirmary assistant teacher asked.
"Pardon?"
"Ah, it's nothing."
Medium stared intently at Davian.
'I want to touch him.'
Medium was observing Davian's body with all his attention focused.
'It's hard to observe because he keeps getting hit in the same spot, but the swelling is definitely going down in real time. I could find out more accurately if I went over there and touched him. Hurry up and finish the sparring and come here, Davian.'
It wasn't just the swelling that was going down.
It looked like his left arm was broken a moment ago, but now he's holding his sword and moving with his left arm again.
'That monstrous guy. His injuries are healing in real time. Maybe. Maybe...'
The potion that Medium gave to Davian.
Research that started a long time ago to change the constitution of humans and regenerate their bodies.
'Is it already having an effect?'
In the meantime, there were only 5 minutes left of the sparring time.
Perhaps it was the 3rd-year's mission to defeat the 1st-year within 30 minutes, Pione was putting on a final spurt to defeat Davian.
Davian, who had accumulated shock in his lower body, was just barely enduring without being able to move his body properly.
But there were two things that Pione didn't know.
First, Davian's recovery ability.
He had already taken Medium's potion and raised his constellation skill of Hydra to level 9.
Second, Davian's thigh.
Pione already thought that Davian had taken so much damage to his lower body that it was difficult for him to move.
But that damage was being rapidly recovered.
Thud!
Thwack!
While Pione had retreated for a moment to give Davian a chance to recover,
Davian turned his head and looked at the 1st-year camp.
When he made eye contact with Bonita Portis, Davian moved his lips.
'Watch closely.'
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