Chapter 17: You Only Get Stronger by Taking a Beating!
[Basic Kendo - Dual Wielding: Both hands are dominant. You can freely choose to hold a sword in your left or right hand, or hold two swords at once. However, damage dealt while dual wielding is reduced by 20%.]
Rovel knew perfectly well that a swordswoman of Raiden Mei's caliber wouldn't leave such an obvious opening. It had to be a trap, a deliberate invitation. So, he played along, feinting with his right hand while launching the true attack with his left. To his utter astonishment, the gambit worked. He had actually managed to fool Raiden Mei, and his blade had connected, wounding her!
The clean, fluid rhythm of her movements shattered. Raiden Mei stared at the point of contact, a flicker of disbelief in her violet eyes. In the next instant, that surprise was washed away by a chilling darkness that settled over her features. The gentle atmosphere of the dojo vanished, replaced by an almost evident pressure.
"Hokushin Ittō-ryū: Five Slash Rapid Severance!"
Raiden Mei raised her wooden sword, her posture shifting from that of a sparring partner to a true combatant. A wave of instinctual danger washed over Rovel, and he immediately leaped back, not daring to be careless for a single moment.
But Raiden Mei was on him in a flash, a blur of motion that closed the distance instantly.
The first slash—a devastating downward cleave!
Rovel reacted on pure instinct, raising his own sword to parry. The crack of wood on wood echoed through the dojo, and a bone-jarring impact shot up his arms. The terrifying force made his wrists scream in protest.
Even though he had successfully blocked the strike, a crimson number materialized above his head. [-9]
The second slash—a spinning upward strike, smoothly converting the momentum of the first blow!
The follow-up was impossibly fast. Combined with the lingering numbness in his hands, Rovel found himself completely unable to break Raiden Mei's relentless flow. He had no choice but to switch his grip, bringing his left hand forward to intercept the attack.
Fueled by the building momentum, the power of this strike was even more horrifying than the first.
[-22]
Another damage indicator popped into existence.
The third slash—a vicious horizontal cut aimed at his waist!
Rovel scrambled backward, the whistle of the blade slicing the air just inches from his side. The desperate retreat, however, created a fatal opening, leaving him off-balance and with no time to recover his stance.
The fourth strike followed without a breath of pause.
The fourth slash—a sharp, wrist-flicking upward strike that was impossible to dodge!
[-177]!
Rovel took the full force of the blow. A sharp gasp escaped his lips, his brow furrowing as the searing pain lanced through him. But even as his vision swam, he knew the worst was yet to come. The upcoming fifth strike would be the strongest of the sequence.
He had to give everything he had to block it.
The world seemed to slow. In his daze, Rovel's vision blurred, and for a heart-stopping second, he saw two Raiden Meis. Both figures unleashed a biting wave of sword qi simultaneously, the two energies converging to form a luminous cross that sealed off every possible escape route.
Gritting his teeth, Rovel summoned every ounce of strength he possessed, planting his feet and raising his sword to block the twin streams of energy. The moment they connected, he was thrown back. His body slid uncontrollably across the polished wooden floor, the soles of his shoes letting out a shrill, protesting screech as a burning sensation washed over his entire body.
[-120]!
Another damage number appeared, and with a final, sharp crack, his weapon gave way.
[Your high-quality wooden sword has been destroyed!]
Although this final strike had dealt less damage than the previous one, Rovel had, against all odds, managed to block it. Well, not completely.
With less than 20% of his health remaining, he collapsed onto the floor, every muscle in his body screaming, completely drained of strength.
Raiden Mei calmly sheathed her sword, the click of the scabbard echoing in the quiet dojo. The icy intensity in her eyes melted away, and the gentle smile returned to her face as if nothing had happened.
"Mr. Fang Ruobai, compared to this morning, your progress is truly impressive."
"As expected of Mei…" Rovel panted, forcing his arm up to give her a weak thumbs-up before it slumped back to the floor. "I really… still have a lot to learn."
He was so tired.
But the rewards… the rewards were immense.
[You have sparred with Raiden Mei. Basic Kendo (White) proficiency +100. Received Mission BUFF and Training Ground BUFF bonuses: Basic Kendo (White) proficiency an additional +220!]
[Basic Kendo (White) · Proficient. Proficiency: 4102/10000.]
[Raiden Mei's Evaluation: Excellent. Gained Experience: 800! Current Experience: 807/1600.]
In just thirty minutes of intense combat, Rovel's Basic Kendo proficiency had skyrocketed by 4000 points. On top of that, his character experience had jumped by a massive 800 points!
Receiving Rovel's exhausted acknowledgment, Raiden Mei instinctively brushed a strand of hair from her face, a proud, satisfied smile curling the corners of her lips.
Rovel didn't feel the slightest bit discouraged by his repeated defeats. On the contrary… wasn't this the most natural outcome? Raiden Mei had been practicing Kendo since she was a child; it was a part of her very being. The fact that he, a complete novice, could land even a single blow on her within a day was already a stroke of incredible luck.
It was just… the current Queen of Thunder really did have a short fuse.
He had clearly seen the shift in her expression the moment his blade had touched her. Her face had darkened, and without hesitation, she had unleashed the Hokushin Ittō-ryū to thoroughly teach him a lesson.
'A-rank missions are no joke…' he thought wryly.
And if an A-rank mission was already this demanding, what kind of monstrous difficulty awaited him in the SSS-rank mission sitting on his quest panel?
Pushing himself into a sitting position, Rovel took a moment to catch his breath and glanced at his attribute panel.
[Level: 5]
[Level Cap: 10] (Requires mission completion to break through and unlock level cap)
[Experience: 807/1600]
[Race: Human]
[HP: 127/650] (Recovers 6 HP per minute; 1 hour and 28 minutes until full recovery)
[Honkai Energy Infection Progress: 0%]
[Constitution: 64]
[Strength: 64]
[Agility: 64]
[Intelligence: 64]
[Free Attribute Points: 8]
[Honkai Energy Resistance: 1300 HW]
[Equipment: Elysia's Crystal Flower (Special Accessory), High-quality Wooden Sword (Broken)]
[Inventory: 10 Ultimate Healing Potions, Chiba Academy Student ID, Special Communicator, Mobius's Scalpel]
Looking at the 8 free attribute points, Rovel felt a powerful urge to dump them all into Agility. Raiden Mei was simply too fast; he could barely track her movements, let alone react to them.
However, he resisted the impulse. He hadn't fully decided on his long-term development path yet. What if learning Kendo was just a temporary phase for him? It was better to save the points for now.
"You should still be able to stand up, right?" Raiden Mei asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. Her hellish training regimen was far from over. Even if Rovel was too beaten to spar, the basic practice could not be skipped.
"No problem." Rovel stretched his aching body, wincing slightly, and picked up a new high-quality wooden sword from the rack at the side of the dojo.
He then began his basic training drills under Raiden Mei's watchful guidance.
[Raiden Mei is teaching you Basic Kendo (White). Skill proficiency +18. Received Mission BUFF and Training Ground BUFF bonuses: Skill proficiency an additional +39!]
[Raiden Mei is teaching you Basic Kendo (White). Skill proficiency +21. Received Mission BUFF and Training Ground BUFF bonuses: Skill proficiency an additional +46!]
Similar notifications popped up roughly every six minutes.
Gradually, Rovel began to notice a pattern. Under Raiden Mei's direct tutelage, and excluding the various buffs, the skill proficiency he gained was about three times what he earned from training solo. When he had trained alone for an hour without any buffs, his proficiency gain hovered between 60 and 70.
'So the amount of passive skill proficiency gained is linked to the Intelligence attribute,' he deduced.
However, the rules changed during active combat. The proficiency gain wasn't a steady tick every six minutes, nor was it a simple threefold multiplier. Instead, it fluctuated wildly based on the intensity of the battle.
In those thirty minutes of being utterly dominated, his Basic Kendo proficiency had increased by over 4000 points. That was equivalent to the gains from nine or ten hours of Raiden Mei's direct instruction! And that didn't even account for the 800 experience points!
The conclusion was simple, and a grimly determined smile spread across his face.
If he wanted to get stronger as fast as possible, he had to take a beating.
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