After the cafeteria incident, Reno’s week it seemed to naturally flow by, as if it was a stream of water.
Reno was lying in his bed and didn’t want to get out and train or do anything.
The fact that it was Sunday intensified this feeling inside Reno.
‘I’ve been here for the equivalent of at most a week but I feel as if I’ve aged 10 years from how stressed out I’ve been’
Reno then dragged himself out of bed, carrying his two swords with him.
One being ‘Grieving Maiden’ and the other his normal sword.
While attaching them to his waist, Reno realized that his fingers were shaking.
Reno did his best to make it seem like the bounty on him wasn’t affecting him that much to others like Grania or Trista.
But it was honestly taking its toll on him.
The original Reno would have long since resigned and crawled off to either his old home or somewhere else by this point.
The old Reno was prideful but wasn’t stupid. Dealing with even the weakest of an original family was akin to fighting a rigged battle.
The new Reno or Ren had been through similar stressful situations so he could manage it for some time.
Even so, with a chance of dying around the corner, he could only last for so long.
The other reason that Reno was even a bit hopeful was because of those whom he deemed his friends.
Trista, Cassia and Grania.
Grania tried to lighten the mood when he was around to comfort him.
Cassia was doing her best to distract him by training with Reno when she got a chance.
Trista was responsible for his hellish training.
Seeing as how he needed strength as soon as possible, he didn’t mind if he lost a few screws when training with Trista
He also figured that it was due to some people working in the background that nothing else notable such as the battle in the cafeteria had occurred.
He wasn’t sure of who it might be.
It could have been the Ace family or Rosa Lina’s input in the student council but he was thankful.
Reno reached the living room where he grabbed a piece of fruit to eat so his stomach was barely full so he could start some morning training.
It was a Sunday but that didn’t mean he could slack off.
Normally one who rests on Sunday and goes out with friends which was something that Cassia and Grania were doing.
They had left the academy premises so that Grania could show Cassia around the city of Wester where Aligning Academy was located.
The city of Wester was also the largest in the rank 1 rift that they were in.
It had all kinds of fun places, gorgeous landscapes, and exciting futuristic tech.
Reno also wanted to go with them but had to stay back due to the bounty that was on his head.
After Reno had finished eating his fruit he went to the training room of his dorm.
He then did some light stretches before activating his Focus skill.
[Focus Skill: Assign a Task]
‘Allocate 1 hour to training cut, Another hour to training quickstep, and the final one to training stab?’
Reno then felt as if he was embracing the most comfortable pillow in his life.
He blinked and then realized that he was back in the comfortable embrace of his mind.
While there, he began thinking back to his combat evaluation sheet that he had checked the night before.
[A/N Reno can only see the increase, not the stages progressed in brackets)
Stats : [Strength: F → E- ] (2 stages progressed)
[Speed: F- → F+ ] (2 stages progressed)
[Defense: G+ → F ] (2 stages progressed)
[Vitality: F → E- ] (2 stages progressed)
[Energy: N/A ] (0 stages progressed)
Rank: E- → E+ (2 stages progressed)
Wendao’s Sword Art, Proficiency : [II] EXP : (28/1000)
(Needs Energy to be activated)
{This is a decent sword art made by the swordsman Wendao when he was bored with nothing to do. When the user keeps hitting consecutive blows the damage and speed of the user increase by 5% up to 25% after every new consecutive blow} (Rarity: C [Average]) [Cooldown time: 5 minutes]
Cut [VI] (78,928/100,000) (A fundamental sword skill)
{A vertical strike of any weapon that can swiftly deal a moderate → moderate amount of damage on hit. {Calculated based on the user’s speed/strength and the skill’s proficiency level} (Rarity: F [Common]) [Cooldown time: 3 seconds]
Focus [III] (0 hrs/ 100 hrs)
{Able to maintain full concentration on any task for 3 hours, during the skill duration, comprehension is increased} [Cooldown time: 20 hours] (Rarity: N/A)
-Focus (Theory) [III] (0 hrs/100 hrs)
{Must have the focus skill to use. After a session of using focus, the user can review the focus session and edit it before it is permanently saved to the brain.} [Cooldown time: 20 hrs] (Rarity: N/A)
Parry [VII] (79,789/1,000,000) (A fundamental sword skill)
{A basic move that can be used with most weapons. Able to redirect the direction of an attack very moderately → moderately while also negating 35% → 50%{30% → 40%} of the damage received. {Calculated based on the user’s defense/vitality and the skill’s proficiency level}} (Rarity: F [Common]) [Cooldown time: 5 seconds]
Stab [IV] (456/1,000) (A basic sword move)
{A basic move that can be used with most weapons. By turning the weapon horizontally and applying force to it swiftly against an opponent, the user can slightly pierce through some defense and at times even cause a small amount of damage based on their speed/strength and the skill proficiency} (Rarity: F [Common]) [Cooldown time: 15 seconds]
Quick-Step [IV] (27/1,000) (A simple movement skill)
{By concentrating a great deal of strength in one of your feet, the user can swiftly change his position from where they were standing to anywhere within a 150 cm radius} {Calculated based on the user’s speed/vitality and the skill’s proficiency level} (Rarity: F [Common]) [Cooldown time: 2 minutes]
If any random person were to see what Reno had in front of his eyes, they would most likely peel over and die in shock.
Not just a skill at the 6th proficiency level but there was even one at the seventh proficiency level!
When Reno got one skill to reach the 5th proficiency level he was already about to faint but across the span of some days he had gotten used to it.
If anything, when he saw his combat evaluation sheet he felt giddy inside.
He had originally realized that when his Focus skill reached the second level.
His speed at comprehending skills had increased compared to the first level of it.
He was happy at this fact and wanted to do his best and max out parry so he could be almost unkillable.
When it had reached proficiency 7 though.
He realized it would take him weeks even with the focus skill to level it up, much less reach the fabled skill level of X.
He also realized that every level requirement after 5 seemed to get crazier and crazier.
Seeing this, Reno wished that he could leave all the basic skills that he had and get something a bit stronger.
Not like he could buy it at that moment but the hope of having it available was enough for him.
Sadly, there were no leads.
He had even asked Trista some days ago.
She told him that combat arts and techniques that don’t need energy would be great for those without vital cores but were like myths.
After hearing that, Reno didn’t have much hope and resigned to doing his best to find any skill he could learn so that he could get even a bit stronger.
He was also hopeful that maybe after reaching proficiency V for the focus skill.
He could reach the Proficient rank (V) for any basic skill after an hour.
Reno was relaxing in his mind but out of nowhere, he felt like something was wrong.
[Error: Foreign Entity interfering with the assigned task, Relieving control.]
Reno then woke up with some blood running down from his head and some of the training room being destroyed.
He felt a bit woozy and out of it but heard a female voice in the background.
“Looks like the last bird is the one that gets the worm after all. All we had to do was wait until that monstrous psychic was gone and we got the chance to get him.”
He then heard another female voice that sounded like the first one but a tad different.
“Looks so, my beautiful sister! Those other dumbasses at the club must be still trying to make up a plan but we’ll get his bounty after all.”