"The rule here is simple: you duel someone one-on-one. The winner can take points from the loser," Luke said as they walked. "And those points seem to have a lot of uses."
Yurna followed behind and gave a slight nod.
"Can you use a sword?" Luke turned and asked.
"I can, a little," Yurna replied.
"Alright. Then go look around on your own, or find someone to spar with. I'm going to the restroom."
He'd probably had too much water that morning. After leaving her with that, Luke turned to go find the restroom.
Something like that obviously wasn't something Yurna should follow him into.
And Yurna understood what he meant, so she didn't.
When Luke finished and came back, he happened to catch a pretty entertaining scene.
He'd just been thinking how he hadn't run into anyone familiar, and then—there one was.
Up on the ring, a burly man wearing a bear mask was "explaining" the rules to his opponent.
"You're called Black Cat, right? Put your protective gear on properly. There aren't many female swordsmen in this training camp. If there's anything you don't understand, let me teach you."
The bear mask's voice was rough, but right now it sounded almost absurdly gentle.
For one very simple reason.
His opponent was Yurna.
Luke hadn't felt like thinking too hard, so he'd just named her "Black Cat" on the spot.
In a hot-blooded training camp like this, just like Bear Mask said, there were women here—but not many.
Let alone someone like Yurna: a great figure, and a presence that looked refined at a glance.
With the mask framing them, those violet eyes of hers looked even more striking, more… lingering.
Yurna put on her gear and chose a short blade as her weapon.
A crowd had gathered below the ring. Part of it was because Bear Mask had a reputation, and the other part… didn't really need explaining.
"Here we go, the classic's starting."
"Newbie killer's back in business."
"This guy's been behaving for a few days ever since he got put in his place last time. Didn't think he'd show up again today."
"What he's after, we all know."
The chatter was nonstop.
From what Luke heard, Bear Mask really had come "back."
And honestly—he had good taste in targets.
At this point, both fighters' names had been registered.
A rabbit attendant stood below the ring with a ledger in hand, ready to record the result.
Bear Mask spoke with confidence and perfect "gentlemanly" flair. "When the bell rings, the duel starts. You can attack at any time. Don't worry—I can take it."
Yurna heard him and didn't react at all.
Ding~!
The bell rang.
Bear Mask smiled. "Go on. Come at me."
He was thinking to himself: Another day full of gentlemanly charm.
Wouldn't this have the girl totally dazzled?
Yurna stepped forward the moment the bell rang—no fancy footwork, and her movements didn't resemble any recognizable sword style.
She simply closed the distance, raised the short blade when she was near, and brought it down.
"Your sword—"
Bear Mask confidently started to give pointers, but then he suddenly realized the speed of that strike was—what the hell—kind of fast!
His vision blurred. He hurriedly lifted his greatsword—
Clang!
The greatsword flew sideways right out of his hands.
And along with the sword, Bear Mask's huge body went flying too.
By the time he crashed down off the ring, the spectators still hadn't fully processed what they'd just seen.
Bear Mask was stunned as well, like he couldn't believe it.
I… got one-shot?
"Didn't you say you could take it?" someone in the crowd finally blurted out, snapping back to reality.
That was… a little embarrassing.
Bear Mask got up, cleared his throat, and somehow managed not to look too awkward. "Looks like I hit a wall again."
Seriously—what has been going on these past few days?
Last time it was a Frog. This time it's a Black Cat.
And they keep getting stronger.
This one just deleted him in one hit. How was he supposed to play like that?
"This Black Cat… seems strong."
"No kidding. She one-shot Bear Mask. You can do that?"
"I wonder who's stronger between her and Fiora."
"Definitely Fiora."
"Fiora is forever the GOAT!"
Some fanatic nearby threw an arm into the air yelling. Luke immediately took a few steps away in disgust.
Still, Luke could tell Yurna really did have skill.
Bear Mask was, at best, an apprentice. Challenging someone at the Unyielding Peak stage—of course he'd get instantly crushed.
Just then, someone recognized Luke.
"Hey, aren't you the Frog swordsman? You're here too."
The person greeted him.
After all, in this training camp, basically nobody wore such a dopey-looking frog mask.
As attention drifted away from Black Cat, people naturally noticed Luke.
As the guy who'd made Bear Mask "retire" last time—and the guy Fiora had boldly tipped with three hundred points—quite a few people still remembered him.
A number of them came over to say hello.
Luke answered them one by one.
Over on Bear Mask's side, he'd gotten thirty points deducted and had been wailing about it. Hearing the commotion here, he jogged over too.
"Where've you been these days? Haven't seen you."
He was pretty friendly, all things considered.
The big guy wasn't bad at heart—he just liked picking on newcomers.
Luke's impression of him was decent, so he replied, "Had some things to deal with."
With the fight over, the crowd dispersed.
And because of what Yurna had just shown, nobody dared go up and flirt with her now.
She didn't come to bother Luke either. She stepped down from the ring and waited quietly a short distance away.
"Where's Fiora?" Luke asked curiously.
"Maybe she's not here today. I heard she's got a duel scheduled for this afternoon—she's probably still preparing." After saying that, Bear Mask added, "But you won't really run into her in the outer area anyway. With your skill, you should go check the inner area."
"The inner area?"
"Yep." Bear Mask nodded. "You noticed it too, right? Me included—the outer area doesn't really have many people who can actually use a sword. It's mostly sword enthusiasts who call themselves swordsmen. The real monsters are in the inner area. Fiora too—she's usually active in there."
Sword enthusiast and swordsman weren't the same thing.
When Luke came last time, he'd already noticed the training camp's skill range was… ridiculously wide.
He just hadn't known there was an inner area.
Now it clicked.
No wonder he'd followed someone in last time but couldn't find them.
Then they'd suddenly appeared later.
They'd gone into the inner area.
Once he understood, Luke asked, "Where's the entrance?"
"There are two. Usually people go straight in through the corridor. The second entrance is over there—see that tunnel at the far end?"
As he spoke, Bear Mask pointed toward the deepest part on the left.
Luke followed the direction and spotted a tunnel entrance.
"Go down through that and you're in the inner area. If you want to enter, someone will explain the details. I won't bother."
Bear Mask clearly couldn't be bothered explaining. He'd just taken another big points hit and was in a miserable mood.
"Thanks," Luke said.
"Eh, no big deal." Bear Mask sighed and turned away.
Right now, he was seriously considering whether he should actually retire for real this time.
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