Chapter 171: Sword Practice (Part 3)
The sky brightened with a golden hue from the east, washing the world clean of its black-and-white shades and returning it to a clear blue.
Puffs of white clouds drifted away as birds in the treetops began their morning songs, blending with the rhythmic clang of steel on steel that had echoed all night.
As a Rank-3 Practitioner, Lucen Varnarest hadn’t shifted his stance once since the first light of dawn. His clothes remained unsoiled, his expression blank, and his grip on the sheathed sword relaxed as he parried and evaded every one of Adyr’s strikes with minimal effort.
Adyr was hardly different in composure, though a touch more worn and tired. His breath was steady, his gaze flat, as if he hadn’t spent the entire night trading blows.
Hundreds of moves had been exchanged without a single one landing.
For hours, neither had spoken. Lucen had offered no pointers or advice, and Adyr had never asked for a break. The only conversational sound was the repeated clash of sword against scabbard.
And yet, strangely, Adyr still hadn’t received the message from the system acknowledging his swordplay talent.
He had countless talents he could register—dozens already recognized by the system, most of which he had ignored.
But this one talent was proving stubborn, refusing to surface.
He was not the type to give up. On the contrary, with every silent second the system withheld its recognition, his motivation only grew sharper and his stubbornness dug deeper.
Only now did he realize that proving a talent wasn’t easy. He’d first noticed this when he raised all his registered talents to level 2 and saw just how difficult it was to upgrade them to level 3. Now, with this, he could clearly see how hard it was for a practitioner to advance by the usual means.