Cleaver Of Sin

Chapter 730: Wishful Thinking [Castle Bonus - ]

Asher stood dazed as he held his neck while blood trickled down his skin. The cut wasn’t deep, it was merely a shallow slash that caused only a few drops of blood to spill down his neck, something he could survive without needing any form of healing from the Healing Department.

The Instructor had made sure not to leave any fatal injuries.

’The sand from earlier was merely a distraction for him to use his second weapon,’ Asher thought to himself as he stood in silence. He had been fighting without ever considering the possibility that his opponent could be hiding a second dagger. People who usually used daggers as their weapons were almost always dual wielders, one could hardly find any awakener who fought using only a single dagger.

’I lost... pathetically at that,’ Asher acknowledged inwardly as he remained silent, his mind racing through the entire battle sequence repeatedly. Not once had he possessed the upper hand, he had been treated like a complete child from beginning to end.

His mind couldn’t help but shift towards Instructor Jane. During their spar in the first class, even she hadn’t made him feel this helpless, and even Instructor Jude, who specialized in hand to hand combat, hadn’t left him in such a miserable state.

But Asher was immediately able to spot the difference between now and those previous moments.

He wasn’t naive enough to believe he could match Crownstar Life Rank Instructors in combat experience, but during those classes, both Instructors had merely been testing him according to their specific requirements, not truly targeting his overall combat sense and adaptability.

Asher sighed softly as he shook his head.

’It seems I still have a lot to learn. Even Debro wasn’t this efficient and ridiculous with his sword combinations and attack coordinations,’ he thought while reflecting deeply upon the battle.

Battle experience wasn’t something that simply scaled with age, nor did it naturally scale alongside one’s Life Rank as they progressed, no, it was called battle experience because it could only truly be acquired upon the battlefield itself, meaning, the more one fought and risked their life repeatedly, the greater the amount of battle experience they accumulated over time.

Someone of a much lower Life Rank could defeat someone of a much higher Life Rank through sheer combat experience alone if both individuals were brought to the same combat level.

For example, Adventurers and Mercenaries.

These were two groups of people who spent their entire lives upon battlefields, constantly moving from one dangerous mission to another. They possessed immense reserves of combat experience because they usually only lost when overwhelmingly outnumbered or completely overpowered.

Well... bandits could technically be included on this list too... but they usually relied heavily on tricks, deception, and dirty methods rather than true combat mastery.

The Instructor turned towards Asher as he spoke with an intrigued tone, "Is this your first time using a pole as a weapon? You don’t seem like a total noob," he asked curiously.

Asher’s train of thought was interrupted by the man’s words. He turned towards the Instructor briefly before shaking his head slightly, having nothing meaningful to say in response.

"Sigh... you Wargraves are simply too talented. Any other person would have already lost completely under such combat pressure, but you held on until I pulled out my second dagger," the Instructor spoke again, sounding genuinely amazed. "And to think you only awakened two years ago, yet you already possess this amount of power and physical strength, especially at the age of nineteen," he stated out loud.

Obviously, he had already read Asher’s file along with the files of every other student before this training session began. To him, he genuinely couldn’t understand how Asher could possess such monstrous strength despite restricting himself and only awakening two years ago.

’Besides, his combat senses and battle acumen are simply too ridiculous,’ the Instructor thought inwardly as he clenched his fist slightly.

Although Asher had lost, it meant nothing to the Instructor. What truly mattered was what could be learned from the battle and how Asher had handled himself throughout the entire exchange.

That was what he had been tasked to evaluate.

And honestly, the results had left him extremely shocked. Asher had even copied some of his own battle combinations while they fought, and the fact that Asher had managed to hold out this long against him left him even more stunned than before.

’Sigh... truly a family of freaks,’ he thought while shaking his head lightly, a faint smile appearing on his lips. ’At least within this week, I should be able to teach him a lot,’ he mused inwardly, genuinely excited to teach Asher a few things he knew.

"Can I ask what Life Rank you are?" Asher’s voice suddenly echoed out, breaking the Instructor from his thoughts.

The Instructor’s black eyes shifted towards Asher as he answered calmly, "Void Life Rank," his tone completely indifferent.

Asher nodded silently and said nothing further.

"Anyway, since you’ve lost, you are meant to go down the hill, then climb back up and challenge me again repeatedly until you either defeat me or the week ends," the Instructor stated casually.

Hearing the Instructor’s words, Asher arched an eyebrow slightly before asking, "No timeframe for resting?" his tone low and calm. Usually, they were allowed to rest after completing training sessions, but now he was being told to continue immediately without any form of rest.

"You can only officially rest when you defeat me," the Instructor replied before waving lazily at Asher. "You may go down now, I still have another student to attend to."

Asher nodded before immediately beginning his descent, his injuries weren’t serious at all. The bleeding had already stopped, and his wounds were healing slowly since they were merely shallow cuts.

As Asher descended the mountain, his mind couldn’t help but focus continuously upon his battle with the Instructor, this was the first time he had felt this helpless during a spar.

’I have a lot of things to learn,’ Asher thought quietly as he moved, his mind couldn’t help but drift towards a saying he had heard back on Earth before; Learning never ends.

His stamina was already almost depleted since he had spent hours fighting the Instructor at peak strength and speed without daring to hold anything back.

After over thirty minutes, Asher finally understood what the Instructor had meant when he said Asher could only "officially" rest after defeating him. It simply meant that during his journey towards the peak, Asher could choose to stop and rest whenever he wished.

He didn’t necessarily need to rush towards the summit endlessly, after all, as stated earlier, there had been no timeframe given for arrival.

’Can’t believe I missed such an obvious loophole,’ Asher mused inwardly as he sat upon the branch of a tree.

After resting for several minutes, Asher continued his journey once more, eventually reaching the foot of the hill before climbing back towards the peak again.

He lost miserably once more, and then again after that yet despite suffering repeated defeats back to back, he didn’t feel frustrated or angry, attempting to accomplish something an Instructor had possibly spent over three centuries mastering within only a matter of hours was simply wishful thinking.

____

Bonus Chapter Sponsored by FatelessPen.