One Day to go

The Next day,

Training ground near Mayor's office.

Freya's training sword clashed against Maria's dagger. The nimble scout easily parried her wooden sword and replied with a few jabs of her wooden daggers. Freya's high agility stat allowed her to dodge, however the daggers took a mid-air turn and followed after her.

Luckily for Freya, she could see a path through the attacks, following a pattern of blue footprints on the ground. These footprints were the system's guidance in learning the footwork for Lightning King Sword style. Freya immediately stepped after the system footprints and easily dodging the first three attacks. However, she couldn't follow the pattern at such a fast pace and lost her footing, resulting in her being knocked to the ground by Maria's attacks.

"You are strong and fast, but still haven't completely mastered your sword style." Maria commented. "But I can already see it's a powerful style. Being able to avoid my attacks merely by footwork is something even Abel was unable to do."

Freya had joined the team for training early in the morning after completing her daily quest. She had asked for a spar, but most of the group members were incompatible with her. Morris was strength based warrior with heavy attacks and defense. Freya would have to dodge his attacks while he would have just block hers with his shield, neither of them improving in any manner. Ariane and Alex were both uninterested in close combat, leaving only Maria as an option.

Maria was more than willing to clash blades with her, as the scout/assassin herself had no training partner after their previous swordsman, Abel, had been injured during a quest and lost a hand. Abel was also an agility based warrior like Maria, so they both frequently sparred to improve their techniques. However, after he lost his hand, even a holy priest of Orion like Ariane could do little to help him. It would take a few months and a large amount of money for the high priest to perform higher circle magic that would regrow his limb. It was the only reason that Freya had been able to join the team, otherwise there would have been no need for her.

Freya jumped up from the ground and readied herself for another bout. "Let's go again, and this time I will definitely hit you."

As the two women continued their spar in the middle of the ground, Morris observed them from the corner. At first, Freya had been outmatched by Maria's quick attacks and superior weapon skills. However, as their training progressed, Freya began to dodge more and more attacks and even retaliating with some of her own.

Morris had already been quite satisfied with Freya's strength, but her speed was also surprisingly high. While it could not be compared with Maria's agility, it was still the second highest in the group. Her swordsmanship on the other hand was barely average. It may overwhelm the common bandit but was not a threat to a seasoned warrior, at least not yet.

Her swordsmanship skill had increased a lot in merely the two hours that they had been sparing. While at first her swings were little more than frantic attacks of a child, now each swing held a purpose behind it, as if she had a great swordsman in her head that was correcting her every flaw and forcing her to improve with each swing.

"How do you evaluate the new addition to the team, my friend?" A voice came from behind him that he instantly recognized as Wulfric.

"Wulfric, you have found us a worthy replacement for Abel. I'm sure he would have had no complaints after seeing her fight." The bulky warrior replied, "You may just have found an uncut diamond, but a diamond nonetheless."

"I'm just happy that my intuition hasn't let me down yet." The Mayor spoke as he came to stand side by side with his friend, "I knew as soon as I met her that she would be a great warrior one day. I hope you will be able to guide her along the way."

"Of course, nurturing such a talent would be the dream of any old warrior like me." Morris continued to observe the spar between his two teammates.

"If she learns to hone her talent under your guidance, then maybe one day she might take your place as one of the two Guardians of Betlam city." The Mayor couldn't help but voice his hopes for the young warrior.

"I am afraid that won't be possible, old friend." The heavy warrior replied. "As you know, she's not only a strong warrior, but also a powerful second circle mage at such a young age."

"With her rate of improvement, she will definitely become a famous swordswoman known across the continent, not to mention I can already feel she is on the verge of entering the third circle of magic." Morris continued to observe the spar as Freya continued to improve with each passing second, several of her hits barely missed her opponent.

"At this rate, she may even surpass that old fogey in magic by the time she's sixty." As the warrior finished his assessment, the old mayor couldn't help but be speechless. While Morris was also one of the two guardians of Betlam city, even he accepted that he could not ever compare to the other guardian.

Of course, this was only because the other guardian was a fifth circle mage. After all, Betlam was the first line of defense against any invasion from the Kingdom of Kraus. It was also an important trading hub of the kingdom, so the royal family could not afford to leave it unprotected. In case of emergencies, even sixth and seven circle mages along with various Aura knights of the country would also be sent as back to insure the city won't fall, but that was another matter.

The Mayor looked stupidly at his old friend and then the young woman sparring in the middle of the training ground. To surpass a fifth circle mage, by the age of sixty, that was completely unheard of. Even the youngest genius to reach the fifth circle was at a hundred and fifty years old.

With the mage protecting Betlam city being well over three hundred years old. While that may seem a lot to ordinary people, it was nothing to such powerful mages, as a fifth circle mage had a life expectancy of six hundred years. Moreover, a mage's body stopped aging at certain point, usually their physical prime, which meant all mages were always at peak condition of their body.

If that young woman really managed to reach the third circle of mana without any official master at such a young age. It would be an undeniable proof of talent. Wulfric finally realized that, at most, he would be able to keep her for a decade before he could no longer help in her growth and she would move on.

"I see that we must do all in our power to help her become strong and hopefully she will remember us when she becomes such a powerful existence." He silently muttered to his friend.

"Indeed my friend." Morris replied as he watched Freya finally deal her first blow to Maria. "No cage can hold such fine talent."

The two friends left the training ground and went to have a drink to smother their sense of jealously after witnessing such talent.

While in the middle of the training ground, two woman panted in exhaustion. As they stared at each other with their weapons drawn.

"I think that is enough for the day." Maria spoke as she put away her wooden dagger. "You are improving at a surprising rate. At this rate, you might just be useful during this quest."

Freya chuckled at the joke as she also put away the wooden training sword. She silently thanked Art for his help in her training. In fact, if Art hadn't pointed out her fault, even with the system's help, she wouldn't have been able to improve this quickly.

'Do not thank me yet.' The Ancient mage replied, 'You haven't even begin to learn the Lightning King's Swordsmanship. Once you can use even a fifth of its true power, you will be a force to be reckoned with.'

Freya just ignored his comments as she focused on the fruits of her labor. Merely a few hours of sparing and she was already able to somewhat predict Maria's attack pattern. Granted that the assassin was not fighting seriously, but still it was a good rate of improvement.

The two walked towards the sitting area, where they drank a cup of water. Freya was already feeling a little fresh as her 'Stamina Freak' skill began to show its effect.

"What do you say we get back to it after a ten-minute rest?" Freya asked the hooded warrior.

"Are you a beast? Don't you get tired?" Maria asked in a breathless voice. "We have been training without a break for the past three hours. I need to rest at least an hour."

Maria was a high level assassin at level 37. However, assassins were never known for their stamina. While Maria's Agility and Dexterity stats were quite high, her other stats were far less than Freya. Not to mention Freya's new skill that greatly increased her training time.

"No matter." Freya voiced. "I'll just work on my footwork while you rest."

After ten minutes, Freya had fully recovered her stamina and resumed her training. She resumed training her footwork, which according to Art was currently abysmal. She learned the approach and retreat footwork, while also using her wooden sword to practice the quick jabs and slashes of her sword style.