Chapter 78: Kenji's Pre-Game!

Dark Lord's POV:

I was currently sitting on a pile of sea beasts that had jumped out of the obsidian sea and infested the ship. It had taken nearly an entire day to track down and kill them all. Many of them had hidden themselves away somewhere on the ship in order to ambush the unsuspecting crew. It didn't help that they were all as strong as a nascent soul cultivator which meant that even the combatants on the ship would struggle against them, not to mention the noncombatant crew.

"Report! How long will it take us to return?"

"My lord! It will take us two days to reach the shore in our current state!"

"And how long would it take for us to arrive at Walpurgis?"

"My lord! In our current state reaching the other side of the continent within that short of a time frame would be impossible!"

"Fuji!"

"Yes, your majesty?" Mr. Fuji answered as he popped out from around the corner.

"You're in charge off the 'Crimson Eye'! I'll be going ahead!"

"Go get em tiger!"

And with those words of encouragement, I flew off on my demonic sword towards the mainland.

"MY LORD!" the grunt screamed.

"*Giggle* So even the Dark Lord acts a fool before the power of love!"

"Mr. Fuji! Where has my lord headed?"

"Where else? He is going to find our future dark lady. I only hope he doesn't break her by accident, before he brings her back."

...

Kenji's POV:

It was currently the second day of Walpurgisnacht. I had gotten up early in the morning out of habit. Back when I was a cultivator I would always get up early to practice the blade, but ever since I entered the academy as a tester there has been no need for me to do so.

However, having had nothing to do I still continued practicing anyways. Eventually my dingy old sword began to rust because I wasn't properly maintaining it, so I changed from sword practice to martial arts practice. And that hasn't changed, even after meeting the boss.

I would usually go to the academy's dueling arena, but since we were no longer at the academy, I decided to go to the empty tournament arena instead. Except it wasn't empty. Inside the arena I could spot several other testers practicing their skills.

I could see one man wielding an enchanted spear that shot out small icicles, while another man was practicing with a staff that spewed out fire. There was even one guy practicing with a non-enchanted dagger.

"First Walpurgisnacht?" A buff elderly man with a graying beard asked as he tapped me on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Is this some kind of event?"

"No, no! It's just us testers practicing our skills. Many of us are failed cultivators, that said we're still warriors at heart! Hence, many of us tend to gather here before the matches start to sharpen our skills for the battles ahead!" And with that the man walked ahead of me as he started sparring with one of the other testers.

Instead of practicing like usual for some reason I just sat to the side as I watched these men practice until today's events started. I couldn't believe it. I could tell from their practice that many of these men had acquired skills and experience that far surpassed my own. Many of these great warriors had fallen like me yet instead of just lazing about they refused to let their skills rust away as they continued to hone what little power they had. And I would be facing some of these men in battle soon.