Chapter 47: Yale’s Mental State
Sainac overlooked a lot of things Heruk did in the past, but that wasn’t because he had feared his ancestor, he merely wanted to avoid internal strife inside the city that outsiders could use to attack.
However, Sainac was asked by the Mysterious Expert to take care of Ange, if she were turned into a slave of that arrogant kid, Sainac didn’t doubt about the future of the whole city. Heruk was courting death with his words.
Heruk was shocked when he heard the chairman himself defending Ange and threatening him; he wasn’t used to hearing that type of words.
However, he didn’t dare to say anymore because Sainac could kill him before his ancestor managed to notice something was wrong.
Even if he liked to abuse the ones who were weaker than him, Heruk was a coward when the opponent was someone that didn’t care about his ancestor; he feared death.
Swordmad didn’t react at Heruk’s words, he was like Yale and was only angered inside.
Swordmad thought of killing that brat due to his threats to Yale’s sister.
However, when he saw Yale’s expression, Swordmad understood that Yale wanted to be the one dealing with Heruk.
Both master and disciple had a tacit understanding that didn’t need any words; both knew well the other’s personality.
Furthermore, killing Heruk in the academy would be a problem with his clan, but if he died after going to the imperial city the things would be different, and Swordmad knew it.
Swordmad would let Yale deal with Heruk, but Swordmad swore that Heruk wouldn’t come back alive to the academy.
If Yale weren’t able to kill him in the special realm, Swordmad would ensure that some accident happened to Heruk.
Yale didn’t know anything about what would happen after the tournament, but at least he wanted to beat Heruk in the tournament’s match.
Even if Yale desired to kill him, he didn’t plan to break the academy’s rules.
Yale’s desire wasn’t anything strange, Heruk hadn’t only crippled Zack; he also wanted to enslave Ange after she had healed Zack.
Yale hadn’t been that angered in his whole life; he didn’t care about the tournament or the Dynamic Quest, he wanted to reach the final to beat Heruk, anything else didn’t matter to him.
Yale’s personality had a huge change after his anger reached the peak.
Instead of losing control as should had been normal is most kids, his personality turned into a cold one.
Yale had very little influence from his past life memory fragments, but they still influenced him when his anger was high enough to make him lose his senses.
That cold personality when he was enraged was a trait inherited from his past life.
That was the second time Yale entered in that state; the first one was when he was dealing with Wyba’s father.
However, at that time his anger was lower than the anger triggered by Heruk’s acts.
Yale would only go back to his usual personality when he had been able to vent the anger inside him.
The next round started, and Yale went to the stage again.
His rival was the sword user who Yale wanted to battle before when seeing his battle in the previous round.
However, at that moment Yale only wanted to finish the battle quickly without wasting energy, he wanted to be in his best state to beat Heruk.
In the eyes of the spectators and his opponent, Yale seemed devoid of intention to battle.
Everyone thought that he was too shocked by what had happened to his classmate and lost the will to fight.
However, Swordmad smiled as he understood very well Yale’s state of mind.
That wasn’t because Yale’s personality turned cold after got angered, but because of how was facing the battle.
“If you don’t want to battle just give up the match, I don’t enjoy beating weaklings.”
Yale’s opponent seemed concerned about Yale’s state; he didn’t want to battle against an opponent who lost the will to fight because he wasn’t a bully, he only liked battle against strong opponents.
As Yale had battled very well before, the sword user had high expectations of him, but after seeing Yale’s current state, he thought that he overestimated him.
Yale didn’t give up and also didn’t reply his opponent.
He merely stood in the stage with a sword in his hand, but without any battle stance.
Even the referee didn’t know if he should start the battle after seeing Yale, but as Yale himself didn’t give up, the fight should start.
“The match starts!”
Yale stood in the same position while his opponent charged towards him.
Yale observed his opponent’s movements and saw all his flaws, Yale felt as if the time slowed down, but that was only his perception.
That was a mental state every person who reached the expert stage in the sword was able to enter and to enter that state one time was the final key to advance into the expert stage.
Entering that state was extremely difficult, but as long as one’s sword techniques became better, the possibilities of entering in the special mind state would grow.
That was the main reason Swordmad told Yale that he should teach about the sword and expand his vision.
Yale was already feeling that his swordsmanship was near entering the expert stage, but was lacking something.
However, the rage he felt and the effects of the cold personality caused a change in Yale’s mindset when he was going to fight.
That change of mindset made him enter into that particular mental state.
When the opponent was almost hitting him, Yale did a single slash with his sword, that was a simple attack, without any Origin Qi on it.
That attack hit in the weak point of the opponent’s stance and sent him out of the stage.
Everyone was left speechless by the outcome of the battle.
Yale who seemed without any intention to battle ended his opponent with only one hit and a simple one without anything special into it.
Swordmad had a broad smile on his face, that strike might seem simple to others, but to him, it was the proof of Yale stepping in the expert stage.
Swordmad didn’t say to Yale anything about the last requirement to enter the expert stage, because entering that mental state for the first time was like the enlightenment it couldn’t be sought.
Knowing it beforehand would make it more difficult to enter in that mind state.
After one reached the expert stage, one’s sword would be infused with Sword Aura, that was only detectable by others who were at least at the expert stage.
Any normal hit with Sword Aura was far more powerful than any Battle Skill Yale had used before.
Furthermore, while using Battle and Combined Skills with the sword, the Sword Aura would also appear, so Yale’s battle prowess obtained a high boost.
“The user upgraded the Passive Skill [Sword Mastery] to Expert Level 1.”
Even without the system’s notification, Yale had sensed that he entered the expert stage in swordsmanship.
Yale didn’t move after sending his opponent out of the stage.
“Sword Mastery: Expert Level 1. While wielding a sword, all stats increase by 1% ignoring all the restrictions. All sword attacks will be infused with Sword Aura. This Passive Skill can be leveled up practicing Swordsmanship.”
The Passive Skill was almost the same as before, only that the Sword Aura effect had been added.
“The user completed a hidden requirement by reaching the expert stage with a weapon. All the user’s stats had been boosted.”
“Reward: Vitality points increased from 14 to 17.”
“Reward: Strength points increased from 16 to 19.”
“Reward: Agility points increased from 16 to 19.”
“Reward: Intelligence points increased from 17 to 20.”
“Reward: Wisdom points increased from 17 to 20.”
“Reward: Dexterity points increased from 15 to 18.”
Yale didn’t mind about his huge increase of stats nor how they had neared him to the 3-star mortal realm; his mind was still focusing only on beating Heruk.
Yale’s opponent stood up outside the arena and looked at Yale with a shocked expression as he felt that he didn’t have any injury, but at the same time, he didn’t doubt about how profound Yale’s attack was.
He concluded that Yale avoided harming him on purpose, merely sending him out the platform to win the battle.
After realizing that, he bowed to Yale and went to the spectator zone. Yale was younger than himself but earned his respect as someone who had surpassed him on pure swordsmanship.
After how Heruk had won before, Yale’s method to win had obtained the favor of the spectators.
They preferred someone like Yale who showed his prowess without harming his opponent than a bully who was happy as he ripped off the opponent’s limbs.
As the spectators started to applaud Yale, the referee finally recovered from his shock and announced the result.
“The winner is Yale, congratulations!”
As the referee announced the result, more notifications appeared in Yale’s mind.
“Dynamic Quest reward for the third win: Strength increased to 20 points.”
“Dynamic Quest reward for the third win: Agility increased to 20 points.”
“Dynamic Quest reward for the third win: Origin Points increased to 16/16 points and restored.”
However, Yale didn’t react to those either; he merely went back to where Zack was lying unconscious.
Ange was also seated exhausted near Zack after healing him; she had needed to use all her magic to recover such severe injuries.
George and Aizu had also moved to stay beside them, even if they were still rivals in the tournament, they felt more like a team after Heruk had beaten Zack.