Looking at the panel, Derek raised an eyebrow. "This one’s a record too? And the last one took fifteen minutes? What are they even doing here... training or just wasting time?" he muttered under his breath.
Shaking his head in mild disbelief, Derek walked back to the control panel. This time, he skipped straight to Level Six and pressed the start button without hesitation.
The moment he did, more than a hundred metallic barrels popped out from the surrounding walls. Before Derek could even react or anticipate what was coming, they all began firing simultaneously, unleashing a storm of projectiles toward him.
On the glowing panel beside him, a countdown appeared and began ticking away....
Derek twisted and shifted through the barrage of attacks, his movements sharp yet effortless, but a faint look of confusion lingered on his face.
’What’s the task for this level?’ he wondered, glancing briefly toward the glowing panel between dodges. He had already noticed the countdown ticking away. ’Do I just dodge for the whole ten minutes? Is that really all I’m supposed to do?’
Then his gaze fell on another section of the display, an equal portion beside the timer, marked ’Score’, which currently showed 0.
"Maybe..." Derek muttered, realization dawning in his eyes.
Still evading the storm of projectiles, he suddenly swung his sword, intercepting a metallic bullet mid-flight.
The bullet split cleanly in half, both pieces dissolving into thin air before hitting the ground. A faint tremor ran through Derek’s arm from the impact. The bullet’s speed and the metal’s density were no joke. Yet what impressed him most was his sword.
He could feel it. There wasn’t even a scratch.
Meanwhile, a small ding sounded from the panel. The number beneath the Score heading changed from 0 to 1.
Realizing what he had to do, Derek sprang into action. He moved like a blur, dodging some of the bullets, slicing others apart with swift, precise strikes. This wasn’t just about hitting targets; he had to defend himself while attacking, maintaining perfect balance between offense and evasion.
As time went on, his score began to climb rapidly.
Finally, Derek’s breathing started to grow heavier. The level’s difficulty was beginning to catch up to him. Every time he split a bullet in half, the backlash from the impact jolted through his arm, yet he didn’t falter.
He wove through the onslaught, spinning, twisting, sidestepping, every movement sharp and calculated. Slash, dodge, strike, repeat.
By the seven-minute mark, Derek had already accumulated an incredible 621 points, meaning he was destroying multiple targets every second.
Meanwhile, outside, Eva stared through the observation glass, her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open as if she were seeing a ghost.
"Is he really a cultivator? And just a first-year? He looks even younger than me!" she whispered in disbelief. "How... how is this even possible? Am I dreaming?!"
Just then, the door to the Weapon Mastery Chamber swung open. Meridith entered briskly, her heels echoing against the floor.
Her gaze immediately landed on Eva, who stood frozen and speechless.
"Eva, I’m here now," Meridith said, walking closer. "Tell me, what were you so....."
She stopped mid-sentence as her eyes finally followed Eva’s gaze toward the training chamber.
"Wait... what?!" she blurted out, her expression freezing in utter disbelief.
Inside, Derek was like a shadow, slicing, dodging, and weaving between the barrage of bullets as though he had been doing it his entire life. Every movement was flawless, instinctive, and perfectly timed. By now, only one minute remained.
The barrels abruptly halted, coming to a complete stop.
Derek hunched forward, resting his palms on his knees as beads of sweat rolled down his face like rain. His chest rose and fell heavily, but a wide grin spread across his lips.
"Ha... haha..." he chuckled between breaths. "That was..." he paused, inhaling deeply, "that was fun."
The panel beside the control buttons shimmered once more, displaying new text:
Previous Record Score: 900
New Record Score: 901
Congratulations, Derek Hale, for breaking the Level Six record in Weapon Mastery Training.
Current Weapon Mastery Ranking: 51]
"The last record was 900 points, huh!" Derek wiped the sweat from his forehead with a flick of his finger. "I thought I was good with a sword... but maybe not that good. Guess I still need to work harder," he murmured.
He had barely surpassed the previous record, which meant whoever held it before him was just as skilled. What he failed to consider, however, was that the former record holder had been an Auran, someone capable of cutting through metal with ease, unlike Derek, who had to endure the recoil of every strike. If the competition had been based solely on sword mastery, though, very few could hope to stand on the same level as him.
With that thought, Derek headed back toward the control panel to attempt the next level. But just as he was about to press a button, a sharp knock echoed against the transparent glass of the chamber.
Derek turned around and saw both Eva and Meridith standing there, their faces frozen in disbelief, eyes wide like startled owls.
Seeing them, Derek walked over and opened the door. "Miss Meridith?! Can I help you with something?" he asked politely.
"D... Derek! What the hell were you doing in there?!" Meridith exclaimed, her voice filled with shock.
"Me?" Derek replied calmly, as though nothing unusual had happened. "Oh, Eva was showing me around the training and cultivation rooms. I just wanted to test out my new sword, so I thought I’d start with the weapon training."
Meridith stared at him in utter disbelief. "B... But aren’t you a cultivator? Why do you even have a sword? And how in the world did you break three records in weapon mastery while being a cultivator?"
Eva, still dazed, said nothing. She simply stood beside them, her expression blank, her mind struggling to process what she had just witnessed. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✦𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮✦𝓷𝓮𝓽