It didn't take long for all the students to choose their respective weapons. Hardly anyone felt indecisive on what choice to make as they had already known their specialty, courtesy of their training class."Very good," Harris remarked, the moment they were all done with a weapon. He brought out a list from thin air and began to call their names one after the other, in accordance to their dorm numbers.
"Lydia Rose!"
Harris confirmed that she had chosen a weapon â a spear â before tossing exactly the same weapon to one of the combat dummies. He continued with the others until he got to the last student, taking over an hour to do so.
"Phew! That was draining," Harris said, making the hungry students who had been waiting the whole time feel more angry.
"Having paired against your combat dummies, I'll give you a minute to prepare your self before the timer begins."
Kyle nodded his head at the announcements and continued analyzing the dummy like he has been doing before. Not only had he familiarized himself with the katana in his hand, he had also come up with a plan on how to handle the test during that one hour.
'My goal remains to score the highest possible points, so I'll strike it only on the head, without getting hit, before I end it at the very last minute. I just hope it would be easy enough to accomplish.'
'Inspect!'
[Basic Combat Training Dummy]
[Durability: 1000]
[Attack Power: 20]
'I'm not entirely sure on what attack power means but it should obviously relate to the damage it can deliver.'
[Ding!]
A familiar metallic chime interrupted Kyle's thoughts.
[New Quest: Challenges are never equal. Prove yourself superior and rack up as much points as you can!]
[Reward: 1 skill point + 1 stat point per 200 points gotten]
Kyle's mind flew open the moment he read the quest notification. He already had plans on scoring the best and he'll even get rewarded while doing it.
'Perfect.'
***
Kyle's eyes were focused on the clock as the final second of preparation ticked away with his grip firmly tightened on the hilt of his katana. As soon as the timer hit zero, a single word echoed in the training hall:
"Begin!"
Kyle's body moved instantly, blurring into motion as he lunged forward. The combat dummy, programmed to react to its opponent, swung its blade in a horizontal arc aimed at his torso.
To the untrained eye, the strike was fast, precise, even, but to Kyle, it might as well have been moving in slow motion.
'Too amateurish.'
Rather than waste energy parrying against such a basic slash, Kyle used Air Steps, his body becoming weightless as he glided through the ground. With effortless precision, he twisted mid-run and brought his katana down onto the dummy's head in one fluid motion.
>CLANG!CLANG!CLANG!CLANG!BANG!CLANG!CRACK!BOOOOOM!<
The dummy exploded into fragments, multiple pieces scattering across the room in a dazzling display of destruction. The sound reverberated, leaving the room in stunned silence.
Kyle stumbled back, his head heaving. His katana fell from his grasp, clattering to the floor. He dropped to his knees, sweat dripping onto the floor beneath him.
His vision was hazy, but he managed a weak, triumphant smile as the system's notification appeared before him.
[Points: 101,200]