Oh dear...

Quick, cover up the dirt...

Heave ho! Heave ho!

Phew. That's better. Otherwise, having dug such a big pit without permission, I'm sure to be scolded by the village head tomorrow. The soil used to fill the hole was excavated from the base of a nearby mountain, so now there's a hole at the foot of the mountain. This robbing Peter to pay Paul approach seems pointless, but no one will suspect that the mystifying disappearance of the earth at the mountain foot was my doing, so it's safe!

Never mind that, since a while ago, Karona has been kneeling on the ground in a daze.

Perhaps she wouldn't have been this shocked if I had dodged at that time.

But I can't help it, I have to make her realize that the idea of "This time, I will absolutely win" only sets one up for failure. If you graduate as the number one, you should always be relishing in the pleasure of looking down on all beings. Of course, the first place also carries many responsibilities, so it's always serious and unsmiling.

The simplest method is to pull her down from the throne of first place.

Whether it's the maintained skills, the speed of light, the God of Holy Light, going all out. Face that attack and wake her up.

Significant improvement in a few days, all are deceiving. Probably has been planning a tactic against me ever since our last part, so she launched the assault in an orderly manner. But no one will give so many days time on the battlefield, even if she wins against me here, the fact of being weak will not change. If she can't let go of that boring pride as soon as possible, she will only be the "number one in the school" for life.

In fact, Karona herself has also realized that she can't catch up with me in certain fields, so she has given up some pretense.

In view of the above ideas, I chose to give her the final blow here.

"My 'Sonic Speed' and all my finishing moves were easily blocked..."

It's always best to follow up a slap in the face with a piece of candy.

Since she's that desperate, I should comfort her a bit.

"No, not easily blocked. I also used my maintained skill."

Though not saying it would be more cool, but I can't tell a lie. That kind of attack can't be resisted just by my flesh, even if I don't use the maintained skill, I will have to consume about 15% of my magic power to dismantle it. But making the sword has already exhausted most of my magic power, and besides, I don't want to cause a big explosion near my home.

"But your maintained skill isn't..."

I reached out to her, Karona hesitated for a moment, but still grasped it.

I gently helped her up as much as I could.

"With this kind of destructive power, you do have the strength to be the number one. The tactics are also not bad. To put it bluntly, it's over the top, which makes it easy to guess. This is also a gap in experience."

She clenched her lips tightly and suddenly bowed deeply to me.

"I lost. Can you train me?"

I tried to ignore her choice of words.

"Let's talk about speed first, that's fast enough. But before you hit me, I knew you would round to my back to attack. If you can think of burying mine in the vine, then you will strike at my weakest point at last. Because you want to defeat me, you want to so bad, every attack must be thought through. So I don't have to react at all, I just need to turn around in advance and wait for you."

"Hmm… But my special move...”

I started to laugh.

"How can I possibly handle your level of attack with my bare hands. I cheated."

"Che... cheated?"

Karona was clearly shocked, her silver lashes trembling slightly.

"Yes. I slightly changed the skeleton of the silver sword with my maintained skill. Because the weapon itself becomes loose and unstable when it bears such a huge amount of magic power. So I got it easily. I redirected your attack by modifying your sword's skeleton, I just grabbed a completely safe sword."

"Hmm..."

"Well, of course I changed the skeleton back after the fight, so don't worry."

Karona's expression was subtle, and at last, she sighed deeply.

"This doesn't count as cheating. I lost."

That's what I was waiting for.

"This doesn't count as cheating." If she can be this open-minded, then tonight's effort wasn't in vain. Only by frankly accepting their failure can they grow.

Karona promptly stood up straight and bowed."Thank you for your guidance!"

Well, she still looks like a student indeed.

"Can you take me as your apprentice? I'm willing to dedicate my life to you!"

"......"

I brushed the dirt off my clothes and touched her hair.

She's fairly rigid.

"Taking you as an apprentice, perhaps. But dedicating your life, that mustn't be. You should go further because you are the brave one."

Brave No. 577, Karona!

How thrilling! The number has finally increased again after nearly two months!

Karona said to me very earnestly:

"Master, if you want to lick my forearm, I won't slap you in the face anymore."

"I'm not interested in that! Rather, hurry up and take me to the creator of the silver sword, Dum... no, I mean, the old principal of the Magic School."

Karona broke into a smile, the first I have seen, bathed in moonlight, it was very beautiful.

"Master has someone he wants to surpass too."

"That's natural. I no longer consider myself to be the best blacksmith in the world."