Chapter 192: Conflict Among the Sword Five
For the next two weeks, Yale went every day to the Sword Arena to battle, but he lost more battles than he won. There was nothing that he could do about it because the rules forbid him using any skill and Yale’s major prowess was in his versatility with a variety of skills, battling just with pure swordsmanship was just getting rid of almost all his true power.
On the other hand, his opponents were all just warriors, so in a real battle Yale just needed to attack from long range and they wouldn’t be even able to touch him. Even battling melee, with just a small teleportation he would win without any effort, and the same applied for a lot of his skills. Thus, those weren’t opponents that he couldn’t defeat in a real battle, but opponents that just he couldn’t defeat in pure swordsmanship.
However, relying on skills to battle wouldn’t let his swordsmanship progress as swiftly as battling with pure swordsmanship like he did; in those two weeks he had reached the sixth level of the expert stage, that was a monstrous advance created due to having battled non-stop against more skilled opponents.
In fact, even with his loses, he was already considered one of the fifty best swordsmen in the Apprentice Rank. After all, he only lost with those who belonged to that group, those weaker than that were unable to win against him. For having been in Sword City for just two weeks that was a great progress.
The other surprise to Yale was that Wyba had reached the apprentice stage in Swordsmanship in those two weeks; that wasn’t difficult as she was at the Apprentice Rank, but Yale had never seen her training with the sword inside the inn’s room, so he deduced that she should have trained in secret.
When Yale asked her, her answer was simple.
“Wyba thought that in this way Wyba wouldn’t be a burden to big bro.”
Wyba had changed to her human form and had gone to show her level to the Sword Hall, the place which registers rank and stage improvements in Sword City and received an upgrade in her token and five hundred Sword Points.
A five-year-old girl who reached the apprentice stage had an enormous potential and Sword City wanted her to train well without worries, kids with potential had a lot of chances to be big figures in the future, and Sword City liked to invest in them.
Moreover, the city didn’t want to waste her talent due to the lack of Sword points because those below ten had usually forbidden entering in any arena because there was a danger of the opponent suffering a World Law backlash; only in special cases when the opponent was willing to take the risk such battle could happen.
Thus, a little girl like Wyba had no way to obtain Sword Points, and without enough Sword Points she would have a difficult path to train and her talent would be wasted.
When Wyba appeared in the Sword Hall and showed her apprentice stage in swordsmanship, the woman who tested her also investigated Wyba’s background. She discovered that Wyba’s big brother was on the best fifty among those in the Apprentice Rank, which was very good for him alone. However, in that woman’s eyes, Yale’s earnings weren’t high enough to ensure a good life and good conditions for training to Wyba after their first month with free housing ended and the points they obtained their first day were exhausted.
Of course, as Yale didn’t really need the food services, the real need of Sword Points was less than the estimation of that woman. However, it was true that the days where he lost on the first battle, he only obtained one Sword Point and in the good days where he wins two battles he only obtained seven Sword Points; that was indeed too little in long-term if he needed to pay for him and Wyba.
However, Yale had other methods to obtain Sword Points if he really needed them, he could just forge swords and sell them for Sword Points, he was still a smith at the expert stage, so his crafted swords would sell very well in Sword City.
Regardless, Yale thought that it was good that Wyba obtained more Sword Points and that she finally started to train in the sword seriously. In truth, she didn’t take it too seriously and didn’t plan to improve more her swordsmanship, but she wouldn’t tell that to Yale who was happy about her advance in swordsmanship.
Moreover, Yale discovered that with Wyba’s new token, she had also obtained a small house for free. That was a small investment the city made into her, and although the house wasn’t too big, it was enough for the two of them. They decided to move to that house after their period at the inn ended because in the inn they still have the food paid and although they didn’t need it, it was still tastier than Yale’s stored food and fasting pills.
Two weeks after Yale reached Sword City, Yale went to the arena like every day, but that day the arena was crowded again because there was another battle between two members of the Sword Five. However, that time the reasons were that both of them had a conflict and both parts didn’t concede.
The battle was between the Sword Five at Apprentice Rank and the one at the Novice Rank.
As far as Yale heard, the guy at the Apprentice Rank despised the girl at the Novice Rank due to her appearance and after discussing he ended saying that she was just a newbie in swordsmanship and that she should treat him with respect and acknowledge that she was inferior to him calling him boss.
That girl was famous for being proud and stubborn, so she was enraged by such words and ended asking for that battle in the Sword Arena with that man.
That girl had appeared one year ago in Sword City and in just one month she become one of the Sword Five, but after that, she had never put much interest in the Sword Arena as if she was disappointed about having weak opponents. Although she had never asked a battle with someone at the Apprentice Rank, everyone thought that it was normal because the difference of strength would be too much due to the rank difference.
When Yale saw those two members of the Sword Five, he was quite shocked because although the man looked in his twenties, which was pretty normal, the girl looked twelve at most.
Obviously, she was older than that and was just that she had reached the Novice Rank with such young age because she was already at the peak of the Novice Rank, but she showed a shocking talent having reached the Novice Rank at such young age. In fact, Yale would also look like a kid if it weren’t for the fact that his body had matured faster for external reasons.
Yale checked the bets for that battle; almost everyone betted for the man at the Apprentice Rank, that was quite an obvious bet due to their difference in strength, peak Novice Rank and peak Apprentice Rank had a strength limit difference of ten times.
All the ones who betted for the girl were thinking that maybe the man would be unable to attack such a little girl and would lose due to that; he wouldn’t be the first having problems due to the opponent’s looks in a battle. However, that thought was just from a minority because that man was famous for being merciless and it was difficult to imagine him holding back because his opponent was a little girl.
Yale had never betted in any battle before, but he decided to do it that time betting fifty Sword Points for the little girl; that was a lot for him, but he felt that the girl would win, and he would obtain hundred times his bet in that case.
That wasn’t a baseless feeling; Yale thought that as that girl was the one issuing a challenge for the battle and she was someone who had been able to train at such speed, she should have some confidence before challenging someone who was more powerful in rank and stage.
Of course, Yale wasn’t completely sure, maybe that girl was just overconfident, but if he lost the bet, he would just start crafting swords to sell; he didn’t plan to ask for Wyba’s points in case of losing.
Yale wanted that the little girl won the battle because that would be an expert stage beating a master stage, and Yale felt that if he saw that, it would be extremely beneficial to him in the future.
The usual thought was that in a battle of pure swordsmanship surpassing stages wasn’t possible with both sides battling in the same conditions unless the one with the weaker stage had a body far stronger than the other.
For example, in a battle between a peak Practitioner Rank at the apprentice stage and a Novice Rank at the expert stage, the victory would be for the one at the Practitioner Rank because just one hit would be enough for that. That would be a win due to the difference in body strength and not swordsmanship. However, that was the only known possibility to beat someone of a higher swordsmanship stage in such kind of battles.