A familiar scene appeared before his eyes.

"I'm back again…"

Liens's normal voice echoed in the white space.

He lost.

In the third round, Lucrezia killed him with an absolute gap in strength.

Every strike was a blaze, yes, literally every strike was a blaze.

The flames burning on her longsword warped the surrounding air, and the scorching heat had already dried the blood flowing on him before it even touched him.

And the sudden surge in power and speed choked him, making it impossible for him to breathe.

Even her Sword Style changed from its original "steadiness" to a very aggressive style.

An aggression like "a city on the verge of collapse, fighting to the death."

Ultimately, he was cut in half by that flaming longsword, along with the weapon in his hand.

This was the second time he had been cut in two, the first being by the instructor's sword.

"I didn't expect that Princess Knight to be a magic swordsman, or what novels in my previous life often called a 'magic swordsman'."

"No wonder I felt her strength was a bit weaker than Adonis's before."

"I thought it was because of her gender; turns out she just hadn't used her true strength yet."

Liens sighed inwardly for a moment.

Honestly, he felt he had gotten used to losing.

Every time he encountered a strong opponent, he would lose a few times, and then slowly, he would achieve victory.

Although this aligned well with his "Sword Style"—gathering information, summarizing experience, and finally defeating powerful enemies.

But he still wanted to win; he wanted to win on the first try.

Unfortunately… Lucrezia was too strong, preventing him from realizing this wish.

However, that instance was not without its rewards for him; in fact, it could be said that the gains were immense.

The most important gain among them was—Killing Intent.

This was the name Liens gave it himself; it was a state, a state he comprehended after being pushed to his limit by Lucrezia.

In this state, his mind would be enveloped by the will to kill, and at that time, his entire being would be solely focused on slaughter.

It was also by relying on this that he later broke free from the illusion Lucrezia had imposed on him.

Furthermore, in this state, his perception, reactions, body control, and other aspects would all be enhanced.

In that state, he was like a pure tool of slaughter.

Killing was his only purpose.

At that time, he was very strong… because in a sense, he achieved what was called "nothing outside the heart."

His spirit became pure, and his focus became even more concentrated.

The world seemed to become transparent.

If he had to compare, Liens felt this state was very similar to when he had an epiphany, but without the feeling of suddenly comprehending many things.

There was only that purity of mind and will becoming one.

Moreover, unlike an epiphany, the "Killing Intent" state was controllable by Liens; he could enter it at any time and exit it at will.

He just needed to control his killing intent.

He had been controlling his killing intent since he began his assassination of Marvin.

Another gain was confirming some intelligence about Lucrezia's strength.

Although he couldn't defeat her for now, it didn't stop him from continuing to treat her as an "experience orb."

Furthermore, he felt that Lucrezia might be considered his lucky star.

The first battle gave him such a great gift as "Killing Intent"; he couldn't imagine what else there might be in the future?

Although being cut was very painful, in exchange for the great gift, he decided that when he killed her later, he would do it quickly, trying not to let her feel pain.

Thinking this, Liens entered the instance again, continuing to practice swordsmanship with Lucrezia.

…

Suppressing the urge to draw his sword, Liens looked with some annoyance at the guy who interrupted his "zero-distance" sword practice with the beautiful woman.

Although, to some extent, this guy had saved his life, otherwise he would have been quickly cut down by Lucrezia's fire sword.

"Is there something, Gars?"

Calming the Killing Intent in his heart and exiting the "Killing Intent" state, Liens calmly asked Gars about his purpose.

Although Gars suddenly felt a chill down his back, he merely attributed it to the recent drop in temperature and didn't pay much attention.

"I wanted to ask you if you want to participate in the afternoon training?"

Gars asked Liens.

"Training? Why are you suddenly so enthusiastic about this? Didn't you say it was boring before?"

"Besides, didn't Princess Knight say she would see us tonight?"

"Even if you participate in the training now, you probably won't see her."

Liens was a bit speechless; he thought Gars was going for Lucrezia's sake.

"How can you be so sure that Lady Lucrezia will only appear at night?"

"What if she comes to the training ground this afternoon?"

"Wouldn't we miss the chance to meet Lady Lucrezia?"

"And, aren't you practicing swordsmanship?"

"To master swordsmanship, besides talent, the most important thing is diligence."

"If you continue to be so lazy, you won't master swordsmanship."

"Come on, let's go to the training ground, let me see how well you've been practicing your swordsmanship?"

Gars said.

Saying that, he reached out and grabbed Liens's arm, intending to forcefully drag Liens to the training ground together.

Liens frowned, suppressing the urge to cut off that hand.

"Forget it, there's nothing wrong with practicing swordsmanship more in reality, and it can also prevent rustiness."

"Besides, that Princess Knight is always there, so there's no shortage of this time."

"However, in the future, I should try to play a colder role."

"Otherwise, it's very annoying…"

Liens thought this, chose not to resist, and went to the training ground with Gars.

Upon arriving at the training ground, Gars first looked around, searching for something, but ultimately could only show a disappointed expression.

"I told you, Princess Knight won't come."

Liens said to Gars impatiently.

After speaking, he casually found an empty spot and began practicing his "Body Tempering Swordsmanship" with his longsword.

"Are you still practicing your slow-as-a-turtle swordsmanship?!"

"Didn't you notice the strange looks others gave you when you were practicing swordsmanship this morning?"

"Come on, lend a hand, I'll teach you real swordsmanship."

Gars looked at Liens's movements, appearing somewhat speechless.

"No, I think practicing this is quite good."

Liens didn't stop his movements, slowly responding.

"If you keep doing this, you'll be bullied later."

"I don't know if you've noticed? Besides group training and individual training, the commanders also arrange for soldiers to spar with each other."

"If you continue to practice this kind of swordsmanship, when we formally participate in training, you might get beaten very badly."

Gars frowned, trying to persuade Liens to give up his stubbornness.

Liens didn't respond and continued practicing swordsmanship, because he found that practicing swordsmanship after entering the "Killing Intent" state was very effective.

And seeing that Liens didn't respond to him, Gars just assumed he couldn't let go of his excessive self-esteem, so he said somewhat angrily:

"Fine, do whatever you want."

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