Chapter 82: Passive Skills
“How long do you plan on sitting there? Hurry up and stand back up. The training has just started!” Eve said to him.
“Yes!”
Leo immediately stood up and pointed his sword at her.
However, Eve didn’t summon her flaming sword and instead raised her fists in front of her.
“I won’t kill you, but it’s going to hurt.” Eve said with a wide grin on her face.
Leo swallowed nervously, but he didn’t even have the time to complain, as Eve started rushing at him.
Whoosh!
Eve dodged his sword before thrusting her fist straight into his stomach, sending him flying back.
“Don’t hesitate to strike me with your sword! You won’t be able to hurt me!” Eve shouted at him as she chased after him.
“Yes!”
Upon hearing her words and feeling the pain in his stomach, Leo tossed aside all of his hesitation and started going at Eve as though he was seriously trying to kill her.
‘This brat! He was hiding this much strength?!’ Eve was a little surprised by Leo’s sudden explosive power. Not just his speed, but even his strength increased drastically compared to their first spar.
However, despite that, Eve would still trash him with ease.
Sometime later, Eve stopped moving and said to Leo, who was on the ground groaning in pain, “Camille’s been too soft on you, Leo. But I don’t blame her. After all, you look like—” Eve suddenly halted her sentence and cleared her throat.
“Anyways, get some rest. I will be back in an hour with some training equipment for your training.” Eve left the training room shortly after.
“Damn it… The Headmistress is ruthless even in this world… She doesn’t even care about the fact that I am supposed to be injured…” Leo muttered after she left.
“I’m not surprised. The Headmistress has a very strict personality. If she decides to do something, she will do it to the best of her abilities.” Lilith said.
Sometime later, Leo sat on the floor and opened the Magic Shop.
‘I have been ignoring this for a while now, but when the Magic Shop reached level 3, there were several new options in the shop.’
[Acquire Random F-Rank Passive Skill: 100 MP]
[Acquire Random E-Rank Passive Skill: 500 MP]
[Acquire Random D-Rank Passive Skill: 1,000 MP]
‘What are passive skills? I’ve been avoiding it because I didn’t have enough Magic Points before, not to mention the random aspect, but now that I have plenty of Magic Points, I should purchase one of these and see for myself what they are…’
After pondering for some time, Leo decided to purchase an F-Rank Passive Skill.
‘Let’s hope this gamble pays off…’
<Confirm purchase ‘Acquire Random F-Rank Passive Skill’ for 100 Magic Points>
“Confirm.”
<You have purchased ‘Acquire Random F-Rank Passive Skill’ from the Magic Shop>
<You have acquired the Passive Skill: Novice Combat Expertise>
[Passive Skill: Novice Combat Expertise]
[Description: Increases your combat experience]
Leo raised an eyebrow at his new passive skill.
‘Novice combat expertise…? What kind of—’
Leo was forced to stop thinking when a load of information suddenly rushed into his head, most of this information being related to combat, such as martial arts, and the information binded with his memories, almost as though they had become his own.
“Leo, are you okay?” Lilith called out to him when his face suddenly became blank, looking dazed.
However, Leo was too occupied with the information to even hear her voice.
Several minutes later, Leo suddenly snapped out of his daze and began gasping for air.
“Leo! What happened to you?!” Lilith, who was constantly calling out to him for the last several minutes, exclaimed with a worried look on her face.
After catching his breath, he said, “I-I don’t know… I did something with the Magic System, and then my mind was suddenly flooded with information…”
“Huh? I don’t get it.” Lilith said.
But before he could explain any further, Eve returned to the training room.
“Leo, wear this armor.” Eve handed him a silver armor the moment she returned.
“What is this?” he asked.
“It’s an artifact that will greatly reduce all physical damage done to your body. You’ll be training with this starting now. This way, you’ll last longer, not to mention your injuries.”
“So you actually remember about my injuries…” Leo narrowed his eyes.
“Don’t tell me you’re upset that I hit you. It’s just a few light punches. There’s no need to be angry.” Eve smiled.
“Anyways, go ahead and wear it. Despite its appearance, it’s actually quite light.”
Leo nodded and wore the armor, and sure enough, it felt incredibly light, almost as though he was wearing a sweater.
“Heads up!” Eve suddenly shouted before throwing a fist at him.
Leo’s eyes widened at the surprise attack, but his body somehow managed to react to it before his mind could even process the situation, deflecting her attack.
Eve’s eyes also widened when Leo had managed to deflect her surprise attack.
Not only was this his first time avoiding her attack, but he’d even done so with such fluid movements, almost as though he had done it countless times before.
“Not bad… I wanted to test out the armor, but you have managed to dodge it—”
Eve suddenly threw another fist at him.
However, just like the first time, Leo’s body subconsciously moved by itself, narrowly dodging her strike for the second time.
“…”
Eve’s body froze as she stared at Leo with a look of disbelief on her face.
“I see… So you’re still hiding your power, huh? You think you have the luxury to hold back against me?”
A cold expression suddenly appeared on her face, causing Leo to swallow nervously.
Of course, he wasn’t holding back. However, his new passive skill had improved his combat experience more than he’d anticipated, and there was no way he could explain that to Eve without revealing to her about the Magic System.
Thus, over the next several hours, Eve would slowly push Leo to his limits to see just how powerful he was.
At the end of the day, Eve said to him with a smile on her face, “It’s been a while since we last sparred with each other, Leo. Although you’re not as powerful as before, it’s still as entertaining.”
‘Maybe it’s entertaining for you, but it’s definitely not fun for me…’ he sighed inwardly.
“Get some good rest tonight. I’ll see you here tomorrow after breakfast hours.”
“Whatever happened, it really improved your fighting prowess.” Lilith said to him afterward.
“Yes… Even I was surprised by the results.”
Leo explained to her about the passive skills as he walked back to the dorms. Once he returned to his room, he took a shower and went straight to bed.
However, he didn’t immediately go to sleep. Instead, he opened up the Artifact Shop and started looking at the new E-Rank artifacts.
After spending an hour looking through the shop, Leo found an artifact that he wanted to purchase.
[Diamond Sword: Increases the power of your swords by 50%. Increases the sharpness of your swords by 100%]
Although the Diamond Sword had set him back 450 Magic Points, he truly believed that it was worth it.
After that, he returned to the Magic Shop and pondered if he should purchase another F-Rank passive skill.
‘The F-Rank passive skill Novice Combat Expertise helped me tremendously. I wonder what I can get from an E-Rank passive skill…’
After pondering for some time, Leo decided to gamble pretty much the rest of his Magic Points.
<Confirm purchase ‘Acquire Random E-Rank Passive Skill’ for 500 Magic Points>
“Confirm.”
<You have purchased ‘Acquire Random E-Rank Passive Skill’ from the Magic Shop>
<You have acquired the Passive Skill: Formless Sword Dance>
Leo’s eyes widened with shock after seeing the passive skill.
“Formless Sword Dance?! That’s the name of the sword technique that I am currently using! Why is it a passive skill? Does this mean I wasted my—”
Once again, Leo stopped talking when information about the Formless Sword Dance started flowing inside his mind.
However, Leo quickly realized that there were some differences between the two Formless Sword Dance. The Formless Sword Dance in the form of a passive skill seemed to be a superior version of the one taught by Khrome with more refined movements and combos, and there were even 100 combos instead of 99.
Leo suddenly jumped out of his bed and walked to the living room, where there was much more room.
He closed his eyes and started swinging his arms around, acting as though there was a sword in his grasp, and he was practicing the Formless Sword Dance. However, he was not conscious of his current actions, almost as though he was sleepwalking.
Lilith watched him with an entertained expression on her face.
Two hour later, after repeating all 100 combos of the Formless Sword Dance nine times, Leo stopped moving and opened his eyes.
He took out a real sword from his Spatial Ring and started swinging the sword around, performing the Formless Sword Dance again and for the 10th time, his movements unbelievably smooth and natural, almost as though he’d been practicing this technique every day for hundreds of years.
After his performance ended, Leo fell asleep on the floor and wouldn’t wake up until the following morning.
“Huh? Why am I sleeping on the floor in the living room?” Leo sat up and looked around with a puzzled expression after waking up.
“You don’t remember what happened yesterday? You practiced with the sword until you fell asleep on the spot.” Lilith recalled what happened last night to him.
“That wasn’t a dream?” he muttered with a dumbfounded look on his face.