Leo learnt a lot of things from observing the battle between other assassin's play out.
Just like Lin Mu had pointed out, there were many candidates who were weak in actual combat and relied on their organizations movement technique or poisons to become great assassin's, which meant that when they were engaged in a close quarter fight, their weaknesses were glaringly visible.
However, there were a few amongst the group who shone brightly in practical combat as well with one especially talented fighter being a guy named 'Joe'.
Joe had mastered the technique [ Feint Step ] to send the opponent in the wrong direction and he followed it up with the move [ Precise Strike ] to finish his match.
From start to finish his battle only lasted 6 seconds, however, the judges gave both him and his opponent the same score of 6/10, which came as a big surprise to Leo.
His move was the first time that Leo's mimic picked up on a move that was not purely a footwork technique and was instead an actual offensive move.
For the lack of better options, Leo chose to copy [ Precise Strike ] and keep it safe in his arsenal for when it was his turn to fight and it proved to be a smart choice since after Joe, no-one else seemed to have a combat ability already chosen.
"Hey Lin Mu? Why is no-one using combat abilities? Are combat ability scrolls that rare in our organization?" Leo asked innocently after witnessing close to 7 fights where no-one used any real skill.
" It's not that skill scrolls are rare, however, because one can only learn and master a limited number of skills in their lifetime, young assassin's from prestigious clans like ourselves don't impart sub-par techniques to their young.
Amongst the Assassin Alliance, the two best combat techniques are the one's known only to the Night Guild and it is mostly for the right to learn and master these techniques that one tries their best in these entrance exams to be ranked as highly as they can overall.
In general, an assassin which has already learnt combat moves is seen as an already painted canvas, he/she would never be evaluated to be as important as a pure talent with a blank slate" Lin Mu said as Leo felt surprised to learn this detail.
Looking at the shock on his face, Lin Mu continued.
" That's the reason behind why Joe Jones did not receive as high an evaluation as his predecessor although he finished the fight in 6 seconds.
Joe used [ Precise Strike ] which is a (Rare) grade attack skill but nothing too special.
An average assassin can learn about four skills in their entire life and if they're amazing they can maybe learn five.
Legendary figures like the Night Guild Master are said to be able to learn upto 6 skills at once, however, that's the uppermost limit.
Joe, having already learnt a movement technique and an attack skill has already learnt two of his four core moves leaving very little scope for future growth and improvement which is why although he may progress further in this competition, his overall evaluation will never be high enough to join the Night guild" Lin Mu further explained as Leo now found himself in a pickle as he could not decide between using a special move in his battle or not?
"You haven't been stupid enough to learn anything besides a movement technique right?" Lin Mu asked Leo with glaring eyes as Leo gulped a mouthful of saliva and said "No ofcourse not-".
Unlike the NPC of this world who could never forget a skill with a tap of their system screen, Leo could learn and forget a skill with relative ease.
He had six skill slots to store 6 different skills at once and it he ever got a better skill in the future, he could always swap it out with the old one, or at least that's what he understood.
Despite acquiring two skill scrolls, Leo had not learnt any of them since the skill scrolls did not display what sort of ability was stored within.
Leo wanted to make sure that it wasn't something trash before learning it, however, it seemed like his decision to abstain from learning a skill was working in his favor uptil now.
The only problem for him now though was the fact that the average level of all contestants in round three was around 50-70 and Leo was at a big disadvantage in this area.
At only level 32 and no actual combat experience, he had no real shot of winning the third round tournament without relying on strong copied moves, however, not being a quitter, Leo was prepared to fight with the hand that he was dealt.
" Hey Jin, your fight will be next, don't embarrass the Mu clan. Even if you have learnt a skill move, don't use it. Please?" Lin Mu requested as Leo nodded and assured her that he would do his best.
Since showing a learnt skill move degraded one's overall worth, Leo decided that it would be better not to use any attacks and fight based on instincts alone, however, to even the odds he decided to choose sword as his primary weapon.
The rules dictated that one could bring in any weapon of choice to their match-up, however, most assassins seemed to choose either a bow or use daggers, which was why Leo decided to choose sword.
For the slower and weaker Leo, having a longer range was his only edge heading into this battle as he sincerely hoped that he would at least not embarrass himself in front of all these people.
Once the round of 64 came to an end, he was the first one to be called upon the stage to fight as he was the first man to have been seeded and the first rank of the previous round!
Anticipation from the crowd was huge for this match as historically it was always the first and second seeded individuals who performed the best in round three.
His opponent this time was a lady named 'Alicia' who was level 54 and not particularly memorable in her first fight.
While she chose to fight with daggers, Leo chose to fight with his bone sword, which immediately prompted the rise of murmurs from the crowd.
A sword was not the first choice of weapon for assassin's who relied mostly on stealth and agility, however, it wasn't unprecedented either and built up excitement amongst many for what was to come next.
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/// A/N - Congratulations on hitting the PS target, bonus soon! ///