Practice

The receptionist handed the organized ledger to the man, who spread it out on the table and began to flip through the pages.

"Energy Potion material purchase volume: 216 units, Fran: 110 units"

Seeing this purchase volume, which clearly led the others, he became interested, as his primary task this time was to identify all the alchemists producing Energy Potions.

If their success rate was high, he would need to win them over and sign a new contract.

Of course, if the success rate was low, that wouldn't do; they didn't offer contracts to those with abysmal success rates.

He flipped directly to the section recording the recovery of Energy Potions and checked Fran's numbers.

"Only 21 units? Is the success rate really that poor?"

He calculated the figures; this success rate was even lower than one in five, so naturally, he couldn't offer a contract, but it was still shockingly poor.

How could someone buy over a hundred units of materials and not even hit the one-in-five threshold for their total success rate? It was truly abysmal.

However, her persistence in buying materials was certainly helping the association clear its inventory. He flipped through the pages and saw that Fran had bought materials for many types of potions, but since the returned potions didn't even reach a one-in-five ratio, he cast her name aside.

Further down, there was another alchemist who had bought 40 units of Energy Potion materials and produced eight bottles, exactly hitting the one-in-five mark.

Still not meeting his requirements, he shook his head; it seemed there were no alchemists worth noting at the Cuilan Association.

He took one last look at the association's Energy Potion material inventory, his eyes widening, and he took the ledger to the receptionist:

"Why do you still have five hundred units of Energy Potion materials here? Why wasn't such a large amount reported?"

In the associations outside, having a total of 1,000 units would be considered decent, so why were there 500 here?

"This is the annual stockpile of Energy Potion materials. Three months ago, the price of materials was very low, so the guild master specifically bought extra."

Every year, approaching the assessment, the association would stockpile Energy Potion materials for production.

It was just that they had stockpiled a bit more this year, and the guild master had disappeared for two months, the receptionist thought.

The man was stunned for a moment; he realized why it hadn't been reported. He seemed to have received a report with a corresponding description of the materials, but at the time, he had been busy buying rune sword decorations in the neighboring Trolov City and had forgotten about it.

He was then overcome with ecstasy; there was a lot of room for him to maneuver here, as the association was unaware of this situation.

"Pack up half of the inventory and leave the other half here. Also, double the price of that half of the inventory."

He issued the command and produced his badge; according to the regulations, everyone here had to listen to him now.

Unless the guild master was present, but that guild master had already fled for fear of being made a scapegoat, so he was the only one in charge now.

Fran gripped a wooden sword, engaging in a rapid exchange of attacks with Bella.

Both sides traded blows, the sound of wooden swords clashing echoing incessantly, with no intention of stopping.

After barely blocking a strike at her limit, Bella retreated, wiping the sweat from her forehead while breathing heavily.

She had to trade space for time to recover some stamina; she had been locked in combat with Fran for a long time, and her energy was failing.

Fran didn't seem to be in great shape either. Seeing Bella retreat, she tried to seize the opportunity, but her swing went wide and missed.

Fran stood in place, also gasping for air; if she rushed in recklessly now, she might be countered.

Bella tacitly chose not to launch an attack either, opting for both of them to recover their stamina before resuming.

Suddenly, an idea struck Fran, and she placed her other hand on the sword hilt, fumbling for a moment.

Before Bella could react, Fran put all her strength into a single thrust.

Bella was startled at first, then ecstatic; Fran had made a mistake.

Bella was certain that if she caught this strike, Fran would essentially lose the match.

Both of them were low on stamina, and for Fran to make such a large movement—and with such apparent force—she must be trying to end the fight by catching her off guard.

Bella barely managed to hold her sword in front of her chest; she was confident she could block this attack and then use the moment of Fran's exhaustion to land the finishing blow.

However, the reality was not as she had expected. When Fran's wooden sword touched hers, she felt an unstoppable, immense force.

She was knocked off balance by this power, her wooden sword slipped from her hand, and she collapsed onto the ground.

"Take my hand and get up."

Fran extended her hand and pulled Bella up from the floor. Bella shook her head before she could find her voice.

"Wait, what was that? How could you have such immense strength?"

Fran didn't tell the truth, instead telling a small lie.

"That's a combat technique I just learned. How about it? Stealthy enough, right? You didn't feel any fluctuations at all, did you?"

Generally, when a combat technique is released, unless the opponent is blind, they can tell from various changes that a technique is being used, signaling them to make a decision rather than mindlessly trading basic attacks.

Bella thought about it, feeling as if something was off; why would one need to put their hand on the sword when releasing a combat technique?

"Is... is that so?"

Moreover, she had never heard of anyone releasing a combat technique so silently.

She had heard a story as a child about an assassin who tried to kill a noble, but because they chose to release a combat technique during the attack, the change in the technique's aura alerted the noble, who successfully turned the tables and killed the assassin instead.

The person who told her this story had specifically warned them not to overuse battle arts; even though battle arts could unleash power incomparable to normal means, one still had to consider the context of their use.

"That's just how it is. This move requires a long preparation time; if it weren't for the situation just now, I wouldn't have been able to hit you at all."

Seeing Fran's earnest expression, Bella ultimately chose to believe her.

"Alright then, let's continue after I've had a rest."

Seeing that Bella believed her, Fran breathed a sigh of relief; she could continue grinding toward the completion requirements for Rune Warrior on her.

As it happened, the completion requirement for Rune Warrior specifically demanded that one use runes to secure a critical turning point in battle.

In truth, she had already secretly used them twice before, but Bella hadn't noticed; this time, however, her technique had been a bit sloppy, and Bella had caught on.

If you were to ask why she didn't go find others to complete it, Fran could only say she had tried, but it had been completely useless.

It seemed the system's standard for a "battle" required an opponent of at least equal strength, whereas everyone she had sought out previously was weaker than her.

And right now, the only person she could find to spar with was Bella; the others were completely out of the question.

However, she couldn't use the impact rune again; if she used it once more, there was no guarantee Bella wouldn't figure it out, and then she wouldn't spar with her anymore.

"Why do I feel a tingling sensation? It's like my sword can't keep up with my hands..."

"It must be because you haven't rested enough. Let's take a break before we fight again."