Practice

The front-desk clerk handed the organized ledger to the man. He spread it open on the table and began flipping through it.

"Energy Potion materials sold: 216 batches,

Fran: 110 batches"

He noticed Fran's clearly leading number of purchases and grew interested. His main purpose this time was to identify all the Apothecaries making Energy Potions.

If their success rates were high, he would recruit them and have them sign new contracts.

Of course, a low success rate wouldn't do. They wouldn't offer a contract to anyone whose rate was too low.

He flipped straight to the number of Energy Potions bought back and found Fran's return count.

"Only 21? Is her success rate really this bad?"

He did the math. Her success rate was less than one in five, so there was no way he could offer her a contract. But how could it be this bad?

How could someone buy over a hundred batches of materials and still fail to reach one potion for every five batches? That was terribly poor.

Still, her dogged purchases had helped the Association clear its stock. He flipped through the ledger and saw that Fran had bought many of the potion materials, but since she had returned fewer than one in five as finished potions, he put her name out of mind.

There was another Apothecary who had bought 40 batches of Energy Potion materials and made eight potions, exactly one in five.

That still didn't meet his requirements. He shook his head. It seemed there were no Apothecaries at the Cuilan Association worth keeping an eye on.

At last, he checked the Association's stock of Energy Potion materials. His eyes widened. He took the ledger to the front desk.

"How do you still have 500 batches of Energy Potion materials here? Why haven't you reported so much stock?"

The Associations elsewhere had barely 1,000 batches in total. Why did this place have 500?

"We stockpile Energy Potion materials every year. Three months ago, the materials were really cheap, so the president bought extra."

Every year, as the assessments drew near, the Association stockpiled Energy Potion materials for potion-making.

They'd only stocked a little more than usual this year. And the president had been gone for two months now—where had he gone? the clerk wondered.

The man suddenly froze. He knew why the stock hadn't been reported. He vaguely remembered receiving a report about materials matching that description, but he'd been going to the neighboring Trolov City to buy decorations for a Rune Sword at the time and had forgotten about it.

Then a rush of excitement hit him. He had plenty of room to maneuver here, and the Association didn't know about the stockpile.

"Pack up half the stock and leave the other half here. Also, double the price of the half you pack up."

He gave the order and took out his badge. According to the rules, they had to obey him now.

Unless the president was present—but the president had run off, afraid of being made a scapegoat. That left only him here.

Fran gripped a wooden sword and traded rapid blows with Bela.

They went back and forth, the clacks of their swords ringing out without pause.

After barely blocking a downward slash, Bela retreated. She wiped the sweat from her forehead, breathing hard.

She needed to give up some ground to buy herself time to recover. She and Fran had been sparring for a long while, and her stamina was running low.

Fran didn't seem to be in great shape either. Seeing Bela retreat, she tried to seize the opportunity, but her swing cut through empty air.

Fran stayed where she was, breathing heavily too. If she rushed in recklessly now, she might get hit.

Bela, by unspoken agreement, didn't attack either. They would recover together, then keep fighting.

Suddenly, Fran seemed to think of something. She placed her other hand on the hilt and fumbled around for a moment.

Before Bela could react, Fran put everything she had into a thrust.

Bela was startled at first, then delighted. Fran had made a mistake after all.

Bela was sure that if she blocked this attack, Fran would pretty much lose the match.

They were both low on stamina, and Fran was making such a big, forceful move. She was trying to end the fight in one shot while Bela was off guard.

Bela managed to raise her sword in front of her chest. She was confident she could block the attack, then take advantage of Fran's loss of stamina to land the finishing blow.

But things didn't go as she'd expected. The moment Fran's wooden sword struck hers, Bela felt an irresistible force.

The impact threw her off balance. Her sword flew from her hand, and she fell flat on her back.

"Take my hand. I'll help you up."

Fran reached out and pulled Bela to her feet. Bela shook her head before finally speaking.

"No, what was that? How could you have so much strength?"

Fran didn't tell her the truth, choosing instead to tell a small lie.

"It's a new Combat Technique I learned. Pretty hard to notice, right? You didn't feel anything at all, did you?"

Usually, when someone used a Combat Technique, anyone who wasn't blind could tell from the changes in their movements. They'd know they needed to react, instead of rushing in and mindlessly attacking.

Bela thought it over. Something seemed off. Why had Fran put her hand on her sword before using the technique?

"Is that so...?"

Besides, Bela had never heard of anyone using a Combat Technique so silently.

When she was little, she'd heard a story about an assassin who tried to kill a noble. The noble sensed the change in the technique's aura when the assassin used it to attack, and managed to turn the tables.

The person who told Bela the story had specifically warned them not to rely too much on Combat Techniques. They could unleash power far beyond what was normally possible, but the circumstances mattered.

"Yeah. It takes a while to prepare. If things hadn't been just right, I wouldn't have been able to take you down."

Seeing how adamant Fran was, Bela eventually decided to believe her.

"Fine, then. Let me rest a bit, and we'll keep going."

Relieved that Bela believed her, Fran could keep working toward the Rune Warrior achievement conditions with her.

As it happened, the Rune Warrior achievement required using runes in combat to create a decisive opportunity for victory.

She had actually used the rune twice before, quietly, and Bela hadn't noticed. This time, her execution had been a little clumsy, and Bela had caught on.

Why not find someone else to complete the achievement with? Fran could only say she'd tried, and it hadn't worked at all.

Apparently, the system only counted a fight against an enemy of roughly equal strength as combat. Everyone she'd tried before had been weaker than her.

Now, the only person she could spar with was Bela. She couldn't even consider the others.

But she couldn't use the "Impact" rune again. If she used it one more time, Bela might figure it out. Then she wouldn't want to spar with me anymore.

"Why do I feel kind of numb? My sword's not keeping up with my hand..."

"You probably haven't rested enough. Let's take a break, then keep going."