This was Fran's current Panel.
[Name: Fran Profession: Rune Warrior (Half Star), Apothecary Attributes: Constitution 2.5, Mental 2.3 Skills: Swift Wind Breathing Technique (Mastered) (Proficiency: 25/10000) Pharmacy (Mastered) (Proficiency: 8621/10000) Runology (Proficient) (Proficiency: 543/1000) Star Gazing Art (Beginner) (Proficiency: 76/100) Wind Blade Art (Proficient) (Proficiency: 281/1000): Condense a Wind Blade in the hand, then release it to strike the enemy. Sky Strike (Proficient) (Proficiency: 431/1000): Can only be performed in midair, delivering a heavy blow from above. Traits: Moving with the Wind, Skilled Alchemist Mental Power (Can condense mental energy into runes. After using it in battle, your mental energy can be converted into strength at a 1:0.3 ratio, rounded down.)]
It was now the end of the school year. Less than a week remained until the assessment after this Swordsmanship Class.
Over the past nearly three months, Fran had trained her Panel to an absurdly luxurious level. She felt she had trained everything she could.
First was the Breathing Technique. After long-term sparring with Bela, her Breathing Technique had finally reached the Mastered level. After that, she stopped practicing with Bela.
Because Bela could no longer really beat her. Whenever Fran used the Breathing Technique, their strength was about equal, but Fran was more agile, so Bela had not won since.
Thanks to the upgrade of her Breathing Technique and gaining the Rune Warrior Profession, her attributes had improved greatly. The stacking of her melee abilities made her Constitution surpass her Mental attribute for the first time.
Besides that, she discovered a money-burning path while practicing runes. She found that if she drew a rune on a weapon and deliberately stopped after a quarter of it, she would still gain 1 point of proficiency.
And since the rune was incomplete, she could draw it three times on a single weapon, earning three points of proficiency per weapon.
At the same time, this method took far less time than fully engraving a rune onto a weapon. It only required half as much time.
Fully engraving a rune usually only rewarded 2 to 4 points of proficiency, so intentionally ruining weapons was much faster than diligently engraving runes.
The only problem was that the Magic Artisans did not seem suited to this kind of mass production. Even after pushing aside their other work, their delivery deadlines kept getting delayed.
As a result, her orders had already piled up past a thousand weapons, and the price of White Mountain Copper remained high because of her massive purchases.
The Rune Warrior Profession had also brought her a trait: [Mental Power]. It could only be called excellent. She had tested it; the boost could be activated or deactivated at any time, but she could not use spells while it was active.
She was already fully prepared to instantly defeat Richter, someone she had not even met yet.
Returning to the match with John, once the spar began, Fran did not use her Breathing Technique. She simply swung her sword at him.
When John saw that Fran had not activated her Breathing Technique immediately, he frowned. This was not a good choice.
Did Fran think the strength he displayed would change according to her current condition? No. From the very beginning, he fought based on his opponent's best state.
Fran would suffer badly in the first exchange. After some thought, John still held back a little.
But the force transmitted through the collision of their wooden swords startled John. He hurriedly increased his strength and only relaxed after blocking the attack.
How had Fran made her Constitution this strong? He felt that her strength was greater than Bela's without the Breathing Technique, though still noticeably weaker than Bela's with it active.
If Fran possessed this level of Constitution normally, combined with the agility she had always excelled at, John had a thought that startled even himself when he voiced it.
Fran could participate in the Advanced Apprentice assessment right now. She could probably even achieve a fairly decent ranking.
He believed Fran should only have reached this level after joining the Sword Chant School for one or two years. This was far too unreasonable.
An apprentice who originally could not even perform the simplest chop properly had become a powerful "Advanced Apprentice" in just a few short months.
After another exchange, Fran also realized that John's strength was increasing. If she did not activate her Breathing Technique now, she would not be able to keep fighting.
Fran instantly gathered the wind around herself, then launched a storm-like barrage of attacks.
A bead of sweat appeared on John's forehead. Just as he had expected, her strength after activating the Breathing Technique was even slightly greater than Bela's.
He deeply regretted not replacing the wooden sword in his hand sooner. It had already been bent during his fight with Bela, and now, during this battle, John could even hear it nearing its breaking point.
This wooden sword had never been designed for combat of this intensity. He could feel Fran's wooden sword bending as well, but his would probably give out first.
John had no choice but to activate his Breathing Technique. His strength and speed increased greatly compared to before, turning Fran's slight advantage into John's upper hand.
For a moment, Fran wanted to activate [Mental Power]. She felt that if she did, she would definitely seize victory in the current situation.
But in the end, she dismissed the thought. She could still pass off her current increase in Constitution as the accumulated effects of the Body Tempering Method, but a sudden further jump in Constitution during battle would make it hard for others not to suspect some secret technique.
Besides, she did not necessarily need to use it. After narrowly evading an attack, Fran brushed her sword with one hand. The motion was extremely fast—so fast that even Bela probably would not have reacted if she saw it now.
John saw the movement too, but he did not think it could do anything and paid it no attention.
He had to go all out. Although he knew Fran's strength was somewhat beyond expectations, if he truly lost, his friends would laugh themselves to death.
But the next attack exceeded John's expectations. The two wooden swords collided, yet this impact was much quieter.
Because John's wooden sword had broken. Most of the blade absorbed the kinetic force and flew away, leaving the wooden sword in his hand shorter than a dagger.
This is bad. The thought abruptly flashed through John's mind. He wanted to block the next attack as quickly as possible, then retreat and create some distance.
But it was too late. Fran was still more agile than he had imagined. Even though he blocked the strike, her blade still hit his body from the side.
John lowered the battered wooden sword in his hand, revealing a bitter smile. He let out a long sigh before saying:
"Fran, I look forward to the day you become a Formal Mage."
After this exchange, he realized that Fran would definitely pass the trial within three years and become a Formal Mage of the Sword Chant School.
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