Chương 79: [Phantom Sword Dance]

Kyle held his sword and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath and felt the mana surging from his mana core throughout his body. The path his mana took while using [Superspeed Slash] was from his heart, then his torso and waist, before filling his arms. The path his mana took while using [Phantom Step] was from his heart to his waist, then down to his legs. Over the past few days, he had been attempting to combine the two techniques, forcing his mana to flow to his arms and legs simultaneously.

However, he failed each time. He had crossed the initial difficulty of multitasking, splitting the mana into two halves, but he couldn't grasp the timing. His mana either flowed through his arms first or his legs first, making his movements very uncoordinated.

'Now, all I have to do is to try again and again; [Transcendence] will make the fusion possible. Eventually, the two combat skills will sublimate into a new one.' Kyle resolved. He took a deep breath before taking a step forward, reappearing dozens of meters away, then quickly swung his sword, leaving a silver afterimage behind. He paused, a slight frown on his face.

"That was just a consecutive use of the skills." He muttered, taking a deep breath, before using [Phantom Step], leaving an afterimage behind as he rushed to the other side of the training field at a speed invisible to the naked eye. In the middle of this rush, he raised his sword and completed the swing just before stopping, but the speed of his sword swing was painfully slow. Kyle stood in place, looking at his sword with furrowed brows.

He couldn't push the mana into his arms in time, causing his swing to be weak and slow.

"I'll just do it again." Kyle was undisturbed by the failure. He tried over and over, falling many times in between bursts and tasting the dirt, but he stood up, patted the dust on his clothes, and tried again. Eventually, more than an hour later, the familiar warmth flowed from his head and throughout his entire body, with special emphasis on his limbs and his mana control.

"Phew!" Kyle heaved a long sigh and sheathed his sword.

"[Cleanse]" His ring glowed before a faint breeze flowed through his entire body, not only taking away the sweat and dust but also clearing the dirt from his scrapes. Kyle's eyebrows twitched as he felt his sore body. Not only was his mana nearly exhausted, but his blood vessels also tingled due to the irregular mana flow, and his body also greatly ached, especially his limbs.

"That was tiring," Kyle muttered. He decided to rest a bit, dealing with the scrapes on his body, before proceeding with body and swordsmanship training. Finally, at the end of the day, he would train his mana control a bit before starting to learn [Reactive Shroud]. He had enough money for now; hence, he decided that he wouldn't accept any quests in the near future. At least not until he fused [Superspeed Slash] and [Phantom Step].

He stretched before walking towards the training grounds' exit, completely ignoring the strange looks the adventurers who were standing in front of the training dummies gave him. Back at the guild, he walked up to the second floor and ordered an orange-milo mix before lying comfortably on an empty sofa. Kyle took a sip of the orange-pink drink and smacked his lips. It had a sweet and tangy flavor, incomparably delicious. Drinking it reminded him of the days he spent with his friend Luke in Velkaris.

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'I wonder how he's doing,' Kyle thought with a vacant expression. He finished the drink and set the cup down on the wooden table, just lying on the sofa with a blank expression, allowing his body and mind to rest.

"Hey, have you heard about what happened to the Bloody Gang?" a thick nasal voice uttered, capturing Kyle's attention. He didn't generally eavesdrop on people, but the topic interested him. He leaned to the side, his ears twitching, listening intently to the conversation between the adventurers at that table. It was three adventurers, all wearing copper tags. One was a burly man with a giant iron shield next to him; his arms were thicker than the average man's thighs. He was at least 2 meters tall.

The second one was, surprisingly, a female mage. She had light brown shoulder-length hair and a gentle countenance, yet her light blue eyes held a calm yet confident light. A small arm-length staff lay on her lap. The final one was a black-haired warrior, with a thin face and a small scar at the corner of his mouth. He was wearing leather armor and confidently lying in the middle. Judging from the way the other two spoke to him, he seemed to be the captain.

The three of them sat at the same table, eating and talking.

"What?" The female mage asked with a curious expression.

"Their compound was surrounded by the baron's army this morning. All members have been arrested, and those who resisted were killed." The burly man said with a grin on his face, not hiding his dislike for the bloody hand at all. The female mage's eyes widened.

"Wait, what? Why? The Bloody Hand is the baron's…" She didn't continue, but her meaning was as clear as day. The dark-haired warrior placed the drink he was holding on the table and said, "I heard that they did something that enraged the baron. All cadres and most members have been captured. They will be sent to the gallows a few days later."

"That serious? What did they do? And Garrick too?" The female mage quickly asked, her expression filled with excitement.

"I don't know what they did. As for Garrick, he escaped. I heard that he was seriously injured, though." The dark-haired warrior shook his head.

"Oh." The female mage looked disappointed. Kyle didn't listen to what they said next; the dark-haired warrior's last statement completely captured his attention.

'Garrick escaped? How? The president said that he would supervise the capture personally.' Kyle's expression was gloomy. He was a bit uncertain whether Garrick knew about the fact that he was the one who reported him and whether he would attempt to take revenge on him.

'I have to be careful.' Kyle renewed his resolve not to take quests for the next period, keeping his movements between the inn and the adventurers' guild. And he did exactly that. For the next few weeks, Kyle kept a consistent schedule of combining [Phantom Step] and [Superspeed Slash] in the morning, learning [Reactive Shroud] in the afternoon, and physical, swordsmanship, and mana control training in the evening.

He would often flop down on his bed, completely exhausted, and fall into baby sleep, only to wake up sore in the morning. Most of the time, he would push through it, but when he felt his body getting close to its limit, he would take a break, using that day for just combining [Phantom Step] and [Superspeed Slash] through his talent. By the first week, he could already use the two combat skills at the same time, having completed the goal of multiskill usage.

By the second week, the two skills had preliminarily merged, allowing him to swing his sword at superspeed while moving at high speed. By the fourth week, he had completely fused the two skills and sublimated them into one powerful skill. He named it:"[Phantom Sword Dance]" In the next second, he turned into four afterimages, simultaneously swinging a sword at the metal target in front of them.

"Bang!" The humanoid target was cut into over a dozen pieces, falling onto the ground. Each cut was as smooth as a mirror, clearly reflecting the image of Kyle unhurriedly sheathing his sword.

"Phew… Finally, it's complete," Kyle muttered. This combat skill not only had the explosive speed of [Phantom Step] and the explosive sword swing of [Superspeed Slash], but it also elevated both to the next level while adding a higher level of control and agility to it. In the past, he could use [Superspeed Slash] to greatly increase his strike's strength and speed every 3 seconds. Now, he could use it more than 4 times a second.

'It's quite strenuous on the arm though.' Kyle rubbed his arm, then walked to his bag and picked up a water pouch before taking a sip. He was currently in a private training room. As his mastery over [Phantom Step] increased, causing him to no longer bump into walls in closed environments, he switched to training here. He placed the water pouch back in his bag before packing up and walking out. Looking around, the training grounds were unusually empty.

Most adventurers were running around Mirevale and the surrounding villages and towns, dealing with goblin ambushes and the settlements that popped up from time to time, rescuing the kidnapped girls, and exterminating every single goblin they saw.

"It's about time I took a quest; I need to test the new combat skills," Kyle muttered. He patted his abdomen, feeling the thin layer of mana slowly flowing under his skin, and nodded with a look of satisfaction. He took one last glance at the private room, his gaze sweeping over the reassembling target and the five stars on top of it before closing the door behind him.