After escaping Sylph’s pestering, Lake arrived at the area of land.
The land the principal gave Lake access to was in fact quite large, covering a few kilometers filled with woods, clearings and a few large boulders sticking out the ground.
Walking around the area, Lake started to analyze the area as he began to slowly form the most suitable mana gathering formation he could create here.
Since this area was going to be the place where both Lake and his ’allies’ were going to be training, he had to make sure that it could support their mana demand consistently.
After around half an hour, Lake had roughly marked out what was needed. At this point, the sun had already vanished as the light from the moon cascaded down onto the earth.
As Lake was about to return to his dorm, his acute senses picked up on the sound of metal clashing against metal.
Activating Stealth, Lake silently made his way towards the noise. The clashing of blades echoed out fiercely and in small intervals as every second he could hear at least two clashes.
As he got closer, he got a clear view of sparks flying out in the darkness as an extremely intense battle was slowly revealed before his eyes.
Distinct sounds of two swords cutting the air before clashing against each other rang out repeatedly as sparks flew from each blade.
The people who were fighting were two of Lake’s classmates, Bradford and Allen.
Bradford wielded a sword as he easily blocked and deflected Allen’s incoming sword swings.
Before Bradford could react, Allen released his grip on his sword as he grabbed the spear on his back and thrusted it forward.
All of this happened so fast that the sword that was floating in mid air barely had time to move before the spearhead went flying straight towards Bradford’s heart.
However, despite the incredible speed of Allen’s attack, Bradford still managed to react in time and swung his blade downwards, barely deflecting the spearhead as Allen’s sword went flying into the sky as a result of his swing.
Allen caught his sword before it could fly away, swiftly slashing down towards Bradford’s throat.
Seeing that he couldn’t block, Bradford took a step back, barely dodging the blade as he kicked out towards Allen who used the shaft of his spear to block.
The kick was infused with mana causing a soft explosion to sound out when it came in contact with the spear, sending Allen flying backwards.
Lake was impressed by the intensity of the battle playing out in front of him..
He had already leveled his weapon mastery skill to the next level, gaining advanced proficiency in all weapons yet even he felt slightly inferior to Bradford and Allen in terms of combat proficiency.
Their attacks were fierce and without pause, with little movement being wasted leaving room for a follow up after each of their attacks.
Although Lake could also link his attacks together into a long line of combos, he couldn’t do it nearly as proficiently as the two people in front of him.
If Lake had to use his Weapon Master Skill to judge the level of the two, it would be somewhere around the third level!
Such a level of proficiency and control was truly impressive for people of their age. After all, Lake had leveled up his skills using RP to reach his current combat power.
As far as Lake was aware, neither Bradford nor Allen had a system that could miraculously increase their skills like him, which means they had achieved their current strength through talent and training!
As Lake was thinking, the battle before him continued to intensify as a sneaky little girl appeared beside him.
Turning his gaze to watch the mischievous smile that was also watching the battle with interest, Lake wondered how she found him.
The person who was beside Lake was naturally Sylph who Lake thought he had escaped.
A few seconds ago his sixth senses picked up on her approaching him which was why he wasn’t surprised when she suddenly appeared beside him.
However, he was surprised that she managed to find him. After all, Lake had never left Stealth so logically she shouldn’t be able to find him unless she could see everything in her surroundings.
However, Lake decided to ignore the troublesome fairy for now as he focused on the battle that was coming to a close.
From watching their battle, Lake had actually managed to gain some insight into his own combat skills so it wasn’t a waste of time to stick around.
Jumping into the air, Allen rotated his body before throwing his spear downwards.
Bradford looked at the incoming spear as he chose to step to the side, but, as he moved Allen shot two arrows from the sky!
One of the arrows was aiming directly at Bradford’s head as the other one blocked off his escape route forcing him to face the first arrow.
With a wave of his sword, he split the arrow into two but Allen had taken that brief moment to rush forward, holding his sword with a double handed grip as he slashed down at Bradford.
The clear sound of clothes being ripped echoed out as Bradford dodged backwards, barely escaping the blade.
His shirt had a clear cut going from his left shoulder to the right of his hip.
As Allen’s blade passed him, Bradford immediately counterattacked as he rushed forward, hitting Allen with a shoulder slam, knocking him to the floor.
Not losing momentum, Bradford rotated his body before striking down at incredible speed.
A loud explosion sounded out as a clear line was drawn into the ground beside Allen.
Seeing Bradford holding the sword in front of his throat, Allen fell back as he lay exhausted on the ground.
At this time, Sylph shouted out in excitement, catching the attention of both Bradford and Allen.
Sighing, Lake left Stealth as Bradford and Allen had already spotted him standing next to Sylph so it was pointless to continue hiding.
Soon, a pair of wings stretched out from behind Sylph’s back as she flew forward towards Bradford and Allen.
"That was so exciting! The two of you are super strong! With a swoosh and a bam! Such control over your weapons and the swiftness of which you two attack was like watching a spectacle!"
In her excited mood, Sylph pretended to swing around a sword as she imitated Bradford’s last move while fluttering mid air.
Allen in his exhausted state looked up stunned as he watched the slightly unfamiliar fairy in front of him. After all, Sylph still had her black hair disguise up, causing him to momentarily not recognize her.
However, Bradford seemed to have seen through the disguise in an instant as he spoke with a small smile.
"Did you two enjoy watching our spar?"
"Yes! It was amazing! If possible, do you think I could watch you guys spar whenever you’re training?" Sylph asked excitedly as she held her hands together.
Honestly, she looked quite cute like that and most people would find it difficult to refuse when she asked so nicely but Lake only rolled his eyes.
"I apologize for spying unintentionally. I was in the area and heard the sounds of battle and came over to investigate. When I saw the two of you were in a spar, I didn’t want to interrupt."
"It’s fine." Bradford replied plainly. It seemed that he really didn’t care that Lake and Sylph were spying.
"Do you guys always train here?" Lake asked inquisitively.
"Yes. After we found this spot we decided to train here instead of the training hall since it was more peaceful and quiet."
"I see," Lake said as he thought for a moment, "Actually, I just got permission from the principal to use the area nearby here as the location to host the Blackheart Training Event so this area may not remain peaceful for long."
Hearing this, Bradford raised his eyebrows slightly, "Is that so?"
At that point, Allen got up from his lying down position as he sat on the ground.
"Hah... Hah... Speaking of which... I heard today was the first day, I wonder how the event went? Bradford and I didn’t attend and we’ve been training all day so we didn’t get the chance to check online." Allen spoke slightly exhausted.
Lake only smiled when he heard this, "It was fine. You can check the recording on the school’s forum. If you find yourself interested, you can drop by tomorrow for the next lesson."
"Training event? Can I join?" Sylph suddenly asked as she turned her head towards Lake.
When Lake heard this, he wasn’t sure how to reply for a bit. He knew what he had planned for the rest of the students and it could be described as a living hell once it starts, so he wasn’t sure how to respond to Sylph’s sudden interest in joining.
After all, Sylph could be described as an international guest. If Lake did something to her or the training was too much and she got injured, Lake felt that the instructors would come down heavily on him.
"Ahaha, Miss Sylph, the training program for the event is a little intense, I’m not sure if you..."
Lake spoke but didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t want to sound rude so he didn’t complete it but his meaning was clear from his tone and words.
"Hmph! I can handle intense! Don’t look down on me just because I look a little frail!"
Lake only smiled wryly, "If that is what Miss Sylph wants, I can’t reject since I did say anyone could join."
"Haha, I think I’ll stop by tomorrow too then! It’s good to get some training from a higher level martial artist for free after all." Allen spoke, not realizing that the advertising special instructor was standing before him.
When Allen just finished speaking however, he looked up to see Bradford staring down at him with a cold gaze causing him to freeze.
"Hehe... There is no need to look so harsh, Boss. Think of it as gaining a new experience- No, I mean, we don’t have to stay for the whole event, we could also just watch from the side and leave earlier too! Yes! That’s an option!"
Allen started speaking faster and spouting several excuses as he saw Bradford’s gaze turning more and more cold.
With a sigh, Bradford shook his head.
"We’ll drop by, I’m also curious about this event as well. Whether we sign up however is a different matter."
Hearing this, Lake smiled politely.
"Then it’s settled! We’ll all go together! I heard you humans call this type of thing an ’after school hangout’."
Listening to Sylph’s words, Allen laughed out as Lake shook his head.
Only Bradford showed a slight smile as he spoke.
"Speaking of which, Miss Sylph, I wonder what happened to your hair?"
"Oh! Actually, about that..."