April 8^th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

CLANG—!

Shockwaves was sent across the room as I met swords with my opponent.

The opponent, a woman in her 20s with brown hair and eyes, was a force to be reckoned with.

The woman smirked as she widened the distance between us. "You're pretty good, aren't you?"

"Save the useless banters for later!"

Immediately, I focused mana on my feet and shot towards the woman.

Although she could have ended the battle right there with her skill, she took my attacks head-on with a smile.

CLANG—! CLANG—! CLANG—!...

After exchanging a series of blows with me, the woman jumped back again; However, this time, mana suddenly surged from her body.

SWOOOOOSH—!

Her figure disappeared, before reappearing right before me.

She brought her sword up and slashed.

CLANG—!

Again.

CLANG—! 

And again.

CLANG—!

Her attacks were monotonous. However, it was understandable, as she was a mage.

Strangely though, each of her attacks shook the earth violently, making my hands feel like they were going to burst at any moment.

Screeeeech—!

A screeching sound of metal grinding against metal rang out as I tried to parry her strikes.

However, her sword slid against the flat side of mine, slicing the cross-guard in half. 

Seeing this, I immediately formed a new cross-guard using [F - Mana blood].

CLANG—!

Her sword was stuck half-way through the newly formed cross-guard. 

I decided to widen our distance.

<[III - Roteare style]: Release>

BOOM—!

The force that had been accumulating in my sword was released in an instant, exploding my sword into a million pieces and creating a shockwave that pushed both me and her a couple of meters away.

Despite the shockwave being immensely powerful, we were unscathed, as we had both used [Mana reinforcement] at the last second.

"Haaaah..."

<[F - Mana blood]>

Exhaling, I focused spatial attribute mana on my newly formed sword made of blood.

I was sure that the woman would let me finish my concentration, as she did so many times before.

And, just as I had just finished focusing space mana on my sword, the woman shouted and dashed forwards.

"12 seconds have passed, here I come!"

Locking my eyes onto the woman's figure that was quickly approaching me, I mentally calculated the distance between us.

20m

'Not close enough'

15m

'Almost there'

'5m'

'...'

'2m'

<The second movement of [V - World splitter]: Rupturing thrust>

Rip—!

A ripping sound could be heard as the tip of my sword violently teared the space around it apart.

Spurt—! THUD—!

Blood spurted, and a body fell to the ground.

The only problem was that I was the one on the ground.

Well, rather, my right hand was pinned to the ground.

"I- I give up! Cancel your spell already!"

The woman clicked her tongue as she cancelled her spell. "Already? You did worse than yesterday!"

Ignoring her words, I checked my hand for any injuries.

'Broken bones... and it's bleeding too'

"Could you not go easier on me? My hand was almost flattened!", I complained to the woman as I wrapped bandages around my hand.

"Says the one who almost killed his professor", the woman, whose identity was professor Misha, retorted.

"You're an <A-> rank, why are you scared of an <E-> student?"

Clink—!

Removing the metal bracelets that suppresses her power, professor Misha snorted.

"My power was at <F+> rank during the fight. I'd have died if you hit me with that"

"...Fair enough", I sighed.

"By the way, I still can't believe that your battle art is a V-graded one, and a growth type at that!"

"...I can't believe it either", I muttered under my breath with slight resentment.

I was in fact, also surprised that my battle arts suddenly turned into growth-type - the rarest type of battle arts

Even Arthur didn't have a growth-type battle art in the novel.

As to how my battle arts suddenly changed? Well, it all started about a month ago.
...

March 13^rd, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

"Mhm... I see...", professor Misha cupped her chin in thought as I explained to her what my battle art did.

I kept silence, waiting for the professor to finish whatever she was doing.

"Ah! I got it!"

Professor Misha then mumbled something, and kept nodding to herself.

CLAP—!

Clapping her hands, she turned to me and spoke. 

"The description of you Art doesn't specify what you can use it on, correct?"

"...Yes"

"So can you use it with your fists too?"

Nodding my head, I concentrated space mana on my hand and punched the ground.

A fist-sized crater appeared where my fist struck.

"I see! Can you use it on other magic too?"

"I'm... not sure?"

Thinking again for a while, professor Misha spoke.

"Alright, here's your first lesson. Try fusing your battle art with any of your attack spells. Even if it doesn't work, you will have learnt how to combine 2 elements into 1 spell"

Hearing this, I immediately tried it out.

<[Lightning spear]>

A spear made of red lightning hovered right besides me. 

Ignoring professor Misha's sparkling gaze at the [Lightning spear], I tried to move space mana.

However—

"FUCK!"

—It was simply too hard.

The red spear of lightning dissipated into nothingness, while the space mana I was concentrating dispersed into thin air.

Trying to control two different kinds of mana at a time was like trying to draw a circle and a square at the same time.

Seeing my disappointed reaction, professor Misha slapped my back and chuckled.

"Don't worry, if you could do it first-try, the <Mage tower> would have had no qualms sending people to infiltrate Avaron and kidnap you"

"Haha... T- That's true...", I laughed professor Misha's joke off, but I knew full well they would really do it.

After all, that was exactly what happened to Arthur in his 2nd year according to the novel.

Chuckling again, professor Misha walked out of the training ground.

"Well, just keep trying to fuse your battle art with... the Lightning spell you just did. We'll move onto reinforcing your body with mana once you're done with it"

CLANK—!
...

March 24^th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

"HAHAHAHAHAH! I DID IT!"

I laughed like a crazed maniac once I've successfully fused [V - World splitter] and [Lighting spear] together.

"Good! I'll name you... [Lightning of rupture]!"

"Let's test it out, shall we?", I spoke to no one in particular as I shot the spear at a dummy that was wrapped in a thick layer of mana.

As such, I expected [V - World splitter] to erase, or at least weaken the mana protecting the dummy, and [Lightning spear] would finish the job.

However—

"HUH?"

I rubbed my eyes, looking at the dummy again. But—

'Where did it go?'

—It was nowhere to be seen

'No... it was erased from existence', I thought as I inspected the place where my [Lightning spear] struck earlier, only to find that the dummy had indeed disappeared.

'It can't be, right?'

Gulping my saliva, I decided to test it again.
...

<[Lightning of rupture]>

Upon erasing the 3rd dummy that could withstand attacks from an <B> ranked individual from existence, a creepy smile crept up on my face.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH!"

How could I not laugh? After all—

"THIS IS TRULY MAVERLOUS! MANA CAN'T MAKE [WORLD SPLITTER] USELESS ANYMORE!" 

—The one and only restriction of the battle art aside from the ridiculous amount of time it took to concentrate space mana was removed.

Now, no one could defend from my attacks.

Still laughing like a maniac, I made an arrogant claim.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH! IM THE GREATEST MAG-"

|...Hey kid|, a somewhat lethargic voice suddenly rang out.

Startled, I snapped my head at the sound. "Huh?"

|I'm Ezra, the god that created Status|

"What?"

|So... I owed Lumaria one, and she used that favor to make me erase your [Lightning of rupture]|

"What are you sa-"

Ignoring me, the voice continued. |As a compensation, I'll modify your battle arts a little bit. I hope you'll forgive me for this time|

"Wait! What are y-"

A translucent blue screen appeared before my eyes. But that was the least of my concerns, as—

"ARGHHHHHHHH! WHAT THE FUCK!"

—An immense pain coursed through my entire body.

It was as if the knowledge I had about my battle arts was forcefully ripped from my head and then stuffed back in.

After what felt like an eternity, the pain finally disappeared.

"Hahaha! That was painful"

Although I was laughing, the cold rage flickering in my eyes says otherwise.

" 'Gods don't interfere with the mortal world' huh? If you want to fuck me over that badly, then so be it!"

I was truly enraged, and rightfully so. 

Assra or whatever took away what I would call the most overpowered spell I've ever seen away from me. Of course I would be extremely pissed.

Sighing, I decided to see what kind of 'compensation' he gave me.

"Status"

=====

Name: Theodore Gray

Race: Human (Part-dragon)

Rank: E-

Strength: F+

Agility: E+

Stamina: E-

Intelligent: E+

Mana capacity: F

Profession: Swordsman (Lv.4)

--

Affinities:

[Perfect - Lightning magic]

[High - Space manipulation]

[Intermediate - Time manipulation]

[Intermediate - Wind magic]

--

Skills:

[A - Authority of fear] 

The innate skill of Theodore Gray that was evolved thanks to the user assimilating a true dragon's blood into his body. Upon glancing at his eyes, people at lower rank than his will experience great fear. The user can also choose to make the target feel immense pain. However, its effects diminishes by half if used on people one major rank higher than Theodore himself. The effect of the skill is greatly reduced when used on people two major ranks higher than the user, while people stronger than that are not affected.

[F - Mana blood]

A degraded version of the innate skill [A - Fertilus' Blood] that every pure-blooded vampires has. Due to the user's barely qualified concentration of vampiric blood, he is granted the skill. The skill enables the user to recover Mana quicker than the average person, as well as control the Mana present within blood.

[F - Emotionless]

The skill consumes all of the user's emotion to boost the Strength and Intelligence stats while active, effectively raising the 2 aforementioned stats up to 2 minor ranks. However, it may backfire by amplifying emotions instead if the limit of the skill is reached.

[S – Monarch of the Storms]

Temporarily changes the user’s profession into [Monarch of the storm], boosting the user’s power up to a major rank at maximum. The casting speed as well as damage of Lightning and Wind related spells are greatly increased when the skill is active. This skill also nullifies any damage done by Lightning spells that the user uses on his or her own body while active. The user will fall into a state of vulnerability for 12 hours after the skill ends.

(Cooldown: 24 hours)

--

Battle arts:

[III - Roteare style]

Sword art created by Swordsman Theodore Gray, and modified by the god of Status - Ezra. The art allows the user's weapon to absorb the force enemies use in their attacks. The user can release the force stored within the weapon at any time he want.

[V – World splitter] — Mastery: 18%

A battle art created by an unknown master Space mage, and modified by the god of Status - Ezra. It allows the user to create a lingering trail of spatial distortion that shreds anything unprotected by mana to pieces. Upon mastery, the practitioner will be able to devastate a large area around them without even lifting a finger.

=====

"...It's acceptable, I guess"

Normally, anyone would have bawled their eyes out in happiness if they saw that they had a growth-type battle art, me included. 

However, I couldn't be happy, as I got the Art in exchange for what was perhaps one of, if not the most powerful spell anyone have ever created.

"Haaaah". Sighing, I quickly calmed myself down and decided to just bear with what I've been given.

'Lumaria... was it?'

The pushover of a Goddess that gave Arthur countless of blessings should have nothing to do with me.

But, perhaps—

'Even if you're a Goddess, I'll make you pay'

—Things were much more complicated than they seemed to be.
...

April 8^th, year 788 of the Imperial calendar

Back to the present.

=====

[V – World splitter] — Mastery: 32%

A battle art created by an unknown master Space mage, and modified by the god of Status - Ezra. It allows the user to create a lingering trail of spatial distortion that shreds anything unprotected by mana to pieces. Upon mastery, the practitioner will be able to devastate a large area around them without even lifting a finger.

=====

I nodded in satisfaction as I viewed my progress with [V - World splitter].

In just a month, not only have I acquired [Shredding slash], the first movement, and [Rupturing thrust], the second movement, I also raised my proficiency by 14%, which was an extremely fast rate of progress.

At first, I was reluctant to use [Rupturing thrust] or [Shredding slash], as I could reproduce its effect by using [Distortion], which was basically [V - World splitter] before it got modified.

However, the sensation of swinging my sword while purely using [Distortion] could be best described as trying to move through a deep and muddy swamp while strapping weights to your body.

Basically, it was slow as fuck, which made sense. After all, I was basically ripping through space itself with the battle art.

But when I used [Rupturing thrust], my sword moved cleanly like hot knife through butter. Or, you know, like a normal sword slashing through the air.

Thus, I decided to not be stubborn anymore and just train with my newly modified battle art.

"Let's call it a day!", professor Misha's loud voice woke me up from my thoughts.

She then ran out of the training room with haste.

CLANK—!

Shaking my head, I decided to go back to my dorm room and rest up.
***

<<Dorm room F1 - 2>>

"Kasumi, request the <Central Assassin guild> for some of their <E+> rank disposables", Eleanor said as she poured some tea into her cup.

Kasumi looked at Eleanor confusedly but still obliged. "As you command, your highness"

"Huh? Aren't you going to ask me why I'm doing this?"

Kasumi looked at Eleanor weirdly for split second before she regained her indifferent look. Truly, she was a professional.

"Your highness, you told me to just keep an eye on Theodore Gray, why are you hiring assassins to kill him now?"

"Hahaha! You're too naive, Kasumi"

Plit—! Plat—!

Sounds of water, or rather, tea splashing could be heard as Eleanor dropped an unhealthy amount of sugar cubes in her teacup.

"..."

Plit—! Plat—!

"..."

Slurp—!

"Haaah... much better...", Eleanor exhaled as she gulped down the very sugary tea in one go.

"..."

Kasumi may not have been able to express it, but she was confused about whether or not she should be worried about Eleanor.

These days, Eleanor had been more... excited? 

From what Kasumi could tell, Eleanor's excitement was not that of a child, but it was that of an old Sage who had just came out of recluse, gasping at every little changes to society in the time he was gone.

Of course, this attitude was vastly different to Eleanor's usual cold demeanor; Kasumi had been with Eleanor ever since she was little, so it wasn't that much of a stretch to say that she understood Eleanor more than anyone else.

Sighing inwardly, Kasumi decided to not think about it. It wasn't her job to care about the private life of her employer. Even if she considered her employer to be a very close friend of hers. Not that she had any friends anyways.

"To answer your question, Kasumi. I'm not hiring them to kill Theodore Gray. Rather, I'm targeting one of his friends"

"I see, your highness". Kasumi was clearly disinterested in what Eleanor had to say, but she tried to not show it.

Seeing that Kasumi had lost all interest, Eleanor sighed inwardly and continued pouring tea for herself.

Although killing Raun right now was useless, as Amelia wasn't in any kinds of danger for Arthur to swoop in and save her, she still decided to hire assassins anyways, since—

'This is a test for you, Theodore Gray'

—Eleanor wasn't sure if he had gone through as many regressions as her.

If this was his first or second regression, he would definitely try to save his friend. 

'...Like I foolishly did', Eleanor cursed her past-self for having been so naive in the past.

If Theodore had at least regressed as many times as her, he wouldn't care about Raun at all. In fact, he might even deliberately allow the assassination to happen.

Thus, whether Raun died or not, it wouldn't have mattered, as the main goal of this operation was to collect more information about Theodore.

Of course, Theodore may suspect that there were other regressors beside him after this. But—

'He's bound to know sooner or later anyways'

—Eleanor was planning on meeting him very soon.

Furthermore, letting him confirm that he wasn't the only regressor would tie into another one of her plans.

Still waiting for her tea to cool down, Eleanor eyed Kasumi closely.

"...Kasumi, how are the preparations?"

"I've read a book on how to 'be bros' with 'cool kids my age', your highness. I'm also half-way through a book on common sense"

Nodding, Eleanor spoke. "Good. Looks like I'll have to pay headmaster Alan a visit soon"

"Your highness, I know it's not my place to question your decisions but... I think our target may recognize my Aether if he came close to me"

Fuu—!

Blowing over her tea to cool it down, Eleanor answered. "No need to worry. Even if he recognizes you, it simply doesn't matter"

Eleanor truly had a plan for every possible situations.

"You're dismissed. Go and contact <Central Assassin guild>"

Giving Eleanor a 90-degree bow, Kasumi's figure melted into the darkness.

"..."

"..."

Slurp—!

"W- What?"

Ptu—!

Eleanor spitted out her tea.

"Shit! I forgot to add sugar!"

Wanting to rinse out the disgusting bitterness of her tea, Eleanor glanced around her room for water.

However, her gaze wasn't fixed on the water jug. Rather, she was staring at the tea-stained checkerboard-patterned table cloth.

'Should I buy a chessboard?'

"Mmmmm... Yeah let's do it. It'd look cool"