"Master never trained us according to levels. He trained us according to victory. If you're stronger than someone, kill them. If you're weaker, figure out why. If you can't figure it out, keep losing until you do."
Amber couldn't help but laugh nervously.
"That's... very Master."
Lexa nodded.
"It works."
She suddenly pointed.
"Summon your chains."
Amber immediately did so.
"Again."
She complied.
"Again."
Again. Again. Again.
Within minutes, sweat covered Amber's forehead. Lexa remained expressionless.
"No. Too slow. Again."
Amber tried once more. This time she instinctively lifted her hand.
Thud.
A crimson dagger pierced straight through her palm. Amber cried out in pain.
Lexa simply looked at her.
"Again."
Amber gritted her teeth. She swallowed a healing pill. Her wound slowly closed. She tried once more. This time a single finger twitched.
Thud.
Another dagger. Amber stared.
"...You noticed?"
Lexa looked almost offended.
"Of course. You moved."
Amber blinked.
"...That's all?"
Lexa nodded.
"If your body moves, you're slower. If you're slower, you die. Again."
Hours passed. Every unnecessary movement resulted in another dagger. Every instinctive twitch, another dagger. Every reliance upon muscle memory, another dagger.
Eventually Amber stopped moving entirely. The chains simply appeared — no gestures, no raised hands, no spoken command, only thought.
Lexa finally allowed herself a faint smile.
'There it is. Master was right. Pain truly was the fastest teacher.'
Lexa watched Amber from where she sat leisurely atop the floating greatsword. The enormous blade drifted lazily through the air while carrying her as though it were nothing more than a chair.
From time to time she crossed one leg over the other, quietly observing Amber's every movement.
She couldn't deny it. Amber truly possessed a terrifying skill. Not because it was overwhelmingly destructive. Not because it was flashy.
But because she simply never ran out of mana. Lexa herself carried several mana restoration pills, something every serious combatant naturally prepared before entering the Combat Territory.
Yet throughout the entire afternoon Amber had never once needed one. She only exhausted herself mentally. Never mana depletion.
'An endless ocean of mana...'
Lexa almost clicked her tongue.
'Master really has an eye for monsters.'
Amber smiled proudly after finally managing to reshape another set of chains without allowing them to collapse.
"Lady Lexa..."
Lexa nodded once before lifting her gaze toward the slowly descending sun. Evening was approaching. She couldn't help but remember Dante's words before they had left.
"Take enough food. There's a high chance you'll all stay there the entire three days. Don't come back until you've reached a level I'd actually be satisfied with when I inspect you myself. Besides — night training is useful. Remember how much you enjoyed training when you couldn't see shit?"
Lexa's lips twitched.
'Enjoyed?'
She almost laughed. That was one way of describing it. Another would be absolute torture. She still remembered stumbling around blind while Dante calmly watched from somewhere she couldn't even sense.
The moment she relaxed, a sword.
The moment she relied on hearing, a dagger. The moment she relied on instinct alone, he simply changed the angle again. She couldn't even count the number of healing pills she had swallowed during those nights.
Eventually she simply adapted. Now darkness barely affected her.
Amber, unfortunately, would soon understand exactly what those nights had felt like.
Lexa's gaze returned to the woman before her. Amber was currently experimenting with the chains again — making them thicker, then thinner, longer, shorter, denser, lighter, sharper, then returning them to their original form.
Lexa wasn't interested in the shape itself.
She wanted control.
Absolute control. Master had repeated that lesson so many times she could probably recite it word for word.
"Power without control is just wasted mana. A stronger attack means nothing if you can't produce it exactly how you want, exactly when you want. Control first. Power comes afterwards."
Hours of repetition had already begun showing results. Amber could now reshape the chains almost instinctively.
Almost.
There was still hesitation. Still unnecessary thought. Still wasted movement. Whenever Amber wanted to change something, she thought. Master hated that.
"Thinking is slow. Understanding isn't."
Amber needed to reach the point where changing the chain's density felt no different from moving a finger. Instinct. Not conscious effort. That was what Dante constantly drilled into them.
Lexa looked at Amber quietly. Unlike herself, Amber's greatest strength would never be combat talent. It would be comprehension. She was twenty-three years old.
Her Legendary Skill had only reached Level 16. Not because she lacked mana. Not because she lacked potential. Quite the opposite. Her skill continuously absorbed ambient mana and slowly strengthened itself.
Even while she slept.
Even while she ate.
Even while she did absolutely nothing.
The skill naturally grew.
But mastery? That was pitiful. If the Amber from only a few days ago fought an ordinary Level 5, she would probably lose. That was how tragic her situation had been.
Yet now she was growing so quickly it almost looked ridiculous. Lexa honestly felt a little jealous. Not because Amber would surpass her — she genuinely doubted that would happen. Amber's talent rewarded scholarship. Study. Understanding. Research. Time.
An endless amount of time. She would have to examine mana structures, understand them, disassemble them, reconstruct them, then improve upon them, only then could the pools of Mana she had be willing to be used, it was because of this process that her mana never reacted ever before.
Only then would she truly make them her own.
Which was exactly why Dante had immediately limited her. Five skills. No more. Lexa understood why now. At first it sounded strange — why limit someone capable of possessing thousands of skills? Now she understood.
Because learning five skills, properly, already took an absurd amount of time. Every skill contained countless mana threads. Every thread had purpose. Every structure had reason.
Simply recreating the skill wasn't enough. Amber needed to understand why the threads were woven that way. Only then could she improve them. Only then could she alter them.
Only then could she truly claim them as hers.
Master had summed it up in his usual lazy way.
"Better to be a master of five than an amateur with a hundred."