Chapter 600: Experience

Shin POV

He let his feelings of discontent fuel his next sword swing. [Burning Sword Heart] was a powerful skill that utilized his emotions and let them power his abilities. The bandit facing him was shocked at the power and fell back, swinging his sword without any grace. Shin moved forward and thrusted, tearing through the man’s guard and into his shoulder.

Another bandit took his place, and Shin tilted his body out of the way, infusing some fire mana into his blade. Once he gathered enough mana, he stepped forward with his movement skill and sliced upwards.

His sword missed its intended target, but the superheated blade made of fire lacerated his opponent’s chest. The cheap leather armor shredded as if it weren’t there at all. He was about to press forward, but he saw that one of the bandits had made it past the other caravan guards and was heading toward a family of four.

He launched himself at the approaching bandit and engaged in a brief clash of swords. These bandits were not skilled in any way. If they had any training at all, it was minimal at best. It probably hurt them more than helped. Shin danced circles around the bandit, and in a matter of several seconds, the man’s cold corpse was on the ground, blood soaking into the ground.

He looked over to make sure the family was safe before heading back into the fray. For some reason, his grandmother, Cassandra, insisted that he get as much experience fighting real fights as possible. He understood where she was coming from, but she made it sound like the fights he experienced so far in his life weren’t real fights.

He didn’t like that.

However, he really didn’t like how much attention Cassandra gave to Julius. In all of his years, he could count the number of times she had given him personal lessons. Forget about personal lessons; he rarely ever spoke to the woman if it wasn’t related to the sect or his training.

Yet, this boy comes in, and she treats him like he is someone special. Sure, Julius won his way through the tournament, but it was a tournament with Tier 3s. The truly powerful talents were either already Tier 4 or didn’t care to participate in tournaments like the one held in the capital.

A small part of him admitted that Julius was quite strong for his age. But he shoved that part of him into a deep hole to save his own pride.

Regardless, he felt that the other boy was quite hasty in his advancement. Shin had been held back from advancing for over a year now. Cassandra insisted that he wasn’t ready. Stating that he needed to gain a few more epic skills and build up his willpower before he advanced.

Shin and his father disagreed. Those things could always be improved during Tier 4. In fact, it was a lot easier to do so than in Tier 3. The improvements to one’s soul and mind would make skill development easier. As for willpower, it could always be honed in the specialized training chambers the sect had available to its members, and it would be easier once he was in Tier 4 as well.

At this point, his skill improvements had already slowed to a halt, and he was ready to advance. His patience was faltering, and he was beginning to not care what his grandmother told him. He had already decided to advance it if he didn’t see any meaningful growth during this period while traveling home, regardless of her wishes.

He let out a scoff. Experience?

She kept talking about him gaining experience, but the only thing he experienced was seeing the Empire fail to defend itself against foreign invaders. If something like that happened at the Burning Sun Sect, it would have been humiliating.

Shin glanced over at Maya. He was about to go over and help her, but he saw that she had everything well in hand. The only issue was that the Tier 4s would soon be overrun. If they wanted to help, they would need to do so soon.

Finishing off his opponent in front of him with a few quick slices of his blade, he gave Maya a pointed look and rushed off toward the nearest Tier 4. It was an archer standing in the back as he harassed the caravan’s Tier 4s with arrows. The man didn’t even sense him until he was already on top of him.

Shin swung his sword at the archer, and only at the last moment did the archer react. Their eyes widened, and they swung their bow at Shin. Knowing that Maya was backing him, he focused all of his strength into his sword, meeting the blow head-on.

The weight behind the archer’s swing was immense. Despite being a ranged combatant, the man was still Tier 4 and was physically stronger. With that said, Shin had the leverage and was able to hold his own against him.

The problem was the man’s authority. There was nothing Shin could do as his concepts were brushed aside by the signature ability of Tier 4s. Knowing that he couldn’t engage in a battle of strength, he grunted and shoved as much power into his sword, knocking the bow to the side and slashing upward. His sword managed to nick the archer’s arm, but the natural defenses of a Tier 4 were strong, and he wasn’t able to cut deeply despite the blade being extremely sharp.

However, he did his job, and Maya was already flanking the enemy, her staff filled to the brim with fire mana. It was a little embarrassing that an archer of all people had such bad perception and awareness, but Shin wasn’t about to complain.

It was because of this that Maya’s blow smashed into the enemy’s spine. The blow was strong enough that it broke through the man’s defenses, and he heard several bones crack. It wasn’t surprising. Maya was ridiculously strong despite her meager size, and since the man wasn’t prepared for her attack, he paid the price.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to keep the man down. A sharp authority ripped out and targeted Maya. Shin watched as the authority hit her dead on, and she flinched at the pain, unable to keep it from hurting her.

He was already moving in for another attack. But now that the archer was aware of him, it was a lot harder to do. The archer used a movement skill, increasing the distance between them. The string of the bow was pulled back, and an arrow made of pure mana flew his way.

He tried to disrupt the arrow, but the man’s authority was infused into it, and he was forced to throw himself to the side as the arrow shrieked past his face.