Chapter 88: In the Realm of Martial Arts, I Deem You the Strongest
Ingrid shivered slightly.
After activating the Nightblade 「Iron Shade」, her state in which survival instincts and genetic locks were unshackled, where she fought in a frenzy impervious to pain… had often earned her the nickname "Oni" among her military peers.
However, just now, Ingrid had felt as though she was being stared down by a true demon.
At first it was vague, but looking back now, a cold current had silently pierced through her entire body.
She subconsciously wanted to speak, only to find that Rast had already risen and was walking out of the archive room.
"As long as one clears the Final Remnant…"
"One can learn the entire truth about the Nightworld?"
"Or to take a step back—"
"Since the power of the Nightworld could so easily reconstruct erased fragments of history, to the point where even legends can't tell the difference…"
"Doesn't that imply—"
"As long as one obtains power equal to the master of the Nightworld—"
"Even things that were originally illusions… could be turned into reality at will?"
Rast’s voice echoed distantly from the entrance of the archive, and Ingrid could only see his back.
"Thank you very much, Senior."
"No matter what, this trip to the Arcane Tower wasn’t in vain."
"Even though, considering the difference in our current statuses, these words might come off as a bit arrogant…"
"But someday, I will definitely find a way to repay this favor."
…
After returning from the Arcane Tower, Dean Silver found himself somewhat dumbfounded—her long-term freeloading plan seemed about to fall through again.
Originally, when Rast had been lying in the university hospital receiving treatment, Dean Silver spent all day by his side, happily bonding with that pure heart.
Dean Silver even felt that the long-stalled progress in her sequence advancement had started to slowly but steadily improve.
She had a premonition—if she just stuck to this pace, then whether in a few years or even just a few months, she would be able to break through that bottleneck that had blocked her for so many years and reach a new height.
Yet it was precisely at this most critical point in time… that Rast betrayed the organization, refusing to stay at home and be a shut-in with her.
By leveraging the merits of clearing the Disaster Remnant in Frostwater Town, Rast had elevated his Obelisk ranking to 19th, and with Shiltina's assistance, had successfully applied for access to the Sixth Epoch's End Nightworld within the main body of the Arcane Tower.
From then on, Rast began a three-point daily routine: “shooting range, Ashen Court, Arcane Tower HQ.”
He barely even returned to his dorm, mostly finding random places to crash for the night.
This forced a certain snow-white ferret, who originally enjoyed staying home all day and rarely ventured outside… to also experience the life of a relentless overachiever, spending every day either grinding or on the way to grind.
There was no helping it—freeloaders like Rast didn’t come by often.
With a chance to break through right in front of him, even a lifetime lazy mutt like Dean Silver had to consider whether this might be her only opportunity.
So she could only grit her teeth and grind along.
…
On the other side—
Within the Arcane Tower HQ, Professor Barbalossa welcomed an unexpected surprise.
He had originally thought Rast was just being polite, but unexpectedly, this seemingly delicate little guy had truly shown up every day thereafter, right on time, seeking him out for combat training.
This stirred the long-idle heart of Professor Barbalossa, who had served as a glorified security guard in the Arcane Tower for decades.
Before suffering a soul curse that turned him into this unsightly figure unfit to be seen in daylight, he had once taught military hand-to-hand combat in the Lionheart Academy—and he had been a battle maniac through and through.
Now, Rast had willingly come knocking.
Wasn’t this a sandbag delivered on a silver platter—
No, a raw gem—immature and fragile, requiring his careful sculpting.
If he couldn’t refine this clearly frail young man, whose arms seemed incapable of even lifting a chicken, into an invincible close-combat warrior, capable of facing any danger… then he would be failing in his duty as a professor of Lionheart Academy.
And yet—
With that spirit of tireless teaching and burning passion—
In just half a month, Barbalossa’s excitement turned into terror.
…
Whoosh—
The cold glint of a military dagger split the air, erupting with a sonic boom.
Then halted just before the chest of a giant ape.
"I surrender."
Professor Barbalossa raised his furry hands in surrender.
He had lost.
Human—no, beastman—completely and utterly defeated.
Clearly, from appearance alone, Rast looked like the frail type who lived off clinging to a rich woman’s thigh.
However, when Barbalossa fulfilled his promise and used the Nightblade 「Silence Disqualified」 to suppress his physical attributes and level to match Rast’s, relying solely on hand-to-hand technique for training—
He was horrified to discover he was utterly annihilated.
Rast was clearly a rookie at Sequence Two, barely twenty by the looks of him, and from what he’d heard, just a newly enrolled freshman this year.
But somehow, the techniques he used—though differing from standard military combat styles—had a close-combat mastery that far exceeded even his own.
This, despite Barbalossa having earned the title "Titan" through martial prowess alone.
Moreover—
The killing intent embedded in every move of Rast’s combat techniques left Barbalossa silently alarmed.
Though it was labeled as "combat training," every single move Rast executed was saturated with lethal intent…
All aesthetic beauty between techniques had been stripped away, with nothing remaining but the pursuit of maximum efficiency in killing—
Using the least energy, in the shortest time, with the highest probability of death.
"You little bastard… just how many people have you killed?"
Professor Barbalossa narrowed his eyes slightly as he stared at the boy before him.
If he didn’t know how ruthlessly Starfall University screened its freshmen, he might’ve assumed the one in front of him was a mass murderer who had wiped out entire cities.
Even among high-ranking military officers who had survived real battlefields and oceans of corpses, none had such concentrated killing intent.
"Honestly, I haven’t killed that many. When I have, it’s usually for self-defense.
Even when playing the Clown, I always held back."
"Because… Xiao Ai doesn’t want me to turn into some perverted killer who takes pleasure in ending lives."
Rast smiled faintly.
"Except for… certain things that are no longer human."
"Forget it."
Barbalossa shook his massive head and glared viciously at Dean Silver, who was lazily munching dried fish on a wooden table not far away.
That snow ferret must’ve known something from the start, yet chose to stay silent and let his colleague get humiliated.
Definitely on purpose.
Dean Silver, naturally, ignored this knock-off magical beast.
Its furry tail swayed as it elegantly popped fish snack after fish snack into its mouth.
Rast really hadn’t killed many people—
But counting one loop as several hundred…
He’d probably slaughtered tens of millions of Iron Crosses by now.
"In any case, I’ve got nothing more I can teach you."
Professor Barbalossa sighed and looked at the youth before him.
"In the realm of martial arts—"
"I, ‘Titan’ Barbalossa, deem you the strongest."