Chapter 10

"Why am I seeing your miserable face? I thought I had trained you well," Sai said as Sam sat in the middle of the dojo, holding a real sword.

"You don't own this place; my supervisors do," Sam replied. "Also, I need to train with real swords. Don't want to fear clowns again."

"By the way, I wanted to ask you, why you have called me."

"I was in a bad situation, paralyzed by my psyche. The common response was for me to wait for a flashback of my master telling me, 'remember your training.'"

"Oh, like in the mangas and animes," Sai raised his eyebrows.

"Yep. Hold on, you watch them?"

"They are entertaining. When I used to watch over my grandson, he would play them and leave them alone to watch."

"Yep, yep. Back to my story. No flashback came back. So I figured I should call you," Sai replied.

"Hmm… interesting. So this means I am the cool master," Sai had a wide smile. When Sam looked at him, Sai turned his head and faked a cough. "You can continue your training here. I'll spar with you from time to time."

"Anyway, I'll train a bit here," Sam stood up. He opened his system, checking a few sword-related skills and their requirements. All of them required Strength and Agility mainly, but all the skills consumed mana, so he needed Wisdom as well.

[Ding. Swordsmanship up to level 7]

[Ding Strength up to 15]

[Affinities:

-Strength: 15

-Agility: 15

-Wisdom: 5]

He still needed to increase his level by 2 to have the ranged skill he wanted, but for now, he could work with what he had.

[+ Skill: Moon arc (Level 1)] Unsheathes the sword quickly and waves it, leaving only a trace of the moon arc to see. Increases damage by 70%. 20 MP/use.

[+ Skill: Wind cut (Level 1)] Dash with 150% of your speed and draw your sword. 50 MP/use.

The wind cut seemed like a good finisher.

He stood up, held his sword in the sheath, and drew it in an instant, activating his Moon arc skill. What was left was an arc of reflected light. When the light vanished, Sam didn't realize his sword was back in its sheath.

"Impressive. You didn't stop training, did you?" Sai commented.

"Dude, it has only been a week."

"You are my best student, and I'm your best teacher."

Sam sighed. He didn't mind showing this old man his skills. He was not an enemy, anyway. Time to test the last skill. Sam already had high speed compared to a normal human, almost thrice as fast. He was curious to see what he could do with the high-consumption MP skill.

"See this? I developed it by myself." He unsheathed his sword and looked at a dummy in the middle. In almost an instant, his body turned into a blur. The next second, he appeared behind the dummy, holding the sword with both hands. The dummy was cut in half.

'Damn. That was good,' for the first time, he started panting. He was never exhausted from working out, yet using his mana took a chunk of energy. He sheathed his sword and thought, 'I need to hunt a few devils. Leveling up two levels, and I'll have a good skill set.'

"Wanna spar?" Sam gave Sai a cocky look. "With real swords?"

"Don't get cocky, kid. Any expert can do that. The secret is in your toes." Sai then dashed, almost turning into a blur. It was fast but not as fast as Sam's. When Sai stopped, he said, "My bones just rusted. But be careful. Some trained humans, even demons, known as devil-mans, can easily do what you did. Use that just to catch them off guard. But sure, I will entertain you."

-x-X-x-

A week passed smoothly for Sam, as he ventured out on his own, hunting down devils. Sometimes, he would receive calls about devil sightings or reports of devil-men and would be asked to investigate. Thanks to his devil sense, things were going smoothly for him.

However, he had noticed one thing: leveling up was becoming increasingly difficult. Finding a strong devil worth slaying was proving to be quite a challenge.

At present, Sam was just a few steps away from leveling up. This encounter marked the 12th devil he had encountered this week.

"The lighter devil..." Sam thought.

There was a simple logic in this world: the more fearsome a devil's name, the stronger the devil would likely be.

Before him stood a man with a burning head. This was a devil-man — a devil that had possessed a corpse and now had a human body with a distinctive fiery head. Blue jet flames danced on its hands, causing the ground to almost catch fire.

This seemed like a formidable devil, probably stronger than a clown.

"Die," the man with the fiery head pointed his head at Sam. In the next second, a stream of fire was unleashed, swallowing many cars behind Sam. This devil was undeniably powerful.

As the flames subsided, the devil laughed. "You've turned to ashes, haven't you?" The laughter echoed as the cars exploded, one after another.

"You should watch your back," Sam's voice emerged as he appeared next to the devil, sheathing his sword.

"What!" The devil-man's hand fell off. "Shit. Your blood would regrow it." The devil-man turned and opened its mouth. Sam could smell gas being released.

"Not today." In the next second, a white light formed, tracing the arc of a moon, with its center just below the devil's head. Remarkably, Sam's sword was still in its sheath.

'Seriously, I need to increase my wisdom. I only have 20 MP left, enough for me to flee for two minutes.'

The devil-man's head fell, and Sam turned, walking away.

[+30,000 XP]

[+ Devil Hunter bonus XP]

[Moon arc leveled up to level 2]

[Wind cut leveled up to level 2]

[You leveled up to level 9]

[+2 AP, +1 SP]

"Just one more level, and I'll be happy," Sam thought. For someone who aspired to become the strongest, that's what he aimed for — levels.

Some people started cheering and thanking him.

He then frowned and exhaled a long sigh.

There was nothing he wanted more than to lie down. But he needed to write a report about what had happened.

"Thank you for saving us," someone said.

Sam waved his hand with a wry smile.

His phone rang, and he stopped to answer the call.

"Hello."

"Where are you?" came a very cold voice that sent chills down his spine. Only Makima had such an effect on him.

"Just somewhere. Is there anything I need, boss? You don't usually call me," Sam replied.

"Come to the office. I'll introduce you to a devil-man. I need you to show her around. With your physical capabilities, it won't be a problem to control her?"

"But boss, I'm only one month into this job."

"What is your answer?"

"Always yes to you." Sam said as if there was any other option.

"Good boy. By the way. Nice job dealing with the lighter devil." She then hung up the call.

Sam turned his head left and right. how did she know. Makima wasn't any where to be seen.

Right. That's her power. she could use birds and rats' eyes to see. he needed to pretend to look for her.

"I think I don't have to make a report."

Sam scratched his head. 'a demon joining. She. Hold on a second. Himeno got two rookies in her team to train three days ago. The canon is about to start. So this must be Power? Hold on. That means that Denji is soon to be here.'