Chapter 21: bandit hunting

*clang* *clang*

The sound of steel clasing rings out loudly in the courtyard of the Silver's mansion, echoing through the estate like a melody of a bard.

The two person making that sound is none other than Syph and Markus, locked in a dance of blades and sorcery the guards watching this battle could only drool at the amount of prowess the two were showing whiled imagining how scared they would be if they were to be forced to fight these two like that.

"Wow"

Gail stared wide eyed and with his mouth gaping at the sight, this sentiment was shared by all his soldiers.

No words were needed in this kind of exchange between two individuals, for the steel blade they each held served as the best and only communication that they needed.

((Every time we clash, Syph holds back a little less, honestly what kind of monster is this woman? The more I try to catch up, the farther her back seems to be...))

This has been going on for 5 days now and each time the exchange got a bit more heated.

Since wooden swords couldn't handle the intensity of these fights, the one that was given to Markus by Zen got broken the very first time these two clashed in a practice match so they had to switch to using actual swords, although the blades were greatly dulled to avoid serious injuries, still getting a big piece of metal slammed into you was still going to hurt alot so both of them were asked to avoid hitting the other seriously like the time they first met.

"You've gotten alot better since our first meeting Markus-sama"

Syph finally spoke for the first time since this practice match started.

""Have I? I can't really tell...""

Markus said trying to act ignorant while parrying Syph's upward slash after avoiding her feint.

"Then that proves that you still need more practice"

Amused, Syph prepared her next attack.

Distancing herself from Markus Syph prepared her next attack, holding her sword in an overhead position.

Markus recognized that stance immediately for he had used that move many times when he was playing as her in his past life.

((Oh shit here's comes everyone's favorite spam move...))

Being ever so familiar with that move from his time playing the game, Markus also took some distance from Syph rather than jump in and try to disrupt her attack combo like what the Markus in the game usually did.

"Eight swords-yatagarasu"

Syph said swinging down her sword.

This is a technique of slashing eight times with just one swing.

Although it is "Eight" slashes, it is not a consecutive attack – it literally cuts eight times "Simultaneously".

There was absolutely no gaps between each slash. A genuine "Eight slash with one stroke".

((What a fvcking anime attack, she's even screaming out the name of the move before doing it...))

Markus seriously wanted to scream out about how this one single move defies all laws of physics and makes every earth scientist want to vomit blood and die, but since he was seeing it in real life he couldn't complain.

((But, I've been preparing for this move since the first time we had a practice match...an impossible move can only be beat by another impossible move))

Markus prepared his stance, having one hand on the sword and dropping the tip of the blade low on the ground, it was a very relaxed stance.

Although it looks like he was being reckless, what happened next said otherwise.

The eight slashes fired by Syph were perfectly and completely stopped by eight opposing slashes that appeared out of nowhere.

"Eh!?"

Even Syph was caught off guard by the unexpected development and let out a stupid sound.

""First sword-Hazy Crescent""

Unlike Syph, Markus calmly pronounced the name of the move in a low voice AFTER he had used it.

Taking advantage of Syph's lapse in focus due to her surprise, Markus used [shadow step] and his super speed to disappear and reappear right in front of Syph, sides sweeping her with his sword.

Even a veteran swordswoman such as Syph was completely taken by surprise by this as she wavered when blocking the strike in a shaky manner.

((Got you...))

That opening was all that Markus needed as he drove a frontal kick to her exposed adornment, sending her flying, crashing into the wooden fence of the practicing field.

""Out of field, my victory""

With an indifferent voice Markus declared.

""This concludes our practice for today the final score is 1-9, as expected it is your complete victory once again Syph-sensei""

Dropping his sword on the ground Markus stretched his limbs while yawning, looking completely beat up from the daily training.

((Hazy Crescent, a sword skill that involves installing a delayed attack into the air that only activates when something passes through it, this move was one of Markus's greatest attack in the game as he spread out this attack all around the battlefield causing the main character party to run into it no matter where they'd go, this move was not very damaging as much as it was annoying as attack combos built up by the player was constantly interrupted at pivotal points, this caused multiple players to rage quit the first time they fought him...))

Markus analysed this skill that he just acquired yesterday and compared it with it's game counterpart as he did with everything else he had.

((In the game, Markus could place down an indefinite amount of these but it seems that I however, can only place down a maximum of 10 for now...))

((But even with that stopping Sypha-sensei's yataragasu would be very hard due to how hard the trajectory of those 8 slashes are to predict and the obvious difference in power between yataragasu and hazy crescent, but with my [eyes of the puppeteer] predicting the outcome of that exchange and planning for it was easy...))

Ever since that night 5 days ago when the "black demon" as the public dubbed it debuted, Markus has been going around the capital's slums and fighting thugs as well as bandits in order to increase his level, this combined with the training he's receiving from Sypha, the most high leveled person he's met until now increased his levels by three more into LV 9.

And obviously this increase in level is synonymous with an increase in health as well as mana with his HP now being 42000 and MP being 85000 this made it possible for Markus to use the foresight ability of that skill more than once per day.

Furthermore, after spending hours studying and researching ways to circumvent the cost of using the [eyes of the puppeteer] in the library, Markus has found a loophole in the skill, by channeling the mana used by the skill into only one of his eyes, not only will Markus be able to half the mana consumption down to 7500 MP per use as well as increase the amount of times he could use this skill to 6 per day, this kind of cheat in the system wasn't possible in the game but the world of "fires of Valentia" wasn't a game to Markus anymore, it was his reality so being able to do this is not impossible.

Analyse, adapt, overcome that was the way that the Markus in the game fought his battles and in this regard the current "Markus" was the same.

Although this little loophole Markus discovered still had it's flaws, like how he now can only see half of all the possible future outcomes of every action that the individuals in his line of sight would take.

This was why currently Markus's left eye was burning with a purple light while his right one remained the same crimson red colour.

"Haha...not yet, I can still go..."

Pulling herself off from the ground, Syph giggled and coughed while she said.

((seriously!?))

Markus was seriously exasperated at Syph, deep down he knew that he would have to probably go until she's satisfied.

((I know it's her default character trait in the game but...Syph-Sensei is a serious battle junkie isn't she?...))

Markus had a long audible sigh as he deactivated his [eyes of the puppeteer].

"I'm afraid that's not possible...it is time for Master Markus's etiquette class"

Seeing the situation, Zen came to Markus's rescue while handing him a towel to clean himself.

((Thank you!))

Markus seriously wanted to kiss Zen right now.

"Ahh...freaking party pooper"

Syph was pouting as she was forced to accept the situation and withdraw.

After that the day went on as usual, magic training and etiquette class followed by anything else that happened on a usual day in the Silver's mansion.

Then as always, night came.

((With all that's said and done...today was an absolute success))

Markus thought, sitting at his desk with his arms wrapped around the back of his head.

((I've confirmed that the loophole that I've discovered works and managed to gain even more levels than I've expected))

But something was still missing from Markus's daily schedule, his nightly adventures.

Realising it's time for him to go play "black demon" again Markus began to plan.

((With all the fuss going around thanks to my actions, I probably shouldn't operate in the capital tonight...))

Markus thought for a while about what he should do for tonight, but to be completely honest he just wanted to kill time, for there was no action he could take right now that could benefit his future plans.

((Using the information I found at those warehouses I've exterminated every trace of Executor from the capital already and besides I've also clean up most of the criminals in the slums already...))

This was the first time that Markus truly didn't know what to do with his time.

((Oh wait...I know! Didn't I gain information about a bandit hideout that one time where I accidentally saved Kiara Medicus?))

Markus suddenly remembered the incidental run in he had with one of the main characters of "fires of Valentia" not too long ago.

((If I remember correctly he said their hideout was near mist valley...))

Suddenly an idea popped into Markus's head.

((I've got nothing better to do anyway, so let's go kill some bandits for entertainment))

Finally with something to keep him occupied for tonight, Markus went to find his katana hidden under the wooden floorboard of his room and other weapons as well as his mask.

And so the "black demon" began to roam the capital once again tonight.