Ed promptly left and asked the tablet for the directions to the martial hall. On his way, he only noticed a few other students. This must be one of the areas that only students are allowed since the exams are still going strong with hundreds of applicants. Just as Ed was about to enter the martial hall, someone behind him shouted “HALT”.

Supervisor: Applicant what are you doing at the martial hall? You are not allowed here.

Ed: I am a student and I am allowed access here.

Supervisor: Do not lie to me, even students on campus during break would have to wear a uniform, but you are not. Aren’t you the one who lied about your mercenary licences? How many rules are you willing to break in one week?

Ed: Sir, I was offered early admission due to my score. If you look me up, I am at third place and have skipped into the third year elite course so I do not have to wear the uniform.

Supervisor: Enough of your lies, I am reporting you to the disciplinary hall and I will have your application revoked!

Tired of this supervisor’s disdain, Ed had his aura erupt with unbridaled ferocity. He laid his C2 level reserve in full force.

Ed: Sir, I understand you have a busy job and have to deal with numerous cheaters but I have not lied to you at all. Please take one second to confirm my words before condemning me.

The supervisor was obviously surprised by this outburst, even more so since he can tell this applicant had C2 rank reserves which supports his statement. The supervisor took a breath and checked his tablet about the rankings and sudden admission and the story matched up, an Ed was ranked third and was offered early admissions and was accepted yesterday.

Supervisor: Right, what you said is true. I apologize for my behavior. I see that you just reserved a room to train in. As an apology for my constant accusations I will upgrade your room to the next level. I hope you can forgive me.

Ed: It is alright, I understand where your accusations came from. Please do not be so dismissive in the future. Have a good day.

Ed immediately left the conversation before the supervisor could say anymore and proceeded into the martial hall. Even though the supervisor was still angry at the entire confrontation, he knew that he couldn't piss someone off with Ed’s level of talent. He may be stronger then Ed at the moment but Ed will easily surpass him.

From how Ed maintained his courtesy even when being severely disrespected, the supervisor knew Ed would not be the grudge holding type so he wanted to appease him as fast as possible to settle this whole situation. He assumed Ed wouldn’t care about him anymore, the fact that he is training in the martial hall even after being accepted and before school started, he must be one of those extremely focused geniuses.

Using his tablet as a key, Ed entered his recently upgraded training room. The room was extremely large and was about half the size of a football field. The walls are reinforced to withstand heavy impacts. The upgraded room also provided unlimited dummies as practice targets, a window where meals from the cafeteria can be directly delivered to, and a full functioning room with a bed and restroom. The room was so advanced it can even double as a temporary hotel. It was no wonder why the upgraded room cost so much.

Ed began reading the Sparrow’s Flight in depth for his first skill. He believed that his lack of reliable finishing move was a bigger issue. His mobility was already pretty good so even if he learns Wind’s Waltz first, it wouldn’t be too big of a difference.

The first level of SF was to use the Iai for one sword, the second level was to use two swords, and the third level was to properly superimpose the two strikes so that the two strikes compound on each other which would catapult the skill to C5 proportions. The key for the first level is to use a shealthe to house a sword and then use extremely fine aura control to create a single point of burst to expel the blade out of the sheathe at extreme speeds.

However, focusing such a strong burst at a single point would make the strike difficult to control. Therefore, the secondary step is to have a balanced 360 degree burst around the blade across the sheathe so that the user can direct the slash at the designated location.

After reading through the description several times and developing an understanding of the technique, Ed summoned several puppets so that he can start practicing. His first puppet was a C1 level puppet. Normally, Ed would have to use about 70% of his concentrated aura to deliver a fatal blow like what he did with the eagle during the combat test. He needed to see how much more efficient this technique was in comparison to his previous methods.

Ed’s first attempt missed completely as his counterbalance burst around the sheathe was not enough to control the strike. Ed took a few minutes to breathe and review what he just did to try to understand where he messed up and how to fix the issue. Ed tried again but with only half the strength for the focus point.

This time Ed was able to hit the target but it only left a medium sized gash, which wasn’t bad since he cut the power so drastically. Afterwards, he upped the strength and tried again. After an hour he ran out of aura so he had to rest to recover. Ed was already satisfied with the technique since SF only cost 10% of his reserves for each strike and his current mastery of level 1 was already reaching his 70% full strike. He continued to repeat this cycle of practicing and resting for the rest of the day.

Ed had gotten mentally fatigued from all the bursts he had to control but he was satisfied with his progress. He was able to control 80% of level 1 which already surpassed his original finishing move. In fact he was surprised that the cost for the technique is actually decreasing which is probably due to his familiarity with the technique. Ed ordered dinner and then went to sleep in the training room since he still had 5 more days reserved.

The next day Ed continued his practice. With a refreshed mind and experience from the previous day, Ed was able to complete level 1 of SF after another day and a half. He was able to deal a sizable slash at a C2 puppet and it cost him only 8% of his reserves. With this mastery, a fight with a C2 manny which would have been intense would only now be a slight challenge.

Ed had tried to get to level 2 but his mind and aura control could not support such a difficult technique on two blades at once. He made a mental note to ask the instructors on how to address this issue later. Nonetheless he made great progress for only 2.5 days.

At lunch, Ed ordered lobster to celebrate his success before trying the other technique. Ed also took a nap to do a small mental reset. He was looking forward to WW, he always enjoyed how fast he could go and dance around the opponent.

After reading WW in depth, he began to practice. WW worked by having 4 sets of aura bursts within his core that can be used to move or even augment an attack like using a burst on his elbow while swinging to increase the damage. The trick with WW is to not use the entire burst and to keep a fraction unused and then use that remaining part to be a focus point to gather another burst. This is like shooting a revolver but keeping the shell casing in the slots even after shooting and during each rotation, you fill the empty shell casing back up with aura to be shot again.

As difficult as WW sounded, Ed was already familiar with compartmentalizing bursts. He spent the rest of that day and the entire next day getting used to the technique. Ed continued on the 5th day but was unable to solve the issue of chaining the sets so that there would be a small interval.

The librarian had said that the interval between the sets should be even smaller than his previous 7 Star Steps, but he couldn’t get it right. He tried for another 6 hours before giving up. Sometimes constant grinding is not productive. Ed knew when to take a step back and change things up. He then remembered that he had wanted to do another round of tempering by going through the exams again. He still had half of today before orientation began tomorrow.

Ed quickly went through the first 3 exams again and after completing them he felt even more exhausted during the first day. There wasn’t much of a line since it was the last day for scores so most people already completed the exam. He went back to the dorms this time since his 6 days in time in the martial hall had run out. It was finally time for orientations tomorrow.