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The two fighters moved at the same time. Within a second they reached the middle of the field and resumed their battle.

"Claang…"

You have sensed killing intent.

Blades clashed and sparks flew in the air. Murderous killing intent filled the air as both fighters looked to cut down their enemy. Even though their fight was gruesome, it had its elegance.

Every step, every motion, the dungeon ninja made was elegant and covert. While Daichi's sword swings were filled with fierce intent and brute force. But it had its own beauty as well.

Every second several swings rained down against each other. Daichi and his opponent blocked, deflected or outright avoided the attacks while maintaining vigilance on their surroundings. Daichi's current sword skills paled in comparison to the dungeon ninja.

'This guy. He's far better than me. If it wasn't for my speed he would have taken my head by now. I need to keep fighting him and improve my sword skills. That's the only way I'll beat him if I fight like this.'

Daichi concentrated on every motion his enemy made and tried to study it. His intelligence gave him faster understanding of not just theory or concepts but also of the physical skills he observed.

Skill Sword Mastery's level has risen by one.

Daichi slightly smirked as he parried another slash from his enemy. Seeing his attacks not getting through, the dungeon ninja decided to switch attack patterns. He disappeared from Daichi's field of view.

'He vanished. His footwork is incredible. His speed increased and he was able to completely evade my attacks.' Daichi immediately used the chakra sense skill and enhanced his eyes, ears and nose.

Suddenly like a specter appearing out of nowhere the ninja appeared behind Daichi and slashed down. But luckily Daichi found his enemy in time to block the attack. The moment Daichi blocked the attack the enemy disappeared from his view.

'Damn it! Disappeared again. Right now the broken shuriken all around is definitely slowing him down. This terrain is to my advantage. His speed decreased by a small margin when he came to attack. So I was able to block it. But I doubt it will be like this for long.' Daichi didn't want his enemy to take him by surprise. He wanted to be the one to make the next move.

"Claaang…"

Sparks flew as Daichi blocked another sword swipe. Seeing his attacks blocked, the dungeon ninja jumped back and focused chakra into his sword. A blue hue could be seen around the weapon.

'What is he doing?'

Daichi wondered only for a second before his eyes widened in realization. The enemy ninja slashed several times in a second sending strong gusts of wind and several wind blades.

The moment he realized what was about to happen, Daichi pushed chakra to his legs and jumped as fast as he could. The next instant the area he was standing in was blown away by several powerful wind slashes. Most of the scattered sharp metals on the ground all got blown away by the strong wind attack.

Daichi safely landed several meters away from the destroyed ground. His eyes never left his foe. The ninja lowered his hand and looked at Daichi. The next instant he disappeared and appeared in front of Daichi and slashed down.

Daichi used both hands and coated his sword with chakra flow and deflected the attack. Both of them started to fight ferociously. Their blades clashed several times per second. The strength with which they clashed caused a small wind storm to be formed around them.

Sparks scattered all over the place as they battled each other. Daichi was on the defensive due his lack of sword skill.

'This guy's sword skills are incredible. It's not just fast. His movements…. It's almost impossible for me to predict them at my level.'

As the battle raged on, Daichi was analyzing his opponent. He barely dodged a swing aimed for his neck but the next second a thin line appeared across his chest.

'If I hadn't leaned back at the last second that would have been a serious injury. His ability to quickly change the attack trajectory and paths. His insane accuracy, and the swords ever changing orbits… Whoever he is… He's based on someone powerful.'

Skill Sword Mastery's level has risen by one.

Skill Chakra Flow's level has risen by one.

+1 SENSE

+1 Dexterity

'But I'm also getting stronger. My sword skill improvement speed is much faster than I expected. Maybe it's because I'm fighting an expert.'

As they clashed, Daichi's skills improved. He was starting to keep up with the ninja. He blocked a strike and deflected the sword away from him and quickly sent a slash towards his enemy.

The dungeon ninja recovered from the failed strike quickly and used more chakra to increase his speed and block Daichi's strong incoming slash. Due to the force generated from the clash both of them were thrown away from each other.

They stood opposite to each other and stared down.

'His speed is almost equal to mine but his strength is slightly less. But he still successfully suppressed my attack… Unbelievable. I need to restrain him.'

Daichi wasted no time and rushed forward. He was a ninja before he was a swordsman. And his life was more important to him than anything else. He was going to use every arsenal he had to win.

He reached the ninja quickly and tried to restrain him using chakra threads. He used his left hand to create the several threads to keep his enemy in check. His threads connected with the enemy ninja's hands and feet and rooted him in place. Daichi swung his sword with his right hand intending to deal a huge amount of damage.

But there was a problem with this strategy. The moment the ninja was restrained he used his chakra coated sword to cut the strings and was able to barely block the attack.

Daichi's eyes twitched as he saw his strike blocked. 'Of course it wouldn't be that easy. Grr….'

The dungeon ninja rushed and aimed for Daichi's heart but Daichi with the help of his superior senses and agility evaded and didn't allow the attack to land. The swords clashed once again. As the battle progressed Daichi focused on the trajectory of the enemy's sword more and more and his mind unknowingly disregarded the enemy's empty hand.

'If I can just hold on and increase my sword skill I can…'

"Ku… ock' -216 HP

Negative Status - Bleeding.

Daichi's eyes widened and trembled as he felt a dagger stab into his side. The enemy ninja quickly pulled the dagger out and was ready to attack again but Daichi immediately used Body Flicker and gained some distance.

He placed a hand on the wound. "FUCK!!!" 'I was careless. He made me focus on his sword so much that he was able to get a sneak attack in. Bastard's smart.'

Despite his opponent landing a wound on him, Daichi smiled. ' A sneaky attack like that. So it looks like you're a shinobi before you're a swordsman too after all.'

You have sensed killing intent.

At that moment the enemy ninja rushed in and began to fight using both the weapons. The ninja's swordsmanship became more dangerous and threatening as he started using two blades. The gap time between the attacks was reduced and the path of the attacks became more complicated.

Daichi responded in kind and took a dagger from his inventory. Due to using two bladed weapons, the Dual wielding mastery skill was activated. It increases the damage inflicted, speed, critical rate and balance of the user. Due these buffs and the effects of the sword mastery skill, Daichi was able to match his opponent and bring the fight to almost equal terms.

Both of them fought vigorously. Daichi was getting wounded and coughing up blood but he was also able to reduce the health points of his enemy. The fight went on for several minutes with neither side able to get in a decisive blow. They were only able to inflict non lethal strikes on each other. But soon the tides turned and the battle began to favor a certain side.

When Daichi's health fell below 25% the effects of the persistence stat activated. It gave an 8% stat boost, increasing Daichi's speed and power. The ninja held on but was unable to block attacks due to the new increased speed. But he was still able to inflict damage on Daichi. His chakra flowed through his sword and dagger and blocked Daichi's attacks and slashed at Daichi's left leg wanting to take the boy’s footing away.

-355 HP

Negative status - Broken leg, Bleeding.

The powerful attack landed and Daichi went down to one knee.

"Aaahhhhh…. Fuucck…." Daichi desperately blocked the attacks coming his way but he was somewhat unsuccessful due to the injury. At that moment another skill activated, saving Daichi from the onslaught.

Health points have fallen below 20%. Skill ‘Ozark’s Resilience’ is activated. +2% to Strength, Vitality and Agility stats for 20 seconds.

This boost, coupled with the stat boost from the persistence skill, pushed Daichi's speed and strength beyond his enemy. Daichi swiftly deflected the bladed attacks and slashed the hands of his enemy. The hand holding the sword severed and the one holding the dagger was torn up.

-622 HP

Enemy Negative Status - Crippled buff in effect.

+1 PERSISTENCE

'I only have 14 seconds left. Need to make it count.'

Daichi quickly stood on one leg and started his fierce counter attack. He used chakra thread to make sure the enemy didn't escape and attacked him with his tanto. He was able to link over 10 strikes in quick succession and activated the skill Linked Kill Strikes. Several other skills activated and Daichi's hands became a blur.

Brutal strikes landed on his enemy and in less than 10 seconds his health was reduced to zero.

[Enemy killed.]

+2500 Exp.

+375 Exp.

Enemies killed: [89/168]

"I won. Finally...It's...over…" Daichi was breathing hard. He let go of his tanto and fell on his back. He looked at his Minimap to make sure there wasn't anyone around. He slowly took his sword and crawled to a nearby tree. He sat and looked at the piled up notifications.

"Oh man! That's a lot of messages."

He started treating his wounds and bandaging them while going through the messages one by one.

Skill Dual Wielding Mastery's level has risen by one.

Skill Ozark’s Resilience's level has risen by one.

Skill Sword Mastery's level has risen by one.

Skill Death blow's level has risen by one.

Skill Chakra Thread's level has risen by one.

Skill Danger Sense's level has risen by one.

Skill Vital Strike's level has risen by one.

Skill Killing Intent's level has risen by one.

Skill Chakra Enhancement's level has risen by one.

Skill Chakra Flow's level has risen by one.

Skill Physical Endurance’s level has risen by one.

Skill Danger Sense's level has risen by one.

[Due to defeating a special enemy of this dungeon, you have received the Passive skill Combat Arts.]

Combat Arts - Passive (LV.1): This skill allows the user to be more proficient in hand to hand combat and usage of weaponry.

Effects: Passively increases the user's minimum and maximum melee Damage, Critical rate and Balance. Make the user ambidextrous.

2% Increase in Damage inflicted.

2% Increase in Attack speed.

[By fighting on dangerous terrain and quickly adapting to it, the skill 'Light steps' has been created.]

Light Steps - Passive/Active (LV. 01): This is a footwork skill that increases the movement speed and terrain adaptability of the user. When fighting an enemy this skill could also be used as a charging skill or avoidance skill according to the user's proficiency.

Effects: Increases balance of the user when in unstable and dangerous terrain.

3% Increase in movement speed.

CP Cost: 50CP/min

'Wow. Fighting this one guy really pushed a lot of skill to the next level. And I even got two new skills.'

Daichi looked over the details of the skills and its effects.

'Not bad. Not bad at all.'

Daichi finished his rudimentary treatment. He stood and slowly made his way back to the cave. After drinking plenty of water and eating the foods stored in his inventory he was able to replenish some of his HP. He reached his cave and took his sleeping bed from his inventory dimension.

"Time to take a good long rest."

Daichi slowly breathed in and out. His mental exhaustion was extreme due to the battle he just went through. Since he was in a relatively safe space, within seconds his eyes closed and he fell asleep.

—---------------------------------------------------------

Author's note:

Sup guys! Saw the Dr. Strange movie a few days ago… Only One word. Awesome!

Now onto other matters. I realize that this dungeon run is way too long. When I first started writing this arc, I thought I would complete it in like 4 chapters. But by the time I was done with the boss battle, the whole dungeon arc was almost 9 chapters.

Even I know that's waaay too long. But I couldn't bring myself to cut down the chapters because I had fun writing it. Especially some of the fight scenes.

But fear not! There will only be a couple more dungeon runs before he becomes genin and I'll be sure to keep those arcs 3 chapters or less.

Now I realize the story has a slow pace. The truth is… even I didn't expect that. When I first planned out the story, even before writing the chapters, I thought I would complete the academy arc by chapter 50 or max. 60! Chapters. And eventually reach the chunin arc by chapter 100 or 120. Never did I imagine it would take soo long. Once this dungeon is completed I'll try and pick up the pace.

I've also taken into consideration how often I show skill stats and what not. I have reduced it in the coming chapters. There will be a skill list at the end of this dungeon arc but then there won't be any skill stat updates on for a while. Like for 20 chapters at least!

And how do you like the fight scenes in this dungeon… I wanted to show that Daichi was strong but not too OP.

Anyway guys, thanks for the reviews. I read all of it. It helps me improve my writing. Thank you for the love and support.

If you enjoy my story then please take a moment to review and rate.

And if you are interested in reading ahead, then checkout my patreon site. I’ve uploaded up to +26 additional chapters there. Link below. Also Voting, currently taking place. Check it out.

https://www.patreon.com/MonkWithAPen