The next morning, Leonis stood in front of one of the private training halls of Evernight Palace.
Unlike the public halls of the academy, there were no lines of students here, and there was no sound of weapons clashing from around the area.
The floor of the hall was made of solid gray stone, and several training dummies were placed around the field at certain distances.
The walls were also covered with layers of defensive arrays, apparently, the owner of this place was used to breaking things during training.
He spun the training sword in his hand and checked its weight.
His newly refined core was calm.
The Mana that he had to focus on to move yesterday was now flowing through the paths in his body with almost no resistance.
However, there was one small problem.
His master had still not arrived.
Leonis looked at the clock.
Three minutes.
He looked at the entrance again.
Five minutes.
When the time reached seven minutes, he finally heard the door opening behind him.
"Master, you really don’t know how to be on time." he said without turning around.
"Class starts whenever I say it starts." Evangeline Evernight’s calm voice answered from behind him.
Leonis turned around, and for a few moments, he said nothing.
His master had put aside her usual formal and long clothes.
She was wearing a black combat outfit that looked completely simple, but its simplicity only made the lines of her mature and well-shaped body clearer.
The dark fabric was gathered around her thin waist, and the combat pants left her long and powerful legs free.
Her long black hair was also not loose like usual, she had tied it up, which made her white neck and more of her shoulders visible.
This outfit also made her extremely well-shaped peach-like butt stand out and took all attention.
The clothes could barely contain her two large and well-shaped breasts, and it seemed like they could burst out at any moment.
For a moment, Leonis completely forgot that he was supposed to learn about surviving today.
Apparently, death could wait a little.
"If you’re done staring, pick up your sword." Evangeline walked past him without even pointing out where he was looking.
He still did not take his eyes off her.
"I haven’t decided yet."
She stopped and turned her head slightly.
"Do you want to die before the test?"
"Looking at beautiful things increases motivation, Master." Leonis answered completely seriously.
Evangeline was silent for a few seconds, and then a very gentle smile appeared on her lips.
"Very good. Then you have enough motivation to train twice as much now."
Leonis immediately understood that he had made a strategic mistake.
"Can I take back what I said?"
"No."
Evangeline reached the center of the hall, and Leonis also followed her with a short sigh.
The woman looked at her student from head to toe, not with the look of a woman looking at a man, but with the look of a master looking at something that she had to prevent from being killed in ten days.
This look was strangely more frightening.
"You are weak." she then said without any introduction.
He waited for her to continue, but there was no continuation.
"I thought a master was supposed to increase her student’s confidence."
"If confidence could stop the claws of a Fallen, I would praise you for a whole hour."
Leonis briefly looked at the sword in his hand, he was not stupid, he really was weak and there was no doubt about it.
Even though he currently had a ten-star core and an Immortal Insight Soul, neither of them could guarantee his victory in the test ten days from now.
Fortunately, the previous owner of this body was not lazy and had built a good foundation, however, the current him knew even more how important power was in a world like this.
He had no plans to be lazy, he was doing everything he could to at least pass the test ten days from now.
"Your talent is F-rank, you are Level One, your core only returned from complete destruction yesterday, and most importantly, you have no real experience fighting Fallens."
Leonis said nothing.
None of what she said was wrong.
Evangeline took a few steps forward and gently tapped his chest with the tip of her finger.
"Good swordsmanship helps, control over Mana also helps, but if a Fallen stronger than you hits you directly even once, none of those things will matter anymore."
Her tone was still calm, and that calmness made her words feel heavier.
"So until the test, I’m not going to teach you how to become stronger than your enemy, unfortunately, you can’t learn something like that, so I want to teach you how to stay alive when the enemy is stronger than you."
Leonis looked at her face for a few moments and nodded, his master had decided to teach him something that she thought would be the most useful for him.
And she was right, this woman had no idea that he had an extremely overpowered system, and with its help, it might not take long before he could obtain an SSS-rank talent.
Evangeline stretched her hand toward the side of the field, the space moved like a wave for a moment, and a completely black sheath came out of it and landed in her palm.
"Have you ever seen my true power?"
"No, Master, but I have heard about your reputation."
She took a short breath and then pulled the sword out of its sheath.
The blade was so black that light did not reflect from its surface, it looked more like a thin crack in space than a real sword.
At the same moment, the environment also changed, the light around the blade became slightly weaker, and the scattered Mana in the hall faded.
Leonis unconsciously focused more.
Evangeline gave a short look at one of the training dummies, and with a gesture, the defensive array around the dummy activated.
A blue barrier formed around it.
He saw the flow of Mana entering the array from the floor of the field and feeding the barrier.
She stepped forward and moved the sword only once, the black blade passed beside the barrier.
There was no explosion, and even the surface of the barrier did not shake.
For a moment, Leonis thought the attack had intentionally missed it.
One second later, the blue light went out, the entire barrier disappeared without even a single crack, as if someone had cut its power connection.
The dummy was still intact, the ground was intact, and even the array itself had not broken.
He focused his eyes on the Mana lines, the main path that brought energy to the barrier... had been cut.
"You should know why they call me the Lady Of Eternal Night, my true power allows me to shut down anything, from Mana to structures."
Leonis did not make a sarcastic comment this time.
He had seen his master’s power in a way that the system’s numbers could not show its true weight.
Shut down anything? He now understood why many other masters were afraid of this woman.
Evangeline looked at him.
"When you’re not stronger than something, you don’t need to break the thing itself."
She pointed the tip of her sword at the shut-down lines on the floor, with her attack, she had cut off the flow of Mana to that dummy.
"Break the thing that makes it strong."
"I understand, Master."
"Good, because today, you’re not even going to get close to doing it."
Her smile disappeared, this woman really had a talent for ruining every inspiring moment.
She put her black sword back into its sheath.
"Now your sword."
Leonis raised the training sword, and the woman looked at his stance for a few seconds, then she stood directly behind him.
The distance was so small that he could feel the warmth of her body against his back.
Before Leonis could say anything, Evangeline’s right hand went around his wrist and corrected the angle of the sword.
Her other hand rested on his side and lowered his center of gravity slightly.
"Move your right foot half a step back, don’t lock your knee, and your back is too stiff."
Leonis obeyed, however, it was not that easy to focus, his master’s soft and warm body was right behind him, and her two breasts were pressed against his back.
However, somehow, he pushed the distracting thoughts out of his mind, no matter how much he wanted to enjoy this moment, he should not forget that he had to take the test ten days from now.
Passing that test was not going to happen by itself.