"WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE JUST DISAPPEARED?!"

While chaos was ongoing within Crownbloom's headquarters in Neo-Earth, the young man in question had long managed to return and find a safe spot inside the Crystal Hollows.

Voluntary exits and forced ones were different, as per an article Daru read online titled: "Ten EXTREMELY important things novices must know."

The former would result in one's trial body being left unconscious in the Myriad Sword realm.

The latter, on the other hand, would completely remove one's existence, which was why he had to look for a safe space to hide his sleeping husk.

This was also the reason why residences in settlements, field and dungeon sleeping bags, and camping tents were musts for professional bladeborns.

These properties and items would protect one while one is in Neo-Earth, though of course, the level of protection depended on the quality of the items.

Residences are the most safe, followed by camping tents, then sleeping bags.

Professionals wouldn't be kicked out of the realm like the novices, after all.

They had to always ensure that their husks would be safe.

No one wanted to find themselves standing in front of a sword goddess statue upon return—lives reduced by one, or worse, suddenly perish while randomly walking around in Neo-Earth.

There were a few horrifying cases of such a thing happening, where the defenceless husk's injuries in the sword realm would suddenly transfer over to the bladeborn in Neo-Earth, resulting in a tragic, unexpected death.

These were rare cases, however.

Only idiots who had only one life left and still dared sleep in an unsafe location were the victims of such mind-blowing incidents.

It was difficult to feel bad for them, as the tragedies were simply the consequences of unbelievable levels of stupidity and carelessness.

…Exiting the realm, Daru ignored the usual taunts from the goon squad and headed to the academy canteen to have lunch, then to the sixth training field afterwards, grabbing one of the wooden tachis and proceeding to strike one of the dummies in a slow manner, prioritising form.

"Hello," a familiar voice as gentle as the north-eastern breeze's caress sounded to his right, prompting Daru to turn after finishing a diagonal slashing motion.

"Hey," he greeted back, both offering profound bows to each other before proceeding to strike dummies side by side.

This had been his and Snowflower's awkward but strangely comfortable routine every afternoon.

Of course, they would train separately whenever classes began, but outside of it, they usually did drills together, sometimes asking each other for opinions and advice.

The novices in all four classes still found it difficult to get used to such a scene, and many naturally hated Daru for his undeserved luck.

Even now, many would clench their fists in frustration at the mere sight of him talking to Iris as though they were equals.

When will this F-ranker know his place?!

Fortunately, today, there was a chance for one of them to teach the Fallen Sword Prince a lesson, as it was the second round of the representative selection tournament.

The instructors soon arrived, and Snowflower bid her training partner a temporary goodbye.

She didn't wish him luck in his match.

After all, she was certain Daru didn't need it.

His opponent, another C-ranker, needed it more.

At least that's what Iris believed…

The first hour of the afternoon classes proceeded as usual: form, footwork, speed, precision, power.

Only at the beginning of the second hour did the second round of the selection tournament start for all four classes in the Sixth Training Field.

With the lesser-skilled ones eliminated in the first round, the matches would only get more exciting and high-level.

The opening match was between a D-ranker and one of the few lucky E-rankers.

There were no unexpected outcomes this time, and the higher-ranked bladeborns won, though the gap was naturally not as wide as it would be in the sword realm.

The lower-ranked students were at least able to put up decent fights before going down.

In the third match, there was even a D-ranker who almost defeated a C-ranker, bringing the score to a close 2-2 before being struck first in a final exchange.

The young woman was two centimetres away from an upset against another member of Zach's goon squad.

But none of these matches mattered much to Talon.

In the end, all of them would fall to either Sylphina, False Witness, Silver Serpent, or Lionbreaker.

The instructor was more interested in a dark horse whom he had failed to accurately gauge the skills of time and again: Daru Finnley.

He was certainly on par with the top C-rankers of his class, perhaps more skilled than them at times.

However, as for whether the level of his swordsmanship was enough to allow him to upset either of the three B-rankers, Talon also wanted to know.

Daru would sometimes show moments of unparalleled brilliance, only to be followed by a rather mediocre performance.

The instructor could only wonder about why he was so inconsistent, secretly hoping that Daru would be in form by the time he fought one of the B-rankers so Talon could finally gauge his true abilities.

There was no doubt in his mind that Sylphina would be his class' representative, though.

Even False Witness only had slim chances of defeating her.

Myriad Sword Realm or Neo-Earth—it didn't matter. Lynn was the undisputed queen of Class 70.

Lost in his thoughts, the instructor and his class's attention was suddenly captured by a wave of 'oohs' from Class 69.

"W-What was that…"

"She's not a fairy but a goddess! How could one be so fierce yet still be so graceful, otherwise?"

Daru, on the other hand, had been watching the entire match since earlier, nodding in satisfaction at Iris' brilliant, high-risk riposte.

Her moves showcased her overflowing confidence and courage.

It would've hurt a lot and possibly damaged her gorgeous face had she failed, yet there was no hesitation in both her eyes and movements, earning her Daru's approval.

Almost everyone kept watching, mesmerised by her beauty, even when all she did was return to one of the benches to drink water and rest.

Instructor Talon was among the first ones to shift his attention to something else.

He was way too old to be participating in such youthful matters, turning to look at the pieces of paper in his hands.

'Let's see…next match…'

"Tenth match: Daru Finnley, Genevieve Dumont."

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