As soon as the duel began, Kara deactivated her [Soul Link] and summoned a duplicate of Sora using [Life Source]. The e radiated an immense amount of life force, and Sora could feel the pressure emanating from it.

  "Don't worry about the space colpsing, we go all out here. The mana absorbed is also more than enough for ht." Kara said, ready for the fight.

  Sora nodded and focused on his oppo.

  He khat Kara preferred using her es to fight rather than engaging directly, She wasn’t oo fight hand-to-hand, and he didn't mind her approach.

  But now, with a limited amount of densed mana, he had to prepare carefully aively. Several spells, like most elemental skills, were off the table due to their drain on his resources.

  After buffing himself and summoning lightning to move faster, Sora decided to test his new css against a powerful oppo. He pulled out a pair of level 90 pistols he had bought in Turkey, capable of eling his mana or using special bullets.

  Ready to start, he activated [Magic Bullet], creating dozens of highly densed bullets, which he would tinuously load into the pistols. As the e approached, he immediately flew back, avoiding cle bat, and fired off rounds while moving at high speed. His aim erfect , but his teique was ent. To his surprise, the e dodged every shot, ing closer calmly.

  The aterialized a sword and swung as soon as it closed in. Sora, enhanced by lightning, dodged at the st moment, but the e kept pace, following closely. Sora attempted to throw it off, yet the e seemed to anticipate his every move. What is happening? he wondered.

  Gng at Kara, he was startled to see her eyes closed. He then heard a voice behind him. “You should focus on the immihreat…”

  Sora turned, hearing Kara’s voice emanating from the e’s dire. “How your e talk?” he asked, running to keep his distance.

  “I’m just using mana to simute sound waves. But enough py—I’m getting serious now, Sora.” Kara replied through the e, with a teasing tone .

  ‘She’s been toying with me?’ he thought, shocked. Sora fired again, utilizing [Blink] to teleport short distances, dodging and attempting terattacks. The e is too fast. My bullets are useless… I need something faster.

  Thinking quickly, he activated [Refleirrors], summoning hundreds of mirrors that formed a dome around himself and the e. eling a rge amount of densed mana, he jured thousands of [Are Beams]. Mana gathered intensely behind each mirror, charging with energy as the mirrors closed in, sealing every gap.

  After abs the beams from the outside, the mirrors would not only reflect but amplify any damage, and the beams, traveling at extreme speed, turhe space within the dome into a deadly cascade of magic.

  Sora used [Blink] just before the dome closed, stepping outside and with [Mana Eyes]. However, he quickly realized he could only track his own beams, uo follow the e’s movements as its life force blocked his sight.

  Ihe dome, had anyone been watg, they would have seen the ove at impossible speeds, dodging each beam with agility. Sora was certain the beams should have pierced it thousands of times by now.

  But a momehe e broke through the dome, pletely unharmed. He couldn’t tell if it had been healing stantly or if it had mao avoid all damage entirely.

  ‘She’s strong…’ he thought, gng at Kara.

  The e lu him, cutting him diagonally before he could fully react. Sora could feel that the e's strength and energy levels matched his own. However, each time they cshed, he ushed back. He tried to leverage his speed to gain the upper hand, but the e seemed to anticipate his every move, evading or tering nearly every strike.

  He began to uand the gap between them. ‘I ood a ce… Is she testing me? How far has she e iraining? This… this is incredible.’ They had both trained for a ‘week’, yet her progress was leagues beyond his.

  He reflected, ‘Did I even really train? No… I was just farming. I became billions of times stronger but I haven’t gotteer’

  Steeling himself, Sora focused even harder. He refused to let her see him as weak.

  As the fight went oiced the e slowing dowing to only basic moves to ter his increasingly desperate strikes. Its swordpy was fwless, and the simple blocks, ters, and strikes kept him entirely on the defensive.

  Each sword strike left him powerless, and every ter sent him flying. ‘What is going on?’ he thought, disoriented. ‘The e is slowing dow I’m still gettien?’

  [Duel Lost][You have lost the duel against Pyer Kara Spirine. RP Dedu: -150 RP.]

  Sora y on the floor, breathing heavily. He had lost the duel. It wasn’t the differen power that bothered him—it was the skill gap. Kara had bee incredibly strong, able to defeat him with pure teique alone, even though the atched him in power.

  Staring up at the ceiling of the [Time Space], he murmured, “Where did I g?”

  Kara stated the obvious, “Did you really think you could beat me when I'm about 30 levels ahead, and levels scale expoially?”

  She hesitated, scratg her forehead before tinuing,her gaze dropping slightly. “Though, there’s more to it. You rely too mu skills… It makes you predictable. And without a defined fighting style, you’re vulnerable to ah the right skillset. Relying on perfected low-level skills alone probably leads to a dead end if there’s no qualitative ge.”

  She paused, her voice softening as she looked away. “You’ve trained for a week… and I’ve trained for twenty years.” Sora watched as her shoulders seemed to slump a little while she tried hiding her expression. “I don’t know if anyone else has spent that much time training sihe world ged.”

  He wao say something, but words felt ie. Instead, he simply nodded, his determination deepening. ‘If she’s gohrough all that, I only look up to her and try to catch up.’

  Sora, who was level 93, knew his stats were close to the standard expected from the weakest level 122 pyers, but Kara who was level 122 was anything but a weak level 122 pyer.

  He asked “Did you unlock many skills during these years?”

  She smiled and said, then said, “This e only used two things: swordsmanship and movement. Did you see him use anything else?”

  Realization dawned on Sora. The e had overwhelmed him with only a sword and refined movement.

  Kara said, remembering her first years in her Space. “I unlocked many skills early on. I simuted tless fights between my es, trolling them and refining my uanding of swordsmanship. I explored multiple paths, relying on all kinds of skills, but ended up discarding them, fog solely on the sword.”

  Sora could see the pride and fiden her eyes, the product of years upon years of practice.

  “But you’re a healer. You’ve never practiced swordsmanship for long,” he said, puzzled. “How did you get the idea to train such a skill to the extreme?”

  Kara smiled, happy to share her thoughts with her friend “I was thinking the opposite… Why shouldn’t I master a on, no matter what css I have? You taught me to think that way, a long time ago. This world rewards dedication. No matter which css you start with, the system responds to effort. By devoting myself to the sword, I transded the limitations of my inal path.”

  “My [Sword Mastery], which I thought was capped at level 10, broke through, again and again. Maybe that’s the beauty of this world. We’re all capable of reag new heights if we’re willing to push past what we think we’re supposed to be.”

  “Did you unlock a Supreme Skill?” Sora asked, thinking that suteraining should have led to one.

  Kara shook her head. “No, I was hoping for that too, but maybe someone else beat me to it. Or maybe not all skills do not lead to a Supreme Skill. My achievements even lead me to doubt Supremacy of such skills. Maybe there’s a way to the top for everyone.”

  Inspired by her progress, Sora said, “I really want to catch up again… But before we train, do you have any suggestions for what we should do over the hree weeks?”

  Kara thought for a moment before responding, “I think it’s important for you to reach level 100 soon. We o unlock all the effects of your Prestige Skill to see its full potential. After that, training together to sharpen our skills while luring in monsters for experience would be ideal. But did you have something else in mind?”

  Sora nodded. “I was sidering going for a more well-rounded approach—learning skills from basic, rare and other powerful csses to absorb their knowledge. I wao build a deeper uanding of csses, mana, and skills as a whole. If I could unloough skills, I’d have endless options and could fight however I want. But after today’s fight, I’m rethinking that… Versatility feels pointless in the face of overwhelming power.”

  “It’s not pointless,” Kara replied with a reassuring smile. “Stop thinking you’re weaker than me, I’m sure you’d beat me up if you were anywhere close to my level, so don’t uimate yourself. You'd probably beat me if you were also in my [Time Space] as well. Why not try both paths? Reach level 100, gather the tless skills you wanted, and then train them here with me. Once you have a wide range, you pick the best teiques and truly master them.”

  Sora felt a surge of motivation. “That sounds good. Let’s see what my Prestige Skill offer first.”

  Over the few weeks iime Space], Sora dedicated himself to leveling up, taking on waves of beasts that Kara drew into their domain. He refined his skills, pushing them to their limits. He focused on his [True Mage] css, perfeg each spell until they reached a refiate.

  Surprisingly, the skills were already close to their ideal forms. This css ractically on the verge of perfe already, he realized. It’s a reminder not to uimate legendary css users, or even those with higher csses.

  Any disdain he had for pyers relying on css skills faded as he traihis time spent with Kara humbled him and broadened his long-term goals.

  He ughed at his own arrogahinking back to his decision to use pistols against her when he’d barely practiced with them before. ‘How overfident I was,’ he thought, ‘thinking I’d mastered a on just by reading its description.’

  He could feel his resolve solidifying. He had ohought his approach was thh, that he was on the right path. Now, he was grateful to have uncovered a ruth without paying for it with his life.

  With such thoughts, he slew the mohat ehe [Time Space] looking for the source of such tempting Life force.

  [Level Up!]

  Reag level 100, Sora found himself alone as he checked the updated details on his [Prestige] skill.

  mimou

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