Chapter 165: Instant Sword Court

Lance received the thick skill exchange catalog from the clerk.

He directly flipped to the middle section of the catalog.

Back when he had been short on money, he had already taken interest in a status skill that increased bodily control.

That skill could effectively improve muscular flexibility and limb control, and its exchange price was only around one hundred Merit Points.

But now that his Merit Points were plentiful, the range of choices available to him naturally became much broader.

His fingers slid across the pages, and very quickly, his gaze was firmly attracted to a Status-Type Skill specially marked with a red frame.

【Thunder Sting Reflex】: Exchange requires 280 Merit Points.

This skill originated from an extreme martial combat profession faction that had once shaken the continent with its fame, but had now nearly declined into obscurity.

Instant Sword Court.

This faction abandoned heavy defense entirely, completely giving up conventional protection. They pursued only a single instant during the enemy’s attack to strike first and kill with godlike speed.

“Thunder of Awakening, startled insects leap.”

This was the essence of the skill, the core Status-Type Skill of one of the strongest speed-focused branches within Instant Sword Court.

The core principle of this skill was to use accumulated Aether Energy to forcibly stimulate the body’s motor nerves.

As a result, it dramatically increased the user’s reaction speed for a short period of time.

The catalog even specially noted that once the skill reached a higher level, attacks could even carry a slight lightning-element damage effect.

The entry also included a terrifying battle record of a rare class from this branch of Instant Sword Court, the 【Thunder Execution Sword Oni】, who relied purely on extreme speed to fight seven rare classes of the same level alone—and emerged victorious.

Just reading those words, Lance could already feel the overwhelming strength radiating from them.

During last night’s fierce battle within the Historical Projection—

Because of the dynamic vision brought by 【Wyrmling Eyes】, Lance frequently experienced an extremely awkward sense of mismatch.

His eyes had clearly already followed the movements of the magical beasts’ attacks and even seen through their weaknesses.

Yet because of the limitations of nerve transmission speed, his hands and feet still suffered from slight delays.

This caused him to miss several opportunities for instant kills during real combat.

And the neural stimulation effect brought by 【Thunder Sting Reflex】 was practically tailor-made to resolve this exact weakness.

However, the reason the guild clerk had specially marked it out was because it was dangerous enough.

Although forcibly stimulating the nerves with Aether caused only minor damage each time, over time it would accumulate into irreversible Aether nerve carbonization damage.

Most of those swordsmen who once shone like lightning rarely lived beyond thirty years old.

And once they aged, many of them could not even hold a normal cup steadily anymore.

This was a side effect that Lance’s 【Hvergelmir’s Surge】 could not resolve.

However, these side effects could be eliminated through solidification after advancing into the Professional Rank. But compared to the bonuses of Breathing Techniques, although 【Thunder Sting Reflex】 provided powerful boosts to reaction speed and velocity—

It was still too extreme.

As a result, nobody used this method. Even the swordsmen of Instant Sword Court primarily focused on solidifying Breathing Techniques.

But Lance was different.

Once solidification succeeded—

Then during future combat, he would effectively be able to maintain two powerful Status-Type Skills simultaneously at all times.

He would become a monster possessing both the physique of a Dragon and the extreme speed of a Sword Oni!

“I choose to exchange for this.”

Lance pointed at the entry on the page and signaled to the clerk opposite him.

“Mr. Raven, are you certain?”

After seeing the entry clearly, the clerk’s expression changed slightly, and he kindly warned him, “The side effects of this skill are extremely severe. Many Adventurers who exchanged for it ultimately became crippled…”

“I’m sure.”

Lance’s tone was extremely firm.

The Merit Exchange window was completely different from ordinary settlement counters.

Seeing persuasion fail, the clerk could only sigh before turning around and hurrying to the core archives in the back to process the application.

Not long afterward, a roughly bound but highly detailed skill copybook was respectfully handed into Lance’s hands.

“Mr. Raven, the guild has also provided you with an exclusive private training room.”

The clerk smiled as he explained.

“You may directly study inside the training room. According to regulations, you are entitled to one daily opportunity to practice 【Thunder Sting Reflex】 within this safe environment for an entire month.”

Hearing this bonus benefit, Lance raised an eyebrow.

This treatment was pretty good.

This directly exempted him from the rental fees for a private training room.

Which meant that for the next entire month, he could shamelessly use the guild’s expensive training room for free every single day.

Carrying the faintly ink-scented copybook, Lance skillfully entered the exclusive training room.

He found a clean corner and sat down cross-legged, rapidly flipping through the booklet in his hands.

But in the very next moment, after carefully reading the entire skill book from beginning to end only once, he mercilessly tossed it aside.

Closing his eyes, he silently muttered inwardly.

“System, add points!”

【Thunder Sting Reflex Proficiency +830, LV1→LV3, 180/625】

He successfully mastered the skill.

However, perhaps because all of his current base attributes had already infinitely approached the limit lock of ordinary humans—

This time, despite the skill increasing by two levels in succession, the System Panel did not display any tempting attribute increase notifications like usual.

“Still lacking a bit of proficiency.”

Looking at the progress bar, Lance rotated his wrist slightly.

“If I casually train a little extra over the next two days, I should be able to grind this skill up to Level Four.”

He stood up and walked to the center of the training room.

Taking a deep breath, he directly activated the newly learned 【Thunder Sting Reflex】.

A faint strand of Aether Energy instantly transformed into tingling electrical currents, climbing upward along his spine and forcibly stimulating every motor nerve throughout his body.

【Reaction Speed Temporarily Increased by 15%, Attack Speed Temporarily Increased by 15%】

This was the standard enhancement provided by ordinary Status-Type Skills.

Compared to that, something like the 【Dragon-Hunting Breathing Technique】, which enhanced overall physical abilities in every aspect, was simply a monstrous existence beyond normal standards.

Lance’s pupils gradually contracted, the edges taking on a mysterious dark golden hue.

He assumed a starting stance, and a fierce sequence of 【Azure Dragon Ultimate Flow】 erupted wildly throughout the spacious training room.

His figure moved so quickly that only blurry afterimages remained.

Heavy punches smashed violently through the air with tearing winds, while whip-like kicks lashed at imaginary enemies like steel chains.

Lance could very clearly feel that because of the 15% increase in attack speed—

Even the forceful winds generated between his punches and palm strikes had become much sharper and swifter than before.

The speed at which he connected transitions between various killing moves had also increased by more than an entire level.

Most importantly, with the powerful dynamic vision provided by 【Wyrmling Eyes】—

His hands and feet could finally perfectly keep up with the combat trajectories captured by his eyes.

There was no longer any sense of lag whatsoever.

This exhilarating combat experience made Lance feel as though every drop of blood in his body was boiling excitedly.

In his previous life, he had once heard that under heaven, only speed was unbreakable.

In the future, he needed to collect more skills from Instant Sword Court. He had begun developing a strong interest in their extreme combat style.

However, Lance did not indulge himself in the sensation for long and quickly withdrew the aggressively offensive combat posture.

The cold dark gold within his pupils rapidly faded as well, returning once more to ordinary human black.

“Huu…”

Lance slowly exhaled a stream of heated white mist and calmed his pounding heartbeat.

He glanced at the clock hanging on the wall of the training room.

Next, he still needed to make a trip to the bustling Commercial District.

After already experiencing a major battle yesterday, both his body and spirit needed a little relaxation.

There was no rush to begin additional training immediately.

He had already paid a deposit several days ago at a private alchemy shop for Cecilia’s birthday gift.

The timing should be about right now. He needed to go pick up that customized gift first.

Today, not only had he obtained three dazzling physical gold coins, but he had also solved a crucial skill issue.

Now that he had money in hand, naturally he had to go spend some of it.