Edited By: Lumosz LMZ The training facility was same as ever, full of activity. Everyone was training with their own methods. There were various types of instrument, like pressure suits scattered around the floor. They were all good but none could compare to the gravity chamber; only advanced training facilities had the gravity chamber. It was the best training machinery available in the republic. I checked to see if there were any pressure suits available for usage, even though, the pressure suits are called a cheaper version of gravity chamber. The pressure suits looked like normal training suits but were a little heavier and applied pressure on the wearer’s body according to their needs. Still there are no suits available. I sighed at the results but I was not surprised or shocked. Because there were rarely any suits available, most of them were already used by others. On another note, it is no fun fighting androids. I was about to go and find challengers to fight but all the rings are occupied. Seeing this, I had no choice but to wait for a ring to empty. I watch some battles happening in the rings as I wait for a ring to empty. Soon enough, a battle was over and both of the parties got out of the ring. Before anyone else could enter, I hastily ran into the ring and started waiting for challengers to come. I didn’t take a second for a challenger to come but I got little startled by seeing their level. It’s a specialist grade evolver. I had never fought against a specialist grade ever before. I only fought against people who were at the peak of Private grade. "You don’t mind me challenging you right? Do you?" he asked with a polite smile. He looked quite old, around his mid-twenties. I have seen very few people around that age here, especially those who were at specialist grade. He had a stocky body with a round face,a small beard grew upon it and together with his long blond hair he had a charming look. "Of course not! To fight against a specialist grade is my fortune." I said with a smile. "I am Michael." I continued by introducing myself. ’’Reynard" he replied and immediately the countdown started. We both held our weapons tight. He was using a falchion and I was using my katana. "Ding" As soon as the bell rang, we both started to attack each other. "Clank!" both of our weapons collided, resulting in Renard being pushed back by two steps. Shock was clearly visible on face as he, a Lv. 1 Specialist Grade, was forced two steps back from the attack of a measly Lv. 2 Private stage evolver. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂 Quickly regaining his control over his emotions, he started to attack me again. "Clank clank....." both of our swords went through multiple battles but neither of us is able to gain a upper hand. "I have not seen you before, are you new here?" he asked while attacking, looking clearly relaxed, as though the fight had put zero strain on him. "Yes, it’s only been week since I’ve come to this building." I replied as we fought. "That’s good" he said, ending the conversation. If others were to see our fight, they would believe that we are equally matched and neither has an advantage on the other. But I knew the truth, it was different. I could tell that Reynard had total control over his body and was using minimum amounts of energy to counter my moves. Not just that, his moves which seemed to be simple on the surface had mysterious rhythm to it, it may be some kind of advances combat style. "Clank clank clank..." Seeing that the fight was not going anywhere. I gritted my teeth and I decided to circulate the first move of the second set of the devil’s exercise. The pain hit me hard but I endured it. Just as my power increased, so did Reynards. He closely matched his power with mine and yet again we come to a standstill. I smile wryly at this but this was also a chance for me to refine my moves. With a expert fighting me, I can see my mistakes and the path to improvement more easily. Reynard seemed to be no hurry to finish the fight and I have no problem with that. In fact, it was better for me as the longer the fight lasted, the higher the chance to improve. When, humans and monsters of the same level fought, the humans will win 70% of all fights. The monsters are inherently stronger and it had double the mana reserve than normal humans but it still struggled to beat lower leveled humans. The reason was intelligence, the monsters have a very low intelligence. Only monsters bonded with humans had a chance of gaining higher intelligence. If it had been any specialist monster instead of Reynard, it would be either dead or gravely injured. But with a human opponent like Reynard, I couldn’t seem to get even the slightest upper hand. The feeling I got from him, I think he could finish me in maximum three moves if he wants to and that was considering if I was lucky. As the fight progressed, Reynard started to increase the power behind his moves. Left with no other choice, I had to circulate the second movement of the exercise to keep up with him. Most of the people who were watching our fight soon lost interest as they did not find anything fun or interesting in it but for me, it is one of the best fights I’ve ever had yet. I was able to find many of my mistakes and started to fix them. Reynard understandingly, did not rush the fight but increased the pressure on me but it was at speed that neither too slow nor was it too fast. "Slic" I failed to counter Reynard’s sword and it grazed my shoulder. I would have gotten more injured if Reynard hadn’t controlled the force behind the move. Soon, due to the great pressure increase, I had to circulate the third movement of the second set of the DEMON’S exercise. The pain I felt was immense but I had to endure it;I know that it will be difficult for me come across such opportunity again. I fought with Reynard for more than two hours and pressure of his sword kept constantly increasing. For a short while I was able to keep up but soon the pressure increased even more. As expected, I got hit by Reynard more than ten times, many times I tried to circulate forth move but I was unable to. With there being no use fighting anymore, I admitted my loss. "Thank You" I said as I left the ring but he just smiled and stayed there.