Sinner System-Chapter 438: Experience

"I-I’m exhausted!" Gasped Cleo, as she flopped onto the ground with a thud, puffs of dust rising up around her.

She looks completely worn out, both her Mana and stamina are probably running on fumes at this point. She really gave it her all, she put on a pretty encouraging showing sparring against the two of us.

"Yeah, that got pretty intense, you did well to keep your composure instead of letting yourself get overwhelmed," Smiled Aria, as she walked over.

The two of them just finished sparring, and while it was a bit less one-sided that Cleo’s fight against me, Aria still pretty much dominated the whole time.

They both went all-out right away, and while they were both on even footing in terms of power, Aria’s greater experience and skill gave her a significant edge.

Though, while I’d been more on the passive side, even after I started attacking, Aria fought a lot more aggressively, the fight was at high-intensity from start to finish.

Still, Cleo put up a good fight, Aria had a few close calls during their bout. Once she gets more experience and sharpens her skills and technique, she’ll be a serious force to be reckoned with.

"I...I figured I’d at least be able to give you a real challenge, since we were at pretty much the same Power Level. But those explosive flames take away my close-range options, I can’t hit you without getting hit myself, so my only choice is to keep my distance and attack you with ranged attacks. Except you didn’t let me get any distance," Cleo sighed wistfully.

"The decisive factor is the difference in mastery over Negative Energy. Honestly, considering how restrictive it is for you, your current level of mastery is pretty decent.

Probably on par with an average Demon, though you definitely have less control over it than Greater Demons do, to say nothing of Archdemons," I informed her.

"As for us, we’ve both reached a level of mastery that would be considered high level even by Archdemons. Well, according to Luxuria, anyway. But we trained pretty extensively to get to that level, it definitely didn’t happen overnight.

You can only use Negative Energy for five seconds at a time in your normal state, and then can’t use it for a whole minute after that.

And with your Monstrification form, you can use it freely, but only for ten minutes. Frankly, with those restrictions, it’ll be really tough to reach our level of mastery over Negative Energy," Surmised Aria bluntly.

"Yeah, I have to agree. At the very least, it’ll take a long time. It’s too bad you weren’t around when we were hit with Demonization...you’d almost definitely have the highest Power Level in the world if you got Descent too and were able to stack it on top of Monstrification," I added with a wry smile.

"That was during the incident with the Archdemon who infiltrated the Sanctuaries and turned a bunch of Aces evil, right? Yeah, I wasn’t even reincarnated in this era yet at that point, I read about it afterwards," She sighed in response.

"Let’s set up sparring sessions on a regular basis, get you up to our level as quickly as possible. I’d say you’re already stronger than at least a few of the other X-Aces, but you’ve definitely got a ton of room for improvement," I remarked thoughtfully.

"Yeah, at her current level, I don’t see her beating Jaden. Beatriz and Aarav might be tough to beat too. But she probably won’t have much trouble against Jin and Iseul," Mused Aria.

"Aren’t those two mid-line fighters, though? So, in other words, as far as front-line fighters go, I’m the weakest among those at X-Ace level?" Surmised Cleo wryly.

"Well, not by a wide margin, mind you. Jaden Xeno is simply an absolute monster, he’d probably give me trouble even at my current level. As for the other two, Beatriz Oliviera’s fighting style is really unorthodox and difficult to predict, and Aarav Gill has some pretty effective tricks up his sleeve.

Keep in mind that all of them have been Hunters for years, they’ve got a substantial amount more experience than you. That goes for the two of us too, we’ve only been Hunters for about two years. Meanwhile, you only just graduated and reached this level of power. With that in mind, you’re already at an incredibly high level," I stated objectively.

"He’s right, no one’s ever been at the level you’re at this soon after graduating," Aria nodded in agreement.

"Thanks, you guys. I really appreciate everything you two have done for me, it would probably have taken me years to get to this level if it wasn’t for that," Cleo smiled gratefully.

Yeah, that’s kind of an understatement. Her growth through Assimilate followed a similar rate to my growth through Devour and Drain. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

If I hadn’t ended up in the Monster world, it probably would’ve taken another two, maybe three, years before I reached my full power.

So, five to six years total, if I start counting from my first raid as a student. But thanks to the absolute buffet of Monsters I feasted on in the other world, I managed to get there in two.

As for Cleo, it’s barely been four months since we started helping her progress. So, yeah, it would’ve taken exponentially longer if she’d tried to progress entirely on her own.

"Sure, don’t mention it. Now, then, we should head back. Go get some rest, you pushed yourself pretty hard," I advised her, as she sat up and shakily got back onto her feet, before dusting herself off.

"And after you rest, take some time to think about where you need to improve, and how. You’ve got a ton of abilities at your disposal, and you’re using them pretty well so far, but if you can get more creative and unpredictable with it, that’d go a long way in making you much more of a threat," Added Aria with a smile.

"Got it, I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again, you guys. I owe you, big time."