Six hours blew by. William jolted awake, flinching in pain. "Couldn’t you wake me up like a normal person? Did you really have to zap me? I nearly had a damn heart attack," he muttered.

[If I could, I’d have woken you up with a kiss, maybe even something else~]

[But right now I don’t have a body, so you’ll just have to manage with this.]

William rolled his eyes at Rollie’s antics. "At least go easy with the zaps next time. Felt like Mjolnir just hit me."

Once the zap wore off, he trudged out to the grassland where Cent was already working his spear, every swing crisp and controlled.

Watching Cent, William decided it was time to work on his sword technique. He pulled out the manual, a bunch of rough pages tied with a black string. Flipping through, he found easy-to-follow illustrations of stance, shift, and footwork.

It was simple. Eight stances, four offense, four defense. Every rotation and step laid out with bold arrows and numbers.

William drew the Balanced Steel sword. The blade flashed in the light, he didn’t have to check the edge to know it was razor-sharp.

A two-handed longsword, probably pushing twenty pounds, not that it mattered. With his new physique, it felt light as air.

He gripped the hilt and lined up for the manual’s first stance, a straight vertical slash. Planting his front foot, he brought the blade down.

But his balance broke for some reason, and he stumbled a few steps forward. Clicking his tongue in irritation, he tried again... and again. Five times. Ten times. Every swing, the same problem, his weight kept pulling outward with the blade.

Cent watched from a distance, eyeing William’s struggle. It didn’t take him long to figure out what William was doing wrong. He started walking towards him.

William lowered his sword as Cent approached.

Cent stopped a few meters away, then raised his spear and performed a flawless vertical swing followed by a forward thrust. He stayed rooted to the spot, hands steady, eyes locked on the spear’s tip.

William realized Cent was giving him a lesson, so he paid close attention. Cent repeated the move, this time with a lot more force, and lost his balance, stumbling just like William had.

William’s eyes went wide. "So I’m swinging too hard, huh?" Cent nodded. William jumped right back into his stance.

He took a moment to steady his breathing, eyes locked on the blade. This time, he kept his strength in check and brought the sword down in a vertical slash. His stance remained steady, and the arc came out clean.

Cent went back to his own practice while William continued his vertical swings. After a dozen reps, he switched to horizontal strikes, tougher than vertical. The grip had to go from tight and close to wide and loose.

He moved on to combining vertical and horizontal strikes. Each time, his movements got steadier. His muscles were adapting faster than he expected.

After an hour, both strikes felt natural. He collapsed onto the grass, completely spent and breathing raggedly. Still, a proud grin spread across his face. "Ahhhh... Finally, two down. Took longer than I thought, but now I might actually hit intermediate proficiency before the trial," he muttered.

⟡⟡⟡

Time went by. On the third and final day of the protection period, William and Cent faced each other, both breathing rigidly, sweat pouring down their faces as the sound of clashing weapons echoed. Every strike was clean, precise, no wasted movement.

The past three days had been nothing but eat, sleep, train, repeat.

The only real surprise was hearing about Aunt Julia’s troop and talent. She’d hit the jackpot, B-rank Light Guardians for troops, and an A-rank Light Mage talent.

William wasn’t worried about her anymore. He was sure she’d breeze through the first trial. He’d been guiding her and even given her some Bloom flowers.

He’d also planted a life seed at the edge of the Blooms, supposedly, he’d get a plant-type troop by tomorrow, according to the traits description. As for luck, he’d saved two free gacha draws for right before the trial, fully expecting to pull nothing but trash.

As for sword technique, William had perfected all eight stances yesterday, unlocked the technique section on his status, too, but he wasn’t stopping there. He wanted to push it to intermediate before the trial starts.

The manual had clear instructions, low proficiency comes from practicing alone, but to hit intermediate, you need a real opponent. High proficiency? That’s reserved for actual battles, life-or-death.

So he’d teamed up with Cent, who was also stuck at low proficiency in his spear technique. They’d been sparring since yesterday, right after William hit low proficiency, but neither had improved one damn bit.

Another session went down, and both of them sprawled on the grass, totally wiped. William caught his breath and thought, 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

’Fuckkk! At this rate, I’ll never hit intermediate before the trial. Haven’t even touched the lower floors because of this grind. What I need is a stronger opponent to push me. But where the hell am I supposed to find one?’

’It’s just me, Cent, and Lumina, a weak buff fairy... Buff fairy... BUFF FUCKING FAIRY...’

William mentally screamed, eyes going wide as the realization smacked him. He clutched his head with both hands.

’Aaaaaaaaaaa... Why... WHY AM I SUCH A FUCKING IDIOT? I’ve been flapping around with Cent like a pigeon when I could’ve just let Lumina use her skill on him.’

It took him a minute to calm down. Afterward, he called for Lumina. The instant she heard her name, she zipped over to William. He gave her a quick cheek rub, then pointed at Cent. "Can you use Light Touch on him?" Lumina stared up with those big eyes, then let out a little ’Kyuu~’ and drifted over to Cent.

When she reached him, Lumina raised both hands and pointed at Cent. Mana streamed from her palms, wrapping him in a subtle golden glow. William and Cent took positions and jumped right back into sparring.

With a 20% boost to all attributes, Cent’s strikes were heavier. William kept getting shoved back, forced onto the defensive nearly the whole time. When the buff wore off, they didn’t stop, no cooldown on Lumina’s skill meant they just repeated the process until her mana ran dry. The second she was recharged, they started up again.

This was exactly what William needed. After a few hours, he was completely drained, but was grinning widely as he checked his status. He’d finally hit intermediate proficiency. All that spamming of Light Touch had paid off, too, Lumina’s skill had advanced to intermediate. Now she could boost attributes by 25% for thirty seconds.

Only Cent got the short end of the stick because of being William’s practice dummy the whole time.

He was still lying on the grass, completely spent, when the tower system flashed in front of him.

[Greetings, tower lords. The tower trial will begin in six hours. Climbers will be sent to every tower, their maximum tier is One (Intermediate), and numbers will be at random.]

[Tower lords will be judged on performance and rewarded accordingly.]

⟡⟡⟡

[A/N]: Please consider supporting by sending some Power Stones and Golden tickets. Your support means a lot and really helps me continue writing.

Cent’s character design is attached in the comment