Solitary Sword Sovereign Part 2

Practitioners Path: Duos Classes and Specialists

Will was unsure as to why Hercules had delayed his announcement but there was someone who knew.

High in the sky, Adelda watched Will's figure enter the tunnel as she pondered what had just happened.

'Hercules wanted to see what kind of person the boy was. He wanted to test Will.' Adelda was confident in her conjecture.

Hercules did Indeed want to test Will. He wanted to see what Will valued more. his own survival, or success of the mission. Will had seemingly chosen the latter. Keeping her alive would prevent Frozen Asgard members from jeopardising the mission while also giving them an incentive to take part, as Francis still obtained a decent ranking. She was in the top 16, but that was not a fair representation of her skills.

...

Within the main control room, Hercules, Wodin, Narcissus and Odysseus were observing the battle with keen interest.

"Amazing, to think he had such potential as a mage."

Narcissus could not help but sigh in wonder. He had never expected to see someone with such a wide variety of talents coming from such a humble background

"This is indeed the power of Duos Class. He can't simply a Specialist. He can indeed use yuan freely. Not only that, his class must also be a high ranking one as well because he can freely switch between using mana and qi under level 100. This makes him a high potential Practitioner. I suspect that he has plenty more tricks ahead, " said an enlightened Odysseus.

Duos Class. Classes that could use yuan, the highest form of cultivation energy a cultivator could use. Yuan had the properties of both qi and mana, making it much more valuable than either.

All Duos Classes had yuan but not all yuan users had Duos Classes. With specialised training and time, warriors could cultivate mana and mages could cultivate qi. A proper fusion of the two would result in yuan, which was the highest tier of energy one could use.

Those capable of achieving this fusion of energies were called Specialists while those who could freely switch between mana and qi such as Will were called Practitioners. If one did not possess a Duos Class, the only way one could become a Practitioner was by becoming a Specialist first.

"This boy's aim is to improve himself above all else. He cares more about his mission than grudges, which is strange considering the fact that he comes from such a poor background. Keeping his life should be his priority. So he should not be showing mercy to enemies that have incredible potential to grow. His backer is clearly someone we can't ignore." said Hercules with a grim expression.

The muscular prince could not help but frown because he did not expect to have such a development. Wodin and Odysseus had approached him before the tournament.

They had warned him to pay attention to Will. Hercules had already planned to do so after seeing Will defeat Jingsung Ha's Avatar. But now things had changed. The divine beings he worked with had, in a discreet way, told him to pay special attention.

Hercules knew when to ask and when to just listen. Athena's stutter and her subsequent silence on Will's identity had caused alarm bells to ring in his head. Now two of his wisest subordinates had also done something similar.

Hence Hercules had decided to use this opportunity to understand Will's personality. But before he could do so he was stunned by the revelation of Will being a Practitioner and possessing a Duos Class. After all, he had seen Will fighting as a Swordsman and thus assumed he was a warrior.

Will had shocked Hercules when he showed up as a mage, but Hercules had merely assumed that the boy wasunder training to become a Specialist. Duos classes were incredibly rare and could only be obtained by chance. But the chance of Will having one still existed. Will's superb use of pure mage skills showed that he did indeed have a Duos Class.

Will had defeated a talented user with a B Tier class from a powerhouse organisation using low level spells.

'He is clearly stronger as a warrior. But he still chose to fight as a mage. He wants to strike a balance.'

Hercules had seen with his own eyes how Will had grown. As they had access to plenty of system information, those in the control room could see many things others could not. Most of Will's information was still beyond their access, but they had enough to be able to discern the boy's minimum growth.

'Before this tournament he could barely fight as a mage. Even his activation of matrices was subpar at best. But now, it's like I'm looking at a different person. Not only has his physique changed, he has also changed temperament entirely. His movements, spatial awareness, spell casting and energy control have improved drastically. Especially during his prolonged battle with the lass. If he fought the previous version of Jingsung Ha he met in the previous trials, using these mage abilities well, considering his current skill...'

Narcissus was arrogant but even he had to admit that this mortal had his attention. Hercules was happy with Will's decision to let the girl live. He was satisfied with Will's choice as it made life easier for him. The death of a mortal girl wouldn't affect him much, but at least the mission would not be under the risk of being ruined by internal fighting.

The Frozen Asgard Sect had the greatest power among all the groups attending the mission to Fafnir's grave, so one could imagine what would happen if they were more concerned with killing Will than completing the mission, not to mention Hercules still had to make sure that he looked after Will. He remembered his sister's warnings.

"The boy is indeed talented, but he was facing a restricted opponent. She could not use forbidden arts nor could she use her Truthseeking skills as her opponent had ways of countering them. But the boy's next opponent is different."

Wodin's words caused the group to narrow their eyes and focus on the main screen. Will's next opponent had technically not been decided, but the group had no doubt who he was fighting next.

Hercules could not help but grin as he reclined in his seat. "Next up is Frozen Asgard Arts vs The Unrestrained Hunt. This is truly amusing..."