Draconic King of Shadows-Chapter 44: Noriko Blaze

The rest of the week quickly went by, with Damion visiting lots of students in the night and spreading the name of Agony.

The name became the talk of the academy, and rumors began to spread around that Agony was the ghost of a student who had been wrongly killed, but was now back for retribution.

Though this wasn’t true, Damion liked that false truth and tweaked his Agony persona to fit it.

He completed the quest of instilling the feeling of Dread in ten individuals, leveled up once and was close to leveling up again.

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[Name: Damion Darkblade]

[Race: Half-Breed Dragon]

[Level: 5]

[Exp: 1100/1600]

[Ability: Shadow]

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[Stats]

-[Strength: 35]

-[Agility: 33]

-[Constitution: 50]

-[Intelligence: 10]

-[HP: 300/300]

-[MP: 20/20]

-[Luck: 10]

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[Basic Skills]

-[Swordsmanship- Intermediate]

-[Krav Maga- Advanced]

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[Shadow Skills]

-[Shadow Pulse- Lvl 3]

-[Shadow Walk- Lvl 4]

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[Dragon Skills]

-[Dragon’s Authority- Lvl 5]

-[Dragon’s Reflective Skin- Lvl 5]

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[Bond Skills]

-[Stat Share- Lvl 1]

-[Ability Sync - Lvl 1]

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His stats had grown well in the past few days, but he was still weak —compared to the strong students that is.

None of the students who had been around before the resurfacing of the strong students could compare to him anymore. His speed, strength and swordsmanship alone could end them, not to talk of adding his skills to the mix.

Kenzo kept up with Damion’s increase in strength. They often sparred on the orders of Hakuro, but not once was Damion able to defeat Kenzo.

Kenzo claimed that Damion was a good sparring partner and was getting better at the sword everyday, which Damion believed because of the increase in Swordsmanship’s mastery, but Damion wasn’t satisfied, he wanted to defeat him. If only he knew, that that was going to be nearly impossible.

His skills had all leveled up, and with each new level of Dragon’s Reflective Skin, Damion could feel a change in it. He couldn’t tell what it was, but he knew that it was something great.

The rewards from completing the quest he spoke of earlier was something he didn’t expect.

He stared at his hands, looking at the hand wraps wound tightly around them up to his elbows. They were black, with inconspicuous purple runes etched on their surface.

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[Celestial Artifact]

[Transcendent Rank]

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[Skill]

[Pugilist’s Rage(Passive): All fist attacks are increased by 100%]

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"Another Transcendent Rank equipment," Damion muttered, and his words were met with a shout from Hakuro.

"Focus!"

Damion quickly realigned his thoughts. He had almost forgotten that he was in the Combat Class trying the Phantom Slash technique.

Damion and Kenzo were performing the Phantom Slash again after their spar. They had gotten better at using it and even incorporated it into their fighting styles.

Hakuro was secretly proud of this, but he didn’t show it, at least not to Kenzo.

A frown appeared on Kenzo’s face as his Stigma bloomed over the left side of his face, across his chest, and over his right arm.

Energy began to flood his wooden Nodachi, and with a quick draw, his blade cut through the air, momentarily splitting the wind ahead of him as his Phantom Slash traveled twenty meters.

Damion did the same, but his only moved a measly seven meters before disappearing.

He dropped his hand dejectedly and clenched his fists. Damion was the only one among all three of Hakuro’s students who was unable to increase his Phantom Slash beyond seven meters.

Hakuro had mentioned that going beyond seven meters was a breakthrough into another stage of ranged sword attacks, yet Damion whose Phantom Slash carried the same level of destructiveness as Kenzo’s, refused to budge even an inch forward.

"The Daily Quests aren’t helping either," Damion cursed under his breath. "They have only been getting worse with each passing day."

"From jumping off a three storey building to visiting random classes and causing trouble for the students and teachers... I feel like the system is trying to make me more enemies. How would I have time to practice swordsmanship, or build an army that way if everyone hates me?"

Damion hadn’t forgotten that he needed to build an army to fight against the Serpent God’s army. He also hadn’t forgotten about Aspasia and the fact that he needed to kill her.

"So many things to do!" Damion groaned. He felt like pulling his hair out and cursing out loud, but he was in Class.

Hakuro seemed to notice his absentmindedness, and as if to add to Damion’s troubles, he called him up and forced him to fight another student.

Damion didn’t even need to use his full strength and outright blew the student off the stage.

Dragon’s Authority’s debuff reduced the already pitiful combat prowess of the student, then with the boost in his punching strength from the hand wraps, he had practically sent the student to the medics on standby.

That didn’t seem to settle Damion’s mind, so Hakuro sent more students.

His mind became clear after a few more came up on stage, but seemingly unsatisfied, Damion faced the whole Combat Class students —excluding Kenzo and Aspasia— one by one.

He didn’t face Kenzo because he had already done so, and he didn’t face Aspasia because according to Hakuro...

"She’s too powerful."

Damion didn’t take that statement too lightly, but he kept to himself... she was Agony’s next target after all.

Damion turned his attention to his hand wraps and smirked. He didn’t need to wipe the blood off them because they were like a very smooth surface, the blood and dirt slipped off them too easily.

"All that’s left is to complete the third Daily Quest then pay Lyra a visit," Damion mused to himself, the corner of his mouth curling into a faint smile. "One week is up already."

Damion left the class immediately after lessons were over. They had done nothing but spar during that period, with Damion doing most of the sparring apparently.

Students cleared out of his way as he passed. It seemed like his presence and the thoughts about him had changed since everyone knew that he had an ability. He was no longer the wimp that anyone could look down on and bully, but was now like a senior to them.

Damion didn’t let this get to his head though, there were still first-year students who could put him in his place just as easily as he did to them.

Speaking of them, he could see one walking in his direction, and his face twisted into a frown.

"Noriko Blaze."