My Disciples Grind, I Get 100x Their Progress

At Canelo Academy, every student had the choice of whether to attend class or not. But whatever they decided, they had to bear the consequences themselves. The Academy maintained strict grade standards, and if someone fell below the required mark, expulsion was practically guaranteed.

That was exactly why most students showed up even without anyone forcing them to. Still, a few felt confident enough to skip class for a stretch of time.

And that was exactly what Kina was doing. She wasn’t skipping without a clear reason.

She was currently at the Academy’s training grounds. While the other students were still sitting through their morning classes, Kina was out here honing her skills alone.

She let out a slow breath, sweat soaking her entire body, her hair, currently dyed brown, tied back behind her head.

In front of her stood a row of training dummies, built from heavy, sturdy material. There were quite a few of them, and nearly every single one bore visible slash marks.

Kina lifted the hem of her shirt over her stomach, revealing pale, slender skin, using the fabric to wipe the sweat off her face, breathing heavily with exhaustion.

At the same moment, her gaze shifted to a translucent blue screen hovering in front of her.

[One Slash Progress +1.7%]

[One Slash] — [F] — [99.12%] → [One Slash] — [E] — [0.08%]

[STATUS]

Name: [Kina Mivelo]

Master: [Julian Clair]

Rank: F — [34.1%]

Talent: [Lower Swordmanship] — [F-Grade]

Skills:

• [One Slash] — [E] — [0.08%]

• [Flash Step] — [F] — [3.40%]

"...Without Master’s help, my progress is pretty slow."

Kina muttered, exhausted. She’d given her absolute best trying to push One Slash forward. At first, she’d hoped to hit a breakthrough within a day, maybe two at most.

But after that, Kina had come to realize that gaining progress this way wasn’t nearly as easy as it had seemed lately. All those lucky breaks had happened purely thanks to her Master, and rarely showed up when she was on her own.

Of course, Kina probably hadn’t fully registered that the progress she’d made over these past three days was still, by any normal standard, a genuinely huge and difficult achievement.

But her own bar had been set unreasonably high, thanks to what she’d unintentionally received from Julian.

Kina left the training area, grabbing a towel to wipe away the sweat. She needed to rest now, making sure she’d be in peak condition.

After all, three days had already passed, and today was the day Kina would duel Roland, right after first period ended.

Kina still had plenty of time left to rest and recover her mana.

And thinking it over again, her Master would also be there to watch the duel. Kina couldn’t help it, her heart pounded hard and her face flushed red.

The feeling was wonderful, but also incredibly embarrassing!

Kina slapped her own cheeks and clamped her mouth shut tight, glancing off to the side, flustered.

’Focus, Kina! Don’t go thinking weird things about your own Master...!’

But the harder she tried to shove the thought away, the worse her imagination spiraled. Kina jolted, grabbed a water bottle, and dumped it straight over her head, soaking her entire body.

"...What am I supposed to do with these feelings?"

It felt utterly unbearable.

***

Unexpectedly, the duel Julian had imagined would be a quiet, low-key affair turned out to be quite the spectacle instead.

The duel took place right in the middle of the field, under the scorching midday sun. But the students didn’t seem to care in the slightest, they’d all shown up expecting an entertaining show.

There were even a few professors and staff members who’d come to watch. Naturally, the adults probably had entirely different reasons for showing up.

That was because Roland’s own father, a hugely successful businessman who also happened to be a Rank-E Hunter just shy of reaching Rank-D, had come to watch his son personally.

"Master Eland, so good to see you’re doing well! I heard the Serum you developed recently pulled in some massive profits?"

"I heard that too. Apparently, you spent four whole years developing that Serum, and it turned out to be a huge success!"

"Your son’s clearly just as brilliant as you are, sir, he’s bound to win this fight easily. Especially against some girl from the Slums."

Eland Dimne, that was the man’s name.

Even though his career as a Hunter hadn’t amounted to much, he’d found remarkable success as a Serum developer instead. He even owned his own brand, and currently, his products ranked among the finest in all of Central.

Watching all this blatant flattery, Julian couldn’t help but let out a sigh, deep inside himself.

No matter how much this world changed, hierarchy always seemed to operate the exact same way.

Eland Dimne’s gaze drifted, then landed on Julian, who was already watching him. The crowd fell quiet, finally registering that the guardian representing the other side of this conflict with Roland had finally arrived.

Eland paused for a moment, his lips curling into a bright smile. "Oh, you must be Julian. I’ve heard quite a lot about you. You’re currently working as a cashier at LittleMart, aren’t you? Ah, right, how have you been?"

Hearing that, Julian felt utterly exhausted. He genuinely wanted nothing more than to crawl back into his soft bed and sleep like the dead, but since this wasn’t something he could dodge, he simply lifted his head and nodded.

"I’ve always been fine."

’Lies! There’s no way I’m "fine" while having to talk to someone like you.’

Unlike when Julian had first arrived in this world, back then he’d felt like a complete stranger, convinced everyone around him was terrifying and endlessly powerful.

Julian was far more accustomed to this world by now. At the very least, he no longer felt intimidated just by standing across from someone with real power, authority, or status.

Back in his old life, he’d worked as an actor, an industry crawling with plenty of cunning people always looking for ways to tear him down or exploit him through all kinds of dangerous schemes.

And after observing people in this world, Julian had come to realize they weren’t really any different, only the rules of the game had shifted slightly, given all the supernatural powers and strange things floating around here.

Noticing Julian’s lack of reaction, which honestly just came off as pure indifference, Eland’s brow furrowed slightly before he broke into a small smile.

"Just like everyone says, you’re incredibly calm, and completely fearless, aren’t you?"

"....."

’Fearless?’

Julian nearly choked on his own spit. He genuinely couldn’t understand how anyone could look at him and think that, when in reality, he was constantly terrified every single time something threatened the perfectly comfortable life he’d built for himself.

Eland laughed and added, "So, what do you think of this duel?"

"I’ve always thought it’d be such a waste to see a talent as promising as Kiena go to ruin. So, I was thinking I could help you dissolve the agreement between Kiena and Roland, letting Kiena stay enrolled at the Academy."

Eland didn’t give Julian a chance to respond, immediately raising a finger and continuing:

"But it’s difficult to change Roland’s mind on this. Not impossible, mind you, I just have one condition."

"And what condition would that be?" Julian shot back. Chances were, this whole exchange would end up being nothing more than empty formality, since whatever Eland was about to propose was almost certainly something Julian couldn’t accept.

Eland, currently seated in a chair beneath a large tree, shielded from the scorching sun, surrounded by his gathered entourage, widened his smile.

"Kiena’s talented, according to the reports I’ve received, remarkably talented, in fact. So, for the sake of Kiena’s future, I’d like the right to become her guardian, and raise her using the resources at my disposal."

Julian barely reacted, and even when he did, his Talent instantly smoothed it back into nothing.

"Of course, I wouldn’t leave you shortchanged. I’ll compensate you generously. How does a hundred and fifty thousand credits sound?"

That kind of sum could let Julian live like an absolute tycoon back in the Slums, or comfortably support a solid, worry-free middle-class life here in Central for several years straight.

Watching him casually name a figure that large, it was clear he genuinely regarded Kina as a talent worth acquiring outright.

Even the people gathered around, overhearing the offer, looked utterly stunned, taken aback by the sheer amount.

"Is Kiena’s talent really that impressive? Are you certain about this, Master Eland?"

"...Since this is Master Eland’s own personal assessment, it must be true, right?"

"Yeah, doesn’t Master Eland already have a track record of personally raising a few people himself, and turning them into remarkably successful Hunters?"

"If I were him, I’d take that deal in a heartbeat. This kind of luck doesn’t come around twice. Especially since Master Eland always keeps his word."

Eland smiled, flashing his brilliant white teeth. With a sum that large, even residents of Central would find it tempting, let alone Julian, who’d come from nothing but the Slums.

Of course, Eland wasn’t doing this without good reason. He’d already looked into Kina’s background, and discovered that the Academy’s own headmaster had taken a personal interest in her.

That alone served as a solid enough guarantee. Good enough, in fact, that he’d come to see Kina in person himself, rather than simply sending someone on his behalf.

’So... just accept it and go back to where you came from—’

"I refuse."

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