"Starts with what?" Agnes asked, her expression wasn''t kind.


    "Well, sparring," Warden said, leaping to his feet. "That''s what I''m taking as payment, didn''t you hearst night."


    Agnes narrowed her eyes, considering him. She wondered if it was another of his games to amuse himself and make fun of her… Thinking that, she replied, "I''d rather pay with essence gems or contribution points."


    The guy gave her a pouting look. "Come on, don''t say that," he said. "Do you know how is it to find a sparring partner who can match you?"


    Weirdly, Agnes kind of did. For all her time in the academy and in the army, the people who could sh with her shoulder to shoulder could be counted in a single palm. The numbers became even smaller as she umted more power in her path.


    However, here was a weird guy, who didn''t seem to have the same drive as her, yet his battle lust overwhelmed her. Sparring with him might be worth her time, but only if he takes it seriously.


    "I have no interest in ying around with a broom," she said.


    "How about a sword then?" Warden said and brought out [The Divider]. "I would have liked to work more on my spearmanship first. Sadly, I broke my spear… Then again, I think I can learn much about sword from youpared to spear."


    Agnes shot his weapon a look. There seemed to be an intrinsic bond between the de and Warden as if it was a part of him. Her attainment in seeing through this connection wasn''t good enough for her to recognise what kind of weapon it was… but if a weapon lets you bind with your soul is definitely rted to a soul relic.


    Though the aura it radiated isn''t condensed enough to be aplete one… Hmm…


    Agnes unsheathed her de, [Twisted Fang], an iplete soul de, which was still at a higher calibre than his sword.


    Warden smiled, purple gleam appearing in his eyes, as a predatory grin spreading across his lips. This certainly didn''t look like he was going to y around…


    "I have heard so much about your power from the others," Warden said. Dark purple energy wisped out of his form and his weapon, causing her to raise her eyebrow. "Let me experience it."


    Agnes raised her sword as darkness coalesced around her form, forming her lesser defence which aplished rankers of the same rank were unable to prate.


    For the first attack, Agnes let him deal a blow, to make him see what he was dealing with. His de crashed into her dark armour, making her take a step back with the sheer physical force behind it. As for the energy that stuck from his de… all of it was absorbed through her dark Armor. Her power [Darkness Taketh All] lets her consume all energy and transform it into darkness.


    And yet… A bone-chilling shiver ran down her spine when she found she was unable to transform the purple misty energy into darkness… Well, notpletely. Moreover, when the raw energy of the de drew into her channels, it burned through her in a cold indignation.


    Agnes eyes turned dark and she rejected all the foreign energy immediately. "Void energy," she mumbled, still feeling the shiver in her back. She looked up at her sparring partner. "You have a path?"


    Warden just shrugged and charged at her. His expression told less taking more fighting.


    Agnes resolved her inner turmoil andplied with simr enthusiasm.


    While with a broom, Warden was obnoxious and masterful, with his energy and the de was a different beast altogether. There was so much more raw power, the devastating force was unrelenting and only advanced.


    Agnes took a defensive stance, relying more on her foundations as she tried to read through his fighting style. There was finesse alright, but it was rawer and more instinctual, fairly opposite of her style, which relies more on finesse and umtion of experience.


    She surged forth after finding she would never gain an advantage on the back foot. Warden was the type of opponent who relied on overwhelming strength and didn''t leave his enemy any room for counterattacking.


    She released another of her cards.Darkness formed around her in a shadowy silhouette and her movement received a boost. She moved in shadowy forms leaving a mirage of herself. To a lesser opponent, this trick would have gotten her victory, but Warden didn''t make any mistake even once on recognising her from the mirage.


    But that was alright, all she needed was the boosted speed. And of course, her intent. Together with her energy, it did a lot better in absorbing the void energy. Of course, she wasn''t deranged or high-ranked enough to channel the absorbed energy into her body. She discarded them as quickly as she absorbed them… It was a taxing job, considering the destructive power of void energy.


    However, using her intent semi-perfect synergy with her dark energy, she managed to get the upper hand. Her de cut his thick skin, yet before the blood could bobble out the wounds closed. His defence was tough enough that she was unable to get anything more than a shallow cut on most times.


    Still, Agnes was delighted to destroy his janitor uniform, that thing had been an eyesore for her for some time. Well, honestly, the wearer of the uniform was the eyesore. Hopefully, he''d stop acting in the role of a janitor with this.


    The advantage was tilted towards her for the rest of the match, as for some unknown reason her opponent didn''t bother to bring out his intent. She forced on him more, driving his sword into his body countless times, yet the fe had the body of a monster. His self-healing power seemed only lesserpared to the trolls.


    Ultimately, even with her advantage, she could only bring the spar to a standstill after about a whole hour ofbat.


    Warden heaved, wiping the sweat from his face. "That was delightful."


    Agnes scowled at him. "Why haven''t you used your intent in the fight?"


    "Don''t get me wrong," Warden said, crooking his nose. "My energy destabilises everything. So mixing intent would barely do any help other than burn my mental energy in a long spar like this."


    Agnes stared at him for an extended moment and then nodded, finding it to be the truth.


    "But don''t you worry, I n on working on reinforcing them together," he said. "Though I n on mastering the intent first, it''s been close to 50% for a few days."


    Agnes noted that number. Her mastery was at 65%, so she still had an edge on him in mastery of intent. However, that brought her back to the real question.


    Agnes looked around to find the others had woken up and gone on with their morning ritual.


    "So, you have a void path?" she asked the obvious question.


    Warden tilted his head, perhaps considering if he should tell the truth. Did he think it was not apparent yet?


    "Well, kind of," Warden said.


    Agnes narrowed her eyes, studying him again to see if she had missed anything.


    "What?" Warden asked, finding her gaze somewhat ufortable.


    "Just wondering," she said, exhaling. With the sweat marring herplete form, she would like a bath, though in this mission she would have to be satisfied with her energy. "As far as I can remember void rted sses are all restricted through the system."


    Warden gave an oblivious look as if he was hearing it for the first time. Then he saw how she was sucking in all the sweat from her body and clothes through her darkness power. His eyes lit up. "That''s a neat trick, can you do it for me?"


    Agnes was right about him, he was odd. He just found out his path might be restricted in the system, and yet he asked him about cleaning his sweat. Hmm, maybe he''s good at acting.


    Well, she couldn''t glimpse at his aura to determine anything. There was a heavy ward on ce, kind of like ''him''. Agnes shook her head and ignored that line of thought.


    Warden seemed to take her shake of the head as a refusal of his request, but he onlyined with a deep exhale. "So, you were talking about a restricted path?"


    "I''m surprised you did not know anything about this?"


    Warden scratched his chin. "I''m not really around here."


    "Nor am I," Agnes snorted at his obvious excuse. "Restricted path is as it sounds… they are restricted. I don''t know the details, and most of what I learned is spection but the system will not let anyone with a restricted path reach the Peak."


    "Hmm," Warden hummed deep in thought and then shrugged. "Well, nobody came to stop me from advancing and—" he suddenly stopped as if remembering something. His eyes turned sharp. "Can you tell me more about this?"


    "I mean, my knowledge is iplete and whatever I learned seemed like spection," she said. "Still, I can give a full ount of what I remember, considering your help in repairing my breastte. It''s just—"


    Caleb walked in with his spear in hand, looking ready for a spar.


    "I''m here to pay for the bill," he said to Warden, whose attention was still on her.


    "We''ll discuss thister," Agnes said and departed, feeling talking about a restricted topic like this in the open wasn''t right, even if her soldiers were trustworthy.


    "Seems like you two worked on your differences," Caleb said as he positioned himself for the spar. he looked at his nonexistent uniform and smiled. "Told you, a good beating gives you prospective on things." mvle,mp|y|r hosted