Usually, after Yale finished the class, Swordmad gave him some advice, and he returned to his room. However, the same day Yale finished the fourth Dynamic Quest, Swordmad said something else.
"You have been training with me for some time, in the next month's Clan's Gathering, you shall do an exhibition battle and show your progress to everyone."
The Clan's Gathering was something that happened once per year, and it was normal for some youngsters to show their abilities in exhibition battles. However, Yale didn't expect that Swordmad wanted him to show off.
"All right, I won't disappoint you, master."
Yale didn't have any reason to refuse because he also wanted to test himself in a battle against others.
He continued training until the day of the Clan's Gathering, but his stats and skills remained the same.
The day of the Clan's Gathering, Yale was in a very good mood, but it wasn't because of the exhibition battle but was because his big sister would come back to attend the Clan's Gathering.
The Clan's Gathering was considered quite simple there was a lot of food and alcohol for the adults. The only exciting part was the younger generation's exhibition battles.
Yale took a wooden sword with him to use in the exhibition battle. Of course, real weapons were forbidden. The objective wasn't to harm the opponent, so both participants should stop just before actually hitting the other, and the weapons shouldn't be able to provoke huge damage even if they failed to stop.
Yale didn't eat anything and went to a corner. He didn't like being surrounded by a lot of people.
"Yale!"
A cute voice said while Yale suddenly got hugged. That person was Ange, Yale's big sister.
She was almost twelve years old, her face showed a gentle expression and had long dark brown hair which matched with her dark brown eyes.
When she was beside Yale, it was easy to tell that they were siblings. Yale's hair was short and disordered, but the color was the same, and their facial features were also similar, Yale could be considered a pretty boy.
"Sis, I really wanted to see you."
Ange was sure that if Yale interacted more with the world outside the clan, he would become popular with girls. His face with a well-trained body was something that a lot of girls liked.
Of course, Yale was still a kid and wasn't interested in those things yet, but Ange liked to tease him.
"You have become more handsome after training your body, would you like your big sister to introduce you to my friend's little sister? I'm sure you would like her."
Yale quickly shook his head. He wanted to focus on training, and furthermore, he didn't understand those matters, so he didn't want to think about them.
"Sis, don't tease me with those topics. Why do you insist that I need a girlfriend?"
After arguing a bit more about that topic, Ange decided to start speaking about her life in the academy. Both spoke with each other until the exhibition battles began. Yale's turn was the last, so he had a lot of time to see the other battles while waiting.
Yale had quite a good eye for battles after training with Swordmad for more than a half year, so he analyzed the battles carefully, and he felt confident of winning against all of them in a one versus one battle. Although not all the battles would be easy, in the end, Yale would win.
However, Yale's opponent was the only one Yale didn't feel confident of winning against. Although Yale never saw him fighting, the opponent was someone considered highly talented within the clan and was almost ten years old.
The others didn't dare to battle with him, but Swordmad wanted Yale to battle with the strongest among the younger generation.
That guy was named Blackor and was a recognized illegitimate son of the clan. He had a weird name like most illegitimate sons.
Blackor always disliked Yale and become very upset when Yale become an apprentice of Swordmad. Blackor and Yale never interacted before. Blackor's hate was only because of what he heard of Yale.
Blackor was quite tall for his age and had bulky muscles. He was a standard for a talented warrior, something that the clan valued a lot. Yale looked weaker than Blackor, but since he trained with Swordmad, everyone knew that they couldn't judge Yale by his looks.
Both entered the stage with wooden swords in hand. That battle was a battle of swordsmen.
"Lucky kid, after you lose today, even your master will despise you."
Blackor was a bully who looked down on everyone else, and given his status, he didn't fear Yale.
"I'm not here to talk."
Yale was unmoved by Blackor words because his only interest was to win the battle.
The battle started with both charging forward. Blackor had a better body build, but Yale's ability with the sword was greater than Blackor's.
Both exchanged blows without stop, but each time the swords clashed with each other, so the battle continued.
Usually, the exhibition battles were quite quick. That kind of battle was a rare sight.
The battle seemed balanced, but Yale was at a disadvantage. His body couldn't compare with Blackor's body, and he couldn't go easy with such an opponent, Yale was getting exhausted.
Yale didn't want to lose, but he knew the condition of his own body. He had to bet the battle on a feint. He decided to deceive Blackor to land a hit.
Yale suddenly changed his direction, startling Blackor, and pointed the sword towards Blackor's neck. Feint successful.
"I win."
After Yale stated his victory, he went back to his sister's side, without giving the fight any importance.
Fortunately, Blackor was a muscle brain and only knew to be straightforward in battle; he was very weak at feints, and Yale could exploit his weakness.
However, Yale lacked the speed to do such a feint in front of Blackor at the start of the battle.
He had the feeling that he was almost at the point of increasing his Agility and put his hopes in increasing it in the battle.
Yale was at six points of Agility quite some time already. He had been hoping to reach the seventh point before the Clan's Gathering, but in the end, he only reached it in the middle of the battle and managed to win thanks to that extra point of Agility.
Blackor didn't want to accept that he lost the battle, but he couldn't go against the elders of the clan, so he could only go back in silence.
A lot of clan members congratulated Yale, including Ange, who was very happy for his victory.
However, Yale wasn't interested in that while he went to check the newly acquired Elemental Affinity in the Innate Talent Menu, he completed the second sub-quest when he obtained the seventh Agility point.
[Light Elemental Affinity: Perfect grade. The best affinity to practice light magic.]
Yale didn't know how to react; he got perfect grade Elemental Affinity for two of the most difficult to train normal elements. He was betting that if he got a third, with his luck, it would be darkness.
"Why that face? You won the battle."
Ange said when she saw Yale's facial expression.
"I won, but it was because Blackor was overconfident and a bit stupid. In a battle of pure strength, I'm not his match."
Yale quickly gave an explanation to his facial expression when he saw the new Elemental Affinity. What he said was true, but it wasn't the reason for the weird expression on his face.
Yale continued chatting about the battle with his sister while checking the new sub-quest in the Quest Menu.
[Sub-quest: All stats maxed as a mortal. Time limit: Before reaching ten-years-old. Reward: Origin Path training method.]
Seeing the new sub-quest Yale became quite depressed, it seemed that until maxing all of his stats, he can't get any more benefits from the Main Chain Quest.
"Roanmad clansmen, I'm glad to have you all here again this year, I'm..."
The Clan Chief's speech started, he was Yale and Ange great-grandfather, but he had too many descendants, so there was no way he could know all of them.
However, the Clan Chief knew about Ange and Yale. The first was someone very valued by the Nacesai Academy, the academy even sent some bodyguards to protect her from the shadows. On the other hand, Yale was the disciple of Swordmad, someone who was even older than the Clan Chief.
However, with his position, knowing about Yale and Ange was already very good, there was no chance he would interact with the younger generation without important reasons. He only talked to Ange once and never to Yale.
Suddenly the speech was interrupted. Everyone fell silent with their eyes out of focus as if they were in a trance.
"What happened?"
Yale was startled, he didn't know why everyone became absent-minded at the same time, but the system replied to him.
[A powerful Illusion had been cast in the area.]
Yale then understood why he was unaffected. He had the Illusion Immunity Passive Skill.
However, Yale didn't understand who and why would cast such illusion in the Roanmad Clan's Gathering as it wasn't the best time to attack the clan. The illusion will only be effective for some seconds to the powerful members of the clan.
If the attackers wanted to go out alive, they could kill at most one or two weak clansmen. There was no need to wait until the day all of the clan gathered. Unless the target was someone that only came to the clan on that day.
Yale face changed as he looked at his sister. She was someone that was usually never in the clan, and killing her in the Nacesai Academy was almost impossible. Furthermore, her status as a healer was important to the whole city.
Yale thoughts were right. There was a shadow with a long spear rushing towards his sister.
Yale tried to move his sister to evade the incoming attack.
However, Yale could only move his sister's body. After doing it, his own body was in the attack's trajectory.
He used his sword to try to block some of the incoming attack power, but the attack easily destroyed the sword, and the spear stabbed at Yale's chest, sending him flying.
Yale was under the World's Law Protection, and he didn't provoke the other party, so the attacker became heavily injured by the World's Laws, losing any chance to run away or attacking anyone else.
"You dared to stab your spear into my disciple. You and your whole lineage are dead."
That angry voice was from Swordmad, he didn't attend the gathering, but he rushed there when he sensed something amiss.
However, he was too late. Yale managed to save Ange but got fatally injured in return.
Swordmad's voice awakened the clan members that could only stare at the scene with confused eyes as Swordmad caught up Yale's body in mid-air.
"All healers come quickly, or he will die!"
Ange, who recently awakened, cried as she ran to help Yale. All the other healers present, even those who only knew some simple healing spells and couldn't be considered healers did the same. There was no time for questions because saving a life was more important, and the one asking for it was Swordmad, a very powerful figure in the clan.
The injury was fatal to normal medicine, but with healing magic, there was still a chance to save him.
The last thing Yale remembered before losing his consciousness was his sister crying his name.