CHAPTER 41: THE MYSTERIOUS REPRESENTATIVE

"UOOOOHHHH!! Lord Onimaru Kunitsuna!!"

"We won the event, hahahaa!! Thank you for the blessings, Lord Onimaru!! I’ll worship you forever!"

"I haven’t heard of you, big boss, but I certainly have now, haha!"

The bladeborns of Valmaris burst into deafening cheers and celebration, their hearts welling with pride as though it was them who fought for humanity.

Naturally, in some parts, people scrambled to exit the realm to contact their superiors and become the first to relay the glorious news.

Inside the massive meeting hall in the Southern Bladeborn Academy of Cluster 4...

Dejection and awkward silence filled the air.

They’ve contacted everyone they could, exhausting their network and available options, yet not one influential figure in the entire hall was able to pinpoint who the representative was.

They even went so far as to check the A-rankers.

Still nothing...

It was then that the phone of one of Principal Jebroham’s aides rang, reverberating in the silence and breaking the atmosphere like a thunderstrike.

Erauld quickly grabbed his phone from the table and checked who the caller was.

It was one of his subordinates in the Myriad Sword Realm.

Naturally, he answered the call as quickly as he could, his heart racing wildly.

’Damn it, why are you suddenly so fast now?!’ Erauld complained inwardly.

He didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news.

It was about time for the duel event to end, after all, and he was almost certain that the call was all about this matter.

Unfortunately, his darned subordinate just had to become the most efficient subordinate of all time at such bad timing.

Erauld was a rather quick-witted man, though, pressing the loudspeaker button so that he didn’t have to relay the news himself.

The entire hall was silent, so Renan’s voice reverberated clearly:

"S-S-Sir Erauld!!" the aide’s subordinate stuttered. "W-W-Won!! Our race’s representative!!"

Everyone’s eyes widened in utter bewilderment, their ears struggling to process what they just heard.

What the hell was this Renan guy saying?

Their random representative, a youngster who they didn’t even know and hadn’t been given a single darned advantage, won against a fully-prepared representative of the other race?!

Principal Jebroham pushed his old bones to the limit and rushed to grab the phone from Erauld.

"Who’s the chosen representative?! Also, speak clearly! Did we win or did we not win?!"

"P-P-Principal Jebroham!? R-Reporting to the principal! Yes, our representative, a bladeborn with the trial name Onimaru Kunitsuna, has won the duel event, securing the lives of this batch of novices along with a fifty-percent experience and ten percent drop rate boost for the entire race!"

A loud clack resounded in the entire hall as the bald academic leader failed to keep a tight hold of the phone.

The screen of Erauld’s phone cracked, but he couldn’t care less.

His entire brain momentarily short-circuited with everyone else’s as the unheard-of name of a bladeborn occupied their minds: Onimaru Kunitsuna.

Initially, the higher-ups of Neo-Earth had been certain that the representative would be either of the four SSS-Rankers of this batch: Gram from Cluster 3, Chi Xiao from Cluster 1, Cluster 4’s very own Durandal, and Sigrun from Cluster 7.

Where the hell did this Onimaru Kunitsuna come from, and why were they only hearing of him/her now?

"Onimaru...Kunitsuna..." muttered the Neo-Earth World Government’s agent before forcefully snapping himself out of his stupor, quickly pulling his phone out and calling someone.

Meanwhile, the entire hall burst into an excited commotion, the instructors chatting among themselves.

Perhaps one of them knew who the young bladeborn was?

Unfortunately, it wasn’t only them, but even the government agent had no idea who "Onimaru Kunitsuna" was.

"What?! What do you mean the trial name isn’t in the database?! I’m warning you...Don’t you embarrass me at such a crucial moment! Look properly or I’ll pluck your eyes since you don’t know how to use them anyway!"

The name wasn’t even in the database?! What idiocy was this subordinate of his spouting?

Everyone knew that, with the government’s perfect registration and tracking system, no novice could enter the Myriad Sword Realm without their trial names and the rank of their swords being recorded.

The officers’ reports, quickly followed by each academy’s instructors’, served as assurance that no high-ranker would escape the net.

Such a thing was simply impossible and had never happened before.

To their bewilderment, no matter how hard the agent’s contact searched, no Onimaru Kunitsuna came up in the results...

***

**

Meanwhile, in the Myriad Sword Realm, a blonde young man stood in the middle of a savannah biome, smiling faintly as he read and closed all the notifications that popped up:

[Bladeborn [Onimaru Kunitsuna], you’ve won a glorious victory for your race!]

[The racial boosts you will receive will be doubled.]

[Your connection to the realm has been strengthened. You will be able to stay for an extra hour each day.]

[Triumphant Novice Representative’s Reward Pack has been deposited to your inventory by [The Overseer].]

Once done, he tapped on his belt bag, prompting the inventory window to appear.

He then selected the reward pack:

[Do you want to open the item [Triumphant Novice Representative’s Reward Pack]? Y/N]

[Y]

[You’ve obtained 20,000 Experience Points.]

[Congratulations! You’ve leveled up to 24!]

[You’ve obtained 10,000 Swordcoins.]

[You’ve obtained 50 Actualizer Crystals.]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Helm (B).]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Pauldrons (B).]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Chestplate (B).]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Gloves (B).]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Belt (B).]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Legguards (B).]

[You’ve obtained Triumphant Novice’s Boots (B).]

[You’ve obtained the title: [Strongest Novice].]

Daru’s brows raised in delight.

’A B-tier equipment set and a new title, huh?’ he mused as he allocated the attribute points he got from leveling up. ’Timely...’

Daru then unhesitatingly equipped the entire set of level 15 bronze-colored armor with a noble feather carved in the upper right part of the chestplate, emphasizing his youth and heroism, before dabbling with his title.

He was quite certain there was an option to keep displaying [Bob’s Sworn Brother] while using the effect of [Strongest Novice]...

’Ahh...is it this one?’

It didn’t take him long to set his titles the way he wanted to.

Soon after, Daru took a look at his status window:

==

Bladeborn: Daru Finnley

Level 24 (10,550 to level up)

Titles: Bob’s Sworn Brother [Active(Display)], Strongest Novice [Active (Effect)]

Secondary Titles: None

Blessings: [Goddess ???????’s Minor Blessing (???? ????’s ???)]

Curses: [Yama’s Discontent (Soulbound Sword)] [Goddess Fortuna’s Frown]

Strength: 51 (+20)

Dexterity: 51 (+20)

Agility: 54 (+20)

Stamina: 45(+20)

Vitality: 40 (+30)

Perception: 66 (+20)

Luck: 0 (+65)

==

Sword Status:

Name: Onimaru Kunitsuna

Type: Tachi

Tier: S

Status: Dormant - 0 / 500 Oni or Demon Essence (First Awakening)

Sword Skills: Somersault Slash (F), Havoc Rush (B), Azure Swordfall (SS)

Passives: [Divine Comprehension (Soulbound Sword)], [Tainted Enforcer (Soulbound Sword)]

==

He nodded with a faint smile, satisfied at what he was seeing, until he noticed something he hadn’t expected.

Daru’s brows furrowed.