After the morning's lessons ended, which signified he had completed his work for the day, Liens returned directly to his dorm, lay on his bed, and entered the instance.

The scene shifted.

The newly risen sun, from the light it bestowed upon the earth, carved out two more rays of brilliance…

Evenly bathing the two individuals on the external training grounds.

"We should have just met, haven't we? Have I offended you in some way?"

Nimophila asked Liens with a serious expression.

As for why she was like this?

Because Liens had already pointed his longsword at her.

Even though she moved multiple times, the longsword remained firmly pointed at her.

At the same time, Nimophila also felt a familiar killing intent from Liens… as well as Killing Intent.

This made her extremely puzzled.

What had she done to make the other party develop Killing Intent towards her?

They were perfectly fine yesterday.

Liens ignored Nimophila's question. After confirming she was ready, he swiftly charged forward and swung his sword at her.

"Torrent!"

Nimophila frowned, then cast a divine spell.

Immediately after, a large volume of water surged forth in front of Liens.

The full series lives on My Virtual Library Empire (*).

Like a rushing river, it washed over his body, impeding his advance.

Liens slightly gathered his strength and swung out a Sword Ki cleaving through the water in front of him, then accelerated again, appearing before Nimophila like an afterimage.

Under elemental vision, the longsword, imbued with a layer of Wind Element…

Struck towards Nimophila's neck at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, with an unstoppable momentum.

Nimophila retreated to dodge the attack, then cast another divine spell.

"Water Prison!"

"Dense Fog!"

Subsequently, Liens was surrounded by a surging wall of water.

And after he quickly broke through a gap and rushed out, the entire external training grounds was already enveloped in a thick fog, making it impossible to see anyone clearly with the naked eye.

Even under elemental vision, Liens couldn't find Nimophila's figure.

Liens stood ready, this was a move he hadn't seen before.

Before, Nimophila always engaged him in close combat, making Liens think she wasn't proficient in divine spells.

Now it seemed she might be more skilled in martial arts and preferred close combat, but that didn't mean she wasn't adept at applying divine spells.

This move was very good.

It almost instantly created a dense fog to envelop the battlefield, concealing her figure, and allowing her to attack the enemy from the shadows.

Liens made the wind flow outwards from himself as the center.

At the same time, he focused his mind, carefully sensing any differences in the wind's flow in every direction.

Although he couldn't see anyone with his naked eye, Liens knew that Nimophila couldn't truly disappear.

Because the physical virtualization of a body was simply not an ability they, at their current level, could control.

That involved space.

And space, no matter where, was a very profound and extremely difficult ability to achieve.

According to Lucrezia's notes, spatial abilities, unless one possessed a special innate talent… otherwise, it was a domain one couldn't even touch before reaching Legend.

Therefore, Liens believed that Nimophila was somewhere in the dense fog, preparing to launch a fatal assault on him.

"There!"

The wind transmitted an unusual difference, Liens instantly noticed it, and was about to unleash a Sword Ki towards that direction.

"Can you tell me why you've developed Killing Intent towards me?"

Nimophila's puzzled voice came from all directions within the dense fog.

It was clearly achieved using some divine spell, or perhaps the fog itself had this function.

And the reason for using this method was likely to prevent Liens from locating her through sound.

But she didn't know that even before she spoke, Liens had already identified her position through his own methods.

However, this puzzled voice made Liens stop the Sword Ki that he was about to unleash.

Because he discovered that Nimophila's fighting spirit didn't seem strong.

This made Liens a bit disheartened.

He entered the instance to engage Nimophila in a "blood-boiling, either you die or I die" battle.

He wasn't there to chat with her.

Therefore, Liens immediately launched an attack on Nimophila, forcing her to counterattack.

Then, the two of them could naturally enter the combat phase Liens desired.

But now, Nimophila herself had no intention of fighting, and instead asked him irrelevant questions during the battle.

To him, developing Killing Intent towards others was a very normal behavior.

Especially for him in the "Killing Intent" state, the Killing Intent in his heart was no longer solely directed at a specific person.

Rather, it was directed at every existence he could kill within his line of sight.

Therefore, Nimophila's question seemed like nonsense to Liens.

Does one need a reason to kill?

Perhaps he would in reality, but in the instance, he only needed to consider how to kill.

However, to get Nimophila into a perfect combat state, Liens still racked his brain a bit and fabricated a reason for her.

"My family all died at the hands of the priests of your 'Life Truth Society,' so I want to kill all of you for revenge."

Liens responded to Nimophila with murderous intent.

"No… If that were truly the case, you should have acted yesterday."

Nimophila refuted Liens's excuse.

"That's because there were other people present yesterday, and I was afraid of hurting ordinary people, so I didn't want to act."

Liens continued to argue.

"Then why didn't you come directly to me last night? Wouldn't a night ambush have been better?"

"Why choose this specific moment?"

"Are you trying to get revenge openly?"

"But your current behavior doesn't seem to show the eagerness for revenge that a vengeful person should have."

"You even have the patience to listen to me and argue."

"You… aren't acting for some reason of revenge, are you?"

In just a few sentences, Nimophila reached a conclusion.

"Sigh… Does one need a reason to kill?"

Liens merely retorted with a question, then said nothing more, choosing to act directly.

He had given up on using words to incite Nimophila's fighting spirit.

Indeed, a "crude person" like him truly wasn't suited for such wordplay; direct action was all that was needed.

He didn't believe that Nimophila could remain disengaged from the fight when her Life was at stake.

But what exactly happened last night?

To cause such a significant shift in Nimophila's attitude towards him.

Previously, when Nimophila faced his attacks, she would directly counterattack.

She would never ask about Killing Intent.

'Is it my identity?'

Liens thought.

If there was any difference between him today and him yesterday, it was probably just his identity.

In Nimophila's eyes, his current identity was someone sent by the Adventurers' Association.

Therefore, she might not want to rashly provoke conflict between the two major forces.

"Taking Life requires a reason—this is one of the tenets of our 'Life Truth Society.'"

Nimophila responded calmly.

Then, she gathered strength in one hand and punched, dispersing the massive Sword Ki that had broken through the mist.