The outcome of the duel between Liens and Ben was, naturally, Liens losing.
However, this was intentionally him holding back.
With his current Swordsmanship, he had almost achieved a dimensionality reduction strike against other Trainers.
He could win if he wanted to win, and lose if he wanted to lose; he had become more at ease with controlling his score.
After seeing the progress of his other opponents, Liens had a moment where he felt he might be a Swordsmanship genius.
While others were still rigidly using Basic Swordsmanship, he was already able to freely change his sword movements, swinging his longsword wildly but precisely.
He had even begun to develop his own 'Sword Tendency'.
He felt that he should soon reach the first Swordsmanship realm mentioned by the instructor.
The huge gap between himself and others made Liens feel a bit complacent.
But then he remembered that his true opponents were not the other Trainers in the same situation as him, but the instructor and those guards.
The gap between him and the instructor might be much larger than the gap between him and the other Trainers.
Thinking of this, the complacency dissipated.
He was not a true genius; he just spent more time practicing swords and experienced more and more intense battles than others.
And all of this was brought about by the instance dungeon.
This reminded Liens of the 'little fresh meat' idols from his previous life who were propped up by capital.
They rose quickly but also fell quickly; the difference before and after lay in the extent of capital's support for them.
Everything stemmed from profit; they would be uplifted when they could provide value, and abandoned by capital when they had no value.
Would the instance dungeon also disappear one day? When he had no value.
And where was his value?
Liens really hoped a goddess would appear and tell him that he had transmigrated to this world to defeat the Demon King or something.
With a clear mission, at least he wouldn't feel so apprehensive when using the instance dungeon.
Sometimes, when using the instance dungeon, he truly had the illusion that he was taking out a loan.
Paying for present consumption with his future.
Liens was not unwilling to do this; after all, given his situation, he was already in precarious straits, so what future was there to speak of?
It's just that sometimes, he would also calculate whether this round of the instance dungeon was worth it? Was his gain big enough?
...
Evening, during the large class break, was the knowledge class.
At this time, Marvin was teaching Liens and the others the spelling and application of some common characters and words.
He was gentle in demeanor, always facing Liens and the others with a smile.
Moreover, he was very patient with Liens and the others, always explaining their questions clearly and in detail.
Thanks to Marvin, this amiable teacher, Liens felt that his literacy process was quite smooth.
There was none of the confusion he felt when learning English in his previous life.
Why does this word mean this? Why is this word spelled this way? Why is this word placed here?
He knew nothing, his mind flying off into space.
Of course, using English as an example is a bit off, as the current language is Liens's native tongue.
Although he couldn't write or recognize it, at least he could understand it, which was much better than when he learned English in his previous life; English listening was truly torture.
Therefore, if he were to make an analogy, he felt it was more like learning Chinese now, but it was Chinese for elementary school first and second graders.
Thinking this way, it's no wonder he felt the literacy process was very smooth.
How could an adult learning first-grade elementary school Chinese not be smooth?
However, the common language of this world, like Chinese, is also a pictographic script, meaning it uses graphics to represent meaning.
This, to some extent, increased the difficulty of learning.
The disadvantage of pictographic scripts is that pronunciation and writing are separate, requiring individual memorization, making it difficult to learn initially.
Perhaps it was precisely because of the difficulty of learning that the literacy rate in Kara City was so low.
Liens remembered that among the people he met in the Outer City, very few were literate.
If "he" had been literate back then, "he" could have found a well-paying, easy job.
That way, he wouldn't have lost his job during the price fluctuations in Kara City and become a vagrant.
He wouldn't have inexplicably become a Slave at the Slave Exchange, nor would he have come here.
Moreover, when signing that "contract," if he had been literate, he might not have needed to repeatedly test the binding effects of the "contract."
It was precisely because he had suffered from illiteracy that Liens studied even more diligently.
"This class is finished. Do you have any remaining questions?"
"If so, you can raise your hand and stay after class. I will explain them to you individually."
"If not, you can practice in class first, and then you can go back after class."
Marvin said gently to Liens and the others below the podium.
Marvin's explanation in class was already very detailed, so Liens had no questions.
Therefore, after class, Liens, like most people, left the large classroom and returned to the dormitory.
Marvin, on the other hand, patiently continued to explain the previous class content to the students who stayed behind, one by one.
After everyone had left the large classroom, Marvin also returned to his own room.
Marvin's room was naturally completely different from Liens's dormitory.
In terms of size alone, Marvin's room occupied a significantly larger area than Liens's collective dormitory.
And besides basic furniture like a bed, table, and chair, the room also had bookshelves piled high with books and various unknown instruments.
Various instruments were placed in every corner of the room, making the originally spacious room appear somewhat crowded and cluttered.
Marvin sat down on a chair, placed a blank sheet of paper on the table in front of him, and held a pen, sometimes writing and drawing on the paper, and sometimes stopping to think.
"Of those still alive, with a few exceptions, most of their mental states are still within a normal range."
"Among the exceptions, 5 experimental subjects have somewhat dulled spirits, with longer periods of blanking out and insufficient concentration."
Marvin recalled his observations from class, muttering to himself.
Speaking of this, Marvin quickly wrote down the names of 5 people on the paper and used simple symbols to represent some characteristics of these 5 people.
After writing, Marvin gently tapped the paper a few times with his pen, adopting a thoughtful posture, and then continued to mutter:
"The mental states of 4 people are very good, their concentration is significantly better than average, and they are more proactive in learning."
"Is it an inherent characteristic of the individual, or has the magic flower played a role?"
Marvin then wrote down the names of the 4 people and the symbols representing their characteristics on the paper.
The names of these four people were Liens, Simon, Vincent, and Kent.
After thinking for a while, Marvin took out a notebook from the stack of notebooks on the table; he wanted to record the data obtained today.
[Elemental Calendar 4624, April 9th.]
[On the effect of magic flower powder on the human mind, day ten.]
[Due to last night's incident, many experimental subjects died, causing significant changes in the data.]
[5 people have very poor mental states, suspected that the magic flower's effect on their bodies has gradually worsened.]
[4 people have good mental states, suspected that the current dosage of magic flower has a very good positive effect on the current individuals.]
[Among the 4 people, one is thin and young, estimated to be around 15 years old.]
[One is of medium build and well-proportioned, aged between 20.]
[Two are tall and robust, aged around 25.]
[Other individuals have not yet shown signs of being affected by the magic flower.]
[Above, is all the data for today.]