Sister Aisha pointed her sword at me and ordered, "Come, Brother Raj."

"Well then, here goes nothing."

In a split second, I bolted forward, and just as I got close to her, I skidded my feet and swung the katana in a horizontal arc aimed at her belly.

Her eyes widened at my sudden movement. She instantly drove her sword downward in a vertical slash, stopping my attack before it could hit her body.

Tang!

Sparks erupted from the point of contact, and her foot was pushed slightly backward.

Before she could steady herself, I surged upward. My katana scraped against her steel with a harsh screech, slamming into her hilt and snapping her sword upward.

The moment her front became defenseless, I coiled the fingers of my free hand into a fist and slammed it into her belly.

Bam!

"Wh-what a wild fighting style!?" Sister Aisha muttered, completely unfazed by my punch.

Her arm moved to grab the wrist of the hand that had just struck her, but I instantly retreated and swung my sword vertically for another relentless attack.

This time, she was prepared. Her claymore clashed against my katana and forced me a few feet backward.

"This must be the advantage of higher physical stats," I murmured inwardly, my hand trembling from the impact.

We continued the spar for the next half an hour, with neither of us gaining an advantage over the other.

To be honest, if this were truly the level of her skills, I could defeat her in pure swordsmanship within three moves. She was holding back her physical strength, afraid of hurting me, while I was only using ten percent of my actual sword skills. I didn't want to break her confidence, as in her eyes, this was the first day I was holding a sword.

"I-I give up, Sister Aisha," I said, falling onto my back and dropping my sword.

For a moment, Sister Aisha didn't say anything. After a brief pause, two shocked voices echoed simultaneously.

"When and where did you learn such sword skills!?"

Both Aryan and Sister Aisha demanded, their faces carrying the visage of absolute shock.

"Guess I went too far with the spar," I sighed inwardly before replying, averting my eyes. "I have an ability that lets me learn sword skills faster. I used that ability, watched a couple of sword-fighting videos, and practiced."

"What the heck am I even saying? There's no way these two are going to believe—"

"Oh, that explains these insane skills," Sister Aisha sighed.

"Tch! I wanted to enjoy your bruised face after the clash, but you didn't even get a scratch," Aryan added. The geezer was disappointed that I was completely unscathed.

"Huh!? They actually believed it!?" I gasped inwardly.

"Your physical prowess was equally amazing," Sister Aisha added. "It felt like I was fighting a B-Rank Awakener. I've never heard of someone growing that strong in such a short time."

"Might be because I'm a blessed Awakener," I chuckled, scratching my temple awkwardly.

Before they could investigate me further, a sharp, annoyed voice echoed.

"Raj! Why aren't you coming inside!?" Maa scolded, arriving at the backyard.

"Oh, when did you two come?" she asked, turning her attention toward Aryan and Sister Aisha.

"We came a little while ago," Aryan replied before adding, "Let's head in. I'm very hungry."

I put the katana back into its box, and as we were heading inside, Aryan whispered into my ear, "When are you planning to tell Maa that you want to become an Awakener?"

"Soon-soon," I replied, avoiding his gaze.

After dinner, I went to my room, where I learned the Blood Tempering and Crimson Wound skills of the katana.

The next day, just as I had predicted, a special challenge appeared again.

Ding…

"The Day-15 challenge of the 30-day Daily Challenge has begun!

Special challenges and rewards for the 15th day have been triggered!!!!"

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

SPECIAL CHALLENGE

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. Sun Salutation 100 times [0/100]

2. Push-ups [0/2000]

3. Sit-ups [0/2000]

4. Run 50 kilometres [0/50]

5. Clear one D-Rank dungeon alone [0/1]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

REWARD ON COMPLETION

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

1. All stats +10

2. Yin energy: +10 per monster killed

3. One random attribute-based skill

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Hmm, the quest isn't that different from the previous special challenge," I said, reading the screen.

Ding…

"Automatic scanning for a D-Rank Dungeon activated!"

"The Host will be notified once a D-Rank Dungeon is found."

While Vivi was scanning for a D-Rank gate, I entered the home gym and began the first four tasks.

Over the past seven days, I had increased the weight of the T-shirt from 50 to 150 kilograms, and for this special challenge, I decided to wear the 200 kg T-shirt.

Four hours passed by the time I finished this intense training, and just as I was about to take a moment to breathe—

Ding…

"Vivi has detected an energy fluctuation 150 kilometres toward the northeast. A D-Rank gate is about to appear within an hour!"

"150 kilometres!!?"

I checked the location on the map, and it showed a green-colored mark in Meerut—a city in the neighboring state of Uttarakhand.

"Vivi, can you look for another D-Rank gate?"

"Judging by the energy fluctuations within a 200-kilometre radius, the chances of another D-Rank gate appearing within the remaining 14 hours are close to zero. However, there are currently ten active D-Rank dungeons in Uttarakhand, but Vivi skipped them as they must have already been discovered by other Awakeners."

"Aren't you a smart one?" I muttered sarcastically. "Guess I have no choice but to ask for her help again."

Releasing a reluctant sigh, I grabbed my phone and called my brother.

"Hello, Elder Brother. I hope I didn't disturb you again today!"

Beep!

"Th-this geezer!" I muttered, several veins popping on my forehead. My grip tightened in rage, and I accidentally broke the protective glass of my phone.

Swallowing my pride, I called him again, and the moment he picked up, I shouted, "Geezer! You can't digest respect, can you!? You must be a masochist who enjoys getting insulted!"

"Stop annoying me. I'm not free like you. Say what you want, little shit."

"Aghh! This geezer. Alright then, I'll get straight to the point. I want Jasmine!!"

For a moment, there was no reply from the other side.

After a couple of seconds, a flustered female voice murmured, "Wh-what are you saying, Mr. Raj?"

That was Jasmine's voice. The geezer must have picked up my call on speaker.

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