The Retired Hero is an Extra

Jash arrived in the Duel class, which, unlike its name, was a hall with multiple training equipment in it.

This time, only the students who had gone through Aura creation were allowed to enter the Duel class, and it was quite big.

"Definitely enough to accommodate 1000 students at once easily, maybe all 2000," Jash commented, taking a look around.

But his steps didn't stop until he walked to one of the training rooms meant to be used by rankers only.

For others, it would cost them a fair share of their YP, but Jash was not worried at all, having 1928 YP in balance.

Either way, he didn't have to pay any YP to enter it, and he put his ID Bracelet onto the door's sensor before it beeped.

—ID CONFIRMED: Jash Ramille

—TRAINING ACCESS GRANTED – Cost:-

NONE

Jash chose one of the best training rooms in the Duel Facility for a quick training with his newly gained Aura and increased mana capacity.

As the Year Representative, he could use it for free. Others, however, had to fork out a hefty price of 100 YP for each use.

Don't look down on 100 YP as many would do any kind of unsavory task for that amount as earning YP was extremely challenging for freshmen.

For seniors, it wasn't difficult to have 100s of YP or even thousands as they would end up using most of it excluding the Rankers.

As they have many freebies and benefits, they always end up saving YP, but even they willingly spend it on weapons or artifacts.

Of course, only Jash and Ziva had the privilege of being Rankers—Year Representatives—before the assessment test.

And the Duel Class just so happened to be the class where such authority was used the most.

"Duels, huh? It should be fun if there's someone strong," Jash mumbled aloud, recalling the information about the importance of duels.

In Solarnelle Academy, one could challenge others for a duel—if one wanted something or simply due to disagreements.

Of course, challenging others also had its limit.

Rankers could only challenge other Rankers, prohibiting others from challenging the Rankers as well.

Then, there was the fact that students needed to wait for the End Term Evaluation to change the rankings after the assessment test.

While musing so, Jash went into the training room and could immediately feel it was brimming with mana, and multiple facilities were also accommodated in this room.

It was even better than Jash's current dorm room, but it still paled in comparison to the dorm room of Rank 1.

Though he didn't have access to it, he knew it from the novel memories as it was simply the best facility throughout the Solarnelle Academy.

One's Year didn't matter, their rank did as getting Rank 1 across one's Year was the goal and dream of almost everyone.

Alas, it was impossible for normal people to reach it, one really needed to be somewhat insane and crazy to reach it.

Shaking his head to get rid of all distracting thoughts, Jash finally took a stance after choosing a sword.

But he refrained from swinging the sword for now, closing his eyes to recall the sensations of the previous two days.

'It won't be that easy,' he sighed, accepting that his attempt to find his lacking point and instantly cover up for it was a stupid plan and would never work.

—Swish!

In the end, he swung his sword after fixing his grip on its hilt and ensuring his footing was right.

He didn't just stand in one place, his foot moved in a rhythm different from his hands and sword as if they were two different entities.

Surprisingly, Jash could roughly feel his strikes becoming sharper, and even the power behind his strikes seemed to have increased significantly.

'Aura,' he thought, planning to directly put it into use to get a real feel for it.

His mana ran rampant, rushing through the mana circulation pathways before covering his body in a thin film of Aura.

It was not the same color as his mana but pale-bluish, which was no surprise as Aura was indeed different from mana.

Due to him using Aura actively, his strength got another boost, leaving indentations as he stepped forward, and the pressure on his surroundings even increased.

A surge of satisfaction coursed through him as he felt the improvement; Jash began moving and using his sword while maintaining the very thin Aura around his body.

He wasn't performing any Sword Art, just using whatever came by instinct and in the face of the imaginary opponent opposite him.

Aura was not a simple defense mechanism; it was crucial for weapon users, integral to progressing through A-Rank.

On the other hand, Mages directly used mana to sense their surroundings, while weapon users used aura, which was much better.

In simple terms, Aura consumed less mana and could perform similar tasks and would even become an integral part of one's attack power as well.

And most importantly, every Sword Art in this world had techniques which only flourished once the user had unlocked their aura.

Not only that, some techniques were just made with Aura in mind, not focusing on mana at all.

Some people even speculated that in the olden times, weapon users used solely Aura while Mages were the ones who used solely Mana.

But Jash was simply different from them, forcing his Aura and mana to react, interact, connect and forcefully integrate to strengthen him further.

That's why Jash could vividly feel that his aura was nourishing his body to unprecedented levels, giving him the confidence to even fight without pause.

This was the headstart that every student of Solarnelle Academy had over other hunters—Aura.

The earlier one manifested Aura, the higher their stats in the early stage, allowing one to be stronger than others among the same rank.

And Jash was someone who could precisely gauge his current strength easily.

Feeling his upper body and lower body both feeling a pleasant sensation of growing stronger, he employed a more complex footwork.

And as if he was challenging himself, he began increasing his speed at a crazy rate.

But it wasn't just his dexterity and agility that improved, his sword swings had also become swifter, sharper and stronger.

In his mind, he was attacking and evading from a horde of enemies who were averagely skilled with more skilled and less skilled attackers mixed in.

If only one could glance at his crazy training style and improvement speed, they'd be astonished to the point of speechlessness.

Of course, it wasn't just aimless swinging, Jash did have experience of fighting tens of demons at once from his past life, so he imagined just that.

As the situation had happened in the past and he was the one facing it, he improved even more, analyzing his mistakes from that time and how some had even carried over.

Though there was no such thing as Aura in his past life, the fighting situation was still somewhat the same, allowing him to get used to the unfamiliar Aura.

Due to this very pleasure of growing stronger coursing through his veins, he didn't know when 30 minutes elapsed.

In the 40 minutes since the beginning of Aura Creation class, most of the privileged students had formed their Aura and the rest were also about to complete it.

After all, privileged or not, if someone was this talented they would be able to keep up with their rivals.

"Where is Jash Ramille?"