The Flash of Silver Leaf

The air within the secluded inner sanctuary was thick with the scent of blooming starlight lilies and raw, heavily condensed mana. Eren stood at the edge of the sunlit terrace under his flashy blonde "Hero" appearance, his heavy gold chains catching the bright sun filtering through the world tree's canopy. His golden eyes remained completely locked onto the Elven Princess.She was still half-hiding her face behind her long silk sleeve, her cheeks burning a deep, frantic crimson. She looked so quiet, so delicate, that a normal human knight would have dropped their guard instantly. But Eren's internal system interface was actively vibrating with an orange threat-level warning.Ding.[Target Identified: Elven Princess Elena][Class: Spirit Warden / Spatial Blade][Threat Parameter: High-Density Aura Trap Detected.]"Her name is Elena," the Elven King spoke softly from the doorway, his voice tinged with a complex mix of pride and caution. "She has inherited the primordial blood of our first ancestors. Because her spatial mana is too dense for her young body to handle, she rarely interacts with strangers. Her shyness is... a mechanism to protect those around her."Eren let out a slow, cocky gyaru smirk, taking a casual step forward onto the mossy stones. "Protect those around her? Sounds like my kind of party. Don't worry, Your Majesty. I'm pretty good at dodging heavy aggro."The moment Eren's boot crossed the invisible boundary line of the inner garden, Princess Elena's emerald eyes went wide in sudden, panicked alarm. To her hyper-sensitive mana vision, Eren's baseline Level 2 mortal parameters looked incredibly weak, yet the ancient black katana resting on his hip was pulsing with a terrifying, legendary pre-disaster weight. The psychological shock of his sudden presence triggered her survival instincts."D-Don't come closer...!" Elena stammered, her voice incredibly soft, high-pitched, and trembling.But as she spoke, her body reacted automatically. With a blinding flash of silver light, her long silk sleeve whipped forward. Her shyness completely vanished beneath a wave of pure, weaponized destruction. The ambient spatial gravity inside the garden instantly doubled, and three razor-sharp arcs of silver mana—capable of slicing a steel fortress in half—cut through the air, flying straight toward Eren's chest!Frame data identified, Eren's veteran VRMMO brain wired instantly.He didn't have his 10x Demi-God multiplier cheat code to absorb the blast. He was strictly at Level 2. If those silver arcs touched his skin, his health bar would vanish in a single frame.Absolute Adaptability: Stance Cancel!Instead of drawing his blade to block the overwhelming force head-on, Eren exploited his movement mechanics. He dropped his weight to his back foot, utilizing a rapid animation cancel to glide beneath the first two silver arcs by a mere millimeter. The wind from the attack tore cleanly through the edge of his cloak.Cough!A sharp, familiar sting of pain locked through his chest. Forcing his Level 2 mortal pathways to move at frame-perfect speeds caused a single drop of dark blood to well up at the corner of his lips. But his expression didn't falter. It turned completely serious—the look of an injured, bleeding apex lion refusing to back down.As the third silver arc closed in, Eren gripped the hilt of the Legendary First Hero Albert's Katana.SHING!He drew the unpolished black blade in a fraction of a millisecond. Because the ancient katana possessed a passive legendary attribute that completely bypassed magical defense and physical resistance parameters, Eren didn't need high stats to alter the attack's trajectory. He executed a frame-perfect Perfect Parry, tapping the flat of his black iron against the tip of her silver mana arc.BOOM!The explosive shockwave was instantly redirected, blasting outward and shattering a stone bench into dust while Eren stood completely unboved, his black katana resting loosely in his right hand as he wiped the blood from his lip with his knuckles.Princess Elena gasped, her silver sleeve dropping as she stared at him in absolute astonishment. No one in the history of the Atchwi kingdom had ever parried her spatial blade so casually, let alone a human boy with a bleeding lip and a cocky grin. Her heart began to hammer frantically against her ribs, a new, completely overwhelming wave of a deep crimson blush flooding her face as she fell heavily for his dangerous, injured look."Elena!" the Elven King called out, stepping forward to lower the tension. "Calm your spirit. This is the Sovereign Hero Eren. He is not our enemy."Before Elena could even stammer out an apology, the heavy vine doors of the garden were violently thrown open."Eren!" Lady Marine stormed into the terrace, her noble composure entirely shattered by a massive wave of intense jealousy. Her face was a bright, pouty crimson as her eyes zipped from the beautiful, blushing Elven Princess to the drop of blood on Eren's chin. She marched straight up to him, placing her heavy leather boot firmly back onto his foot with a tight pinch to his arm."I leave you alone with the King for five minutes, and you somehow manage to get into a secret garden with a beautiful elf and get yourself hurt again?!" Marine hissed sharply, her heart beating frantically with possessive worry. "What did I tell you about concentrating on the mission?!"Eren chuckled, sheathing the legendary black katana with a crisp click despite the sting on his foot. "Hey, relax, princess. We were just introducing ourselves. Right, Elena?"Elena shrank back again, hiding behind her sleeve, her emerald eyes darting shyly toward Eren's flashy gold chains while her face burned red. The political board was getting messier, his Level 2 body was under immense strain, but as Eren looked at the two high-tier beauties standing in the garden, a confident smirk returned to his face. The speedrun through the Elven Kingdom was officially locked in.