
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
In each cell of a $5 \times 5$ square grid, exactly one diagonal was drawn. A vertex of the grid is considered free if it is not an endpoint of any of the drawn diagonals. Find the maximum possible number of free vertices.

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
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