Kiria became the centre of attention the moment he entered the building. His fame wasn't solely credited to his loud runny mouth with lack of manners, but also due to the fact of him being the only A-rank mana user beside the guild master in the city. His arrogant wasn't baseless. Even before he was summoned into the Earth, he was known with his impressive feat securing difficult job request.
It's no wonder why the guild has to overlook his misdeeds since he delivered all the times.
It was also for that reason why the earthen has to face the mockery and disgusting insults coming from the same person. The day Wong finally raised to B-rank, Kiria came up to him for a practice spar and end up beating him to the ground. Whether he had any reason as to why he hated the earthen so much, no one could ignore how delightful he was while doing the beating.
Especially towards newbies who just join the guild.
Seeing how bold the new kid was trying to disrupt Kiria, there were whispers of both mockery and sympathy spreading in the air from both sides, otherworlder and the earthens. Kim had seen these events so many times even before he entered the city. Most otherworlder look at the earthen like mud.
Kiria was astonished that a new kid dared to stand against him. At the same, his heart filled with joy since now, he has a new toy to play with. One for releasing his stress, and another one to fill his pleasure. The thought made him unconsciously licked his lips with his seemingly sharp tongue.
Kiria was about the release of his mana pressure but stopped when he heard the deep voice of an old man. Kim was astounded to see that even this man who felt like he could stand on top of others would be so wary.
"Hohoho. What do we have here? It seems you have met our new member, Kiria"
The atmosphere changed drastically when the guild master entered the gathering hall. It was too drastic that the dispute that just happened became an afterthought.
It didn't take Larc more than a second to understand the whole situation. Understanding how Kiria is, it's no wonder that Wong would be at the ground in front of a broken wall. Wong probably tried to stop Kiria from getting close to Kim.
Larc wasn't pleased looking at the broken wall. He already had to repair the evaluation room and buy a new mana detector and now he had fix this wall too. Do these kids understand how hard it is to maintain the guild! If anything was broken is not you kids who had to give up your points!
'How am I suppose to buy the new gunda- Wait a minute'
A sudden gush of ideas lit his light bulb and made him smile suspiciously. Leila who has known the guild master for so long could see that he was scheming something. She was already tired with everything that just happened so she just let out a sigh a let the guild master do what he wants.
Larc walked closer toward Kim and Kiria while keeping his eye on the broken wall. Kiria wasn't a bit nervous because he knew the guild won't do anything against him. If he ends up needing to pay for the repair, he could just force the earthens in front of him to pay with his points instead. His arrogant face didn't even show a hint of worry.
"There seems to be some kind of dispute going on. Care for some explanation?"
"Good evening, guild master. As expected, the guild master is as sharp as always. I was just giving a warm greeting to our new member here. Just a simple bonding time between us mana users. You would understand, won't you? Tell him, kid, how we were just having some fun time just now"
Kiria had thought that the guild master would let him off as usual, but instead of just letting him go...
"Now that you already started, why don't the two of you have a quick training spar? It would be a good teaching experience, isn't it?"
Larc was gazing at Kim's eyes when he said the proposal as if he was trying to signal him something. But Kim just felt disgusted and gaze away from him. He was trying to think of what kind of act the old man was trying to do.
Kiria didn't expect the sudden proposal and he wasn't really up for it. Not that he was scared, but simply because it was a waste of his mana to spar with a newbie. He was disgusted with the thought of the need to wash his hands after he finishing Kim off. He just couldn't stand the fact that he needed to dirty himself for a mere earthen!
Larc already knew that Kiria was not going to do it but he won't let this chance to slip by. Before he got an answer from any of them, he put up another offer to the proposal.
"Let make this interesting by making it as a bet between the two of you. The winner will get my support as the guild master regardless of what he has done in the future"
"What seriously?"
"Personal support from the guild master?"
"What did that newbie done to deserve this? I wish I had the chance too"
"Haha, is that a way for the guild to publicly announce their support for Kiria"
"Bullshit. It's obvious Kiria going to win!"
Murmurs continued to go around the gathering hall as the word of personal support come out from Larc's mouth. Having the support of the guild was another thing since it's the guild job to help mana users but personal support from the guild master... that just means having a special throne among mana users.
Once a guild master gave his support to someone everyone in the city will view the person in full reverence. No one would be able to touch the person if it wasn't allowed. Even when they go to another city, the guild there would accept them with full hospitality.
In other words, life would not be miserable anymore. It will never have the chance to be miserable in the first place!
"And if you lose, you have to pay for everything that has been broken today"
Only the people who were in the evaluation room had been struck with a sudden realization of what was happening. The guild master... was trying to make Kiria pay for the repair.
"So what do you say?"
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Fighting with monsters is not the only job of mana users. As to how the world was before the age of mana, crime is still issues of crimes happening all around the community. The moment a person has a grasp of power, the urge of using it is irresistible. What was once deemed to be unimaginably possible has become possible. People could do things that they weren't able to do before. Producing flames out of nothing, jumping up and down a building with ease, create objects through thoughts... and many more. As more people were able to utilize mana, misuses of mana were deemed to happen.
Especially during early-post calamity where everyone was trying to survive. Monsters were lurking everywhere, resources were getting scarce. Finding another human would mean to stab them before getting stabbed first at the back. Lies and trickery were a common thing, but in the end, those who had the power to rule would trample on top of another. It was a simple way of living yet disastrous at the same time.
However, after the Varhem Kingdom army started to govern the land, most of these people lost the power they had. Fighting back was not an option since the otherworlder has vast advantages in terms of their knowledge in mana. To the otherworlder, the strongest earthen on that time was only a newborn chick.
Most have submitted and live their lives under the government of the different kingdoms of the otherworlder but some could not accept the fate that people who or not earthen would take over the Earth. People have started to do demonstrations which eventually lead to a bigger voice of opposition. However, having their voice being turned with a deaf ear eventually resulted in violence.
Those who were involved are forbidden from entering any guarded city and were labelled as rouge mana user. Even so, it was impossible to fully cleanse the society from having crimes happening both inside and outside a city. To make matter worse, ordinary earthen become the majority of the victims.
Thus, often the guild would get a job request to either chase out or exterminate the wrongdoers depending on the severity of the situation which is determined by the guild as well. In those case, mana users would train themselves to fight other mana users in a training hall which is an extended part of the guild building.
In the training hall of the guild in Kuala Terengganu, two men were standing in the middle of a crowd of mana users. One side is the man with bigger stature, the well known A-rank Kiria. In front of him, the young man who everyone witnesses his registration today with an unknown rank, newbie Kim.
Hearing the one-sided cheer against him made him feel like he was playing football as an away team. He glared toward the guild master trying to transmit his dissatisfaction of the whole situation but Larc only gave him a thumbs up with a bright smile.
'You better compensate me well after this'
Feeling distressed with all the commotion that was pushed onto him, Kim was thinking of ending this as soon as he can. However, he was also curious to see how strong is an A-rank mana user. Also... he didn't want to finish this too soon when he thought of how Kiria looked at Momo.
For that reason, he planned not to actively use any mana for fighting and rely solely on his tempered body which he gained from absorbing the mana of all the monsters he killed. This was how Kim and Momo trained to sharpen their fighting skills without relying too much on mana.
Leila became the referee of the fight with Larc overviewing the whole situation.
"Winner is decided when the opposition surrender or seemingly unable to fight anymore. Are both sides ready?"
"Hiyahaha! Come at me, newbie. I'll let you take the first hit"
The crowd turned silent as Leila raised her armed straight to the air gallantly. Even with a serious face, she was still charming. It's a no wonder she would be the front of the guild. With a loud yet soft voice, she shouted, while swinging her arms downward signalling the start of the fight
"Start!"
Those who have known Kiria fight for so long already know what to expect from the fight. Letting his opponent take the first hit is always a blatant lie. Never was in the history has Kiria ever shown mercy in his fight. Even towards a newbie. Expecting that Kiria would wait for the first attack, the newbie thought that there was enough time to think of a plan. Unexpectedly, or to others to be expected, Kiria took this chance to land the first hit. Due to inexperience, a sudden panic attack froze the newbie at that moment and Kiria would get a clean direct hit. Then without stopping, Kiria would continuously trample over his opponent. Not letting a gap of chance for the opponent to surrender.
As to how the audience expected, Kiria who was waiting for the starting signal already on his way rushing toward Kim. In a split second, Kiria managed to cut the distance between him and Kim. What's more terrifying to see was his bulky muscular body could perform a light swift and light movement with a sinister smile on his face. He looked like a bird soaring through the sky.
"Hiyahahahahaha!"
The moment Kiria within his fist range, without mercy he punched at Kim with his enhanced right arm full of killing intent. The crowd who was watching the fight already imagined how Kiria will just endlessly beat up the newbie until the point he could not surrender. The earthens who were rooting for Kim turned their head toward the guild master, hoping he would do something, but to their surprise, the guild master was standing up with a dumbfounded look on his face.
As an archer, Teng has sharpened his mana sense to make sure he could hit his target with precise accuracy. His mana sense could actually be compared with a B-ranker. Teng was incredibly sure that Kim wasn't moving when he got punched by Kiria but how the hell he already appeared in the air behind Kiria?!
He already thought of different ways to continue beating up the newbie in front of him but to his surprise, his punch didn't feel any resistance at all. Realizing that Kim was already gone, he focused his mana sense and quickly turned his body around. Kim was already there falling down with a dropkick. Kiria covered his head to guard himself. Kiria always prided himself with his powerful tempered body which enables him to go berserk going against monsters without fear since none could inflict any pain at him.
But today his pride was crushed with a single kick. The moment that dropkick landed on his arm, he could feel immeasurable pain coursing through his body. His radius felt like they were going to get crushed. Even though Kim has a small build, the dropkick was as heavy as a raging waterfall. No matter how hard Kiria was trying to go against it, he was still falling on his knee.
The surrounding mana users were astonished to see Kiria struggling for the first time as he was holding a single kick from another person.
Kiria gave a loud shout while releasing his mana. Kim could feel an invisible force trying to push him away, which made him do a backflip and landed directly in front Kiria. Seeing that Kim was unguarded after that land, he didn't waste any second to shoot another powerful right straight blow toward Kim's face within point-blank range.
Yet again to his surprise, Kim remained unfazed as he caught Kiria's fist with ease. Looking at Kim who was letting out his right arm with all his five fingers open sent a tingling sensation in his spine. He knew he needed to put up his arm to cover himself but instead, he tried to pull himself out of his Kim's grip. With futile, he couldn't even make Kim budge an inch. He felt like a dog barking at a tree.
He wanted to guard himself but somehow he couldn't make himself to raise his arm up. The newbie whom he thought as an ignorant greenhorn kid, was seemingly emitting a pressure equal to a demon lord. Not that he faced a demon lord before, but if he did, this may be how he would have felt. The moment Kim swung his right arm, Kiria felt like a grim reaper was hanging on his shoulder.
With a loud smack, Kim slapped Kiria face, sending him flying towards the audience like a bird soaring through the sky.