(Denzel's POV):
After I saw Malech valiantly confess his feelings to Thrish, it was quite a shocker when it was shown that there's a sudden appearance of a third party. Me and William escaped and scattered after the incident in the palace.
I went downstairs to the ground floor and started thinking about what to do to stave off boredom. When I arrived, I suddenly heard some random shouts...
"You bastard! Let's take this to the dojo!" - Gayle
"Oh, it's on now!" - Terrence
"You two... Just what in the world..." - Lester
Right in the main room is Gayle and Terrence in an argument and Lester trying to stop Gayle as usual. I wonder, are they gonna be the source of the noise for most days here?
The three started walking towards the dojo while Lester stands in between Gayle and Terrence. He pats Gayle's head and keeps her close to him. Should I do that to Lilith too?
I followed right behind them and lowered my presence to make myself undetectable. I then snuck up right to the dojo entrance where I see Gayle and Terrence unleashing off-scale abilities... Those two aren't holding back against each other though...
When I noticed, Gayle's eyes already turned red which means that she's in peaked-out concentration. Terrence's eyes seemed to have been glowing unnoticeably which could be an ability related to his class.
"Those two seriously keep fighting it out... It's not good if it ends up like this anytime..." - Lester
Lester seems to be alone in the bench with a serious look in his face.
"At this rate they might get injured here..."
Well, injuries in the dojo will be always healed unless they're fatal and exceeding bleeding V. But judging by the fight, they're not even using duel health so I might as well interfere here for breaking the rules... Aight, time to test lightning magic-
I kept my presence lowered as I dashed in between the two troublemakers... I then revealed my presence which made them stop out of panic.
"Paravolt!"
A paralyzing bolt spread out within the entire dojo and paralyzed the three people. They became unable to talk nor move to the point that I can announce without issues.
"Using the dojo is not against the rules but... Do not forget about the duel health if you guys are gonna fight it out."
I moved to a panel in the dojo and switched on the effects to cure crowd control effects... The three who were cured started to move slowly as if some medicine had entered their body.
"Do you understand?"
"Yes..." - Gayle
"Right..." - Terrence
The two of them seemed to have calmed down and has apologized properly. I gave them a light head bonk and pat Gayle's head afterwards. Gayle smiled a little and Terrence simply sighed out.
Lester brought Gayle out which made her seemingly excited. Terrence stayed down for a bit so I have asked him about some things...
"Why do you two always end up in arguments?"
"Ah well, it's something that started from grade school... It's a long story. How about you though? Are you finally good now?" - Terrence
"Yeah, after Lilith just went up and urged me to do that I have never felt so humane again... Do you need some training tech?"
"Training tech?" - Terrence
"You know, some techniques you can use... Your long range is very powerful I get that... But you become a little flimsy when it comes to melee range..."
"I can kick pretty well though?" - Terrence
"Yeah, but that's everything right?"
I started on thinking about what to do with Terrence when he's gonna end up being beaten up by close ranged assassins.
"Well, I always keep distance from my enemies so that I wouldn't be harmed that easily..." - Terrence
"Let's see about that, here... And prepare yourself cause we're gonna try to teach you what it means to be in real combat..."
I tossed Terrence some quick recovery potions as I went to the panel of power adjustment. I manipulated the panel to make sure I'm only using thirty percent of my power.
"I'll be setting myself to thirty percent only, do your best and try not to lose..."
"Huh? What do you mean-" - Terrence
"Duel health!"
"D-duel health!" - Terrence
Terrence panicked a bit as we get shielded by a barrier which immediately disappeared... That signifies that we're currently in a duel and should not be interfered.
Terrence shot multiple bullets quickly with an intent to kill. It's light, but it shouldn't hit me...
I channeled a lightning type magic ability which let's me move at quick speeds.
"Phasing Ripple!"
I had closed my position to Terrence who was shocked with the ability to dodge high speed power bullets. He started launching kicks which I also dodged. I circled around behind him and unleashed a powerful backstabbing attack.
"Frozen tentacles..."
Multiple cold tentacles formed out from my back and had ensnared Terrence all his limbs, preventing him from making any move.
"See now? it's not always about keeping your distance... You also have to keep watch when an enemy actually does come close."
"My bad, you got me... Gayle just simply deflects the bullets back at me so I kinda got used to that." - Terrence
"Good, now let me teach you some things..."
Terrence stayed and continued to train himself after teaching a lot of tricks. I completely instilled into his mind the techniques of melee grappling and firing at close range... I guess I might've made another super soldier unintentionally but I don't really care...
After the training session, it was around noontime... So I went to the dining room for the lunch prepared by Bella and the others. The seating arrangement had some minor changes but there is a large table that allows everyone to sit on the same table regardless of position... It became a house rule in here to always eat in the same table regardless. I like living a tranquil life where there aren't any arrogance on position... I'm sure Seymour also likes that kind of thing...
Lilith has taken Rika's former seat as to firmly tell me that I don't need to hurt myself anymore with her... I was taken in by Lilith who always has an appearance of a somewhat cute and elegant girl just below my age...
While eating, some people just started talking while eating up the food given out. Judging by how great this is... I'm pretty surprised myself that the three of them can prepare such avant-grade food.
We didn't really have an issue with the budget inside the crystal palace. Everyone is living in normalcy even if this is just a virtual world. Even if this was the real world, we're still somewhat filthy rich so we can live through our lives just by shopping and staying at home. In this world, it's easy to just collect up as much money as we can. The food hunting grounds are also pretty occupied by some people who farm drops so it isn't a great choice in taking a part with some other works.
After killing a bunch of people... It's not that unrealistic to have not that much money. Chrominus is an example of this... When he died, he at least had two hundred platinum coins which is a huge fortune. If I include his bounty that reached around a hundred more platinum coins... We're completely set for a year. Three hundred-million copper coins isn't a joke to spend...
Average grade ingredients cost around fifty copper coins and high grade stuff cost at least a silver coin. You can enjoy good food like these for a single gold coin but we can just have Bella wing it..
The entire budget of the Asylum is skyrocketing beyond the human boundaries of beyond thousands of platinum coins that I don't even know much... All members didn't really know what to do with excess money for rewards so we usually just keep the loot.
While thinking about all of that, Malech suddenly threw his fork very skillfully. It was aimed at William who was making a guts pose after teasing him. William moved his head to dodge the fork then maneuvered his arm to catch the fork and toss it back at him. These two...
Malech and William often enter fights just like Gayle and Terrence... Rather, those two do it more often than the other that they'd break the house rules intentionally. Well, it's not like they'd bother the others so I made a special rule just for them...
The beautiful rule I mentioned was simply about Malech and William. When they end up hurting someone unrelated in their jokes, they'll enjoy a short sky dive from the frictionless arena on top of the palace...
The fun of Malech and William became something like playing pong using forks. They skillfully throw and catch the forks and knives without letting themselves get hit. They overdid their things to the point where they're showing afterimage with their movement.
I keep a close eye on the two of them the entire lunch. This usually happens whenever one makes a funny joke about the other... Their combat may not be as serious as Gayle and Terrence, but the number of times they do it is somewhat troublesome.
Lunch ended without any incident except for Malech and William throwing knives and forks, and Gayle and Terrence being loud. We had resumed to our daily life as we kept up on our things. I was with Lilith and tried to stay a bit with her.
"The palace has become noisier huh?" - Lilith
Both me and Lilith are currently sitting up in our bed in the sky floor. She was sitting on top of my lap as I kept my right arm wrapped around her and my left hand caressing her head. I rest my chin on her shoulder as the two of us enjoy our time together.
"Well, at least we feel more alive here..."
"Is it? Well I at least have started to feel much more comfortable being by your side now..." - Lilith
"That's supposed to be my line but... Thanks for staying by my side..."
The two of us ended up napping together in that position. Needless to say my legs became limp when I woke up...