It has been a few days since the juggernaut kicked my ass. I'll be honest and admit that it was a one sided ass-whoopin'. The ass in question being mine. I am lucky that I survived. It was quite humbling and I'm thankful that it happened sooner rather than later. Destroying entire swathes of a city at a whim and having no real consequences, had gotten to my head. I really need to recalibrate my style.
It's hard, when six years go by, literally, in the blink of an eye. Everything I have learned training with the masters needs to be considered more seriously and put into practice with focus.
Training and fighting for real are two very different things. Especially for a beginner like me.
I felt as though Master Roshi was treating me with kiddie gloves, but it turns out he knew I'd had no personal reason to improve. He could not put me through the paces that he put his other students through. He only taught me the basics, and a few variations. Nothing I couldn't handle, and nothing I would get myself into trouble with.
Bang was a bit more reasonable, right up until we'd spar. I would then wake up a few hours later, bruised and hurting. The man treats every spar as if it's life or death. As he should. But he's a lot stronger and better than me at hand-to-hand. Therefore the consistent ass-whooping. It's not like I didn't learn, it is simply a matter of experience.
Madara was the best one to teach and the worst one to learn from. He picked up on instructions very quickly. On the other hand the man was very impatient. Learned a few tricks, that I wasn't fast enough to pull off against the other two. One day, he just asked for my jet bike and fucked right off. Well the message was pretty clear. I'd only ask him how he did things, not to teach me. He's a lot more appreciative if you show him your progress. He is not the hand-holder type of teacher.
Now I've been a drill sergeant before, as much as we make the trainee's life a living hell, we still show you step-by-step the process to follow to get the desired result. Everything from dressing yourself to servicing your weapon. There have been recruits who have had their first proper bed in the Marine Corps. For the ones who served, it was a hell of a time. We had something to be proud of.
Others didn't see it that way, and quite frankly, I don't give a damn. If you weren't in the jungles, or deserts getting shot at, you can shut the fuck up.
What got the most about fighting the Juggernaut is the feeling of anger. Not anger at the situation or the Juggernaut. But more anger at myself. I should have known better.
Alongside anger, there was defiance. I defied everything I knew to be. I am alive a second time. I have been to another world. I talk to people from other worlds regularly.
You think you can take me down with a few thousand creatures? I had half a mind to set off the nuke on the 8th floor just to show the dungeon who's calling the shots here. But I didn't know the fallout zone so I didn't. I didn't want to return to the surface to find out everything is now a wasteland.
Anyway, I investigated the reason for the massive monster parties on every floor. Turns out, it's a periodic occurrence in Orario. A dungeon breakout. I have singlehandedly prevented such a thing from happening on the surface. There is a party of high-level adventurers holding the stairwell to the 19th floor. I really don't want to interfere with their setup. I have a drone parked out on the ceiling. I deployed it when I went to give them food and water. Mainly water. Youe have no idea how important water is when the adrenaline wears off.
The drone monitors how many adventurers there are. So for there have been no fatalities. The few casualties were handled by the potions on hand. All-in-all they have it covered. I just enchant some basic weapons for them to use and their job is quite a bit easier. The down side, all of the weapons break after excessive use. Which is fine by me.
The stats panel is at capacity for another level up.
STR - 1999
END - 1999
DEX - 1999
AGI - 1999
MAG - 1999
I'll do that when I have repaired and modified all my drones to my exacting standards. Do I want to be in life or death situations, no. Will it happen anyway, yes. That is why I want the drones to be able to withstand Juggernauts for a few hours at least.
Looking at the clock and calendar, it's been months since I entered the dungeon. What's a few more weeks?