"Alright, everything checks out. Please bring August to the guild's arena, Vice Guildmaster Xie. I'll be doing a mock battle against him." Marklein announced.
"Understood. Follow me." Xie Tian bowed before the guild master before he led August to a circular room at the end of the corridor.
Inside the circular room, August could see wards and glowing gems placed in circular formations, decorating the room in mystical light.
The center of the room too, was decorated with various colors of gemstones.
August wondered whether the gemstones actually had any purpose to their placements here.
"What are those formations for?" Curious, August asked Xie Tian.
"Formations? Oh, you mean the magic circles. Unless there is another cultivator nearby, us adventurers would have preferred you to use western terms with us."
Xie Tian paused for a moment before carrying on.
"Anyways, those magic circles only have one use. And that is to disperse any and every type of shockwave that can be produced from a mortal's body. We actually have a separate arena filled with magic circles that counter high level cultivators, but the guild master thinks that is unnecessary since you're only in the Body Tempering realm."
"I see, that makes a lot of sense~" August nodded his head before he replied.
But in reality, August was cursing Xie Tian and Marklein within his heart. 'That makes no sense at all!'
Even if August's realm was low, the Adventurers Guild failed to factor in the possibility of himself possessing skills!
Through Sion's history lessons, August learned that skills were highly sought after by every nation within the continent.
Be it in the past or right now, martial arts and magic pale significantly compared to the skills that transcended the laws of the world.
Necromancy and revival magic were also categorized under skills, since most people who used these two skills were weak and powerless in the first place.
Thus, August couldn't understand why the Adventurers Guild did not place skills in mind when setting up the magic circles.
Although the magic circles might prove useless against specific skills that counter barriers, it's still better to be prepared in case the newbie was a reincarnator, transmigrator, or a system user.
While Xie Tian prepared the arena for the mock battle, August was doing breathing exercises in the corner of the room.
But no matter how August tried to calm himself down, he could only feel his heart rate increasing.
'Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…I'm going to be fighting against the guildmaster…Oh shit, I'm super nervous…'
August's face has lost all color just by thinking about the upcoming mock battle between him and a Qi Manifestation realm cultivator.
From what Sion had explained to him earlier, Body Tempering was the first cultivation realm of the Heavenly Novel Cultivation System while the Qi Manifestation realm was the 3rd cultivation realm.
Each cultivation realm was then split into 10 sub realms with the intention to improve one's foundations first before trying to break into the next cultivation realm.
Since Guildmaster Marklein was currently at Qi Manifestation realm, that would mean that the guild master has achieved some level of manifesting qi outside of his body.
'A fist encased in spiritual qi would be the best usage of qi for someone who was not affiliated with a cultivation sect.' August thought to himself, not realizing that he was giving himself a pep talk subconsciously.
10 minutes later, Guildmaster Marklein and August both entered the arena.
"Is your heart ready?" Marklein asked August.
Guildmaster Marklein seemed to have noticed the anxiety August felt, because the guild master was now looking at August with sympathy.
"Yeah…I'm ready." August stuttered.
It's probably been years since August fought against a stronger opponent.
Since becoming a Devil Lord that ruled the Demon Kingdom, his sparring partners had only been his ministers.
He had beaten the Werewolf King at a 100 meter race. He had also beaten Count Dracula at recruiting the most amount of blood cultists in 3 days time.
Maybe it was because he was the Devil King, because at times, he'd win against his ministers with such ease that he suspected his ministers were going easy on him.
Fallenlight was a fallen angel with incredible swordsmanship, yet August had forced him to throw away his sword easily too.
The more August thought about it, the more he realized how bogus his fighting abilities were.
He'd probably lose immediately if his ministers went all out against him.
'Only after losing my closest minister and reincarnating into a zombie did I realize the truth. Well, that's life. I guess I'm going to get beaten up pretty badly now, huh?' August sighed to himself.
"What are you sighing for? You're about to fight me, a cultivator who's 2 cultivation realms above you. And yet you're sighing? Are you looking down on me?" Marklein misunderstood August's expression and shouted.
Marklein's face turned dark as his body exuded a surging tide of qi.
"Before I beat you black and blue, I'll let you know that I am a Gold rank adventurer. A being well respected by both the state governor and its people. It would be best if you'd show some respect to me, now knowing how important I am to the masses."
"Okay…" August looked on at the guildmaster with a hint of doubt.
He himself was once the ruler of several billions of demons.
To August, Marklein's position was simply that of soldier ant among a colony of ants.
"Xie Tian, start the battle! I can't wait to beat this arrogant brat into a pulp!" Marklein roared.
The qi surrounding his body surged even greater as it followed Marklein's rage.
"Yes sir. Now, with both sides standing 10 meters from each other, with no traps placed and no hidden tools used…With the God of Battles, Athena as the referee, let this battle commence!" [Xie Tian]
'God damn, that's a long ass opening line.' August thought to himself.
With the fight officially commenced, Marklein disappeared from August's line of sight.
Following that, a fist encased in fire qi appeared at his 5 o'clock. It was clear that Marklein meant what he had said earlier.
Knowing that August's reaction speed was inferior to his own, Guildmaster Marklein had taken the opportunity to use a movement type martial art to get behind August before throwing a punch at his blind spot.
"What the–?!" Unexpectedly however, August's reaction speed was still faster than that of an average Body Tempering realm cultivator.
He immediately saw through Marklein's intentions and was ready to block. But the fist coming for him was faster.
Knowing full well that he couldn't dodge, he shut his eyes tight as he tried to throw in a punch of his own at Marklein.
"Boom!" The fist connected with August's chin, pushing his body upwards with no way of defending himself mid air.
Thankfully, Marklein couldn't follow up with another attack as he was forced to dodge August's counter attack.
"Haha, nice one!" Marklein praised loudly.
He had expected to finish August within a set of chain moves, yet failed because he hadn't expected August to throw out a punch at him while disregarding his defense.
Only a madlad like August would dare eat one of Marklein's attacks head on.