"Again, this time attack with the intention to kill me, otherwise this sparring session of ours will be for nothing." Lyle calmly stated as Adam panted heavily in front of him. He clenched his fists before staring at Lyle and attacking him.
"Not bad, but don't forget, with the new weapon you have chosen, your reach is quite limited," Lyle said as he simply took a step backward and allowed Adam's fist to pass in front of his face.
The fist was covered in battle gloves that were created with the skin of a high-leveled monster that was below Tier I and had small metal spikes on them, allowing the user's hits to be more effective than usual.
That was the weapon that Adam had chosen after he and Lyle went looking for weapons that would suit him. It was also one of the weapons that Lyle recommended to him.
He had tried out swords, staffs, axes, hammers, and more, but none felt really comfortable to Adam except for claws and the battle gloves.
He had never really used weapons, but he did get into fights occasionally and only used his fists and legs when fighting. Using the battle gloves simply felt natural to him.
His ability as well would shine the brightest with the battle gloves.
If he used a sword or any other longer weapon, it would take him much longer to learn how to use his ability effectively with it, perhaps he wouldn't even be able to use it that much in the end.
The battle gloves would allow Adam to maximize the power of his ability, at least in the beginning.
The difference between Adam using the sword and shield combination compared to when he had the battle gloves, although not huge, was visible.
He was able to attack faster and with more accuracy, he could string together his moves and the flow was simply better.
Lyle was somewhat satisfied with what Adam had shown him with the gloves, but there was one big issue.
Adam didn't know how to dodge properly, nor did he know how to wrestle well. His martial arts were also almost non-existent and that all needed to be worked upon.
Luckily as a vampire and as a level 10 being, Adam had greater talent when it came to this and could learn quickly.
Lyle planned on making things simple when it came to teaching Adam about bare-handed fighting, he would simply beat it in him.
One could already see a multitude of wounds on Adam's body as the latter was completely dominated by Lyle during the sparring sessions. He wasn't even able to land a single hit, and even his ability proved to be useless.
That was partly because Lyle was on a completely different scale when it came to combat experience, but also because Adam was using his ability in a crude and wasteful manner.
The young man had no idea how to properly channel mana and he was simply using the mana inside his body in order to activate the ability.
Most people would do it contrary in the beginning.
Since one didn't have a lot of mana in their bodies in the beginning, they would focus on feeling the mana that was present around them and try to manipulate it in order to help them out when it came to using their ability.
About 60% of the mana they spent would be their own, while the other 40% would be the mana that they managed to gather around them.
Adam could sense the mana, but that wasn't enough, he needed to feel it, allow it to come to him, and wield it like it was a part of his body.
All of that would need to be worked upon, and Lyle was growing more uncertain when it came to training the young man. There were simply too many things that he needed to teach Adam right now, and he wasn't sure he had the time to do it.
He didn't want to lose a valuable person like Adam who was gifted with two abilities after becoming a vampire, but he also didn't want to spend too much time in the city as he had no idea what would happen if he was too late to get back to the headquarters and give his report.
He could use the excuse of the world changing and monsters becoming more powerful as the reason for him taking longer to arrive, but that would only work if didn't take too much time.
At the very end of the sparring session, Lyle decided to do the same thing he did last night.
He showed Adam how he used mana.
The results were much better than Lyle expected.
Adam was a natural.
He only needed a guide and an example of how to do things and he would be able to learn them quickly.
That was not only applicable to mana, but to the fighting skills that Lyle had shown him as well.
Upon listening to Lyle, and seeing how he used and manipulated mana, Adam quickly began copying him and the way he was using mana received a great boost.
With that in mind, Lyle smiled slightly as he now believed that he could perhaps teach Adam everything the latter needed to learn before going back.
Boom!
A couple of hours later, deeper inside the forest.
Adam was crouching on a large branch and gulped at the scene in front of him.
Tens of bodies littered the forest as Lyle stood in the middle of the chaotic scene. Multiple wounds could be seen on his body, but none were serious.
Lyle decided to take Adam with him deeper inside the forest in order to observe how he fought against enemies that were of similar level.
Lyle came across a battle in the forest.
A large group of goblins and hobgoblins were fighting against a slightly smaller group of kobolds.
The kobolds were a powerful race, much more powerful than a goblin at the same level, even hobgoblins were not as powerful as they were, except for rare ones that had become variants or elites of their species.
Elites were monsters that although were at the same level as others, were much more powerful.
The same could be seen in other races, there would always be geniuses that were stronger compared to their peers even when they should be of a similar level.
Lyle could be counted among them.
There should only be a handful of people in the whole world that would be able to go toe-to-toe against Lyle at the same level.
As for Adam, right now he couldn't be put near that category as he would probably lose against an average fighter at his own level thanks to him not being well-trained.
Lyle's goal for this week was to become as powerful as he could while also training Adam and making him into an average fighter when it came to sheer fighting skills.
The kobolds were the stronger party. It was obvious to both Adam and Lyle as they watched the battle.
There were about 25 kobolds fighting against 30 hobgoblins and 6 goblins.
The disparity in power was great.
The kobolds had great teamwork and each one of them was proficient with using their weapons while the hobgoblins simply charged and fought like mindless animals.
Lyle jumped in and started fighting when there were 15 kobolds and 10 hobgoblins left.
All of them were injured at this point in time and Lyle immediately went for the injured kobolds as he wanted to cut down their numbers and allow the hobgoblins to fight against the remaining kobolds before they would realize what was happening and turn their blades his way.
Monsters would always fight against each other, but they would also join hands when a human or other species was nearby. Not a lot of time passed before the monsters stopped fighting and charged at Lyle, wanting to kill him.
The rest of the day and night passed in pretty much the same manner as last night, only that this time, Adam was the observer a couple of times as Lyle fought against the more powerful monsters and slaughtered them.
He also tried finding some monster bases and attempted to get deeper inside the forest, but he was unable to.
The deeper part of the forest was home to many powerful monsters against which even Lyle wasn't certain he would prevail so he decided to stick to where he was right now and level up.
Adam was another factor in his decision as he couldn't keep him safe if they ventured deeper inside.
The two continued doing the same things every single day and Adam was visibly improving with each sparring session and battle he went through.
It made Lyle happy as he was now confident that he wouldn't need to abandon Adam and could bring him together with him.
And just like that, a week passed.