The result was exactly as Comby expected. It knew its punch would not make contact, and even if it did, its strength would barely give Ryu a bruise. Comby knew all along that it was going to lose no matter what happened. Still, it went for the attack, and this was the result.
Its head exploded. The sand in its head showered everywhere, and Comby pitifully fell on the floor of the arena. Despite its head literally exploding, Comby still remained a bit of its consciousness— albeit, it knew it would soon vanish, perhaps a few dozen breaths of time or so.
Although its consciousness still remained intact, it couldn't move anymore. No matter how much it tried, its body simply wouldn't respond.
Despite Comby being in such a state, surprisingly, it didn't really feel afraid of death, or even disappointed. Rather, it was relieved. Although in the end, it has lost, it still managed to put up a semi-decent fight against this human— nay, monster. Comby didn't believe anyone in humanity had a perception as strong and freaky as this boy in front of it.
The image of the Archmage and his daughter kept appearing in Comby's mind, flashing dozens of times. Oh how much did It wish to hold them just one last time, it would do anything just for a simple hug— hell, just a single word from them would be enough. But alas, nothing happened. There were no hugs, no words, just empty silence.
As its consciousness was fading, Comby slowly began to realize something in its last breaths. Something that has never crossed its mind before. Perhaps because of its wavering consciousness, it thought it began to have memory loss, but…
'How. Did. I. Get. Here?'
No matter how much Comby tried to remember, it could never recall coming to this place. Hell, now that it paid attention, there was only a single sun here, when there should've been three. Comby tried and tried, and the last thing it could remember was simply meditating on a grass field, and then… it was here.
Before it could ponder on this moment any further, Comby felt even more dizzy. Its consciousness slipping, and it felt as if something was dragging it— down, to the depths of hell.
'No. Not. Yet. I. Need… To… Know—'
Comby tried its best to stay focused, but alas, in just a few breaths of time, its red hue continued to dim, until eventually, it disappeared.
Just like that, a monster that had experience, skill, and perception that far outstripped humanity— has died, in a pitiful way.
Ryu stood a few feet away from Comby, expressionless. He continued standing there, motionless, not moving even an inch despite the blood trickling down from his face.
Suddenly, there was a light ringing sound, and in a flash, all of Ryu's injuries disappeared. His face was back to its original, youthful look. His teeth were all back, and his nose was no longer caved in. His ribs were all fixed, and every single injury he had were healed in an instant.
[Exiting
The holographic window suddenly appeared in front of Ryu, but he simply stayed motionless for a few moments, until his eyes suddenly regained their focus, the hazy fog disappearing with it.
"Huh?" Ryu blurted out, widening his eyes a bit. Then, he massaged his eyes, confusion taking over him.
"What the hell happened?" His memory was foggy, and everything, after he got his face bashed in by Comby, was a blur. He could vaguely remember him doing some martial arts, moves that he had never done in his life, as well as defending against Comby. Although he wasn't entirely sure what exactly happened.
He remembered the injuries he had, and immediately checked his body and face. But, there were no wounds or injuries, even his clothes were in perfect shape.
'Did I get healed?' Ryu was surprised, he could vividly remember his face getting bashed by that dummy, yet he was in perfect condition. A sudden thought suddenly appeared in his head, and he immediately checked his wrists.
'E-Even those are gone!' Ryu was astonished, even his scars were healed!
Ryu glanced at Comby— or at least, what remained of it. It laid on its own sand, no longer having a head, its body had sustained many damages and had various holes in them. This monster that managed to utterly destroy him at the start, has suddenly become like this.
'I— I did that?' Ryu thought, his eyes widening. However, he slowly began to remember what happened— albeit, it was still a bit blurry. When he was fighting Comby, It was as if looking at someone else fighting, and not himself. He didn't have control over his body, and every action made was not by him. No matter how hard he tried before, he just couldn't gain control of his body. Not to mention, his mind was in shambles, and everything was foggy.
But alas, that was over, which caused him to let out a sigh of relief.
'Still, how the hell did I do that?' From the beginning of the fight till the end, Ryu went from a teenager who had no combat experience or martial arts, to somehow managing to master all of Comby's martial arts, and even surpassing them. Even before he entered into that weird state, Ryu managed to imitate the dummy and even landed a few hits on it. Ryu never thought he had this sort of talent, otherwise, he would've fought against his bullies a long time ago.
Ryu looked at his hands for a few moments, opening and closing his fists.
'With this, I could've…' Ryu's mind trailed off to Ho-Eun, all the constant abuse by him and his lackeys. Ryu felt a surge of emotions welling up inside of him, but he managed to suppress them. That didn't matter right now, and as much as he wanted to go right now to Ho-Eun, there was another matter at hand.
Ryu gave one final look at the dummy, before letting out another sigh. In his memories, he recalled the dummy talking about something in its final moments, something about an archmage. Although the dummy's voice was always mechanical, he could've sworn that sentence had a slight— very slight— sad tone to it.
It seemed that dummy had a life of its own before coming here, a master, or perhaps even a family. Although Ryu felt a bit sentimental to Comby, he didn't regret killing it. After all, that dummy had beaten him viciously, causing him an excruciating amount of pain. No matter how guily he felt for the dummy, that wouldn't override the hatred and anger he felt because of the pain.
Of course, he still felt a tinge of guilt. Not only did this dummy have a consciousness of its own, but it even seemed to have emotions. It wasn't that much different than a human. Of course, if he had truly killed another human, he would've felt a lot more different.
After retrieving his gaze from the dummy, Ryu turned his attention to the floating window, and examined it.
'It's just like a game.' Ryu thought, before turning his attention to the content of the window.
"State of Instincts…?" Ryu muttered, a bit confused. It didn't take a genius to realize that the previous state he was In was due to this power. He could vaguely remember seeing a window similar to this moments before he entered that weird state.
Ryu then read the sentence below;
[Congratulations on defeating the Combat Dummy [Comby]! Your level has risen from level 0 to 1! You have gained 100 Points, and earned the qualification to use the store!]
'Comby? Levels? Points? Shop?' Ryu was a bit confused to say the least. This sentence just gave him a plethora of things at the same time, but he managed to get the gist of it.
Although this truly did feel like a fever dream, the pain he experienced here was very real. As such, he didn't feel as shocked as most people would be if they saw this window. His years of reading novels helped him a bit, too.
'That dummy even had a name…' Ryu thought before turning his eyes to the bottom of the window. There was an option there that read;
[Continue]
'Do I just press it?' Ryu slowly tried to press the window, but his hand phased right through it, causing him to be bewildered. After retrieving his hand and noticing nothing was wrong with it, he decided to go with another approach.
Ryu imagined himself pressing the button, and sure enough, the 'continue' button glowed, causing the content of the window to change.
[Transferring to the resting room…]
"Huh? Wait—"
*Swish*
Before Ryu could even finish his sentence, the scenery around him suddenly changed. What was a large arena in broad daylight has now changed into a barely lit room.
Ryu looked around the room, surprised by the speed of the teleportation.
'This is the resting room?'
The room was fairly large, almost twenty square meters in size. The entire room was made of gray stone, making the atmosphere a bit depressing. There was a single bed in the room, as well as four pillars around each corner of the room. On one of the walls, there was a timer as well as a sign;
[Resting Time: 23:58:12
Next match: Sensory Enhancement]
Ryu clicked his tongue as he read the timer and the sign below it.
'It isn't over.'
Ryu already had a feeling this was the case, so he wasn't that shocked. Matter of fact, after his fight with Comby, Ryu felt like he had matured a bit, his thoughts were a bit more calm, too.
After looking around the room a few times, Ryu clicked his tongue. There were no exits here, this room was completely sealed off.
'This isn't over.'
Seeing there was nothing else in the room, Ryu returned his attention to the floating hologram;
[Congratulations! Since you've managed to defeat The Combat Dummy [Comby], your level has risen by 1!
You are now eligible to use the shop.
Additionally, you have managed to unlock
Ryu widened his eyes and immediately pressed
Type: Skill Level: 10 Passive: Your instincts are constantly being honed. Your body sometimes will react to danger via instincts even when your mind doesn't register it. Active: Upon entering this state, your entire body will move according to your instincts, and your instincts will be at their full capability. Conditions for entering this state: Extreme pain, near-death state or unconsciousness in face of danger.] Although Ryu was expecting this, he was still a bit amazed by this system. It truly was like a game. 'Level 10?' Ryu was confused by the level. Even abilities seemed to have levels here, and it seemed this ability was rather good, considering the level. It made sense, especially considering how much stronger he became when he entered this state. Although the state was incredibly off-putting to use, he had to admit this was a powerful ability. If he fought against Ho-Eun now, he felt like he'd win incredibly easily. However, what pained him were the conditions to use this ability. All of the conditions were either him being in massive amount of danger, or just straight up lacking consciousness to begin with. Although he felt a bit disappointed by the conditions, he was still relatively happy. Having this ability is better than none. In times of danger, this ability could save him, just like it saved him from the dummy. Not to mention, it even mentioned that this ability could be activated at will with further training. As for how he'd train it, he wasn't too sure. However, he had a few ideas. Ryu felt strangely excited. It was odd, he wasn't scared or anything like that. In this place, he could very well die, and yet, he felt excited. This feeling of being able to fight back felt so exhilarating, so satisfying to Ryu. Although the pain was horrible, but at least, he could fight back. He could give it his all. No longer cowering in fear, no longer crying alone, no longer feeling despised by everyone. Ryu thought it was great. As Ryu was reading, he eventually noticed 2 small options at the corner of the holographic window. One of them read 'Continue' and the other read; 'Lesser skills obtained' Ryu ignored the continue button for now and turned his attention to the latter. With a thought, the second button shined, and something odd happened; the holographic window suddenly enlarged in size, and the content inside of it changed. Now, there were over a hundred names listed inside of it— no, they weren't just names; Ryu widened his eyes in surprise, bewildered by this large list. 'Boxing, level 12. Taekwando, level 12, Jiu Jutsu, Judo, Tai Chi, Sumo…' He immediately knew what these were; they were the martial arts he copied from Comby, and there were over a hundred of them! Although he knew he managed to copy Comby's martial arts In his Ryu gulped, before clicking on one of them; [Name: Boxing Type: Martial Arts Level: 12] Unlike 'Do Martial Arts skills not have a description, or do Lesser Skills in general not have it?' Still, the feeling of seeing these many martial arts at once made him realize just how much of a freak Comby, and he himself was. Comby knew over a hundred types of martial arts, and while Ryu wasn't exactly someone who knew a lot about fighting, he felt like Comby's mastery of them was amazing! Its boxing techniques far surpassed anything he has seen, they are perfect in both technique and execution. Ryu had only seen a few videos of famous boxers, but Comby completely overshadowed them! And now, Ryu found out he had an extremely freaky talent! Most martial artists would devote their entire life to just master 1 or 2 martial arts, and yet, here he was, seemingly knowing over a hundred types! Ryu gulped and turned his attention to his hands. Ever since he woke up from the Ryu managed to suppress his excitement, and returned to the previous page, clicking on the 'continue' button. The content of the window changed, and there were 3 choices now; [Next Match Info, Status, Shop]