Patty looked at the system screen with a smile. It looked like one of his guesses was right. Andres didn't earn any cultivation because he fought opponents who were much weaker than him.
Now, since Jorn and Roni were both equal in terms of their strength, a spar between both of them would give them sufficient experience and cultivation. They learned something from the experience, especially about their strengths and weaknesses. So, it counted as a cultivation progress for Jorn.
"Tsk, I can't believe that my wasp was defeated. I want to try again! This time, I'll create a much more detailed wasp. I'll try to make it realistic this time!"
Roni couldn't accept the fact that he lost the fight against Jorn. He was confident in his wasp, but to see it instantly disintegrate into mere ink mist was like a wrecking ball that destroyed his confidence. He didn't blame the wasp, he only blamed his drawing. If he had just made a better drawing, then he could have won.
"Oh, you want to go again? I'm fine with that," answered Jorn. He was still high from the feeling of the air blowing past his face as he skied through the floor. He wanted to chase that again, so he quickly accepted the rematch.
"Quit it, you guys." Andres was the one to stop them. "Roni, it's only natural that you lost. Don't you know the basics? Power always beats Fame, especially when the two of you are equal in power. If you want to defeat a Power Teqx user, then you'd better increase your cultivation much more."
Roni didn't want to accept it. He wanted to prove that his ink drawing could become a real animal that could defeat a real human.
"It's fine. They can fight again if they want." Patty wanted another question answered about his investment. What if they fought again? Would he gain the same amount of Yi Power or would he get a diminished amount? Would he even gain anything more?
With the explicit agreement from Patty, Andres had no choice but to let the two interns battle it out once again. He was the only one who knew that the outcome wouldn't change, especially since the two of them hadn't even mastered their powers yet.
The outcome would probably change if Roni ate some of the Magical Carrots, but unfortunately, that was a reward that Patty only gave when they earned enough merit to get a coupon.
Just like before, Roni drew on his notebook with his ink brush. This time, he took a lot of effort to try and add a lot of realistic details to his drawing. Instead of doing his signature cartoonish style, he instead changed it to a more realistic style.
This time, the realistic wasp peeled out of his notebook and flapped its wings. He tried to add more depth to the drawing. He thought that the cartoonish style of his earlier drawing subtracted from the structural integrity of the wasp itself.
So this time, he followed a more traditional approach to drawing. He wasn't that attached or passionate about this kind of realistic drawing, but he thought that it was the only way he could create a strong enough wasp to defeat Jorn.
Just like before, Jorn used the momentum of pushing the wall behind him to launch himself toward the wasp.
However, just as Jorn's punch was about to land on the stinger of the wasp, something happened.
The air generated from Jorn's speed surged towards the wasp drawing, causing the ink from its very body to melt and be swept away like dust. Jorn's fist hasn't even landed before the realistic wasp drawing disintegrated into ink powder.
Jorn was once again triumphant, not because he was strong, but because Roni's drawing was insufficient.
Roni fell to his knees, his confidence destroyed. He thought that if he changed his cartoonish style to something more realistic, then he would become stronger and be able to defeat Jorn. However, instead of getting stronger, the wasp got weaker instead.
Andres walked over towards him and patted his back, consoling him. "You know why you lost, right?"
Roni looked up to him. "Why? I even tried to make it more realistic!"
"Exactly. It wasn't your style. You are more passionate if you draw the wasp with your cartoonish style. You lost not because of your drawing style, but because that's just how the way the world works. You can't achieve the impossible until you have become strong enough to go against the rules of the world."
Roni contemplated Andres' words. He knew that in his heart, he didn't like the realistic style of the drawing. He was happier and more passionate when he was creating the exaggerated and simple lines of the cartoonish wasp. When he drew the realistic wasp, his heart wasn't in it. It felt like a chore.
The brush and the drawing must have felt it, too. That's why the wasp wasn't able to manifest into a much more solid manifestation.
Roni wasn't the only one disappointed. Patty looked at the window that popped up on his screen.
[Your investment (Jorn) has defeated an equal opponent in a spar]
[However, he has already defeated this opponent before. He has not learned enough from the fight to advance his cultivation]
It looked like he couldn't exploit this feature by repeatedly making them fight each other. They had to fight other people who were on the same level as them so that they'd advance in their cultivation.
However, that was not the end of the system pop-up screen. Another window sprung up out of nowhere.
[Your investment (Roni) has learned an important lesson in his cultivation]
[You have earned 50 Yi Power as a dividend]
He didn't think that he'd earn Yi Power from Roni who lost the fight! This meant that he could also earn some dividends through a loss.
It made sense.
After all, a lot of masters in cultivation told their students that failure was much better than success. That's because a student learns more from their failure than their success. Roni's current loss proved that. Even though he lost, he learned a very important lesson about his strength and passion for his dream.
"I think I understand now," Roni muttered.
After that, it was now Dom's turn.
(Roni vs. Dom)
Because the presence of iron was low in Patty's house, the only thing he could summon was a small ingot of iron. He gathered all of the rust around the metal equipment and he also went outside and looked all over the soil for the presence of iron. Thankfully enough, he had enough to fight against Roni's wasp.
Roni manipulated the iron ingot and turned it into a small humanoid robot, complete with a head, a torso, and two legs and arms. He also added some armor around the humanoid robot as well as a sword and a shield.
"The Iron Spartan!" Roni announced the creation of his fighter. As the name suggested, his metal fighter had a similarity to those ancient fighters in the old world. The helmet had gaps to show its fierce and unrelenting eyes.
He controlled this Iron Spartan-like it was a puppet. With his mastery over iron, he was able to make simple movements such as defending with the shield and using the sword to cut through his enemies.
He tried to make more complex movements that combined both foot movement and swordplay, however, the result came out very awkward. He still didn't have enough mastery over the iron as he thought.
The Iron Spartan also turned into a mere lump of solid iron when it got too far away from Dom. This was one of the disadvantages he found. Thankfully though, they were fighting inside an enclosed space, which was just in the range of his control.
Meanwhile, Roni drew with the ink brush once again. This time, he didn't try to change his style. He continued to draw his cartoonish wasp, even if the proportions or anatomy didn't make sense. He just drew whatever he wanted to draw.
And because of that, he was more passionate and creative with his new wasp.
Once he was done, the new cartoonish wasp peeled off the paper and came to life in the air! It buzzed and hummed, ready to take on its new opponent.
The Iron Spartan and the Cartoonish Wasp were both the same size. Both were still in their respective corners, but they both looked like they were ready for the brawl.
Andres came in the middle and counted down. "Three…two…one…fight!"
As soon as he said that, the wasp and the spartan both flew through the air and met each other in the middle. As soon as the wasp's stinger came close, the spartan held up its shield and defended itself well.
Even with the speed and agility of the wasp, it wasn't able to penetrate through the tough shield of the Iron Spartan. Alternately, the Spartan's sword moves were too rigid and one-dimensional for it to hit the speedy wasp.
They were both at a stalemate.
That was until the wasp suddenly backed off the Iron Spartan. The soldier stayed in place and held its shield even closer to its body. It wasn't afraid. The wasp's stinger had proved to be ineffective against the shield's toughness.
However, instead of piercing its stinger toward the Iron Spartan, the wasp instead opened up its stinger like a flower budding into maturity! Then, a spray of black mist suddenly spurted out of the stinger and enveloped the Iron Spartan!