"You are back already?"
Klane asked me as soon as it was my turn on the receptionist line, and I lifted the large bag to the desk.
"As you said, it's quite easy."
Klane took the bag inside her room, and she began taking out the flowers one by one using her own gloves.
"There are… 35 flowers. Did you pick extra?"
"I'm worried if I somehow picked a bad one."
Klane nodded as she picked some items up from under the desk, and gave them to me. She gave me 4 coins, 5 Jules of value per coin. A total of twenty Jules.
My very first money that I made using my own hands…
As I was putting the coins away, Klane put the flowers back into the bag. And as she is doing that, she remembered something.
"Jrake is waiting for you at the arena."
"O-Oh. Already?"
I left her after bidding farewell and walked towards the back arena. It appears Jrake was alone, as usual, doing his own business with his super large sword.
"Ah, little lady! I heard you are fine now?"
"Yep. All healthy."
"Good! Then we can train at full force now!"
Yeah... And I'm particularly excited for it.
Yesterday's training was tiresome, even for a healthy person. Which is why I want today's training to be even harder.
At the beginning, he gave me some more of his techniques. His way of teaching was even stricter than before, and he is even more critical at pointing out the details. Of course, I'm fully content with this.
And after the teaching session, comes the sparring. I have learned a whole lot of techniques from him, and my body has also become much better than before.
This spar right here… I will win it.
The two of us started ten meters away from each other. From my side, I took the stance of a rushing offense. On Jrake's side, he has also formed a defensive stance.
"Begin!"
He shouted, and I rushed towards him. This time, I didn't hold back.
A healthy body sure is awesome. Now that my body is considered 'normal', I can move even faster than before.
Much… much faster.
After I got close to him, I swung my sword forward towards him. And as expected of Jrake, he always blocks with his giant sword every single time.
But what he didn't expect… was how much stronger I have become.
BAAANNNNGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first sword clash of the day, and it already bore a grin on my face.
Jrake lost his balance completely, and his whole body was pushed backwards. After being staggered by a powerful force like that, Jrake had no choice but to jump backwards to create space.
Seeing him fleeing away from me like this, I placed my sword on my shoulder and stared at him with a grin.
Noticing the sudden change from my strength, his expression changed from shock to laughing.
"Heh… I knew you became a lot stronger ever since yesterday. But I didn't expect it to be like this..."
"You have gone easy on me for far too long…"
I formed a stance again, and I waited for him to get ready. Meanwhile, Jrake simply laughed.
"All right, all right… Hah, it always annoys me everytime my student gets so much stronger than me…
Fine. I'll go serious."
He formed his stance, and this time, he is wearing a serious expression.
Yeah… that's more like it.
FWOOSSHHH!!!!
I dashed forward again, a little slower than my initial rush, because I'm being cautious with how Jrake would react.
From afar, I can feel something weird is happening with Jrake. He is lifting his left hand up, all the way to the front of his face. His mouth looks like he is muttering some words at a very fast pace.
What is he… doing?
I already got quite close to him, but the moment I realized something was wrong, I stopped my rush immediately. My instincts told me to jump backwards, and I did exactly that.
And just in time when I jumped, the ground below me shook heavily.
ZERRRRGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!
Multiple earth pillars all of a sudden rose from the ground, one after another, creating a continuous rise of the ground all the way towards me. As it gets closer to me, the pillars become higher and higher, until the final one is boosted upwards straight towards my face. I used my sword to defend from the stone that was about to smack my face, and I managed to successfully defend from it.
The impact threw me backwards, and I turned to Jrake with a shocked expression.
"Y-You can use magic!?!?"
I asked with a non believing expression and annoyed tone, but Jrake still kept his grin up.
He chanted the magic words again, but it sounded different this time. He moved his left hand forward this time, instead of in front of his face.
I looked at the ground in front of him to look for changes, but there's nothing new. Then, I felt something clinging to my foot.
Quick sand??
It's the same skill the girl from yesterday used, but at a much faster pace. My legs are slowly being pulled under the ground, and I could barely move them.
I saw yesterday when he was being attacked by this, and I saw what trick he used to move away from it.
I lifted my right leg out from the quicksand, stepped on a hard solid dirt ground, and lifted my body towards it as if going up a stair. I managed to get my left foot out, and the quicksand behind me turned back into a hard stone floor.
I turned to Jrake, and found that he is no longer holding his sword. His sword was stabbed on the ground, while his hands were being cupped together.
My senses are telling me that something was going very wrong around him, and I had to deduct what it meant by feeling alone.
"You were using that quicksand to keep me occupied…"
"Magicians always have the weakest defense, because the entire time they were casting, they always left themselves open.
By occupying you with that quicksand, I was able to cast… an even more powerful magic."
He explained to me, and I chuckled at him.
To find an opening within the opponent, so you can cast powerful magic is such an advanced mage thing to do. I wasn't expecting a sword master like Jrake would know such smart magic techniques…
Well, this spar wouldn't be more fun otherwise!
I dashed towards him again, and this time I'm using my top speed. I know for sure that Jrake's magic would be very powerful, but I want to challenge that. Openly, and straight on.
I want to break my own limits.
The distance between us was initially far, but thanks to my speed, it became short very quickly. As soon as I'm inside Jrake's range of attack, my senses are screaming at me again. I can tell that Jrake is finally starting his attack, and I began to turn even more cautious at my surroundings.
I kept my gaze towards the ground around me. The ground in front of me, specifically, looked to be trembling quite a lot.
I see. He is trying to trap my path.
But, I did not slow down at all. I continued running, and Jrake finally activated his magic trap.
ZRIINGG!!!!
ZRRIINNGGG!!!!!!!!!
Multiple sharp stone spikes, large ones, are rising from the ground at extreme speed. It was so much faster than the previous stone pillars that he conjured from the ground, and it's definitely more dangerous since these are pretty sharp.
If it was me from yesterday, I wouldn't be able to do anything and just get stabbed to death.
But, I'm different now.
I opened my eyes wide, and I was able to see the stone spikes in perfect condition. It felt like time had slowed down once more, and everything else around me turned dark.
Everything feels… very slow.
FWOOSSHH!!!!!!
The fast stone spike was very close to touching me, but I was able to dodge to the right just fine. And as soon as I'm on the right, another stone spike appeared at high speed to stab me. I leaped upwards to dodge it, and continued making my way towards Jrake.
More and more stone spikes are appearing in front of me, and almost my entire path is covered in sharp stone spikes. However, I'm not afraid.
I can see… everything. Where to step, when to step, how to not get hit by the sharp spikes even the slightest, and the fastest path to reach Jrake.
And so… I just let my body move.
ZRRINNGGG!!!!!
ZRRIIINNGGGG!!!!!!
FWOOSSSHHH!!!!!!
"N-No way…"
Jrake mumbled, and he let go of his cupped hands. His right hand reached for his blade that was being stabbed to the ground, and he pulled it just in time when my sword almost reached him.
FTAAANNGGGG!!!!!!!!!
Once again, time has slowed down.
My eyes were able to see exactly where my sword impacted his sword, and I also found that my body was still in the air. Jrake is losing his balance as he receives the sudden heavy attack, and he also couldn't defend well since he was in a hurry after taking off from casting a magic attack.
But one thing I noticed that was the most interesting was his expression.
He looked… terrified.
"Hello there… Earth Magician."
Everything that happened, happens in a span of only three seconds. My movement was so fast that Jrake couldn't follow it properly, and he couldn't even defend properly.
As a result, he was thrown backwards. By the time he turned to me, the tip of my blade was already in front of him.
It was silent for a few seconds between us, with the only sound being his heavy breathing due to the fatigue. His expression was still the same terrified face, while I still have my expressionless face.
But after a while, the two of us grinned.
"Heh… haha."
He suddenly laughed, and I laughed as well.
I fell down to my butt to catch my breath, but Jrake was already sitting on the ground.
"Hah… You got me."
He said while surrendering, and I turned my eyes back to him.
"Did you go easy on me?"
"I wasn't, but… If I were going all out, you would be trapped inside the ground."
"Pft, yeah right..."
He joked at me, and I laughed at him back. Of course he was holding back, that show of magic was only to teach me how to deal against magic attacks.
At the end of the day, if Jrake really went serious on me, I would've been in pieces. I still don't know what rank he is as an adventurer, but I know that his skills are definitely enough for him to be one of the high ranking adventurers.
After that, we both sat on the bench to catch our breaths some more. What's weird to me, is that Jrake was sweating, and I wasn't.
"You're probably thinking why I'm sweating and you aren't?"
Oh. He read my mind.
"Well… it's kind of weird if you think about it."
"It's not really that weird. There is a lot that you don't know about magic."
"Such as?"
"When you use magic, it reduces your magic energy faster than running. And if you do it one after another, it's just going to empty your magic soul."
"Ahh... So you are tired because you used... magic?"
"Exactly. It reduces your energy by a ton when you use them, and what I did was pretty heavy even for me.
But you, who just got healed from a sickness caused by a lack of magic points, may not use magic until you are certain that you have enough magic points. Or else you would die from magic exhaustion. No, I forbid you."
Gulp…
That sucks. I really want to use it though…
"Maybe if it's an essential magic, like healing magic, you can learn it."
"Oh really? You know healing magic?"
"Nope, I don't. But, you can learn it for free.
On the Western Main Road, there is a really large church that belongs to the kingdom. Every weekend, they held a healing session, where they fed the hungry people and healed the sick. They also said that they will teach healing magic for free to anyone, but the student must contribute to the church on those healing sessions for at least a couple sessions."
"Oh... That much is fine."
"Really? Because you will be dealing with sick and wounded people. If you ask me, that's a drag."
"Hmmm... Maybe if the bald muscle head learns healing magic, he can become a hero?"
Jrake slightly smacked my shoulder, and I lost my balance completely. I rubbed my shoulder while staring at him annoyingly, and he only laughed loudly at my reaction.
I'm glad he's being a bro despite me being a girl.
"By the way, Little Lady. What will you do after this?"
"Hmm?"
"Now that you are healthy again, what will you do besides doing missions?"
Hearing his question, I began pondering.
I haven't given this much thought. Things like what I will do in the future never really crosses my mind, since everything that is happening at present has always been so chaotic.
"I guess… becoming rich?"
"You are so much simpler than I thought…"
"I'm kidding. I guess I want to try that church thing that you say."
"I'm glad you wanted to learn that. It can be very useful."
Jrake said to me, and I nodded. I took a drink of my own, and turned towards the arena again.
My own… magic, huh?
The training continued, and I practiced swings and techniques while Jrake was supervising me.
After the second bell rang, we ended the training, and I went back to my bedroom. I don't feel tired much from the training, and I have nothing to do.
Maybe… I can take another mission?
And so, I went back down and looked at the board. I'm still in my adventuring attire that is no longer clean, but since I'm going on a mission anyway, I don't see the need to change.
I looked at the part where the Red ranked missions are, and every single one of them is just collecting stuff.
"Herbs collecting... Is there nothing else?"
I mumbled to myself, but it was a little loud. There really isn't anything else on the Red ranked missions.
"You can pick from Gray rank."
A voice suddenly heard from the left, and I turned to find a blonde haired boy. His eyes are bright blue, which made me think that he must be a westerner or something. His age seemed to be around twenties, and from his attire, I can tell he is a professional adventurer. There are just so many adventuring items on his body.
"Pardon?"
"You can pick a mission that is one rank higher from your current rank. You are Red ranked, right?"
He must've found out I'm a newbie because I was only looking at the Red rank.
"Yes. I am."
"You can pick the ones at the Gray rank then. But, only if the receptionist agrees for you to take it, though."
"I see."
I began to look on the Gray rank side, and I found one that I think is the most interesting. I picked the paper from the wall, and read the content even better. The blonde haired guy peeked behind my neck to read the content on the paper, which successfully annoyed me.
"Good luck. That's going to be challenging for a newbie."
I nodded at him in courtesy. After saying that, he then focused on searching for his own mission on the Purple rank side.
Damn, that guy was only two ranks above me? I thought he was Blue ranked or something…
"Eh? Are you sure?"
Klane asked me as soon as she read the mission contents, and I nodded firmly at her.
"Yes. I think I can handle it."
"If you fail you will die, you know…? I heard from Jrake, you actually managed to beat him in a spar. But he was definitely going easy on you. This thing however, will not."
"I know that. But how is this thing any better than Jrake?"
"Why is a quest like this on a Gray? The payment sure is high, though… It's also good for experience…"
"That's why I picked it."
She seemed to be very worried, but Jrake already told her I'm ready. They can't keep me cooped up here forever like some caged bird.
"Ugh, I'm going to regret this…"
She looked annoyed, but then she gave me a mission scroll and other stuff that is necessary.
Now, let's go hunt a bear.