Currently everyone was gathering at a safe distance to watch Benedictus during his morning sparring match with their magical training dummy. Breakfast was made today by Claudette and she was making sure everyone got a plate to eat while they watched. They could all tell that Ben was letting off a lot of pent-up aggression in his sparring. What they didn't know was that been kicked it up a level higher than what he's used to just to try and push himself.
Currently his mind was consumed with thoughts of inadequacy and failure. All he could think about are the people that he couldn't save before and how he wanted to do better next time. In order to improve he needed to push himself not just to the limit but passed it. The best way to do that is to start facing stronger opponents. However here in the forest he wasn't sure where he could find stronger opponents, but the training dummy had several higher settings that he still hadn't come close to testing yet. It would suffice for now.
He was trying to learn new ways to incorporate the spells that he already knew. With that he was also trying to figure out how to combine some of his spells. Right now he was just focusing on his raw elemental abilities to see what combinations he could make. It was somewhat hard though as the training dummy in this higher setting was not giving him much room to breathe to even formulate possible combinations.
It was able to definitely take more hits than it previously could from his attacks in this higher setting. Not only did it get stronger, tougher, but it also was much faster as it kept pressing him into staying constantly on the move. As a result Ben was mostly focused on trying to find a way to outpace it. If he could move faster then it he could find an opening to start turning the tides.
At the moment however the only thought on his mind was going faster. That thought kept going through his head as he kept ordering himself to go faster, faster, faster, and faster still. All while throwing out blasts of fire and wind and occasionally lightning to try and slow it down and create some space.
As he was moving his chain of thoughts try to think of a way to improve his speed. However his ideas currently were only limited to his imagination and his imagination was only limited by his understanding of how things should work. That was what was getting in his way until he decided to think outside the box just a little bit.
He remembered that magic is supposed to allow him to shape the world with his mind empowered by his will to be what he could imagine. That's what the status screen said at least to some degree. If it allowed him to alter reality then he could potentially find ways to use it to go outside of the laws of physics and nature. After all there were many types of spells that are supposed to defy those things anyway. Who's to say he couldn't combine the magic he already knew to do just that.
In that moment the only thing that came to mind when he tried to use his imagination for some reason was Ironman. He assumed if he could fly he could definitely put some distance between him and the training dummy enough to create the openings that he was helping for. However he didn't have a suit of metal armor and he couldn't just use his earth magic to make one in a short amount of time. This dummy only gave him a second or two at most to breathe in between attempts to strike which would not be nearly enough to create enough metal to form a suit around him.
He realized that he was forcing himself back into a box with that thought process and instead focused on something he could definitely do. Mimicking jet thrusters. He could definitely produce enough buyer and heat and he could shape and focus it however the flames on their own wouldn't be enough to get him that much distance. It could definitely create short bursts which could be useful but if he wanted to actually fly like Ironman he would need to go beyond that.
That is when the idea hit him to combine it with wind magic and use the air to funnel the flames even more while fueling them at the same time. It could definitely boost the flames enough that he could at least temporarily gain quite a bit of distance and maybe even stably fly. There was only one way to find out and he just needed to create some distance to do so.
So he put his hands out towards the dummy and created the flames first focusing them how he wanted in that instance damaging the dummy and blasting it back just a small bit while propelling him backwards by almost 20ft. It was a distance that the dummy could cover easily in a matter of half a second in its current setting, but he wasn't going to give it the chance. While it was healing from the damage and preparing to charge at him once more with another attack, he got into the iconic Ironman position when Tony would be preparing to take off into the sky. He focused the flames both under his hands and feet while also using his wind magic to strengthen and fuel them even further.
Suddenly he blasted off into the air like a rocket which shocked everyone as in an instant he was now nearly 300ft into the sky. He then focused on lessening the intensity of the flames to a point that would allow him to stay up in the air without constantly pushing him higher. This allowed him to hover there for a moment as the dummy seemed to take a moment to process what to do next.
It started taking large rocks from the ground and throwing them at him at high strength and speed with the intent to do enough damage to knock him out the air. A couple of those rocks came close, but with precise timing Ben was able to stop his flames that kept him in the air and allow him to fall at the perfect opportunities to dodge. Then reactivate them to change his trajectory of flight. With this method he was able to not only dodge but slowly get the hang of flying in this way. Once he got a good handle on flying and maneuvering in the air like this he turned his attention back on gaining speed.
Soon he found himself going maximum output with his magic combination. At maximum output he was essentially flying just under the speed of sound as he maneuvered through the sky continuing to perfectly dodge while now outpacing the dummies current calculations and thought process algorithms. As he noticed it's attack severing further and further off course unable to keep up with his speed at its current settings he use this to his advantage to try something fun.
Adjusting his trajectory he slowly turned around and started flying directly at the dummy. With his speed he was able to close the distance in a matter of only 2 seconds after being nearly 1,000ft away from it. At the last moment he stopped his flames using the momentum he had gained to propel him forward and he coded his fists in stone and metal in the shape of a giant sharp spike. With how much speed he had picked up the momentum carried him into the dummy impaling it with the spike and pinning It to the ground.
Standing over it he pulled his fists out of the spike he had created and he pointed a single finger down at the head of the he blasted it with a point blank ball of fire destroying its head. A magical sound played from it that signified he had defeated it. He removed the spike by turning it into chunks of stone and metal and pulling the training dummy onto its feet. It's self repair enchantment allowed it to regrow its head and patch the hole in its torso. He then deactivated it and went to go grab some breakfast.
As he approached the others John shouted to him in absolute amazement like the fanboy he technically was, "That was so awesome! Your attacks were so strong and then on top of that you can fly! You look so cool blasting off like that and how you flew through the air! And then how you finished it off was just so amazing!"
He patted John on the head and thanked him, "Glad you think so. It's nice hearing someone appreciate my skills and quick thinking. The girls do it every now and then but I don't think they appreciate it as much as us boys."
Marcelina immediately snapped at him feeling a little bit called out for no reason at all, "Hey what's that supposed to mean?! We give you your props!"
"I know. I know. It just feels nice having other people tell me how amazing I can be too," he told her.
Roksazza remarked while scoffing a bit, "Your ego is starting to get a little inflated and showing."
"Better that than how he was earlier. When you started sparring with the thing you looked so pissed off it was kind of scary. I'd rather you be a little obnoxious then angry," Claudette pointed out while handing him his plate of breakfast.
"Alright. Alright. I'll tone it down..... Thanks for the food by the way," Ben said while taking the plate and beginning to eat for the first time this morning.
"I'm guessing you're going to take a shower and change before you use the ticket," Azzora asked as she finished off her plate of food.
Ben gave a nod, "Yep. And I hope that you guys wrote down some of the names of the different livestock and some descriptions from your homeworlds so I know what to do try and get."
"Yep. I wrote it down this morning for everyone and even made some drawings based off of what people were saying. I had them check and they said that it's more or less right for the drawings, so if you see anything that matches them you should be in the clear," John answered holding the papers.
"Only 13 years old and already so useful. When I was 13 most of the people I knew goofed around all the time. Glad to see someone so young being responsible and reliable," Ben praised the young boy.
John couldn't help but smile hearing the compliments. Hearing his personal hero shower him with praises was great for his overall mood and morale. That was interrupted when Ben got a status screen pop up.
Looking at the notification, it basically told him that he had successfully used his spell crafting skill to create a new 5th level combo spell. It gave him the opportunity to name the spell. Reading over it he realized it was a spell that basically described how he was able to give himself the ability to fly. He decided to name it Rocket Flight. Looking at the description it basically told him that it lasts for up to 1 minute at the cost of 50 Mana, but it gave him a flying speed of 250ft. Realistically with all of his benefits is flying speed was actually 750ft when he used the spell. He could cast the spell up to 10 times per day normally, but with all of his benefits that placed it at 20 times per day. All in all it was a great spell to have.
After that Ben quickly finished his breakfast and ran back into his cabin to take a shower. After taking a quick 10 minute shower and changing into some nice clean clothes, he was ready to head on to go see about purchasing these animals.
Rejoining everyone outside as they were talking amongst themselves about their plans for today, they turn their attention to him now that he was ready. Azzora handed him one of the tickets that they had purchased the night before. At the same time he got another notification saying that all of his allies had just transferred all of their gold to him. With all 6,000 gold currently in his account he gave them all the nod and took the papers from John. He then ripped the ticket as they either waved him goodbye or gave him a thumbs up for good luck.
Suddenly a magical circle lit up in the air and then it opened into a portal that had appeared behind him. The ticket said that he now had only 15 minutes to enter the shop and purchase what he would like so he did not waste time. He stepped through the portal and found himself in a completely different space.
He found himself in a massive building that had multiple animal cages of various sizes with animals that both were recognizable from Earth and many that were not. All of the animals seemed to be properly contained and cared for by the several hundred people that worked here looking after all of them. Then he heard a woman's voice speaking in a language that at first he didn't recognize.
He turned around to see a woman that definitely confused him to look at. She was only at most 4ft tall. She had tannish green skin that was silky smooth and spotted with freckles that were of a dark brown color. She had short curly red hair that was a little long on the top to form beautiful curls that could hang down towards her collar while the rest of her hair didn't even touch her shoulders. Her bright red orange eyes were a beautiful compliment to her bright cherry red hair. She had two horns coming out of the top of her forehead in a similar shape to that of a mountain goat that were short enough to not hinder her day-to-day life most likely, and just long enough to be something to worry about her trying to use as an improvised weapon.
She had long large pointed ears that kind of flopped down just slightly but she could move as she talked in ways that could denote emotions similar to that of feline's, but the shape was definitely not close to that of a cat's. She had a very striking long tail similar to that of a monkey's with that same cherry red color to the fur on her tail. His eyes locked on her golden earrings and necklace that were stylish and of high quality.
Although he was more captivated by the outfit that she wore which seemed to be some kind of mix of beautiful elastic and silks with golden armor plating over it to form this sexy onesie similar to a women's beach outfit traditionally worn by female lifeguards. She had similar long sleeve gloves and high thigh boots to match it. Her outfit was definitely there to help catch people's eyes on all of her feminine curves and her voluptuous figure.
She was definitely a beauty with facial features that most human women would dream of having that seems like it was perfectly carved by a master artist. Despite her short height she was quite thick. Her breasts were probably if he had to guess E-cups, but they didn't seem to be a hindrance or a bother for her in the slightest. And with her outfit putting her rear on full display he couldn't help but notice the perfectly round thick yet bubble butt that she definitely seemed to want people to look at especially with how she was standing.
She was currently leaning against a nearby small animal container with a hand under her chin looking up at him over her shoulder. She realized that he didn't understand her as she continued speaking and noticed his confusion. Seeing what was going on she quickly opened the Ascension Shop and purchased an item. She handed the man what looked like a soft blue marshmallow ball and she motioned for him to eat it.
He recognized what it was since Roksazza had described the item that she had bought from the Ascension Shop a few days ago that helped her to learn how to understand him and Marcelina. It was an edible magical device that would help him to instantly learn whatever language was attached to it. He took the item and quickly ate it. In a matter of a couple seconds he felt his brain began to be filled with information on the language that the woman spoke.
Which he now knew was a specific goblin dialect called Kazz'Ratii from a planet known as Durthshamon. He's seemingly learned not only the language but the slang and some of the more intrinsic nuances as well all in a matter of a few seconds. He was in awe of it and was so taken aback he almost forgot what he was supposed to be doing.
That was until he heard the woman speak up, "Can you understand me now?"
He looked down at her and spoke in perfect Kazz'Ratii, "Yes.... Sorry about that."
"No need to be sorry. I can speak several human languages, but I wasn't about to try and figure out which one you specifically spoke. Your people have a lot more languages than most races. It was easier to simply have you learn mine and then ask you which one you spoke," she stated.
"English," he answered.
"Hell I already know that. I guess I should have tried some of the languages first before checking and seeing whether or not..... Never mind that now," the woman said in perfect English a little bit embarrassed.
He tried to make her feel more comfortable, "It's okay it's not like you knew that to begin with. You made a good assumption and worked with what you knew."
She gave him a pat on the shoulder and thanked him for his politeness, "So sweet of you to try and be very reassuring. Why don't you tell me what brings you to my shop? I see you used one of the teleportation tickets I had up for sale on the Ascension Shop, so I'm guessing you have something in mind."
"I'm looking for livestock. Trying to get enough animals that my people won't have to worry about food for a while," he answered getting back to the matter at hand.
"You say that like you and your group might be out in the woods or something. What are you all trying to do start a farm outside of town," she joked.
"We are in the woods. I don't know where exactly in the world that is but I know the name of the forest after completing a couple quests. We haven't even found signs of other people since we arrived. Outside of the ones that were also teleported to the forest, of course," he said earnestly and honestly which seemingly caught the woman's attention greatly.
"Wait you're being serious! Oh shit you must be one of the unlucky people that get teleported out in the wilderness. It's a 1% chance for participants in the trial to get teleported anywhere far away from city limits but it sounds like you and the people you're with got very unlucky. You said you know the name of the forest you're in. What's it called and I can try and figure out just how far away you are," she responded in surprise and informed him.
Ben remembered the name and tried to pronounce it without making it come out wrong, but she could clearly tell he was just trying to not butcher the name of it, "Polakka Forest."
Hearing that name she actually got very worried for him, "Oh shit! That's the worst place to have ended up on this continent for a newbie to the trials! That's a place where only people who are around level 15 go because the enemies are a lot higher level out there and it has 5 different boss monsters that inhabit it. You're so far north though... The closest city to you would be the Azure Star City which is to the northeast of the forest. It's like a 12-day walk if you're starting on the northern edge of the forest."
"That's actually very good information to know. We can definitely formulate our plans on reaching out to civilization a lot easier now that we know more or less where we are and where the nearest people are," he says as a offhanded remark thinking about it to himself for a moment before he reassures her, "You don't have to worry too much about us. I personally have faced one of the bosses and killed it and another member of my team defeated a second boss around the same time. The other 3 bosses have not shown themselves yet or we just haven't found their lairs."
"Wait what level are you if you've survived almost a month out there? How strong are you that you've already faced a boss and won," she asked him curious and concerned.
Ben replied while manifesting his status screen to show her his level and information, "Oh I can show you."
She took a look at it and recognized who she was actually talking to, "You're him..... You're the human who reached level 10 before anyone else. You're the current strongest human in the trials right now."
"What are you talking about," he asked and confusion raising an eyebrow slightly unsure what the hell she was going on about.
She scratch the back of her head realizing he wouldn't know so she explained, "You're out in the forest so of course you wouldn't know. In all of the cities there is a leaderboard that appears during the trials and it keeps track of the top 10 of every race currently competing. It also keeps track of the top 100 overall. Your number one amongst the humans. You have a couple humans slightly behind you on the same level, but they only just caught up to you at level 13. You're currently number 1 on the leaderboard for all participants and it's not close for the majority of them. Most participants right now are only level five at best with only 3% of participants being higher than that."
Ben stared off into space for a moment as the realization of her words hit him. He then glanced at his status screen at his title. That Honored One title stared back at him and he knew that it was probably the reason why he was so high up in the rankings. It made him so much stronger than even his own comrades who he now knew were in that top 3% with him.
He didn't know what to think or how to react. But then he felt the papers he had in his hand fall to the ground and he remembered what he was there for. He picked the papers up and reshifted his focus back on to why he was there realizing that he only had 7 minutes left.
"I'm grateful for the information but I don't have much time before I have to go back. If you could I'd like to know if you have these animals," he said handing her the papers with the names and some of the sketches.
Taking a look at them she quickly hurriedly read all of the names and even looked at some of the sketches to verify which ones. The sketches were slightly off but she knew what they wanted. She gave him a nod and confirmed, "I have all of them. Whenever a trial starts I get a couple dozen of every animal of every type from every world the participants come from. I can set you up with 8 of each of these for only 1,000 gold."
"Really that's so cheap. I thought I was going to be spending at least another 4,000 or 5,000," he replied.
She waved him off and told him, "If the only price is you look at are the ones that are actually on the Ascension Shop of course you would think that. When you actually get to a city you'll see that the prices are not nearly as high in person unless you're doing custom orders for some of them. Let me go ahead and have my people gather these animals and prepare them for teleportation. Go ahead and transfer the gold and you can head back through the portal and wait the animals to be brought to your location."
"Certainly. What's the name of the account I'm sending the gold to," he replied ready to make the purchase.
"Illatuna Va'Lekka. It should have my picture next to it," she answered.
He quickly found her account listed in the Ascension Shop when he went to try and transfer the gold and he did not hesitate to give her the 1,000 that she wanted for the creatures promised. Once the money was in her account she gave him a nod, "Thanks for your purchase. I'll make sure the animals are teleported safely to your location within the next hour. Try to be somewhere in the open with a lot of space. You don't want to be inside a building when I teleport them or else there might be some damages that I am not going to pay for."
"Got it," he replied understanding what she meant by that and figuring that the magic of the teleportation was not entirely super specific.
He waved her goodbye and headed back through the portal to his base. Once he was back he saw the others waiting for him.
Azzora asked noticing that none of the animals came with him, "Did they not have any?"
"No they had all of them. It will just take them a hour to gather and teleport them here. It only cost 1,000 gold too, so we are in luck. But the jackpot was the info I got," he replied.