24 Instructor's Battle (1)
A knocking sound grasped everyone's attention.
With Kiro's keen sense; he was the first one who noticed that there's someone in front of their cottage.
"Mm, that is weird. Who would visit our cottage at this time of the day?" Aldin said in confusion while glancing at the front door.
"Well, since you're the closest one to the entrance, Aldin, please go and meet the visitor," Alyva stated as she followed Aldin's line of eyesight.
"Haa—why do you keep pestering me Alyva. Fine, I will greet the visitor." Despite Aldin's helpless sigh, he still listened to the directions—walking towards the entrance.
Upon opening the door, Aldin saw Instructor Ralph. His face couldn't help to sour further as he stood before Ralph.
"Good afternoon, Instructor Ralph." Aldin's facial expression returned to normal instantly. Since the first day of their training, if he misbehaved even for a bit—Instructor Ralph would beat him senselessly. Following that, Aldin learned his lesson.
"Is Kiro inside?" Instructor Ralph asked while directing his eyesight at Kiro, who was reducing the huge serving of meat stew to nothing at a rapid pace.
Noticing that the Instructor was looking for him, Kiro pretended that Instructor Ralph didn't exist. As he continued to eat his meal.
"Hoo... In just the short span of a few weeks, you seem to have a remarkable change. What is more, you have the guts to ignore me now, huh? Lad." He said while directing his fierce glare at Kiro.
The atmosphere between the two became heavy. Aldin who was watching the scene from the sideline was covered with cold sweat. He stared at Kiro, indicating him not to irritate the Instructor further than this.
But Kiro did not heed his warning while saying. "Oh, Instructor Ralph. It's been a while," Kiro said as he glared back at him; since the first day, he was rather annoyed with this Instructor. Upon their first meeting, he was sent flying just for being polite; then after that, in the underground sewer, Kiro was forced to face an army of gruesome ground worms. Of course, Kiro would feel aggravated for such a guy.
"Hoho—It seems that after training with senior Kyros, you already forgot to know your place, kid," said Ralph. "Come, follow me to the training grounds, even though I already gave the full rights for educating you to senior Kyros—in this training facility, I'm the law!"
After he expressed his words, Ralph went toward the training grounds.
Watching Instructor Ralph's disappearing back, Aldin couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. "Hehehe, what are you going to do now, Kiro?" He said while gazing at the gluttonous Kiro who's busy devouring his meal.
"Num, for now, I need to eat!" Kiro said while swallowing the meat stew. "It's been a while since I have eaten a nice and proper meal, I won't let this opportunity go by, just because some nutshell instructor came over."
Even though they were thankful for Ralph's teaching, his overbearing personality caused his frail reputation from the group to dim further.
As a result, Kiro and his group ignore the Instructor Ralph's sudden visit as if he was in thin air. They continued to eat their meal in an unhurried manner. Well, except for the ravenous Kiro.
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On the training grounds.
The veins on Ralph's forehead were about to explode due to his rage. He had been waiting for Kiro's arrival for about an hour, yet not even his shadow of him could be found. Because of this, Ralph wanted to storm their place, but he still had to maintain his image as their proctor.
So, even if he wanted to forcefully drag Kiro to the training ground—Ralph couldn't, his pride as their trainer would not allow him to do so.
The moment he was about to leave the training ground, the familiar figure of Kiro appeared in his sights.
"Oh, so you have come, I thought you would chicken out and run instead of facing this old Ralph." He said provokingly. The main reason why Ralph was searching for Kiro was because of his Master. Old Kyros wanted to convey a message to him.
However, because of Ralph's hot-tempered nature, he had already forgotten the reason he came looking for Kiro.
"I'm sorry Instructor Ralph since they held a feast just for me, it would be impolite if I just leave there because you wanted a sparring match with me, right?" Kiro replied teasingly.
Even though Kiro was slightly annoyed at him, the real reason why Kiro kept provoking his bottom line was that he wanted to have a match with Instructor Ralph. He wanted to know how long he can fare with a veteran Adventurer like him.
Hearing Kiro's reasoning. Instructor Ralph almost went forward to strangle Kiro to death. While he was here waiting at the training ground for about an hour, Kiro was there slowly enjoying his meal.
"Go pick the weapon of your choice, I won't even stop you if you wanted to use a bow," Ralph said while choosing a simple heavy wooden sword.
Kiro did not reject his offer; however, he did not use a bow, rather Kiro's chosen weapon was a short wooden sword.
Upon seeing Kiro's weapon, Ralph curled up his eyebrows. "What are you trying to prove here? Why won't you use a bow?" He said in a tone that did not hide his displeasure.
"There is no meaning behind it, Instructor, the way my Master implanted his skill on me, was rather in an odd way," Kiro answered, glancing at Instructor Ralph who was about to explode in anger.
"Humph! I would like to know how long you can hold that smug face of yours!" By the time he finished stating those words. Ralph kicked ground hard as he darted to Kiro's direction.
Seeing Ralph was proactively charging toward him. Kiro wasn't flustered at all. Observing the Instructor, Kiro was slightly appalled to know that he could plainly read Ralph's movement.
Taking his stance, Kiro braced himself and took the assault head-on.
*𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘*
A loud sound of two wooden swords clashing to each other.
By the time the Instructor's Ralph wooden sword collided with Kiro's short sword. Ralph was so astounded to discover that Kiro parried with his serious blow effortlessly. After knowing, Kiro had the backbone to bear his full blow. This time Ralph became more serious.
Using his footwork, Ralph tried to use the advantage of his years of experience as an Adventurer to control the overall flow of the battle.
But after speeding up his pace, Ralph was disturbed to see Kiro can keep up with his footing.
*𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘* 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘* 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘*
This time Kiro returned the favor and struck Instructor's Ralph simultaneously in a craze.
With his Mana control, Kiro smeared his mana coating to the short wooden sword, making it more durable. Then Kiro increased the output of his strength.
*𝑆𝐿𝐴𝑆𝐻!*
A piercing gust of wind blew at Ralph's direction. With the speed of Kiro's frontal attack, Ralph failed to read the motility of Kiro's short wooden sword. At the last moment, Ralph used the hilt of his wooden sword to lessen the damage before it landed. But it was a futile effort, with Kiro's enhanced blow, it pierced through Ralph's defense.
"U—urgh!" Ralph ground in pain as he was sent flying three meters away from his original position. Staring at Instructor's Ralph flying figure; Kiro was astounded by this scene.
"Hey, Fixie... How come the Instructor could not even hold back my enhanced short sword?" Kiro asked in bewilderment.
"Mm, the reason why that guy did not succeed to block Master's attack. Firstly, he underestimated Master's raw strength. His second mistake is that he did not know Master is a colorless mage." Fixie explained before she added.
"Master's mana is higher than him, even if the human body has a natural defense for a magic attack. It wasn't enough to hold down the overwhelming assault of Master."
Hearing the part of being a 'colorless mage', Kiro was so dejected to know that he has no affinity to any elements. He could only shrug his shoulder helplessly as he asked another question.
"What do you mean by that? Didn't everyone have an INT in their status, then wouldn't that mean the more a person level up the stronger their defense will become, right?" Kiro exclaimed his confusion.
"What Master said is correct. However, it was only applicable if the person is a colored mage or a colorless mage like Master. But Ralph is a sword's man, so his base INT is only at the acceptable range." Fixie said. "But Master should also not forget about his STR, not only did Master use his mana to enhance the short sword, Master even went far as increasing the strength of his blow right?"
Hearing Fixie's analysis, Kiro could only nod in approval. What she was the truth, Kiro did increase the power of his blow, smearing the wooden sword with his mana. To his surprise, the effect was twice as much stronger than Kiro expected.
"It will be much easier if Master used the Appraisal at him," Fixie suggested.
"Okay, I will," Kiro said while mumbling the keyword. "[Appraisal]!"
﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍
Name: Ralph
Lv: 40
Age: 32
Race: Human
Gender: Male
State: Healthy
Title: D-rank Adventurer
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Job List.
Combat Job:
[Intermediate Sword's Man] Lv. 25
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Skill List.
Combat Skills:
[Medial Sword's Mastery] Lv. 15
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Non-combat Skills:
[Cooking] Lv.3
[Writing] Lv.2
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Statistics.
STR: 145
INT: 80
DEX: 150
CON: 65
CHA: 20
SEN: 90
VIT: 191
﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍﹍
Kiro stared at the transparent screen before him. When he glanced at the statistics section, Kiro was astonished to notice that there was a minor gap between his base status and Ralph's statistics.
