28. LOOK AT ME. I'M A GODDAMN FIRE MAGE.

Instead of catching Luz, Lewis merely stepped aside with a smile, letting the poor Luz crash right against the marble ground.

Seeing how the latter crashed, Lewis offered the groaning Luz his hand, which the latter immediately accepted.

"So, how will I assist you today?" Luz asked in curiosity while beating the dust from his clothes.

"Well, Alfred told me to spend some time with you so that you get familiar with this place," commented Lewis casually while suppressing a yawn.

"B-But I thought I would be working today and making money," Luz yammered in disappointment.

A chuckle escaped from Lewis's mouth before telling Luz about today's plans. "The two of us will be working together to the bones from tomorrow onwards. As for today, it will be a surprise."

Nodding, Luz followed Lewis and the duo left the estate before walking through the lively city.

"So? Where are we going?" Luz asked in curiosity as he glanced through the crowd of people who were busy walking through the streets.

In the crowd, he immediately spotted all kinds of social classes through the way they dressed. It seems like Liv's classes paid off.

But in reality, it meant nothing as even a child could easily spot the difference between a monk, a mage, an aristocrat, and a peasant walking through the street.

"Well, we are going to the arena. Liv probably taught you some boring-ass classes, which is why I thought of spicing it up to keep you motivated for your stay here," Lewis casually explained while leading the way.

'Lewis, you are the best,' thought Luz as he whipped away a small tear in gratitude.

Soon the two reached the other end of the city, where a giant building, the height of five floors, stood, built in ancient Roman style. While the two stood in the shadow of such an enormous building, Luz marveled at the glorious arches the building had, even going so far as to rub his face against it.

Lewis could only shake his head upon such a sight before forcing Luz to enter inside with him, where a female receptionist greeted them.

A single glance at the emblem attached to their clothes was more than enough for the receptionist to realize with whom they were dealing.

But before the duo could even reach the reception, a broadly built giant with red hair and tanned skin immediately appeared beside them.

Horrified by the sudden appearance of such a monster, Luz immediately stepped aside, letting Lewis deal with him, who shared the same expression as him.

"There you are, Lewis," roared the redhead while immediately hugging Lewis with his muscular bear arms.

"Please let go of me, Francis," pleaded Lewis as he tried to free himself from the giant, who was overpowering him with ease, without even trying.

As one might expect, the latter ignored Lewis's pleads and threw him with ease into the air as if Lewis was a young child.

But before Francis could continue, one of the two girls standing behind him sighed, "Please, guys, stop making such a theater here."

'How the hell have these two beautiful ladies appeared!?' wondered Luz as he only now noticed their existence.

Next to Francis, these two girls looked quite ordinary in their leather armors.

"Why are you trying to ruin our reunion with our junior, Alice," sighed Francis before the girl who had remained silent till now opened her mouth, "Yo… Lewis, long time no see. Who is that newbie, by the way? I've never seen him before?"

Neither Francis nor Alice realized Luz's existence until their other partner mentioned it. The latter was even so shocked by it that he immediately dropped Luz.

"EH?! How have you escaped my senses?" whispered Alice into Francis's ear as the two began mustering Luz's body from head to toe.

The girl on Francis's right side was known as Alice. Alice's favorite color seemed to be black, as her leather armor, shoulder-length hair, and eye color were coal black. In contrast, her skin was as pale as it could get, and Luz questioned himself if the latter's body ever saw the sunlight. But at least she had quite a muscular body that even put Luz to shame.

The girl on Francis's left side, also known as Anne, had pale blond hair, followed by ocean blue eyes. Anne also had an athletic body with no visible scars, but other than that, she seemed like a kind person. (Author note: Anne is the other girl.)

"Anne, He is our newest member, also known as Luz," announced Lewis like a proud father while patting Luz's shoulder.

"Ah, I see… Master Brian caught another Pokemon," commented Francis with a chuckle before offering Luz a handshake.

"Nice to meet you all," replied Luz while accepting the handshake confidently.

A grin formed on Francis's face, and he exerted such a force onto his grip that forced Luz onto his knees. Luz yammered in pain loudly, "I give up. I give up. I GIVE UP, FRANCIS!"

The group laughed, and Luz got immediately lifted up back to his knees before Francis led them to a locker room. "Yo, Lewis, we'll be waiting for you two on the second floor," Francis stated before departing with the female duo.

Fortunately, Luz had been carrying his backpack with him, and he immediately put on his brown leather armor, which fit him like a second skin.

After equipping a metal helmet and changing his shoes to metal-capped ones, Luz followed Lewis towards the field.

There were cuts all over the latter's leather armor, while the brown color faded away at this point. As Lewis led him to the field, he asked Luz, "With which weapons are you familiar?"

"Hmmm… I've got some experience using a butcher's knife and a bow. As for sword and shield, I can use them, but I'm not yet proficient with them," Luz replied honestly, as he thought about how he used to cut dead animals next to his father when he was younger.

Lewis merely shook his head before telling him, "Luz… how should I say it… A butcher knife is not a weapon we would allow you to train with."

"But why?" yammered Luz as he was ready to show his butcher skills even though he didn't mind learning a new weapon.

"Well, to put it simply, the current meta doesn't favor butcher knives.

They may be potent in short-range fights but useless in the midrange where they would get dominated by spear and halbert users," Lewis explained Luz.

"But I'm not a meta slave, like you, Lewis," cursed Luz, and the two began arguing about the current weapon meta. In the end, they came to the following conclusion. Just because it's meta doesn't mean you are good at using it, so pick a weapon that is easy to use.

Luz picked in the end from the armory three weapons of his choice to try out. These three were: a bow, a halbert, and a short sword.

On the other hand, Lewis picked the same combi, a sword, and a shield, before heading towards the field, where three people were waiting for them.

Francis stood there with folded arms, and Luz immediately guessed that the man must have some barbarian bloodline as he was like 2.3m tall and a musculus monster. Nex to Francis's raging masculinity, Luz looked like a starved man. But that wasn't all. His face was square, and Francis had a short red beard, while his eye color was fiery red eyes.

His hair and eye color literally screamed: LOOK AT ME. I'M A GODDAMN FIRE MAGE.