Demonstration for the useless goddess?

[The Next Morning]

Tom and Luna were now walking, backpack and knapsacks on hand past the forest and into through a grassy plain. Their surroundings were littered with trees and large rocks strewn all about, and the scenery was quite peaceful. There was just one small issue....THE JOURNEY WAS AWKWARDLY SILENT

The previous night, Luna had vaguely explained that she had come from another place extremely far away and was sent on a secret mission which required being discrete (Tom wondered what being loud was like where she came from if that was discretion). As for her powers, she tried to explain that it was actually a curse inflicted on her (which was kinda true) but after lying beforehand Tom wasn't convinced but couldn't really think of any counter explanation to convince himself otherwise. She did also end up complaining about her stone tablet which was supposed to give her directions and had asked if there was a large lunar church nearby, of which he suggested the one in the town he was going to which was the largest in the country they were in.

"But that sounds totally normal", someone would say. Why would it be awkward? Well there's a simple answer! In the morning Tom and Luna had woken up and set off on their journey. Little did Luna know that Tom was still unconvinced of her newfound weakness/strength and just as they were exiting the forest, he picked up a small piece of wood and chucked it with just enough force to be uncatchable by normal speed at her head. He thought that with the high level of ability Luna showed she could easily sense and deflect the debris if she used a portion of her power, exposing herself. He assumed that a person of her power would be in a state of constant awareness and the ability mask was just a little trick. He. thought. wrong.

BOINK! Luna let out a yelp before turning around with a seething expression directed at Tom. Tears started welling in her eyes and she quickly turned around and started rubbing at the aching with her hands, not wanting Tom to get the satisfaction of seeing her pain. He'd wanted to ask her a lot of questions after she had exposed herself but he had no idea she was telling the truth about currently being so weak! He tried to apologise but not once did Luna turn around or even acknowledge his presence after that. Tom was now seriously dejected as well from the stunt he pulled, not to mention he no longer felt like he was walking around with a powerhouse but a kid who needed to be babysit and protected!

After walking for a bit longer, still silent of course they passed by what seemed to be a group of horses idly standing by. Luna's eyes instantly lit up as she instantly went closer to the stallion closest to her and thought aloud "four hooves, sleek brown fur, big body, and a large head with a bit of hair... OMG A COW! I'VE ONLY READ ABOUT THESE IN BOOKS. I'M ACTUALLY SEEING ONE!" Luna excitedly jumped up and down giddy with joy. Tom who had closely followed was at first stunned for half a second before he burst into roaring laughter. Luna looked at him unhappily wondering what she had said or done wrong before Tom corrected her, whilst still laughing.

"That's a horse, are you the princess of blindness or something?"

"O-of course, that was totally my second guess. I knew that" Luna began to pout. She didn't look at all like that fierce looking deity that had descended from the heavens and more like a little kitten. "L-lets move on" Luna hurriedly said and turned around and left.

After that event, Luna seemed to be in a much better mood and so was Tom. He turned around to look at her, and in the morning sun he could now truly see her. She had silky gray hair, smooth white skin (with a little reddish hue) and slender body that wasn't at all like curvaceous statues he'd seen on monuments and churches. But even then her body seemed quite athletic and a little shapely from what he could tell so her body couldn't be considered at a massive disadvantage. Her clothes were a fancy looking knee covering white dress, with accents and frils of baby blue and seemed to be made of fine silk. she seemed to also be wearing extremely long whitish-bluish socks that went all the way up her dress (he remembered his mother had a name for those but what were they called?) and a pair of sturdy white boots with fur at the top. She didn't seem to be carrying her sword and only had a tiny white knapsack strapped on her back with the a silvery staff seemingly attached at her back that she'd occasionally pull out with dainty, white gloves.

-

Luna seemed to notice that Tom was looking at her and soon said "What's the matter?" To which Tom simply said "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure" Luna replied

"You really don't seem to know much about this country or even the world, do you?"

"No..." Luna bit her lips and continued "my family don't really want me to be in the outside world, I actually had to pull some strings to take on this mission"

"I know what you mean, my parents didn't want me to travel yet here I am as well" Tom said.

"Yeah..."

"By the way Luna, what's your ability rank?"

"My What?" Luna was a bit taken aback by the question. She'd only known of immortal ranks and even then they were determined by a few number of factors but ultimately power was the deciding factor. Ability rank? was that a type of test to see how many chores she could do around the house or whether she could sing.

"...." Tom (maybe this chick is actually an idiot or something😱) he continued "I mean in terms of combat, you know, battle ability and all that. like I thought you were a Battle Saint or came from a long line of those?"

"Umm... can you give me an example? haha" Luna awkwardly laughed. Judging by Tom's expression after she said that it was clearly something everyone would know about and she probably looked like a village idiot in his eyes.

"Okay, whatever. There's a bunch of levels, but since you're currently cursed and have no energy reserves I'll just tell you about the first ones which you qualify under" What he neglected to tell her was that as a rank 2 himself without much knowledge, he could only demonstrate those many!

He started off with the usual lecture of how there were 9 levels, and how the 9 were split into 3 parts of novice, intermediate and advanced rankings. Then they both went to a place with a lot of trees together for him to demonstrate the first rank.

"Rank 1's are much more capable than most of the civilian population. We can even do something like THIS" With that statement, Tom pulled out his rusted sword from it's sheath and struck at the trunk of a thick tree. It was immediately cut into two and the tree feel with a loud THUD on the ground. He started proudly continuing "This is the level of a rank 1, even with a blunt iron sword we can effortlessly cut such a thickness with one sw..." before he could even complete his sentence, a loud THUD could be heard. He turned round and saw Luna staring at him inquisitively, her hand seemingly returning from doing a chopping motion at the tree.

😱😵".....Okay, moving on!" Tom couldn't help but pause before moving towards a rocky part of the plain, his mind racing. He had confirmed before that she had close to zero magical energy at the moment, not to mention even in times of danger - like when he threw that piece of wood - her energy didn't return. Was this all just from her raw physical strength?! Even a rank 3 would be surprised if they had managed to destroy a tree with their bare hands like that.

"Onto the next demonstration...this will be a showcase of rank 2. Go to the other side of the rock so you clearly see the effect" Tom called out. Luna nodded and was eagerly paying attention and absorbing every single word he said. Tom wasn't going to disappoint this time. He still had his pride as a man! He found a large grey boulder that was about as large as him and tensed his body. He closed his eyes and took out his sword. With a stroke from above he let out a shout and cut through the rock with all his might! The friction between rock and sword let out a few sparks but in just that one overhead swing as before, the rock immediately split into 2 halves. Even a bit of the ground was cut! He was so happy and turned to explain to Luna when she immediately grabbed his sword and headed for a rock as large as the one he had used for his demonstration. She flipped the sword, and struck with all her might with the flat of the sword! Tom suddenly realised something, SHE HADN'T SEEN THE FULL DEMONSTRATION BECAUSE SHE WAS ON THE OTHER SIDE. And all she remembered from the previous demonstration was that the more blunt the better so she thought he must have used the most blunt part of the sword for the second demonstration!

Horrified, Tom started at the moment frozen stiff only for an explosion to occur before his eyes. The rock had been blasted into several pieces and even the ground had a large depression with cracks in it from the collision between the sword and rock! Luna looked at his expression again and sensed something was wrong again so she slowly and tenderly handed the sword back over again to Tom.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? THIS IS JUST AN OLD IRON SWORD! I HAD TO USE SWEAT, BLOOD AND TEARS WORKING FOR MONTHS AT MY UNCLES SHOP SAVING UP... AND I FINALLY FOUND ONE IN MY PARENT'S BASEMENT!" (Huh? Why was he working at his uncles shop if he found it in his parent's basement?)

"This sword is quite old and worn down and look, it now has so many wide cracks all over thanks to you! How many more swings do you think it will take before it brea..." before he could even finish his sentence, the blade of the sword suddenly broke into multiple pieces and fell to the ground. Tom stared, his heart as broken as the sword in front of him.

"Less than one?" Luna looked at the pieces of the sword, then back to Tom who looked he was going to have a heart attack at any minute.

....

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU