Chapter 20

It's been exactly seven days since I first returned to the farm, and five days since the events of the Laser Light Cannon—three days since the events of the last chapter.

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[Apprentice Axemanship has become Journeyman Axemanship]

"Finally!" I exclaimed, thrilled at my skill's level up as I quickly retreated from the range of Reinhardt's blade. He didn't pursue, instead launching a weak energy slash while he was forced to block Noah, who was already bathed in flames, having taken a few hits earlier in the training session.

"LILY!" Noah shouted, his blades locked with Reinhardt's as he struggled to hold him in place.

"Already on it!" Lily responded, ordering her skeletons, all armed with bows, to fire. Unfortunately, none of the arrows landed as Reinhardt effortlessly kicked Noah away and deflected each arrow with horrifying grace.

"Are you sure he has the same stats as us?" Richie asked, running in with his warhammer held high as he made a sweeping motion at Reinhardt, who had his back turned.

"..." Reinhardt didn't bother replying or turning to face Richie. Instead, he simply increased the gravity on Richie's hammer, causing him to fall forward and face-plant into the dirt.

"Come on, Richie, you're the only one who hasn't increased their weapon skill! You're so close—just make one more attack!" I shouted, charging forward to block Reinhardt's attack on Richie. Richie quickly got up and made a swift strike at Reinhardt, who barely reacted, stepping back to minimize the damage.

"Now let's get you where you need to be!" Seeing an opportunity, Richard moved in, his body a blur as he struck at Reinhardt's unprotected side. His arm crackled with orange energy as he slammed his fist into Reinhardt, sending the dead knight flying with a thunderous boom as the energy exploded from Richard's hand.

"Nice hit, but it will take more than—oh..." Reinhardt began to speak as he stood up after being sent flying, but only then did he notice the two massive rods on either side of him. Before he could escape, he found himself surrounded as all the melee fighters, including myself, closed in, preventing him from moving.

"Ms. Cary, activate them!" I shouted. We kept Reinhardt from moving, though it came with its own challenges—Noah was quickly knocked out, and Richard followed, having exhausted all his explosive chi in his attack. But it was enough, as the rods activated, signaling our victory.

"Interesting," was all Reinhardt could say as the rods glowed with a blue light, emitting a small field between them that slowed everything inside to a snail's crawl.

"Good job, everyone," Cary finally emerged as Reinhardt for the first time ever we defeated, restrained by the weak stasis field.

Cary quickly fed health potions to Noah and Richard, who were then smacked awake by Olivia who followed behind her.

"Couldn't he hit us a little less hard?" Richard groaned as he sat up, rubbing his jaw. Noah, next to him, just groaned, having been the only one to suffer actual wounds throughout the entire training session, as he needed to train his pain tolerance.

"Be quiet, Richard. It's your own fault you got knocked out—who told you to use all your energy offensively?" I reprimanded him as I walked over to Cary, who was inspecting her latest innovation from studying the Red Eye fragments.

"So, what's the verdict?" I asked the now-freed Reinhardt, watching as he dropped into a thoughtful pose, pondering my question.

"Honestly, you guys will naturally become pretty skilled eventually, thanks to your systems. The only problem I'm seeing is that you're not fully utilizing your bodies," he replied. His words confused me at first, but after a moment of reflection, I remembered something I once read in another novel.

"Full stat utilization," I whispered, and Reinhardt nodded in agreement. He then gestured for me to give him my hand. I did so, and he placed a rock in it. I was confused at first, but that soon turned to panic as I felt the rock grow heavier in my hand, the weight slowly increasing.

"What's the point of this?" I asked, struggling to hold the rock as its weight passed 200 pounds, straining my muscles. I did my best to focus on what Reinhardt was saying.

"As you can feel, you're straining to hold even this much weight, but from what I can observe, your body should be able to hold much more—maybe even double this weight with ease," he explained. Before I could respond, the weight of the rock nearly doubled, forcing me to use my other hand to keep it from dropping to the ground.

"Luckily, with each level of your weapon mastery, this flaw seems to get fixed, so don't worry too much about it," Reinhardt added. I sighed in relief as he finally removed the extra weight, allowing me to drop the rock to the ground.

"Anyways, farewell until next time," he said. I watched in silent excitement as Reinhardt transformed back into a coin. The idea of being able to handle nearly double the weight was enticing and filled me with anticipation. After collecting Reinhardt's coin, I went to talk to Cary, who was busy inspecting the cream-colored rods.

"Did they perform how you expected?" I asked. The old woman noted down one more observation before turning to face me, adjusting her glasses lightly as she spoke.

"They're performing at peak capacity, but that's only thanks to the material, which is honestly doing most of the work. If I were to say how well it would perform with normal metal, it wouldn't even reach 50% of this efficiency," Cary explained. Her words made me frown as I looked at the rods, which she had somehow carved out from the pieces of the Red Eye she had studied.

"Luckily, you grabbed a lot of it, so we should be fine for a while. But I must say, I've only been able to utilize the stasis ability," she continued. I watched as Cary, who was packing up the rods, flicked one of them, causing it to glow slightly, revealing dense lines of inscriptions etched into it.

"I still need to study the other big pieces, as they also contain functions that are too numerous to list," Cary added. I nodded in acknowledgment, waving her goodbye and leaving her to her work. I headed over to the group, who were chatting about the previous fight.

"Okay, now that everyone has leveled up their weapon skill, you're free to go if there's nothing else," I announced. Everyone quickly dispersed to complete their tasks on the farm.

'Finally, some time to myself,' I thought as I stood alone in the field we used for training. I took a moment to reflect on everything we had accomplished since the Red Eye incident.

Starting with Ms. Cary, she had quickly gained enough knowledge to utilize the Red Eye fragments in her crafting. Her two rods, which she named stasis rods, emitted a field that held anything caught within it in a suspended state, preventing movement. From what Cary said, there would be many more innovative creations to come, as the Red Eye had numerous functions that she could unlock. Fortunately, Jessica and I had managed to gather many sizable pieces after its destruction.

Next, there's Richard, who had been brought to the farm and participated in his first mission. Like a teenager having his first time, he blew all his Unstable Chi on the first enemy and was stuck running empty for the rest of the mission. After some training with Reinhardt, he can now control his output, though he still refuses to use any of it for defense. Luckily, with Richie around, that's less of a problem.

Speaking of Richie, although he's the least skilled of the group, he's shown incredible resilience, which makes up for his lack of finesse. I once saw him get stabbed by a goblin knife and walk away with nothing but a light scratch—a feat I can match, but considering my stats are much higher than his, it's even more impressive on his part.

As for the usual squad, they've been showing amazing improvement. Noah isn't far behind me in reaching Journeyman in weapon skill, and his girlfriend—now fiancée—Olivia is already 30% of the way there herself.

Regarding the magic casters, Lily's utilization of her skeletons has seen marked improvements. She now has them wield a variety of weapons and gear, forming a standard troop with attackers and defenders. Alejandro, on the other hand, remains a bit of a wild card. His offensive power varies greatly depending on the terrain. For instance, when we went on a quest through rocky terrain with no signs of life, he could at best summon a couple of vines to strike a target. But here on the farm or in the nearby forest, he can command the nature around him—trees bending their branches to strike or grass rapidly growing to restrain someone.

'We're growing steadily stronger. I can't wait to become even stronger,' I thought. I was soon pulled from my thoughts by a call from Jessica, which I answered, ready to receive the usual report.

"Hey, Duke, you won't believe what I found out last night," Jessica said, immediately piquing my interest.

"What is it?" I asked, eager to hear more.

"So, I was following Steven, but he was hanging out with Garnet, so I decided to follow your father instead for the rest of the day," she began, and my interest deepened.

"I followed him around the arcade, occasionally playing some games to pass the time. But things got interesting close to closing time. He started acting weird—packing a bag of stuff, locking up quickly, and heading off in a different direction from his house. So, I followed him," she continued, her story reaching a climax. My curiosity peaked, but I wasn't prepared for what she said next.

"Eventually, your dad reached a relatively run-down building. It didn't seem too interesting at first, but once I followed him inside, I found it packed with people from town. After a bit of trouble, your dad made his way through the crowd and reached a table, where he unloaded a mic and a small speaker. Then, he started narrating a fight happening in the ring at the center of the building." I was honestly shocked; I didn't remember my dad doing anything like this in the show, but maybe I just didn't recall it. I continued listening as Jessica had more to say.

"So, I found a place in the audience and watched as a colorful cast of fighters bashed each other silly. Honestly, it was fun to watch, and your dad gave some pretty colorful commentary. But what I really called you about happened near the end—a mysterious fighter entered the ring, completely hidden under a cloak. Your dad announced the arrival of the champion, the 'Purple Puma.' It only took me a second to realize it was none other than Amethyst of the Crystal Gems! She proceeded to smash every challenger to the title!" Jessica finished.

I was stunned by this revelation, and it didn't take me long to decide that I needed to check it out myself—something that wouldn't be too hard with my teleportation skill.

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Feeling a bit burnt will try and relax I'm doing this for fun anyways

What wrestling name would you give mc