44. I've seen too many hot-blooded youths like you die

Lewis turned speechless upon seeing the scar, and Luz took his leave. "Sorry, bro, but I'm no longer in a mood for talking," Luz mumbled to himself as he walked straight towards the arena.

In hopes of bettering his already soured mood, Luz began concentrating on the events that happened over the last few days, thinking about Lewis and his fight against a pack of wolves.

'That fight was a complete disaster and showed how inexperienced I truly am.' Luz thought as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. 'I'm definitely inexperienced when it comes to fighting multiple opponents. But it gets worse…'

'I didn't even take the fight seriously. I fought carelessly, resulting in me getting pinned to the ground halfway through the fight, even though my life was in danger. But that's not all. I even let my emotions get the worse of me. Instead of using the quickest method I knew to get these creatures of me, I used a mana intensive spell to kill these two, wasting precious time and mana.'

Revisiting the fight only made Luz even more embarrassed. As he walked deep in thoughts through the city's streets, he bumped into someone who immediately cursed, "Don't you have eyes!?"

"Argh, sorry. I didn't mean to do that," Luz apologized, and as he moved his gaze up, he immediately recognized someone familiar.

The latter immediately recognized Luz as well and remarked in amusement, "OY, weren't you that brat who was embarrassingly inexperienced in hand-to-hand combat!?"

Upon being reminded of his inexperience, Luz dispiritedly sighed, "Yeah, Nighty… My last mission proved that I am even more lacking than I thought."

"Thought so," Nighty commented nonchalantly before adding, "At least you realized it on your first quest. Nobody died or got crippled during that mission, right?"

Luz nodded, and Nighty slapped Luz's shoulder before stating, "Acknowledging that you are lacking is the first step in improving yourself. So tell me, lad, what are your plans now?"

His words made Luz feel better. Luz didn't hold back and immediately told Nighty about his plans. "Well, I wanted to revisit the arena and focus more on my physical training instead of studying spells." 'Increasing one's spell arsenal is entirely worthless if I don't know in which situation which spells I should use. Rather than that, getting even more familiar with what I have might be even more helpful.'

"That's great to hear. If you were to ask me nicely, I might offer some sparring seasons and tips," Nighty offered with an amusing undertone before adding, "for a small fee, of course."

Luz wasn't really enthusiastic about that and immediately refused. "I'm not gonna pay for that since I can ask a few of my friends to train with me." After saying that, Luz immediately resumed his walk, leaving Nighty in the dust.

Startled by the young man's words, Nighty immediately regretted his greediness and ran after Luz, shouting, "Fine, Fine. It's free. Just for you."

In truth, Nighty was just bored and tried avoiding the guild since a specific guild staffer, Erena, would otherwise give him some work.

The two trained for hours in the arena. Well… calling it a training wouldn't do justice to the situation since Luz was literally the punching back for Nighty that once in a while hit back.

Nevertheless, hours passed, and Luz panted as he kicked against Nighty's calf wrapped in a thin layer of stone. It felt as if he had hit a rock. Filled with plain, Luz immediately jumped aside while cursing his stupidity for even trying.

Unfortunally for him, Nighty didn't have any mercy for him and immediately punched Luz's stomach, sending him crashing face-first onto the ground.

As Luz began spitting out sand, Nighty began lecturing him with an amused undertone, "I know you want to ask what the hell I've just used. But when it comes to close combat, nothing can beat earth spells since they are not only defense orientated but are almost as remarkable for an offense."

"Fine, I will study them diligently," Luz coughed as he got reminded that he shouldn't skip all magic disciplines.

"Good," Nighty stated while offering Luz a hand. "Let's take a break and revisit your first mission so that we can analyze the shit out of it."

The duo walked into the shadow, and Luz began recounting his first mission. Nighty listened to it without saying anything. But when Luz started narrating about the girl he mercy killed deep in the woods whose body was filled with millions of insects, Nighty's eyes immediately narrowed.

Concerned upon hearing that part, Nighty began talking. "That's quite interesting, and something is definitely fishy there. If you told me the truth right now, I would advise you not to dwell further into what happened in the wood since nothing good will come out."

"Yeah, you are right," Luz sighed before hesitantly expressing his disagreement. "But someone has to take action against it since the perpetrator is causing death and suffering of the innocent everywhere while trying to accomplish its goals."

Nighty took a sip from a chug before giving Luz an honest opinion. "You are right, but you are not the one who should look into the matter."

Luz immediately interrupted him. "But why?"

Nighty emptied his chug before telling him the truth. "I don't know how many and who the perpetrators are, but whoever is responsible for the suffering is definitely in a different league than you. I mean, you are a hormone-driven kid who doesn't even know hand-to-hand combat."

"You don't have to remind me of that," Luz replied dispiritedly, and Nighty slapped his shoulder in laughter before getting serious again. "Let me be clear. That person would definitely kill you to keep their identity secret. Wait, no. He won't even kill you personally. He will just send a random mercenary. You will die before you even realize it, so you better refrain from dwelling deeper into it."

"But isn't there any way on how I could contribute to the situation!?" Luz asked in curiosity as he didn't want to pretend that nothing had happened.

"Hmm, you could notify the guild staff about what you saw on that day. Guilds are interested in any kind of information. They might even provide you with some monetary compensation if it's useful to them," Nighty explained to him before taking his leave.

As he stood up, he sighed loudly, "I've seen too many hot-blooded youths like you die due to their naivety."

Author note:

Sorry for the boring chapters, but these chapters will be important later on since I'm trying to build "relationships" between characters (not in the romantical sense).

Also, currently, we are in the establishment of an arc. We know that something is wrong, but we don't know how bad things truly are. Therefore our MC first has to find allies and ask for advice before delving further into the situation.