The City Guards

Damian went to the City Guard Quarters.

When he arrived there, he noticed it was a pretty luxurious building, 4 floors high, and made of metal.

He entered the establishment and saw a receptionist.

Damian entered the line to go there and a few minutes later he was at the front of the line.

"Hello, I would like to set an appointment to join the city guards." Damian said calmly.

"No need for an appointment, just go to the door to your left sir."

"Thanks." Damian replied.

Damian walked to the door and went through.

He then saw an attendant.

The attendant then walked over to him and said, "Follow me."

Damian complied and followed the attendant.

The attendant then brought him to what seemed like their bosses room.

"Enter." The attendant said.

Damian opened the door and walked forward.

"So, you want to join the city guards, huh." The voice was seemingly coming from all directions to Damian. An aura of malice soon accompanied it almost forcing Damian to take a step back due to the power.

'This… This person is too strong!' Damian thought.

Damian was correct.

This man was the leader of the city guards and could squash him like a bug without even standing up.

"Y-Yes, I do." Damian replied shakily.

"Good, good, you are trained."

"I wouldn't accept you if you were even 95% of your current power."

Damian was shocked. 'I trained like a madman and just barely passed!' Damian thought.

"I wouldn't say barely." The Leader said.

'Did I say that out loud?' Damian thought with question.

"You didn't."

"You can read minds!"

"Tier 2 spell, [Mind zone], it's affects include mind reading in a 5 meter radius." The leader replied.

"By the way, my name is Samuel, Samuel Rodrigues." Sam said.

"Y-you aren't from here, aren't you."

Sam smiled slightly.

"Anyway, you're accepted, group training starts tomorrow, come through the left door again, then first door to your right, don't be late."

Damian went home and instead of training his body, he cycled some mana through his brain. He figured out that the smaller the quantity of mana, the easier to control through the brain.

Damian used the smallest amount of mana he could control and lined the neural pathways of his brain.

He only got done half a percent before he lost control though.

He then focused on reducing the mana size even more and with the progress of 5 hours the reduced the minimum size to half of what it was before.

It was around sunset now, so Damian ate diner and continued cycling mana through his brain.

At midnight, he felt fatigued so he stopped but Damian gained around 1 and a half percent total.

He then washed up, did light stretched for 20 minutes and slept like a baby.

He woke up with no fatigue.

"Well, Sam didn't specify the exact timing, so I'll go around noon.

Damian did his usual warmup and cycled for 3 hours and got another half a percent.

He noticed that it was getting close to noon, so he ate and left the house to the Guard Quarters.

When he arrived, he followed the words of Sam and went through the left door, and then took the first door to the right he could.

He then entered the courtyard.

There was only one person, Sam.

"I was waiting for you." Sam said.

"Hope it wasn't long." Damian replied.

"Nobody else has arrived yet, so let's duel a bit, we have around 5 hours to kill." Sam told Damian.

Without waiting for a reply, Sam through him a wooden sword and he himself picked up a twig from the ground.

"I will limit my power to your rank, so I won't have too much of an advantage."

Damian nodded.

Even though the weapons were in favor of Damian, almost everything else was not.

It was a relief that Sam was willing to suppress his power to his level.

"Your goal is to land a hit within these 5 hours. Go!" Sam announced.

Sam flung towards Damian but Damian sidestepped and tried to get a hit in on Sam's leg, but Sam used his twig to rotate himself on the ground away from the strike and towards Damian.

Of course a normal twig couldn't do that, so Sam hardened the twig with mana, enough that it was harder than a rock, but not too much so it was still flexible.

Sam then took advantage of Damian's opening and kicked him upwards around 10 feet.

Damian, in the air couldn't do anything as Sam followed up by jumping towards him at a terrifying speed and knocking him down at the same speed with his twig.

Damian, who couldn't even cycle mana in his brain yet, obviously couldn't cycle mana outside his body.

So he was stuck with an average wooden practice sword.

But Sam did something unexpected.

He used a [Technique].

He hardened mana under his feet while still in the air and pushed off of it!

[Moon Step]

Sam sped toward Damian, as Damian quickly set up a block.

"Tch, too many openings." Sam scrutinized.

Sam landed in front of a blocking Damian and disarmed him.

He then quickly put his twig at his throat.

"You've lost, get up for round two."

Damian complied and quickly got up and grabbed his sword.

The quickly got in to their stances around 10 meters from each other.

Damian, not wanting to be on the defense, spring towards Sam.

Sam smiled as he put up his twig in a blocking fashion.

Damian stopped in front of the blocking Sam as Sam's smile grew wider.

Damian then tried to find an opening in his defense.

Finding none, he then opted for a disarmament.

As he went for the disarm, Sam sidestepped and before Damian could turn to him, he hit him down to the ground.

Not wanting to get combo-ed, he quickly rolled away and assumed his stance.

He looked around for Sam, but didn't see him, but he felt danger from above.

So he looked there and there Sam was, with a twig rushing towards him. Damian, learning from his mistakes, opted to go on the offense.

He jumped towards Sam as Sam's smile grew larger.

Damian attacked in a frenzy, countless slashed, and jabs were being thrown around in less than a second.

Sam countered all of them though, and even threw in a few himself.

Sam then left an opening for Damian, a small and hardly noticeable opening in the middle of a battle. But what Sam didn't expect was Damian didn't go for it.

Instead he slashed towards his eyes.

Here is where Sam really got surprised.

Using his sword, he distracted Sam and let go of it, committing a punch toward the opening that Sam left.

Sam noticed a bit late and couldn't save it in time with his twig.

So he had to use another [Technique].

This time, he hardened the mana in the air as a shield! He blocked and rebounded Damian's fist!

[Iron Air]

Sam's smile grew to a frighting point as he placed his twig on Damian's throat.

"That last ditch effort actually caught me off guard! Nice one Damian." Sam complimented.

"Thanks, I guess it's time for round 3?"

"Yup, get in position."

The 5 hours flew by.

"After 37 of these, ya think I would be able to hit you once! But nope!" Damian sighed.

"Hahaha, don't be such a downer kid, you were one of the best on the first day."

"Anyway, the other trainees are about to arrive soon, how about you greet them."