With the weapons chosen by both parties, they moved to stand on both sides of Herberta, the woman having taken place in the center of the sandy field, a stern and somewhat annoyed look on her face. Grey was twirling his daggers, seemingly showing off his skill with the weapons, cocky smirk on his face, though he looked annoyed as he ran his tongue over his cheeks in annoyance, with them bulging out for both Rex and Herberta to see, his eyes locked on the young and arrogant kid, not knowing the wastness of the world.
"I advise you take the shield as well." herberta spoke up, noticing that Rex was holding one handed sword, his other hand empty "That is the whole point of your choice of weapon."
"That is not necessary, but your suggestion is noted." Rex calmly replied. Sure, he could have just ignored the dumb hothead he was about to manhandle, but he was never one to take insults and let them slide. 'Treat me with respect, and so will I, act like a fool, then dont blame me for teaching you a lesson.' was a rather simple rule Rex like to use as one of his guidlines, though like all guidlines, it was just that- something to take note and try to adhere to, without loosing too much sleep in cases that was not an option. Rex recieved to clicks of tongue as he said that, one of irritation, coming from Herberta, and another one of pure anger. Gray was clearly too pround and stupid to take hints. 'Ow well, was going to help him out anyways.' Thought Rex to himself, even as Herberta proceeded with the quick rundown on rules and then, after her command, she yelled "START!" and moved out of the way, maintaining a rather notable distance between herself and the two combatants. Tom and the gray haired woman had vacated the sand field, standing by the side, spectating the coming fight.
"Take That! Ha ha ha ha ha!" in laughter exclaimed Gray, lunging towards Rex, the hand with regularily gripped dagger in front of him, and the other hand, with dagger in reverse grip hidden behind his back. In just a few moments, Gray was in front of Rex, his frontally positioned left hand making a two to seven o'clock diagonal cut, aiming for Rex's torso, though the moment he realized Rex had sidestepped the strike just barely, torqued his body in the dirrection of his swing, his right hand coming in hot with the reverse gripped dagger, aiming to extend his attack with the inertia he had picked up.
Unfortunately for Grey, Rex was much faster than him, something he learned the hard way, with Rex tilting his body just a bit further back, at the same time performing a lightning quick kick with his right leg, it connecting with Grey's guts with a rather loud thud, the force of said kick and Greys forward motion forcing a painfull grunt out of him, followed by his body being propelled back with quite the momentum.
"Urghhh" a painfull groan excaped Grey's lips as he landed, clearly not prepeared for either the speed or power Rex was bringing forth. And as Grey groaned in pain, getting back on his feet, more so his pride having being mercilessy struck than his body damaged, Rex straightened his own posture, his weapon hand holding the sword having not been used. With the same relaxed expression on his face, he waited for Gray to collect his wits and come at him again, ready to dish out punishement every time he would be so carelessly charged by the other party.
And, as he expected, Grey, with his face flushed red in embarasment and anger, charged forward once again, seemingly faster than last time, though the difference was basically non existant for Rex's senses, resulting in quite similar ending as the time before. With Grey recieving a kick in the guts, eliciting a more painfull groan from the older adventurer as his body was propelled through the air, a notable 'thud' signifying his second landing. And while the once again floored man had changed the actual strike pattern from before, it was still rather simplistic and crude. He was quite inexperienced in actually taking on intelegent opponents, most likely depending on a tanker to attack from monster blind spots.
"With such non existant experience or understanding when it comes to fighting a fellow man, you sure do talk big." Rex spoke, having noticed his second strike was a bit much to Grey, who was still collecting himself to get back up "Do find someone who would shore up said deficiency before you act tough in front of others. Might just save your life one day." he then lazily swung his practice sword as he added "So, got anything else or are we done here?"
His taunt clearly worked, as another groan later, Grey was back on his feet, taking a forward leaning stance. Rex could almost swear smoke was coming from the mans head, clearly embarassed and angered quite a bit.
"DONT GET TOO FULL OF YOURSELF BRAT!" he screamed, shooting forward, his weapons taking on a slight glow for just a second.
Clearly, Grey was using what little mana reserves he had to empower both his charge and coming strike. Though, much to his own bad luck, Rex was way out of his league, the difference between them only to grow larger and larger. The moment he charged forward, Rex's weins were flushed with mana as well, allowing him to easily react to the empowered charge as well as the incoming strike. Well enough aware of the capabilities of this world's healers, Rex became the rock a poor fool was about to crach into, his body permeated with mana, making it many times tougher and faster.
As the two, dagger wielding hands descended, the training blades glowing almost red by now and a scream "PIERCING FANGS!" coming from Greys mouth, two, hands met them, capturing the raging man's wrists in a vice like grasp. What followed was an even more frightening sight, as with a simngle, powerfull "FUSS" shout, Grey was flung back, his unconscious body flying like a ragdoll for a few meters before landing on the ground, unconscious.
"I would advise you go and heal him. It could be as bad as fractured ribs, I doubt his body was heavily reinforced with mana, judging from how he few like a ragdoll." Rex said to Herberta, then turned his head to the other two spectators, members of Grays apparent party and added "And yes, I did held back quite a bit, no need to glare at me so. He could be far worse right now. You are lucky someone as kind and gentle as me taught him the lesson in humility he needed so much."
At Rex's words, Herberta rushed over to Gray, cheking on him for just a moment, then proceeding to cast some healing spells on the unconscious body, confirming Rex's suspicion that she was a sort of healer. There was no way she was not, after all, they were to fight, and accidents can always happen, making it an absolute foolishness to not have a healer at hand. The guild and its advancement tests had been around for long enough to have surely solved said possible issue, and they apparently had.
A few more minutes later, Herberta walked back to Rex, slight wariness now in her gaze. Rex had, after all, manhandled B rank adventurer, even if said B ranker was a ratehr weak representation of the rank. "So, I take it I have passed with flying colours?" Rex asked, his tone calm, not betraying any excitement, if he had any, regarding the result.
"Yes, you have. And while your fighting prowess seems rather impressive, further rank advancement is not as simple. You will have to continue to fullfill either guild quests or turn in monster cores to reach the necessary point count for next advancement." Herberta spoke, now in a much more cordial tone than before. If Rex was something of a annoying amd unwanted eyesore to her before, clearly due to him earning the recognition from Riley, now she could see what the old gentleman had seen in him, even if she had no idea how said gentleman did so.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
"Follow me then, to finalize your rank up. From today onwards, you will be considered D rank adventurer, Congratulations." Herberta lightly bowed to Rex, leading him back to the guilds reception desk to finallize said formalities, leaving now peacefully sleeping Grey on teh sand, his two companions looking in Rex's dirrection with complicated gazes. They knew better than anyone just how foolish and spoiled Grey was, but that did not make it easier seeing him manhandled with such ease. It was as if they saw a man, roughly handing a tantrum trowing kid, establishing the pecking order in their place of residence, at the same time disciplining said kid.
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A few dozen minutes later, Grey woke up, groaning. His body felt stiff and sore. "Urghhh" he groaned as he slowly got up in a sitting position, sand irritating quite a bit of his body. It was never fun, sleeping in sand for a while, with it creeping in any possible crack. "What happened?" he groggily asked, the last whatever time rather murky at the moment.
"You were handled like a kid, by a kid no less." grimly spoke up the girl, his companion.
"Lucy?" he asked, trying to remember, untill, it all came crashing back, his face flushed with embareasment. Indeed, he was, for lack of a beter word, manhandled.
"No use in flipping over it. He was out of your league, whoever he is. That last move that took you out, I think he is a mage of sorts. No way can anyone shout like that. And if someone that young is a mage of that level, well, lets just be happy he left you with only light bruising and some cracked ribs, all of which was healded already, mind you." Lucy added, though much to her and Tom's suprise, Grey just nodded in agreement. Sometimes display of such overwhelming difference was indeed healthy for ones mental growth. Grey quickly understood the futility and danger of seeking revenge for something he could easily classify as his own innitial fault. He was spoiled, quite a bit so, his parents quite the sucessfull adventurers, but he was not stupid either, a trait that often took backseat due to the priviledged upbringing.
"Yea. That guy is a monster all right." He groaned as he was helped up, still feeling stiffness all over his body "Lets forget the guy and get me home for a shower. The sand is getting itchy in all the wrong cracks."
"Gughhh! Too much info!" cursed Lucy, helping him to their home alongside Tom.
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"What was that?" once back in the guild building, Herberta asked Rex.
"Hmm?"
"The last thing you did, that ragdolled and knocked Grey out."
"Magic?" Rex replied, not intent on sharing his newly created spell. Truthfully, he could have used any sound as the base for the spells formation, though he had to give credit where credit was due, and as such he picked the most obvious of choices. 'In honour of Dowakin, no other shout should acceptable!' he though to himself, chuckling at the thought. realizing that she would not be graced with an answer, Herberta continiued walking forward. Not like she had done anything to earn good will from the man in question.
The next half an hour or so was spent updating Rex's adventurer ID and informing him of the additional options that he could now access. Sicne he was now D rank, there was a possibility to take high society course, learning all manner of rules and etiquette necessary to blend in with nobles. There were more than a few requests fomr them, either to serve as bodyguards on some trips, or as a show of status in some of their fancy parties. naturally, Rex refused to even entertain the idea. If he had to deal with nobles, it would not be him wagging a metaphorical tail to their whims, desperate for their coin and favour. It would go the other way around. Whoever would want him to take their quests, would have to kiss his ass, not the other way around. And so, with his ID updated, and etiquette courses vehemantly refused, he left the guild building, deciding to test his luck with possible new members tomorrow. He was in no immediate rush to test his luck, and besides, he had plenty of time to spend, his Empowerment crystal needing quite some time to be auctioned off. Something of such value needed proper advertisment and the right level of auction to be put on display after all.
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As Rex learned quite soon, 'Beth's Hearth' was quite the popular inn with mid level advernurer ladies, no doubt the strict rules, enforcing a rather pleasant and calm atmosphere, combined with hearty and safiating meals doing the lion's share of advertising. As he left his room, he encountered quite the number of well toned and trained ladies, sporing all kinds of clothings, some of them even wearing full armor sets already. He was quite pleased seeing so many other people moving about this early, rising his expectations regarding the possible new members of his adventuring party.
Ordering a hearty meal, consisting of several meat dishes and promptly devouring it, he left the inn after paying for his meal and expressing his compliments to the dwarven woman regarding her cooking. Then, in a rather brisk pace me moved towards the adventurer guilds branch he had already been to, just a little excited. First, he would simply check the activity of the place so early in the morning, then he would check out the board with party recruitments, and then, well, he would play it by the ear. Who knows, he might just find something interesting to hook his attention.
Once inside the guild, Rex could not help but smile, a few dozen parties were already present, some of their members still clearly half asleep, with eyes nearly shut and some of them even trying to nod off as they waited for their party leader to either pick a new quests to focus on, or whatever else said leaders were doing. Finding a rather distant and empty corner, Rex simply basked in the atmosphere, evaluating everyone who fell in his gaze. Sure, he could theoretically join up with any party willing to have him, but it would be much more efficient to find one that was not set on grinding the capital's dungeon exclusively, traveling from city to city and taking on some odd quests at times. And while he would have no issues grinding the dungeon till apocalypse came, he was here for adventures and stuff.
After spending an hour or so on the current task, having appraised quite a few adventurers, none of whom had matched his relatively set bar of competence and skill, he moved on to the recruitment board where he started to study the aviable choices.
'A party looking for tanker. Average rank of our is F...' Rex read, and once seeing the rank, spoke in a quiet, almost impercievable voice "Nope, skipa that" looking at the next one, then the next one, and so on and so forth. A dozen minutes later, he almost cursed, having read through almost nothing but F rank party recruitment listings. He was more than just a little annoyed. He had checked more than once if there was some sort of rank sorting implemented on the board, and not finding it, with light grumbling returned to the browsing. And yet another ten or so minutes later, he growled and gave up.
"Fuck it. I will just do some solo hunting today. Might as well continiue tommorow." He grumbled and walked away, not even paying attention to the quest board. He was not familiar enough with the dungeon to take on random tasks, not at all aware of the feasibility or effort/return index of said quests. He would focus on monster hunting and then would simply sell off his drops to the guild at the end of the day. And so, with his plan worked out, he left the guild building, finding the nearest transport 'reif', a carriage like contraption, attached to a rather tough looking metal wire, stretching from the central island to the side of the bottomless pit the city levitated above. It reminded him of those gondolla sky lifts skiiing resorts would have back in the original earth he came from.
There was no actual controll of any sort as he boarded the sky gondola, departing towards the dungeon side of the place. He look a position near one pf the windows, two other groups of adventurers sharing the ride. Rex glanced outside as the gondola slid across the botomless pit, trying to discern anything special about the place, though coming to no such conclusions. At least not yet anyhow. Once on the other side, he had to pass through a small set of rather large and powerfull walls, each sporting a rather impressive set of metal doors, ready to be closed on a moments notice. Well equipped guards manning the fortress like place. But actual guards that interracted with people passing through said gates? Only a couple of guards at the third of the five walls.
Rex was not the only person passing through. He had boarded the sky gondola alongside two other parties, each consisting of six people, and as such, he was walking behind them, keeping a notable distance, lest he be mistaken by said guards as one of them. The guards in turn, noticing Rex's aproach, as he was looking around, inspecting everything in his sight, as well as his apparant age, shared a look, and then, one of them, spoke up.