(Nov 23)

I lost the duel. I was utterly defeated by Alisha.

Even though I didn’t go full dragonification, I was fighting seriously.

And yet I still lost.

Did I feel embarrassed upon losing? Humiliated? Ashamed? Discouraged?

No. For some reason, even though I lost, I felt… energetic?

When I lost, I thought that I would’ve felt disappointed in myself, but I didn’t. Instead, I felt strangely motivated and… even a little excited.

I’m near certain that I’m not a masochist, but losing the duel felt surprisingly refreshing. I don’t know why either.

It’s… weird.

My respect for Alisha grew today.

Despite being significantly weaker than Briggs, she was much more difficult to deal with.

Even though Briggs is stronger, when he goes berserk, he becomes unable to think and becomes predictable. Alisha is not.

She was able to use her wits to come up with strategies to take me down.

Her awareness of the limitations and advantages of her own fighting style and classes led to her victory.

She fought cautiously, fully aware of the situation, where I on the other hand, was overconfident in myself which led to my loss.

Alisha gave me a hand and I patted the dust off myself.

“That was a good duel. Did it at least demonstrate what you were trying to show my wife?”

“It did. You fought well,” she answered before quickly turned away.

It might just be me, but for some reason she didn’t seem happy.

She just won the duel. So why did she seem upset? I could’ve just been imagining it; Alisha is weird after all.

Anyways, I rushed home immediately afterwards to write in my journal.

I wanted to write down everything that happened while I was still feeling this weird motivation and energy.

My defeat somehow caused me to feel inspired. I wanted to reflect on everything that happened.

What caused my defeat and what can I do to not lose next time?

It’s kind of hard to organize all the ideas and thoughts swirling around in my skull right now.

Ok.

I’ve calmed down.

To organize all my thoughts neatly, this fight was a wake-up call for me.

It’s true I’ve become so much stronger, and I’ve been fighting so many monstrous people lately that I’ve forgotten that if I fought someone who was actually smart, they’d probably whoop my ass.

Reminds me of that one time in high school when I got straight A’s for an entire month straight, and then I got overconfident, didn’t study, and failed my finals.

When I was weaker, I used to fight strategically and come up with plans to win against stronger opponent, but now I’m strong and I simply rely on strength and my instincts.

Speaking of which, this fight also revealed a fatal flaw in my dragon instincts.

Since my instincts have become so sharp and powerful, I had relied on it to keep me safe, but it’s not perfect.

My dragon instincts will only alert of danger moments before it happens.

That means even if I stand right next to a bomb, my instincts won’t warn me until right before it detonates.

If my opponent was smart, like Alisha, they could come up with strategies to trick my instincts and trap me in a situation where I can’t avoid even if I knew an attack was coming.

Honestly, I’m glad I lost.

It helped me realize some of my weaknesses and showed what I can improve on.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

Hm.

Why does it feel like my lost was planned and predetermined for the sake of my development…?

I might sound crazy, but it feels like there’s an unknown force controlling things from behind the scenes…

Bah, must be my brain playing tricks on me again. It tends to do that a lot.

The fact remains though that I have learned another valuable lesson. I will be cautious from now on, using strategy when I can along with my instinct and strengths.

The next time I fight Alisha, I’ll be prepared! I won’t lost again!

(Nov 24)

Decided to go to the library to get some books.

After yesterday’s defeat, I figured it wouldn’t be bad to learn some more about the technical side of fighting.

Although actual practise usually is the best way to go, sometimes learning tips and tricks from professional books can help as well.

As a soldier, I was taught basic swordsmanship like how to hold a sword, how to do proper swings and basic stance, but there are books that can teach more advanced ways to wield a sword.

The books weren’t top tier stuff since they were public library property, but they were still written by elites and contain good stuff for newbies and intermediaries learning to improve.

I figured a library would have the best stuff to learn about combat scenarios and expanding my knowledge.

Plus, I just like going to libraries.

They got tons of cool books.

At one point I got distracted and started reading some random books.

I stumbled on this one children’s random fact books that I couldn’t help but find interesting.

It had a bunch of random yet interesting facts that doesn’t really matter but is cool to know.

Like did you know the human body is made up of around 60% water?

That’s crazy. I know blood is a liquid, but how the fuck is it 60% of my body?

Oh, and did you know that the reason why the term humanoid: “a creature with an appearance or character resembling that of a human,” is called humanoid and not something else was because it was created by a fellow human named Professor Jonathan.

That means if someone else from another race, like a devil or a fairy, had invented the word, then it’d probably be known as devilnoid or fairynoid.

Or did you also know that an average E ranked adult has enough potential magic in their body to fill up around 10 - 20 low grade magic stones?

Of course, that’d probably drain them of all their magic and kill them, but it’s possible.

Makes me wonder, if a normal person can fill up 10 - 20 stones, how much could an A rank fill up?

Hm. Gotta ask William that someday.

Well, that’s enough facts for one day. My smol brain has absorbed enough knowledge for one day.

I picked out and borrowed a few books related to martial arts, swordsmanship, and basic fight strategies for noobs.

Before I left the library though, I decided to upgrade my journal.

It was pretty close to running out of pages, so I paid the librarian to use their page expansion machine to add more pages.

It’s cool how the machine uses spatial magic technology to add a near limitless number of pages to the limited space in my journal. Now I won’t have to worry about running out of pages.

It was relatively expensive, but it’s coming out of William pocket, so I’m not losing any money anyways.

Feels good to have William paying my wages and my expenses. Got to send him the bill later.

(Nov 25)

Did some training alone today.

Not sure if I’m improving or not, but I’ll keep trying.

I’m a bit tired so I’m not going to write much.

(Nov 26)

There’s only 2 more days until we leave for the Kenava meeting so I started packing my stuff.

I feel bad that I’m going to be leaving Gabi and my wife alone again, but I’ll make it up to them when I get back.

Plus, my wife and I have some special plans for tonight.

Gabi’s staying over at her friend’s house tonight, so my wife and I have the whole night together alone and we can be as loud as we want.

:)

(Nov 27)

HOLY SHIT.

I can’t believe I never thought of this before.

While in bed yesterday, my wife came up with the best idea ever.

She realized that since my web essence has the properties of rubber, so I can use it as replacement to condoms!

This doesn’t sound like a big idea, but it is.

Because my web essence is made of my own magic, it feels like it’s a part of me and like there’s nothing there at all!

But best yet, since it’s magic, I can adjust its shape, size, tightness, texture and temperature at will! It’s customizable and even better than raw dogging.

It got so intense last night, my wife’s arms and legs started to Grinchify (yes, that’s the term I’m going to use whenever my wife transforms into the Grinch).

It’s a shame that I have to leave to travel to the kingdom meeting tomorrow because I wanted to explore more about what I can do with my web essence, but oh well.

We can wait till I get back.

Hopefully it doesn’t take too long.

(Nov 28)

Woke up early to my alarm, got my gear, said my goodbyes and headed off to the city gates.

Once there, I met up with the other soldiers who were coming along.

Since this was a private meeting between two kingdoms, we didn’t bring many soldiers to not draw attention and there were only a few dozen troops including me.

But this was still a meeting between the royalty of our kingdoms, so we needed to bring out our strongest to assert dominance and in case anything happened.

As such, William, Briggs, Alisha, Mona, Cornelia and a few other A rankers are also coming along.

The king, Brigg’s and Mona’s father, himself was coming along.

This was the first time I had even seen the king.

He’s old but had stylish red slicked back hair and wore a golden crown on his head.

His entire figure emitted nobility and royalty, unlike his children.

The one similarity he had with his kids is that he's very strong. Upon sensing his chakra, I could tell he was an A ranker as well.

This was the man whom I worked for.

“That’s my father Allen Makistan. People usually just call him King Makistan though,” Briggs said as he noticed me staring at his father.

I nodded as I stared at Briggs face.

I still find it hard to believe that Briggs is a prince and related to the king when they look nothing alike.

Mona and Briggs must’ve inherited their looks from their mother or something.

After a small chat with Briggs, he returned to his father’s side and then Mona walked towards me.

I expected her to greet me, but instead she just walked past after whispering into my ear, “remember our deal.”

I nodded to signify that I remembered my promise to keep an eye on Briggs.

Once everything was organized, Briggs shouted out, “Alright men! Let’s start moving!”

And thus began our two-day trip to the meeting with the Kenava, which will determine if we’ll be at war or not.