“Pick up a weapon and fight me.”

They felt the power of his words; there was an imperceptible pressure in his voice that made it irrefutable.

I looked to my left to see many weapons and shields. I picked up a sword and a shield as Captain Quinn did the same. We stood next to each other as we faced the man’s back.

“My name is Sylvan Shade, and I will be your trainer. Your goal will be to kill me; mine will be to get you in shape for that to become a possibility,” he said while lifting the sword in his right hand slightly, which I realize now is a katana.

That’s when he turned to us, saying, “Now it’s time to begin.”

….

As I watched Sylvan beat the living shit out of these two, I started to feel a little bad for them; honestly, this is torture, and I doubt if any of them will be back.

“And there the free advertisement goes.”

I shook my head and turned my gaze toward the eight newbies. I gave them some random advice a few moments ago, and they are doing well. Some got hurt a bit, and now they are resting in the hallway, watching the other fight. There are also a couple of guys left to cover those who fight in case something goes wrong.

Honestly, I want to get one of them killed and see how many points I gain, but it’s not time yet, and I can’t ruin everything with my impatience.

Plus, I heard news of a gate that was almost conquered in France. The team that was sent there said that only one gigantic monster that doesn’t resemble a human in any way remained, and the reason for their failure. Well, there was no team, at least not anymore.

Apparently, there was only one large room in which the 40-man team fought desperately. Only 12 were left alive after that confrontation; three of the originals leveled personnel survived, and six more joined the leveled ranks, with only three normal humans remaining. That’s when they decided to continue, where they saw a hallway ending with stairs going up. Through them, they entered and saw a ‘gigantic monster’. They fought it, and only one managed to survive. What a goddamn hero!

Or at least that’s the story they made up; if my theory is correct, then everyone had a very miserable death, except for a sole survivor, who had an even worst death.

Which means the one who came out wasn’t the same as the one who went in.

“He used a doppelgänger.”

Doppelgängers are a race; you could recruit them through the system for 2200 points for a level 1 recruit. Although they have very low strength, health, and dexterity, their charisma and mana control are excellent, and most importantly, they have racial ability.

And it's a unique ability, which is basically stealing bits and pieces of someone's memory and turning into them.

And the reason I definitely know that the one who got out wasn’t a human? It is because either this human dies or he kills the dungeon master and his subordinates to leave the admin room.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

I know it was an admin room that the doppelgänger was talking about. Because I know that you can change the layout of the dungeon as much as you want, but you can never build something up or down, i.e., create stairs, at least for our current rank.

And if I were that dungeon master, I would do anything in my power to kill that last survivor; there is no way I'd let him leave this easily.

This guy is smart; he knew that he had to squeeze out the benefit of his current knowledge. After all, the dungeon master’s superior knowledge won’t last forever, and many things will be revealed by the time the first dungeon is destroyed.

But he made one mistake with the doppelgänger story; he shouldn’t have implied that he was in the admin room. Although hunters won’t know it for now, dungeon masters can see the mistake, and maybe he made it deliberately to speak with other dungeon masters.

With a twisted grin, I said, “Too bad that I love humans too much to let you succeed.”

….

Alex was on the ground, spatting out blood. Quinn wasn’t in any better shape; both were battered and bloody.

“Painful; if that’s the best of what humanity has to offer, then the extension of your race won’t be far-fetched.”

Quinn answered indignantly, “You are too strong; you can’t ask us to actually win.”

Quinn knew this guy was strong—just as strong as the guy he saw a recording of before entering this dungeon for the first time—properly, even stronger.

Sylvan looked at me like an idiot and said, “I'm suppressing my strength to the average status of humans before awaking and using it only up to what you call 1 point of mana control.”

Alex and Quinn looked at Sylvan, dumbfounded and unable to believe what he was saying.

“There is a difference between having strength and having control over that said strength, and there is nothing more pathetic than toddlers having strength they can’t control.”

Before Sylvan could start guiding them on how to control their body energy, he received a message.

After a dramatic moment of silence, Sylvan looked at the two men and started speaking of how to control mana and their body energy.

After about 12 hours of beating and teaching, Sylvan spoke even more seriously than before.

“I will give you a piece of advice: humanity is on the brink of extension; it may not look like it to you now, but if humanity doesn’t unite to fight the incoming threat, you won’t have enough time to enjoy your newly gained power.”

“So I recommend you stop your foolish actions of trying to keep hold of power just for yourselves; there are many races eying this planet, and they will use it as a fighting ground for control and to resolve their grudges.”

The two men were silent as they watched Sylvan turn around.

“Louis Charles, you should investigate him, testing his old memories should be enough, and you’ll understand why your race needs to unite, and that will be the last help regarding information we will provide until we see unity and that you are worth helping as a race.”

“This haven might have been created by the 9th primordial god, but that doesn’t mean we will spend effort saving a race that isn’t interested in saving itself.”

As he left, he said, “It's time for both of you to leave; the others will when they are finished.”

Quinn had a very solemn face as he got the camera that was filming everything and said, “Alex, we need to go.”

Alex got up from the ground, picked up his things, and thought that this was an unreal experience. The knowledge he had gained during these 12 hours was worth months of training alone near what Sylvan called mana spirals.

After witnessing that monstrous goblin and now this more terrifying Sylvan, who, after suppressing his physical strength to the limit, still beat the living shit out of the two of us.

-I am sure of one thing: if every gate has beings like that, humanity will lose the war eventually.-

I don’t trust this Sylvan or this entire gate; after all, why would they be nice enough to help out of the goodness of their hearts? But I can use them to get stronger, and if they try anything, then I will put the training they gave me into practice against them.

As I finished collecting my thoughts, we exited the gate, and Quinn left immediately for his room to contact the highest possible command to report Sylvan’s last words.