Artian and Sylvester then stopped and looked at each other for a while. They were both at a loss for words at the moment, this was all too much to take in. They were now in front of a goblin. An actual goblin in those tales of fantasy. While the existence of mythical creatures on earth was not something they did not expect, the fact that they see it here in front of them is something else entirely. It was like the time Leonardo revealed the existence of parallel worlds, although the effect this time was a far less shocking one.

Even though Artian has been with Estelle and her transformations for a long time, this encounter comes as shock. Then there’s the fact that this tiny green goblin is supposedly a master of sorts and is living in a cave. This was just a very abrupt flood of information that caused them to remain silent; irritating the tiny green person in front of them.

“This is why I don’t like having guests here.” Grom-Ilk lamented as he glared at the duo, finally jolting them back to reality.“Master uh, Grom-Ilk sir.” Artian started first. “We were the ones sent by the headmaster Leonardo da Vinci. Did he mention it to you perhaps?” he asked as Grom Ilk continued to silently stare as Artian was once again unable to stop himself.

“Are you a goblin?”

“Dude, really? How many times are you going to ask that? Stop it, you're being rude.” Sylvester shook his head.“I can’t help it. This is too much.” Artian weakly defended himself. Grom-Ilk then realized that this was going nowhere soon so he decided to just ask them once more.

“I will ask just one more time, what is your business here?” He asked in a stern tone, forcing the two bickering idiots back to reality once again.

“Okay, we’re sorry. I’m going to explain now.” Sylvester apologized as he scratched his head. “The two of us were thinking of ways to get stronger, but we didn’t know where to begin,” Sylvester explained. “Yes. We were planning to find a teacher in Inanis Orbis to give us some personal lessons, but since we didn’t know where to start that just ended up going nowhere.” Artian continued.

“And now that brings us to you, uh, Master Grom-Ilk sir. The headmaster recommended you to help us.” Sylvester said in a rather meek tone.

Grom-Ilk then scratched his chin as he looked to be contemplating on what he should do next. He then eyed the pair who stood before him with examining eyes as if trying to discern something. After a few short moments, he then let out a sigh of resignation.

“I suppose I understand your desire for a quicker pace in terms of gaining strength. After all, going through that harrowing experience will make you start to think about a lot of things.” Grom-Ilk started talking. He then jumped out of the water and into the dry bank on the side.

“Since this is a request from that multi-colored man, I guess I have no choice but to oblige. Come, you two grigukshans, follow me and then stay put where I say you should.” He said as he gestured them with his hand.

“Grigukshans? What does that even mean?” Two separate minds spoke simultaneously. Artian and Sylvester followed without much of a peep as they also walked out of the river. The two however could not help but whisper to one another over this very weird situation they now found themselves in.

“Dude, this totally feels like some movie level stuff man!” Artian jokingly whispered to his friend. “Yup. I wonder if he’s gonna make us carry him on his back or something.” Sylvester replied in jest.

Grom-Ilk then went back inside his shabby little hut while he told Sylvester and Artian to stay put and wait for him. It didn’t take a long while for him to return as he only went in to get some clothes. Soon they saw the small green goblin wearing drapings that you would find in any sort of martial arts movie: A red upper garment, matched with black pants and black shoes.

It was the very stereotypical Chinese kung-fu master get-up, and Sylvester and Artian aren’t sure what they think about all of this. But to make sure that they won’t be wasting more time, Sylvester cut to the chase and spoke.

“This feels like a change in genre. This is still magic-related right?” Two minds once again asked the same thing.

“So, Master Grom-Ilk. What are we going to do exactly?” Sylvester asked.

“You grigukshans wanted to know where you should be starting right? Well, let me use the method my teacher did to see just where I stood.” Grom-Ilk declared as he raised his hand in front of him.

“Both of you, face me in combat and show me just how strong you are currently.” He declared as he let out a pulse of mana that almost blew away Sylvester and Artian. However, these two were not the ones who would back down from such an invitation.

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“I see now, I guess we really should have expected this huh?” Artian said as he put down his backpack. Unfortunately for him, because he destroyed his sword during the battle against the tree-like monstrosity he had no choice but to fight with his fists. “My soul is my armor!” Artian chanted and soon he was enveloped in his incomplete spectral armor.

“This has turned quite interesting, has it, my friend?” Sylvester said as he took off his cap and gave it a flick, transforming it into a tophat. He then reached deep inside it and pulled out his swallowtail coat and white gloves, donning all of them in one fell swoop.

“Well now, let’s get this show on the road!” Sylvester declared as he and Artian pointed their fingers at master Grom-Ilk’s direction.

“Burst finger!” The two yelled together as an energy projectile formed and shot itself towards Grom-Ilk, only for it to be deflected without even touching the tiny master much to their surprise. Grom-Ilk didn’t even make any motion to defend himself.

“Okay, I expected that to happen.” Sylvester declared as Artian charged forward. He then jumped high into the air and began his assault.

“Cascading Lighting!” He yelled as blue streaks of electricity rained down from his hands aimed towards the goblin below.

Grom-Ilk then raised one hand in front of him and moved it in a circular motion. For some reason, Artian’s lightning spell curved and followed the circular motion until it was all absorbed into a small ball of electricity right on Grom-Ilk’s hand.

“What the hell!?” Artian reacted with confusion as Grom-ilk poised his hand backward and only to move it forward and return Artian’s spell against him. Artian blocked the attack as he placed his arms in front of him.

However, his friend wasn’t sitting idly by. While Artian began his assault Sylvester called forth his assistants and had them attack Grom-Ilk on both sides and at the same time prepared to use his favorite trick.

The two assistants went for a melee attack as the Jack of hearts went for a vertical downward slash and the spade of hearts for some reason decided to go for a kick.

Grom Ilk raised both of his hands and easily stopped the incoming attack.

“Hmm, these are curious puppets, no, spirits? So this is the magic from that land my old master spoke of.” He remarked on the side as Sylvester appeared behind him via a trap door. As he appeared there was a very faint layer of mist visible in the air.

“Burst finger!” Sylvester yelled out as he once again fired an energy projectile towards Grom-Ilk. And just like the last time, it also completely failed.

“I see what you are planning there, child.” Grom-Ilk declared as he kicked and punched away Sylvester’s assistants instantly reverting them into cards in one hit. He then grabbed on to the air on his left side, catching something unseen.

“You didn’t think this kind of illusionary trick will work on me now did you?” He declared as the unseen thing he had grabbed turned out to be Sylvester’s outstretched hand who tried to tag Grom-ilk with dark strings.

“It was worth a shot.” Sylvester declared, only for Grom-Ilk to place his hand on his other side as if he was trying to catch something.

“Damn it!” A male voice screamed, revealing that it was Artian trying to go for a punch. But despite being caught he didn’t give up yet. “Mana fortification, times 10!” Artian shouted as he raised his other fist and tried to attack Grom-Ilk once more.

Grom-Ilk then let go of Artian’s other hand and caught his attack head-on once more, much to Artian’s disbelief. “This is a little disappointing.” Grom-Ilk declared. “I expected more from the children who managed to achieve such a feat.” He declared.

Grom-Ilk then pushed the two of them to the side with a powerful pulse then came from his hand, sending them flying quite a ways back. Before they could even try to counter-attack, Grom-Ilk suddenly appeared between them and was poised to attack them both.

Artian raised his arms in front of him to block the incoming attack, but this would prove to be his undoing, for Grom-Ilk’s strike was more than enough to shatter his spectral armor with relative ease sending him hurtling away.

Grom-Ilk then focused his attention towards Sylvester who stared intently at the small green fist headed towards his face.“Come on, you can time it properly, you can do it!” He said to himself over and over as the goblin’s attack came closer and closer. “Telep-OBFF” However, his timing was still a ways off as his face completely ate the attack, also sending him flying away with a swollen cheek with one screaming though in his head, “Not again!”.

Grom-Ilk stood victorious over the two young ones, but that is to be expected. Neither Sylvester nor Artian truly believed they stood a chance against someone the headmaster declared to be a master. He then looked at the down pair before speaking once more.

“I see now. You two are lacking in a lot of areas for very different reasons.” Grom-Ilk started to explain.“It’s no wonder you two do not know where to start.” He said as he started walking away, causing Artian to call out to him.

“Hey wait! Where are you going!?” he asked.

“I’ve seen enough, come back here whenever you are free, but not tomorrow because I want Sundays to just be peace and quiet, and I shall show you both where you should begin. But that is all I will do, no more!” Grom-Ilk declared.

“But, why not now?” Sylvester asked as he recovered from his very unfortunate circumstance.

“Because if I did, you would lose some daylight. I doubt you two would want to go walking back towards that academy of yours without any sunlight right?” Grom-Ilk replied.

“Ah, shit! I forgot!” Artian and Sylvester both screamed in unison. However, the next few days they will be spending going back and forth in this cave will prove instrumental growth, not only for them but for Rossa and Estelle as well.