I did not see the Bald man upon entry, but his voice did sound off.

“I’m up topsies, third floor.” Was all he said.

I walked toward the door clearly leading upside. It suddenly slammed, shut and little metal balls began shooting out of the walls at me.

They just sort of bounced off me. Something felt wrong. Thinking back to the bruises, they matched these balls. It was a test of dodging, I assumed. I began dodging, or at least attempting so. I was still struck with many of the balls, and while they did not injure me, it was irritating. I ducked, swerved, swiveled, and hopped. My ability to dodge these balls increasing. Once I began to rely on sound rather than sight, it was over. Nothing could touch me anymore.

After a few minutes of this, the balls stopped, and the next door opened.

On the next floor were what they called “Robots” here. They were modeled after a generic human. Just one of them stood up, and took on a fighting pose. I’m sure they had the other candidates fighting robots of the same weapon type. I did wonder what the mage was going through, maybe it was just a straight elevator to the top. They were very rare and desired by all organizations in this world.

The robot took a nice leap forward, and threw out a clean punch. I had to admire its form here. It was not something I was remotely comparable to. I began to study its movements.

They were crisp and clean, clearly indicative of a level of martial mastery. I dodged, and it continued attacking in what seemed a non stop flow of attacks, using his hands and legs. He punched with one arm, then the next, stepping forward in sync. He did a low sweep, leading into a high kick. He used elbows and knees to attack as well. I absorbed what I could to the best of my ability. After enough was enough, I struck a simple blow to its chest. It exploded violently.

Then the rest stood up, five of them. I copied the prior robot’s movements.

I punched with one arm, then the next, stepping in sequence. Each punch ends with one robot exploding. I did a low kick, and followed it with a downwards axe kick ending another one. Two more remained. They got in close, and I deflected their blows with my hands, bobbing and weaving my head to dodge the straight jabs. Once a brief opening was revealed, I clapped their heads together, turning them into pancakes.

The next door opened, and on the third floor, the bald man awaited me.

He looked up from a screen, and said “That was ♫Amazing♫ “in a sing-song voice.

“When the balls did nothing to you, I started laughing so hard, I swear. Then you started dodging them, which is supposed to be impossible. That test was about defense, but I loved watching you move, darling. The fight with those robots was abso-lutely beaut-iful. I swear, you can’t be a human. The grid also detects no augmentations.” He stood up.

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“It is my true honor to face a real cultivator of the strength path.”

I didn’t feel like clearing up the misunderstanding.

As he got in a fighting stance, he spoke, “Normally, we would only spar with those we thought relied on a group to get by. By all means, you have already passed, but how can I pass up a fight with such a pure brute? Look at you, all red and tall. That tail hasn’t even been used yet. Hehe. How exciting!”

A bald man in camouflage fatigues. Both his arms were a deep black alloy, sprinkled with gold. He shot forward with a gust of air, using his leg as a spear, testing my defense. I could also see his legs were augmented. I took a classic sidestep, pushing the attack away slightly.

His movements were clean, concise, and practiced. His battle intuition and skill far above mine. His punches swift and powerful, his kicks long reaching and damaging.

He jumped in the air and turned, sweeping with his other leg. I ducked underneath, and he flew over my head. He chuckled and seemed to get real pumped up, his arms thrusting at me with amazing speeds. Far, far faster, and stronger than the robot’s blows, he began pounding my chest with a lightning fast series of small punches, when A small crack appeared, I panicked, and slammed him with my tail.

He shot to the side, crashing into the wall. The crack healed quickly. I thought he might have died.

He groaned and crawled out of the dent in the wall, he looked at the healed crack on my chest and cackled. His body started to heal itself, to my amazement. It was even a bit faster than my own regeneration.

“Nanomachines, boyo.” he simply explained.

And he got absolutely goddamn massive. He tackled me to the ground and tossed me around like a ragdoll, cracking my armor in many places. I could no longer consider this man a human, and fought back with the strength of a beast. My blows matched his in strength, but I maintained an advantage of speed. My tail smashing him only a few feet, the dents on his body healing quickly.

This bald guy was monstrous. The fight ran on and on, he now swung in wide sweeps, and focused on grabs. I was able to dodge every grab after the first, and the wide sweeps contained a threatening strength, but a slow speed.

The fight had seemed to reach a stalemate. I was worried I may need to pull out my blade.

Luckily, after a minute or two, the man seemed to literally deflate like a balloon. He then put his hands up, panting.

“I’m done, I’m cooked.” He sat on the floor. “All those nanomachines, wasted…. oh no……” he seemed really down.

I offered him a hand up “I'll help you find new ones, if you explain to me what they are.”

He looked at the hand, and took it. A simple smile returning, “You are definitely a strength cultivator!” he was astonished.

“Big boy, those nanomachines were millions of miniature robots that could repair, and strengthen my body. They are very fragile though, and are expended quickly. They cost too much money for most people to really employ, but my father runs the world's foremost company-ah who the hell cares about that. My name is Sergio the rock, and it is a fabulous honor to meet you, John Star.”

He looked me up and down, before signaling towards the exit. “If you ever need any classes, come find me, Johnny boy. You are strong, but still have much to learn about basic martial arts. I can tell you use brute force most of the time.”

I would have to take him up on the offer. I was only a warrior by brute strength. Skill would make me a true force to be reckoned with, I imagine.

But still, the people of this world are more powerful than I imagined.