If Toby’s history of playing games and reading fantasy novels had taught him anything, then it would be this:
“You do not fuck with someone who fights using only their fists in a world of swords and magic.”
Turned out, that couldn’t be any truer with the living proof standing right behind him.
A middle-aged Elf lady with long, braided white hair that showed off her long ears with one of them having a visible bite mark as the missing part looked like it was bitten off. Her golden eyes, the same color as the lanterns at the guild’s entrance, pierced into Toby and Lukas as if she were trying to pry all their secrets open.
Her lanky frame was hidden behind a body-fitting white suit-like jacket with the Adventurer Guild’s symbol on the collar. The suit with only one button above the stomach fit nicely with the black shirt, grey tie, black gloves, and black pants she was wearing. But the beautifully crafted outfit couldn’t hide her compressed yet overwhelmingly strong Mana. The kind that made Toby feel like he could get crushed by the seer mass of Mana alone. Yet, somehow, he didn’t notice it at all until the Elf lady made herself known.
The very image of calm and cool was in front of Toby. It was the kind of awe-inspiring image he first had when he thought about what kind of fighting style he should focus on. Awe-struck, Toby blurted out.
“Please accept me as your disciple.”
The people around him went silent while the Guild Master raised an eyebrow at him. Then all of them burst out laughing like it was the funniest joke they had ever heard in their lives.
A somewhat normal person would feel their cheek heat up if this happened to them, but not Toby. His skin, both physically and metaphorically, was too thick for that. He simply stared at the Guild Master until she noticed his gaze, coughed, and stopped laughing. But she still had an amused smirk on her face.
“You want to learn how to fight from me? You don’t even have hands.”
“I’m strong enough to imprint my flipper on a guy’s face,” Toby answered.
The Guild Master laughed out loud again. “I like your gut. Come one, follow me.”
Toby and Lukas looked at each other then followed the Guild Master into the testing chamber. They went into the fifth door from the left. It was a room made purely from a type of stone with a smooth and reflective surface. Toby thought they were inside a room made out of mirrors for a second. There was nothing in the room except a weapon rack with all kinds of weapons and three training dummies; one made from wood, one from steel, and one from some kind of black steel with gray coating.
“The test is simple. There will be two parts. First, you need to damage these dummies. You will pass if you damage the middle one, but you can always go for the toughest one. Second, after you can damage the dummies, we will play a little game. If you win, you pass. Simple, right?” The Guild Master explained. “Any question?”
“Yes.” Lukas raised his hand. “Can I use that sword?” He pointed at a greatsword.
“Sure. Be my guest, wolfie.” The Guild Master shrugged.
“Thank you.” Lukas put Toby down and ran toward the rack to pick up the greatsword.
“What about you, tiny turtle with a bigger gut than those puppies out there?”
Toby raised his flippers. And the Guild Master laughed again.
“Why are there only these two tests if there are so many Paths out there? This seems kind of simple.” Toby asked.
The Guild Master smirked. “You'll know if you pass.”
“Fair enough.”
“I’m back. We can start now.” Lukas said as he carried the greatsword on his back without a single problem.
“Good.” The Guild Master nodded. “Try attacking that wood dummy first.”
Lukas walked toward the wood dummy and, with one over-the-shoulder swing, cleaved it in half cleanly. He stopped and pointed at the dummy.
“Um… I don’t have to pay for that, right, ma'am?”
The Guild Master smiled. “No, you don’t. Since it’s not broken.”
When she said that, the half of the dummy that was still in place extended like a snapping turtle's head toward the part on the ground and quickly mended them together, then retracted back. The dummy looked brand new after that.
“Ok. That’s kind of creepy.” Toby commented.
“Hahaha. It is, isn’t it?” The Guild Master laughed. “The next one.” She said to Lukas.
The boy nodded and took the same swing as before. But this time, there wasn’t even a scratch on the steel dummy’s body. He tried seven more times, looking more and more frustrated each time, but the result was the same. Lukas went wide eyes and looked down at his hands.
“You got this Lukas. Remember your training.” Toby shouted.
The boy looked back at Toby and nodded slowly. He pulled the sword back behind him and took a long, big breath. He closed his eyes and stood motionless. The air around him also seemed to stand still along with him.
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After seconds of stillness, Lukas opened his eyes, yelled out a battle cry, and slashed. The sword blurred as it vibrated for a moment before it hit the steel dummy. When the sword hit the ground, a loud clank sound as loud as the church's bell when it was rung on Sunday resounded.
Despite his heavy breath, Lukas looked up at the steel dummy. On its body was a finger-long scratch. The boy looked back at Toby and shouted.
“I did it. I really did it. Look at this big bro, Toby. I hit the dummy. Look, look.” His tail was wagging around furiously like a fan’s blade.
“Well done,” The Guild Master clapped, then looked at Toby. “Now it’s your turn.”
Toby nodded and started to crawl toward the wooden dummy. Lukas ran toward Toby and tried to pick him up, but Toby shook his head. If he were to get this woman’s acknowledgment then he must do this alone.
Lukas hesitated with his hand still extended. Toby looked at the boy again and said, “It’s my turn.” And continued to crawl slowly.
His speed was too slow, and it was driving Toby insane. He ragged his brain to try and find a way to move faster. Come on, there must be something that lets me move faster without using [Float] and [Push]. That was when he suddenly recalled the dog-like monster they met on the road. Those monsters gathered Mana into their hind legs when they shot like rockets toward the group. If he could replicate what the monsters did, he could move the same way.
Combining the sensation he felt when he still had perfect Mana control with the image of a certain straw hat, Toby slowly but surely gathered Mana around his front flippers. Once he felt his flippers tighten like he was wearing a gauntlet, he slapped the ground and successfully propelled himself. Upward. Vertically. Until he almost touched the ceiling.
Toby looked down. “Wait a minute. That’s not right.” And fell.
“Shiiiiiiiit.” He screamed and once again gathered Mana around his flippers and his belly and thought about changing their properties into something like airbags or bean bags or anything as long as it was deep, soft, and compressive to negate the fall damage. It was a trick he wanted to try after reading about it in the previous Dark Lord’s notebook. He just didn’t think he would have to test it in this kind of situation.
Funny enough, the people here don’t even try to play around with Mana itself but always regard Mana as some kind of pure energy like electricity instead of something with mass. At least the notebook said so.
It won’t hurt, it won’t hurt, I got this.
Toby cheered for himself like he always did as the floor came closer and closer. And sure enough, it worked. The Mana Toby shaped under him acted like a big airbag and stopped his fall as it slowly deflated like an actual airbag.
Once his flippers were on the floor, he turned around and looked at his might-be-master, “I meant to do that.” And said without shame.
Ok. Let's try this again. Think of Mana like a spring that will shoot me forward. Let’s go.
He tried again, but this time he succeeded and shot toward the wood dummy. He smirked as his experiment was a success. Toby coolly raised his right flipper and slapped the dummy's cheek as he flew by. When he landed on the ground, he made sure he landed in the superhero landing pose. But he was a turtle, so it was just a normal landing on all four.
He turned back to see the result of his awesome attack only to get jump scared by the featureless face of the wood dummy staring at him with resentment.
“That’s scare the shit out of me.” He breathed a sigh of relief.
“How was that, teacher?” Then shamelessly asked.
But when he looked at the woman, she was grinning from ear to ear. And not just the oh-this-is-so-exciting-grin either. No. It was the kind of evil grin that an evil master would have when they found a pitiful disciple to torment.
The Guild Master pointed at the steal dummy, “You still need to damage that.”
“Oh, right.” Toby propelled himself toward the steal dummy while taking peaks at the elf. She still had that grin on her face. She didn’t even bother to hide it when he and Lukas looked at her.
Landing in front of the second dummy, Toby looked at its black, smooth skin.
He saw how hard Lukas needed to hit to make just a scratch on the thing, so he was having a mini-crisis on how to damage this thing. He thought about it. But got nothing. Therefore, it was time to cheat.
System, any suggestion on how to damage this thing?
[Searching. Method from Earth found. Turtle System recommends the user apply force and attack the target from the inside rather than outside. When applying external force to a clump of metal, the metal resists compression and tension as its structure is designed to handle such stress. However, if the force comes from inside the clump, which is caused by internal stress or expansion, then the target will be more likely to break as the stress from inside will be more likely to cause cracks.
Alternative suggestion, the user can Upgrade Rank 1 Skill – Insight to analyze the target and find its weakness.]
[Insight] can do that? Neat. Toby got one more reason to upgrade the skill.
Internal stress huh? Like those kung fu things that attack the organ but not the muscle? Worth a shot. But how can I do this?
Toby tapped his flippers on the ground as he stood and thought about it.
“You better hurry up, tiny turtle. I don’t have all day. I’m a busy woman.” The Guild Master said.
Dammit, no way I can pull off a kung fu master thing. Internal, internal. Fuck it, fine. Here goes nothing.
Toby gathered Mana around his front flippers again, but this time, one of them acted as a spring to propel him forward while the other swirled and gathered around his flipper. It was like the signature skill of a certain blonde-haired ninja who got a nine-tail fox in his belly button.
The Guild Master's eyes shone a sharp light as she grinned again, but it was an even creepier grin.
Toby slammed the ground and shot toward the dummy. He pointed his new, totally not copyrighted, attack forward and hit the steel dummy with it. Mana ground against steel as the wind kicked up around the spot and blew wildly everywhere around the room. Once the wind died down and Toby fell on the floor, the spot he hit showed no sign of damage.
Toby figured something like this was going to happen. Again. He thought.
“Wait.” The Guild Master stopped him and walked next to the steel dummy. Toby titled his head at why the Guild Master was looking at the thing so attentively.
Suddenly, she grabbed the dummy’s head with one hand and chopped horizontally with the other. When she finished her chop, the dummy was cut in half at the chest, right where Toby hit it. Toby and Lukas dropped their jaws on the ground at the casual display of power.
The Guild Master looked down at the cut. After about two seconds, she said.
“Alright, you two pass.”
“Huh?” Both of them were flabbergasted.
“Excuse me, ma'am, don’t we need to finish the…”
“Shhhhhh.” Toby shushed the naïve and pure boy before he could finish. They don’t need to look into a gift horse’s mouth.
“Thank you for your gracious judgment, Guild Master. We will be going now.”
“But…” Lukas was still trying to be the goody two shoes when Toby bounced and hit the boy’s back with his head, pushing the kid toward the door.
“Training starts tomorrow before dawn.” The Guild Master said.
“I’m sorry?” Toby and Lukas turned their heads back.
“And call me Master Elaria or Master Vanna, whichever one you prefer.” She grinned as she titled the steel dummy toward them. There was a crack inside the dummy. The crack was the size of half a pinky’s nail and was about half an inch away from the dummy's chest.
“Did I make myself clear?”
“Yes ma’am.” The two stood straight back and saluted before skipping out with light steps. They even forgot to close the door after they went out.
“This is going to be interesting.” She mumbled to herself.
“IT’S YOU. YOU FUCKING TURTLE.” A familiar but very not even remotely welcome voice came from outside the room.