Placing his hand over the familiar knob of the training room door, Mash gave it a slight push. It didn’t open but didn’t feel locked either. It almost felt like something was propped up against the inside. Thinking it was something set up by Jack, Mash put more weight behind his push and managed to force the door open. It creaked under the weight, and he saw what was behind it. Several of the training dummies were lined up in front of the door, but he did see that Jack was sitting inside. Jack was wearing his usual get-up, but he felt more dangerous for some reason. It was like a small change in his aura. Though once he recognized them, the aura died away, leaving him as his usual casual self.

“Wasn’t sure you were going to make it, and I needed to do something to keep the vermin out.”

Jack waved at them to enter, speaking casually about the blockade he had made. Since he didn’t comment on the aura from earlier, Mash chose not to either and asked about something else.

“What do you mean?”

Despite knowing that it was the obvious question, Mash still asked, a little confused by the situation.

“Several people had been trying to get a meeting with our “Little Monster”. A fitting title for you, might I add.”

It took Mash a second to process the words, somewhat stunned by his new title. The monster part was obvious enough and was indeed fitting, but little was not. Where did that even come from? He was above average height especially if you considered his age.

“It's your age. You’re our precious baby monster.”

Jill spoke jokingly, though Mash did not find it amusing. She had read his confusion and given him the real answer mixed with her humor. He found that he was slowly getting used to her jokes, even finding it somewhat relaxing. It was his age that influenced his nickname, and he hoped that it would change once he grew up. However, some part of him knew that these kinds of names stuck. Well, it could be worse, it could’ve been “baby monster,” like Jill’s joke. That was not something he would accept. His friends found it amusing though, and it was another thing that Luna would tease him about. What about the other thing Jack said?

“Wait, people came to see me?”

“Yeah, a few adventurers wanting to become monster slayers. The other was a plethora of teams trying to scoop you up and rescue you from weak teammates.”

Jack laid the sarcasm on thickly, making an exaggerated gesture with his hands as he enunciated the word weak. Mash started laughing, watching his friends grow angry at the words.

“Fools, don’t they know that my team is hopeless without me. I must stay with them, lest they find themselves dead.”

Returning Jack’s sarcasm with his own, Mash took jabs at his friend’s expense. A little revenge for the amusement they got from the scene earlier. It looked like Red was about to come up with a retort but was stopped by Jack.

“You guys can talk later, for now, let's get on to training. I got something fun planned for today. All three you have fights tomorrow after all.”

He spoke, calling Luke up to go first. Seeming a little anxious, Luke made his way to the area Jack designated. Once he stepped towards the center of the area, a monster appeared from his right, pouncing on Luke where he stood. Despite the sadness, Luke had been prepared, one of his hands growing large enough to catch the creature. As his buffs flared to life, Luke broke the thing's neck, the snap was audible throughout the training grounds. He wasn’t given the opportunity to rest either, another monster forming in thin air. When it happened this time, it was within Mash’s mana territory, and he could see what was happening.

It was Jack’s mana that slowly seemed to form an illusion. Well, it started as a simple illusion, but then he saw it get infused with more mana and couldn’t understand what was happening. Priscilla did though and recognized the magic. She called it creation magic, but that could mean anything to him. When he tried to ask for more specifics, she simply repeated the claim. He was turning illusions into solid creations. Few creatures can develop that skill, and almost none can emulate it. Priscilla had no talent for it, but that might change depending on his talent with it. The next fight had a wider variety of monsters, each of which performed different attacks. It seemed like Jack could do whatever he wanted; each creature was using a different element. At one point, he created a lizard thing that shot a type of viscous goo, and Mash thought that a creature like that wasn’t real.

The diversity of monsters made him eager for his turn. It took a while for Luke to lose, having been able to withstand several attacks and healing himself constantly. He had the best healing abilities among the group and could withstand near-fatal wounds. Eventually, he ran out of mana and had to stop. Mash realized that most of Luke’s fights would look gruesome, even if he was mostly unharmed at the end of it.

Mash got to go next and walked up to the stage eagerly. The first monster formed behind him, though he was easily able to cut it apart with a wooden blade. He didn’t have any blind spots at this range and would notice each time a monster formed. As the next two formed, he immediately cut them down before they could attack. Noticing three more monsters starting to form, he prepared an attack with Priscilla, but the monsters never formed. Jack stopped upon hearing Luke’s words.

“You have to make them further back, at least fifteen feet. Otherwise, he can sense them.”

It was surprising to hear Luke be the one to out his skill. He probably wanted Mash to struggle more since he had trouble dealing with the monsters. Jack easily adjusted to Luke’s words, and the next monsters did appear out of his range. All of them were lizards, and Mash saw that they were covered in different color scales. The first fired an orb of fire at him, and he managed to dodge that one easily. The problem was the one that shot a narrow bolt of lightning. Despite seeing the thing prime the attack, it was too fast to dodge and hit him in the side. Mash was a bit surprised to see that it didn’t do much damage. Priscilla explained that his lightning affinity was protecting him a little. Though it wouldn’t do much for stronger attacks. Glancing at Jack, Mash saw the confusion in his eyes. He had probably expected that to do more damage.

Now that he knew what the most dangerous type of monster was, he made sure to attack those as soon as he recognized it. Mash had debated on whether he wanted to use his lightning abilities here or not but decided against it. The guild didn’t feel like it would be particularly good at hiding his power. Especially, considering how it was trying to flaunt him about like its prized pet. Even without his lightning, the monster fights forced him to pay attention and adapt. As Jack had claimed, the training had been fun. There was a simple pleasure to fighting, and the diversity of the monsters kept him thinking. Mash kept going even after his persist skill was triggered. Jack was inexhaustible though and continued to increase the difficulty until Mash lost. Eventually, he was overwhelmed by the monsters, one too many attacks landing.

Mash collapsed as soon as he was made to stop, and he was moved to the outer rings. He didn’t fall unconscious this time and hoped that it would become a usual thing. Losing consciousness had been annoying. He doubted that would change though, this reaction was probably just because he didn’t overdo it too much. Persist had activated but only for a few minutes. He needed to run more specific tests of the skill, but it was a highly annoying skill to analyze. He was propped up against the walls, glad to be able to see the remaining fights. Mash was a bit surprised to see Red get the furthest. Her magic and healing capabilities, let her deal a lot of damage while shrugging off most wounds. It didn’t take long for her to surpass the rest of them.

Once they were done with training Jack gave them ample time to rest. Though he wasn’t done with them just yet. He lectured them on various types of monsters, as well as how to best handle unusual circumstances. It was a short lecture but felt very thorough. As he came to the end of his discussion, he brought up the tournament. Sounding hopeful, he asked the group about what their plans were.

“So, who’s going to fight this weekend?”

“Just Mash.”

Red replied flatly and curtly. It sounded a little cruel, but it got the idea across that it wasn’t up for debate. Clearly unsatisfied with the response, Jack pressed them for more information.

“Why?”

“Based on our experiences, if we join, we will somehow wind up fighting one another on the first round. I would bet on it.”

Without a hint of humor, Jill responded to the question. It might have sounded like a joke to someone else, but everyone present knew that it was not a joke. They had come to this decision before, and none of them believed otherwise. Jack probably felt the attitude in the room and gave them an awkward reply before leaving. It seemed that Jack was good with awkward situations, having done something similar before. Well, Mash guessed that no one was particularly good with awkward situations.

Soon after Jack left, the others quickly left the room. Having forgotten about the crowd from before, Mash was a little startled to return to the ever-present whispers. It seemed louder now, and more open too. Taking advantage of the mask hiding his eyes, he looked around for the most vocal of the bunch. The person from before wasn’t here, but he found the loudmouth easily. With very distinct blue hair, Mash could easily single the person out. The man had water flowing around his shoulders, and Mash figured his class was like Red’s. Still tempted to give him a challenge, Mash compared his strength with Red’s. It was clear that he was at least one rank above them, and the people at his table were similarly ranked. Knowing that it was a fight he couldn’t handle, he restrained his reaction, instead, remembering their faces for any future encounters.

Growing tired of dealing with this crowd, Mash tried to push his way to the exit but was interrupted by several people. There were people trying to recruit him as Jack mentioned, but it seemed to be more about his siblings than his own display. He received a never-ending stream of questions about them and started ignoring the recruiter as soon as it started. A few people had been brazen enough to mention how they thought that his team was too “weak” for him, despite them standing right next to him. Mash didn’t give those people the time of day, and his friends gave them the appropriate number of glares. Though he bet that these people would be singing a different tune after tomorrow. Jill’s space magic would make a pretty big splash since true spatial mages were so rare and useful.

Leaving the guild, Mash and the others picked up their pace. They knew that the whispers would be especially bad now but would die down soon enough. Although, he was planning on using the attention a little more, certain that it would get the fight organizers to raise the stakes. He was growing more excited for his fights tomorrow.