Chapter 7: Status

A low thud reverberated within the building crafted of stone masonry.

This place had a wide stone floor, surrounded by stone walls and seats. This oval-shaped training ground was situated in the corner of the academy.

In the centre of the ground were two knights facing off with their swords. They were both heavily armoured, one with a sword and shield, the other wielding a 2-handed sword. The training ground was used for mock battles. The two knights were going through all sorts of drills, and the blades they were using were blunt to avoid injuries.

The two men-at-arms took the exercises seriously, even though it was only practice. First, they pointed their swords at each other, carefully gauging the distance of their opponent. Then, a gust of wind blew sand into the air. Finally, the powerful stare down ended, and both of them launched their attacks simultaneously, closing the gap between them in an instant. They moved into combat range so nimbly that it was unbelievable to think that they were in full battle armour.

But there was something off about this scene; the ground was shaking with each of the fighter's steps, emitting a low and heavy thud into the air. Normal humans shouldn't make such heavy sounds with their footsteps, even if they are fully armoured.

The answer lies with their surroundings.

There were people in the audience seats watching the knights' duel; their armour is very much different than medieval equipment should be...

They are watching the Dogmatic Reagent Knights fight. They are wearing Lhiarveyeeleeeno or Javelins powerful exo-suits equipped armour with 'crystal tissues' acting as muscles. Fuelled by one Mana or Vespa, it was a combat armour spawned by magic and machinery, a medieval mech suit. These suits protect the user against the harmful physical environment and possess the abilities to demonstrate incredible combat prowess against the magic beasts, the strongest fighting units known to mankind.

A short distance away from the battling Dogmatic Reagents Knights, several figures watched the fight; one of them had an exceptionally sharp gaze.

She was one of the battle instructors. In other words, her duty was to instruct the knights and squires battling with the Knights to train them to protect citizens from the demon beasts. She took in every single movement of the trainees, giving off a serious air.

She is the little sister of Aura, Clemetime, and Tangerine and the fourth princess of the kingdom. Eliza Aucrulethen Eliza has brown hair, which she wears in a short ponytail with red tips. She is slightly shorter and thinner than her sisters. Makes sense since is she is half-dwarven.

"It's... Robots... No, but mech suits?"

A reverent voice came behind her. Next to the voice was her sisters. The demonic instructor, whose face was feared by all, showed a rare smile. People who knew her might have been shocked, but it would not be surprising if you were in the warm presence of your family.

"Your Majesty. I'm the Battle Instructor for people who in Vespa users."

The woman was talking to the new king but was completely ignored. Instead, the man kept staring intently at the knights sparring on the training ground.

The thoughts of 'chick dig giant robots' in his head. Well, it looks like a mech, but come on... "

The grin on his face matched him and his friends watching that same very tv show. The patterns on his began to glim and pulsed the air around him heated up. The dragon egg that always to seem to follow did the same process.

"Is he..." Clementine wondered

"

A wall of glowing blue text lit up before his eyes.

New Quest: Hatch your dragon egg

For generations, many of kings, queens, rulers tried to crack a legendarily difficult to hatch dragon egg. Will it be you?

Quest Difficulty: High

Rewards: Bond to a baby dragon and access to a 'rare' power.

Failure to complete the quest: Lifelong regret and unable to access several life paths.

ACCEPT / DECLINE

Without even thinking, Desmend accepted the quest, and the message disappeared.

Another one instantly took its place. The text was paler—white that could be easily overlooked instead of a blaring blue.

It was a list on the right side of his field of view.

Status

Name: Desmend D. Dylan

Rank: G

LP: 2

Discipline: None

—

Health: 100 / 100 (1.1/hour)

Stamina: 100 / 100 (0.51/min)

Mana: 100 / 100 (.51/min)

Vespa: 100 / 100

—

Strength: G

Agility: G

Charisma: F

Intelligence: E

Resistance: G

Desmend read over this in a flash and swiped his hand through the air, dismissing it. Immediately, the status screen collapsed back to the right side of his vision.

"Well, that's something new. I can use both Vespa and Mana?" Desmend mused. Turning the stunned ladies, he looked straight at Clementine. "Let's go spar."

###

Desmend brought his sword down, but his strike was, for the third time, blocked.

"Tch!" He tisked.

After knocking Desmend's blade away, Clementine launched a counterattack. She used her momentum to spin around, attempting a horizontal slash on him.

The strike was fast but still slow enough for Desmend to jump wholly and back dodge the attack. However, having bounced back as he did, he was completely off balance and in no position to guard against any sort of strike.

The short-haired vixen obviously saw this and knew it could be the opening to end the duel. She was a little disappointed though, this duel would only last thirty seconds because of that. She would still take the opening and defeat him, though. It would be unfair to this warrior if she didn't do such a thing.

Still, it was quite a feat for someone to last this long against her. Even without using Vespa, the Captain-Commander is a woman who can fell, giants with nothing but her blade and wits. Bonding with a dragon is making a huge difference, or was it something else.

She launched herself forward, swinging her sword in a downward-diagonal slash. Obviously, this wasn't a strike that would end the duel, but it was the beginning of what was to come. This was the strike that would bring about the beginning of this swordsman's loss. At least, that was what she thought...

Desmend had seen the attack coming and thus, knew he had to drop down to dodge the strike. As such, he no longer tried to stand but instead allowed gravity to bring his body to the ground. He landed on his butt, muttering a quiet 'ow' as he did.

Clementine halted at seeing actually doge that attack. "What the." She thought. "I haven't fought anyone else who'd have been able to react to this attack as fast as he did. Maybe he's actually stronger than I originally thought!"

The next thing the blonde tomboyish woman knew was staring at the sky when Desmend trips her with a kick that she couldn't see.

The blade of Desmend points straight at her. "I won"

"He won against sister....?"

"I had a feeling he might be talented in sword, to think he was a monster...."

Looks like they got surprised. Desmend got the feeling that his sparring partner was going at it lightly. She probably never thought that she would lose when she thought he hadn't even done any training.

However, this match had a big problem regarding its rule.

"I only took Clem by surprise. I was allowed to whatever attacks I could use, right?"

"No, well. That's true and all, but what was that attack just now? On top of making me lose sight of you, you clearly showed an unbelievable power and speed, didn't you?"

"I used Physical Boost and Aú footwork. I read it in the book last knight. So I figured I would use it normally as the people of this work would."

""That's not normal!""

Why did he get retorted? They got remarkably in sync.

"The spell Physical Boost is a high-class spell!" Aura schooled the blasé man. "It's a complex spell that has the ability to enhance 'every muscle fibre', strengthening 'all of the bones' to absorb the impact and the improvement of the durability of the skin. There is a high demand to control the target of the spell, which changes rapidly with every movement. To use these effects, the spell needed to be activated constantly."

"How was Desmend, a person who just unlocked his power an hour ago, able to use them?" Tangerine worried as she checked her Chosen One. "You have muscles, tears everywhere! How are you not screaming in pain!

"....I practised?"

"No, that reasoning is weird! Then how about the spell? You didn't even chat?!"

"I read the book and then do it . Anyone can do this much so long they read it..."

"Okay! I understand that you have a strange idea!"

"By the gods, My twenty years of sword training for...."

Aura replied with an astounding look at his reply.

Eliza muttered something while holding her head, but Desmend couldn't make out what she said.

"I'll teach you this thing called common sense."

"Common sense?" He repeated. "I got plenty of those. I didn't even use my path skill cause I know Clem would block it with ease..."

"You... have a path?" The sisters said in sync.

"Yeah," Desmend said, not noticing their looks. "I got the Vagabond. lifepath..."