A knocking sound entered everyone"s attention.With Kiro"s keen sense; he was the first one who noticed that there"s someone in front of their cottage.
"Mm, that is weird, who will visit our cottage at this time of the day?" Aldin said in confusion while glancing at the front door.
"Well, since you"re the closest one at the entrance, Aldin, please go and meet the visitor," Alyva stated while following Aldin"s line of eyesight.
"Haa—why do you keep hara.s.sing me Alyva, okay I will go and greet the visitor." Aldin helplessly sighed as he walked toward the entrance.
Upon opening the door, Aldin saw Instructor Ralph. His face couldn"t help to become even sourer.
"Good afternoon, Instructor Ralph." Aldin swiftly returned his facial expression to normal; since the first day of their training, if misbehaved even for a bit; Instructor Ralph would beat him senselessly. Following that event, Aldin learned his lesson.
"Is Kiro inside?" Instructor Ralph asked while directing his eyesight at Kiro, who was munching the huge serving of meat stew.
Noticing that the Instructor was looking at him, Kiro pretended that Instructor Ralph didn"t exist as he kept gulping a mouthful of serving.
"Hoo... In just the short span of a few weeks, you seem to have a remarkable change. What is more, you have the guts to ignore me now, huh? Lad." He said while darting his fierce glare at Kiro.
"Oh, Instructor Ralph, It"s been a while," Kiro said as he glared back at him; since the first day, Kiro was irritated by this Instructor. Upon their first meeting, he was sent flying just for being polite; then after that, because of him, Kiro was forced to face an army of a gruesome ground worm. Of course, Kiro would feel aggravated for such a guy.
"Hoho—It seems that after training with senior, you already forgot to know your place, kid," Ralph said. "Come, follow me at the training grounds, even though I already gave the full rights for educating you to senior Kyros, but in this training facility—I"m the law!"
After he expressed his words, Ralph went toward the training ground.
Watching Instructor Ralph disappearing back, Aldin couldn"t help to let out a bitter laugh. "Hehehe, what would you do now Kiro?" He said while gazing at Kiro you keep munching the food on his side whilst gulping a mouthful of water.
"Humph, for now, I need to eat!" Kiro said. "It"s been a while since I have eaten a nice complete meal, I won"t let this opportunity pa.s.s just because that nutsh.e.l.l instructor came over."
Hearing Kiro"s remark, Alyva, and her group giggled lightly. They too felt annoyed to Instructor Ralph, but deep inside, they are thankful for his teaching; they knew the reason why he was being like this; it was for their future development; however, they would be delighted if someone could avenge their grievance from his torturous training course.
Then Kiro and his group ignored the Instructor"s Ralph sudden visit like he was just an air that was pa.s.sing by. Then they continued to eat their meal.
***
On the training grounds.
The vines on Ralph"s forehead were about to explode in rage. He has been waiting for Kiro"s arrival for about an hour. Yet not even his shadow could be found. He wanted to go straight and storm at their place, but Ralph still had to maintain his figure as their proctor, so even if he wanted to go there and dragged Kiro to the training ground. Ralph couldn"t do so, his pride as their teacher wouldn"t allow him to do so.
At the moment he was about to leave the place, Ralph saw the familiar figure of Kiro.
"So you still arrived, I thought you would chicken out and won"t face this old Ralph." He said with a provoking manner, the main reason why Ralph was searching for Kiro, It was because of his Master, old Kyros wanted to convey a message for him; however, because of Ralph"s hot-tempered nature. He already forgot the reason why he came to look for Kiro.
"I"m sorry Instructor Ralph; since they held a feast just for me, it would be bad if I just leave there because you wanted a sparring match with me, right?" Kiro replied teasingly.
Even though he felt irritated by him; the actual reason why Kiro kept provoking his bottom line was that he wanted to have a match with Instructor Ralph. He wanted to know; how long he can fare with a veteran adventurer like him.
Hearing his reason Instructor"s Ralph almost threw a mouthful of blood in frustration. While he was waiting for an hour, Kiro was at the training lounge, enjoying his meal.
"Go pick the weapon of your choice, I won"t even stop you if you wanted to use a bow," Ralph said while choosing a simple heavy wooden sword.
Kiro did not reject his offer; however, he did not use a bow, rather Kiro"s chosen weapon was a short wooden sword.
Upon seeing Kiro"s weapon, Ralph curled up his eyebrows. "What are you trying to prove here? Why won"t you use a bow?" He said in a tone that did not hide his annoyance.
"There is no meaning behind it Instructor, the way my Master implanted his skill on me, was rather on the odd way," Kiro answered, glancing at Instructor Ralph who was about to explode in anger.
"Humph! I would like to know how long you can hold that smug face of yours!" By the time he finished stating those words. Ralph kicked the hard ground as he flew at Kiro"s direction.
Seeing the Instructor was proactively charging toward him. Kiro wasn"t fl.u.s.tered at all; instead, Kiro could see that he could easily read Ralph"s movement.
Taking his stance, Kiro went forward and took the a.s.sault head-on.
"Clack!"
By the time, the Instructor"s Ralph wooden sword collided with Kiro"s short sword. Ralph was so astounded to see that Kiro parried with his serious blow effortlessly. After knowing, Kiro did have the backbone to bear his full blow. This time Ralph became more serious.
Using his footwork, Ralph tried to use the advantage of his years of experience as an Adventurer to control the overall flow of the battle.
But after speeding up his pace, Ralph was disturbed to see Kiro can keep up with his footing.
"Clack" "Clack" "Clack"
This time Kiro returned the favor and a.s.saulted Instructor"s Ralph in a craze.
With his Mana control, Kiro coated the short wooden sword to make it harder. Then this time he Increased the strength of his blow.
"Slash!"
Seeing Kiro"s frontal a.s.sault, Ralph failed to read his move as the short wooden slashed through his abdomen. Ralph used the hilt of the wooden sword to lessen the impact at the last moment before the attack landed, but it was a futile resistance, the short wooden sword still managed to pierce through.
"U-urgh!" Ralph was sent flying three meters away from Kiro. Glancing at Instructor"s Ralph flying figure. Kiro was astounded by this scene.
"Hey Fixie, how come the Instructor could not even manage to hold down my coated attack?" Kiro asked in bewilderment.
"The reason why that guy did not manage to block Master"s attack; the first reason is that he underestimated Master, the second reason is that not all people in this world are proficient in manipulating the mana on their body." Fixie explained before she added. "Master mana is higher than him, even if the human body has a natural defense for a magic attack. It wasn"t enough to hold down the overwhelming a.s.sault of Master."
"What do you mean by that? Didn"t everyone have an INT to their status, then the more they level up the stronger their defense will become right?" Kiro exclaimed his confusion.
"While what Master said is correct; however, it was only applicable if the person is a colored mage or a colorless mage like Master. But Ralph is a Sword"s Man, so his base INT is only at the acceptable range." Fixie said. "But Master should also not forget about his STR, not only did Master use a Mana to that blow, you even used a decent amount of your strength right?"
Hearing Fixie"s a.n.a.lysis, Kiro could only nod in approval. What she said was the truth, Kiro did increase the power of that blow, adding his mana coating. The effect is twice as much stronger than he expected.
"It will be much easier if Master used the Appraisal at him," Fixie suggested.
"Okay, I will," Kiro said while mumbling the keyword. "[Appraisal]!"
-------------------------------------------------
Name: Ralph
Lv: 40
Age: 32
Race: Human
Gender: Male
State: Healthy
t.i.tle: D-rank Adventurer
-------------------------------------------------
Job List.
Combat Job:
[Intermediate Sword"s Man] Lv. 25
*
Skill List.
Combat Skills:
[Medial Sword"s Mastery] Lv. 15
*
Non-combat Skills:
[Cooking] Lv.3
[Writing] Lv.2
-------------------------------------------------
Statistics.
STR: 145
INT: 80
DEX: 150
CON: 65
CHA: 20
SEN: 90
VIT: 191
-------------------------------------------------
Kiro stared at the transparent screen when he glanced at the statistics section, Kiro was startled to see that there was a gap between his base statistics and Instructor"s Ralph.