Raiden, Javier, and Ruth were excited to test their new weapons. Raiden held his steel spear, Javier wielded two sleek short swords, and Ruth brandished her two short steel spears.

They gathered in the backyard, ready to showcase their skills. Raiden thrust his spear with power and precision, feeling proud of its reach and control. Javier displayed his agility, swiftly moving with his dual swords and delivering calculated strikes. Ruth demonstrated her mastery of the twin spears, executing spins and thrusts with speed and precision. She had a talent for them...

Those three lost the notion of time since they felt really comfortable practicing with those weapons. More than with the wooden ones.

"All right, with this, we are one step closer to becoming decent warriors," Raiden declared. "Our next step is to graduate from this level in five months."

"Only decent, huh..." Javier said while looking at his weapons.

"Will that be enough time?" Ruth asked.

"It must be enough time, we will train hard every time, and we will show our very best while we are on the tower of the mastery," Raiden explained. "If we put in more effort than the others, then we will obtain more results than the others."

It would be nice if reality were that simple. Still, it was better to say that out loud than think otherwise. Javier and Ruth also needed that kind of motivation, so it was for the best.

"We don’t have many friends anyway, so we might as well use every single moment to train as much as possible," Raiden added. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"What a depressing thing to say... even though it is true," Javier scratched the back of his head.

"I suppose it isn’t the right time to bring the others into this kind of conversation, huh," Ruth said while showing a complicated expression.

Raiden wanted to sigh... even though those two had been ignored by the others through and through, they still had to worry about them. Even though they had their own hands filled with their own things. It must be nice to be such nice, naive, and relatively bad at decision-making kids.

"Oh, well. They should do what they wanted to do; I will focus on my things," Raiden thought. "I can’t help others before I can help myself reach the stage that I want to reach."

In any case, the group began to spar seriously, using their weapons from that day onward. They had to cover the blades and sheat their weapons to avoid any accidents, but they were starting to make progress. That really helped since Iri was starting to leave the house on some missions, and Raiden couldn’t spar with her. His mouth was hanging open when he heard of the first time she was going on a mission to escort some merchants without Harth. Apparently, it was fine since they weren’t going to use any dangerous routes.

"Are you planning to also leave the city for that kind of mission?" Harth asked when they saw Iri leaving.

"Can I do missions before reaching the seventh level?" Raiden asked while furrowing his eyebrows.

"I was talking about hiring escorts to buy the things in other cities; you will need them for your laboratory, right?" Harth asked. "I suppose you are still thinking about it."

"Indeed," Raiden said.

"I can tell that you want to travel around the world and see a lot before stopping at a single place and living a quiet life; it makes sense that you don’t want real or imaginary chains locking you in a place," Harth said. "I also think that you should see the world, and since you are somehow more levelheaded than Iri, I would feel a lot better if you were to travel with her and your friends. Neither of you would feel like people are keeping an eye on and treating you all like kids. Either you use your fighting skills to protect others or use potions to save lives, you will be welcomed in most places; you can even do both if you want to. You will need a lot more investment, though."

Raiden could tell that Harth was mentioning the possibility of having something like a mobile laboratory. That would come in handy; if he makes some adjustments, he will be able to produce a lot of options as well, so it will be fine... if he gets enough money.``

Around one month later, Raiden noticed some changes in the tower of Mastery. The old instructor started giving individual orders again... all of a sudden, he would make people run to the gate of the village and return before the end of the lesson while doing handstands. He also would tell people to go fetch some water and clean the room, but what he really liked was to make some people fight barehanded with others while they were outnumbered. Three against one seemed to be the norm...

Raiden also could tell that the instructor was obviously choosing those who were the strongest of the level to fight with such a disadvantage. Speaking of which, the losing side had to stay behind and spend the whole afternoon training in the class. So, the kids didn’t try to hold back against each other.

Raiden was surprised to see that on the third day of changes, he was called to spar in that same kind of situation as well, and on the side with the advantage. Still, he liked that. Such a challenge was something that he really enjoyed...

As soon as the instructor gave the sign to the start of the fight, Raiden stepped forward and then hit one of the kids with a body slam before suddenly turning and then hitting another kid with a roundhouse kick on his side.

The final one was skilled enough to fight Raiden one on one with his bare hands. The air crackled with energy as they moved with fluidity and precision, each trying to outmaneuver the other without landing a single hit.

Raiden seamlessly blended his defense and offense. His movements were graceful, his footwork impeccable. Raiden skillfully blocked, dodged, and weaved through the onslaught as his opponent launched attacks, avoiding any direct contact.

His fellow student matched his intensity, their eyes locked on Raiden’s every move. he mirrored his swift defenses and elusive footwork, creating an intricate dance of blocks and evasions. The atmosphere was electric, filled with anticipation as they continued their mesmerizing display.

With lightning-fast reflexes, Raiden countered their strikes with precision, each attempt narrowly missing its mark. His timing was impeccable, his senses finely attuned to the subtle shifts in his opponents’ movements. He countered with quick feints and evasive maneuvers, keeping the exchange of blows purely defensive.

In the end, he gave up on waiting for a good enough opportunity to show up. He just punched with all his might, and then the kid blocked the punch, but soon it was pushed backward until it hit his face. While the guy was shocked, Raiden punched his stomach and made the kid lose his breakfast. He sure liked to eat a lot of greens in the morning...

With all the students on the ground, Raiden wondered if that was enough, but then he just saw the old man nodding off. That act of his sure was annoying, but soon he woke up or pretended that he woke up when the kids returned to their seats.

"I can probably take some hits, but it is better to avoid them since I don’t know what the instructor is actually looking for," Raiden thought. "Also, even with all the training, my strength is barely able to deal with them now... am I missing something?"

Just punching kids and making them throw up their breakfast shouldn’t be enough. Raiden definitely was missing something... a few days later, his weird feeling soon was confirmed. Javier and Ruth showed some results as well; while they took some hits, they managed to defeat three opponents in their duels.