"Is that just 10%?!"

the huge boulder just got erased from existence with one attack from the man, this felt so unreal, and he also said it's just 10%.

"Yeah, though the destructive power should be stronger than this, you know why?" the man asked like a teacher giving a pop quiz.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You know I'm not a magic warrior."

"Yes, so?... Wait a moment," I finally understand what he meant, "then how did you unleash such an attack if you're not a magic warrior?!"

"Well, it's not like martial artists can't launch long-range attacks. It's just that the long-range attacks of martial artists tend to be shorter and weaker than those of mages. For example, a mage in the fifth stage will probably have a strong body like a martial artist in the seventh stage, the range and power of the attacks for a martial artist in the fifth stage would be the same as the attacks of a seventh-stage mage."

"So that's how it is."

I started to understand, it's like martial artists have strong bodies but lower ranges while mages have longer ranges and weaker bodies.

"Yes, good that you understand, and now shall we continue our fight?" Adam said with a terrifying smirk.

"N-no-no way," I quickly refused. "You're too strong, there's no point in us fighting at all."

I thought I was invincible after the adrenaline rush I got from reaching the ninth level. But after witnessing his strength, honestly, I was humbled.

Adam sighed and said, "Then how about we invite someone else who will be much weaker than me?"

"W-Weaker? A-Alright, let's do that. But who is it?"

"Just wait I will bring her soon, stay here and meditate to strengthen your mana control even more."

Adam then opened a gateway and left while I began to meditate as he said.

After a short while...

'I didn't expect this, actually.'

"Hello, little brother," Amber looked at me with her usual smile. "It's been a while."

"Hello, Amber. But it's only been two days."

The redhead girl showed a fake sad face and said, "You promised that you would visit and tell me more about the outside world. I waited for you to visit soon, I raised my hopes in that lonely laboratory. But you never came, which disappointed me." 

"Lonely? Weren't you with Mr. James?"

The girl sighed and said, "You think the doctor would want to chit-chat with me? He only cares about work."

"So in other words you are a lazy person who doesn't want to work."

"You said something?"

A heavy pressure came on me like a fierce monster was looking at me.

"N-Nothing," I turned to my teacher immediately, "Will I fight her? really?"

I didn't mean to insult her but come on, I am still not the average person I was a Muay Thai practitioner.

Both of them looked at each other in surprise, then burst into laughter, I didn't understand why are they laughing at the time.

"Did you hear that, girl?" Adam said.

"Yes, I heard it."

After they finished laughing, they looked at me.

"Yes, I'll fight you. Don't worry and come at me with all you've got," said Amber with a mocking and provocative look.

"Hey, remember..." 

"Don't worry, sir. Only long-range attacks," the girl said and advanced towards me. "Come forth, if you dare."

Her provocation worked on me, as I rushed towards her after covering my body with mana. But...

Bam!!!

A basketball-sized fireball flew towards me hitting my chest, it threw me backwards as I lay on the ground in disbelief.

"W-What happened?!" 

When I got up, I found Amber in front of me, her hand engulfed in flames, smiling at me with mockery once again.

"What's wrong little brother? Are you already done with this small hit?" the girl said.

I was frustrated, I got up angrily and rushed towards her again.

'I will show this girl now, her attacks aren't that strong like the ones my teacher does.'

Amber smiled and launched another attack at me, but this time I moved to the right and barely managed to dodge it.

"Yes, now..."

Bam!!!

Another attack hit me, coming right after the first one, pushing me backwards once again.

And so, my desperate attempts to approach Amber continued, but I failed time and time again, for half an hour, all in vain, every time I managed to dodge her first attack another faster one came quickly, it was like she was playing with me.

I lay on the ground from exhaustion, breathing heavily from exhaustion.

"Don't be discouraged. You managed to reach at least half of the initial distance."

I lifted my head to see who said that, only to find the girl who had knocked me multiple times standing in front of my head next to him. I didn't even have the energy to respond to her words, so I surrendered to sleep.

***

As she watched the boy lying on the ground, smiling towards Adam, she said, "I admit I was wrong, I seriously didn't think he would be able to use the mana like that after only one day of training."

Adam approached from behind and said, "Didn't I tell you before?"

when Adam went to call Amber to have a sparring session with Ali, she didn't believe him at first, as this is so fast to unlock mana, especially for an ordinary.

"Yes, you're right. It took me about two weeks to do it for the first time," the girl added, "And his reaction speed isn't bad either as he was able to track the movements of my attacks and dodge some of them, even though I reduced their power and speed to the level of attacks from an eight-level mage."

Adam chuckled a little and said, "What if he finds out you're a martial artist and not a mage?"

"Yes, people sometimes are foolish. Just a warrior in the ninth level, who only entered it a day ago, challenging a martial artist in the fourth level. If I tell this story to anyone in the whole True Realm, he'll burst out laughing."

"Haha, true."

The two continued their conversation while the boy was still asleep.

***

"YAWN, hmm?" 

I woke up, finding myself in a strange room I had never seen before, built out of wood with a small library to the side.

"You're finally awake."

Adam was sitting on a chair next to the bed.

"Who would have thought you wouldn't even be able to get close enough to attempt an attack once on her?" he said mockingly.

"Shut up," I replied annoyed and embarrassed. "You didn't tell me she'd attack with fire."

"What do you mean? Do you want your enemy to tell you about his skills before attacking? You have to be prepared for anything."

".... Fine, next time I'll win."

"pft, yeah totally."

I looked to the side to see Amber, who I hadn't noticed sitting on the couch facing me on the red couch, laughing at me.

"Good morning, little brother."

"Morning," I replied annoyed, I didn't want to talk to her.

"What, are you mad at the person that held you here and let you sleep on her bed?" the girl said mockingly.

"What?!" I quickly jumped out of bed and stumbled before falling to the ground, making both of them laugh again.

"It's okay, I was just kidding," Amber said.

"Alright then," Adam said to get our attention, "Let's go and have breakfast."

"Yes Sir."

"Breakfast?!"

"Yes my little brother, it's morning."

"What? Did I sleep all this time?!"

"Of course, it was exhausting to transport you all this way here," Adam said.

I didn't pay much attention to his words because I was focused on my stomach at the moment, as I knew he had just used the portable teleportation gates.

We left the room to find ourselves in Mr. James's lab.

"Amber, do you live here? in the lab?" I asked.

"Yep, this way I don't have to worry about rent, and there's no disturbance, it's just me and The Doctor here."

We made our way to one of the tables and sat down to eat and started eating some sandwiches, as I noticed Amber looking at me excitedly I had a feeling that she made them herself.

"Shouldn't we call Mr. James?" I asked.

"No," said Adam, "that guy doesn't move from his place when he starts working, not for food or anything else."

"Sorry, for taking my work seriously unlike some ungrateful brat such as you," a voice came from a robot that stood in front of the table, and I never felt it move here.

Adam tensed up and said, "Oh h-hi, Mr. Dan, how are you today?"

"Not well since you are here."

***

After breakfast, the three of us headed back to the training area, but this time, Adam left us and went to a place we didn't know as usual.

"So, shall we start again?" I said to Amber, cracking my knuckles. This time I had the intention of seeking revenge for the previous loss.

"Alright, let's start," Amber replied enthusiastically.

The battle began again, but as expected there wasn't much change in the outcome.

After several failed attempts, I decided to make one last desperate attempt. I took a deep breath, cleared my mind of distractions, and dashed forward.

Amber started her consecutive attacks, but I managed to dodge all three of them.

"Alright, what do you think of this now?" the girl said, raising both hands above her head.

'Here it comes again.'

This attack was the only one I couldn't dodge. Amber threw three fireballs in a straight line simultaneously, and I never had enough time to avoid this line. But this time, a crazy idea came to me that might work.

I focused most of the mana surrounding my body on the upper part only, then I dashed forcefully towards her attack, it was crazy but at least if I can't dodge it let's try breaking through. Shockingly, it worked for the first time I had succeeded in breaking through her attack.

"Let's go!!!!, I did it!!!!" I began to jump around with joy, forgetting that the fight didn't end. Then...

Bang!

A small fireball hit me, pushing me back again to the ground.

"Overcoming that one attack doesn't mean winning nor the end of the fight."

'Screw it, I forgot about that.'

I stood up, and we resumed the fight. Finally, I felt like I had a chance to win, at least I felt some improvement now, I felt it was not as impossible as before.

But I never progressed beyond that attack, it's like in fighting games when you fight that one character that spam one ranged attack to keep you away, the same frustration came to me, but here I also felt pain with the frustration.

"What's wrong? Didn't you say you will win next time?" Amber grinned mischievously.

"Yes, I will win, just wait," I said angrily, thinking of a solution, anything, any small trick to defeat her, just one attack is enough, "I'll just try it this time."

I advanced again. When the triple attack came, I didn't strengthen the upper part to break through the attack, but I did something even more crazier.

"What are you doing? You won't be able to break through the attack like this," Amber said.

Ignoring Amber's words, I focused all the mana around my feet and legs this time and jumped above her fire attack, I was 2 meters in the air before landing in front of her.

She showed a surprised expression for a second, which was enough for me to grab her wrist.

But just as I was about to reach her with my punch, the girl smirked as if she wasn't fazed at all and said, "A somewhat strange idea, but..." Amber with her strong arm got out of my grasp and instead, she caught my hand and moved her other hand backwards "Not enough." She ignited her fist and swiftly attacked my face.

I closed my eyes in fear, preparing for the impact, but nothing happened. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Amber had stopped her grip before the collision in front of my eyes.

She let go of my hands and started laughing. "Don't worry little brother, I won't attack you this close."

I sighed in relief before she flicked my forehead.

"Ouch?!! Why did you do that?!!"

"That last attack idea was so stupid to the point that no one would think to do it."

"W-Why?"

"When you were in the air, imagine if I had attacked you. Could you have avoided it?"

"...No," I said lowering my head embarrassed after realizing the stupidity of what I had just done.

"Hey, don't be ashamed, at least you thought of a way to shorten the distance between us, it was stupid and impractical but still it's a try."

I felt like she was trying to comfort me so I said, "It's okay, I'll definitely win next time."

"Pft, Hahahaha," she burst into laughter again, this was starting to get on my nerves, her laugh was really frustrating.

"What now?"

"You know that you're just a warrior in the ninth level?"

"So?"

"And you want to win against a warrior in the fourth level?" The girl continued laughing.

"LEVEL FOUR?!" I was shocked by what I heard. I was just being foolish, I mean if we make a calculation she will be kind of in the middle between me and Adam but still, this is too far for me.

"What? Did you tell him already?"

I turned my head to the source of the voice to find Adam walking towards us.

"Hey, you didn't tell me I'd be fighting someone with that kind of strength. You made me look like a fool," I told my teacher.

"I just said I'd bring someone weaker than me for you to fight, I never said she would be as weak as you" he replied.

Well, he is right, but does he have to say weak like you? That was mean.

"So, how did it go?" Adam asked.

"I couldn't make any progress as usual."

"Haha, no progress at all? Well, that's expected."

"Actually, no," Amber said.

"Hmm?"

"Well, at first..." and she began recounting the events of the day to him.

"Wow! You did that? I'm honestly impressed," Adam said.

'Wait really?!'

"Of just how stupid you are."

'Of course, how can I think he will actually praise me.'

Adam started mocking me as we made our way back.

We parted ways with Amber in front of the lab, and as we continued back to Hans's restaurant, Adam said, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you something."

"Hmm?"

"That girl you were trying to close the distance with and fight up close? She's not a mage."

"Huh?!" I exclaimed in surprise. "So, I was trying to fight a fourth-level martial artist up close?!"