Two days have pa.s.sed since we decided that Luna will be partic.i.p.ating in the battle tournament while I will partic.i.p.ating in the Killer Ape event.

Currently we are inside the beginner dungeon for adventurers level 20 and below. Our goal today isn"t to raise our levels but to train. Although we are at level 20, it is important not to neglect the strength that a person can obtain from training. I was capable of demonstrating power equivalent to an average adventurer despite my lower status when I was at my peak.

[mmmmmm. I wanted to partic.i.p.ate too. The tournament. Hmph] (Til)

Til was complaining with an envious face.

[Don"t say that. You have a cla.s.s suited for long-range battles. If you were to enter a ring 20 metres wide you wouldn"t allow be able to utilize your strengths to the fullest.] (Youya)

[But I"ve been getting better at other weapons too such as knives and other stuff.] (Til)

At the moment, Til was juggling three knives which she usually kept hidden on her body. She caught the knives between her fingers and threw them towards a tree, sticking them into the same tree. Although Spirit Archers didn"t typically use knives for battles, Til was already a master at handling knives.

[I"ll admit that Til is very skilled as a fighter. And I"ve always thought it was strange that you do not seem like an amateur at all. It"s as if you have learnt martial arts before.] (Youya)

Phil was skilled with a bow from the start, however aside from that she was average. For me, I have been scavenging and hunting in the mountains since I was young and my physical strength is higher than an average person, however it wasn"t anything exceptional. However, in Til"s case there is evidence to believe that she has been doing properly training. That wouldn"t be the case if one led a normal life.

[Because the art of a bow comes naturally to all elves, everyone had learnt how to use one. In addition, I have always been dreaming about being an adventurer, so I trained under the wing of the village"s number one warrior. However, one day he said that he had to leave the village, and apologised to me as he had only trained me for a short time. As a result, I only have the fundamentals of the fundamentals drilled into me.] (Til)

[So that"s it.] (Youya)

I’ve met that number one warrior from her village. We fought together once as brothers in arms. If it"s him, then I"m convinced. Just having the fundamentals seperates the novice from an amateur.

[But even if you learn how to handle a knife or have good stamina. That is different from having a job that synergize with knives. You don"t have the status correction that comes from having an actual job and a cla.s.s benefit. A Spirit Archer that eats a blow from a wooden blade in close quarter combat is still dangerous. I can"t approve of it. If someday there is a tournament that suits Til, I"ll be sure to let you attend.] (Youya)

I put a piece of Panam fruit into my mouth.

Although Til has many complaints about the situation, she is still taking her training seriously. If she continues to work hard at her current pace, she will be able to defend herself even without needing Luna to protect her.

Now then, I wonder how Luna is doing.

[Luna. Looks like your yokonagi is able to land critical hits as well now.] (Youya)
[Uhn. This is the second one!] (Luna)

Among the nine types of slashes,  Luna"s second choice is Yokonagi. It is a good choice considering Luna"s small stature. Yokonagi is a downward slash with a small movement and there aren"t many situations where this could be used. However, one effective use of the Yokonagi slash is to utilise it after the stab where it"s short range and range of motion can be beneficial. More than anything, it is an easier for Luna to land critical hits than a stab as it was a slashing movement.

[Now then. Let"s move on to sparring practice. I"ll be using a wooden sword while you will use a dagger. For the next thirty minutes, I"ll only be defending myself and I won"t counter or attempt an attack. If you land a single hit on me within the time limit, you will win the match.] (Youya)

[The rules are too lenient towards Luna! At least counter Luna"s attacks.] (Luna)

[You"ll understand once we start the match. Let"s see.. If you win the match, I"ll grant you one request. ] (Youya)

[!! Really!?] (Luna)

[Only if it"s within my power of course.But yeah. Any request.] (Youya)

[Alright! Luna will try her best and win!] (Luna)

Luna became motivated instantly and her fluffy fox tail swung back and forth.

I"m suddenly afraid of what she will request of me. But I guess it"s much more fun this way now that the stakes are higher.

Thirty minutes have pa.s.sed.

Luna"s body gave way and she fell onto the ground, losing her grip on her dagger. She had attacked me for the entire thirty minutes without letting up so it isn’t unexpected.

[Was the match too easy? Should I revise the rules again?] (Youya)

[Youya is strong! Even though Luna is faster.] (Luna)

Based on our basic status, my stats are slightly higher than Luna"s. However, with the cla.s.s stat corrections, Luna"s speed got a huge boost and her overall status is better. However, she won"t be able to beat me using just pure speed. I have spent decades battling monsters and people who were far stronger and faster than I was. She"ll need more than just speed to beat me. If anything, she needs to come up with a strategy in order to land a hit.

[If you want to defeat me, you must be sure to watch my movements. Watch how I receive your blows and pace myself in battle. How I breath. My footwork. And think about how you can interrupt it. These are the skills that Luna doesn"t have. Once you start noticing these things, you will begin to become more familiar with my battle style and eventually, you will be able to push through. We"ll do this spar session everyday at the inn for thirty minutes.] (Youya)

[Youya. If it isn"t today, will Luna still get a reward for winning?] (Luna)

[Of course. There won"t be any tension if there isn"t a prize to be won. However, I will place a deadline. The deadline is one month. If you don"t win within the month, the prize wil be forfeit.] (Youya)

Without the strength to stand up, Luna"s eyes started shining while she was laying on the ground. She opened my mouth and drank a stamina potion before proceeding to her own training.

Somehow she feels more motivated than before.

[By the way, what do you plan on asking for if you do win?] (Youya)

Luna paused for a moment before puffing up her cheeks and turning away. Glancing at her neck, it looks like she"s red down to her neck.

[it"s a secret.] (Luna)

That was a boring answer. But I"m sure Luna wouldn"t ask for anything unreasonable. If she is able to land a single blow on me in this next month, I plan to fulfill her request to the best of my ability.

The main reason we came to the dungeon isn"t to train, but to go on a treasure hunt. Dungeons aren"t just filled with monsters for adventurers to hunt. The monsters are mostly cleared out on the day they sp.a.w.n so adventurers often spend the other days treasure hunting. We may not be able to raise our levels due to the tournament rules, but if it"s just a treasure hunt then we will be fine. We could also avoid raising our level by utilising Luna"s Presence Detection.

[Youya, I smell treasure over there.] (Luna)

Luna"s nose began to twitch as she sniffs the air. This cute movement fits really well with Luna"s appearance and her age. The reason why Luna said that she could "smell" treasure is due to the her new skill, Treasure Sense. As the name implies, it allows Luna to sense any treasure chests in our vicinity similar to Presence Detection. There are many chests in dungeons that are placed in conspicuous areas, however as a veteran adventurer I am certain that there are many chests that are hidden within the dungeon walls itself. Chests that can be easily found are certain to be looted by other adventurers. Thus we are hunting for the chests that are hidden instead. By using Treasure Sense, rather than persistently searching throughout the dungeon Luna will be able to sense their locations if we get close enough.

[Weird. The treasure chest is directly ahead of us, but it"s a dead-end?] (Luna)

As Luna said, we have arrived at a dead-end. It isn’t possible to return and take a different path as the previous turn is quite a distance away.

[In that case, there should be a hidden room behind the wall. Try to tap the wall and listen to the sound.] (Youya)

I knocked the wall with my knuckles and a loud noise reverberated throughout the wall.

Bingo. It seems that there was indeed a hidden room. There are several ways we could go about opening this room, but based on the sound the wall is quite thin as compared to the surroundings. For a thin wall, there is a simple way for us to pa.s.s through.

[Luna. Til. Be prepared to dodge the debris.] (Youya0

[Uhn.] (Luna)

[Roger that.] (Til)

The two of them lowered their bodies towards the ground as I grabbed my sword. One of the most commonly used skill for swords, Bash. It can be activated easily with an efficient mana cost for its attack multiplier. The wall collapses as my sword collides with it. Although it is simple to destroy walls with this method, this is only possible as the wall is abnormally thin. If this is performed against a normal wall, there is a high chance that the sword will be damaged rather than destroying the wall.

[Woah, the wall actually broke.] (Til)

[Ah! The treasure really is behind the wall!] (Luna)

Luna and Til walked past the collapsed wall and entered the hidden room.

[Luna, did you put points into Lockpick?] (Youya)

Original name was 解錠 which translates to “Release”, but changed to Lockpick

[As you told me to, I put three points.] (Luna)

[Good. That will be enough for now.] (Youya)

We can"t lower our guard just because we found the chest. There are traps that have a 50% chance of activating when opening a chest. There have been instances where a poisonous gas is released or paralysing needles are shot out from the chest so on and so forth. With Lockpick, not only is the chest easier to open, but the traps can also be deactivated depending on the person"s status. With Luna"s current status, level 3 is sufficient to deactivate the chest.

[Youya it’s opened.] (Luna)

[Nice. It"s a Magic Bag (Small). It can only hold up to 10 kilograms of items but it"s worth at least two million gils on the marketplace.] (Youya)

[If it"s two million, we could play around the town for three months.] (Til)

[Amazing! Today is a good day!] (Luna)

Luna and Til are grabbing each other"s hands in celebration of our loot. However.

[We won"t be selling this bag. Til will be using it instead.] (Youya)

[You sure? Giving me this kind of item.] (Til)

[Definitely. I was actually hoping of finding another bag for you. Wouldn"t it be difficult to carry a bow around in the town? If you had a magic bag you could place your bow inside rather than carry it around.] (Youya)

Bows are useful but they are quite troublesome to carry about.Their arrows are quite bulky as well. That is why  Spirit Archers often carry around a magic bag. I was planning to pa.s.s her a bag from the start but I already pa.s.sed my spare bag to Luna. When I asked Luna to pa.s.s her bag to Til, she looked so devastated that I couldn"t bear to take her bag away from her so I held back on the thought.

[Thank you so much! I"ll treasure this.] (Til)

[Please do so. We definitely have the G.o.ddess"s blessings as we are very lucky to find such a rare item on our first chest. ] (Youya)

Til hugs the magic bag tightly in her arms. I"m sure she will take good care of it.

[Now then. It"s about time to head back. We"ve obtained a good souvenir for today.] (Youya)

[Let"s go! Let"s do special training when we return! I will definitely land a hit on Youya by the end of the month!] (Luna)

Luna is extremely motivated for our challenge. I will do everything in my power to stop that. After all, I won"t have the qualifications to be a teacher if I lose to my own student in just a few days.

[Me too! I"ll make big sis proud of me! I heard from her that having a magic bag is proof of being a top-tier adventurer!] (Til)

[Yeah. That"s right.] (Youya)

Very few adventurers actually carry around a magic bag. Even if a party do find a magic bag, they will often sell it and split the profits between the members.

As usual, the party is progressing smoothly. Let"s continue treasure hunting while training the two everyday until the day of the festival since it will be a good experience for the two of them.

Next week will be another triple-chapter week!