Fight to Grow Stronger

"You only get stronger through actual combat. Simple, right?" Ye Chuan smiled.

Torres scratched his head. "Well..."

"Isn't this what you asked for? What's the matter, getting cold feet before we even start?" Ye Chuan crossed his arms. "You really have no knightly spirit, do you?"

"No, I can do it!" Coming from a prestigious, dyed-in-the-wool family of knights, Torres naturally couldn't stand hearing such words. He immediately clenched his fist and thumped his chest, producing a metallic clang from his armor.

"Let's set off, Lord Xi Xi!"

"I can't hear you."

"LET'S SET OFF!!!!!!!"

"Good! That's the spirit!" Ye Chuan rubbed his ears at Torres's near-deafening roar. After ascertaining the location of the nearby dungeon, he floated straight up into the air.

"Come a bit closer." Ye Chuan beckoned to Torres.

"L-Like this?"

Torres hadn't quite figured out what Ye Chuan intended to do when, in the next second, he felt a massive force erupt from Ye Chuan's hand. His entire body was launched outward like a cannonball!

"Wait... Whaaaaaaaa?!!!!!!!"

Seeing that Torres had achieved liftoff, Ye Chuan instantly flickered and vanished from his spot.

...

At the entrance of the dungeon near Miral, accompanied by a heart-rending scream, Torres successfully touched down.

No, to be precise, just as he was about to land, Ye Chuan flashed in and caught him, saving him from smashing into the ground like a meteorite.

"Urgh..." Torres stood up shakily, grabbed hold of a nearby tree, and began to vomit.

"L-Lord Xi Xi, wasn't that a bit... too much?" Torres walked toward Ye Chuan on trembling legs, his face so pale and green he looked like he had aged a few hundred years.

"It was to save time," Ye Chuan said. "Do you have any idea how precious my time is?!"

Torres paused.

Right. Lord Xi Xi's magic is so powerful, and he spends every spare moment in the library; he must be contemplating the ultimate mysteries of magic...

And here I am, weak as I am, wasting his time asking him to teach me.

"In the time it takes to teach you, I could have gotten several more massages from a succubus!" Ye Chuan added.

"Is that so?!"

"Anyway, let's go." Ye Chuan glanced at the dungeon entrance before them. There was only a single stone staircase leading down, flanked by torches, descending into darkness.

"Oh." Torres obediently followed.

Ye Chuan didn't know the name of this dungeon. Since it was near Miral, he assumed the little dragon-man had probably already cleared it—that is, beaten this instance—given the signs of adventurers coming and going everywhere.

The first floor consisted of passageways built from stone bricks. It was fairly bright, and while there were bones scattered on the ground, most belonged to monsters.

"Hmm." Ye Chuan suddenly paused, as if he had noticed something.

He looked up to see a green humanoid monster walking out not far away. It was about a meter tall, with yellow eyes and wrinkled skin that made it look like an old man.

"It's a goblin," Torres said.

"Go on, kill it," Ye Chuan said.

"Oh, oh, I understand." Torres raised his massive shield and slammed it onto the ground.

"Defense Blessing!"

Torres's sturdy body began to glow with a green light. After boosting his physical defense with the blessing, he fixed his gaze on the distant goblin.

He seemed to be waiting for it to make a move.

"Come on!" Torres banged on his shield.

The goblin, clutching a wooden club, stared coldly at Torres with its yellow eyes. The human and the monster stood there in a standoff.

Ye Chuan: "..."

"What are you doing?" Ye Chuan asked.

"Waiting for the opponent to attack." Torres remained in battle formation.

"Isn't it pretty weak?"

"Lord Xi Xi, goblins are pack monsters. If you see one, there are probably two or three more hiding in the shadows," Torres explained.

"I see." Ye Chuan nodded. "But what if there really is only one?"

"Well..."

"You plan to just stare at it?"

"Yes..."

"You big oaf, you're holding up a shield that huge. Do you really think it's going to hit your shield with a wooden stick?"

"?!" Being told this by Ye Chuan, Torres suddenly found himself unable to refute it.

Just then, the goblin holding the weapon saw Torres raising his shield. It suddenly revealed a very human-like expression and spat on the ground.

"See? Even it thinks you're stupid." Ye Chuan spread his hands.

Torres froze.

Why did he suddenly feel like he really was being stupid?

"What you should be doing right now is raising that shield to bash its skull in, or just ditch the shield altogether," Ye Chuan said.

"Understood!!" Torres simply set down his shield and drew the sword at his waist.

He lunged at the goblin. However, just as he got close, the goblin let out a strange shriek. Immediately following that was the sound of air being sliced, and several poison-tipped arrows pierced the unarmored parts of Torres's limbs.

"Not good..."

From the shadows, three or four goblins pounced onto Torres, stabbing repeatedly at his body with their daggers.

But Torres's level was high enough, after all, and combined with his high-quality armor and raw strength, he managed to barely take down the goblins.

"Haa... haa..." Blood gushed from Torres's wounds as he quickly pulled some hemostatic herbs from his bag and swallowed them.

He looked back at Ye Chuan. "Lord Xi Xi... Did I do the right thing? I smashed their skulls."

"Idiot." Ye Chuan's face was expressionless.

"Huh?"

"You knew goblins are monsters that set ambushes, so why did you charge in foolishly like that?"

"But... you just said..."

"What did I say?"

Torres paused. Right. Lord Xi Xi hadn't actually told him to charge; he had only asked hypothetically if he would still hold his shield up like that if there were only one monster.

"Combat really is a profound subject," Torres said to Ye Chuan, forcing himself to endure the pain.

For Lord Xi Xi to possess such immense power, he must have gone through endless trials.

Whereas the knowledge Torres had learned was limited to books. Most of the time, he just held up his shield to protect the princess.

"Adapt to the situation," Ye Chuan said.

"I understand, Lord Xi Xi!"

"Alright, in that case—" Ye Chuan opened his forging interface, tossed in some random materials, and made a few casual gestures.

Just as Torres was wondering what Ye Chuan was doing, there was a loud clang. A massive sword fell to the ground, making a heavy metallic sound.

"This is..."