No More Pain For This Villain.

"Then what's next? We are not going to stop here, right?" I asked,

"Oh, acting tough, huh! Well, yes, next is physical power." Marylin said that it seemed like she didn't like when I suddenly changed the topic, but she didn't delve deeper into that.

"What do you mean by physical power?" I was a little confused when she mentioned testing my physical strength; what kind of test is Marylin expecting me to go through?

"Nothing much,You just have to show me how long you can strengthen your body with the help of raw mana," Marylin said as she pulled out a notepad from her spatial ring. It seems like she is going to analyse something.

"That's it?" I asked, "There are many others, like having a spar or lifting something heavy to show my physical power, so why only use still-place body strengthening without doing anything else?"

"Yep, that's all there is.Now, we start quickly; we don't have all day." Marylin was not going to explain anything,

Okay, I took a breath and closed my eyes so I could focus. Strengthening one's body is not that hard if you think about it, but it causes you to lose a huge sum of mana continuously. You just have to absorb the mana from your core and spread it all across your body, slowly letting it be absorbed in your muscles while strengthening your skeletal system and putting a layer of mana on your nerves to protect them.

The amount of time you can maintain your body's strength solely depends on the size of your mana pool,

I activated the body strengthening, and I could feel a rush of mana through my whole body, like it was binding a shield all over me.

My senses were heightened to their fullest, or, to say the truth, to the limit that my current body can handle. 

...

"Haa, haa, I'm done." "I think this is the limit." I said, It takes a toll on your body when you strengthen it with Mana, but that's just a miniscule fatigue, not much to worry about.

"Um, ten seconds, even after the first two tests, that's quite good and pretty normal," Marylin said as she scribbled something on the notepad. She seems happy when she says that I am pretty average.

"What are you doing with that notepad there?" I asked because I was curious about it; she's been holding that notepad from the moment this test started.

"Oh, this is nothing. It just gives me a real instructor vibe," Marylin said as she twirled the writing pen she was holding in between her fingers.

"Really?" I asked, and my voice came out a little dry. I wasn't even a little convinced. There has to be some reason why she made me go through this simple test.

"Just kidding." Marylin sticks out her tongue to emphasise her joke: "I wrote down the details of all tests, and they give me a detailed insight into your strengths and weaknesses, so we can work on them," Marylin said.

"And what did you find?" I was curious, so I just asked. There are a lot of things that we don't understand, so sometimes it's better to ask someone with experience, right, Smokeball?

'Nah, you're just too lazy to find the answers on your own, you snotty brat.' Blaze said that, in one sense, he was right.

"In the first test, I recorded your spell casting speed, and it was ridiculously fast for someone like you. Then, in the second test, I measured the power impact of your spells with the help of that gem, and you even excelled in that. And lastly, in this test, I observed the size of your mana pool, the amount of time you can maintain the flow of mana through your body, and also analysed the maximum time you can maintain body strengthening in your top condition." Marylin said,

"And all that puts you on par with a one-star mage in terms of mana arts," Marylin said as she shoved the notepad back into the spatial ring. It looks like there is no further use for it.

"You said that this is the last test, why?" I was disappointed because it still feels a little half-assed compared to what I expected.

"Yup, first we worked on theories, then we completely and correctly applied them here, and now we have to get some real-life experience." Marylin said that according to when we were at her house, she taught me a lot about mana and stuff like spell casting; we applied those things in here outside the town, and now she wants to give me some real-life experience.

"But what do you mean by "real life experience"?" I asked,

"Back then you were quite interested in Balcker Forest, right?" Marylin's response was not direct, but her message was successfully transmitted to me, and with this, the location of our next training ground was decided.

"Okay, time to go back now." Marylin clasped her hand behind her back and turned around to leave in the direction of the gate. I quietly followed behind her.

.....

inside the town.

"Let's ride this beauty again," Marylin said. She pulled her "beauty," the magic broom stick, out of her spatial ring and invited me to ride with her, but I have other plans for today, so I won't be going home just now.

"I have something I have to do before heading home; you can go ahead." I said,

"I would've loved to come, but I think Mary must be awake by now, so I have to go home." Marylin said, I didn't even ask her to come. Well, whatever.

After that, Marylin left the place with her so-called "beauty," and I was left behind with my so-called "ugly" friend,

'How dare you call me ugly? Have you ever taken a look at your face in a mirr- Leave it at that. There's no need to look.' Blaze was fuming with anger but couldn't retort for the first time because he found his argument baseless.

"I know, I am handsome." I said to tease him further; it's fun when it's Uno reverse.

"Ha ha, funny, now tell me where are we going," Blaze tried to change the subject by asking about our next stop, even though he knew where we were going next.

"We are going to the adventurers' guild," I said. "It's been on my mind for a few days, and today I think it's the right time to get the job done."

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[A/N: ]