An Unbound Soul

I sat in the guild bar, staring at the bowl in front of me. This had seemed like such a good idea at the time. Kobold had tasted great, and I hadn't suffered any bowel-emptying side effects, so why should orc be any worse? Now that I was within smelling range again, I was second guessing myself. Taste and smell were basically the same thing, right? Without a sense of smell, there were only four or five different flavours a human could taste. So if it smelt this awful, why did I think it would taste any better?

I gingerly put a bit in my mouth and did my best not to gag. How in the hells did Xander eat this stuff? It was disgusting! Now I had a whole bowl in front of me, and not enough money to go around throwing food away. Eyes watering, I chewed my way through piece after piece. The texture was pretty good, but the taste was utterly abhorrent. Just how was I going to manage to eat the whole bowl?

I went to stab the next piece with my fork, only to find that there wasn't one. Huh? Had I eaten the whole thing already? I poked at the bowl in confusion, but yes, there was no denying there was nothing left in it. How did that happen? I was expecting to have to spend hours locked in a battle for my very life... Had my brain protectively sealed away the memories?

"Wow, I don't know how anyone eats that stuff."

I looked up to see Anton sitting down opposite me. "Yo. Me neither, and I'm the one who apparently just ate it... You're still in one piece, then?"

"Yup. You too? When you vanished, I feared the worst, but I heard you were just taking a break?"

"Yeah, I went back to my village for a bit. It's not as if I'm here for employment, after all. I doubt I'll be here for more than a week at a time."

"Umm... Could I ask for a favour?"

Oh? This should be interesting. "Depends what it is, but feel free to ask."

"Can you spar with us again? Not just me, the whole team."

"Huh? Don't you have an instructor? And there are plenty of delvers around to ask, if you want to spar."

"Our instructor isn't really a front-line fighter. He can take care of the top few floors, but you're stronger than him for sure. He's not the best sparring partner, especially if we want to practise working as a team. And as for the others... they're all a bit intimidating. I don't think they'd want kids like us intruding on their time..."

Hah, a spot of social anxiety. Fair enough. It wasn't as if I'd be comfortable walking up to anyone in the room and asking them to spar, either. "Sure, I wouldn't mind. What's your party make up like?"

"Our instructor is a [Life Mage] and specialises in healing. Our squad has three fighters and one mage, all apprentices."

"Does your mage use magic to fight?"

"Yes. He uses ice affinity."

So four in total. Their squad must have found a replacement for Chris. And I'd finally get to fight a mage. Yup, I was definitely up for this. "Cool. When do you want to start?"

Anton's eyes lit up, and he motioned to another table, where another three teenagers stood up excitedly, and an older man facepalmed in a very unexcited manner. "Now?"

Wow, he was in a bit of a hurry there. Given how little of the day was left, I wasn't expecting that. Since there wasn't much competition for the top floors, maybe they didn't bother getting up so early? Personally, I was ready for bed, given how early I'd got up to travel with Henry, but I could certainly push myself a bit to get a duel with a mage. I could sleep in tomorrow.

I ended up in one of the training arenas, armed with a practice staff, facing off against the four newbies, who had arranged themselves into a line. Anton had his bow, but learning a lesson from last time also had a wooden dagger. Of the other fighters, one was using a sword and shield and the other an axe. Shouldn't Anton and the mage hang back, if they were planning to use ranged attacks? Not that it would make a difference with my [Far Step]. Anton would remember my abilities, so maybe they had some plan to counter me?

Anton, Human, Apprentice Fighter (4/14)

Ioan, Human, Apprentice Fighter (3/13)

Lee, Human, Apprentice Fighter (4/14)

Thomas, Human, Apprentice Mage (3/13)

Skill [Appraisal] advanced to level 9

Oh, nice. One more to go before I could buy [Analysis]. Not that I'd have the points for it for a long while yet, but at least it would be unlocked. It was reassuring to see that Anton had gained a couple of levels since he signed up, too. That was good progress.

Their instructor signalled the start, and my [Mana Sense] immediately showed a flare of mana coming from Thomas. Moments later, a small bolt of ice shot towards me, but its speed was slow enough for me to easily dodge. The two melee fighters charged, and I saw Anton draw his bow. In a spot of novelty, I used [Far Reach] to give his bow a tap just as he fired, sending an arrow straight into the back of Ioan. The more I used it, the more I realised just how much utility [Far Reach] actually had... It may not be good for damage, but for messing up an opponent's flow, it was great.

Lee swung his axe, but it was slow enough for me to easily back-step before thrusting my staff into his chest. Another burst of mana from Thomas caught my attention, and this time, knowing the speed of his projectile, I swatted his ice bolt straight from the air. The look of surprise on his face was quite satisfying as I used [Far Step] to jump behind him, evading another arrow from Anton in the process, and tapping Thomas lightly on the head.

With no team mates left, Anton raised his hands. "I surrender."

Ioan complained from the floor. "What the hell was that? You shot me in the back! Whose side were you supposed to be on?"

"That wasn't deliberate. He used his space magic to mess up my aim!"

Their instructor, who [Appraisal] told me was a level five [Life Mage] by the name of Theodore, looked completely taken aback. "I know you have some sort of weird circumstances, so I won't ask why a mage that is capable of using space affinity is wasting time here in the delvers' guild, but what was with the way you handled your staff? That's not something a simple weapon proficiency should achieve. Just how high level is your weapon proficiency skill?"

Now that I thought of it, my physical stats shouldn't be higher than these guys, yet I could easily overpower them without buff spells. I guess my max level proficiency helped out more than I gave it credit for. "Twelve."

The newbies peered. "How does that work? The highest level is supposed to be ten?"

Oh boy... Someone has not been teaching these newbies very well... "You haven't taught them about the titles they can gain at rank one?"

"I assume you refer to [Skilled]? Of course not. It's not possible to collect five skills as a [Commoner] in the first place, given that they only get nine soul points. Even after taking an apprentice class and buying one point skills, you'd still end up sitting at level ten for ages while they levelled up. It's not worth it. You're much better off saving the soul points for higher rank skills and taking the higher rank class immediately."

Okay, that was logical. My cheat traits have messed up my common sense again. "What about [Jack of All Trades]? That's not hard to get for anyone taking an apprentice class, and doubly worth it because it gives you all the rank one spells and artes for free."

Anton chimed up there. "Yes, we all have that one already. So there's another title that lets you advance skills beyond level ten?"

"Yes, but Theodore is right. It only lets you take skills up to level twelve, and a rank two skill at level one is better than rank one at twelve, so delaying a class change for it is of dodgy value. Although if you all had [Jack of All Trades] you should be able to get the required ten skills easily enough."

"Hah, so his name is Theodore. Now we know! And we could, but we want to save up ready for rank two."

Yeah, my excess of soul points strikes again... Of course normal people would want to plan their spending far in advance. But how did they not know his name? Uh oh, Theodore was glaring. "That's 'teacher' to you kids."

That was new. Apparently, he didn't want to use his name. Maybe he just didn't like it? "Teacher then, would you like to join in on your students' side?"

He sighed, acting as if he was being hard done by, but moving straight into the arena and taking up position without further prompting. He apparently wanted to join in but didn't want to admit it. Or possibly he wanted a chance to bash me. If so, I wasn't going to give it to him. "I won't use space magic this time."

"He can use body reinforcement spells too. Expect him to be faster and stronger this time."

Lee muttered something under his breath, having been overpowered by me even without my buff spells. I grinned at him as I felt my magic spread out beneath my armour. Thomas' eyes opened wide. "I don't know what he just did, but his whole body just lit up with a lot of mana."

The reluctantly-Theodore signalled the start, and I charged their party. Swatting Thomas' ice bolts out of the air was trivial with my increased dexterity, and by charging into melee range, Anton was prevented from getting a clear shot. He drew his knife and joined in the close combat, but my thirty dexterity and level twelve staff proficiency was enough to handle them all. It was amazing how I could take out this whole party with ease, whereas Xander could easily take out a whole party of me. Presumably someone sitting at rank four could take out a whole party of Xanders. Now that was a scary thought... Hopefully Xander would never find a magic item that duplicated himself.

We made a few more attempts, and I stuck to only casting [Dexterity] so as to draw out my mana a bit longer, and because it made for a far more even fight than boosting all of my stats. I didn't have the teaching experience to point out where they were going wrong, but hopefully their own instructor and any proficiency level ups would handle that. Once I could no longer keep up [Dexterity], their teamwork was enough to overcome my higher skill level, and I was the one who ended up crashing down to the mat. There had been a couple of dings during the fight, so I checked my messages while lying prone.

Skill [Dexterity] advanced to level 5

Skill [Greater Mana Finesse] advanced to level 5

Ooo, a finesse upgrade. Awesome. "My mana is out. I can't fight any more. In this case, that would probably have been the best option to use against me; stay on the defensive until my mana ran dry."

"No problem. That was useful experience, and I got a proficiency level up."

"I got dexterity."

"Strength and a proficiency level here. How come? We've been fighting goblins for days without getting anything."

"Variety in your opponents is more important than quantity. And making sure it's a fair fight. That's why sparring is so useful; you don't want a fair fight against dungeon monsters; you want a completely unbalanced one to ensure you're going to win without a scratch. It's only when your opponent isn't trying to kill you that you can afford to make things more even. Maybe we should ask the guild master to run a (tournament) or something."

"What's a (tournament)?"

"A big competition between lots of people in front of a crowd of spectators. In our case, sparring. There are a few ways of organising it, but the simplest is to pair everyone off, and then pair off the winners, then keep repeating until there's only one person left."

The teacher unofficially named Theodore was squinting at me. Had I just said something weird? "A fighting competition? That sounds a bit violent... I don't think the delvers' guild would want that sort of reputation. Besides, one of the third ranks would win everything."

"It could be segregated by rank or something. And why would a competition be bad if training like this is okay?"

"Because we're training, not doing some sort of spectator sport."

"Your team over there still looked pretty pleased with themselves once they won. So did you, for that matter. I think it would be a good way of ensuring lots of variety in sparring partners, so it should increase the strength of the guild across the board."

Possibly-Theodore blinked, as if he was just realising something. "Well, maybe. I still don't think sparring should be a spectator sport, though. Maybe we could do something just between guild members. It's true that I just got a level up too... It would probably be worthwhile..."

His attention drifted away as he started muttering to himself. Did I just accidentally sow the seeds for an isekai's obligatory tournament arc? Now that I started talking about it, it did seem like a good idea. If I could spar all the other rank twos here, I bet I could pick up a ton of levels. If it ended up happening, I would definitely have to make sure the organiser is familiar with the concept of a round robin. But if it was such a good idea, why hadn't anyone thought of it before?