Chapter 85 – Going down to the 10th floor.

“Haha, did a group of mole rats have their way with you?”

“Screw off!”

A large burly man with no hair was laughing at Armand the instructor that just faced off against Roland. The Pugilist was in a sorry state, he was holding his hands that were slowly healing after some of his fingers were broken.

This wasn’t the actual cause of him looking pale though. The skill that he activated took quite a bit out of him. It wasn’t something that could be used for a prolonged amount of time, it was mostly there for a short burst of power to finish off an enemy.

“He didn’t win! It was all because of that armor, if he didn’t have it on I’d crush him with one hit!”

The older man walked over closer, he was really tall, not something that a human could achieve. There was a total lack of hair on his head and his body looked like it was carved out from stone. This man was clearly from the goliath race which was quite the rarity in this warm climate. This race of smaller giants preferred mountain regions and more secluded areas.

“Is that so? I wouldn’t be so sure about that, it felt like he was holding something back…”

“What?”

Armand looked quite pissed, his fingers were still numb and the potion would need some time to heal his bones. Things like cuts could be mended faster but when getting down to the bone the quality of the potion had to increase for it to work faster.

“Why are you even here, don’t you have a guild to run or something?”

“Can’t a kind old man check up on one of his best prospects? One that lost so beautiful, wait till the others hear about it at the pub. Maybe now you can start taking things more seriously.”

A wooden chair flew towards the large old man. It connected with the wall next to him which caused him to laugh more before walking out of the room.

“You shouldn’t tease him so much, Guild Master.”

“He’ll be fine, he needs to be taken down a peg. Good that we have some promising young warriors coming in! What do you think? You watched the entire fight right, Solana?”

The man that was called the guild master asked the elven receptionist that was responsible for Roland’s test. Both of them walked through one of the guild’s corridors after Armand had to be brought in for some healing.

“That youth…how should I put it… normally someone of his level shouldn’t be able to use runic armor like that…”

“You noticed it too?”

“Yes sir, the mana that the armor was emitting was staggering. I’m not sure how he did it but even a high level tier 2 mage would have problems using that many runes and mana stones at once.”

The old man rubbed his chin that was covered by a short beard.

“Must be some special class, those weren’t the movements of a scrawny mage. Well, keep an eye on him and report anything unusual.”

“Should I update his card or?”

The old man turned to the smaller elf and shook his head.

“No… have him get us some monsters that live below the 10th level. Otherwise, he might also grow a big head like our little Armand. Let’s see how he handles unjust setbacks.”

The elven lady nodded while the two parted ways, the man that was the guild master had quite the grin on his face as he left. She returned to inform Roland of the second mission that he needed to fulfill. Solana couldn’t see how well he took that decision but she could have sworn that she heard a grunt behind that visor.

The moment the armored man left the guild went abuzz. The people that bet on a tie were laughing out crazily as they made quite the coin. Most of them were cursing though as not many believed that Armand could lose in any way or that this fight would take this long to finish. Through this Roland had made some hidden enemies along with increasing his fame.

“Didn’t the receptionist call that person Wayland? Do we have someone like that living in the city?”

Some people that were interested in the crimson armored man’s identity were quick to gather information. It was always good to know who you were dealing with and this was clearly a strong individual.

“Please everyone quiet down!”

The second receptionist that looked like a business woman with glasses shouted out. The whole fight was causing too much of a commotion and no work was being done. Soon everyone straightened out and everything returned to normal.

While this was happening Roland was walking towards the dungeon. Killing tier 2 monsters would be quite easy to him at this point. This was something he was able to do even before reaching this class.

He couldn’t really cheat this quest, bringing over mana stones was one thing but monster parts was another. They would know if he did it himself by the creature’s freshness. It would probably be better to just bring over the whole body as proof instead of disassembling it. He didn’t want them to look for some other loopholes.

While walking towards the dungeon Roland thought back to how the fight went. After working on himself for a year by battling monsters alone he was slowly developing as a fighter. With the help of his gear, he was now somewhat able to contend with higher tier opponents.

‘Though, if that guy took me seriously from the start he would have probably won…’

He wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he would have come out on top in a proper fight. Even though he didn’t have his shield or sword the other guy was the same. It was lucky that that martial artist was easy to anger and was constantly on the attack. If he took some time to assess the situation the outcome could have been different.

‘But I also didn’t use any attack spells… one good attack could have decided the battle.’

This was also why he wasn’t willing to demonstrate his full capabilities during the test. Anyone that would try to battle him now would expect the sudden speed and strength boosts. They wouldn’t expect a flamethrower coming from his hand though. He had managed to squeeze in a few attacking spells here and there but also onto his shield or sword to not strain his armor too much.

‘I should probably increase my pace…’

He looked at the road ahead, there weren’t many people around as most of the adventurers would be already at the dungeon. There wasn’t a set time for people to be there but most went there in the morning and came back before sundown. It was similar to a full time job, but you had the flexibility of taking a break whenever you pleased.

Roland left his larger spatial bag that could actually hold his bike in it back at home. Though he would probably look strange riding it around with his armor on so it was fine to just walk there this time around.

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With a small jolt of his energy, the crimson armor’s runes started flashing in green. His agility stat was boosted instantly and he felt light on his feet. So he ran, his speed was higher than a pro sprinter from his old world would be capable of and this was only a steady jog towards his destination.