I Need Money to Level Up

Chapter 17 - 17 Secret Technique

Chapter 17: Chapter 17 Secret Technique

"I can't have my cake and eat it too, I guess," Raiden thought. "The system is useful, but it handles a lot of things. It gave me the chance to survive, so I can't complain."

While Raiden was thinking about that and watching Javier and Ruth sparring in his backyard, he felt a presence, and when he turned to the side, he saw Iri spying on them. She tends to do that on her day off... her spying skills could use some work.

"I guess she wants to help, but she would feel embarrassed by suddenly jumping in," Raiden thought while acting as if he hadn't noticed her. "Still, she is definitely stronger than me... wouldn't help me train a lot, and I also would be able to see what the difference is between those who reached level four of the training and those who didn't."

That seemed like the best option, but Raiden didn't like the idea of getting something out of someone without offering something in exchange. Speaking of which, he felt that he was helping in the house enough by making the food and doing some cleaning, but Harth does most of that... he had to do something to feel less like a burden.

"... You guys are doing well now, but you will need to do some strength and resistance training in order to pass the next test," Raiden suddenly declared. "Instead of coming here in the morning and in the afternoon, we spar together for one hour after lunch. You can use that time in the morning to solve the other issue."

"Can't we just do that here?" Javier asked. "I don't think that I can be that diligent by myself."

"That is just another reason to do so," Raiden shrugged. "If you don't do it and fail the test, we will know that you can't blame anyone for that failure."

"Only strength training?" Ruth asked. "I don't particularly want to become as big as a guy."

"Work on your strengths and try to make sure that no one will be able to exploit your weakness," Raiden explained.

The following day, Raiden woke up as usual, and then, after checking his plants, he began to train by himself. It didn't take long for a sleepy Iri to show up, but she soon woke up when she realized that Raiden was alone and then approached in a hurry.

"Are you alone today? What happened? Are your friends sick or something?" Iri asked. Rêạd new chapters at novelhall.com

"We are doing separate training in order to improve their diligence," Raiden explained. "Can you help me train for a bit? The other kids aren't strong enough to make me drop my weapons."

Putting that aside, Iri was really fast. She moved with the speed of the wind and with the fluidity of a river's water. There was no wasted movement or lack of skill with her.

"All right, let's try again and see if you learned something out of this," Iri said and then stepped backward.

Raiden definitely did; he wasn't planning to make full by falling for the same trick. In any case, he resumed the sparring with a barrage of thrusts once again, and this time, he put all his strength behind it. Iri was surprised to sense that her parries weren't going the way she wanted because of the extra strength that Raiden put in. Still, she lowered her stance and made her position defense get firmer... she began to parry the thrusts just like before, but on the last bit, Raiden changed the thrust to a sweeping strike.

Iri reached in time to block the attack, but when she tried to step in to hit Raiden again, she ended up colliding her chin against his forehead. He had stepped in as well all of a sudden.

"I didn't think that there are headbutt attacks when one uses a spear," Iri said while checking her chin.

Although she was supposed to be the one to suffer the most damage, Raiden was the one who had his forehead throbbing, her chin causing more damage than her forehead flick.

"... You did something to make your chin harder," Raiden suddenly said after thinking for a while.

"I didn't; anyone from my age has this much defense," Iri shrugged. "In fact, I think that my defense is weaker than the others since I use magic. Anyway, this isn't something you need to worry about. You will learn in time if you follow this path."

As expected, there was something that the martial artists could learn after spending several years training hard... Raiden couldn't pinpoint what, though, since he couldn't feel anything around Iri. Maybe he should improve his Perception or Wisdom to get some hints.

Although Raiden tried really hard, he failed at knocking Iri. Actually, he failed to even land a clean hit on her. That was more than just a little bit unnerving, but at least Raiden had a good reason to train harder... he couldn't even win any aspect against a little fifteen-year-old girl.

At the same time, Raiden began to train with her every day for one hour, and it didn't take long for him to see some results. Before, he could overpower the other kids in his level, but now he could use the skill as well to stop their attacks and hit their hands, making them drop their weapons. As much fun as it was to hit their weapons and make them drop just like that, being more skilled was also pretty rewarding.

"You are getting better... it looks like we were holding you back," Javier said once Raiden finished sparring with another kid.