“You cannot brute force your way out of this! Technique! Use what I've taught you!” Jamie Holmes, her professional grappling instructor, shouted into her ear.

Right now, Zoey was trying to prevent herself from being choked out by her teacher. She only had her hand in between the chokehold but it really wasn’t doing much. With a hold like this, she only has seconds to react before losing consciousness if done by a professional. Thinking back on her words from earlier, Zoey reached out to her instructor’s foot, dug her elbow into the left leg crossed over her abdomen, and began twisting her instructor’s foot.

“Good! Don’t forget your other options! Opponents with high pain tolerance will be able to keep their hold around you, so always stay on your toes.” Jamie released her hold on Zoey and she got up.

[Grappling Lv3]

Zoey gasped for breath, desperately bringing air into her lungs. She’s been learning with this former world champion fighter for the past three weeks alongside that asshole for magjistar stuff. Every Saturday and Sunday with Jamie while the rest of the week was with the Handsome Asshole. Her schedule throughout the week was fucking packed to the brim with something every day. Surprisingly, Zoey wasn’t actually that bothered by this. Each day she could see continual progress with her skills while every week she saw a jump in her stats. Zoey was a little proud to see her status now.

[Status]

[Name: Zoey]

[Sex: Female]

[Body: 3.5]

[Mental: 1.8]

[Magic: 2.5]

[Skills: 11]

[Boxing Lv9]

[Focus Lv8]

[Teaching Lv16]

[Abnormal Conditions Lv10]

[Endurance Lv12]

[Terrifying Aura Lv5]

[Gaming Lv8]

[Mahna Manipulation Lv10]

[Combo Magji Lv9]

[Twisting Force Lv10]

[Grappling Lv3]

Zoey only realized that she could get this far due to having a proper teacher. Her skills shot up like crazy when she was directly taught by people who knew their shit and were kind of the best in their field. She felt a little bit upset that she was only growing so slowly because she was surrounded by mediocre teachers but then again, Zoey had to start from somewhere. Only the rich could start from the beginning on a diamond path. Maybe when she has a bunch of little Zoey’s she’ll make a diamond path for them.

Now that she thought about it, it would be pretty terrifying to have a bunch of little Zoey’s running around... With how high her teaching ability will be when she feels like making kids, they’ll be able to become masters in any field they want! As long as she had knowledge in that field. But then again, what field wouldn’t Zoey be able to excel in with the Box? Music, art, teaching, finance, business, science, technology, anything really. It just depended on what her little mini-mes were interested in. If they were anything like Zoey was when she was a kid, then they’d be interested in nerdy shit. Her mom had to drop out of high school when she got pregnant by her birth dad and never could pursue higher education because she had to raise her.

Zoey realized early on that her mother cared very deeply about Zoey's education but didn’t seem to have much of it herself. The more difficult subjects that Zoey brought home as homework gradually began to confuse and upset her mother. Since her mom didn’t know how to do it and Zoey didn’t know how to do it, Alicia got angry. That anger was directed towards Zoey because a young mother definitely didn’t know how to properly sort through her own feelings without lashing out at her child for it. So, Zoey was blamed for not paying attention in class and not being able to figure out how to do the homework from listening to the teacher at school. It was from that point that Zoey never asked her mother for help on homework again.

“Ready?” Jamie asked, handing her a cold-water bottle from the cooler.

“Gimme a sec.” Zoey took a large swig of the water.

“When we first started, you had no talent at all. I’m surprised to see you grow so fast.” She kind of complimented her.

“...” Zoey continued to drink the water.

“I’ll have to ramp up the training even more since you’re learning so quickly.” Jamie smiled.

Zoey didn’t show a scared expression or anything like her instructor was probably expecting. The harder and more difficult something was, the faster her skills leveled. It was precisely because of that reason that Zoey’s magji-related skills were so high compared to what they were three weeks ago. Victor did not hold back once he found out her abnormal growth rate during the first week of his “lessons.” He fully took advantage of her unique circumstances and took her to the entrance of hell during the second week. The third week was probably the middle level of hell for her. She nearly died from multiple daemons at several points.

“That’s fine.” Zoey responded, crushing the water bottle and tossing it in the garbage bin.

These grappling lessons weren’t anything in comparison to fighting daemons who wanted to tear you apart, limb from limb. Ever since that second week, Zoey hasn’t fought a single daemon who wasn’t equal to her in fighting ability, or superior. It was a hell and heaven, because she could fully embrace the part of her that’s been craving a release.

‘You really are a little psycho.’ Victor smirked in satisfaction.

“Can’t look like I'm taking advantage of you for the money. I’ll give you exactly what you paid for.” Jamie grinned.

Zoey was paying her a hefty amount considering she was a former world champion with a shit load of experience fighting all kinds of opponents. She expected a hellish training session and welcomed it. The faster her grappling skill grew, the faster she would be able to beat the shit out of Victor. And other people...

Grappling would help Zoey deal with one of her critical weaknesses as a boxer-focused fighter. She didn’t expect that it would be very helpful against daemons but against humans and magjistars? It’ll be the thing that’ll decide the battle if she can get close enough to grab them. Daemons had all sorts of tricks that made it dangerous to grab hold of them. Electricity, poison, fire, extendable limbs, sharp tongues, ice, and all sorts of unfair bullshit that Zoey had to deal with.

Because of Victor, Zoey had to give up her spot in the YFTL. The internet did not hesitate to give her shit for it. Calling her a scared little coward, saying that women should stay in a woman’s place and all sorts of other infuriating nonsense. Zoey apologized to Coach Scott but he didn’t give her any trouble for it even when she couldn’t give him a reasonable explanation on why she had to forfeit. He only asked her if she was going to continue teaching at the gym.

She nodded and he laughed loudly like he always did when he heard some good news. The number of kids and teenagers coming to the gym didn’t decrease like Zoey thought when she had to give up her spot in the tournament. Zoey was surprised to see that more people signed up or came down to question her on why she had to forfeit. Coach thought of a good excuse for her that quieted all those asking why she forfeited.

“There’s no one worth challenging in the tournament.” Zoey responded in her fighting persona.

This sent the media surrounding the YFTL wild at her statement. While many continued to call her a coward, Zoey ignored them and just focused on her own life. Eventually, the tournament winner called her out. It was the taekwondo magjistar that helped beat up Lindsay and Alexander. She was actually a little bit excited at his challenge. Well, if he challenged her in private anyway.

Since Cory challenged her through social media, that meant that they wouldn’t be able to go all out in their fight. Zoey really wanted to test her skills against a magjistar that wasn’t that stupidly overpowered teacher of hers. Victor knew how much she wanted to test her skills too, which was why he prevented her from interacting with any other magjistars until the Annual Meeting next week. It was annoying but Zoey wasn’t too bothered. She’ll be able to fight against another magjistar soon enough.

The days leading up to her match with Cory Griffin were very hype for the people in the YFTL community. Zoey was a fan favorite to love and to hate. She spent much of her time with Victor reading the heartfelt comments and toxic comments when she officially announced her forfeit. It was really amazing how many people were inspired, encouraged, or helped by her when she did nothing but beat the hell out of some guys. A girl even commented how Zoey helped her realize the beauty of life and chose not to take her own life. Instead, she took up fighting and decided to beat the hell out of every bastard that wronged her just like Zoey did in the ring.

Zoey didn’t really know how to respond to such a serious topic but was happy that she had a positive effect on someone without trying. Being famous really was a new experience for her. It was tiring, annoying at times, but also gratifying in a way. While Zoey wasn’t the type of person to help people out unless she cared about them, it was nice to feel like a good person even if she wasn’t trying to be one.