Note to the reader: *.......* means he's saying that in his head.

Rate and Review.

************************************************

Chapter 32

I quickly left the inn.

Becket:"I hope he never finds out I slept with the girl he's in love with."

He is the first person I considered a friend in this world so I'm a little worried. I don't want to lose our friendship, but there isn't anything I can do so I put it out of my mind for now. I passed through the palace gates without any problem. The guards use to stop me just to be annoying, but they must have gotten tired of it. Now that the vampires have been managed I can focus on a little training. Esyn told me I would need it if I was going to the vampire kingdom.

Aelisia:"What's up Becket?"

I found the person I was looking for.

Becket:"Hey Aelisia."

She was in a field near the back of the palace. The two of us had a talk a little while back about me possibly learning under her. I was happy that I could get this training since I've felt like my level of strength has stagnated recently.

Becket:"I'm ready to learn."

I tried to act like an excited disciple. Esyn wants me to sleep with her so I'll start small. We first need to build some kind of relationship, and I think the student teacher one is the place to start.

Aelisia:"Good timing. See that guy?"

She pointed off farther into the field were a man in green armor was balancing his entire body on one finger with his eyes closed.

Aelisia:"Try and hit him with a rock."

Becket:"You want me to throw rocks at him?"

Aelisia:"Yes. Don't worry though. It's unlikely that you'll be able to hit him."

He was several meters away, but I was 100% confident I wouldn't miss.

*Maybe she expects him to dodge?*

I hard a hard time believing that. It wouldn't be easy to dodge a rock that you didn't even know was coming while your eyes are closed.

Becket:"Alright."

I bent down and picked up a rock. My current body had great eyes sight and coordination so it only took me a second to aim then throw the rock. It was going to hit him center mass, but he caught it with his free hand while his eyes were still closed.

Becket:"Well I guess it won't be as easy as I thought."

Surprise attacks usually work, but the people of this world are just too abnormal.

Aelisia:"I want you to keep trying to hit him."

She stood next to me while I continued to throw rocks at the knight. It kind of felt like I was bullying him even though none actually hit him. Aelisia started explaining things to me while looking at the knight.

Aelisia:"Elves aren't really meant to be warriors."

Becket:"What do you mean?"

Aelisia:"You have speed, dexterity, amazing eye sight, reaction time and you're the only race that can use healing spells, but elves lack offensive and defensive strength."

Becket:"My offense isn't weak. I will admit my defense would be weak without my armor though."

In my old world I started training in close quarters combat as a way to even out my skill set as a mercenary. A sniper is useful, but I wanted to be able to handle more diverse missions so I devoted a lot of time into learning how to use a knife. I could parry, dodge or counter, but if a blade hit my skin it would easily slice through. I was interested in how Aelisia was able to take a blade to the throat without a single wound.

Becket:"Why don't blades pierce your skin?"

Aelisia:"My aura protects me. I have a thin layer over my skin at all times."

Becket:"Isn't that the beastman magic?"

I had previously heard of aura. It was the racial magic used by the beastmen. Sasha told me it allowed them to hide themselves.

*She must have been baptized under the beastman god.*

Humans in this world had frightening potential since they could use any races magic after being baptized under their god. The drawback was that if they weren't baptized by a certain age then they lose the chance to ever have a racial magic.

Aelisia:"All knights in the human continent get baptized under the beastman god. Aura magic is the most useful magic for a warrior."

Becket:"How so?"

Aelisia:"It has multiple uses. You can hide your presence, sense other presences if you focus, create a protective layer over your skin to keep blades from injuring you and extend that layer onto weapons."

Becket:"So that's what broke my dagger. So your skin isn't tough. You actually have an invisible shell used for defense. So why have I been able to pierce other knights skin?"

Aelisia:"You haven't fought any higher level knights yet. The knights that you've confronted range from novices to mildly experienced. You should be able to easily handle anyone up to the rank of High Knight, but above that you'll have trouble."

Becket:"Can I create this protective shell?"

Aelisia:"No. Since your an elf creating this protective layer is impossible. It's aura magic after all and you can only use nature magic or the elemental magics. All I can tell you is that leaf armor of yours is the best defense I can think of for you to use."

Becket:"So I'll always have to rely on armor for defense?"

Aelisia:"Yep. That's just how it is for elves."

*Well she doesn't know I have neutral mana.*

I already had a spell to strengthen my body thanks to being able to use neutral mana, but that was the only neutral spell so far and it was temporary. Using the strengthening spell left a lasting effect on my body; however, it wasn't enough to be significant.

Aelisia:"You're a race made for running away. If more of your kind were convinced to wield bows then your people might become a stronger world power. I've always thought that the only way an elf could get strong was by using a bow."

She turned to look at me.

Aelisia:"You're a strange one though. You fight with some foreign martial art that I've never seen before. You're also able to perform feats of strength beyond what I know your body can handle. You can even restore youth. What are you?"

Becket:"I'm Becket the elf."

I was still throwing stones at the knight, but he either caught or smacked them out of the way. He still hasn't opened his eyes this entire time so I was starting to feel a little annoyed.

Aelisia:"That's enough of the rocks. Attack him. By the way his rank is Grandmaster Knight."

Becket:"Ok."

I kicked hard off the ground. Just to be safe I injected mana into my jacket and it entered armor mode spreading all across my body. My armor covered fist was aimed for his chest and he finally opened his eyes. He leapt to the side to avoid me, but I used my armor cloak. It stretched towards him and wrapped around his left arm.

Becket:"Haaaa!"

I used the cloak to lift him into the air then slam him back down. His body hitting the ground sent a bunch if dust into the air, but suddenly a path was cut through the dust. The knight had somehow slipped his arm out of the cloaks grasp and closed the distance between us. He hit me hard in the abdomen which lifted my feet off the ground for a few seconds and he whispered into ear.

Gideon:"Gottcha."

The impact absorbing springs I added lessened the weight of his punch, but it was incredibly heavy to begin with. I took hold of his arm with both of my hands then twisted it while spinning around him and shoved him into the dirt holding his arm behind his back.

*How far am I suppose to take this?*

I wasn't sure if restraining him like this was enough or if Aelisia wanted me to take this any further. I decided to use only grapples and holds since his aura would likely protect him from and punches or kicks. There was a sudden impact on the back of my head which sent me forward into the dirt. I quickly jumped up and realized it was the knights foot kicking me in the head.

*He's incredibly flexible!*

The knight stood up and flexed the arm I restrained him with.

Gideon:"You didn't break it?"

Becket:"Was I suppose to?"

Gideon:"Of course."

He lunged forward then dashed to the left of me. He probably assumed I was weaker on my left side.

*I've been able to fight multiple knights at once since getting to this world, but this guy is on a whole other level. Nothing compared to Aelisia though.*

He didn't know I was pretty good with my left after years of having to sew without my broken right arm which was something that happened to me quite often. I bent my knees then turned my back to him when his fist was a foot away. It went over my shoulder so I grabbed it then flipped him over onto the ground and stomped down.

Becket:"Shit!"

He rolled away dodging my stomp so I chased after him. I felt something hit the side of my head and fell over.

Aelisia:"You need to pay attention to what's going on around you."

She had hit me with a rock. I jumped back up and saw that's she had also thrown one at the knight which seemed to hit. It was natural for me to put all my attention into what I was doing. I am a sniper and you need to be able to focus to do that job so I couldn't help but ignore everything else.

*Guess I need to look out for rocks now.*

Aelisia:"That's enough. The fights over."

I turned to look at her.

Becket:"Neither of us have landed any significant hits."

Aelisia:"That's fine. I just wanted to see you in action some more. I've only seen you fight against Felix and that wasn't a good fight to accurately judge your skills. Honestly you're better than I thought."

Becket:"Thank you."

Aelisia:"From here on out you are officially one of my disciples. That man you were fighting is my other disciple Gideon. Gideon this is Becket."

Gideon's face had a look of slight annoyance when he glanced over me, but he didn't say anything.

Aelisia:"Becket from now on you will wear the same armor as all the knights. Since you can not use aura magic you will be at a disadvantage with out that leaf armor of yours so we'll focus on further increasing your speed. When you go up against an opponent stronger than you hit and run tactics will be the best option."

Gideon decided to speak up so he stepped forward.

Gideon:"Mother he's a lost cause. Without that armor he wouldn't last more than a minute against me. He can't use aura magic and we both know it's needed if you want to be a powerful warrior."

Aelisia:"So what do you suggest we do?"

Gideon:"Pass him along to another person. It's a waste of time for someone as powerful as you to teach him when he has no future as a knight. There's a reason why elves run instead of fight. They're weak."

Aelisia:"It may be small, but elf blood runs in your veins you know."

Gideon:"Luckily my human blood is strong and I wasn't stuck with nature magic. The weakest of all magics."

Aelisia:"What about that armor he made? Only an elf can use armor like that. He strengthens it and manipulates it using nature magic. You seemed to be having a tough time dealing with it."

Gideon:"I was going easy on him."

*Liar.*

Aelisia:"Well I'm keeping him as a disciple. I think he might even surpass you very soon."

Gideon:"I find that very unlikely. I've trained for years."

*I've trained for years too.*

Aelisia:"Sorry Becket but I'm gonna have to start you out with silver armor and the rank of knight. You'll need to go through official channels to rank up."

Becket:"I'm fine with that."

*If I remember correctly after the rank of Knight with silver armor is the rank High Knight with purple armor. I've killed a lot of those two ranks.*

Aelisia:"Alright there's something I want the two of you to do now. I'm sending you on a mission from the adventurers guild. The two of you will track down and kill a nest of chimeras."

Gideon:"The two of us have to do this together?"

Aelisia:"Yes. Hunters have been going missing in a forest south of the city for the last few months and they only recently realized it was a group of chimeras killing them off."

Gideon:"Chimeras aren't easy monsters and there's no telling how powerful each one is."

Since I didn't know anything about these creatures I decided to just listen to Aelisia and Gideon talk.

Aelisia:"I've already scouted it out, but I won't pass any of the info I gathered to you two. You will have to gather all the info yourselves. This is a test for you Becket and punishment for you Gideon."

Gideon:"I accept my punishment."

Aelisia:"Once you come back Becket you will be handing that leaf armor over to me."

Becket:"Alright but I plan to get it back."

Aelisia:"Earn it back."

Becket:"I will."

*But I've only got two months before I have to leave.*

Story Information