—7 months later—

It had been roughly 7 months since our encounter with the goblin chief. If my estimations were correct, I should be capable of defeating a goblin chief just like the Sword God in the diary. If not, I was confident of running away safely.

The sweeping technique was considerably difficult so it proved to be useful as a workout. I had reached the level of Beginner Knight Student from practicing the sweeping technique everyday. When compared to Sam though...

~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Daniel

Race: Human

Class: NONE

System: Crouching Dragon System(Legendary)

Merit Points: 3257

Life Force: 100/100(10 years)

Strength: 32

Agility: 39

Mana: 80/80

Physique: Knight Student(Beginner) - Lvl.3

Magic: Mage Apprentice(Beginner) - Lvl.3

Spells: NONE

Techniques: Magic Circulation(Common-Lvl.8), Imperial Swordsmanship(Common-Lvl.5), Air Manipulation - Sweeping(Mythical-Lvl.3), Air Manipulation - Piercing(Mythical-Lvl.1), Heaven Defying: Void Severing Scripture(???)]

Active Skills: True Dragon Eyes(Supreme)

Passive Skills: Comprehension of the Argon Language(Common), Dragon's Pride(Epic), Heart of a Dragon(Epic)

Curse: Unnoticed Potential(Legendary)

~~~~~~~~~~

Name: Sam

Race: Half-Human/Half-Angel

Class: Hero(Mythical)

System: The Ultimate Heroic System(Godly)

Merit Points: 1000

Life Force: 100/100(10 years)

Strength: 58

Agility: 42

Mana: 0/0

Physique: Knight Student(Expert) - Lvl.5

Magic: Mana Sense - Lvl.1

Spells: NONE

Techniques: Imperial Swordsmanship(Common-Lvl.7), Imperial Footwork(Rare-Lvl.1)

Active Skills: Heroic Strike(Legendary), Transcendence(Legendary)

Passive Skills: Motivated(Rare), Righteous(Epic)

Sealed Skills: Limit-Breaking(Godly)

Blessing: Destined Hero(Mythical)

~~~~~~~~~~

Sam had somehow widened the gap even further. His physique realm was still two stages higher than mine. Even though Sam had a superior physique, I was confident in holding my own against him if I factored in the newly learned sweeping technique. But if Sam decided to turn all super saiyan again...just imagining it made me shiver.

Over the past seven months, I was able to increase my Merit Points slightly by completing missions. All of the missions were of either Common or Rare grade so I could only gain an utmost of 100 points from each of them.

Sam and I were currently outside the village and sparring in our own little training field. Why weren't we in the backyard? This dates back to the incident from a month ago. Sam had just recently made a breakthrough to the Expert Knight Student realm and immediately went to spar with me bare-handed. I happened to also want to test how I would fair against him through pure physical prowess.

Naturally, I could not reveal my sweeping technique and it was only a fist fight so when I was about to be smashed in the face by Sam, I quickly side stepped which led Sam's hulk smash right past me. Due to Sam's recent breakthrough, he had yet to consolidate his power; he was unable to control himself to stop.

The place Sam was about to smash just so happened to be the giant rock that was already filled with deep cracks. The moment he touched it, a loud boom akin to an atomic bomb was heard. A giant wave of dirt and dust poofed outward from the place Sam smashed. As the ring of dirt and dust spread out, it collided into the fences and broke them. Father came out of the house just moments later with the face of a devil. A face I had never seen before.

Shortly after, the two of us were subject to an extreme scolding and had to repair everything from scratch. Due to that accident, we had gone outside the village to find a place other than my backyard. Not far from the village, we found a pretty large clearing that was around the size of a football field. Deciding that this was the perfect place, we declared this plot of land our training field even though there was no one else there to witness our declaration.

Thanks to this vacant area, I would sometimes sneak out at night to train my sweeping art freely.

Since I currently considered sweeping as my trump card, I could not show it to anyone. If it were Sam, I might consider telling him but I'd rather not. Even if he knew, as long as he didn't spread the information around like a dunce, I shouldn't be penalized by the curse but I wasn't going to take the risk even if he was my friend.

Back to the current event, Sam and I were fighting intensely with every bout creating resounding booms across the field. Had we been in the yard, my house would have long been wiped off the face of the world. After a good half hour, Sam hit a good strike and followed up with a combo. Down Up Down Right Left Right Hadouken! Err...after landing a couple consecutive hits, I fell down unable to take anymore blows.

Although I had lost, I wasn't too disappointed. To be able to hold out against someone two realms above me was no easy feat. Since I sparred with Sam practically every single day, although my strength may not have been up to par, my agility could definitely keep up. If the one I had been facing was a normal Expert Knight Student, I would have had a higher chance of winning. But the one I was pitted against was none other than the so called chosen one, also known as the hero. Although still an adolescent, Sam's growth was imminent and he would most likely far surpass me in the future. Give him a couple years and he's bound to become a walking calamity.

At that moment, a husky voice sounded from the edge of the field. "Not bad..."

An old man made his way through the field. Contradicting his aged hair was his extremely buffed and robust body. With some wrinkles on his face here and there, he looked like an old sage.

'Uncle Iroh is that you?' Thought Daniel.

Alongside the old man was a girl roughly their age. She had a blue hood on but anyone with a good pair of eyes could tell she was pretty. With short white hair and deep grey eyes. The pair looked pretty odd at first glance. The old man was dressed in a Hawaiian T-shirt and a pair of shorts seemingly ready for a vacation while the girl was dressed in a blue robe.

"You must be the hero, Sam." Said the old man as he glanced toward me who was still on the ground.

Daniel: '...'

Sam: '...'