The sound of the maid rushing through the corridor woke me up. Waking up from deep slumber, I feel very light headed. If I were camping in the wild, I would definitely be preyed upon.

Sobering up, I can recall the humiliation from yesterday. That women… She really is something, isn’t she?

“Good morning, Master Arthur” (Maid)

“Where is Merlin?” (Arthur)

The Main stumbles a little due to my sudden question.

“She left early in the morning to head to another castle, Master Arthur” (Maid)

I leap out of my bed and heads towards the door.

The Maid blocks my way

“You must rest, Master Arthur” (Maid)

I slide right in between her legs, running outside the corridor.

“Master Arthur! It is impossible to catch up with her! Please come back!!” (Maid)

The Maid droops her shoulders and sighs.

Bolting through the castle, I outmaneuver the guards, and the maids, passing them like a bolt of lightning.

“We can’t let Master Arthur leave!” (Soldier)

Finally battling through the dozens of servants, I arrive at the front door of the castle.

I’ll fly towards her carriage, I should be able to catch up. I jump up and activate ‘fly’, but my magic power won’t come out?! I fall towards the floor face first.

Why is it always my face?? This has probably been the most amount of face implants I’ve had in the past century.

The maid runs over and finally catches up with me. She starts gasping for air.

“Master Arthur... hah, hah…. it is scheduled… for you to meet Sir Ector today” (Maid)

The Maid catches her breath and straightens her clothes.

“Master Merlin has told me to convey to you that you will see her later in the day at Sir Ector’s place.” (Maid)

The maid takes out a long sword.

“This has been entrusted to you for your journey” (Maid)

It seems like I’m dancing on the palm of her hand… She placed this magic constraint on me didn’t she? I head towards the main chamber, understanding my defeat.

“This is the first time I’ve had such a huge obstacle in my life” (Arthur)

I take the sword, and walk outside of the castle. A guard standing next to the gates greet me.

“Sir Arthur, your carriage has been provided. I wish you a safe trip.” (Guard)

Whilst the carriage moves, I start to investigate my status card. I navigate through the manual and notice a new tab called spells. I hover my hands around it and information about my dark whip is displayed.

Dark Whip [75 MP per whip]

Condensing dark energy, you can mold darkness into the form of a whip. The whip can be controlled by the owner and can perform complex maneuvers depending on the user’s ability.

No wonder I was exhausted after using it twice. It seems like I have to recall how I managed when I had a limited mana pool.

My Level went up by 1, but my “MP” is in grey, indicating that I still can't use my MP. Merlin really stopped it huh? I was too careless. I faintly feel another human presence in front of us. We’re under attack.

“We’re under attack!!!!” (Jockey)

The driver screams and falls down. A powerful aura leaps towards the carriage and stands in front of me. I pierce my sword into the driver seat, trying to immobilize the attacker. Having pierced emptiness, my instinct causes me to dodge towards the side.

A clean slice. The carriage walls slowly shift and splits in half, revealing the azure sky. The cool breeze hits my face, and the crisp air enters my nostrils. Cold sweat drips down my forehead.

“It would’ve been a shame if you died from that!” (???)

Standing in front of me is a hooded man. His shoulders are wide, and his outline carefully outlined his huge biceps. His body seems to have been chiseled by the minotaur himself. Underneath the hood, I can see a faint scar underneath his eyebrows. Relaxing his posture, he places his great sword on his shoulder.

“It’s just some kid?” (Hooded Man)

I need to escape, but I point my sword towards the hooded man.

“What can you do with that?” (Hooded Man)

Without magic, I can’t defeat this monster. What can I do?

No… A defeated mentality will result in defeat itself. Even without magic, I was still the demon lord, the demon lord that battled the greatest monsters in the demon world!

Judging from his clothing, he’s wearing chain mail and armor underneath the hood. I can’t wound him, but he could kill me.

I raise my sword and change my stance, tightening my defenses, but leaving certain parts unguarded.

“Defending? Then I’ll beat you until you can’t stand!” (Hooded Man)

The hooded man swings his gigantic sword down. I shift my side of the sword and guide the blow to the ground. The sword splits the ground like butter. I transition my sword seamlessly and aimed for a slash towards his neck. With the weight of his sword, in addition with the momentum, my strength should be able to slit his throat.

“Haha! Good judgement!” (Hooded Man)

The Bald Man steps forward, releases his grip on the sword smashes my sword with his bare hands, causing me to fly instead. He resumes his stance, and lifts up his great sword, he swings his sword in an arc, and smashes it. I recover and slip away, without countering with my sword. The ground doesn’t split into two this time, but literally cracks and turns the beautiful plains into a fissure. If I tried to block this strike, my bones would’ve shattered instead.

Shit.

I quickly analyze the situation, if I try to run, he will just slice in half. If I counter, I don’t have much strength left, and it’ll just be a struggle. The damage I incurred from the strike is starting to settle in.

Shit.

Shit.

Having almost accepted my fate, I look at the man that’s about to kill me. My slash only managed to connect onto the side of his hood, as the hood flutters off and reveals the face of a middle aged man. He was bald, and didn’t look refined at all. I reaffirm my stance and take a deep breath. I guess this is it.

“Not bad, not bad at all! You need some basic training, but your ability to stay calm, analyze tactics and swiftly execute were pretty good. Although you do seem to overestimate yourself. You should’ve ran mate! You need to watch your limit” (Bald Man)

“???” (Arthur)

“You also pack quite a punch, Arthur” (Bald Man)

The Bald man smiles as he reveals the small cut that I made on his neck.

“Any deeper and maybe I would be the one in your position! Haha!” (Bald Man)

“Who are you?” (Arthur)

The Bald Man laughs loudly, instantly scaring the birds to relocate. Truly, like the king of the forest.

“I’m Sir Ector. The one that will train you from now on.” (Sir Ector)