As he walked towards Training Room Four, Gaius’ clothes began to change. His school uniform turned into grey energy, which retreated to a set of pauldrons that had suddenly appeared on his shoulders. A fresh wave of energy surged out from those pauldrons, and a form-fitting set of simple grey robes covered his body. At the same time, a mask fell over his eyes and part of his nose, concealing most of his facial features.

These changes were only made possible by the artefact he’d gotten long ago, during the Conference of the Four. It was a set of pauldrons that wouldn’t look out of place in a re-enactment of Earth’s Middle Ages, and its sole function was to provide a set of armour, clothes or both for its user.

The resulting outfit also had rather good defence against incoming attacks, but to Gaius, those pauldrons had been a lifesaver unlike any other. In the past three months, his body had grown by quite a bit — which meant that his kid-sized uniforms were pretty much unusable. Since he didn’t know when his growth spurt would end — which, incidentally, felt like it was overcompensating for his previous mental distress — Gaius had been hung up on the idea of buying new uniforms.

Only after a helpful reminder from Nexus did Gaius remember that he had an artefact that could apparently create a set of clothes. As for how Nexus knew that, Gaius didn’t want to find out.

It was really convenient, though.

Checking through the newly-formed robes, he couldn’t help but muse for the umpteenth time that mass production of his Formless Pauldrons — he’d given it a name he thought sounded cool — would drive the clothes industry out of business. The clothes it created could, to a certain extent, replicate the type of robes he had in mind when the artefact was activated.

Picking up his pace, Gaius sprinted over to Training Hall Four as a means of warm up. Pushing over a non-descript door, a huge ring entered his vision, with a solitary figure standing in the centre. A giant barrier surrounded the ring, preventing anyone from entering and therefore activating the sparring partner inside, which had been proven years ago to not know the meaning of holding back.

Apparently, when the training halls were first created a few years ago, some fool had challenged the sparring partner in this very hall. The foolhardy Squire, as expected, couldn’t take a single punch, exploding into messy chunks a moment later.

Fortunately for the phrontistery, a huge notice that waived them of any responsibility from unforeseen deaths had been long constructed. Furthermore, multiple warnings about the sparring partner’s strength would be issued, like the ones Gaius was thumbing through right now.

“Yes, yes,” Gaius muttered, accepting the conditions with practiced movements. He was standing in front of a terminal, which was placed in front of the only opening into the barrier that was in turn blocked off by the gate. “Now will you open?”

The gate opened for him a few seconds later, and the sparring partner came to life as he stepped into the ring. The mannequin gestured at a spot ten metres in front of it, which lit up with a green light, and then sank down into a combat stance.

Gathering qi around his hands, Gaius walked over to the designated area. He wasn’t going to use any weapons — knives were expensive, and the Terminus would probably slice the humanoid artefact into two. It was going to be a good old fist fight.

The mannequin gestured for Gaius to make the first move as he stepped onto the designated point. If he didn’t respond after ten seconds, the sparring partner would make a move instead…which was how the poor Squire apparently died.

Chasing that thought away, Gaius kicked off the ground and shot towards the mannequin. Stopping his charge right before the mannequin’s maximum melee range, Gaius leaned back. His hair fluttered as a punch came right to a halt in front of his nose, and his left arm shot upwards to deliver a punch at the mannequin’s exposed elbow.

Three swift kicks forced him to abandon that move, and for an entire second, both sides exchanged kicks. As their right legs smashed together over and over, Gaius furrowed his brows slightly at the unexpected move. The last time he did that, the teenager had successfully disabled the mannequin’s right arm, but from the looks of it, the artefact was somehow learning from previous fights.

Their right legs slammed into each other again, but Gaius chose not to resist the rebound he felt. With his left heel as a pivot, he spun clockwise, and his right heel slammed into the mannequin’s right torso.

Everything seemed to freeze, and for a moment, Gaius thought that the mannequin had somehow blocked his kick, only for the mannequin to be sent flying to its left. Training Hall Four shuddered as the inanimate artefact smashed into the barrier that surrounded the ring.

The artefact took five seconds to get up, and once again, Gaius was amazed at how lifelike the mannequin was. If it could use qi, mass-producing these artefacts might have been a good way to defeat the demons, but life wasn’t all that nice to the Five Lands.

This time, the mannequin was the one to charge at Gaius. A flurry of jabs flew at Gaius, who responded by sidestepping some, while blocking or deflecting the others. A small grimace appeared on his lips as the repeated shocks tore through his muscles and bones, and the next thing he knew, a solid straight had slipped through his defence.

His vision turned into a blur, and on instinct, Gaius called upon his Abilities. Crossing his arms, he retracted his legs and turned to his right, just in time to block a kick originally directed at his right side. An incredible strength forcibly redirected the trajectory of his tumble, but this time, an ear-piercing shriek rang out as he dug his heels in.

Lurching to a halt, Gaius glanced at his hands, which were throbbing in pain, before lashing out with a roundhouse kick, and the mannequin slammed into the barrier once more. This time, however, the mannequin didn’t get up. A faint green light wrapped around the mannequin, which reappeared in its original position at the ring a second later.

Shaking his hands, he examined the sparring partner from afar. A few cracks were running across its lean frame. With such damage, the ring would not be accepting any new challengers until the artefact was done with fixing itself.

Satisfied that he hadn’t broken the mannequin after all, Gaius decided to move on to the next aspect of his rehabilitation — exercise.