“Hey Zane, Can I ask you a question?” Jason asked

“You just did,” Zane answered.

“Fine, then can I ask you another question?”

Zane simply chuckled in response.

After gritting his teeth from annoyance Jason continued speaking. “I want to ask why you won’t spar with me. I know you’re not afraid of losing. After all, you’ve lost to Old Saber every time the two of you fought.”

During the past few days Old Saber and Zane had multiple sparring matches. The very first match they had and every match after that resulted in Zane being defeated. The first spar was a simple match and both of them agreed not to use any skill. Zane was defeated within a few dozen moves.

Loosing didn’t make Zane feel upset. Instead, he was excited about the level of skill that Old Saber displayed. Zane new that he would experience a great deal of improvement from multiple spars with Old Saber.

Old saber applauded Zane for having a level of skill that exceeded his age. Also, he admired Zane’s physical abilities which was much greater than his. They both weren’t satisfied with one spar, and this led to the multiple matches they had over the past few days.

Each match led to both of them using more skills than they used in the previous matches. Both of them used everything they had except for potions and any recovery abilities. Eventually they were having sparring matches so intense it seemed like they were trying to kill each other. If the protection of the system didn’t exist there was a high chance that one of them would have died.

Zane enjoyed every spar he had with Old Saber, and he experienced a great deal of improvement. However, Zane’s bloodline rarely activated despite how intensely they fought. When his bloodline did activate it only activated the Training ability.

After thinking it over Zane was able to come up with an answer. The reason he wasn’t able to activate his Enlightenment ability was because of the changes caused by his upgrade. Zane didn’t know if the difficulties in activating his Enlightenment ability were caused by upgrading his race, upgrading his class or a combination of the two. However, Zane did know that it was harder to bring out full power of his body after he finished his upgrade. His understanding of his body that he had at tier zero was no longer useful now that he had reached the first tier.

For example, when Zane was training in the unique space, he tried to unlock and learn skill similar to the Warrior Steps skill, but the new skill would be suitable to his current class. Zane was able to unlock the Warrior Steps skill and a new skill called Martial Weapon Steps. However, he was not able to learn either of the two skills.

Warrior Steps was a skill created for the warrior class and Zane would only be able to learn it by spending class points. The Martial Weapon Steps skill was a skill that Zane was unable to learn because he couldn’t perform the skill in a way that satisfied the system. The understanding that Zane got from practicing the Warrior Steps skilled was ineffective when he tried to perform the Martial Weapon Steps skill.

Understanding the Martial Weapon Steps skill was harder than understanding the Warrior Steps skill. However, Zane was confident he would be able to gain understanding of the skill eventually. Of course, this was based on the condition that he spent more than a day trying to understand it.

“The reason I won’t fight you is because it’s pointless,” Zane told Jason.

Jason was stunned for a second, but he soon broke into a grin. “So, what you’re saying is that you think you will definitely win if we fight.”

Zane smiled when he saw the challenging look in Jason’s eyes. “I know I will win if we fight, but that’s not the reason why I said a fight between us would be pointless. Mages fight with their brain while warriors fight with their body. If we fight, I would be dodging or enduring your attack until I close the distance and you would be casting multiple spells to slow me down or push me away. A fight between the two of us would be very simple and right now wouldn’t allow either of us to improve.”

“How can you say that? Casting multiple spells while you provide pressure is a great way to train and would allow me to improve. Plus, I have the magic warrior class which will give me the ability to fight you physically.”

“You already have experience with me attacking you while you cast spells from a distance. As for your magic warrior class, can you even defeat Shane in a physical fight?”

“Nope,” Shane answered. “We already had a few spars, and he lost every single one.”

“See. A fight between us would be pointless. You can’t even beat Shane and compared to me he’s weak.”

“Hey!”

“What I’m trying to say is both of us need some time to grow before a match between us would be beneficial.”

“Okay, that’s enough for now,” Sophie interjected. “We came here to have a nice meal so we shouldn’t be talking about beating each other up. Plus, I can see our food coming right now.”

Sophie had suggested that Zane and the others sit down to have a nice meal while they waited for the members of their group from another world to complete their upgrade. Zane and the other had all already reached the first tier. Each of them had achieved a perfect source field which negated more than ninety percent of damage, but not all of them upgraded their race.

Currently the group was sitting at a table outside of a restaurant created by one of the humans from the other worlds. They took in the night atmosphere and admired the walls that were being built around the inns. It was a brief moment of relaxation before the Upheaval began.

Building the walls required the skills of the craftsman and laborers. Craftsman had skills that helped them easily enhance what they build with the mana in their environment and their own energy. Laborer had skills that allowed them to carry out task far faster than the average person ever could, and they could use less resources as well.

Other classes had the ability to build the walls, but the final outcome of their efforts would be very poor compared to what craftsman and laborers could do. Even walls magically put together by the average mage would pale in comparison to a wall created by a skilled craftsman. In fact, Zane was sure that the mana creatures would be able to easily tear down the walls if there were not any craftsman or laborers that participated in building them.

The current walls were half the height of the in. They were several meters thick and had plenty of room at the top for people to comfortably fight on. The walls were circular made of stone and completely surrounded a specific inn. There were multiple bridges that allowed the different walls of each inn to be connected in a closed circuit.

As the group talked and admired the ongoing construction two guest arrived at their table and plopped right onto two empty seats. The two guests were Adam and Jade. The moment they sat down both of them let out a sigh filled with exhaustion.

“Adam, Jade,” Sophie said. “It’s good to see that the two of you decided to join us.”

“You were right,” Adam said. “We need a break.”

“What’s wrong?” Jason asked with his gaze focused on Jade. “How can we help?”

Zane smirked at Jason’s behavior. “I’m sure their problem is something that could be solved with the casting of a spell or the swinging of a weapon.”

“You would be correct,” Jade said. “But I am thankful for the offer.”

“We Just finished a long, fruitless discussion about giving craftsman and laborers a portion of the points the other classes gain during the Upheaval,” Adam said.

Before the craftsman and laborers began making the wall Adam Jade and a few others demanded that people put forth village points to pay them. The wall would save a lot of lives and it would increase the chances of the quest being successfully completed. Since the wall would be such a big help it was only fair that the craftsman and laborers be adequately compensated.

Originally Jade and the others asked for the other classes to give five hundred thousand village points. However, a majority of people in the other classes were unwilling to lose so many points. In the end, everyone agreed to pay two hundred thousand village points, but there were still a lot of people complaining about the amount. Now that Jade and the others were asking people to hand over more money it was only natural for them to receive a negative response.

“We tried to explain that the craftsman and laborer classes didn’t have skills suitable for combat,” Adam said. “However, nobody cared about the lack of benefits the two classes would receive. Many suggested that the people from the two classes quickly upgrade and pick a second class that was more suitable for combat.”

“We tried mentioning that people would still need help from craftsman and laborers,” Jade added. “The walls aren’t invincible, and we will need to rely on the two classes to fix the walls once they are damaged. But our words fell on deaf ears.”

“You’ve already done your best,” Sophie said. “The best thing to do now is simply wait. I’m sure an opportunity will present itself so you can change people’s thinking.”

“Your right.” Jade stopped speaking and began eating some food that a server had brought to her.

“I’m more worried about the elves than a village points,” Zane said.

“You don’t need to worry,” Adam responded. “I know everyone feels worried about the elves, but the representative for the elven people assured us that none of the elves would do anything that would jeopardize the completion of the quest.”

A den has been destroyed causing the mana in the surroundings to increase. The mana creatures that appear during the first attack of the Upheaval will receive an increase in strength and defense by five percent.