Maybe I should demonstrate what I can do so that they’ll leave me alone.

My abilities should be more than enough to deal with the likes of them, but the question is, who’ll be the punching bag?

Nicholas? No, he has more experience in fighting and should be really strong. Besides, he’s one of the few people who weren’t laughing at me, including the eyeglasses kid.

I swept my eyes over the adventurers, and I couldn’t find a single worthy opponent that would fully demonstrate the extent of my abilities.

Or there is actually the one who started this mess— Bob.

“MERLIN,” I whispered. “What’s the strength of Mr. Incredible here of the Moon…light party or whatever its name is.”

[He should be an Orange-graded like Sire Nicholas, but he is said to be slightly stronger than him in terms of raw strength due to his tank build. However, in terms of overall capabilities, he’s way weaker than Sire Nicholas since he’s what they call an impulsive musclehead, a huge one too.]

Hmm, if that’s the case, then maybe I have a shot. And I can experiment with that ability on him too. Although it is still highly likely that I will lose in this confrontation, it’ll be an excellent way to measure my ability.

“He’ll be my punching bag.” I muttered under my breath. “What do you think, MERLIN?”

[I advise you to not do that, sire. After all, although Sire Bob is a dumbas—not an intelligent being, his strength isn’t something to be messed with, much less with the way you are now. Even with your abilities, you would have to tread carefully; one wrong move will cost you your life. So, please be careful]

I hummed in response, “I didn’t think you’re one to care for my well-being.”

[I-Idiot! It’s not like I care about you or anything!]

“What the—?”

[Do you know that’s how you act, sire?]

Snickering, I said, “Yeah, right. I don’t do that.”

[Fufu~]

I felt like I was being mocked right now, so I returned back to the main topic, “Alright, enough with that. Any more information on Bob?”

[Changing the subject, are we? Fufu~]

I rolled my eyes. “Do you have more information or not?”

[Don’t worry, sire, I do have more information. It seems that Sire Bob does not have his own magic ability, despite being an Orange-graded Maven for years.]

“Seriously?” I was surprised at this. In this world, Mavens can either personally create their own magic ability or learn a technique from others.

Only half of the Maven population have successfully created their own magic ability as it symbolizes their mastery in mana, and it’s more apparent when the Maven is at least an Orange-graded.

Albeit rare, there are Mavens who are able to create their own magic ability despite not being an Orange-grade, and in even rare cases, they were born with one.

The other half, though, who don’t have their own ability yet or couldn’t create one, would learn a technique that would complement their fighting styles and capabilities from their teacher. Unfortunately for them, the techniques won’t be made for them but instead would usually be catered towards a group of people with a specific skill set, which means there are limits to what they can do with it.

After all, creating a magic ability by itself is a challenging task as one would have to think of several factors for it to work; it may even take years for the ability to progress even just by a little amount, so why would a Maven go out of his way to create an ability for another.

No matter how much one pays them, they wouldn’t do it since it’s not worth their time and effort.

And there are only three sources they can learn a technique from, and they usually are prestigious and have a deep background: a family heritage, guilds, and academies.

Honestly, I’m not that surprised that Bob doesn’t have his own ability since one has to be intelligent to even create it. He most likely is an Orange-graded Maven because of his immense strength as a tank.

“If that’s the case, I don’t have to worry about it.” It wouldn’t end that well for me if he did have an ability since it would mean that his ability pairs well with his strength, but since he has none, then I have a chance of winning or at least coming out unscathed.

With that decided, I grabbed my gun, aimed it at his head, and pulled the trigger.

—Bang!

As expected of an Orange-grade, he reacted quickly. He protected himself by intercepting the bullet with his hand, which he coated with his magic.

This is why Mavens prefer using swords and martial arts instead of guns, because the bullet travels slowly for them, has a predictable trajectory, and is consumable.

“Hehe, is this a challenge?” Bob asked as he clenched his fist, then dropped the deformed bullet to the floor.

“What do you think?” I said with my gun still aimed at him.

“Alright, now that’s a man talking right there!” Bob released his magic which had suffocated everyone around him, including the person he was supposed to protect.

I was unaffected by it since I simply created a shield that protected me from that outburst, although some of it went through it.

Let’s do this. I circulated the mana surrounding me and directed it towards the palm of my hand, but as I was about to proceed to the next step, I was interrupted.

“Enough!” A resounding shout came from Nicholas, effectively stopping Bob and me from continuing. “You will be teammates for this expedition. Although the experience will be mild, there’s still a chance for a life-and-death situation to happen. If ever that time comes, I’d like to entrust my back on people who are reliable and responsible than people who’d carelessly start a fight.”

Bob and I stared at each other for a few seconds before I sighed as I raised my hands. “Fine.”

I then brought the gun back to its holster as I faced back towards Nicholas.

“Tsk!” Bob clicked his tongue. I presumed he, too, gave up since what Nicholas said was reasonable and, as an experienced Maven, he should know this too, but I was proven to be wrong.

A shadow fast approached me, and before I knew it, Bob was right beside me and punched me so hard that my body was sent flying to the side.

*****

***

*

Arthur’s body went flying and crashed down to the wall, creating a cloud of smoke.

The adventurers were stunned at first before they erupted to a cheer, but there were some who felt that Bob took it too far and voiced some complaints, one of the complaints came from Ryan.

“Kid!” Nicholas yelled out as he rushed to Arthur’s aid with a healing potion he took out from his spatial ring.

“Don’t worry, I held back most of my strength.” Bob grinned. “Although it didn’t kill him, he should’ve suffered a few broken bones, unless he’s that weak! Hahaha!”

The surrounding adventurers praised Bob, boosting his pride and ego.

Although Ryan was presumably on Arthur’s side, he didn’t admonish Bob for what he did but instead just looked towards where Arthur was with an indescribable glint in his eyes.

Nicholas was some a few feet away until he suddenly stopped in his tracks as the atmosphere around shifted and blue eyes glowed through the cloud of smoke.

The cloud of smoke cleared, revealing a hole in the wall and debris around it, and at the center of it was Arthur, with slightly tattered clothes and blood dripping down his head to his arms, coldly glaring at Bob as he held his left arm, unconsciously releasing his bloodlust at him.

Despite him taking a blow from Bob, who was the tank of a strong party, he was fine aside from having suffered minor injuries.

However, just because he was fine doesn’t mean he wasn’t pissed. In fact, he was very much so.

After all, he wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for his two abilities. Fortunately, his reacted quickly as soon as Bob appeared to attack. His body acted appropriately to the situation by conjuring a thick wall between Bob’s fist and him using in the nick of time.

It was a great thing the conjured construct took most of the blow, and Bob held back with his strength. Otherwise, who knows what would’ve really happened.

Getting up, he wiped the blood that was trickling down.

Although he was no longer glaring, everyone could still feel his bloodlust, which was even able to send shivers down Nicholas’s spine.

And Bob, being the main target, felt the worse of it, but him being a warrior with pride, didn’t show any weakness and faced it head on. “Oho! Maybe I underestimated you, but just a little!”

“You people really do love pissing me off.” Arthur stretched his body, popping a few joints. Although everything about him externally was the same, it was as if something clicked in his mind as his temperament changed. He was no longer emitting his bloodlust, and instead had a solemn face as he said with a deep voice, “Come!”

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A/N: Hey, I'm back. My internet got restored a few hours ago and passing time without it was boring af. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter (despite the cringe in the later half) and I have another announcement: I will be going back to my old upload schedule (the one chapter per week) since I'm back to uni but I'll try my best to publish bonus chapters. And that's about it, see ya!