Number One Dungeon Supplier

"Do you think we can pass?" Number 7 asked as she fiddled with her Wand Rifle. They were currently situated in a tavern near Central Square. To be able to have a huge room in one of the hottest taverns is considered to be a luxury but that was the power of the King.

One word from him and the royal servants would be able to get what he wants as long as it was within the means of the servants. Right now, the First Mage Air Squad were lying around each corner of the room while quietly practicing their physical reloads of the Wand Rifle as a habit.

A few others were merely cleaning it up and only Number 4 was attempting to recite incantations as a means of practicing other miscellaneous magic. Experience more tales on m v|l e’m,p| y- r

"Not sure. From what I heard, the disciples of Grand Sage Mex were at least Senior Captains and above in ranking. And they had proven themselves time and time again on various occasions while defending the Kingdom." Number 6 replied as she put in the bullets into the Wand Rifle and manually uncocked every bullet out.

"Technically, we would be killing monsters at a race event. Just one dungeon. Either we make it or break it." Number 4 replied.

"That’s right. Just one dungeon with my name on the line. It’s either you fail with me down the drain or you are going to soar with me. I reckon with all of your timings, you guys should be able to do it." Jin said as he entered the room without knocking, as if citing to them that the competition was about to start.

"Portal 4 is closing soon after being picked clean and I would be waiting for that lazy ass Mex to walk on his old bear to reach the scene. That is why I am chilling here, too."

"Any advice?" Number 4 asked, and Jin shook his head.

"Not particularly. I did say it’s a dungeon run event, but to be frank, it’s not exciting compared to fighting against each other. It would not show the hard work that all of you combined had gone through." Jin said as he sat on the chair and rocked his chair backwards while maintaining composure with his Maqi.

"Then why did you propose that dungeon run in the first place?" Number 5 asked, as he was curious about Jin’s rationale.

"Because honestly, I do not know how good you guys will be at the end of two weeks." Jin smiled, and the rest laughed bitterly as they finally knew the reasoning behind the ’long’ training sessions that they had endured. They had no idea such a magic had existed and some said that Jin might be more powerful than Mex since he could manipulate time.

"I also did not expect the training to be dragged that long."

"But seeing you guys right now, I think a duel might prove to everyone that you guys might be the better bunch compared to those disciples. Of course, I am still limiting you guys to all that incantation that you all practice. Float Magic, Defensive Barrier, Offensive Penetration and Explosion Magic Projectiles. Elementals are restricted for now, but Healing Magic only Number 9 and 10 can use them."

"Why not allow us to explore and use other magic? The disciples would surely use a plethora of magic against us." Number 5 asked and Jin nodded his head. "I can only say a famous phrase from my world." Jin stood up and went into a battle stance with his fists out.

"I do not fear the man who practiced 10,000 different punches." Jin demonstrated a few angled punches and moved his hand to demonstrate various stances before he relaxed to a basic combat stance. "But I fear the man who practiced one punch over 10,000 times." Jin said as he punched once through the air without any Maqi. And the force of the punch could be felt within the confines of the room.

It was impactful enough that the air fluttered, causing the furniture within the room to vibrate a little.

The rest immediately got that understanding when they were being forced to shoot hundreds of time on a target that was stationary and later in a non random pattern. Later with bullets and no bullets but just magic.

They thought that Jin was purposely doing this to train their accuracy, but in fact, it was testing their judgement, balance, power and even magic consumption all while they were flying in terrible environmental conditions.

They thought that Jin had gone through all of these himself, but obviously that guy did not and he merely pretended that he had loads of experience when it comes to such stuff. However, all he had been doing so far was relying on his previous System, his Inverse Eyes and his blessed Maqi Circuits to power through everything.

"If that’s the case, then let’s schedule a duel then. Besides, our king had that magic to protect our lives from fatal damage when we were in danger." Number 4 said which, Number 9 and 10 sighed.

"If we are not in the vicinity, you would also be dead. The barrier that our king had made can only last for 5 seconds. If you were exposed to damage within that five seconds, you would have been dead." Number 9 said, and Jin laughed.

"Urgh, in the end you want us to fight against humans?" Number 2 grumbled as he did not like the day where they were forced to shoot humans as if they were performing a massacre while in actual fact, most of them were under the illusion of a monster that made every other monster look like the humans they once loved.

It was painfully sore for Number 2 especially who had been forced to kill his ’mother’ not once, not twice, but at least ten times because he could not be cold hearted enough to do it in a split second.

No one of them dared to say it except for the King who immediately rebutted with the phrase "At least it was not your mom."

"Your King, if you say such things, you will only grow animosity within your subjects." Number 8 said and Jin nodded his head, standing up and apologising straight. "I went overboard. Much apologies." Number 2 quickly knelt to refuse the apology and begged the King to raise his head.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door and it was Questo, the Adventurer Guildmaster who indicated to them that Grand Sage Mex was approaching the Central Square. Jin acknowledged Questo’s information and looked towards the First Mage Air Squad.

"Its your choice whether to provoke them into a team duel. And if you do, I will support all of you." Jin said as he opened the door for them and they slowly walked out to the Central Square where they saw a huge crowd actually loitering around the vicinity of Central Square.

Most were not allowed the Square mainly because it became a workplace for those handling Portal 5 and 6. Therefore, most of the people were sitting on rooftops or trees to see the commotion that had been swimming around people’s gossip for the week.

They all knew how the Majesty had trained up a squad in 2 weeks’ times and he dared to use the weakest mages in the adventurer’s guild to fight against the strongest mages in Ress City. A city that was well known for the grooming of the mages.

Therefore, people looked at this not as a challenge between the mages of Ress but more like a challenge between the ruling Grand Sage Mex to have a say in most affairs concerning Mages and Jin, the new King who wanted the command of the Mages at his fingertips.

If Jin could win in this fight, the balance for the command of mages can finally be shifted into Jin’s favours. It was something that he needed to obtain to start a proper revolution of the city and culling the demons that were lurking beyond their borders.

"Investigation for doping will now begin." An examiner said out loud and Jin let them check his Mage Air Squad. All they did was to ensure there were no signs of doping and a spell of truth telling. The other opponents were also checked by an ’independent’ examiner, but Jin did not care whether the other side had done it or not.

All he knew was that he had confidence his squad could defeat them in a fair fight.

"Heh. Look at those puny ruffians. Holding a weird type of wooden stick as their weapon." One of Mex’s disciples said. "They cannot hold a candle to our equipment and relics. "And of course, they asked to run a Rank A dungeon! It’s because they are too weak to fight against us directly!"

"Guess we do not need to provoke at all. Lol." Number 4 said as he purposely took a white glove out of his side pocket and threw it on the face at the strongest disciple of Mex, Wara. The Elder Sister of Gara.

"I see. So you want a duel with us?"

"There is no denying that you people looked down at us. So I am merely hastening the process. Not to mention, we do not have to waste the King’s energy since we can just use the desolate land of Portal 4 to perform our team duel. No wastage of resources."

Number 4 said.

"What’s your name? Are you the leader of this squad since you initiated the challenge?" Wara asked as she was still on her horse mount when Number 4 threw the glove at her.

"I had been stripped of my name. Leader of Mage Air Squad 1, Number 4."

"Heh. Fine. Master, is it okay for you to cast the Lethal Damage Protection Charm for us and those people?" Wara asked and Number 4 shook their heads.

"We have no need for that. I suggest you do so for yourselves. After all, we will still need the top 10 strongest mages to work for the kingdom once the duel is over." Number 4 said, and it infuriated a few more of those mages under Mex.

"Of all things to learn from the king, it looks like the Squad Leader got his attitude from the King instead. This is worrying." Gara said at the sidelines as he saw Mex nodded to his disciples and gave them the Lethal Damage Protection Charm, showing that they would proceed with a team duel instead of a dungeon run.

"Since it’s a duel, then I guess the restraints should be off too," Jin said as he signalled his Mage Air Squad to remove all the weight limits that they had been carrying ever since the day they put them on.

The entire group smirked as they obeyed that command with joy.