Chapter 23

The sparring room was rather plain looking, a wooden floor and a few racks with practice weapons. The size of it was decent, like a small gym at a school. Unbeknownst to Wilfred, up on the second floor was a small window that lead directly into the guild master's office who would be watching this fight with interest.

Alcot went up to the rack and selected a large war hammer. Thankfully the tip of it was made of wood but it still looked like it would hurt quite a bit.

"Oh boy, are you ready to get your teeth knocked out kid?"

Alcot stretched a bit, practicing his swing and getting his legs worked up.

I can't wait to wipe that smirk off your face you bearded freak. But Wilfred's only thought that, he did not speak it out loud, instead he smiled and bowed, inviting Alcot to take position at the other end of the room. Judging by stats, he would be fast but not unreasonably so.

"To make it fair kid, you can use your defensive magic beforehand if you know some. I'll also abstain from aiming for your head, ha!"

Wilfred nodded acceptance and cast his spells.

"[Barrier]! [Wind Aura]!"

Naturally, this shocked the adventurers, they had not expected him to be able to use more than 1 or 2 spells.

Halam spoke to both of them.

"I will count down from 5. When I get to 0, you may begin. Understood?"

Both nodded their understanding and readied themselves.

"5...4...3...2...1..zero!"

Alcot rushed forward with a charge, putting momentum behind his weight. If he crashed into Wilfred it would spell pain and likely knock him down, a single swing of that war hammer at that time would crush Wilfred into the floor.

Wilfred on his side of the sparring room was already casting Wind Blade. No matter where an opponent would be in this room, he would be in the spell's range unlike when he fought outside. His best hope, if he was to win this without using his artifact weapon, would be to cast so many Wind Blades that Alcot would be forced on the defensive.

"[Wind Blade]![Wind Blade]![Wind Blade]!"

Wilfred stood still for the first three and aimed them straight down at Alcot who was running towards him with his war hammer held back, ready to swing as soon as he got within range. The first Wind Blade reached him when he was within 25 feet of Wilfred. It hit him square in the chest but did not cut him open like that bully's leg. It did however, exert some force and Wilfred did see Alcot grimace and grind his teeth. The second Wind Blade struck at the same place as the first one and Alcot's heavy metal armor partially ripped open, exposing chain-mail underneath.

What the fuck! This guy's like a tank, how does he walk around with hundreds of pounds of equipment like that!

Realizing at last the power of Wilfred's spell, Alcot had no choice but to dodge to the right, jumping out of the way of the third Wind Blade and losing distance on Wilfred who was now on the move, circling around and unleashing more as he went kept distance between the two of them.

"That little fucker! Argh! I can't believe he's going to make me use my abilities! [Iron Skin]!"

A subtle hue began to glow around Alcot, a shimmering white light wavered back and forth around his figure. The Wind Blades that Wilfred had just cast at that time crashed harmlessly on his back.

How long can he keep it up for Wilfred thought? At this point, if i was a regular academy student I'd have long been out of Mana. Wilfred kept the barrage of Wind Blades going, hoping to wither down his opponent who simply shrugged them off.

Meanwhile, on the side watching the battle unfold, Fig and Halam watched with bated breath as a young boy pounded their teammate with spells.

Fig stood in disbelief as Alcot was forced on the defensive.

"My god, he's actually got through his armor and made him bleed. Alcot's defenses are no joke though!"

Halam replied without taking his eyes off the fight.

"Indeed. If those had hit one of us, we could have lost an arm or worse if we weren't careful. Look at how many he's unleashed also, that's no normal mage."

Alcot's aura began to waver and was soon dissipated to his shock.

WHAT!? He could outlast my defenses! That's..impossible!

With his last trump card, Alcot activated his War Cry.

"RAWWW!!"

A red light this time began enveloping his arms and weapon. Alcot's eyes also turned turned and he turned around, fixated on Wilfred.

Panicked, his teammates rushed in the middle of the room to try and stop him with Halam trying to get him to stop.

"Don't! You'll kill him! This has gone long enough, there's nothing else needed to prove here Alcot!"

However, Alcot was now in a fury, unable to see reason and charged into the two of them, knocking them to the sides like rag dolls.

Shit, he's gone crazy. Reaching behind him, Wilfred pulled out his MP5 and pointed it towards Alcot.

"Stop or I'm going to shoot!"

Using his Analyze, Wilfred looked at Alcot.

Alcot Clifford [Lv. 15]

HP: 178/215

Str: 34(45)

Con: 30(40)

Agi: 15

Dex: 19

Int: 6

Wil: 11

Wis: 8

Lck: 13

Skills & Spells: [Hammer Mastery Lv.4], [Iron Skin], [War Cry Lv.1]

Seems his War Cry boosts his Str and Con, sort of liked a berserker effect maybe? I don't want to kill him but I don't see any way out of this without using the gun. Hopefully he can survive a hit from it.

Turning around from where he had charged his friends, Alcot's head swiveled towards Wilfred's location and he sprinted towards him.

Before Wilfred could fire a shot, a small girl appeared in the doorway.

"What is this ruckus!"

Seeing Alcot with a shimmering red light and his friends knocked out at the edge of the room, Solana decided to intervene.

"Enough now, [Sleep Lv.5]!"

Alcot slowly fell down to the floor, first on his knees and then laying on the ground fully.

Solana bent down to check Halam and Fig, casting a [Light Recovery] on both of them.

Seeing Wilfred stand awkwardly to the side, she confronted him.

"And what do you think you're doing here? You know you don't meet the age requirement to join."

"Oh, I'm not joining. I was just going to help these guys out on a contract and they wanted to gauge my strength."

Glancing at his weapon, Solana became curious.

"And what is that there hmmm? I can feel a very strong magic emanating from it."

"Uhh, I'd rather not talk about it."

At that moment, both Fig and Halam came back to consciousness.

"Ughh, what happened?"

Solana walked towards Fig and Halam, hitting both of them on the head.

"What were you thinking! You need to keep Alcot in check. No more sparing for today, understand me?"

She then headed out of the room and back where she came from. Meanwhile Alcot still slept soundly in the middle of the room.

Halam came up to Wilfred.

"Well, that was quite the display. I'm sorry it got out of hand like that, I thought you'd use a few spells and Alcot would be satisfied with you but instead his pride felt attacked and he went all out. Personally you have my vote to join us on the contract."

Fig joined in the conversation.

"Mine as well. Come back here tomorrow, same time. We'll take care of Alcot in the meantime. He'll be grumpy but he'll get over it."

Wilfred stomach grumbled loudly.

"Sounds good. But I'll go grab that lunch of mine right now, I'm starving."

The woman server was none too happy about how Wilfred had talked to her earlier and it was apparent on her face. To soothe things, Wilfred tipped her a handful of copper coins. The meal itself was quite good, even if a bit cold. After eating to his heart's content, Wilfred headed back home. Trying to spot the spies from earlier he could not notice them in the crowds outside. Perhaps they had changed clothes.

He made his way home without any incident and threw himself on his bed, relaxing a bit.

'That was quite the situation back there. If the Guild Master hadn't intervened, what would have happened? I'd have likely shot him until he stopped moving, who knows if he'd lived from that. This just proves that I need more tools, more ways to stop or finish fights."

His Mana had regenerated on the way back, he had only used less than 1,000 during the fight with Alcot so it was easily replenished.

One thing that came to mind was stun grenades and a taser. He would be going to attack the bandits tomorrow and wanted to be prepared for it. He could bring his drone for scouting but it was bulky and he didn't want to carry it with him all the time. Unless that is...he could have something to carry his equipment. Yes, that'd be excellent. Recalling information about these types of worlds, there usually were spatial rings or such similar items that used another dimension to store goods.

"But on second, aren't those super expensive? I have some gold, a few hundred actually but I doubt that'd be enough. What I need is an earth world solution to this problem that I can create myself. I could...get a vehicle?"

Why the idea hadn't occurred to him before he didn't know. Perhaps he had been here too long and stopped thinking like he did before. Obviously he would need a vehicle, all this walking around could have been much quicker. Sadly, everyone would obviously notice him driving a car down the roads, he wasn't sure if he was allowed either. What he needed was smaller but good for every terrain, something like an ATV.

The locals used some large mammals to get around, they were similar to horses in a way but they were carnivores. He did not want to learn how to ride these and then would also need to feed it, house it, clean up after it. Vehicles replaced horses and for good reason too. They were dependable and efficient.

If he made one of these though he'd have to hide it somewhere, probably outside the city.

It wouldn't be too hard to create a small shelter for the ATV, nothing on it would be vulnerable to the inclement weather. He wondered if it was possible to get a flat, did magic create rubber tires or only rubber like exterior but magically reinforced inside.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. Putting the vehicle ideas aside for the moment, Wilfred focused on the non-lethal weapon issue. He could simply use rubber bullets and come to think of it, many different types of ammunition. But how…

The guns fired magical energy in the form of a bullet and were recharged with Mana. Taking his MP5 out, Wilfred examined it more closely. For all intents and purposes, it functioned exactly like a normal one. Wilfred could even remove the clip, although he had not dismantled the clip itself to look inside. What if he simply inserted a different clip, one with the different ammunition?

Following the same process he'd always done, he created a new clip with rubber bullets instead. Curious about his new creation, he went into the basement to test it out. Aiming at the stone wall, he took aim and fired a single shot. Thock!

The rubber bullet hit the wall with a loud thud but bounced harmlessly onto the floor. Picking it up, Wilfred examined it closely. It squeezed like rubber and judging from the impact in the wall, was much less lethal than the alternative. Looking over at his status to see his Mana, Wilfred was surprised that it had gone down so much. Creating the gun and having it already loaded with ammo was something that cost him 3,000-4,000 Mana but just creating this clip of 30 rubber bullet had used up 2,200 Mana.

"Hmmm, specialized ammunition must use more Mana since it has to create the actual thing and not just use the Mana as the ammunition. I'll have to bear that in mind. But this gives me ideas for other uses."

Knowing the odds that he would eventually face an opponent with great defense against magic, Wilfred decided to try his hand at creating normal rounds. The blue light shimmered and slowly the new clip formed in his hands. Taking the other clip out of his MP5 he inserted the new one in. There would likely be a lot of noise if he fired this down here but he could explain it as experimenting with magic.

Taking aim at an empty wooden box, he fired a single shot into it. A loud bang resonated in his ears and the whole house. The basement was rather enclosed and obviously he did not have any hearing protection. Looking at the results of his test, a distinct hole could be seen on the box and it took him a few more moments to find the shell and casing. It appeared his experiment worked flawlessly, he would need to do some tests to see what was the difference in strength between the rounds, Lucius could help with that and he had promised him that he would visit him. There were many other types of rounds he could also create now that this was proven to work. Incendiary, armor piercing, tracer, the sky was the limit.

Hearing distorted voices coming from upstairs, Wilfred ran up the stairs to inform his parents before they stormed down here that yes, he was okay and no, nothing was broken.