Chapter 12: The Sparring Scam

"We're at the Spirit Apprentice Realm now!" Liam bragged.

Lily giggled at this and agreed, "Yea, in these two weeks while we were out of Greenwell City, we both broke through. That's pretty impressive, right?"

Liam put his hand around Eric's shoulders and said in a joking tone, "I bet I can beat you without even using half my strength; you gotta catch up buddy."

'Bet, he says…' Eric smirked as he heard this and came up with a proposition.

"Oh, really? What will you bet?" Eric replied casually.

Liam took the bait and after thinking for a couple seconds, came up with a deal.

"Ok. If I am not able to defeat you within one minute, I will give you 10 gold coins! Since you aren't a cultivator yet, I won't use my full strength on you." Liam proudly declared.

He thought he was making the battle fair by holding himself back, but even if he used his full strength he wouldn't have a chance against Eric, who was already at the 2nd Layer.

Seeing how his prey had caught the bait, Eric decided to move with his plan.

"But what if I defeat you? I'm pretty sure even if you are a Spirit Apprentice Realm cultivator, I can still beat your ass; just like whenever we fought before." Eric said in a mocking tone.

In the past, whenever they had mock battles for fun, Eric had won most of them and he used that as leverage to annoy Liam.

"Pfff," Lily, who was calmly watching the two boys argue, let out a laugh and almost immediately stopped after Liam shot a glance at her.

"Well, you won't be winning this time anyways, Eric; and if you somehow manage to defeat me I will give you twice the amount: 20 gold." Liam was a bit annoyed, but he put forth this offer and after listening, Eric almost instantly agreed to it.

Firstly, gold coins weren't chump change and 20 of them could buy a lot of precious resources for cultivation. Apart from that, Eric didn't really care much about what item he got from scamming; what mattered to him more were the experience points and increase in communication skills.

The three of them walked a bit further and were in a large clearing which had enough space for them to spar. Lily kept a lookout from behind them to see if anyone was coming; it wouldn't look good if someone saw two of the city's respectable young masters having a fist fight in some random area near the forest.

Meanwhile, Liam and Eric were both ready to fight. Neither of the two was taking it too seriously, though. Liam believed that he was way stronger and didn't care to use his full strength while Eric knew for a fact that he outclassed his opponent and also didn't bother using his full strength.

"There's nobody here. You guys can start," Lily said, coming back from her short detour.

Hearing the confirmation, Liam lunged at Eric. He was holding back slightly but he also didn't want to lose this chance to show off. His speed and strength were above the average human and he was confident on catching Eric off guard.

Eric however could clearly see his movements. Not only his strength and speed had increased after his breakthroughs, but he also had faster reflexes and clearer senses. He nonchalantly dodged Liam's attack by moving sideways.

Both Liam and Lily were surprised and they didn't expect Eric to somehow dodge that. Assuming it was just luck, this time he swung his hand at full speed, its edge aimed at Eric's neck.

'I'm not putting all my strength into this attack for risk of injuring him, but I am using my full speed. He surely won't be able to dodge this, right?' Liam thought.

Eric sensed the increase in speed and ducked his head to avoid the attack. He also increased his speed slightly to keep up with Liam.

Liam didn't believe what he saw and Lily was staring at Eric in awe. Seeing his opponent distracted, Eric didn't waste even a moment and got up and attacked him. In less than half a second, his hand's edge was less than an inch away from the side of Liam's neck.

If he had not stopped the attack there, Liam would have been badly hurt and possibly even knocked out.

"It's my win. Also, don't lose your focus in the middle of a fight." Eric said with a smirk on his face.

Liam stood there dumbfounded and couldn't understand the reason for his loss.

Lily, however, who had been watching the battle had an idea for the reason.

She quickly walked up to them and asked Eric, "Did you also breakthrough to the Spirit Apprentice Realm?"

Her eyes were shining in anticipation and Eric calmly nodded.

"I knew it! There's no way a non-cultivator can defeat one that easily!" she replied excitedly and started asking bombarding him with all sorts of questions. "When did you start cultivating? How long did it take you to breakthrough? What layer are you at right now?"

In public she may not talk much but Lily was quite inquisitive and talkative around certain people; one of which was Eric.

"Do such details really matter?" Eric asked, trying to dodge the questions.

"What do you mean? You were so much faster than me? You weren't a cultivator two weeks ago when we left from here and now you are one; so you must have broken through in that time right? If so, then how are you so much stronger than me?" this time Liam was the one to speak; he had recovered from his initial shock of being defeated and also wanted to know the secret to Eric's strength.

Eric sighed and decided to tell them the truth; the partial truth to be specific.

"Ok, both of you. I will tell you all of that but before that I have two conditions. First, you guys tell me how you broke through so fast. Two weeks is pretty fast and you probably lost some time in travel and such." Eric spoke calmly.

"Ok, what's the second condition?" Liam asked while Lily nodded in agreement.

Eric looked at Liam and put his hand out.

"20 gold coins, please!" he said with a fiendish grin on his face.