Chapter 145: A Helping Hand (1/2)

Gravis waited for the strong people to arrive. The number of people at the ninth level might be small, but there would probably be people at the eighth level with a Will-Aura. Those people knew how to fight since they went through plenty of life and death experiences to get their Will-Aura. Gravis' excitement grew as time passed.

”I would like to spar with you!” shouted a disciple at the eighth level of Energy Gathering. ”I don't want a life and death battle.”

The others looked at him and then thought that that was actually a really good idea. If they paid Gravis the pills, he would surely accept some spars. He didn't have anything to lose after all.

”I don't spar,” said Gravis back without looking at the person. The other disciples were surprised by what Gravis had said. What did he mean with, he didn't spar? Why would someone not spar? Through sparring, they could find out their own weaknesses and rectify them. By rectifying their weaknesses, their strength would increase. Not sparring just sounded stupid in their mind.

”What do you mean with, 'I don't spar'?” another disciple shouted, echoing the other disciples' thoughts.

”You still haven't realized yet?” asked Gravis with furrowed brows at the disciples. Seeing that no disciple answered, Gravis just harrumphed. ”Sparring might, theoretically, make you find out about your weaknesses, but it also creates new weaknesses.”

The disciples also furrowed their brows. This was similar to what some of their seniors had told them, but when everyone saw their own weaknesses in a spar, they ignored their seniors. They all saw their improvements with their own eyes. If put to a choice, the disciples would rather believe their eyes than what other people said.

Gravis saw their unwilling eyes and sighed. 'I'm using the Fire Guild for tempering, so I might as well repay them somewhat,' he thought.

”Think back to the three fights previously,” Gravis said. ”Every single one of them knew that this fight would be a life and death battle. Yet, the first guy wanted to test me by using a half-assed attack. That might be possible to do in a spar, but in a genuine life and death battle, the opponent will make use of that weak attack to deal a fatal blow. The first person died because he was basically sparring with me while I tried to kill him.”

Before the disciples could say anything, Gravis continued. ”The second opponent fought properly and tried to kill me. Unfortunately, his realm was too weak. As you all have already noticed, my body is equal to the Magic of someone at the seventh level of Magic Gathering. So, without actually physically hitting me, he had no way to injure me. I guess that that guy probably had had a Will-Aura for a while and hadn't met many powerful enemies recently, which inflated his ego and made him overestimate his strength.”

”The third guy closed his eyes in a fight. There is nothing more stupid than closing one's eyes in front of an enemy. If your enemy wanted to kill you, would they just wait for you to get ready? You might as well make some stretches in the fight if you believe that. The third guy was obviously used to sparring, where he could get away with doing something like that, and therefore wasn't able to adapt to a real fight. He died because he sparred too much.”

Gravis was finished with his explanation, and many disciples fell into thought. Most of them would have probably acted similarly to the first and third guy. With Gravis' explanation, they knew that doing these things was stupid. Actually, they already knew that it was stupid even before Gravis told them, but would they have still done it?

Some of the disciples shivered. They had been used to sparring, which made them neglect the danger. They might recognize the danger with their mind, but their emotions were so used to fighting that they didn't react differently when a genuine life and death battle was about to commence. They would still stay calm, like in a spar, which made them neglect the danger.

Most of the disciples felt a feeling of fear now. They had seen how the others died, but in their mind, they had survived every fight they had ever fought. Their emotions still hadn't acted up even after they had seen three of their brothers die. Only now did they realize the actual danger present. Now, they looked at Gravis differently.