95 Special Training Dummies (1/2)

That night, everyone made sure to fill in their parents, getting their approval to leave on the field trip.

The clans and tribes were all amazed by how much effort the Iron-body Gorilla clan had invested in Iron Academy. They knew it was a good idea, but everyone was amazed to see how much growth was coming from all of their youth.

And the students who were in either of the advanced classes were making shocking improvements.

It became very obvious really quickly that in the future, the average cultivation level in the Iron Territory would eventually be the elder plane.

With such promising growth, the clans and tribes whole-heartedly agreed to the field trip. Since two perennials would be going with the students, there wasn't anything for the parents to worry about.

The next morning, all the students hurried to the school. Those who were lacking a battle art had already selected one the day before after getting out early. All that was left was practicing.

When everyone arrived, they were surprised to see twenty dummies set up around the room, embedded into the concrete floor. They followed the walls but weren't right up against them, otherwise, residual damage would hit the walls.

Ania soon entered the classroom with a smile to find everyone inspecting the many different dummies.

”I'm glad you're all here early,” Ania chuckled at the curious young cultivators. ”Everyone, gather in the center of the room so I can explain some things and choose a few volunteers to help demonstrate some things.”

Immediately, everyone stopped what they were doing and followed orders. They were all anxious to test the dummies and see how strong they were.

”Good, now… I need a lynx volunteer.”

”I'll do it!” The lynx who had challenged Oli a few moons back stepped up and stood proudly.

Ania nodded and pointed to one of the many dummies. ”Good, now attack that dummy with your strongest lightning.”

”My strongest?”

”Yes, don't you dare hold back! This is the example for the whole class, so make sure to give it your all.”

Agreeing, the lynx coated his entire body in lightning essence and dashed toward the black dummy. He lashed out and struck the fake torso with everything he had. As he backed away, the lynx was startled to see that he hadn't even left a scratch.

”That's enough, you can go back,” stated Ania, looking to the surprised students. ”They may not look it, but each of these is an adept grade dummy that was crafted specifically to counter your essences. That one is made of something called rubber and this particular rubber can survive lightning attacks from most adept cultivators, let alone you novice cultivators.”

”And for those of you who were curious, Headmaster Vloz had them commissioned from a few human artisans. Every classroom has twenty of these dummies, four of which are designed for you lynxes specifically.”

”Teacher,” Karos stepped forward, ”Can I try?”

”Sure, go for it.”

Without a second thought, Karos charged ahead at full speed. His essence didn't cover his body, but only a single claw. And though it wasn't as flashy, all the students could sense that Karos' essence was much more concentrated and deadly than the other lynx's.

His claw slashed across the dummy, dazzling everyone with the amount of lightning essence released on contact. Yet, again the dummy was left unharmed.

Karos shrugged and walked back. ”They really are adept grade…”

”Now I need a frog to volunteer and attack that one.” She pointed to a gelatinous looking dummy tightly wrapped in leather.

A frog hurried out and launched a bullet-like ball of water at the dummy, but it seemed to absorb the blow and contour to the ripples of the water attack.

”As you can see there are also four dummies designed to handle the attacks of you frogs,” added Ania. ”For the foxes, we've paid extra to get some dummies made with shadow silk. Netra, can you please give it a try?”

Netra nodded and vanished without a word, startling the crowd of students. They had never seen her attack anything and only heard rumors, so they all wanted to see the first seat in action.

Soon, she reappeared behind the scarecrow-like dummy and lashed out with a claw covered in dark essence.

Like the other dummies, that one took the attack without any issues, seemingly absorbing and distributing the dark essence across its entire fake torso and head.