Chapter 29 Spar
While they all were observing Nial work relentlessly, Miles was notified that his permission to enter the Goblin dungeon would soon expire.
As such, he quickly left the house, to earn money instead of wasting the dungeon's appointment fee.
Meanwhile, Maline decided to enter the slime dungeon and use the respawn timer efficiently, while reminding Melvin to eat the breakfast Nial had prepared for him before doing their stuff.
The day before, Melvin had been told that he can stay at the Orin family's house for as long as he wanted, which was something he didn't expect to happen after what he assumed to have happened years earlier.
His family must have threatened them, but the Orin family wasn't inclined to hold a grudge against him.
Neither did they comment on the incident except for Nial's unintentional slip of tongue when he had been angry nor did they scorn him in any way because of what happened in the past.
Rather, Melvin had been welcomed with open arms which was something that wouldn't happen in his family, if Nial were to show up unannounced.
Seeing their heartwarming welcome gave him even more reason to help Sabrina.
Not only did he like her and care about her a lot, but Melvin felt that such kind people as Nial's entire family, should not be allowed to suffer in any way.
Thus, he readied himself and suppressed the feeling of envy in the depths of his conscience as he left the house, and entered the backyard.
Nial had already heard his parents' footsteps from behind him, and he had been astonished about that.
Before, he assumed that they were already awake and outside the house, entering some dungeons together.
However, that had not been the case. Yet, instead of thinking about that any longer, Nial simply decided to focus on himself, and everything he had wanted to do.
This was mostly to improve his combat prowess, or to be precise, his movement, control over mana, spearmanship, and how to properly make use of the effects of the [Mana Perception(Poorest)] ability.
At the same time, Nial wanted to focus on learning to read and write because his parents and even Melvin had instructed him to take a look at a basic body movement technique after selling everything they had acquired the day before.
Not knowing what was written somewhere would be a hindrance if he wanted to progress further.
At the same time, it would make many things much more difficult because he wanted to find out more about his sister's disease in the shelter's Library.
He might be able to find something there, but without being able to read, entering would be more than rude, not only to himself but to the librarian too.
Even if it was not considered rude, wasting his own and others' time, definitely was.
Not wanting to waste his time, he practiced tirelessly and sensed that his best friend was approaching him with a set of daggers in his hands.
Entering a combat stance, Melvin simply handed him over the daggers. He didn't say much, but the choice of his weapons made it clear that he had already figured out Nial's biggest disadvantage.
Under the pressure of surviving the horde of beasts, Nial had made too many mistakes the day before, and a barrage of attacks overwhelmed him enough to force him, a spear wielder, to retreat.
This was not something that should happen if he wanted to fight and defeat his opponents, and Nial was fully aware of this.
As a spear wielder, he should be fast, agile and able to hold back his opponent, even more so because the Viper spear could be used as a rod, glaive, halberd, spear, and possibly even as a trident.
In the end, the Viper spear was an extremely versatile weapon that felt as if it was tailor-made for him.
Nonetheless, as he was unable to wield it perfectly, Nial's combat prowess was much worse than it could be if he were to be properly trained.
And it was exactly this task that Melvin wanted to take over for the next few hours. He knew that Nial was able to overcome the hurdles by himself, but they didn't have enough time to let him test everything on his own. Besides, Nial was way too impatient, which was obvious.
His sister was bedridden, and her disease was worsening by the day.
As such, the expenses for her medicine had shot through the roof and their meagre earnings fell short of the required amount to heal her.
They had yet to find a cure, and even if one existed, it would be extremely expensive, considering that the medicine that barely slowed down her disease from getting worse was already overly expensive!
Despite the change in his behavior, Melvin knew his best friend well enough.
Because of that, it would be best to exhaust Nial to the extent that he would not be in the condition to even think about entering a dungeon, knowing that he would die inside.
Thus, Melvin didn't even think of holding back.
Instead, he decided to inflict shallow injuries on Nial which would force him to pay more attention to himself.
With that in mind, Melvin circulated mana through his body, increasing his speed that was already further enhanced than Nial's as he rushed towards his best friend.
Slashing at Nial without hesitation, Melvin showed how serious he was, and it was at that moment when Nial realised that his friend was not going to be nice and sweet while showing him his mistakes.
Rather, Melvin chose the cruel path to make Nial never forget his mistakes, which was something he understood almost instantly.
Comprehending what was about to happen, Nial forced his worn-down body to move, and let out a roar.
Staring at Melvin, who beckoned him to come forward, he pushed himself to overcome the limits he had already broken through hours ago as he thrust the Viper spear forward.
Yet, instead of completing the thrust, Nial retracted the Viper spear's blade before he switched the movement, and moved the rod in the direction at which he had predicted Melvin to move.
Nial's combat experience might be low, but he knew his friend and his tactics extremely well.
As such, Nial knew that Melvin wouldn't want to face his attack directly.
Instead, Melvin would want to show him in the cruelest possible way what kind of flaws he had.
His best friend was the nicest person he knew, but when it came to pointing out mistakes, he was harsh and didn't beat around the bush!
Knowing this, Nial didn't even try to slacken.
Rather, he wanted to learn as much as possible to prevent facing a second cruel lesson when Melvin pointed out his mistakes.
Bombarding him with attacks, Nial tried to hit Melvin in any possible way, obstructing his smooth attacks.
Yet, he was unable to even scratch Melvin's clothes, and he emerged in front of Nial with his body leaned forward that almost reached Nial's calves.
Slashing out, he inflicted a handful of shallow cuts close to Nial's knees. Through this, Melvin wanted to clearly show that he could have rendered Nial unable to continue fighting if he wanted to.
Just a moment later, Melvin jumped to the side, before twisting his body and turning it towards Nial as his hand began to glow in a bright light.
At that moment, even Nial's mana perception perceived the bright light, and his brows furrowed, perceiving the lightning currents that shot out of his friend's hand.
Ignoring the throbbing pain around his knees, Nial knew that he had to move, otherwise, he would have quite a few more issues than just dealing with the pain.
Not knowing whether Melvin could control his Lightning affinity the way he wanted to, Nial could only recall the first battle that had happened the day before.
Chills covered his entire body by the mere thought of being hit by a ball of lightning.
Moving instinctively, Nial used the movement he had already attained by swinging the Viper spear at Melvin. This made it possible for him to increase his own speed, if only by a fraction as he simply continued the swing.
He might not have hit Melvin like that, but the subtle boost he received was enough to evade Melvin's attack that was inaccurately shot at him.
The lightning currents were drastically weaker than the one Melvin had shot with the Myth wand, and even if he would have been hit by the currents, they would have, at most, burned Nial.
Nevertheless, having avoided the lightning currents by a hair's breadth, Nial's entire side was left defenseless.
Unable to move aside owing to the movement he had just made use of, he could already tell what Melvin would do, which caused him to grit his teeth.
At that moment, he perceived Melvin roll on his back which allowed him to stand on his two feet in the quickest time.
This had strained his body a lot, but Melvin had been trained in making quick decisions since a young age.
As such, he had waged the advantages of being quicker in getting up to initiate a new attack in comparison to having to get up slowly, giving Nial enough time to enter a defensive stance once again.
With that in mind, Melvin rushed towards Nial once again, without giving him a single breather that may allow him to think of a way to gain an upper hand again.
Having been trained professionally, Melvin knew that a single fraction of a second, as well as a subtle motion with which one executed one's ability could be enough to end someone's life.
Because of that, the young man was fully alert and ready for any kind of attack, only to realise that nothing happened when Nial's entire sports clothes were cut open, hundreds of cuts inflicted to his best friend.
Initially, he had planned to teach Nial a lesson, but the situation seemed to have turned in Nial's favor after he had been able to avoid the electric currents.
Something in the seemingly simple move Nial had executed at that moment caused Melvin's instincts to be triggered, it was something that made his entire being believe that his opponent was more terrifying than one could perceive at the first glance.
This realization made Melvin freeze in his tracks only to curse out.
"Fuck, I went overboard…"