You Learn - 58
But then the force against his club suddenly increased.
WHAM!
The pressure became so powerful that the club was violently pushed backward and struck him in the face.
"Ugh!"
The man quickly moved to the side, escaping the concentrated force. He was about to charge toward Marc again when Marc suddenly moved his hand.
The wind disappeared.
Fire appeared instead.
Mana surged from Marc's palm before transforming into a powerful, concentrated stream of flames.
A heavily pressured point of fire burst straight toward the man.
…
The man quickly raised his club again to block it. At first, it worked, but he had forgotten one thing.
The fire's heat began spreading through the metal club.
His hand started to burn, making him grunt in pain as he quickly coated the club with mana to protect it from the heat. The heat lessened, but it was still there. Sweat began forming across his body as he remained in place, doing nothing but blocking the continuous flames.
He started wondering whether the kid would run out of mana anytime soon.
But with every second that passed, his hope slowly began to shrink.
Marc, on the other hand, was just enjoying himself. He began experimenting again, slowly compressing and tightening the flames flowing from his hand into a smaller and smaller point. As the flames became more concentrated, the mana coating the man's club started weakening more and more under the intense heat.
Until the fire nearly resembled a blazing laser.
The man immediately noticed the danger and quickly moved out of the way. He looked down at his club and saw that a single point on its surface had already begun to melt.
He knew he couldn't continue blocking.
So, with one last plan in mind, he charged toward Marc with his club held in front of him. He expected the kid to throw something in his way again, and if that happened, he planned to use his club to knock it aside, catch Marc off guard while he was protecting himself, and then deliver a powerful blow.
That was his plan.
But as he charged forward, he suddenly felt a powerful surge of mana.
Instinctively, he tightened his grip around the club and braced himself for an attack.
Then he realized the mana wasn't coming at him.
It was flowing beneath his feet.
The mana crawled across the ground and climbed up his legs before suddenly transforming into hard, solid rock.
The man was caught by surprise. He quickly raised his club, preparing to smash the rock apart, but the moment he tried to swing it down, his movement stopped halfway.
His club wouldn't move.
He looked up.
A large hand made entirely out of mana was gripping his club, holding it firmly in place.
His eyes shifted toward Marc.
The kid stood in front of him with both hands raised. One controlled the mana hand restraining his club, while the other continued pouring mana toward his body.
The mana kept crawling upward.
More of it transformed into hard, solid rock.
The man struggled desperately, trying to force his club down while also attempting to break free from the rocks spreading around his body, but it was already too late. The mana had reached his neck and began turning into solid rock. Even the hand holding his club became coated, freezing it in place.
Before long, he was almost statue-like.
His entire body was covered and coated in hard, solid rock, leaving him completely unable to move.
"Ugh! Let me out... This isn't the end!" he grumbled, desperately trying to squirm and break free.
But he couldn't.
After struggling for a few more moments, he had no choice but to slump his head down in defeat.
Marc finally let go with both hands. Sweat covered his face, but despite that, he was practically glowing with a smile. He felt genuinely proud of what he had just done and everything he had just learned.
Unable to contain his excitement, Marc began skipping forward as he passed the man. He soon spotted Juro and Bell waiting for him with smiles on their faces.
"Teacher Juro! Bell!" Marc exclaimed, quickly sprinting toward them.
As he reached them, Marc looked around and noticed that their enemies had already been defeated.
"Woa, you already defeated them."
"Yup," Juro replied with a smile. "And so did you. Nice one."
He reached over and patted Marc's head, ruffling his hair. Marc simply stood there with a proud smile on his face.
Bell also commented, "Nicely well done, Marc."
Marc smiled before he and Bell raised their hands and high-fived each other.
Then the crowd around them began clapping and cheering for their victory. At the same time, Marc's ZEN form slowly started dispersing as the mana surrounding his eyes and hands gradually disappeared.
Marc looked around excitedly. Seeing everyone cheering for them made him even happier, his smile growing wider as he proudly waved back at the crowd.
Soon after, the Adventurer staff arrived and announced the winners of the competition. Marc proudly waved in happiness while Juro and Bell simply stood there with casual smiles, as if they had already expected this result.
"Mister Juro! Marc! Bell! You three did great!"
The two sisters proudly cheered for their victory.
"Thank you!" Marc replied enthusiastically, waving back at them.
…
After a few minutes had passed, the three were brought to the area where they would claim their rewards.
However, there was suddenly a problem.
The Adventurer staff had received a large number of anonymous complaints accusing them of rank fraud, identity masking, rank evasion, and other similar accusations. Most of the complaints had come from adventurers who had watched their performance during the battle and found it difficult to believe that rookie-ranked adventurers, especially kids, could be that powerful.
The staff relayed the problem to Juro and began asking for verification or anything else that could prove their identities.
Juro quietly pondered to himself. He could feel it.
The adventurers who had filed those complaints were nearby.
Even though he wasn't directly looking at them, he could sense their presence through the atmosphere around him. There was something in their gaze and the way the atmosphere felt that made it obvious.
Meanwhile, Bell overheard what the staff had told Juro and began thinking to himself.
"Well, I figured this would happen. It's not every day you see a rookie-ranked adventurer, nonetheless a kid, use mana manipulation magic so freely. Of course you'd suspect something."
Marc, however, became confused and looked toward Juro.
"Is something wrong?"
Juro simply smiled at him.
"Nah, everything's fine."
As he said that, Juro reached into his jacket and pulled something out.
The royal crest.
He showed it to the staff.
The moment she saw it, her eyes immediately widened in shock. Several nearby adventurers who happened to take a peek were also visibly surprised.
The staff quickly lowered her head and bowed in apology for the misunderstanding.
Juro simply laughed and waved his hand dismissively.
The staff then said, "I'm really sorry for not being able to notice sooner, sir. Please just wait a few moments while I get the rewards ready. Also, I could provide a rank-up recommendation to the Adventurer Guild so you and those kids could rank up. You all already proved your skills during the competition, and the crest also proves that the King sees you highly."
Juro simply smiled.
"Nah, it's fine. No need to worry about it. I understand the situation. And no thanks, we don't need an immediate rank-up. Plus, if I accepted that, I'd just be proving those rumors and complaints right, wouldn't I? Just proceed as usual, and we'll rank up naturally on our own."
The staff smiled at Juro and bowed her head before heading back to prepare their rewards.
While they waited, Juro looked down at Marc with a grin.
"You had fun trying out new moves, huh?"
Marc grinned back with a big smile. "Yup!"
"Hehe, nice one, kid. I saw how you managed to stop your mana from scattering everywhere and tightened it into a pinpoint toward the enemy's weapon."
Juro was complimenting Marc's creative thinking during the fight.
Marc simply smiled, feeling slightly flustered by the compliment while also feeling proud of himself.
Meanwhile, Bell listened to Juro as he spoke and thought to himself.
"I knew it. Being able to recall Marc's fight in that much detail basically unintentionally says, 'I wasn't taking the fight in front of me seriously, and Marc's fight was more interesting.' "
Bell slightly smiled.
"He was basically letting that woman have her moment while his real attention was on Marc instead of the enemy in front of him."
"Well, I can't blame him. I also started watching Marc's fight. It was already inevitable for that woman to lose to him."
As Marc continued smiling while talking with Juro, his expression slowly changed.
Then he suddenly bowed in front of him.
"I'm sorry, Teacher Juro."
Juro looked down at Marc with a soft smile.
"Do you realize what mistake you made?"
Still bowing, Marc nodded his head.
"I let my emotions get to me and got careless... I know you warned me before the match that they were going to be a strong team and that I should stay on guard. But I still charged toward them without thinking much. I'm sorry..."
Bell watched from the side as Marc sincerely apologized for his reckless actions. He couldn't help but smile.
"He really is a good kid."
Juro placed a hand on Marc's head and gently patted him.
"That's good, kid. You can raise your head now."
Marc slowly raised his head.
Juro looked at him with a smile before saying, "As long as you notice your own actions, you can always reflect on them and learn from them."