The Spar Request

『It looks like it’s time to do the thing Gamud asked us to do. Why don’t we head on over?』

「Nn.」

『So we’re going to be fighting some young adventurers…?』

「Ready to do best.」

『I uh… am pretty sure that isn’t what he wanted you to do.』

「Nn?」

If anything, we should be more focused on holding back just enough. There was a good chance Fran would destroy the adventurers’ hopes and dreams if she beat them too badly. I knew that Gamud thought well of the group and all, but I highly doubted they’d were Fran’s match. The Guildmaster seemed to be aware of that the nature of his request was to beat them down. Still, I doubted they would be that weak. There wouldn’t be any reason for Gamud to ask Fran in particular to spar them if they wouldn’t at least be able to put up a fight.

Then again, that might not be the case. Gamud had never proven himself not to be the type of educator that’d throw a chick off a cliff and tell it to fly, just to help it develop a sense of height. Either way, there wasn’t much of a point in sitting around and brooding. We’d be able to figure it out when we saw them.

With that in mind, we left the room Regus had grabbed and headed back downstairs. I figured there probably wouldn’t be any issue with us just skipping straight over to the guildmaster’s room, but I felt like that violated the Adventurers’ Guild’s pipeline. To that end, I had Fran report in by speaking with one of the guild’s many receptionists.

「Gamud here?」

Though, she kinda ended up skipping the whole reporting part given that she just straight up asked for Gamud.

「Good morning Fran. We’ve been awaiting your arrival. Please follow me.」

The lady that’d responded to Fran’s query led us not to Gamud’s office, but instead to a different room in the back. The room in question seemed like an armoury, as it was crammed full with all sorts of equipment.

Awaiting us in said room was the guildmaster, all suited up and ready to go.

「I’m glad you made it!」

「Nn. Why armoured? Joining in spar?」

Fran’s voice was clearly filled with antic.i.p.ation. Unfortunately for her though, he ended up denying her query by shaking his head in rejection.

「Nah. I’m just going to act as the ref. The armour I’m wearing is supposed to be a contingency, y’know, just in case I happen to get hit. I won’t be taking part at all myself.」

「Oh.」

At first, Fran reacted with disappointment, but she soon recalled that she’d be going up against a group of adventurers so she managed give a bit of a motivated nod.

「Mmph.」

『Don’t smash them too hard, okay?』

「Nn. Will do best.」

Uhh… that's not what I meant…

Fran squeezed down on both her hands in order to express just how motivated she was. It became clear to me that I could no longer do anything for the adventurers she was about to fight but pray for them to have more fortune in their next lives.

「Are you ready?」

「Anytime.」

「Then let’s go. I’m pretty sure the brats are currently using our facilities for training’s sake.」

Gamud led us to an indoor training ground with a diameter of about 30 meters. Its walls looked pretty thick, you probably wouldn’t be able to damage anything outside the room from within unless you really wanted to.

「Gather round, brats!」

「What’s good?」

「Good morning!」

「’Sup.」

「Heya!」

I’d only been expecting two or three people, but there turned out to be nine. Their personalities varied greatly. The partic.i.p.ants included everything from lazy-looking hoodlums to the super uptight kind that had their backs straight with enthusiasm.

Appraising them allowed me to find out that they were much stronger than I’d been initially expecting. The two strongest two were D rank worthy. One was a level 27 Phantom Swordsman, and the other, a level 26 Flame mage. The rest averaged in at about level 22. Even the weakest, a scout, had managed to make it all the way up to level 20.

「Today’s training is going to be sparring.」

The adventurers immediately began to talk amongst themselves the moment Gamud filled them in on what was going on. It seemed the reason for this was more so because they just happened to be a group liked to chat as opposed to anything else.

「Again?」

「Can we fight Forrund instead? I’d like that more.」

「Yeah, I know right? Mr. Gamud’s pretty bad at holding back.」

「Oh G.o.d dammit! Shut up!」

Gamud’s shouted immediately brought silence back to the training ground.

「Alright. Why don’t you introduce yourself?」

「Nn. Fran.」

Every single one of the adventurers’ gazes shot to Fran as she introduced herself before s.h.i.+fting over to one of the group’s s.h.i.+elders.

I didn’t understand why they’d bothered until after I appraised him.

Only then did I learn that he, Red, had access to level 7 Appraisal. In other words, they’d looked at him because they themselves weren’t capable of gauging Fran’s strength. They were had to rely on him to fill them in because they were still too green to guestimate her skill level at a glance.

Unfortunately for them, it was in vain. Fran’s real stats were covered up and hidden away. He wouldn’t be able to pick up anything more than just the random bulls.h.i.+t we decided it her stat card out with.

Red ended up shrugging his shoulders and making an expression that almost made it seem like he was making fun of Fran. The gesture seemed to be an expression of the fact that the spar they would soon engage in wasn’t anything worth noting.

His message led his peers to relax. If I were to guess, I’d say that they probably a.s.sumed that they had to fight Fran because she was going to join them.

「She’s going to be taking all of you guys on today.」

「…Are you sure?」

One of the group’s members responded to Gamud in a questioning tone.

「I am. No need to hold back. Be as rough as you’d like. Are you ready, Fran?」

「Nn.」

Gamud’s words led everyone in the group save for the really serious-looking one to start grinning. They appeared to have a.s.sumed that Gamud’s instructions had been directed at them and not Fran. Chances were, they were thinking that Gamud wanted them to beat Fran up a bit in order to show her that she still had a ways to go.

「Gawts it.」

I had to say, Gamud was a bit of a d.i.c.k. He’d purposefully made his words easy to misunderstand so that it’d be easier for Fran to shatter their pride.

That said, I did have to admit that most of the adventurers Gamud had gathered were indeed fairly talented. They were only as stuck up as they deserved to be. Still, having Fran kick them down a notch was to their benefit.

「First up’ll be Dewfo.」

「You seriously want me to go first?」

「What, did you not want to?」

「Well, I wouldn’t say that…」

The first person Gamud had ordered to fight was the highest leveled one, the Phantom Swordsman.

Fran glanced at the guildmaster to double check his intentions, to which he replied with a smile and a wink. Seeing him bat an eyelash filled me with a sense of revulsion, but I still managed to get the message. He wanted us to immediately blow the group right off their feet.

『Don’t go too hard on him, you hear?』

（Nn. Won’t make unfixable with Greater Heal.）

『Oh G.o.d d.a.m.n it! That’s not what I meant!』

Personally, I’d been a bit more on the Middle Heal side of things myself. But unfortunately for Dewfo, Fran had already drawn me and happily started walking towards the battleground’s center.

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