Mightiest Melee Magician

As I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was the white marble ceiling.

And…

Repeatable Quest

Body Training I

Since you have become a Player connected to Draka, the Destroyer of Worlds, you need to train your body in preparation for your increase in strength.

Punch: 0/3000

Kick: 0/3000

Spin Kick: 0/3000

“……”

Quest.

My days had always started with the Body Training quest.

But something had changed from before.

“Ah…! I was sleeping so good!”

It was the fact that Straang was with me on my shoulder.

Straang had slept for 16 hours straight, but he nevertheless rubbed his eyes as if still tired.

“To wake me up from my deep sleep this early in the morning…”

“Do you even know how much you slept?”

“I’m an infant! Everyone’s like that at the start. Anyways, why did you wake me up so early?

“Aren’t you hungry? Aren’t you going to eat food?”

“…Food?!”

Food.

It meant the ‘strength’ I gained when I completed the quests.

At the mention of food, Straang bounced upright with open eyes.

“R-really?”

It seemed really hungry.

I replied to Straang, who was acting ignorant of his desire,

“I guess you don’t want to.”

“Ah- No. Wait…!”

As I stood up to leave, Straang hurriedly jumped up and lightly landed on my shoulder.

“H-hmph! Who said that I didn’t want to eat?”

“See how good it is when you obediently follow me like this?”

“ugh…”

Straang pouted, looking displeased that I was dragging him around without telling him where.

But he didn’t look the slightest bit threatening, instead looking rather cute.

We arrived at the outdoor training area.

Straang looked around the training area, excited and wide-eyed.

“Is it here? This is where you do your quests?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s really sophisticated…”

“We are in a magic school. All the scarecrows have Perpetual Restoration cast on them, so even if you destroy them with magic, they reform after a short while.”

“Woah, that’s convenient. Back in my days…”

Straang went on to talk about his days when dragons used to smoke.

Tl/n: this is a change to the Korean saying “When tigers used to smoke” which means a time so long ago that everything was different. Dragon in this case because of Draka

As these magic scarecrows didn’t exist back then, they trained against trees in the dense forests.

Since it wasn’t a very exciting story, I let it go in one ear and out the other while punching the scarecrow.

Whoosh- whoosh-

Punch, Kick, Spin Kick.

After ingraining the proper stances in the last few months, I completed 3000 of each set in a flash.

Quest has been completed.

Reward Strength +10 will be given.

“Hooah…”

I completed the quests in no time.

My body felt light, even though it was drenched in sweat.

The quest completion time had continued to shorten.

Enough for me to think I should increase the intensity of my training.

As the strength from the reward began to flow into my body, Straang opened his arms wide open.

“Wow! It’s food!”

Straang had somehow pulled a napkin from somewhere and tied it around his neck.

He looked satisfied, absorbing the strength I received from the quest.

“Nom nom… Ah! Now I feel alive. You. You’re better than you look.”

It was only ‘strength +10’, but Straang looked refreshed and even grew, albeit only a little bit.

That wasn’t all.

Maybe because we officially became a family that ate together.

A new window appeared in front of my eyes.

Incarnation of Strength, Straang is friendly towards you.

Incarnation of Strength, Straang is now part of your family.

Incarnation of Strength, Straang’s information will now be shown.

Straang

Incarnation of Strength

Rank 1*

The only spirit in the physical world that responds to the most primitive essence of ‘strength’. It becomes stronger as the main body becomes stronger, and shares everything with its main body. It was destroyed after challenging the godly realm of the Seven Great Powers with the Black Dragon Drakagonia.

Rank 1* Unique Skill: *Accompaniment

*Accompaniment: Straang shares 100% of its growth with you.

Unique Skill, Accompaniment.

As Straang grew in power, so did I.

Maybe it was because of the effect of this skill.

Incarnation of Strength, Straang has advanced to Rank 1*.

From the effects of Unique Skill ‘Accompaniment’, your strength has increased by 100.

My strength had increased by 100.

The sudden surge of strength flowing through my veins was enough to nearly make me faint.

My strength of 680 had suddenly increased to 780.

This was a huge amount, equivalent to 10 days of diligent training.

“……”

As I struggled to contain my shock, Straang wiped his mouth with his napkin as he finished his meal.

“What did I say? As you become stronger, I become stronger. And then we become stronger together.”

“…Even though it was just one meal?”

“I wasn’t just one meal. This is my unique way of growing.”

“Then, every time you grow, I gain 100 strength?”

“That’s right. 200 at Rank 2, 300 at Rank 3, 400 after that… It’ll keep increasing. Infinitely. Hehehe…”

“……”

As his Rank increased, so would the strength.

This was it.

“Before I was resealed, I was over Rank 31.”

“……”

Rank 31.

With just that, strength would have been increased by 3100.

If you combined all the strength that was gained on the way to reaching Rank 31…

Just how much was that?

* * *

* * *

I shook my head at that insane number.

‘I’m so strong right now, even though my strength isn’t even 1000…’

Currently, the strength I possessed now far exceeded the standards of normal people.

Not just in simply lifting heavy objects, but everything from movement to stamina as well.

I couldn’t easily make a comparison, but even against those knights who trained with their swords their entire lives, I knew my physical strength wouldn’t be inferior to them.

‘But if that increases by another 3100…’

It was a number too big to consider in the scope of humans.

As if he had read what I was thinking…

Looking a bit happier, Straang let out a loud laugh.

“Do you get it now? Hehehe. If you do, feed me to my heart’s content!”

“Is there another method? Something else to increase my strength other than feeding you the 10 strength daily.”

“Naturally, there is.”

“What is it?”

“Hehe. Did you think I’ll tell you that easily? If you want to know, go get some refreshing water for me right-”

“So, you don’t want to eat anymore?”

“Y-you… You dare threaten-”

“If you want to eat to your heart’s content, it’ll be better for you to just tell me. You said it yourself. We’re symbiotic.”

“Ugh…”

Straang, who wanted to be the superior one in the relationship, scratched his chin while contemplating.

He probably concluded that he wouldn't gain anything by trying to compete with me.

“Hmmm… Fine, I’ll tell you. You could increase the quest rewards by increasing the difficulty, you could construct special equipment that can increase your strength, and you could also obtain a multitude of artifacts that can help you. You could also stew the tendons of an ogre to make a medicinal drug but… these are all impossible for you.”

“Why?”

“Your strength needs to exceed at least 1000. If it doesn’t, your body won’t be able to survive the sudden increase in strength. You’re currently in a type of infant stage.”

“Like you?”

“Yep.”

Infant stage.

I thought I became sufficiently strong after becoming a Player, but it seems I haven’t even started.

1000 strength.

Only after I satisfied this condition, could I try the other methods.

My current strength was 780, so it also meant that maintaining the same tedious training for the next 3 weeks was my only method.

Of course, if during that time, Straang advanced to Rank 2, my strength would instantly increase past 1000, but since it required too much strength, it was impractical.

“So it’s like that…”

First of all, my current goal was to increase my strength to 1000.

I had no choice but to diligently train for this goal.

“As soon as your strength exceeds 1000, the difficulties of quests will significantly increase. All you can do now is prepare to adapt to it in advance. Don’t complain later that it’s too hard.”

“You’re telling me to prematurely increase my training, right?”

“Yep.”

Afterwards, even after receiving the quest rewards, I increased my physical training.

I added a 15km run to my training and increased both my kicks by an additional 5000.

Pr/n: a little over 9 miles

This was despite living a double life of training and academy work that even two bodies may have been insufficient for.

Maybe because of this, the training for the repeatable quest felt easy, like they were just warm-ups.

And so, another 15 days had passed.

Straang exclaimed at my performance as I relentlessly increased my training regime.

“You, what are you, really?”

“What?”

“How can you train daily without taking a break? Draka couldn’t do this when he first started.”

“…Really?”

That was unexpected.

For the Black Dragon Draka to not do it like this when he first started.

Of course, it wasn’t because of petty reasons like being ‘too tired’.

“Was it the difference in lifespan between humans and dragons? Draka was… How do I say this…? More relaxed than you. He trained for a day and rested for a week. Trained, and went to enjoy himself for a month.”

“……”

The difference between the lifespan of humans and dragons differed from a few hundred to a few thousand years.

With the fact that for these two races, the concept of a ‘day’ was different, the magnitude of the difference was unfathomable.

Enough where I dared not try to imagine.

This was why, compared to me, who diligently trained, making the most of every single ‘day’, Draka could always be a bit more relaxed about it.

“Do all humans exert themselves like you?”

I shook my head as I thought of those fattened up and lazy students at the academy.

“No… not all of them.”

“Really? I guess you have more spirit than I expected. I was worried, since you looked like you could collapse at any moment.”

“Why? Because you would starve if I wasn’t strong enough?”

“Well, even if I don’t eat for a few days, I won’t die. I just won’t grow.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll feed you at least every day. But in return, you need to immediately notify me of any useful knowledge.”

“You won’t make me starve?”

Straang nodded his head, looking satisfied by my answer.

“Hehe. Nice. Looks like I met a good master.”

Even though Straang said this, from my perspective, this was training that was much easier than magic.

Talent played a pretty big role when it came to magic.

It didn’t increase just because I put in more effort, and on the contrary, could lead to putting unnecessary stress on my mana circles by practicing the wrong methods.

But ‘strength’ was different.

It was intuitive, unlike magic.

It was clear that my growth was in respect to how much effort I put in, and the sweat and tears I put into the training didn’t betray me.

So, I guess in that sense, it became enjoyable to train day by day without rest?

And so, after training like that every day to gain that +10 to strength, I had reached <930> strength.

“So, the third test starts today, right?”

“Yeah.”

Finally,

The third test, <Realistic Battle Test>, had begun.