It was a blessing of many sorts. I was sure that I couldn't survive the wolf attack, but thankfully, I did, thanks to an unknown guest... whom I was sure to befriend.
"Are you Fronter?" I asked, guessing by the way he approached us.
The man with his majestic build unsheathed his great sword and replied, "Yes, I am. Do you have anything to tell me?"
I quickly recovered from my shocked state and tried to present a better version of myself.
I said with a clear throat, "Sister Atna sent me to you, hoping that you could help me in some way. I thought I wouldn't see you until night."
"So you're that amnesiac, Ethan. I finished my mission early, but before I explained further, let's head back to the guild. Your friend doesn't seem to be in good condition."
We agreed on that and started heading back to the guild. Along the way, I was dying of curiosity but held it back, knowing it wouldn't do much good in chaotic moments like that.
After we reached the adventurer guild, Dan went straight to the guild's infirmary, and Myer and Lisa stayed to check on Dan. I excused myself and went out of the building, where Diego Fronter was waiting for me.
As soon as I reached him, I asked, "Can you tell me about your relationship with Atna?"
Diego turned around, faced me, and said, "She is my daughter."
"Daughter?!" I said with surprise, noticing the biological difference between them.
"I'm her godfather. I adopted her after her parents died in a fire. She wanted to work for the church, and I allowed it. She told me about you, how you lost your memories, and asked me to help you out by teaching you swordsmanship so maybe your memory would return," he said in a calm tone.
"Are you going to help me?" I asked.
"...although I love my daughter and would do anything for her, this one is a little different. I won't teach anything to the unworthy, even if my daughter asks. We will have a duel right now, not an official one, since I will clearly win. By that, I will judge whether or not you are qualified... is that clear?"
After I heard that, I paused for a second. The sky was orange, indicating that it was getting dark, and due to my fight with the big wolf, I had used most of my stamina, not to mention my mana, since I had no rest to replenish it.
I had many reasons to decline that offer; after all, I didn't actually need Atna and the church in order to sleep... but a sound, which I had become familiar with after getting into many dangerous situations, told me to go on.
"Fine, I will fight you," I said with a grin, knowing I had nothing to lose in the fight.
"Follow me."
We entered the guild building, and Diego started talking to the receptionist about something I couldn't hear. After that, we entered a new room, which I had never entered. The room was filled with many types of weapons. It was a simple room, brightened by magical crystals, but by simply walking, I could feel the ground was softer than a normal floor.
Diego faced me after walking ahead and told me, "This is a fighting ground, mostly for tier upgrade tests. I asked the receptionist to use it, and they told me I could, so we would fight here."
After Diego said that, he placed his great sword in a corner and instead grabbed a wooden sword from the rack, as per our promise to duel in a more balanced battle.
"How are we going to fight?" I asked cautiously, hoping to gain some advantage.
"Come at me with all you've got. I will refrain from using techniques and attacks that immobilize you on contact. You will attack until the battle ends with one of us as the loser," he said with an oddly comforting smile.
Not using techniques, which were equivalent to skills in my world, triggered slight comfort in me.
I nodded and squeezed the handle of the sword I took from Dan while entering a battle stance. Diego's presence was overwhelming enough to make anyone regret facing him, but I wasn't going to back down since I knew nothing deadly could happen to me.
Thud-! I swung my sword and started attacking... but despite having an iron sword, I couldn't pierce through Diego's wooden sword and got blocked.
I didn't stop with a simple attack and began to connect multiple consecutive moves to what I believed to be an opening, but all of them got blocked by his wooden blade with ease.
"Now it's my turn," he said with a grin.
I instinctively moved my sword up without even seeing his attack, but this wasn't the correct reaction since he used his leg to attack instead of the wooden sword.
"Ugh!" Strangely, what I received from his leg was far more painful than any normal wound, which made me collapse... but of course, I quickly regained my wit and started going forward.
Attacks were made left and right, and I saw helplessness ahead of me. His sword was beautiful and impenetrable... until I noticed something very peculiar. The movements that he was using to block and attack me seemed familiar and recognizable, as if I had already seen them countless times long before the battle. I started watching more cautiously, though I couldn't get too distracted from the fight happening in front of me.
After what seemed to be a long fighting sequence, the recognition grew more profound in my head, which made me more accustomed to his movements and patterns that were made pretty obvious.
This was the first time I had ever seen something like this, but somehow, I didn't find it surprising. The sensation I was feeling from those moments of recognition was far too close to when I learned new skills through [Advance Learner].
In those moments of realization, my heart began to pound with excitement, for everything was completely explained in front of my eyes. Calculating and responding to those movements of his wasn't so out of touch anymore... but there was a slight issue.
"Pant, pant!" I was breathing heavily, as I was consuming too much stamina in my movements since I had gotten a little distracted by my exciting observation.
"You do not have much time. As you can see, I've yet to break a sweat," he said mockingly.
I took a deep breath and stood up for a final attack since I knew I wouldn't have any remaining stamina afterward... but I wasn't worried, for I had learned more than enough to boost my confidence.
I dashed forward with my blade in front. Diego brought his blade, hoping to block me, which was something I had expected and had a counter for. Both blades were dancing between us, and the unexpected part was lowering the distance between me and Diego.
With what seemed to be mere seconds, an opening appeared through Diego's attack pattern—an opening directly at his neck. I exploited the opening and moved my blade with my every remaining bit of strength toward the opening... but in that exact mere second, Diego brought his wooden sword to his neck and blocked my move.
Crack-! "Impressive," he muttered quietly.
With a strong push, I was thrown back to the spot where I started the duel, though laid down. My body was aching, and I didn't have a single second of battle left in me. I sat up, hoping to get good praise for my outstanding determination, but I got something far more than praise.
Thud- The wooden sword cut in half, and the other half dropped down on the floor. I was shocked, and my expression wasn't hiding it... and my mind was filled with a simple line of thought that was telling me, 'How did I do that?'
"HAHA! This is impressive, kid," said Diego with a bright and loud smile.
"I don't understand," I stated plainly.
"Well, although I wasn't using my full strength in the fight, you showed something I had no expectations for. Your ability to grasp and understand attack patterns is a talent worthy of being singular; on the other hand, your swordsmanship foundation is completely lacking, as if you had no teachers beforehand," he said, still wearing that exact smile.
Both of what he mentioned were things I agreed with. What [Advance Learner] granted me was nothing more than a cheat in close combat, and I lacked experience in swordsmanship since it was the first time I had a duel with another swordsman.
Most of what I considered to be my swordsmanship was gathered from videos on the Internet and watching others performing it, so not being able to do as much as Diego was very much expected.
I stood up and tidied my dirty clothes... and with a soft smile, I asked, "So, am I worthy?"
"You betcha!"