Tales Of Fantasia

The old man guided him to the underground floor of the castle where the training ground is located according to his request. First, the old man was reluctant not willing to let his lost son return to the battlefield but after a little convincing he gave up. He agreed to let him travel around but he must first go through training for survival and get used to his new body.

He also realized that the old man couldn't see the tattoo that represents his membership on his wrist and it has another function besides being a simple tattoo. It was actually a system, with a mental command he could make the system window appear from the tattoo.

***

[Name: Edward Larvens

Title: -

Roles: Pi/Main Character

Books: [Pi's Journey (In Progress)]

Powers: -

Replica: -

Imagination: -

Library Points: 0]

[Main Mission: The End

Description: You must reach the end of the story alive no matter what method you used to reach or achieve the end doesn't matter only reaching to it matters most.

Reward: [Book: Pi's Journey].

***

Soon the elevator stops moving indicating they have reached the floor they have been going for once the cage-like doors of the elevator open Edward is greeted with a huge golden gate that's at least a dozen or so meters in height alone. Various patterns are carved on the metal doors making it look like an artwork rather than a functioning door.

Once the old man pulled a few levers the door slowly opened making an eerie sound of metals rubbing against each other, and then the lights turned on illuminating the dark training ground. It was spacious enough to keep hundreds of people at the same time and still not feeling stuffed.

The floor, walls, and ceiling all were reinforced by unknown metal plates looking really sturdy. Various weapons were hanging on the wall and on the ceiling you could see giant metal claws of unknown purpose.

"This old man already knows you won't stay behind the safe walls of the castle much long. You were such an adventurous spirit you are Pi. I long suspected you would leave this tower and wander around the city streets for one reason or another."

Edward slowly walked into the training ground looking both amazed and frightened by its scale, it didn't seem like a simple training ground to him.

"That's why I prepared this ground for you in advance, this ground was meant to test out the old war puppets that were meant for simple destruction. I did what I could do with them and luckily it seems like the madness infected the modern puppets didn't manage to infect those old models."

Edward's eyes traced through the weapons hanging from the walls most of them were simply not meant to be used by him or someone his size, they were either really small or just too big making him wonder.

"Uh, those old things? I'm sorry my boy but they weren't meant for you. With your current skills and abilities, they are a little too out of your league, I am afraid. But no worries I made a few simple training tools for you."

Slowly a table rises from the ground with several weapons on it, mostly simple weapons like swords, axes, clubs, staff, spears, etc. choices were surprisingly varied, he analyzed each one calmly before picking up a spear that could be retracted into something smaller solving it's problem of hard to carry around.

His new puppet body was clearly superior to his old human one allowing him to easily swing around the spear like a short stick using only one hand. He looks at the spear in hand and the disappearing table of weapons before taking a deep breath to calm his nerves.

'Perhaps I should have chosen the mace? It would have been a lot easier to use than spear.'

The reason he chose it was simply that he thought it would be a safer option among the few, he swung it a few times then thrust it using few times trying to familiarize himself with its weight and shape.

"A spear exceptional tool for survival for both it is range and versatility. You made a good choice my boy but still, if it might not be suitable for you even the sharpest spear ever made won't be of much use to you. So let's test that shall we?"

With that old man pulled another lever, soon the mechanical claws above him started moving it made the strange creeping sound of metals rubbing with each other before extending somewhere and picking up a puppet of his size and placing it in the middle of the training ground. Its design was as simple as a mannequin, with no excessive details, armor, clothes, etc a simple mannequin-like puppet with a color scheme of gold and white.

It looked elegant and pure, if you put it in an art competition as it is perhaps it could easily win first place. Soon starting from its chest area a faint blue light travels through its body making it shake like being electrocuted before standing up. Its featureless white face quickly scanned the surroundings before locking it on him.

Edward prepared himself while taking a deep breath he aimed the tip of the spear towards it, his gazes falling upon the mannequin observing its every movement thoughtfully. Mannequin did the same too waiting for him to make the first move, waiting for an opening it could exploit from him.

Then it waited long enough, it kicked the ground creating an echo so loud it momentarily messed up Edward's sense of hearing, the sound wasn't the only thing the kick did. Now flying towards Edward with a speed turning into a white blur to outsiders eyes it almost comes in front of him instantly.

Edward tried to thrust it with his spear, but it deflected the blow using its backhand only getting scratched a little on the surface while Edward's attack simply landed on an empty space. It struck its feet on the metal floor stitching itself to it before spinning keeping the momentum of the flight and directing it to its fist.

Edward was a little too slow the fist landed right between his ribs easily sending him flying while feeling the immense pain followed by it. He lands on the ground and starts rolling from the excessive force it was a miracle that he was still standing after this. The puppet body didn't need to breathe, eat, and sleep but it still kept the feeling of pain for some reason.

Mannequin didn't end the fight with that, before he could regain his senses another white blur hit him on the chest making him fall on the ground and slide almost a dozen or so meters before forcing himself to stop using the spear to stick to the floor and hold from it to counter the force. His vision was now blurry from the pain, each hit made him feel weak and made his brain like a milkshake all messed up and mixed.

He heard the whistling of the wind predicting that it would come from the left he swung his spear towards that direction to see it missed only a few inches from the mannequin's head. It twisted its body rolling in the air before using its leg like a whip followed that was really loud booming sound and darkness enveloping Edward's mind.

'Fuck...'