"That is enough," Kian said.
Everyone looked at him. Brown stood near the front. He gripped a heavy iron shield in his right hand and held a spiked flail in his left. Red stood beside him while carrying a heavy buster sword. Pink waited on the flank with two sharp daggers. The three melee fighters glowed brightly, and thick yellow Auras coated their bodies. Black and Yellow still sat on the cold stone floor, completely exhausted from their magic.
Kian pointed a finger directly at Brown. "You. Your shield and flail are so loud. From now on, you will not use that equipment."
Brown's jaw dropped. His hands went slack, so the heavy iron shield and the flail crashed loudly onto the dungeon floor.
Kian finished him off. "And also, you will never use that metallic armor ever again."
Brown became entirely speechless. His bright yellow Aura vanished into thin air.
A Tanker without a weapon and a shield cannot tank in a battlefield, Kian thought. I will make him useless to our dungeon explorations from now on, so he will give up and quit eventually.
Kian turned his head and looked at Red. He pointed at the heavy buster sword. "And you, Red. You are so loud as well. You hit a single monster multiple times. Every loud clang you make hurts my ears."
Red tightened his grip on his hilt. "But the monsters' armor in this dungeon is very hard. It needs at least ten hits to crack. It was inevitable."
Kian moved his index finger back and forth while delivering a trashy lesson. "That is what makes you an amateur Swordsman. A real Heavy Swordsman can kill any armored monster in just two hits. There is an ultimate way to do it, and you have to figure it out."
Red's yellow Aura vanished. The young boy put his index and thumb fingers under his chin and stared down at the ground. He started thinking deeply.
I just invented it, Kian thought. There is actually no way to do a two-hit kill. Killing a monster depends on how sturdy the beast is and how talented a Swordsman is. Even a one-hit kill is possible depending on the situation. A two-hit kill was just made up. His strikes against the armored monsters are so loud. If he minimizes it to two strikes, the noise will decrease significantly.
Red finally spoke. "I see. So this is a new training regimen."
Everyone looked at Kian. He felt their intense gazes.
It is not training, Kian thought. It is my way of telling you to quit the party because it is impossible to do it.
"Can you give me a hint on this training?" Red asked.
What the heck is he talking about? Kian thought. A hint? Oh well. I better give him random things to mislead him.
"I already told you," Kian said. "You are so loud. Can't you hear it?"
Red put on a very serious face. "I see. You are saying sound. I get it. I need to hear it first. Got it. I will look into it."
Red stepped back and started swinging his heavy sword through the empty air. He closed his eyes. He seemed to try to hear something hidden in the wind as he hit the air.
Kian smirked in his mind. I gave him nonsense advice. That was not actually advice at all. I just said he is so loud, and he thinks that is a hidden clue. This Red is unusually strong, but he is dumb. I can get rid of him fast if he blindly follows that nonsense advice. I am a genius.
Pink glared at Red. Her body still glowed with a bright Aura. "You are weak. That's why you need training."
Red opened his eyes and glared back. "Hah?"
He was clearly annoyed by the comment, so he pointed his heavy blade at her. "Do you want a spar?"
"I don't spar with weaklings," Pink said flatly.
"Say that again," Red growled.
Before they could argue any further, Kian looked at Pink. "You are the worst, Pink."
Red immediately pulled down his lower eyelid and stuck out his tongue. He made a mocking "bleh" face at the Thief.
Pink ignored him and looked at Kian. "What should I do?"
"From now on, you are not going to use your Aura," Kian said.
The command shocked everyone in the cavern. You can fight a beast without a weapon, but fighting without an Aura for a Melee is pure suicide in a dungeon.
In killing a Hazard-class monster, a melee fighter needs an Aura to coat their body or blade. A blade or fist without Aura cannot pierce a thick monster hide. That is common sense in the Adventuring World. By prohibiting Pink from using her Aura, Kian basically said she was no longer allowed to be an Adventurer.
"Wait, what?" Pink asked. "That can't be. I will be useless if I don't use my Aura."
As she said this, her yellow Aura vanished from her skin.
"You are too loud, so do not use Aura when you fight," Kian said.
"But—" Pink started.
"If I hear a loud sound from you again, you are fired," Kian interrupted.
Pink opened her mouth to argue, but Kian spoke before she could form a word.
"I am serious," Kian said. "You make a sound, you're fired. I am so annoyed by the sound you make."
Pink put her index and thumb fingers below her chin, mimicking Red's thinking pose. "Give me a hint."
"What?" Kian asked.
"You gave them a clue, so give me a hint as well," Pink demanded.
What the heck is she talking about? Kian thought. Clue? Does she mean nonsense advice? I just want to forbid her from using her Aura to make her useless in dungeon quests. My goal here is to make the three of them useless. If I tell them they are fired, they will demand a chance. Then when I give a condition, they will fulfill the condition. I am now tired of that repetitive scenario, so I changed my tactic. I want to make them feel useless.
Kian smirked in his mind.
Very well. You want crappy advice, so I will give you a crazy one. I need to make it sound cool and believable, like I'm pointing out a tactical advantage if it's pulled off.
He looked at Pink. "The reason why you are so loud is because you activate your Aura all the time. That makes you detectable. It is a fatal weakness for a Thief. So if you want to hide your loud sound, you have to activate your Aura the exact moment your dagger hits the neck of the target. Then after cutting the neck, you deactivate it in an instant."
Pink shook her head. "It's impossible. There is Aura Delay. I can activate my Aura in three seconds. Then deactivate it in three seconds as well. My training is way harder than everyone's."
Red interrupted her. "That's because you are the weakest. That's why you need the hardest training of all."
Pink glared at Red. "What did you say?"
She aggressively activated her Aura. Within three full seconds, her body was completely covered in a yellow glowing light.
Training, huh? Kian thought. They actually think this is training.
He smirked in his mind again.
"Pink, you're fired," Kian said.
Pink panicked. She instantly deactivated her Aura. "I am sorry! I won't do it again. I... I will complete my training. Please don't fire me."
She bowed frantically, dipping her head low.
She's been trapped, Kian thought. Of course, the Aura Delay is a strict Law of the Mana Core. You cannot cheat on that. A Healer can move like a Swordsman, but a Healer cannot coat Aura on a sword. That is a strict law governing the Universe. It is the same with Aura Delay. No one can cheat Aura Delay. It's impossible. I will bet all my current gold coins on it, though all my gold coins were actually earned by these color-coded kids. That means I win. I can get rid of this Pink very soon.
"Pink, if you fail this training, you're fired," Kian said. "If that happens, you aren't allowed to come near us ever again."
Pink swallowed hard.
"Don't worry," Kian lied. "Overcoming Aura Delay is possible. I am very sure of it."
The sheer panic on Pink's face instantly evaporated. The universal laws of the Mana Core dictated that Aura Delay was an absolute physical barrier, but Kian just casually stated it could be broken.
Because of her unshakeable trust in him, her young brain completely rejected the Law of Aura Delay. If Kian said it was possible, then the rest of the world was simply wrong.
Pink nodded slowly, and her expression turned dead serious.
Kian paused for a second. "If you complete the training, I will give you a reward."
I can give you any reward if you complete a training that is literally impossible, Kian thought. That means I don't need to give a reward at all.
"Can I ask anything I want?" Pink asked, her voice dropping to an intense, eager whisper.
"Yes," Kian said confidently. "You can choose your reward."
Pink's eyes sparkled wildly in the dark tunnel. She gripped her daggers so hard her hands trembled from the tension. A terrifying focus settled over her small frame. She had just been offered a blank check by the person she respected most, so the sheer thrill of it made her blood run hot. She was fully locked in.
Kian was completely confident the Aura Delay would never be broken. His instruction forced Pink to activate her Aura the exact moment of impact on a monster's neck, then deactivate it the moment she finished cutting the flesh. Every Adventurer knew the truth that this violates the Aura Delay, but Pink accepted the crap training anyway.
Red watched Pink's enthusiasm for a second, so he immediately took the opportunity to ruin her serious mood.
Red and Pink started to mock each other again.