Martial Arts Worlds - Chapter 344

Chapter 344: Quests, Instinct, and Job

‘I know that Mack is Low Stage Martial Master. I could’ve faced off against some Martial Champions, but that wouldn’t pose a challenge to me.

‘If I want to effectively grind experience points, I must start fighting against Martial Masters.’

Kiernan put the weighted gloves on and moved into his defensive stance, which was a stance that no one here knew about.

Whenever he used it in New Rakuya, his opponents and everyone watching knew that he was going on the defensive.

It didn’t really matter, but he liked it better when his opponent didn’t know what he was trying to do.

Mack swung the sledgehammer over his shoulder and looked to be ready for the match.

“Without further ado, have a good old blood-spilling match. START FIGHTING!”

“Haah!”

Mack’s muscles strained as he swung the sledgehammer, all of its momentum ending up at the heavy front end of the weapon.

Kiernan placed his left arm in the way, looking like he was planning to guard against it like a fool.

‘You cannot block the sledgehammer, foolish kid. It will just break your arm!’

Mack thought with a grin.

However, as it was about to hit, Kiernan slid his feet backwards and dodged the sledgehammer with ease.

The sledgehammer’s swing didn’t stop just yet, and Mack used all of his strength to stop its swing so he could swing it back at Kiernan.

However, it was quite heavy, and he struggled to maintain control of it.

“Iron Smash!”

Kiernan’s weighted gloves made contact with Mack’s nose, and he felt a sharp pain shoot through his face.

The nose got crushed like a strawberry under a boot.

With surprise on their faces, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause.

Mack brought back his sledgehammer and used its block-shaped head to block Kiernan’s couple of straight punches.

The head of the sledgehammer actually started to show signs of cracking as it couldn’t handle the force of Kiernan’s punches.

‘Impossible… I can tell his strength, and he hadn’t even reached Martial Master yet, but he has this kind of strength?

‘The difference between Martial Champion and Martial Master is extremely vast. Even greater gap than between Martial Fighter and Martial Champion!’

Kiernan punched straight once again, but the sledgehammer appeared in front of him, but he didn’t care.

‘Mack doesn’t know how to use a sledgehammer, so he is currently weaker than using what he knows—his fists.’

“Iron Style, Weaving Blast!”

Kiernan’s fist slithered past the sledgehammer and collided with Mack’s face, sending him flying across the ring.

Mack’s bulky body crashed against the cage, and he coughed blood as he struggled to get back on his feet.

“Trash weapon!”

Mack tossed the sledgehammer away, recognizing that he was limiting his martial arts greatly by using a weapon that he didn’t know how to use.

At that moment, he realized that Kiernan won the lottery spin as he received a weapon that one didn’t need to know how to use.

As long as the person was an unarmed combatant, the weighted gloves would be a very powerful tool for them.

Mack stomped on the ground, moved forward, and brought his fist forward, but then Kiernan ducked underneath the fist and ran towards the sledgehammer!

The crowd’s eyes widened in shock when they realized that Kiernan was going for the second weapon as well!

‘You fool. That sledgehammer is heavy even for Martial Master like me, and if you don’t know how to use it, you’ll just weaken yourself!’

Kiernan lifted the sledgehammer with just one hand and swung it towards Mack, but he quickly dodged out of the way.

Mack formed a fist with his right and jumped towards Kiernan, believing that it would hard for him to stop the sledgehammer’s swing, like what happened to him.

However, at that moment, Kiernan grabbed the sledgehammer’s worn handle with his second hand and swung it straight towards Mack.

“Ah?!”

Mack’s eyes widened in shock as he didn’t expect such a quick swing, and at that moment, the head of the sledgehammer smashed at the side of his head.

SMACK! CRACK!

The crowd let out a cold breath.

With a blank look, Mack collapsed on the ground, not moving an inch while his head bled profusely.

“It is over!”

The match organizer entered the ring and raised Kiernan’s arm in victory.

“And the winner of the match is John Castle!”

[You have defeated Low Stage Martial Master!]

[300 XP Acquired!]

‘300 XP sure is low…’

Kiernan, after returning the weapons back to the brown-bearded man, left the caged ring amidst the cheering of the crowd.

They were greatly amazed at the strength that the young man had shown just now.

‘I must’ve acquired new quests, so when I’ll return to the inn, I’ll check those out.’

…

After returning to the inn while the sky turned dark, Kiernan sat down on his bed.

“Interface.”

With a soft-spoken word, the system interface appeared in front of him, and he immediately pressed on the Quest Store.

[You successfully completed a Quest!]

[You now have a choice to choose what kind of reward-based Quest you want to start next]

‘Reward-based?’

Kiernan frowned, rubbed his chin, and then said.

“Rewards that give experience points, please.”

[You chose XP Rewarded Quests!]

At that moment, four brand-new quests appeared in the store.

‘Well, what do we have now?’

***

[Job Quest]

[Rank: Beginner]

[Mission: Help with the cleaning of Yokai Dojo]

[Location: Dusk Town]

[Description: With students coming from every corner of the country to visit Yokai Dojo, it has some serious need of cleaning and organizing. You can choose to give a helping hand]

[Time limit: None]

[Reward: 1,000 XP]

[Penalty: ???]

***

‘A job quest? What in the world is that?

Kiernan frowned, but he had a feeling that the system quest couldn’t be so simple, and there might be something else he might find on this Yokai Dojo.

After all, it was a martial arts dojo, and there was something he might be able to learn from there.

‘Hmm. I now have the Instinct skill, so I wonder if it can give me some clue whether I should choose the quest?’

Kiernan frowned and then decided to ask the system.

“Hey, what is this Instinct? How does it work?”

[…Just think about using it. It will show colors, and if it shows green, it is safe with a high probability of success and has some unexpected rewards in store]

‘So basically danger detection of such? Hmm, let’s try.’

Kiernan looked at the quest and thought about using Instinct.

Within his vision, the colors of the surroundings started to change, and the entire inn turned yellow in color, with the quest being in the color green.

‘The quest is green, so it is safe with some unexpected rewards. That is very good, but the inn is yellow…’

“What does yellow mean?”

[…It depends on the context. I can tell that the inn around you is yellow, which means the place is relatively safe, but there is a chance that it will change and will turn even more dangerous]

‘I guess I have to leave this place as soon as possible, but I’ll check the remaining quests before choosing which direction to head next.’