"Ahhhh!"

Bang!

Muku found himself falling from the sky after Mrs C sent him away. So, of course, he screamed as he fell. The situation was too sudden and he was on the ground before he could properly think.

Fortunately, it seemed Mrs C had thought of everything as he didn't feel pain or get hurt despite the height he fell from... Though it was still messed up what she did.

Anyway, he didn't linger on it. He immediately got on his feet and began looking around cautiously.

Mrs C said that he only had to face one opponent. So, the opponent was probably something special. For that reason, he didn't want to be caught off guard by them.

Fortunately for him, it didn't take long for him to find the opponent. In fact, the opponent had found him first. Two fiery red eyes had been looking at him from the moment he fell into the trial ground.

Of course, he soon sensed the intense gaze. Then his eyes snapped in the direction it came from. He felt goosebumps appear on his skin the moment he saw the other party.

It was a crimson red beast which looked like a huge Komodo Dragon with large spikes on its back. A violent flame faintly burned around its body...

Muku immediately thought of a creature from his recent past...

"That's right son! That's the same beast you told me about before. The one you got unjustly killed. I brought it back for you! And don't worry, its power has been reduced to match your own. Though it still has both its physical and magical capabilities intact unlike you. Think of it as a way for you to make peace with it for what you did!" Mrs C's voice sounded from above.

For whatever reason, Muku found her really annoying in that moment... Who was he kidding, he knew very well why he found her annoying. The damn old lady had brought back a monster from the dead so that she could see him get beaten up! If he knew what she would do with the information, he wouldn't have told her anything!

"What do you mean it's the same one?! I watched that thing get killed! I thought you said you couldn't create life?!" Muku screamed hysterically while running away from the towering creature which made him look like a little rodent.

It was more than fifty metres tall and he was just six-foot-seven!. That's less than two metres! Even worse was how he realised that he couldn't use his Telekinesis!

It seemed it was locked too since it required mental energy to work which wasn't mana. So, he felt fortunate that the creature didn't chase or attack him. It just looked at him. If it had chased, then he would have been screwed!

"Correct, I can't create life. However, after being alive for so long. I can mess with ready-made life a bit. It actually just takes a little effort. Anyone can do it... Though I haven't actually come across anyone else who can do it... But my point still stands. Oh, and it's not a zombie or anything, it's really alive. Isn't that great?"Mrs C replied excitedly.

She seemed to really like showing off her abilities to mess with life. Maybe it really was as tough as she said. After all, for someone as unfathomable as her to talk about it so highly, it had to be something out of the ordinary. The fact that she hadn't met anyone else who could do it also showed how impressive it was. In Muku's eyes, she was an immortal monster who had been alive forever, so for her not to meet even one other being who could do it in that time...

"OMG! I knew I should have skipped your crazy trials after the first time. Why was I so greedy? Muku complained as he ran further away from the unmoving Earth Dragon.

"Oh come on now. It's not that bad. I never give you anything you can't win... Probably. Anyway, the battle will begin in one minute. So, be prepared because I can assure you, that the lizard can't wait to tear you apart..." Mrs C replied dismissively.

She was clearly unbothered by Muku's complaints. So what if he had regrets? Everything was already done. And he couldn't escape from the trial ground.

She knew him well enough to know that if she rewarded him well enough after the completion of the trial... He'll come back. Like he said. He can be quite greedy when he knows his life is guaranteed...

"One minute?!... Wait? One minute? That's actually better than the usual ten seconds. I think I can work with that... And it doesn't matter that you took away my Telekinesis. I found out a while back that I can fly with my DA. So, you won't get to see me run around pathetically like you expected. Even if the flight method is quite wasteful compared to my Telekinesis" Muku who was running away paused after hearing that he had a minute to prepare.

He was fat enough anyway. He felt so well prepared that he began backtalking to his mother like a brat. It seemed he had developed some weird habits from his experiences from the previous month...

"Ten seconds left..." Mrs C didn't argue and just reminded him of the time.

"Hey! I didn't even talk for that long! You're stealing my time!" Muku protested but still got ready to fight.

"My trial, my time... Three... Two... One... Zero... Fight!" Mrs C indirectly admitted to cutting down Muku's time. She immediately started the battle before he could complain further...

"ROOOOOOOOOOAR!!!" The Earth Dragon let out a monstrous roar as if celebrating being released from invisible shackles. The earth around it shook from the roar alone. Muku had to protect his ears with mana or they might have exploded.

The beast was confused as to what was going on since it was certain it had been killed by the R5 ogre. It remembers everything going black... And yet there it was, alive and well. Despite its power decreasing, everything was okay.

The situation was really weird. But it didn't care about that. After all, the weird creature who had gotten it into that situation was standing in front of it. It couldn't sense Muku's aura before, but it recognised his grey eyes. There was no way it would forget those eyes which looked at it with pity when it got wrongfully killed...

Anyway, it was glad that it could sense Muku's aura now. This way, he could escape even if he made himself invisible like last time... This time it was going to end him! Revenge was just one fire breath away.

It didn't care that they were the same in strength now. It was a beast which had tasted the peak of the rank. So, it knew things this rookie didn't. It knew he was still a rookie from his yet to completely solidify Advanced Mana...

"Well, this is definitely not a fight I'm looking forward to... Not even Ares has so much hate for me in his eyes..." Muku spoke a little uneasily.

His body was already close to being tired despite the little distance he ran. It was a new experience indeed. His physical capabilities hadn't been slightly reduced. They had been completely removed. He was no different from a normal person, physically.

The very definition of a glass canon. The very thing one shouldn't be when fighting an obviously steady creature which could go the distance.

Fortunately, he still had his Domain Amour. That should give him a fighting chance at least... Right?

With that thought in mind, a grey armour appeared around his body. The thing about the mana was that it seemed a bit faint and ethereal... This was because it wasn't actually metal, but metal advanced mana densely gathered together to form a Metal-Element Domain Armour.

Fortunately, domains still worked despite requiring mental energy to work. Maybe it was because, unlike Telekinesis which used mana to weaponise mental energy, domains used mental energy to weaponise mana. So, as long as it was advanced mana which was the weapon, everything could be discussed...

"ROOOOOAR!"

The Earth Dragon didn't delay anymore, it started with a breath attack off the bat!

BOOOOM!

Fortunately, Muku was expecting something like that so he quickly jumped out of the way. It wasn't easy though. After all, the beam travelled at super-fast speeds and had a diameter of around twenty meters.

So, Muku had to move at least ten meters away from where he was in less than a second with his physical capabilities removed.

That was quite problematic. So much so, just doing that took away a sizeable amount of his mana... The thing with DA is that it works together with one's physical capabilities for the best results. So, the lower your physical capabilities, the more mana you burn when using it... One can understand how screwed Muku was with his normal human-level physical capabilities while facing such a monster.

He was so tense he was repeating the embarrassing "safe words" in his mind over and over ready to shout them at any moment.

Mrs C really knew how to make his life hell despite her obvious love for him. Was she one of those weirdos who were hardest on the ones they loved the most?

If so, he really should have a talk with her after the trial... That is, if he makes it out. After all, the Earth Dragon hadn't gotten serious yet.

The move it had used was one of its relatively normal attacks. So, yeah, Muku was in for one heck of a ride...