"This hurts," I said, as my eyes filled with tears that I could barely hold back.
It seemed like everyone else had heard me and was now looking at me, holding the hand with which I had hit the broken wooden stick.
"Who would have thought you'd block your attack with the broken part of the stick. You didn't cut yourself badly, did you?" Ghislaine asked, looking at my hand.
"Besides, why did you hit it with your palm? Wouldn't a fist have been better?"
Anna was approaching with the old man, who was carrying some gauze that helped stop my hand from bleeding. Although the bleeding had stopped, the pain continued and had become worse as I felt the gauze pressing against the wound.
"Jumyeong taught me. He said that if I hit it this way, it would be stronger."
As I expected, everyone looked in his direction with raised eyebrows, seeming to judge him. Jumyeong, on the other hand, just shrugged and said
"I taught her, but I didn't think she would be skilled enough to block the blow like that." He said with a mocking tone, almost laughing.
<<<<>>>>
After a few hours, the fights finally ended, as there were more of them, and some couldn't find a partner. We finally finished, losing, except for a few who won, the rest lost. The old man had started talking to us about things like being stricter with the training of some and things like that, but no one paid any attention to him.
We spent several weeks like this, until they changed those routines and some of us were taught differently from the others. If I'm not mistaken, Jumyeong said that they started teaching us basic sword or spear techniques. Except for me, because they said something like
"You leave a lot to be desired if you use these weapons."
I didn't understand what they meant, so when I asked the others, they told me it was because I wasn't very good with the sword, considering my "talent."
Although it wasn't all training, after a few days of joint practice, as they had told me, I started trying to talk to the guys on the other side, even though at first it was against my will because everyone forced me to be friendly with them and I had some trouble doing so.
The one who had no trouble was Elias. For some reason, he started sitting next to the green-haired girl named Isolde. She and Elias began to hang out together, away from both groups where, in Elias's words, no one would bother them.
I, on the other hand, was able to find out the names of the black-haired girl I had confronted and a few others. The girl's name was Adhel, and as I had thought, the previous boy was her brother, named Cedric. The fat boy's name was Goon-woo. It seems he came from the east, just like Jumyeong.
"It's good that we can mix now," said Anna, looking at the other tables.
"Yes, they don't bother us as much as they did at the beginning," I replied with a smile on my face.
Unlike before, the place was now more lively. They still bothered us about some things, but they weren't that important, so we didn't care.
While I was talking to Anna, I saw the doors open and some older guys come in, wearing torn clothes or what looked like blood.
"The senior disciples have returned, we salute the elders," they shouted, putting a fist in their hand as they bowed.
To my surprise, the guys from the other group bowed in the same way, seeming to pay their respects. Even Jumyeong did so, and he himself motioned for us to do the same. Although I didn't understand the meaning, I did so, copying the posture of the others.
"Ah, what a surprise to see you here earlier than expected."
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that the one speaking was Ophelia, the white-haired woman, who, from what I had seen so far, was the one in charge.
"As you say, Sect Leader, we thought it would take longer than expected, but the collection was not as difficult as we thought," said a boy standing in front of the others. "Besides, we found something during our exploration of the dungeon."
"You found something?" she repeated, tilting her head.
"Wait, they went to a dungeon?" I thought, raising my head to look at the group.
"Yes, although... it's a little... strange," said a girl from behind the leader.
Ophelia seemed just as curious as the others in the dining room. None of us could contain our curiosity about what they had found.
One of the people at the back of the group approached Ophelia with a small box in his outstretched arms. He seemed to be trying to get as far away from the box as possible.
"Doesn't that boy have animal tails and ears?" I said to myself in surprise when I saw ears and a tail similar to those of a fox.
"This is what we found," he said, handing over the box.
As soon as Ophelia opened the box, her expression seemed disgusted, and she slammed the box shut before looking away.
"You're right, it's rare to see something like this in a dungeon," he said, placing the box on a table.
One of the elders got up to pick it up, opening it and then making the same expression of disgust after seeing its contents. He passed it to the others and then left the box on a distant table.
"What could be inside?" I asked, standing on tiptoe and then taking a long leap to pick up the box. "Now, let's see what's inside..."
"AHHHHH!"
"AHHHHH!"
"AHHHHH!"
I dropped the box on the floor, leaving it open. I quickly wiped my hands after seeing its contents. I hadn't even noticed that everyone had gathered around me, which caused us all to scream at the same time, attracting the attention of the adults.
"What's an eye doing in there!" Anna shouted, moving away from the box.
"It's not even an eye, it has tentacles!" Goon-woo replied.
Now that the box was open, everyone could see inside. A large eye that blinked and looked at us as if it were alive, in addition to several tentacles that moved connected to it.
"What are you brats doing, that's expensive!"
We all turned around to see who was yelling at us, and it was Ophelia who was approaching us with heavy footsteps, looking at us furiously. How could she care about that after seeing that thing? With a strong swipe, she picked up the box from the floor and looked at us as if we had done something wrong.
"What is that thing?" I asked, disgusted.
"This is a homunculus," she replied.
None of my group seemed to know what that thing was, even though we looked at each other. Luckily for us, Isolde cleared up our doubts, speaking to Elias.
"A homunculus is a creature created by alchemists."
"Homunculus? Why would they create it? It's disgusting!" said Anna, still looking disgusted.
"This one is for cultivation. If someone eats it, they can become significantly stronger. It's like a pill," replied Ophelia, closing the box.
I don't understand why anyone would want to eat that. Even if it makes you stronger, it looks and must taste horrible! At that moment, I realized something: if it makes you so strong, who would eat it? Like me, we all seemed to have the same question, so we looked at Ophelia in horror.
"None of you will eat it, don't worry."
At the same time, we all sighed with relief, sitting down at our tables as before, trying not to look at the box.