Gideon woke up at 05:00 AM the next day and started to exercise inside the VIP suite that was large enough for him to do. But, he couldn't go out jogging as they were not allowed to jog or run when they were inside the market premise.
He also tried to perform the Constitution Enhancement Exercise with his full focus and will power, but still couldn't break through to the 18th step.
Only then did he realize how tired he was after yesterday's trekking in the forest and the battle in which he fought.
Now he realizes why Raam is yet to come to his doorstep even after 06:00 AM to take him into the forest for hunting as they planned yesterday to which Raam reluctantly agreed.
Understanding this, Gideon opened his door only to be startled by Aaravi who was standing in front of the suite leaning against the wooden wall at the front.
She smiled seeing him walk out of the suite with a "Good Morning" while Raam was nowhere to be seen, which is understandable as he was either fighting or helping others or 'marching' like yesterday in the forest.
"Good Morning!" Gideon greeted her with a smiling nod.
"Raam asked me to take care of your training today. The poor guy is too drained to handle it." She said with an expression which made Gideon confused as it looked like she was cautious in what she was saying to him, which he decided to ignore.
"I understand. Thanks." He said. With nothing to say more, they went to the dining area of the inn and Gideon had a light breakfast to keep his hunger satiated and get strength to hunt in the forest.
After breakfast, Aaravi led him to the back of the inn where he saw a huge training hall that can be used by the people who are in the market to train and keep training their fighting skills and maintain it at par, if they needed to fight.
The training hall was so huge that almost 100 people and monsters partners can train in it at the same time with enough space between them, without hindering eachother's training. There were many people already training and sparring along with their monster partners. He also noticed there were medical staff at a corner on standby ready to help people or monster partners who might need it if things get worse during their sparring or training sessions.
The hall also had a lot of white lines on the ground that were in square shapes where the sparring matches were held. It was mostly humans vs humans or monster vs monster. Only a few sparred with their monster partners and that was where the medical staff were mostly focusing on.
Gideon felt a little shyness from Jaice which was sitting on his left shoulder and it started nibbing its tiny black beak on his head while asking to leave this crowded place.
"You don't have to be shy. This is the place where you can train and gain a lot." Aaravi said to Gideon as if she could understand what Jaice was thinking.
She gestured towards a corner of the hall which had racks of wooden weapons, which was similar to the weapons he had used when he was at school. He nodded at her and went to a rack that had swords to get a wooden sword for his training.
He then followed Aaravi to a sparring square where there was already someone, a fair skinned, curly haired boy with a muscular body waiting with a wooden sword in hand.
When he got close, he sensed his power and realized that the boy was at Tier-1, level-3 which made him a little worried about the fight.
It is well known that the initial Tier-1 and Tier-2 are like a training phase where the power difference is not huge. That was why he was able to fight Tier-1, level-3 wild monsters without getting severe injury, but fighting a human is different. The power might be only a little high, but their fighting experience would be far greater than someone like Gideon who had only fought a few battles till now.
"Hello fellow adventurer, I am Jack, Tier-1, level-3." The curly haired boy said as soon as Gideon reached the center of the fighting square to which he just said "Gideon, Tier-1, level-1."
"He is here for training, so do what you are best at." Aaravi said from the side where Jaice was hovering next to her, flapping her wings as if she wanted to join the fight that was about to happen.
It was a pity, that she can't join Gideon in the fight as monsters are not allowed to fight unless they get an approval at first from the hall's caretaker or the management with an agreement signed that the monsters will not maim or kill anyone.
Gideon could understand her eagerness to fight which made him feel more worried thinking 'Is she becoming a fight maniac, wanting to fight at any given chance.' He had to give her strict instructions to not join the battle they had yesterday and to focus on scouting, or sure she would have definitely joined the battle the second it started.
"Ready?" Jack asked to which he just nodded, gripping the wooden sword in front of him, standing a few feet away from him.
Jack immediately sprinted toward him to start the fight in an aggressive manner, reaching close to him within 2 seconds and swung the sword towards his waist, which was blocked by Gideon with little effort. To his surprise, that attack didn't have the power which he expected looking at the speed of the attack.
Jack slid his sword high, scraping the sword that blocked his attack earlier, hitting the hilt of it with more force that flung the sword out of Gideon's hand which made him look at his hand that had a tinge of red in his palms and starting to feel a little numb.
"You should not only focus on attack and defence, but create a way to counterattack every attack you are defending. Use the force of the attack to create a good counter." Jack said while he went to grab the sword that had fallen a few feet away from them.
"You don't have enough strength, but you are agile. Use it when you are fighting against stronger opponents." He added when giving the sword back to Gideon to which he just nodded.
The second attack came from Jack swiftly which he couldn't block or dodge, getting hit on the shoulder. The pain was bearable, but he was a little confused as Jack didn't give him any indication of the attack or asked him to get ready for the next attack.
Jack continued attacking him without giving any time for him to relax while also giving him pointers on how to block or counter attack, after breaking through his defences with ease. Gideon realized he was fighting someone who was more experienced and made him feel that the spar was like a fight between a newborn baby and an adult. But he had learned a lot in a short duration which he was very thankful to Jack and Aaravi for arranging it.
The sparring match ended in 10 minutes.
By the end of it, when he walked out of the sparring square, Gideon felt pain all over his body which made him walk in a funny way to not put more pressure on the parts that were more hurt, but he had a smile on his face.
He realized what he thought about himself was very wrong. He initially thought that after completing the three fighting tasks which included a huge battle, he would be able to take on anything and find a way to come on top, but this single sparring match with Jack had woken him up from his dream world.
He was not arrogant, but was getting over confident in himself which would only lead to his downfall, sooner or later.
He noticed that Jack, even though he was stronger and more experienced, never let his guard down and stayed cautious, even when he was giving him pointers during the fight. He only relaxed after Aaravi declared an end to the spar.
He had learned a lot from this short spar, even though it was very painful. His entire body was in pain screaming for rest, which was understandable.
Arravi led them both to the medical staff who checked on them to make sure they were not having any internal injuries or bleeding before clearing them to leave the training hall.
Gideon went straight to his suite and flopped on the soft bed to give the much needed rest to his sore body.
Sleep took over him immediately due to the tiredness and he woke up only by 01:00 PM due to Jaice nagging him to have lunch while he didn't want to get up from the soft welcoming bed, but he eventually had to or he would be facing an angry Breeze Crow which would be bad for his head.