{Ment Tao's POV}
As the sun started to rise, I realized that for once in several months I was not training. Currently I am sitting on the bench close to the pond in my courtyard, waiting for my new tutor, or rather laborer, to appear.
While I had told Zhen Li to arrange a tutor for me, in reality that was only a minor part of what I needed. What I truly needed was a way to vastly speed up the rate at which I completed the mission for my staff. At first there was hardly any difference in how durable I became. The only indication that I was making progress was the pain from breaking the staff decreasing as well as it becoming more difficult to break.
It wasn't until recently that I had started noticing a difference. Stubbing my toe no longer caused me any pain. No matter how often I slam my elbow against the desk, there is no pain. And it isn't just the obvious stuff either. No matter how I sleep or how little I stretch, I wake up without aches or pains. Honestly, my body has not felt this comfortable since I was a teenager.
At this point, I have become addicted to this feeling of clear improvement. This feeling of becoming something greater than I was yesterday. However, the progress is still too slow to my liking.
As I was thinking about my progress, the potential answer to my problems waltzed into the courtyard.
The man had long hair and wore a martial arts outfit similar to ones that would be seen in kung fu movies. He had what seemed to be a smug grin on his face, and he walked with the exaggerated swagger of a martial artist.
After entering the courtyard, he looked around, and when he spotted me, he quickly approached.
"Good morning, City Lord Meng. My name is Song Chu, and I am to be your tutor for the foreseeable future." The man sent a slight bow towards me, and I immediately knew that he was trouble.
Looking up, I could see that the sun was high in the sky, meaning it was only slightly before noon.
'Late'
The smug grin he had and his cocky way of walking.
'Arrogant'
Finally, the slight bow the man gave me. While bowing was still new to me, I knew that how deep one bowed their head determined how much respect was being shown. A slight bow might show closeness or display that they were equal in stature. Even Cao Peng, who basically raised me, still gave me a deep bow.
'Disrespectful'
I let out a sigh and brought my attention back to the man standing in front of me, waiting for me to respond. I stood up and gave him a simple nod.
"Mhmm, nice to meet you."
The man's smile did not disappear, and he seemed as if he wanted to start talking. However, I knew how to handle people like this.
"Has Marshal Zhen Li informed you of this job's responsibilities?" I pulled out my manager voice and acted as if I were interviewing an applicant.
"Mr. Go—Ahem! Zhen Li informed me that you needed a tutor in the art of using the staff. Is that correct?" The man's smile grew stiff at my tone.
"Only partially." I stood up from the bench before continuing. While I wasn't the tallest man in the world, in my last life I easily cleared 182 cm (six feet). My body in this life was basically a carbon copy of my last one. This gave me the ability to look down on the man.
"The more important task is for you to test out a new material that I am having created for weapons. I have ordered countless staves, and your main job will be breaking these staves as quickly as possible."
The smile was completely gone at this point, and his brows were furrowed.
"Staves?" He questioned cautiously.
"Yes, staves." As I spoke, I reached into the sleeves of my robes and pulled out the staff that was just as tall as me.
Song Chu seemed perplexed at the sight, his eyes darting between my sleeve and the staff repeatedly. He looked silly to the point that I had to stop myself from laughing.
"I understand. However, learning the staff is also an important task, correct?" Perhaps learning from me, as I went to speak, the irritating man cut me off and continued.
"So while I test these staves, it would make perfect sense to train you at the same time, correct?"
Part of me wanted to throw this man out. It was as if he forgot who was going to be signing his checks. However, he had a point. While breaking the staff does make me more durable, it does nothing for my strength and ability to use the staff. Taking this into consideration, I nodded at him.
"Great! Then go ahead and do one hundred laps around the courtyard." The grin was back on the man's face as he barked out instructions.
"As for the staves..." The man pressed on both ends of the staff, and with minimum effort, he crushed the staff like a soda can. "I'll break every single one you give me. At my level of training, even snapping metal is as easy as snapping wood."
The pain rippled through my body as the sensation of being crushed ran through my body. However, my pain resistance at this point is like something out of a comic book. After a second I brushed the pain off.
Seeing the ease at which he broke the staff caused me to remove any further doubt in my mind. While the man was insufferable, I could tell that by keeping him I would quickly accelerate the speech at which I completed the upgrade quest.
"Got it!" I replied enthusiastically, and I went to a corner of the yard to start running. However, before I started to run, I reached into my sleeve once more and pulled out another staff and threw it at the man.
"Heads up!"
The man caught it easily. But his face made the confused expression as the last time he saw this. I paid it no mind and started to run.
The rest of the day followed the same trend. Every ten seconds I would throw Song Chu a new staff that I seemed to pull out of thin air. and he would break it in under a second. Meanwhile, I continued to run laps around the courtyard.
By the afternoon, the staff had been broken more than 200 times, and my shirt was soaked in sweat, and I was gasping for air. Song Chu sat on the bench drinking tea that the maid had brought out for me.
"Okay, City Lord, let's end things here for today." The smug grin was back stronger than ever. He rose from the bench and walked over to where I was standing.
While I was exhausted, the pain tolerance from my recent training kept me on my feet. After catching my breath, I reached into my pocket and grabbed the prepared amount of copper coins for today's "training."
Song Chu quickly opened the small pouch I gave him before his face was taken over by greed. His eyes darted between the pouch and me for several seconds before a fake smile was plastered on his face.
After having Cao Peng research prices, I determined that fifteen copper coins per day was on the high end for martial tutors, but seeing the effectiveness of him breaking my staff, I felt that it was worth it. As for the actual instruction, while simple, running is an effective way to build stamina, so I'll tolerate it for now.
"Right then, I'll see you tomorrow, City Lord." The man gave a nod and then quickly left. This time he didn't even try to express the proper respect.
Shaking my head, I disregarded him. If he could make the same progress every day, then he could do whatever as long as he does not go too far.
Time passed by quickly, and soon it had already been a week. Every day Song Chu was late, and I was told to run laps around. The only difference is that after a week, Song Chu took longer and longer to break my staff.
At first he complemented the improvement in its durability. Before he started to grow frustrated. Even though he would still break it in less than ten seconds, it was taking him longer and longer as the days went by.
Perhaps to vent his frustrations, he intensified my "training." At first it was just running laps for hours, then it was doing push-ups until my muscles gave out. After three weeks it was push-ups until my muscles failed, sit-ups until my muscles failed, then running for the rest of the day.
I wanted to tell the smug prick to take a hike, but...
[Destroy or break Almighty Rod (Rename?) 10,000 times!]
[Current Progress: 3,125/10,000]
[Current Progress: 3,825/10,000]
[Current Progress: 4,525/10,000]
Seeing the numbers constantly going up was doing something to my brain. It reminded me of every RPG game I played in the past, only this time, I was the one constantly improving. It was at a rate that I had no way of matching. So I decided to tolerate him. I tolerated the disrespect, the excessive exercises, and even the mocking looks he gave me.
I tolerated it until thing came to ahead after about six weeks of training
[Current Progress: 6,625/10,000]
The day started like usual. I handed Song Chu the first staff and immediately started running laps to warm up. After ten seconds I was about to summon a new staff before I felt something odd. Every time my staff breaks, I feel its presence in my chest. But it wasn't there this time.
Looking at Song Chu, I saw him struggling to break the staff. He twisted it, pulled it, and slammed it against the earth with no avail. No matter how hard he tried, it did not break.
Seeing this, some part of me felt a mocking vindication. The oh-so-tough martial artist who has been sending my mocking grins and superficial smiles was struggling for the first time. However, a far larger part of me was annoyed. In less than two months I had progressed from around 25% progress on my mission to over 60%. To think I was so close and so willing to put up with his nonsense for weeks only for the experience points to stop when I was so close to the finish line was infuriating.
Seeing me looking at him, he quickly fixed his expression and dropped the staff on the floor.
"What's wrong? Training has only begun, and you are already giving up Mr. City Lord?" He tried to get on my nerves, but my focus was on glaring at the staff that had grown too durable for an alleged martial arts genius to break.
Seeing that I was ignoring him, his face grew annoyed before shifting to something vaguely malicious.
"Well, since you are bored with basic training, how about we do some hands-on training?" He sent me his signature grin. It was obvious he wanted to use me to vent his frustations in a more direct way this time.
My eyes met his, and after remembering how my skill worked, I sent him a grin that mimicked his.
'Time to teach this idiot some manners.'
"Sure thing, tutor."
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I was a bit late, but here is that chapter I promised. The next update is tomorrow.
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