The Idle System (A LitRPG series Book 7): Family by Pegaz (good books to read for young adults txt) 📗

Chapter 10: Trial

The next day, John woke up early to prepare for the upcoming session. He used his wood, earth, and metal elements to create training dummies for all of his trainees. The half-body dummies were made to be the same size, except for Kelly’s. It was trimmed down to match her height so that she could properly gauge how and where to attack a human’s vitals.

Not long after he finished crafting the dummies, John’s students started to gather and the group started their session. Excitement filled their faces as they anxiously examined the object in front of them. Some pretended to dance with their wooden counterparts and hugged them, as they were the first pieces of training equipment they had ever used.

John went around to each person and shouted out basic commands for them to perform. The wooden figures were sturdy but still given enough flexibility to get knocked around a bit and also bounce back after being attacked. This was due to their weighted bases: the adult dummies were five hundred pounds, while the one for Kelly was around a hundred pounds.

After a few minutes with each person, John decided to move on to something else. “Everyone gather together!”

Kelly was the first to stop what she was doing and run towards John. The others were reluctant to leave the new dummies and grouped together.

“Today, I’m giving you all a group trial. Pass, and you can use the dummies from tomorrow onwards. Fail, and I’ll make you do the drills twice a day until you pass the group trial on your own!”

He stared into the small crowd and tossed them a satisfied smirk. He was proud to see that they had made quite a bit of progress since John and his family arrived. Everyone present had put on muscle, and their complexions were much better. This was all thanks to training, increased food intake, and the new medicine Sarah had passed out to those who were ill.

Upon noticing his smile, the group grew anxious about what was to come. They knew that John didn’t play around with his punishments, so any wrong move would cost them months of painful training.

“Follow me!” he instructed as he led the trainees through a tall field of grass that came up to most of their thighs.

He led them forty feet into the jungle and the height of the grass decreased drastically, but so did their ability to see. The sunlight was being devoured by leaves that clung to the tree branches above.

“Wait here!” John shouted before running further into the jungle and disappearing from sight.

Nobody in the group spoke or moved, which caused the entire place to become eerily quiet.

Moments later, a loud roar erupted from the direction John had gone. Everyone nearly jumped out of their skin, but Kelly knew better. She had heard this noise before and she burst into laughter when she heard her father yell at the creature to shut up. His voice echoed over the roar and everyone stared in confusion as they watched him emerge from the dark brush with a continuous boar in a strange headlock.

The bear, which stood over seven feet on all four legs, was hunched down and slowly walking alongside John as its head was under John’s arm. Its entire body was much bigger than John who was a dwarf in comparison, but that dwarf was dictating the direction and speed of the walk.

John’s arm couldn’t wrap around the bear’s neck completely due to its large size, but nobody could see the threads he used to complete the headlock.

When John was thirty feet away from the group, he looked at them and spoke nonchalantly. “All you need to do is survive. No equipment of any kind is allowed. You can only use the martial arts techniques you’ve learned.

“You’re not allowed to flee. The bear can’t be left alone for too long, nor can it be allowed to attack someone on their own. You must defend one another and if you don’t, you can forget about me training you to become a knight.”

Kelly raised her hand, catching John’s attention.

“Can we use an attack to defend?” Kelly asked, still remembering how John used an elbow attack to defend against the continuous bear the last time.

John nodded his head. “Any other questions?”

Everyone remained silent.

“This will last until the bear gives up. Don’t expect me to help you at all. I won’t move from this spot until it’s over!”

Without warning, he released the bear from the headlock and pushed it towards the group.

The creature let out a bellow, and the group covered their ears and shook in fear.

John rolled his eyes and called out starting instructions. “Surround the bear! Get in its blind spots. You’re forbidden to attack it, but it will make the bear panic a little. If the bear attacks someone, then the people on the left and right of the person being attacked should help defend.”

He saw the people instantly move to surround the bear.

The bear panicked and started to turn around in place, trying to make sure none of them attacked it.

Upon realising that it wasn’t going to be attacked, the beast lunged at one of the trainees, swiping at their neck with its claws.

Just like John hoped, the people on either side of the person being attacked used simple punches to hit the bear’s claws in hopes of saving their comrade.

Three men throwing a punch at the same target caused the bear’s claw to jolt backwards. It wasn’t strong enough to cause the bear to lose balance, but it did make the bear choose a different target.

Most of the trainees did a decent job at keeping their composure when they saw the bear switch focus.

When it attacked the person standing to the left of Kelly, she knew she couldn’t reach the claw the same way as the others. Quick on her feet, she performed a jump