The Pathway Of Wisdom-Chapter 32: Angry and Broken To The Extreme. Part-2.

After not being able to sleep properly, Jake felt tired in the morning, but for a trained warrior like him, this much was nothing.

He got ready and left for his usual training schedule.

Just like usual, he ate the delicious grilled meat from the stall located near the church and then went to the blacksmith shop that his father often went to and handed over his sword to him to polish and sharpen.

Swords get rusted fast when sharpened to the extreme; thus, most soldiers and knights only sharpen them when they are about to fight, and usually, they use practice swords for training.

The same was true for Jake; after giving the sword to the blacksmith, Jake went to the soldier’s training grounds like usual.

Most of the young warriors of the city liked to gather in these training grounds and spar with each other very often.

The same was true for Jake; he was, in fact, the strongest among all his peers, and barely anyone stood a chance against him.

Most of them usually wouldn’t even agree to spar with him, as he was too strong for them.

But today was different.

The moment Jake entered the training grounds, dozens and dozens of soldiers and even his own friends swarmed over to ask him for a spar.

Unlike usual, there was a glint of excitement in all of their eyes, and they were all eager to spar with him today.

Just yesterday, they were all trying their best to hide from him to avoid a spar with him, and today, they were eager to fight him on the spot!

It was such a strange and drastic change that even the trainers were pleasantly surprised, but as they were busy and were on a tight schedule, they didn’t have the time to bother about this small matter.

Jake, who was hard-wired to never retreat and never run away from battle, could not reject any of them.

’W-what the heck is going on here!?’

With a confused look on his face, Jake entered the sparring ring and fought his opponent with a training sword. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

Unlike usual, the opponent was extremely excited and actually tried his best to defeat Jake, but he was too weak to do much and was swiftly defeated in just a few swings.

But that victory did not make Jake feel happy.

Another opponent jumped into the ring right away without giving Jake a single moment of rest!

The same process was repeated once again, and the opponent lost easily once more, but despite the loss, the next challenger was still filled with motivation!

Jake couldn’t fathom what was happening to him, and as he could not back down, he had to keep fighting and fighting continuously for several hours straight!

That day Jake sparred from morning till late in the evening and defeated dozens of opponents.

Although he managed to defeat every single one of his opponents, by the end of it all he was so tired that he barely even won the last match!

His arms and legs were shaking from exhaustion like crazy, and he was panting continuously!

And not only the tiredness, but he even felt a very weird sensation in his stomach!

His stomach was hurting like crazy, and his head was as hot as a frying pan from fever!

He could barely even open his eyes, and it took him immense effort to barely crawl back home that night!

Someone even poured cold dirty water on him while he was on his way back home, causing his fever to rise even more.

By the time he reached home at the speed of a snail, it was already past midnight!

Jake was so tired that he wanted to rest immediately, but his stomach didn’t let him sleep!

His fever went out of control, and he got severe diarrhea that night, and he couldn’t sleep properly for the second night straight!

By the time morning came, his situation was so bad that he could barely move!

*HUFF!* *PANT!* *HUFF*

Freya lent her shoulder with a look of concern on her face as she led him to the training ground of the Church, where the duel was about to be held that day.

"J-jake... you should postpone this duel... What happened yesterday was definitely not normal... this is... you..."

Freya and Jake were no idiots; by now they both understood what was happening and who had done all this.

It was likely the handiwork of that infamous ’Saint’!

"N-no... I can’t postpone... he will mock me for running away from the duel! I will beat him no matter what!"

Even in that broken, weak, and tired state, Jake refused to back down.

Alex’s words of insult kept stinging his body like poison needles! And he wanted to prove Alex wrong!

If he didn’t reach the duel arena on time, he would be considered a coward! And he didn’t want that!

His pride and his ego would never let him accept being called a coward at any cost!

What Jake didn’t know was that Alex said those words to him exactly because of this reason.

Alex said that so that no matter what bad situation happens, Jake refuses to back down, as that would hurt his ego.

*Step* *Step*

Each step was a nightmare to Jake, but he barely managed to reach the arena.

The time of the duel was set to ’Noon,’ and thus the sun was shining right above the arena, causing Jake’s already hot body to suffer even more from this heat.

All the members of the church arrived one by one.

Even some seats were arranged for guests that came to the church today because of the rumor that the strongest young warrior of the city was going to fight the prince of the empire!

Usually, the church is quite empty, as barely anyone comes to pray at the god of wisdom’s church, but today it was different.

The news that the prince of the nation and the ’saint’ of the church were going to have a duel today had already spread throughout the entire city for some reason like wildfire.

It was almost as if someone had deliberately spread the rumor and gathered these many people.

Jake even saw a noble from the count’s family arrive to watch the duel!

The entire training ground of the church was now filled with people, and there were hundreds of people watching the show.

Jake, who looked as pale as a sheet of paper, stood under the heat of the sun wearing heavy armor.

"J-jake... this.. here is your sword. You were ill so I went to the blacksmith to bring it to you..."

Freya handed the sword to Jake with a concerned look on her face, but she knew that Jake was very stubborn, and thus she could only back away and let him do as he pleased.

Jake clenched his palm as he held his sword in his hand as he thought to himself,

’No matter what... I will not lose!’