It took both me and Giga Balak a long time to finally overcome those red pills.
"Yeah, you have to treat becoming a full transgender in real life completely differently from turning into a beautiful girl in a game."
'That's right! My son, no matter what the other person is like, don't have preconceptions—always approach them with an open mind. That's the mindset of a great warrior.'
Back in my previous life, male gamers usually picked female characters when playing games, ignoring their own gender.
Why? Because they're men.
Men are simple creatures ruled by their lower halves, after all.
So, male gamers have been revolutionary pioneers of political correctness since ancient times!
They're the epitome of being PC!
Anyway! The proficiency grind was finally wrapping up, and more and more oldbies were breaking through the renewed first room.
"We... we did it!!! We broke through!!!"
"Man, if I'd trained like this as a kid, I could've joined the Imperial Guard instead of becoming an adventurer."
"Seriously... ha..."
"I'm a mage, though. So why are my arms getting all muscly...?"
With more and more people tackling the renewed second room like this, it wouldn't be long before Perry started working at the Peria rest area.
And the day the mid-boss would start moving too!
It was an exciting future that made my heart race.
But for now, I had to deal with the Perry in front of me.
"Come at me! Perry!"
"Here I go!! Brother Balak!!"
It had been about a few months in felt time since Perry started training with me.
Over that long period, Perry's healing factor ability synergized insanely with the exercise schedule I put together for him.
His scrawny body had bulked up just like mine, and his back was looking seriously impressive now.
Plus, since he didn't need to eat anything here, there was no worry about gaining fat.
The various training sessions and all the elixirs he'd consumed up to now produced dramatic results.
Perry could now pull off six spinning aerial kicks in a row.
"Your feet are still too slow! Faster!"
"Yes, sir!!"
Man, he'd already surpassed those oldbies!
His cooking talent, his physical talent—hell, was Perry actually a genius?
So now it was time for the final test.
"Brother Balak. Is today the day?"
"Yeah. You ready?"
"...Please do it!"
Soon after, I stood in front of Perry, gripping my massive sword in one hand.
*****************
The moment Balak gave the final test to the challenger who'd reached this point—Ferguson—the boss room began to change.
Ziiiiiing—!
"...It's been a while since I've seen these stars. They're really beautiful."
"Yeah, but keep in mind they're just fleeting illusions."
"You're right. Well then... here I go."
Ferguson advanced silently.
Displaying physical abilities completely different from before, he closed in on Balak.
His body blurred like a gale, becoming indistinguishable.
Soon, Ferguson's foot shot out, aiming to land a massive blow.
But Balak precisely captured that blurry silhouette and blocked the attack with the flat of his greatsword.
Shwaaaang!!!
The sound tore through the air like ripping fabric, and Ferguson kicked off the flat of the greatsword, using the recoil to leap back far.
After that, whenever Balak launched a simple attack, Ferguson dodged nimbly and looked for counter openings.
Then, as Ferguson's kick dove toward Balak's torso—
Balak read the split-second timing perfectly and trapped Ferguson's leg in the gap between his arm and body like a snare.
Thud!
"Urk?!"
With one leg immobilized, Ferguson's movements were sealed. Balak didn't miss the opening.
He immediately slammed the pommel of his greatsword down like lightning, and it looked like the spar was over.
But in that split second—
Ferguson concentrated all his mana into the leg that was caught.
Of course, as Balak had evaluated before, Ferguson's mana control was abysmal.
But there was something someone willing to endure pain could do.
He abandoned controlling the mana altogether. The mana gathered in one leg twisted into an unstable state.
And then...
Boom!!!
Ferguson triggered a mana explosion through his leg as the medium.
All the bones in his leg shattered, leaving it a mangled mess. But the explosion's shockwave let him escape Balak's grasp quickly.
On top of that, as his physical abilities had grown through training, the various elixirs he'd taken had boosted his super-regeneration too.
The wrecked leg regenerated in the blink of an eye.
"Hahaha! What a brilliant move!"
"Hoo... That was seriously close."
"More importantly, you seem used to the pain of shattered bones now?"
"After realizing how much more painful just living in this world is, this is nothing."
"That's the perfect attitude! It gets my blood pumping!"
Kwaaaang!!!
Hearing Ferguson's words got Balak fired up, and he stomped the ground hard.
He then thrust his hand into the shattered earth.
A massive glaive rose from the ground.
Now Balak charged at Ferguson—one hand wielding the massive greatsword, the other the massive glaive.
As the two enormous weapons stormed in like a tempest, Ferguson dodged them like he was performing acrobatics.
But amid the irregularly timed attacks—
His rhythm broke, and he took a hit from the fierce storm.
Still, as a werewolf with super-regeneration—
Even if his body tore or shattered, as long as he endured that moment's pain, the injuries healed right away, letting him roll away from Balak's follow-ups.
"That's it!! Exactly!!"
Was he that proud of his little brother rising despite the pain?
Balak showered Ferguson with praise.
And so, Ferguson kept fighting without giving up his grit until the end.
But from the constant heavy impacts and severe injuries, his limits were reaching.
His body's recovery speed slowed noticeably.
"Kuh... cough..."
Blood trickled from his mouth.
But even then, Ferguson didn't want to disappoint the one who'd changed him.
Finally, without even groaning, he quietly assumed his stance.
Moved by his little brother's spirit, the brother ahead suddenly tossed all his weapons aside and focused all his power into his fists.
"Little brother, I'm so proud of you. You've passed my test splendidly."
"That's a relief..."
"So, you're worthy of seeing my true power."
"Pardon...?"
After that, Balak unleashed all the strange power he possessed. The illusions covering the boss room began to shatter.
Ferguson faced a chilling constellation of death.
****************
Thanks to Balak unleashing all his power, every being on the 1st floor and in the mini-dungeon went into a panic.
But Carien and the other floor bosses quickly sealed off the power leaking from the boss room, calming things down.
Carien was also dispatched in a hurry and sprinkled various healing potions on the fainted Ferguson after witnessing Balak's true power.
"Hahaha!! As expected of my little brother!"
"Oof... Ferguson looks absolutely wrecked. Couldn't you have gone a bit easier on him?"
"Going easy in a spar? That's a huge insult to your opponent!"
"I-I see. Anyway, when do you think Ferguson will wake up? All his wounds are healed thanks to the potions and his recovery ability..."
"My little bro Perry should wake up in a day or two."
"Hm? You're not calling him Perry anymore?"
"A man who's overcome every trial I've thrown at him can't be called that. This is only natural reward!"
"Ah... I see..."
Tch, as expected of a skeleton merchant mage—he has no clue about warriors' hearts.
That said, those elixirs I fed him during training must've had a huge effect.
Forget the rapid growth in body and abilities—even his muscles compressed instead of just hypertrophying.
The world of medicine is truly wondrous.
Like Olympic athletes on ster...
No, wait. In my case, the old man fed me all sorts of stuff for survival.
And for Perry, it was essential doping to survive in the dungeon rest area!
So it's totally different from doping for personal selfish satisfaction!
"By the way, skeleton merchant! Did you record our spar properly?"
"Oh, that? Here it is. But why did you record it?"
"For feedback on this spar."
"Sounds super professional."
It's a hundred times better to watch media like this together and explain than just talk.
That way, they can immediately see what they did wrong and what to fix.
Anyway, to check if our spar was recorded well, I activated the video magic tool.
"Whoa... Ferguson got this strong..."
"Heh heh... And that's not all. Right now, this guy's got none of the fighter's weaknesses."
"Oh?! Really?"
In a world like this dominated by magic and blades, if you coldly evaluate a fighter realistically—
They're just trash.
Why?
Because in this world with its weird energies, fighters can massively strengthen their bodies.
But the same goes for opponents with blades, so it's plus-minus zero!
In modern terms, it's like an athlete facing a robber with a knife!
Plus, all weapon techniques here fundamentally integrate offense and defense.
The moment you try punching someone who knows weapons here, you're not attacking—you're self-harming.
Finally, fighters use bodies several times softer than blades as weapons, so they get hurt way too easily.
A warrior gets injured?
They're out immediately, so fighters run the gamut of negative synergies—they're just jacks-of-all-trades.
My master, the old man, knew this well.
So he taught me the secret art of mana battle armor to protect the body with that weird mana energy.
Then, using training and beneficial herbs to boost physical abilities, he taught simple but overwhelming basics.
But little bro Perry with his healing factor is different!
No matter how hurt he gets, as long as he doesn't die instantly, he recovers right away. Trading blows one-for-one becomes an unfair exchange for the enemy!
And with various magic tools compensating for werewolf weaknesses—
He can move his body freely, highlighting all a fighter's strengths with zero drawbacks!
"Looking at it like this, Ferguson can get even stronger from here."
"Yeah! This guy hasn't hit a wall yet! And he's got a signature technique now too!"
"...That mana explosion, huh."
"Exactly!"
It didn't pierce my mana battle armor, but it had enough explosive power to momentarily escape my full grip.
And kicks that explode!!
How do you even deal with that?!
Sure, using it wrecked his leg.
But if he can control the explosion power later?
Or use it without hurting his leg?
Ahh... now that's romance.
A true hidden boss.
This'll be little bro Perry's signature move.
"Groan..."
"Huh? Looks like he's waking up already."
"You rascal, you've grown even more than I imagined."
As expected of someone worthy of being my little brother.
Perry's future is looking seriously promising!
****************
While three guys on the dungeon's 1st floor were excitedly chattering about the recent spar—
On the 4th floor, two beings met.
"Who the hell are you?!"
"You... what are you?!"
Just like when Balak and Ferguson first met, an extremely awkward and embarrassing time passed for them too.