"You've got to be joking." Taking in a deep breath, Valyr looked at the man before him in slight disbelief, the sight of Jekyll slamming the staff on himself at full strength unharmed bringing shivers to his body.
Though his current level of strength would definitely cause quite a few people to turn their heads to look back at him, having the ability to fight against peak Rank 3 monsters, and even monsters at the early levels of Rank 4...
That level of strength was nowhere near enough for him to surmount the gap that existed between him and Jekyll.
At least... not yet.
"You do know how much of a gap we have in strength, right?" Looking at Jekyll with a bitter smile, he asked this question to the man, hoping that the latter knew what he meant by his words.
"Of course I do." Jekyll nodded, a slight playful smile creeping up on his face. "How about this? The goal doesn't change, but I can neither retaliate against your hits, nor defend against the hits you send at me to complete the goal."
"That doesn't really help out much, to be honest," said Valyr in response, thinking of the change from multiple perspectives.
Though Jekyll restricted himself from fighting or defending against Valyr's attacks definitely leveled the playing field somewhat, there was still the massive problem of having to overcome a difference in stats that came along with the ranks.
Naturally, it did not help out that Jekyll was already at the later levels of Rank 5 according to the aura Valyr sensed from him, though it wouldn't be surprising if he was already at the peak.
Sure, with his main class being Mythic grade, as well as having access to quite a decent number of buffing skills, Valyr would probably be able to match Jekyll in terms of agility and dexterity at certain situations.
However, that certainly wouldn't be the case once Jekyll started using buffs of his own.
"Do we really have to do this?" Considering that there was still a small chance for Jekyll to retaliate against him due to natural instinct, Valyr decided to try and ask the man for alternatives to truly increase his chances, even though his chances of landing a hit on Jekyll weren't actually that low.
"Well, if you think about it, it's a good way for me to gauge your current combat strength," said Jekyll in response, slightly shrugging his shoulders as he leaned on the wooden staff. "But since you're so adamant..."
"Alright, fine." Letting out a low sigh of defeat, Jekyll shifted his gaze towards a line of training dummies that were positioned a few dozen meters away from where they stood. "But before I talk about that, are you seriously not that confident in landing a hit on me? Even with the handicap I've given you?"
"I mean... I believe that my chances of landing at least a single hit on you wouldn't be low," replied Valyr.
"Then, why...?"
'Because it would be a pain in the ass to chase you around, only for my efforts to end up being useless.' Clearing his throat at the thought, Valyr decided to twist his thoughts a fair bit, giving Jekyll an answer that caused him to let out a peal of laughter.
"Well... wouldn't it be interesting for me to do something like that after my eyes have transformed?"
"Now you've piqued my interest." Grinning as he looked at Valyr, Jekyll soon used his staff as a pointing stick, diverting the young man's gaze towards the line of training dummies he looked at earlier.
"Since that's how you want it, might as well go along with it."
"Though it would have been faster for the transformation to happen if we were to do what I suggested earlier, this current method I'll be telling you isn't that half-bad either. After all, with it, you'd be able to understand the workings of the skill in greater detail," said Jekyll, his expression returning to its earlier calm.
"Anyways, through this process, I'm sure you'll begin to appreciate the gradual transformation that happens to your eyes."
"At first, you will only discern. Then, from that discernment, you'll begin to discover things that you can use to your advantage."
"And once you find those advantages..." Gripping tightly on the staff, Jekyll briefly radiated a bit of killing intent. "You exploit and kill."
"Only at that moment will your eyes be truly considered the eyes of a hunter." Taking in a deep breath, Jekyll moved to the side, giving Valyr the freedom to move deeper into the training ground.
"For your first step, what you have to do is to get used to the feeling of discerning slight imperfections on the training dummies you see ahead of you," Jekyll told Valyr. "After that, we transition from discernment to discovery, using these slight imperfections to peer deeper into the dummies and discover their weak spots. Only then can we move onto the next step."
"Go on now." After saying those words, Jekyll sat on the ground cross-legged, crossing his arms as he turned to look at the training dummies. Seeing this, Valyr looked at the man for a bit before proceeding to make his way to the training dummies, activating [Gambler's Discerning Eyes] the moment he was in front of one of them.
Whoosh!
As if his pupils had dilated, Valyr was able to look at the training dummy in far greater detail than he would normally be able to, noticing the various materials that were used in creating it in the first place.
"Thick plates of metal, strong leather sourced from monsters, a ton of hay..." Continuing to look at the training dummy in front of him, the young man began to wonder what Jekyll wanted him to find out.
Sure, he had been told that he needed to discern the slight imperfections on the training dummies and use them to discover their weak spots, but Valyr had no clue as to how the two were related.
"There's a couple of areas where the thread holding the pieces of leather are loose, and there are some areas where the hay isn't as compact compared to the others..." Muttering these words to himself, Valyr briefly scratched the back of his head. "How the heck would these imperfections show me this dummy's weak spots? In the first place, does it even have a weak spot?"
Taking in a few deep breaths, Valyr closed his eyes for a bit, realizing that he was hasty to find results in something that he had initially suggested. Letting out a low sigh, the young man opened his eyes and tried once more, utilizing the imperfections he had already discerned to find more and more imperfections on the training dummy.
And it was at that moment...
...that everything started to click.
