Il Ji continued fiddling with his hands. Eventually, though, he got bored. He walked around until he found a stick.
A brown and gold form entered the physical realm from the portal upon his brow.
"Jackpot, Agility Trial! Fetch!"
The treasure chest clacked once before bouncing off into the distance. It came back with the stick in hand. Jackpot's tongue lifted it gently and placed it an Il Ji's feet.
"Again!" Il Ji shouted. With a mighty swing of his arm, the stick flew up and over the grass below as the wind caught and carried it a few paces further.
As they continued the 'agility trials,' Jackpot began to get a little annoyed. Where was the excitement? Where was the glory? Where was the COMBAT?!
The next time he brought the stick over, it 'accidentally' broke.
"Congratulations!" Il Ji shouted. "You've passed tier 1 of the agility trials I've prepared you for today. Are you ready for the second round?"
The little chest clacked excitedly.
"I want you to run to the wall and back. TO THE WALL AND BACK. Go!"
Dejectedly, the little chest began his sprints.
At first, he was annoyed. Then, he began to excite himself. If he managed to get faster, would the great Il Ji send him to battle?
But as he continued to outpace his own energy, he slowly but surely began to tire.
Eventually, he got a little bit closer to his limit.
"Good!" Il Ji bellowed. A [Mystic Saurian] looked up from chewing its branches to view the cacophany below.
"You're ready for your third agility trial for today."
The little chest panted and heaved, before clicking its jaws in assertion.
"CLIFF RIDING!" Il Ji bellowed. "From here, run over there and jump off the cliff. If you're smart, you'll land unscathed. After you make the jump, run back here. I'll tell you if you need to go again."
Jackpot dropped his jaws. 'What kind of insanity is this? I've been banging my bottom against the ground, literally all day! Give me a break!'
"Aaaaaaaand, GO!"
The little chest jumped at the order. Jackpot rushed towards the cliff, unaware of Il Ji's true purpose.
Just as he was about to throw himself off the cliff, he hesitated. 'Why would Il Ji have me jump off of a cliff if he knew it would hurt?'
As the sudden grin overtook him, Jackpot flung himself off of the cliff.
As the ground rushed to meet him, he caught the ground itself with his powerful, [Gold Rank] jaws.
With a mighty flip, the chest began the run back.
Looking at the dirt-encrusted teeth, Il Ji grinned. "Good! Your teeth are your most powerful tool, both for offense and defense. I want you to keep going. This time, thoug, every time you jump, jump off in a different form. Once I see 30 different jumps, you can take your break."
A low hiss and a clack of finality came from the poor brown chest. With an air of determination and much ado, it took off towards the small cliff.
A [Mystic Saurian] looked into the sky as a certain beauty appeared in the sky above the small forest. Her face was red.
'Damn it, why did that old man keep trying to set me up?'
As she saw the ground below, the sight immediately took her attention. Instead of sitting patiently along the way, he had begun training his beast.
She watched as it ran back to him in a dead sprint before running off again. Then, a look of surprise took her face. A spurt of petals rose through the air as she nearly saved the poof beast.
But at the last minute, she realized that, if Il Ji was smart enough to pass the tests, he probably had a reliable reason to do such a thing and wasn't aiming to hurt his beast.
The small chest rammed into the ground. Giant teeth marks gripped it as the chest did another flip and landed right-side up before taking off to find its master.
"Jackpot, enough." Il Ji flipped several Federal Coins into the chest's open maw. "You can rest inside."
With a deep and meaningful clack, the little beast rejoined his treasure-filled home in the soulspace.