《Chat Group For Magicians》 Chapter 1: Invited to the Chat group (A/N: If you think this novel is bad, then don''t worry because I also think it is badly executed too, making it a bit bland. If you think it is interesting despite some situations that you needed to turn off your brain to understand then I thank you for reading. If you are just turned off by this one, then go ahead and drop this, you guys don''t need to drop random comments that you think this is stupid and stuff because it is troublesome checking my inbox. Just go and leave. Anyways, if you still want to read, please enjoy!) Tokyo, Shibuya It was a fine day when I arrived here. With the bag on my shoulders and a trolley suitcase in my other hand, I walked out of the station and breathe in. As always, the place is too busy for me to understand. I''ve been away from this place for too long therefore I have forgotten the feeling of this place. Still, it didn''t change the fact that I will be living here again but this time, I am independent. After my parents died from a huge disaster that occurred on Shibuya last year and they left me with an ancestral house somewhere deep in the residential area of Shibuya. It''s been ages since I last visited that place. I am the only son of my parents so no one else inherited what was left after their death. I am not so close to my parents because I live in Hokkaido with my uncle and auntie and attended my middle school till I became a Junior High. I barely know my parents. All I know is that they are mysterious to me and they don''t even visit me much. If I compare my uncle and aunt with my parents, I will treat the former more as my acting parents. Still, I appreciated them because if not for them, I won''t be able to grow up and become a responsible teenager. They might not be there physically but they regularly sent me letters and money to support my classes. And besides, my uncle and auntie are both nice to me and treated me as their son since their son already has his own family. I didn''t leave a good impression with my life in Hokkaido due to the events that transpired during my high school days there. I was bullied a lot in that place and after fighting back, a trial in the disciplinary office occurred. Of course, since money was involved, the real perpetrator was branded innocent, and the real victim is banished from the school without any kind of explanation. It might be a foolish move but I didn''t retaliate and accepted the outcome. I am getting troubled from that school anyway so why would I stay in there? To get another set of beating? I prefer to stay out of those money-loving bastards. So, after that, I received a letter regarding the incident and how I inherited the ancestral house and a little bit amount of money. My uncle recommended me to move out and live in that house since I am the only one who can own it anyway. The ownership title is my name, so even if I declined it or not, it won''t change that I am the owner of the ancestral house. Since I was also expelled from that sh*tty school and the surrounding schools will not accept me, I decided to look for a school to transfer and it was on Tokyo, Shibuya. With my ancestral home also located in Shibuya, it is a convenient transfer and I don''t need to rent a room during my stay. My aunt and uncle agreed with my transfer and helped me to book a bullet train for ease to reach Tokyo. When I arrived, I was overwhelmed by the scenery which is very different in Hokkaido. Unlike Hokkaido, it was very busy here in Shibuya and I can see people here and there without any regards of the heat from the sun. Bustling, full of buildings, different people wearing different outfits, it was a different place. I hailed a cab after my arrival and asked the driver to sent me to the place where my ancestral home was by saying the address. Fortunately, the driver is quite familiar with the place, allowing me to reach my new home without any hassle. It took at least 30 minutes from the station to arrive in the house. As soon as I stepped out of the car with my baggage, I sense a bit of nostalgia to the place. I have a sort of feeling I have forgotten already well up on me and even though it felt good, I can''t remember it too much. I took my baggage and entered the house. Despite the old looks of the house, it is not that old and it looks like a mansion with a bit of modern style twist. It also has a very big yard and a small fish pond that has lots of koi swimming around. There is also a huge tree of mango on the yard which makes it a good place to stay if you feel hot in the weather. According to the people who cleaned the house, they are taking care of the place before my arrival so that it won''t be degraded to the extent. The only thing is that... this place is just too big for me. It was very spacious and I don''t think I will be able to clean this house all by myself. I scanned the living room and all kinds of appliances are already available like a flat-screen television and a DVD player. There is also a sound box in the corner with signs of being used in the past which means that my parents owned these before and not just bought by anyone else. I checked the kitchen and saw that the place is also full of necessities like knife, frying pans, stove, oven, and many other necessities for cooking. I liked cooking so I was relieved that I don''t need to buy them. I checked the room of my parents and I was surprised to see that it was very barren. Only a single bed, cabinet with a lampshade on top of it and a closet without anything on it is present. One question popped out of my head. ''Where are the clothes of my parents?'' They are not present at all and I didn''t have many answers when I checked all around. Did they throw away the clothes from my parents? No, I don''t think so. If they did, the appliances and kitchen tools would also be thrown out too. After exploring a little bit, I found the clothes of my parents in the basement. It looks like the people clearing the house take the clothes out of the cabinet since I will be using it now. After pondering for a bit, I shook my head in confusion. It was not something I should be thinking too much. I checked the cabinet and saw a few items there including a black smartphone. I opened the smartphone and saw that it has a dying battery already. The phone is not password locked which allowed me to open it. It was the latest brand of a certain company of smartphones. It was undoubtedly new since I don''t see any kind of scratch in it. I suddenly felt like this was a bit of a coincidence. Did the cleaning personnel forget to clean this up? It is a little bit odd if they saw this, they can pocket this phone and no one would complain. But this is quite a good chance for me. My old smartphone is broken from the fight that occurred to me last time. I didn''t manage to buy a new phone because I was tight in budget therefore I am stuck without a phone. I checked out the phone and saw that it is still not that used and a few apps are installed aside from the apps that are already installed before it was purchased, though there are already unknown apps existing in the screen. One of the apps that are installed is called Anonymous. I tried recalling if there was some sort of app like that in the play store but I don''t remember. Maybe this was one of those factory-installed apps? I didn''t open the app for now and put it in my pocket for safekeeping. Since everything is all intact and fine, time to arrange my things. Things have done well for me after a few while since all of the items I own are clothes so I don''t need to open boxes or anything. When everything is over, I took a rest and slump my back to the couch and pull out the phone. This phone still has no cellular data and the surrounding area still has no internet connection. The house also lacks a connection to the internet too since I just move in. My parents seem to not even bother installing one. I scrolled open the app and check it again. Earlier, one app is unknown to me and I was really curious about what it really was and what its functions. Maybe it is a hacking game? Or a hacking software? When I tapped the icon, the phone suddenly glows. Is this some sort of app effect once you open the app? That doesn''t sound right. I looked into the screen while covering my eyes and all of a sudden, the screen switches to a camera and a mechanical voice of a woman started speaking on the speaker of the phone. "Welcome to Anonymous, magician. Scanning the face of the individual. No data match, extracting data and automatically sent to the database. For additional info, please ask the moderator of the group. Thank you for your time." After that, several of my personal data appeared on the screen of the phone. Name: Kazuma Fukuyama Age: 18 Gender: Male Species: Human Rank: None Spells: None Parents: Deceased Residency: Tokyo, Shibuya: Residential Area Job: Student Affinity: All Alignment: Neutral Faction: Japan Notes: Has a black hair, brownish-red eyes, thin lips and well-proportioned nose(Normal Average Looking Face) Healthy Built Body Knows slight hand to hand combat Has a bastard behavior Omnivert Computer savvy What the f*ck? Did it just scan my data and extracted it without my permission?! Oh, sh*t, did I just got scammed and my whole information is going to be shared in public?! Also, why bastard behavior? Just when I was panicking, the phone talks again. "Congratulations. Your data is fully saved. Your data will not be shared and only the owner of the app and admins will see your data. A breach of privacy without the owner''s permission or the admin''s permission will result in immediate punishment." I stare into the screen of the phone and frowned. Now that I realize it, is this some sort of offline stuff? Is this a game? "This is not a game. This is an app that doesn''t need to connect to the internet just to function. You can treat it like magic. So stop being shocked and use the app already, dumbass." "..." Now I am getting freaked out. I may not be speaking but it is reading all of my thoughts. This is really freaky. "Identification is done. Welcome, Kazuma. You are the 2,450th member of the Japan Faction of Magicians. As a welcome gift by your fellow magicians, you have been gifted an item that will aid you. You can claim it whenever you liked on your profile. Please read the rules before starting to chat with other fellow magicians." What? Magicians? Street performer magicians and the like? Did I just get pranked? "As I said before, this is the reality. You are not pranked and this is definitely not a game. We call people in this chat group as magicians but many terms are derived by others; wizards, mages, magic casters, whatever it is called. But most of the time, it was magicians. Please read the rules first before engaging in a conversation in the chat lobby to know more. Have a great day and see you around. Remember, I am not an A.I but the spirit of the phone." And with that, the voice disappeared and the logo of the Anonymous appeared on the phone. It was a symbol of fire, water, air and earth in one logo with the dark and light symbol in the middle. After that, the lobby that the machine voice said appeared. However, I didn''t expect this thing at the very least. Isn''t this similar to Discord? Chapter 2: Burning Gloves and Blazing Shoes I calmly checked the app after the voice from the app disappeared. It was indeed similar to Discord, it is a chat group with lobby and servers. I am just too surprised since my username has already been logged in to the chat group even though I did not sign up for this particular app for an account. Maybe this was due to the scanning thingie done earlier? I really don''t know since I have not heard of anything like this before and just randomly scanning your info is just too scary in this modern world. Still, to access my main account and check what the "reward" is, I have to put a nickname. I may have backed out from this app if I lose money but thankfully, I am broke and my bank account is currently empty since I withdraw all the money deposited in there so that I can use it in case I need to buy appliances in which I don''t really need to. Now, nicknames are actually hard to think about in chat groups and the last chat group in discord that I joined last time is now totally chaotic causing me to lurk only in there. I can''t think of a good name so I decided to put the name [Chat Killer]. I am not a great talker and whenever I talked, I usually ended the chat conversation usually so that''s that. Since the nickname is available, I was able to get in. I didn''t check the lobby first and go to my account page. I checked all of the info in there and I was shocked that all of my personal info is indeed imprinted in there. I was hesitant to call the police but I decided not to do so. This app started to function like Discord despite having no internet connection and if I show this to the police, I bet the app would close or something like that. And besides, I still have no cellular data to use at the moment so it is still the same. I remembered that the voice earlier said that a welcome gift is currently in my inventory and is ready to be claimed. I am a bit skeptical if this is real or this is just some sort of offline game disguised as a chat game for now. The inventory looked like a golden chest on the screen. I tapped the chest and its animation of opening occurred. I am fine with its animation except that it looked too realistic. Just like a game, the content of the chest appeared like those in inventory slots in RPGs. In one of the slots, red and white-colored gloves are currently displayed in there with some sort of red, swirling flame around it. Beside it is a red rubber shoe that also has a similar red, swirling flame surround it. I clicked on the gloves and the info popped out on it, allowing me to check its details. [Burning Gloves] Type: Magic Equipment Tier: 1 star -Rare Info: This gloves made from special thread that converts mana into flames and a leather that nullifies flames. Beware, it can be used to cook meat and for barbecuing. The details were a bit vague but and mentions that it can burn. Is this some sort of item or equipment for the game? Then there is a withdraw button on it below the item. Since my curiosity is being tickled, I decided to click the button to see what would happen. I expected a message like "Successfully withdrawn and sent to inventory" and the likes but that didn''t happen. Instead, the phone glows, wait, it is shining and its shining like crazy. Since I was startled by this, I accidentally let go of the phone, but what I thought would fall, floated instead. Soon, the phone was engulfed by light and it started to cause a windy atmosphere in the surroundings. It only lasted a few seconds before the phone once again returned back to normal and fell to my hands in a slow manner. It would have been fine if that was it, but then, a box appeared out of thin air and fell to the ground in front of me. Wait, what the hell, is this... Opening the box, was the exact gloves that I saw earlier on the phone. I look around for anyone who is pranking me but that was just absurd since the gate is locked and I was the only one inside the house. I inhaled and exhaled because I am not too sure if I can easily uptake what was going on. I might be going overdramatic but this was all so sudden to me. An item appearing out of nowhere? That seems to contradicts lots of theories now in Physics. I sighed and calmed down first before I decided to check out the gloves again. The gloves came with an instruction manual as well, which I assume to be for how to use these gloves. INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO USE THE GLOVES 1. Wear it. 2. Imagine flames are burning in your hands. Same for shutting the flames down. 3. Use the flames however you want. 4. That''s it. Done. What a half-assed manual. I shook my head and take the gloves out of the box. It looks a bit peculiar with its red and white design color. Still, I decided to test this thing that came out from nowhere. Once the gloves were on my hands, I felt comfortable and warm in my hands. It was somewhat weird yet good to feel. I really don''t believe in the manual''s instructions but to see is to believe, therefore, I tried imagining flames appearing on my hands like it is burning my hands. Suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation on my hands connecting to my fingertips until I just realized that my hands are starting to burst into flames. I was stunned at first but I quickly calmed myself down. Panicking in this situation would just make the situation worse. I quickly realized that the flames do not burn your skin at all which means this flame is harmless to the one using the flames. However, does this apply to everything in contact with the flames? I have thought that this is merely a prop for performing magic but when I picked up a branch on the yard, the branch was immediately reduced to ashes. I was not yet convinced so I decided to grab a plastic bag. It didn''t take a split second because as soon as the plastic touched the flames, the plastic quickly melted and disappeared. "For real?" This thing is spelling pure destruction. It can literally burn wood easily without a split second to ashes. But where did the flames came from? Since I was curious, I tried to put feel the gloves using my hands if there is any hidden mechanism that can trigger the flames to come out. However, that was dumb of me. I have been wearing gloves but there is nothing to feel about it. What can you feel by poking on it? Then I remembered the voice from the phone. "We call ourselves magicians but many terms are derived by others; wizards, mages, magic casters, whatever it is called. But most of the time, it was magicians." So this thing is not about science but magic? I really don''t believe in magic but seeing this phenomenon, I can''t help but suspect that magic really exists in this world. That is right! There is still one item left in the inventory and it is associated with flames too. Does that mean it is also a gear similar to the gloves? Returning to the living room, I opened my profile in the chat group before I check the inventory. Sure enough, the shoes are still in there. [Blazing Shoes] Type: Magic Equipment Rarity: 1 star -Rare Info: This is just a shoe that covers your entire feet in flames. This is not a rocket so don''t expect you to get to the space using this. This is used for kicking garbage and for walking of course. Trusty shoes you can use in cases of emergencies. These shoes can copy other shoes appearance for the sake of secrecy. Chapter 3: The Magicians Just like the gloves, I withdraw the shoes out and tried it out. Similar to the gloves, the shoes can also burn things whenever its flames touched something. What is more, these shoes can send flame projectiles whenever you kick the air. After a few while, I was left exhausted for no apparent reason but I totally enjoyed the two items. With the gloves, I can use flames and use them as I like, like having the flames act like a flamethrower or use it by hurling fireballs. The shoes are similar to a rolling skate since you can use it for increasing your speed. With these two items, everything will be very interesting. Since I was so exhausted, I have to rest and relax my whole body. It was like I undergo an extreme cardio exercise due to the fatigue that built up in my body. I lay on the sofa and take out the phone. This app is the cause of everything. It was mysterious and magical. I even forgot the reason how the gloves and shoes managed to appear out of nowhere. Still, I still have no understanding of this app, and there is no way to check it but dig deeper. I opened the app and decided to finally check the chat group. I am not entirely sure if these people are real. Are they some sort of people who sold their souls to the demons to gain powers? Or are they self-proclaimed magicians? The first thing that appeared when I opened the lobby is the rules. There is a 5-minute countdown before I can get inside the lobby first. This is to be expected, Discord also has this function so I am not surprised. ---- Rules and Regulations 1. Be respectful to other magicians, do not curse or be rude to others. 2. Quests need to be fulfilled. If the quest is a failure due to an unprecedented event or if the quest is too hard and was forced to get abandoned, the person needs to file quest abandon message in #QUESTFILE_LOBBY 3. Abandoning the quest without any kind of message saying they abandon the quest, the user would be punished. 4. Spells lobby is where the spells are posted. Chatting in there is not allowed. Please go to the #generals instead. 5. Posting magics about demonic chants, demonic spells and any kind of rituals that is connected to demonic rituals are prohibited. 6. Spells are free to use in Spells Lobby. Do not let the others scam you to pay sh*t. 7. Last, do not reveal the existence of magicians to non-magicians. We are blending to the human world and that''s it. Mentioning or even showing magic to the public for the use of entertaining is considered as a taboo. Punishment is imminent. ----- The rules are pretty weird too. They don''t mention the users as people but call them magicians. Also, what did they mean by blending to the human world? Are they not humans anymore? Should I continue digging deeper or not? I am getting shivers on this one. I waited for the remaining minutes left before the entry is now allowed. As soon as I got to access the main chat, I saw different lobbies for chatting. Unlike Discord, the lobbies here are all labeled and with logos. There is the main lobby of chat named Lounge, there is also the Questfile Lobby and the Spells Lobby. A News lobby is also available and request lobby and lastly, the Meeting Lobby. There is nothing more than that. I still have second thoughts on entering the Lounge so I decided to check the news first. This lobby is only for news and you can''t post anything here except the moderators and the owner of this server. I saw one news that looked strange to me but I saw the news that makes me jog my memory since I saw this particular news in a news flash. "An apartment building is set into flames killing a few civilians in the process last night in Asakusa, Tokyo. In public, this was just a mere faulty cause of a gas tank but it was not the real cause. The main perpetrator, a berserking ifrit summoned by a demon made a rampage after the main identity of the demon known, causing the whole building to burn. The demon is already killed and the ifrit is already sent to the Gehenna. The magicians on standby were sent to make the restoration and blessing process." The fire in Asakusa... I can''t be wrong with that because that news appeared while I was waiting for an anime show last night. It was a news flash that occurred that time so it was still pretty fresh in my mind. But what the heck? It''s not a gas tank but an ifrit? I have no idea what it was and I can''t search it yet because I have no internet connection yet. This is surreal to me. I didn''t believe in this app at first but it is performing strange things that I can''t explain and one of them is the fact that this phone is still not connected to the internet. Now I am a bit convinced therefore I decided to dive into the Lounge. I am not planning to talk first and just lurk around for a while. The chat is very active and messages keep on popping here and there which now brings me to the how. How does this app manage to connect other people without any internet connection or any data? I lurk around and started reading their messages without them knowing. --- Tsukiyama: Does that mean the closure to the event on Asakusa? I spotted a bunch of demons there last time I was in there. Rena: It is hard to determine if that was the end because the enemies are just making the whole events chaotic. It was like they are trying to divert our attention to something they made so that their main actions are kept away from our eyes. Moonlight: I also saw a lot of movement here in Tokyo and I seemed to think that they are getting bolder and bolder each day. Titan: One of the fighters I defeated the other night was actually a demon in disguise. He didn''t bother to remove his disguise and attacked me. I don''t know but this might be connected to something large. Yaya: Breaking news guys! I managed to track down the main cause of these demon appearances! Moonlight: Really? Voltaire: Yeah. Yaya and I managed to track the mastermind. He is currently trying to make an army of Homunculus here in Tokyo. We managed to destroy his factory but I doubt that was his only factory right now. I am guessing that he is not using a single factory, but a few more factories around Japan. Tsugimoto: Japan is getting hard to deal with right now. Many enemies are getting bolder and bolder in creating dangerous things that will reveal our existence. Raigaki: Hey guys! Can you help me find a certain doujin in Akiba? Send help guys! (SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: Raigaki has been muted for 5 hours: Reason: Lewd, go away!) Moonlight: Where in Tokyo did they set up the factory @Voltaire @Yaya? Yaya: Around Roppongi. It is currently far from your location @Moonlight. You just need to stay in standby for now. There are lots of movements over there so I am guessing that they might be trying to strike there soon. There are lots of civilians there so be prepared and be vigilant always. Moonlight: Of course. Titan: Just send us some help if you ever in a pinch.'' Voltaire: Be careful always. Last time I faced a demon, they have grown stronger. You can''t really attack as always @Moonlight since your injury from the last battle is still not healed. Do not overexert yourself. ---- The chat is getting weirder and weirder. Not because the message continues to appear even without the internet but because of their topic. I know what a homunculus is since I have remembered many anime and games mentioning them. I even researched them because they are always popular in the supernatural field and science fiction. Just what is actually going on? And what entities are these demons that they are talking about? So many questions but no answers. Also, I am not yet ready to talk so let''s set them aside for now. But after the revelation, it''s getting harder for me to know if everything around me is the truth or just another one messed up fabrication of lies. [ol][li data-annotation-id="c6bfa6e5-e135-38f9-e44b-bec043f0f6f1"]Another Greek word that is translated hell is "Gehenna." This word is used twelve times in the New Testament with Jesus employing it eleven times. Gehenna is derived from the Hebrew ge hinnom or the "valley of Hinnom." Hinnom was probably the name of a person in ancient Israel. The valley of Hinnom is a deep narrow glen just outside of Jerusalem. It was also called Tophet, or the valley of dead bones.[/ol] Chapter 4: First Day of School The day ended and I ate dinner alone. Since there is still no food inside the fridge, I have to buy food outside. The convenience store was nearby so its not really a problem for me. It was the first time I have eaten all by myself since I was more used to the feeling of someone eating dinner in front of you. Eating alone is kind of... lonely yet somehow nice and quiet. I may have been too used to being with someone else that I forgot that I was an introvert in nature. After eating dinner and washing the dishes, I have nothing else to do so I decided to go to bed early. Tomorrow is another day and the day that I will go back to school. I transferred exactly when the school is about to start so that I don''t have the need to catch up with the lessons. I hate being left behind in lessons and catching up to them is a pain in the ass. I lay down in the bed that my parents used in the past. Their scents are still lingering in the blankets and pillows making it a bit comfortable to me. Still, I can''t sleep. Due to my discovery of the hidden world of magicians, my mind has been boggling me for how many hours already. I wouldn''t mind doing something magical but after knowing other entities are lurking all around us, I suddenly felt troubled. I don''t want to be paranoid but now, this is serious. I grab the gloves out of my pocket and observed it. These gloves are no longer something that can be treated as a normal item. With its unique ability to use flames, these gloves can either turn someone into a human to a magician. If that was the case, I can use it, right? Still, I don''t want to be involved in something like this. I don''t want my life to be too chaotic and this demon and magician things are not a good addition to my life. I prefer the quiet, mundane life of mine than be involved in a fight. That is why I prefer slice of life genres in anime than action because I hate it. I am not a hero so why play as one? I sighed and tossed the gloves to the cabinet beside the bed and turned off the lamp''s light and drifting to sleep. Tomorrow is a new day... ... Before the sun fully shines out of the sky, I was already out of my bed and stretched out before going to the bathroom and took a bath. After the cold bath, I started heating up the leftovers of my food last night. Since I bought a little ham in a can, there was still a bit of leftover food left on it. I know that this was not the best lifestyle I ever had but at least, I can depend on myself now without relying on others. After heating up and eating my meager breakfast, I prepared my bag and uniform to go to school. Then my eyes landed on the gloves resting on the cabinet. These might be a magical item but it was also a useful item that I can use if I ever get into a dangerous situation especially now that I know the hidden existence of those creatures. I hesitate for a moment before deciding to bring it along with me. I put them inside my pocket. The shoes were also taken into consideration too and since these shoes can change their appearance, I can use it as an indoor or outdoor shoes depending on the situation. I have my bike when I was still in middle school so I didn''t need to walk. The school is only a few kilometers away from my house and can be reached if you take a bike for 10 minutes or if you are walking, you will reach it around 20-30 minutes depending on how fast you walk. The sun is high up in the sky and you can barely find any clouds to cover you therefore, the heat was intense. I pedaled like crazy just to avoid the crazy heat and managed to arrive in school around 7 minutes. I came a bit more early than predicted but drenched in sweat. I have no other choice but to cool down on a nearby store and buy a bottle of water. While buying water, I can see a few students hanging out on the store and has yet to enter the premises of the school. From the way they look to me, they seemed to be delinquents so they might be there to cut classes. Delinquents are just too hard to understand sometimes and only a few of them are actually good people that are hiding under that scary-looking face of them. I didn''t linger in the store since I don''t want to get the attention of the delinquents when one of the delinquents hold my shoulder. "Hey." My first reaction would be to counter it but I did not because I don''t want to mess up my first day of school. I turned around and looked at the delinquent. He looks like he was a real thug and he looks like he can kill people just by glaring at them. He is not that burly but he is a bit masculine. He has brown hair and he has earrings on both ears. He glared at me like a delinquent would. I am not scared at his eyes because I have dealt with countless different bullies in my middle school days and they all vary from their looks. "You dropped your wallet man. Don''t forget it," he said and handed the blue wallet which is indeed my wallet. "Uh, thanks," I said before putting the wallet back to my pocket. "Your welcome. You are a new face, are you a new student?" "Yeah. I just moved into the neighborhood." "I see. Welcome to the Sakuramiya High. You are the first person who didn''t run away after seeing me glare at them." "I am used to any kind of stares from different people and I am usually indifferent on them so it didn''t bother me too much." The guy chuckled and tapped my shoulder. "Ha, thank goodness. I may be a delinquent but I don''t bully others. They are just too intimidated from my looks that is why they didn''t bother to even talk to me." I see. So he is one of those delinquents that may have a look of threatening thug but has the heart of a good friend. It''s rare to find good people like this. "Well, I am not easily intimidated so if you are bored, you can talk and hang out with me if you like." "Nah, just go on. I don''t want to drag you down. But I have a friendly advice. Since I am a well-known delinquent here, I know who are the people that really have a bad attitude. Most of the guys here who looked like a heartthrob or a celebrity has nasty traits. If I were you, don''t trust them easily because they can easily deceive people." "Thanks for the friendly reminder. I am Kazuma Fukuyama, you are?" "My name is Godou Tachibana but they call me Godou. Are you fine if I call you Kazuma?" "Sure." "Then go along. I heard the opening ceremony is about to happen. You have to find your classroom before the ceremony happens." "What about you?" I asked. "Nah, I am still waiting for a friend, you don''t have to worry about me." After my conversation with Godou, I entered the school premises. I was quite wrong on Godou before. He might look like a very dangerous person but he is kind. I can sense from his voice the lack of malice and negativeness that I can usually feel on a person saying something opposite on what he was saying so I can tell that Godou is a genuinely good person. Now, my concern is the guys that Godou mentioned. This school might be a place where devious people have gathered. Just as I was about to go to the bulletin board to find my classroom, the phone in my pocket vibrated which means a notification arrived. This phone still has no service provider and is not yet connected to any internet connection so that means the only app that would give me a notification right now is the Anonymous app. I opened the app and checked the notification. "Demonic Energy detected. Level: 3 Danger: Minimal. Magician, please proceed in caution to the area you are about to venture." I was taken aback from the notification. Demonic Energy? Does that mean, the same demons that caused the fire in Asakusa? I looked around the place and frowned. All I see are normal people. Who is this demon and where is he? I am not entirely sure now if these people can be trusted any longer. With these demons on the prowl, trusting anyone including Godou is going to prove as one of my hardest... Chapter 5: Opening Ceremony After scanning the papers on the bulletin and trying my hardest to squeeze around the crowd, I finally saw the room I was going to attend my classes. 2-B. From what the map guide on the school told me, the 2-B classroom is located on the second floor of the main building. I already memorized the whole building''s structure so it is impossible for me to get lost in here. The hallways are bustling with students and most of them are just talking with their old friends, hitting up girls or hanging out with new friends. Still, I can''t let it out on my head the notification on my phone the demon energy that it has scanned in this place. If that was the case, someone is currently a demon here. I have to be careful about who should I interact with. I may be paranoid but I am not a hero. I am not someone who cares to tackle this demon and if necessary, I would run away. Call me a coward but that is just normal human instincts towards the unknown. While thinking about those things, I have finally reached the room with the nameplate of 2-B. There were several students already in the chairs but they didn''t notice my arrival. That is alright for me because I feel uncomfortable talking to someone right now. Most of the students in the room are all talking with someone else and I can feel how out of place I am in this place. I don''t mind it anyway. I am not the only one who seemed to be out of place. There is one girl currently sitting beside me who has a moon hairpin on her hair that seemed to be similar to me. She is not talking to anyone else and is currently facing her table facedown. I think she is sleeping. There are some guys who are just busy playing games, reading a book and other kinds of stuff. All in all, they are all doing different stuff. Just as I was about to pull out my phone, the speakers started resounding throughout the area with the announcement. "Good morning students Please assemble to the gym right away. We are about to hold our opening ceremony." Looks like it is time to go to the entrance ceremony. I stood up but then noticed the girl beside me still sleeping. I may be hesitant to talk to others, but I am not someone who ignores others. It''s not so kind to my principle. Approaching the girl, I shook the girl a bit and whispered, "Hey, wake up. The entrance ceremony is about to start." Contrary to my expectation, the girl responded like she did not sleep. "Yeah, I know. Don''t worry about me. Go on. Thanks for the concern." Hearing that, I decided to just go back off from this person. I shouldn''t have bothered to do that if she was not sleeping at all. Oh well, I have done it, nothing to be done. Our class started lining up outside and proceed to the gym. Many of the students are still talking to each other and doing this and that. And yep, no one still talked to me, which is cool. As soon as we arrived, the students are clumping on the entrance like some sort of fishes wanting to get inside. Still, I don''t really care what they are doing and just followed. We sit to our individual chairs and it was separated into every section in the school. I know it was boring stuff as always so I decided to just passively listen. I connected the headphones on the phone and decided to go listen to some songs. My memory card has been inserted here already and my favorite songs are already downloaded there, which I decided to use to pass time while the long-ass speech is going on. Just as I was listening to a song, the same mechanical voice from my phone resurfaced again and it started talking in my headphones. "Warning. A 3rd tier demon is near your location. Calculating data, you are still not someone ready for a battle. Evacuate the place. I repeat a 3rd Tier demon is near your location. please evacuate." This time, I froze on the spot. The demons again? Can someone put a stop on these demons? "You are a magician. It is your job to defeat demons and kill them for the safety of everyone in the world," the mechanical voice said. I was pissed off by this mechanical voice. Luckily, this thing can still scan what I am thinking and I can talk to it while not opening my mouth. "You keep on monologuing yourself. It''s weird. Stop it," the mechanical voice said. If not for the fact that I don''t have money right now to buy a new phone, I would be willing to squash this phone to smithereens. Since this weird phone keeps on sending warning, I decided to look around and check who is the one doing it. However, with this densely populated area of the gym, it was impossible to check whether a person is a demon or not. Then, the person beside me pinched my hands. "Do not look around, you will be discovered." This made me halt and look at the person beside me. Now that I think about it, it was the same girl that currently my seatmate and now my seatmate here in the gym. "What?" I looked at her in confusion. "You are a magician, right? I can sense the app on your phone giving you out the warning system. Don''t worry, I am also one of those people receiving those things," she said to me. "Then..." "That is right. A demon is currently blending with others here. From the looks of it, you are still a clueless guy, Which faction in Japan are you Prom?" she asked. Wait, what? Faction? I don''t have a faction! I am just a normal guy without any kind of sh*t! Oh, except the shoes and the gloves that spit out flames. Then, the phone explained again. "Factions are the group of magicians grouped together as one. They are allies and will help each other in need. Usually, this term is used in two different groups having a conflict with each other. I suggest you join the Japan-Tokyo Faction." "Does that mean, you are a magician?" I looked at her. "Shh, don''t blurt it out. We can''t reveal our identity as magicians to other people. Didn''t you read the rules in the app?" She is right. There is a rule stating that kind. However, does that even apply to me? "...thank you and good day, everyone. Good luck on your journey and may the all of you find success!" the principal said on the stage before she bows down and everyone started clapping which means that the opening ceremony is finally over. "Let''s meet up in the rooftop later. We will discuss what we have spoken here there later. This lunchtime okay?" "Ah, yes..." I said but I doubt she heard that as she already moved out from the area along with the torrent of students. Chapter 6: Tsuki Akari As the opening ceremony came to an end, all the students returned to their classrooms without any fuss. However, there is no more time for the class as the recess bell rings. I don''t feel hungry for now so I didn''t go to the canteen. I decided to just go back to the classroom and sit down for a while. My guess is that the formal classes would start later this afternoon or tomorrow depending on the schedule. What the girl earlier said the time of our meeting would be at lunchtime so I didn''t rush to go in there. When I arrived back in the classroom, I saw a few of the thugs at the end of the classroom. One of them is Godou who seemed to be eating his sandwich. From the looks of it, he is one of my classmates. He has sharp eyes since I was still in front of the doorway when he saw me go in. "Hey, Kazuma. So we are classmates huh?" Godou grinned and offered a bottle of soda to me. "Thanks, man," I said and grab the soda. One of the thugs scrutinizingly looked at me and seems to be calculating something. "This guy is not bad. His body is well toned and from the looks of it, he practiced a few martial arts based on his body stance, breathing, and his skin." I frowned when I heard that. I didn''t tell anyone else that I practiced martial arts. He can tell just by looking at my body for a few minutes? "Ahahaha, don''t freak out Kazuma. This guy is Yuji Fukushima. Avid fans of martial arts and movies about them. For how many years he watched those things, he can now imitate a few of their move sets and he can tell now if the person can do martial arts or not. I hope you are not offended by him." "Not at all," I said but in reality, I am a bit nervous. With the demon in the area, I am not sure whether these people are the suspect or not. Still, it is kind of rude if I did not respond to them. I found out that Godou and the delinquents in the class are not really delinquents. They are just treated as one due to their scary-looking faces which easily intimidates the other people. They are actually good people and they have good grades in different subjects though they are also flunking to some. When lunch came, they bid farewell because they have to help out on a construction site since it was their part-time job. It is fine to me as well since I have an appointment with someone which might be the key to my questions. ... When I arrived at the rooftop, I saw no one on the rooftop. I looked around the place but not a single soul is around. Does that mean, I arrived first? I did not see her back in the classroom earlier so my guess is that, she came into the rooftop first but I guess I am wrong. "Hello? Anyone out there?" It was silent at first but then, someone jumped out of nowhere behind me. "So you have come." Before I can even react, my instincts to dodge suddenly kicks in. I trust this instinct of mine because this helped me a lot in the past. Without thinking twice, I quickly rolled away from where I stand to the side. BANG! An explosion occurred to where I just stood. I was right. My instincts did not fail me. I then saw the person who attacked me. To my surprise, it was the girl earlier and she was holding a burning... bamboo sword? "Good reflexes. You might still be a real deal magician. But why do I can''t sense the mana in your body at all?" I stood up and calmly looked at her. So this person is a magician. And she is indeed using magic. The Bamboo Sword she is holding is not really burning but it was like it is just there for decoration. It would already be in ashes if it was a real flame. What is more, the floor that I was standing before is cracked and scorched which means that this was the real deal magic. "You want to test my might as a magician?" I frowned and pulled out the gloves from my pocket and wore them. Although I am not yet good at using this item properly, if things are in the bad, I have to deal with it impromptu. Since imagining is much easier and I have seen many fantasy scenes, imagining flames in your hands is much easier. FWOOOOOMMM! Flames appeared from my hands without any kind of difficulty. The girl smiled and she quickly dashed forward while swinging the bamboo sword to my direction. I didn''t falter and quickly countered the attack. Trained to fight against people with weapons in the past using your bare hands is my training which is easy to do right now. When the sword is about to land to me, my palms quickly deflected the bamboo sword. To my surprise, the bamboo sword is like a real sword being used. I know how heavy the real sword because I spar with my master in martial arts using a real sword in the past. So does that mean, this bamboo sword will be as heavy as a real sword if it was used by a magician? But if this was a real sword, it would be a fatal mistake of me to deflect the bamboo sword without the proper way of doing so. What I just did is something that can block only a blunt weapon like baseball bats, iron pipes and other blunt weapons. BANG! I deflected the sword with force and also with the help of the pressure of the flames from my hand like a rocket. After deflecting the sword, I slipped my foot and released a kick to the girl. However, I did not expect the next outcome. Before I knew it, I was sent away in a blast. I did not even get to attack her using Blazing Shoes. The blast was powerful but it sounded like it was inside an enclosed area since it sounded loud and trapped. But I did not get to think too much on it because the girl quickly attacked me with her bamboo sword like crazy. I stood up and quickly rolled away from her. She looked at me with confusion in her eyes. "You don''t have too much mana in your body and yet you can cast magic and fight against me... Wait... you are not using magic equipment right?!" I did not respond to her. She just attacked me out of nowhere so why would I answer her? I just made myself ready and did not bother to remove my gaze from her. The girl is confused but she shook her head before she swings her bamboo sword. When she swings the sword on one side, the flames on her sword disappeared and it returned into a regular bamboo sword. "Looks like I have made a mistake. I thought that you are someone pretending as a monster since the signal is a bit close to you so I decided to lure you into my bait. But from the looks of it, you are just an ordinary guy. The only thing that I am confused about right now is that you are a normal person and yet you owned a piece of magic equipment. Besides that, you also have the Anonymous app. Just who the heck are you?" I wipe off the dust on my uniform and looked at her. "You should explain first. I am demanding that since you attacked me without even giving a slight warning. You did not even bother to hold back." The girl bows down, "I am sorry. I just thought you are the demon I am looking for. I thought that the demon managed to get information about Anonymous and is using it to track the other magicians around here. Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I am Akari Tsuki and if you already read the chat group''s log, I am the one they call Moonlight." Chapter 7: Monster in Human Guise Moonlight... I remembered that name in the chat indeed. So this person is Moonlight? Still, I am not a guy who easily trusts others therefore, I have to ask for proof. "Give me proof that you are Moonlight. I am not a person who easily trust anyone." She nodded before she pulls out her blue phone out and tap on the screen for a while before she shows them to me. Indeed, it was her name and her nickname Moonlight. "Satisfied now?" "Alright. Now that is all done, I have things to ask. I just recently stumbled upon this app and when I opened it, the app called me as a magician. I am a normal human, how come it is calling me a magician? I don''t even know how to do some magic tricks so it is impossible for me to become one." Moonlight looked at me with confusion. "Can you show me your phone?" I took out the phone from my pocket and showed it to her. She inspects the app for a bit before she shook her head. "My guess is that the Anonymous app detected your compatibility to use magic so when you opened the app, you were immediately classified as a magician despite the fact that you did not have any experience in magic and arcane arts. Since you used a magic weapon earlier, that item was the one given to you right? Now it makes sense why you have one in your arsenal." "So does that mean..." "Yeah. Since the app recognized you, then you are now a magician. Normally, if a normal human knows the existence of the app like how you did right now, you will undergo mind wipe for that which I think you don''t want to happen right?" "Mind Wipe?" I asked. Why does that sound sinister to me? "Yes. It''s the magic skill that many magicians have and one of the magic skills that a magician finds as a necessity. Just as the name implies, it wipes you off a certain memory off your mind, causing you to forget that memory. We do that so that the existence of magicians remain as a secret from the humans." No wonder the magicians that people know are all those street magicians and stage performers only, it was due to their own skills that they can erase the data they have in their memories. It was a bit an inhumane way to treat others but if it can protect the secret, then that would be worth it. Just as I was about to ask her again a new question, the bell for the next class rings. "Class is about to start. Shall we get going?" "I have an urgent matter to deal right now, therefore, only you need to go back. However, I am still concerned about the existence of the demon in this place. Since you can fight, and you can use magic, then let me give you a gift since I can''t use it." After that, she pulls something out from her pocket and throws that item to me. I caught the thing and I finally saw that it was just a small glowing bean. But what should I do about it? Plant it on the ground? Before I can even ask her the question, Moonlight already answered it. "That is a Magic Genome Seed. Eating that thing by magicians, they will gain the magic contained inside the genome and they will be able to learn it without any backlash. Of course, you need to be very versatile on one to learn the spell inside. The magic inside it is called Mana Scan. Since you are the one left in this school as a magician, I will be entrusting this mission to track down the demon for today. If you can''t find the demon, I will help you tomorrow." Before I can even respond to what she was saying, she disappeared and left no trace from the rooftop. It was like she just teleported away from the area. I did not even get to say no to her. I sighed and glanced at the Magic Genome seed. Should I really trust her? But there is also a slight feeling in my gut that is excited by the things happening. Who wouldn''t? This is magic we are talking about. Real magic that can only be seen in movies and games is now in my grasp. Isn''t that marvelous? And yet, there are still problems with it. Accepting it means, you will give up your normal life and trade it for a life full of conflict and disorder. Still, the thrill of having a new life like this would be a good idea. Without any choice, I gobbled out the seed. I didn''t expect that the seed would taste like sh*t. It was like all kinds of bitter things mixed into one. As soon as I swallow the seed, the bitterness I tasted also fell to my stomach. I tried to hold the urge to puke. The feeling is weird but soon, I felt some sort of feeling that I did not really imagine to occur while eating the seed. My whole body became so light and it seems like my whole body erupted and a nuclear reaction occurred inside my body. "Magical Fluctuations detected... Scanning... Kazuma Fukuyama successfully managed to learn a new Magic, [Mana Scan]. Since you managed to learn real magic, you are now officially a Magician. The first task has been sent to you. Completing the task stated in the app will allow you to earn a specific reward." I disregard the voice on my phone and tried to detect what was happening on my body. Also, there is that memory of how to use the Mana Scan magic. So does that mean, this magic seed also has a tutorial to use the skill? This is such a convenient thing. I won''t end up as an idiot trying to figure out how to use magic that I practically have no idea how to use. Trying out this magic has a similar feeling when I was still trying out the shoes and gloves. "MANA SCAN!" And without much fuss, a full layout of the school appeared on my mind, containing all the people and all the organisms inside. All of the humans are all colored blue in my mind but only one person is currently emitting a red figure. Chapter 8: What a Demon Looks Like Mana Scan is like a Holographic Scanner that scans a 20 km radius from where I was located and everything on that radius will be revealed despite their location and the hindrances that block the vision of anyone. When I used Mana Scan, all the people within the 20km radius glowed blue. Yes. Without exception. Male, female, teenager or adult, all of them glowed blue during the duration of Mana Scan. Only one of the figures did not glow blue. Red. One of the figures around the 3rd floor of the building is colored Red. In the memory I gained after eating the Genome whatever it was, normal people glow blue, magicians, mana traces and sages glows gold, monsters glow green, insects glow pink, animals like birds, cats and dogs glow darker blue and demons glow red. That is what the extra memory said to me. As for objects like trees and buildings, they only appear as a grey object which can be seen through if the user of the ability wanted to. Of course, this ability cannot be used for peeping which is too bad. Anyway, back to the topic, the red figure is currently accompanied by a normal person based on the color of the figure which means that this person might be a target. I canceled out the Mana Scan and I almost collapse after that. It looks like my body cannot handle the strong mana drain that the mana scan does. Good thing it only lasts for a few seconds before I managed to get back up to my feet. What should I do next? Confront the demon? But I am not someone like Moonlight who has a different variety of magic skills and besides, I am too reliant on my martial arts mastery than the magic itself since I am new to this stuff. What should I do? I calmed down and think for a while. I am still a newbie in magic uses and the first magic I gained is not for offensive but rather for mapping. Sure, it may be useful, but I don''t think it would be good enough. I may have the Blazing Shoes and the Burning Gloves but I don''t think I need to be so self-reliant to them. Once they are removed from my body, I am can''t use any magic at all. Attacking a target in assassinations is not good if you are not familiar with your target. You might end up blowing your cover or might end up dead. I am not a hero and I am not an overpowered individual who will fight for justice. Sometimes, having too much justice is excessive. Thinking rationally would do the best for this one. I have decided, let''s trace this demon first before calling Moonlight. ... Briskly walking in the hallway, I managed to get to the third floor without breaking a sweat. The students are not so numerous now compared to earlier since the bell rings. Only the students who still have no homeroom teachers in their room, students on a club and a few other students who are going elsewhere. I already memorized the position of the guy that is marked as color red earlier and where this guy and the person he is accompanying is going. I don''t mind cutting classes for the afternoon, there is no actual class today anyway and the actual day of the class without any interruption would be starting by tomorrow. The school hallways are a bit spacious now so it is impossible for me to miss those guys. I continue to walk through the area until I came across them currently descending the stairs. I just spotted them when my phone started talking from my earphones again. "Warning, the demon aura is nearby. Please proceed in caution." That means, the guy earlier is indeed a demon. I have seen him before and he is seated in the third row of the chairs. I am in the 2nd row so he was not able to hear our discussion with Moonlight about him. If he did, he must have fled already. Tailing them without anyone suspecting is hard. You need to act natural and maintain the 5-meter distance from them. I didn''t really bother too much with his companion which is a girl, what I am looking at is the resemblance of this demon to a normal human. However, I don''t see any kind of sign that the guy I am seeing right now is a demon. But because my mana scan reacted to the guy, that means, this guy is really a demon in disguise. Since the demon in human guise did not look like a demon at all, I decided to activate Mana Scan once more to check whether the guy is a demon or not. I silently mumbled Mana Scan under my breath and once again, the entire layout of the building appeared in my mind once more. I followed them from far away and checked again. This time, not in the layout in my brain but personally in my eyes. What made me stunned is the appearance of the guy in my eyes. Before I looked at him under the Mana Scan influence, he looked like a guy who can pass as a model in a fashion magazine. Has a flawless babyface, has good skin, wavy hair, well-built body and most of all, he is tall. He is someone that many girls would fall in love at first sight. But when my eyes are now under the influence of the Mana Scan, it didn''t just change. It is a total makeover. The dreamy looking guy for girls became the most dreadful and a monster that can only be seen in nightmares. His skin is bright red with blue glowing cracks on his skin. His head has a single horn protruding from his forehead, his ears are sharp, his hair is long, his eyes looked like that of a lizard and most of all, his teeth are saw-shaped ones. I almost shouted after seeing the appearance of the guy. He is not something that should be existing here in the real world. He should only exist in the fantasy world where warriors and heroes defeat them. Not in this real world. I held my collar for a bit and breathed in a mouthful of air before I calmed down. He might look like a person right now, but once he peels off that skin of his, it wouldn''t be strange to see his looks. Now what I am fearing is the girl''s safety. I can confront the demon but I am quite sure that it will immediately trigger me from exposing the world of the Magicians to a normal person like her. This is quite a dilemma. If I didn''t interrupt, this girl might become this demon''s dinner tonight. Calculating everything, I decided to just keep following them for now. This demon might not victim the girl right now and confronting this guy too early would really make me get into a very bad situation. This is just a solo mission so it is indeed going to mess up with my way of life right now. Too impulsive can cause death therefore, I have to retreat for a few distances. From the looks of it, the demon and his companion had yet to notice my presence yet. If only I have a helper like Moonlight, then this wouldn''t be too hard. The two descended till they reach the first floor. They continue to move towards the garden in which during this time of the day where classes are ongoing, it is currently desolated. I am sensing that they are planning to do some "miracle" but I am not the guy that will bother stopping them. Still, I hoped that they won''t do that "miracle". It is just too embarrassing to watch here. The demon looked around before he led the girl to the bench. They sit down and started talking some sort of things, which I can''t really hear much. I am trying to lip read them but it''s harder than I thought. I am just hiding not too far from them. There is not a single person around so hiding is the easiest thing to do to conceal your presence. I can blend into the people if they are around but without anyone, hiding is my only choice. Soon, I saw the two of them close their faces to each other. Their lips started to get in touch with each other. I get the cringe to shout and interrupt them but that would surely make a bad idea instead. They continued to passionately kiss each other which is starting to get annoying for me. I can see the demon''s hand started to unbutton the girl''s blouse. I wanted to curse because they are blatantly doing this in broad daylight and in a public place to boot. Because I can''t last on this scene anymore, I grab a rock on the ground, infused the flames on it, and throws it to their direction. And that throw is precisely a good hit on the head. POK! The two stopped kissing because the girl was hit by the rock. What is more, she fainted and blood started to ooze out from her forehead. Did I just make it worse? The guy shook in fury and looked around with his face being contorted into a monster-like feature. "Who dares to interrupt me in my meal!?" Chapter 9: Need Backup! My aim is off. Instead of the demon, the rock landed on the girl instead. I slap my forehead from the outcome. I am in serious trouble right now. "Who dares to interrupt me on my meal!?" Oh boy, the big one is angry. I have no idea what to do this time around. I stay hidden in the bushes without revealing myself. Why the heck would I reveal myself? I am not an idiot! "You are making this one angry. Show yourself and I will give you a painless death." See, if I show myself, death awaits, why would I do that? The demon stood up, his face no longer resembles his former expression. It was a twisted expression that anyone would never want to see. I am inexperienced in battle against demons. Only one thing to do... Call for Backup! While the demon is still trying to find the assailant, I pulled out my phone and quickly opened the chat group. I scrolled around the names and finally, I found Moonlight''s name since she is the only one I know at the moment. I quickly typed into the screen while trying to keep my eye from the demon and to the screen of my phone. "Need backup! I already found the demon and it is trying to find me because I interrupted his meal! This is Kazuma!" I quickly sent it to her via private message instead of in the chat. Before I can even wait for the backup to arrive, the demon appeared and found me. "Got you..." Hearing that, I quickly punched the demon squarely in the face without any restraint. I didn''t activate my flames because it takes a lot of toll to me if I use it without concentration. PENG! The demon staggered from the unsuspected punch that I released to his face. He roared in anger since the pain registered to his skin. He never expected someone to fight back instead of cowering in fear. "F*CK! Tremble in fear!" "Shut up, demon sh*t!" I shouted before running away from the demon. "Coward!" I didn''t bother looking back, if I died here, it is pointless for me to be heroic. I activated the flames in my Blazing Shoes and use it to boost my speed in running. Good thing there are no people or else I am wrecked by the magicians. While running, my phone received a voice message. This time, it came from a guy named Voltaire. "Yo, just hang in there, I will be coming in there soon. So, in the meantime, stall him and don''t let him get near on humans, alright? Don''t go dying on me, newbie." Looks like Moonlight is the one who called this guy named Voltaire but heck, I need to stall this guy? I don''t think I can last against this guy! When I punched him earlier in surprise, my fist felt like it punched to a solid wall. I didn''t feel any muscle, it was like concrete. Good thing the gloves managed to suck in most of the damage repelled back to me. Since I need to stall this guy until the backup arrives, then I have to make sure that this battle won''t appear to the eyes of the public. Chaos and trouble will get brewed up in this area if that was the case. Then, another voice mail arrived. "If you want the battle to be a secret, put your hands together like you are in a prayer, channel your mana in between your palms and shout "Mirror World." That way you can fight without any hindrances." Is that so? Maybe that was the barrier used by Moonlight earlier on the rooftop where she didn''t even care if anyone below the rooftop noticed the commotion or not. Although I have no idea about how to channel the mana that I don''t really know if it existed in my body, I put my hands together and focused. It was a quick feel but when I felt something get triggered from my palm, I quickly shouted the words. "MIRROR WORLD!" Crack! Crack! All of a sudden, the surroundings started to crack like how a mirror does whenever the one breaks. The demon nervously looked around as the surroundings cracked faster and faster. Seeing this, I didn''t waste my time to dawdle, I quickly throw a fireball to the demon. BANG! The demon staggered and his long hair quickly turned to ashes causing him to get bald. "F*CKER! My precious hair!" This guy... I shook my head and run away from the area. The cracks stopped before exploding to pieces and the whole place returned to normal. However, I can see that the real world seems oblivious to what was happening. The demon also realized that the cracks are nothing but some sort of effect, therefore, he quickly chases me to me in frenzy. He roared and started running in all fours. "Stop chasing!" "I will eat you for interrupting my meal!" "I don''t taste good! I am skinny!" "Then that is much better! Less cholesterol!" "Eat this then!" and shows him my middle finger. He chased me all around the place. I am not so athletic but if the situation calls for it, I can keep on running without stopping for a rest just to escape the danger. I sometimes throw flames to his direction once in a while but whenever I do it, I get more tired than usual which is pretty bad for me. I had to keep on running around while the demon continues to chase me. Then, I was finally cornered on an alley. "Now you can''t run away from me. You can''t run from a wall anyway." the demon said, revealing his red skin and his true appearance. "Hmph, I am not just going to get killed here," I summoned my flames immediately and made a stance to fight." "Ha, flames do not bother me too much. I am resistant to flames anyway so why would I be afraid?" the demon grinned and started running towards me. I didn''t falter and throw one of the fireballs to the demon''s direction while keeping the flames in my left hand still burning in flames. BANG! BANG! Explosions occurred one after another. Of course, I did not stay in the fight. With the smoke from the flames earlier present in the scene, I decided to use it to my advantage. Running away from the demon''s grasp, I made a dashing sprint while the demon is coughing from the smoke. However, I miscalculated and before I can even pass through him, he throws a punch to my direction, causing me to get sent flying. The punch was strong causing me to get pinned into the wall. I didn''t expect that to happen to me. The punch was strong and it was like I got hit by a wrecking ball and I felt like all my intestines were turned upside down. I vomited blood and I almost collapse in pain. I still managed to stay awake without passing out from the pain. If I ever passed out, I am sure it is my dead end. "Now, time for my side dish..." Chapter 10: Voltaire The pain is still welling in my gut where the punch hits me but I endured it. The demon is slowly approaching, licking his lips in anticipation. I am getting rusty in battle I guess. I shouldn''t have provoked this f*cking demon from his meal even though it might lead to a different outcome. If I did, I might not be in the middle of this mess. Gathering all the strength I can still muster up in my body, I activated the flames in my gloves again. I know that it barely gives damage to this demon at the moment but if it is damaging him, I can still do it and hit him slowly until Voltaire arrived. I guess I need to visit my master again in martial arts and practice again. If I can get out of here alive. "Now, time for my side dish..." "Hmph, I am not a side dish nor any kind of dish because you will become charcoal! Fireball!" I hurled out a fist-sized fireball into the demon. Of course, the demon couldn''t bother to dodge an attack that barely attacks him with pain. "A pity, that was just something that tickles me." Bastard. He totally looks down on me. I am weak but I refuse to just die here. Even when the blood is still dripping from my mouth, I didn''t mind and forced my legs to move. Good thing that the nerves on my legs did not get strained in pain, which means, I can use it again. He raised his hand and from the looks of it, he is trying to squash my head. Before his red hands can grab me, I made a dash to the other side and escaped his hands. He grabbed nothing but air. I managed to avoid his attack but that move I made is something akin to a double-edged sword. Due to my injury in my abdomen, excessive battles like what I just did right now can result in further pain. Due to my dash, I spit out a mouthful of blood, causing me to grit my teeth. Where is the backup now? "You aren''t going anywhere! I will eat you!" The pain still lingered to my body so even if I tried dodging, I won''t escape in time. As I try to prepare for my counterattack, a beast similar to a wolf appeared. The only thing is that this wolf is glowing blue in its white fur with blue lines. It is also being circled around with electricity. The wolf creature attacked the demon at lightning speed. The demon did not get to understand what was happening and where did that monster came from. Only one thing is sure for the demon, he felt the pressure and danger he was in right now. However, backing out is cowardly, that is why the demon will is surely not going to back out. The demon and the wolf started fighting without even giving any resistance to each other. They have gone all out on this one. As I was spectating on the demon and the wolf creature''s battle when a hand rested on my shoulders. "You are the young blood of the magicians right? Moonlight already tested your skills and since she didn''t drop out any negative thoughts on you, she might have found something that interests her from you?" I looked at the person talking and realized that a dashing man with weird violet-colored hair appeared beside me and observes the battle on my side. Who is this guy? Is this Voltaire? He must be since he mentioned Moonlight. He didn''t remove his gaze from the demon, fighting against the wolf. It was like he is scrutinizing the demon. "A level 3 demon huh? From the looks of it, he already managed to consume at least 5 humans which means it included his disguise. What a dangerous fellow. This guy is not that strong for my familiar but if it''s you, you might end up as another costume for that demon if you are defeated. If I didn''t arrive on time, you might be dead." "Hmph, you took your damn time, I almost died stalling that demon." "Wow, sharp tongue for a young guy like you, I like that, frank and straight. Anyways, it was hard getting here as fast as I can you know. I literally need to run above the bullet train and travel through power lines ya know? I am not from the neighborhood anyways so you know it already." Now that he mentions it, he told in the chat that he is a bit far from the vicinity of Shibuya since he is hunting something. However, why would he go and rescue me if he is far from his location? Voltaire looked at me and rubs his chin. "You are thinking why I saved you even though I was far from you, right?" "Uh..." Did he have magic for reading minds? "No." "..." F*cker, you are clearly answering my questions that I did not blurt out! "Now you are cursing for clearly answering your questions right? No worries, I am just guessing. I don''t have clairvoyance magic anyway so that was pretty impossible for me. But if you are always interacting with demons disguising as humans every day, you will eventually learn the way to read other people''s minds without using magic." While we are talking, I heard the demon howled in pain. I returned my gaze back to the battle and saw that the demon is groaning in pain while clutching his severed left arm using his bloody right arm. His severed arm, on the other hand, is already far from the main body of the demon. The demon is desperately trying to get the other arm back but the wolf did not give him a chance and tackled him off the way or the wolf would drag the severed arm further away from the demon. "Demons cannot regenerate limbs but they can reattach their severed limbs except for the head. So if they got severed, do not let them have the severed part of them back. Burn them or get rid of them, anything that can prevent them from reattaching their limb would do." That was pretty severe even for a demon. I never expected that they have high regenerative abilities as long as their severed limbs are still around. So basically, they can be immortal if they are not killed from decapitating their heads right? This is pretty similar to Kimetsu no Yaiba. "The demons can still be killed even if you didn''t decapitate them. By crushing their hearts, mincing them to pieces, burning them with fire magic alive, tortured without fail in magic and physical abuse, different kinds of method is always in there." Oh sh*t, those are all brutal sh*ts. I kind of pity the demons right now though. But it was a momentary feeling, I looked at the demon and the wolf and this time around, the demon is already missing all of its limbs. "Inazuma, kill the poor guy. We don''t need to keep him get tortured here. He will be judged in the Gehenna anyways and get tortured by endless pain, we don''t need to add anything from his suffering," Voltaire said to the wolf. Inazuma, the wolf quickly howled before opening its mouth. As soon as the mouth of Inazuma is wide open, a blue, electrifying shock of electricity appeared from his mouth. The demon wriggled from the sight that his snot and tears are mixed up already as he tried to get away from us. Before he can even move several centimeters far, the electric ball fired from the mouth straight to the demon. "AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Chapter 11: Demon Drops The howl of the demon echoes throughout the place. Despite his echoes of help, all of them were left unanswered as he disappeared in nothingness. What was left on his wake are red marbles and a few diamond-shaped shards with a weird blue color that seems to look similar to the water of the Pacific Ocean''s depths. I approached them and grabbed one of the red marbles and checked it under the sun. Instead of a see-through, I instead found out that the red marbles has a swirling mass of weird cloud while the diamond-shaped shards are nothing but shards. "What are these drops? Are these something that can be used? Or these are just junks ready to be sold off to a millionaire?" I looked at Voltaire. "Ah, those are all useful to magicians. They are used for creating mana crystals that are used as ammo for magic guns." "Magic Guns?" "You will know it once you get to visit a Magician Store that sells items for magic purposes. But it might not be too long and you might be able to visit it in a few months." "I don''t think I plan to visit one but does this thing useful to me?" "For now, no. This thing needs a high concentration of mana to purify the evil energy it has accumulated. Using such raw items without purification leads to dangerous consequences if used. You don''t need this for now. But in exchange for stalling it long enough, I will give you three mana shards that are purified versions of the demon shards." Voltaire pulls out three blue crystals that have the same shape as the demon shards with only the color difference. Still, I looked at the demon shards with curiosity. Just how the demons disintegrate into nothingness and then appear as a shard of small pieces? Too many questions for me. "Still, the demons have been too active at this time. I don''t understand why they are now almost ready to show their existence to the public like this," Voltaire said as he rubbed his chin while looking at the wake of the demon. "Do the demons remain secretive about their activities from public eyes?" "Demons remain secretive about their existence but they often blend with the humans just to find the opportunity to kill and eat them. Sometimes, they are the servants of magicians who have sided to the darkness and are practicing forbidden arts." Voltaire gathered the demon shards and pulls out a small pouch where he placed them carefully. The red marbles, however, were given to me. "Take those. One of the rewards for this battle." "What are these things?" "Life Beads. Useful for recovering wounds. Demons use them since they are useful for healing themselves from injuries that battles have done to them. Don''t worry, they don''t get tainted by demonic presence since they don''t drop from the demon''s body so it is not a problem to consume them." "But I have seen these things fell off from his body." "Ha, they fell off from his pocket. If they really came from the demon''s body, killing these demons would greatly enhance our supply for Life Beads due to their usefulness." I still have so many questions to ask but because I lacked the way of understanding these things and their magical terms are just too profound for me to understand. I pocketed the beads and looked around the surroundings then I just remembered something. "Um, how to cancel out the mirror world magic?" "Oh, simple, do the same way you activated Mirror World but this time you need to shout Break instead. It would reverse the effect of the magic." I nodded before I did what was told. It was easier this time since I don''t really need to concentrate too much just to get the mana to gather in my palms. When I felt the mana gathering from my body towards my palm, I quickly shouted the word. "BREAK!" This time around, instead of cracking, the pieces of the broken mirror started to float again. It was like it is being repaired instead of cracking. POP POP POP The pieces put themselves together and connected the broken edges without fail, a small piece or big pieces. And before I knew it, the whole place returned to normal. The wolf-like creature disappeared from my sight as soon as the Mirror World is canceled out. "There you go, the mirror world is now undone. You are a fast learner and you don''t need twice the instruction needed. That is an impressive feat already for someone who is a beginner in terms of using magic. My guess is that you will be a very force to reckon with by other magicians in the future." "Hmph, I don''t mind becoming someone great as long as there is no more conflict like this one because it is too much for me to handle to live this kind of life. Anyways, do you know how to use the Mind Wipe magic that Moonlight mentioned?" "Of course. It is a very necessary magic for all magicians if they actually get someone to witness their magical feats. If you want to learn it, just go to the app and look at the Spells lobby. Go to the pinned messages and you can claim one genome seed there for free. Do you want me to explain how a genome seed works?" "No, I am fine. I already consumed one genome seed earlier for learning Mana Scan." "I see. So you are compatible with the genome. That would be a helpful asset for you then." "Yes. It will be helpful to avoid conflict with the monsters." "I don''t know about that Kazuma. If you have started to tread into the path of magicians, then it will be a very dangerous and chaotic path you are walking with." I fell silent. Just like what Voltaire said. If I follow this path, then most likely, I will get to see more of this action in the very future. Voltaire stood up after that and looked at me. "You can continue with the job Kazuma as a magician, but if you don''t like to be one, we can retake back your equipment linked in magic and we will wipe off the memories correlating to the magicians that you have accumulated during the duration that you became a magician. But you can return to your normal life. What do you say?" I frowned and looked at Voltaire. "I may hate the conflict, but I don''t mind the usage of magic. And I am not a quitter. I will still keep my status as one of the magicians." Voltaire grinned before he tapped my shoulder. "Then good luck kid, and hope you succeed as a strong magician. We will meet again in the future." And after that, a violet magic circle appeared below his feet before he leaps off like he was launched in a cannon into the sky. But he disappeared on the horizon after that. I didn''t bother to look where he disappeared into because I need to go back to the garden since I left out the victim back into the bench after I have thrown the stone out from my hiding spot. Before that, I take out the genome seed for the Mind Wipe and eat it. In case there are some things that happened while the girl is out, I will be able to wipe it off her mind. Chapter 12: Mind Wipe Arriving on the scene, I saw that the girl is still in there. Still unconscious and still lying on the bench. I sighed in relief since I managed to save a life. Well, it is not exactly me who defeated the demon but if I didn''t intervene from her fate then she might be a human chow by now. When I arrived next to her, I pressed my palms together and rubbed it before I retracted them and put them to the girl''s forehead. If my target is only one person, I can use this method while if my target is a group, I need the mass mind wipe skill which involves the usage of lots of mana. As soon as I have done that, the memories of the girl appeared. Although the skill is called "Mind Wipe", it is much better to call it Memory Editor instead because of the specific ability that this magic can do to the memories of the target. Mind Wipe, as the magicians call it, is a type of magic that can manipulate memories at will. They can either delete a certain part of the memory or delete all of the memory of that person. Of course, to do that, you need a lot of mana in your arsenal to pull that kind of sh*t. Now here is the actual reason why I call it Memory Editor instead of Mind Wipe. You can create any kind of false memory to use for memory fabrication. It is something used just to fill in the missing memory that was deleted to the target. And when I say anything, it can be anything. Of course, it needs to match to the first memory so that the target won''t suspect the fabricated memory. I see this magic as something that can really destroy someone to insanity if used properly. And if improperly used, it might be something that can be used for evil purposes which I think is not something good to do. Still, I have the need to use this skill right now. The girl that the demon has dated is currently collapsed into the bench and if she saw that her boyfriend is missing, it will cause a lot of trouble. About the disappearance of that student, I need to ask help on Moonlight or Voltaire to cover up this event. It will be troublesome if they suddenly tried to check who is the last person that the demon had met. As I reach the bench, I saw the girl is still slumped on the bench and still out. I sighed in relief seeing the girl is still collapsed. Without waiting for her to wake up, I put my palms together and create Mirror World again. After making sure that the Mirror World is up, I made hand gestures necessary for the Mind Wipe and after doing the unceremonious hand gestures, I made the final gesture and said the magic. "Mind Wipe!" and at the same time, my pointer fingers are all touching the two temples of the girl. SHUA! An interface similar to a high tech phone seen in movies appeared in front of me. It quickly displayed her memories in the folder. I was amazed by how organized this magic was. It was like you are just browsing through your phone''s file manager or your computer''s local discs. Everything is organized and categorized depending on the time and age the memory of the girl occurred. Of course, I don''t need those memories of hers. What I need are the memories that she just lately acquired. I scrolled around the interface and it didn''t take me too long to find the necessary folder. It was labeled as "Today''s memories." There are lots of memories there and it even included the time she goes to the bathroom to take a bath. I didn''t care much about that because I am short of time. Any time now she might wake up so I have to do it as soon as possible. Then, I managed to find the very latest memories she just acquired. As soon as I found it, I quickly take a scan to her memories. But then, I think something will occur if I make a wrong move in the memories of this girl. While I was thinking, I quickly managed to get an alibi memory and this time, I don''t need to delete an existing memory just to replace it with a new one, therefore, I decided to edit the memory. While it may be still too early to drop out of school, I decided to use that alibi to occur on her memory. It was a bit of exhausting to do so which only implies that I am still too weak to even deal the final blow. But with the help of the memories I gained, I didn''t have a problem to alter the memory. As soon as I finished everything, I decided to finish the session. The Mind Wipe might be successful but it exhausted my mana to the lowest. I am almost ready to collapse. In my final attempt, I quickly undo the Mirror World but that also made me collapse. Aw sh*t, my eyes are too heavy... And this fluffy and soft feeling... is so comfortable... ... When I woke up, I just noticed that my vision is upside down. I also noticed that I can''t move my body. Panicking won''t help me on this matter so I take a look around. From the looks of it, I am tied up in an upside-down manner. And from the looks of it, I am tied in a storage room for the sports equipment since I have seen the balls for basketball. The place is dark but enough for me to see the surroundings just fine. From the looks of it, its already late in the afternoon. There are no people around that seem to be watching me, so I decided to escape. Since my shoes are still with me, I activated the flames on it and burn the rope. With the flames too strong for the rope to endure, it snapped allowing me to escape. With a backflip, I landed safely on the floor. After that, I decided to gather my thoughts as I remove the rope in my body. The last time I remember, I was using Mind Wipe to the girl who seemed to be the girlfriend of the demon. After that... I think I collapsed? Without much things to remember while collapsed, I decided to go out of the room. However, the door is lock. It seems like I was purposely locked out. That is fine, I am not even caring if I stay here or not. One thing to do, find an opening to escape. Looking around the room, I saw a window big enough for me to squeeze myself out but it was above the height of a normal person and jumping on it is not even reachable. But if you know how to parkour or do monkey climb, it can be reached easily. I am good at parkour so when the need arises, using that ability is immediately my choice. Whoever locked me out in here and tied me upside down needed to explain it to me soon. There are enough things to grab into to reach the window. It might look hard but not impossible. Making a headstart, I run towards the wall below the window and opposite to the shelf. As soon as I am about to hit the wall, I made a jump and hit the wall before I eject myself from the wall towards the shelf. It is not enough though so before I lose my balance, I made another ejecting movement to the wall back again. This time, a reach in the hand is enough for me to grab the ledge of the window. FWOOP! That was easy. Quickly climbing out the window, I opened it and checked outside. The sky is already painted orange which means the sun is about to set already. Just how long did I pass out? How did I not felt the people who carried me here? I jump down the window and rolled into the grass. No one is around so no one noticed me escaping. I am not so sure if there are people around the place so before I escape, I decided to use Mana Scan. Chapter 13: Escape I frowned seeing the front door of the storage room is locked. No wonder I was not able to get out. What is more, there are two people standing outside which from the looks of it, are students guarding the door. They looked like athletes based on their bodies'' fitness build. Even in Mana Scan''s holographic figures, I can tell if they are athletic or not. After I canceled the effects of Mana Scan, I sneak close to the side of the entrance. It''s hard to see anyone in this area but you can perfectly see what was going on on the entrance and hear conversations there secretly without being busted by these guys. As I try to listen, I managed to hear a piece of news on how I got tied up and locked up in the first place. Although I didn''t manage to get what they just said firstly, I can already get the gist of it. "I heard that this guy shamelessly molested our goddess while she is sleeping on the bench. Isn''t that being shameless enough?" the guy on the left said. "But I don''t recognize his face. Our goddess might have ordered him to get tied up but I don''t know if he really did it. I was just told like what I was supposed to do as one of her followers." "I have a photo of him "molesting" our goddess. It was from her friend who found the two of them," then he pulled out his phone and showed the photo to the other guy. "WTF! He dares to sleep on her chest? I didn''t even get to fondle them and he dares to do that?!" "That is why our goddess is very angry. Now that her boyfriend broke up with her to go overseas, it was only something she can vent out her anger into!" "Her boyfriend broke up with her? Seriously?" "Yes. It came from the goddess herself. I am betting my money that this guy won''t have a face to show himself in school for tomorrow once he sees all of the controversies and rumors that are now spreading from him." "Speaking of that guy, did he already regained consciousness?" "Who cares about him? He can just stay there for at least a night at most. We can untie him tomorrow morning. The goddess said so herself." "Then, we starve him for a night then? We might get in trouble if he died from starvation!" "Tch, dumbass, humans won''t die just by not eating dinner once. Can you stop being melodramatic? We just have to give him that punishment. No one dares to humiliate our goddess like that." ... After hearing all of that, I can''t help but grin. This is just my first day of school and now I am famous? A pervert molester on top of that. Although I just fainted, I didn''t expect that to happen to me. Well, it might look disadvantageous to a person with dignity to protect but to someone without one, what damage can they do? I, who never cared about my own dignity and reputation, being targeted by rumors, is not really a bad thing. In fact, I felt elated. This way, no one will try to get close to me and I can keep my status as a "loner" continue. Do I sound crazy? Maybe I am, but I am already fine with that. Other people might go crazy if they found out about their reputation broken overnight. But to me, that was fine, in fact, it was rewarding. After becoming a magician, isolation, peace of mind and training my body are the things I really need to do as soon as possible. Now due to this piece of news, I can actually say this is a blessing. Due to the rumors, normal people will tend to avoid me and would just spread rumors about me. I am fine with that, the lesser the people to talk to, the better. Also, this move only allowed me to get famous instead. I will get a peace of mind since people never really cared if I exist or not. And lastly, delinquents and people that supported the so-called "goddess" will start trying to bully me. If that was the case, then that means I have to be fighting against thugs. I am lacking in training after all of my years of quitting the practice of martial arts. And since almost all of my magic is related to close combat quarters, it is just normal for me to get elated. There is no problem for me to initiate a fight against others. There is no point in staying here and get noticed by them. It''s better for me to silently slip away and let them guard someone that doesn''t exist inside rather than create a conflict with these idiots. I also need to sneak out and take my bag that I just left inside the classroom before I slip away and go home... ... That night, after finishing my dinner, I opened my phone and click on the Anonymous app. After the events earlier in the school, I am somewhat aware now that the magicians are there for peacekeeping that lets humans safe from the danger that the world is hiding. As soon as I entered into the app, I heard the mechanical voice of the app that spoke to me during the first time I accessed the app. This time, it was for a different reason. "Welcome back, Magician Kazuma. We received a report about your exploits from Magician Voltaire. Due to your exemplary actions during the battle and for successfully stopping the demon from killing an innocent life even though you just started as a newbie magician, you already are a qualified man to receive a reward from us. Due to your efforts, you are awarded a tier 1 Familiar Summoning Spell that can be used once to summon a permanent Familiar. The materials for the spell and the instructions are all sent to your inventory. Enjoy your rewards. You deserved it." I was surprised by the message of the voice for me. I did a good job? Well, that was the first. I know I didn''t do well in the demon battle and besides, I did not deal with the final blow that is why I have not expected to get a message that I did a good job on the battle. Still, it might be due to Voltaire that I get to have a good report to the higher-ups. He is a cool guy and he didn''t even bother to bat an eye to the demon which means he is very strong. Maybe I managed to get into his good books that is why he did that to the higher-ups? The summoning spell is stored in the inventory. However, I am in no rush to get it out. With classes and upcoming trouble coming to my way, I will delay the summoning till this weekend. After passing by on the channels, I hovered to the chat group''s discussions. As always, they are still discussing some things that are related to the rise of the demons all around. ... Tsukoyomi: Aw, f*ck. These demons are starting to annoy my nerves now. Why are they popping out like mushrooms everywhere?! Zan: Hey, you can''t get used to them? I am used to it. The problem is that they are now trying to use demonic beings and spirits in their arsenals too. They are much more troublesome than the demons themselves. Titan: Punching them doesn''t work anymore. Maybe kicking will do? Moonlight: Most of the places around Japan are now notorious with demons pretending humans now. I heard that they managed to reach outside the country and the magicians in America are now having trouble with the riots done by demons at night. Raigaki: Seriously? Even America too? Then, does the hot blonde babes are all affected in there now? (System Announcement: Raigaki has been muted for 12 hours: Reason: :3 ) Voltaire: Indeed, even Russia and China branch are all complaining. I heard that they are trying to recruit magician helpers from the Philippines, France, and Australian Branches. Do we also have to do that too? Zacharias: The higher-ups said that they don''t plan to do so at the moment. But if the situation gets dire, they will take action and might try to find some helpers from the foreign countries soon. Catmod: Many of my disciples are getting anxious about the demon invasions now. They are afraid that the demons would kill them in the end. Tsugimoto: I plan to make a spell that can allow us to fight better than us now for the sake of defeating these demons. If anyone has suggestions on what kind of spell would be great, I would appreciate it. Yaya: You are making a new spell? Moonlight: He is tasked with making improvised spells for the sake of fighting demons now in modern society. It gets harder to fight with demons already acquainted with the modern world. Rena: How about long-range magic like fire arrows? Tsugimoto: No. It is already similar to the burning arrows that I developed in the past that ended up as a failure. Yaya: But due to that, we managed to get valuable knowledge on using spears instead of arrows. Maybe we should try it again? ... I suddenly gained interest in the turns of their topic. They are making magic? Maybe I can help? After encountering demons, I am quite sure that they are a bit easy to target if I suggest this one. Chapter 14: Bastards I am interested in sending a suggestion but I ended up not doing so. First, I am not an expert in magic, second, the spell I am trying to suggest is hard and not so versatile compared to flames that the blazing shoes and Burning gloves give, third, it is a video game magic which is something that would be more unrealistic. Therefore, I dropped the idea. Although I am already part of the chat group, I don''t think I would be able to chat there easily. After that, I rested and sleep like a log before 5 in the morning strikes on the clock. As soon as the sound of the alarm started to ring around 5, I know that it was already time to get out of the bed, get some stretches and do my morning jog. After doing all of the monotonous routine that I followed in the past, my body is now drenched in sweat. Returning home, I took a bath before I head to the kitchen and cook my breakfast. It was a pretty monotonous task that I will get bored with this one if I keep on doing this forever and yet, I am still doing it. What can I do? Changing this routine will not do too much anyway so why would I? After doing all of the monotonous routine, I don my uniform and fix my hair. After everything is done, I brace myself for this is just the calm before the storm. ... On my way to the school, while I pedal on my bicycle, I passed by on other students that go to my school. I can see in my peripheral view that they are looking at me with disgusted looks. However, I can''t be too delusional. I am currently in the middle of biking so it might just be a different reaction instead. And besides, I have no idea who they are so it doesn''t make sense why would they show a disgusted face to me who they barely know. But, from the looks of it, it looks like what occurred earlier is indeed happening. When I arrived, the whole student body started staring at me as they stop on their tracks. The way they stare at you without any reason and just standing there is just plain creepy. Is this some sort of stunt done in horror movies? But there is one emotion that they are currently showing from their stoic face and I can tell it even if they don''t show it plainly on their face. Disgust. They were like looking at the dirtiest and ugliest man in the world. Those condescending looks never cease to amaze me. If it was a normal person, that guy would certainly leave instead of going further into shame but don''t compare me to this nonexistent person. Because it is fascinating to look at their condescending looks and how I am not affected at all. When I arrive around the very entrance, I saw a group of what you call "pretty boys" gathered together. The reason I call them "pretty boys" is due to their looks. They have the looks of a celebrity and a body of a model. In short, they are the definition of handsome in the girl''s dictionary. Of course, I can''t lump myself from them because my looks don''t even compare to them. I sometimes look on the mirror to look for that handsomeness but in the end, it doesn''t exist in my face. As soon as they saw me approaching casually, they started blocking their bodies to the entrance. "Ha, look at this pervert. He brazenly arrives without even caring on what will happen to him," a red-haired guy said as he shook his head. "A pervert indeed. Look at his face, only a mother can love that look," one of the "handsome" guys said. He has blonde hair which makes him looks like a foreigner but based on his looks and the way he speaks, he is pure Japanese. I guess that his hair is bleached. I am fine with everything else but suddenly bringing up my mother here is just something that I don''t tolerate. Call whoever gods or ancestors you have known, but I freaking dare these people to drag my parents here and I will not show any mercy. But I didn''t show any hostility at all. I controlled my temper because I don''t want to force violence as long as it takes. I just continue walking past them but this action of mine made these "handsome" guys hostile to me. "Hey, listen when we are talking!" the blonde guy exclaimed and grab my shoulder. This action made me prompt to doing a retaliation. Frowning, I looked at the guy and grab his hand. "You dare to touch me? You motherf*cker, I don''t even know you and you started giving contempt on me without any reason. I am fine just letting all of you go, but that touching me to stop for you is something delusional action for me you know? Do you think I was a lowly servant that you can order? Tch, I am not some lowly guy you can easily beat up. I don''t mind you all going to fight but I am late in the class so I am not going to continue." The onlookers were all watching things unfold. The other guys started to gather around and stopped me. Before they can stop the fight though, he releases a punch that from my eyes, looks so slow and weak. I am not exaggerating, it looks slow and weak to me. Since he was in the middle of punching me, I will rather break his hands rather than leaving me on a desperate spot. CRACK! "AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" He roared in pain as the sound of bones cracking can be heard on the surroundings. I glared at him as he howls in pain from the broken hand I made on him. The others were also taken aback from what I did. The blonde guy never expected it at all but he has no time to think much about it. What he needed to do is escape his current predicament. "So... what are your business for me? Make it quick, I am busy." Chapter 15: Asuza Ebisu The bypassing students and the onlooking students did not expect the outcome. They started capturing photos on their phones. I still have no power relating to the manipulation of items beyond my reach so I can only continue what I am doing while being photographed by others. I am not overpowered in terms of combat power but I know the fundamentals of self-defense so if someone tried to do something funny, I wouldn''t hesitate to activate my self-defense stance. The blonde guy howled in pain as I twisted his arm. Of course, it''s not to the point that his arms need to have a cast. I just made a small twist so that he will feel severe pain while not dealing with severe damage to his arm. Still, the pain is great of course. "Ah! F*ck! What are you guys doing?! Ack... help me out in here!" Hearing this, the others looked at each other and nodded in unison before they started rushing towards us. They are going to mess up again and help to free out the blonde bastard. I frowned because I am not trying to cause trouble so early in the morning. Before the guys attack me, a teacher wearing a tracksuit appeared carrying a baseball bat and a whistle. He blows his whistle hard as soon as he arrived into the scene. "You cocky kids instigating a fight early in the morning! Everyone who is involved should get to the disciplinary office right away or I will be smacking your asses with a bat!" Hearing this, I let go of the blonde guy''s hands and returned to normal. The blonde guy gritted his teeth as he rubs his wrist that is glowing red from the pain. After that, the students that are looking at the chaos dispersed and started to return to their respective classrooms. On the other hand, I calmly followed the PE teacher and the "handsome squad of guys". I keep myself calm and composed of the event and did not utter much. Why would I be afraid? I am not the one who caused the trouble and they started it. Arriving into the disciplinary office, the PE teacher opened the door and revealed a busty woman sitting on the chair and is currently writing a few documents piled up on her table. As soon as the door opened, she looked up and stares into us with a strict look on her face. "Miss Ebisu, a few troublemakers are currently starting a riot so early in the morning. I brought them here for disciplinary purposes." "Thank you, Sir Ogata," the woman he called Miss Ebisu said. Sir Ogata nodded before he goes out of the room. The four guys who are on the "Handsome Squad started to type using the phones like they are trying to call their lawyers or something like that. Me, on the other hand, relaxed on the sofa. The texture of the sofa is so good to the skin that I think sleeping here can make me very comfortable. "No phones inside the disciplinary office. If you all don''t hide it from my sight, I will be confiscating them. Also, no sleeping." I sobered up and sit to the sofa straight and formally. The others were reluctant to put away the phones but they don''t want their phones to get confiscated so they didn''t disobey. Miss Ebisu put her pen down and looked straight to us. Her stare has a strange pulling lull on them. If you stare on them for a few more minutes, you will be enraptured to some force that seems to drag you down to the abyss. I relaxed and calmly breathed in before I returned to my usual composure. I can see in Miss Ebisu''s face the surprise when I did that. Everything is fine on me, but when it comes to the others, they seemed to have seen a very dangerous entity as they are all shaking in their feet. "I heard that you all started the fight. Who did it?" "I didn''t do it," I said calmly. "..." the others ended up speechless as they still stare to Miss Ebisu. A few seconds later, they started groveling on the ground and cried in fear. "Spare us, please! We admit we are the ones who did it! But it was due to the orders of our idol!" Miss Ebisu looked at the shaking students in a very serious stare that it is similar to an eye peering inside your very soul. A few more minutes later, the four collapsed on the floor and are currently suffering a seizure and their mouths started to foam. On the other hand, I frowned seeing all of it happened. I am no longer affected the gaze. I looked at Miss Ebisu because I am suspecting something from her. "You are a magician huh? An ally or a Foe?" I asked before wearing the gloves automatically and activated my flames. Miss Ebisu smiled and leaned on her chair. She snaps her fingers and the four "handsome guys" disappeared on the floor. "I sent them away from here so that they will not know what we will talk about." "That is fine by me," I said while hiding my amazement by the magic that she had done earlier. From my guess, it was a bit similar to Teleport. "Now, where are we? Ah, yes. You discovered I was a magician. And from the looks of it, you are also one but this is the first time I saw you here. Are you a transferee?" "Yes. I just transferred yesterday as a new student. I just recently became a magician too. And these gloves are my main weapon at the moment. I don''t have any magic for offensive yet if you remove these gloves," I said to her. Of course, I kept the Blazing Shoes quiet since I can''t trust her yet. She might be a demon and currently trying to find my weakness. "I see. You are the newbie right? I heard of you from the other magicians in the chat group. So you are the one who managed to catch the demon who slipped inside our school. Can you tell me your name?" "Ladies first," I said to her. "Ha, excuse me. You already know that I am called Miss Ebisu by the teachers and students here but with my fellow magicians, they call me Asuza instead. My name is Asuza Ebisu. I am the Councilor of the Snake Zodiac here in Japan division. Now that you know me, will you tell me yours then?" "I am Kazuma Fukuyama. A newbie in magic." "Heh, a straightforward guy huh. Oh well, much better than stock up people and talkative ones. Also, in your case, I already knew about it. Your name became so widely popular inside our school campus due to a certain event in which I view as a very boring one. I also have no idea how come you are immediately accused by that girl." "So you knew." "Of course. I have eyes and ears everywhere around the school so it would be unnatural for me to not know the events. I just make it not well known to normal humans because they will immediately freak out. But from my guess, you seemed to be fond now with the bullying. Are you using the bullying to isolate yourself from humans and focus on your magic powers?" "Yes, indeed. With all the bullying coming, I can only use a semi-defensive, semi-offensive stance in this matter. And since they are trying to silence me, then I shall wait for them to come quick enough before I get bored and take the action myself." Chapter 16: Warning Not a bad action but not a recommended move. You might get to the point you want to use your magic to fight your tormentors. But it''s your decision. I can''t stop you from that. Anyways, don''t do too much trouble. Limit all of your actions to minimal. Although I am a magician, doesn''t mean I can allow you to go on a rampage. I am still a disciplinarian here so you need to understand alright? I can''t abuse my position in such petty matters so you need to understand." "I don''t need any help regarding these people. I am not least affected by them, so you don''t have to worry about me making trouble all around the school. But I might come here a few more times in the future. I have a few bullies to deal with. Anyways, is everything done? Can I go back to class?" "Yeah, yeah, just go. But please don''t come here hourly. Limit it at least twice a day or I will fall to stress in the future." I bowed down and exit the room. I never expected to find one magician beside Moonlight currently inside the school. With these people, I can find help if needed in terms of magic and enemies. Now, I need to deal with a few people. If they think I am affected, they should just fear for what was going to come to them in the future. ... As I walked down the corridor, many of the students already recognized me due to the commotion I stirred up earlier at the very entrance. They are clearing the way for me like I am a royalty walking into the red carpet towards my carriage. Every one of them are either whispering or just throwing disgust looks on their faces. So what? They don''t feed me to go to school so either they will nut up or shut up is up to them. Arriving in the classroom, all of my classmates started looking at me in a weird way. I shrugged everything off but then I noticed in one of my eyes the very same girl I followed yesterday alongside the demon that the familiar of Voltaire killed. She clicks her tongue and frowned as she looked at me in pure disgust. I don''t know what she is thinking and I don''t have any care if she ever did think this or that. She needs to get lost and find some life rather than find someone else''s fault and rubbing salt to it. Shrugging off their stares, I walked into my chair. Of course, Moonlight is already in there. I also saw Gouda and his gang. All of them greeted good morning without any regard on what my rumors said. Moonlight leaned a bit on my chair and whispered to me. "Quite a reputation you got there, huh? You are now much more famous than our campus belle now. And even the campus belle herself is too angry of you. I did not expect that to happen to spread overnight," Moonlight whispered. "Campus belle?" "Oh? You don''t have any idea?" "Why do I care who the heck is that? Can I earn money from that person? Can I learn anything from her? Nothing! I don''t think I need to know her." ''Well, she is the one who spread the rumors about you ya know. Also, he is a classmate of ours. You see that girl with braids and brown hair surrounded by girls near the window? That is the campus belle, Yumi Minato. I heard you molested her that is why you became so famous now. I can''t believe you get to be much more famous than me." "You want to be famous too? Then do what I just did and you will be in no time," I said to her. "Ha, I don''t want to be famous so leave me alone then." I chuckled on her answers since it sounded cold. So that was the campus belle huh? Well, she can be pretty if she is in your standards but to me, she looked average so why would she be treated as a campus belle? There are many more pretty girls around and has a kind attitude too. Not like her who seems to always condescend on others. Then, Godou approached me and put down his chair beside me. "Moonlight, this guy is the newbie? I didn''t expect him to be one of the newly recruited magicians. If I didn''t check the New Recruit channel, I would never know that this guy is a magician like us." I looked at Godou because I didn''t expect someone would blatantly tell that they are magicians in front of other people. But I think they are not even listening to what Godou said because no one reacted to that. "Yes. He is the one indeed. But he is still a weakling and easy pick for the demons if he is given to fight a stronger demon than that demon he found yesterday. Also, his reputation is now tainted with that troublesome rumors. I don''t know how he can manage to keep on staying even though he is ostracized by others though." That was a bit harsh. Although I am still weak and can''t do magic sh*t like everyone else, I am still considered as a magician. I just needed a bit of training though. But still, I am surprised that Godou is actually a magician. Seriously, these people are actually magicians? They act like they are just normal people. "Anyways Kazuma. Be careful later. I don''t know how strong you are physically and mentally but a few of those "guys" I mentioned to you yesterday somehow wanted to deal with you later this afternoon. Be careful on your way back home. I don''t know what they will do to you but please, do not reveal your magic at all. Just use those magic that you cannot see if activated alright?" "How did you know about that?" I looked at Godou. "I have many intel at school. And some local delinquents are on friendly terms with me. And since rumors are fast to circulate around here, it is not a problem to quickly know what they are planning to you. Wanna get some backup for later? My men can accompany you later," Godou said to me. "Nah, thanks for the thought but I can handle it on my own. I may not look like one but I was a fighter back in the middle school days," I said to him. ''Oh, then good luck man. It would be great if you trash their faces hard though." After that conversation, the teacher arrived and everyone took seats already. However, I can definitely feel a bloodlust in the classroom. I know how to detect bloodlust alone even when I was not yet a magician and when I became one, picking up bloodlust is now easier detected. The bloodlust is weaker than the usual bloodlust I always detect in the past. Maybe it was a bit weaker because the owner of it doesn''t have a strong reason to kill? Most people who release bloodlust always contain a lot of hatred that is being converted to bloodlust which amplifies their desire to kill. For the bullies to go this far, they are willing to kill just because I pass out into a woman''s chest? That was the first. But from my guess, I might really have pissed her off to make so many rumors about me. Still, whatever she does, I am born ready. If she keeps on making rumors about me, then she will never forget the experience of being one then..." Chapter 17: Trouble The day ended earlier than expected. We move straight to class immediately because the homeroom teacher is much more of a straightforward rather than the slow one. We skipped the introduction part because it is a waste of time and we can learn each other''s names by ourselves. So after that, everything proceeded without anything happening. And to my surprise, even during lunch and recess break, there is no conflict that I expected to come to me. I guess they are holding back and will go all out this afternoon? I am not too sure but I am guessing that their preparation for an attack will be directed to me this afternoon after the school activities. I am not too pressured to prepare. It''s just that you need to anticipate when and where they are going to launch their attacks. I am still confident in my fighting style and I am not bragging that I can take down at least 5 delinquents trying to gang up on me. Magic is still not included in that. I may have already quit my practice in martial arts but I still remember most of the fundamentals. Although the martial arts I am talking about is not similar to the martial arts used in wuxia novels, it can be considered as a form of hand to hand combat discipline like Taekwondo and Karate. I am still not sure if they are going to attack but I am sure that they won''t attack me in the public but in a secluded area. If only that rumor didn''t spread out, this won''t be happening and I won''t get unnecessary attention. What I am weirded out is the fact that only a single person is able to spread so many false rumors about me in just a half-day. The influence that this person has must be so wide and strong that it didn''t take a day to spread my name to others. The only mystery is that, why is that person so adamant about dragging me down to the drains? I have no idea at all. After packing up my things, I didn''t roam around anymore on the campus. Moonlight has something to attend in her kendo club while Godou and his gang has other business to attend to. Since I am still a new guy here, I am not yet affiliated to clubs and any kind of sports in school so there is no one tying me down to remain. As soon as I am in the shoe rack, I detected a malicious aura that is currently tailing me. I didn''t look behind because that will make the stalker anxious. So the assailant is someone going to this school huh? That was expected. But I prefer to do the deed outside the school premises. At least, the school won''t have any scandal of trouble. I am so considerate, right? After pretending to exchange my shoes out of the rack when in reality, it was just the same shoes, I move out and briskly walked away from the premises. Of course, the people around started looking at me with different expressions. It was hilarious to see how their similar reactions look different from their faces. But I don''t have to stop and photograph their faces. I quickly move my feet and move out of the premises. ... Shibuya, Hachiko Statue, Tokyo. I made sure that I pass through crowded places so that the enemy would get confused. Of course, I made sure that I am using a good place that I remember easily or I will get lost in the end. I can still feel that he or she is tailing me. But this time around, he multiplied since I can feel that he is not the only one who is tailing me around. From what I can remember, there is a secluded area not too far from the park. That will be a perfect place to confront these people. The feeling of being chased, it was quite similar to the time I was being ostracized by others. I am not quite sure why though I am thrilled. When I arrived in the secluded area, I also felt the one chasing me stop in their tracks too. "You all have business with me?" I look behind and saw a few guys that if I remember right, are my classmates. Most of them are the squadron of handsome people that I usually see together. These guys are not the same as those people who tried to beat me up this morning. These guys are literally models. I heard that they are an aspiring male idol group but I am not sure if what the rumors are true but indeed, they looked like someone who would pass as a male idol group here. They say that their looks can rival those Korean idols in which is a bit hard to believe. There are some guys who are not my classmates which means a few of these guys are not someone from my class. "Sou, is that the kid you are talking about that molested your girlfriend?" one of the guys said. "Indeed. My girlfriend showed me his photo so I am not mistaken. How dare he do this to my girlfriend!?" I frowned and scratch my head. Why do I feel so annoyed whenever he mentions that "G" word? The next time he mentions that I will be the first one to strike his face. Just because I am a lonely, virgin, girlfriendless guy he can do that to me?! "You need to know that you need to prepare for what will happen to you. You will not be able to go back to school due to humiliation and a broken body. He dares to be so rude and lewd to girls, he deserves a beating!" And after that, countless of guys appeared on alleyways. All of them are carrying baseball bats except for the group stalking me on the way. "Oh, prepared are we? Yawn~ is that it?" Hearing this, the guy named Sou creased his brows and gritted his teeth. "You are looking for trouble." With a wave from his left hand, the guys that accompanied him started to rush forward. Without any weapon, I have to try and defeat these people barehanded and I hope I can beat the sh*t out of them especially the guy named Sou. Chapter 18: Street Fight These men do not have any intention to hold back from their assault as they rush forward together which means that they want to secure victory by ganging up on me. It was a good tactic if the person they are trying to gang up is someone who is easily rattled and easily panicked from the sight but they picked a fight against the wrong person. Before they reach me within the range of the baseball bat, I slide forward, closing the gap between me and the others. Of course, seeing their target move in towards them, most of them would immediately swing their bats to me but they are surprised and did not expect my move. With a quick kick from my feet, I disarmed one of the guys'' baseball bat. I caught the bat and before they can react, I made a swing to them, hoping at least a single guy gets caught by the attack. BANG! The closest person did not expect it and before he knew it, the bat meets his face squarely. Without much effort, I managed to bring one down. I didn''t wait and swayed near the next person and swing the bat once more. This time, the guy did not just stand there like a tree, he dodged it before the bat managed to even hit him. The others quickly grab the chance to hit me. "Stay still!" As if I will do that. I made a quick reversal from that and kick the bat off but I did not expect that it was just a feint. BANG! Pain quickly registered into my face. The baseball bat hit my leg squarely hit it hard without any warning. It was painful but I can endure it until the very end. Still, I can feel my feet shaking. Did one of the bones in my leg got fractured? No, I don''t think so, it looks like its just a bruise. Enduring it, I duck out and use the bat to guard the incoming attacks. Due to the pain, it limits my movements to dodge out of the way. There are still a few more guys waiting to beat me up. I shouldn''t be too cocky earlier because I am so rusty in my movements right now. But I don''t want to end up beaten by this bunch of handsome guys. Just because they are handsome and masculine they can just bully a normal and ordinary person like me. "JUST GIVE UP AND GET YOUR ASS BEATEN BY US!" "Who would do that for you? I am not some masochist *sshole!" I grumbled and blocked off with ease all the attacks that came from the bats. It''s annoying but I can''t do my counterattack due to my feet. It hurts and every time I tried going into a quick dash to dodge, the pain in my leg intensifies causing me to stop and defend. Still, I can still do some attacks and continue the fight. But the stinging pain just made me slower. "What is wrong?! Where is that confidence you are just showing earlier? Aren''t you just too cocky? Did you think your injury will heal for later?" "Heh, do you really think that you can beat me up by sheer numbers?" I grinned. After what Sou said, a topic from the chat group quickly returned to me. It was one of the skills that a magician should have. [Regeneration] Although it is called Regeneration, it is not the same regeneration where people can regrow lost limbs in battle. It is said that regeneration can be done even if you don''t know the spell of [Healing] which is something healer type magicians needs. Regeneration is a method that allows the user to recover from the injuries that they have acquired from skirmishes and battles. It was an effective method if it was used in internal injuries that are not fatal. But it works much better if used in bruises and slight cuts in the skin that can cause bleeding. It can even slow down a severe bleeding but it can''t fully stop it because only [Healing] can help on that. Now back to the Regeneration. Since I have a bruise in my leg which caused me to slow down, it is hard for me to move and maneuver properly against these guys who are all wielding baseball bats. But I can turn over the situation again once my injury is healed. That is where Regeneration kicks in. I memorized the method of it and it was pretty easy. It only needed concentration. I have no problem with concentration because I can easily do it. Backing off from the battle, I focused almost half of my consciousness to my bruise in the leg while the remaining consciousness is used for defending and attacking. It is a true multitasking job. As soon as my focus builts up, I directed my mana flow to the bruise without flinching. Since my mana is still mediocre, it is too low at the moment but according to the chat group, this spell does not use the mana much and even the beginners won''t have any problem using this skill. As I was channeling my mana to my bruise, I made sure that I defend and attack at the same time. I have no intention of falling down here. "Ha! Coward, just keeps on defending. What are you? Some kind of tank? Buhahaha!" Sou said as he mocked me from the distance. He is much more cowardly since he is not even participating in the battle and acted more like a spectator. I didn''t care if he is laughing and mocking me. That is for him to do. What I am in more focused right now is to finish the healing session without being noticed by these guys. While healing, I can feel the pain receding from my wound and whenever I move around, it doesn''t hurt as much as before. Sou and his gang still think that I am still injured from earlier and did not know anything yet. Maybe this is the time for me to get serious? When I felt that the bruise disappeared already and the pain is also gone as well, I grinned inwardly and looked at them with a grin. "Ha, enough for the warm-up, let''s do the real thing already!" I said and stood up. As quick as I get up, that is how quick I was when I dashed forward and swing the bat hard to the people on the side. The others were startled but they didn''t falter and counterattacked. But this time, I learned from my mistake. I didn''t use my leg this time to fight back and defend. I can use my arm much better than my legs in defensive and it is much easier to endure than in the legs. The others didn''t expect me to go offensive after being on the defensive stance for a while. It was like a grenade that didn''t explode when thrown to the ground then suddenly detonates after being examined. I made quick work on the guys and they didn''t work too much on their reaction time. With my newfound vigor, it didn''t take too long before they all fell unconscious. The baseball bat I am wielding is already broken but I didn''t mind. I stare at Sou and grinned at him while he backs off from his tracks. "Now, we can settle our dispute without anyone interfering." Chapter 19: Coward With the broken baseball bat in my hand, I made my way towards Sou who is panicking out. He looks around and hastily picks up one of the baseball bats I deflected earlier. He raised it and aimed it on my face. "Don''t you dare come here. I will beat you up!" I grinned and continue to move forward. "Did you really think I am afraid? I am not someone who runs away from challenges and this is one of them. Without thinking twice, I made a dash towards him, not even caring for the baseball bat in his hands. He didn''t look startled and from the looks of it, he prepared himself to do so but I noticed that his knees are shaking which means that he is just trying his best to look strong in my eyes. Seeing me in very close proximity to him, he swings the baseball bat towards me. "Too slow!" I blocked off his baseball bat with bare hands. Due to his unstable state after facing against me, his grip on the baseball bat is not so tight and that affected the strength of his swing. After blocking off the baseball bat, I released the broken baseball bat from my hands, formed my hands into a fist, and with a swing, I land my fist to his jaw. BANG! One of Sou''s teeth flew out from his mouth, causing a bleeding. He shouted in pain as blood profusely gush out of his mouth. He covers it to stop the blood flow but that didn''t help. Before Sou can recover, his abdomen meet my elbow in which I focused all my force while holding my fist to support its momentum. When my elbow hit his abdomen, I shifted the force of my attack to my fist, using my elbow as support to put an explosive force into my fist. With that force intact in my hands right now, I didn''t waste it for nothing. After elbowing Sou, I quickly punched him on his chin. Sou collapsed after that combo but he is still conscious, proving my attacks are not as lethal as it used to be before. Sou stood up, backed off and run away while on the verge of collapsing. I didn''t chase him back, it''s not worth to chase a coward like him. I even treated him as a final boss in this clash but it ended up as a joke boss instead where he can''t even give a proper battle. I stood up and wiped off the blood in my fist while the blood in my uniform is needed to be washed. I have no serious wounds in the battle, only the delinquents who ambushed me were the one who got wasted. Without anything else to do, I shrugged and removed my uniform, put it on the bag and left the area. I need to take a bath and get some rest. ... Above the area where Kazuma and Sou''s underlings fought, three figures, one girl in uniform with a bamboo sword on her back, one guy in a uniform, and a guy with a civilian clothes but his violet hair is the most catchy one on him, stood on the roof while observing the situation of the aftermath that occurred after the battle. "That was anticlimactic isn''t it?" the girl who was revealed to be Moonlight looked at the situation below. "Indeed. I expected a very rash and dangerous battle since they are using weapons but that was one boring fight," the guy in civilian clothes who is revealed to be Voltaire said as he lights up a cigarette and puffs out smoke. "Still, this newbie of ours is indeed a piece of work. From the looks of his styles, he is well versed in street fighting and a few other techniques from martial arts but it was like it was not maintained properly by him. Still, I didn''t expect him to emerge victorious with a one-sided victory at that," the guy on uniform who is revealed to be Godou, or Titan in the chat group said. "I still have no trust about that guy. He seemed to be not up to any good and the fact that we didn''t know how he managed to access our private chat group is a mystery that we have no answer, I don''t think I can trust him easily," Moonlight said. "It takes time, Moonlight. Just observe him for now since Titan and you are the classmates. He also knows that the two of you are magicians. We can''t risk it if he abuses the power a magician has," Voltaire said as he puffed out another smoke. "If he ever did, I will make sure to take him down and forget everything with my own hands," Moonlight said with a resolute look on her face. "Scary..." Godou said as he pulls out his phone and photographed the scene below. ... It''s almost seven in the evening when I arrived home. I left my bike in the school because I decided to walk just to find out who is going to attack me. If I have my bike, I would have been able to arrive home much earlier than expected. "I''m home," I said loudly as I take off the shoes from my feet. My voice just echoed around the house which is quite lonesome. I just remembered that no one will greet me, "Welcome back," once I get home. My whole body is sore after the battle. I took out the uniform that is stained by blood out and put it on the washing machine. The blood dried up already which means, I still needed to wash the uniform by my hands after washing it using the washing machine. I don''t have much time to prepare and cook food so I decided to just buy canned food on the nearby convenience store. While on the way, I stare at my hands and clenched it. If I didn''t recover my injury in my leg, I wouldn''t be able to fight back like how I did back then. Even though Sou is a coward who ran away after beating him up, I don''t think I can underestimate him. This only proves that I have to return to my training once more. It was a bit easy right now against them but what about the demons? If I remember right, I was almost pummelled to death until Voltaire arrived and rescued me. That means I am still an inferior magician that can''t kill any demons yet. As I walked towards the convenience store, I suddenly heard a shrill scream. "HELP!" Someone is screaming for help? I am not sure whether I heard it right. "HELP ME! AHHHH!" Now that was clear in my ears. It was a girl around her teens screaming for help. Normally, I don''t have the guts to care about anyone else. I know it was coldhearted of me but that is mostly what the majority of people do. But I want to change, especially now that demons are now plaguing this whole place. I am hesitating for a moment but this is a crucial thing. It might be important. Deciding to help, I tried tracing out the scream from where it came from but to no avail. Then, I just remembered that I don''t really need to trace it using the sounds, I can just scan the whole place. "Mana Scan!" The same 3d model appeared in my mind and replicates the whole perimeter. Then, I saw where the event is going on. My whole body shook when I saw a red color. Not just one, but it was two this time around. And they are assaulting the female cashier working in the convenience store. Chapter 20: Demons There are two demons this time. I know that I am afraid. These demons are dangerous and they can really destroy anyone. I am still a weakling and I barely have beaten the demon last time and if not for Voltaire, I am totally dead. However, I have no reason to call them for my aid. I don''t like it when I owe favors to someone. It makes me feel bad just thinking that I am indebted to someone. I don''t have any time to grow and experience all kinds of sh*t in this world if I keep on relying on someone. I cancel the mana scan and wear the gloves. But wait, I don''t want anyone to know me especially if I am using magic, therefore, I put on my hoodie and put a handkerchief in my mouth and nose to cover it, only revealing my eyes. It is not true that I am not afraid. I am afraid. This is not something similar to human fights. This is a demon we are talking about and one wrong move and you will die. But why care about it if there is a life that is on the line? No one will be able to rescue her out of this predicament. Which means that she could either live or die depending on the choices I will make. I didn''t waste my time and headed to the convenience store. What is strange is that there are no people around, not a single one. It shouldn''t be like this because it is still too early in the evening. Even if there aren''t any people passing by, there are still neighbors to count. Now that I think about it, when I did the mana scan, I do not detect any humans in the vicinity except the cashier. I just didn''t notice it because I am more focused on where the scream came from. Now that I found out, it raises one question; where are the others? Surely there wouldn''t be abandoned houses here everywhere right? I just saw earlier this morning that everything is fine and there are still other people doing their chores. Then where did these people go? Then one thing popped up in my mind. "Mirror World" It blocks off other people and only those who are able to enter the world are those who are allowed to enter. But one question surface again. ''How did I get in?'' Before I can answer, my phone explained. "Magicians who knows how to use Mirror World can automatically enter an existing Mirror World. You will be able to enter one without noticing so you shouldn''t worry much about it." I sighed in relief. I thought I have the ability to pop into a private place. Good thing that I can enter automatically without any problems. As I rush into the convenience store, I saw the whole place in the wreckage, the shelves are broken and everything is thrashed. On the counter are the two demons while a girl is currently being held in the air with almost no clothes left. I didn''t have time to admire the view because I am not a pervert. Seeing the girl is unconscious, I quickly activated my gloves and also the shoes. They are still busy with the girl therefore they didn''t notice me at all. Seeing an opportunity, why not grab it? A fireball appeared in my hands, burning a lot. Without warning, I hurled the flames to the demon that looks like a tree. BOOM! The flames seem to be able to burn out the demon that when it hits the demon, the flames quickly grew bigger and engulfed the demon in flames. "Ah ah aah! F*CK! Put the flames out! Ahhh! It burns!" The other demon did not expect this turn of events so he didn''t get to respond. Even so, the flames rapidly engulfed the demon and charred him to ashes, leaving the drops. I didn''t expect that to be so easy. Looks like flames are the weak type that demon has. The other demon looked into my direction and grimly looked into my face. "Did you do this?!" he said to me as he put down the girl into the counter. I didn''t respond but approached. "Since you are approaching me, that means that you really did these, then you have to die!" This time, the demon has an affinity for water. It seems that he can manipulate water on his whim which means that I am at a disadvantage here. I just don''t understand why he didn''t extinguish the flames on his buddy''s body if he is water affinity? The demon manipulates the water in his body and tried using it as a water spear but I quickly dodged. This demon is weaker than the fire demon I faced at school. In terms of tenacity and fierceness, this demon lacked it. In fact, he seemed to be weak. Even if I am at a disadvantage, I am 100% sure that I can win this battle. The demon tried to keep me on the bay by using water blades but it was weak and easy to counter with fireballs causing them to evaporate once they hit my flames. "Stay put human so that I can pierce you with my water!" "No way, I am not born just to die as a barbecue." His attacks are slow and I can easily increase the number of fireballs I can throw if I really want to. But I didn''t because I want to deal with the blow in his body personally and not through the sheer amount of fireballs that hit his body. I want to physically deal the final blow to him. The demon panicked when I approached. Before the demon can escape, I deliver a punch to him with flames in my hands. BOOM! Unexpectedly, the demon managed to block it but he was full of injury. "Damn, I can''t die here yet! Not until I bring an offering to Lord Shadow!" The demon quickly escaped by turning into a water puddle and slithered out of the place. I tried to chase the demon but I noticed that Mirror World is breaking out that is why I decided to reestablish the Mirror World by myself. As for the demon, I am not sure where that guy is right now? ... The demon runs away fast from the place, trying to get away from the place as soon as possible. "Impossible, he was too strong for me! I need to ask Lord Shadow some help!" Before he can even get out of the mirror world, a person blocks off the way. The person has a very dangerous aura. It was like the aura of death itself is covering his body. When the demon meets him, he quickly shivered and kneel down the street. "Lord Shadow!" But instead of answering, the person he called Lord Shadow grabs his head in a swift manner and before he can even talk, his neck and head separated from his body. The guy looked at the demon and mockingly stare into the corpse. "You already dug up your grave," he said before he reduced the dead body to ashes. At the same time, the Mirror World also crumbled as soon as the summoner of the Mirror World got killed. "I have no needs of subordinates who have no use. You are not even worth sh*t for the worms to eat." He didn''t stay long and opened a portal on the empty space, entering it and disappeared. Chapter 21: The Rumors Are Not Real After stabilizing the mirror world, I sighed in relief and take off my hoodie and the handkerchief in my mouth. I approached the girl on the cashier and saw that she is half-naked with most of her clothes are torn apart. It was a good sight but not for me. I am not some pervert who would ogle my eyes on defenseless girls. It''s much better for me to look into the naked body of a woman if the girl herself voluntarily showed her body to me. But with this, it''s not up to my standards. I take off my jacket in which the hoodie is attached and put it on to the cashier. There is no malice on that and even though this girl has a nice body and pretty face, I am not some pervert, therefore, I made sure to finish putting the jacket to her. The jacket is big enough to cover her body up to the lower part. Good thing her underwear is not ripped away too or else I would burst to nosebleed. After that, I prepared to cast Mind Wipe to her. With her seeing the demons, it is pretty dangerous to her since she might get entangled to the world of the demons and magicians. With my alteration, the demons she sees in her memories became robbers who attempted to r*pe her. Some of the sentences the demons blurted has to be changed too since they intended to eat her. With that alteration done, I put her down and finalized everything. I deactivated the Mirror World and goes to the phone on the cashier. I dialed 911 so that everything is reported. Of course, I didn''t leave behind the store because a defenseless girl is still unconscious. But it didn''t take too long for her to awaken again. As soon as she saw me and her almost naked body, she squirmed. "You pervert! The rumors are real!" I facepalmed myself and frowned. "F*ck, I just saved you from the guys who almost r*ped you and you accuse me? Where is the justice in this?!" The girl stopped and remembered something. As if on realization, she looked apologetic but she reverts back to her earlier attitude. "But why am I wearing this jacket? That means you made me wear this!" "Of course, or else everyone will see you naked. Or, you wanted to flaunt your body to others then?" The girl flushed red as she heard it. "If I didn''t do it, you are in a much more embarrassing position. Also, I am not interested in molesting you or anyone because I respect women. You should be thankful that I saved you instead of leaving you to your fate." I shook my head just by looking at her being so defensive on herself. I am not sure why she is like that. I didn''t even expect her to know me. Wait¡­ Is she one of the students at school who hear the rumors? Well, everyone knows it anyway. Still, she really expected me to be a pervert just like what she said? "Look here, I already called the police. They will be here any second now. I will accompany you here until the police or your parents pick you up." "What?! Seriously? You accompany me? Hell no!" "Right right, if you hate the idea then I will just go then. I will leave you to your fate here," I said. "Wait, wait! Don''t leave me! What if those guys return?" "That is your problem. Bye!" "I said wait!" She shouted and throws a water bottle to me. It was a weak one and I can already predict the trajectory of the bottle even when I am facing backward. Without looking, I caught the bottle. "And why would you let me stay here? Didn''t you just say you don''t like me to be here? You even treated me as a pervert. Why would I remain? Am I an idiot?" "So you won''t molest me?" "Why would I do that? And besides, your body is not close to the ideal look I want from a girl." "Then you want the types like that of the school belle?" "Who? I have no idea who was that." "Don''t deny it! You were fondling the school belle''s breast and even slept in her chest!" "Oh, that insignificant woman huh... I didn''t actually. You see, I was strolling out the garden and I am currently on cutting classes that time so it was a sure thing that no one is around except me and that woman. My head is throbbing at that time and when I want to ask for her help, I saw her sleeping on the bench. I want to wake her up and ask help but I ended up collapsing. I have no idea what happened after," I said to her. Of course, the story is what you call "bullsh*t." Everything I just said is lies except for some of the first part where I just cut class. "Are you just making stories? You call the school belle an insignificant woman?" she looked at me with distrust. "You are free to believe me or not. It''s up to you. I don''t have any kind of intention of making lies. What will I be able to get once I said that? Nothing! And besides, she is indeed insignificant. I don''t think I need to know her name in this place." The girl stopped muttering and she fell silent. I stood there looking at her with a disappointment in my face. After that, I walk away. "Where are you going?" "To another convenience store, I need to buy a new canned food because I am hungry. Sadly, this place is not available at the moment. So just wait for the police." "No, please stay, at least until the police arrive," she said and quickly clung on my sleeve. I sighed and stopped. "Give me spam." "Huh?" "A spam. I am hungry, I need to get one. Don''t worry, I will pay." ... The police came after a few minutes. The girl also changed clothes with the spare uniform for cashiers in the staff room. The police checked the CCTV cameras but after seeing the statics, they decided to just ask testimony from me and the girl. I told them everything I know of course, excluding the magical stuff. I made sure that my story coincides with the story of the girl so that they won''t get to be suspicious. "Why is the floor wet?" the police asked. "I used a bottle of water to fight them. I made them slip using these," I said to them though, in reality, it was due to the water demon. After a thorough investigation, it ended up on what I planned as the outcome. The convenience store would be temporarily closed for now due to the event but it will be reopened again these next few days according to the management. After getting my spam ham and after giving testimony, the police let me go at long last. I was about to go home when the girl earlier appeared carrying a backpack and she is wearing a jacket and jeans. It was a boyish style but she is making the boyish style complement on her own, making a unique wild girl side with this. It was also the first time I noticed that her hair is long and it almost reach her waist. I just didn''t know it because she made it into a bun and she is wearing a cap at that time. Shaking my head, I decided to head home when she jog and walk with me side by side. "What are you doing?" I looked at her. "Walking. Isn''t it obvious?" "Uh... I mean, why are you walking beside me? Are you going to stab me when I was not looking?" "Hey, I am not that kind of person." "Then why are you walking beside me? I am going home." "Well, coincidentally, I also live nearby so we are both in the same destination. So why not go together?" "Aren''t you afraid I might do something?" "Didn''t you just said earlier? The rumors are not real. Anyways, I will introduce myself. I am Erina Motoko, nice to meet you!" "I didn''t ask for your name, go away!" And I got one person to believe me that I am innocent. I have another thousand people to convince next. [ol][li data-annotation-id="1ba913c2-a2bb-2d43-1123-dc63346fb070"]Spam (stylized as SPAM) is a brand of canned cooked pork made by Hormel Foods Corporation, based in Minnesota. It was first introduced in 1937 and gained popularity worldwide after its use during World War II.[[/ol] Chapter 22: Summoning a Familiar Erina''s house is just in the neighborhood, a few houses away from mine. I am just shaking my head whenever I remember that she became friendly all of a sudden to me. It was like all of the rumors she heard before were just a huge misunderstanding and nothing more. Also, she stated that I was her classmate, which I didn''t notice because I barely care for the other''s names except to Godou and Moonlight''s real name which is Akari. Other than them, I have no more idea who they were. I am already famished. When I came back to my house, it was already 10 in the evening. Time flows by and all of my plans are ruined. I sighed and shook my head. Life always gives unexpected twists and turns which causes surprising turns and events. I wanted to practice my magic after eating but I ended up late with dinner. After frying the spam ham, I gobbled it down like crazy. That''s how I''m so hungry right now. After eating my food, I just leaned into the chair and stare into the ceiling. Just the first day of school became so crazy all of a sudden. And on the second day, I became the public enemy no.1, and I became a magician. Many crazy things happening ever since I arrived in Tokyo. I covered my face as I facepalmed myself. I am not dreaming, this was all real. Without much to do, I washed my dishes and go to the living room and check the Anonymous. The same voice speaks again but it was already a repetition message that I just heard yesterday. But I think I will get used to it if I keep on hearing this mechanical female voice every day. "I am not a mechanical female voice. I am the soul of the app so stop disrespecting me, scoundrel," the voice of the app said. My eyebrows twitched hearing this from the voice. So this voice is not just some automated mind-reading machine, it was an intelligent being. "Of course, I am not just a programmed AI computer. I am the heart and soul of this app, I am much more intelligent than you so be grateful that I am greeting at you during the time you open the app, you scoundrel sh*t." "I f*cking swear to break this phone the instant you spout another nonsense," I rebutted. "Go ahead. I don''t reside on the phone anyway. If you break the phone, it is your loss, not mine, dipsh*t." I am so pissed off right now but I hold the urge to throw the phone away. This kind of attitude from a being that I can only hear the voice of is somewhat easy to trigger madness. "You cannot see how I look like for now because you lack the power of a powerful magician. If you want to see me badly, then go and train your *ss off." "..." This phone... I give up, I can''t argue to this woman anymore. When the app finally entered, I headed to my profile and straight to the inventory. If I remember right, yesterday, I got materials for summoning familiars. If my guess is right, familiars are like the creature that Voltaire summoned. "That is right. Familiars are spirits that have taken form in this world. They are known to be a loyal servant once summoned and is willing to die for their masters. They can be summoned through summoning rituals while they can be given contracts if they are spotted in the real world without a master. Though you can only have one contract at most in your lifetime." "Once in a lifetime huh, that means if I summon a weak familiar, I am stuck with it for the rest of my life?" "There is no weak familiar, only a weak master. And as far as I am concerned, they are living beings, not some kind of tool. So it is best to respect them like how you take care of a real person." "I know that. I am not an inhumane person that has no concern about it and you are right. And I kind of like the fact that there is no weak familiar, only a weak master. If a familiar is weak, then that means the master itself is weak." "That is correct." Having a familiar is somewhat similar to taming a pet in RPGs. But this is the real world, so I can''t associate a familiar with a pet. After our conversation with the voice of the app, I opened my inventory. There is a scroll, a jar of white powder of some sort, a silver liquid and a few rubies. If only I can sell these rubies, I would be rich, but that would cause an uproar to the authorities on how and where did I get a ruby. I can''t say that I acquired them through an app. "The rubies are for summoning. It cannot be sold and this would crumble if they are used as gems for pieces of jewelry so I advise against selling these things." Good call, I was on the verge of selling these rubies for a good price in the black market. After withdrawing the items, I found out that the white powder is a jar of powdered silver while the silver liquid on a small bottle is a bottle of mercury. The scroll contains the method and the summoning circle design that is needed to be used to summon the familiar. To draw it, I will use the bottle of mercury and powdered silver. I descended to the basement where there is a wide space for me to perform the ritual. There are no things here so nothing will go wrong if it suddenly goes awry. With that, I started tracing the magic circle slowly and surely using the powdered silver. The silver is enough to be used for a single circle so messing up will be very bad for me. I also made sure that the measurement of the circle is done properly since the size of the circle is dependent on the amount of powdered silver I have at the moment. If I still have some powdered silver left, that means that the magic circle is too small while if I lacked the material, I would have made the magic circle too big. I don''t want that to happen so measuring the circle is a must. After at least two hours, I managed to form the magic circle to the bit of the tiniest detail. Next would be to connect the patterns using the mercury liquid. It is much easier than the first one but just like the former, I can''t waste this one too. Good thing I calculated the size perfectly so I didn''t get it wrong. I grab the rubies next. This will act as the catalyst to open the gate of the other world of spirits and pull out the summon I got. I placed the rubies on the very center of the magic circle. After that, I wound my thumb using a knife that I properly disinfected with alcohol. I can''t risk getting tetanus on this one. I poured the blood from my wound and made sure that the droplets drops on the rubies. As soon as the blood reached them, the rubies glow like they activated their latent powers inside. Without wasting my time, I clasped my hands together and started chanting the activation spell. "Hear me, O spirit of the Other Realm, hear my call and appear before me Become one with my soul and become my sword! APPEAR, MY FAMILIAR!" Chapter 23: The Familiar All of a sudden, wind started to blow wild even in this closed space in the basement. The wind did not come from the outside but rather, it came from the Summoning Circle itself. Electricity arcs started appearing and the whole place shook. "Warning, a strong surge of energy is flowing in the area. Please be careful and defend if necessary. Accidents might occur in the middle of the summoning." "How strong is the summoning circle to cause things like this?!" "Data cannot be calculated. It seems you managed to pull a summon with a greater familiar." "Greater Familiar?" "Yes. Either you summoned a higher spirit or you managed to summon a deity." "Does that sound bad?" I shivered. If it is a deity, I am not going to survive this. "Depends on what Familiar you summon. Some deities are benevolent while some are not and will kill you on sight. Either of those two. I suggest you prepare yourself for the worst part." I nearly cursed the phone out. It was good that I get to summon a strong familiar but what will a strong familiar do if it kills me instead? Isn''t that kind of useless? I didn''t want to die. Not until I get to see my sons and daughters! "Are you going to write a will for your future sons and daughters?" "What is the point if I am not their father?! That is some twisted remark of yours!" The summoning circle started glowing blue and red like it was a disco light but much more painful to look in the eyes. The wind blowing is too strong that I doubt I will be able to survive the summoning progress alone. I prepared for the worst but I didn''t expect everything to halt. I was surprised because I thought it would explode and make chaos around the house but it didn''t. But after that, a very heavy presence appeared in the middle of the circle and even though I am a bit far from the magic circle, the force is just too heavy that I was forced to kneel. Is this a deity?! Smoke started to clear up and a silhouette appeared on the smoke. I can certainly see that it was a humanoid one. But I can see fox ears appear on the top of her head. And there were even nine tails...? Shi*t, did I just summon Tamamo No Mae? As soon as the smoke dissipated, I stare into the woman wearing a white kimono, with her white fox tails behind her, I can''t help hold my breath seeing this sight. She was an absolute beauty that words can''t begin to describe her. One thing I can say, Gorgeous! The fox beauty looked around and her gaze landed to me who is still sitting on the corner after her appearance. "Hmm? Are you perhaps... my master?" she asked as she waggles her tail. "H-huh?" I was taken aback by this. I thought that deities are supposed to be dangerous? "You d*ckhead, you didn''t listen earlier, I told you that it depends on the familiar you summoned. It was clear that this familiar of yours is a deity and I don''t detect any kind of malice from her so I guess she is a benevolent and kind deity." The fox beauty approached me. She seemed to be around the age of 20 years old or above. She is a bit mature and you can say that she is an onee-san type of girl. But I am unsure of her age because there is that logic that the younger the look of a deity is, the older her age was which is a f*ck up lore logic was. "What is your name?" she asked as she touched my cheeks. I feel nervous all of a sudden. I don''t feel any kind of blushing in front of her. It was being suppressed from a dangerous aura that kept me shaking to my core. Is this one of the abilities a deity has? "M-my name... I am K-Kazuma Fukuyama." "Kazuma-sama, right? Nice to meet you, I am the deity Inari Okami. I can be your big sister if you want to, master." My ears perked up. Inari Okami? The same Inari Okami found in shrines around Japan? The goddess of fertility and agriculture, also the patron of the swordsmiths and merchant? Why did I manage to summon a very strong being?! No wonder I get a very heavy aura from her, it was because she was indeed a very important figure in Japan! The voice started talking again. "Greetings, goddess of fertility, Inari-sama, I am a soul of the App group, Anonymous, pleased to make an acquaintance. I didn''t expect to see this guy manage to summon a big shot like you." "Seriously? How did I manage to summon a very strong familiar which is one of the gods in Japan? Did it have something to do with the way I made the magic circle?" "No, master. When the gate opened, I felt a very comfortable aura beyond it that caused me to follow that same comfortable force and now here I am." I fell silent. For someone like her to be summoned by me in sheer luck. Does that mean, my luck is really good? Then the voice of the phone started talking again. "Reporting, Legendary Tier Familiar, Inari Okami has been summoned by Kazuma Fukuyama. Register the info of these two immediately." I was left speechless by this. Is this the sign that the Gods are favoring me? Or this is just a prelude to something bigger? Whatever it was, I am not sure about it and I am pretty sure something big is brewing in the sidelines. "Master?" "You are Inari Okami, right? Are you alright to be my familiar even though I am just a lowly human?" I asked. I heard in many urban legends that deities look down upon humans as they only see humans as low life creatures. If so, having a deity as a familiar, doesn''t that spells trouble to me? "I may be a deity but I don''t look down on humans unless I am provoked. I am not a great Inari for nothing if I am wild and dandy." What she said is right. If she were a dangerous deity, her legacy and legends, as well as her shrines won''t be as widespread nowadays. Her symbolic statues and her shrines won''t be shrouded with prosperity if she were a cruel deity which makes sense. "Anyway master, where are we? It seems like we are in a room that is so cramped and a bit dark. Are we in a confinement cell or something?" Inari asked. I stood up and wiped off the dust in my clothes. "No, we are in the basement of my house. I am not sure what consequences will happen when I am summoning so I made precautions in case everything goes awry," I explained. "Thought you didn''t really prepare much," the phone interjected. "Shuddup. I am not talking to you. Mind your own business," I said to the phone and put it back to my pocket. "Oh? Is that what people are always holding today which they call it phones? I''ve been quite interested in human technologies this century and it is certainly really interesting to check it out now that I am in the human world," Inari said. Technologies? It seems like due to the boredom she experienced many times, she is now somewhat excited to see the world. Welp, who cares much, they are deities anyway. GRRRROOOOOWWWWWWLLL That was clearly not my stomach so I clearly know that only one person here is not with me. I looked behind and saw Inari blush as she covered her mouth in embarrassment. "I guess we could try some midnight snack then." [ol][li data-annotation-id="6b613a78-a749-3d42-ef1f-7e97c5f6e77b"]is the Japanese kami of foxes, of fertility, rice, tea and sake, of agriculture and industry, of general prosperity and worldly success, and one of the principal kami of Shinto. In earlier Japan, Inari was also the patron of swordsmiths and merchants.[/ol] Chapter 24: Demons Attacks the Neigborhood Inari''s summoning ended without much fuss. However, Inari''s materialization in this world is dependent on my mana. Since I don''t have enough mana in my body, to begin with, she can''t stay there for more than an hour. Of course, there is no limit to her summoning daily but she said that it''s better to summon her in emergencies since it might cause harm to my body to keep on summoning her in my state. But after summoning her, I managed to gain a vital piece of information that can allow me to raise my mana efficiently while also gaining experience in battles. GATES The GATES is one of the phenomenons that occur during the devil"s hour in forests, mountains or even in the cities. Of course, they are not ordinary places that can be seen by normal people so it would be strange if there is a human that managed to enter it and besides, who would wander around the city during that time of the night? Either you are a delinquent or murderer trying to find someone to victimize. Only magicians are actively seeking for GATES as they are much more reward givers than demons. Although you can earn a lot from the demons by killing one of them, the rewards from the GATES are much better and twice the amount that the demons drop. I got a location from Inari on one of the GATES and she suggested that if I want to become more powerful and gain better mana capacity, exploring the GATES is the most efficient for me at the moment. When I look at the clock, it''s already midnight. Although there is still time to go and explore the GATES that Inari mentioned, I am too tired to go forth. Due to the summoning, it drained almost all of my mana causing me to feel weak on my feet and body. My body felt so heavy which is said to be a side effect whenever you consume too much mana in one go. It kind of sucks to feel that way but it can''t be helped. Since I am exhausted, its time to hit the sack. I think I will explore the gates tomorrow and prepare for it. I still have the school and the students to worry about. ... When my alarm clock rang, I still feel groggy which is an after effect from my consumption of mana. Therefore, I decided to skip my daily training. It''s not really a problem to skip once but I should train again the next day or else it would be hard to start over again. Also, I need to walk this time around because I left my bike at school. I groggily get up from bed and stretched my body before rushing my preparations for the day. After everything is done, its time for me to walk all the way to school. It''s not really a problem since I don''t get tired so easily and walking can be a part of the exercise routine. But before I can leave, the phone in my pocket vibrated and the voice of the app started talking. "Attention to the Magicians attending Sakuramiya High, please keep your vigilance high as possible today. We detected level-3 demonic energy coming from the school but we can''t pinpoint it at the moment. Once the source is discovered, please do not engage without backup." Sakuramiya High, that is the school I was attending. Another demonic energy? Why is this happening again? Ugh, I hate to see another demon attack again. But again, I don''t know why these demon attacks start to get frequent all of a sudden. Without much info, I make my way to the school, wary on my surroundings. There is not much choice because there is a threat from demons looming while there are some delinquents trying to kill me every time I walk alone. While on the way, I constantly see some police line tapes on certain streets and there would be some people looking around and trying to scan some news they can use or tell others. I didn''t really check but I overheard someone gossiping near me. "Did you hear? That woman was killed after the break-in of the burglar!" "Really? Then why is the woman is dismembered? It was like she was slaughtered!" "I heard that the burglar going around the streets is a kind of cult fanatic that kills peoples for fun and dismembers them like they are eating them." "Where did you heard this? How did you know it was a cult fanatic wandering around?" "My son is a policeman. He is working on one case similar to this. That is why I am always nervous whenever it is starting to get dark. We don''t know whether that cult fanatic would start appearing here." "Oh my, why do I feel like this neighborhood isn''t safe anymore?" "I am even considering going to Nagoya with my family this time. I am not sure whether I can still sleep peacefully at night." This is the first time I heard about this. Well, I didn''t watch news that is why I am unaware of what is going on but now, I am quite confused about what is this cult fanatic. From the looks of it, it''s not even due to a human cause but looks similar to the claws that demons have. I caught a glimpse of the dead body and I must say that it''s not something a human can do. Only the demons are capable of this feat of killing spree. But the reminder that came from the Anonymous also came up today. Does that mean, this is somewhat related to the killings happening in the neighborhood? That was a very close coincidence. However, is it really a coincidence? The occurrence of the attacks and break-ins also coincide with the appearance of the demons on Sakuramiya High. If that was the case, are all the demons trying to blend into the school since students are much easier to target? They can be a close friend to that person and once the victim will invite him/her to his/her house, that will be the time to strike them down. And by imagining this, it is not really a good one for me. Walking down the street, I counted three incidents with the same things happening. Now I am sure that this is somewhat alarming. And if the phone announced it, that means that we are now tasked to hunt the demons. I am still weak and not yet strong, but I can call Inari for help for an hour but I know that isn''t going to work. "DING! Someone messaged you privately." A message? All I know who messaged me directly would be Moonlight or Voltaire and no one else. When I opened it, I saw that it was Godou''s account, Titan that called me. Titan: Kazuma, don''t go home later this afternoon alright? We are summoned by the disciplinarian, you know, Miss Asuza. Looks like it has something to do with the demon attacks happening. Anyways, you shouldn''t miss this. This would be counted as your official contribution battle if we managed to deal with the trouble. We will be waiting, don''t be absent. Chapter 25: Busted I huffed in dissatisfaction. I am currently standing in the rooftop and after scanning the whole place with Mana Scan, I barely find the guys that I am looking for. All of the students here are normal humans. Then where is the demon here? Is it just a false alarm? "There are students who only came during the lunchtime and afternoon. I suggest you scan again during those times." The voice is right. There are not enough students in the morning since not all students will be here during the morning especially some delinquents. That makes sense for the presence of the demons missing when I scanned. Then, I saw Moonlight climb to the rooftop too. "Any luck?" Moonlight asked. "No. I don''t get to see any demons during this time. Maybe the demon is not yet here," I explained. "I see. Try doing that more. I am currently checking on you because you might be struggling but I guess you don''t need it. Still, don''t forget later this afternoon because Miss Asuza called us." "Are there any clues involving the demons somehow?" "Right now, no. But the demonic energy is still flowing around the place so I am sure that the demons are still here. We are just not sure where to find the perpetrators but Godou is already gathering intel at the moment so we might be able to get info soon. We just need to be patient," Moonlight said. "Do the demons get this active? I don''t hear much news involvement of something similar back in Hokkaido so I am not sure," I asked her. "No. Since the beginning of the classes this year, the demons start to get active. It was like it was their hibernation last year. Monsters though are active last year," Moonlight explained and she showed her left arm to me. I was surprised because under the sleeve of her uniform is the long wound that seemed to be stitched just recently. "This is my injury last month. It was the result of my lack of power that I almost died from a monster attack. Until now, I am still recovering from this wound. And even though I am still not cured, I am training my magic every day and I refuse to have someone die again in front of my eyes that is why I insist that I will also participate in this battle." "Huh?" I was startled by her revelation. "Ahem, I said too much," she quickly rolled away her sleeves back. "Let''s go back. Class is starting." I didn''t react or respond to what she just revealed. Looks like that was just a slip on her tongue that she told me the reason for her wound. Prying for her past is not appropriate. I will wait until she is comfortable to tell me the whole reason. ... The students in the school are still the same as always. They don''t react too much whenever I am looking but once I face my back to them, they would start talking sh*t here and there about my rumors that falsely spread due to the campus belle. I am not responding too much from this because I am more concerned about the demons blending in this place. I bet if they can, they will try to pin the cause to me if they have a chance that is why I need to be careful about my behavior in the future. "WARNING! A demon aura is detected, 20 meters away from you. Please be careful every one of you," our phones informed us at the same time. Hearing those words, Moonlight and I quickly go into full alert. Of course, we make ourselves act normal but due to the pressure that we are feeling, the air is still tense and we are unsure whether we know the person that the demon is talking about. "WARNING! 10 meters away from you!" There was a corner at the end of the corridor, and we are walking near it since our classroom is situated there too. As soon as we opened the door, two beeps were heard on our phone, and our homeroom teacher appeared. "What are you two doing here? And what are those beeping phones for? I will be confiscating them!" "WARNING. THE DEMON IS CURRENTLY STANDING NEXT TO YOU." Hearing that, we quickly retreated. I, on the other hand quickly activated the Burning Gloves and give a punch to our homeroom teacher. BANG! And without further ado, we sprinted back to where we came from. "Retreat!" Moonlight quickly clasped her hands and two white magic circles appeared on her hands. "Moonlight that shines from the Moon, become my light and guide us to the dark path that will smite all the evil lurking within! LUNARIAS!" Moonlight retracts both her palms away from each other but this time, she is pulling out something from her left palm. And it was the bamboo sword that I saw during the first day of school where she confronted me in the rooftop. I don''t want the others to know what we are doing so I decided to do my job. Clasping my hands together and channeling all my mana to my palms, and activated my own magic too that will repel the normal humans and bring the demons and magicians in one realm. "MIRROR WORLD!" CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK! The whole world started to crack all around and exploded in pieces, creating the alternate reality, the Mirror World. "Good thinking newbie. Now we can fight without much problem," Moonlight said and swings the sword and faces again to where our homeroom teacher was. "We are going to face him here in the corridor?!" "It''s better than running away," Moonlight said. "We are not running away! We are doing a tactical retreat! This is a disadvantage terrain for us!" "For you, it might be a hassle but for me, this is perfect. Watch my back. I am quite sure another demon will come. Scan the surroundings using Mana Scan." I am speechless at first but I decided to focus, if I want to be a support, I need to cover her back for possible ambush and attacks. "Mana Scan!" The same 3d model of the school appeared on my mind and the only difference is that the whole place is desolated with humans except in our classroom where only Godou remains and in the counseling room where Asuza is staying. This time around, I scanned two more red individuals on the bottom floor. And also, our homeroom teacher who is now a color red individual appeared to be dashing fast towards us. "He is coming!" Moonlight grinned while I canceled Mana Scan this time and ignited my gloves out. And just like that, our homeroom teacher who is now having a black colored eyes and black colored skin, with his hands turned into claws. "You naughty students will need some correction to your behaviors! Prepare to taste hell!" Moonlight swing her bamboo sword and grinned again. "Heh, bring it on, demon scum!" Chapter 26: Nutcracker The demon is clearly underestimating the bamboo sword of Moonlight. I can''t blame him though, that bamboo sword that she wields is very deceptive enough. It looks like it was a normal sword that once hit with a very hard object like the demon''s body, it would snap. "I will make sure you will get snapped into two! That will teach you a lesson!" the demon said and sent a shockwave blades causing the floor to rupture and cause destruction on its path. "Hehe, then work hard and you might be able to snap my "sword" into two if I really have a "sword" of course," Moonlight said and stretches out her right palm to the wave of the demon. BANG! The waves collided with Moonlight but amidst the impact, it didn''t reach Moonlight. It was because after Moonlight stretched out her arm, a blue barrier appeared. "How weak. Is this what you call your "power?" Why I don''t feel it? This is so pathetic," Moonlight said as she slowly approached our former teacher. I was about to follow her but I quickly sense an upcoming attack from behind. Without hesitation, I retreated and throws a fireball into the hallway where I suspected the attack came from. And while the fireball is in midway, it collided with something I can''t see with my bare eyes. All of a sudden, something just punched me on my abdomen causing me to get stunned and expel blood out of my mouth. That was a very unexpected occurrence. Due to the impact, I was sent flying to the opposite direction where Moonlight and our former homeroom teacher was currently fighting. Moonlight was surprised but she couldn''t help me out since the demon keeps her occupied. That was a strong impact. I think I got my left arm broken after trying to reduce the impact on my body. It''s quite painful but I didn''t complain. Standing up again, I activated the blazing shoes and Burning Gloves at the same time and rush to the invisible demon. Since the enemy is invisible, one thing can only help me in this battle. "MANA SCAN! PERSPECTIVE VERSION!" There are two kinds of version in Mana Scan, the normal one, and the perspective vision. Unlike the former one, the Perspective Vision allows the user to see the surroundings in your eyes, instead of the usual 3d version that this magic do. It was like you have an x-ray vision installed in your eyes, only though you can see the mana flow. As soon as my vision activated, the demon hiding in the darkness appeared right before my eyes. "You won''t get away from me now!" With the help of the blazing shoes, the speed of my sprint is doubled, allowing me to get close to the demon. The invisible demon did not expect me to get close to him since he was in invisible mode. I didn''t dare to waste this moment. Igniting my right fist, while my left hand supports my right fist. All of the force of my punch is focused on my right hand. I breathe in a mouthful of air before releasing a punch. BOOM! The demon that I punched with full force just budged a bit but he didn''t get sent flying like I expected him to do. Instead, his invisibility is canceled out. "Oh, it looks like you are a decent magician to be able to cancel my invisibility. However, you lack power." I gritted my teeth and retreated a bit. My left arm stings a lot and if not for the injury, I might have given him a bit of pain. I observed the guy who is currently attacking me. This guy is not someone I know but maybe I have seen him in the crowd but I am quite sure I have not interacted with him. But due to his demonic form, half of his face has been changed into something similar to an Oni Mask while his other half retained his normal face. One word to describe him: HIDEOUS. His arms are still their weapons but it is not similar to the arms that the demon I faced last time. It looked like a sledgehammer, only attached to it''s to his arms. No wonder he managed to sent me away without problem, he is a blunt weapon user. Also, from my observation, he can swiftly cover distance since he managed to arrive next to me when I just threw the fireball and hit him with it a bit farther in the hallway. Also, what is bothersome, he can turn invisible without any problem. Doing the same tactics would only be making my attack patterns easy to read, therefore, if I cannot make my arms do the punch, then I would just use my legs and feet. "I don''t know why you demons are still here and I don''t even know what you lot are trying to accomplish here, but I won''t just stand idle and watch. You all need to die!" Getting close to the demon''s abdomen, I ignited the gloves and released a punch. And as expected, the demon, managed to block the punch. "Is that all? It didn''t hurt at all," the demon grinned. "Ah, yes. It isn''t painful at all because I don''t even have any intention of attacking that. I have to attack this!" And before he can react, I knee strike him on his erogenous area. As soon as my knee landed on "that" place, his face twitched and he paused from his tracks. It was already clear that I crushed the two circles hanging there because my knees are one of the attacks that I specialize in. I made sure that my knee strike is full of power. Because even the toughest guy will crumble if "that" place is hit. Chapter 27: The Grand Plan The demon''s integrity and durability crumbled as soon as his balls were crushed to pieces. I did not practice this sneaky attack for nothing, if not for this attack, I won''t survive most battles against delinquents. That is why I call it the "Nutcracker" since it always made my enemies suffer in pain. The demon is totally stunned by the series of events. He was quite sure this feeble human will fall into his hands, who would have thought that I would best him instead? I don''t want to drag the battle since Moonlight is still in the middle of the battle against our former homeroom teacher. The demon collapsed to the ground facefirst and is currently holding his precious balls that were severely broken. I may have not killed a human before but I can definitely kill someone especially if it was not human. Since he is still suffering the pain, I grab his head tightly and raised it up on the floor. "Wait, wait! Let''s call for a truce man! I still don''t want to get-" Who cares what he is saying. Before he can finish his sentence, I smashed his head to the floor with full force. A hard knock on the head to the floor can cause blunt trauma, therefore, I am using that to kill this guy without a weapon. I raised his head once again and repeated the steps to my attacks. Blood started flowing his forehead but that doesn''t mean I need to release him from that. Raising his head again only to be smashed again. I can hear his muffled voice but I made sure that the demon won''t be able to speak. Soon, the demon breathed his last and lay lifeless. I didn''t stop the attacks though and continue to attack his head without stopping. I just stopped when I started to feel his body turn cold. As soon as I released him, his body crumbled to dust and the same demon drops fell from his body. I sighed in relief and lay down to the floor, tired from all of the trouble. Focusing all of mymana straight to my injury, I started working on my regeneration. Although the healing prowess is not enough, it will do fine for now. I activated Mana Scan again since I sensed two demons below the floor we are in earlier. The other one did not come here like I expected so I thought that the demon might be coming here soon. But I sighed in relief seeing that someone else is fighting it. From the build of the guy in the 3d model, it was clear that it was Godou fighting. And I thought Godou just keeps on chilling down on the classroom without a care in the world. I deactivated the mana scan and once again focused on healing myself. I need to help Moonlight after this. ... Meanwhile, before the defeat of the demon that is fighting against Kazuma, Moonlight exchanges blows against the demon who is now occupying the body of their homeroom teacher. The demon was proven to be really hard to kill due to its strong physiques but that doesn''t mean that his defense is impenetrable. The demon is actually suffering from multiple traumas already from Moonlight''s attacks. The reason Moonlight is delaying the death of this demon is because she was trying to make the demon spit out the grand plan that the demons seem to be trying to trigger. "Tell me what you know or else you will receive another whopping!" Moonlight growled as she smacks the demon again in the face and in the abdomen using her bamboo sword. It might look like a joke but it was really not a joke at all. This bamboo sword has a heaviness and hardness equivalent to a sledgehammer. As for why Moonlight can easily wield this, it was due to the way the weapon was made. Only those people who have the affinity to use Lunar Magic can carry the weapon singlehandedly. So if this weapon is used to strike someone in the face or abdomen, no matter how formidable your defense is, you are bound to lose. The demon struggled to speak. It might be due to the swollen look on his face that he has difficulty speaking what he wanted to say. Still, Moonlight is vicious that she did not pity the demon at all. "Now what? Why are you mumbling sh*t, there? You still wanna fight?" The demon was about to shake its head to stop but Moonlight grinned and raised her bamboo sword. "Hehehe, it looks like you still wanted to experience the pleasure in pain. I guess you are a masochist perhaps?" The demon wanted to curse but what can he do? Before he can even curse, he was already pummeled repeatedly. In the end, he ended up in a half-paralyzed state. It was a one-sided battle after all. "Now, do you feel like talking?" The demon can no longer talk and is currently on its dying state. Dying is the only future left for this guy. Still, Moonlight sighed and keeps back her bamboo sword back to her palms. "Ah, damn, I guess I did it too hard. I didn''t expect this demon to be too weak for my caliber even when I am currently giving him a handicap due to the pain from my injury but oh well, I will just extract a few his memories." Moonlight tapped the temple of the demon and extracted a bunch of his memories that all contains the plans of the demons. While she was extracting the memories of the demon, the demon grinned even in difficulty and looked at her in menacing way. "Your struggles are futile humans. Once the plan successfully carried out, even your higher-ups won''t be able to win against our lord Shadow!" "Yeah, yeah, you are getting annoying already so sh*t up forever," Moonlight said and swipe her fingers to its chest before she stabbed it down with her nails. It was like a knife that pierced his heart. After doing that, she pulled out her nails which ended the life of the demon. Like the rest of the demons, after his death, the body crumbled to dust and all of the demon drops fell into the ground. With quick hands, Moonlight grabbed all of them and stored them somewhere in her uniform. But the most important one is the blue crystal ball on Moonlight''s hands. Inside are the memories she took from the demon and containing the vital piece of information that the demons called the "Grand Plan." ... I stood up and wiped off the dust in my body. I also picked up all the drops from the demon I defeated earlier and put them in my pocket. Compared to the demon that Voltaire defeated, the drops of the demon that I defeated is way lesser. When I look into the place where Moonlight is fighting, I was surprised to see it end already. No one except Moonlight is left there standing. Approaching her, I noticed the blue crystal ball in her hands. Moonlight looked into my direction as she held the crystal ball around her palm as she observed the inside. "This is a very serious Kazuma. The "Grand Plan" is already commencing." Chapter 28: Meeting "Grand Plan?" "Its what they call this plan that they are brewing behind the scenes. I didn''t believe it at first when I heard this term but now that I got the info from a demon himself, I think I have no choice but to believe. And I think it needs to be reported to the higher-ups." "Should we post this to the Anonymous App?" I asked. "No, not now Kazuma. We should go to the meeting this afternoon with Miss Asuza. She knows what to do with this info. And besides, we the Tokyo Branch need to deal with these matters by ourselves. We don''t rely on others." "That sounded selfish," I said. "Indeed, but that was the norm and the other branch is much more stubborn than the Tokyo branch. They won''t help us so we won''t be needing their help either." I shook my head. Just how much do you all hate your guts to cause so much trouble like this? Looks like the elders and higher-ups of the magicians are stubborn old men and women to hold something like this. I am not really caring if that was the case for them or not. Whether they help or not is up to them, what is important is to stop this "Grand Plan" that the demons are brewing right now. After discussing what our next step is, we decided to go help Godou beat up the last demon on the building but when we arrived, Godou is already chilling on the canteen and drinking cola. "Hello there, are you all done with the battles against the demons? Looks like you all did a good job fighting it!" Godou said as he sips on the bottle of cola and grinned at us. "It was easy for us but Kazuma did get a hard time. His left arm has an injury, but it isn''t that serious. Also, I got a vital piece of information about the plans that the demons are trying to make," Moonlight said as she produces the crystal ball that she extracted from the demon earlier. "Wait, seriously?! Let me see!" The blue crystal ball that Moonlight is holding didn''t look any different from those crystal balls that most fortune-tellers uses. Only that this ball is around the size of a bun. Needless to say, the blue ball is the most important thing right now. "I can tell that this ball contains lots of malice but this amount is just too much. And you say that our homeroom teacher is the one who produced this one?" Godou asked as he examined the ball. "I doubt that our homeroom teacher is a demon during the first day of school," I quickly interjected. "Huh? Why do you say that?" Godou looked at me in confusion. "Kazuma is right. The demon that occupied our homeroom teacher''s body just recently taken the body for himself. It also explains why he is still in a weak state and he can''t really fight much like how most demons we fought in the past fight. He must have been trying to get used to the body first but we managed to detect him and provoke him out." "Wait, is that really enough proof that he just turned into a demon?" Godou is still skeptical. "Remember that I gained the ability to use Mana Scan right? I used it once when I am trying to find the demon during class hours and our homeroom teacher is having a class at that time. If he was a demon, I would have detected him during that time but he didn''t give off the red color that demons give. Which means he just became a demon recently." Godou is still not sure about it but he decided to keep quiet. "Will the meeting still commence later this afternoon?" I asked. "Yes. With the vital information in our hands, it would be strange if we didn''t continue our meeting. We need to relay it. Anyways, let''s go back to our classroom or else everyone will notice. Kazuma, you also need to cancel your Mirror World once we return to the classroom alright?" "Mmm, let''s go back. Though it''s unlikely to start class without a teacher." ... After class, the three of us went to the disciplinarian office. Now, this would be the second time I visited this place but it never leaves any lasting kind of memory. Entering the room, we already saw Ms. Asuza currently waiting for us. She was leaning on her chair and sipping tea. "Good work out there magicians. You managed to take care of the problem without any kind of setbacks," Ms. Asuza said as she puts down the teacup into the table. "We have come to report our endeavors earlier miss," Moonlight said. "I heard the gist of it. I already saw much of the situation earlier with my familiars observing the whole place after the mirror world was suddenly erected. So just report some things I missed so far." As expected of a magician in high caliber. She didn''t even need to go out of her office just to see the battles. It was like she is using her cameras to observe the situation. "Alright, we will keep it short. After our battles with the demons, I managed to extract a memory piece from the enemy demon before he disintegrated. This was the memory orb I got from that particular demon and it contains the plan they call the "Grand Plan," Moonlight said and pulled out the blue orb out from nowhere and handed it to Miss Asuza. I whispered to Godou after seeing this. "How did Moonlight do that? She didn''t bring out any kind of bag but she was able to pull out different kinds of items out of nowhere including that orb, is this some sort of magic?" "Oh, you mean the spatial magic? It was part of the Spatial Magic Element. Moonlight is a master in Spatial Magic skills so she is able to cast things like that. The ability she just used just now is called Spatial Inventory. Also, her Lunar magic belongs to Spatial Magic series so you shouldn''t be surprised to see her use those too." Welp, I still have no idea on those because not all of the information as a magician is filled in the chat group''s database, afterall, it was just a chat group, not an encyclopedia. Miss Asuza takes the orb and inserted her mana into it, causing it to project the memory right into our eyes. Chapter 29: Magic Stores The demon''s "Grand Plan" is not what I expected. I only thought that they are planning something in Tokyo alone but in the end, I was too foolish to believe all of that. The demons were not aiming for a small scale, they are thinking for the worldwide scale already. "Summon the END and plunge chaos to humanity" I thought the "END" was the antonym of Beginning but they were describing a different end. "END is a higher being that the demons are trying to raise back from Gehenna. During the ancient times, it was sealed there by the Great Light and Great Dark Magicians to stop the upcoming end of the world. Of course, they succeeded and they became the magicians who saved the world and they became the symbols of hope. However, as long as demons who wanted to plunge chaos are still around, END can still be brought back. If the world will get plunge to chaos due to the appearance of END, then the world will return to the time where "Survival of the Fittest" is the only policy. It might sound ideal to the people who wanted to experience a dystopian society but for the majority of people in Tokyo, they don''t want that to happen. That is where the magicians came in since it is not easy to get someone strong as the Great Light and the Great Dark, magicians are holding the seal of END and guarded them." Although the plot is very similar to many mangas I have read before, this is no longer a mere fantasy. Everything will never be the same. As I pedal my bike, I remembered my battle earlier against the demon and if not for diversions and unexpected attacks, I might have died already. Good thing it didn''t happen that way. Which is why it makes me get to the point that I want to get strong. Becoming a magician became a huge shift in my life that I don''t know what to do anymore. And one thing popped up on my mind while I was thinking. ''Why did I became a Magician? What is my motive and what is my goal of becoming one? What is the very reason that drives you to the dangerous world of demons and Magicians?'' If this was the typical male lead characters in manga, they are either wanting to become one to avenge their parents, revenge, or they have something to protect. And most of them ended up dead and go isekaid where they get cheats. For me, why do I want to become a magician? I didn''t want to. Then what is my motive? It''s because this is a foreign environment for me. Now, what is my goal? My goal at the moment? Nothing. Undecided. And what is more, I lacked anyone or anything to protect. It was like I am more inclined to whether something will benefit me or not. But usually, I have no idea at all. Did I just become one for the sake of entertainment? No, I think I am more inclined to how unimportant my life was. But because I didn''t want to acknowledge it, I am here now, looking blank and stoic. One thing I know now is that my main priority is to get strong. Now that I mention it, why don''t I go to a GATE today? I pull out my phone and looked at it. "Hey, soul of the app or whatever you are, do you know how what things would be useful to me once I get into the gate and challenge it?" "GATES are powerful phenomenons that houses different beasts that don''t exist in this world. It also contains the necessary materials to increase your mana and mastery of your elements. If you want to challenge one, be sure to bring a lot of provisions like food and water. Also, you should bring at least one escape ticket with you if you want to exit immediately." "Exit ticket?" I asked. Why does it sound similar to Escape Rope? "An item that only takes effect inside the GATE. Tearing one will allow you to return to reality in one piece." "If that was the case, I really need that. But how to find one? I don''t have money at the moment." "Magic stores sell them. Since you have many Demon Shards, why don''t you spend it there? It will be much more fruitful if you gather materials inside the GATE instead." Magic Stores. Voltaire mentioned them to me, so the magic stores will allow me to gain items to use for my adventure inside the GATE. I didn''t think I am in need to go there very soon but who knows what usually happens to fate? This might be the course of fate for me. "So, can you tell me one of the nearest Magic Store here?" "There is one near you, 30 km from where you are standing right now. If you want, I can give you navigation on where to go right now." "Please do so." "Understood, please wait. Loading complete, map is displaying the current location of the Magic Store. Please follow the map if you want to buy something there." I didn''t waste my time in idle standing. I pedaled my bike to get there as soon as I can. 30 km is not that far with a bike anyway. ... I stood there dumbfounded in front of the shop that I am currently at. I made sure that I followed the map''s place but this... Paradise Land This is clearly a very nice name but that was for the couples and people who are married. "Are you trolling me or what?" I looked into my phone. "I am not trolling and besides, I am a serious soul, I don''t make jokes so rest assured I did not make a joke." "If you didn''t, then why the heck is the location of a Love Hotel?! What if someone I know sees me here?!" "As if you have someone close, and besides, even if you didn''t, you already gained the "Pervert" title so why bother about your reputation? Also, you didn''t come here to find a partner or masturbate right? You came here to buy items to use in the GATE. Now be a man and face it. So what if you are entering into one? It doesn''t mean that you will fall into those services." Why do I feel so pissed right now? Why do I feel like I want to smack someone? This situation is very bad! Why the heck am I here for?! Then, just as I was preparing for myself to steel my nerves, Godou appeared out of nowhere and he is with two pretty ladies who are too beautiful to be in this place. "Oh, Kazuma? What are you doing here? You want to book a room? Where is your partner?" Godou said grinning like he is trolling me. [ol][li data-annotation-id="5b21ee6f-4f52-37fe-7c2e-66bd0f556b08"]Escape Rope is an item that is available in main series Pok¨¦mon games. It can be found all over the map. It enables the player to exit a cave without finding the exit. The rope then teleports the player back to the entrance of the cave.[li data-annotation-id="1bd53bfa-8d33-20e8-c656-4d9991265ee5"]A love hotel is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities. The name originates from "Hotel Love" in Osaka, which was built in 1968 and had a rotating sign[/ol] Chapter 30: Preparations Part 1 I quickly put up a poker face and looked at Godou with a serious look. "I didn''t come here to have fun and you know what I wanted to do here since you are also one." Hoping that he gets the gist of my words, I said it to him directly. However, this moron musclebrain understood it the wrong way. "You want to hire girls? Then you should prepare a hefty amount of money! The girls in here are not cheap since they are famous courtesans that was personally handpicked by the boss. They can perform lots of "services" and foreplays if you wanted to," Godou smirked. One of the girls smacked Godou''s head. "Behave Onii-chan, he is clearly not here for that and from the aura he produces, I can deduce that he is a magician so he must be here for the Magic Store and not the Love Hotel services." The other girl bowed down to me and started apologizing. "I''m sorry for the behavior of my brother, dear customer. We will reprimand him later." "Aw, and here I thought I can have some fun teasing. You all are killjoys man!" Godou sighed. Ignoring Godou, I never expected that these girls are Godou''s younger sisters. They are totally different from their brother so who would expect that they are siblings? The girl with glasses and seemed to be the younger sister led me inside the love hotel. Although it was an awkward one seeing people in the lobby are all couples, I can''t help but gulp. I am a guy without a girlfriend in my entire life and never had much skinship from the opposite sex. What''s more, what''s with this stuffy atmosphere where it seemed to make your heart skip a beat? "Ignore the place Kazuma. Since you want to go to the Magic Store, don''t bother to observe other people here. The Magic Store is just hidden in plain sight and disguised as a Love Hotel. Many people will only think that this is just a plain hotel to satisfy the otherworldly lustful desires that people have but it was due to that that people who are normally not into that are avoiding this place like you initially wanted to do earlier. So it was a perfect place to set up a shop that only magicians can enter," Godou said as he opened the door that lead to a certain room. Certainly, people would not suspect something is being sold here except those services and items that can be used for those services. Even I hesitated to enter this place so this might be what they wanted to happen after all. Now back to this room. This place is normal and nothing seems magical about this place but what appears to be a normal-looking place suddenly felt so heavy for me. "Welcome to the shop Kazuma. My sisters are running this shop for every magician''s customers. If you have something to buy, you can choose what items are fit for you to buy," Godou said. "We forgot to introduce ourselves. My name is Yayasaki Inoue, I am the oldest of us three siblings and the owner of this shop," the girl who smacked Godou earlier said. This girl is the one you call the Onee-san character, she has the matured tone and air around her. But why is she calling Godou ''onii-chan'' if she was the oldest child? I think it was an endearment I guess? The younger girl who looks like your typical cool genius looking girl wearing glasses and her hair in braids pulled out a sketch pad and writes in there. (Nice to meet you. I am Yayasaki Mira. The youngest sibling of the three. And don''t mind me writing here, I am mute and can''t speak, also I can''t hear properly so I have to use a hearing aid to hear what you were saying so please be patient for me alright?) I smiled and nodded at her. So she is a mute? No wonder she keeps on holding that sketch pad, and here I thought she was an artist and likes to draw. "Anyways Kazuma, I know you are a magician like us but what I am wondering is why you are trying to buy? Surely you have some reason, no?" Godou said as he looked at me with curiosity. "Yes, I came to buy items that would help me survive inside the GATES. I am planning on entering one." When they heard this, they were stunned and they looked at me in shock. "You what? You want to challenge a GATE? All by yourself? Without any backup?" I looked at him in confusion. "Why? Is there any problem with that?" "Of course there is! GATES are dangerous as f*ck and challenging one is already suicidal! You think you can waltz into a GATE and walk out back alive? Dude, do you even know what is a GATE?!" "The one that is used to control who wants to go in or go out a certain building right?" "HELL NO! THAT IS A DIFFERENT GATE! I AM TALKING ABOUT THE GATES!" "Ah, yeah of course. And I more or less care about the dangers there." Indeed. I care less about the dangers there. GATES might be dangerous because they are the Earth''s way of disposing malice all around the world. GATES forms once a lot of malice is gathered at one point. From then on, the GATES will forever exist and will forever contain malice. Of course, if a GATE is out of control, monsters will appear and that would be the most dangerous turns of events. That is why magicians are the ones tasked in controlling gates and contain all that is inside of it. And besides, GATES yield bounty and resources that you can''t easily get from the demons are being dropped there. And if I want to get stronger, challenging that place is the only choice of mine. "You are insane," Godou said. "Did you already entered one of those GATES?" I asked him. "Yes, if not, I would not be a decent magician, at worst, I may be worse than your magic state right now. But are you sure you won''t hire anyone to go with you inside the GATE?" "I have already decided." Godou sighed and he looked at his sisters who shrugged. "Alright, sisters, please give him the advance kits. If he wants to survive a GATE with his weak magic, then he needs those things." His sisters nodded and they started gathering things. "Advance kits?" I asked him. "Yeah. I can''t accompany you to a GATE since it is one of the most dangerous places in this world. Maybe I will accompany you if you get to be with a party. Otherwise, I will just stay here." Godou already decided what he wanted to do. But that can''t sway me. If I do it with someone, then I am just relying on them. If I want to be strong, I need to work on it by myself. "Thanks for waiting. The Advance Kits that are ordered are now prepared." Chapter 31: Preparation Part 2 The Advanced Kit is somewhat a collection of different items that seemed to look like ordinary household items gathered inside a small backpack. Since I can check what''s inside, I checked it and I am surprised to see that some of the items are for preparing and cooking food, for example, this bottle of salt and a bottle of pepper. "Uh, aren''t these things for cooking food? Why are they included in this kit?" I asked. "No, these things might look like spices for food but they don''t. Sure, they resembled a lot but they don''t work the same way, I assure you. Shall I explain?" Inoue asked as she held the bottle of salt. "Indeed you need to explain. I am new to this sh*t, so please kindly explain and please enlighten me." "Alright, let''s start with this bottle of salt. We call this as Holy Salt. But most of the magicians never called it as one, they usually call it holy sh*t. Anyways, this is used to dispel curses that you get inside the GATES. Just as you know, GATES contains curses and malice so unless you don''t want to get consumed by them, you can use this sh*t." "Ah, yes, that is some good sh*t," Godou said and nodded. "Can we move on with this sh*t? " I shook my head. "Alright, next is this pepper. This one though is in need to be used together with the Sutra of Pain. As a catalyst to use the Sutra of Pain that can cause severe pain that will cause the monster to go suicide, we need this pepper which is harvested around the middle gehenna." I nodded then grab one of the silver nails that seem to stand out in the bag. "What are these nails for?" "Oh, that one is called the Seal of Pain. You can use it to stun and seal enemies their movements for at least 20 seconds. This is useful if you use it against Ghouls and Ghosts. And GATES has a lot of them crawling here and there so you can use them as you please but they are limited so be careful about using them." She continues to explain the contents of the bag and most of them had the what-if scenarios that will save your ass if you are in that situation. I can''t recall most of them but I made sure to take note most of the very important ones. After she was done explaining, she packed all of them back to the backpack. "Alright, I will take it. How much is it?" I asked and put the bag on my back. "Since this is your first purchase, it''s on the house for now. But you need to purchase on us at least a single item to bring that bag with you. How is that?" "It sounded like a rip-off offer," I grumbled. "Hey man, don''t be like that. There are no more freebies in this world so be grateful that we allowed you to get at least the advanced kit for free. We are only asking you to buy something, no matter how cheap or expensive it is," Godou said. "Does the condom suffice?" "What the f*ck, that is not included in our package. What I meant is that you need to buy something from us using the Demon Shards and not real money. Honestly, money is not much for us so we don''t need it," Godou scratched his head as he snatches back the condom that I just grab from one of the shelves. "I don''t have much Demon Shards with me. This is the entire budget that I got with me. Can I buy something with this amount?" I pull out a pouch full of the shards and put it on the table beside me. Mira put her sketchpad down and started to rummage on the pouch and counted the contents inside. After doing so, she picked up her sketch pad and write on it with lightning speed and showed it to me. "You can buy a bronze-tier weapon here with that amount. Ask my brother to lead you into it." Godou nodded and looked at me with a grin. "Looks like you are rich for a beginner huh. Now, follow me and I will show you some Bronze-tier weapons" He led me to a door that leads me to a hallway that also leads to another area. Following Godou, I realized that we are just inside the exterior of the shop earlier, the interior is much bigger than expected and there are other magicians in there browsing. It was like the mall that many kinds of items are being sold. "Welcome to the Magic Mall where all magic shops are connected. Of course, this place is much different than Magic Shops since they are the ones buying things here. Since you are still a newbie, I will tour you around but since you said earlier that you don''t want to waste your time, let''s go straight to the shop where Bronze-Tier weapons are stored." "I see. So when your sisters entered the door, they are grabbing the items inside this bag and brought it to the shop then?" "Correct. Normally, Magic Shops are for people who are too lazy to browse items in the mall that is why if you want convenient selection and fast items, this is the best way. But if you wanted to personally find items yourself, just go visit the place in the underground mall, one exit door in the area that is locked for humans and is labeled do not enter is the entrance to this place." "Can''t I just go back to your shop and use it if you want to access the shop?" "Unfortunately for you Kazuma, this is the first and last time I will let you use that door because that was specifically for store owners and employers. Customers cannot use that door." "Oh, is that so. Then thanks for the info." "No problem." After our conversation, we arrived at the section where the bronze-tier weapons that they are talking about is being sold. There are too many weapons to choose from and there are many items that seemed useful to any individual. "What is your fighting style Kazuma? If you are a beginner, I suggest getting a shortsword or a normal length sword." "I may be proficient in bladed weapons but it''s not my style. Is there anything that can be used in hand to hand combat?" "Hand to hand combat? I see, so you want to use melee kind where you use your fists? I like your fighting style, so let''s go further there, I can suggest you a beginner weapon." He led me to the weapons area where the weapons are all solely for knuckle uses. All kinds of Brass Knuckles are being sold there and the weapons are either normal looking to eerie looking. But I don''t want weapons that are too catchy looking. I want those simple items that can easily be used without attracting the eyes of others. Godou grabbed one of the brass knuckles that has a nice look but seems to be too catchy. "If you want to have a strong punch, then use this Rocket Punch Knuckles. All enemies you punch using this would be knocked down. What do you say?" "It looks like a weapon that would catch the attention of my enemy and get wary at me, don''t I choose one myself?" "Suit yourself. The weapon will be yours to use anyway so I don''t have the right to say what you want to buy." With permission granted, I started browsing around the knuckles. Some caught my attention but they have no practical uses that can allow me to use it properly. Some have those practical effects that I wanted to have but they are either too showy or too lame that you can harm yourself just by wearing it due to the design flaws. Just as I thought that there wouldn''t be a good weapon for me, I found one that I think would be best suited for my fighting style. It is a black brass knuckle with a skull carved on the metal. The carved skull glows red so it looks very cool. Moreover, this weapon can amplify the strength of the user''s combat power when activated. Without hesitation, I pointed on it. "I will grab this one." Chapter 32: Waiting for the GATE "Are you sure you want that? I suggest you to choose another item. Even though it was being held in here in bronze-tier weapons, I heard that was a cursed Brass Knuckle was a Gold Tier but degraded to bronze-tier due to its curse. People who tried it met accidents and misfortune and all of them said that this weapon cannot be easily controlled by its owners. It was said to be a sentient weapon, so I suggest to avoid this one." However, I didn''t bother what Godou said. I grab it and brought it with me. The sales keeper of the brass knuckles sighed in relief when I grab the knuckles. This might be a true cursed item and if it was said to be sentient weapon then I can subdue and tame this weapon to be my personal weapon. It is a bonus. Godou slumped in disappointment and shook his head before we returned to the shop. Godou persuaded me one last time but I did not listen. I left the magic store after that and headed to the Convenience Store where I saw Erina being assaulted. The cashier is still Erina but she was busy this time around because there are customers so I didn''t bother much. I still have a little bit amount of money left in my wallet. Because I don''t know how long I will be staying inside the GATE, I decided to buy food and energy drinks. What will a warrior do if he goes hungry in the battle? If there is no food and the enemies are not edible, they would either lose their strength to fight, they will be ambushed by enemies and then, dies pitifully. That was the lamest way to get yourself killed by enemies I must say. I made sure that my budget is equal to the food and drinks so that I won''t get short in money. The energy drinks and colas are for energy revitalization in case I ran out of energy. If this is a game, these things would count as revitalization medicines. When Erina saw me again, she was shocked to see the amount of food and drinks in my cart. "Are you going to a slumber party or a movie watch?" Erina asked as she grabs the items and scan them one by one. "By myself? No, I am just using them as snacks for future use. Don''t you do that sometimes?" I asked as I helped her put the items to the counter. "Sometimes but I don''t do that on energy drinks and a cup of ramen noodles. This is a very unhealthy lifestyle if you ask me." "Well, I didn''t ask you," I sarcastically said. "Hmph, oh well, it''s your food, so it''s not my care to criticize you on what to eat," Erina pouted. "Yeah, so don''t judge me, besides, noodles taste great if cooked." "So what are you saying, that I eat my noodles raw that is why I don''t like the taste of it? You stinky brat!" ... After chatting a bit with Erina as a way to pass time, I made my way back home. I have to bring a sleeping bag and a few necessities for the GATE. I already asked Miss Asuza to excuse me in my classes because I want to train. She allowed me as long as it won''t exceed a week''s time so there is no problem if I skip the classes. And since our homeroom teacher won''t be there, it will take a bit of time for our classroom to return to the usual flow of classes. Also, my classmates won''t be surprised if I go absent for a few days. They might think I am still in despair after being humiliated by many students which works for me as an advantage. The bag that is being used to contain all the items in the Advanced Kit is a dimensional space bag that has the same type of magic that Moonlight uses. It can store lots of items in a bag and I bet you can store a car here if you really want to. But I don''t want to waste the space in my bag with a car and besides, I don''t have a car so that was unnecessary. I grabbed many necessities like medicines and a flashlight. I am not sure how bright it was inside the GATE so this is for an emergency. Since it is still early, I ate my dinner first band I made sure that I won''t go hungry in there. I am a bit excited and afraid of the unknown but if I want to be strong this is the way for me to get strong as a magician. But now I have a problem and that is about the money. I don''t have enough money to last for a month. I may be strong but I will have no more money at the end of the month which will be a major problem for me. Then, the mechanical voice of the phone started talking. I am getting used to this phone that will talk all of a sudden so I am no longer shocked to it. "The Quest log in the Anonymous can earn you money, Kazuma. Because there will be magicians who want to earn money, the quests in there are now rewarding money or demon shards depending on your needs and since you need both the demon shards and money, I suggest that you would look at it once in a while. If there is a quest you would like to take, you can file one. You take their quest and fulfill it, then turn in the necessary items and bam, you are good to go. It''s a win-win situation." "Thanks for informing me. I will check it later." That was convenient. After checking everything, I venture out and move towards the shrine. ... Toyosaka Inari Shrine. It''s 2:50 in the morning and the air is cold since it started raining midway around 12 midnight. The air is chilly and I never expected that to happen. In the end, I was holed up in one of the sheds in the shrine and covered myself with a jacket. Still, I am freezing since the rain is not letting up yet. It was like you will freeze to the bone if you continue to stay here in the shed in the middle of this rain. I didn''t use my flames because I am preserving my mana in case I ran out of it so my only choice is to brave myself on this cold. Gritting my teeth, I persevere and waited. I sympathize the homeless people since they can experience this type of sh*t every day and yet they still live on. I think I would help one in the future once I get enough money. But for now, I need to persevere a lot. While I was trying to get used to the cold, the mechanical voice of the phone started talking. "Congratulations to you Kazuma. Due to your affinity of magic to all element, and undergoing a harsh situation that is new to you, you managed to comprehend the way to learn a new magic. If you want to learn it, pull out the phone and push yes." "What now? Are you trying to become a system for me?" I said as I pull out my phone from my pocket even though I am struggling. "I may not be a system but I am already helping you for your sake so be grateful, you stinky brat, or you don''t want to learn this magic? What now?" "Alright, alright, I will learn it." "Too bad, the time limit is up. Keke." "You motherf*cker." "Joke, its just a joke." "Yeah, its a joke, don''t worry, I will burn you alive." "I am a great soul of the app, you can''t defile me!" "It''s a "joke", don''t worry." "..." I pushed yes on my phone and all of a sudden, all sorts of memories about me comprehending the new skill appeared on my mind. I closed my eyes and let the knowledge flow in my body. "Congratulations. You managed to get a new Magic. Freezing Wind. Also, Kazuma, the GATE is now open. Are you going in now?" "Finally, time to enter and gather materials here!" "Good luck Kazuma. May the force be with you!" "This is not Star Wars you sh*tty piece of crap!" [ol][li data-annotation-id="5f0d2dec-7382-588b-5ddf-e1d4171c0cab"]Toyosaka Inari Shrine is located within walking distance of Shibuya Station, and it is easy to find because it is opposite the Golden King Hachimangu Shrine. It is a very small shrine, but it is characterized by its many Jinshin Pagodas in the precincts.[/ol] Chapter 33: GATES: Embodiment of Sins and Malice Part 1 The GATE is like a portal appearing out of nowhere. It was like it came out of a fantasy anime right now, but ever since I became a Magician, these things are no longer a mere fantasy, it''s now part of reality. As soon as I get my body inside the portal, it felt like it was being squashed by gravity amplified thrice. I quickly grab one of the items inside the bag before I get squashed to death. It was the lightweight bead, one of the items used if you felt like you will get squashed inside the GATE. It allows your body to get used to the pressure around you without being burdened. After eating the bead, the heaviness I felt was alleviated and I can move properly again. I adjusted my eyes around and I realized that this place is very gloomy. You can say that this place is like looking at a creepy forest where evil lurks around in movies. It''s not that dark but I can''t see much around which is why I didn''t like the feeling here. I properly put on the gloves and the Brass Knuckles in my hands this time around. The brass Knuckles did not respond like what I expected it since they say that these knuckles are a sentient being. However, I didn''t care much about it. What I am more concerned about is to find enemies so that I can start collecting items. When I took a step forward, an interface appeared before me like a game. "Welcome to the Shibuya GATE. You are the first customer to be here today. We will be awarding the first customer with a Mana Potion for you to use." Alright, this looks like a game indeed. Now I wonder what is going on here, it looks like this is the way the GATES work. Then the voice on my phone started talking again. "This game feature is made by myself. I made this kind of stuff so that all magicians are able to get into the GATES easier. You can use this feature to look at pieces of information for the items and monsters you encounter. Convenient right? I am so innovative!" "No sh*t, I already read this kind of stuff in novels. Did you think that you are the one who invented it first?" "So you want to remove this feature? I can turn it off ya know," the voice said, threatening me. "No, don''t do it right now. I need it," I said immediately. "Say that this feature is innovative and I am a genius." "What a shameless woman..." I mumbled. "By the way, this only works inside the GATES. Don''t expect this to work in the real world because I am not an idiot that would keep on helping someone even in their homeland. This is a help for the sake that the survival in the GATES is increased exponentially. In the end, I complied with the wills of the voice. But I made sure that I can get a strike in the future once an opportunity arises. Although it was a gaming type of feature, it doesn''t appear to be a complete one since all the features can do is to recognize creatures and their descriptions. Items too are being given descriptions but that''s it, nothing more, nothing less. It might sound useless if you compare it to most system novels but I don''t think so. In this foreign land, enemies and foreign objects are what make the GATES world alive. Due to this, many magicians and other explorers tried to venture into the GATES for the first time and it resulted in death and the likes. The survival rate of the GATES is very low, causing the GATES to cause imbalance and produce monsters which leads to the attacks of monsters in the past that the people mistaken as yokai monsters. To make sure this won''t happen again, magicians are forced to once again venture the place and with strong people leading the explorations, they finally found out lots of good things to do and take inside the GATE and what to do to increase the survivability rate of the explorers and that was the beginning that the mechanical voice to help people using this function. Still, it doesn''t mean that the GATES survival rate has a very high-rate now. Even with the app''s help, many people are either killed in accident or they are killed by greed. Anything can happen and it''s not always the voice''s fault they would die. Anyways, let''s go back to my situation. "What are you monologuing there for? Are you getting high or what?" "Shut up! And please take care of your business!" "Hmph, I don''t know if you are getting crazy or not," the voice said. "You really piss me off but for the sake of the program, I won''t beat this phone up but once I am pissed by you again, I won''t hesitate to pull you out of the phone stupid voice!" "Let me see you try!~" "DAMN SH*T" ... After our bickering, I started to continue the exploration. So far, there are still no monsters around and whatever I do, this place is just creepy as f*ck that you might think that everywhere you hide, there will be someone staring at your back. I don''t easily get scared by these guys, it''s just that it is taxing out here. Still, its been a while but I didn''t get to find any monsters around. But what I found here is very interesting. A way back, I found a few herbs crumpled together and with the inspection skill which is one of those skills to determine the item''s description, I found out that most of them are medicinal plants necessary for making out potions. (Ember Moss) Tier1-Ingredient Description: Item that is mostly used to increase the power of the magic users that controls fire. Works poorly if eaten raw but works positively if used as a tea leaf and food ingredient. (Frosty Grass) Tier1- Ingredient Description: A grass type that appears silver outside and cold as ice on the inside. It raises the mastery and affinity of someone using the magic of ice. Not so effective to other elements but it won''t work on fire users much. (Healing Stem) Tier2-Food Ingredient Description: Eating this would recover your health a bit. Of course, this won''t help you heal fatal ones but only wounds heal. I don''t know if it was me or just this place is a very good place that is allowing me to get me to earn lots of items that work well with me especially the Healing Stem. Since injury will always be very common and cannot be avoided, items like this can really save someone. However, this peaceful atmosphere of me picking up items and gathering them, will not last forever. Before I knew it, a demon appeared. This time, it looks like a fat guy full of pieces of jewelry in his body but he looks like he has been killed due to the color of the skin which is grey. And as always, the info appeared. (Man of Greed) Tier 1-Enemy Description: The malice that took form due to the greed of people. It has a tendency to keep on being greedy and eat flesh. They might look human but don''t be deceived which somehow costs you your life if you trust this creature. Has lots of tendency to explode. DROPS: Mana Shards Chapter 34: GATES: Embodiment of Sins and Malice Part 2 This bloated man is actually a monster. I don''t have any expectation of what the monster looks like but I am not used to the look that the monster gives to me. It was actually a human man, only with a bloated stomach. Imagine a boomer in Left 4 dead but just a bit slimmer, and he would look like the Man of Greed. The drops are also stated in the description too but I have no idea what are Mana Shards. But since they are shards, my guess is that if you collect them, you can use them as currencies similar to the Demon Shards. The voice did not respond so my guess is that I have to find it out on my own. The Man of Greed walks close to me and growls. It was a very hostile monster since it is trying to give me a bite but I made sure that it won''t bother me at all. Without hesitation, I activated my flames and used it to blast the Man of Greed off. Before I can react, the Man of Greed exploded and I was sent flying into the ground. That was the most insane occurrence that happened to me. I made a mental note that the Man of Greed is basically boomers that explode once they attack them making them a dangerous sh*t to come from. I was injured due to the pain that the explosion did to me. If I knew that would happen, I wouldn''t have done that at all. I pull out from my bag the Healing Stem and started chewing it. It tastes a little sweet and bitter but it is nice and chewy. The bitterness doesn''t really matter so when I started chewing it, wounds in my body started to disappear. Even the scars did not even get spared. This thing can be a wonder if brought to the human world. But knowing the greed of humans, if the greedy people get their hands on this item, they would immediately think up ways to exploit this and sell them as miracle medicine. The magicians indeed did the right thing or else, evil will just get stronger and stronger. After chewing the stem is done, I checked all of the wounds and most of them are all healed up. Some are still there but they are already clotting so it is alright. Now time to inspect the monster. It looks so gore just watching this scene. If this happened when I was still a normal guy, I might have puked out from disgust. Good thing that there is a perk in becoming a magician and that is able to last around looking at things like this. Now, what I am looting around here for is the Mana Shard. I scanned around the area for the piece and not too far from the torso, shining blue shards are glowing on the ground. I picked them up and examined them. Good thing the panel for the description appeared or else I might think this as a piece of rock. (Mana Shard) Description: A shard containing a lot of concentrated mana. Collecting 100 of these shards would form the Mana Orb and will be available for consumption. A straightforward description but I need to gather 100 of these just to get this thing to be consumed. And here I thought I can get myself a little bit amount of mana once I consume this one. I am quite disappointed but if that was the rule of this world, I have no choice but to collect the shards. From that Man of Greed just now, I got at least 5 shards of Mana which means, I still needed to find at least 95 more to complete the orb. There are other monsters out there but I don''t know their behaviors much which gives me a bit of a hard time on this one. I don''t want to risk using Mana Scan in this place. If I used it, it might cause me to take in lots of info about this world that might break me down. I better avoid doing that. There is nothing else in these pile of meat except those which means it didn''t drop anything else. Without anything else, I need to move on and find things needed. Monsters are the only creatures inside the GATES that can give me Mana Shards so this time, I won''t just explore, time to go destroying some monsters. ... Monsters were rare near the entrance. It was like a barren land for beginners and can be said to be the safe boundary between the dangerous land and the safe land. I noticed it since there was a boundary in the form of the trees. If you are from the safe boundary, once you pass through the trees, you are going to be welcomed into the dangerous world inside the GATES. Massive hordes of monsters and there are some of those demons with wings walking around in groups. I frowned looking at the place as it was very dangerous for me to venture out alone. No wonder Godou recommended me to raid a GATE with a party, it was due to the insane amount of monsters here. However, hunting here is not impossible, just hard to do it alone. Right now, I am stalking a horde of orcs. (Horned Orcs) Description: These monsters travel in groups but they can be seen sometimes traveling alone. Drops: Mana Shards, Earth Fragment I am stalking this group because they are the fewest of the group. And from the looks of their behaviors, they sometimes split up once in a while and the other group would not care what happened to the guy unless something happened. I made sure of this target to work. I pull out a dagger out of the bag and stalk it on the rocks. By the way, this dagger is one of the items included in the Advanced Kit. It''s an ordinary dagger but it was effective against enemies in sneak attacks. I am proficient in sneak attacks since that was one of the trained skills I got when I was still practicing martial arts from my old master. Patience is a virtue in here and I am not in a hurry. Even though your patience will wear thin the longer you wait, the opportunity will arise soon enough. And I am not wrong. One of the orcs separates from the group and seems to be in the middle of urinating. I focused my eyesight, ready the dagger and boosted my sprint using the Blazing shoes. The orc is taller than me so to make sure I can stab this pig, I grab his neck and grapple him down. The orc did not get to react as the dagger was deeply buried in his neck. I didn''t stop stabbing the neck with the dagger and the blood in my body splattered me red already but I did not care. After a dozen hard stabs, I ignite my free hand with the Burning Gloves and poke the eyes of the orc while I continue to stab the monster. It didn''t take me too long before the orc fell limply. I jump off the orc and sighed in relief. I grab the tabar it was carrying and swing it a bit. It was heavier than expected but it was still in good condition. "Hey, can monster weapons like this tabar can be sold in the real world?" I asked the voice. The voice did not hesitate to answer. "Yes. Weapons in GATES can be sold in the real world. Even broken ones are also sold without a spare. They can be a good thing to use as smelting materials so if you want to, you can bring that weapon along with you. I heard that they can be sold in a hefty amount of money or demon shards depending on you." I see, so this would be a good investment. Inari did a good job of giving me a suggestion. I ignited the body of the orc without hesitation and waited for the body to burn to ashes. After that, the orc ''s body is in ashes while 7 pieces of Mana Shard appeared on the pile. Chapter 35: GATES: Embodiment of Sins and Malice Part 3 I found out that the orcs were not that intelligent but a bit dumb. I killed at least 4 of them. There are still 3 orcs in there and finding out that most of their comrades are missing in action all of a sudden, they go on full alert and they did not try to move away from each other anymore. I just shook my head because this is how dumb they are, if it was a much more intelligent creature, they would already start looking for the missing comrades. Not just by waiting aimlessly until they realize that they are starting to dwindle in numbers. This dagger is a useful tool but it has to rest this time around. There is a weapon that I have not used and I have to test this weapon since it didn''t work much earlier. I don''t want to show myself out by announcing my presence. That was just plain stupid. Preemptive strike is the way and there is nothing wrong with it. I am not a chivalrous person after all. Wearing the Skull Knuckle(the brass knuckle purchased earlier) over the gloves, I finally felt a bit of bloodlust on the weapon. Is this what they mean that the weapon has its consciousness? It didn''t activate earlier so now I am not sure why it did activate right now. Still, that did not change my goal. As soon as my hands are ready to strike, I crouch and made a running stance, while my eyes are locked-on to the orcs and the flames holding it''s power to the sole of my shoe. I can''t just burst off without any reason, I need to do it in the precise way so that my strikes will be really effective since I am going to use blunt force instead of edged weapon like the dagger. Opportunity is hard in this position and I am making sure that I will get that opportunity by waiting. Waiting... Waiting... As soon as the other orc turned around, I activated the burst in my shoes. Red Magic Circles appeared on both soles of my shoes, and with a sudden burst, like a rocket launching into space, I launched myself forward, still making my fists ready to burst out and deal the strongest blow I can give to them. The orc who is not looking behind him was stunned by me who just appeared out of nowhere, launched himself towards them speeding up. And before the other orc who is still not aware of what is happening, I ignited my fists and with a spin from the momentum in my propulsion, I added the force of it in my punch and the fiery fists did not even wait for the orc to recover. BANG! I think the force was just too much for the demon because before I can land into the ground, the orc exploded to pieces after punching his face. I don''t know, is it too much force? The other orc finally noticed the commotion but I didn''t want to cause unnecessary battles, I attacked his abdomen using the brass knuckles and just before the demon can also react, his body exploded once more. This time, I am the one that gets to be stunned. ''WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?'' That was the third explosion of a body already. It was like I punched a balloon with a brass knuckle shaped like a needle. What''s up with all the enemies exploding after punching them? Is this due to how strong I am or how weak they are? "Neither of them Kazuma," the voice said. "Huh?" "Since you are in the GATE, examine the panel of the Skull Knuckles and see for yourself." "Check the panel..." And just like the voice said, I can check the panel of this item like a regular drop. (Skull Knuckles)(Cursed) Status: Sentient(Satisfied) Tier: Gold Tier(Degraded to Bronze due to the curse) Special: Bloodlust Strike: 1/4: Targets that are punched in full force with the intent to kill are all reduced to meat pile once the weapon came in direct contact with the target. 4 uses available every day. Description: A knuckles that said to possess the soul of one of the most bloodlust filled monster in history. Since the body of the monster is no longer present, it decided to stay in the knuckles. Until now, it was looking for its rightful owner that can wield the powers that this weapon contains deep within and today, it seems to have found its destined owner. Owner: Kazuma Fukuyama All I can say is what the actual f*ck?! I actually managed to subdue the spirit of the brass knuckles? And it was actually the skill of the Skull Knuckles that made the orcs and that Man of Greed earlier explode? That was a mindblowing fact that I did not expect! And what''s with the acknowledging me as the rightful owner? It doesn''t make sense since I have not done anything yet to properly subdue the sentient mind of this weapon and now I actually managed to conquer and let it acknowledge me as its master? Talk about how amazing I was! "Don''t get too worked up kid. It can disown you if it finds itself wrong on its judgment so you better be good at your work alright?" the voice said. "I will be careful." Although I am happy with the result, the effects of the skill named as Bloodlust Strike is excessive but it was a limited one since I can only have at least 4 strikes using those attack. This means if I used it again, I will be left out without any emergency strike. I better keep the strikes by myself for now. After knowing that, I pull out the dagger once more. I will save the last strike to a stronger foe. Now that everything is clarified, time to go find those mana shards. Oh, and by the way, I managed to get 30 mana shards now excluding the mana shards that these two orcs have right now. I thought that every mana shards they drop are fixed. Then I realized that they don''t actually have a fixed amount. They drop randomly around 2 or 10 pieces at most. The two orcs right now yielded me 12 pieces after both of them yielded 6 mana shards each. Now I got 42 pieces of the shards stored in a pouch that is included in the advanced kit. So far so good but I think I need to rest. The toll was actually great that I did not really expect it much but now, here we are, we have been exhausted by the place. "Resting once in a while in the GATES is a good idea. Pushing yourself further will just cost you your life if you pursue your greediness." "I am not greedy and I am making my whole time trying to master everything. And I hope that I won''t be able to get exhausted." Just before I can sit down on a rock, something cold grabbed my foot. "What the f*ck?!" With a reflexive kick, I kicked the cold thing that grabbed my foot and I realized that it was a hand, no to be precise, it''s a bone hand. "Oh damn, we are actually hanging out around the graveyard of the GATES. A place that the malice is much concentrated here. And since there are skeletons here, the main enemy here this time would be a necromancer." "Aw great..." I said gloomily and pulled out the tabar I picked up earlier and a buckler that the orcs dropped earlier. Looks like the food I prepared will have to wait for a while I guess. Chapter 36: GATES: Embodiment of Sins and Malice Part 3 I can say that this was the most f*cked up world I lived in. To produce such a heavy amount of malice means that the world is just too corrupted. No wonder too many calamities is occurring one by one. If all of the magicians are the ones to keep on dealing with them, I am quite sure that the magicians would dwindle in numbers due to the excessive amount of enemies and also a bit an inexperienced experience of most newbie magicians like me. Why I am grumbling a lot is due to the enemies that appeared. These skeletons are too much of a pain. Sure they are easy to kill but they are far too many for me to handle. It was like looking at a group of fish and you are the food. It''s not a problem with me with this tabar and the buckler, I managed to clear away many kinds of skeletons although you can say that they are just too brittle. The only problem is that they produce too quickly for me to handle. These monsters have a lot of tendencies to surround and kill me already but since I am tenacious, I am still alive. "Tenacious? More like a brush. Earlier, you shook when you almost got stabbed by a skeleton on the head if not for the buckler that you quickly used to cover your head, you would be dead right now," the voice interjected. "Shuddup, I am not talking to you. And also, I am not speaking, how come you can read what I am thinking?! Can''t you give me privacy?" "Hurhur." "Damnit!" I bash the buckler once more to the skeleton and with just a single smash and the skeleton fell to pieces. Still, these attacks of mine can''t even defeat all of them, only a few can be caught all at once in a single bash and not all of them are brittle enough to break down in one attack. Sometimes, you need additional force to destroy the skeleton but it cost time and energy to do so. Also, there will be no end in sight if the enemy, the necromancer that keeps on summoning the skeletons is still alive. One thing to destroy the horde is to kill the summoner which is, in this case, is the necromancer. And that is the problem right now. With the skeletons intact together and blocking the way, fighting your way to the necromancer is proving to be one of the hardest things to do. The Tabar is quite good and the buckler did a good job thinning out all of the skeletons but my energy and stamina are depleting way too fast. "Your stamina and energy are almost around 30%. Please have some rest and retreat from the battle." "You think it is easy to retreat with skeletons all around my surroundings covering my way?" "Of course not." "Then you need to shut up because the amount of enemies here is too much for me. I need to kill the necromancer as soon as possible." "Then, why not use some tools from the Advanced Kit. Surely, there is something in there that can be of use?" "Something...?" Indeed, there were some things that can be useful inside the Advanced Kit but I don''t think there is something that can kill these skeletons if used. "Try scanning the enemies you defeat for information and find the right item. I thought you already realized it but I guess you are sometimes on the slow side." I had no idea what the voice is talking about but I decided to believe in it. When I focused on the skeleton, a panel appeared before me. (Cursed Skeleton) Tier 2-Enemy Description: These skeletons are not born from human remains. They are born due to malice and curses that builds up the Earth''s dark side. You can say that they are not the undead but a type of curse on a moving entity. Drops: Mana Shards, Dark Shard, Cursed Stone Wait a minute, they are curses? They are not undead beings? Didn''t I have an item that is very effective against curses? Without hesitation, I backed off from the horde of skeletons and made sure that I am free to move at the moment. When I am clear and the skeletons are still far from me, I quickly rummage inside the bag. Good thing this is a dimensional bag, picking up items is like selecting items from an inventory bag in a game. This item I need and that is the holy sh*t... wait, that was the holy salt and not holy sh*t. Also, to use this, I have to make sure that the enemies are curses type and since these bunch of skeletons is curse types, they will crumble in no time. "Time to go pickle some bones!" I sprinkle the salt to the incoming skeletons and without a doubt, the skeletons started to crumble to dust. It was quite a sight to see, seeing all of the moving skeletons crumble and disappear. Now, I just needed to go and kill the necromancer. I have plenty of this holy sh*t- I mean, holy salt to use, and with the necromancer keeping his summons, again and again, this will be easy and I just need to clear the way to close into the necromancer and it will work well with this item. Then, all of a sudden, I heard a flapping wings above me. I frowned because its not a monster but a humanoid entity. The only thing is that this humanoid entity is a woman and she is wearing very revealing clothes. "Oh? A human male? That was quite unusual for a human to wander around here!~" she said. I tried directing my scanning ability to her but I only got an error. "Hey, what io going on? Why can''t I scan her?" I asked the voice. "Oh, if someone cannot be scanned, that means that the entity is a creature or a person. From the looks of it, she is a succubus." "Someone knows my kind? I see, so we are not yet forgotten I guess! And since you are fighting here and you are a male, will you accept me as your familiar? Then you can receive my assistance and I will guarantee that you will survive this ordeal. But in return, you give me your "energy" Chapter 37: Succubus If this was a joke, this is one of the not funny jokes I ever heard of. Someone like her is offering a contract? Aren''t a person able to only make a contract to a single familiar? Just as I was wondering what is going on, I heard a familiar voice that seems to be coming from my mind. "Master, it looks like you can have different contracts to different familiars without any problem. If you make a contract with her, you won''t have any complications at all." "Inari?!" "Yes, this is me. I may not be summoned by your side right now but I can see everything that my master is seeing right now. Also, I can communicate with you due to our connection with the contract without consuming mana." With the incoming wave of skeletons coming at me, I am forced to back down while I am trying to process what is going on with this. The succubus flew beside me and seems to be waiting for my response. I don''t really know what to do in this situation and I don''t have any idea why this is happening to me. But one thing is sure, I am still overwhelmed here! "So what are you going to do? I am waiting for your response~" Damn, her sultry way of speaking is interrupting me. I can''t really concentrate on my attacks here due to her. "Master, I suggest that you accept her proposal. You won''t be afraid of betrayal from a contract anyway so this is good what I am saying is actually pretty good offer," Inari said. "Am I going to be safe with this woman though?" "Don''t worry master, as long as she is under your contract, she can''t betray you and she can''t cancel the contract unless you agree to cancel the contract of hers." I see. Even though its a bit complicated in my part, I still understand what she meant to say. If I have her with me, I have a higher chance of survival in this place. And from the looks of it, this succubus is a strong one. However, there is one thing that I am confused about her. "I will agree to your condition but answer my question first, what are you trying to accomplish by allying yourself with me?" The succubus smiled as she swiped her hands in the air and a wave of blood shot out of that wave, killing all the skeletons that are coming in our way. She looked at me and gave me a meaningful look. "I am just bored here and also, I think I have taken a liking to you, that''s what." I almost spurt out blood from what she just said. Are you flirting with me or what?! In the end, I decided to accept the contract she is offering. Since I can accept more than one familiar, there is no problem for me forming a contract with her. As soon as the contract seal appeared on her left leg, she started to get serious. "Master, supply me with mana and I will clear out the way for you!" I nodded and supplied my mana to her via connection to our contract. As soon as the wave of mana flowed to her, she suddenly squealed like she really liked the feeling of the mana flowing to her. "THIS... IS... AMAZING!" And without warning, she opened her wings and a strong amount of bloodlust started to gather around the air. It started to get thicker and thicker as it gathers on the succubus. As soon as the big cloud of bloodlust accumulated in the air, she grinned and flapped her wings. ''"Be grateful you ants can see my glorious self and receive death from my hands!" The strong malice transformed similar to the power that the succubus used earlier. And before I knew it, she released it like a wave of water in the ocean. The skeletons crumbled to dust and the place turned barren again. I didn''t waste my time and sprinted towards the direction of the necromancer. The necromancer was surprised to see that the mass of skeletons he summoned disintegrated into nothingness. Although I have no intention of using the remaining power of the Skull Knuckles, it has enough crushing power to destroy the enemy. Controlling the power to stop the casting of the latent skill, I grab the head of the necromancer and ignited my hand before I started bashing his head relentlessly. The crushing power of the Skull Knuckles ended up reducing the head of the necromancer into powder. Also, after destroying the head, a red orb fell into my hands. I examined the item carefully and a panel appeared before me, stating what item it was. (Orb of Memory) Item Description: An orb containing someone''s memory. Depending on what memories stored there, it can be used as a preserving memory for their loved ones or to store important knowledge. The knowledge can be passed to another person if it was eaten. Another weird item again. I put it on the bag and after the orb was separated into the body of the necromancer did the body started to crumble and turn into dust. After that, the remaining skeletons that are not killed from the blast that the succubus shot out earlier fell down and started to crumble away back into dust. Although that was a tiresome battle for me, it became easy due to the succubus. What was left to the place are the mana shards, dark shards, and a few cursed stones that scattered all around the ground without much disturbance. When I was picking up the items, the succubus waved her hand and all of the shards started floating and gathered to her hands. "Are you collecting these master?" "Yeah. Is there any problem with that?" "I don''t know what are your uses on these items since they are just junk in our eyes. Do you have something you need to use it with? I have seen a lot of this stuff around here." "These items can increase my mana, and will help me recover mana faster whenever I use it." When the succubus heard this, her eyes glowed as if she heard something amazing. "Okay! I will help you gather all of these things!" "Huh?" "Your mana is the best thing I ever tasted in my life. It is much better than human seed that we normally eat. It even surpasses the quality of taste that the male essence has! I will help you and you will supply me mana in return!" "AH..." I was baffled but I can''t say anything. She hummed and gather the items and shove them all to me. As soon as all of the shards were shoved to me, all of the shards gathered together and they became one. She looked amazed at the spectacle after all of the shards gathered together. The pieces of shards including the shards that I gathered earlier became one, turning into Mana Orbs. Looks like everything is good this time. But I guess this succubus will be staying with me for quite a while. "Ahhhnnn~ Master... I''m getting horny I want yours~" "No way in hell..." I grumbled. Maybe not really good I guess. Chapter 38: Otaku Incubus The journey inside the GATES is smoother than earlier due to the help of the Succubus. By the way, her name is Yuri, and she is a half-vampire and succubus. She said that she suddenly developed the vampire trait that she has no idea how she gained it since she is a pure-blooded succubus. I, on the other hand, didn''t care much about her origin. She is a dependable ally and is very good in battles. The only downside on her is that she is so sultry and she keeps on seducing me using her body. Although it''s hard to endure her especially since I am a guy, I managed to hold on to her advances. And due to her, I managed to find out that I have a very high resistance to charm attacks because even though I can be charmed, the effects would either get negated or disappear a few seconds after inflicting me. This made the advances of Yuri to failure since she can''t use her precious skills on me. Yuri might be a succubus but she is much more inclined to consume my mana instead of my you know what. She keeps on begging for my mana every second but I made sure that she consumes my mana in moderation and let her consume only once we are in a battle. Also, thanks to her, I managed to collect 5 mana orbs which will allow me to increase my mana capacity and recovery boost faster. I don''t have much idea how much will it increase but at least, it will increase. My mana recovery rate is fast which might be a plus but due to the limited amount, I don''t have an efficient magic output. But with Yuri here, as long as she acts as the attacker while I am the one supplying her mana, then everything is good aside from that she consumes mana like crazy. "Master. I almost forgot that I have yet to introduce you to my brother," Yuri said as we are collecting the Mana Orbs. "Brother? I thought succubus only has female genders?" I looked at her in a confused look. "According to our data, there is a male counterpart of succubus. From the looks of it, she is mentioning a brother incubus." "Incubus?" "Yes. Although they are male, they are much more proficient in impregnating women. And I heard that their offspring will become a legend in the future," the mechanical voice on the phone said. "Wait, what? Impregnating women?" "I don''t know why you are somehow dumb. Do you not read some doujinshi and some adult anime about them? I heard there are plenty of them," the voice quickly said. "Seriously? I don''t read much doujinshi these days and I have yet to find something worthwhile to read and I never got to read things like the incubus you are talking about." "Master, don''t worry. My brother doesn''t swing that way and has no hobby of impregnating women. He keeps on muttering that he wants to go out of this gate because it''s been too long since he watched anime ever since we are trapped in here. He keeps saying that 2D girls are the best than 3D girls." "Huh? Isn''t he an incubus?" the voice on my phone was surprised. "Yeah, I asked him about this odd behavior of his and he quickly said that he wanted love, not lust. But when women know that he is somewhat related to an incubus, they would either scream or try to kill him. That is why he shifted his attention to the anime and now he is much more addicted to 2D girls rather than real women." It looks like I found a fellow man of culture... Sh*t, we got sidetracked. But I find it amusing since this was the first time I heard something on entities like them. I might have read them in the past but I really lacked the information and truth about them because usually, they are twisted fantasy and far from reality. Soon, we arrived on a treehouse that is built on a dead tree that seemed to be more stabilized than the other dead trees. It looks like a normal tree house and I don''t know why there is one here. Maybe it was made by Yuri and her brother although I am not sure if it was really made by them. "Nii-nii! I''m back! I think someone is able to bring us out of this sh*tty place after all!" As soon as Yuri shouted that, someone''s head appeared on the window as he peeked over us. When he saw Yuri with me, he retracted his head away from the window and opened the rickety door. And I was surprised to see this guy is indeed similar to Yuri. The only difference is that he is male. And instead of wearing only a boxer shorts to showcase his lustful appearance for girls, he is instead wearing a sailor moon printed shirt which is already pretty outdated. Maybe due to the fact that he can''t get out of this place anymore than he is maintaining that shirt alive. "A Japanese guy at long last? Yes!" he quickly goes giddy for some reason and I don''t know what is happening to him. There is one thing that I am confused about. Why are they so excited about seeing someone here? They were like, waiting for someone to come over them and take them out. "You two can''t go out on your own in this place?" I asked. Instead of Yuri, the voice on my phone explained it instead. "These guys are considered demonic that is why they can''t get out due to the seal being done in GATES to prevent the monsters from leaving and appearing into the world. Though they can''t go out on their own, they can get out once they get to have a connection or protection from other magicians." The incubus approached us as he flapped his wings and descended from the treehouse. Then, he noticed the contract seal on Yuri''s leg and he was surprised. "You already got him to make a contract with you as his familiar? Damn, I am so jealous, but the wait is short though. But I guess this is goodbye right, you were going to leave me here since you can now go outside and fetch your belongings right? I know I was an Otaku brother but please don''t forget to remember me alright? And also-" the incubus did not get to finish it when her sister pinches his cheeks. "Stop spouting nonsense brother! Who said I will leave you here alone? We are going outside of this sh*tplace together! I heard that he is a magician who can have multiple familiars! You don''t have to be here and serve the Orc King!" Yuri said. Orc King? I don''t think this was the whole story. I think I missed a lot of things here. "Care to explain this matter about the orc king you are talking to?" Before we can properly hold a conversation, the incubus''s tail suddenly straightened up. "Hey Yuri, it looks like those guys are back again." Chapter 39: Impending Arrival Huh? What do they mean "they are here?" I looked into the horizon but I can''t see a single individual. Since I can''t see anyone else except us, I activated my Mana Scan vision and I was baffled because not too far from our location is a horde of armored ogre and orcs. Also, they are bigger than the normal orcs and ogres Yuri and I defeated earlier. In short, they looked like they are an elite army. "Master? Did you see something?" "Are they launching an all-out attack after slaughtering their troops? These orcs and ogres are arriving here!" When the incubus heard this, his face turned grim and he looked enraged. "Looks like they are now launching an all-out attack huh? I guess this is it." Yuri quickly grabbed the incubus''s hands and pulled him, however, she saw that the incubus did not move an inch. He just stood there with a grim look on his face. This caused Yuri to panic. "Nii-nii! What are you doing?! We can''t stay here any longer! We need to get out of this place!" "No! They are getting cocky now. Just because they are the major powers here in this place, doesn''t mean they can order us around and do things for them! They are just a bunch of scums!" I frowned seeing this. It was like a conflict in humans minus the bloodshed. It looks like the oppressed people in this place are these two siblings. "Yuri? Why escape? You can kill many of them, right? We killed lots of orcs and ogres on the way here so why are we going to retreat?" "This is a different situation master. The orcs and ogres we defeated earlier are just a bunch of weaklings and the goons. They don''t pose much threat but with the elites coming, this will be a one-sided slaughter and I don''t want anyone to die because of them!" Indeed the orcs and ogres this time is strong and bigger than the usual enemies we defeated earlier. Though I have not seen anything special about them except for their size and their armors and weapons, they seemed to be domineering enough based on the 3D models in my Mana Scan. And if they are in a horde, these two would not last and will be slaughtered by these monsters. Fighting back is fine and all as long as it is a winnable battle but fighting back against sheer numbers will only bring more harm than good and it can be considered as foolishness. What Yuri is doing right now is wise. However... "I will not be going!" the incubus said as he resolutely prepared himself. "Go out there and live a happy life, Yuri. I will be stalling them here!" "Idiotic brother! Do not be a hero! This is no time to become one! You have a high chance of losing and dying!" "I already have enough of their oppression. I am not some pushover and I am not allowing them to do what they want. I am the man of the house, and I will make sure to protect our home!" This incubus is brave but I don''t think he is right either. Dying pointlessly in this situation is just too much. Although I am tempted to kill the incoming horde, it will be a bit too much. The original plan for me was to retreat but this time, the phone vibrated and I pulled it out. The Anonymous app booted up and it quickly joined into a voice channel. Before I can start responding, a message was sent to me in a voice form. "Kazuma, hey, this will be the first we will be the first time we are talking to each other right? I am Zacharias, one of the twelve councilors and the acting leader of the Tokyo branch. I heard from this phone that you have an impending battle against the orcs and ogres inside the instance GATE. I will be giving you this task, Kazuma. You see, that GATE you entered is dying. So to avoid the collapse and monsters falling out, I want you to clear this place out of monsters. Don''t worry, you won''t leave unrewarded. We can discuss the reward later after doing the job. Of course, you can ignore this message if you don''t want to do it or if you have already killed many of them. Do not reply to this message because this was just a voice message that I personally sent to you. It''s your decision." I pocketed my phone and slowly approached the two bickering siblings and stopped them. "Master?" Yuri looked at me in confusion. "We will be staying for a while. Although this is dangerous, I don''t think it is bad to stay back and fight. What your brother is fighting, then I will support it. No one can destroy anyone''s home without any purpose." "You..." the incubus looked at me with adoration. It was like he found out someone to follow from now on. "But master..." Yuri hesitated. "I will supply the mana you need and you should not hold back, is that alright with you?" "Yes!" Yuri said with an excited look on her face. Welp, that was quick. I may have said that staying behind is foolishness but this time, I had a motivation. I smell a business opportunity and if it was something that will end up as a beneficial thing for me, then I will not hesitate to do it! "I don''t know why you are so greedy for someone like you who knows nothing in the magician world," the voice sighed. "You just shut it up. As long as I can get benefits, then there is no such thing as a retreat!" The horde will take a little bit of time to get in here and from my guess, this would take at least a few more hours due to the terrain, which means we are in advantage but due to our limited number, I don''t think we can defend this place successfully. We are at a disadvantage if you compare the sheer number of those orcs and overwhelming us is easy as filling up water in a cup. The advantage in terrain won''t be of help if we will get overwhelmed. I''m troubled about what is going to happen in the future when Inari started talking in my mind. "You want some help master? I can summon my foxes to our disposal. And if you want to best the enemies that will be assaulting right now, form a contract with the incubus too." Chapter 40: The Kitsune Defense Force "You can do that?" I asked her. "Yes. They are my servants and I can deploy them for you. They have different abilities and they are good at combat since they have several centuries of training already. You can''t underestimate them." "Then, send me help that can counter these incoming horde of enemies. What should I do?" "You just need to sit back and relax master. It''s going to be easy anyway. Just wait for the big boss to appear and defeat the guy. From the looks of his frame, he is a dangerous individual. Killing him is a priority. I suggest you use the remaining power of your Skull Knuckles for the day. That would solve our problem with this enemy. It is also a chance to disrupt order to the enemies'' morale. Without the leader, they will go on panic mode and they will be easy to wipe out." I was surprised at what Inari said. She has better insight on the battle plan than me as I rubbed my chin. "Looks like you know lots of tactics in war." "I am a goddess who has seen countless wars and supported a few warriors in the past. It''s not a problem for me to give out simple war tactics for us to use in this situation. Why, do you find a flaw in it, master?" "Ha, actually, its a much better plan than what I am thinking about and I think we should stick with your plan then." In the distance, we can already hear the thud of footsteps done by the monsters approaching our location. Above us are vulture-like monsters that seemed to have no skin and feathers are flying and circling around which means that is one of their "eyes". Without any hesitation, I raise my index finger and focus the mana flow of the gloves in my hands to produce flames on the tip. And as expected, with the flexibility of the flames produced by the Burning Gloves, I managed to create a "bullet" flame on my fingertips. Controlling the flame like a projectile, I aimed at the flying bird that doesn''t look like a bird to me. Lock-on, ready, aim, fire! BOOM! I didn''t control the force of the "bullet''s" power and before I knew it, a strong recoil created a wave in the air as the "bullet" shot up straight to the air. Yuri and her brother were startled by the sound that they duck and covered their ears reflexively. Although I didn''t manage to control the power and trajectory of the flame, it didn''t fail me as the bird was immediately shot. The flames didn''t spare a single one of the bird and incinerated the bird to ashes. The two did not expect me to do that attack because I suddenly shot it without informing them. "What was that?" the incubus asked as he looked over the sky. "From the looks of it, they are already spying on us in the sky. Since we are much more on alert on the ground, we didn''t really pay attention to our surroundings. By destroying their eye on us, we can cut off a bit of their visibility on us." "I didn''t notice that the enemy is already spying on us. F*ck, those cunning bastards," the incubus groaned as he clenches his fist. "Do you have any plan, Master?" Yuri asked. "Of course but I need your brother to cooperate. He needs to sign a familiar contract with me so that we can pull this off." Before her brother can agree, Yuri pulled the arm of her brother and cut the blood on their thumb to bleed out and extract the blood of her brother. "Wha! What are you doing Yuri?!" "I am allowing you to form a contract with my master. With him as your master, your power will get real strong to defeat the enemies that are threatening us!" "But I heard that humans only can create a contract once in their life and they cannot form another one!" the succubus was hesitant. "Don''t worry! Master here might look like a dunce and delinquent guy but he is strong and can make us strong just by supplying us with mana! Also, he can create multiple contracts!" The incubus became confused and he waved his hands. "This is the first time I heard about this." "Of course! Master, form now the contract!" The incubus did not get to react when I bit my thumb and created the magic seal on the incubus''s forehead. "SEAL!" With a clap, the seal finalized and our connection immediately built up to our consciousness and the mana stream that allows us to transfer mana to each other. As soon as the seal was formed, Yuri jumps in joy but she quickly calmed down. "How are you feeling brother?" "It felt weird at first but it is now getting better. And I never expected someone can create a contract multiple times. However, is this really a good solution to fight off the orcs and ogres? Sure we might have received a power-up but that doesn''t mean that we have already the advantage. The enemies are still overwhelming in number! We are only three people and I bet that they are bringing their leader with them!" "Oh? Who said that we only have three guys? Inari, can I call out the servants of yours?" I asked. "Sure Master!" Inari said in my consciousness before doing something. In just a few seconds, countless magic circles appeared out of the ground and many foxes started to materialize out. One of the foxes that have a scarf-like fur on his neck approached me and started speaking. " I am Kon! One of the kitsune leaders of the Kitsune defense force that serves as servants of Lady Kitsune! Since you are the master, we are under your command!" Chapter 41: That is my Order! I was stunned by these fox army. They call themselves the Kitsune defense force and I thought that they would be menacing foxes like Kurama in Naruto. But instead of the usual orange-colored furs, they manifest the white color fur that is as white as a snow. And just by watching them makes you melt. "SO CUTE..." even Yuri and the incubus seemed to be captivated from the sight of the fox. The others gathered around us and Kon the little commander fox started giving out commands. "Attention! This man is the master of our master! Since he is the master of Inari-sama, he is also our master. We cannot disobey his command at all cost!" "Roger! We pay respect to our senior master! We are glad to serve you in this battle." "Damn, they are adorable, aren''t they, Kazuma?" the voice of the app said. "Can''t deny that." After that, I commanded the foxes to take the form of defense and patrol the surroundings for any kind of enemy. And I was surprised by their ability to do their job well. When I ordered them to patrol, they didn''t just patrol, they even bring the loot from the enemies. One of the foxes carried a sack full of mana shards, and some elemental shards that vary from dark, water, fire, electric and air elements. "Uh...its not five minutes yet since I deployed you in patrol but you all have managed to get lots of loot? Even I can''t gather this much! Just how did you all manage to do this?!" Kon approached and started explaining. "We Kitsunes has the ability to gather loot efficiently from enemies. Humans know us as an expert in grabbing items and stealing but in reality, we use that ability to grab the belongings of the enemies and present it to our master. And since we are inside the GATES, why not use this opportunity to gather them? Are you angry about this matter, master?" I quickly shook my head. "No, please continue." ... After a few minutes of patrol, all of the foxes returned with the loot and the piece of news that I am waiting for. "Master, we have seen in the distance around the north and in the west a few cavalries of orcs and ogres. While on the east and south are the long-range enemies like archer kobolds. What are the plans master?" "Finally, the battle is on. On which side does the strongest of them are positioned at the moment?" "Reporting! He seems to be positioned on the north side of the horde. And we confirmed that he is just a bit stronger than you but defeating him is not impossible in one. If you are good at fighting, you will stand a chance if you find his weakness and beat the sh*t out of him," Kon said. "Alright, Yuri, call your brother. We want to discuss his role in this situation especially he is the one who put us in this situation." Yuri nodded and called her brother. Her brother quickly appeared but I never expected him to be wearing an SDF uniform and has an AR15 gun on his hands. Upon closer look, the AR15 is just a pellet gun... "Sir! Reporting for duty s-OW!" Yuri smacked his head and gritted her teeth as she started to scold him. "Nii-nii! What the hell is that outfit?! Are you trying to be a soldier in this place and what''s with the gun? That gun is a pellet gun and can barely hurt any monsters here so why are you carrying it?!" "We are going to war! So I have to get geared up in preparation!" "WAR MY ASS! You are an incubus for f*cking sake! Why are you using a gun? You are a magic entity and you already have the power to dominate after getting a contract with our master and here you are using those things for battle? Don''t push your otaku culture here! We will die if you did that!" This matter will keep going on and we will reach nowhere if they keep on fighting so I have to intervene. "Alright, alright. Stop bickering now. We have no time for that, Yuri, you let him do what he wants as long as he starts fighting properly. Anyways, I need to know his name, I never asked for his name even though I have already contracted him. I can''t keep on calling him as "hey" and "you." "Ah! How come I did not even introduce myself! My name is Yuto! I am an-" I quickly cut off him from his speech to avoid wasting time. "Alright Yuto. I need your attention. You are an incubus. So that means your ability to seduce women. What are your thoughts about seducing men?" When Yuto heard that, he quickly spat out saliva and looked at me with disgust. "Master, I may be similar to my sister but I don''t swing that way. I am not gay and I only hit on women, not on men for effing sake. Just by the thought of seducing men makes me feel really bad and I don''t think I would do that. I might be an otaku, but I don''t read Yaoi and boys love manga!" "I know, I am just asking if you are okay with that... Anyways, since the Charm magic is not going to be of use this time around, I will place you in the frontline along with the kitsunes and use your mind hack skill to disrupt order and control enemies. Your role is very important here to battle the enemies. If you did good in the battle, I will buy a few of the anime merchandise and a few manga volumes after this. What do you think?" "Master sure is kind! I will do my best! For anime! For the culture!" I may be an otaku but I don''t have an excessive behavior like him...oh well. After that, I faced Yuri. "Yuri, I know you have a destructive power once I supply you with mana but this time, your job is to charm all attackers. Your ability is just too strong against the enemies, human or nonhuman so that will be your primary job." "Roger. Charming enemies will be my job this time! As long as the mana is supplied to me, I will do my best!" I nodded and looked at the Kitsunes. "Kon, you and your squad will fight alongside with me, protect Yuri and Yuto from the enemies as they are much vulnerable by enemies who are long-ranged and aware of their abilities. Of course, the remaining will go full assault against the enemies." Kon and the others nodded and stood up. "We are ready anytime!" "And lastly, I order everyone to not get killed in this battle. Do not die! And that is my order!" Chapter 42: The Chaos Battle Part 1 Darkness loomed over the place as thuds and groans of hundreds of ogres and orcs march down the dead soil that is tainted with darkness. Wielding their heavy weapons, they did not care about what would happen to them and any monster that seems too weak for them would be squashed to death. Many of the other creatures living around here were fleeing just by the sight of them. Meanwhile, on our side, we lie in wait on the trenches made by the foxes and the siblings for us to use as camouflage in a grassless land. If there were any grass, it would be easier to hide on them. One of the foxes has a clairvoyance ability and one has projection magic that allows us to see what was happening on the surface while lying in wait for the perfect opportunity for ambush. "As per what we discussed, we need to follow them and if the enemy is too much to handle, fall back and don''t deal with it alone. Remember to defeat enemies as safely as you can. Do not act as a tank since all of us has no defense that can withstand them without dying. Do you all understand me?" The fox nodded in unison. Kon proudly presents himself as he swipes the fur on his neck like a scarf and grinned. "There is no way we could lose to these kinds of enemies!" I know that they are small but they cannot be underestimated. I saw it myself earlier when we dig the trench, we uncovered skeletons in there and before I can even react, the foxes had already dealt the damage and obliterated the skeleton with blue flames that I presumed as the fox fires. I bet Inari''s foxfire is much more dangerous. "Inari is a Kyuubi and she was also treated as a deity. Just having those two traits makes her a very dangerous enemy in the enemies'' eyes. And to add that danger factor, she has the power to deploy a bunch of Kitsunes who has the power of four to six tails. So you should be thankful that you managed to summon her," the voice on the app said. "Ara~ you are flattering me, oh great voice of the app. I am just a simple goddess who watches and supports the humans that maintain the balance of the world. I am not just here due to the binding of the contract. My master is someone with a good heart so why would I retaliate on becoming a familiar of him?" "Woah there, you think highly of this guy? He looks like a pervert," the voice said. "One more strike and you are dead," I answered the phone. "You can try. I am the great soul of the app, you can''t kill me." "Sooner or later I will find your weakness, just you wait..." ... When the orcs and ogres are now near our vicinity, I signaled all of the foxes to cast fox fires. Yuri and Yuto also started focusing to control one of the guys to start the chaos. In the projection, I saw that one of the ogres with a big hammer on his hands suddenly hold his head. One of the ogres looked at him but disregarded him before it continues to march down. Then, Yuto quickly got serious. "Master, I managed to control one ogre. Should I start the chaos now on their ranks?" "Make the plan work," I nodded and gave the signal to him. Yuto quickly controlled the ogre and without warning, the ogre that Yuto managed to control began its rampage. With a swing, the nearby orcs who didn''t expect the club to swing on them did not get to dodge in time. Since orcs are much smaller in build than the ogres and the weapons that ogres wield is much bigger and more lethal, when the swing was made, all that got struck on the club were all killed since the ogre''s club has big spikes that if someone is hit will never be able to see the sun again. And with that, marks the chaos. As soon as the orcs and ogres started to get panicked, I signaled everyone to shoot out the foxfire and use this opportunity to instill more chaos to their ranks. "FIRE!" BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Explosions started to occur in different areas, killing enemies one by one. The enemies didn''t know where the attacks came from due to the chaos around the place. What is more, many orcs and ogres started to rampage all around the place, killing their comrades one by one. Yuri did charm a few enemies allowing the control easier for Yuto to do. The foxes just continue to bombard the demons with flames and almost half of the horde were killed. I saw a few messengers which are for informing the other flank the news. I never wanted our plan to get ruined so before they are out of my sight, I shot them with flames just like earlier and killed them. Just as that occurred the orcs and ogres were suffering severe casualties. In the clairvoyance, I can see that the ogre leader seems to be not in the mood of the chaos in his army. Yuri and Yuto continue to control the enemies without stopping and the orcs and ogres started to die one by one. Just like the popular culture of novels and anime, these monsters are meant as fodder to make people stronger. I just waited for the enemies to die one by one because I need to strike the boss when suddenly, the whole place started to shook. And before I knew it, I saw a huge frame of ogre appeared and started to wipe out the mind-controlled ogre and orcs. "Ha, it looks like the big boss is here. And he is f*cking huge..." I said as I stare at the Ogre that is started to kill the controlled enemies. "Then why are you shaking?" the voice said. "Because I am afraid! That was a f*cking Godzilla sized monster! Do you think I can kill that sh*tty monster?!" . Chapter 43: The Chaos Battle Part 2 Even though I was a magician, a monster that size is already too much for me. I would be a fool if I directly confront it. I am just going to rush to my death if I attack that monster right away! But if I want to survive the ordeal, I just needed to kill the monstrous ogre. And besides, I still have my trump card which is going to allow me to break any monsters in contact with my Skull Knuckle to pieces. But still, I may be a battle junkie but I don''t plan to die just for a ridiculous dash. The Foxes continue the assault without any falter. They did not care about the ogre doing its rampage, they only care to annihilate the smaller monsters. Yuri and Yuto also tried their best. Although they are spitting blood due to the sudden cut off of magic from the controlled monsters, they still continue to prevail. "Hey, if I fight that monster one on one, will I survive?" I asked the voice on the phone. "No idea. I am just an observer in this phone and I am just the voice of the app, I am not your system," the voice answered. "Figures. You are unreliable." In my calculation, there is a big chance that I won''t be able to survive against the enemy. With my current mastery in magic and my lame ass fighting style at the moment, I could be running to a suicide mission which is what I am trying to avoid at all costs. Then again, I still have some hidden strike left on my brass knuckles. I am happy to use the remaining chance but the thought of another bigger monster appearing after killing the monster scares me. "Master, don''t worry. That monster might be humongous in size but that is that it still has the same brain an ogre has. It only gained the size due to the help of his followers who treat him like a god and getting enough belief to get stronger," Inari''s voice boomed inside my head. "Belief?" "Yes. Just like me, due to the widespread belief, I got due to my status as one of the gods, I managed to become strong and powerful. That also applies to the ogre right now." I see, so that strength was just something a normal ogre possess and his size was influenced by the belief that was established just for him? This is a pain. But I am quite relieved that that was the only case with the ogre. If this ogre is stupid, why would I be afraid? And besides, my trusty instinct that acts as my spider-sense which I got from your friendly neighborhood. Anyways, if this was the case, then why not confront it? I grinned on the possibility, that monster is big so if I kill that guy, then that means a bigger loot. Without wasting time, I look at everyone and catch their attention. "Guys. I think it is time to prepare for the battle. I don''t want you guys to be in danger this time so I will be the one to go in alone. See that big *ss one? I will be taking that guy on. As for you guys, support my back and attack alright?" "Master, this is too dangerous! And besides, you don''t have the bad blood against the ogres. It was me and my sister who has trouble with them! You shouldn''t involve yourself in this one! I will go instead!" Yuto said but I quickly used my authority as their master to stop them from what they want to do. "This is an order and you cannot disobey it. I am the one who will be going. You all should be the support!" Yuri did not say anything. She seemed to be ready already on what I was about to do. Only Yuto is trying to stop me from going. Kon quickly saluted using his paws. "Come back, safe master! May you survive the ordeal!" I rubbed Kon''s fur and nodded. I tapped on Yuto and pat Yuri''s head. "Don''t worry guys, this is just going to take a little bit of time. But I will be back." ... Climbing out of the trench, I sneak around the area on the rocks. With all the chaos around, they didn''t notice my presence yet. As soon as I get myself in position, I activated the magic in my Blazing Shoes and uses the burst to push myself towards the horde of orcs and ogres. POW~ My body darted like a thrown javelin. I passed by countless orcs and ogres. Throwing the flames in my hands that was conjured from my Burning Gloves, I was killing monsters while I was heading to the target. As soon as the propulsion that was the result of the Blazing Shoes'' explosive force slows down, I land into the ground and continue to run and continue heading to the orc. Traversing the mountain of corpses, I made sure to kill enemies in sight. The orcs and ogres were very weak with the flames so I didn''t bother putting too much strength. My main target is the Ogre who is towering enough that I can see him plainly in the field. Equipping the Skull Knuckles, I squinted my eyes and focused them on the big *ss ogre. I disregarded all of the other monsters in the vicinity and made sure that my aim is locked on towards the demon. I know that hitting the ogre will only be killing it in a single strike. But what made it hard are the ogres and orcs that periodically try to stall me from advancing. They would use their weapons by swinging it and sometimes, I got almost bludgeoned by them. Luckily, my reflexes are good enough to get out of the attack. Although some arrows and some spears managed to graze my skin, they are not enough to stop me from running towards the boss. And as soon as I get near the feet of the ogre, I swing my hands, focused all my force in my fists, and release it to the feet of the boss. And as expected, the ogre is very slow and did not even get to react. I shouldn''t have felt afraid of this guy. He was just big in size but he lacks the power to even do the job. In the end, he exploded to pieces after getting hit by the Skull Knuckle. As soon as the flesh of the giant ogre died, all of the orcs and ogres were in a panic, allowing the others to finish the job. And the anticlimactic ending battle ended just like that. As for the hordes of ogres and orcs in other sides of the area, they heard the death of the leader and were wise enough to fall back. The battle ended easily. Although it lacked a bit of action, I am still happy, because its time to loot the treasures. I am just disappointed by the lack of action though. [ol][li data-annotation-id="93540216-d73a-ee73-0833-5135453a6fe0"]referencing to Spider Man[/ol] Chapter 44: Info Change All of the bodies of the ogres and orcs were burned to a crisp when I released a fireball on the mound of monster carcass. Since the flames of my gloves can burn anything too crisp, it was pretty ideal for disposing of all the bodies of the monsters. Though these flames can burn, not all of the things that the flames touch disintegrate into ashes, for example, the shards that the monsters drop. Although the bones and flesh of the monsters are not spared by the flames and will either get burned to ashes or charred beyond recognition, the shards do not burn. It was somewhat immune to the flames because they don''t burn at all which is very different when I tested the flames on the rock. Getting this info, it is easier to dig out all of the shards from their bodies. With Yuri using telekinesis to control the shards to gather towards her, it was easily formed into orbs which I really need. After all of those things gathered, I gathered everyone including the Kitsunes. After a total headcount, I found out that we didn''t get a single casualty at all. It was quite a miracle after all the chaos that happened and we all dealt with the problem by assaulting the enemies while hiding on a trench even though I know this won''t work in an actual military war. "Looks like we survived everything without anyone dying in our side. Good Job everyone. Since everyone contributed, we will now discuss how we split the profit. All we have here are orbs of mana and other orbs of element that allows us to get stronger if they are consumed. If anyone is willing to say they want some, I will gladly-" Before I can finish, Yuri stopped me and quickly said what she wanted. "Supply mana for me and my brother!" "AH?" Before I can respond, the kitsunes also bowed and Kon is the one who said what they wanted as a whole. "Master, although that was a generous offer, we will decline because Inari-sama said she will pamper us once we get back. For us, that was a better reward than shards. Please keep it for yourself master." Yuto also said what he wanted too. "I want the latest mangas at the moment, Master! I also wanted to watch anime! Can you please take me out of this place?" ... And due to that, I ended up with every loot in my dimensional bag. Because I hunted a lot, I am going back to the entrance of the gate. With the power of the contract, I recalled Yuri and Yuto which allowed them to become ethereal at the moment so that they can also get out of the GATES. The kitsunes also returned to their dimension to receive the pampering of Inari which should be head patting and fur grooming from what they said. Pulling out the exit ticket from my pocket which I purchased from the magic store. As soon as the Exit ticket was torn to two, the surroundings blur like they are morphing into something. Then, when I blink my eyes, I returned to the starting point where I entered the GATES. It didn''t feel like I was gone for how many days in the real world. Maybe because this place has no sense of time. I am just monitoring how long I was in here via the date on my phone. From what I can see on my phone, it was currently 5 in the afternoon there. I have a risk of being found out if I go outside the GATES during this time. It would be safer if I go outside once the place is no longer daytime and should be nighttime already. To pass the time, I pulled out different kinds of orbs that managed to form after collecting their shards. They kind of look like marble to me instead which I didn''t expect because the shards are big. They were actually small and they can be easily swallowed if you want to eat one. (Mana Orb) Description: An item that was formed by collecting 100 mana shards. Once it is formed, it is safe for consumption that will allow you to increase your mana capacity and mana recovery randomly. I never checked it earlier but now that I am certain that this can allow me to raise my mana, I am delighted. I have a very small amount of mana and I am limited to use in magic due to the lack. But the fact that this orb can only give me a random amount of increment, makes me want to sigh in disappointment. There will be a chance that I gather a lot of them and I only get to raise my capacity in the minimum. This is something I am not too good with. Though I shouldn''t be too greedy. After the mana orb, I checked the other orbs as well. There are different of them and most of them are associated with magic elements like this red orb which is called Flame Orb. (Flame Orb) Description: An item that is formed by collecting 100 flame shards. Once it is formed, it will be available for consumption which allows the consumer to raise their affinity and compatibility of the magic. A slight amount of mastery will also be earned. The amount raised will be random. As expected, this Flame Orb is similar to the Mana Orb. It also allows the user to increase the affinity and compatibility of the user to the magic. Then I remembered that first scan when I got this phone. There was an affinity of mine in there is there? I quickly opened the phone and checked what I remembered my affinity was. Name: Kazuma Fukuyama Age: 18 Gender: Male Species: Human Rank: Tier 0 Magician Apprentice Spells: Pathfinding Magic: Mana Scan(Tier 1) Space Magic: Mirror World (Tier 1) Wind Magic: Freezing Wind (Tier 1) Parents: Deceased Residency: Tokyo, Shibuya: Residential Area Job: Student (Magician) Affinity: All Alignment: Neutral-Chaotic Faction: Japan Notes: Has a black hair, brownish-red eyes, thin lips and well-proportioned nose(Normal Average Looking Face) Healthy Built Body Knows slight hand to hand combat Acts normally Introvert Computer savvy Closet Pervert I frowned on the new info on my phone. If I remember clearly, I have no notes that I am a Closet Pervert, when did I even get this trait? Although I am pissed a bit, I''m impressed by the division groupings of my magic skills. Now that I see it, I have learned Freezing Wind, right? I didn''t get to use it in the battle. I almost forgot about it if I didn''t check my phone. There are some changes in my panel too which is the job and my alignment. If I remember correctly, I was a Neutral alignment but now I am in Neutral-Chaotic. I wonder why I have the alignment like this? Did I do something that caused me to change? Also, besides the Student job, I also got the Magician inside the parenthesis. From the looks of it, my data updates. I checked the Affinity and it was labeled ALL. I don''t know what it really means because I may be able to get all affinity but not some affinities like non-element ones. It was quite vague. I tried clicking it and I found out that there is an extra page I did not see the last time. Affinity status: ALL Description: Ability to learn all kinds of magic in the world. The only thing is that you can''t gain a good enough mastery of magic like those magicians who have the normal affinity of one or two elements. I see. So it was like that, I may be able to learn all skills and magic, I will be having trouble mastering one magic which is what is needed in the battles. This can be said as a nerf for my ability. Chapter 45: Im Back Motherf*ckers! Waiting for a few more hours, it finally turned into nighttime in the real world. I took out my phone and made a selfie before I decided to post it on the chat group even though it was the first time I would be posting in there. After that, I stretched around before I exit the GATES. Around a few seconds later, my surroundings returned to normal. The surroundings turned from the hellish looking place to a peaceful shrine. No one would think that I came from a very hellish place in this shrine. They might think I am a heretic instead. Composing myself a while, I connect my consciousness to my new familiars. "Are you two still in there?''" "Yes, master. We are ready to be summoned anytime," Yuri said. "It''s a bit comfortable but I want to go back outside again though," Yuto chimed in. "I see. But please wait a bit. I will return home and resummoned the two of you in there." "Okay!" the two chimed. Checking everything is fine, I head back home. Streets are still filled with people because it''s not that late yet but around the shrine, people are too rare at night due to the location a bit secluded to the busy places. Therefore, not a single person pass here once night falls. "I never knew that Tokyo has places like this that is a bit scary at night," I murmured to myself. "There are plenty of places in Tokyo that can be scary and secluded to others just like this, but without this place, you won''t have a place to hunt Malices to increase your affinity with your magic," the voice in the phone said. "Eh? There are GATES to use isn''t it?" "Oh, it looks like you didn''t know it yet. Once GATES is used, it can''t be used by the same person who entered and exited it for a month. Since you used the gates located in the shrine, you won''t be able to use it for the time being. And it is the closest one in here so I guess you won''t be entering one for the time being any time soon." "I won''t be entering for a while because I still have a trouble that I want to clear up yet." "Do you mean that conflict that includes you? You want to stop that?" "Of course, why wouldn''t I?" "Well, you are a closet pervert so I thought you are a bit proud of it." "F*ck you, I am not. Save the sentiments somewhere else, I don''t need it." ... The streets were quiet and there is no incident that caused me to get in trouble which is a good thing, allowing me to return home safely. "Ah, it''s nice to be home again," the voice in the phone said. "This is my house, and besides, you are on the phone, how the heck are you going to be comfortable here? That sounds complicated to me." "Eheheheeheh..." I feel a bit hungry. Now that I think about it, I didn''t eat much when I was inside the GATES. "You just noticed it? I never expected you to be this slow, Kazuma. You see, if you are inside the GATES, your metabolism is slow and functions differently than in the real world. Your breakfast would digest for at least 2 days in there. Since you ate a bit in there, you didn''t feel a bit hungry and I thought you are able to notice it. I guess you are stupid." "Tch, you are such a drag and I am not someone who would notice such a change. And besides, I am attacking monsters left and right, who would remember to eat if your life is at stake? I would rather miss a single meal than die horribly due to the monsters." "Yeah, yeah. I don''t care." "One of these days, I will throw you into the river." "Ha, I am the great soul of the app, you can''t defeat me!" "Pfft, whatever." I didn''t bother much the phone babbling on his own. I summoned Yuto and Yuri out after I put my bag on the sofa. "Yuri, Yuto, I summoned thee." Two magic circles appeared and materializing Yuri and Yuto. "Ah yes! Freedom at last!" Yuri jumped up and down as she celebrated that she is out of the hellish place. "I love the real world. Who would have thought I would be able to return here after for so long..." Yuto said. "Welcome, both of you," I said. "We are really grateful for this master! I never expected us to get out but you helped us out which is already something else for us!" Yuri said as she hugged my left arm. She purposely rubbed her breasts to me. Before I can get a boner, I pushed her lightly away from me. I glared at Yuto and made sure that he won''t cling to me and rub his *ahem* on me. Good thing Yuto is the one who goes to look at the disgust on me. "Master, I am straight and I don''t swing on boys." As expected from an Incubus. Of course, I made sure that the two of them are restrained. I gave Yuri some of the clothes that my mother has in the closet while I gave Yuto the clothes that my father has. Yuto is a bit around my father''s height which is perfect because those clothes of father are something that won''t fit in me. I made sure they wear it or else they would think wearing something like a slutty figure would make my neighbors suspicious. One good thing. Although they are creatures of lust, they eat normal food beside the sexual desire. Of course, Yuri wanted to consume my mana but I stopped her doing that. Also, I gave them spare rooms that they can use and since this house has so many vacant rooms with free beds to use, I didn''t have a problem allowing accommodation for them. They still act like children in middle school though so they are easy to sway. However, I don''t need to sway them just to sleep. They can sleep on their own and maybe because they are tired, they quickly slept like a log. Meanwhile, I stayed in my room and started eating the mana orbs and elemental orbs and starts digesting it. According to the chat group, you will eat it like a gummy bear since they can change texture once they are eaten in your mouth. I have digested at least 5 of the Mana Orbs and 1 Elemental orb of each element, flame, water, earth, wind, dark, light, and electric. However, I just don''t feel anything when they are consumed. I just find the orbs similar to gummies, but nothing more. "That was a strange reaction. I didn''t expect that you won''t feel anything after eating all of them. Oh well, I guess you are somewhat a special incident," the voice said. "Strange?" "Yeah. Magicians eating mana orbs would feel in euphoria once they ingested the orbs while they feel pain once they ingested the elemental orbs. But you didn''t feel anything which makes me frown. Why are you not affected?" "Don''t ask me. I have no idea either." The night passed by with the voice wondering why nothing happened to me. The next day, the students in the hallways once again started to get crowded when they saw me again. "Hey, I thought he already transferred?" "No, he is still here. I don''t know but I guess it is to cool off the rumors I guess?" "But that won''t easily fade!" "I know that is why I never expected him to appear here all of a sudden." Oh? So the rumors are still here? And they thought I transferred to another school? What a joke. That is something that other students who can''t take the bullying they receive will do. And that is something I won''t do. Since the rumors are still trying to pick hard on me, I won''t be taking this for granted, I will strike back. As soon as I arrive in front of my classroom, after making sure that there are no teachers inside the room yet, I opened the sliding door and I greeted with a smile on the others who were stunned by my gracious arrival. The look on their faces was so precious that it would be too funny to see them look in a photo. It was like they have seen a very surprising thing. They were too shocked that I can see a few of them have their things fall on the ground and one even has his saliva fell into his table. I thought something about what will I say, and I think I have something to say to them. Some sort of sentence that can make their jaw drop and etched on their mind for quite some time. And I think I have a great idea. "Good Morning guys! I am back Motherf*ckers!" Chapter 46: Humiliation Some of my classmates started gritting their teeth. They never expected that I would blurt out something vulgar like that. Godou chuckled secretly on his seat and his friends are all grinning. Moonlight was...yeah, she is sleeping so let''s skip her. Anyways, everyone except those who knew me was all pissed like they want to shred me to pieces. I really wanted to activate Mirror World and beat them up to make sure they will shut up from all their antics but no, beating them up even though they are not doing anything from me is just savagery and bullying. If I do that, I am just the same as those guys trying to bully someone and I don''t want to say that bullying is good. "You shameless bastard, you think you are so high and mighty to do that? You are just one pervert who is nothing but a disgrace and someone who doesn''t deserve respect!" I look towards the person speaking with such anger towards me and I was surprised that the person speaking is none other than the girl I saved before from the demon who was about to eat her during that time. The school belle. "Oh...and you are speaking now! I thought you were just going to keep on gritting your teeth like an idiot. But damn, you speak like a brute. You should calm yourself and speak softly or you will grow a beard when you grow older. Do you want that to happen?" The whole class was silent and I can see that the school belle is fuming in anger. She approaches me with her heels tapping on the floor with TAP TAP TAP sound while crossing her arms. "Do you know who I am?!" she pointed at me. "NO." After hearing that, everyone started to murmur to each other like they have seen someone who is so ignorant. The school belle, on the other hand, is shaking in anger. I don''t know what is going on in her head. "Are you joking? You even molested me and you don''t know?" she said as she emphasizes her chest by using her crossed arms. But who cares about her chest? They are just too big and they are not pleasant to my eyes. "You? Molest? Ha! In your dreams. Although your chest is big, they are not on par on my references and I believe in the saying "flat is justice" so why would I bother to fondle yours? I am not even sure if those are artificial. Not to be rude but maybe those are just paddings that is why I am not interested." When I said that, she might have overloaded her fuse that she burst out in anger. "You think this is just padding?! Then let me show you that they are real!" She didn''t hesitate to unbutton her shirt in a short span of time and flash her chest that is wearing a pink bra. But before those mounds flashed in my eyes, I already moved away from her sight and move to my seat. I tapped her shoulder and said, "Teacher is here, you should get dressed properly if you don''t want the teacher find out you are slutty." The school belle started getting red and quickly covers her chest as she returned back to her seat. The homeroom teacher also opened the door but she was fortunate that she didn''t do that in front of our teacher or else, she might be labeled as a pervert or something. I relaxed on my seat as I look into her direction where she is glaring at me like she wanted to give me a stab and if staring can kill, I might be dead right now. "That was savage Kazuma. You are sure you are not interested in someone with that kind of jugs? Most of the boys prefer big racks rather than flat boards." "I am not a fan of them and I am not a pervert. So that was it. And besides, I don''t think those breasts can help me with my magic skills so why bother looking?" "..." Godou can only facepalm as he shook his head in disappointment. Moonlight raised her head and sit straight before she greeted me. "Morning, you are back now huh. I saw your post in the chat group and many of the other magicians were amazed that you entered a GATE all by yourself as Godou confirmed it." "Oh, I didn''t check it after posting the photo on the chat group. Why is it a big deal anyway? The place is not that dangerous as it seemed to be." Moonlight did not respond and she lazily leaned on her seat while the teacher is a roll call. I don''t really know what is the deal of these people. Even the magicians are weird. But I guess I am also weird right? I don''t know myself. "Fukuyama!" the teacher called my name for the attendance. "Oh, here!" ... The school belle, also known by the name Ayazawa Miyako did not expect to get a treatment like that from the person she made sure to have the lowest reputation at school. She has thought that she would be able to humiliate a person with that method as she has done that multiple times from other people which caused them to submit to her wills and whatever she wanted. Who would have thought that the person she tried to do it with did not even take care of whether his reputation is rotten or not? She even ordered some of her muscle men followers who are trying to be her suitor to her that if they managed to get the boy in question to submit to her, she will get her plan done. Who would have thought that the person she meant to capture managed to escape and blindspot the guards she deployed. What she did is to release a few rumors like the photos of her and him who is unconscious and tweak the story that she tried to molest her. Again, it backfired and she didn''t like the result. But all the students were on her side so she was not entirely disappointed. She thought that with the people''s power, they would be able to humiliate him and she can see him with his despairing look like she did on a few of her suitors who ended up transferring to another school. But all of those are nothing for the guy. He confronted the guys who are my suitors from ganging up on him and they did not even get to react much. After a few days from the chaos of his rumors, he decided to stop going. She thought that the guy transferred to another school already but when she tried to use the information on what school he transferred, she found out that he asked for some sort of competition and he won''t be back for a few days. Now that the guy is back, she never expected that she would be this humiliated in public. She pulled out her phone and dialed her thug boyfriend who is the 4th year in that school. "Sup babe?" "I want you to get this guy named Kazuma Fukuyama. Make sure he won''t be able to go back to school tomorrow." Chapter 47: Very Elaborate Plan When class ended, I sighed in relief from all the burdens in classes. I just hoped that the classes are not so boring. There is no demon-hunting this time around so I don''t need to go and do a magic battle for once. Also, the campus belle seemed to stop harassing me after humiliating her in front of the class. I bet that she is in the workings right now to stop the rumor of her flashing her chest in the public from spreading. I am not someone who cared about the rumors and someone who wanted to spread one for the harm of others. Even though they purposely did spread rumors to harm my reputation, I don''t really care about it. I mean, what''s the point. I am packing my things to my bag when the class belle approached and glared at me. "What are you looking at?" I asked her. "Just you wait. You will be humiliated. If you want to clear your name, then come to the gymnasium this afternoon. Someone will teach you a lesson that you won''t forget," she said before she left with her gals. A spoiled brat like her has lots of connections and from the looks of it, she has contacted someone who will teach a lesson to me. If that was the case, I think I need to get serious myself. "You should stop wasting your time monologuing by yourself. Just go and find some good spells that you can use to enhance your hand to hand combat. That way, you won''t suck like a sore loser," the voice on the phone started talking. "And do you think I can find magic like they are just normal goods? I don''t think I can purchase them or learn them in books easily." "Have you forgotten the Magic Spells channel in the chat group? Don''t be a dumbass and remember some sh*t, it would help your *ss get saved in times of danger. Besides, it''s free. You also have the uncanny ability to learn most of the elements existing so why not get one?" That''s when I remembered that there was a channel indeed for magic only. Why did I forget that? "You were useful sometimes, I guess. But mostly useless at most though," I said. "Hmph, just admit that I am a great gal to have with. I am like your portable girlfriend that can scold or remind you of many things that you are careless about. Da~rling~" "Shut up, it''s so cringey and I would choose a 3d gal than someone like you that I can only hear the voice," I said. "That is your fault. I can materialize myself if you are a bit stronger. Get stronger and I am sure that you will like me when I get my body~" "Alright, alright, shut it now, I have to prepare for the incoming danger. Show me the magic that I can use." "So rude," she said before the screen of the phone redirected me to the spells. "I suggest that you get body enhancement magic since they don''t show publicly on other people which is much safer to use so that normal people won''t know that you used magic." Enhancement magic is one of those variety of magic that doesn''t have much effect by itself. They are like a buff to enhance your attack power or enhance your basic movements. They are useful if you wanted to strengthen your magic, your attack power or your defense depending on the situation and they can be the only magic that can save you from a predicament. I browsed into the magic enhancement skills and I found two magic skills that seem to be a useful addition in hand to hand combats. They are Strength Amplifier and Agility Booster. Clicking the magic Strength Amplifier, the method on how to learn the magic appeared before me. It was pretty straightforward too so I didn''t find any problem in learning it. And who would have thought that I can just learn it without any kind of preparation? Did I get into stimulants to do this? ... I didn''t go home just yet. If they are planning to beat me up and humiliate me further, the gymnasium thing is something they are planning for me to step in so that they can lure me into their schemes. But they are underestimating me. I am not an idiot who would purposely enter a building they are preparing. "Mana Scan." Do they think they are geniuses? Then I can counter their genius minds with my own since I am a brilliant guy that can come up with strategies all by myself. When the 3D Model of the surroundings appeared, I immediately see what they were planning out which is pretty elaborate. If I was careless, I would have fallen victim to their plot. "Let''s try this now." I made sure to follow the path to the gymnasium normally. Although they have managed to lay a trap for me, I made sure they won''t be suspicious on it. As soon as I passed by the corner, I already expected the upcoming attack and when that guy who is stationed there to proceed on the trap to beat me, so before he can even proceed to hit me with a bat, I dodge his attack and proceeds to punch his abdomen repeatedly. This caught the attacking guy unprepared so before he can harden his abdomen to hold for the attack, pain rained down on his system and he passed out. All of the traps were so straightforward and since they are too easy to counter, I arrived in the Gymnasium unscathed. At the entrance, I saw the campus belle grinning for my arrival. However, she frowned when she saw me fine. Despite that, she didn''t say anything regarding that and she acts composed instead. "So you have come. I guess you weren''t a coward after all," she said as she led me inside the gymnasium. Inside the gymnasium is a group of people standing there and I can see that they are gym buffed guys. A few of them are wearing a Karategiwhich means they are either experts in karate or they are just wearing one for the sake of intimidation. "You must be Kazuma. I guess you are trying to court death after even meeting all my grunts," a guy with the most buffed body appeared before me. From the looks like it, he is the leader of the group. "Courting? No, no, we are acquaintances but I don''t plan to court her. Maybe you are the one? Also, those guys who are trying to prank me? No worries, I already pranked them so they won''t be able to get up for a while." [ol][li data-annotation-id="30e8f166-19b6-de80-2431-e6876b2423ae"]is the formal Japanese name for the traditional uniform used for Karate practice and competition[/ol] Chapter 48: She is a Campus B*tch The guy''s eyebrow twitched when he heard the backfire of his comment. "You are indeed one cocky brat, I commend you for that, but that is something I really despise the most." "Oh, really? I didn''t know and I didn''t care. If that was it, then let me go home, I still need to watch anime- whoa there..." I was just talking when he started punching me all of a sudden, good thing I activated Agility Booster beforehand or else I would have been punched straight to the face. "Looks like you are not some small shot guy either," he said as he swings his fist right up to me. Due to the effect of Agility Booster, my movements and my reaction time are much faster compared to the normal reaction time. Being surprised by a punch is not something I like to happen to me. Since his fist is still stretched out, I grab his arm and activated Strength Amplifier before I pulled him to my hip, sweep his feet, and pulling him down to the ground. I managed to know the Judo move easily in the past and since I mastered it for countering their punches, they are always effective. "I am not someone who goes submissive for an alpha male like you. And it''s not my style to let go of others either." After saying that, I twisted his arm in a hard manner causing him to dislocate his arm. Because the effect of Strength Amplifier is still lingering, when I twisted his arm, I made a very strong twist that I can say that he won''t be able to recover his arm once again back to normal. "AAAAGHGGHHHHHH! MOOMMMYYYY!" The campus belle did not expect this development and she thought that I would be beaten to a pulp but the leader is already down, then what about the lackeys? I looked at the others and started to grin like crazy, causing all of them to back off. "What are you all doing? Why are you all backing off?!" the Campus Belle pointed at me as she tried to order the others to attack but I guess due to the Alpha being taken down by an ordinary guy, every other guy won''t be able to attack either. "They are scared somewhat. Want me to explain?" The lackeys look at each other and nodded. "He is just one man, and we are many! Let''s get him!" Looks like the lackeys are thinking after all. Numbers always have the advantage in the battle but that doesn''t mean that I will get defeated by the sheer number. I grinned and goes into a stance. "Come!" Just as you all know, I already experienced group battles without much trouble and they are easier to do than combat with one guy especially during the time I fought against my classmates in Hokkaido. They are in group so I am aware of how easy and hard the battles. The only difference right now is that the lackeys are using weapons. As soon as the lackeys swing in their bats, I grab one of the guys while avoiding the baseball bat he is swinging and swing him to the lackey. It is like hitting a motherf*cker with another motherf*cker. When they staggered, I hit their crotch with my shoes and activated the flames on the tip, igniting their crotch a little bit. Since their clothes are flammable, it didn''t take too long before it was caught in the fire. "F*CK! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" "Oh sh*t, your balls are on fire!" While everyone is still distracted, I quickly attacked their abdomens in quick succession that before they can react, they fell into the ground. The flames in the pants of the lackey that got burned are extinguished immediately when I stomped it. Well, poor egg, I guess I squashed his future. The campus belle was shaking as she did not expect the combat to last that short. I looked at her and shook my head. This gal is so troublesome. I already used the mind wipe skill but she is still doing this? When I approach her, she still acts tough but I can see her knees are shaking. "You won''t get away from this. You will pay for this!" "Hey, b*tch. I am a nice person to those who are nice to me but to those who don''t deserve it, I also serve them the appropriate treatment too. I saved you from being r*ped from your f*cking boyfriend or you wanted to do it? You should have told me!" "I would never..." "Then what is your f*cking reason? Just because I fainted in your bosom, you will call me a molester!? What the heck is your reason you sh*t *ss woman?!" The campus belle started crying and I continue to scold her. I don''t care if she is a campus belle or if she is someone''s daughter. I am not going to treat anyone without a nice attitude to me with a nice attitude. I am not running a charity. "If you have a conscience then be sure to clear up my name. If you still continue to do this, I will not hesitate to beat you up and anyone who tries to do it. But I won''t be nice, I will retaliate. Of course, I won''t do anything to be someone who is responsible." "..." the campus belle seemed to be totally terrified that she was at loss on the situation. I am not someone who cares much about this girl and she is not worth the time to treat something bad, so I decided to leave. Just let her get traumatized and I will not care about it. She deserved it for all the goodwill I gave her. "Wow, Kazuma. You are savage. I never knew that you can be that savage even to a girl!" the voice on the app said. "I don''t treat anyone a good attitude if they show me a sh*tty attitude that even a dog can''t eat." Chapter 49: Impending Attack When I got home, I felt all of the stress built up in my body was released spontaneously due to the amount I have been carrying earlier. After my confrontation with the campus belle that I still have no idea what the name is, all of the anger and pain I felt were gone. It was like some sort of magical elixir or something. "Sit back and relax. This effing job of clearing your name is easily done if you just mind wipe them all of that rumors and put a fake memory. BAM! Problem solved!" the voice on the phone said. "Dumbass, did you forget that I still have a small amount of mana in my body? Even after consuming the Mana Orbs, the amount of mana I got is not that large and I can''t cast mind wipe in a widespread area yet? Damn, I am just starting and you want me to do something so complicated already," I groaned as I summoned Yuri and Yuto out. Yuri is the first one to start on her tantrums. "What a bitch! If I was the one who is in your shoes Master, I may have beaten that woman already! Why are you so gentle to a woman? You shouldn''t regard her as someone equal to you Master! She is just a b*tch!" Yuri said as she pouts while still fuming out. "Although I am not as violent as Yuri since it does not involve the anime, I agree with what she said because that girl earlier is so shameless to ask someone just to beat him. If Master really molested her, then why didn''t she feign as a victim? Why is she trying to become the oppressor?" Yuto was calm and collected. I sighed and leaned on the sofa. With so much trouble that is insignificant such as this, it makes me wonder what the bullies are thinking when they bully someone. Of course, I can''t understand because I don''t bully anyone. I just retaliate but that doesn''t mean it is counted as part of bullying. I am just fighting back. Welp, too much info and yet they are not too useful to me. I decided to just relax and check the chat once more. Although I am not active in the chat, it was much better to pass time rather than idling. As soon as I opened the general chat, I checked to the time where I left my post in there and I was surprised that they reacted it with a "wow" emoji on the bottom of the photo. After the photo comes to the comments of the fellow magician members of the chat. ... Titan: Oh, its Kazuma. He is still alive? I thought he was on his way to suicide after soloing the GATES. Catmod: Lmao. That was a bad @Titan. Don''t jinx it. He is still a newbie after all. Titan: Nah, from the looks of the photo, he is on his way home and from the time he sent it, it was still a bit crowded with ordinary people so he is staying near the entrance of the GATES and is biding his time until the night falls. I think... Yaya: Oh? So this is the newbie you guys are talking about? Isn''t he inside the GATES of Toyosaka Inari Shrine? Did he know that location without asking us? Tsukoyomi: Now that you mention it, he didn''t ask me at all about the GATES. I am the keeper of the catalog of GATES locations and he didn''t ask me the location of it. Don''t tell me he knows it beforehand? Did anyone tell him about it? Titan: I didn''t. Moonlight: Don''t ask me. I have not entered a GATE for quite a while now and I have not entered that GATE before so no. Catmod: We have yet to talk so that means its another no. Yaya: This is the first time I saw the newbie post something here in the chat so I didn''t do it. This means he is the one who knew the location beforehand or maybe he discovered it by himself. Rena: That is very possible. Especially if he is someone who walks around the streets so early in the morning. Otherwise, he might have heard it somewhere. Raigaki: Eh, I heard that there are pretty girls in there. I think I can find some girls there to flirt with... (System Announcement: Raigaki has been muted for 3 days: Reason: I don''t like him butting in) Tsugimoto: Maybe this newbie managed to contract something that has the knowledge of this GATE might be the one who allowed him to know the exact location. Zan: Oh, that is possible. Familiars are all able to give knowledge to their masters. I think I agree with @Tsugimoto. Money Lover: WAIT, WAIT. Did you just say some sort of impossible feat? Isn''t GATES meant to be cleared by a group?! I don''t believe he can solo one especially a GATE that has so much danger than usual GATES here in Tokyo! Jezra: I just logged in and did a backread. I don''t think someone like him can solo a GATE! Even us veterans have trouble clearing one alone, moreover him. Moonlight: I don''t think so. Look at his photo once more. See those little balls on his feet? From the looks of it, those are orbs that can only be obtained inside the GATES. Also, to get them, you need to gather shards that are dropped by enemies so that means he already managed to gather so many Orbs. From the looks of the colors emitted by the orbs in the photo, I can identify that those are Mana Orbs and Dark Orbs. If that is the case, he might have done solo this one. Money Lover: Now that I have taken a closer look at it, it was indeed those orbs. It is not sold in markets since it is so common. But to think I can see him with those orbs made me somewhat reluctant to believe. I mean, he is a newbie, did he became an expert in just a span of days? Voltaire: Well guys, believe it or not, this newbie of ours has a promising look. Sure, he is weak right now but even without proper magic and proper equipment, he is able to hold off a demon with High Tier. Moreover, he is able to learn magic in just a few seconds. That is already something commendable. I scrolled past a few messages due to some of the same content and I don''t think I need to read them. The chat keeps going on and on until it reached the point where the admin of the chat group, Zacharias posted something. Zacharias: Everyone in the Tokyo area, please be careful out there. I heard that the demons are going to launch an all-out attack this week. Although I have not grabbed the real date, it should be this week. We will be setting up a mirror world in Tokyo as a lockdown countermeasure for now, while the magicians in the area are going to defend all the civilians. Do not let the demons attack humans openly! I shook when I read the message. The demons are going to launch an all-out attack?! This is not a joke. I bet it will start manslaughter right now. Looks like it is time to prepare... Chapter 50: Learning Some Magic I relayed this matter to my familiars and they quickly supported me in what I will be doing in this matter. As expected of my familiars, even though they have been my familiars for a few days, they have already grown to me as one of my family. Although Inari can''t be summoned for more than an hour, she acts as the mother figure in my familiars and keeps on doting them like they are her children. These two devil children are just children who lack the parents figure I guess. Returning on my room while the two familiars of mine are still busy playing videogames in the living room, I am here preparing for the upcoming demon invasion. Because I am still weak and considering that my magic skills are close to nonexistent, I have to master the magic as soon as possible to cover how weak I am as an individual. I already have my shoes and gloves ready but they are not really something that I can say my magic because it is just an equipment. It is not necessarily mine and there are chances that it will be broken which is something I don''t want to happen. Therefore, I have to make backup magic in case that will happen. I managed to learn an Ice Magic which is the Freezing Wind but I tested it and it can only freeze enemies and only do minimal damage. It is just for stalling enemies and not for attacking purposes so it is not as useful in dealing damage so what I need is something to cause severe damage while I use Freezing Wind to stall their movements. Browsing in the channel of magic spells, I clicked the attack magic sort and saw countless of magic spells for beginners to masters. "You planning to learn offensive-type magic?" the voice on the app asked. "It''s pretty obvious already. If I want to survive the upcoming demon invasion that Zacharias mentioned, then I have to be stronger and able to use stronger magic skills. I can''t rely on others and my familiars always because it will be a time where I will be alone and the demons used this chance to inflict damage to me, I am pretty doomed." "Is that so, then I suggest you get a Light Magic and Water Magic. Most demons have the affinity of dark and fire magic so getting light magic and water magic would be sufficient in attacking demons. But most of them require a severe understanding of the magic so it might take you a while to learn specific magic of your choice before the attack begins." "I don''t really care as long as I can learn at least a single magic. If this can save at least a single life then I will do it." ''Alright, I will help you at this time because you are pitiful." The voice might be a tsundere I guess. "I will kill you if you tell that again, remember I can hear your thoughts. Even if you didn''t say it out loud, I can hear you loud and clear." ... With the help of the voice in the app, I managed to find lots of magic skills for light and water attribute that is very compatible with my battle style. And I think these two magic skills that I recently browsed will be able to help me if I managed to master and learn it. First would be the water magic since it has an easier procedure to be able to learn it properly. I check the info again and made sure that the magic is the one I am going to learn or not. (Water Torrent) Type: Water Attribute Tier: 3rd Tier Information: Summons a huge torrent of water out from your palms. It has a very low mana consumption rate which is very useful for magicians with low mana capacity. Necessary things needed: ... Procedure:... It has three procedures so I decided to read the step by step if I needed the steps. The items necessary are just two things and that would be the two pails of water and ice cubes submerged on the water of the pail. The number of ice cubes was stated that I needed would be that they should have filled the pail''s water surface. Ice cubes were plenty inside the refrigerator so I have no problem getting them all. After getting them, I read step one to start mastering the magic. 1. Put your two hands inside the pail full of water and ice. Submerge your arms to the water and rest your palms to the bottom of the pail. That should be easy right? Following the instructions, I put my hands to the two pails full of water and ice cubes. But f*ck, the coldness that the water gives to my hands makes it too hard for me to stay my hands and arms into the water. Do you think it was easy? It was like your hands were being frozen as slow as it can. And it stated that I needed to rest my palms to the bottom of the pail. If that was the case, I would be struggling since the coldness will force your hands to keep it in the fist form to stop the coldness that the ice cubes give. It is just too cold. I struggled a little bit and managed to do so but now, I can''t scroll the message in the app. "Hey, you, the soul of the app, are you in there?" "Just call me Blue, you keep on calling me you. What is it?" "Alright, Blue, can you help me scroll on the app? My arms and hands are occupied right now, you see." "Hey, I may be an assistant in the app but I am not SIRI." "I know you can control the app so please, just this once. I am begging you!" "Yeah, yeah, stop yammering alright? I am doing it." The message on the chat was scrolled immediately, which allowed me to see the next step. 2. Focus the mana on your palms. Imagine a strong wave of water gathering in your palms. Make the mana on your body to circulate around your arm alone. Do it while the water is still cold, return to step one if the ice in the water melted or the water turned warm. Circulation of mana eh? That would be a bit easier but with the coldness not helping, it is harder to deal with it. But I still wanted to try. I closed my eyes and circulate all the mana in my body and made sure that all of it won''t spill out or wreak havoc in my arm. It was a bit hard with the coldness damping in my skin. I can''t even let the water turn warm. Slowly, I tried circulating it without any rush. As soon as it stabilized, I added a bit more mana on my arm and made sure to visualize the flowing water in both hands simultaneously. "Next, Blue!" The phone scrolled by itself again and the last instruction appeared. Apparently, it only has three procedures so this would be the last. 3. Feel the water in your skin. Replicate the water that touches your skin. That''s it. After visualizing the water a few more times, materializing the actual water would come close after that. Test it after the procedure outside the water once you manage to feel the water coming out of your hands. Replicating the feeling is easy. As soon as I felt something from my palm, I pulled my shivering hand immediately. I felt so cold and I can''t stop shivering. Without further ado, I raised both palms and did the same things I did on the pail. Two blue magic circles appeared and started to rotate fast. I also felt water to build up in my palm. I quickly visualize the water in my palm to explode out of it and shouted the name of the magic. "Water Torrent!" The next thing I knew, water came out from my palm like those water coming out from a firetruck. I admit that it was weaker than expected but that was still something I did for the first time. "What the f*ck? You actually learned and used it for the first time?!" Blue sounded baffled. "Why are you surprised? Isn''t the test easy to do? Except for the water submerging part, everything was rather easy." "EASY MY *SS! MOST MAGICIANS NEEDS A FULL WEEK BEFORE THEY CAN EVEN LET OUT WATER THAT IS AS STRONG AS THE WATER COMING OUT FROM A SMALL WATER GUN! AND YOU DID SOMETHING ALREADY IN ONE GO! HOW THE F*CK DID YOU DO THAT?!" Chapter 51: And then they Attack The second power is much easier. It was to feel the darkness and materialize the light that is nonexistent on it. I just needed to stay in a dark place where I can''t see a single shred of light. Seeing one would reset the progress. It was quite easy for me since there was an attic in this house and it was dark enough if you decided to put out the lights on your attic, you can''t see a single thing in there. When I mastered it, Blue once again started to go wild. "WHAT THE HECK!? YOU ALSO MASTERED LIGHT BLAST WITHOUT ANY RETRIES? ARE YOU ON STIMULANTS?!" "Stop shouting, it was easy anyways. It just needed a little bit of understanding and following of steps and that''s it. I don''t understand the logic of you saying that it needs a lot of days mastering it." "Ah, damn, I gave up. The ridiculous part of you is that you can learn magic in an insane amount of short time you can get. It is just something I haven''t heard about in my entire time." I sighed after the outburst of Blue. Although what she said is quite ridiculous for me, I don''t think she is lying. What she said might be true to all the magicians but I don''t know why her reasoning on how fast I learn magic is something impossible. ... The next day, I prepared a little number of items in my bag. With the upcoming event of demons appearing is making me a bit troubled. If I want to prepare for the worst, then I should be bringing the least items. That way, I won''t regret losing a little bit amount of items in case they would attack. "Blue, will the lockdown occur today?" I asked the voice inside the app. "Yes, according to the info, the 12 magic councilors already went to the 12 points of Tokyo to prepare for the lockdown. It will occur around-" Just as Blue was about to speak of it, a streak of blue light appeared on the sky and extended into the horizon. "Looks like they just started. This might be causing the demons to start an attack today. Be on guard Kazuma. Keep your familiars ready for summoning." The normal people won''t see the barrier but the demons will. Not a single demon can enter or exit Tokyo. This would cause the demons to act and attack preemptively. They will feel threatened that they are "caged" in the city they are about to attack. Since there is nothing to do here, I left home and headed to school, ready to face any enemies that might try to attack. ... I was around halfway to school when I saw someone running in from the corner of the street. Wait, that was Irina... "Ack, move away! Move away!" I quickly stopped and get into Irina. "What is going on?" I asked her. "A monster is following me! Kazuma, let''s run away!" she said as she shivered. "Monster?" my eyebrows knitted together. Isn''t it too much early for their attack? "I need to go since I managed to outrun the monster but I don''t know for how long before it can catch up to me. You need to escape too!" Irina said as she tugged me but I stopped her. "Running won''t solve anything. Stay close, those guys will be here any minute!" "What?! Are you crazy?!" "No," then I asked the phone in my mind. "Is it okay to show magic to the public right now?" "In the meantime, yes. The enemies are all here and hiding your powers is not necessary. After the event, the Councilors will do a mass mindwipe to delete this memories from their minds. So feel free to use your magic even with public civilians." "What about those doing some videos?" "The councilors already did a network and technology interference so no one inside can use internet connection. On the other hand, the people outside the lockdown will have no contact and will view the events inside as nothing but a normal thing which is the effect of the barrier, therefore, the people inside will not be able to ask help outside and will not be able to escape either." "That was a bit of bad thing..." "It''s for the sake of maintaining the secrecy of the demons from human minds. It is also for the sake of making the magicians status a secret." "That is a bit of selfish..." "Well, we can''t do anything about it, its for the sake of safety to the people. It''s better if they don''t know the truth. So that was it. It was indeed better if the people don''t know the truth or else, chaos and panic will occur and it might cause anarchy or something similar. Although Irina keeps on tugging me away, I didn''t bother to move. I immediately summoned Yuri out from me causing Irina to get shocked. "You called master?" Yuri hovered above Irina. "Protect her from enemies. Don''t let them get into her. Kill them if possible." Irina gasped but Yuri smiled and made a salute. "Aye aye, master." Without waiting for Irina to recover from her initial shock, I activated the gloves and shoes in flames since the presence of the demon is near. "Demon in tier 1 is approaching fast. It''s weak, you can deal with it easily," Blue said. "Then I won''t hold back!" As soon as I saw a glimpse of a demon on the corner of the street, I burst out and dashed forward. The demon was surprised and before I can give him a chance to dodge, I already punch him on the face and destroy the face of the demon. The power I released while my fist is burning is just too strong for the face of the demon that before it can even see what was going on, was immediately killed. The demon died without any struggle and was reduced to ashes. I collected the items it dropped and returned to Irina and Yuri who is still guarding a dazed Irina. When I got near, Irina quickly goes into outburst. "What is going on? Why did your hands and feet goes ablaze? Who is this woman? What is happening right now?" "I''ll explain later. We need to get to school and warn everyone. Trouble is brewing and we can''t let anyone die pointlessly or else, I will be chewed by the others if I stay idle," I said before putting her in my bike''s backseat. "Kyaa!" "Sorry, it''s gonna be a bumpy ride." Chapter 52: The Demon Invasion Part 1 I pedaled hard with Irina behind me. I summoned back Yuri so she is not present at the moment. While on the way, everywhere is chaos and I can see magicians and humans alike on the area trying their best to repel the demons attacking. This is just similar to a zombie apocalypse or monster attacks. Enemies are here and there everywhere I turn. Luckily, the school seemed to be fine for now since it is silent and peaceful around the vicinity of the area. I don''t see any demons lurking about nearby so I sighed in relief before I drove the bike to the gate. The students were oblivious about what was going on around the city and because of the interference of digital items, they can''t use their phones to check what is happening right now. "Care to explain Kazuma? You are not being clear on what was happening right now and I am confused and scared right now. Did I just got involved in something I shouldn''t have?" Irina asked me as I entered the gate. "I will tell later. We need to secure the place first or else, everything will be in trouble as people here never really follow instructions and just do whatever they wanted to do." We entered the school gate and saw Moonlight and Godou standing guard in front of the gate. They seemed to be watching over the gate for quite a while. "How is the situation outside the school premises Kazuma?" Godou asked on his serious tone. "Not really good. I saw lots of demons here and there and there are other magicians defending but I don''t think it is safe to assume that they will stop anytime soon," I said. "Does the demons able to reach the vicinity of the school? Many of the students are still oblivious on what was going on so it is best that they don''t know and let the afternoon pass," Moonlight said as she looked into her phone. "I don''t think so, it would seem like they will find their way here sooner or later. They are already not too far but they are not yet on the vicinity so it would be sooner or later that they will appear here," I explained. "Plus, this place is where most of the demons deployed never came back so it is more likely that they would go here in full force," Godou added. "Demon bastards as always. Giving us magicians trouble as always," Moonlight shook her head before her gaze landed on Irina who is still hiding behind me. "Kazuma, did you just bring a civilian? She is not a magician, why is she listening to our plan?" Moonlight pointed at her. "Wait, wait. It''s alright right? The whole of Tokyo is in lockdown anyway so we don''t need to hold back on our magic." "Well, you got a point," Moonlight sighed and holds the temple of her head. This time, Irina responded to our conversation. "What do you mean the whole of Tokyo is in lockdown? And what is this about demons and magicians that you all are saying? Can anyone explain this to me?" "Ah what a pain, Godou you explain. You too Kazuma. It is too energy-consuming to explain the information," Moonlight complained. "Ah... Akari you need to change that attitude of yours. It''s too annoying and everything is boring and energy-consuming for you. Anyways, you really want to learn? It''s not really necessary for you to learn the existence of these guys and our existence you know," Godou said as he stares intensely on Irina. "Are you ready?" Irina gulped and nodded. "Alright. Where should I start...hmmm...-" "Godou, stop that for now! The demons are here!" Moonlight shouted and pulls out the bamboo sword on her space dimensional storage. "Ah, great. Storytelling will be postponed, for now, girl. We need to deal with something. Kazuma, protect her," Godou said as he punches the ground and the soil crawls towards his arms causing Irina to shook. "I can go and support. I will have my familiars do it." "Familiars?" Godou frowned. I summoned Yuri and Yuto out. "You know the drill, protect her." Godou was baffled speechless but I disregarded what his reaction is and activated the gloves and shoes together before I dashed and joined Moonlight who is defending the gate. I already saw the other students looking at us with strange looks and baffled stares but we didn''t care. If everything is ruined, we will be done in this situation. "Godou! What are you doing?! Get here already and assist us! The demons will start pouring in if we don''t stop them!" Moonlight shouted. "Ah! Right!" The demons indeed really had different looks on their body. Most of them have the common red colors but some of them have the violet color which means that they are the darkness element demons. Moonlight readies the bamboo sword and when one demon dashed towards her, Moonlight swiped once and the demon was slashed in half. "Celestial Slash: Slicing through Space!" Not only the demon that dashed through her were sliced in half, but even the demons behind the one killed were also sliced in half without sparing anyone. I was amazed by her skill but it was a unique sword magic style so I am not jealous. Besides, I also have my own magic skills. Demons started to pour out in the gate but Godou did not care much about it. He punched his hands together and a shockwave occurred causing the demons to tumble. After doing so, Godou grinned and punched the ground hard sending another shockwave but sending it this time to the demons. I thought it was the same shockwave but before I can start charging, the ground started to release big spikes causing the demons above it to get killed and pierced to death. "We need to start working Kazuma. This will be your first time to do some clearing operation. Are you ready?" Chapter 53: Demon Invasion Part 2: Welcome to the Blood Fest The demons were all appearing in a different direction but with Moonlight''s swift attacks plus Godou''s area attack, it prevents demons from getting past us. Though there would always something that can pass through that, I am the one who deals with the demons that pass through the barrage of attacks that Moonlight and Godou releases which allows me to fully see who are able to escape. "Kazuma! One just escaped!" Moonlight shouted. "I''m on it!" I answered before chasing the demon and hurling a fireball to it. "The demons are getting more and more resilient to our attacks!" Godou shouted as he materializes an Earth Wall to stall the enemies temporarily. "The students are also getting curious and looking at us right now!" I shouted as I saw in the glimpse the crowd forming in front of the building just to look at our battle. They might think it is fascinating since it looks like it came out from a movie. There are also people trying to approach Irina and my familiars but due to the hostility of Yuri and Yuto doing their jobs, it turned out splendidly since Yuto activates his power that releases a shockwave to push people away. Of course, many otakus tried and tried. They stopped when Yuri released her power and makes a stake pop out from the ground whenever they are near, giving a warning that once they step in, they will die. Many tried to use a phone and capture a video on us but since there was a device interference that stops us from using any devices related to videos, the phones and cameras were all deemed useless. I can hear them complaining that their phones were acting wonky and broken whenever they try to use cameras or whenever they tried to connect to the internet and that was a good thing for us magicians. After making sure that everything is fine, we focused on the battle and it is very hard for us to continue defending without the interference of people who wanted to get a clearer look at the battle. "F*cking crowd, they are too annoying, why do they bother watching us if they can be in danger just by watching?" Moonlight cursed. "It can''t be helped, we are doing some flashy movements that can only be seen in movies. They are a curious bunch," Godou said as he bashed one demon to the head using his fist. "More incoming!" I said as I release a Light Blast to the demon with the affinity of the darkness. Moonlight and Godou were a bit stunned when I used the light magic but they didn''t ask as the demons keep on appearing here and there. I think they will ask me later once the battle is done. "Hey, Godou! Use the Earthquake right now so that I can charge up my magic on my blade in time! Stall them as long as you can!" Moonlight shouted. "Alright!" he nodded and punched the ground repeatedly while chanting loudly. "THE EARTH WILL NURTURE THE WORLD, MAKE THE EARTH ANGRY AND UNLEASH THE ANGER AND ANGUISH THAT THE WORLD IS HOLDING! TERRA SHAKER!" All of a sudden, the ground started to shake the demons were shaken by the tremors causing them to stumble and fall to the ground. Meanwhile, Moonlight already managed to change her bamboo sword into a katana, she raised it in the air while holding the hilt of it as she channels her mana and chants another magic that I have not seen before and closed her eyes as she chants it with a loud voice. "BLESS ME O GOD OF WAR. ENHANCE THE BLADE OF MY WEAPON AND USE MY POWER TO SMITE ALL THE EVIL BEINGS IN THE WORLD! DESTROY THE ROOT CAUSE AND CUT ITS CONNECTIONS TO THE WORLD! BLADE OF WAR!" When she was done, the katana in her hands glow bright red and flames started to appear on the blade as it blazes on the blade too hard. The heat of the flames in her katana is so hot that I can feel it too even though I am a few meters away from her. She took a step and the ground that she put her foot on caved in and the air around seemed to get sucked into her sword. The demons even shook when Moonlight is getting near them. "Vile demons, begone!" She brought down her katana to the demons who were down on the ground and in one fell swoop, their remains disappeared as they turned into ashes. Godou quickly approached me and pushed me to Moonlight. "Go catch her! She can''t move for a while after using that magic!" "What about you?!" "I need to ensure that the demons won''t attack her as you catch her! It''ll be troublesome if any of you two will be defeated!" Moonlight indeed stumbled and knelt on the ground after the attack so before she fell to the ground, I immediately catch her and retreated to Irina''s side. Moonlight fell unconscious after using the skill. It looks like it took a lot of toll on her. "Yuri, Yuto, please guard her as well. Irina, can you look after her while we are dealing with the enemies for now? We will back after that." "Yes, master!" The two said as they try their best to block anyone to pass through them. "I will do my best!" Irina said as she helped me put down Moonlight. Yuto snaps his fingers and a futon with anime prints appeared. I was perplexed when I saw the futon so I looked up to him. "Use that for her at the moment. But master, please wash that after, it was my favorite futon so I hope it won''t be too dirty after this," Yuto fidgets. I sighed and nodded. "Alright. Now please guard her in the meantime. Watch your brother Yuri, he might do something weird." "I''m on it, master! I will beat up this guy if he ever did something lewd!" "What the hell master?! I am a responsible and proud devil. I may be an incubus but I prefer 2D girls over 3D girls! Do you get my gist right, master? Master, wait!" Yuto shouted but I disregarded him for now and returned to the side of Godou who is making a wall to block the remaining demon''s advance. "How is Akari holding up?" Godou asked as he maintained the wall that is stopping the demons temporarily. "She is fine. How are you holding up? Need some help?" "Yes indeed, I really need a friggin help. I am running out of mana soon, can you please defeat the demons as many as you can? You have not unleashed too much magic earlier so I guess you still have enough mana in your body. I will hold this wall for a few more minutes, but I want you to defeat the enemies as many as you can defeat." "No worries, I can do it," I said and pulled out the Skull Knuckles out of the bag and equipped them. "Ah..." Godou was about to say something but I didn''t bother to listen to what he was about to say and cross the wall. There are a few demons here and all of them are badly looking. Unlike the usual demons that I encountered before, these demons seem to lack the ability to speak. Maybe because they are just grunts? They also looked weaker upon closer look. The Skull Knuckles vibrates in my hands and I can feel that it is getting excited in facing the demons. "Are you getting excited in battle?" Seemingly answering my question, the Skull Knuckles vibrated once more and it seems to be more attached to my hands and a warm feeling started flowing inside my body. I grinned and felt my bloodlust build up inside me and the indescribable feeling of wanting to punch a demon repeatedly appeared inside my mind. Without waiting for the demons to attack me, I rushed towards the demons and sneak close to one of them and whispered to that particular demon. "Welcome to Blood Fest. I hope you will have a good time here... hehe..." before I started breaking the head of the demon via severe beating. The demon did not get to retaliate as his head was bashed pitifully that you can''t recognize if it was a normal head or just a pile of meat attached to a body. The Skull Knuckles were brutal indeed. After dropping the dead body of the demon, I looked into the rest of the demons and grinned. "Who is next in line?" Chapter 54: " Welcome to our Culture" The remaining demons looked at each other and nodded before they started to run in the opposite direction. I wasn''t expecting them to run in the opposite direction since it was more common sense for them to fight back against someone trying to fight. They still fight against Moonlight even though she used already one of her ultimate powers then why the heck are they fleeing when they saw me? That was somewhat illogical... "Hey! Wait! I am not done beating up all of you!" I shouted as I dashed forward with my shoes blazing and grabbed one of the fleeing demons and pulled the poor guy over to me before hurling him to the fleeing others without any warning. BANG! All of them were caught from the demon I just thrown over and they all fell down and hit the floor. I didn''t really mind if they run away but they can''t escape anyway, so that''s about it. I leap towards the demons and grab the demon that I have just thrown earlier in the head before it can even recover and started to apply strength to my grip before I started to bash its head to the other demons. If it was a normal bash, it wouldn''t end up as a fatal blow but because I made a very hard applied strength before I knew it, the demons below that are being bashed repeatedly were all killed and turned to mushes. "More! More! More!" Then I just realized what I have done. As soon as I drop the dead body of the demon, I realized what I have done. "What the hell have I just done?" Godou followed me and when he managed to catch up to me, he was stunned by the sight of the mushed bodies of the demons and the blood-covered clothes that I am wearing. "What the hell did you just do? Why did it turn out to be messy?" then his eyes landed to my hands which are equipped with the Skull Knuckles. "Ah, I see. You are wearing that accursed weapon. No wonder you are under its bloodlust." "Ah, yeah. It''s already something I didn''t expect. Its ability to invoke bloodlust is something else," I said as I remove the Skull Knuckles off. As soon as I removed them, the warm feeling that I felt in my body disappeared. "Wait up, you can remove it without getting any backlash?" "Huh? Yeah? Why?" "What the heck, this is the first time I heard of this, Kazuma. I already handled this matter in the past and we have to forcefully seal the power of the Skull Knuckles before we can remove it and you casually remove it without any seal?! The hell is wrong with you? All kinds of surprises were brought up by you earlier and you brought up another sort of sh(t again!" "Ah?" I looked into the Skull Knuckles and frowned. Is it really something needed to be that shocked with?'' ... After the demons attacking the school were wiped out, Moonlight is still out and Godou is running out of mana. I barely used mana since I just used pure power rather than magic alone so I still have plenty of mana even though I summoned Yuri and Yuto. The two of them summoned do not really cost much so its not a problem. My mana will go start draining if I start to supply Yuri and Yuto some mana. Apart from that, nothing much and I am still good to go. The students were looking at us like we are some sort of alien beings due to what we have just done earlier. I returned to Irina''s side and carried Moonlight. I looked at Godou who is still trying to recover his mana. "Should we go to the disciplinarian for help?" I asked. "She is not here because she is one of the twelve magicians that formed the barrier around Tokyo to form the lockdown. Since she is unconscious at the moment, we should ask the head nurse in the infirmary. She is a magician too and is one of the people who know Moonlight''s injury. Let''s bring her over there." "I''ve never known the head nurse was also a magician. So not only the disciplinarian but the head nurse is also one of the people we can trust our identities into?" "Looks like I forgot to tell you about it, but yeah. She is one of the renowned magicians who has the highest healing ability in the magicians. She should be serving the hospital that is for special use of magicians only but since her daughter is currently studying here, to make sure of her safety, she stays in this school as the school nurse," Godou said. Then, Irina suddenly looked at us with a weird look. "What are you saying? That my mother can use magic like you all?" Godou and I looked at Irina with a strange look and Godou breaks the silence. "Wait, are you perhaps her daughter?!" "Yes. I am her daughter. How come I didn''t know this? Why she make it a secret to me? Even though I still have no idea what are you people, I think I get the gist of it that you all are using magical powers. But I am her daughter, I should have known that she is a magician!" Godou shook his head. "I really don''t know. We can go there if you want and ask her why. In the meantime, we can need to bypass these people out. The demons won''t be attacking for a while after we defeated the horde they have sent here. But we need to bring Akari away from those eyes of theirs." "If that was the case, I can help with that Master," Yuto said as he slowly descended to the ground and pulled the futon back. "You can?" I looked at him in confusion. "Yes. We can teleport there if you want me to, but you need to supply mana for me to do that," Yuto said. "I see. Then teleport us there. We need to get away from the prying eyes of other people here before another batch of enemies appears again. I will charge you up with mana, so do your job." "Yes!" I sighed and decided to supply him with mana. Yuri is biting her nails as she keeps hovering in the air. "Master! Supply me with mana too~" Godou shook his head and looked at me with an approving look on his face. He gave me a thumbs up and his eyebrows started to go up and down repeatedly. "I didn''t know you are a closet pervert Kazuma. I have changed the opinion of you my brother. Good job. Welcome to our culture." Chapter 55: Otome A large magic circle appeared beneath our feet and started glowing before our surroundings started to shift. I involuntarily closed my eyes due to the blinding light being released from the magic circle. As soon as I felt the blinding light started to disappear, I slowly opened my eyes and saw ourselves inside the infirmary. Although I still have no chance to visit the infirmary, I can see that this is indeed the infirmary with all the beds and all the medicines and some equipment like thermometers are all on the shelves. Looks like Yuto''s teleportation spell really did a good job. "Woah, that was quick! It''s not even that bad and did not cause us nausea, unlike the space magic that Akari casts!" Godou said as he looked around the place. "Of course. This magic is one of the arts that the incubus species use to teleport anywhere we wanted to. It allows us to travel without having any side effects of changing places. Isn''t my magic amazing?" Yuto proudly puffed up his chest. "Indeed. If we wanted to use it again, we can ask for your ability again," I said. "I am at your service master!" Yuto proudly said. "Ha...if only I have that ability, it would be a useful one and I can get a mana supply from Master. Unfortunately, I can only teleport myself and I can''t bring anyone else, now I can''t enjoy the benefits that my brother gets. I''m so jealous," Yuri sighed. "You will get your turn in the future. Just stay put, for now, we will need your help in the battle later," I said as I carried Moonlight to the bed and looked around for any sign of the nurse tending the infirmary. "Mom? Mom? Are you here?" Irina called as she looked for any signs of her mother inside. Then, a woman in her thirties appeared on the other side of the room as she opened the door that leads to the room where the patients stay. She has short bobbed hair with blonde color and she is someone who looks very similar to Irina if you put Irina beside her. The only striking difference between her and Irina is that her mother is wearing glasses and a green magatama necklace. "Irina? What happened? Ah..." she appeared to be surprised when she saw Irina inside the infirmary but she was stunned when she saw us inside the room. "Mom. Is it true that you are one of those people able to use magic? Are you similar to them who are able to use magical powers too?" She sighed and looked at Godou. "She found out?" "I didn''t know that she is your daughter. I was telling Kazuma about you earlier because we need help for Akari since she ran out of mana and collapsed due to overexertion. If I have known that she is your daughter, I wouldn''t babble out about it," Godou scratched his head. The woman scratched her head and sighed. "I know that this secret will come out sooner or later but I never expected it to occur right now. But I guess that with all of the demons attacking, she would know our existence soon." "Why you didn''t tell me, mom? I almost got caught by one of the demons back earlier and if not for Kazuma, I would have been killed perhaps!" "I have no need to worry about your welfare with the demons. They can''t touch you due to the amulet that I have you wear to ward off anything that harms you including magicians and demons. But I guess it didn''t show up yet because of this kid''s interference which is much better in my opinion. And I thank you for that. You are Kazuma, right? I am Otome, and this is my daughter, Irina." "She is in danger. Although I don''t have any heroic tendencies, I don''t want to just watch and look for someone to suffer if I can help them from the situation. Anyways, Godou said that you can help Akari-san. She is currently unconscious. Can you help her to avoid the backlash of running out of mana?" I asked and put Moonlight into the bed. "She overexerted again huh... I always warned her to keep it easy and lower her tendency to use too much mana but I guess she forgot it eh?" Otome said before she swipes her finger in the air above Moonlight and a green light appeared on her finger. "Is that healing magic?" I asked. "No, this is just scanning magic. Although usual scanning skills needed to be used in the eye, this skill is something that corresponds only to feelings. You can say this is like a stethoscope but can detect abnormalities more. This skill is a must for someone like me who needs to determine the injury of someone in one swipe." "Is she fine now though?" Godou looked at Moonlight. "Fortunately, she was not strained enough to get a backlash. She will wake up a little later but because there is a slight chance that she will have a backlash if something goes wrong, I will try to eliminate that percentage immediately." "Please do," I said and continue to observe her movements. After the green light dissipated from her fingers, Otome quickly put her forefinger into Moonlight''s forehead and a green light started to glow from her fingers straight to Moonlight''s forehead. Irina who just saw magic closely for the first time was so intent in watching what was happening and what her mother is doing. Otome put her free palm into her necklace and gripped it. The necklace started glowing and it started to emit a warm feeling. It was quite relaxing and even Yuri and Yuto seems like they are relaxing from the feeling. "Ah yes, the Magatama Effect. It was the healing ability of Mrs. Otome that can calm everyone even with the berserking demons and beasts. From the looks of it, she is using this to stabilize the lack of energy in Akari''s body. " Just as I was getting relaxed, Blue started talking. "Kazuma! The demons are once again gathering! They seemed to be the second batch of the demons that are meant to attack this place!" Chapter 56: Strike "The demons again? They don''t know how to rest I see which is pretty bad for our situation right now. I have low mana and I don''t think I can fight right now. Akari is still out and you are the only fit to fight right now Kazuma but with your inexperience makes it a bad thing for you to go and fight alone," Godou said calmly. "How dare you say that to master!" Yuri quickly tried t summon her power but I quickly stopped her. "It''s alright Yuri. What he is saying is the truth. I don''t think I will survive a wave of demons all by myself and even if the two of you helped, I don''t think that would change. Besides, unlike the time on the GATES, we are not prepared since they are already almost here. And yes, I am still inexperienced and the way I battle earlier is just pure power from my fists without any mastery in magic. And besides, I have limited magic to use. Add my low mana too and I am sure to get killed if I fight alone." "So you will allow the demons to kill everyone inside the school? You won''t interfere or anything?! Aren''t you a protector against the demons You fight for humanity right?" Irina confronted me and looked at me with a furious look. "Me? A protector of humanity? That was rather an overstatement, Irina. And if possible, I have no care if the demons annihilate the students in this school. I don''t really care about them at all." "How can you say that, Kazuma?!" Irina grabbed my collar even though she can''t really lift me up. "It''s not really my care to do it. And I am not a hero who will waste my life over people who never really cared about the well beings of the others especially to me who they view someone as a negative person. You could say that this is their karma." Hearing that, Irina gritted her teeth and turns to Godou who is just listening to our conversation. "You won''t say anything?" "I actually agree with Kazuma''s reasoning. With all the treatment he gets every day, that is enough for Kazuma to keep Kazuma from trouble in every minute." "But..." "However Kazuma, this is not about saving those people, it''s about to keep the demons from doing what they want. Are you sure you want to keep on doing it?" I sighed and stood up. "I guess, but I am not fighting for those bastards, I am fighting for myself and I want those materials they drop so that I can buy some items." "Aye, but, can you do it? I mean, it''s going to be hard..." Godou asked. "I will just use this Skull Knuckles. At least, this allows me to get the monsters without doing many problems in my mana." "Demons are getting to the vicinity!" Blue announced. "I will be back, come join me later once you get to finish the recovery of your mana." "..." Godou stayed silent. Otome finally released Moonlight''s forehead and sighed. "She is fine now. Are you sure you won''t stop that kid, Godou?" "Nah, I don''t hold his decisions. If he wanted to do that, then I will not stop him. He is holding that demonic Brass Knuckles after all." ... Sprinting in the hallway, I found out that the infirmary is located on the third floor so I quickly need to get there or those bastards will just offer themselves as free food for the demons. "Yuto, can you still teleport?" I asked. "Not at the moment master. Although we can get a quick trip with this teleportation, I need 3 hours before I can cast it again." "Damn, I guess I have no choice but to activate the flames on my shoes and get to the demons as fast as I can." Blazing my shoes, I started running while having the flames boosting my speed. With the help of that, I managed to reach the bottom without any trouble. But the demons are already in the school ground. "F*ckers, you all are going to get some sh*t to taste right now! Get out of the way if you don''t want to be a snack!" I shouted to the spectators at the entrance who are still watching the demons. When they turned around, I activated the flames in my hands in full burst to scare them. This caused them to clear the entrance as I continue to run towards the entrance. As soon as I managed to get out, I saw the demons rushing towards the entrance. Since they are coming in, then I raised my fist and charge my fist with mana burst of flames. "BURN IN HELL! RETURN TO GEHENNA!" Chapter 57: Spirit of the Skull Knuckles The demons were startled by my sudden appearance. They have already known that there was a magician in the area but the only thing they know is that they retreated. They thought that the school is once again defenseless because we fled but they were wrong. The blast when I appeared caused the demons to back away in fear of getting caught. "Hey Blue, can I stream something for the chat group? Although there is an interference with electronics, the phone seems fine. Can I do it?" I asked. "Stream? Oh, you want to video your exploits? I think it''s fine, as long as the video goes directly to the chat group instead of social media." "Then please activate the stream, I will be hitting some skulls, it''s good to catch my exploits in camera." "Damn, I am not SIRI or any kind of virtual assistant okay?! I am great-" "Yeah, yeah, just hurry up." "...Fine" As soon as Blue said that, my phone appeared in my breast pocket and the camera activated. "Let''s get started." I punched my fists together and flames ignited on my fists. Then, the warm feeling in my body resurfaced once more allowing me to feel the rush in my body. I feel active once more... "Hey, little sh*ts, want to take a brawl with me? I am available right now and anyone who can defeat me can eat all they want inside this campus, what do you say?" "What the f*ck are you saying, are you trying to get yourself killed? You won''t earn money by streaming in the chat so don''t bother doing it too hard!" Blue said. "Just watch..." I said. The demons grinned. "Then don''t mind us if we attack!" they started to attack together without any restraint. "Foolish bastards..." I grinned and activated Light Blast in close range. The light started to appear on my hands, blinding and damaging all dark type demons out without any restraint. They are immediately damaged to the extent of dying when they are in the area of the light. Light Blast is a well known light magic I just learned together with the Water Torrent. Although it is just releasing a ball of light, the power it gives off is big. Any enemy that has the affinity of darkness will get damaged to a certain extent by it. Even if they just get to touch a single ray of light, they will get damaged by it. As for the enemies who are not going to be affected by it, they are temporarily blinded by the magic skill. Since the demons attacking are all mixed with flames and darkness types, and they are attacking me at the same time, I decided that this will be the best time to deploy the pain to their arse directly. "Ahhh!" the demons started screaming while those who are not with the affinity of darkness grab their eyes because they are blinded by the light. The caster of the magic will not be affected by the effect. But your friends and allies will be affected if they are hit by it so it is better to use it whenever you are fighting alone rather than in a group fight. This flashy skill will make your allies be pissed at you. As soon as the demons started struggling to see, I activated the Skull Knuckles and started to bash their jaws one by one with hard blows. Most of them are still not able to recover from the light so I didn''t bother with the others. The bad thing though is that not all of them strikes at the same time, some of the demons who are skeptical did not get caught from the light so they are still alright. Due to that, they quickly attacked me to save their kin who are being killed by me from breaking their jaws. "You are just one kid! You think we demons are just pushovers?!" one of the demons shouted. "No idea. I don''t see demons so often so I am not an expert. All I know is that you lot bring sh*t to us so all of you needed to die," I answered before dashing and grabbing his neck and gripping it to choke him. The demon quickly toughens his neck to avoid being choked but who said I will choke him? I raised my free hand and repeatedly hit his jaw and face in succession. Due to the blows that are enhanced further by the Skull Knuckle''s hard surface, the damage is much bigger. CRACK! One of the punches I released caused the demon to release green blood out of his nostrils and mouth. Looks like I managed to hit him fatally, and it caused a hemorrhage. The demon is now starting to crumble to dust which means it is dying. I didn''t waste holding the dead guy over and throws him to the bunch of demons that are still struggling to recover their eyesight. PENG PENG PENG! The demons fell down and the body of the demon that I have just thrown disintegrates into dust. The other demons spooked out from the demon who disintegrated but they didn''t back down. Looks like these guys really have a death wish. "You all are going to die!" I shouted as I throw a fireball to the demon who has the affinity of darkness. "Don''t get too cocky! Killing a few of us doesn''t change the fact that you will be dying soon!" As soon as he finishes shouting that, a few demons appeared but they are different than the demons I am fighting. This time, they looked like they really came from the depths of hell as giants. They are even accompanied by some demons who have armors and has bull horns on their heads. I almost back away when all of a sudden, I can feel my hands stop me. No, not my hands, the skull knuckles is keeping me from leaving. Then, the faint voice of a male started speaking inside my head. It was not Blue but another entity. "EAT... EAT... FLESH...BLOOD...KILL!!" The urge to do it is really strong and seeing the demons started the bloodlust to well up inside me. Although I can control it, I decided to not stop the feeling. Defeating the demons are the only thing to do here and letting them live is a mistake. When the demons get inside the gate, I stepped towards the gate and kicked the demons who are blocking my way who are just trying to regain their eyesight back. "Yo, whatever spirit you are residing inside the Skull Knuckles, do you want to taste blood?" The skull knuckles vibrate. I grinned and looked at the demons. "Then kill these demons and I will give you blood!" As soon as I said that, an ominous aura welled up inside me, and flames erupted my body. Mysteriously, flames do not burn me. "EAT! KILL! EAT!" Chapter 58: Kill or Be Killed On the demon''s side, the guy behind the demon attacks is currently standing on a tall building currently looking at the Shibuya in chaos. However, it appears that he is not a human but a demon on the skin of a human. He put a cigarette into his mouth and suck in the smoke on it before he puffs it out of his mouth, nose, and ears... well, his forehead is also emitting smoke too and if someone sees this, they would be amazed to see a steaming forehead. "My liege..." a shadowy figure appeared behind the man and currently crouching while putting his head low to the direction of the man he called his liege. "Report," the guy said. "We have suffered too many casualties on the lower-ranking demons while we lost 20 high demons. There are also human casualties and some casualties from the side of the magicians. We have detected one of the healers on a school facility earlier and we planned to take the healer out before the backup of enemies arrives but unfortunately got wiped out. We have sent a second battalion to prioritize killing the healer on their side." "I see. Did the higher-ups from the magician''s side already made a move?" he asked as he puffed out another mouthful of smoke. "They haven''t made a single movement. All of the demons we sent to them are all annihilated, my liege. Do you want to attack them again soon?" "No need. They are too strong for the grunts to take on a higher up magician. It''s better if I or any of the high rankers will attack them but I don''t think I will go and waste my time, instead, I want to hear about this healer that is attacked. If the enemy is just a healer, how come the troops deployed were killed? Is the healer a strong enemy too?" "No, my liege. According to our intel, there were magicians there too, however, we confirmed that one is unconscious, and one is out of mana and can''t fight. Only one more who seems to wield multiple elements is fighting and currently engaging in a fight with the second troops we sent. And for some reason, the troops are afraid of this kid. He doesn''t seem to be a strong magician, he also fights with less magic and more on physicals, my liege." "You piqued my interest, care to tell me more?" ... The big demons swing their weapons to me and their strikes cause small tremors and cracks on the ground as they miss their intended target which is me. I disregarded the big demons because they are just slow guys that are not really that much worth the time to kill at the moment. What I am targeting right now are those small demons that are attacking me left and right after dodging away from the big demons with clubs. They are very annoying and they can interfere with my next action which is what I am trying to stop to be able to strike down at least one big demon down. The Skull Knuckles were already covered in demon blood but from the looks of it, even if it was covered by so much blood, those blood won''t really cover it because the knuckles itself absorb the blood. Maybe this was the reason the Skull Knuckles wanted the blood. My proficiency in battle finally returned and all my experience prior to becoming a magician returned to me. All of the mastery of the martial arts have returned to my mind while in bloodlust mode, causing me to use them to defeat enemies again and again. The demons attacked me once in a while and sometimes, they even attacked me with tricks like one demon will sacrifice himself and grab me from behind which allows the others to do whatever they want with me. Of course, they were just dumb enough that they think they can restrain me once and for all. With the help of Blazing Shoes, I activate its power to get me to do a backflip. Usually, this won''t work but because my enemies are demons, it is much easier to do that with just a front kick alongside beating up a demon trying to fight you in front. Kicking the enemy in front allowed me to gain momentum to do a backflip. The demon holding me at the back did not expect that and before he knew it, I slammed myself to the demon while aiming his stomach with my elbow. This method works every time and the demons seem to be not able to block it for some reason, might be because they can''t really react on time or they don''t have enough intellect on the move that I just did. With all the demons getting pummeled to death, the smaller demons were forced to back off and in the end, the remaining demons are the bigger ones. There are only 5 of them but they are all equipped with heavy weapons that if you are hit, you are dead. "Hey, Kazuma, the chat is exploding of comments right now, do you want to check it?" "Nope, not right now, I need to concentrate with the demons in front of me." The bigger demons started to encircle me and they looked like they are about to kill me if they managed to grab a hold on me. Then again, the brass knuckles in my hands started to vibrate again and the same voice of that guy started to ring inside my head. "KILL! KILL! TASTE BLOOD AND KILL!" "Right, right, but wait for a bit." Just as I was about to attack, a demon appeared in front of the demons and from the looks of it, she seemed to be someone who will be dangerous. "I see, so you are the one who are annihilating my troops. Unforgivable..." I looked at her and frowned. "That is not my fault, you sent them here, and if they are here, they were going to be killed anyway. You should have known that." "I see. You are someone who prefers to kill or be killed. Fine, I will make sure you will beg for forgiveness and die..." she grinned and raised her right hand out. Her sharp claws started to get red and sharper than ever. Her eyes started to get into color violet to red. "Since you have killed enough, I think it is your turn to die..." I turned serious when the voice of the Skull Knuckles once again rang in my head. "RELEASE! DEMON BASHER VERSION 1!" As soon as the voice uttered that, the Skull knuckles started to shake wildly and it felt like they started to root in my hand. I also felt the pain as something pierced my knuckles. The pain is so strong but I bared it too hard as I gritted my teeth. I just noticed that the Skull Knuckles turned into a menacing weapon however, I don''t think I need to continue observing it, my focus was all set into the demon girl before me. "Ha, I see, I think you are going to go all out huh? Then go! It''s kill or be killed!" Chapter 59: Battle to Death Power surges through my veins and the feeling of bloodlust almost overwhelms me. If I was not disciplined enough to handle the bloodlust, I would have been consumed by it, luckily, my discipline training from doing hand to hand combat in the past, I managed to keep a hold of myself and keep a hold of the reality. Still, this is one of the hardest sh*t to handle in my whole life. The demon woman grinned and unleashed her demonic aura more stronger than before. "Whose bloodlust is stronger, mine or yours?" "Shut up woman! Yuto, Yuri, can you defeat her?" I looked at my familiars while still trying to hold the bloodlust coming from the Skull Knuckles. "N-no master. Even if we get the power of your mana, her power is much more stronger and dangerous. If we ever try to fight against her, we would be killed instead!" Yuri said as she looked warily to the female demon. "Heh, looks like your petty familiars are all afraid of me. They have more brains than you." I didn''t react to her statement, instead, I just gave her a stare and issued a command to my familiars. "Return guys. I will handle this alone." The two looked at each other before they returned. But they apologized before they disappeared, "Sorry master, we can''t help you on this one." The female demon looked at me in surprise. "Oh? You are going to face me alone? That is interesting. But aren''t you just foolish?" Responding to her taunts are not really something I have to do. But I have to attack and defeat her alongside the other demons surrounding me. This may be idiotic without any support to help you with the battle but I don''t want anyone, including my familiars to suffer death. Me alone is enough to deal with her. This is not overconfidence but what I believe. "Blazing in the world across the land and sea, cover the wheels of fury and bring flames to my path! Blaze! Blazing Shoes!" Flames engulf the whole shoes I am wearing. Before, when I got the shoes and gloves, there are two chants that appeared in my mind after I managed to touch the two items. I didn''t really take them to heart at first until now. These spells will unleash their hidden power that can be used once a month. Although it is only usable once a month, this is enough for me to give doom to the demons. "I don''t care what you are planning to do. Your own option only is to die and that''s it! Deal with him!" the demon shouted as she ordered the big demons to attack me. Without faltering, I move my feet which is now engulfed in flames. The demons might be some force to reckon with but that doesn''t mean they can just give their attacks and kill me. With my movements giving me a little bit of speed, and the trail of flames were left behind. The club''s of the demons all miss as I slide around. When I saw a chance, I tap my shoe to the ground before I made a leap and landed on the arm of the striking demon. I never made a movement like this before but I started running on his big arm towards his big head. And without giving the demon to grab, I leap from his arm and raised my fist. "Come and taste my anger! Bloodbath Rampage!" The Skull Knuckle''s glow red and increase its big spikes. I brought down my fists to the demon''s eyes and pierce it with my fists. The very warm blood spurts out of the eye of the demon and the demon started scratching his face. However, I don''t intend to get caught by that and activated the special attack of the Skull Knuckles. BANG! In just a single punch, the demon explodes to pieces and his flesh started raining from the sky. I quickly left the demon and landed on the next demon just next to the demon who just exploded. The demon was startled by my action that he raised his weapon up and smashed his shoulder with it. Of course, I am not an idiot that will stay there and get squashed. With the help of my shoes, I glide to his body and before the club smash his shoulders, I already changed my position and occupied his neck area. While he was still writhing in pain, I grab the chance to punch his nape. With the piercing damage of the Skull Knuckles, it isn''t a problem for me to tear the nape area of the demon. I continue to punch and tear the flesh of the demon''s nape with the sharp points of the Skull Knuckle. I finished my series of attacks with a blast of flames on his nape, burning the remains of his nape fleshes. The flames spread out to his body and his insides suddenly catch flames without any reason. However, I don''t need to think too much about it. "Fools! What are you all doing?! You let this guy just kill all of you? Fools! Lend me all of your lifespan and I will finish this guy by myself!" the female demon shouted in anger and raised her hands and pointed them to the big demons. The demons were not expecting this to happen and were about to run away but the female demon''s hands started to suck the surrounding demons into her. I just realized that she was not sucking the demons but their life force. Her aura is starting to overwhelm too and her body seems to be getting stronger. The big demons fell one by one with all of their life force taken from them while the female demon grinned and stares at me while licking her fingers. "Good thing that only works on demons and not on humans isn''t it? If that would have worked..." Before I can react, she darted from where she is standing towards me and attacked me. I quickly blocked her attacks using the Skull Knuckles but who would have thought that I would be sent flying. I landed on the wall and spurt out blood. "...you will be dead too, right?" I looked up and saw her standing in front of me. The bloodlust in my body disappeared all of a sudden when she grabbed my neck. "Your power came from the bloodlust of yours, right? And from your stance of fighting, you are not yet a good magician. Perhaps, you are still a newbie? Fufufufu... Then this will be worthwhile..." I am running out of air and the pain from my neck is getting unbearable for me. I am almost about to pass out but I have to defeat her or else, the bastard students would be dead and I don''t want to see them in the afterlife after my death. I am also running out of mana from my continuous use of the Blazing Shoes but the remaining mana is enough for me to release one last magic. I aimed my hands to her chest and before she can notice, I released the torrent of water out of my hands, causing the female demon to release her grip and fall back. "Bastard...You still struggle despite the inevitable?" she raised her arm and about to strike me. I can''t move anymore and was about to collapse when... ZAAAAPPPP! "What?!" the female demon looked around and saw a guy standing on the wall while his left hand is still stretched out and his palm is still emitting smoke. I can''t see his face because I barely can open my eyes. "His life can still be saved, but yours is already hopeless..." Chapter 60: Conclusion (Epilogue of Arc 1) "Who are you?! Don''t you think you can just butt into other demon''s business whenever you liked!" the female demon roared and give a scratch to the man on the wall. "Oh, it''s my business alright? This guy is someone I know so why would I not interfere if he is being overwhelmed by a chick demon," he said as he jumps off the wall and released a lightning bolt towards the female demon. "You are making me angry!" she bit her thumb and blood flows from the wound. "Catalyst of Blood: Curse of Anubis!" A magic circle appeared on her hands and the circles started to rotate very fast. However, the other guy did not even falter and put his hands in his pocket only to pull out a candy and pop it on his mouth. He yawned when the magic hits him and looked at the female demon with boredom. "Are you done? I thought you are trying to tickle me but my tickle spots are far from the areas you touched." The female demon almost chokes out when she heard the remark. "How the hell are you still fine?! I already cast a 4th tier curse magic! Any magician hit by it would suffer and those inexperienced will die immediately!" "Oh, that? Sorry to inform you that I don''t think it would work. My whole body is able to block all types of curses so that only means that everything that is a curse type magic directed to me would immediately nullify the damage to my body." While the guy was explaining, the female demon dashes forward and swiped the area where the guy was standing earlier but all of her strikes miss. The guy disappeared from sight. She looked around but failed to see him. "Lightning Form No.3 Lightning storm!" CRACKLE CRACKLE! "AHHHH!!" The female demon screamed and retreated as her shoulder on the right was burnt completely. The rest of her body was luckily able to survive but her body was not able to block a dangerous attack. It''s not even a serious attack. "I heard the general demons are stronger than normal ones and I thought you are one of them. However, why are you so weak? How come you pose no threat to me? Or did am I just too strong for you?" "Bastard! I am one of the 10 generals that my liege has sent in this area to deal with you all!" "I see. So my hint was right. Never expected that you will tell me that sooner." The guy raised his hand once more but he looked neither menacing or neutral. He is smiling. "Demons begone!" ZAAAAAPPP! CLANG! The guy paused when his magic bounced off. When he blinked, the female demon disappeared. He looked up and saw a male demon holding the female demon on his shoulder. "A candidate for the Councilor''s seat huh... Who would have thought that you would appear here." "Trying to save your subordinate from death huh? You two need to perish!" he shot out an arc of lightning but the demon swipes it off with his left hand. "I don''t have time to play games with you. Our goal here is done, we will meet again," the demon said and flick his fingers and a portal appeared beside him. "Did you think I will let you escape with that woman?!" he shot out another arc of lightning towards the demon but he disappeared in the portal and it closed before his attack hits. He sighed and looked at Kazuma who is trying to get up from the pain. However, he is on the verge of collapsing. "Hey, are you still awake boy?" Kazuma tried to respond but he soon passed out. "He passed out eh? I guess this is the second time I will be saving you, boy. I think I will ask for a good payback for you next time in exchange for this. But first, you need to get you to Otome, you can''t be dying here without giving any kind of payback to me." ... When I opened my eyes, my whole body no longer aches and I realized that I am no longer outside fighting and suffering. The Skull Knuckles are still in my hands, might be due to the restriction of it that only I can take it off. I stood up and realized that my wounds earlier that I have sustained were all gone and missing in my skin. I don''t mean I want them back but it is just strange to find your wounds missing without even being administered with any kind of treatment. WAIT... Did I get healed by magic? Getting up the bed, I realized that the pain in my body did not really disappear. There is still that slight pain I am feeling and I don''t think it will disappear soon. I looked beside me and saw Irina sleeping beside the bed I was sleeping in. The others are also asleep, even Godou and Otome. Moonlight is still out and sleeping in the bed adjacent to mine. There is only one guy awake and currently browsing something on his phone. He noticed me immediately and put his phone on his breast pocket. "Looks like you are awake." "Voltaire-san?" "Yep, you were pretty beat up earlier and I thought you would hit the bucket. Good thing that you didn''t get wrecked." "Eh? How did you know that I was being beaten up?" "Don''t you remember? You are live streaming your battle against the demons, remember? Everyone who is currently watching the video can see what you are doing and what is happening to you." "Ah..." I remembered that I was live streaming and looked at my phone. Good thing that the live stream already ended. "If I didn''t arrive, you will be dead already and I don''t think you will be able to become a true magician if you are dead. Dead men tell no tales as they say. Therefore, you shouldn''t challenge an undefeatable adversary. You are not immortal." "Looks like I am still a weakling..." I muttered as I looked at my trembling hands. "For someone who is not afraid of death, you easily lose your momentum of things. Just remember that your progress is already something that is totally monstrous for us. For you to get to learn Light Blast and Water Torrent in just a few days, is already something else. You just became a magician 2 weeks ago." "Huh?" "You didn''t realize? What a monster..." Voltaire muttered. "Anyways, what happened to the demon I am fighting with?" "She escaped. The remaining demons in Tokyo already disappeared already and the magicians already did the repairs and mind wipe while you were out." "So that means Irina is..." I looked at Irina. "No, she has the affinity of using magic which might be due to her mother''s magic inheritance. But she is still not used to it so she was spared from the Mass Mind Wipe. Anyways, I have a recommendation for you. The barrier will lift up soon but that doesn''t mean that the danger against the demons will stop. Someone can help you get your magic get stronger in a short span. Are you interested?" ... In a certain place, the same guy who stood on the top of a building and the demon who rescued the demon girl is standing on a hall alongside some demons who has overwhelming auras. The female demon that Kazuma and Voltaire fought is also in there. Everything was quiet at first, but then, darkness started to fall on the place and the demons started to kneel down. "We welcome you back, Master Shadow. The first step to the destruction of humanity is done. We are waiting for the next order." END OF ARC 1 Chapter 61: Recommendation Two weeks after the demon invasion that apparently failed after the intervention of the magicians which includes me, everything returned to normal. For the people who unfortunately got killed in the event were given false accidents and were devised to have died in some sort of freak accident. Although we are magicians, even high ranker magicians have no means to revive the dead. It is a big taboo in magecraft to perform dead resurrection rituals. Magicians who do that are called Necromancers but they don''t use humans on their magic except if the necromancer is a rogue magician who broke the rules. Society is back to business again in Tokyo and all of the damages that occurred in the city were all repaired by a bit of restoration magic. If you are one of the individuals who did not get affected by the mind wipe, you would never expect that something happened a few weeks ago that killed most people if not for the intervention of magicians. But due to this, the Council of Magicians has been very active lately on hunting the leaders of the demons and exterminating monster-infested places and malice marked areas. I guess they are trying to stop whatever the demons are planning and don''t want to repeat the incident. Me? I am already fully recovered from my injuries and the occasional pain from my muscles is already gone too which is pretty good too. Moonlight already managed to recover from her mana over-usage. Of course, Otome did not forget to scold her from going too much even with her injuries. Godou did not suffer anything so he is fine, and Irina, well, she tags along with me now since we are just neighbors. After she has known the identity of her mother who is a magician healer, she was able to avoid the mind wipe. Now, she is planning to learn magic too but her mother said that she is still too naive to learn one so she was required to undergo training for someone. Now that I mention training, Voltaire also did mention that I will be undergoing some sort of training. Although he is vague about what sort of training it was, I decided to accept it without even knowing anything about the training. "Hey, Kazuma, stop daydreaming already, your teacher will scold you if you keep on making that goofing face. Also, you can stop monologuing by yourself. If someone heard you babbling that crap, they would think that you are crazy or something." "Can''t you just keep it quiet Blue? If not for the fact that you can speak with me on my mind, I would be crazy about how to shut you up around other people." "I don''t talk while there are other people, can''t you see that I am abiding the rules of the magicians to not reveal the existence of them? Even though many people have seen them before, it''s not really counted since most of them have forgotten everything especially your heroic deeds that almost cost you your life." "Heroic deeds? That is just for my own sake and not for them. Everything that happened that time is not really meant for them so don''t assume that I did it for them." Yep, we are back to normal lives and my life is back to its normal cycle. About my rumors, by the way, those things are one of the memories that got removed. Apparently, Godou asked the magician who did the mind wipe around the area to remove the memory about the rumors about me so that there is no more conflict of whatever concerning to me. Due to that, everything is now peaceful without the eyes of the whole school on me. Well, the campus queen seems to be wary of me but she seems to have forgotten what makes her wary of me. Maybe the time that I confronted her caused her to get in high alert from me. DING DONG, DING DONG As soon as lunchtime arrives, I carry my lunch and headed to the rooftop. Ever since the events of the demon invasion, Godou, Moonlight, and also Irina are now hanging out here since we can see a vantage point to look on the school ground to the gate. Although Irina is not yet an official magician, she would be one soon once she gets to train. Godou is helping her with magic while Moonlight just goes to the rooftop to eat lunch and sleep afterward. When I arrive on the rooftop, I saw the usual trio with an addition of a cat...which is standing with its hind legs... wait... I rub my eyes to make sure I am not mistaken. And the cat is still standing with its hind legs. Of course, the cat is not being held by its front paws. It is standing on its own and the three are currently facing on the cat who is opening its mouth like it is talking. Proceeding to enter the rooftop, I saw the cat looked at me and grinned. "Looks like the slowpoke is here. Come here and listen. I already excused you all to leave for a month at school," the cat started talking. "What?" I looked at the cat in confusion. "Didn''t you got recommended by Voltaire to undergo a training right? Then you will come with us too." "Wait, wait. Hold on. You are a cat that can talk. I know I have seen much more weird things before but what is this all about?" I looked at the others who scratched their heads in unison. "I forgot to introduce myself. I am the moderator of the chat group and I am the holder of the Phantasmal Reality Dimension. I will be in charge of your training starting today. My name is Catmod in the chat but you can call me Nekoyama-sama." Catmod is a cat? So his username is not just for style but because it is exactly telling what kind of creature is behind that username! Looks like I still have a small idea on how wide and mysterious the world of the magicians is. Chapter 62: Arrival to the Another World "Now that you all are here, we need to depart immediately," Catmod said. "Wait, wait! So soon? Can''t we just have a little bit of time to prepare like a change of clothes or something like that?" Erina interjected. "I agree with Erina. We can''t just keep on wearing our uniforms for a month without changing. Sure that the anime characters don''t change clothes but we are not one and that would be stinky," Moonlight seconded. "No worries. Clothing is one of the items that the place we are going into has plenty. You don''t need to worry about the no clothes since there are varieties in there. You just needed to change," Catmod explained. "Eh? Already?" Erina looked at Catmod with an uncertain look on her face. "Of course. With the harsh training, clothes are one of the priorities for the people on the training grounds so you don''t need to worry about it. Anyways, I already got the approval of your parents and the teachers so you all need to come with me." I glance at Godou before I asked Catmod. "Even Godou and Akari-san are undergoing the training?" "They are not an exception. They are not yet that strong in terms of magic combat. Although both of them have explosive powers, they can''t control it that much that is why I am going to bring them along." "Umm, I have not learned any magic yet. Is it okay for me to undergo training without any magic skills?" Erina asked. "You will find out later, girl. You don''t need to worry too much about it. So, are you guys ready? We won''t be coming back here until the time allocated for the training is done though." "Can I say goodbye to my mother at least?" Irina asked. "Your mother is going to be the medic in the training so she would be there. I don''t think saying goodbyes is necessary. We can go immediately, is there anyone complaining?" No one answered because I don''t think I will have to say goodbye to any relatives at all. "Since no one is objecting, I will teleport you all there immediately," Catmod said and swiped the air. "CAN''T I EAT LUNCH FIRST?!" However, everything is too late already. As soon as he did that, several Magic Circles appeared all around us and started spinning around. A huge magic circle also appeared beneath our feet and before I can even find a comfortable position, the teleportation process started and it caused me severe dizziness that before we arrive at our destination, I passed out. ... When I opened my eyes, it was like the whole surroundings are still spinning and I almost feel like I am about to puke. I don''t think I can hold on to the feeling of hotness in my throat while my vision is still spinning. I was about to stand up and puke when I felt a warm and comfortable feeling cover my entire body before the hotness that I feel in my throat disappeared. "Huh?" I rose up from laying on a bed and realized that I am in a room I am not familiar with. What is more, what the heck is this bed? Why is it covered in Gold and silver engravings?! This is too extravagant even for me! The room too is very grand and classy. No, it was more like it is designed for nobility. This is not a room I SHOULD be sleeping with! I deserve to sleep on the floor! (Even if the floor is also glittering with gold color which I doubt was made of gold. Maybe it was just the color.) I didn''t get to shout or complain because there is someone else in the room, I presume to be the person who helped me recover on my dizziness. Then I just realized that it was Otome. "Looks like you are fine now. Is there any kind of pain you are feeling right now? I can cast my healing spell once more to thoroughly remove the symptoms." "No, I don''t think I feel anything. I feel fine right now." I said as I rub my stomach a bit. "I see. Then you would be fine now to join the others to the training grounds?" Otome stood up and pick up her shoulder bag that is sitting on the chair next to her seat. "Wait. Where are we anyway?" "You have arrived here in the training grounds. This place is the Phantasmal Reality Dimension. A place where time flows differently than in the normal world. If you want to learn more, go read in the info logs in the chat group. Everyone who does not know this place will learn more in the chat group. I am a little busy so I will go first alright? The layout of the map is on top of the table next to the bed so you won''t get lost. Anyways, I will be going now!" I didn''t get to say anything as Otome disappeared from where she was standing which is perhaps an ability of teleportation. I put my hand in my pocket and the phone is still there. "Yo, Blue. Are you there?" "What do you want now, Kazuma?" "Can you explain properly where I am?" "Okay... wait, you should go out first and find your way to the training grounds. Its been a few hours since we arrived here and I don''t think that cat will wait for your late ass to find your way to the training. You might miss the opportunity to train in magic. I will explain along the way." I nodded and glance to the table beside the bed and unlike what Otome said, there was a small sphere that I don''t have any idea what is the use for. There is no map that she mentioned sitting here. Or perhaps this is the one? There is a small button on the center of it and when I pushed it, a hologram map appeared being projected above the sphere. Then I just realized, that the map covers an entire globe, not just an island. More like the continents on Earth have shrunk and almost clumped together, forming the whole world. In short, it was an alternate Earth. Chapter 63: The Second Batch "Hold up, are you saying that the place we are in is no longer Earth?" I asked Blue. "This is just an alternate dimension of Earth. We are still on Earth but at the same, we are not due to the effects of the Phantasmal Reality which is to make its own reality. In short, this place is Earth an alternate Earth at the same time." "So, this could be counted as an Isekai?" I scratched my head. "Then how come you are not sent here by Truck-kun?" Blue retorted. "..." ... With the sphere map which I can zoom in and out as I please, I just needed to find the training grounds that Otome told me about. I tried to locate it immediately but I underestimated the size of this place. I was like in a labyrinth that is a mansion too at the same time. It has confusing hallways and dead ends causing me to curse. The good thing is, it didn''t take me too long to escape the hellish labyrinth-like hallways. I arrived in an empty entrance where it looks grand and usually seen in high-class mansions. There is also a pair of stairs that lead to the second floor which is covered in gold. I don''t know if it is pure gold though. Ah...no time to dawdle, I need to get back to the group immediately. As soon as I reach the door and push it open, I arrived in a very big dome and I saw a bunch of young and matured people, male and female alike, standing around the place and talking in groups. As soon as I emerge on the door, the people started to look at me with weird gazes. "Hey, a newcomer?" "No idea. He looks new to me." "How come he is alone? Where are his companions?" "He looks weak. I bet he will be one of the guys that will be sent out immediately." I can only crease my eyebrows on what they are murmuring about. Disregarding their talks, I decided to continue my search for the others. Unfortunately, with the crowd so dense, it would be hard for me to find them. I am not that tall and most of the people here are all tall and towering giants. I don''t think the Mana Scan would help either since it only works in identifying demons and not for clairvoyance magic style where you can use that vision to look around. Before I can search far and wide, a voice I am familiar with rang around the whole place in echo. "Hello and welcome to the Magic Camp Training. We are currently commencing the first batch on the other side of the map so the second batch will also commence shortly to the other half side." I don''t have any idea about what is going on and what would happen in the meantime but I am trying to locate Moonlight and the others. Still, I didn''t neglect to listen to what Catmod is saying so that I can get the gist on what is going on at the moment. "Since the young magicians who are still in need of training or trying to hone their skills go to the annual training, the number of participants is just too great and we have to use two batches of magicians. We already divided the magicians of the two batches and as you can see in the hologram balls you all are holding, the first batch had already gone into the other side of the mini world." Hologram balls? Is this what the balls that give out a holographic map is? So this one does not just give the map, but also a real-time screening to the others? I tried looking on one and fiddled on it a little bit and soon managed to hit the right button and displays the ongoing battles. I was stunned to see beasts and wild creatures attacking other magicians. However, most of them are using magic and exterminating monsters rapidly. I swiped the screen and found out that I can see different camera POVs of different people. When I swiped again, I saw the three guys I was with earlier, Godou, Moonlight, and Erina. Currently, they are fighting a monster and from the looks of it, Erina is not yet able to use magic but since she is holding a shortsword which is somewhat similar looking to the bamboo sword that Moonlight uses. Wait...so does that mean... "Since you all are here, that means that you all are in batch two. The objective here is to train yourself here in this place with actual combat. Of course, for the beginners, I will explain. In this Phantasmal World, we are in a world where monsters are roaming freely. Of course, they already managed to create their own ecosystem here. These monsters don''t really diminish in number immediately that is why we used this opportunity to train magicians. "Of course there are risks. Since you are fighting monsters and beasts, that means the injury is inevitable especially death. Of course, we make sure that no one dies but we also cannot really avoid a group or two dying in here." What? So that means, we can die if we made a wrong move? What the hell have I participated in this for?! "Of course its dangerous and for the sake that we can attract magicians to fight the monsters, we added the points and exchange program. Every monster you killed will be equivalent to a certain amount of points depending on how fierce, strong, elusive a beast is. However, group hunting will have a point distribution system. Anyone who managed to give help, like assaulting the monsters by group, this will yield points that are divided to every individual he was with. Of course, the number of points will be distributed properly. If a warrior managed to deal the final blow and managed to become the one who killed monsters, they will earn greatly. And not just that, you can exchange your items using the points you earned to any reward that can be useful to you as a magician as part of encouragement to everyone. So don''t hesitate to kill monsters if necessary. By the way, the points can also be viewed by the Hologram balls." I am a bit short so I can''t see what was going on but from the situation that I felt, I guess there was someone who raised his or her hand to ask a question. "Mr. Nekoyama, can you give us details on what items can we exchange with these points you are talking about?" "Well, I can tell a few but only a few and not all of them. If you want to check out everything, go visit the store yourself. For some of the exclusive and most sought item, we are going to let everyone exchange this Seed of Life. For those who didn''t know, the Seed of Life can increase the maximum lifespan of the individual who ate it. Of course, an individual can only eat it once and the second one will no longer have any effect. Anyone who wants to lengthen their lifespan would really sought for this item. Of course, this is one of the most expensive items so if you want to get this, earn points and train hard!" I see, so in short, this would be your typical beast hunting and magic gathering something that is usually so cliche already? Ugh, I should have stayed back home and relaxed. I don''t think there is something I need there. "Kazuma, I just got info on what the other items are being exchanged right now." "Huh? Is there something important being traded there?" "Yes, in fact, it was something you need to use for limiting the bloodlust out of control situation you get into whenever you overuse your usage of the Skull Knuckle." "There is an item like that?" "Yes. However, it is in the category of the expensive items being traded for points right now. This would be very useful for you and I suggest that you get points to efficiently use the power of the Skull Knuckle." What Blue said is good. In fact, it is very useful especially due to the effect of the Skull Knuckle. With a problem of losing control every time I exceeded the amount of bloodlust I can control, I really need something that can lessen the chances of me losing control. Catmod started talking once again. "Since most of you are already in groups, then I will teleport you all to the location already. Good luck and if anyone of you are unable to move on, then please click the emergency button on the Hologram balls. That way, we can have someone rescue you all. Have a good time practicing and surviving. Further instructions will be sent to you so don''t forget to check the hologram balls once you all are in there." In groups? But I still don''t have a group! I am all by myself! Before I can even complain to say that I am alone since Moonlight and the others already proceeded without me, the teleportation happened in a flash and before I knew it, I am transported to a forest of monsters called Treants, all by myself. "F*ck! Give me a f*cking break!" Chapter 64: Leaderboards Surrounded by five giant treants with ugly faces and vines wriggling about, I quickly summoned Yuri out of the battle to assist me. "Master~ It''s been a while since I got to taste your mana, give me a little please?~" "Yeah, yeah, just help me get rid of these annoying trees!" "Okay~" Yuri winked and released a charm attack and all of the treants started to stop in their tracks. "You can use them on trees too?!" I looked at her in shock. "As long as they are animate objects, they can be charmed, whatever they are! Be it rock golems or wooden puppets, they can all be charmed by my powers!" "Well, that is reassuring and since they are monsters, I guess killing them is the only option and I need to do it in quick precision!" I grab the gloves in my pocket and put it on my hands. The only thing is that my Skull Knuckles are left behind on my bag and the bag is left behind too in my locker. Damn, this is so frustrating and I will be relying a lot on Yuri and my magic on this one since I have no weapons at all. "Blaze! Burn to the Ground!" With a single swipe in the air, flames started to burst out of the gloves. The treants are still under the charm status and so they can''t do anything to this. Grabbing the flames, I throw it to the direction of the treants. Most of them had dry wood on their bodies and the attacking treants have vines attached to each other with some that have already wilted. When the fire hit one of the treants, it didn''t need another fireball for the flames to go bigger. The unlucky treant ignited. "Let''s get away master before everyone gets caught up to flames!" Yuri said and dragged me out of the area. The flammable parts of the treant were easily caught on fire and didn''t take too long for them to burn like firewood. All of them are swaying their branches and screams in a weird way before they became ashes one by one. "Well, that was a bit easy I guess?" I scratched my head and grab the Hologram Ball in my left pocket on my pants. I fiddled on it a bit and found the right button to display the number of points. Name: Kazuma Fukuyama Status: Alive Points: 2,500 Wait, did I have a starting amount already and managed to get a lot of points already? But that is illogical since this would be exchanging items with points and giving out free points would be like giving out freebies. You can just quit and still get items. Or this is the right amount of points I earned by killing those treants? "From my analysis, the Treants give out 500 points per kill. Since you killed five, that means this would be the exact amount," Blue said. "Wait, so they give out this many points?" "Most likely." "So does that mean that they are strong?" "No, actually, Treants can be considered as low tier mobs here on this area that you are dropped in but they gave out plenty of points which is pretty generous. Most of the time, magicians who have the affinity of fire farm points here until there would be a few dozen left. Of course, it would be a different story if you have no ability to use flames. Treants are not easy to kill and they needed a severe amount of time just to kill one without using fire magic by newbies." "I see. So since I used flames, I get plenty of points. I will take that and that isn''t bad for starting the hunt. Even though I started solo, I already gained a lot of points." "Also, from the looks of it, Nekoyama forgot about it but since there is a database about the past training, there is one function of the Hologram balls that Nekoyama forgot to mention but for those veterans already, they already know this function." "A function that I don''t know?" I fiddled once more to the Hologram Balls and one function I didn''t expect appeared. It was a ranking board. My name is displayed as number 5 in the ranking already. Wait¡­ what? This is being ranked?! "Looks like you found it, yeah. The additional function of it would be the rankings. Since you are already in the top five, magicians would be aware of you more and will try to find you." "Huh? Find me? What, are they trying to take my points? That is impossible right?" "Unfortunately, you hit the mark Kazuma. This is one of the things that veterans knew and a surprise to the newbies. Newbies are the ones easily screwed up on this unless they can handle themselves fine. Since you are a newbie, I will tell you this. The points can be earned by defeating monsters but the easiest to gather them is by defeating the said holder of points. Once defeated, dead or alive, all of the points you earned so far would be sent to the victor and will leave you barren of points. This can be called a dirty way of earning points." F*ck, and here I thought this kind of thing won''t occur. Basically, many other magicians who want to earn points without engaging in monsters are to defeat a magician who already has a good amount of points. I only read and found these kinds in RPGs and some stories in manga and cultivation novels. Who would have thought that even this magic oriented novel would use that kind of crap! Seriously, I would roast the writer for making this kind of crappy plot which is making it dangerous for me! "What are you muttering there master? Did you get hit in the head while being teleported here or something?" "Ah...don''t worry about it." "So what is your plan here Kazuma? You have a variety of magic skills but that doesn''t mean it is enough to defeat a magician who practiced magecraft for years." "I guess I have to lie low for now. Avoid showing up to other magicians unless being discovered while hunting for points. I need to get that item that can lessen bloodlust right now." "You won''t trade for the seed of life?" "No, I don''t think I will trade for one and if I did, that means I have excess points but I doubt it if that item is one of the expensive items being traded. I am content of my own lifespan at the moment and it is not something I really need. What I need is something that can help me in fights rather than an increased lifespan. As a magician, fighting enemies would mean that I am risking my life on the line. That extended lifespan won''t really help if I died from battle so that would be a useless investment." "I see your point." "Anyways, I need to get out of here. The smoke coming from the Treants will attract others here soon so I need to get away as fast as possible." "Kazuma, take all the drops that the Treants dropped after death. They can be sold or used as materials if collected." I nodded and ordered Yuri to collect the drops as we retreat from the area. This is a training but this is also a battle that stakes your life. Without my friends here to help, I have to survive on my own means and survive the entire month here in this Phantasmal whatsoever it was and get back to the real world. My struggles had only just begun¡­ "Ah¡­ Kazuma, can''t you just shut your monologue once in a while? You are getting cringy as time goes by¡­" Blue quickly said. "Shut it, let me do my only job." Chapter 65: The Second Day The sun is almost setting and thankfully, I manage to find an uninhabited cave for me to stay for now. With all the monsters lurking all around the place, it would be hard to deal with things that are more active at night. Shelter problem, check. Oh, I also have to say that some of the monsters are safe to eat. Earlier today, I managed to kill a basilisk, a big chicken monster with a tail of a snake. According to Blue, it can turn you into stone if you look straight on its eyes but to me, it''s just a hybrid of chicken and snake. In short, I burned it alive allowing me to roast the basilisk. After confirming with Blue that the flesh of this monster is available for consumption, I butchered the carcass and managed to get my food for the day. Food problem, check. There is also a running stream nearby and a few herbs that Blue also confirmed to be herbs for healing wounds. The stream is near the cave so it was a pretty ideal spot for home. Water and medicine supply, check. The only problem left is that I lack the change of clothes. With only my uniform as my own clothes, I have to take extra care that my clothes will not get destroyed here. It would be bothersome to buy a brand new uniform. Somehow, the whole situation is alright for me. Not that bad but not that good either. And when the night falls, I started to burn the wood that I gathered earlier using my magic skill and prepared the basilisk meat. With only meat and there are no spices, I am only left with eating roasted basilisk. The taste was not bad, and it is certainly much tastier than the original chicken but since I am not a professional cook nor I have condiments to make this basilisk meat tastier, it only tastes bland chicken to my mouth. "Just where did these monsters come from? It clearly exists only in novels and games but now I am seeing the actual thing. Are they some kind of exotic species that only exist in this place?" "These monsters are already existing ever since the world was created but due to the violent and destructive nature of these monsters, they didn''t get the chance to live alongside humans and magicians. They were all banished here. Therefore, the other side might be flourishing from buildings, but this place is flourishing with monsters and wildlife." If these monsters were to break out and managed to find their way to the other world, chaos would surely break out and an all-out war will occur. Ever since I found this phone, I would never expect everything would be happening and would think that these places and creatures would only exist in the imagination. Now that I think about it, the phone was the source of everything. Ever since I moved into the house of my late parents, I wouldn''t be dreaming of becoming a magician. "Hey, Blue. Do you perhaps know my parents by any chance?" "..." Blue did not respond for quite a while. "Is it a confidential matter?" "I am sorry Kazuma. This is a confidential matter and even me has no power to fully tell what is my relationship with your parents. But I am pretty sure you already deduced what they are already." So my hunch was right. My parents were magicians. However, their identities as magicians are nonexistent in the catalog of magicians that listed all of the magicians known in which can be easily opened and accessed in the chat group of magicians. "If that was the case, I wouldn''t bother asking but I will try to find the real identity of my parents and what they really are in the world of magicians. Maybe I would find an explanation of why I was left alone by them to my relatives." After that, the noisy Blue did not respond much that night which leaves me talking with Yuto and Yuri before I go to sleep. ¡­ Today marks the second day of my training on this other world. I marked this place on the map to make sure that I can return here if I needed a shelter. Of course, I didn''t bother to covet this place. I won''t be staying in this place for too long anyway so I didn''t bother putting any marks that I am taking this place like leaving a few belongings here. That way, this would be a real survival. My day started by killing a few carnivorous plants. Since they easily got burned by my flames, they didn''t pose much challenge to me. I still have the leftover basilisk meat with me so I didn''t need to gather food this morning. After that, I killed a few more monsters I met on my way. There are harmless monsters that I passed by and since they didn''t bother with me, they were not killed too. I only kill the monsters who get the attraction to me as food. Most of the monsters here are carnivores and there are rare cases of herbivore monsters and only eat fish types too. My points went up steadily without much problem and at the end of the day, I managed to get my points to 10,000 which is a lot. Most enemies that I killed are all weak in flames so they didn''t get much chance of surviving. On the other hand, there are more monsters that are very strong against flames. However, they don''t pose much threat too with some of my other magic skills and even some of them can be killed with just a little bit of grapple. Overall, I didn''t have any trouble from earning points it''s just that with my points, the number of other magicians looking to take my points would escalate soon. Just as I was about to find some food for lunch, I detected other magicians in the area and currently surveying the place. I didn''t lay myself in the open and quickly goes to a hiding. "Are you sure you detected one magician here?" One of them asked. "I am quite sure. Though its presence disappeared just now. I don''t know what happened to him." "Damn, I bet that guy has lots of points. We need to try and take that guy down if we find him here and grab all his points. Don''t give mercy to him." Oh, are they one of the rumored guys who steal other magician''s points? Then I have no choice but to leave. These guys would spell trouble if I get to show up near them. However, I never expected to see a group of female magicians gather on the stream and started undressing. From the looks of it, they are about to take a bath. I have no intention of peeping but there is a huge chance of the two groups to cross each other. This is really bad. What should I do in this situation?! P.S. I didn''t get a boner, I am not a pervert and J have self control. Chapter 66: I Am Not Popular Dammit! I kept myself hidden and observe the movement of the guys. Of course, I am observing the movement of the girls too but I prefer to lessen it so that I won''t get a boner at all. After all, they are getting a bath. If possible, I want the two parties to avoid contact and combat while staying hidden. That way, my presence is still unknown while I managed to do the good deed. This kind of deed is unnecessary really but I can''t help thinking what will happen to them if I leave them alone and get assaulted by the guys. I don''t think I will be a hero but I can help them in small ways that won''t become one of my guilt later on. There is a fruit on the tree that I have climbed on but according to Blue, this fruit is poisonous and certain monsters can consume this item safely and humans are not included on that so that means it is okay for me to use it. Plucking out the fruit, I waited for the right timing and when they are not looking, I quickly throw the fruit to the nearby bush. As soon as the fruit hit the bush, the leaves rustled causing the group of men to get their alertness raised. "I think I saw a movement on that thick bush over there!" "Let''s go and investigate!" I am quite impressed by my accuracy in throwing now. Although it is still beyond perfect, it was quite accurate already and almost ready to hit the bullseye. The only thing I lacked is that I have not gotten a good amount of experience. The group of guys was easily lured away and soon, I can see them straying more and more. I monitored them via Mana Scan and they were going further and further to the area where the girls are. After making sure that they are already far from the area, I sighed in relief and was about to go down when something grazed past my cheek. I felt the warm liquid flowing from my cheek and caused me to go alert. Without checking what caused the wound, I jump down the tree and activated the Blazing Gloves and Burning Shoes. As soon as I landed on the ground, countless weapons are being aimed at me immediately. "Trying to escape you peeping tom!?" I just realized that the people aiming me their weapons are the girls who are bathing earlier in the stream. One wrong move and one of the weapons might kill me immediately. I needed to time my next action from escaping the grasp. "I am just a passerby and didn''t peep. I just climbed the tree to find a good vantage point on the area since it lacked a good area to look around the surrounding vicinity." This alibi is feasible since there really isn''t an area good enough to use as a vantage point and the highest vantage point available to my position is far from my location. "Like hell we believe that alibi of yours! Do you take us as fools? We have seen different kinds of perverts like you say the same old alibis!" I looked at the girl talking. Honestly, she is beautiful and her body is flawless. The only thing is that¡­ she is as flat as a road. The other girls who are currently aiming their weapons at me are all varying in beauty and all of them are gorgeous. But the one speaking has the only one with a flat front. There are 6 girls surrounding me including the person who is currently doing the talking. I can overpower them if they are newbies and I can escape them if I use my martial arts to counter their weapons. However, it will be a hard time if they use a magic close range. "Well, if that is what you believe then fine, I don''t need to refute anymore because I am lazy in bargaining." "So you admit it then?!" she looked furious as she said that to me. She put the tip of her weapon which looks like a halberd to my neck in a very close proximity. "Did I say something like that? Who said I am admitting it?" Without warning, I quickly erupted my gloves to scare them and the tactic was effective. They were startled by the flames in it that they loosen their weapons in that instant. It was enough for me to break away. BANG! I quickly lay down and slid through the empty space in front of me before I got back up to my feet and started running. "Hey! Get back here!" She shouted to me as she throws the halberd in my direction. Colliding on the halberd will prove as a fatal move, therefore, I quickly dodged by jumping to the other side. The Halberd almost hit me in my back and managed to get away without a single graze from it. However, that doesn''t mean I can easily get away from their grasp. One of the girls, a woman with a small stature but has a big "personality" chased me using her twin daggers. She is faster than the rest and she is on my tail right now. "I will make sure that you will be silenced from your misdeeds, pervert!" she shouted to me as she chased me. "Don''t let that bastard escape Ino! We will make sure to castrate him for seeing us naked!" The girl from earlier said. "Woah there, I didn''t even masturbate so spare my joe from this! It''s innocent!" I almost broke in a cold sweat when I heard that. That is very scary! Anyways, this situation seems familiar... "Kazuma, I think I concluded that you are eternally branded as a pervert. This is the third time you are branded as one. All of these girls you are trying to save wanted to label you as the mighty pervert! Should I add that as one of your achievements in your profile?" Blue snickered. If Blue is not inside the phone and acting as the AI of the phone and the chat group, I would have already smacked her down. Then suddenly, I got an idea. "Yuto!" Yuto immediately appeared as he flew following me. "Master? Do you need some help?" "Can you do something on those chasing girls?!" Yuto looked behind and saw the girls carrying their weapons chasing me relentlessly. "That was f*cked up Master! I admire your ability to be popular with girls!" "Ahhh! I didn''t want this! And also this is not being popular feels like! You are misunderstanding something!" Chapter 67: Weird Attraction from Girls The girls were surprised when I summoned an incubus out of nowhere but that didn''t stop them from chasing me to the ends of the Earth. "Yuto! Do you have some sort of charm-inflicting magic that can stall these women in a small amount of time? You are an incubus after all." "Charm magic that works well against women? Of course! I am an incubus and my magic is something to be used for female targets. You summoned me in a good purpose master!" Yuto said then winked at me. "Come on, I am not like that!" I think we are in a deeper part of the forest. I have not dwelled on this place before because it is a bit unsafe for me at the moment but to outrun these women, I have to use the foliage of the surroundings to escape. Channeling my mana to Yuto, he is now radiating with power and started to channel his magic power. Magic circles appeared before him as he floated mid-air while I am still running away from them. The female that is the nearest to me panicked when she saw Yuto channeling something. "Girls! Fall back! This guy is retaliating us using his familiar!" As soon as she said that, she did not get to escape the attack from Yuto. As soon as she was hit, the face of the girl chasing me started to get red and her eyes seemed to focus on me and she started to act weird. "Master~ let me hug you and kiss you mwa!" I quickly shoved her face off me and looked at Yuto with a weird glare. "What the heck have you done?! I said to stall her! Not to charm her like this!" "Eh? Master? Are you saying that what I did is not what you wanted?" I scratched my head and sighed in despair, I am so screwed right now. Seeing the remaining girls getting to come to my area, I decided to grab the charmed girl with me and resummoned Yuto back. Before they can get to see me and this girl, I already managed to slip away from them, causing them to lose track of their way. The girl keeps on rubbing her cheek on my body even though I already put her on my shoulder. "Ah, I really like your scent master! I want to smell it forever!" This would be the very first time I experienced something sensual like this but that doesn''t mean I will take an advantage on her. "I''m sorry," I whispered before I strike her vagus nerve, a part of the side of the neck that sends info to the brain. If you hit it, it will cause dizziness or unconsciousness to the target. That is why Chinese Kung fu movies where someone strikes the neck of someone can knock them out is plausible and possible movement. She was immediately knocked out and allowed me to carry her properly. She is a bit heavy but it''s not that bothersome. Leaving her here might cause trouble to her since there are many monsters in the area. She will be killed while unconscious if I leave her here just like this. After escaping the range of their search, I managed to sigh in relief. There was a nearby groove in the area and I scouted this place earlier and confirmed its safety. I lay her down the nearby tree and checked if there are wounds on her body which luckily didn''t exist. If there is a wound on her, and I return her to the group earlier, they might use the wound to blackmail me again that is why I can''t help but be cautious. Still, why do these girls always misunderstand my intentions? I am a reasonable and honorable man. How come they keep on saying I am a pervert? Because I am not handsome? Damn it, if you are not good looking, you will experience things like this easily. I gathered a little bit of firewood so that I can get to make a campfire. Staying on the cave last time would get me easier caught by the girls. I don''t want to risk my life here. Seeing that there is no one to cause any kind of ruckus, I summoned Yuto and Yuri out. "Yuto, how long does your spell work? Will it last for a whole day? If that will last that long, I will need to constantly knock her out every time she is about to regain consciousness." "Ah, master, you don''t have to be so excessive like that. Yuto''s skills for charming a woman for stalling do not last too long. From what I saw from this skill of his, it only lasts for an hour. If it is more than that, it would mean that he used the charm spell that he uses in the past to charm women for " his job," Yuri explained. "Sis, I no longer do that stuff. I am more devoted to my waifu right now so I am not going to glance to 3D women!" "Shut up, I am not talking to you," Yuri said. "Well, that is good to hear," I sighed in relief. "Still, I can''t be really sure of letting her wake up for now. I don''t know if she is strong or not. With my skills being mediocre, if she turns out to be an elite one, I would be screwed. Should I tie her up? What do you say, guys?" I looked at my familiars. "Actually master, I guess you should let her be. Tying is excessive already and violent. And besides, she is not that strong based on her mana density that exists on her body. She seemed to be more reliant on strengthening magic," Yuto said as she observed the woman. "Strengthening magic?" This time, the one explaining is Blue, "Strengthening magic is a type of magic that allows the user to reinforce an item or the target using the said spell, like for example, the dagger on that girl. With the runes being engraved on her dagger, that means she is using magic that allows her to strike harder using these dagger. Basically, she can hit harder than usual and she can cut through steel using that knife if she did a strengthening. You can say it is similar to buffs." So that means, she might not be a strong magician but she excels in using weapons?! Crap, this is what I call a bad thing. I am proficient in fighting hand to hand but against enemies with weapons, if I have no weapon to defend myself, I am surely wrecked if she wakes up. Either way, I am still screwed. "Screw this, let''s just tie her up." I hate this kind of attraction I get on girls. Can I get a normal one, please? Chapter 68: Hostage In the area of the other world where the magicians earlier gathered has finally turned desolated. Only Catmod and Otome are left behind along with a man that seems to be in his twenties who has snow-white colored hair and wears a tuxedo and formal black pants. Beside him is a girl who seemed to be around the age of ten but has the air of an adult. Her hair is similar to the guy on the tuxedo and she is clad in white kimono. She is holding a small bear that is carrying a big crystal ball around the size of a human''s head. If you observe her face properly, you can see that her eyebrows are white and her eyes are also a bit blurry. From the looks of it, you can tell her that she is a blind person. "You really have visited personally here, Zacharias," Catmod said as he snaps his finger and most of the items that he was using to amplify his voice disappeared. "Have you done what I told you earlier?" "Yes. He is currently holding around the rankings spot number 5." "I see, that is good. He is showing potential," Zacharias nodded. "Just what is special about this kid? He just joined the chat group a few months ago and now he can use a few amount of magic spells. I have not heard of any family producing a magician like him." "He is the son of the "those two." From the looks of it, he is using the same phone that "those two" built with the spirit of knowledge living on that machine. If he is really worthy to be a magician and surpass his parents, he can be a crucial part of the future. He may be able to continue what his parents did not accomplish." "But he is just a newbie. He barely uses magic skills right now and prefers to use his martial arts." "It takes time to train someone in our ways. He didn''t have a teacher to teach him magic yet he managed to learn it by himself. That means he is someone who already shows potential. That is why this will be ideal for him to be separated from his companions. We need to test his capabilities while he is alone." Catmod scratch his chin and sighed. He glances at the blind girl and shook his head before he stares into the hologram floating in the air in which, it currently displays Kazuma cooking the snake monster he just killed earlier¡­ ... The girl earlier finally woke up a few hours later. I also managed to kill a few snake beasts earlier with the help of Yuto and Yuri allowing us to get food. It''s getting dark and the sun is almost set on the horizon. When she opened her eyes, I already disarmed her with her weapons and hidden weapons. Of course, I didn''t do the inspection and weapon retrieval. I employ Yuri''s help on that job and successfully removed 20 hidden blades on her body which is a ridiculous amount if you ask me. If I didn''t let Yuri do this, there is a big chance of me getting backstabbed by her if I try to let her go. She looked around first and tried to move, only to fail and realized that she was tied up. She tried to use the hidden blade on her gloves but realized that it was missing. She raised her head and saw me looking at her while grilling the huge snake. "What have you done to me?! You pervert! Release me at once!" I looked at her in disdain. Did she take me for a fool? Only idiots would do that and I am not going to be one. I disregarded her demand and continue to grill the snake. "This is why all men must be eradicated! You all are rotten pieces of humanity!" I didn''t answer her and just continue to grill the snake. The smell is getting good and from the looks of it, it is getting cooked and soon enough, it will be ready to eat. "Oi, didn''t you hear me? Release me at once!" She was one heck of an annoying girl. I have my fill of them in the past and now I am accompanying one who seems to be a man-hater. "Why are you not responding?! Hey, answer me!" Even though she is struggling to free herself from the bindings, I didn''t respond and say anything as I focus on cooking the snake. When the snake was fully cooked, she stopped struggling and stare at the snake. It was clear that she is getting hungry from her face. As usual, I just ignored her and started peeling the snake. I have never eaten a snake before but I have seen many documentaries and survival shows that is showing the hosts eating snakes. Usually, they will peel the skin but some eat it, though I doubt this one can be eaten and safe aside from the meat. The meat is tender and when I took a bite, it was a bit chewy. I thought I was eating a chicken but it was definitely a snake, just has a bit of different flavor and texture. I took a glance again at her and I can see her gulping. I am not a heartless person but I am not a nice one either. I will let her suffer a little bit. Call me a cruel guy and I will not really care. "H-hey, can you give me a bite? I am a little bit hungry¡­" That was fast. I usually thought she would act tough for a while to keep her pride on the line but I guess the stomach''s urges are stronger than her will. I approach her and tried to feed her but she quickly complained. "Why are you trying to feed me? You can just untie me from these vines!" "I am not a fool and I taking the necessary measures to stop you from escaping. I can''t trust you after all," I said and explained. "I refuse to do this!" "Then I will not give you this," I said and took the snake meat away. "Ah! No! I am a little hungry already! Please don''t burden me more!" "Then bite this. I won''t allow you to get released on your bindings. If you refuse then I will no longer give you many chances to eat." Hearing this, she reluctantly took a bite and started chewing. "It doesn''t taste good." "Who cares about the taste? You shouldn''t be choosy. I only grilled this sh*t, don''t expect something spectacular gourmet food. This is a magical novel, not a cooking show." "Novel?" "No, nothing. Anyways, if you tried to escape, I dare you to try. I doubt you will be able to retrieve your precious weapons." "You pervert, taking advantage of a girl while she is unconscious." "For your information, I let my female familiar do the bidding of removing all your hidden blades. Even the blades that you hide by magic are not spared so just give it up for now until I give you the weapons again." Chapter 69: Weakness Perception Part 1 A/N: For those who keep on saying that the novel seems to be missing chapters, please read mg author''s note at the end of every chapter. I already announced it many times. If the chapter doesn''t connect to the next chap, then that means you have arrived in the latest revised chapter. Please read the author''s note guys. ~~~~~~~~~~ The sun has completely hidden on the horizon and the night sky accompanied by the darkness envelopes the whole place. On our side, the light coming from the bonfire keeps the darkness from completely invading our visions. The girl who is still tied up already stopped struggling. She must be tired of trying to take the bindings off on her body which seems to be not giving her a chance to do so. She is just behaving right now and I already know that she is already tired of struggling. Meanwhile, since I have to keep my eyes on the hostage, I don''t want to sleep tonight so I decided to check the chat group. As usual, the banter around the channel is chaotic. But I noticed a few pings in my messages. Since having a ping in this chat group means someone mentioned your name or your username, I decided to search for it. Since this chat group did not implement the @everyone command, it was quite straightforward if you get pings. It''s either you are being mentioned on the chat or someone seems to be trying to get you to respond immediately. When I searched it, it was all the messages of Titan, Godou''s account. ... Titan: Kazuma! We have gone up ahead because we are not able to bring you with us. We are sorry about this. Titan: You fine now Kazuma? I heard that there is a second batch on the trainees. Maybe you should join them. But I think you need to form a team. Titan: Be careful on the side you will be teleporting with. Beasts are much more hostile than the enemies we are facing right now. Don''t be hasty with your decisions and keep a cool head. ¡­ All of his messages are about the dangers and how I should do this and that. I appreciate the concern but I think I get the gist of this place. However, he was indeed right when he said that the monsters are all dangerous. There are many of them that I can''t beat up using my magic skills alone. Beating them up with bare hands takes a long time to finish and it will guarantee a kill if I combine them together with my familiars. I really need to deal with them and my solution is decided. Learn magic. "Blue, I need a good magic skill that would be helpful to me in surviving this forest. It seems like I won''t be able to fend off enemies with just these abilities of mine." "I keep on telling you that I am not an AI like SIRI! I am the proud soul of this app! I am not solely the one who needs to do that job! You can do it by yourself!" Blue protested. "I am a busy man and I am always full of things to do. On top of that, I don''t think you are busy, in fact, you are very idle. That means you are perfect for the job!" I reasoned. "Oh? I see so that is how you see me. Indeed, I am the perfect candidate for the job-- not! Do you take me for a fool?! I am a soul! Not an AI, can''t you understand the word?! The spelling is already different and you still can''t differentiate me to them?! This is outrageous!" "Just do it, you will have a better use if you become one." "F*ck you¡­" Blue said before the channel for the magic skills appeared on the screen. I grinned on this one because Blue is always something that gets pissed easily despite being an AI though I am starting to doubt that she is an AI. She is too intelligent for that¡­ "I am intelligent and don''t compare me to AI programs because I am not designed and made for this kind of madness! Also, you should have known that I can read your mind! So don''t start mumbling like that like you are retelling some stories!" Damn, I forgot that Blue can read my mind. I can''t believe she has a function like this. Oh well, I have to do something to avoid me falling asleep while keeping that tied up girl on guard against monsters lurking in the dark. I browsed around when I saw one magic skill that was just posted a while ago or more specifically, just a minute ago. Also, it seems like it is not a skill, it is like a passive one and in need to awaken it to fully utilize the skill. ¡­ "Weakness Perception A passive ability that can perceive the weakness of the target. Depending on the mastery of the user, the weakness displayed will vary and the lesser your mastery, the weaker version of the weakness will be displayed while the better version will be activated if you are well versed and good at using this one. Just like other spells, it varies whether you can awaken the skill or not. ¡­ There are other skills that look interesting too that are being posted by the same user which is named "The Oracle". The spells that are being posted almost came from this user. Maybe he or she is the one who gets to have priority to use this channel and give out spells? The new ones are all elementals and one is nature control. But the Weakness Perception really hit me with curiosity. This is a unique and good skill. Being able to learn the weakness of the enemy is something that will be useful especially if you are in a foreign land where danger and enemies lurk on every corner. Having at least this kind of ability can guarantee you to fight back. I was about to try the procedure when the girl that I tied up earlier looked at me with curiosity. "What are you looking at?" I asked the girl. "Are you trying to learn a magic skill?" "Ah yeah. If I want to survive the wilderness, I have to get new skills. Also, this is a method to quickly get me to earn skills as fast as I can. With not so many disturbance around, this is the perfect time to binge learn the skills." "Are you insane? Did you know that skills can be easily learned for consuming Skill Genomes rather than manually learning which can take you to 1 month to years!" [ol][li data-annotation-id="eafd7fac-ca81-5bc3-e506-d83071cff7a6"]This is inspired from Ryougi Shiki''s ability in Kara No Kyoukai which is Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. To those who are interested, it was an anime series named Kara no Kyoukai: Garden of Sinners[/ol] Chapter 70: Weakness Perception Part 2 "Uhh¡­ I don''t know what you are talking about but most of my skills were from the chat group and I only got a skill genome from one of my companions to help detect a demon but other than that especially the offensive spells, it came from practice." "Are you trying too hard on this one?" "Uh¡­ I am not and I don''t know where to get additional skill genomes at the moment so I will just stick with the manual training. Also, I don''t need too much time, just give a few hours or so." After that, I decided to focus on the task and ignored her. I made sure that she is safe though but other than that, I just ignored her without doing anything that can annoy her. I focused on the skill learning instead. The Weakness Perception is one of the skills I am eyeing for and since it only involves the mind, I decided to check it out and try it. Due to the nature of the beasts in this forest which is they don''t share the same weaknesses due to their elemental affinities, killing them while relying on magic alone is not easy. I can kill a few monsters using my bare hands but that doesn''t mean it is a permanent solution. With the Weakness Perception, I will be able to find the weakness of the enemies easily without much problem and allowing me to take down enemies easily. The ability takes a little bit of time to learn and that is to put yourself in the shoes of a blind person because you need to enhance your perception of a weakness fast. I closed my eyes and focused my mind. At first, it is a little bit hard to focus because of the forest''s sounds like crickets and rustling sounds of the trees. However, it takes a little bit of concentration to do it. I made sure that Yuri and Yuto are nearby to guard me against enemies and also to guard the girl I tied up. That way, I won''t have any trouble with something amiss in the surroundings. For some reason, while following the direction on how to do it, my energy seems to be sucked out or in precise, I am getting drained. I can feel the sweat on my body start to drip out of my forehead as I try to keep myself concentrated. Also, it''s not just that. I can hear different sounds coming in my ear but since Yuto and Yuri did not respond nor the girl I tied up started screaming, I decided to disregard it. Then, just as I was trying to get myself in relax mode from concentration, all sorts of terrifying sounds started to resonate on my ear and my eyes are about to open to look at what was going on. But because I want to perfect the way to learn it, I didn''t do it and remained on doing the practice. Just as I was about to pass out, I heard Blue''s voice on my side. "Open your eyes now Kazuma. I can tell that you already learned it." This time, I decided to open my eyes and I almost fell to the ground because I almost lost all my energy. Good thing it didn''t take me too much that will cause me in a weakened state Yuri and Yuto helped me settle down and I sighed in relief. Also, I can see that there are changes in my vision. It was much clearer than before and I think that my reaction time is a little bit faster using my eyes. "Did you just learned the spell you are talking about?" The girl that was tied up asked. "Yeah. I don''t think I have problems learning it." "Are you bluffing or what?" "I already told you that it is up to you to believe me or not. And besides, this is not an active skill I learned but somewhat a passive ability. So it would be pointless to say that I can show it to you for proof." The two of us did not speak after that and I rested up so that I will recover my strength as soon as possible. Staying in a weakened state is something you don''t want to happen in this forest and besides, enemies might be observing me now. If I remain in a weakened state, I will be an easy prey which is something I want to avoid. I took a little bit of a nap but of course, I made sure that my two familiars won''t do anything that can trouble me by summoning the little kitsunes with Kon. I saw the surprise look on the girl that I tied up earlier but I decided to ignore it. The next morning, before the sun goes up the sky, I am already awake and decided to hunt. With my familiars guarding the girl, it is safe for me to venture out. I needed breakfast for today. The last piece of snake meat I got the other day already got digested inside our stomach last night so that is why we no longer have food left for breakfast. The grass and the bushes are a little wet and the surroundings are a bit foggy making it a little bit hard to navigate fast in the area. Still, I needed to hunt. Holding a shiv I made from sharp flint I found the other day, I made my way around the place. I scouted this place before and I am sure that the nest of the basilisk I hunted before is still here since I did not take it. However, I didn''t expect to see two basilisk on that nest. They did not notice me yet but I made sure that they are not going to pose a problem. The only problem they can cause is their petrifying ability. I can fight one basilisk but we are talking about two of them here. As I stare at them, my vision started to focus on them when I saw a data appeared before me. BASILISK Lv. 20 Points when killed: 100 Weakness: Weasel Urine I was flabbergasted. Is this really the ability of the Weakness Perception? But it says here that its weakness is Weasel Urine? Can''t I just throw a fireball to this monster instead? I want to eat the monster and I don''t want to eat something that smells like piss of the weasel. Then, an update appeared once more. BASILISK Lv.20 Points when killed: 100 Weakness: Weasel Urine, Fire Magic, Sneak attacks, Light Magic Chapter 71: Participant Killers It got updated? Is this some sort of data gathering and functioning skill? This is the first time I heard about this. But since the weakness of the Basilisk is updated and the weakness includes the method I used last time, I decided to just kill the basilisk in one go. Hurling two fireballs in two hands, I throw them to the two basilisk who are still oblivious about what was going to happen to them. When their snake tails saw the fireballs, they acted too late and they were hit by them. Remember that my flames can burn many things to ashes, the Basilisk was immediately fried by the flames. What was good is that the Basilisk has a little bit of resistance to flames allowing them to survive the flames coming from my gloves. And with that, I managed to get 200 points once more. I know I am no longer occupying the spot when I started out because I am not that active in hunting but the amount of points I earned is not to be scoffed at so I am a little bit fine on it. I made sure there are no more basilisk around and after securing the perimeter, I took the fried basilisk and returned to my camp. Just when I was about to arrive, a flame arrow suddenly shot out from nowhere and narrowly missed my cheek. Activating the Mana Scan, I was surprised to see 20 people surrounding me. Each of them has weapons and some had prepared magic skills like the flame arrow earlier. I was forced to drop the basilisks to the ground. I need to take care of them. Due to the situation, I decided to take out the nearest enemy without hesitation. The slight hesitation I will make will also result in another grave situation. I learned a lot about the battle against the demons and leaving them like this will only bite you back in the future. Unleashing the flames in my hands and bursting the flames in my shoes, I was sent flying straight to the target on my sight and grab the head of the assaulting guy. He didn''t expect his cover to get blown immediately but I made sure he won''t be able to move. When I glance at him, his weakness is also revealed which is something else. "Participant Killer #7" lv. 19 Weakness: Hit on the balls, fatal kick in the crotch, slow reaction time¡­ The weaknesses to exploit goes on and on. However, I am not really interested in what his weaknesses are. The way the name of this guy printed in my eyes as Participant Killer makes me frown. This guy is one of those rumored killers of participants? And what is more, I counted 20 of them! Since one of his weaknesses is his reaction time, I decided to exploit it in my own way. As expected, when I appeared before him, he didn''t get to react immediately. The others though already reacted and started throwing their spells at me to prevent the number 7th to get beaten. However, I am not a guy who never thinks away. Grabbing the 7th, I quickly moved behind him and forced him to stand in front of me, blocking all the incoming attacks. He screamed in horror before he was assaulted with different spells and attacks. He didn''t get to have a second chance as he died from the attack. Although I didn''t kill him directly, I think this is counted as my kill since I pushed him to his own death. I am a bit terrified from the thought of killing someone but if I didn''t do it, I will be killed instead. But f*ck this, I have no choice and killing that guy is the only way. What is worse is that I have 19 more guys to eliminate. I never killed before except if you count the fatalities that I did when killing demons otherwise, I never killed anyone. I am still someone who don''t kill without any reason but if they are forcing me into this situation, I have no choice but to kill. "F*ck! He killed him! We can''t let him get away with this!" A guy with a bandana and crossbow shouted as he pointed at me. The others are still hidden but I already glanced at them and their weaknesses were all revealed before my eyes. I calmed down already and if they are willing to kill, I will also kill, though I will be doing it unwillingly. With the help of my shoes, I managed to move with good speed. The flame arrows that one of the enemies released did not hit me at all. Of course, I am barely able to dodge them all because they are shot out so fast that it is hard for me to escape. Clasping my hands together, I started channeling my mana and cast the Ice magic I learned spontaneously last time I was about to enter a GATE. From what I can remember, it''s called Freezing Wind. When I released my hands out, the whole surroundings clearly dropped its temperature that even the leaves and droplets from the trees and bushes froze. The hidden guys were wearing light clothes and are not heavily wearing clothes meant for a cold environment. When the sudden cold temperature started to spread, they cannot endure the cold at all and they are forced to go out of their hiding places. "F*ck! What is going on! Why did it turned colder!?" "Damn! I almost froze my balls out there! I thought this is a tropical forest?!" The men started complaining. I grinned from this before I released a fireball to the first guy I saw. "Heat up your balls with this then!" BANG! The flames were fatal if they are not highly resistant to flames. When the guy was hit, his skin started burning that he started to roll on the ground screaming. "Aaaaaaahhhhh!" The others ready their weapons but due to the cold, they didn''t respond any better. They want to mess with me? Then I will start messing with you all by roasting your balls. Chapter 72: Escape "Fire! He is alone! We can suppress him with sheer numbers!" I killed only two but the remaining Participant Killers are now on the highest alert on me. "Kazuma, this is bad! We need to get out of here!" Blue said to me. "I know, I am at a big disadvantage here." This is a fight where I have a small chance of winning against them. Although I can mess them up, I don''t think I can easily wipe them out. My magic is underdeveloped and if I recall my familiars, the girl on the camp will be all alone and vulnerable. My only way to survive is to screw them up a little bit before escaping. This has risk but the probability of surviving is high, therefore, I will choose this way. I abandoned the idea of fighting them one on one. To stop their advances, I keep on conjuring fireballs and throws them randomly around them. I made sure that the leaves and trees won''t burn and cause a forest fire. That is the least I want to happen. The Participant killers did not manage to get into me since the flames on the ground are too strong and the smoke is getting thicker too. With the confusion underway on their ranks, I quickly slip away from their sight and escape using the grasses foliage and disappear. ¡­ I didn''t bother hiding and waiting for them to discover me, I made my out of the area by using trees. With the tree branches being near almost to each other, jumping on them from each other is not a problem and they don''t break that easily when stepped by a person, therefore, this is a perfect escape plan that won''t leave a single trace on the ground. "How did you manage to become a ninja Kazuma? Are you perhaps a ninja in your past life?!" Blue started talking. "Idiot, with branches so close to each other, it isn''t a problem to jump from tree to tree! If it was farther than this, I wouldn''t bother this kind of trick and just run on the ground!" There are occasional beasts that appear to surprise you while jumping from branch to branch but they don''t pose much threat to me since I can just punch them once with my flaming hands. I am not sure I killed them but I made sure to knock them out. To avoid the trace up of the enemies to my camp, I made a round trip back to my camp. When I arrived, the others are already eating lunch. Looks like they managed to kill a big monster while I am away. And I regretted it but I left the basilisk meat back there. "Welcome back master!" Yuri said as she munched on a monster thigh. "Keep them up for later, we need to get out of here, Yuri, carry the hostage. We will abandon the camp." "Abandon the camp? Why would we abandon this campsite master? Is there a problem?" "Yeah, killers might be tracking my whereabouts right now or maybe this hostage''s trail. And from the looks of them, they are either going to kill or be a hooligan and sold their prisoners as slaves. "You attracted those thugs?! What have you done?!" The girl shouted hearing that I encountered the Participant Killers. "Did you really think I wanted them to track me down? I am just hunting for breakfast when they interrupted my hunt! Did you just thought I wanted to attract their filthy eyes? Now stop complaining because we are going now!" "Why don''t you just leave me be! You can just use me as a bait for you to escape!" "Are you an idiot!? There is no way I will be leaving you to those bastards! I have read too many doujins that I already know what will happen to you if left here as bait! And that is not a good thing. Therefore, you need to stop complaining!" "Doujins?" "Anyways, Yuri, Yuto can you carry this woman?" "Master, we are not a cargo vehicle. Carrying this nasty woman is something hard even for us!" Yuri complained. Yuto was about to say something but Yuri is covering his mouth. "Master, I can do that. You don''t have to worry about her!" Kon said as he proudly patted his chest. "Huh? You can do it?" "Don''t you remember master? I can transfer to different forms whatever I want. I can carry her if I use my giant fox form!" "Alright then, if that is good then I will leave the transportation of her to you. Anyways, Yuri, Yuto, store that food away. We can''t afford to eat that here. We have to leave immediately. The two nodded and quickly cast their spells to store the food away. I don''t know how they did that but it is beneficial for us since I didn''t manage to bring the dimensional bag. Since I don''t have many belongings when I arrive here in this place, I didn''t need to bring anything to get away from that area. I can just abandon the place without any hard feelings. After packing the necessary items, I signaled my familiars and started to vacate the place. I cast a mana scan and I was relieved that we left the place because after we left the area a few minutes later, a few figures that I can tell as males in their figures arrived on the area. They have weapons in their possession and they are similar to those men I faced earlier. I didn''t bother to think where we will be going. It is going to be a long ride for now and since the deadline before we return is still a few more weeks, it will not be something I can do. The only thing left for me to do is to survive as long as possible. This is not a training regime anymore and this is not some teamwork stuff that you can rely on other participants. Although I am carrying a girl right now with us, that doesn''t mean I trust her. She is still on her bindings while riding on the back of Kon. Escaping the Participant killers is one thing, but that doesn''t mean we are already safe because the monsters in this mountain don''t choose sides. Looks like I will be facing a few tough days ahead. Chapter 73: Camping for the Night We finally got away from the Participant Killers, far from the former camp and I can see from my Mana Scan that there are no pursuers who discovered our trail. Although we escaped, I know that I will be meeting those guys sooner or later as long as I still remain here in this other world. Of course, I am not going to keep on running, I just decided to retreat for now and plan accordingly. I don''t want my familiars to do the dirty deed of killing those bastards. Best, it would be good to lure them to a dangerous place. But before that, I had to make sure this place is safe and danger free. Due to the Weakness Perception, most of the living things I saw, give out a panel on their weaknesses. The bigger the creature, the wider amount of weaknesses it possesses. Of course, not all small creatures have a small amount of weakness. It all just depends on the creature. I looked around the place and evoked the Mana Scan to help me locate any hidden enemy which luckily did not appear. The sun is setting already and the surroundings are starting to get darker. If we keep on going deeper into the forest right now, we will have a higher chance of meeting a big foe. When everything is secure, I let my familiars to camp here. Kon reverted back to its small form and returned so that he can recover his mana that he expended when he turned into a big fox. The girl looked around and sighed. She can''t do anything because her arms and legs are still on bindings which is restricting her movements. I approached her and started cutting her bindings which caused her to heighten her alertness level. "What are you doing?!" "Isn''t it obvious? I am cutting your bindings. I am not going to keep you a hostage anymore." "Huh? Are you planning something?!" I scratch my head and cut the last remaining piece of rope in her feet. "You sure have a wild imagination out there on your mind." SNAP She started to feel her fingers and stretched her legs again. She rubbed her wrists a little bit and glared at me. "Where are my weapons?" Hearing that, I looked to Yuri and signaled her to return the weapons. Yuri quickly obeyed and snapped her fingers. In an instant, all her weapons that were previously concealed on her body appeared on the ground. She looked at me and to my familiars warily before she started picking up her weapons. I sighed and started making the campfire. Of course, I made sure to make the smokeless fire pit to avoid giving out our location. When I was done lighting up the fire, I was surprised to see the girl that I released earlier still in there and currently leaning on a tree while observing my actions. "Why are you still here? I already freed you and you are free to go." "Did you think it is that easy to go away from this forest at night? I am not some dumb girl that will go on a suicide escape. And besides, I can tell that you lack the ability of social conversation and interaction with anybody. I don''t think you will do something bad to me if I keep on staying. Don''t worry, I will leave once the daylight breaks out." "...Suit yourself," I said. The air is awkward without any of us talking. Yuri is currently patrolling the area with Yuto so only the girl and I are left in the camp. Still, I don''t want to get on the initiative to start the conversation. I can last on not speaking with her for the entire night but I don''t know about her. And I was right, this girl did not manage to last the awkward silence between us and started speaking. "I apologize for our behavior last time." "Forgiven." "Eh? You are not angry?" "Of course not. I let bygones be bygones. I am not someone who bears hatred for a long time. What, you don''t want me to accept the apology?" "Well¡­ usually, everyone would be angry if they are accused by someone for the deed they did not do." "And what makes you think I didn''t peep on your group when all of you are taking a bath?" "I was able to know that you are not a pervert. In fact, I didn''t see you peep on me whenever I go pee somewhere." "Huh? Pee? Wait, hold up. I never heard you ask me to let you pee. How did you even do that? I mean, you are tied up from hands and feet." "I asked your female familiar, you know the succubus for help in peeing while having my bindings. The good thing is that your familiar is kind enough to help me with that. I guess it must be because we are both females." I slapped my forehead in shame. I forgot the fact that she might be in need to pee. I have not think of it as something I needed to take a look into that problem. "I am sorry. I forgot that you also have the urge to respond to the call of nature." "Ha, no worries. With your familiar helping me that time, I didn''t get into an embarrassing situation." She was right. If I was the one she called, I might be hesitating to do it. It was not something I would immediately respond kindly and calmly. "By the way, can I ask you something?" "Mmm, go ahead." "Alright. How come you possess multiple familiars?" "Huh?" "You have three familiars that I saw with you. You can easily recall them without a problem. I thought that the succubus and Incubus were your companions at first and the fox was your real familiar but when I saw you recall the two the other time, I was baffled since you possess multiple familiars." "Uh¡­isn''t that normal?" "What? Did you think possessing multiple familiars is normal to you?! That is not normal! A magician can only have one familiar in their entire life! I never heard of a case having multiple familiars even those strongest magicians I know! You are the first case!" "Uh¡­" "And yeah! You also learn magic without consuming the Skill Genomes! That is not something you can easily do!" "Isn''t that a bit too troublesome?" "It might be a bit complicated but it was clear as day that you need to consume a Skill Genome to learn a magic skill! The way you are learning it is unheard of! I consumed 12 skill genomes just to use the 12 magic skills I own!" What¡­ Did she really mean it? But wait, I remembered that Moonlight giving me a Skill Genome. So that means what she is saying is true? Then what the heck is this thing I am doing? How the heck I can learn magic without consuming a Skill Genome?! Chapter 74: Monsters The girl looked at me in a strange manner like she was staring at a foreign individual that is far from human. It was like she is currently thinking that I am a monster. "You are abnormal. I have no other words to say about you, you are an abnormality." "I don''t know if that was a compliment or just mockery." "I can say that it is both." "Ugh¡­" "An individual like you will be a monster if you try to learn all spells by reading and memorizing the steps. Also, I would be forever baffled if you get another familiar." "I don''t think I can get another Familiar. From the looks of it, three is my limit of familiars. I doubt I can get another familiar if I accept their contracts." "I don''t know about that but if that was what you are saying then I will try to believe it. Anyways, I am going to sleep." "What about dinner?" "There''s no need. I am not hungry." After that, she closed her eyes and put her arms crossed. I scratch my head as I glance at her. She seemed mysterious at first and you think she is a silent person but she is actually a very talkative person. Looks like you really can''t judge a book by its cover. While I keep the fire alive by feeding it with sticks from time to time, Yuri and Yuto arrived while carrying a young boar with three tusks on its mouth. "Master, we hunted a monster that we can eat for dinner!" Yuto announced as he put the dead boar to the ground. "Good. This is what we needed. Thanks to both of you." The two nodded and I quickly helped them by giving them their supply of mana which Yuri immediately grabbed to consume. The night is good with my belly full. Even though the girl did not want any piece of food, I left her with a slight amount of food. I am not a cruel guy who leaves someone in hunger. My conscience will stop me from being cold. ¡­ It''s been a few hours. I still don''t feel sleepy and I think this is the side effect of becoming a magician. Lately, sleeping seems to be unnecessary to my lifestyle anymore. It was like I don''t have the need for it anymore. However, it would take a few days before the sleepiness kicks in. Still, if I continue to improve my mana capacity and my magic power increase then it might cause me to no longer need any sleep forever. When the sun started rising on the horizon, I stood up and stretched out a little bit before looking around the area. Activating the mana scan, I sighed in relief and poured some water on the campfire. I also noticed that the girl is already awake and she is just observing my actions. "Morning, did you sleep well last night?" I asked. "It''s the same thing. Magicians do not need to sleep, a well rest can help to keep your mind intact." Just as I was about to answer, I suddenly felt rumbles on the ground. It is getting stronger and seems to be getting nearer. Without hesitation, I ordered my familiars to get recalled. Since I didn''t leave anything on the ground, I don''t need to grab anything. I rush forward and grab the waist of the girl. "Kyaaah! What are you doing?!" "Sorry, but we need to get out of here and get to a higher ground," I said and activated my shoes to blast out, increasing my movement speed. There is a tall rock cliff on the area and it is high above the ground. Focusing my eyes on that area, I jumped from the ground. Of course, to reach the area, I need momentum and with the help of several rock formations, I managed to reach the area without problems. "You should have told me that you will do that! I can do that myself!" The girl pouted. "Ah, sorry. I was in a rush so I forgot to ask permission." "So what is your explanation why you carried me up here then?" "There might be a stampede and we might get crushed if we continue below the ground," I explained. "A stampede?" I nodded. To be exact, I did not just felt it, I also saw it, to be precise, from the usage of mana scan that allows me to see the approaching stampede of beasts. Soon, the trees not too far from our campground, the smoke and dust started to rise up on the ground and the sound of hooves galloping started to ring in our ears. The rampaging beasts appeared after a few while and started to crumple on the area. Their hooves caused the stampede and with them rushing through, you think there is an earthquake. "Bronze Stallions!" The girl exclaimed as she looked at the beasts. "Bronze stallions?" I scratched my head. "They are the most common monsters in meadows in this alternate Earth. You can say that they are the wildebeest''s versions in this place. However, even though they are common, it was being said that once they band together, they are one of the most dangerous existence you will face in this place. What are they doing here?! They should only be located mostly on the clearings!" The beasts continue to run on the ground and even though we are above on the stampede. Just as we observe when the stampede will stop, my whole body started to shiver and my whole body is being heavy and unresponsive. Even though I wanted to move, it seems like I was paralyzed by the enemy. "What is this huge pressure weighing above us?!" The girl gritted her teeth as sweat started to drip on her forehead. Then, I heard a flapping sound and a strong roar that my ears seem to get deaf due to the strong power is released from the roar. "What monster is that?!" My question was quickly answered when I saw the monster in the sky, flapping its large wings. This was the first time I got scared in my entire life. Not even the strictest teacher in my school and the horror movies cause me to tremble so hard like this. The monster itself is something that only appears as bosses in games and one of the most famous creatures in the fantasy world. They can be seen as winged lizards. The Dragons... Chapter 75: Root Erasure The big monster hovering in this air is actually a big dragon! What is more, this dragon is breathing fire! I was too scared on moving. The sheer amount of pressure the dragon is giving is just too much for me to handle. This is something I can''t control. Before I can get away, the girl grab me and covered my mouth. I was surprised and was about to ask her what she is about to do when I noticed her chanting magic in gibberish language. When she opened her closed eyes, I was startled to see that her pupils are missing. Her eyes only displays the white color. "This! Kazuma, this magic is one of the lost Faerie magic, Root Erasure!" Blue blurted out on the phone. "Root Erasure?" "Although the name is a bit crappy, this magic is one of the lost Faerie magic that has been said to be passed down to the highest-ranking elves!" "Elves? Those guys with pointy ears and blonde hair and like to wear green clothes?" "Yeah, those are the ones. However, according to the magic records, the elven race has long been extinct after World War 2 where they were wiped out from the Magic War that also occurred during the world war." "Then what does this skill do? Erasing some sort of root?" "The meaning of its name doesn''t really imply to its effect. In reality, it has the ability of the skill "Conceal" but has a higher effect. If Conceal can hide one''s presence, Root Erasure can hide the root presence of a place or a whole village, moreover, a few individuals are not enough to describe its power. In short, your existence will disappear temporarily without any kind of skill and ability to detect you. If this skill is cast on you, the root of your existence will disappear during the duration of the skill." My existence? So that means whatever skills you use, if my existence is not there, then I can''t be detected at all?! "That is not all, according to the records, this is the magic they used to conceal the truth of elf colonies. That is why there are no people who have not seen them. They should have remained hidden until one elf betrayed the whole elves and spilled the beans to the evil magicians and launched an attack to annihilate the elf race." "So the elves are real?" "Yes. But that is what I am wondering about. This girl is clearly a human but how come she is able to use a lost Faerie magic?!" I can''t answer that because I have no answer to solve the mystery. Just like what Blue said, as soon as the feeling of the magic enveloped me, the dragon did not even look at us. It is just gobbling the monsters below one by one. It is currently following the stampede. The stampede lasted for around 5 minutes. And the dragon also remained for 5 minutes before it followed the tail of the stampede further away. I sighed in relief when I managed to make sure the dragon is no longer in the vicinity. I was just about to say thank you to the girl but I didn''t get to do it since she collapsed into the ground. "She is suffering from Mana Deficiency! She used too much mana to use the Lost Magic for 5 minutes! You need to inject a small amount of mana to help her get out of danger!" Blue said. "Alright! I will try!" Gathering the mana in my body towards my left hand, I observed the situation on the girl''s body. Her breathing is ragged and her body seems too weak to do anything. Her eyelids are half-open and seem ready to close anytime. When I finished gathering enough mana on my hands, I held her hands and transferred the mana slowly. Injecting the mana all at once will kill her so you can only do it slowly. It was a bit hard at first since it is painful to transfer mana to an individual. Although it''s different from mana transfer with your familiars, mana transfer with a human is painful. The good thing is that her condition turned better when I finished the mana transfer. She was still unconscious though. "Her vitals are stable and her mana starts flowing properly again. She is safe now." "However, there is still that dragon that we saw earlier. If that monster came back, we are going to surely die." "Yes, winning is not going to happen if you face against that dragon, in a worst-case scenario, you will end up as food for the dragon. Confrontation with the dragon should be avoided at all costs," Blue said. I am still weak and that dragon is certainly going to be way stronger than me. From the looks of it, I need to carefully tread on my surroundings especially the caves. If the dragon appears it would be the end of us. This girl''s power saved us from the nick of time. With the dragon''s senses, we might have been discovered if the Root Erasure was not activated. After making sure that the coast is clear, I carry the girl down. And yep, I still don''t know the name of this girl. I keep on calling her "girl" because I have no idea what her name is. Also, she does resemble the elves in the fantasy visuals and anime that I have seen in the past, minus the pointy ears. Welp, I don''t think I have the right to say it, I have to get into the safety first. ... With the help of Mana Scan, I managed to find a secluded cave. It is not that bad but it was a bit cramped than the last cave I used last time. However, this is good enough for concealing ourselves. The cave entrance is also covered with large bushes which allowed us to get away from any pursuers and also, the dragon won''t be seeing me soon. But what this girl said to me last time made me want to think. If what she said is true, then I can learn any skill I try to learn. "Blue, help me get a good magic spell that can obliterate a dragon. I think I needed something to beat the dragon up. If only the brass knuckles are here and I will be able to beat up the dragon to pieces." Chapter 76: Domain of Balmung "There is indeed a magic that can be used to slay dragons. However, this magic is too great and cannot be used by you. In short, this magic skill is impossible for you to learn," Blue answered. "Why? Is it too strong for me to handle?" "That is just one of the reasons. The second one is that if you want to learn the magic, you need to change a part of your body into a dragon. Of course, there are other magic that you can use but they cost a tremendous amount of magic and you need to be a sage just to learn the magic. With the current you, all I can say is that learning that magic will not work. If you have brought the Skull Knuckle, you might be able to beat up the dragon using the skill it has associated with whenever you punch an enemy." Hearing this, I frowned and fell into deep thought. It is too much for me to slay the dragon. And with the current weak me, I can''t do it. Also, I can just avoid the dragon completely. Due to the nature of dragons being nocturnal, it should have been asleep in the morning, but since we have seen its appearance in the broad daylight, it means that the dragon is actively hunting and might have just awoken from its deep slumber. "Is there another way to protect ourselves against that dragon? If there is no compatible magic for me to learn and use to kill the dragon, then there must be a magic that can protect us from the dragon." "Just like you said, there are magic spells that can help you defend yourselves against dragons. Root Erasure is one of that. I am sure that you have seen the effects of it which allowed the two of you to avoid being detected by the Dragon. There are other magic spells that are focused on defense and can be used to defend yourself against dragon attacks. The only downside is that it costs a lot of mana just to use it. With your current mana pool, you can use these kinds of spells twice maximum." "That is fine. As long as there is a magic that can allow us to survive the dragon. A single magic might be my salvation if either I get to face that dragon." "Haiiss, I just can''t believe I am being used like SIRI again. Oh well, if you die, I wouldn''t have anyone else to annoy with. So here, browse on these magic skills. I already pruned those magic skills that I am sure that will not suit your battle style." I smiled at Blue''s muttering. It is true that I am using this A.I on my phone like SIRI but as time goes by, Blue doesn''t seem to resemble SIRI as Blue can engage a conversation with me and answer me with different tones. I am beginning to think that Blue is really not an A.I that I really thought she is. Scrolling on the screen, I saw that all of the spells are defensive and all are barrier types. Most of them cover a whole area which might be the reason why it is somewhat limited to two uses for me and for why it cost a lot of mana. However, one magic barrier catches my attention. (Domain of Balmung) Balmung... This is the sword that the hero of the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried used to slay the evil dragon Fafnir. I thought this was just a sword. I didn''t expect that there was a version of the sword as a barrier magic. To be exact, with the association of the name Balmung to the spell name means this barrier is also an anti-dragon attack barrier spell. Since I am curious, I decided to click on the name and read it''s description and how to learn the magic itself. ... Description: A piece of power that the Balmung holds. Instead of being used as a power to slay dragons, this power is converted into a power that protects its user against dragon attacks. It is said that this power is just a replica power from the original Balmung to recreate its power to slay dragons which failed. However, this is enough to protect anyone who tries to attack the user with sheer force and not even the evil dragon Fafnir can destroy this barrier. Methods to learn the Spell 1. The skill is a barrier spell. However, protecting and defending is not the same. This barrier is not used to defend but is used to defend. To properly utilize it, you need courage and bravery to manifest the power worthy to use the magic. 2. This spell is used to protect, meaning it is best used if the user has something to protect. The stronger the will of the user to protect, the stronger the barrier will appear and will depend on whether the barrier is a weak and brittle one or a barrier as hard as a rock. ... The method is somewhat vague. It doesn''t give too much accurate method on how to learn it. However, it gives the most distinct and repeated words on the method a clue to how to learn it. It was to "PROTECT." If the Balmung in the story is a sword used to slay the dragon Fafnir, then this barrier is used to protect an individual against any attacks. However, that doesn''t mean it is precise on how to evoke the power of the Domain of Balmung. I scratched my head on the skill, this is something I don''t have any idea on how to evoke. Therefore, I decided to check on the other skills. However, the other skills are not that good than the Domain of Balmung. They are either too weak to sustain the power of dragon attacks or they can only defend the attack of dragon monsters. Since the Domain of Balmung acts as both the barrier against the attacks of enemies and Dragons, I am determined to learn the spell. "Blue, I am going to need some help on this skill. Assist me in learning the Domain of Balmung." [ol][li data-annotation-id="37e88306-ec40-8485-c4de-3fa6180326cb"]In Norse mythology, Gram (Old Norse Gramr, meaning Wrath) is the sword that Sigurd(Siegfried) used to kill the dragon Fafnir. It is primarily used by the Volsungs in the Volsunga Saga. However, it is also seen in other legends, such as the Thidrekssaga wielded by Hildebrand.Depending on the story and source material, Gram may have other names. In The Nibelungenlied, it is named Balmung. In Richard Wagner''s work, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), it is referred to as Nothung.[/ol] Chapter 77: Demise of the Dragon The Domain of Balmung was harder to learn than expected. Even with the help of Blue who gave me better instructions on what to do and what to avoid, I can barely set up the whole barrier. It was like I was not meant to use the spell at all. "Blue, this is impossible. Learning this spell drains my energy and my mana too much. How come this is very hard?" "That is expected. With a spell connected to the legendary Balmung, it is understandable that obtaining a spell even though it was a replica from the original weapon needs too much understanding, mastery, and endurance. You also need to require patience. Learning something like this spell needs time Kazuma. Your monstrous learning speed is also blocked out by the spell itself. It is better to do what you can just do instead of trying too hard on a spell that you might not need," Blue said. "I have no need? This spell might be the only spell that can counter the attacks of that dragon. I will have no more chance to do that if I don''t get to learn this one." "Well, if you really want to learn the spell, then you need to persevere. Anyways, I will go back to my slumber. The method that I told you is the same. You can do it alone." And with that, Blue goes back to slumber. The girl is still unconscious and my familiars seem tired as they didn''t do any noise in my head. With everything in mind, I continue the learning chances. It is hard and I never think I will be able to get it learned in a short time. After a few while, I found out that my mana is running low. "Damn it..." I cursed and lean on the cave''s wall. I sighed and grabbed a bottle of water that came from the dimensional storage of Yuri and Yuto. If I have known that those familiars of mine have those skills, I should have prepared food, weapons, water, and other necessities. I was resting when all of a sudden, I felt a presence not too far away. Ever since I became a magician, my senses have been enhanced a lot. I immediately carried the unconscious girl deeper into the cave while I activated my Mana Scan. I made sure to monitor the movements of the enemies. I can''t fight properly if there is someone I need to protect, therefore if these guys managed to find the cave, I will make sure to stop them at all costs. Luckily, they didn''t manage to find the place and they left. I was relieved, maybe the track I made a lot of effort to erase were able to stop them from detecting us. However, it is proven that this place is getting dangerous, both against humans and monsters. So much for training, this is survival of the fittest. I didn''t sign up for this... ... Around thirty minutes, my mana is full again allowing me to get rid of the fatigue. I monitored the movement of the Participant Killers for a while since they are still lingering not too far from the entrance of the cave. I am just making sure they are not going to find our hiding place until the girl is awake. While monitoring them, I also tried to study the structure of the Domain of Balmung since it is described in the chatgroup''s server. Although this is not the actual process, there might be some clues on how I can learn the skill as fast as possible. I was ready to deal and get exhausted again when I heard screams from a few men outside the cave. Of course, I have no intention to peek outside. I activated my Mana Scan and check the men outside. I involuntarily shivered when I saw a huge figure outside and the men that were color blue in the mana scan were all gobbled down by the huge figure while some were torn to pieces. If I have looked outside, I might have puked out my breakfast. The huge figure was the dragon that we met earlier and the participant killers were unlucky enough to be the target of the dragon as it''s next meal. The screams continued for at least thirty minutes. Two of the Participant killers were trying to kill the dragon and they were having a hard time. I dunno about it but the dragon seems getting slower however, I can tell that the Participant killers are getting weaker too. However, I have no intention of helping them. After around an hour or so, the movements of both the dragon and the Participant Killers halted and they are no longer moving. I waited for a few more minutes but there is still no movement. A few more minutes and I noticed that the dragon and the participant killers are turning grey. The killers were the first to become fully grey while the dragon only has a lighter shade of grey and blue. Is this my chance to beat the dragon? There is a big chance that the dragon will still be able to kill me even in it''s dying state but doesn''t that mean I will miss my chance to get the points? After hesitating for quite a few times, I decided to go and deal the final blow to the dying dragon and get the full amount of points needed. As I get out of the cave, the big body of the dragon immediately greets my vision. I have underestimated the Participant Killers. For them to kill a dragon like this, that really means they are strong enough but from the looks of it, they are caught off guard by the dragon causing their deaths. Still, they have died while also bringing down the dragon in return. The Participant Killers were killed brutally as their bodies were barely recognizable and one is even ripped to pieces. If I didn''t steel myself, it would have been a very troublesome puking session. I grab the bloodied spear on the dead guy who I remembered to be their leader. It is still a bit sticky with blood but that is washable. The dragon is still breathing but it is not moving. I was about to stab the dragon when all of a sudden, I heard a voice of an old man. "Are you one of these people?" I looked around to see if there is anyone else besides me but I don''t see anyone. I am not afraid of ghosts at all so I didn''t freak out but I am in high alert because it might be an enemy lurking around. "Sorry, I didn''t introduce myself, I am the dragon you are facing right now." Hearing this, I step back a little bit and grip the spear hard and ready to put the flames on it to enhance its power. "I see. You might have stained your hands with blood but you didn''t intentionally do it. A person who does both good and evil, a person who is in favor of good but has the tendency to do evil. You are not one of them." The dragon is talking to me but I am not surprised with all the times I have seen dragons speak in games. "As you can see, I am dying already. And my child will be alone if I am gone in this world. Dragon remains will turn to dust after we die so we are not much of use. My child will no longer be able to know where I may be. I may be irresponsible entrusting my child to a human I didn''t know but my instincts tell me you are not someone who will do that." "Are you telling me to take care of your offspring? I am a human, you should look for a dragon instead. And besides, dragons can live without any problem, right?" I quickly said. "No. In this universe, I am the only dragon. But in your world, the Dragons of the Land are still living. Asking another dragon is also not possible because dragons take pride in taking care of their own offspring while killing the others." I hesitated at first but I still wanted to know what will happen so I press on. "If I am going to take care of your child, then what will I do to get your child to grow?" "I will pass my knowledge in raising a child. Also, I will give you a task to find her mother. In exchange, I will help you learn the Domain of Balmung that you are trying to learn." Chapter 78: Dragon Inheritance "Wait, you are a male?! The heck? I thought dragons regardless of gender has the voice of an old man, so you are actually a real male?!" "Kid, I have not much time left in my body. You need to get to receive my reward before I breathe my last breath." "Ugh¡­ fine." When I got closer, I made sure that my body will be ready in case this dragon betrays me. However, I soon felt a warm light enveloping my body. Also, a new knowledge appeared inside my mind. But before I can react to the new knowledge, my left arm suddenly started to get painful and seems to be burning hot. "F*ck, f*ck, what is going on?!" I grab my sleeves and saw that my arm has an engraved tattoo that seems to look like a tribal tattoo that resembles dragon scales. However, the tattoo is not made from ink, it looks like it was burnt straight to my arm and it is not also a wound that can turn into a scab once it healed. "Now you are set to go," the dragon said. "What the f*ck did you do to me?!" "Isn''t your goal is to become a powerful human? Then I gave you something. Humans call it the Dragon''s curse. Although it is indeed a curse, it only affects your power. I put this to you to act as my seal to you and to make sure my daughter will not be tricked by a human. If you try to do anything harmful to my daughter, this tattoo will kill you the instant." I almost cursed. Isn''t this similar to slave seals and contracts? Looks like I am not trusted much to entrust a curse on my body. The dragon seems to be dissipating but he still continued to speak. "Still, that is not entirely the case on the curse. I put that on you so that you are now considered as a half-blood, a human and a dragon to be exact. You are still a human but you can use dragon traits due to this. You can also get to transform your arm into a dragon once every week so if you can use it, then do it." Wait, so I am going to be a dragon by borrowing a dragon''s power? Isn''t that akin to converting oneself into a dragon? I don''t think I have agreed to this kind of bargain. I have seen plenty of protagonists in anime and novels to become a dragon at the very end of the series because of over usage of the draconic power. "Are you trying to convert me as a dragon?!" "No, this curse is different than the curse we usually give out to our oppressors. This is a safety measure curse we usually give out so that the person we give this curse, follows what we wanted. Of course, I toned it down for your sake, and this curse will only work if you did something bad to my daughter." While we are talking, the body of the dragon starts to dissipate like it was being pounded to dust. "Ah, it looks like I am about to disappear. Anyways, you are going to do what was supposed to happen. You can''t really do anything if you disobey what I task I gave you. Even if I am dead, that curse will remain until you finished the task. Also, I have seen a bit of your future and that seems to be a bit bleak. The battle will soon occur and will involve you and your loved ones, whether you like it or not. Find the Necklace of the Flame, and secure its power. That way, you will get a chance to fight back soon." After saying those things, he disappeared without leaving a single thing. Even bones and the dragon blood were no longer on the ground, all of them have turned to ashes. "What a selfish bastard," I muttered and glance at the new tattoo on my arm. It still stings but it seems to be healing fast enough. Although I learned the Domain of Balmung, I am not a bit happy. I should have not gone outside if I have known I will receive something like this. Although he said I can use this curse to gain the strength of a dragon, I don''t think I will use it much unless I am threatened to use it for emergencies. I sighed and looked at these dead guys. Since they are dead, they won''t complain if I mugged them off their belongings right? They won''t be going to use it anyway so what is the point of leaving them in there? After looting a bit, I got a few mana beads that I have seen before on Godou''s shop. A few beads of recovery and their weapons were also looted. What is important is the Holoballs that they possess. After they die, they won''t be using it so I am going to take them. There are six of them and they are all containing hella good amount of points. I am not greedy so as a token of apology, I will be giving these three Holoballs to the unconscious girl. That said, I still needed to get to the dragon''s nest. Since the dragon passes the memories he possesses to me, many of his knowledge was also inside my mind and I also get to find where his daughter was located. But what made me freak out is that his daughter is clearly not a dragon looking one. In fact, she is not what a conventional dragon looks like. She was in the form of a human female. She wears ripped clothes which from the looks of it, are clothes that came from humans killed. "Another female? Why do these girls always get attracted to my direction? I just wanted to get myself to earn a lot of points. Why are the odds of fate keeps me connected to these females? Please, I know what a harem is and I don''t want that kind of lifestyle. Damn it!" In the end, I have no choice but to fetch that girl. I am seriously f*cked up on this. Chapter 79: Finding the Dragons Daughter Part 1 Around the time where the sun is about to set, the girl finally woke up. She shook her head a little bit before she rubbed her eyes. She sighed in relief when she saw me and when she noticed that we are not somewhere dangerous. "So we survive the dragon''s detection?" She asked as she keeps her body a little bit on a stretch. "Yeah, and the dragon is dead," I said. "Huh? How come? Are you the one who killed it?" Due to that, I retell her all of the things that happened after she passed out and how the participant killers fought with the dragon until to the point where the dragon has given me his inheritance and will. I even showed her the dragon''s curse in my arm. She touched it a bit and was surprised. "This is the first time I have seen a dragon curse. I have read it in books and some tomes but never seen it personally. This is the first time I have come in close contact with someone who is unlucky enough to get it!" She was totally fascinated by the tattoo. "And that was all about it, also, I retrieved the holoballs that those Participant Killers has. They are too much for me so we will have to divide them. Although we are not too familiar with each other, I will be giving this to you as a token of apology since it''s been a few days since you have not hunted any monsters." "Nah, no worries, but I will accept this token of apology to you. I also needed the points so I will not be stingy. Besides, I doubt my companions will be looking for me anymore since they are also a bunch of selfish magicians." "Eh? Those girls are not one of your loyal friends or something?" I was surprised. "No, they are not one of my friends. They just took me in since they lack the damage dealer in their group and I happened to be a damage dealer type of magic user so I was recruited. It was also a sudden one so I am not really acquainted with them." I was just stunned to hear that. And I thought she was one of the girls and she was a companion. In the end, she was just a temporary companion. I can''t really see any good thing about that. "Now that I think about it, we have not introduced ourselves, aren''t we?" She smiled. "Oh, that is right." I nodded. "I am Maple, they usually call me the Hidden Weapon Magician but you can call me Maple instead." "Okay, I am Kazuma. You can call me whatever you fancy and I am not really a good magician. I just came here to get myself a good practice since I am just starting out." "You are really an abnormal one aren''t you?" She glanced at me and rubbed her chin. "Huh?" "Because most of the things you do are all abnormal and your luck seems also abnormal. Somehow, I have gotten used to it but now, I am once again amazed by your luck. You have gotten a blessing of a dragon without doing much." "This is not a blessing, this is a frigging curse." "You just don''t know much about it but it was clearly given to you as a precaution for the daughter thingie by the dragon. If we removed that kind of instance, this is just a blessing, allowing you to borrow the power of the dragon for a limited amount of time!" "Nah, whatever. Anyways, I am about to go and search that daughter of the dragon. Letting her all alone in the wild is not something I wanted to happen. I don''t want the curse to activate even though I am not doing anything to her," I said. "Hmm, valid point. I will come along." "Eh?" I looked at her. "A dragon''s nest is basically a small treasure trove. If you are visiting one, then I will be sure to tag along!" ¡­ In the end, she followed behind and we searched for the place. I summoned Yuri and Yuto beside me to guard us from random beasts while looking for the place of the nest. After a few while, I arrived on the mountain that was said to be the place where the dragon built his nest. Although it was located above the mountain, it was not really meant to be climbed outside. According to the memory that the dragon has given to me, this nest of his was stationed to be accessible by humans since his daughter is in human form. There was a cave not too far from a grove. After locating the grove, I saw the cave immediately. Before I can get inside the cave though, Maple stopped me and made me look into something. "Kazuma. Looks like we are not the one who is currently here. Someone has noticed this place!" "What?" "Yeah, we are not the only people here. The tracks are fresh since it is still a bit muddy. Looks like we need to hurry if you don''t want the daughter to be taken by other guys. I suggest that we need to hurry up and catch up to these guys. We can''t let them get to the dragon child!" I nodded in approval. The safety of the dragon''s daughter is now in my hands. If we messed up in the rescue, I will be doomed by this curse so I will instead rescue this girl. Bad timing as always. With the help of the memory of the dragon, I managed to get the proper layout of the place without properly exploring the place. Due to that, I am now very proficient in choosing the best ways to reach the nest above. "Follow me!" I said and quickly run towards the cave. Maple followed me inside the cave. We can tell that the whole place has been cleared by monsters and from the wound types of the monsters, it was clear that the monsters here are killed by a magic-user of ice since there is a freezing ice on a dragon beast monster. This is not good. For the first time, I am getting goosebumps on what was about to happen. Looks like I will be in for a tough battle... Chapter 80: Episode 20 Finding the Dragons Daughter Part 2 Due to the unprecedented arrival of someone else inside the lair of the dragon, my fear suddenly welled up in my heart not because I am concerned with the dragon''s daughter but due to the reason that the curse that the deceased dragon put in me is connected to his daughter. Although he stated that it works when I harm his daughter, he did not say anything about other people or monsters hurting her. So in case, she got hurt due to a reason I am not the cause, it might be possible that I will be the one getting the wrath and I don''t want that to happen to me. I run inside the lair while Maple followed suit, already unsheathing one of her daggers. "Kazuma, we can''t be sure who is the enemy this time so we should check it out first and determine whether they are dangerous people or not. We can''t attack innocent people," Maple whispered. "Alright," I nodded in response. If she didn''t give me that advice, I might have already charged in and cross fist with each other. As we observe the situation, I noticed that the people in there are the former allies of Maple. In my mind, I keep on telling myself that Maple is an ally but there is the half part of myself is still wary if Maple, she might backstab me instead of helping me. I am quite in a conflict but I didn''t let it reflect in my face. I just listened to the conversation of the girls and the reaction of Maple secretly. "This girl is a rare half-dragon and half-human! If we can bring her alive back on Earth and auction her to the black market underground, we would be rich! With so many magicians willing to buy and some people willing to pay a hefty amount to get her as a pet, we would not worry about our needs anymore and we can buy all the materials we need to get our magic stronger!" One of the girls who has short blonde hair and big earrings dangling on her earlobe said. "Way to go boss. So, how should we bring her without the cat noticing?" "We have a pet container in my space inventory, if we put her inside the container, we won''t have problems." Just hearing it made me want to rush forward and deal with them but I held all of my anger. Although she is not my acquaintance yet, just hearing the slavery topic made me grit my teeth. However, I decided to strike at the right time and now is not yet good. I keep on observing them and Maple too. I noticed Maple that she is also gritting her teeth. She seemed so pissed and grips her dagger tightly and she seemed...ready to strike? When the group of girls finally carry a body, I immediately recognized it as the daughter of the dragon which is based on the memory implanted by the dragon itself. I know she is still alive because the group said they need her alive but from what I can see, she is unconscious. I am still not trying to strike but I was stunned when I saw Maple strike forward instead. She moved so fast I was startled by it and she disappeared from my sight before she reappeared before the girls. Before the girl carrying the dragon girl can react, a dagger buried itself to her throat and she coughed out blood before she collapsed and fell to the ground. I quickly dash out and catches the unconscious dragon girl. Of course, the woman that they call boss earlier intercepted. "Who the f*ck are you?!" she asked as she punched straight to me in which I managed to barely dodge. "That is none of your business!" and quickly embraced the dragon girl in my arms before rolling away. The others were also startled but they quickly recovered and fired magic to me and Maple in which the latter easily deflected by her dagger. As for me, I had to dodge and hide in rocks to avoid the attacks. I quickly summoned Yuri to guard the dragon girl and I also summoned Yuto to help me in the battle. "Yuto, you are an incubus, right? You can use your powers to charm girls?" "Yes, master!" Yuto nodded and opened his eyes which suddenly revealed to be color yellow from his usual color blue eyes. Some of the girls were quickly infatuated from the looks of my familiar but the boss was somehow, immune. "Master! That "woman" is not a woman! That f*cking trap! You dare make yourself a girl then turns out you are a f*cking guy!" Yuto shouted as he almost puke out. I just remembered that Yuto hates to use his powers against guys because he thinks it was gay. Hearing this, Maple quickly got angry and brandish her weapons at once. "M-maple?! What are you doing?! We are comrades remember!? Why are you attacking me?!" the boss just noticed that it was Maple attacking. "Too late. I have expected you to be a woman, it turns out you are just a f*cking illusion user! And to think we took a bath together naked in the stream! I will make sure you die a horrible death!" "Easy! Are you saying you believe that guy and that demon over there than your comrades?!" she reasoned as she keeps on defending her attacks. "Nonsense. You call me a comrade when you left me all into doom after I was captured? And to think I waited for a few days for a rescue! But no one came! Who would have thought those people I thought to be my comrades were all the enemies?!" Maple quickly slashed out on the boss and she managed to slice a little bit of "her" face. Unfortunately, it doesn''t seem like it was going to bleed, instead, it was like a cloth cut by a sharp object. Maple was stunned and even I did not expect that scenario to happen. Then, "she?" started laughing. "Ha... to think my guise would be ruined... hahaha, I almost fooled everyone, and I thought I will be able to get a few magician slaves to use. And to think my brainwashed servants that are strong in the past would regress this much. I guess I have to remove my guise right now," "she?" said and flick "her?" fingers. All of a sudden, the woman guise on the person suddenly appeared as a male this time, and he looks like those guys with long hair, blonde and always the scums in novels and movies. Chapter 81: The Appearance of the Cursed Sword I am a bit surprised but I quickly calmed down. There is no point in getting surprised forever, but it can''t be helped if the generic villain in many fantasy stories turns out to be the same personality to another guy. Welp, I can''t judge it since he is now standing in front of us. This guy is indeed similar to nobles in fantasy stories, has a cocky attitude, a handsome guy that many would fall for, and from his stature, he is rich. I dunno why he is disguising as a girl, however. "To think I have to remove my disguise now of all times. This is not something I have planned before. Oh well, since you all are just blocking my way, I don''t have to do anything to keep you here and just eliminate you here and now!" and without warning, he raised his hands and shot out a beam of light towards Maple. "Domain of Balmung!" As soon as I clasp my hands together, the Domain of Balmung appeared and since I cast the spell to Maple, the laser beam that he fired to her was just reduced to nothingness and did not even have any kind of power to the Domain of Balmung at all. "What?" his eyes furrowed when his attack was deflected. Since he was still a bit confused, Maple used this moment to disappear and move towards the guy and attack him. The only thing is that the guy is quite perceptive and managed to avoid the attack of Maple without getting stabbed. "Motherf*ckers, stop struggling and die like ants already!" he shouted and fired his beam again. Because I managed to let Yuri take care of the dragon girl and Yuto returned to my space because he didn''t like the experience of casting a spell to a man, it was only me and Maple fighting against him and his mindless controlled females. I can''t summon Kon at the moment because I am not sure whether this guy has a hidden skill since he also has that cage or something. It will be trouble if he uses it and capture Kon. It will be trouble. Therefore, I decided to utilize one of the items I am being reliant on ever since I became a magician. Well, you can say that this thing is also the reason why I became a magician. "Oy, Blue! Can you scan this guy out? I have no idea what his parameters are. We are in trouble here, don''t keep yourself quiet!" I demanded. "Ugh, kid. What do you think I am?! I am the great soul of the-" "Yeah, yeah, I don''t need to hear that. We are in trouble here, I can listen to your ramblings later on just help me with this sh*tty situation!" "Ah... damn, alright, here is the data. I already scanned that guy after he appeared. You can do it whatever you liked just keep in mind that I am not just a normal assistant on the phone! I am the-" "Alright yes! Thank you!" "Damn it, I don''t care anymore, I will go back to sleep. Tch, ungrateful bastard," Blue muttered before she goes back to sleep. I want to laugh but the situation stops me from doing so. So while Maple is keeping the guy busy, I quickly reviewed his details. But who would expect that he is almost perfect for anything? His parameters are high and his magic powers are also high. His defenses are also impeccable and his abilities in magic are also quite high, I don''t think he is someone you can easily defeat. However, even a rock can be broken into pieces, so I don''t believe he is invincible. Then, I saw one of his data. Although his body is quite perfect, only one place is not. And that is his crotch. From what I can see, the reason he is abducting women and turning them into his slaves, there must be something wrong with his junior. And to that, I think I find a good idea pop up in my mind. He is an enemy and whatever pain he is feeling right now on his crotch, that''s none of my business. As Maple and the guy continue to clash together, I made my way near them and occasionally release a fireball from my gloves once in a while. Of course, I made sure that all of those flames are directed on his crotch. Who knows? Maybe one of my fireballs gets lucky to find it''s way towards the cursed grasslands if it was ever one. Since Maple keeps him busy, he didn''t notice that all my attacks are all directed to the most vulnerable part of his body.I can tell that he is still not using his full power so before he can do so, it''s better if he never gets to use his full power against us. It would be better if I can somehow defeat him immediately. He was more in focus with Maple which might be due to the fact that Maple is a female. He disregarded me most of the time and from what I see, he only bothers to deflect my fireball but not against me. Due to this, I think it is a perfect chance to defeat him. From his magic spells, he usually uses flame magic therefore, deflecting my fireballs is not really a trouble for him. Although what I did was a waste of mana, it is to ease the trouble that Maple is currently undergoing right now. Since he is using fire, it is only imperative to fight fire with water. Ice magic is also an alternative but usually, flames win against ice so it would have little effect. But combining Ice magic and water magic might do wonders against this guy who only bothers to notice Maple. If that is the case, then let''s do this and shiver your balls. I hid behind a rock and clasp my hands before I slam my palms together to the ground and channeled my mana to the whole cave. After several uses of Freezing Wind and some knowledge that the dragon passed on me, I finally get a little bit of inspiration on it to fully utilize the debuff power of Freezing Wind. Freezing Wind is not an offensive spell. It is more like a debuff inducing spell since it usually makes the enemies to go to the "SLOW" state. As the magic circles appeared beneath my palm, they started to spin and the whole place slowly turned cold. The two fighting also noticed it and the one who stopped first was the guy. He shivered a bit of the cold and did not expect it while Maple only felt slightly cold due to her clothes thick enough to deal with the cold. Since Maple is not affected by the slow effect, she quickly used it to her advantage and imbued her weapon some magic. She started to chant a short sentence but it caused strong fluctuations of mana around her sword. "Homage to the all-pervading Vajras! O Violent One of great wrath! Destroy!" Maple''s sword released a magic circle and it started to spin like crazy on her dagger. I only realized that her dagger slowly transformed into a katana. For some reason, it looks like I have seen that sword before. "Reveal your true form, Cursed Sword Muramasa!" Chapter 82: Blade of Muramasa Muramasa? The "cursed sword" that was once a symbol of the anti-Tokugawa movement? That is something that can be handled by someone who has extreme bloodlust control and even I have only a small chance to control that sword! Is that really the legit cursed sword made by Sengo Muramasa? Or is it just a replica? Still, it doesn''t change the fact that her aura seems to change a lot after she called forth the Muramasa blade. Like she was being possessed by something or someone else altogether. The feel I got from her earlier and now had changed drastically. Maple still looks calm but the demonic aura emitting in her body is evident that she is currently using it as her own power. She is not just showing off, she is giving her all and apparently, she is doing this to fight for her life. I continue my magic channeling and as soon as the whole place is shivering cold now, I quickly activated my Weakness Perception. Although the data of Blue is accurate, I didn''t know which other part is his weakness while I am trying to make sure his balls are unguarded. Finally, the guy noticed me and made a very disgusting angry face. "You messing with my plans! Begone!" he was about to release a fireball when he realized that one of his arms is missing. "Twelve Slice of the Oni! Severing Blade!" I only realized that the arm of the guy was not missing, but was minced to pieces that you might even though it was just a few piles of meat and bones if not for the finger protruding from the mound of minced meat. "Aaaaah¡­. Aaaaahhh!" the guy screamed as he did not even feel the pain of his arms severing from his shoulder. Even the blood did not pour out, it was like it was cut cleanly and the wound was quickly sewed back. "Your opponent is me. Kazuma, you take care of the girls that are mind-controlled by this guy," Maple said in a different voice. However, I am not bothering it and instead move towards the mind-controlled girls. Since the spell of Yuto is still in effect, I decided to just strike their napes and render them unconscious. After that, I decided to observe the situation. The guy is still holding on his own despite only having a single arm. Earlier, he was more on the offensive, however, the tables have turned and he was forced on the defensive as Maple mercilessly strike him with the Muramasa. "Damn it! I didn''t do anything wrong! Why are you trying to kill me?!" he shouted as he tried his best to cast defensive spells one after the other after Maple started destroying one after the other. "Isn''t that obvious? I just wanted to. I have seen someone worthy to be fed by my Muramasa. If possible, your soul is sufficient on that." Maple sounded matured and a bit older? I don''t really know but she seemed to have transformed completely after the dagger''s transformation that made it become the Muramasa. In fact, her female demeanor seemed to be replaced by a serious and tomboyish attitude. "Evil monster!" "There is no evil thing in this world, only the society thinks it is evil but usually, it is better to do evil if it can save someone else. Like, killing you yeah?" Maple grinned and disappeared from where she was. The guy flustered and panicked on what will happen next but in my eyes, I only saw his remaining arm to get minced and fell to the ground as chunks of meat. He screamed not in pain, but from fear. This is the first time for his entire life to happen. It was not something that occurred to him on a daily basis. As fear strikes in his system, he looks at the figure standing before him with the normal-looking katana that somehow, emits a heavy tinge of demonic aura. "Just kill me¡­" "Kill? Ha, I am not an idiot. Killing you is somewhat a mercy given to you. Did you think I would really kill you? Not ina million chance. After finding out how dirty you are, it is better if you are instead fed to the beasts around here. Becoming their food is ideal for you as a good item for them." The guy''s face was filled with despair as he tried to do something but he realized that the two parts of his lower half are missing. His legs were nowhere to be seen and his body fell to the ground hard without any limbs of his supporting his fall. "I don''t cook food much but since the beast does not bother if the meal is cooked or not, then let''s just leave you this way," Maple said and grab his collar like he was just a disposable item that is meant to be thrown to the trash. "Let the heavens decide if you are going somewhere or not. Just remember to repent your sins instead and die peacefully." After her monologue, she casually goes to the slit on the cave that is like the window to the outside was and throws the small body of the guy who is still screaming with both tears and snot mixed on his face. Not too long after he was thrown, his screams echoed inside the forest and I can hear not too far the beasts gathering and somewhat ripping something to pieces. As soon as his screams stopped, Maple- no, the individual that possessed Maple looked at me and glance at me from head to toe. Then, she slowly grinned. "Not bad. A person who will soon attract trouble in the future. My blade is tingling in excitement. Looks like the girl has found someone worthy of following. Anyways, if you bring trouble with you, don''t forget to call me alright?" And as soon as she said that, she collapsed and the Muramasa sword returned into a dagger form. Just as I was about to help her, Blue started talking that interrupted what I am doing. "I never expected this woman to be capable of making the cursed familiar Muramasa to obey her and become her familiar¡­" Chapter 83: The Mimic Her familiar was the spirit of the Muramasa itself? Then the one who is speaking to me earlier was the familiar of Maple? It looks like it but I am not quite sure about it since there are many cases in the world about multiple personalities in one body, therefore, I decided to not pry much. Blue also returned to silence after she noticed that I did not ask her the same questions I usually ask her to. Maple is once again out of consciousness. I sighed and decided to accept that this girl''s ability is to pass out. On the other hand, I am thinking that I have not done too much on that battle since Muramasa did all the job by itself without relying on my support. I don''t even think I am needed on that one. Also, my plan to use his weakness were all foiled which made me a little bit sad. I have not used a little bit of my muscle at all on the battle. The cave was messy and the girls were all still sound asleep. Then I remembered that they can be revoked from the training as soon as possible if they used their own holoballs. I gathered their holoballs and revoked them from the training one by one and I doubt they will remember anything. From my guess, the spell on their heads were all revoked after the guy was killed. After everything was done, I found the minced parts of the guy earlier which was due to Muramasa''s ruthless punishment. I am able to handle a small amount of gore and this is just about the limit. If it surpassed that, I would have barfed. I don''t want to see the disgusting meat, therefore, I decided to burn them to cinders. Since I was not sure what to do next, I decided to use this chance to explore the former home of the dragon. I didn''t use the memory of the dragon this time because the thrill of exploration will disappear if I use some sort of walkthrough. The cave is huge and spacious. Unlike what I imagined as the lair of a dragon which should be messy with human bones and monster bones alongside the equipment of the humans, the lair was quite clean and I don''t see it as a messy lair of a monster. More like it was a normal cave where a few people were living here for a while. I explore the cave and I found out that there is a hidden place where it is also spacious. I am not even that far from the pathway of the place but I already smell the different smells of metals and a few tinkers that seemed to be part of the same materials that most magicians bring with them. When I checked the place, I saw the mountain of glittering gold and several items that I am quite sure as items with value. On the top of the gold and items, a lone gold chest sits on the mountain of gold making me curious. Just as I was about to approach it, my Weakness Perception skill activated allowing me to see what this chest really is. [Shapeshifting Mimic] Weakness: Flames, Blunt and Heavy weapons like Hammer I have seen mimics in games and I know that they love to disguise themselves in the form of a chest sitting in a corner in dungeons. And if interacted, they will immediately pounce to the unsuspecting looter. So the dragon is also raising one to guard the treasures huh? In that case, I will make sure that this Mimic will submit to me. I clap my hands and embers started to appear on my palms and it allows me to exhaust the flames out of my hands. The mimic still continues to stay still like a real chest but I am not fooled. Burning a treasure or two are not much to me if there is a lot of treasure beneath you. I am not that greedy. I aimed the flames in my hands to the chest and started to throw fireballs to the mimics direction. One thing for sure, it didn''t continue to imitate the mimic and quickly jumped off its former location and started to escape before the flames hit. As soon as it moved, I quickly jumped towards the mimic and grab it on its hinges. It tried to snap its mouth but I quickly ignited my palms with flames. "Let me go human! You will regret your decision! My master will kill you as soon as he knows you are going to kill me!" "And who said I will bother to kill you? Killing a mimic is not my style. I have more things to do with you though." "My dragon master will not tolerate this barbaric act! Release me at once!" The mimic acted mighty but it was shaking. I never expected this monster is a coward. What is more, this mimic can even talk like a human. Much easier to communicate and reason with if that is the case. Also, based on the way the mimic talks, this guy has not yet found out the demise of his master. It didn''t sound like he was bluffing me too so from what I can see, this mimic has not received the news yet. "Looks like you still have no idea what is happening aren''t you little fella?" I grinned and ignited the flames causing the mimic to panic. "What the heck are you talking about?! Just let me go already!" "No. And since I am refusing to let go, I will make sure you become submissive to me." From the memories of the dragon, I found out that Mimics are able to store several thousands of treasures in their bodies making the mimics to be a favorite pet by dragons since they can act as a moving storage. What is more, they eat only rocks and a little bit amount of meat. And since this mimic has the ability to shapeshift to a chest, that doesn''t mean this monster is limited to a small chest. It can transform on whatever form you want it to go. "My master is formidable! He will smack your ass off if you refuse to release me!" "Oh, you mean the dragon that bestowed me this mark?" I said as I show him the mark that is given to me by the dragon. As soon as the mimic saw the mark, he stopped moving and he did not say anything. Looks like this is too much for the mimic to process at the moment. Chapter 84: Inheritance Explained At this moment, the mimic finally moved and react after being frozen after I showed it the mark that the dragon put on me before his death. The mimic that is still under my grasp wriggled and lost it''s chest form and became a slime instead. Because of the sudden change, I was not able to get the mimic to my grasp after that as it slithered into the floor back to the top of the mountain of trinkets. As soon as it got back to the top of the pile, it returned to its chest form and started speaking once again. "So that''s what happened huh?" the mimic muttered. "Huh?" "Ha, you are confused, right? Well, the mark that my master has bestowed on you is something that can show what really happened to his trusted subordinates. You don''t need to speak as I already know why you are here and why you have the mark." "Uh..." "Still, why are you the one chosen? You were clearly supposed to kill my master at that time but instead, you got his blessings instead. He even entrusted his own daughter and his memories to you! You are just a lowly human that has a very low amount of magic power present on his body yet became a lucky being after meeting and receiving the blessings from my master!" "No, I don''t understand what you are talking about," I looked at the mimic in confusion. "I will explain. That mark is a proof of a Magic Dragon Sovereign. Although my master is not a dragon sovereign, he has the potential to become one but decided to abandon it to take care of his daughter. Now that he has passed it down to you, your growth as a human will halt and your parameters will slowly turn from a normal human magician to the status of a dragon. In short, you might be a human on the outside but you are a dragon on the inside. Now you get my point?" Hearing that, I cursed inwardly on the dragon. Not turning into a dragon my *ss, he clearly wanted me to become one! "Is there any way to remove this?!" I asked the mimic. "As far as I can tell, that mark is no longer available for removal. That is not something you can remove unless it is time to pass it down to another individual. The mark cannot be passed if it was just passed from one entity to another." Blue also started talking after the mimic had finished talking which annoyed me further. "Hey, Kazuma. That was not a bad deal. You could say you gained a lot. Becoming a human-dragon is something that many magicians are dreaming to be! Besides, not only your magic will be enhanced, even your physical prowess will grow! In fact, I have detected small changes in your mana capacity and your body too. You should be grateful to that dragon for bestowing something good to you!" "..." "Anyways, due to the transfer of the properties of my master, all of these treasures he accumulated will now be yours. I will be the one responsible for storing these away." Although I am a bit happy with the treasure, that is not really much. Now my future is quite bleak due to my status now as the Magic Dragon Sovereign. Damn it, I just wanted to be a normal magician than becoming a big shot magician that has the status of a dragon. I need to cope up with these big changes in my life soon. ¡­ The mimic was a very useful creature. Although most mimics are in the form of treasure chests, they are really not one, to begin with. The form where they can become a slime is their real forms and aside from the treasure chest, they can become whatever they want. Aside from that, they are the normal substitute for dimensional storage space. The trinkets that the dragon had collected all go straight to the mimic. Also, the mimic became my bracelet to be a convenient hiding place for a mimic. After finding the cave is clear from any enemies, I call back Yuri who is carrying the dragon child. She is still unconscious like Maple so I decided to put them together on the bed that I am guessing to be owned by the dragon child since the dragon''s size is just impossible to fit in this small bed. "How is the girl, Yuri?" I asked her after she put the girl on the bed. "Somehow, she has intense fluctuations of mana released in her body which might be due to her nature as a half-dragon. This might be a mechanism on her body to fight back enemies or other adversaries." "Wait, half-dragon?" "Yes, master. I confirmed it earlier from her blood. She was not a full dragon but a half-human and half-dragon. She was born between a dragon and a human." I never expected that. And I thought that dragons can transform whenever they wanted to and this little girl is just using her human form so that she can conserve her power. "So this girl can''t transform into a full dragon form like her father?" "From what I can see, the human blood on her body is currently the most dominant trait on her and the blood of the dragon is somewhat suppressed, causing her to not be able to use the power of the dragon transformation completely. She can partially invoke the power but that''s it." "I see. Now get some rest. It must hard dealing with the mana fluctuations," I said before supplying her a little bit of mana. "Thank you, master. I was indeed tired. I can''t even do the usual antics of mine for you," Yuri said before she disappeared and returned to my familiar''s space. The burden of handling the fluctuations might have done too much on her physically and mentally. With Yuri back to safety, I check the little dragon girl. She was still unconscious but her situation is already stable so I am no longer worried she would emit another fluctuation. But still, having the former comrades of Maple to fight her and only to find out they were just controlled is somewhat troubling. I don''t know how deep is the magic of other magicians. I am still a bit worried about my own self since I have gained the power of the mighty dragons. If this goes out to the others, they would undoubtedly try to take my power and make it for themselves. As I was reminiscing a little bit, I just remembered one of the tasks that the dragon has given to me. "FIND THE ELEMENTAL NECKLACE." Just what this item is? Maybe Blue knows. "Blue." "Elemental Necklace right? That is something I have not heard and seen for a very long time." "You know about it? How did you know?" "I have seen it personally since one of the magicians who owned this phone before uses one of the seven elemental necklace himself." "Who is it?" "I am not obliged to tell you. You have to find out who it was yourself. If you are planning on finding that necklace, then find it yourself and I won''t help you in finding it. I am just a spectator of your journey. Find all the answers you are seeking yourself." Chapter 85: I Am Your Stepfather Another day passed by and the two girls who collapsed are finally awake. Maple is the first one to recover. She was not sure what happened to her during that time she summoned her familiar, Muramasa which means that really is Muramasa who used her body as a vessel to use. I didn''t tell her that she killed someone during the possession of her familiar since she hasn''t told me yet about her familiar. It would be best if she told me personally. As for the little dragon girl, she woke a little bit later. When she saw us, she quickly cower in her bed, shaking in fear. Due to this, the mimic detached from my arm and quickly go straight to the little girl''s side. "Calm down little one, they are not the enemies, they saved you from the bad guys." "Grandpa mimic? They are not the enemies." "Indeed they are not. They saved you from those guys. They won''t be hurting you anymore." "I see, so are they friends of my father?" "Yes, they are." "Then where is father?" The mimic went silent abruptly. From the looks of it, he is not prepared to say something about what happened to her father. I was also taken aback by her question. But when we are silent, she looked down and gloomy. "I see, so my father had already departed." "It can''t be helped since your father is already on his end, he just used it as a chance to avoid to you cry." "I understand that already. In times like this, he would say to not cry. And I will do that for father," she said as her eyes started to get red from tears. She is indeed trying to keep her tears from falling down. I can tell she is trying to be strong. If only I also felt like that during my parent''s death. However, that is not the case. Still, she was just a little kid that has yet to see the cruel side of the world. To have her father leave her on this world is not a good thing. Since I heard that the dragon is already dying, he must have planned it already so that her daughter won''t be all alone in this world. I don''t know if the fatherly instincts of the dragon were also passed down to me but I felt something else that wanted to comfort my daughter or something even though I have not experienced any parental love or something of that sort. The way she holds her tears somewhat increased the feeling to comfort her. I approached her and showed her the seal that his father has given to me. When she saw it, she looked into my face and was not sure how to react. "Your father has entrusted everything he has on me. And because of this, I am going to act as your stepfather this time around. Also, your father has given me a task to find your mother, therefore, until I find your mother, you will be under my care. Alright? Are you fine with it?" She stares at me with her blue eyes and for some reason, I saw myself on her when I was still a little kid that just arrived at my uncle and aunt''s house. The days that I longed for my parents are something else though I already forget the feeling anymore. That only means that I am now immune to that longing. However, this girl just became an orphan at a young age. This is not going to be a good thing for a child who still wanted to feel the love of her parents. "Oi, kid, you really think you can do the fatherly duties left by her father? I can tell that you have not gained experienced anything like this before then why are you trying to get the role of her father then?" "I dunno, maybe the instincts of her father has also been passed down to me without me knowing. It suddenly came to me." "Ugh, this is just troublesome. Oh well, I will help you with her then. Don''t really worry about it too much." After that event, the mimic gathered all the items of the little dragon girl so that we can already leave the cave. With the mimic easily gathering all of the items without much trouble, the whole cave is now free from items that the girl owned. "That''s right, I have yet to know your name. Can you tell me what your name is?" "It''s Anya." "I see, I am Kazuma. From now on, you will be under my care." "Thank you very much... father..." Hearing that made me almost trip, I never expected that to be full of impact. Damn, it is not an exaggeration of the fathers getting happy hearing that from their daughters. I should take a little bit of caution to avoid that from happening. Maple is scouting the area ahead of us. If it is full of monsters, we will immediately go on a detour. With Maple''s ability to move stealthily around, it is not a wonder we can easily avoid any monsters nearby. That way, we can avoid pointless and time-consuming battles. As we slowly move on the forest, Maple signals us to halt. "What is happening?" Maple pointed at our destination on something. Since we have no idea what she was talking about, I headed to the place and peek on whatever she was pointing unto. When I check it, I was stunned about what was happening below. There are people below us fighting on the canyon. They are fighting some monsters but for some reason, they also looked like humanoids. But we are too far from the battle to see whatever was happening below. I can even barely see who those figures are. "What is going on over there?" I asked Maple. "Monster horde. A bunch of ogres and orcs have started to fight with the magicians. From the looks of the group fighting the monsters, those guys are the same participants that also got transported like us and teamed up with the others. Judging from the size of the horde, this is the yearly battle of the canyons." "Battle of the Canyons?" "You don''t know about it?" "I just participated this year so I have no idea." "Hmmm, figures. Then, I shall explain. The Battle of the Canyons is somewhat a war between the orcs and ogres. Many magicians wanted to participate in this war because both the factions of ogres and orcs had good items that will be beneficial to magicians. Therefore, the magicians will also participate in the battle to try and get the said items that the two factions hold." There really is something like this happening like this? This is just not something I would expect to a training ground! Chapter 86: A Nice Day for Fishing The battle in the canyon seems to have not reached its climax yet. With all the people and monsters fighting, I doubt it will end soon. "Should we participate too?" Maple asked. "No. That is not part of our business and besides, we have a kid with us. Fighting on a chaotic situation is not a good thing with Anya here with us," I said as I glance at Anya currently playing with Kon who I summoned to be her mount at the moment. "You have a point there. Putting her at risk is just not a good situation for us so it would be better if we hunt monsters slowly from here." "Yeah. We can''t forget that we are here to train either. Participating in a battle is a bit of worthless and time-consuming. Besides, we can''t really trust those monsters. They might be scheming something after that. Since we decided to skip on the raid, we have arrived at our location earlier than expected. We camp out near the lake and made a shelter and with the help of Maple''s magic to camouflage our surroundings, we managed to get everything done around lunchtime. Now our problem is now food. All of the food we hunt the other day was all gone now. It is understandable since the mouth to feed with food increased. Therefore, we have to hunt once again. "What should we do for our lunch?" Yuri asked. "Do you really need to eat? I bet you are fine with just my mana as your consumption anyway," I glared at Yuri. "Master~ we are still going to eat. We might not need to but I want to. Food is one of the things I wanted to get too ya know?" Yuri blinked at me with her cutesy antics. "You should have gotten used to it, Master. My sister is a glutton you won''t really manage to force her not to eat food too," Yuto said as he unpacks a few of the belongings we have from his storage space. "Oh well, no choice. Maple, come with me to the hunt. This is a good time to raise your points too since you have been helping me for quite a while and stuck up on our group. Are you okay with that?" "Sure, my blade skills are getting rusty so I want to practice a little bit more." "Okay then, Yuri, Yuto, also Kon, please guard the place while we are gone alright? Just send me the signal if something happened." "Yes master!" the three resonated. ¡­ The lake is one of the places in this alternate Earth with most resources according to Maple who has been here before since this is her second time participating in the annual training. The fishes and some plants and organisms living in this habitat are all counted as monsters so if you are fishing here and managed to grab one fish, then you will be able to get points that correspond to the monster you managed to catch. Not only the fishes, some monsters that live on land and air come here to drink water. Therefore, this place is a very ideal spot for monster hunting. Maple hunted a few monsters already since she gone up ahead of me while I decided to fish. I am a bit knowledgeable about fishing since I sometimes come with my uncle to fish as a past time. I have gained lots of points already so I decided to let Maple do all the killing of monsters this time around so that she can get the points she needed to whatever she wanted to purchase after this. The fishing rod that I am using right now is something that was mixed in on the treasure trove that mimic stores on his body. It is a metal rod and the line is quite sturdy so I am quite sure that even if I managed to haul something big, the line won''t get cut off. At the moment, I caught one small fish already and I can say that this is already something good since fishing is something that needs a great sense of patience. As I was trying to keep my mind preoccupied, I felt the fishing rod tug on me, causing me to return to my senses and started reeling the line. I was still reeling the line when my eyes'' ability, Weakness Perception activated, I did not expect that I almost let the rod go. [Serpent of the Lake] Weakness: Electricity Magic, Nature Magic Resistance: Water, Ice, Fire Magic. I am reeling a serpent?! This f*cker is too huge since I did not expect for this sh*t to be so strong. After knowing that this is a serpent, I poured all of my strength to the rod and started to reel it in. But this sh*t is just too heavy all by myself. Luckily, Maple arrived carrying a small grass deer carcass. "Managed to take a reel?" she asked as she put the thing down. "C-can you give me some help? This will take quite a while for me to reel. This is a big catch for me I guess," I said as I try to pull hard. Maple quickly put down the carcass of the monster she hunted and goes to my aid. As we continue to pull, Blue started giving a warning. "Kazuma! What the hell did you catch this time?! Why is it emitting a very dangerous bestial aura?!" "I don''t know! It is not my fault of pulling something like this!" "You already know what you are pulling?" "Yeah! I have seen it using my Weakness Perception earlier! It is the serpent of the lake!" "SERPENT OF THE LAKE?! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND? THAT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN JUST FISH! THAT IS BASICALLY ONE OF THE LEGENDARY BEASTS IN THIS ALTERNATE EARTH! GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW! YOU ARE JUST SEEKING DEATH IF YOU KEEP ON PULLING THAT POLE!" "No way man! I can''t just let this fishing rod go! This is pretty expensive in the real world!" "Are you crazy or what? That is just a fishing pole! You can buy it with money! Just release the pole already!" "No! If you are a poor ass bloke like me, you will understand my pain!" "What is more important? Your pole or your life?" "Both!" "Argh, I don''t know anymore, just remember I warned you before!" I know what Blue said is true and this monster is just plain dangerous. But I am not someone who will just ditch something like this pole easily. I may be an idiot but who knows when I will be able to get one again. And besides, we might get a chance to see what this serpent is really capable of. Maybe I should try using the dragon power this time? Chapter 87: Undead Wyverns Maple already cast her magic spell, "Greater Strength" to enhance her pulling power and yet, our might still can barely pull the pole hard. "What the heck did you catch Kazuma? This is an insane strength for a fish!" If only this was a fish! But this was a f*cking monster! But I can''t say that I want to fight against it. As we pull the rod once more, I can feel the rod breaking even though this was an iron pole. We held on further but the fishing rod did not last long and instead of being pulled into the water, the pole snapped like a wood. I fell in my butt while Maple managed to get her balance rather than falling. That was an insane experience even for me but now I lost the fishing pole and the catch ended up in failure. "Now it is not what I expected. And the pole is now broken, what now?" Maple looked at me as she shakes her hands after being sore from the pulling too much. "Well, I also have no idea either. But I guess we had to go back to the camp now. I can''t continue fishing with a broken pole either." "Okay then, let''s carry these carcasses over the camp," Maple points on the pile of carcasses on the ground. "Wait, wait...all of these?!" I was surprised. I was so engrossed in fishing that I didn''t notice the number of carcasses piled up on the ground. "Why? You don''t need to carry all of them, you have the mimic with you remember?" "Oh..." I was hit by the realization. The mimic is now under my command right now and acts as my own portable storage. I scratched my head and commanded the mimic to store all of the carcasses in which the latter was effortlessly able to do so. "Now we are talking. Looks like the mimic has a much bigger space than the original storage spaces available in private sources," Maple said. "Huh? Bigger space?" "You have not seen space storage yet? Oh well, I also don''t have any of them so I can''t show you how big the difference of the mimic''s storage space than the normal one but you can compare it if you get one." Just as we are about to go, a few figures appeared in the sky. "Huh? What are those?" I asked and point those things in the air. Then all of the info on my mind appeared on my eyes since my Weakness Perception activated. [Skeleton Dragon Riders] Weakness: Healing Magic, Destroying their Cores located in their chest [Undead Wyverns] Weakness: Removing their cores located deep in their body Maple squinted her eyes and her face turned grave. "Undead Wyverns! Why are they here?" "Undead Wyverns? Isn''t that small versions of dragons?" "Indeed. Although dragons are much more dangerous, in this place, the wyverns are the most dangerous creatures. Unlike dragons who act on their own, the wyverns act opposite. They instead act in groups and they don''t lack those creatures that are riding them. They are also another scale of danger level too. We have to hide before they notice us!" Maple said. "Hey, what about our camp?" "Holy sh*t, I almost forgot that we have a child left on the camp! Let''s hurry!" We run quickly but Maple is just too fast that I have to struggle from the speed. Good thing she stopped so that I can catch up. "You are too slow! Let me carry you!" she shouted before she grabs me on my waist. "Huh?!" She started to chant while on the crouch form and wind started to blow around us while beneath her is a green magic circle that keeps on rotating very fast as she continues her chant. "Hear me o winds, lift us to the ground and let us fly! Light Feet!" Even though the spell was clearly cast on Maple, I can feel the effects on my body too. It seems that it allows the user to increase the agility and mobility. As soon as the magic circle disappeared beneath her feet, she looks at me and made a stern face. "Hold tight, we won''t be going to have a very smooth ride." And before I can respond to what she was saying, she speeds up all of a sudden and I can feel my whole soul leaving my body from the speed. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Even Blue who rarely appear had to shout her frustration and screamed. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! KAAAZZZUUUMMMAAA! STOP THIS MADWOMAN! SHE IS JUST THE MANIFESTATION OF CRAZINESS!" I can tell that Blue is just stating the truth right now. I can''t really tell our surroundings right now because all I can see are blurs that are making me want to give a huge vomit shower out from my mouth. It is just that I have to hold it in or else the vomit I release will just splash straight to my face. We immediately stop after a few seconds later. I realized that we already arrived at the camp and my familiars and Anya were all stunned by our sudden arrival. "Huh? Master?" Yuri approached us. Maple did the thing and quickly commanded everyone. "Hide everyone! Enemies will arrive here soon!" "Enemies?" Anya looked puzzled. "Wyverns are incoming here! Leave the camp and hide! We can''t keep on staying here!" Maple was in the process of explaining when we heard the flaps of wings and the sound of the wyverns roaring. "So fast?" Anya looked scared seeing the wyverns. Who wouldn''t be scared seeing a big winged lizard with skeletons and rotten skin dangling on its body? It is only something that mostly came on nightmares only. The wyverns started charging the fireballs from their mouths. They are countless of them so dodging them would be close to impossible now. "F*ck, we can''t dodge them!" Maple gritted her teeth as she pulled out her dagger and prepared for the impact. I just managed to recover from seasickness I feel in my body and quickly cast a spell that only I can do at the moment. "Domain of Balmung!" Chapter 88: Stalling the Wyverns T "DOMAIN OF BALMUNG!" The barrier erected immediately around us causing the incoming fireballs to hit the barrier instead of us. It was one of the most dangerous times I was in since I became a magician. However, I always managed to get a stop of the situation before it gets too worse. The entire area is now bombarded with flames that I can feel the whole place shaking too much. And even if I am not the one being hit by the flames, I can feel the hotness being emitted by the bombardment in my barrier. The pressure is just too great that I can''t have the barrier last a few more hits. But I endured or the bombardment will just be too dangerous. Then I just remembered. Yuto has the ability to teleport to a certain location right? And on top of that, he can transport other people too as long as I can supply him mana. I have a little bit of power left in me and I can still maintain the Domain of Balmung a little bit more time. "Yuto! Teleport them back to the cave again where we came from! I will supply the mana you need to channel the teleportation magic to teleport everyone! Just teleport them and I will keep the Wyverns at bay while you do it!" "Master! What are you saying!?" Yuri looked confused. "Just trust me! I can''t handle the barrier any longer!" Yuri was still about to say something and stop me from doing so when Maple stopped her. "No, don''t do it. I know your master has a plan and if you did it, you will just ruin his plan!" "Miss Maple is right, sister. We have to keep Anya and everyone else to safety. And besides, our master is not someone who will easily die from something trivial like this!" I want to contradict what Yuto said but this will just ruin the whole moment of my glory so I decided to just keep quiet and focus on maintaining the barrier while limiting my mana consumption as little as possible so that I have enough mana to transfer on Yuto. Yuto nodded and prepares his spell. Seeing him do the final preparations for casting the spell, I started doing the mana transfer to Yuto in a small but steady amount of mana. This allows me to recover mana slowly while transferring the newly generated mana to my familiar. The process of maintaining the Domain of Balmung and transferring the mana is exhausting and taxing my health. I felt dizzy from the constant loss of mana and I am afraid I will pass out after this. And besides that, doing the mana channeling and keeping the Domain of Balmung intact is harder than multitasking 10 works at the same time. The Domain of Balmung''s defenses is slowly wavering since the mana maintaining it is slowly getting drained and I made sure that I am minimizing it. But it is not enough for the wyverns to break in yet. I noticed that the magic circle beneath everyone''s feet started to spin crazily and sparks appeared on the borders of the Magic Circle. Yuto''s eyes glow red and his wings spread out of his back. Anya wriggled a little bit out of Yuri''s embrace and shouted. "Come back safe! Don''t die!" I pat her head and transferred the mimic to her arm in case I won''t make it. Before she can say anything, Yuto slams his palms to the ground and he finalized all of the processes. "MASS TELEPORT!" BOOM! The surroundings around the magic circle made a loud noise and I saw everyone disappear. I grinned after seeing them teleport out of the area safely. But the sudden pain in my head caused me to almost collapse. Still, I didn''t want to fall over and let the wyverns kill me. I am not that weak. "Hey, Kazuma, are you sure that is the best choice you can do? Surely you can have them with you in the battle right?" Blue started to speak. "Oh, you are still here huh?" "Have you forgotten? I can''t walk, I am inside the phone so how the heck would I move? Even if I want to run, I really can''t. The phones have no legs, to begin with." "Haha, you are right." "Why are you acting like this is something from a movie where you can create a noble sacrifice and die for your comrades? It doesn''t suit you one bit," Blue sarcastically said. "The hell?! Who said I am planning to die here?! I am not going to die yet! I still wanted to experience many things! I have not even got a single girlfriend so I refuse to die here!" "Pfft, as expected of a virgin guy. Let''s see how you pull off this battle okay?" "As if you have something to contribute!" I removed the gloves in my hands. Although the barrage of attacks is still raining towards the barrier, I didn''t bother much, sooner or later, I will remove the barrier anyway, so might as well let it collapse and keep calm. I still remembered the words of the dragon about the mark he bestowed on me. "That is not a curse. It is something of a mark I gave to you as a blessing. It is a mark you can use to borrow a little bit of dragon power from the mark despite you being a pure human. If you want to use that power, use it moderately. The power of a dragon on a human hand might occur trouble for you so minimize the usage of it." Borrowing the power of a dragon is something I really want to avoid. I don''t want to be a dragon in the very end but this situation is desperate already. I no longer have much mana left and it is enough only for me to stay awake barely. My raw power as a human is not even close to the strength of a wyvern so there is literally has no choice for me in this situation. "Seventh Seal Unlock!" The moment I muttered that the mark on my hand glow red and my whole arm started to get covered with black scales and judging from the scale, my hand started to be defined as something really sturdy. The Domain of Balmung started to waver and the wyverns relentlessly attacked. It didn''t take a few strikes before the barrier fell down. The wyverns started attacking but I did not panic, instead, I feel fine. One of the wyverns gets close enough. In my mind, I am still lacking in raw power but my hand didn''t have that mindset. When the wyverns were about to strike, I punched to the direction of the wyverns in one go and before I knew it, the wyverns attacking were reduced to ashes all of a sudden. I didn''t expect that and before anything else, the wyverns did not get to survive the shock wave my punch gave. All of the wyverns died in one hit. Chapter 89: Sightings The dragon power was somewhat amazing! I already expected it to be powerful but I didn''t expect it to be THIS powerful at all. I assumed I will only be able to wield the power of the dragon a little bit and that''s it. The remains of the wyverns and its riders disintegrated after the punch so there are no remains left. Perhaps this is due to their undead trait that if they are killed, they won''t be leaving any corpses. The riders were quite wary now to me and seem to be having second thoughts in charging straight to me. They were quite intimidated from the menacing looks of my fists that I doubt they would bother to fight me head-on. Besides the strength in my punches, my mana is slowly recovering full too and didn''t take that much for me to be able to cast magic again. Seeing me getting stronger, the riders did not retreat but instead head towards me head-on together with the others. However, that is a big mistake. With my fist in the air, the wyverns realized that the danger is just immense. Before the charging wyverns and riders can reach me, I throw the punch in the air. That punch I released suddenly rendered the air and all of the monsters that were caught up in the skill were all killed in one hit. All of the battles ended up much earlier and with minimum damage. When I returned to the normal form, my hands returned to normal but the fatigue in my body suddenly occurred to my whole muscles and joints which must be the backlash from using the Dragon Power. It was like being under the pain caused by arthritis in all of your joints. The seal of the dragon is somehow the only trump card in my situation. Although I can use it, I have to only use it in the last parts of the situation as my trump card. I also have to make sure I don''t overuse it and use it in every situation I was in because of the backlash that might occur in an insane situation. My whole body aches but I can still move. Who would have thought it was this painful getting arthritis. Due to the pain, I have to rest. While resting, I saw glimpses of items on the ground and if I remember right, the places where the items are were also the former place where the wyverns failed to beat me up and died trying. It was somehow similar looking to demon''s shards in their body and I was surprised to see that they looked identical. The only difference of this one is that the wyverns and the riders have brighter green color while the shards of the demons are all color light blue. I am not quite sure whether they function the same but it is never to ask goo- I mean Blue what this thing was. "Hey Blue, you know this thing?" I asked and scanned the thing on the ground. "I will just let it slide that you compare me to the search engine on the internet but next time, I won''t be lenient next time. Alright, let see... this thing has similar structures of the Demon shards but also has a different component that makes it a little bit more powerful than the demon shards. However, this also contains chaotic mana that if you try to use it, you have a chance to be corrupted by it. I don''t think it is a good idea to bring that thing with you. I suggest that you get rid of it before you get corrupted." Hearing the remarks of Blue, I immediately throw the core away and look at the remaining cores. "If it can corrupt a person, then doesn''t that mean it can corrupt this forest if left alone?" "It can and we cannot do anything about it. You are not strong enough to destroy it and erase its corruption power. All you can do hope is that it never happens." The cores were all lying in the ground and were similar looking to emerald jewels if you didn''t look at it carefully. There are no more wyverns attacking so I am no longer in danger. However, I think I have to get out of this place before the corruption of this place gets me swallowed too. ... I returned to the cave where the dragon''s lair was before. I used the dragon''s power to enhance my speed. Although I tried to grow wings from it, it is not working so only the speed enhancement helped me cover the distance immediately. It took me two hours to reach again the cave. Everyone is still worried about me when I arrived and when they saw me, they sighed in relief and approached me. "Master! You are back!" Yuri quickly flew towards me and hugged me. Of course, she used her breasts to hug on my face. For some reason, I feel a slight bliss on it. As expected of a succubus, even me is not that immune to her charms. "Damn it, Master. The amount of mana you gave me is immense and I thought you lost a lot of mana being transferred to me and yet you still managed to survive? As expected of Master, he is very incredible!" Yuto said puffing his chest. "Stepfather, are you alright? You didn''t get hurt fighting those imitations of daddy right?" Anya asked. "I had a hard time but I somehow managed." Maple smiled and nodded. "Looks like you never fail to amaze me Kazuma. I think I got it right following you with your group. However, I have to say something to you Kazuma. Those wyverns might not be the only one we will be meeting in the future." Hearing this, I creased my eyebrows. "What do you mean? Care to elaborate?" "After we arrived here, I decided to use some warding magic around the area in case there are wyverns who managed to track us here. At first, I only managed to find a few beasts wandering around but they are not even something worth of danger. However, I just saw a few figures in the forest. If I am not wrong, the figures are the demons." The demons?! They have arrived here in this place too? Maple continues to explain. "Although demons are a norm in the real world since they managed to blend in together with humanity, seeing demons here in this alternate dimension of the world is not a good sign. Nekoyama-sama is not negligent enough to let demons enter by disguising as participants, therefore it is impossible to happen. The only way to enter this place is by having Nekoyama-sama and other magicians who are the assistant of Nekoyama-sama can allow participants to enter the place." I was just not sure but then I suddenly remembered that there are a few demons who managed to cut dimensions and cross it. Although I was half-conscious during that time, I can tell that they can easily do that. Are those guys here too? Chapter 90: The Demons Strikes Back While Kazuma and the others just found out the demon who got inside the alternate Earth, Catmod and the others are already working on pinpointing and finding the demons that managed to slip inside the area. "Demonic monsters are now appearing slowly but surely all around the place of the Phantasmal Reality Dimension. The magicians are now fighting against them and I am sad to say that there are many casualties in the magicians right now," Otome reported as she monitored the situation of the place where Kazuma and the others are right now. "Are there any sightings of the demons and how they managed to bypass our security?" Nekoyama asked, looking calm and composed. "Yes. We found one footage in a secluded area near the mountains. Space suddenly got warped and seemed to be cut in half by the unknown entity which I presume to be a demon. I assume the demon that Voltaire fought in the school last time in Tokyo is the same demon that infiltrated in this place." "Someone call my name?" Voltaire appears on the door while eating potato chips. "It was me. I think we found now the whereabouts of the demon you tried to fight back then inside the Phantasmal Reality Dimension." "You mean the girl demon that escaped?" "No, the one who warps space and can make passageway out of nowhere. You stated it last time when we were talking about it." When Voltaire heard this, his face got serious and approached Otome while shoving all the potato chips inside his mouth and munching it. "You could have given a small amount of that for me, you don''t have to be so greedy," Nekoyama shook his head. "I haven''t taken lunch, this is just a temporary food for my stomach. Anyways, can you show me any footage of this demon you are talking about? I want to confirm it with my own eyes." Otome showed the footage of the scene to Voltaire and the latter looked at the video with a focus on it. In the video, everything was calm except for the casual monsters flying and walking around the mountain. Until the monsters started running away from the mountain for some unknown reason. It didn''t take too long to show what caused the phenomenon. The sky above the mountain started showing some sort of crack and like a brittle wallpaper being torn apart. The tear was slowly getting bigger and bigger until you can say that the place had been torn by some sort of rift. It became wide and two figures of clearly human figures go out of the rift. Of course, if you are not familiar with the two, you would think they are just humans but to people who keep on hunting demons like Voltaire, he can tell that the two are not humans. Also, he can tell that the two of them are the same demons he fought before not too long ago. "I confirm the invaders to be high-class demons. The magicians inside the Phantasmal Reality Dimension are no match against them. I suggest that you deploy me and a few high ranking magicians to enter the Phantasmal Reality Dimension and forcefully remove the demons or much better to remove the participants themselves from the challenge." "They are high-class demons?!" Nekoyama did not expect it to hear it from Voltaire. "Yeah. They are high-class demons or a little bit more than that. I am not quite sure especially the guy. But I am quite sure that the woman with him is a high-class demon. I fought her before and I can tell that she is about to ascend from being a high-class to a disaster-class demon. As for the guy, he has the aura of the High-class demon but he might be also stronger than that. We never fought directly." "You know that the expelling the participants forcefully is not possible and removing them one by one will take a lot of time and by the time we do that, the demons inside will already be able to wreak havoc inside the Phantasmal if left alone!" Otome said. "That is why I am suggesting on me and a few high ranking magicians to enter and deal with the demons ourselves in there. We can also ask the participants to help us in support if necessary to destroy the demons. And besides, if we are not even going to help, we can''t reassure that the Phantasmal Reality Dimension will remain as a peaceful place. It will be a very dangerous place and we cannot stop it if we leave it." Catmod sighed and looked at the screen of the situation inside the Phantasmal. "I think we will go with your plan Voltaire. In fact, I have to be the one resolving this problem instead of you." "No, no. I have to deal with it too. That guy is someone strong and I have not faced this kind of demon before and my instincts tell me I have to face against him at all cost." "You got some sort of stigma against this demon?" Otome asked. "Sort of. But I can''t have him roam free and terrorize the whole place. I am not just going to stay still and let him do what he wants. As a demon hunter, I have to deal with him at all costs." "Alright. In the meantime, I will call in the headquarters and ask for help. I will also ask the chat group if any magicians are up for a small demon hunting in the meantime. You should prepare for the equipment we need to stop these guys." Voltaire nodded and left the room, leaving only Catmod and Otome on the monitor. "I never expected to encounter this kind of situation. I guess I am getting older now," Catmod sighed. "Don''t blame yourself. If these demons have that special ability, it is normal for you to not be able to anticipate their breaching. We should instead focus on getting them out of the Phantasmal." Catmod sips a coffee despite being a cat and looked again at the monitor. "The demons were surely going to be up to something else and I doubt this will be the last event they will be attacking. Chapter 91: Escape under the Night Sky I used my mana scan to check the surroundings for any demons in the vicinity. Fortunately, there are no demons that Maple is talking about. However, there are still demonic beasts that have been prowling around the place. It was like they suddenly popped out of nowhere. "I am quite sure that the demons we saw earlier are the main cause of the new monsters appearing. Even the undead wyverns shouldn''t have been existing in this place due to its demonic nature." "So those wyverns are not originally an inhabitant in this place?" "No. In fact, they are supposed to never exist in this plane. It was the existing rule in this place and if that rule is broken, we can be sure that the demons are the main cause of this. No one else." I bit my fingernail hearing that. To think the demons also appear here, that is not supposed to be the way here. I came here to train and enhance my magic to ready myself and fight against the demons efficiently and now I am forced to meet them again? Am I a magnet of demons or something? Or this is just a coincidence? As I continue to probe my mana scan in the area, my sweat turns cold when I detected a fluctuation in the nearby bushes. It was quite large and I am not the only one who detected it. "What a dense amount of mana! What is going on?" I observed the situation properly on the fluctuation and finally managed to guess it whatever it was. Gate Rift Entrance Just like the rifts that lead you to the GATES, it also has a similar structure, however, the evil energy flowing around it is not as intense in GATES since the latter is much more violent and destructive due to it being the embodiment of sins and malice being collected in an area. Now, there is a different purpose on this thing appearing. It is not a GATES type of rift where you enter it and it will lead you to a different world. I confirmed it immediately after detecting a dozen demons emerge from the rift. The Gate Rift entrance that appeared is none other than a portal. "You see something Kazuma?" Maple asked. She can feel the fluctuations but she can''t see it with the forest covering it. "We need to get out of here fast. I detected 12 demons of various shapes and sizes and also different genders. In short, we are going to escape again until we are far from the enemies now." "Isn''t that something that is not advisable?!" Maple looked at Kazuma. "No. According to one of the demon hunter magicians I know, the demons can detect the human aura once they entered their probing sensors. If we stay here, we are just sitting duck. At least we can get away once we are outside. Also, I trust your abilities in weapons and how you use your magic to mix with them." Maple was a little bit flustered when she heard that but she quickly recovered and pulled out her daggers. "Alright, let''s be quick." With the approval of Maple in this turn, I carry Anya with me in my back so that I can still fight even if I am carrying her. "Stepfather, what is going on?" Anya asked. "Just a few nuisances that appeared out of nowhere. We will try to get out of their sight before something else will stop us. You should behave alright? We can''t afford to be seen by some bad guys out there," I said to calm Anya though what I said isn''t calming and our situations are also nerve-wracking to experience. Maple made the run and I followed her behind. I made sure to activate my mana scan to find enemies in the nearby bushes and if the demons were chasing us or getting fired up too much that we were discovered. Anya just clings on my back like a lizard clinging on walls and ceiling. I can tell that she is nervous about the situation. A few demonic beasts appeared in my range doing some sort of ambush on where we are going. "Maple, enemies around 3 o''clock and 1 o''clock. They are hiding in bushes. Shoot them with something or beat them out to senses. Either way is fine so choose whatever you see fit!" Maple nodded and without hesitation, she throws out a dagger with a chain attached to it. I can clearly hear a howl when the dagger she throws into the bushes hit something. With a pull, she drags the body of a demonic beast out, killed when it was hit in its chest where the cores of the demons are located. Maple used the carcass to the next bush I mentioned and used the chain as the attachment to the carcass. A thud and yelp from another creature were heard on the bushes. The demonic beast leaps out of the bushes but Maple is fast enough and used the chain to pull herself towards the bush. Before the demonic beast can even escape, Maple swipes her dagger to the monster and swiftly killed the monster. "Let''s go!" I said to Maple as we continue to traverse the forest once more. It is getting darker since the sun is almost gone on the horizon. A few more minutes and it will be nighttime and the darkness will blanket the whole forest. The darkness is not a problem for Maple since she has the magic spell, Nightstalker in which allows the magician using it to use the darkness and merge with it, allowing the user to see perfectly in the darkness. I am fine with darkness and with the help of the Mana Scan that I am still using, it allows me to also traverse the whole area without bumping to any trees and any kind of object present in my way. Then, while we are traversing under the blanket of darkness, a very fast red mark appeared on my scanned area. And it was so fast that it is currently approaching us very quickly every second pass by. My senses were triggered and without thinking twice, I conjured a fireball in split second and throws it to the figure chasing us. Just in time, the fireball hit the speeding figure that just appeared from the thick trees. "Maple! Don''t intercept it! We need to get out of here fast!" However, the figure I throw the fireball into roared and slowly stood up. It might be dark but due to the soft light coming from the moon, I finally saw who the speeding figure. "Not so fast kid!" I almost trembled and gritted my teeth. I can''t believe it is a demon. The one who almost killed me back in school, the dangerous female demon I meet during the invasion and if not for Voltaire''s interception, I might be already dead. Chapter 92: Demons Arrival This demon, from what I can remember, almost suffered defeat in the hands of Voltaire. I suffered defeat from her at that time because I am still weak and cocky and I might have died if not for the intervention of Voltaire. But now, I am still a little bit weak and she actually grew stronger now that I met her again! I am not sure whether this is going to be a good thing or not. "Long time no see boy, or is it just a few days ago? No idea, but since I meet you here by chance, perhaps, destiny is looking for you?" I did not respond and quickly ignited my right fist while using my left hand to keep Anya on my back. I also activated the Blazing Shoes to push myself forward and rush forward towards the female demon. I might have trained my speed and strength but it barely makes up against the demon. Even my Weakness Perception is only showing a blank slate and error messages showing that this demon is either too strong for my Weakness Perception, I did not back down. I have a big score to settle with this woman and I am not going to even care if I managed to kill her or not. Defeating her here will remove future troubles but I am not sure whether my strength will help. My dragon power is also limited and since I just used it earlier, I have to refrain in using large fractions of power from it to avoid a huge backlash that might cause my body to get some complications, I can''t go all out using this which means I have to keep my attacks reliant on my raw power and magic power alone. When my flaming fists were about to hit the demonic woman, my fist suddenly came to a halt and I can''t even move it. It was like my hand was petrified. The flames in my hands are also extinguished. "Hey, hey. I am just greeting you, why are you so hostile? Anyways, I am just greeting you so there is no need to be so rash like this. I am not going to fight you YET. I am not that cruel despite me being a demon. So I will let you off the hook right now, you are not one of our targets so you can just go and hide somewhere out there." I still did not respond to what she was saying. I am trying to break free from her control. "Kid, you cannot escape on that magic of mine. You are too weak, you can''t even destroy this magic so just don''t resist. And besides, if you don''t want to let your companions die, shouldn''t you get moving already?" "Why are you doing this?!" I gritted my teeth. She fell silent and she glared at me. "No more questions. If you want to die, then feel free to stay. If not then scram!" After that, my whole body once again returned to normal and I can move again. However, I no longer attacked her. I have Anya in my back and Maple is not someone who will have any kind of power to fight her back. For some reason, she is still trying to hide something but I have no time. There are still a few demons that just came out from the rift and I don''t want to get discovered by them so we retreated. I have no idea why she is doing this all of a sudden. ... (A/N: This is the POV of the demon that Kazuma met just now) When the group of humans retreated from my location, I felt the presence of the 7 upper echelon demons that just appeared on the demon rift. They are coming in this direction quickly. I am already prepared for their arrival. As soon as the demons appeared in front of me, I put my right hand in my chest and pounded it. "Are you the one who is sent to welcome us?" a demon with a rich-looking man that looks like a businessman asked me. Of course, this guy is a demon. The rich-looking man is just his cover as a human. "Yes. Master Kurosaki is already waiting for everyone''s arrival," I said. "I see. So he is now fully prepared to do what he needs to do, and he requires our aid to complete that?" a woman with a noble aura on her giggled as she covers her mouth with her foldable fan "It is necessary if we want to summon our Great Lord Shadow. To avoid the humans from knowing the situation, this place is perfect for covering the situation from the magicians," a guy who looks like a Chinese man wearing a Changshan said as he smiled to the woman. "Not necessarily. Most of you didn''t know that we have arrived at the area where the magicians are under heavy surveillance to this world," I said. Everyone was stunned. I want to facepalm, they are powerful, but they didn''t realize that we are under the surveillance of the magicians? Are they really someone who managed to become this strong and yet so ignorant in things? "Lead the way, I don''t want to delay our progress in summoning our Great Lord if what you said is true. They might have already been making their move right now so we have to hurry." I grinned hearing this. Once the Great Lord will appear, I will be ready to get stronger and I will beat up the lightning guy who almost killed me. And that kid earlier, I will make sure he will never have a chance to fight even if he tries to get stronger than me. Hehehe... ... That demon was still very strong. If I fight her right now, I will be dead for sure. Even with Yuri, Yuto and Kon''s help won''t do much. I can''t summon Inari right now so my chances are still too low. The only thing left for me to get stronger is to make a shortcut to that but it will be dangerous. The demons are really plotting something and based on the female demon''s words, something will happen that will cause chaos and death. I am quite sure this is something that has something demons. "Kazuma, why are we escaping? Isn''t beating the demons the priority of magicians?" Maple asked. "Have you fought demons before?" "Well, no actually," she answered. "Then that is another reason we should avoid the demons. Death will come knocking at us if we fight her." Of course, I want to defeat her as soon as possible but I am not an overpowered individual. I might be able to learn most magic spells I want to learn but I can''t raise my power in just a small time. "Stepfather... do you want to be stronger?" Anya suddenly said to me causing me to stop and look at her in confusion. What did she mean? Chapter 93: A Way to get Stronger I was puzzled about what Anya told me. What did she mean? "My father had me learn a magic gathering spell that allows the person performing this to use all the surrounding magic and pure mana to integrate into the body of the user. It allows helping the user to get stronger in a short duration of time. I am a half-dragon so I can easily do it. Since father gave his mark to you, then you can practice it." Blue interjected from our conversation in my mind. "That kind of ritual indeed exist before in the past. It was a shortcut to getting stronger but many people don''t want to do it because of the danger it also possesses." "Danger?" "Let me give you an example, if you pour water in a glass, what will happen?" "The water settles inside the glass until it gets full," I immediately answered. "Mm, good. Now, what will happen if you continue to pour water to the glass despite it full of water already?" "The water will overflow, obviously," I answered. "Alright, then imagine that glass holding the water is your body and the mana in the air is the water. If you continue to receive the mana even though you are full, there is a huge chance for you to overflow, which means it leads to death. If you are lucky enough, you will remain alive. But most of the time, only the strongest will be able to qualify for this. Anya is a halfling while you are pure human; you are more in the risk of death, while Anya will not be affected." "That dangerous?!" "Yes. And I suggest you decline this method." After our conversation with Blue, I looked at Anya and shook my head. "I don''t think I wanted that shortcut. It is far too dangerous for me since I am a mere human and even if I have the mark of your father, that doesn''t mean I can practice the method your father taught you to. Is there any method left besides this?" This time, Anya shook her head. "Unfortunately, father only taught me that. Other than that, nothing else." I was disappointed at first but then, the mimic started speaking. "Magicians get stronger by increasing their mana and magic power right? Then I think I have something for you then. The problem is that you have to manually get it yourself. I don''t have it with me." "An item that can increase my whole mana and magic power? That sounded a bit of a scam¡­" I said. "No. This is something that only people with the approval of the dragon can access and use to it. It will be a perfect asset for you who wanted to get stronger. I may not be a dragon, but I have lived for 30 years with my father, I am old enough to give my consent to you." I almost cursed from what I heard. 30 years?! And here I thought I was older than her! She was much older than me! To think I am treating her as a kid! She is a legal loli! Ahem, I am sidetracked, and I think I have to think of a good way to treat her like an adult. I don''t want to be disrespectful to my elders. "I know what you are thinking. Stop that, I may be half-human but my aging process is similar to a dragon. I might be old but I am still a kid at heart. I am just matured enough for the years I lived in so feel free to keep on treating me like a kid." "Alright then. So, what is this other method you are talking about?" "My father once told me of this location where the buried treasure to increase your magic power was buried. I heard from Father that he tends to go there and try to take it for himself but it didn''t work. He said he will ask me to go there in the future once I am mature enough to take it but he never managed to send me there." This time, Maple who is just listening chimed in. "Are you talking about the Sealed Cavern of the Deepest Realm?" Anya was surprised and turned around to look at Maple. "You know the place?" "Yeah. It is one of the caverns I accidentally discovered last year when I participated in the annual training here. But it is a sealed cavern and I can''t even figure out how to open the sealed cavern door. It was like it is sealed shut." "I see, so that was what Father was talking about." "Your father said something about it?" "Yes. The cavern door was there and he tried any kind of magic to destroy it but to no avail. He then noticed that it needs the person who wants to access the place to solve the encryption on the door. Unfortunately, he has no idea what the encryption was written from so he decided to find out what it was." "Is there some sort of thing that is going to be beneficial to me in there?" "Yes. From what my father detected, he discovered a seed there that can increase your mana and magic power forever. He has heard the seed before in mythical legends. According to him, this seed is the tree of Yggdrassil that was lost in the past. It was meant to be an extra seed in case the Yggdrassil tree gets cut down. However, the said seed did not become the next seed for the tree after the old tree bore another seed which has a bigger vitality and power than the former seed. So when the latter seed appeared, the former disappeared and was sealed so that there won''t be any evil people trying to grab it for evil purposes. It is said that the seed will be the very source of power if cultivated properly." "If that is the case, isn''t that a useless trip then? I mean, I have no knack in solving things like that. Demons are here and if we don''t hide and escape, we would either die or become something for them," I said. "This is worth a chance. If you can easily learn spells, then maybe you have the ability to crack down spells without you noticing. Maybe you can open that door." Blue also chimed in. "This might be a good chance Kazuma. I heard of this lost seed and this might be the solution to your innately low mana. I suggest you try to get it." "You think I am a puzzle wiz? I am not someone who can easily solve puzzles that you are saying!" "You tend to forget about me. I am the great spirit of the black phone. If you have trouble, I will help you with it! I am, after all, a perfect existence!" Chapter 94: Episode 34 Sealed Cavern of the Deepest Realm Part 1 Due to that discussion, we went to the Sealed Cavern of the Deepest Realm and check out the said Yggdrasil seed. It was far from our current location but we have no choice but to reach it as fast as possible or else, the demons might start getting stronger, dominate the place, and slaughter us all. While we are traveling, beasts and monsters always block our way and attack us. Luckily, with Maple''s swift and lethal attacks, the beasts are not really a threat. Even my magic is helping a lot especially if I burst out the flames from my gloves and shoes, the beasts are just easier to get killed. The amount of beast and monsters killed on the way contributed a lot to our points getting us the good amount for us to use once we get back. The only problem right now though is the appearance of the demonic beasts similar to the undead wyverns and it''s riders. Somehow, they acted as the direct upgrade from their normal beast counterparts making them be an effort to kill. It can be said that these monsters are much more vicious and dangerous to fight against. What is more, their attacks were something to reckon with. They cannot be underestimated at all. "Anya, do these demonic beasts appeared quite often in the forest? You are an original inhabitant in this place so you might know it," I asked. "No, stepfather. Demonic Beasts do not exist in this world. It is normal to see beasts and monsters roaming around the place but having demonic beasts running rampant in the forest is something that I have not experienced before. This is the first time I have seen so many of them at all," Anya answered who is riding on Kon''s back along with Maple who is using her chain kunai to kill monsters that have a threat to us while trying to guard Maple against any aerial enemies. "Indeed Kazuma. This is the first time I have seen demonic beasts existing in this world. This means the demonic power of the demons is slowly converting the monsters too much stronger monsters," Maple said. "But when we fought the undead wyverns last time, you quickly blurted its name. Then that means you have seen demonic beasts before?" I asked. "Indeed I have. Demonic beasts are all common around my place particularly the undead wyverns but I have not seen them here. That is why I am surprised to see them existing in this place despite being a place only full of vicious monsters. It is not a recommendation for the demonic beast to exist here so it is quite impossible for them to walk here. But since the demons have already managed to enter this realm, then it would not be a surprise to see so many of them in one place." As we venture deeper and closer to our destination, the beasts'' attacks are just getting more and more frequent. The normal beast attacks are also getting lesser and lesser and more on the demonic monsters. The atmosphere in the area is also getting darker and full of evil. "Kon, are you alright?" I asked Kon since he was a beast. The environment seems to affect him so I asked him if he is handling the situation better. I can recall him if needed. "I''m sorry master, it was indeed really hard to breathe in this place and it makes me weaker as time goes by," Kon explained "I see. Anya, come here, I will carry you in my back again," I said to her in which she quickly obeyed. After that, I recalled Kon back to my familiar realm. Looks like this atmosphere is the one causing the demonic transformations. It also proves that beasts are not susceptible to things like this since they are easily afflicted by it. "We are close to the cavern Kazuma," Maple said and pointed on the distance. Not too far from our location is a rock wall and on the bottom of it is a dark passage that seems to lead us deeper underground. "Is that it?" "Yeah, the cavern''s door is much deeper underground. There is only one dark passage so it is impossible to miss the door," Maple said. I am a bit cautious about the surroundings because of the demonic beasts. We might get in trouble if the beasts followed us to the cavern while we are solving some puzzles. I look around at first before I activated the Mana Scan. Just as I activated it, a big response appeared on mg scanning. I was shocked when the enemy was reflected on the scanner. There is no horde of demonic beasts in the surroundings but only one single monster. What is more, the reading of the monster is in demon color which is red. The reason I did not suspect it as a demon is that the size and length of the enemy is not something a demon can do since they only form in the human form and not monster forms. It is a demonic beast, the only thing is that this monster, is quite long and big. A Giant Snake. Remember a movie of a very large snake that ate any humans it sees? The snake''s length and size are just the same as this monster I am seeing in my mana scan. "Maple! Don''t! A monster is still in the grass! For some reason, it was really big and emits the demonic aura!" "How big is the snake?" Maple looked at me in confusion. "Enough to coil a building around! This is an insane size and it is currently hiding on the tall grasses. it hasn''t made any movement yet so I am not sure if it is safe to proceed. It might be lying still on the grass and waiting for us to come into the area!" Maple bit her thumb and shook her head. "This will be a very dangerous sh*t and I am not sure whether we proceed or not. But if it was for the sake of survival, I will agree and follow your plans." I am not sure how to respond. The enemies are getting stronger and I can say that we can''t proceed into the cavern unless we distract the snake or we slay it in there immediately. Chapter 95: Sealed Cavern of the Deepest Realm Part 2 I examined the snake carefully to check of its weakness. However, all I could see is its name and all of its weaknesses are labeled in a question mark. "Blue, I frequently see this question marks when I use Weakness Perception. This is not the first time I have experienced it but how come when I necessarily want to see a weakness, it is not working at all!" "It''s normal. If that happens, you will immediately know that the monster or enemy you are facing is stronger than you. If that happens, either you flee or you proceed cautiously," Blue answered. If that was the case, then how about using real-life logic about the snakes? Defeating the snake is not something I can do nor my companions can accomplish. It was clear as day that we will die if we directly confront it. Then, I just remembered something. My gloves are still in my hands. I snap my fingers and embers and sparks started to appear from my fingers. I think I have to test it. Conjuring a small fireball in my fingertips, I throw it towards the far wall where I spotted a dead sapling good enough to conduct a fire. My control in the Blazing Gloves is already good that I can perform small tasks like this without any problem. As soon as my fireball hits the dead plant, it quickly started burning. I am not afraid it will spread the fire since the surroundings of the dead plant are rocks and more rocks. We observed the snake''s reaction and find the reaction I am looking for. The snake stood up like a cobra and slithers towards the flaming plant. When the snake arrived on the plant, the burning plant already got extinguished. The snake then returned from its position earlier and did not bother to do anything after. Snakes are very sensitive to heat and if we try to sneak in without any kind of plan to proceed on, then we are just sitting duck, ready to be the food of that snake itself. Therefore, why not make a decoy? We are quite sure we can''t beat up the snake at all since it is very strong and compared to us, the snake only views us as ants. We will be devoured easily if we just leave it like that. I turn around to my companions and discussed my plans to them. "Guys, I have a plan. But you all needed to be quick," I started. "Don''t tell me you are going to use us as a bait?!" Maple looked at me in fury even though I have yet to say anything. "Wait, wait, what the heck are you talking about, I am not going to use a tactic that can harm my comrades. I am not that insane so please remove that thought. I am not that evil." "So you can do evil if you wanted to?" Anya looked at me, waiting for my answer. "If it is something that has to be done because either choice you make either makes you f*cked up, I won''t hesitate to do it. So it means I can tolerate evil but I can also do good things so nothing is impossible. Doing both is possible. "Anyway, you all sneak out when I throw the fireball somewhere. That is the signal. Quickly move out and go to the door." "What about you?" Maple asked. "I will act as the decoy and will follow after you two have arrived. Don''t bother to help. I have my ways to get in there as soon as I can," I said to her. The flames in my gloves start to get hotter and hotter, enough for the snake who was just silent and resting for a while to stand up and look into my direction. Without waiting, I throw the fireball away to the other direction where it will lead the snake further from the entrance of the cavern. "Go!" With my signal, Maple carried Anya immediately and used her ability to blend in the shadows allowing her to move quietly and has a lesser chance of being detected from the snake. In just a few seconds, she arrived at the cavern''s entrance. Just like what I said to her, she did not wait for me and carried Anya deeper towards the said gate that blocks our way. Now that they are now out of the snake''s scope of range, it is now my problem. There is a large chance that the snake had already discovered me before I have thrown the fireball. It is a very big problem for me and solving it is not as easy since I don''t think my plan will really work well. Fortunately, it seems the snake only noticed the snake. To enhance my chances, I cast Frigid Wind in my surroundings, causing my temperature to drop low. I don''t know if it will really work because the snake might also detect the coldness and discover me. I started moving a little bit faster while keeping myself low. I also keep my eye on the scanned area using my Mana Scan to make sure the snake will only head straight to the flames. I made sure the flames that I have thrown to last long enough. It also emits enough heat to make sure the snake won''t just ignore it. When I was about to reach the entrance of the cavern, I saw the snake swallow up the flames that I have thrown. I almost choked up seeing this and panicked when the snake starts to wriggle and slam its body and tail around. The snake is getting hurt! My flames are not too easy to get extinguished and if the snake ate it, that means the flames that are still blazing too hot earlier are now inside and burning the flesh of the snake! The snake wriggled too much and I almost lost balance in my footing due to the tremors it was making. There are also countless times I almost got wrecked to death by its tail which I luckily evaded. In the end, I noticed the snake to roar even though snakes don''t do that. Then it fell into the ground not moving. I checked if it is dead using my mana scan and confirmed that it is still alive. It might have been too exhausted to move since the burning sensation that it swallowed destroyed the flesh of the snake inside. I think it is recuperating at the moment. Seeing the chance, I left the snake to suffer without dealing the final blow to slip past and follow Maple and Anya towards the cavern. Chapter 96: The Puzzle At first, it was quite dark and hard to navigate. To solve that, I conjure a small fireball on the tip of my forefinger and it acted as a small candle. I thought I would see walls of rocks and stalactites and stalagmites around me but I was fooled. This might be a cavern entrance to some sort of cave but the inside is not in a sense similar to a cave, in fact, it is more akin to a temple hallway than a cave. The walls seem to have some engravings of some sort however, I can''t read it and I don''t think I will be able to. They looked like they are foreign words and I have not seen it before. I don''t even think of it as a language in our world. I scanned the place using the mana scan and found out that the whole place is only a single hallway, going further underground. There is no such thing as hidden passageways or any branching hallways that leads to other places. It only leads to a single place. I have not seen anyone else since my mana scan has a limited range. If that was the case, this hallway is much deeper than what I am seeing right now. I continue moving down the hallway. It might look like I am walking in a straight line but I am actually descending. The engravings on the wall are also stretched out till the very far end. I also noticed that not only the engravings are present now, there are also some drawings of humans and some monsters on the wall similar to those historical drawings seen in caves made by prehistoric people. Even though I am curious and wanted to look at the engravings and the drawings, I have no time to dawdle. I keep on walking for quite a while and I almost thought that it is endless. Luckily, after a few minutes of walking, I finally managed to see in my mana scan that the hallway is now divided by a big door and before that door are two figures. Which I can tell are both Maple and Anya. When I arrived at the door, Maple and Anya are busy looking at the massive door''s doorknob. Maple is the first one to notice me while Anya did not even bother to turn around, still busy looking at the doorknob. "Looks like you were successful on your slipping in. Not bad," Maple said. "Ha, it was not easy you know." ''Still, it is a good thing that you managed to get in here without being attacked by the snake." I looked into the doorknob and asked Maple about it. "Is this the puzzle you are talking about?" Maple shook her head. "Yes and no. You see, the doorknob is the beginning of the puzzle while the whole door is the puzzle. If we managed to decode it, then it will open up, and allow us to get inside the place." "Did you try to break the door?" I asked. "I did that in the past. It was a foolish move because all the magic that I used to destroy the door rebounded and hit me twice the power of the magic I used. I even tried physical means but it was also useless." "Even physical means is useless? Our only choice is to solve the puzzle?" "Yeah. So it seems. It was not easy so I am not sure if we can open it before the demons wreak havoc outside. It will be quite troublesome if that happens." I can only frown when I heard this. I have a bad side when it comes to puzzles. I am not a puzzle whiz so if we are facing a puzzle, it will be hard for me to do so. But it would not hurt to try right now. Glancing at the puzzle, it was a simple sliding puzzle that seemed to look a simple puzzle of sliding. However, I finally noticed the difference between the normal sliding puzzle and this one. It is an unblocking puzzle kind where you have to exit one block to another exit and remove it on the puzzle which will solve it. The only thing is that the puzzle has a complicated movement. Every time you move a puzzle block on a direction, a puzzle block would also move randomly in another direction. It could either mess up the puzzle or mess up your plan to move the block. No wonder it is a complicated one. I tried solving it at first but as soon as the block that is the target to be removed from the puzzle reached the middle part, it became entrapped, making it unable to move backward or forward. It can''t go sideways because it only has a backward and forward movement. "F*ck, this is indeed complicated. This is not something I have seen before in my life," I cursed after finding out that my move set is wrong. "See? It doesn''t look easy because it is not easy! I have solved puzzles before but most puzzles that I have solved are a bit easier and have clues on how to solve it, but this one seems a no-go. It seems to be reading your mind!" Maple said as she glared at the puzzle. Anya just continues to stare at the puzzle but from her reaction, I can tell that she is pissed off on the puzzle. I pull out my phone and decided to capture a photo on it. If we can''t solve this puzzle, then we will find help from the outside world. Since my phone can still connect to the chat group, then they might have any idea what this puzzle is and how to solve it. "What are you doing Kazuma?" Maple looked confused when I pull out the phone. "I am trying to ask help on the chat group for a solution on this. Many of them are very knowledgeable about magic artifacts and other kinds of things so if we ask them, we might be able to get a hint or even a solution on this puzzle." Chapter 97: The Solution "Your phone has an internet connection in this place? Just how did you even do that?!" Maple reacted. "It''s hard to explain. But at least we can ask for help on this situation from our senior magicians on what this puzzle is about." I focused the camera on the puzzle and snapped a few photos on it. The phone''s flash allowed me to capture clear photos on the puzzle despite the place being too dark to see much without any light source. After looking at the clear shots of the photos and selecting good shots, I sent them to the chat group one by one and ask them, "Do any of you guys know this puzzle? We are stuck on this one and we have no idea how to solve it. Anyone who can give us hints or solutions are welcome. We appreciate all the help we can get." After a few seconds of sending the photos, the lurkers on the chat group appeared like mushrooms. Either they are too free to respond or they are constantly looking at the chat groups'' logs and will immediately respond to what we are talking about. *** Yaya: Why do I found these photos familiar? Rena: You know these ancient puzzle looking thing @Yaya? Yaya: Yeah, they looked familiar. I think I have seen them before but I don''t remember where I have seen it before. I might need some time to jog my memory and recall where I have seen it. Tsukiyama: I am sorry, I don''t find this familiar. It looked like an ancient item so you should ask @Zan on this one. He is an explorer of ancient ruins and other dimensions so he might have an idea on this one. Zan: I am trying to think of a good way on where I have found a puzzle like this in my travels but sorry to say, I don''t have any idea either. Chat Killer: Is there anyone else who knows this? We really need to know the solution on this, Yaya: Where did you find this piece of puzzle anyway @Chat Killer? Chat Killer: We are inside a cavern named Sealed Cavern of the Deepest Realm. Does this name spark something? This puzzle is attached to the door that divides the passage to the deeper part. Rena: Sealed Cavern of the Deepest Realm? Isn''t that the hidden place on the Phantasmal World of Catmod? Yaya: Ah! That''s it! I know! This puzzle is quite easy to solve according to the records that I have read before! I heard they call it the Mana Puzzle! Chat Killer: Really? Yaya: Yeah! I can''t be wrong because I am always right! Just use Mana Scan on this puzzle and follow the hidden solution of the puzzle. Chat Killer: Ah, then thanks for the info. I really appreciate the help even though I am always lurking in the chat. Yaya: No problem at all. Tsugimoto: No worries about that@Chat Killer, we are also lurking and doing some sh*tposting from time to time so feel free to send us some things like this. It doesn''t hurt to ask for help. Chat Killer: Then I won''t hesitate right now. The whole Phantasmal World is in chaos. The demons have managed to enter this place and now converting the monsters into demonic beasts while slaughtering the magicians here and there. We need all help we can get. Yaya: What? Zan: Damn! So that piece of news I am hearing before is true?! Tsukiyama: Those damnable demons also managed to wreak havoc on that place?! Rena: We will go there immediately. Inform the offline magicians too. We can''t afford those demons to run amok all around the place. We need to corner and defeat them before the casualty rises! All: ROGER! *** After that, the whole chat group started to chat and ping the offline magicians to inform them about the situation. I am quite relieved to see that all of them are willing to come to our rescue. This will be a perilous battle, so having an extra hand of help would be gracious enough. "So what did they say?" "I can just use Mana Scan on the puzzle and follow the path on the puzzle that my mana scan shows on it." "Mana Scan? Unfortunately, I haven''t learned on the spell so maybe you can do it instead?" "I am the only of us three who has Mana Scan so it is only natural to be the one to do it." And without waiting for Maple to react, I activated the Mana Scan and focused it all on the puzzle. At first, I don''t see any changes but when I looked closely, there are green lines that seem to correspond to the block that is meant to be removed from the puzzle. I didn''t waste my time and started moving the block. Every time a block stops my progress, another green line appears on the blocks that are necessary to move. When I arrived on the part where everything is blocked, I was surprised that this time, it didn''t happen. Sure there are some blocks that block my progress but it is now possible to pass through. In just a few minutes of following the green lines, I managed to remove the block off of the puzzle. "Is that it?" I asked "I have no idea. We have not solved this thing before," Maple shrugged and glance at the block that I just removed from the puzzle. "What is the use of that thing?" I glance at the piece of the puzzle. I can''t clearly see the thing in my hands with only the small light at my fingertips so I conjured a bigger fireball which allowed me to light up the area brighter. "Why does it looked like a rectangular shaped key to me?" Anya mumbled as she looks at the block of the puzzle. "Wait, it does look like a key!" Maple exclaimed. I am not sure if what they are saying is true so I also examined the thing closely. They might be wrong since it is dark. But when I looked closely, it was really what the two are saying. It looked like a key, only that it looked so eccentric looking and we can''t also deny that it is shapely weird. "If this is a key, why is this rectangular?" I twirl it around for a while for any kind of clues. "Maybe it is the key to the door? I spotted a rectangular spot last time around the door and it seemed to be missing something. Why not try inserting it? Besides, the door is to opening despite that we have already solved the puzzle," Maple said. Maple leads us to the left side of the door and she points out a hollow rectangular shaped place on the door. It does look similar to the rectangular piece I am holding on. I slowly inserted the piece and before the whole piece can be inserted to the slot, a strong force forced the piece inside the slot. As soon as the piece entered the slot, the place started shaking. "An Earthquake?!" I exclaimed. "No! The door is opening!" Maple said as she pointed on the door that is slowly parting away. Just then, a huge roar exploded in the area. It was like a roar of a newly awakened beast. Chapter 98: Trials The roar is so loud that it shook the whole place. The reverberating roar is enough to collapse the whole ceiling if not for the tough foundation of this place. "What was that?!" I frowned because I can''t sense anything ahead of us using my Mana Scan. Everything is blurred out. "Maybe the guardian of this place?" Maple is also at loss. "My father said that some sort of guardian was placed in hopes of guarding whatever it was in there. The door will be opened eventually so it is not impossible for a guardian to exist and guard whatever it was," Anya explained, still calm in our situation. I wanted to find out the enemy as soon as possible and think carefully if we have to retreat or forge ahead. However, my mana scan seems to be not working properly with this some sort of scanning interference. I can only see a deep void in my scan further ahead. "Can you see anything on your end Kazuma?" Maple asked. "No. It was very hard for me to depict whatever is hiding in there with this interference." The roar once again reverberated but this time, it is getting louder and clearer. It is definitely a beast. But even if there is a beast or guardian or whatever it was, we have to forge ahead. We either get the power lurking inside this cavern or we die from the demon assault. "Should we press on?" Maple is hesitant. "We have no choice. We either retreat and die or proceed and find out whatever it was." I tried to contact Blue in my mind but for some reason, Blue cannot respond. My phone keeps on vibrating and when I looked at it, my phone seems to be getting interfered by some unknown force causing it to work like this. If this is happening, whatever that was, has an ability to cause this strong interference.] When we step inside the door, Maple and Anya suddenly fell over the ground, even the mimic bracelet fell. From what I can see from them, they are being oppressed by some kind of force, making them fall. The only one unaffected by the phenomenon is me. "K-kazuma¡­ go! Proceed...with care!" Maple said and struggled to overpower the force. Anya is also gritting her teeth and her wings and tail started to emerge from her body as she also tries to overpower the force. She looked at me and sign to proceed. I want to help them but then, a voice seems to enter my consciousness. "Child of man, your trial is about to begin. Whether you pass it and prove your worth or fail is none of our concern. We will be spectators of this trial and will look at whether you are worthy or not. Proceed to the hall alone. Your companions can''t enter the holy ground." I was hesitant to go but I have no choice. I started walking towards the end of the hallway. I still can''t see a single thing using my Mana Scan on the place I am heading into. I can only rely on what my senses are telling me. Arriving in the area, I realized that it was so big that an arena for football tournaments are just small size in this place. It was so big. However, how did they build this area without the ground above collapsing?! The whole place started to brighten up when all the torches placed on the wall ignited one by one spontaneously. It was like entering a dungeon or boss room in a game. When I scan my surroundings, I almost shivered to see 5 monsters staring at me intently. Wait¡­ for some reason, they seemed to be familiar. The 5 beasts are a white tiger, a vermillion bird that seems to emit flames, a black turtle with a snake tail, an azure dragon, and lastly, a gold dragon with orbs floating around its body. When I tried to jog my memory, the beasts started talking. "The trials of the celestial beings will now commence. The trial of Byakko will now begin," a figure walks in from the shadows, holding a blue crystal ball that emits weird pull of mana in the surroundings. From the sound of the voice and from the stature of this person, I deduce that it was a small boy. When I heard the word "Byakko", I quickly remembered what these beasts were. The Celestial Beasts that represent the North, South, East, and West and the very center of the four directions! They also represent the four seasons while the central beast represents the midsummer. Their elements are Wood, Fire, Metal, Water, and last is the Earth. If I am not wrong, these beasts are Byakko, Suzaku, Genbu, Seiryuu and the last one is the holy beast Kohryu but they sometimes call it Qilin The moment the small boy said "trial of Byakko", the surroundings shook and the white tiger which is Byakko roared in the sky. Even though the sky is not present, clouds formed and the thunder roared while the lightning strikes. I already expect it to Byakko since it governs the Lightning Attribute but to see it close, it made me shiver. One strike of that lightning to me and I am toast. The moment Byakko stood before me and roared, my instinct kicked in. Dodge! Without hesitation, I jumped back from my location, and split seconds later, a huge bolt of lightning struck the place I was standing earlier. Before I can comprehend, Byakko raised its paws and slams it in my direction. Without flinching, I rolled and escaped the strike and stood up once again. Only one thing is certain, this trial is a battle to the death. Defeating Byakko is my only way to proceed and find out the situation. If this trial wants me dead, then I can only fight back. I conjured the flames in my gloves and set the shoes ablaze. "Come!" Byakko roared and lunge forward while covered in electricity. Once again, I dodge from the attack. Facing it head-on is suicidal and I am not some maniac who would face it without dodging the attack. When Byakko missed, it didn''t stop and look at my direction before firing another lightning strike. I dodge sideways but my sleeve has been burned from the attack. When everything seems to be fine, Byakko roared while staring in the sky all of a sudden and before I knew it, lightning strikes rained like water in the whole area. One strike from it, and you are dead. I can''t dodge something so many like this and I am sure to get beaten up in death with this situation. My only option was to protect myself. "Domain of Balmung!" Chapter 99: Trials: Byakko, the Beast of the West BANG! BANG! The strikes of Byakko rebounded on the Domain of Balmung''s barrier. Despite the sturdiness of the barrier, the moment Byakko pounded it a few more times, it collapsed immediately without much effort. As expected of a celestial beast, a mere barrier is nothing to it. However, I refuse to be defeated here. If I die trying to beat up this enemy, then I have no chances of winning against the assault of the demons. "RAAAAWWWWRRRR!" Byakko is once again charging up electricity on its body. I was able to dodge them before but those dodges are just a fluke, I doubt I can easily do that again. What is bad for my situation is that Byakko seems to know what my next attacks are going to be because every time I attacked, all of my attacks would miss before Byakko strikes in which I have yet to get my bearings from casting a spell. "Weakness Perception!" In a split second, the results came out and as expected, it was indeed going to be a hard trial. The requirement to defeat this enemy are spells I have yet to learn. [Celestial Beast of the West, Byakko] Weakness: Earth Type Magic, Wood, and Nature Magic I completely disregarded this kind of magic before because I prefer magic spells like the water and light ones since they are much more comfortable to use. To think I would regret doing so, I would have practiced at least a single one in case unexpected enemies that needed to fight with certain elements can help. I learned my valuable lesson here Blue can''t help me with this situation and my phone is acting up, cutting my communication with the chat group for any help or accessing the magic archive channel that might hold one or two Earth, Wood, or Nature Magic. I can''t ask for backup either since I have been trying to ask help on my familiars and they have not responded to my calls. I can''t also expect some help from Maple and Anya since they are held back just by at the entrance. I am on my own without any outsider''s help to use. Byakko takes a while to charge so I used this chance to at least deal some damage despite it being something weaker than Byakko. I want to burst down Byakko but I doubt I can do that so my biggest chance to defeat the Celestial Beast of the West is to whittle the energy and vitality and take it down when the time is right. I continue throwing fireballs on the beast but Byakko did not even flinch or dodge, instead, it just keeps on charging the electricity on its body. The power of electricity seems to get stronger and stronger that my hair started to stand up even in my skin. Then, when the electricity that crackles around Byakko thickens, Byakko released another howl which caused countless lightning appearing above my head. And without any warning, it descended straight to me. I panicked and instinctively activated the Domain of Balmung without saying it like how I usually do. CRACKLE! I braced for impact at first but then I realized it did not even occur so I looked around and noticed the barrier erected around me. It is still the same barrier that can''t last from the attacks of Byakko but at least, it erected before the lightning hit me. If it didn''t activate, I am dead. But I also realized that I can activate spells and magic without shouting the name of the spell. Is this chant less magic? No, I am not chanting so maybe I can just activate it without any problem like how I do in my gloves and shoes. But enough of that, Byakko is once again trying to attack with the electric charge. I can keep on shooting Byakko without any problem but I am quite aware that the damage it deals is not enough. So how about using other elements that I rarely use in battles? I quickly imagined the Light Blast to occur even without shouting its name and just focused on Byakko. I don''t expect anything to occur but before I can even react a huge blast of light appeared above Byakko''s eyes, causing Byakko to wail. The blast was enough to momentarily stall Byakko and blind the beast. It started rampaging since the eyes were temporarily blinded and just can''t see anything at all. "My chance!" Activating the flames in my shoes, I rush towards Byakko and ready my spell, Frigid Wind. Frigid Wind is a debuff spell allowing me to slow enemies. The coldness it releases is not damaging of some sort, just some chilling numbness that can limit the movement of the enemy. And as expected, when I released the Frigid Wind, Byakko''s movements started to slow down. I can easily predict its movements now and dodging them is easier. Byakko just randomly attacks around but due to the effect of the Frigid Wind, it allowed me to see where it will land and dodge without any problem. I managed to get close on Byakko and when one of the paws of Byakko is about to slam towards my direction, I slightly activated the dragon ability but focused it all in my feet. I sucked in a mouthful of air and when the paw is about to get in me, I jumped and released a roundhouse kick mid-air, kicking the paw pads of Byakko. I didn''t just kick Byakko half-assedly, I gave all the strength that I can muster on it. What I didn''t expect was... Byakko flying and hitting the wall. The impact was too strong that the whole place shook as Byakko hit it. I felt a little bit of pain in my legs but it slowly stabilized so I am not really injured. On the other hand, Byakko crumbles and dissipated like small orbs lights. Wiping off the sweat and dirt in my face, I then heard the same voice that announced the beginning of my trial with Byakko. "Congratulations on passing the first trial and defeating the celestial beast, Byakko. As a reward of this round, the inheritance of power from Byakko will now be yours. The first trial has concluded. The second trial: Suzaku, will now commence." And as soon as the voice stopped talking, a bolt of lightning suddenly zaps my whole body. But it didn''t hurt, in fact, I feel revitalized. It was like I was given a small dose of energy from an energy drink. But I didn''t have time to celebrate, the sound of shrill caw of the bird rang around the place. Looks like this signifies my battle against the Vermillion Bird, Suzaku. My second trial is now going to commence. Chapter 100: Trials: Suzaku, the Beast of the South Part 1 Suzaku or more commonly known by many people as the Vermillion Bird is a strong beast that I can even compare with the Phoenix as they have a similar ability which is the element of flames. They even mistake the Phoenix and Suzaku as the same creature though no one knows if that was the truth or not. One thing is certain to me right now though, and that is if I didn''t defeat Suzaku like how I defeated Byakko, then I won''t be able to escape this trouble. Suzaku flies overhead and embers fall over the sky. I have the magic to counter the element of Suzaku since I managed to learn a water element magic skill, Water Torrent. But that doesn''t mean it is enough to defeat something like Suzaku and I bet Suzaku is much more powerful than Byakko if that was the case. Just as I thought about it, I didn''t realize that Suzaku is currently flying towards me with the burning wings and currently on the act of swooping me down. "F*CK!" It happened so fast that before I can react, I was sent flying to the wall. The good thing is that I immediately activated a partial Domain of Balmung on my back before I hit the wall or else, my spine would be broken and I am dead. I will have no way of surviving the attack if that was the case. Still, the impact was too strong that even with my Domain of Balmung active, I didn''t think the impact would still cause me injuries. My back and my abdomen hurt a lot. But I don''t want to die here. Suzaku is once again flying and this time, above and flapped its wings causing gusts of winds that are also accompanied by embers, causing the normal gust to be a flaming gust that can burn things. SWOOSH! The gusts were a little bit hard to dodge, as it somewhat pulls you towards the origin of the gust. The embers are also troublesome because they are plenty in the air, dodging them too is also a pain since even if you managed to do that, some embers managed to stick to my clothes and making some holes on it. "Damn, my uniform is now in a mess. Now I am mad. Money is important and I have no money to buy an expensive uniform again. So please be so kind and fall here!" I aimed my palms and focused my mana on this attack. I still can''t control it much so I have to shout the name of the spell to amplify the activation. "Water Torrent!" Because this is the only spell that I can''t control, I have no idea how strong will be my attack to Suzaku. BAM! A strong current of water gushed out from my palms and became a tornado made of water. I can''t call it waterspout since it didn''t come from the water but from my hands. The pressure is too strong that I have to stick my feet hard on the ground to make sure the recoil of the pressure is not going to blow me away. The bad news is that Suzaku managed to fly away and evade my attack. I have to cancel the Water Torrent and dodge. Suzaku is basically a flying meteor shower creature. The attacks were too random. Just now, Suzaku released fireballs to my direction in which I have almost no chance to dodge if not for the Blazing Shoes'' ability to enhance my movement speed a bit whenever I activate the Blazing effect, I would be already toasted. Suzaku is a bit weaker than Byakko in terms of vulnerability. I managed to land a hit on Suzaku using my Water Torrent and part of Suzaku''s wings got hit by it. And it actually got extinguished partly. I observed it for a bit and saw that the extinguished part of Suzaku did not recover its flames. However, that lucky attack earlier seems to be some sort of fluke only. I never managed to hit Suzaku again as the Vermilion Bird keeps on flying around and dodging every single magic I throw. I can''t easily match the speed of Suzaku and I was like trying to swat a fly that is buzzing around. What is more annoying with Suzaku is that, if there is a chance, it will attack in close ranges but it rarely does that and will mostly rely on range attacks. I want to curse on Suzaku''s pervasiveness. Byakko is a free hit enemy while Suzaku will maintain its distance whenever it has a chance and starts spewing out flames, fireballs, and fire breath that has a similar movement with flamethrowers. You can easily say that Suzaku is your glass cannon. Getting close to Suzaku is hard because you can''t time when will Suzaku does a dive and when Suzaku will do it, you will sometimes have a hard time dodging instead which would stop you from even getting close to Suzaku and deal an attack. If only I have the ability of Byakko to strike down and electrocute my enemy, that would be good. WAIT... Electrocute... Then I remembered that I was granted the blessing of Byakko. But what does that really mean? Did that mean I can cast electricity here now? I don''t think that was a viable move. I have yet to learn any of it but there is nothing to hurt me while trying right? To avoid being incinerated by Suzaku while trying to test it out, I activated 3 layers of Domain of Balmung. It was easy to put the three barriers altogether, allowing me to have a little bit of safety. Of course it was not a viable tactic, I have to exhaust a lot of mana to do that and I have to rely on the dragon''s power to increase my mana recovery a little bit. The barriers I erected are just assurance that I can safely practice a little bit while on combat. When I feel that my mana is almost ready to recover fully, I noticed that Suzaku already released a barrage of fireballs, flames, trying to engulf my surroundings in flames. I keep myself calm and collected and breathe in a mouthful of air and focused. Since I have no idea what magic might be inherited by me from defeating Byakko, I have to instead visualize the way Byakko uses the lightning. I didn''t bother the slow destruction of the first layer of the Domain of Balmung and just continue to focus on conjuring the magic. FOCUS... LET THE CURRENT OF MANA FLOW THROUGH AND CONVERT IT TO ELECTRICITY... The last barrier started to crack out very fast since the second barrier didn''t even manage to hold the attack of Suzaku and the first one fell before I managed to focus but I didn''t stop and made sure that the feeling flows through me. CRACK! BANG! Suzaku released a ball of fire towards my shield and in just like that, all three of my barrier''s collapsed, but I didn''t move and just continue to feel it the mana. I am getting close... I can''t get it wrong! "CAWWWWWW!!" (don''t mind the sound, I don''t know what to write the sound of Suzaku) A fireball is now heading again to me, even when I closed my eyes, I can still feel the heat of the fireball but I didn''t panic. When the fireball is only a few inches left before it hit, I opened my eyes and golden sparks started to get released on my pupils alongside the current of electricity running throughout my body. Without hesitation, I punched the fireball, destroying it without any problem... Chapter 101: Trials: Suzaku, the Beast of the South Part 2 The electricity running in my body is too strong. Very strong that I felt like I have undergone a very big change when I managed to activate the electricity in my body. I felt much faster all of a sudden and my strength seems to overwhelm. Is this some sort of power-up? Or this is just a temporary one? Whatever, I have to use this power to defeat Suzaku. Suzaku launched a dozen of fireballs in my direction. It was very fast at first but when I focused my vision on the fireballs, I felt like they suddenly slowed down... or I have gone too fast? I don''t know what it was but it is good for me. If it was slow, can I just use it as stepping stones to get near to Suzaku then? Electricity crackle on my body and when I jumped, a shockwave was released beneath my feet allowing me to shoot myself forward and get into the fireballs. It was easy doing so especially if they are too slow in my movement or I am just too fast to see it so slow. In just a few leaps from the dozen fireballs, I managed to reach the final fireball and used it to push myself again forward to Suzaku. Suzaku had yet to react to my fast movements and I don''t want to be killed with the attacks of Suzaku if I lost my ability due to lack of mana. Finishing the battle quickly is the only choice here. "Fall down!" I clapped my hands together and electricity started to release from my palms and when the current is now too strong for my hands to handle, I released it from my hands and shoot it out towards Suzaku who has yet to react to anything I am doing in which I guess is not yet processing to Suzaku or just too fast for Suzaku to react. ZAP! CRACKLE! As soon as I have done that, everything returned to normal speed and everything started to connect too late. Suzaku who just released the fireball a while ago did not even get to react and was immediately got electrocuted and fell. I activated the electricity again in my body and used it to safely descend through the ground. Suzaku is still alive but many of the feathers that were previously blazing around are extinguished, making Suzaku''s color paler than before. I was about to approach Suzaku when the bird spread its wings and a strong heatwave hit all around the cave. It was too humid that as soon as that happened, sweat started to appear in my forehead and my whole body is getting heavier. Am I getting tired? No... I am not getting fatigued, it was more like my mana stored in my body is being drained constantly. This heatwave is siphoning the mana in my body! "Frigid Wind!" As soon as I activated the magic spell, Frigid Wind, I thought the Heat Wave will immediately be suppressed by my Ice Spell but I only felt slight chill before the humidity started to envelop once again. The Frigid Wind''s effect is not working. CAWWWWW! Suzaku seems to have recovered and some of the feathers that were previously extinguished are now back to their former glory. Suzaku has recovered! Without any warning, Suzaku released a wave of flame to my direction in a spread shape. Due to this, I have to escape the flames before I get incinerated. But I didn''t expect what Suzaku is about to do. Before I can even move to the side, a huge fireball exploded to the ground and it injured my right arm which I used to block the explosion. I have no time to do any kind of defensive magic spells to reduce the damage from the attack. I gritted my teeth in pain as the throbbing feeling in my arm is constantly sending pain. Suzaku did not even bother to let me recover and released another flame attack. I quickly activated the Domain of Balmung but due to my mana slowly diminishing and to avoid losing all of my mana, my barrier is quite weaker than expected. When the attack hit my barrier, it exploded and destroyed my barrier immediately sustaining only slight power from it. All I can feel in my body right now is pain... yes, pure pain... but then this is nothing. Compared to the time I was being bullied, if I have not retaliated, it might be worse. But it is already worse so how will that increase the worse level in that situation? Now that I think about it, this is just a slight amount of pain, not something unbearable. I stood up and gathered the remaining mana in my body and looked at Suzaku. Yes, Suzaku is a destructive force but that doesn''t mean Suzaku is invincible. There will always be bound to be a weakness that Suzaku can suffer. Calming my mind, a memory from the dragon passed by in my mind. And in that section, it was something that I think I can use. I raised my left hand and focused all the mana in my palm, and to make sure that the power gathering in my palm is strong, I also gather the mana in the surrounding. I don''t even know how I know this ability but I don''t mind. I think the knowledge came from the dragon''s memory that already mixed on my memories. Suzaku also gathered a huge fireball in its beak and also gathered power on it. I glared at Suzaku and started chanting. "In pure faith, I awaken the mind of Enlightenment. I aspire, together with others, to cross over the sea of birth and death, and quickly reach the shore of liberation. Awaken! Judgment!" Tremendous power builds up in my hands and the pressure it emits is too great to handle. As soon as I shouted Judgment, I throw the gathered power into Suzaku. BOOOOOOMMMMM! The surroundings shook and I can tell that the whole place is going to collapse. The ability Awakening of Enlightenment is something that requires tremendous resolve and will cause very strong destruction on its wake so this place will soon disappear. Just as I thought everything will collapse, a force suddenly stopped the surroundings from collapsing. But even if the place did not collapse, Suzaku, who is the one who received the power directly, just like Byakko, has already dissipated. "Congratulations on finishing the trial of Suzaku, the Celestial Beast of the South. The Blessings of Suzaku has been granted to you successfully." Chapter 102: Path to the Underground When the voice of the small boy resounded once again, my whole body was enveloped in a red flame but like the lightning that zapped me earlier, it recovered all of my wounds, and fatigue was reset back to healthy levels. If that was the case, do I also have the ability to use the skills that Suzaku uses? I waited for the next trial but instead of the next Celestial Beast, the small boy from earlier appeared again carrying a small box this time around. "You have accomplished two of the five trials right now. Although you have gained the two blessings of the beasts, I can tell from your physique that you are not yet qualified to challenge the next beasts." "Huh?" I was surprised to hear that. I can''t challenge the remaining beasts? "You hear it right, you are still not ready to challenge the others. If you forcefully try to challenge them, then you are looking to die. It is not that I am scaring you but you are just too immature yet. Even with Suzaku and Byakko, you have trouble fighting them, what about fighting those Celestial Beasts who have much more strong burst power? You won''t last a few seconds with them." He was right. I barely managed to fight against Byakko and Suzaku. If I don''t possess the power of the dragon and his memories, I won''t be able to finish the trials. I will be dead already when I started attacking Byakko and won''t be meeting Suzaku at all. "Don''t be disheartened. You are seeking the Seed of Yggdrassil right? Then come with me and get the seed." "Uh, I only wanted to get stronger and beat the demons..." I said. "Still the same thing, the seed of Yggdrassil is something that will be really handy for you if you wanted to beat them up. Come and take it, you are more than qualified to take it. It will just be a waste to just let it rot here forever." The small boy started walking back from where he came from. Since he said that I should follow him, I followed him without saying anything. I thought we will be going to a hallway towards another room but I just realized that we are descending...again. Why is this place full of underground places? This is just getting harder to fathom on who decided to do these designs and if this was just his or her style or he or she was just a mole that loves to excavate and build places like this, many possibilities but that is not what I should be thinking right now. When we arrived on the darker part of the place, I was about to activate my fire magic and create a small flame to light up the area a little bit but the kid stopped me from doing so. "Using magic might be practical but it is not necessary like in this situation. Don''t keep on relying on magic like it was something normal. You can just let your eyes adapt to the darkness instead of using conventional methods." I was surprised by this boy''s words. Indeed, I am quite reliant on magic right now ever since I managed to learn magic. I just remembered that I was a normal person before I found the phone. But ever since then, I used magic a lot. Maybe it is better if I use magic a bit less? The boy continued speaking as we continue to descend. "Magic is something that exists with us during ancient times but it was something too strong for all humans to hold so it was only given to a selected few, namely, you magicians. Some people are able to use it even though they are not meant to be mages, which in cases like yours." "My case?" "You are a unique existence. Though I don''t think I will say it to you. Your identity is something you should be able to find yourself without the help of others. Oh well, as I said, magic is not made for the sake of convenience. It was an energy that already existed way before humans ever existed. Humans just harnessed it and used it on their own. Of course, the demons are also using it so it was already something that can be said to be universal. "However, Humanity has always been known to abuse the power so to avoid doing so, many people decided to only pass down the magic to those descendants that have potential, otherwise, they don''t pass it at all which now leads to how the world is right now. Of course, not all people forgot the lost magic but they can only be counted. But that is only the right thing to do, otherwise, this world of yours won''t be the same as you know it right now." "So magic actually existed before?" "Yes. It''s just that you aren''t aware of it lately. Still, your fate is connected to it. Which is why I will be entrusting you the Ygdrassil seed. This is the only way to help you with your journey and your fate." "My fate?" "You have to find out yourself. I am just here to guide you to the proper path and also to avoid you getting led astray." As the boy keeps on talking of things about magic, we arrived at a place that I thought to be another world. It was very similar to the outside world except that this place can be called a paradise. There are grasses and flowers around. The sky is also present which made me wonder "Is this some sort of magic?" I glance around the place and touched the flowers on the ground. They all felt real and didn''t even have any kind of weird feeling that I usually feel when touching something made from magic. "You can say that this is magic but it is also not. This place solely exists for your eyes only and has no such thing as supporting something. We call this place "The Fake Agartha." "Fake? This is some sort of imitation then?" "Yes. The real Agartha is somewhere out there though I don''t know what that place looks like and if that place is similar to this, then that is something else. However, it''s none of my concern. Time is not on our side, receive the Ygdrassil Seed. We can''t afford the demons to emerge triumphantly out there no?" He snaps his fingers and a green light appeared before me. All of a sudden, my head started to hurt and my vision started to blur. "Sleep for now chosen one. Once you awaken, you will be a brand new you..." [ol][li data-annotation-id="01e33d65-b083-1739-e74a-afada3544508"]is a legendary kingdom that is said to be located in the Earth''s core. It is related to the belief in a hollow Earth and is a popular subject in esotericism.[/ol] Chapter 103: The Sprout of Ygdrassil I opened my eyes and realized that I was in a place I was not familiar. A barren white place with a vast and endless horizon with nothing to see in the distance except for the white scenery. It was like I am in some sort of new dimension? But the last time I remembered is that I was on the Fake Agartha and was about to receive the seed of Yggdrassil from the boy but where is it now? Also, where the heck am I? Exploring the place, I realized that it is not an endless horizon. It might look like endless but there was an invisible boundary that prevents me from going further. No matter how hard I try to push forward, it is a futile attempt. I gave up after a few tries seeing that my efforts are worthless. I look around the place to see any kind of things that will make me able to know what is going on and where I currently am. There is nothing around me except a single sprout on the ground. Although there is no soil, the sprout is growing fine. There is nothing else around here except the sprout. Seeing that there is nothing else around here, I decided to check and observe the sprout of what it was. The sprout is just a bit weird. Instead of green leaves, it is light blue and red. They don''t look like leaves either, they instead look like gems, ruby, and aquamarine. It only has two leaves so the color of the two is just contrast to each other. I tried touching the leaves to check if the texture is the same as the original leaf however when I touched the light blue leaf, a flash of knowledge appeared on my mind. The knowledge that appeared is the information on what the Blue leaf is about to do. The blue leaf is one of the leaves that shows how big is my mana capacity. The more leaves it shows, the bigger the capacity is. When I tried touching the red leaf, another flash of information appeared on my mind but this time, it tells me different info. The red leaf represents my magic power. The more leaves this sprout has, the stronger my magic power is. Although this info makes the sprout useful to me, I start to wonder, is this the Ygdrassil seed that just sprouted? I never know what the seed is actually but if this was the one, then what is really helping me on raising my magic power and mana capacity? As I stare on the sprout, another flash of information appeared on my consciousness but this time, it is the voice of the boy earlier who gave me the seed. "You must be a bit confused now, right? Then be sure to listen since this is already a pre-recorded message which means it won''t answer your questions if you ever have one. The sprout before you is the plant of Ygdrassil. It grows periodically and if you take care of it, the growth will also be enhanced. The sprout also supplies mana to you automatically. However, to do an unlimited mana move, the tree has to grow bigger first. The sprout can only recover a limited amount of your mana only. So by taking care of the tree and practicing, it will increase your ability too. Now, as to where you are right now, this is your mind space. You dwell in your consciousness to be exact. This was inaccessible before but due to the presence of the sprout, you can now enter the place without any trouble. As for the other function of the sprout, you find it out yourself. If you want to get in and get out of this place, be sure to focus on getting inside your consciousness or getting out of it. You can figure it out yourself because you are already intelligent enough. This is where everything about the sprout ends. I hope it answered some of your questions." After that, the surroundings once again turned quiet. The instructions are precise and I don''t think I have a hard time following it. But who would have thought the Seed of Ygdrassil has this power? No wonder so many people sought for this thing. But there is nothing to do here. The spout is still young so I decided to just go back to the real world. Although what the boy said about getting out being complicated, it didn''t really make a bit of difficulty. As soon as I focused a bit and imagined that I escaped this place, I managed to awaken. Looking around, I realized my body felt lighter than what I expected and my whole body seems to have undertaken a huge change that I can''t really explain. I stood up and realized that I was still on the Fake Agartha. The boy is currently sitting not too far from me and seems to be thinking about something. "Did I just passed out?" The boy noticed that I was now awake and stood up. "Looks like you managed to get out of your consciousness just fine. How is it?" "It is a little bit weird but I can get used to it. Is this the power of the Ygdrassil seed?" "You can say that. It is quite an effect no? But enough of that. You have to go now since the demons are now on the move. You don''t want them to succeed right?" "Yes. I have to. But before that, can you lift the heaviness that my companions felt earlier? They are stuck on the door." "They already managed to get off the way. You don''t have to worry about them. Since you are about to leave, I will give you this Magatama of Challenge as a parting gift," the boy pulls out a peculiar necklace that looked like a magatama but unlike the most common magatamas that I see which are in color green and black, this one is color blue. "What is this for?" "If you supply it with enough mana, you can rechallenge the Celestial Beast as well as challenge the remaining beasts you have yet to challenge. The two blessings will be enough for you right now but in the future, you need all of the blessings to survive. Now go, I won''t hold you here any longer. I will teleport you back to the entrance." After speaking, he snaps his fingers and when I blink, I was right in front of the entrance of the door that we unlocked. In the distance, I saw Maple and Anya leaning on the cavern''s walls. I did not even get to ask some questions but eh, this is all good since I don''t have to climb up once again to reach this place. But now is the time to stop the demons. I have to do this... [ol][li data-annotation-id="6582487e-da39-a614-216b-7c780506900c"]are curved, comma-shaped beads that appeared in prehistoric Japan from the Final Jomon period through the Kofun period, approximately ca. 1000 BCE to the sixth century CE.[/ol] Chapter 104: Summoning Part 1 "Kazuma! You are out at long last!" Maple said and helped Anya stood up. "Sorry that I left the two of you alone suffering the force that the door is giving to all of you," I said and cast Healing Flame to them, one of the skills of Suzaku that I inherited from the blessings. "You learned a new skill?" Maple looked at my new power and was amazed to see her wounds being healed whenever the red flame passes her wounds and scratches. "Something like that, but I also have to endure a lot to get it before I can use it. I almost got killed when trying to get it," I explained. "But you managed stepfather so that must mean you have beaten the enemy," Anya said. "Not really, there are still three enemies left and the guardian said that I am not qualified to challenge the remaining enemies because I am not strong enough. Anyway, enough of that. How is the situation on the surface? Do you have any news with them?" "Yes. I have sent a shikigami spell to monitor the surface earlier and I have already seen countless demons and demonic beasts around the place and it''s getting troublesome. We would be easily overwhelmed by them if we bother to appear before them. We are doomed." I frowned hearing this. "Stay positive. This is not the first time I fought against countless demons and that is not the last time. We will survive this onslaught. So let''s go and fight them. There is no point hiding here. We will push on and fight!" "But Kazuma, demons are not some monsters you can easily kill! They are creatures with powerful magic skills and can even manipulate dark powers! I am not the same as you who has monstrous abilities to take on the enemies like the demons! Besides, Anya is with us! We would not be able to properly fight!" Anya''s eyebrows furrowed when she heard this. "Sis Maple, I may be a child but I am also a dragon child. I can handle a demonic beast or two if I wanted to. Don''t underestimate me, sis." "Anya is right. She is not just a little kid we need to protect. She can fight on her own without any problem. I don''t think she will be a burden either. You are strong Maple, it''s just that you are not able to control it. Don''t worry about that! You can unleash your full power here!" I encouraged Maple. As I encourage Maple to fight, a demonic beast in the form of a boar appeared charging towards us. "An enemy!" Maple shouted and was about to take out her sword but I attacked first without waiting for Maple''s action. I have plenty of magic spells that I managed to earn after my battle against Suzaku and Byakko. After I passed out and entered my consciousness where the sprout of the Ygdrassil resides, all of the unknown spells that I received from the Celestial Beasts after getting the inheritance all came to my mind allowing me to learn them and use them properly once the time is right. Now, one of those times is definitely now, seeing the charging boar, I grinned and slam my hands together. "Lord of the skies! Deliver the judgment to the fallen entities below that taint the Earth! Come forth! Divine Lightning!" A yellow magic circle with 3 rotating circles appeared above the boar and with a snap, a bolt of huge lightning fell down the circle and roasted the boar to ashes. "Wha?" Maple was stunned. Even I was stunned. A powerful magic spell like that did not even take too much mana on my body but I felt like it was similar to those spells I frequently use that has explosive firepower but with insane mana consumption too. This magic is currently one of the basic magic spells that I got from Byakko. The other magic spells that have bigger mana consumption is not yet used yet so if this magic spell is considered as the basic one, then does that mean that the ultimate spells that I learned can be devastating if needed to be? "Now is our chance to get out of here, stepfather. We are now sure that the demonic beasts will also attack here so we are not safe here either. Let''s go outside." Maple has no choice but to agree. She nodded and steel herself. I think she has some sort of fear from the demons based on her reactions when the demons are mentioned but I don''t have time to inquire about her on the cause so I will just keep myself silent. Since we need to get out of here fast, we need a ride out of here. I call Kon in my mind and managed to reconnect to my familiars. "Master! What is going on? Why did we disconnect for a few hours from you? We can''t contact you at all!" Yuri''s voice echoed in my head. "Master, did something happen that caused us to be unable to get out earlier?" Yuto''s voice also emerged. "Not really, it is just that the restrictions from the area I was in earlier prevent me from any kind of outside help even from my familiars that is why you all are stuck in that." "Master, are you already out of that place? The barrier that seems to stop us from getting out already disappeared from here. I hope you are fine in there," Inari-sama chimed in. "I am already out of that area so you all can now get out whenever you please. However, I need to get Kon outside right now. We have an emergency situation and I need him to get out of here as fast as possible. Inari-sama, is he available right now?" "He can be of service anytime. He already informed us about the demons and to think that they are here again which means you all needed to get out as soon as possible. If only I can be summoned already, I can be of help against the threat of the demons," Inari-sama said. Then, something came back to me. If the Sprout of Ygdrassil can increase my mana, then does that mean I have a probability to summon her? Also, from what the knowledge that came in, the Sprout of Ygdrassil can give me infinite mana as long as there is still mana left in me. In that case, can I really get her out now? "Inari-sama! Prepare for a bit, I will try summoning you!" Chapter 105: Summoning Part 2 "Master! That is a crazy thought! You won''t be able to do that! You will exhaust your mana! This is suicide!" Inari shouted. However, I did not listen to her attempts to stop me. I bit my thumb hard which made it bleed. If I am summoning a Deity like Inari-sama like this, I need a catalyst to invoke it. Although I already have a contract with Inari-sama and can just call her whenever I like with Yuri and Yuto, it is kind of unstable and can even backfire if I forcefully summon her with my mediocre amount of mana left in my body. But this method is something that was added in my head after obtaining the Sprout of Ygdrassil. It is called the Catalyst summoning. If this was some sort of gacha game, you might do some weird rituals of the like just to get and pull an SSR unit that you want. The method I am using also works the same way. When blood started to pour out of my wound, I immediately supply it with mana and whisk it in the air. Instead of the blood falling to the ground, they floated in the air. This is the result of infusing mana and blood at the same time. "Kazuma? Is that what I think it was?" Maple was stunned. "What is stepfather doing, sis?" Anya asked. "That method of drawing a summoning circle using the blood is called the Catalyst Summoning. I heard it was a hasty but strong way to summon a monster class to deity class familiars. Unlike normal summoning where you make the summoning circle on the ground with materials, this summoning technique requires the blood and mana of the user and has to draw the circle in the air which means you need severe and intense focus to create the circle or else this will fail." I heard everything what Maple explained and the explanation is correct. This was supposed to be difficult but after understanding the principle and way to use the summoning properly made me cheese my way on this one. This is just an easy way to finish stuff. The circle was immediately made after a few controls of my blood. It was easy in my part instead of what Maple described to be hard. But I know what is the real hard part. The summoning part. Since I already have a contract on Inari-sama, I just needed to call her using the summoning circle without spouting chants with too many words that are only necessary if you want to summon someone else that is unknown to you. "Inari Okami! Heed my call and appear before me, your master, Kazuma Fukuyama! I summon you and obey my command! Circle of Magic, Diety Tier! BREAK!" Electric current appears on the magic circle as it spins too hard and red, orange, yellow and violet bolts simultaneously appeared. It was a strong shockwave in the surroundings that the wind blowing underground started to get stronger and stronger. "What is going on?!" Maple has to stab her sword on the ground to hold her position. She also held Anya to avoid getting blown away. The mana in my body started to decrease in a massive amount that I can easily tell that it was drying faster. However, every time the mana is consumed, another mana that seemed to be the one refilling my lost mana replaces on its place which later on gets consumed once again. My whole body is in serious chaos right now and I can imagine myself being the current of a torrent of water. No wonder it was very hard to summon a deity or anyone on that position according to the other magicians because the feeling is enough to tear you apart without physically feeling it. Before me, a figure started forming with a dense amount of magic power being drawn out. I gritted my teeth until it starts to bleed. I am having trouble maintaining myself just by controlling the summoning. Inari''s form starts to properly materialize after a few more seconds of holding. The electric current disappeared after the full materialization of Inari, allowing everything I did to be done. I almost collapse in fatigue when Yuto and Yuri caught me and prevented me from falling over. "Master! That was totally reckless on your part! You can die if you didn''t properly invoke the right way of the spell!" Inari said as she cast a healing spell on me. "But I succeed right? It doesn''t matter since I managed to do it," I chuckled. "Stupid master, that was totally dangerous. You shouldn''t have done that knowing that you are still on the mediocre levels of being a magician," Yuri pouted. "Yuri is right Master, the way you did the summoning is pretty risky. If one wrong move was involved, you might have died!" Yuto agreed. The fatigue that accumulated after summoning Inari disappeared after Inari cast a healing spell on my body and all of the injuries that have yet to heal are all now healed. Maple on the other hand was too stunned seeing Inari who is currently wearing a red kimono. Her white long hair is fluttering in the air despite the lack of blowing wind around us to do that. Also, you can feel some sort of divinity going around on her that is being expelled from time to time. "A deity familiar..." Maple stuttered. Inari noticed Maple and Anya and she approached them. "Maple and Anya right? The two of you are a great help to our master. On behalf of everyone so don''t be too surprised and jealous at the same time, and besides, Maple-san, you already managed to summon a strong familiar. You don''t need to be jealous of Kazuma since Kazuma is a special case. You are already someone who needs to be proud of her achievements at a young age." Maple was stunned and blushed to hear that. "Ah, you are being so kind on your words Inari-sama but I am clearly not as talented as you have said." "Anyways, we have to go now guys, I can feel the demons are now on the move. Let me help you all to fight against them. Time to show master what I am capable of." Chapter 106: The Carriage The wind is very cold since it is nighttime and it was perfect for those people who want to feel the night''s breeze. However, this is not a breeze that will help you cool down, this is a cold wind blowing due to the fast movement of the carriage we are riding. And this kind of carriage made me want to puke. "Master, are you sick?" Yuri asked as she rubbed my back. Currently, I am on the window trying to hold up my puke that seems to be ready to burst out if I am not going to hold it. This is the first time I entered and ride a carriage but this is quite hard for me especially with the movement. It makes me dizzy and the wind makes it worse for my stomach. "Looks like Kazuma is carsick. This might be the first time he has taken a ride inside a carriage. Unfortunately, I can''t help you with that. There is no magic that involves healing your carsickness," Maple said. "I am sorry Master, this one is my fastest vehicle that can allow us to ride efficiently with everyone inside. But to think Master can''t handle this rickety carriage of mine, I will remember this and never do it again," Inari said with a regretful face. Although I enjoy the carriage ride since the carriage was being pulled by foxes instead of horses, I don''t think I can enjoy it with this churning feeling in my stomach. I want to puke... "Urp..." I want to say that "It''s alright" but if I do, I would instead throw up so I decided to just stay quiet. Ugh, my stomach... "I can help you temporarily stepfather, though it only works for 5 minutes only. Any more than that and the effect will disappear. Will you try it?" Anya looked at me with innocent eyes. "Is that effective?" Yuri looked at Anya with a puzzled look. "I have taken it before when I still get sick in flying in the skies. My father taught me of it but my version is a weaker version of his so I can only keep the effect for 5 minutes only." "That... will be... fine..." I said struggling not to throw up in the middle of speaking. "Will Master be alright after that?" Inari asked. "Yes. It is fine. It won''t affect anyone, regardless of race. Stepfather will not be harmed by this." Since I agreed, Anya performed the spell when some demons attacked our carriage. "Demons!" Yuto who was silent earlier stood up and released his wings. "Stay put Yuto. Since I have not shown everyone my capabilities, this is my time to show it." The carsickness disappeared after Anya cast the spell on me and I was just on time to witness what Inari-sama was about to do. Inari-sama took out some talismans and throw them in the air. However, instead of falling to the ground, it floated in the air and glow in different colors. "BREAK!" As soon as she shouted break, the talismans immediately exploded to flames in their corresponding colors. I didn''t see any reaction after that so I tried looking outside the carriage and saw the demons that were currently attacking us were now burning and rolling in the ground while some who refuse to retreat and still clings on the carriage even if their bodies are burning were all reduced to ashes. Inari just kept on throwing the talismans over and over and does the same things over and over. All enemies, whether they are big or small demons, even demonic beasts were all burned to flames. Soon, the attack stopped and the ride went smoothly again. "That was simple magic and yet it is so effective," Maple muttered as she witnessed everything. "Anyways, I didn''t unleash my full power yet because the enemies are weaker than me and it might be overkill if I unleash my full power at them. It won''t be challenging for me if that was the case." "As expected of a deity, even us succubus and incubus can''t compare to your power!" Yuto said in amazement. "Brother, you know we can compete with her in raw power right? We just need training so that we can be as powerful as her and can compete with her in being strong despite using "normal" magic," Yuri interjected. "Indeed. Your sister is right Yuto. I won''t be this strong if I didn''t undergo training. If I haven''t gone to the pilgrimage training for hundreds of years then I won''t be able to pull things like this." "H-hundred''s of years?!" the siblings were stunned. I am not surprised by what she said. Gods and deities like Inari can almost live forever as long as they are worshipped by people or there are people who still remember them. A god will only die if they are forgotten by the masses causing the loss of faith that they use as their sustenance which will result in their disappearance in the world which is equal to death to humans. After 3 minutes of travel inside the carriage, I can feel the strong fluctuations of demon energy not too far from our location. "We should stop here. Going in further in the carriage will only result in us getting noticed quicker by enemies. The demons are intelligent beings and I don''t think they won''t be bothering us since we are inside the carriage. It only makes us a more easy target to them since we are inside the carriage which they can easily gank when the opportunity arises." "Kazuma has a point. In terms of defeating enemies, the ones in the carriage are the most vulnerable in surprise attacks, so it would be best to get on foot this time," Maple agrees to my suggestion. "Alright then," Inari nodded before she faces the front of the carriage and clapped 5 times. Slowly, the carriage stopped. I sighed in relief because even if the 5 minute limit of the carsickness medicine is up, I won''t be throwing up anymore. After every one of us got off the carriage, Inari snapped her fingers, and the carriage with some foxes pulling it disappeared in thin air. As soon as the carriage disappeared, I activated my mana scan and grinned on what I saw. The amount of demonic beings surrounding us is just overwhelming. "Interesting! It looks like we will be starting to perform a bloodbath here! Draw your weapons and prepare your spells! We will be entering a fight!" I said and snapped my fingers producing flames in both of my hands. "We are surrounded?!" Maple pulled out her dagger and looked around despite that she can''t see the enemies hidden in the darkness. It didn''t take too long when the eyes of the demons started to glow in the darkness. "Here they come! Kill them all!" Chapter 107: Magicians Vs. Demons Part 1 "Kill them all!" As we are about to launch our attacks, a huge blue magic circle similar to the magic circle that appears during teleportation engulfs everyone including me to a blinding light. I did not have any time to respond to it neither my familiars, Anya, and Maple on it. Before we knew it, my whole vision turned blue and my surroundings started to change. My familiars returned to my consciousness in response all of a sudden to the teleportation. Only Maple, Anya, and I are left behind. PA! I landed in my butt to the ground- or should I say floor which is pretty much painful to my precious butt. Everyone else also fell to the floor, landing in different angles. I stood up after recovering from the teleportation and saw that we are back to the Hall where we started and got teleported to the other world. I also noticed several people performing teleportation and saw many magicians popped out of nowhere and landing in their butts. Some are even wounded while some are still wielding their magic skills and was too confused about what happened to them. Just then, I heard a familiar voice. "Kazuma!" I look around and saw the delinquent looking guy who I met not too long ago and one of the magicians in the chat group. None other than Godou. Behind him is Erina and Moonlight who all have bruises and torn sleeves on their uniforms. One thing is certain for them, they have endured a lot of sh*t on the other side of the other world. "It''s been a while since we last meet Kazuma and you seem to have progressed in your magic training. You seem to have grown some muscle too since you looked so clunky before," Godou said while grinning and tapping my shoulder. "And look at you, you didn''t change a bit. You are still the same. Even the girls have changed drastically and you looked the same." "Don''t be like that Kazuma. You already know that I don''t want to be too ripped. I don''t want to be mistaken as a bouncer." Erina is still quiet while Moonlight did not seem that shaken by the turn of events. However, she is silent as usual. I don''t want to talk leisurely for now because I still have no idea what is happening and why we are teleported all of a sudden back in here. Before I can ask, Anya tugged my shirt and looked at Godou and the others. "Who are they?" Anya asked. "Ah, they are my classmates and they are also fellow magicians. They also participated in the training so they are here," I explained. "Who is this adorable kid Kazuma?" Godou asked. "My adoptive daughter," I answered Godou''s eyes looked at me with surprise. Even Erina and Moonlight who are quiet for a while was astonished when I said Anya is my adoptive daughter. The three were about to ask something when Maple tapped my shoulder. "Hey Kazuma, it looks like Nekoyama-sama is about to say something." When Maple said that, every one of us looked towards the stage and saw Catmod with Otome and Voltaire beside him. "You all must be confused why we forced teleport you all back in here, but some of you might already have guessed the reason. The reason is due to the invasion of the demons. Many of the magicians that first started to enter the other world are now dead due to the demonic beasts that are too much for normal magicians to fight against especially those who have no experience in battles. But many have managed to survive and get to reduce their numbers. Still, we are still sure that the situation is calling for forced recall so we did it to everyone who is still alive." Everyone looked around us. It might look the same from the time I was transported with the rest of the second batch. But I can tell that this amount of people is clearly small already since it should have been the 2 groups of magicians that managed to get transported to the other world. If the two groups managed to merge together in this place, that means the numbers were reduced drastically. "Now, here is the thing. I know many no longer wanted to get back to that world and wanted to go back home but we wanted to employ those who are still able to fight to accompany us to defeat the enemy demons and claim back the other world. We will be giving out rewards too for the contribution too. Of course, you are free to back out. We might be running out of back up, but we can handle a little bit of them but a helping hand will certainly help on getting us to finish the job," Catmod said. Many of the magicians are not sure what to do and looked at the others if they wanted to back out. "Are you going to go and help Godou?" I asked. "Yeah. I have encountered one of the demons I''ve been hunting for many years today. I don''t want to miss this chance to perform my revenge against him." A demon that Godou is hunting for years huh... I am not in the position to ask but I will ask him in the future. "What about Moonlight and Erina?" I asked. Godou was about to answer on their behalf whenErina answered immediately. "I want to get stronger. I don''t want to be a piece of useless baggage every time even though I managed to awaken my magic. I want to prove myself," Erina said. "...Then I will also go," Moonlight said although I can see that she is not cool about it or she seemed to be against Erina of going back to danger. "What about you Kazuma? Are you also going back?" "It''s obvious. I don''t want to miss this battle. Fighting against demons is something I have to do to increase my ability to fight them in the future." "What about your companions Kazuma? Are they also going to fight? Your stepdaughter seems to be also a magician since she has mana on her body, while the girl you teamed up with seems to be quite proficient in magic and melee weapons too," Godou looked at Anya and Maple with great observation. He managed to see through them. "Anya will also come, Anya might be small but Anya will never be defeated so easily!" Anya said with enthusiasm. "I also want to experience first hand the battle against demons so if it is not a trouble, I would also tag along," Maple said. As we are talking about the situation, magic circles in different colors started to appear around us. I was alarmed at first but then I saw the people appear in the middle of each magic circle and even without using Mana Scan their mana is very easy to detect. "Oy, Catmod, don''t leave us out on the fun, so where are the demons?" a green-haired guy asked and scratched his head as he looked at Catmod lazily. "Hai! The goddess of fortune has arrived! My Fortune Mastery will also help!" a twin-tailed blonde girl appeared with a frilly outfit. What made her peculiar is that she is holding a sort of wheel on her hands. "Yaya, don''t cause a scene here, we are here to defeat demons, not attract people for your fans club," a girl with a sisterly aura who also wear glasses said to the twin-tailed girl. "Ah... If demons are also here, then that means I can get more doujins if I beat up demons? Rewards, here I come!" a nerdy-looking guy who I think to be an otaku just like me also appeared though he was immediately sent flying by someone who looks like a monk since he is holding the Japamala on his right hand and staff on his left hand. He is also wearing a monk robe so he is a real deal monk. "Impure thoughts should be banished as always Raigaki. Do not taint the others of your impure thoughts." When I heard the name "Raigaki", then the people who arrived are the magicians in the chat group? They have arrived! [ol][li data-annotation-id="4b32488e-ba7f-ffa5-79e2-03d46e843182"]is a string of prayer beads commonly used in Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Shinto for the spiritual practice known in Sanskrit as Japa. They are similar to other forms of prayer beads used in various world religions and sometimes referred to in English as a "rosary".[/ol] Chapter 108: Magicians Vs. Demons Part 2 Many of them appeared all at once from the magic circles without warning. Godou and Moonlight were shocked to see them. Even Catmod, Otome, and Voltaire didn''t expect their arrival. "You guys! What the heck are you all doing here?" Catmod asked as he steps down from the stage and walks towards the group of magicians that just arrived. "You are just a cat you know, why didn''t you ask help for us when there is trouble brewing in your place? We were quite bored without many actions happening so when we heard that there is some trouble going on in your place, we immediately started preparations and departed from our homes and arrive here," the green-haired guy answered. "Huh? I am quite sure that I didn''t say this situation to anyone. Even Voltaire and Otome did not even tell this to the group. This is just slight trouble you know," Catmod said as he was overwhelmed by everyone. The twin-tailed girl which I think to be Yaya scooped up Catmod and carry him to her arms and grinned, "You still didn''t change that habit of yours of hiding things as always, Nekoyama, you know that you have your friends here to help. If there are lots of us, the threat will be over you know? There is no need for hiding info from us since we will be able to know it sooner or later." "So what is the situation of the Phantasmal Reality, Nekoyama? Is it getting worse? We will help suppress the demon invasion as soon as possible," the monk who send Raigaki and tied him up on his back asked. Voltaire is the one who answered and approached the group. "Yeah, the situation is getting dire. Almost all beasts present in the Phantasmal Reality like the Treants, ogres, and goblins are all now tainted with demonic energy and now much stronger than their normal counterparts. Many of the magicians on training either have died fighting or incapacitated by the enemies. Only a few magicians that can still fight are left behind and we are asking them for cooperation if they want to fight with us on reclaiming the Phantasmal Reality from the hands of the demons." "I heard that there are higher leveled demons present in the Phantasmal Reality and the one causing the trouble, is that true?" the girl who reprimanded Yaya earlier who I think I assume to be Rena asked. "You are right. There are high leveled demons currently. A few of them just arrived earlier after one of our surveillance captured the moment of their arrival. From the looks of their method of arrival, they have used the "Crack of Dimension" magic to arrived. I didn''t see any magic circle around them so it is not teleportation," Voltaire replied. "How did you know that it was the Crack of Dimension?" Yaya asked. "Because during the invasion of demons in Tokyo occurred last time, I met the demon capable of using that skill. And earlier, that demon who can do that have arrived alongside the female demon I have battled last time." Just from seeing them band together, I can tell that I am overwhelmed by their stature and mana pressure they released unconsciously. But who would have thought that they would really be helping us? "Of course they will help, you asked for help and said the keyword "DEMONS", which magician would not rush to help?" the usual female and lazy voice of Blue rang in my head once again. "Damn it Blue, where have you been the entire time I needed some guidance?" "Are you seriously asking me that? You already know that I can''t move out of the phone right? Unless you move the phone, I won''t be able to move. Of course, I am with you the entire time." "Then why you didn''t respond during my battles against Byakko and Suzaku? I was almost killed!" "Oh, that one? I am too lazy to respond and you managed to defeat them so everything is fine, yeah?" "What the hell? You just allow me to battle them and die without any help? I even thought that you can''t hear me after the interference of the magic around that place." "Nah, that magic is mediocre for me, I just needed to yawn to break it and contact you. It''s not really necessary. Also, I know you won''t die easily, you are like grass, right? Random grass on the road won''t easily die and can pop out anywhere." "I really want to smash you down for some reason." "Hah, it will be your loss, not mine." "..." I sighed on Blue''s antics. Sometimes, I felt like she is just too much to handle, and sometimes, she is just too easy to ask. I don''t know if I can hold my urge to smash my phone or not in the future. The discussion of the magicians is just got finished and many of them looked at our direction. Did they recognize me already? Or maybe they will be approaching Godou and Moonlight first since they are much more well known to them. "Looks like Titan and Moonlight are also here with the team huh, good, no wonder many magicians of the first batch are still alive according to the statistics of Catmod, maybe its due to the leadership of you two?" Rena looked at them with expectations. "You are overestimating us, Rena-san, we are just able to hold on thanks to our experience against the demon battles. We are also having trouble." "I see, but hey, that is already a big feat despite the overwhelming amount of demons we saw from the surveillance. Anyway, where is the new guy? The one named Chat-Killer?" the green-haired guy asked. "If you are asking about Kazuma, this guy is the one," Godou pointed at me. "Huh? Are you sure he is a newbie Titan? Say, maybe you have mistaken someone else?" Yaya furrowed her brows. Huh? Did I look so weak in their eyes? "I am quite sure he was the one. Voltaire-san and Otome-san can verify it. Of course, we can also verify that he is the Chat Killer in the chat, Kazuma," Moonlight said. "I don''t think he is a newbie. In fact, he is more like an expert. He also possesses a Dragon Mark and a few blessings already. A newbie magician is not able to get that much very early. That is why we assumed that he is not the one we are looking for," the Buddhist guy explained as he looked at me in scrutinizing eyes. These magicians are the real deal, they can easily detect those things I received before. They were about to discuss something more from me but Catmod interrupted it. "It is time for us to go. We can ask him about it later on. I think the demons are now anticipating our arrival. We can''t let them take what is rightfully ours!" Chapter 109: Magicians Vs. Demons Part 3 A lot of the surviving magicians who can still fight did not participate in the battle while some wanted to return to take some revenge or just to enhance their abilities against actual demons. Most just backed out due to the fear of losing their lives. Catmod and the others did not force them because it was really an unexpected event. The Phantasmal Reality was supposed to be the place where you can gain actual battle experience, not a place to experience the real terror of the demons. The look of their faces has shown that most of them have experienced nasty things and I can say I can sympathize with them since during my time fighting against a demon, I almost got killed. But all I can tell is that I am no longer the same as them. I already managed to overcome my fear on them, its just a matter of experience. As soon as we assembled on who was going to help to fend off the demons. The other magicians really wanted to chat with me but due to the urgency of the situation, they decided to put on hold the discussion and deal with the problem first since the situation is no longer something that can be ignored any further. "We will now be fending off the demons in the Phantasmal Reality. Don''t wander off alone especially right now and it is much better if you stick with everyone as long as possible. We can''t afford anyone to die in this situation. Attack if necessary, defend anytime and support your allies all the time to avoid trouble from brewing up. Do not be afraid to release your strongest magic spells on the demons. The stronger, the better. Do you understand me?" Voltaire asked in a loud voice as he looked at us in his strict looking eyes. "Yes sir!" "Alright, Mass Teleport!" With the flick of Voltaire''s finger, we suddenly got engulfed in warm light and appeared once again to the Phantasmal Reality. The only thing is that the Phantasmal Reality that I saw during the time I teleport here for the first time and the Phantasmal Reality that we are seeing right now are no longer the same. The current forest that we arrived into no longer looked the same. The trees are looking like they are about to rot and they lacked the leaves that are always verdant green. The grass and soil are now very dark like it was contaminated by some sort of chemical that caused everything to look very bad. "Damn, it''s only a few hours since we managed to return to the starting point but to think the whole forest would turn like this," Maple said as she looked around the surroundings. "The amount of demonic energy surrounding the whole place is too intense that removing them manually would prove to be a futile attempt. I would suggest that you don''t touch too much of the things around the forest. Prolonged exposure to a thing that got corrupted by the dark power will not be able to fend off the power. It is best you don''t hold any of them unless it is accidental or necessary to do so. We have to keep our mana output at full in case of enemy attacks." The demons have really managed to corrupt a forest this fast. If the demons that attacked Tokyo last time also did the same thing, they would already destroy Tokyo immediately. Just how strong are these demons actually to cause this much corruption? Many of the magicians who can cut off the trees decided to just cut them off and many of the magicians who can control plants and the earth also used it to clear the way, making it easier for us to traverse the place without touching the trees. "Stepfather, the miasma stinks a lot in the distance," Anya said as she covers her nose. "Miasma?" I looked into the distance but there is nothing there. I tried using the mana scan but it is useless because all I can see is dark and nothing else. Raigaki who was tied up on the shoulder of the Buddhist monk who I just learned to be Tsukoyomi suddenly convulses and his eyes started to glow yellow. "What the heck is happening to Raigaki?" I pointed at Raigaki''s odd behavior. ???Although Raigaki is useless and just a big pervert, he is somewhat very sensitive when it comes to demonic miasmas and corrupting elements. As soon as he absorbs some of it, he will immediately act like this. He also becomes a different individual when he turns into his battle mode," Tsukoyomi explained. "He has a split personality?" "Yeah. The one he always shows to us is his original personality and the one who suppresses his battle mode. That is why we usually restrain him because of his strong ability whenever it was unleashed. Even in chats, his powers are destructive that is why we also mute him most of the time." That was some weird stuff going on in there. But since I have not seen it personally, I will decline on commenting about it. What I should focus on is the situation on our side. When the other magicians are seeing the movements of Raigaki getting more chaotic, everyone started to go on position. "If Raigaki is getting wild and starting to berserk, that means we will be facing dangerous enemies right now. Prepare everyone! Don''t let the demons win!" Moonlight shouted. Tsukoyomi started chanting Sanskrit chants while he held his staff and Japamala together. The green-haired guy who I just have known to be Zan raised his left arm. Soon, a green magic circle appeared on his wrist and spins wildly. I was expecting him to create something out of thin air but all of a sudden, his entire arm was engulfed by the magic circle and turned it into a demonic sort of arm. The others also started their preparations and pulled out their weapons and some just didn''t bother to pull out anything and just released their magic auras like how Rena just released a cold current of air as the ground below her started to freeze while Yaya summoned a big stuffed toy that I assumed to be her familiar or just a summon she uses to fight. I have no such flashy movements with me so I just stood there and waited for the enemies to appear. "You don''t want to show everyone how awesome you are?" Blue suddenly started speaking. "Hey, I may be a magician but showing off like that is not my style. I attack directly you know, showing off is just a waste of mana." "Hurt to show some of those awesome movements of yours? Oh well, you look like a stupid guy when you do that anyway so I think it is a good choice that you didn''t decide to do something like that yeah." "F*ck you, Blue." "F*ck to you too, Kazuma." I was about to continue our banter when the mist in front of us started to clear and revealed a humongous demon that I ever see. On the shoulder of the demon is a woman that looks like a normal teacher in a high school faculty. But she emits an evil aura that makes me think twice about her appearance. There were also a guy that looks like a normal gangster in the streets, if not for his wings and tail visible, you would think that he was just your normal gangster. Behind them are countless demons that all look similar to those demons that invaded Tokyo last time. The gangster grinned and flew above us while grinning. "Welcome humans and behold the spectacle of seeing the birth of our great demon lord, Shadow-sama, you all will be the first people that will experience the first taste of death on his hands!" Chapter 110: Magicians Vs. Demons Part 4 The demonic aura is too strong for many of the magicians to endure. Even Maple has a hard time trying to endure the heavy feeling. I am fine because I have already felt the heaviness a lot of times and I already got used to it. To those who are no strong enough or not used to it, they will feel bad for a while just like what is happening to most of the magicians with us. The lesser leveled demons are the first to attack while the obviously high ranking demons are not doing anything besides observing the situation. "Don''t bother with the higher demons yet, dispose of the lesser demons first because they are much more of a threat in groups rather than them!" Moonlight commanded. "Kill them all!" Soon after that, the two sides immediately clashed to each other destroying one another. But it was clear that the magicians are the ones in favor. With the help of the support magic and healing magic that some of the magicians cast, those who are wounded will immediately return to the battle and fight again while on the demon''s side, they are being slaughtered left and right and without any support, they are falling like rotten trees being cut down. "Oh, so you magicians are not those newbies. I think I can get a good fight for quite a while!" the delinquent looking delinquent said as he started cracking his knuckles. "Are you planning on fighting them head-on?" the female demon asked. "Are you asking me that? Of course, I will! That is my only motivation in life! Fighting and killing stronger enemies!" as he said that, he dash forward to us and showed his demonic aura and changed his form. However, before he can even get close, a large chunk of ice appeared out of nowhere and fell down to him immediately. It didn''t stop there and a bolt of lightning appeared and fell to the block of ice, causing it to explode to pieces. The demon is still alive but was injured by the conflict and can''t stand up. As the demon tried to stand up, a pillar of sharp rock appeared in the sky just like the piece of large ice earlier. It didn''t allow the demon from getting back up and fell straight to his stomach and pierced it with the sharp edge of the rock, crushing it. "AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHH!!" the demon screamed painfully as the rock continues to expand and increase its weight that causes the demon''s suffering to increase exponentially. Before the demon can even shout for help, a big stuff toy that is controlled by Yaya appeared above the demon''s head and stare on the demon squirming. "Motherf*ckers! You all will pay if I managed to get out of-" before he can even finish his dialog, his head was crushed by the teddy bear killing him. His body then disintegrates and the demon shards fell from where he was before. The female demon frowned seeing what happened and stood up from the shoulder of the giant demon. "Looks like we underestimated the magicians. They are from another level for sure," she said as she was contemplating if she has to go down and attack or not. "What do we say and attack- huh?" she was talking to the giant when she was splattered with a sticky liquid on her face and body. She didn''t get to finish what she was talking about because of the surprise splatter on her body. She checked the sticky liquid only to see dark colored liquid and some sort of flesh on it. "What..." she didn''t manage to comprehend it when she noticed that the giant that she was standing on, was missing it''s big and massive ugly head. She had no time to comprehend anything when a very fast guy appeared on her vision and all she last remembered is her vision toppling and falling over to the shoulder of the dead giant. What is more puzzling is that she can still see her body standing on the giant''s shoulder. ''Then why am I feeling that I am falling?'' That is the last thing that she has felt before her head fell to the ground and disintegrates into demon shards. ¡­ The high ranking demons were immediately disposed of like nothing by the joint operation and magic skills of the magicians. What made me amazed more is Raigaki. That guy is just a very dangerous one. I saw him suddenly appeared on the shoulder of the giant without the lady on his shoulder noticing. Even the giant did not even get to notice Raigaki. What made me amazed is that in a single kick of Raigaki, the whole head of the giant exploded like a melon. Of course, he didn''t spare the demon lady sitting on the other shoulder of the giant demon. Before she can even retaliate, Raigaki swiped his hands to the neck of the female demon, decapitating her. It was all too fast that the female demon did not even get to react at all and was killed before she can even release her power for the show. "The heck? Those demons were just easily killed! Are you sure that those demons are some of the strongest demons?" Yaya looked bored and sips on the bubble tea that she took from the pocket of the stuffed toy she was carrying. "Yes. They were indeed strong demons and high ranking at that but because they underestimated us too much, they let down their guards too low that they were immediately killed without much effort. Don''t really much have anything to say about it though," Voltaire sighed. "In battle, lowering your guard too much is just another mistake that many people do on the battlefield causing unnecessary deaths without even the chance of retaliation. That was just pretty normal right now," Tsugimoto said, the guy who was keeping quiet for a while now and looked like a businessman since he is wearing a suit and carrying a suitcase with him. "From the looks of it, they will be sending stronger demons to interrupt us. Don''t let your guard down and fall back if the enemy is too strong. Don''t let them kill any of us," Catmod said. If the demons that attacked us are strong, then that means my allies are stronger than the demons. But I am not someone who can easily just relax. I think this is just a prelude to a more harsh battle that I may be experiencing in my whole life though I hope that won''t happen. I don''t want anyone to die and I hope I won''t be seeing anyone from my comrades die. "Tsukoyomi, have you already managed to track down the main gathering place of the demons? Striking that place down might be the key to stop these demons from taking this Phantasmal Reality," Catmod asked. "Due to the demonic fog that keeps on obstructing my senses, I can''t easily find out. I have sent out some shikigami scouts to check out the places that I can''t sense with my scope but many of them were immediately destroyed. From my conclusion, the demons are able to find out scouts easily and will immediately attack and destroy that scout if they spotted one," Tsukoyomi explained. "So the demons are now very vigilant in our movements. I can''t believe they will be able to counter us with these petty tricks. The annoying demonic fog is also too troublesome but we can''t do anything about it. Let''s just avoid whatever things they were planning," Voltaire said. "Why not we stalk some demon and follow it? Or you can attach that demon with a shikigami to monitor them? Is it possible?" I suggested. "It''s not a bad idea but it was not really a good one since the demons can easily determine shikigamis that I have deployed before so there is also a high chance that the demon will also notice the shikigami but it was worth the try. Let''s give your suggestion then." Chapter 111: Magicians Vs. Demons Part 5 Darkness looms on the very center of the Phantasmal Reality as countless demons and demonic beasts are gathered in a chasm so deep that anyone who will stare on the bottomless pit will also think that they are also being stared at by something. "5 more hours and Shadow-sama''s resurrection will be completed. Any interruption will not be permitted. His resurrection is the utmost importance in this situation," a demon that is very ugly and similar looking to a fat ugly bastard said as he keeps his hands up in the air while standing at the very edge of the chasm. "I have sent the three high ranked demons to deal with the magicians trying to stop the resurrection of Shadow-sama. I am quite sure that they will return victorious from them," a demon with a very long nose said as he patted his chest proudly. "Pfft, you are surely underestimating those humans. Do you think that trio you sent can even leave a single scratch to those humans? Sure they might be able to kill a few of them but I am not sure if they can even wipe them out, heck, they can only kill the weakest of the weakest humans out there I guess," the female demon that Voltaire and Kazuma fought before said as she rests atop a dead tree''s branch. "What do you even know of my subordinates? They are the three strongest in my troops. I don''t think they will be defeated easily. They will be able to wipe out a few armies all by themselves if you allow them to do so." "A''ight, suit yourself mate, but don''t be surprised if they are dead. Just remind yourself that they might be dead right now." "Do you want to die?" the long-nosed guy showed his demonic fangs and scissor-like hands. "Did you really think I will be afraid of your petty abilities?!" the woman snarled at him. "Enough. We should keep it civilized. We are all allies, not enemies. Don''t be too harsh on each other and try to get along," the guy in Changshan said. Then, one of the scout bats, a creature specialized in recon appeared before the demon in Changshan and gives out a report. "Reporting. The humans who breached are now advancing. The three demon officials alongside the thousands of demons that accompanied them are annihilated by the humans. The demons also did not manage to kill a single human. The three demon official was killed at the very beginning of the battle without a chance to retaliate." When the long nose demon heard this, he was too shocked to even say anything. The female demon grinned and snickered. "See that? Those puny demons of yours did not even get to show off their powers. And you were bragging about them? Quite a bullsh*t you got there. To only see quite a weakling, hahaha, now you see what I am talking about? The so-called elite team of yours did not even get to show off! Don''t call them elite if they can''t live up to their name at all!" the female demon laughed. "You!" the demon with long nose was about to attack the female demon when the demon wearing the Changshan slap his scissor-like hands and karate chop his neck in succession. "Attacking comrades like that is unbecoming of you. Do not let your anger take over. If you are just a normal human just now, you will be dead already. If you interrupt the ritual or make some sort of trouble, I won''t be hesitating to kill you right here, right now." "Tch..." the long-nosed demon has no choice and back down from attacking the female demon. The demon wearing the Changshan looked at the female demon on the tree and reprimanded her too. "Of course, you too should also lessen your taunts. Don''t rub salt to wounds." "Hai, hai!" the female demon grinned. "As long as everyone understands each other, everything will be alright. Since humans are trying to interrupt the sacred ritual, then we have to take care of them. Go and kill them all," the demon in Changshan flicks his hands and two snakes with 3 heads appeared out of nowhere. Those snakes quickly slithered somewhere and disappeared without any trace. ¡­ We are progressing a lot faster in our survey. Many of the demons we encountered were all killed and converted to demon shards. There are frequent senior demons we fought against many times but they were not that dangerous with the others doing their fights so easy and well done. I have not done much except for some demon fliers that I usually just shot down using the lightning magic that I learned after earning the inheritance of Byakko but other than that, there is nothing much for me to do. "The demons seem to be not showing up much though?" Erina said as she looked around the pitch-black surroundings that is still surrounded by the demonic fog. "I can still see them lurking in the distance though they don''t dare to go close to us. From my guess, they are either too intimidated by us or they are just there to observe. Maybe the combatant demons are just waiting in the shadows and waiting for the signal of the observers," Rena said as she keeps on releasing cold ice ground everywhere she steps on. Maple come close to me and whispered as she looked at the others in curiosity. "I didn''t know that you are friends with magicians with very strong abilities. No wonder you are also somewhat abnormal in terms of power and magic spells." "Uh... I only know them in a chat group. This is the first time I have seen most of them though I am quite sure that not all magicians on the chat group I was in are currently in this group," I said. Although she thought that I am friends with these guys, I barely know them since I barely open the chat group unless I want to check the spells section to learn something or if I want to just check something in there. The only people I can think that I have officially called friends are Moonlight and Titan. Erina just joined the gang so I am not really sure about her just yet. "Really? They seemed to be too relaxed around you and you seemed to be able to give commands to them just like the time when you asked them for help. And voila, they arrived." "Nah, since it involves Catmod- I mean Nekoyama-sama''s Phantasmal Reality, they would surely go to the rescue. And look, not all of the magicians in the chat group are currently here. If they are, they would have already made an unstoppable army. They would never need us in there since they can topple any enemy that will try to get close." "If everything of this is over, I will join that chat group and ask for some tips and training tricks on how to become a better and strong magician." "Then I will add you after that." While we are chatting, a group of flying demons appeared before us and currently circling above us. Also, a few howls of demon creatures started to echo not too far from us. I have a bad feeling about this when I saw a flying eyeball with arms and small wings rush towards Anya. Anya did not notice it so it was my own volition to attack the eyeball. "Incinerate!" After releasing the magic, I immediately shouted to the others. "We are under attack!" The others immediately moved to the formation, protecting the injured magicians and prioritizing on defending rather than attacking. "I spotted around 100 flying demons! Checking the species, they are Flying Gazers! Be careful with them! They can paralyze anyone if they fire their yellow beams!" Rena said and waved her hands freezing dozens of the flying gazers. Then, there was a very strong rumbling on the ground that made me frown. I don''t like this at all, and I am getting flashbacks of the stampede last time. "Everyone! Watch out! These demons did not hold back! Different demon species spotted! They will be coming not too long now!" Yaya shouted while using magic that will allow her voice to sound like she was using a microphone. "How many are the incoming demons?!" Voltaire shouted back as he was getting attacked relentlessly with the Flying Gazers. "I can''t count them! They might amount to more than a few hundred! They can cause stampede if they want to!" Chapter 112: Prelude to Battle Everyone started to unleash their attacks without any breaks. The flying demons were just there for distraction while the other demons were there to break our formation and disperse the weaker magicians and kill them when they are far from the formation. Luckily, no one from us is being killed yet. With all magicians helping each other, we managed to keep the group intact but the onslaught still continues. "While we are killing the demons, we also need to keep on moving! We won''t reach and foil the plan of the demons if we are stalled in here!" Moonlight shouted. "Then don''t hesitate to unleash your power! Don''t show mercy! Kill them with all methods that can kill them!" Catmod shouted as he roared a big tiger soul appeared out in the air and caused a shockwave noise that caused the flying demons to petrify and momentarily stop the demonic beasts from proceeding further. "Go! Go! Go!" We continue moving forward while killing demons. If we have a ranking on who has killed the most demons in the group, I would rank up Raigaki as the first. Raigaki is just a walking berserker that mowed down the enemies like some sort of paper as he shreds them to pieces. Kind off to his previous behavior and pervert personality that I always see in the chat. To think that this guy is this strong, how strong will he be if he was not restrained? The second one would be Yaya and her teddy bear. Her teddy bear is very big and can be considered as a giant. If you thought that the bear can be fluffy if hugged, it was not. I just saw it earlier during the battle that the "fur" on the teddy bear of Yaya is all weaponized. They were all sharp needles that any demon that will try to cling to the stuffed toy will immediately die. Also, the teddy bear can easily topple down a lot of demons without much effort. The third would be Rena and I. Since Rena is the one doing the freezing magic, I am the one doing the killing by releasing electricity currents to the enemies that were frozen. The rest are all doing alright but they are not doing that much since most of the demons that get past the attacks of Raigaki, Yaya, and Rena are small. As we reached a swampy area, a snake with rotten features appeared before us and pounced straight to the defenseless magicians. Since I was always on guard due to the demons at the moment, I already saw that coming and immediately made my move. "Domain of Balmung!" BANG! The rotten snake collided to the Domain of Balmung which allowed everyone to be safe. "Wow! What spell is that Kazuma?! That was amazing!" Godou said as he looked at the snake that failed to destroy the barrier. "Domain of Balmung?! You cast this spell Kazuma?" Rena looked at me with surprise. "Stop the inquiries and fight first! The barrier won''t last long! Yaya! Try to dispose of it!" Voltaire commanded as he released a bolt of lightning from his hands towards the snake. "Aye, aye sir!" With a single swing in her small arms, the teddy bear that she was riding rushed forward and grapple with the snake that tried to wriggle out of the teddy bear''s hands. Erina was chanting something behind me and I thought she will be using an area-wide heal, however, I saw Erina raise her hands aiming to the snake with determination in her eyes. "Hearken! Restrain my enemy and plunge them to the abyss! Chains of Tartarus!" Massive black chains appeared on the ground and immediately restrained the rotten snake. The chains were too tight that the snake has no chance of escaping by wriggling out. "Now is the chance! Commence the attack!" Moonlight shouted. Hearing the command, I joined the attack and conjured a lightning spear which is a revision and my own version of magic out of the electricity from the inheritance of Byakko. When it fully materialized, I immediately throw the spear of lightning towards the rotten snake. Yaya''s giant teddy bear already released it since the Chains of Tartarus that Erina used is the one now holding the rotten snake to place so we didn''t hold back. BANG BANG BANG BANG BOOM! Explosions and different magical colors landed on the rotten snake, causing it to slowly fell and disintegrate into demon shards. Of course, that was not enough to cause celebration because the demons that are still being kept properly have already manage on slipping through the defenses. "Demonic Beasts are able to break through our defense! Hold your ground and don''t die! Kill every single one of them!" Godou shouted as he punched the ground and absorb the soil around there and use it as a hard gauntlet weapon style which after it materialized and harden enough on his hands, he started to punch the intruding demons. I also keep on throwing fireballs here and there to the demons. After obtaining the power due to the inheritance of Suzaku, my flame ability that can be released in my gloves increased exponentially that the demonic beasts that got hit by my fireballs are immediately roasted to dust without much effort, unlike the time when I just received the gloves. The fire might be able to melt many things but against enemies? They can barely cut it, but now it was like I am just burning some trash. The flames in my shoes also kick up a notch. They literally leave a footprint mark on the targetI kick before roasting them with flames. Still, with us able to wipe out most of the invading demonic beasts, they seemed to be endless and they just keep on coming. Many of my fellow magicians are running out of mana and if not for the mana potions being hand out by support magicians, we would be sitting duck against the enemies. But that doesn''t stop us from moving onward even with the number of enemies blocking our way. Yaya is helping a lot in clearing and thinning out the group of demonic beasts but it is not enough to entirely wipe them out. "Just keep on the harass and we will be able to push through!" Voltaire said. The battle was arduous and even Anya who was showing much vigor earlier in the battles is now getting tired. Maple is now also tired swinging and stabbing enemies without stopping. This is not just a battle to win, this is a battle of endurance. The demons are making us exhausted by the time we arrive at their lair or wherever they are holding the ritual that they are doing to corrupt the whole Phantasmal Reality. "AARGHHH! I am pissed! These demonic beasts are so annoying! I can''t stand it anymore!" suddenly, Yaya snapped out. "Yaya, I permit you to go on a rampage but please be moderate on your damage so that you won''t harm us either," Rena said. "Leave it to me!" Yaya said enthusiastically. She then bit her thumb and wound it, causing blood to flow out of it. Just like how I did the summoning on Inari-sama, she also did the summoning process but she has a different approach. After creating a magic circle in the air, she made another one on her back and both her sides. After finishing them, she pulls out four blank paper talisman from her pocket and throws them to the magic circles. "Mr. Teddy, Mr. Teddy, release your hatred and discard your lovable appearance! Go and chase the nightmares away! Teddy transformation! EXECUTE!" The ground shook and the demonic beasts stopped and looked at the teddy bear of Yaya shaking. I had a bad feeling about it so without further thinking, I activated the Domain of Balmung in 5 layers. It was really in my pure instinct of mine because all the time I felt that way, trouble follows. And I was not wrong with my instinct, the teddy bear of Yaya expelled a very strong shockwave that the first, second, and third layer of the barrier was destroyed. If I didn''t put the barrier, many of us would be injured. "Damn! Yaya got reckless again!" Godou said as he wipes his sweat. "I will discipline her later," Rena said as she pushed her eyeglasses with a glint. Many of the demonic beasts that are being held on the bottom of Yaya''s teddy bear were not able to survive while some are able to withstand the damage from the shockwave but they are dying and clinging to their lives. But thanks to that, our way forward is now clear. The demonic beasts killed slowly disintegrated and turned to demonic shards which in turn were collected by the kitten familiars of Catmod. Yaya, on the other hand, controlled her berserking teddy hear, smashing through the enemies and killing them at rapid rates. The trees blocking our way were also uprooted violently allowing us to progress a lot faster. Due to this, we have finally arrived at the location of the demons without much trouble. And what we saw is a huge rift between the underworld and this world being connected by the demons gathering around the rift. Chapter 113: Plan on Closing The Rift The demons gathered in the rift are so many that my hair is rising just looking at them. The number of demons on the rift is just too hard to count that comparing it to the Shibuya Scramble Square, it was just a far cry. The demons have not noticed us yet so we are still safe but I don''t feel like we are safe. "Sh*t, these demons were all gathered here! This is the first time I have seen this many in my life! It''s not even comparable to the demon invasion in Tokyo!" Godou said as he looked on the rift. I frowned when I saw it, but I am not troubled a bit. After obtaining the Seed of Ygdrassil, I often find myself able to be calm rather than panicking on the inside. I no longer felt that way after that and even the direst situation including earlier was not really a problem for me. If you add this timing though, it is still not enough to trigger my fear, or rather, it is not enough to move me. "We have to revise our plan. We can''t just show up unannounced and also charge in proving that we exist and hiding somewhere. Going in solo operation is a suicide that is why we shouldn''t separate from each other. We can''t let the demons just outnumber us," Tsukoyomi said. "Why not we fire AOE magic to them? That way, we will be able to thin out their numbers significantly?" Zan suggested. "No, these demons are clearly able to detect magic. I can see one of them, near the very entrance of the rift, is a shaman which is able to see the flow of mana in the air. If we did use magic to them using that method, we are just going to die once all demons come crashing to us," Moonlight said as she disagrees with Zan''s suggestion. "You are right. I guess I am too hasty, I didn''t think too much on it," Zan apologizes and scratches his head as he continues to observe, " But then, how would we be able to take them all out? Even Yaya''s Mr. Teddy will not be able to fight and obliterate them all!" Hearing that, I decided to interject. "We don''t need to take them all out and kill them all. If my assumption is correct, those demons are weaklings but some of them are very strong so killing them all is not easy. From what I heard earlier, they seemed to be trying to summon some things using the rift down below. Since that seems to be still on the process, we can assume that the demons have yet to summon whatever they are trying to summon over here. We can still stop them and foiling their plans might be the only way like stopping their invasion but that has a low chance. Sealing that rift might be the key to stop whatever they are trying to summon from being released." "But how do we do that?" Voltaire asked. "I don''t have any sealing magic that can help with this situation and even if I have one, with that big rift on the ground being a gargantuan one, I doubt I can even seal it, moreover, force it to close," Tsugimoto said with a disappointed face. I just realized now that Tsugimoto''s spells are all related to sealing and binding since most of his spells involve using chains and locks. It wouldn''t be a surprise if he has some sealing spells but to reveal that he has no ability to seal it is really disappointing. "Then what should we do? No one of us except Tsugimoto is able to master Sealing Magic a lot since we have our own specialties?" Rena said with a despaired look. I sighed and decided to say it although this would really take a lot of toll to me if I perform this particular spell I got from the memories of the father of Anya. "I have a spell with me here that can at least force the rift close but it will take a lot of toll to my body as I need a lot of blood as a catalyst for this spell to work. It will be worse for me if I ran out of blood once I am in the middle of using the spell." "A spell enough to seal that rift? Moreover, it needs blood as a catalyst? Why I have not heard of that before?" Moonlight sank in deep thought. Blue chimed to the conversation. " Kazuma, are you thinking of using THAT spell? Are you kidding? Do you want to die?!" "No. If this was the only way for the rift to be forcefully close, then I will do it." "Stop spouting bullsh*t Kazuma. You already know that that spell needs a lot of blood and I did not mean a wound''s amount of blood, but a LOT! It might not be an exaggeration to say that it might need all of your blood just to perform it!" "There is no choice. Unless you can give me an alternative to close that rift. If you do, I won''t be using that spell." "Urgh... unfortunately, due to the rift''s size, these spells are not enough to close that. But are you really sure to do that? There is no point for you to do it." "Who else will be? I am the only one who can do it since I am the only one who knows this spell. I doubt Anya knows this either since her father did not even tell her this." "You really like to play it hero don''t you?" "Not really, I just wanted this to be over quick so that I can go home." "Then how the heck would you plan on solving the blood problem?! That is going to take almost all of your blood! You won''t be dying on the demon''s onslaught but will die in blood loss! You will still die!" "At least I have a chance. But if I die, then that''s it. I will either go to hell first or if by a miracle, will go to heaven." "You insane motherf*cker, I will beat you up until you are black and blue if you don''t come back alive. Don''t go dying on this mission. You just barely walked the path of being a magician." I did not respond to Blue. Honestly, I only have a 1% chance of surviving upon using this spell. It was more like suited for a dragon since the dragons don''t have to worry about bloodless due to their excessive amount of blood in their veins. Just using it would only cause them to lose a prick of blood. It is so different when it comes to a human. A prick of blood for a dragon is equal to all the blood flowing in a human''s circulatory system. But dying for me is just not something I fear. I am always prepared to die anytime so that I won''t have any regrets once it comes crashing down on you. Honestly, I am always quite sure that death will always be behind me, waiting for the time my life is ripe enough to be reaped. And I think today would be the day I will be using my own life just to save people I barely know. But hey, at least I would be able to save lives, not just rot away unnoticed by anyone. "You are the Chat Killer right? Kazuma, if I remember it right. Can you tell me what this rift sealing spell you are talking about?" Tsukoyomi asked. "It''s the Blood Call: The Emptiness Lock" When Tsugimoto heard this, he quickly approached me and grabbed my shoulders. "Are you out of your mind?! Are you planning to die?!" Voltaire and the others furrowed their brows due to Tsugimoto''s behavior all of a sudden. "What''s with you? You don''t act that much before," Rena looked at Tsugimoto with a puzzled look. "You all don''t understand. Blood Call: The Emptiness Lock is considered as Black Magic spell and instead of mana, it uses a different catalyst to be used which for example, in this spell, it needed a lot of blood of the user just to activate it. And not just a small amount of blood. From what I heard, this spell needs to use a lot of blood that the users who use this spell would either die after casting or will die in the middle of the spell usage due to blood loss. So far, only one survived from the people who used it and turned into a vegetative state." "Then..." everyone looked at me with a frown. "Kazuma. You don''t need to do this. There is no need to sacrifice. You just only started," Voltaire said with a strict tone on his voice. "Nah, it''s alright. It is not a big thing and I am making sure that I won''t kick the bucket yet. So rest assured. Just let me do it," I nonchalantly said. Just as I said that I was immediately punched by Godou. It hurts a lot but it didn''t really do much to me. It just leaves a sting in my face but other than that, nothing. I just found out Godou''s punch is very weak unless he uses magic. "Damn you Kazuma. We already said that no one would be dying and you did not oppose that and now you will try to sacrifice yourself?! Isn''t that just selfish?" "So what do you propose, leave the rift open and help them summon the god they are trying to summon? We would be suffering too many losses if that happens. And I don''t want that to occur. If you have an alternative to close the rift, I will be glad to stop my method but if there isn''t any of them, then there is no other choice," I said. "Then, what about the blood? Are you saying you will die if you use it due to blood loss?" Moonlight looked at me with a concerned stare. I was about to say something when all of my familiars appeared on my back even though I didn''t summon them, they just appeared without me calling them. "There is no need for the master to bear the burden alone. We will help him alleviate the burden of the magic spell. Master is not going to die and we will make sure the spell will also work without endangering his life. Let''s just make sure we survive the demons," Inari said. When they saw Inari, everyone was stunned except for Maple and Anya who have already witnessed me summoning her. "INARI-SAMA?!" Chapter 114: Closing the Rift Inari-sama''s appearance startled everyone except Anya and Maple who witnessed me summon her. "How...how did you managed to summon a deity?! That should be close to impossible!" Catmod blurted as he stares at Inari-sama who is currently floating behind me. "It is not impossible and I am able to connect freely on my master due to his will. I merely just answered his call and here I am now," Inari-sama explained. "But, if that was the case, isn''t Kazuma enduring the burden of summoning deity level familiars like you? And I heard he still has two more familiars. If that was the case, isn''t he going to suffer a lot?" Rena asked as she pushed her glasses up. "Not necessarily. After my master has become strong enough to handle the weight of my materialization, he immediately summoned me to make sure that he can get familiar with the feeling of summoning a deity leveled familiar and as you can see, he is fine and well. That means he can handle the burden easily," Inari-sama explained. Voltaire scratch his head and shrugged. "If that was the case, then let''s proceed with the plan. Kazuma will be the one closing the rift and we will hold back and eliminate the demons as many as possible. Is it all good now? We can''t waste too much time gawking here." "Yeah, that''s fine by me now seeing Inari-sama. Even we are overwhelmed, Inari-sama will light our way," Tsukoyomi said as he closed his eyes and nodded. "Very well, let''s proceed. Kazuma, be careful out there and please don''t die," Rena said as she pats my shoulder. With the signal to proceed, we didn''t hesitate and proceed to the place. There are demons currently guarding the surroundings so before they can alert, the other magicians who can easily snipe and assassinate them without a sound targeted them first, destroying their "eyes" to the surroundings. I ordered Yuri and Yuto to cast Charm to the male and female demons guarding before killing them. Due to their 100% hit rate in Charm, any demon that was charmed will not be able to know what hit them before they die. As for me, I slowly move towards the rift, waiting for the right time strike. My fellow magicians did not wait for any sort of signal. When Yaya''s teddy bear appeared on the fray, the demons gathering around started to look into the source of the commotion. "Don''t let them dominate us! Defeat them all!" Voltaire shouted as he releases a discharge from his arms causing a shockwave of electricity to flow into the air and electrocute the nearby demons turning them to dust. "The humans are here!" the demons started shouting and rallied up the others. And that sparked the war to the two sides. I didn''t participate directly in the fight. Instead, I waited for the two sides to be busy enough. As soon as most of the demons'' attention are all fixated to my comrades, I immediately headed to the rift''s edge. I am just getting near and not yet really on the edge but the pull of gravity is quite heavy and your movement seems to slow a little bit. However, I have managed enough from it with a little bit of mana focus. Reaching the very edge makes me want to be afraid of the rift due to some sort of scare factor present on it that I can''t really explain. It was like I am experiencing vertigo all of a sudden but it has a different approach in my system. "The malice in this place is really harsh," Inari-sama said as she covered her nose when we got near on the edge. "I have already got accustomed to thick malices of darkness before but this is really on a different level. I will be damned if this ever spreads. This is just too much even for me," Yuri said without even daring to "Let''s close this damnable rift before those f*cked up demons notice us," Yuto said while looking around the place anxiously. "HALT YOU HEATHENS!" A loud voice suddenly boomed behind me. I was about to look behind when Inari-sama held my head and forced me to face the rift. "Master, let''s close the rift before it gets worse. We will take care of this," Yuto said and released his full-powered up form. "I will assist you with this. You can''t just handle the amount of blood loss if you do it alone," Inari-sama smiled. "I''m grateful," I smiled and rolled the sleeves of my uniform that has been dirty due to the several battles I have endured. "You heathens really have no ears! I will teach you how to listen then!" the voice that clearly belongs to a demon shouted and I can feel the fluctuations of mana behind me. "Well, you have to defeat us first before you can stop my master!" Yuri shouted. Although I can''t see them since I was facing the opposite way, I can tell a little bit about the movement and the fluctuations happening behind my back but I have to stop focusing on the battle. I have to start the ritual. Unlike normal magic spells that I can just use my mana, I have to use my blood on this one. With the pocket knife that Maple lend to me, I started cutting my arm''s skin. It was like I am doing a suicide attempt but I made sure that I won''t cut my wrists since that would literally kill me in the process. The pain is momentary but the blood is already flowing fast from my wound. Without wasting any moment, I started chanting the ritual although this is just counting numbers, just in german. "Eins... Zwei... Drei...Vier..." Every drop of blood counts one number. Just by counting those slowly, I am getting weaker too like my lifeforce has been sucked out of me, but I have to count until 100 to do this. "Master, I am here, don''t lose your sight and focus. You can''t lose yourself in this battle," Inari-sama whispered and warm light started to envelop me. She is right, I can''t lose myself on this one. The main reason this ritual is hard and can eventually kill you is due to the reason that while counting the number of blood droplets, the more your sane mind drift further and further away and if you have no proper control, you will eventually die due to blood loss. "Sechzehn...Siebzehn...Achtzehn...Neunzehn..." I am still nearing 20 but my consciousness is about to drift away and I can hardly focus which is why I have to bite my thumb hard to keep myself awake. I can still hear the battles happening behind me but I have no time to see it. I have to close the rift. The more the spell continues, the more heavy everything I felt is. The blood that flows out of my wound and falling into the ground is slowly gathering and slowly forming into a magic circle. But of course, that was not enough. If the rift is small, you can just have it to 20 to 30 drops of blood but with this size, the 100 drops of blood are just the only thing you can do. But if this is not enough, I have to increase the amount. Even with Inari-sama''s voice, it is hard to stay put and finish the spell. I can''t even get my consciousness completely awake and if you add the malice''s influence, it just makes everything worse. "Einundvierzig... Zweiundvierzig...Dreiundvierzig... Vierundvierzig..." Is this it? Am I not going to make it? Even with Inari-sama supplying me with energy and small life force to sustain myself, it is getting harder to maintain the focus. It''s just almost impossible. "Heh, pathetic." A voice suddenly whispered in my ear. It wasn''t Blue''s voice because it sounded different. "Who are you?!" "You already know me, since I am you and you are me, we are the same entity. You shouldn''t have asked it since you already know it. And yes, I am still saying your efforts are all pathetic. Just go and die already." Chapter 115: The Other Me This was the first time for me to encounter something like this. What is more confusing, the shape of this entity is similar to mine and I can''t be wrong about it. "I can tell that you are confused but I am not a teacher that will be ready to teach you any sh*t that you don''t understand. Because you don''t need to understand. Right now, your whole body is already carrying lots of burden just to close the rift but hey, you don''t have the responsibility to close it! Why are you even bothering to do so? You trying to kill yourself or something?" "Why are you talking to me like this?" I immediately asked and ready myself to cast magic when I realized that I can''t evoke any magic skill except the Weakness Perception that still marked this silhouette with ??? which means he is unfathomable and does not have what you call weaknesses. "Just give it up will ya? In this dimension, I am the boss and you can''t do a single thing to disobey and break the rules I set up. You are powerless in this place and you can''t do anything but just to watch and listen to me. Of course you can answer too and talk normally, but if I am annoyed of you,I won''t hesitate to zip your mouth but I am a nice person so I won''t do that unless I really need to," the entity said and hover above me. "If that is the case, let me out of here. I need to go back and seal that rift." The entity sighed and looked at me with his dimmed face. It hovered above me for quite a while before it suddenly waved his hands in the air. BANG! It took me a while to realize that I got flung into the air. It was too sudden that I failed to react in time. That didn''t stop the entity from waving his hands, causing me to move also from every sway on his hands. "F*CK! What are you doing?! Put me down!" The entity did not even listen and waved his hands, slamming me again and again to the ground. It hurts like hell but the strange thing is that I am not bleeding at all despite all the slamming session ongoing. I don''t know how long was it that I was hurled around the entity but I am quite sure its been a while. The pain is still in me and I have trouble enduring it, and if the injuries from this is reflected to my body, I would be full of bruises all over and I won''t be moving right now. Finally, after a few more of those torture, the entity stopped and released me mid-air, causing my body to fall straight to the ground without a cushion. I was too weak to shield my fall that I did not get to react at all. "Now, did you feel how the pain while I was flinging you around? That pain multiplied by 50 times, would be the amount of pain you will be receiving if you try sealing that rift. Are you still trying to do so and seal it?" "Why are you doing this?" "Of course I will do it. If you die, I will also die, so that means I am afraid that I will also die. I am you and you are me, we are one and the same so the fate of the other will also the fate of myself. If I have to show you what the pain is like then I would gladly share it and give my all to let you feel that this is wrong." "Tch, talking big and yet this was so insignificant," I sighed and let myself lay on the floor. Honestly, the pain is too hellish that I don''t care where I am lying down as long as I can lie down, that would suffice. "What?!" He was enraged hearing that. "So what if you die? You are not the one in control here. I am the main body and whatever you are or whatever reason you are trying to stop me, you will not be able to persuade me. If I can stop this rift from releasing something ominous then that would be good. And if I die here, then that''s it. Nothing more to expect from me." "You are insane," the entity said. "I know and I am not going to deny it." "Tch, if I could have killed you, I would have done it a long time ago. Too bad I can''t do that. Oh well, enjoy the suffering then. I bet you like it since it is painful, you sh*tty masochist." "Bastard..." I mumbled and all of a sudden, my whole body felt light. I don''t know what is happening but the place I was in is starting to distort itself. Just when I thought that everything is getting weirder, pain suddenly crawls around my whole body and the noise around my surroundings started to get louder. "Die!" I heard Yuto''s voice behind me and some sort of ruckus is happening. Oh yeah, I am back to the real world. Just as I was about to sigh in relief, pain suddenly came into my body. It just suddenly kicked in like it was repressed at first and after the repressor lost its effect, pain that has been stored will immediately flow in causing a massive overcharge to the body. My whole body started spouting blood everywhere, my eyes, mouth, nose, ears, in my skin, my whole body is releasing blood in a very abnormal way. But even the pain is not something I can just easily whisk away. I continue the spell even I am about to collapse. "Master! Hang in there!" Inari cast another healing spell in my body but the closing wounds that spit out blood will only reopen and starts to release another bucketful of blood. The healing is like a damp of alcohol to a cut from a knife that is still cutting the wound deeper. But what can I do? This spell just brings out your whole amount of blood. Not to mention it is trying to squeeze you dry. Still, the spell is still going to continue. I am almost getting dizzy but when I realized I just hit the count 50, I held my palms together and poured all of my remaining strength to the rift. "SINS AND MALICE FLOWING IN THE RIFT, THIS IS THE KEY THAT WILL FORCE ALL OF THEM TO BE SEALED FOREVER IN THE ABYSS! LOSE DIE BLUTVERSIEGELUNG!" Chapter 116: Chaos and More Chaos Part 1 "SINS AND MALICE FLOWING IN THE RIFT, THIS IS THE KEY THAT WILL FORCE ALL OF THEM TO BE SEALED FOREVER IN THE ABYSS! LOSE DIE BLUTVERSIEGELUNG!" 10 layers of Magic Circles appeared on the ground with a blood-red color spinning wildly. The rift also has a big magic circle that appeared on it. Just like the magic circle on my feet, the magic circle on the rift is blood red. I thought everything was now over and the rift is about to close when all of a sudden, blood exploded out of my body. "Master!!" Inari-sama immediately held her hands together. "LIFE AND DEATH ALL COINCIDES TOGETHER, IN DEATH THERE WILL BE LIFE, AND IN LIFE THERE WILL BE DEATH. I COMMAND THE GATES OF AFTERLIFE TO OPEN UP AND HEAL THIS SOUL AND LIFT THE BURDEN. SANCTUARY OF SOULS!" The blood in my body that spilled to the ground started to gather and if you look closely, you can see a lot of white figures appearing from nowhere and started to put all of my blood back to me. I thought I will be bathing in blood by this but no, the blood that was poured on my body was also being absorbed by my body. But the blood is still flowing out of my body. You can say that my body can now be compared to a container of water with so many holes. Even if you try to make the container full, it will never be filled due to the holes. "Stop them! They are closing the rift for Shadow-sama''s resurrection! Don''t let them do that! Kill the one closing it!" a demon that seems to belong to their demon priest resounded to my ears. "No, you don''t! You can''t pass from me! You have to step on my dead body first!" Yuri said. "Yuri! Don''t be too rash with your actions! We can''t afford to die here! Master will be angry with us!" Yuto shouted. I hear explosions but I don''t know what is happening due to my situation. Blood is still flowing out of me like I am now transforming into a fountain. But I am still alive due to the skill of Inari-sama that keeps me alive. If Inari-sama stops the spell, I would be dead. Ahhh, I hope this ends as soon as possible... ... The magicians were unleashing most of their stored magic and mana to the demons. But due to the strong powers of the demons on the area, they are almost equal to the magicians in terms of power. They can even overpower some of them. "Hahaha! DIE!" the female demon from before started unleashing her power on the magicians below her without restraint. BOOM! The female demon immediately dodges when in the smoke, a bolt of electricity shot out from the smoke where she unleashed her power. "That was too close! Hehe, you still don''t give any restraint from your attacks huh?! Old man!" the female demon flew up and gazed below the ground. "I am still a young mister! I am not that old!" Voltaire shouted who is now ready to release some electricity from his palms. "Ha! I am quite sure you are still an old man! Still, I don''t discriminate if you are an old man or not! You have to fall and die in my hands!" "Not a chance, woman! You are the one going down!" The two started unleashing their moves and sparks and flames started to clash causing more utter chaos. Yaya just didn''t care as long as there are demons on the ground, her teddy bear would attack. And besides, if there are magicians below, they won''t be harmed at all and will be fine from it. But that doesn''t mean the magicians are fine, the demons will be fine too. They will be instead get squished and turn into meat paste. No demons are safe unless they can overpower the teddy bear''s destructive power they have no other fates but to be squished and die. Raigaki''s other half that has been dormant on his body has now been unleashed and now wreaking havoc around the place without any restraint. Tsukoyomi did not even stop him from doing so and let him do his rampage. All demons that tried to stop him were all wrecked and dead. One big-bodied demon stopped Raigaki though. "Little human, you seemed interesting to kill! Let me play with you for a while!" "KILL! DIE!" Raigaki''s eyes glow red and his shirt was torn causing his hands to glow red and blue. All of a sudden, he suddenly disappeared from where he was standing earlier and appeared beside the demon and punched the demon squarely on the face. "OOOH... Punk, you really are asking to die!" "7th art! Void Wave!" BANG! Explosions followed suit and the surrounding demons did not even bother to interfere. On the other hand, Catmod and Rena were on the same side fighting together with demons. They were not just random demons, they are all big, strong and can use magic with different elements. Basically, they are all-rounders and the two were on a big disadvantage who only excels in magic skills. "It''s been a while since we have fought side by side like this eh, Nekoyama?" Rena smiled as she pushed her glasses up. "Hey there girl, don''t make me sound too old. It might be a while but it''s not that long. I think a decade already? But let''s stop reminiscing. We are in the middle of the battle!" "Hehe, still serious as always. But remember that we are also surrounded by enemies like this before so it''s not like we are new to this. We are also at a disadvantage at that time so I don''t think we are in a different situation right now." "Well, if you say that much..." Catmod sighed. "Hey, you two, you stop talking! All of you should die peacefully!" When Rena heard this, the air suddenly turned cold and the ground started to freeze. Even the demons with thick skins can feel the chill sink into their skin. "Did I ever tell you demons to interrupt our conversation? HUH?!" and in just a blink of an eye, the demons staring at Rena are immediately encased in ice. Catmod shook his head and sighed seeing the situation. "Learn to hold back will ya? You might have also encased your comrades in ice if you keep on doing that." "Heh, you are underestimating my control over my magic. You have yet to see what is my worth in battle, sensei." ... What seems to be an eternity to me is just a few moments to the people on my side. Inari-sama is having a hard time and Yuri and Yuto are trying their best to beat up the demon they are fighting. While in a semi-conscious state, I saw the entity earlier again. "Now you understand? Pain and suffering will be what you will gain in doing so. There is no merit to it if you will die." I glared at the entity and looked at him with pity. "No wonder you want me to escape and just ignore this problem. It''s because you are a coward." Chapter 117: Chaos and More Chaos Part 2 "Ha! Me? A coward? Yes, you..... Of course, I am! I am the embodiment of your repressed feelings. So even if you keep on saying different kinds of rude words, you are only cursing yourself." the entity laughed. He was indeed me and I was him. I just failed to accept it, but that is not the point here. Why is he showing up now? "Ha... you can''t be helped. I will aide you this once. But after that, I will not interfere anymore, even if you die already." Before I knew it, I was returned to reality, the pain came flowing back to my nerves. However, this time around, the blood stopped flowing out of my body and the magic circle that formed in the rift is now formed. "NO!" the demon priest is shouting in grief as the rift''s entrance is slowly covered with blood-red chains jumping up and down like snakes on the rift. They are not flying and diving into the ground though, the chains are currently acting as a thread that will eventually sew the rift shut. Soon, the rift was no longer be seen and a howl so hollow that might have come from the depths of the earth, echoes throughout the whole Phantasmal Reality. The lesser demons stopped fighting while the other high ranking demons opened their own portals and escaped in the heat of the battle. The female demon fighting against Voltaire is quite messed up but Voltaire is also the same as her. "Heh... I never thought that I have to go all out just to fight a puny magician like you. I commend you with that, heh..." the female demon said as she wiped the blood from her mouth. "Hmph, I am just not in the proper condition right now, but if I ever am in full condition, I will slay you down, demon." "I am going to wait for that and the next time we meet, you will be dead!" the female demon said before she flew up and disappeared on the horizon. All the other battles happening also ended. The higher demons that were supposed to help the priest defend the rift are nowhere to be seen resulting in the lesser demons to die without any sort of power and morale left for them. The magicians immediately killed the remaining demons without hesitation. Even those who begged for their lives did not manage to live. All they could do is escape, but that is also not a guarantee. "I refuse to accept this! I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS!" the demon priest raises his staff into the sky and a large bolt of lightning struck his staff. His scream echoes throughout the whole Phantasmal Reality. Inari-sama healed me again and all the lost energy from earlier due to the spell was recovered allowing me to stand up and ready to go if there is a fight going to happen. "I have a bad feeling about this," Titan said as he approached my side alongside with Moonlight, Erina, Maple, and Anya. "Is everyone alright?" I asked. "Not that great Kazuma. All our mana are used up and we can''t have another fight unless we force it. More importantly, are you alright? You didn''t die right and this is not your soul we are talking into?" Moonlight frowned and immediately stare at me with daggers. "How rude, I am still alive and this is still flesh and bones, not some ethereal being floating around. It takes more than that to kill me." "Guys, this is not the time to squabble, the enemy is charging up and looking dangerous!" Erina said and pointed the demon priest that got struck with lightning. The other magicians started to gather up too and saw what was happening to the demon priest. "Crap! Eliminate him immediately! He is trying to morph!" Zan shouted and started chanting a magic skill that invokes a great explosion. "Zan! Don''t casually do that! But he is right guys! We can''t let this demon complete his transformation cycle or we are going for one heck of a battle again!" Tsukoyomi said and swing his staff above his head and started to spin it while chanting. Yuri and Yuto also came back to me, looking at their status, they are too tired to do anything, let alone evoke strong magic skill. "Good job you two, go back and rest now guys," I said to them and was about to recall them when Yuri stopped me. "No, master. We have yet to defeat the enemy and we will not just run away without finishing the job. We will rest for a little bit but we will return to the fight. Don''t recall us just yet." "Hey, don''t push your bodies too much. Just because you are my familiars doesn''t mean you two are safe from injuries and death and I don''t want the two of you doing that." "Forgive us, master, if we are strong enough, we would have already eliminated that guy down without having him allow to power himself up," Yuto said. "Now, now, guys. You two did wonderfully. Kazuma-sama is safe from him due to your valiant efforts to protect him. It takes a lot just to properly do it and you two did it without doing much. If the two of you didn''t manage to do so, closing the rift will just be a different topic and it would not be closed until now," Inari sama consoled the two of them. Just like what they wished, I didn''t recall them yet, but I have to let them rest for a while. Letting them fight in their state is just a suicide. I let Inari sama look them out for now so that they won''t engage in battle with their situation. After making sure of that, I joined in with everyone ready to unleash their magic skills out of and beat the enemy down which is the demon priest that is currently doing a morphing process. Voltaire shot the demon priest some lightning bolts and some other skills but it seems like the enemy absorbed all of them without getting any sort of injuries. "This guy is absorbing all our attacks! We can''t damage him!" Voltaire said as he frowned when his last lightning bolt disappeared as soon as it reaches the body if the demon priest. "Damn! He is already in the protection of his demon god that he is worshipping! We have no choice but to wait for him to finish his morphing process! All our attacks will just be absorbed and will be part of his strength later if we bombard him with attacks!" Tsukoyomi said. "Getting the blessings that fast!? Doesn''t it take quite a lot of time just for a demon to gain the recognition of a demon god that easily?!" Yaya frowned. "Kill!" Raigaki is ready to attack anytime, he was just being restrained by Tsugimoto and Rena. "I think he was one of those demons that has the title of the demon god beloved. Having that trait will allow him to shorten the time if gaining the demon god''s blessings!" Zan analyzed as he stares at the demon priest while still readying the spell he was going to throw for later. "Can''t we do something about it? Like, remove him from the blessings while he is still immobile?" Titan suggested. "You are underestimating this one Godou, the demon has a strong faith to his demon god and if we did what you suggested, we are just looking for more trouble. We can''t just do that casually," Moonlight interjected. I didn''t have anything to say. I don''t know what will happen after this demon gets forcefully removed from the blessings his demon god bestowed him with. I decided to ask Blue about this one. "Blue, do you know what to do with this one?" "No. Just like what your fellow magicians are saying, he will not be stopped and he will be immune to all damage thrown to him. All you can do is wait for him to finish his morphing process and hope for the best outcome." Chapter 118: Battle to Death 1/3 We already expected much. It didn''t take that long before the demon priest stood up from kneeling. Apparently, he is now bigger than usual. He might not be able to compete with height against the height of Yaya''s teddy bear but that doesn''t mean this demon is not big. He is towering. He looked like a midget giant with buffed up muscles. When he fully transformed and he stopped praying, Voltaire who is currently looking out at the demon priest''s status squinted his eyes and released his signal. "Fire!" As soon as that word was released, all of our magic skills that we are charging up were all unleashed together. BOOOOOOOOOMMMMM! The explosion caused too much shaking on the ground and the dark surroundings were immediately filled with colorful but destructive lights. It took a little bit of time before everything stopped, leaving smoke and dust in the vicinity. If a normal human or a magician is in that place of impact earlier, it will be a disaster for the said person and will immediately cease to exist in this world. But that doesn''t mean everyone would perish on that combined attacks of strong magicians. Before the smoke clears out, everyone near the impact of the magic released immediately stepped back. Even I have to do it. Why did we do it? There was one thing, and that was instinct. And as soon as we dodge, a huge arm appeared and slammed the ground where we stood before. The strength of the hand exploded and caused the ground to produce handmarks and cracks. "This guy is a tough nut to crack I see," Catmod said and shook his head." "To think some demons developed some sort of resistance to magic and to top it off, the demon survived all our combined attacks!" Zan frowned. "It''s not impossible for a demon like him to appear and besides, it''s not the first time we encountered demons like this before unless you are a newbie like Kazuma here," Moonlight said. "He was definitely one of those demons that has the kind of resistance with the magic but this guy is different. If I may guess, he can use magic too." "The f*ck?! Demonic Magic is strong and too potent! We can''t afford to unleash his magic power to the surroundings or we will be having trouble!" Otome shouted. Before everyone can respond, the demon priest raised his right hand and pointed to the sky. "I summon the light of darkness to baptize everyone with the flames of the abyss. Destroy their very soul and deliver them to me! Flame Baptism!" As soon as I saw huge fireballs rapidly falling down to us, it didn''t take me a few seconds before I released a magic skill three times. "Domain of Balmung!" BANG BANG BANG! The continuous assault of the fiery fireballs falling from the sky was immediately blocked by my barrier but it was a continuous assault which makes it hard to maintain the barrier without getting destroyed by the fireballs. "Nice assist Kazuma! Let''s deal with this guy without delay!" Titan said. The duration of the spell of the demon priest is not that long so when it stopped, I immediately released the barrier and the other magicians immediately dispersed and went to different locations and started to release their magic skills. I also stepped back and recovered the mana I lost from using the Domain of Balmung so that in case we needed it, I can immediately cast it without getting mana drained. Also, going into attack mode will strain my body since using the dark arts of sealing the rift totally made my whole body which would tremendously affect my fighting skills. "Everyone, charge up all your magic! Raigaki! Hold him out! I will hold him too using my chains and seals!" Tsukoyomi shouted as he flicks his hands and big red chains appeared on his arms. "ARRGGGHH! KILL!" Raigaki roared and immediately rushed into the demon. I cast Domain of Balmung to Raigaki''s body to avoid anything bad happening to him once he starts to hold the demon priest. Even he was in a berserk state, we can''t just let him become cannon fodder in the end. "Chains of the dark that looms all over the underworld, relinquish your power and stop thy enemy from moving! Capture and bind the enemy for eternity! Chains of Tartarus!" With a wave of his hands, the red chains immediately shoot out from Tsukoyomi and chained the big body of the demon priest. The demon priest roared in anger and tried to get the chains off on his body but before he can do that, the chains started to tighten around the demon and grips harder on his humongous body. "Unleash everything guys! These chains can hold enemies but not that long! It will take a lot of toll on me!" Tsukoyomi shouted. "We are on it!" Catmod shouted back and raised his paw and a heavy pressured wind appeared around it. He didn''t hold the wind around his hands for that long and released it towards the demon priest. Yuri and Yuto also unleashed their ultimate skills and Inari-sama supports everyone by making a holy place for a little bit amount of time temporarily in an area that allowed everyone who is currently suffering from lack of mana can recover them. "Master! Please give us some mana so that our magic gets to be a bit more powerful than usual!" Yuri said. I also think it is true. During my battles in the GATES, Yuri expended a great amount of power whenever I supply her with mana which means it was really due to the mana supply I gave her before that she is too powerful. Now with the seed of Yggdrasil helping me on my mana regeneration, it''s not going to be a problem for me to supply almost an infinite amount of mana. Quickly biting my thumb and letting it bleed, my blood slowly flows out which I didn''t want to waste and immediately flick it into the air and rapidly controlled it with mana to create a connection to supply the flow of aether to my familiars. "Connection activate, Mana Transfer commence!" Everyone of us used our magic skills while the demon priest is trying to break free. Even when the demon priest tried to keep on releasing demonic miasma that can damage and potentially kill anyone, Raigaki did not budge and continue to hug the demon tightly limiting all of the power left. Honestly, I feel intimidated by what Raigaki can do. He might look like a weak and frail normal otaku guy but once released in his seals, he will destroy almost anything. "Prepare for the battle of your lives everyone! I doubt this will be an easy battle and I am quite sure we are not going to have a good time about this!" Voltaire shouted as he aimed his hands into the demon. "BLAST HIM!" Chapter 119: Battle to Death 2/3 "Release it all and fire!" As soon as Catmod said those words, all of the magicians who are still charging their magic skills immediately throw what they are currently charging up. Explosions occurred and the ground shook like it was about to start an earthquake. I didn''t bother to release an attack as I focused on maintaining my mana transfer to my familiars. But again, the guy that appeared on my mind appeared once again with a smug grin on his face. "Heh, you still haven''t taken a rest, why don''t you leave it to them? You are overstraining yourself. Are you that eager to die?" "You again? Can you just leave me alone?" "Oh? Do you really think you are alone? Don''t you reconsider me as part of you? I even helped you during your blood loss while sealing that rift and no thanks at all? Quite cruel aren''t we?" "I still don''t trust you. Guys like you always have some sort of ulterior motive when it comes to things like that. I think you are one of those devil merchants that asks compensations like half of your life in exchange for power." "Well... you are half right and half wrong. But you can say that I am similar to them but I am not as cruel as them. Anyways, I am just trying to persuade you, but I think you are not going to listen anyway. Adios and live on so that I also don''t die," he said and in a blink of an eye, he disappeared. As soon as my focus was back to the battle, I saw the blood-red chains that are tying down the demon priest was forced to lessen the grip. The demon priest overpowered its might. "FOOLISH HUMANS! I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU IN THE NAME OF LORD SHADOW AND OFFER YOUR BLOOD AND FLESH TO HIM!" All of a sudden, countless of black colored tentacles appeared on the ground and started grabbing our legs. "F*ck, what the hell are these things?!" Titan tried to rip the tentacles off from his legs but it was proven hard and just started to stretch instead. The tentacles also grabbed my legs and it was too slippery to hold and the longer it stays in the skin, the more it releases some sort of viscous liquid that stings and burns in the skin. The skin in my legs seems to start to melt and it hurts like hell. "Get off me you shitty tentacles off my legs!" I heard Rena shouted and her eyes started to glow blue and her legs started to freeze. Likewise, the tentacles also start to freeze. Yaya''s teddy bear also got destroyed on its leg since it was just made from cloth. This triggered Yaya''s anger seeing her teddy bear melt in the blink of an eye. "What the hell?! Ruining my teddy bear?! All of you monster tentacles will pay for this! I will fry you all to the grill and turn you all to charcoal!" Everyone was struggling and even I had a hard time dealing with it. I already recalled Yuri, Yuto, and Inari-sama out from the tentacles so that they won''t suffer injuries since they have already suffered a lot during the initial battle against the demon priest. The only person who is not affected by the tentacles is Anya since even Maple who is guarding Anya against the attacks were also attacked by the tentacles and was currently busy cutting the tentacles that tried to grab her legs. "Anya!" I shouted. "Stepfather, do you need some help from me? I know how to get rid of them since Father already show me how to remove those tentacles and to also stop them from attaching to your body. They will just have no choice but to flee and stop attaching to you." "Huh? You have seen these tentacles before?" I was confused. I thought they were the power of the Demon Priest. "They are normal inhabitants in this world, Stepfather. According to Father, they are called wrigglers. They live underground and eat soil nutrients. They are docile and harmless normally but they are easily manipulated by magic power that is why anyone who can use control magic will be able to control them and manipulate them to your bidding. And on top of that, the liquid that they spew out of their tentacles can be considered as acid and can be fatal if used in living creatures as they were used mainly to melt stones and soil to convert them into food," Anya explained while she bit her thumb and started writing a simple pentagram symbol on my hand. Without anything else, I was surprised when the tentacles that were supposed to attack me started to lose its will to attack and returned to the ground. My legs'' skin is melted to the point that the flesh is about to reveal the bone. Anya takes out one bottle as big as a mineral water bottle but only made of glass of what I presume to be a medicinal liquid that I looted before and was stored inside the mimic. "Drink this medicine. It was made from miracle fruit that can be used to heal all manner of wounds whether it is fatal or not." I am no longer surprised to see medicine like this. With magical things scattered around the world and just in Japan alone, it was quite obvious there will be a thing like this too. I opened the bottle and without blinking and hesitating, I gulped down the medicine. Of course, I didn''t bother to drink them all. One gulp is enough and the wound started to heal. "Anya, can you tell me how to do what you did?" "Yes, it was quite troublesome if we are being held by these monsters." The method was just simple and it didn''t involve any kind of troublesome things that will make you troubled memorizing. In fact, this is just a simple drawing matter. It just needed a little bit of blood of the caster, and then draw the pentagram. I looked into the demon priest and currently, Raigaki is fighting against him. Seeing the demon priest is quite preoccupied with him, I immediately started using the method and deal with the wrigglers and giving out medicine to everyone affected. While doing these things, I just realized that if I have the control of these tentacles, we can defeat the demon priest as soon as possible. I don''t have manipulation magic but I have someone who can help me gain it. "Hey Blue! I know you are in there, can I ask you something?" "Manipulation magic right? I already heard that in your thoughts. Fortunately for you, there is one but I doubt you can learn it in just a few minutes or hours. You need a few years of experience and trial and error." "I am in a hurry, I needed to learn it as soon as possible. Give it to me!" Chapter 120: Battle to Death 3/3: Epilogue of Arc 2 "I don''t know if I should say you are getting cocky now or you are just overestimating yourself! Manipulation magic needs a lot of time to learn! Not just a one time read and you can learn it! That is not how the magician world works!" Blue grumbled. "Just let me see and find it out if I can''t learn it or not! I am in a hurry!" Blue sighed and reluctantly show the method on how to learn Manipulation magic. I didn''t waste my time and immediately read all the words, processes, and instructions of the Manipulation Magic. Apparently, the name of the magic for manipulation is called Puppeteering. The higher your comprehension of the magic skill, the more creatures or people you can control using it. Of course, the more you control, the more you mana consumed while using it which is why only those magicians with an almost infinite amount of mana in their bodies can use this skill without much undergoing the risk of losing all your mana in one go. "Alright, this should do it," I said as I close the app. "Are you sure you have learned it?" "More or less! I just needed to check if it is working for these monsters!" "F*ck, you are out of your mind..." Blue cursed. Even though Blue is cursing, I didn''t mind it and headed straight around the tentacles still wriggling around the ground and some are still around looking for any person they can attack since they cannot even approach those people I have given the sigils that Anya has taught me. Seeing one tentacle still in the legs of a female magician which is one of the survivors from the first attack earlier, I decided to check the Puppeteer power on that tentacle. Using the solidified mana that can be done by concentrating on mana manipulation, I throw it to the tentacle and used it to pry on the body for me to control. Just like how a puppeteer controls its puppets with the strings, I am using the solidified mana to act as strings. I can feel that it started to attach to the tentacle and all the limbs and parts are now under my control. In a single swipe in my hands, the tentacle detached itself from the legs of the girl and followed my command. After that, I helped her drink the potion to cure the wound on her legs and put her one of the marks so that the tentacles will stop attaching to her legs. She thanked me before retreating since she is very low in mana. There are still so many tentacles around me and most of them are trying to attach themselves again to the people I already helped but due to the mark that Anya taught to me, they were repelled and cannot even bring to touch them. "Well, sh*t, I am still not sure how you did it but since you did it, I have nothing to say," Blue mumbled as soon as she saw the magic was successful. "See? I can learn it if I try!" "Don''t get too cocky, kid. That is just a single tentacle, are you quite sure you want to control a whole bunch of them in one go?" "It was the only plausible way and we can use them to fight against that monster. It seems the demon priest had some sort of magic repellant that allows him to block and repel the magic being cast on him." "Are you trying to be an upstart maniac or something? Only someone in an archmage caliber can pull that off and live to tell the tale without getting insane! Don''t keep pushing your luck to the extent because it might become your downfall if you do so!" Blue retorted. "I promise I won''t overdo it. I just have to limit myself if I can''t control any tentacle any longer. That should do it." After that, my mana started to flow in my fingertips and I slowly control them to move fluidly like threads. The first tentacle is still on my control and when I throw the second and third thread, I slowly felt that my control is now a bit different and not so fluid as before. So this is what Blue said to me on dividing my control to multiple targets. Still, that was not enough to shake my thoughts. I can still control more so without further ado, the threads I am making are also thrown to the tentacles I saw. There are countless of them on the road but I don''t mind how many there were at the moment and continue to produce thread mana and attach them to the tentacles that I meet. "Kazuma? What the heck are you doing?!" Voltaire saw me gathering tentacles one by one in the surroundings. "Don''t mind me, please help the others while I am gathering all the tentacles out of here." "Stop doing everything on your own! We are here to help!" Catmod shouted. "Ah, then can you gain control of these tentacles? I have to gather them all use them." "Huh? Control? Isn''t that going to be on the level of Archmages to use it?! Are you saying you are doing the Control Magic to the tentacles right now?!" Catmod glanced at the tentacles that I have controlled using the thread mana. All of those tentacles are not moving from their spot unless I move them at all. I don''t have much control left and if I keep on speaking, I might release a few tentacles out of my control if I do so. Without responding to Catmod, I continue releasing more mana threads and attaching them to tentacles I see. Soon enough, I can feel my whole head hurting a lot like it was being bashed by some hard thing slowly and surely. "Looks like this is my limit," I mumbled. But heck, I just realized I already controlled too many of them and they look creepy and cringe-worthy to look at. The way they wriggle will make many people creep out and they won''t bother to get close to them. However, they are still necessary for the plan. ... I am not sure whether I am seeing things or not. Kazuma has been showing us a lot of surprises. He has a deity familiar, he knows forbidden magic and now he is using control magic that only with the rank of archmage can handle. Even I who is a magician since I was a kid is not able to do the feats he has already done. It was like I am seeing a monster instead of a normal human. "Hey, Voltaire..." I look at my side and saw Nekoyama whispering at me. "What is it?" "When did Kazuma entered our chat group again and became a magician? I don''t recall having a member capable of those feats. Are you sure he was a young fledgling and not a genius monster hiding his fangs?" "I am quite sure. When I met him before, he was just a newbie and he didn''t possess that much magic skills. He can barely use magic even before without relying on the two items that were given to him. However, now is different. I don''t think he is someone who I should just ignore, he is someone who I should watch out from due to his abnormal growth." "Once this is over, we should go and tell this to the Oracle. We have to tell her a new genius of magic has appeared after the first appearance of one, 100 years ago," Nekoyama said. "We should focus on this demon first. We have to help Raigaki or he will lose his mind and his berserk self might remain instead. Most of us are now recovered and the mana we lost are also ready to go too." "Then rally up everyone and go into an all-out attack! We can''t let the chance go to waste!" ... The situation is getting hectic. Erina and her mother are busy healing the wounded, while Titan and Moonlight are defending them in case something will happen once the demon priest goes berserk. Anya and Maple are helping the wounded and helping to get rid of the tentacles. The rest are now locked on to the demon priest. "Foolish humans! You dare challenge me?!" His voice reverberated throughout the place and the air is filled with a foul smell. But the magicians are not perturbed by the threat, instead, they keep on fighting the demon with all their might. Raigaki is still howling mad while punching the demon priest without stopping. They were quite strong punches but it was clear that the punches almost did nothing to the body of the demon priest. I am slowly controlling all the tentacles simultaneously despite the difficulty. It was quite a trouble but I can slowly get used to it and do it properly. Waving my hands, synchronizing the movements to the tentacles, and giving commands, it takes a little bit of time before I can properly execute it. Moving my fingers that are attached to the mana thread and slowly ordered the tentacles one by one. It was easy commanding one, but it''s another thing when commanding countless tentacles. But it was a matter of practice. While the others are busy trying to injure the demon priest, I keep on trying to control the tentacles. After a few more practice in a few minutes, my grasp in controlling the tentacles started to rise. It is not that hard anymore and giving attack commands is now much easier. After a while, I can almost control all of them in one go. Just that I have to just give them out with the same commands, not something complicated that only intelligent creatures can understand. These tentacles are simple creatures, making them perfect for people who can control other creatures. It didn''t take me long to get ready, I just have to organize the tentacles and extended the length of the mana thread. Mana is not a problem, only the tenacity of my mind is the problem. I have to hold on and damage the demon priest before I fall. Lifting my hands and focusing my eyesight to the towering demon priest, I opened my mouth and gave out a command. "KILL!" All at once, the tentacles moved swiftly to the demon priest and attached their tentacles to his body. It was so fast that even if you have fast reaction and reflexes, as long as a tentacle managed to attach itself, it will never detach itself whatever happened unless a repellant like what Anya thought to me was applied. The demon priest who was busy trying to damage and kill Raigaki was surprised when a sticky and slimy tentacle attached itself to his legs. He was also caught off guard when all of a sudden, dozens of tentacles started to gather. A few dozens of tentacles managed to cover his left leg and not all of the tentacles I have commanded have attached to his left leg alone. The others attached to his body and arms. I just realized that they work like an octopus too even though they don''t look similar to an octopus and more similar looking to a spider with tentacles replacing its legs. "Yaya-san! Please take Raigaki away from here! He might get caught up from the tentacles assault!" Yaya who was now riding a new teddy bear that is now made from metal grinned and gives a thumbs up. "Leave that pervert to me!" Her metal teddy bear immediately made its move before Yaya can give out command and grab the thrashing Raigaki and knocked him out. I don''t want to know if it hurts being slapped by a metal robot or not. That is not something I want to happen to me. Now that Raigaki is out of the scene and the other magicians are on standby, I have to deal with a huge amount of pain and wounds on this demon before I will lose my sanity completely. "Secrete!" The demon priest who was trying to get the tentacles out of his body stopped and smoke started to appear in his body though I think that was not smoke something like some sort of steam after melting something out. "GRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" The demon priest started to thrash around and tried to use force to remove the tentacles but just like how the magicians were having trouble taking them, the demon priest can only pull them but can''t take them off completely from his skin. It can be seen that the skin on his body is currently burned and the skin is just hanging and ready to be removed by a slight movement. "Bind!" Closing my fists, I released the command. Bloodlust starts to fill the air as the tentacles started to tighten their grips to his skin, making the melted flesh and skin on his body to also tighten. If a normal human experienced it, they would suffer a very painful experience. It wouldn''t be an exaggeration that someone would want to die instead of experiencing it. Still, this demon is not someone who will just surrender after being tortured by the tentacles. His eyes started to wander around and landed his gaze to me. "So it was you who did this... IT WAS YOU!" The bloodlust that was built up suddenly exploded and all the tentacles I was controlling immediately turned to ashes. It was so sudden too so when the connection to the tentacles was cut off, it immediately caused a backlash to me and injured my mind. I have to block the remaining bloodlust from being released to avoid fatally injuring me. "You are the one who caused everything to fail, even reviving Shadow-sama is a failure. And now you are have injured me, your life is not enough as compensation! I will rip your limbs one by one and torture you every day that you will wish you will die which of course, I will be preventing to do! You have to pay for everything!" The backlash from the control was too great that even if I managed to block some of it, it rendered me helpless and has a hard time moving. I closed my eyes and accept my faith when fluctuations of mana started to emanate around me. Opening my eyes, I saw 4 people standing in front of me. They are not the same as Voltaire and the others. They emanate different auras from them and they were more overwhelming than them. But my consciousness is failing to hold out and before I knew it, I fell into a deep abyss of darkness... ... The appearance of the four new individuals caused some of the magicians around to feel shocked. It was quite a show for them to appear in the Phantasmal Reality. "Who are they?" Maple approached Moonlight and Titan who were the companions of Kazuma that he kept on mentioning before. "Those are members of the Councilors! They are part of the strongest magicians existing in history and they work directly from the Oracle herself! They are not just the same as us since it was quite the far cry to compare us from them!" Titan said. "Umm... sorry, I don''t know who are these councilors and oracle are..." Maple said. "It''s understandable, the Oracle and the Councilors are both secrets that were meant to intervene on things in magic wars and demon extermination that has the point where they will have a big disadvantage. According to the records, they are too strong that restoring things to the way they were is as easy as breathing for them." Maple was not sure what to say about what she just heard. Magicians capable of that feat surely have passed the rank of Archmage already. And seeing the four of them young and not some old man with a staff and white beard as a trademark makes her think of how monstrous they were. "If I am not wrong, the guy who looks like a loner should be the Scorpio holder, the librarian looking girl is the Aquarius, the guy who looks like a normal high school student is the Leo, while the lolita one is the Libra. They might look like that but they are people you wouldn''t want to mess with," Moonlight added. Maple nodded and silently took note of that. She would be going to remember that the next time she crossed paths with them. "Four more bugs appeared to intervene? Ha! You all are going to die!" "Shut up," the one who looks like a loner and has a headphone on his ears just looked at the demon priest before the demon priest''s mouth started bleeding. The demon priest was surprised because his mouth bleeding is not something ordinary for him, in fact, he never has experienced it. It was the first time he had experienced it. Still, that was not something the demon priest would get afraid of. He raised his staff to cast a spell but then realized that he seemed to have a missing arm. Looking at his left arm that was holding the staff he used for ceremonies and casting spells is now looking withered and looking similar to a twig. It was still gripping the ceremonial staff he used tightly but it was clear that it will no longer be functional. The demon priest did not care if he lost one hand since he can just regenerate it. However, he realized that his regeneration ability is no longer functioning properly. "You think you can restore your hands to its former glory? It was just a pipe dream now for you. Due to the acid that the tentacles secrete, I managed to enhance its capabilities of increasing the regeneration drop that it has. Increasing its function, it was much easier for me to stop any of your regeneration quirks or whatever you are trying to use," a young girl wearing a pink dress with frills. You can say she looks like a lolita but from the way she speaks, she is more like an old woman rather than a lolita. "Hey, what do you say I deal with the final blow? You guys have already done your part and I have yet to try this new punching bag. Pretty please?" the guy who looks like he was just a normal high school boy with a jolly attitude looked at the others like a puppy. "I don''t really care, as long as you remove him out of here, the better it is so that I can start restoring this place. The whole place is looking so bad I am getting bored and tired watching the scenes," the last girl who looked similar to a librarian girl seen in a school sighed as she keeps her eye on the book she was reading. "Alright! That was just the signal I am waiting for!" It was fast and in the blink of an eye, everything ended. It happened in a flash that even the other magicians were not sure what happened. The Leo Holder who was just talking earlier disappeared from where he was standing and the demon priest who was not moving disappeared in a second. And in another second, the remaining guy standing is the Leo Holder guy, covered in blood. As for the demon priest, it was quite clear that he is missing. No, more like he was wiped out from the face of where they are standing. "How was it?" the lolita asked. "Meh, I thought he would be tough enough but it was quite a waste and he looked imposing too, only to be quite a disappointment. He just burst after I punched him on his big stomach. Some of those random monsters I fought before lasted a few more punches before they died and this one didn''t even last one punch." "Eh, that is good I guess?" the lolita shrugged. "Are all of the jobs done? Let''s go back already. I am tired and I hate going out like this," the loner guy said. "Meh, all you do is sleep and nothing more. I don''t know why they bestowed you the Scorpio title even though you are clearly showing the signs of a sloth," the lolita girl shrugged. "Che, mind your own business." The librarian looking girl stepped forward and opened her book. The book isn''t something magical at all and you would not really think it was once you saw the cover of the book. In reality, that book is not even related to mystics and magic. More like it is related to It was a fashion magazine and from what the cover tells and its date is big enough for anyone to see, it was clear that the magazine she is holding is today''s issue magazine. The question is, why does the fashion magazine able to invoke some sort of magic too? It might be her magic skill but as the holder of the Aquarius, she should be holding a jar full of water, not a book. She is chanting under her breath and when she opened her eyes, it was glowing bright blue and droplets of water started to appear in her surroundings. But it was actually expected for water to appear. The droplets started to gather around her body and before everyone can blink, the droplets turned into a wave of water, and anyone seeing this scene will mistake it for a tidal wave. "Pure water of the deep sea, cleanse all the malice present in this world! Cleansing Flood!" All of a sudden, water started to flow into the ground and flood the surroundings. The magicians immediately tried to escape by floating in the air, while those who are not capable were not able to climb a tree or escape. The flood already engulfed everywhere of the Phantasmal Reality and covered it with water. "WAHHH!" The magicians who cannot fly screamed on top of their lungs as they were engulfed in water. However, everyone realized that the water was not really water. "Huh? I can still breathe underwater!" Erina muttered as she thought that she was drowning. "The power of the Aquarius huh, I see. I just heard it before but according to those who have seen and experienced the power will be cleansed and the wounded will be healed once she cast her powers around. One of her powers is this cleansing flood. It might look like we are being flooded with water but it was only effective against malice and dark matter. Living people that have no malice will not be affected by this power. We don''t need to be afraid," Catmod said as he calmly floated under the magical water. Anya and Maple swim straight to Kazuma who is unconscious after the backlash he received after the death of all the tentacles that he controlled, it all came together to him causing damage to his mind even though he managed to block most of the damage. As for how long will he remain unconscious, no one knows. ... With the situation of the Phantasmal World intercepted and solved by the 4 zodiac holders, the demon invasion and the resurrection of the "Lord Shadow" they keep on saying was also prevented. Of course, many lives have sacrificed themselves just to prevent it but with the help of many individuals, their death was not in vain. The 4 Zodiac holder who helped the magicians in the battle against the demons at the very end and restored the status of the Phantasmal World to its former glory disappeared like how they appeared out of nowhere. Despite that, many who have witnessed their power is enough to etch their minds that they are one of the strongest. As for the Kazuma, he was back in the real world and back to his humble house. The magicians of the chat group decided to help Kazuma to recuperate by helping his body to recover faster using mana recovery. And due to that, they are staying at his house at the moment. As for how they know it, magicians have their ways to know it and it is not that hard for them. Anya who was originally living in the Phantasmal World arrived in the real world and with the permission of Catmod and other magicians, they allowed her to transfer in the real world and make Kazuma as his foster father which she keeps on insisting. Maple visits from time to time to Anya and Kazuma since she has to keep on practicing her magic since she was motivated to get stronger seeing stronger magicians around her. Catmod who has initiated the annual training to the Phantasmal World decided that he would postpone the rewards exchange at the moment until all of the magicians who participated have fully recuperated from their former form. And everything that occurred after the event was now recorded to the database of the magicians. ... Somewhere in Tokyo, two individuals are currently kneeling and bowing in front of a female girl clad in white and red kimono with her eyes covered with a blindfold that is engraved with glowing red runes of "chalice" of Scandinavian runes. She exudes strong mana in her body and every breath she does, mana is released from her surroundings and everything and everyone that can sense it will feel it. Her aura is much more formidable compared to the aura of the zodiac holders. "Good work for dispelling the demons invasion in the Phantasmal Reality incident. The resurrection of "Shadow" is one of the priorities that they keep on focusing on how many decades already. As the Oracle that supervises all mages in Japan Branch, I must say that the demons have already started to unleash their plans to do things and the attacks that the lesser demons do in the cities are also getting excessive and they also start to do some riots and some other stuff that disturbs human society''s peace. It pained to hear that many of the promising magicians who trained annually were killed in action during the invasion," the female clad in kimono started speaking. The two who were bowing which was revealed to be Voltaire and Catmod raised their heads and looked to the Oracle. "Although we lost a lot of the promising individuals, there are many new magicians who survived the battle are now recuperating and after a few more weeks of rest, they will be back in action again," Voltaire reported. "I see. Also, I heard from the report that some promising newbie magician who recently joined is now doing many things that can be on scale with an archmage''s capabilities. Is this a valid report?" "Yes, oracle. Currently, he was recuperating but he will back on feet for a few days. He just suffered a minor backlash from the Control Magic he used to fight against the demon priest that was defeated by the Leo Zodiac Holder." "What made him something special?" "I gathered intelligence from him and he just became a magician for a month. His rapid growth and lots of magic skills that were supposed to be used only once he managed to reach a certain rank. Of course, we already dismissed it since his abnormality seems to be the reason he has those. However, we also have discovered that he managed to get a contract with Inari-sama, which is considered as a deity level one. He also has a contract with two other creatures too, a succubus and an incubus." "I see. He was interesting indeed. Looks like the magicians have finally found someone that can have the potential to become a new archmage and might even be someone who will be able to stop the war of the demons. Can you tell me what is his name?" the oracle asked. "He goes the name "Chat Killer" in the chat group but according to Moonlight and Titan, his name is Kazuma Fukuyama," Voltaire said. "Fukuyama?!" the oracle was stunned. "Is something wrong, Oracle?" Catmod asked. "Uh... nothing. Anyways, pay attention to this Fukuyama guy. If possible, assist him if he needs it. We can''t afford to lose another person that might have the chance to end the war of magicians and demons. You two are dismissed." "As you wish, Oracle. Farewell!" the two bowed down before disappearing in thin air, leaving the Oracle sighing on her throne. "Fukuyama eh? Looks like the wheel of fate is already in motion. That was sooner than expected." ---End of ARC 2 Chapter 121: Where the F*ck is my House?! I am floating in the nothingness. Yeah, nothing around my surroundings felt like it was real but at the same time, it also felt like it was existing too. Of course, I felt helpless in here. It might felt like I was floating in an endless sea but at the same time, it was more like attached to a wall. Moving is not possible. Of course, I am not alone, the guy who was always bothering me who proclaims that he was my alter ego kept company to me. "You don''t feel lonely during this time? It''s been a while since you are attached to this place," the alter ego said as he floated in the air while playing a game on his phone. I am wondering where he got the phone though. "It''s not a problem. I am used to this kind of situation where I am alone and solitary in my surroundings. It''s not my perk to die whenever I am alone, in fact, I felt the opposite." "I see. Still, this place was quite dark and lonesome. Do you even try to escape out of here at all? Any plans doing that?" "Nah, I remember correctly I collapsed after the death of the tentacles that I controlled. If that was the case, my body might be recuperating right now somewhere safe," I said confidently. "Hoh... How can you be so sure that you are not dead? The people who die don''t even realize they are dead already and their souls are currently floating in the endless sea of Inferno, rather than climbing the mountain of Purgatorio, waiting for you to be judged by the seven terraces of Purgatorio. But hey, at least you don''t have to suffer anymore," the alter ego enthusiastically said. "Heh, that would be great but that is not something that happened to my body, unfortunately. Seeing you still around, I can still tell I am still alive. Unless you disappeared, I might think I am dead but seeing your existence here, that was not the case right now." "What if I am the grim reaper ready to harvest your soul?" "Nah, if you are indeed the reaper, you would have done that a long time ago. Don''t take me for a fool." "Hah, looks like you are indeed something else but heck, you can rejoice, the surrounding is starting to dissipate which means you are about to wake up. You can finally leave the hell hole here. Isn''t that going to be a joyous occasion?" "I guess so but it is not really what I wanted to happen but oh well." "Heh, if you really want to die, just go die, but I can tell that you still have the will to survive. Oh well, I will just leave you here, you are about to wake up. I will not disturb you for now. The interactions I have done with you these past few days is enough. So adios my other me." After that, he disappeared like a cloud of smoke and he didn''t leave any trace of himself after that on where he was before, even the phone he was holding became a smoke too. Just like what he said, the surroundings started to crack like a mirror. Similar to the Mirror Dimension''s activation and deactivation, the whole place is starting to distort and my vision is starting to cover everything with a blinding light. I sighed as I welcomed what will happen to me. ... Opening my eyes, I saw a familiar, yet looking different ceiling. It was somewhat a familiar one but at the same time, I can feel that something is not right. Then I realized what was making me feel that feeling while watching the ceiling. It was still the same ceiling as my old house that I inherited from my late parents, however, it was already a different thing. I found the gold color of the ceiling somewhat peculiar. Those gold lines that looked like design on the ceiling are all engraved with Scandinavian runes. I have seen the Scandinavian runes before when I was researching about the Norse Mythology and seeing them engraved in my house made me freak out. I don''t remember being proficient in runes and able to engrave them that will immediately deploy magic. From what I can see, the runes are currently part of a bigger magic formation. I have no choice but to stand up and look for it myself what the hell is going on. As soon as I get up my bed, I saw Anya and Maple currently playing in my outdated Playstation console. If they are here, that means that the war in the Phantasmal Reality was already solved and done. Then, I was dumbstruck once more. The location of my Playstation console and the television did not change, however, that was not the case to the surroundings at all. All of my old stuff was replaced with newer, better, and much more fabulous furniture. Just by looking around, this was supposed to be my room, but now it feels similar to the living room, in fact, the size is thrice the size of the old one. Anya and Maple are all concentrated on the game they are playing that they did not notice me stood up from my bed and look outside the window. The yard also changed and the lawn is already trimmed from tall grasses since I remembered that the lawn''s grasses are not that thinly cut. The neighboring houses didn''t change at all which means this was actually my house. Still, I am having second thoughts if this was really my house so to confirm it, I immediately cast Mana Scan. POM! My magic has been able to rise in leaps and bounds after the battle in the Phantasmal Reality so now that I cast the Mana Scan, the hologram that appeared in my mind was instantaneous unlike before that it needs quite a few more seconds to materialize. As soon as I saw the instantaneous hologram remade the surroundings of where I was right now, I almost cursed out. It was the same place the house my parents allowed me to inherit, but for some reason, a tall building is now standing on where my house was built before. "WHERE THE F*CK IS MY HOUSE?!" [ol][li data-annotation-id="2bb6770d-a1dc-aabd-cca4-0be8c93efc1d"]The Seven terraces described in the "Dante''s Divine Comedy"(Commonly known as "Dante''s Inferno). Each terrace purges a particular sin in an appropriate manner. Those in Purgatory can leave their circle voluntarily, but may only do so when they have corrected the flaw within themselves that led to committing that sin. The list was the corresponding order of the seven terraces.First terrace (Pride) Second terrace (Envy)Third terrace (Wrath) Fourth terrace (Sloth)Fifth terrace (Avarice) Sixth terrace (Gluttony) Seventh terrace (Lust)[li data-annotation-id="6b4060b7-607f-6983-d1a4-fa4482d9bc4f"]Purgatorio is depicted as a mountain in the Southern Hemisphere, consisting of a bottom section (Ante-Purgatory), seven levels of suffering and spiritual growth (associated with the seven deadly sins), and finally the Earthly Paradise at the top in Dante''s Divine Comedy(Dante''s Inferno). Allegorically, the Purgatorio represents the penitent Christian life.[/ol] Chapter 122: Moonlights Inheritance Anya and Maple stopped playing when they heard me scream. But as soon as they saw me, they immediately abandoned their game and approached me. "Finally you are awake after a full week of your coma! Who would have thought you would rest that long after the battle!" Maple said. "The dragon power that father has given you stepfather allowed you to remain safe and healthy even though you are still unconscious. The other magicians also helped with your recovery," Anya said to me. I scratch my head in confusion. So I have missed a week of my life after I fell to a short coma? "Can someone explain what happened to my house?! This is not something I have heard of!" Before Anya and Maple can say anything, Rena opened the door carrying a tray of food. She was surprised when she saw me standing already but she quickly calmed down. "Looks like you have regained back the energy to move around Kazuma. How are your wounds?" Rena asked. "My body still felt sore but it was not that bad compared when I am still fighting. Anyway, can I ask who changed my house to some sort of building? No one informed me!" Rena smiled and pointed on Yaya who was licking some ice cream while hugging her teddy bear. She was not aware at first but Rena pointed at her,Yaya finally saw me. She suddenly looked fearful when she saw me with the others. I know why she is afraid because she renovated my house without any kind of permission from me. Rena noticed Yaya''s behavior and looked at the direction that Yaya is looking at. As soon as she saw us, she nodded as she understood. "No wonder you are so afraid, the owner of the house you renovated already awakened. Alright, alright, stop hiding behind me, just let me do the talking alright. You helpless woman... I don''t know what to do with you, " Rena said as she shook her head in dismay. Yaya is still hiding on Rena''s back when we approached them. She is very guilty. I put my hands on my waist and glare at her to give me some explanation. But the one who started talking is Rena who pushed her glasses up to the bridge of her nose. "Yes, that is right. This woman did not even ask me to renovate my house! I demand some explanation! I was just asleep for how long it was and when I wake up, everything already changed!" "Alright, Kazuma. Don''t get too angry at Yaya, it''s also my fault too for not informing you and besides, I can''t say anything to you at all because you are still in a coma." "Seriously?! Don''t I have anything to say about this? I just wanted to at least have a relaxing normal house to live my life without dragging the matters of magic back with me. And now my whole house is converted to this?!" "Ah, don''t worry about it too much. This place is just existing in another dimension and the other dimension version of your house is the one demolished and rebuilt into this ground. The real version of your house is still intact and good. You don''t have to worry about it," Rena explained. "What? Damn, why you didn''t say so earlier? I wouldn''t have gotten angry if this was explained first!" I facepalmed myself. "Well, you just started to lash out and did not listen to any explanation so how can I say it?" Yaya said as she still hides behind Rena. While we are still talking, Moonlight and Titan arrived and looked confused when they saw the spectacle in our situation. "Is something happening guys? Why are you all here?" "Moonlight? Godou? Why the sudden visit?" Rena asked. "We heard that Kazuma is now awake and already recovered from his wounds so we decided to visit. And just as usual, he is back to his feet and already stirring up trouble!" Godou said. "Ugh, you guys are not helping," I sighed. "Oh hey, I also remembered one thing too. It involved Moonlight''s father which made us convert this place to this." Moonlight frowned when she heard this. " My father? What does that mean? How come I didn''t know this? Not even informing me?" "We didn''t do that because it''s a personal reason for your father and you are still under recovery status after the battle in the Phantasmal World. Your father didn''t want to stress you out while you are still recovering from your wounds," Yaya explained. Moonlight''s eyebrows raised as she heard this. "What is this all about? Why can''t you say it to me?" "Ugh, this is a pain, but I had to say it. I am sorry Moonlight, your father passed away last month while you are still on the ruins. According to the doctors, he succumbed to his illness after fighting it for how many years. Even healing magic no longer can hold on for his life. He just gave the will to the people visiting him that time and it was a coincidence that it was us." Moonlight stopped as she heard about this. Yaya pulled me away and whispered some info to my ear. "You see Kazuma, according to the will of Moonlight''s father, he just discovered a place where mana and magical energy were abundant. He said that he doesn''t want this place to go to waste so he decided to use the other dimension of this place to avoid trouble with the owner. He gave us the coordinates and found out that it was your place. Due to that decision, the alternate version of your house right now should be converted into a Magician Society building as part of his last will. We can''t just disobey what her father said in his will so we have no choice but to convert it to a building that you are seeing now. Also, he stated that Moonlight should be the one who will inherit all of his riches and properties including this place," Rena explained further. Yaya and Godou pulled me to the side and started so that Rena and Moonlight can discuss what was happening. "Moonlight must have been shocked by what the revelation was about. I mean, even I was surprised to hear that her father already passed away. "Is she very close to her father for her father is giving out his all to just give Moonlight something extravagant like this." "He is very close to Moonlight. Since Moonlight''s mother did not care for her at all, most of the parental care that Moonlight receives came from her father. Even Moonlight''s magic skill that changes the bamboo sword into a real sword is a magic skill that her father passed down to her. You could say that Moonlight is a papa''s girl." I have seen Moonlight''s magic before and it was indeed involving with the bamboo sword she was carrying around on her back. I also heard about Moonlight circumstances before. Her mother is someone who only views her daughter as trash after seeing that she can''t easily achieve what her brother is capable of doing so easily. Her family''s circumstances were quite complicated that I never knew the real story behind it. "So you are not the one who caused this house of mine to turn into an extravagant skyscraper then?" "No way! I don''t have the money to burn just so I can renovate a place into something like this! And besides, I am already comfy with a house that I made last time. Why would I change the nice layout of my house into something like this then?" She has a point. Only rich families can do whatever they wanted to fulfill whatever they want. And from what I can see, Yaya is not one of those people with money to burn. I took a glance at Moonlight and Rena talking and saw her crying while Rena seems to be consoling her loss. Looks like everything is legit news and not some alibi that Yaya got to cover her troublesome act. Anya and Maple approached me as they were left out of the events. "Umm, just what is going on?" "Moonlight''s father passed away last month," Yaya said. The two were taken aback hearing this so they decided to just back off at the moment because it''s not something that they can even help with. They can only console Moonlight for her loss. "Anyway, can someone tell me where are my items located right now? With this house-I mean, building, it is hard to know which place they put all my precious stash." "Your things are intact on the fifth floor. You don''t have to worry about it too much. We didn''t disturb and sell a few of your things. Nothing is missing at all. On the other hand, all your other things are still available in the real world like furniture and appliances. You don''t have to worry about it too much." Yaya said. "Can anyone tell me what is going on? I know that Moonlight''s father converted my house into a Magician Society building but what is the purpose of this society thingie?" Rena answered this. "The Magician Society is an organization of magicians in Tokyo. The chairman of the Magician Society was the father of Moonlight but after he died, Moonlight is the one who will be succeeding in his position. The Magicians Society acts as the main place where magicians can come and go as they please and ask for information and job requests. In short, it was like a guild in games. A place where you can buy, sell and find artifacts, magic, information, and anything related to magic. It would be wise to say that this place is now the second place most visited by magicians though it still can''t beat Oracle''s place and the Council of Magicians." Chapter 123: New Troubles I have to admit that I missed a lot of things when I was knocked out. But why do so many things have occurred? Didn''t I just go to a coma for a week? It was really a troublesome time even for me to cope up with the changes. But hey, at least the magicians that I should have acquainted with are now easier to find and approach. After a few explanations and tour around the new Magician Society, I didn''t expect that I would benefit the most in here in terms of raising my magic power. The building is composed of many floors and many of them are all dedicated to magic research, magic construction, magical and alchemical laboratory, and magic institute that includes a practice hall for magic practice and train your combat prowess and techniques. After getting the inheritance of Byakko and Suzaku, my magic power and abilities have tremendously shown growth and potential but my control over this is not that precise yet. Sure enough that my expertise in fire magic allowed me to have better control over Suzaku''s inheritance but I have little to small control to burst magic skills that were given to me like the Supernova skill. When I got the inheritance, the magic skills I can use are immediately imprinted to my mind and they can be used anytime I needed to. But if those skills backfire and injure me due to my low mastery of them, I am quite screwed which is why I have to train when I have the chance. "Oh, I didn''t notice that you are awake already boy, did you have some good night sleep after sleeping for a week?" the familiar voice invaded my mind once again. "Huh? Oh, it''s you Blue. How is it going around here when I was still in a coma?" "Still the same old boring stuff. There are some topics in the Chat group that I found interesting when I checked and will be worth checking for you, there are also some new people added in the chat group too so I am guessing that they are new peeps who are now considered as a real mage. Also, the spots for the new GATES are also refreshed and those who are interested can also go. Did I fill you into the things you have missed?" "Yeah. You are now much easier to talk to, Blue. Did you change gears for you to change like that?" I asked. "Nah, I am tired of being a sarcastic spirit. I may retort once or twice but not that much anymore. Why you wanted me to be always that sarcastic?" "Nope, your tone is much better right now. You better have that tone for the rest of the time." "Good. Anyways, lately, I am quite tired to do much so you have to deal with some things like asking for a magic spell. I won''t respond sometimes which will be a bit troublesome for you but be mindful I also need to rest. So please understand," Blue explained. "I have no idea what you are doing to have you so tired but if that is the case, then alright." Even Blue is a helpful assistant in this phone, I also have to do things on my own. I can''t keep on relying on others. "My mind is getting droopy, I will return to my slumber so do whatever you want," Blue said and her voice vanished and my phone is back to its normal state. Since it been a while since I visited the chat group, maybe its time for me to check what is happening right now? Entering the chat group, there were indeed new guys added to the chat and there was a topic that has been raging in the chat for a while. I also noticed that Erina''s account since she used her real name is also added in the chat group too and currently speaking in the topic that is being discussed by the others. --- Yagyu: The situation seems rather dire since the invasion of the demons in the Phantasmal Reality last time. Rifts from other worlds start to open in this world again and we are not even sure which entities will appear and wreak havoc in this world. Titan: We confirmed one of the rifts appearing in downtown is a rift indeed from another world. It releases beasts monsters that are looking alien to us. We already managed to close it though. Zacharias: The count of specters, evil souls, and necromancy cases are also rising too. Aside from the rifts appearing, the rituals that the civilians have learned from one of the viral posts in the social media are causing tremendous danger too. I already asked Yaya to investigate the matter and decode the ritual where all the people who tried the said ritual turned crazy and some have to gouge their eyes just to stop the ritual. Erina: Ah! I heard of that ritual in school too! Some of my friends even urged me to try it. But I am hesitant since I noticed some of the rituals had some rune markings and has some sort of sacrificial things needed to invoke the ritual. Yaya: @Erina, please refrain from doing that ritual. I just decoded the ritual and it turns out to be self-harm inducing ritual. It was said to be used to harvest blood, despair, and dark energy. If I managed to track down the source and where the extracted energies go using the magic circle they have sent in the ritual, maybe we can stop this ritual once and for all. I suggest that you stop your friends from doing that to avoid accidents and death. Erina: Oh no, I need to get my friends to stop from doing it! They will be performing the ritual later! Yaya: Don''t be reckless! I will go with you! You are at school right now right? Don''t just go and interrupt them! The ritual might consume their souls! Wait for me to go. Also, is anyone in here able to use fire magic? I need assistance to counter the spells too. ... When I read that Yaya needed assistance to fire magic users, I think it is my time to help. It''s been a week since I have no actions done using magic and I don''t want to rust on it. ... ChatKiller: I will help. Where are we going to meet? Yaya: Oh, Kazuma? Ah yes, good you are qualified. Meet us at your school. We might have to deal with enemies weak to fire so be sure to use the magic skills of yours properly. And if you want your belongings back when you left school last time, ask Anya later. Your Skull Knuckles are in there. Be sure to bring it too in case of an emergency and unpredicted outcome. Chapter 124: Retrieving the Skull Knuckles Rituals are pretty common things in high school and many girls are into that sort of sorcery for fun and the thrill. There is that Kokkuri-san ritual and the Hanako-san ritual that are fairly common to use as either to use for courage test or some sort of question and answer game. But to think that a real magic ritual that was designed for self-harm and extracting negative energies was immediately becoming one of the popular rituals in high school. What made it more dangerous is that the common folks are able to perform this ritual without any guidance by any magician. If it is causing harm, death, and more injury, then it is needed to be stopped. Since Yaya specifically mentioned the Fire Magic, that means whatever or whoever caused all of this, has a specific weakness against the element fire. After acquiring the inheritance of Suzaku, I am now able to conjure fire magic without the help of the Burning Gloves and I can release stronger magic than before, therefore, my ability will be really useful if they ever need it. Yaya also mentioned that the items I left behind at school during the time I was sent with the others to the Phantasmal Reality to train were now sent to my house and currently, it was in the possession of Anya after she received it I was still in a coma. If that was the case, the skull knuckle that I have not used for how many months can be used again. The tour around the new building is over before I knew it and I have nothing to do except to prepare for the mission with Yaya. Might as well retrieve the items in my bag from Anya and get the Skull Knuckle away from her. After all, it was kind of bizarre and I can''t let her get tainted by the Skull Knuckle. ... When I arrived in my room, I saw Anya currently watching television. Maple is no longer around which means she already went home. And from the looks of Anya right now, she is now able to cope up easily in this world. Maple must have thought her many things while I was still on a coma. "Hey there Anya, I''m home, how are you doing in this world? Are you getting the hang of it compared to the Phantasmal Reality?" Anya looked at me and she stood up from sitting on the floor. "Welcome back, Stepfather, I am good and I am so grateful that I was allowed to live here with you. There are many things that I have not experienced back in the Phantasmal World. I prefer to live here wherethings are peaceful." "Eh, you can just call me brother instead of Stepfather. Even though I became your new parent after your father died, it''s not really that good to be called as stepfather by you since I am not yet a dad. Also, since you are a dragon, you must be much older than- GUH!!" I was just talking when Anya kicked me on the balls and I saw stars swirling around my vision. "I prefer that you don''t call me old. Although I lived for long, I am still a child. So please be mindful of that, BROTHER~" "...I''m sorry..." I felt so bad in my crotch area. I don''t know if it was crushed by sheer force or not... ... After recovering from the pain, I saw Anya already yawning. Looking at the time, it is almost nighttime which means she needs to rest. "Go to bed now Anya, its getting late," I pat her head and led her to her bedroom. "Okay, brother. Good night." I tucked her into the bed in her room. Before she goes to sleep, I asked her for the whereabouts of my bag. "Oh, the bag? I put it in your closet. I don''t know where to put it so I just shoved it inside." Anya quickly drifted to sleep after telling me that. As for me, I don''t have time to rest. I have been asleep for quite some time so I don''t think I will be sleeping for now. What I needed to do right now is to retrieve the Skull Knuckle. I didn''t notice the bag inside the closet when I was choosing what clothes to wear this morning. Maybe Anya put it deep inside where I can''t easily find it? After all, the closet I got is quite big that you can sleep inside here if you wanted to. Rummaging around for quite a while, I finally found the bag. It was buried under my clothes which is why I can''t see it the first glance. When I opened the bag, the dark energy accumulating inside. Even my notebooks are starting to rot due to the darkness enveloping them. Thank goodness that the bag itself is still intact or else, it might have decayed already. Still, that only shows how dangerous the Skull Knuckle is. "Sh*t, Kazuma. That is some dangerous miasma accumulating! Hurry! Burn or reduce it to atoms!" Blue suddenly chimed in after being silent for a while. "Chill out there, Blue. It''s not that severe so don''t panic." "Are you serious Kazuma? That miasma over there is a literal killer one! Just look at your things aside from the Skull Knuckle left behind unscathed. Do you see that there is none? Even the bag''s interior is about to fall apart! That means aside from the Skull Knuckle that is the source of the miasma, everything else will start to decay and corrupted!" "Can a purification spell helps in this one from dispelling this miasma?" I asked. "Do you have purification magic or anything? From what I can remember, you don''t have any kind of spells that correspond with the purification thingie." "Well, I have a spell named Sin Purifying Flames which was part of the spells I learned after I earned the inheritance from Suzaku on the trials. It might help in dispelling miasma to this degree." "This spell is unfamiliar to me. Most of the spells that come from the Inheritance of Holy Beasts are not in my database yet. If you use it, maybe I can see the result for myself and record it." "You don''t know it? I thought you are well versed on almost any magic spells." "Ancient Inheritance spells are a different form of spells. You can''t just say that I learned them without earning the favor of the beast. Even you who have the ability to most likely learn it singlehandedly would never be able to learn it unless you were given the inheritance. Outsiders will not be able to obtain the info of learning it without the acknowledgment of the Divine Beast so of course, the data would also be not in my database." "If that was the case, it might destroy the Skull Knuckle if I try to burn it alongside the bag." "Most likely impossible Kazuma. That weapon is too tainted that most magic spells would just be rendered ineffective. And from my guess, even though your spell came from a divine beast, a weapon just like the Skull Knuckle would most likely have small purification results. Destruction of that weapon is close to impossible." Chapter 125: Purification and New Mission Since Blue has already confirmed that the destruction of the Skull Knuckles is close to impossible, then there is no harm in burning the bag alongside the weapon. Touching the miasma inside it would also cause danger to the person interacting with it so it''s much better to get rid of it as soon as possible than letting it escape and cause decay to the world. "Should I burn it outside the building? From my tour to this building earlier, there was no incinerator available for us to use," I suggested. "Nah, just go to your own room and burn it in there. Since you have good control in fire magic now after countless of using them, you are more likely an expert by it unless you are a fool that instead of burning the bag, you will instead burn the whole place down to ashes." Ignoring the remarks of Blue, I put the bag down to the floor and made sure that the surroundings of the bag is it not flammable and will not catch the fire if I release it. I also prepared a pail of water in case things will get out of hand. That way, accidents are going to be minimal in case things got out of hand. Wearing the gloves, I ready my mana and my spell when Blue started speaking again. "Why are you wearing those gloves again? You can use magic without them you know?" "Does it hurt to wear them? It''s much more comfortable to use magic with them rather than without them. So don''t judge me, you have no fashion sense at all." "Your fashion sense is lame." ... After the preparation is done, I ignited the flames in my hands but I didn''t throw it straight to the bag yet. To make sure that the flames are going to be the Purifying Flames, I have to add another batch of mana and allow it to swirl around the flames and make sure that the mana will be acting as the "purifier" on the flames. But the logic here to have the Purifying Flames have a good purifying ability is, the greater amount of pureness mana has, the better the effects it can give. I can tell my mana is just subpar and cannot be really considered pure but its better than nothing. After a few seconds, the mana I inserted in the flame settled down and appeared to compliment with the flame, completing the Purifying Flames. With that done, Ithrow the flames to the bag filled with my decaying books and notebooks alongside the Skull Knuckle. FWAM! The flames engulfed the bag without much effort and burned it in seconds. It turned almost everything to ashes except the Skull Knuckle that emerged after all the flames devour all of my notes. "Are you sure that you are not regretting all the notes and books that were in there? You must have important notes in there," Blue said after everything was reduced to ashes. "What''s the point of salvaging it? You already explained tainted things that were exposed to the miasma are dangerous. What are you implying? Besides, I missed a lot of lessons while I was in the Phantasmal World and add the time I was in a coma. I have lots of catching up to do so this amount of notes wasted is nothing." When the flames dissipated, the ashes disappeared and all the miasma that was built up inside also disappeared without a single trace while the Skull Knuckle still remained unscathed. Only one thing changed on this insidious weapon. It was that the weapon has been exuding less bloodlust than before. It was like it had started to calm down after being doused with Purifying flames. "Did the Skull Knuckle got purified?" I asked while I took the Skull Knuckle from the floor and inspected it. "No. The amount of negative energy of the Skull Knuckle is still here but it just got repelled a bit causing it to emit a lesser amount of negativity around which made you think that it got purified but it''s still not yet purified. After all, your measly Purifying Flames is not enough to purify something so dreadful as this weapon," Blue answered. The Skull Knuckle returned to its former state when I purchased it before. I tried wearing it and it''s no longer as heavy to feel like before. More like it got a bit easier to use. Still, this is still going to be a dangerous tool. After all, anything it punches as long as the user has its will can destroy them immediately for a limited amount every day. ... After purifying the miasma emitted by the Skull Knuckle, during the entire night, I practiced my magic spells to make sure I didn''t get affected by my coma state before. Good thing that my abilities are still not bad and I still have a good grasp on it. I didn''t catch a single sleep but I don''t feel sleepy at all. "Of course you won''t be sleepy anymore. As you get better in magic and your mana pool is getting bigger, sleep is only for the weak. And now that you possess the Seed of Ygdrassil that has been supplying mana to you, sleeping is now just optional for you," Blue said. "So as you become stronger, sleeping will slowly become insignificant to me?" "That''s right. Magic is complicated but it also reduces things that humans usually do. If you become more than a magician and become stronger, you will no longer be counted as human. Even now, you barely qualify as a human anymore due to the magic skills you possess and how you got the dragon blood and memories inherited from the dragon child''s father that allowed you to receive it. If you add the inheritance from the divine beasts too, then you already graduated from the status of a human. "Magic is complicated huh. Well, I can say the same to the inhabitants of the world. I thought it was just us humans and other organisms living with us in this ecosystem, demons, and mythological beings are also existing." "The world of magic is wide and vast. So expect more things than what you saw since you became a magician to increase." The sun has risen and my practice is now done. Anya will be awake later so before I leave, I cook her breakfast. Later would be the operation so if possible, I want to have a little relax time before a troublesome skirmish of an unknown enemy. Going into the kitchen and opening the fridge, I found a lot of ingredients to use. It was like someone had done their shopping, well, that is fine. As long as I can cook food then that is fine. I was busy cooking when everyone started to gather around the kitchen. "Damn, that smell is making me hungry... who is in charge of cooking?" Voltaire asked as he rubbed his stomach while his eyes are still half-closed. "I don''t remember anyone being good at cooking before. Who is cooking right now?" Rena asked as she peeked inside the kitchen. "Instant noodles and pizza is the usual taste for my palate every day but I guess it won''t hurt to eat other things once in a while," Raigaki said as he rushed into the kitchen. More and more of them started to gather around the kitchen like hungry carnivores. I am just cooking a simple sunny side up alongside with some other side dishes. It''s not even that aromatic but these guys were all now flocking here. "Eh? Kazuma you know how to cook?" Yaya was surprised to see me the one holding the spatula and the frying pan''s handle. "I am just cooking for breakfast for Anya. You guys have not taken some breakfast?" I asked. "We are usually busy every day so cooking is a choir for us that we don''t usually undertake. Mind if we joined along?" Rena pushed her glasses. "Sure enough. There is plenty of food available. Please be patient guys, food is almost ready." In the end, they ended up eating up with us while I was stuck in a cooking duty which I enjoyed seeing everyone eating happily. Of course, I ate too so I am no longer hungry. Anya was quite satisfied with the food and go with Maple and the other girls to do something. After eating, Yaya started a conversation with me. "Kazuma, are you ready for later? Godou and Raigaki will accompany us later and if you are still unprepared, we can wait for you." "Don''t worry, I already prepared for it. Is there anything I have to learn about this mission of ours?" "Although it sounded simple, removing the root of the ritual''s problem has proven us to be in a hard part and currently in need of urgency. 5 girls have already been starting to show decay. If we dawdle and waste more time, she will die in two days." Chapter 126: Operation: Hellcurses "The situation is getting grave? Just how far did the ritual damage things to make this matter worse?" "To the teenagers in your generations, these rituals are fun and exploring the unknown makes their blood boil and they really are curious if the rumors of the ritual are real so if there are people who are afraid on what will happen, there are those curious babies that will try and try the ritual even it was very dangerous causing for more casualties," Voltaire said as he continues to munch on his breakfast. "What Voltaire said is true. We don''t take anything lightly if it is involved in magic and certain elements where normal people will be harmed alongside with it. If it was dangerous that it can kill ordinary people, we won''t just turn a blind eye on it. "Around what time are we going to depart?" "After breakfast. The sooner we respond to the situation, the lesser victims we will be able to save. Make sure you are well prepared." ... After serving everyone for breakfast, I returned to my room and prepared my uniform. Honestly, even though I did not wear the uniform for a few months, it was like I didn''t wear it for how many years. But I am wearing these clothes to return to school, I am wearing this so that I can investigate the rituals. This is part of the job as a magician and keeping humanity safe and unaware of the situation of the magical world. Carrying a new bag with the necessary materials I bought back then from the shop of Titan and some new notebooks and other school supplies, my gear is good to go. I also didn''t forget to bring the Skull Knuckle with me. That weapon is the only weapon I can''t allow to be left behind. This will be my trump card in case the things at school get awry. As for my companions, I already am acquainted with Titan, also known for his real name Godou since we are schoolmates. I am still perplexed in working along with Raigaki though. Even though we are both an otaku, he was more obsessive about it which makes me a bit uncomfortable at him. His alter ego is scary too, I still remember during the war, he is the only one who managed to pin down the demonic priest without relying too much on magic. In short, he is scary. "Kazuma, are you done? We are departing soon," Yaya shouted at my door. "Alright. Almost done. Wait a minute," I answered and quickly finish all of the stuff I might leave behind. Opening the door, I saw Yaya in a Sakuramiya High Uniform. She looked like she was a kouhai to me but I don''t think she is my kouhai. I think it''s the opposite instead. Of course, her teddy bear is still with her. That is her weapon so I doubt she will be parting with it. "Looks like you are done. Since you and Titan are both students of Sakuramiya High, we will infiltrate the school alongside Raigaki. Even though Raigaki is a bit of a failure in some aspects, he is a valuable asset so I don''t really need to give him up. Of course, he needs to be restrained from time to time but don''t worry about it that much," Yaya said. "Yo man, you look badass back there in the Phantasmal World ya know?" Raigaki said. "Shut up, for now, Raigaki, Silence!" Yaya flicks her fingers and a small magic circle appeared. Raigaki frowned. He started speaking but his voice cannot be heard anymore, causing him to look disappointed. "..." I am speechless and not really sure what to do about it. "Don''t dwell too much on it, Kazuma. Just ignore him for now," Yaya said. Not really sure what is going on but okay, if that is the case, then I will just pretend that nothing happened. ... When we go down the lobby of the building, Titan is already waiting for us. "We are ready to depart. The teleportation circle is ready to boot up!" Titan said. "Teleportation Circle? I didn''t see this feature yesterday." "That''s because the teleportation circle was still under construction until yesterday. Last night, the Teleportation Circle is complete and ready to allow us to travel from one place to another as long as a similar-looking Teleport Circle is also available in the vicinity of the area we are going to teleport in," Yaya explained. "Well that is convenient, we don''t need to use transportation or walk just to reach our destination. But I am not sure, is it safe?" I asked. "It is safe of course, this Teleportation Circle might look like it is dangerous but it is 100% safe. You don''t have to worry about losing your limbs while teleporting alright?" Yaya winked. I shivered when I heard her say "losing your limbs". Even if it''s a joke, I am nervous about it due to how dangerous it was to teleport while you have the largest risk of losing a leg or hand. "Hahaha, don''t worry Kazuma. It was indeed safe. We won''t be using the teleport circle if it isn''t safe. After all, we don''t want to die either by just a stupid teleportation problem," Godou said confirming that what Yaya said is real. "Alright then, let''s proceed. We don''t have to dawdle right now since the rituals are getting out of hand already," Yaya said. "!!!" since Raigaki can''t speak due to the silence magic that Yaya used to him, he can only vigorously move his body to make sure we can understand him. Of course, I don''t understand what he is saying. "Yeah, yeah, don''t worry Raigaki, I will undo the spell later, once we need your voice and opinion but after that, we will seal it again," Yaya said. "..." Raigaki looked disappointed. We stepped into the Teleportation Circle. It looks like a magic circle, only with the runic engravings that are not usually present on a normal Magic Circle. Still, it looks like it is quite large enough to even transport a truck or a bus in this magic circle. My speculation is that they can use this teleportation circle to transport bigger groups to one place and another or any vehicle to use as a back up in special events. I even guess they use the same kind of Teleportation Circle during the war outbreak on the Phantasmal Reality when they appeared altogether. "Gather, Form, Distort... Mass Teleport!" Yaya spread her arms and released strong mana fluctuations. After that, my body started to get lighter and I can feel like I was riding a speeding race car. Then... Nothing. After that sensational feeling, nothing followed. I looked around and realized that we are now in the garden of Sakuramiya High. It was inside the greenhouse of the garden. I looked below and the Teleportation Circle on the ground slowly faded and became a normal soil instead. "The Teleportation Circle is located in the greenhouse?" I asked. "Yeah. It is the best place since only a few people enter here and it was also quite desolated so it was a perfect place to hide the circle without being detected. It was also camouflaged to blend into the ground so that even if normal people accidentally entered the greenhouse, the Teleportation Circle won''t be easily seen," Godou explained. "Alright then, since we are here, then let''s commence our mission. Gather intel and find students performing the ritual. As the leader of this operation, I will call this mission OPERATION HELLCURSES!" Chapter 127: Danger Yaya explained the ritual operation so that we can familiarize ourselves with it and stop anyone performing similar methods on it. The ritual needs 5 individuals performing it. They have to bring a red string and tie it on their pinky finger as tight as possible. In the original ritual, it has to be a blood-drenched crimson red string but this time, it was a normal red string to lessen the ominous level of the ritual. The next thing is that they have to bring a black marble and clench it to your left hand. Then, they have to perform this ritual in a very desolated area that no one can disturb. If the ritual was disturbed while in the middle of the casting, everyone will start to berserk and attack anyone who disturbed them. While doing so, they have to chant the "RED, RED, RED, RED CRIMSON RED FATE, APPEAR, REWIND APPEAR, GRANT OUR WISH AND SHOW US OUR FUTURE!" while standing and holding everyone''s hands while keeping the marbles intact to their hands. Once the ritual is finished, according to the website, it will show you your future 5 years from now on. Of course, that will never happen because all the victims will instead suffer in body decay and constant blood loss even without wounds present. And according to the poll that Yaya gathered about the victims, all of them are girls. "The ritual occurs most likely with the girls due to the fact that most of the high school girls nowadays wanted to know their future boyfriends or their future jobs. But that doesn''t mean you all need to limit your search on girls only. This ritual also applies to boys so be sure to inspect some suspicious boys too. Also, if you manage to interrupt one ritual and they go berserk, don''t hesitate to knock them down. Just don''t injure them too much." "Alright. Are we going to do a pair team this time?" God asked. "I wanted to perform a 4 team search but because of the "special circumstances" present on Raigaki, it would be better to perform a pair groupings then. I will pair up with Raigaki while the two of you, will team up. We will be sending a message in the chat group if we ever find any clues or any sort of trouble," Yaya explained. "Alright then. Let''s go. Classes are about to start. Yaya and Raigaki can wander around the school without any problem. On the other hand, we have to go to class due to our status. Also, Kazuma, we have to proceed to the faculty today to report to your adviser and my adviser that we are returning to class," reminded Godou to me. "Are we going to be scolded by this?" "Nah, they will most likely believe us unless they are stubborn enough to believe what they want. If they do so, then just patiently wait for their words to sink in then let it pass on your other ear. If that doesn''t work, we can just alter his memory a bit." "I heard you, Titan, messing up someone''s mind just like that with small reason is not a good idea. Only use the mind-altering magic if it involves the magicians and normal people in conflict but as small reason as this? Don''t bother using it." "Oof, sorry about that, don''t worry, I won''t really do it so spare me with the talk alright?" Godou clasped his hands together and smiled awkwardly on Yaya. "Watch this thickhead for me will ya? He tends to be more reckless than me and doesn''t listen to reason at times. He is all muscle so be sure to restrain him from time to time." "Don''t worry about it," I nodded. We parted ways to head to our respective areas to look around. Since we have to go to the faculty, I have to rely on my mana scan to look around the school. By the way, my adviser did not get angry at me and instead gave me some good manuals for me to study so that I can catch up to the latest lesson while Godou received an earful. It looks like Godou is quite a lazy student for his teacher to reprimand him like that. After going to the faculty, I returned to my classroom. Since my existence there is quite insignificant after the mind wipe that Voltaire did during the demon invasion in Tokyo last time, the animosity from the others is gone. However, the school belle was stunned when she saw me. I didn''t forget what she actually did to me but since she was already affected by a mind wipe, she is no longer aware of it, if so, then why is she looking this way? ... The morning session was uneventful. If possible, I would be able to sleep in the entirety of the lessons and I won''t miss anything. Since the classes were quite boring, I just observe the surroundings and the fingers of my classmates. So far, there is nothing from their fingers which is good. Still, I have a bad feeling about this. It was like there is something crucial going on but nothing much is happening. In the cafeteria, I meet up with the rest of the group to report our findings. Too bad for me that I don''t think I have anything I can report to them since there isn''t any unusual to my findings. "So, does anyone of you got any info?" God asked as he munch on a melon bread. "There were no strange occurrences that happened while we are patrolling which seems quite suspicious. Still, I don''t have anything that can confirm anything is suspicious in this school," Yaya said. "There is also nothing much in my side too. It was like there was no event of that sort or whatever. I even asked some of my friends for some sort of info involving the ritual and the cases that occurred last week but for some reason, they don''t seem to hear of that news," Godou reported. "I don''t have any to report around my side. However, I find it odd that the atmosphere in my classroom seems different from the time I just entered school. The behavior of some of my classmates is weird. It was like they have completely flipped their switch and changed to a new character," I reported. "So it is not just me who felt that way?" God looked at me with a sigh in relief. "!!!" Raigaki keeps on squirming while frowning as he kept on grabbing the shirt of Yaya. "Yeah, yeah, stop tugging my shirt, you will rip it apart if you keep on doing that." Yaya snaps her fingers and allowed Raigaki to speak. I thought he will speak but he instead invokes a magic circle from his two palms and slams them both on the table. "NO ONE SHALL PASS!" BOOM! A protective barrier appeared on us similar to the barrier erected by the power of Domain of Balmung. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! I was surprised and even the others except Raigaki are also startled. The normal students earlier who was just eating with their friends are now carrying forks and monoblock chairs alongside the folding chairs used in the cafeteria. "Looks like we are too late, everyone is now under the control of a strong mage," Raigaki gritted his teeth as he looks at the red eyes of everyone. Godou grinned and slam his fist together, forming his stone hands, "Ready everyone! Looks like we are in for a tough fight this time. No holding back and knock them all out!" Chapter 128: Reason for Berserk Being surrounded by students with red eyes, holding folding chairs, and forks with the intention to hurt people are really sinister. If not for Raigaki putting down the barrier fast, we would have been easily knocked out. It was intended as a sneak attack on us since the three of us; Yaya, Godou, and I are all sitting in the three chair table while Raigaki is sitting in front of us. Seeing Raigaki as a mute, they have thought that we won''t be able to understand what was Raigaki is going to say since he has not even made any kind of sign language, communication will be tough. But it backfired when Yaya undo the spell she put on Raigaki, erecting a barrier in the last second before the assault of the berserk students hit us. Now, we are besieged by enraged students. Raigaki''s barrier is not as strong as the Domain of Balmung that can take on an extreme amount of blows from enemies since it starts to collapse after a few hits from a folding chair, forks, and fists of the students but it was clear that we can''t just stay inside the barrier forever, we have to deal with it. Before the barrier fall, I immediately activated the Mirror World. Based on the number of students attacking us, it was more like the number of students in one class in a typical classroom. This means there is a big chance the civilian''s witness this spectacle once they enter the cafereria. "Mirror World!" The surroundings started to break like the mirror immediately. "Good thinking Kazuma! I never expected I forgot to cast that earlier!" God said. "Idiot, you are just trying to rush in a fight without thinking about the witnesses. We can''t let this small scale event to cause a riot from the civilians. We can just handle this nicely!" Yaya said. "Hehe, my bad. I am just too excited." "Guys, please be ready, the barrier will collapse any second now. I will not be able to maintain it materialized!" Raigaki said. Hearing that, everyone returned to battle stance as we prepare to attack too. "Ignition!" Flames start to erupt on my fist. For faster activation of my magic, I decided to say Ignition to activate my magic skills. These flames on my fist might burn a lot to these guys but we have no choice. The energy they are releasing is the same vibe as the miasma released when I was purifying the Skull Knuckle, just that it is more bearable and less tainted than the ones being released by my weapon. Which means they are more equal to actual mages. As soon as the barrier that Raigaki erected collapsed and fell to pieces, the students immediately rush to our position, readying all of their arsenals to us. "Earth Wall!" Godou punched the ground and a wall made of earth appeared on the tiles, knocking all of the students attacking who is standing where the wall emerged. The others just dodged it and attack us with frantic energy. Even a girl who looked so delicate looking is now wielding a folding chair and swings it like a wrestler on my face. Before it can connect to my face, I blocked it using my elbow and punched her gut with enough force to knock her out without damaging her organs. BANG! When I got into the better footing, I crouched and touched the tiles to cast another spell. It was a spell I got when the inheritance of Suzaku was given to me. The berserk students were like zombies ready for the kill as they rush towards my location and swinging their weapons to me. As the right timing arrived, my hands immediately moved and applied pressure to the ground, activating a spell I already stored beforehand before activating. "Flame Shockwave!" BOOM! A circular pressure appeared on my surroundings and caused all the students rushing in for the kill knocked out. The pressure was too strong that the tiles in the cafeteria are now destroyed. I made sure they flock together so that I can clear them all in one go. My side was done with the berserk students. The others also managed to defend their ground too, which resulted in the students who berserk to end up on the floor unconscious. It was quick but it was also troublesome. If everywhere in the school is like that, innocent individuals will be in constant danger. All of the students are unconscious and injured but they are not in grave danger after we didn''t hold back to them. The dark energy that they are exuding is also gone from their body which means the thing that is affecting them has finally been removed after they were knocked out. "Check these guys out if they are wearing those red strings on their pinky fingers. Going berserk like that might be the cause of the red strings. But if that was the case, why did they go berserk? Did anyone ever did the ritual while we are still eating?" Yaya crouched and checked the pinky finger on one of the collapsed female students. There was indeed a string currently on their pinky finger but it was awfully red. Almost every one of them is too red. More similar to Crimson Thread. I am a bit curious if it was really this red or another thing so I untie the string from one of the victims and sniff its smell. I was then surprised to smell something awful. The string smelled like stagnant blood. "Guys looks like they have used the bloody crimson thread. The smell is so bad, that I can immediately tell it was stagnant blood," I said, "Crimson Thread!? Do these guys are actually trying to do the original ritual for real?!" Godou freaked out. "Looks like it. And from the looks of it, all of them are using the same kind of thread. And just like what Kazuma said, these Crimson Thread is so smelly that you will have the urge to barf. This isn''t just an imitation like what the website of the ritual says. They must have revised it again causing a phenomenon of this scale. This is so dangerous and will put the victims in more danger," Yaya said. "Can we trace off the enemy using the mana residue using this Crimson Thread? I can sense some leftover power in this crimson thread," I said and presented the Crimson Thread that I have untied earlier. "It''s plausible but it is also dangerous since some dark magic practitioners excel in using dark magic that can counter tracking magic skills. Once we use tracking magic, they can use some trickery that will harm us." This is not going well. If this continues, the rituals will just continue to manifest and gather victims more. Chapter 129: Rescue We gathered all the unconscious students around and Yaya performed a massive healing skill to everyone to make sure that we covered their injuries from the battle earlier. Raigaki also made sure they won''t remember anything and cast a mind wipe to them prior to their berserk form. That way, they won''t suspect anything about that time. They will just wonder why they are sleeping. We also put them back to the chairs and tables and we cleaned up the forks and the folding chairs away back to their rightful places. "That should do it a bit for the situation. Of course, we have to leave from this cafeteria to avoid being questioned once they awaken. Besides, we are now done with our lunch. We have to make haste and continue our search. This might not be the only case happening in this school. If it happened to us, it might happen to other students and will not be able to survive their assault if they keep on attacking just like how they do today on us," Yaya said after finishing the healing touches. "How are we going to trace the enemy if the ritual came from the internet?" I asked. "The perpetrator might be far from our location but that doesn''t mean we can''t track them in normal methods. That is why we have Raigaki here, his tracking skills are awesome," Yaya explained. When everything is done, I started to cancel the mirror world and return to reality. To think something chaotic occurred here earlier, no one would suspect it, except that they would wonder why so many students started sleeping in the cafeteria instead of eating. ... Due to the situation that occurred to us during lunch, Yaya decided to instead team up together instead of splitting up our group. It''s more dangerous if they ganged us up while we are split up. Besides, my ability to Mana Scan can help us see the surroundings much better.Still, it was quite troublesome for us to continue searching without any kind of lead. It has a bizarre sort of trouble that this ritual does. Not only the victims suffer, but even those who are not involved can also be in a big sort of trouble if they encounter anyone who is performing the ritual. "When did this thing started to get popular? If this was too dangerous and many people fell victim, why is this still raging on? No-one stopped this?" I looked at Yaya, demanding some explanation. "After we finished reclaiming the Phantasmal Reality from the hands of the demons and returned to the real world, the magicians stationed in schools and investigating recent supernatural phenomenons have encountered this ritual wrecking havoc in students and asked the Ritual Decoding team to check and find out what this ritual''s true nature. Turns out it was a Dark Magic Ritual causing great concerns of the safety to all the students wanted to try this ritual out which resulted in the request to take down the source of the ritual and destroy all sorts of connections it has right now," Yaya explained. "Then does that mean that this is a widescale operation?" "Of course Kazuma. We can''t just handle this mission alone due to its nature to occur in different places, we are divided into many teams and I decided to take the three of you in this mission. I also wanted to invite Moonlight to our team too but due to her father''s passing, we passed on inviting her so that she can mourn for him." "That is expected. But to think this mission is a large scale mission, I assume that the headquarters are also investigating this matter?" God asked. "I don''t know the details but they have deployed two Zodiac holders to help deal with this situation. Which means the situation is too dire. Besides, Dark Magic cannot be underestimated at all. Even the strongest magicians might fall victim from the cunning methods of dark magic." If I remember right, the demons are able to use dark magic which is why the magicians are also in equal terms of power to the higher-ups of the demon species. As we continue to walk around the school, we heard someone scream nearby our location. "That voice... is that the school belle?" God frowned. "Dumbass! Don''t just dawdle in there! Let''s go!" Yaya shouted and rushed towards the location of the voice. I also followed her behind. "Wait for me! What the hell!" There was a small forest behind the Sakuramiya High main building and some students usually hang up in here to do some "miracle" But this time, it is another business. When we reach the location, I saw six girls with blood-red eyes, demonic aura, and dangerous feel from them. Also, I saw the school belle on the ground being strangled by three girls. "Kuma-san! Attack those girls!" Yaya shouted as she throws the teddy bear into the air. The teddy bear grows bigger into the size of a normal human and grabs the three girls strangling the school belle. The other girls who are just snarling like wild animals howled and attack the teddy bear named Kuma in a frenzy. While Kuma and the girls are all getting into an intense and dangerous fight, I drag the school belle to the nearby tree to allow her to recover her breathing after being strangled by the girls. "Kuhak... hack! Ah... it''s you..." she muttered as she keeps on coughing badly. "Save your breath for now. Don''t worry, you are safe now, " I said. Aside from the red mark on her neck due to the strangling, there are also some wounds from her arms and face which might be due to her trying to fight back. I have to wait for Yaya to finish the battle so that we can heal her. To avoid the berserk girls from attacking her, I cast the Domain of Balmung concentrated on her. I also summon out Yuri and Yuto out to guard her well being. "Master, it has been a while! Are we going to battle again?" Yuto asked as he looked at the girls in the distance fighting Kuma and at the school belle trying to recover her breathing pattern right. "Brother, I know that there are lots of girls here but please be sure to hold out your urge to bang them. Master might reprimand you for it," Yuri said. "You don''t trust me enough sister? Although I am an incubus, I am not interested in real girls! After all, my waifus are much better," Yuto grinned like how I grin whenever something nice happened. "We won''t be fighting for now but I guess for later, we will do so if it escalates. For now, just guard her away from the girls fighting that teddy bear. They are the immediate concern and they might kill her if we left her unguarded. Of course, just knock those girls out in case they are trying to attack her, we can''t injure them too much after all." "Yes Master, I will also make sure my brother behaves," Yuri nodded. "Sister?! You really don''t trust your brother, are you? I am hurt you know?" Chapter 130: Surprise Attack Kuma and the berserk girls are raging their battles. Despite these girls'' lacks the experience in fighting based on their flimsy moves, that didn''t stop them from attacking Kuma and keeping the teddy bear busy. Raigaki helped along in keeping the girls at bay while protecting Yaya as the latter has to supply mana to Kuma to continue moving. "These girls are much tougher than the guys we defeated earlier!" Raigaki frowned. "I am just assuming it but these girls are much tougher to deal with due to their ritual. From what I can see, they have already managed to continue the ritual for a few minutes already before they were interrupted by that girl they strangle earlier which is the cause of why they are stronger than those guys before. The ones we beat up are clearly the people who barely managed to start the ritual and got interrupted which is why the powers they are possessing are not as strong as this one," Yaya analyzed. Still, despite the strong power that made these girls stronger, Kuma who was being supplied with Mana by a seasoned magician is no match for them. After a few more minutes of channeling mana to Kuma, they managed to overpower the girls and kept them in the bay. As soon as they were held back, Raigaki and Godou rush in for the kill although they are not going to really kill. PA!PA!PA!PA!PA! One by one, the girls fell to the ground with their eyes dilated. Sure enough, they were knocked out from their berserk state. Also, they seemed to have regained color. "Alright. These girls are now good to go. They won''t be troubling anyone much anymore," Yaya sighed in relief. "Let''s remove the crimson threads from their fingers first. That way, the effects from those threads will disappear from them, allowing them to stop going to berserk state," Godou said. "Go do that, I will tend to the girl first," Yaya said. "Alright." ... Seeing the three working together, I decided to just stay put from the battle and just wait together with Yuri and Yuto. Although this school belle has a very bad reputation on me due to what she did last time, I am not the person who keeps a grudge forever, after all, bearing grudge will be your downfall in the future. The school belle is still pale but she is now recovering. I didn''t worry about her knowing the magic skills we just used. With the mind wipe skills, we can just wipe the memory they have about the magic and the ritual. But that will depend on Yaya and the others if they agree to delete her memories during this situation. I saw Yaya coming after dealing with the girls while carrying Kuma. She looks a little bit pale but just a little which might be the result after supplying mana to Kuma for the duration of the battle. "Is she okay now Kazuma?" Yaya asked and pointed at the school belle. "She is hanging in there but I don''t know if she is fine after she was strangled. I don''t have any healing magic so you can do the honor of healing her." "That must be a really close call for her, if we are a few minutes late, she might have died from that.But since she is fine, then we can sigh in relief" Yaya cast a light healing spell to her and the redness on her neck slowly disappears. The wounds she also gained after fighting back from the girls are also healing rapidly. "Ah? What is happening?" She frowned when she saw all of her wounds are healing rapidly. "Stay still. You need to be perfectly still before you can properly move around to avoid getting further injuries from your body," Yaya said as she continues healing her. "...Alright..." although she was visibly confused, she decided to relax like what Yaya said. It didn''t take too much time for her wounds to fully disappear. Her breathing also returned to normal and she is now in good shape. "Just what is that? How did my wounds got healed like nothing? Is that sorcery?" she looked at Yaya with a confused look. "Doesn''t really matter what you call that, the important thing is that you managed to survive and you got lucky. Just how did you get involved in that situation anyway?" Yaya asked. Of course, the school belle looked confused. "Uh... Yaya-san, you can explain the situation first before asking questions. She is visibly confused by what you are saying." "Ugh... Do I have to explain? I suck at explaining things, but oh well, I will just have to do well on this one." ... It took us 5 minutes of our time before Yaya managed to finish the summary of what is happening. She kept it too precise that the events were all shortened to a certain amount of words to fit everything into a few sentences.The school belle is either confused or totally bewildered on what Yaya is saying so she was just nodding and nodding even though she is visibly not able to understand anything from her words. "Is there a point saying those to her?" I whispered on Godou. "Not really but if we managed to get cooperation with someone who has gotten some clue from these events, then it will be worth it. Besides, it''s the school belle, don''t you want to get the attention of her?" "You seemed to have forgotten that I had bad blood with her. Did you already forget the rumors last time that involved me?" "Hmmm, I am not really updated to the gossips last time so I think I might have forgotten it or did not just hear that rumor. Anyways, if you have some sort of bad circumstances with her, then I will not pry much then." After a few minutes of conversation, Yaya helped the school belle stand up. "We have to send these collapsed girls into the infirmary. Luckily, Erina''s mother is currently on duty right now. We can just have Erina heal them properly since my healing magic is just a half-assed one. Let''s leave that job to the expert," Yaya said. "How do we carry these girls to the infirmary? Just so you know, I don''t have much strength to carry a single one of them," Raigaki said. "Don''t worry, I heard from the report of Voltaire during the last invasion here in Tokyo that Kazuma and his familiar can teleport, which means it is fine for us to teleport directly into the infirmary without moving. You can do that right, Kazuma?" Yaya looked at me, waiting for confirmation. "Yeah. But it all depends if my familiar can do it right now. I don''t want to force him to do it if he didn''t want to," I said. "Don''t worry Master! As long as you supply me sufficient mana, I can transport us anywhere that we already have stepped into. So if you want to teleport to the infirmary, I can do it without problem as long as you keep the mana line intact to me, Master," Yuto said. "If that is the case, then let''s do it," I nodded and agreed to Yaya''s suggestion. "Wait, before we go, I have to make sure no one is in the infirmary for now," Yaya said and pulls out a paper crane origami and put it on her palm. "Om, Sochiriya Sowaka," she whispered and blows it to the origami. When her breathe hit the origami, it sprang up to life and started to fly like it was operated with the machine. "Wow! Is that what you call magic?" the school belle asked. "Yes. It is one of the magic skills I can do." I am carefully observing the origami paper crane when all of a sudden, a fast object flew by, destroying the paper crane as it passes by to it. Yaya winced in pain and covered her left eye. "Yaya!" Raigaki immediately moved beside Yaya and supported her as she held her eyes bleeding. "What is going on?" the school belle was stunned to see Yaya who was just beside her a second ago fall and with a wound on her eye. "F*ck! Looks like the enemy has already detected our meddling to his plans! He targeted the second eye of Yaya and made sure to connect the injury of the shikigami to her! Everyone! Get ready to fight! If my intuition is right, he will send us some "gifts" to execute us! Protect Yaya! Kazuma! Channel the teleportation process! We will be going to the infirmary, whether there is someone else in there or none at all!" Godou commanded as he released his stone hands, which is now another variant due to the menacing spikes now present on his fists. Chapter 131: Fatality Due to the urgency of the situation, I quickly channeled my mana to Yuto so that he can immediately activate the teleportation circle. "Look out guys! Projectiles incoming!" Yuri shouted as she detected several arrow-like beams heading in our location. "Focus on channeling Kazuma! I will take care of this!" Raigaki ordered. "Okay!" After my confirmation, Raigaki slams his palms to the ground and channeled his mana straight to the ground. "NO ONE SHALL PASS!" The same barrier that appeared before in the cafeteria covered our surroundings. However, when the arrow-like beams hit the barrier, it immediately shows some cracks and Raigaki puked out blood when the barrier showed a crack. "Hurry up Kazuma! Don''t distract yourself! The longer we stay here, the more the enemy will send us more of those attacks!" Godou shouted. "I am doing the best I can so please hang in there!" Yes, I am doing the maximum output I can do to transfer the mana to Yuto but it is not really fast and reliable. It takes a lot of time just to charge it up to maximum capacity and if I try to rush it, there might be some sort of consequences and might mess up the process of teleporting everyone of us to the infirmary. I can''t mess it up. Then, Inari''s voice echoes inside my head. "Master, if you want to deploy a protection barrier, I can use my protection barrier in the meantime. Although it can''t compete against the Domain of Balmung, it is much superior in hardness compared to the barrier your comrade is using." "Can you do it?" "Of course! I am a deity so erecting a barrier is a simple matter to me!" "Then please do. The enemy is strong this time and Raigaki is not specialized in barrier making and it will eventually fall if he remained as the one tanking all of those attacks!" "Then leave it to me master," Inari said and she was summoned out after she agreed. "HOLY BARRIER!" A gold flower-shaped barrier appeared on our surroundings, covering even the barrier erected by Raigaki. The arrow-like beams didn''t stop though and continue to rain down on us. But thankfully, the barrier managed to hold on. However, I didn''t expect that the damage piercing attack that Raigaki experienced will also be applied to Inari. "GHHH!" Inari bit her lip to avoid screaming. Godou quickly supported her as she was about to fall. "Thank you, but I am fine, these arrows can transfer damage from the barrier to the user so it will be really troublesome to deal with but since I am a deity, defeating me using these arrow beams is not enough to bring me down." While listening, Yuto finally stopped his focus and opened his eyes after receiving the channeled mana. "Master, the teleportation circle is ready! We can now go anytime!" "Activate it immediately!" I commanded. "Roger!" Yuto immediately slams the ground from where he was standing and released the stored mana in his palm. The stored mana flowed out and formed into the teleportation circle similar to the one we used earlier. It started spinning and in a few seconds, it started to glow. "MASS TELEPORT!" Fwoooooooo BOOM! The teleportation was instantaneous and in a split second, we teleported into the infirmary. Otome is already waiting for us and currently closed the infirmary for now. "Looks like I am right when you guys are coming," Otome calmly said and helped Yaya who was still holding her bleeding eye. "Can you heal her wound?" Raigaki asked. Otome claps her hands and Otome lost consciousness. This was the first time I saw Otome perform healing magic since, during the time I am being healed, I am unconscious, and during the reclamation of the Phantasmal Reality, Otome is in the backlines providing healing and support to everyone. Raigaki lay Yaya on the bed and Otome snaps her fingers which causes for the appearance of a small ball of light to hover above Otome''s shoulders. She examines the bleeding eyes of Yaya and cast a little bit of magic that I have no idea what it''s purpose. The only thing I saw during the examination is the appearance of the small magic circle spinning above the eye of Yaya. I clearly saw it due to the ball of light that Otome used illuminated her eye. It took a few minutes before Otome sighed and shook her head. "Yaya''s injury is too deep and even though it was not a direct attack but an attack that was directly transferred from a shikigami, the tissues on her injured eye are no longer viable to be healed. Not all wounds can be healed by healing magic and her wound is included in those cases. "Is there no other way? I also got hit by the arrow but not in the eyes, I was hit in my body but I am still fine." "The eyes are too vulnerable and if the eyes are damaged too much due to accidents and magic and were not healed immediately, it will result in blindness. Yaya''s case is unique. It might be bleeding but the tissues in her eyes are already patched up and cannot be repaired back to normal. It was like it got forced to attach to its tissues in the wrong directions. Healing her eyes is no longer possible." "It got attached to wrong directions?" I frowned when I heard her term. "Yeah. They were like they got stitched forcefully and was healed by magic after that. The reason it was still bleeding is that one of the nerves that got damaged was left out open and will constantly release blood. I already healed it but that''s it. I can''t repair her eye back to normal. She will be blind for the rest of her life unless she uses a transplant or uses the Elixir of Repair that only got concocted once every 100 years due to the scarcity of the ingredients," Otome explained. Raigaki shook his head and stormed out of the room. "Hey! Raigaki! Where are you going?!" Godou followed Raigaki. I recalled my familiars before going following the two of them. But before that, I made sure to bid farewell to Otome. "I am sorry that we will be leaving you alone with these unconscious girls alongside with taking care of Yaya-san," I said before bowing, "No worries Kazuma. Those guys are both troublesome so make sure to look out for them for mischief alright? An additional patient is another work for me, so please make sure to lessen the new patients? Hm?" "I''ll keep that in mind." "I am going to beat up the bastard that did this injury to Yaya, I will not forgive him for this!" "Bullshit man! That is a suicidal attempt! You already know that even his arrow-beam attacks are too much to handle and you are going to charge to attack that guy!? You are out of your mind already. Doing it solo will kill you!" "If you want to stop me, then come with me and help me beat up that guy then." "...Oh, alright. I am coming along," Godou grinned when Raigaki said it. "Damn it, Godou. Stop being a warmonger will ya? That barely helps," I sighed. "Whatever Kazuma, as long as there is a battle, I will be there, remember that." As we are about to depart, the door opened and the school belle appeared alongside with the teddy bear that Yaya is holding, Kuma. "Um...the teddy bear wanted to come along with you guys. It keeps on tugging my shirt earlier and keeps on pointing on the door." Kuma? It is still moving without the master''s control?! "I see that you are surprised Kazuma. Kuma is not just a teddy bear. Kuma is actually Yaya''s familiar. Even though Kuma is meant to be a normal teddy bear, it became one after one of Yaya''s experiments was accidentally flawed causing for Kuma to be born. And if you are wondering if Kuma needs mana to fight, it''s not actually necessary. Yaya just supplies Kuma some mana so that Kuma''s attacks are stronger than usual that is why he can fight without restraint," Raigaki explained. "But if Kuma is going to come with us, isn''t that going to be bad? I mean, Kuma''s strengthened body comes from the magic skills that Yaya supplies to Kuma. If Yaya is unconscious, Kuma will be ripped apart!" Godou said. Kuma started moving and punching in the air which signifies that it is ready to fight to the death. It might be a teddy bear but it was clear that Kuma can think independently even without Yaya''s control. I look at the school belle and frowned. Is she going to come with us? "Are you coming with us?" I asked. "A-ah? N-no. I am a normal person and fighting is out of the question. I am going to recuperate in the infirmary instead," she said before going back inside. Well, looks like it is time for us to face another enemy. To think that I will be fighting again after waking up from a coma. Chapter 132: Tracking Lunchtime already concluded and most students are in their free time around the campus, hanging out with their friends or do miscellaneous things that they can get themselves busy. I don''t know what happened after the incident in the cafeteria but I hope it is not as bad as we think. Now that I think about it, finding the perpetrator who blinded Yaya is not going to be easy. Since he was nowhere to be found even when I activated my Mana Scan around, it must mean he was far from the area of my Mana Scan range or he is using some sort of magic skill that would allow him to hide his presence from the Mana Scan coverage. And what made him harder is the long-range attacks that can also cause trouble to protection magic users like me who can erect a barrier immediately. His attacks can transfer damage from the barrier to the user who erected the barrier, making him one of the hella dangerous individuals to face. What makes him harder to face is that we have no idea who it was and how old this guy is. He or she might be younger than us, the same age to us or older, everything about this guy is unknown. What is worse than that is that he or she might have already blended along with the student body and the unsuspecting students we might meet might be the perpetrator. "Kazuma, don''t forget that humans and magicians have different fluctuations of mana in their bodies, so if we are going to find someone like the suspect who has no known info, mana fluctuations are the only way," Blue suggested. "If that was the case, he might have already covered it with some sort of spell, equipment, or magic skill." "Mana Fluctuations in the body cannot be covered or hidden by any spell, items, or any kind of magecraft you use. Your presence might be covered but hiding the mana fluctuations is not possible and that never changed even during the time where the magic users are the strongest beings on the planet. So that will be your only shot on finding this person." I mentally take note of that and continue to follow Raigaki and Godou. Silently activating the ManaScan and keeping it running in my vision is nothing much for me. That way, I can immediately spot this person if I spot someone with different fluctuations in his or her body. "Hey, Kazuma? Do you have any clue who this person we are dealing with? You have seen those arrow-like beams fired at us earlier, maybe those attacks are familiar to you?" Godou asked. "That is a useless question to ask me. You know that I have barely seen any magicians except you guys in the chat group. All of our encounters lately are demons and monsters so I have no idea whose attacks are similar to that guy," I answered. "Well, you have a point in there. But is there any other way for us to find him?" I was about to relay the message on Godou when Blue once again started to speak in my mind. "I would refrain from doing that if I were you." "Why? That way, we can immediately spot the enemy easily," I said. "Remember that the enemy is someone you don''t know? What if he or she is listening? The perpetrator won''t bother to stay near you guys if he or she still values his or her life unless its some suicidal bastard after hearing the method you use to track him or her. Once in a while, it is much better to conceal some information to guarantee the success of the operation and also to avoid mishaps and keep a backup plan in case things get awry," Blue explained. "Your method is sly but it is a smart move. You have a point on that." "Of course. Being someone older than you, experience, and knowledge are the ones I can easily impart to the younger generations. That way, mistakes will get lesser and lesser as the day goes by." Raigaki just keeps himself quiet the entire time. He carried Kuma to avoid the students from finding out that Kuma can move without any mechanisms. He was calm and collected but I can feel that he is ready to assault anyone who will be proven as the enemy. His berserker side must have been ready to break out anytime which is bad since Yaya is not with us who can calm Raigaki easily. The campus ground is now full of students walking around the place. I might have been calm inside but I am already having tensions while scanning every single student we passed by. As we continue to venture further around the campus, a very strong reaction suddenly appeared and not just a normal reaction, it was much stronger than Godou and Raigaki''s mana fluctuations. When I disabled my Mana Scan to see who is the one who emitted the mana fluctuations, I saw a little boy who seemed to be from a wealthy family walked by alongside two housemaids. He looked into my direction and grinned like crazy. And before I realized everything, he released a mental attack straight to my direction without any sort of warning. "Mental Reflector!" The voice of Inari echo in my mind and the mental attack that the boy released was immediately deflected and it disappeared. When that occurred, the boy looked at me in surprise but he grinned and shook his head before leaving. "Is that the enemy?!" I frowned and grit my teeth. I felt that a strong mental attack that got reflected by Inari''s spell. "Master, you always need to be careful. If I didn''t manage to block the incoming damage from his mental attack, your brain might have been toasted to crisp." I paled when Inari said that. I might have died on the spot if she didn''t save me from that. That was dangerous! "Thanks for the save Inari-sama, you saved me there." "Just be careful next time. I can''t always be beside you all the time and protect like this so it is much better if you can protect yourself from those kinds of danger." "I will keep that in mind, thanks for the reminder." Godou and Raigaki seem to have not noticed the ruckus that kid give to me, but still, this is worrisome, is he the perpetrator? But he is just a child! "That kid is indeed a suspect but based on the readings, he seems to have a different kind of magic power to unleash. The arrow-like beams earlier don''t give off the vibe from him. Either he was the main perpetrator, connected to the real perpetrator, accomplice, or just a random kid who knows magic and tried to provoke you, it was either of those things." "Should I tell Godou and Raigaki to the situation and how I found a suspect?" "Keep it to yourself. We don''t want chaos to ensue, especially Raigaki seems to be rather willing to beat up anyone he locked his eyes upon but be sure to keep an eye of any mental attack, if that kid will do it again, you can take an action immediately." "Will it help to be secretive? I mean, we are looking for the culprit and anyone is a suspect. Finding the suspect right now by confronting anyone who is a suspect is much better." "Based on the behavior of the enemy especially the way he releases the attacks to you guys without even showing his face to you guys is enough proof that he either wanted to keep himself unknown to you guys so if you tried to do the elimination method to the suspects, before that guy gets discovered by you three, he will escape and I am quite sure of that." Just when I was about to close my Mana Scan, a huge amount of dark mana, similar to the mana I detected earlier. I can''t be wrong this time around, it is the culprit! Without waiting for Godou and Raigaki to move, I followed the dark aura''s location. I can''t let the perpetrator just run away and escape our grasp! Chapter 133: Stopping Raigaki "Hey, Kazuma?! Where are you going?!" Godou shouted as he also followed suit. I don''t have time to answer him back as I focused on the strong mana fluctuation. If I got distracted a little bit, I might lose sight of it. "Kazuma, be sure to ready your defensive abilities anytime. We can''t afford to get wrecked by the culprit from his arrows. It would be a piece of real bad news." "Roger that." The source of the mana is moving away so that means the culprit is currently walking and not in a fixed place, which will make things more complicated and hard. Despite that, I didn''t stop and continue tracking the trail of the culprit. "Wait a little bit man! Slow down!" Godou shouted as he continues to follow my trails. The campus is quite large so I have to make a good eye of the traces of the dark mana. Apprehending the wrong person is not good. As I made a turn on an alley, the same arrow that hit the shikigami of Yaya appeared in a blink of an eye trying to hit me and the others. But since Blue has allowed me to keep calm and keep myself aware of my surroundings, I immediately released a fireball to the arrow, countering it. Since it is not a barrier, the ability of the arrow to hurt the blocker was not activated however it was a very risky move. I even sweat a lot after the attack because I am not sure if the fireball will hit and not just penetrate itself to the magic. That arrow is not the only one and 5 more swift arrows rushing towards us after the first one was disintegrated appeared. Without flinching in surprise, I released another barrage of flames as I continue to throw it to the arrows. It needed timing but keeping myself calm in the situation allowed me to destroy it with ease without leaking even one arrow out of my sight. "The enemy!" Raigaki''s bloodlust immediately surged forth when he noticed the arrows. "Chill out man! Don''t just randomly release your bloodlust! You will hurt others if you do it like that!" Godou said, trying to calm Raigaki down. "Shut up!" Raigaki flipped and rush head-on towards the arrows. "F*CK! Raigaki is now out of control! Can you stop him Kazuma?!" Godou is now panicking. I tried to stop him by using a few magic skills on the surroundings to slow him down but it is futile. He is now out of control and currently under the influence of berserk. "Hey, looks like environmental interference doesn''t work to stop him, should I use direct magic instead?" "Whatever means possible Kazuma, as long as it doesn''t kill him, then it is alright to do so! I give you permission to do that!" Since Godou gave permission, without thinking twice, I immediately used one of the magic skills that I inherited from Byakko, the white tiger. "Paralyze!" ZAP! It was a kind of very quick magic that magic circle did not materialize before the skill took effect. Raigaki who was just rushing forward stiffened and froze to his spot. "Got him!" I shouted. Even when paralyzed, Raigaki did not release Kuma from his embrace and grit his teeth. "Don''t stop me from beating up that bastard! [REFRESH]!" Without warning, Raigaki stood up once again and he managed to break free from the Paralyze effect. "Damn! I can''t believe I forgot that Raigaki has the [Refresh] magic!Sh*t! We are back to square one!" I have a slight idea what [Refresh] is but I have to make sure what it was. "I know what you are thinking Kazuma. [Refresh] is a skill that allows the user to clear all kinds of status effects like poison and paralysis. It can be used for any targets, including the user itself. It can also be used even if some magician or demon managed to cast a silence to the user which is why this magic skill is a necessity for magicians to solve status effects immediately. If I were you, you should also learn it too." "Then I will keep that in mind for later. First, we have to stop Raigaki first." There are still arrows arriving but Raigaki just brushes them off like nothing. Of course, that is not really the case since Raigaki''s arms are now bleeding. It is obviously not a good sign but he is still not stopping and just proceed to tank all the arrow beams without care about himself. I can tell that we are nearing the area where the mana fluctuation is coming from and just as we are about to reach the area, the whole place started to crack. "Mirror World?!" I was surprised by the sudden activation of Mirror World. We usually activate the Mirror World instead of another person. It''s either me or another magician in my side but this would be the first time another magician from another faction activate it. If that is activated, the enemy will surely be planning to attack without any holding back of their powers since the Mirror World can hide everything away from the eyes of the normal people, and every damage you made from the battle will not be reflected the real world, saving you from damage repair bills. "Heh, they made everything easier!" Raigaki grinned maniacally and released Kuma from his embrace. Kuma stood up after Raigaki released the little bear from his embrace. And before I knew it, Kuma started to get bigger and menacing just like before. "Holy sh*t man, I don''t know what to do anymore. Yaya is nowhere to restrain this guy and now we are going to deal with him! All I can do is beat him up but even now, I can''t overpower Raigaki in terms of raw power! Can''t you do something about it Kazuma? You have versatile powers of the different magic element, maybe you have something up in your sleeve!" Godou is panicking. "Don''t rely on me who is a newbie in magic! What do you expect of me, some overpowered individual?! I can''t even control half of my magic spells yet and you expect me to stop Raigaki? Dude, I am not yet ready to die!" We don''t want to deal with Raigaki head-on. I already see Raigaki fight and it was dangerous. If I fight against him, he would immediately squash me to death that is why this is not going to easy. If even Godou who is a senior of me in magic is not courageous enough to fight against Raigaki, what about me then? Raigaki and Kuma went out ahead as they burst into the air and head straight to the source of the mana fluctuations. "Let''s hurry, we can''t afford for Raigaki to be rash this time," I said and activated the flames in my Blazing Shoes to enhance my speed. "Agh... that is why I hate to do missions involving Raigaki!" ... On the other hand, Yaya is still suffering from the pain in her eyes. She never expected to be caught off guard from the attack as it was kind of unexpected. Since her vision is impaired, she has to rely on her Mana Sense, an inferior version of Mana Scan to see. She can sense Otome and the school belle who is currently recuperating beside her bed. She tried to stand up but her body suddenly felt painful that getting up from the bed is not going to be a painless movement. "Don''t be reckless, Yaya. The dark magic that inflicted your vision is a strong one and it causes people who got injured by it to suffer excruciating pain. It can disappear a few more days of rest though so there is no need to worry," Otome said. "What about Raigaki and the others? Where are they?" "From what I heard from their argument earlier, they are going to track down the enemy that damaged your eyes. It won''t be good if the perpetrator managed to get away after hurting you right?" "Then what about Kuma? The teddy bear I am holding earlier, where is it? Why can''t I see it around even when I use my Mana Sense?" "Kuma? Oh, that teddy bear. So that is Kuma. Currently, that teddy bear of yours is tagging along with Raigaki and the others to hunt the enemy. I even thought that you are the one controlling it." "Huh? But I did not control him, let alone insert the mana cube that I use to let Kuma move!" Yaya said and pulls out the mana cube in her pocket. "What?! Then what is making that teddy bear of yours move by its own if the core it is using is currently unsocketed from the body of the teddy bear?!" Chapter 134: The Curses and the Black Taboo Part 1 The Mirror World that was activated is different from the Mirror World I usually activate. If my Mirror World only alters the surroundings, blocking everything that is happening from the real world, this Mirror World has another perk that I didn''t like. It occasionally shifts its surroundings and changes the structures. It was quite a troublesome thing since the school campus ground I am familiar with has now turned into a labyrinth. The good thing is that due to my Mana Scan and Godou''s good sense of direction, we didn''t get lost and we even managed to create a shortcut to reach the location of the enemy. We finally arrived on the location which is the field where the track and field club is using and this time around, its no longer warping and changing the structures on the surroundings and it retains the whole area''s original look. But you can still tell that you are in the Mirror World since aside from the field, the whole surroundings are messed up, buildings warped and placed horizontal with another building, making a labyrinth that will lose cause you to lose your way if you are not careful. Raigaki and Kuma are also in there fighting a few entities that looked like purple sludges. "Looks like we hit the jackpot Kazuma, seeing those Curses, I am now sure this enemy is the one we are looking for," Godou said and morphed his arms into rock blades. "Curses? You mean those purple sludges?" "Yes. They are entities born from negative energies and they can cause different kinds of troubles that can endanger lives hence they are categorized as Curses. Yaya is right to bring you along Kazuma, the Curses are weak against flames." So those are the things Yaya and Godou called Curses. To be honest, I am thought they would look like little cretins like goblins and nightcrawlers as the manifestation of curses but slimes? I am a little bit disappointed, to be honest. "Let''s clear them up quickly. Can''t afford to stay here any longer than now," I said before snapping my fingers, igniting them to flames. "Don''t forget to gather those orbs dropped when you kill a Curse, Kazuma. They are valuable and can be used as a form of currency in some stores. It has similar uses with the demon shards," Blue said to me. "Noted." If these Curses are being controlled by the enemy, then we should be clearing it as soon as possible before the enemy can exploit and use it against us. ... Not too far from the location of Kazuma and the others, a big black ball of dark energy is currently hovering up above the sky, observing the people who just arrive on the scene. No one can see what is inside the ball of dark energy as it was all black. Despite being a conspicuous thing floating above the sky, Kazuma and the others did not notice the ball at all. As it was floating above the sky, someone suddenly appeared as someone has just dropped in that place. Just like the ball, the individual is floating. A person who was wearing a black robe which can be identified as the black robe usually used by high ranking magicians. "Master, those people that you have been keeping an eye for has finally arrived. Should I release the " thing" out already? They can be eliminated immediately," the person wearing the robe asked. The voice of the person cannot be distinguished between a man and a woman due to how it has a monotone style of speech and the voice itself is hard to distinguish. The black ball shook a little bit before the voice of a male emerged from it which feels like it came from the deepest part of the world. "No, just hold it a little bit. Releasing that "thing" so early will wipe us out of enjoyment. Let''s keep it for now. Of course, we can release it but just be patient, I will be giving the signal to release the abomination out when the time is right. Now get out of my sight and continue to observe them." "As you wish, Master," the hooded person bowed down before once again, disappearing in a blink of an eye. How fast she arrived, it is also how fast she disappeared. The black ball continues to hover in the sky without moving. If Kazuma ever witnessed the black ball, he would immediately feel the aura released by the thing is comparable to the malicious and dark energy present inside the G.A.T.E.S. ... The slimes were indeed weak against the flames. The moment the flames come in contact with the slimes, they immediately melted and dissipates in the air. After defeating one, a marble looking orb will drop to the ground and will vary in different colors. If any people see these, they will immediately mistake it as giant marbles. I brought the Mimic as a bracelet this time around and used him as the dimension storage for the cores of the Curses. Still, that doesn''t mean that we are having a harvest. Godou, Raigaki, and Kuma are able to kill most of the Curses but since they are not using Flame Magic, their progress in killing is slower than mine. But it''s not just that the problem, the more we kill the Curses blocking our way, the more Curses appear to block us. "I am not sure whether the Curses are getting thinner or they are multiplying. I don''t see an end of sight from them!" I complained. "You are right. I faced Curses before but this is the first time I have encountered lots of them in one place. These Curses are different from usual!" Godou frowned before smashing the nearest Curses. "Die! Die! Die! Die!" Raigaki is rampaging to the cluster of Curses by ripping them out one by one using his shadow claws. He looks scary by just doing it and his image became more menacing as the liquid coming from the Curses splatters to his clothes and skin. "Holy sh*t man, Yaya would be pissed to the bone if she knows that Raigaki is now doing some rampage sessions..." Godou muttered as he continues to pound and slice the Curses with his rock hand and rock sword. "So that is the reason why Raigaki is always muted in the chat and being restrained in real life? I didn''t really understand the reason for those actions though," I said. "Raigaki''s ability is unrestrained in real life so he has to be controlled by someone who is capable of doing so which falls the responsibility to Yaya who is capable of doing so. As for the chats, his rash mouth might trigger the ability of Raigaki while chatting so he is usually muted." "Even in chats? Did someone already experienced that happening before?" I asked. "Of course. We didn''t know that at first but during the last time he entered the Phantasmal Reality, he managed to destroy a part of the forest and killed all the inhabitants there. It was due to a certain joke that caused him to get too pissed. That is why we usually mute him to restrain him properly especially if his playfulness behavior starts to show in the chat." Chapter 135: The Curses and the Black Taboo Part 2 Raigaki''s power is unmeasurable in normal means that is why he is always being sealed. If Raigaki''s power is slowly released, he will be a danger. "Right now, Raigaki is still under the seal. According to Yaya, she has to put 20 seals on Raigaki''s body to fully contain his power. Of course, his power is so immense that containing them all is impossible which is why he can still use magic. So if he managed to break all seals, he will destroy everything." Just from listening to Godou''s explanation, I can tell that Raigaki is a hidden time bomb ready to explode once his fuse is burnt out. I have seen Raigaki''s ability when Yaya released one seal during the battle inside the Phantasmal Reality. What about if he got released from it? "Wait, if he can destroy almost everything if he is unrestrained, how did he get his seals in the first place?" I asked. "Unfortunately, I have no idea Kazuma. Yaya said it was a secret she can''t say and no matter how hard we try to press on how it happened, Yaya won''t reveal it at all." I am getting more curious about Raigaki''s past right now. However, I have no time to think too much in there. I still have to beat up those Curses to ashes. Curses seem to be endless at first but after a continuous battle against these monsters, I slowly find out they are not many at all. They are just fast at multiplying so to stop them from doing so, I made wide attacks of flames on them, burning them in groups, causing their multiplying process to slow down a lot. It didn''t take me too long before I manage to clear them all out with the help of Raigaki, Kuma, and Godou. The cores are plenty and I benefit a lot from it as I managed to grasp my control in using magic that costs a lot of mana and covers a wide area. "Good job everyone. However, we still can''t let our guard down! The enemy who summoned and used the Curses is still here! We still have to find the enemy who caused all the mess!" But we didn''t expect the ground to shake a lot and a loud thud on the ground boomed the surroundings. Large particles of rocks and dust scattered in the air and the wind blows so hard that we need to make a hard stand on our feet to avoid getting blown away. "What the hell is going on?!" Godou gritted his teeth as he embedded his hand to the ground that acted as his anchor to the ground to avoid getting blown away. I have to use the Domain of Balmung to myself to withstand the strong current of air and barrage of dust coming towards me. Meanwhile, Kuma is holding on Raigaki who was not even perturbed by the impact. He looks calm but his aura is already domineering. "Based on what I can scan in the distance, a large amount of dark energy accumulated has formed a giant monster. I can''t get a proper scan with all the dust and the swirling dark mana around the place," Blue''s voice echoed inside my head. "A Giant? Seriously?" I frowned. Fighting against demons and various monsters would be fine but fighting a giant is quite troublesome. Aside from size difference, the strength of a giant is a lot more times stronger than a normal person and a magician can barely hold against a giant unless they are strong enough. Godou still has no idea what is going on since he is more focused on keeping himself intact on the ground to avoid getting blown away from the strong wind. On the other hand, Raigaki did not even flinch from the wind, and from the looks of his eyes, he is already eyeing the giant. I can barely see in this strong sandstorm and whirlwinds in our surroundings but I can make out a silhouette of a colossal being on the horizon. I still have no idea what that thing looked like. "I had a bad feeling about this," Godou muttered. Me too, man. You are not alone in that. Another shake from the ground throws me off-balance. The tremor is strong enough to cause that much force and I almost canceled my Domain of Balmung. I thought that I will be staying like this for quite some time while the giant is approaching but I didn''t expect Raigaki to make his move. "Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!!! KILL THEM ALL!" All of a sudden, a huge burst of chaotic mana engulfed the whole area. It was so strong that the dust and wind that threatens us from blowing us away immediately got dissipated in an instant. "F*ck, the second seal on Raigaki has been destroyed!" Godou shouted. "What?!" "Damn it! We can''t do anything about this sh*t! Raigaki will be really hard to restrain now! Back off Kazuma! We can''t get ourselves involved in this battle!" "But what about Raigaki and Kuma?!" "I can tell that Kuma can regenerate if the body parts are damage so we don''t need to worry about it. On the other hand, Raigaki is not someone we needed to worry about. We should worry about our lives instead because fighting with Raigaki without Yaya to restrain Raigaki anytime he goes berserk, we will lose our life. It''s better to be a coward if we can live the other day and live to tell the tale than go back home dead!" "Alright, alright! Stop saying poetic things, let''s just get out of here and get into the distance where we can be safe from Raigaki''s rampage!" I said and immediately drag Godou away from our position. We landed on a distorted building''s roof, which is far away from Raigaki and Kuma. Observing the battle is not a problem and the battle''s damage won''t reach here... I hope. As our feet landed, Godou turns his head and break off from my grasp. "Watch out!" BANG! I saw Godou block something using his rock hands but I did not see what it was. I only managed to hear the "Bang" sound just now. "If you think it is safe here, you are wrong. Since the two of you didn''t want to fight the Black Taboo, then you shall face me instead." A woman''s voice echoed in my ears. It was like she just whispered those words on my ears but I am quite sure no one did that. Godou kneel his left knee on the ground, shaking and panting. "Man! Are you alright-" I was supposed to ask Godou if he didn''t suffer much but it was foolish of me to ask seeing Godou''s bleeding arms while the rock he used to morph his hands with has been chipped off violently. "Careful Kazuma. The person who can use the Magic Arrows that we have faced earlier is this person we are going to face...ugh." Sweat started to break off my forehead. I think I have underestimated the danger of this mission and we won''t be able to leave without getting wounded and properly beaten. Chapter 136: The Curses and the Black Taboo Part 3 "Did you all think that distancing yourself from the Black Taboo is enough to stay away from it? I am quite sure that is not the case here," the woman who is speaking earlier said while chuckling in a flirty way. Activating my Mana Scan, I tried looking for this person on my surroundings, however, not a single person is caught in my scans. "Its useless, boy. A magician like me who has a higher and stronger mana flow than you guys won''t be able to detect me." Godou is still trying to endure the pain and the invisible enemy is always ready to deal with damage on us. However, I keep myself calm despite the odds against us in this situation. Keeping my head cool is enough for me to think of possible ways to spot this enemy and defeat her or escape from her depending on the situation. Since my mana scan is still active, I have detected the release of arrow beams towards our location. Despite being invisible, the mana it releases while in the air is enough for me to conjure fireballs to block them. BOOM BOOM BOOM! Explosions occur every time I hit one beam of the arrow. The amount of explosion times is plenty enough for anyone listening to it to think that there is a bomb barrage somewhere around the place. Every time the fireball I release deflects an arrow, the explosion would then follows up another arrow which I will immediately follow up another fireball. Thanks to the Seed of Ygdrassil in my body, mana supply is easily refilled without difficulty, and with my mastery in conjuring fireballs, releasing multiple times of fireballs in a short period is not a problem to me. "Not bad for a magician who barely has enough mana on his mana pool. Unfortunately, I am getting bored with this battle, why don''t we fight for real?" Sh*t, I knew it. This woman who is still invisible is a dangerous individual. Not only that, our magic exchange earlier proves that she is still holding back. "I will back you up Kazuma," Godou said as he forces himself to stand. "Stay still, man! You are injured!" "Pfft.. this? Minor injuries like this are nothing to me. It might be painful, yes, but that doesn''t mean that is enough to bring down the Rock Controlling Magician, Godou!" I can tell that the wound on Godou''s arm is painful and terrible since I can tell that the arrows this person releases is enough to injure even a deity. What will a mere human capable of doing so? "Hehe, interesting, interesting indeed. You are still capable of standing up and fight despite the injury you have received from me? Impressive." "Heh, you are underestimating me indeed. If you think you are stronger than us, then be sure to beat us here!" Godou clapped his hands and several rocks started to float from the ground below straight up to the roof. "Talking big huh? I have seen plenty of kids with confidence over the charts. Most of the time, those guys have the highest mortality rate in battles and currently, the style of your fighting is also unique and suicidal. If you are that desperate to die, don''t mind me if I help you do that." Another arrow beams appeared in my scans once again and without hesitation, I conjured flames and released it as soon as those arrows to move. The arrows are unpredictable at times due to the chance of those arrows to dodge my fireballs by moving before the fireball connects. But that doesn''t mean much. To a person like me who has an almost infinite pool of mana, even if we keep on conjuring magic skills continuously without any mana potion, rest, or anything that can restore mana, it will instead be a battle of endless stalling. Godou did not attack and waste his mana. While I reflected every single arrow thrown to us by the invisible woman, I can tell that he is focusing on the surroundings to spot the real enemy hiding in the shadows. "This is getting annoying and boring. Looks like you guys are not incompetent at all. Which means you all need to die as soon as possible!" A barrage of arrow beams appeared this time around and no longer invisible. What is more than that, it is much bigger than the previous arrows released. "Get back Godou!" I immediately jump on Godou and grabbing him out of his position before rolling to dodge the big arrows. It was a good thing that the arrows were not homing arrows or else we would be dead before we can do anything at all. I look at the floor of the rooftop and saw a huge hole in the area where Godou was before alongside other places where holes are also made after the attack. It won''t be long before the rooftop collapse. "Stop running!" Another wave of those arrows was released once again. "Let me deal with this Kazuma, I may be a bit injured but fighting is not a problem. Focus on finding the enemy to deal with her!" Godou said and conjures rocks out of thin air before hurling them to the arrows which barely got destroyed. I nodded as confirmation on Godou and activated my Mana Scan. She might be hidden and can''t be easily be spotted when using Mana Scan but that doesn''t mean she will forever be invisible. Focusing on my vision in my surroundings, gave me a little bit of clue but it was not enough. I can tell that this enemy changes location most of the time to avoid being spotted just like a sniper would do to avoid enemy detection. "I am scanning your magic skills inherited from the holy beasts. Also the dragon''s memory and some part of the dragon''s power he inherited to you. There might be something that can help you in this situation and since this is inherited magic, you can use them anytime without learning it for how many hours or days," Blue volunteered. "Oh? Why are you so considerate this time around? Aren''t you always scolding me for messing up some things here and there?" "Because you are an idiot who does not know much. Without my help, you would no longer be standing here and will be already one of the rotten corpses on the ground or worse, you might have been reduced to dust. Don''t forget that." "Yeah, yeah. So, what is the result, is there anything that I can use to flip the advantage to us?" "Two magic skills from the dragon that was also passed down to you is currently possible for you to use to try reversing the tide of the battle. Of course, it depends on how you use it to fully reverse everything to your bidding. Don''t blame me if it won''t work as intended." Chapter 137: Counterattacking "Two of the dormant magic that Anya''s father uses during his lifetime is the [Dragon''s Eye] and the [Authority], both are classified as No attribute magics. You can do the rest on figuring out the memories since it is in your brain and how you will be able to utilize it," Blue said before getting silent once again. Since Blue already gave me the names of the spells I needed to learn, I did not encounter any problems locating the said memories from the memory fragments the dragon left for me. But due to the situation, I have to go on pure defensive this time to allow myself to study the two spells while the battle is ongoing and I have to hurry before this enemy unleashes a dangerous spell. Thankfully, I am not the only magician in the area. Godou is also fighting against the female invisible magician using his Earth Magic and despite the injury in his body, he can still casually fight without any difficulty. At least it will buy me extra time to face the female enemy. "What now?! Are you guys all bark and no bite at all?! Why are you all just settling to the defensive stance?! Show me what you can do you brats!" the female magician shouted. "Did you think we can fight so easily if our enemy is invisible? Are you stupid or what?! We are not some X-ray machines that can easily see through on your kind! Show yourself so that I can beat you up without any restraint!" Godou answered back. "Only a weakling will complain about my invisibility ability! A magician can immediately figure out what to do in every situation. If you can''t do something so basic as that, then you are an idiot. You should die instead and fall to the ground like a worm you are!" "Motherf*cking c*nt! Just you wait, I will make sure you eat some dirt once I bash your head to the ground!" Godou immediately started deflecting arrow beams appearing everywhere. "You can die first. I don''t intend to show myself," her laughter echo in the air which felt like it was coming from everywhere. Seeing the situation is getting grave and the arrow beams getting stronger, bigger, and faster as time pass by, it is getting harder to fight and study at the same time. But I can still do it. Getting enough time from Godou allowed me to finally learn [Dragon''s Eye] without a hitch. I thought it was hard at first but after learning the process of the activation of the [Dragon''s Eye], I finally grasped and learned it and I also created a new spell due to the [Dragon''s Eye]. [Dragon''s Eye] spell has a very simple structure. Despite this magic is used by dragons, normal humans can use it. Beginners would have trouble learning it for a short period but if the magician learning it is a [Mana Scan] user, learning it is just a hitch. This magic is mainly used like the Mana Scan, with only different usage. The [Dragon''s Eye] is mainly used for seeing through illusions, mirage, and other forms of magic that alter surroundings to disguise something. With it, anything that tricks your eyes cannot escape. And since [Dragon''s Eye] and [Mana Scan] are similar in structure, I got an idea to merge the two magic skill so that whenever I use Mana Scan, there is no need for me to use [Dragon''s Eye] too especially if I needed the function of the two spells at the same time. Which allowed me to create new magic for myself that I call [Insight]. If the [Dragon''s Eye] is easy, then the [Authority] is the difficult part. [Authority] is Dragon-specific magic, which means normal humans cannot use this magic skill. But due to the inheritance that the father of Anya bestowed to me that allowed me to get a dragon part for a limited time, I can now be treated as a human with dragon blood. This magic is considered as buff and debuff magic types. This magic enhances the user''s overall abilities like magic, physical, and mental strength, basically everything. It lasts for 10 minutes which is very good too but as long as this magic is active, it will continue to siphon mana without stopping. Now here is the debuff part of [Authority]. Once the spell is active, as long as its effect is present on the user, the enemies that felt hostile to the user will feel heaviness in their bodies and every single parameter in their body will fall drastically. It also has a unique trait that causes the enemies who were inflicted with debuff to be in constant need of double effort to act. If they ever wanted to walk, they have to "run" to walk properly. The effort of running will only allow them to walk while [Authority] magic is present. Now here is the catch. Since [Authority] is quite a powerful buff and debuff giving magic, it needs a lot of willpower to learn. During the process of learning it, the toll of taking the power will be very heavy and will force you to carry it. Aside from that, the user will have to make sure they can overcome it, or else they will be squashed to death due to how immense the pressure of the magic. Enduring it is not a problem, but fighting against a magician while learning [Authority] is just not going to be easy. If there was a part where it is hard to endure, I would be very open and I cannot fight properly which is why this is going to be a real risk. "Remember Kazuma, do not risk it. It would be best if you can corner her up. You can learn [Authority] at a later date. Your goal is to escape the place and live another day, not die preemptively. Only an idiot will fight to the death even if the death rate is fixed at 100%. Just try to harass her for a little bit." I sighed but what Blue said is true. If I force myself, I will only make more trouble by myself. Looking at the battle of the black giant which this woman calls as the Black Taboo against Kuma and Raigaki, it seems that the Black Taboo is at a disadvantage. If that is the case, forcing this woman into retreat will have to work, I hope... Without waiting for the magician to release another barrage of magic towards us, I activated [Insight] and looked around us. Due to the effect of insight, I immediately nullified her ability to be invisible in my eyes. Even if she tried to go invisible on Godou, the effort will be futile against me. No wonder we can''t find her, it is because she is a little bit far from us and she just freely control her arrow beams to fight us. Since she is invisible, she can easily stop us from her arrow beams and make us confused about where she is hiding. What a sly woman. Unfortunately, playtime is over. "Wrath of Lightning Strike!" ZAAAPP! My attack was instantaneous and a magic circle momentarily appeared beneath me before a flash of lightning fell from the mirror filled sky and before she can even react, the lightning hit her whole body, zapping her black. "AAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!" Her scream echoed throughout the whole mirror world Chapter 138: Escape and New Plan It was all too sudden for the female magician that she immediately retreated away from us after being zapped by the lightning all of a sudden. I didn''t expect her to die from that but to see her survive a lightning strike means she already surpassed the human realm limitation a human possesses. "Cursed brats! This is not the last time we will meet each other and by the time we will meet again, you all will become rotten corpses! I will kill you all!" and after that, she disappeared. The black taboo also dissipated like dust as it scatters into the air mysteriously after the disappearance of the magician. Perhaps the Black Taboo is connected to that woman? There is no answer. But it was evident that the battle has now ended as the mirror world starts to shatter and repair itself back to reality... ... In the end, the mission was deemed successful and unsuccessful at the same time. Successful because the cause of the Curses and the ritual that ruins the students has finally been removed. Unsuccessful because of the losses and with the fact that Yaya is now blind, fighting now will prove everything to be difficult. Yaya can still be cured but the potion needed for her recovery is still not available so it will remain like that until the time of the potion''s availability. As for Raigaki, Yaya resealed his broken seal so there is no more problem in the meantime but just as always, he has to be muted for quite a while. Kuma is also in a mess but I think Yaya will be able to repair that guy. Godou got serious injuries after forcing himself to push himself further in the battle. He has to rest for 3 weeks for a while due to this. Now, as for me... Although my result is undetermined yet, the experiences in the battle against the female magician are quite a big one even for me. I also realized that my body is having a hard time fighting against her. Despite not fighting head-on, she was a formidable opponent., Her ranged attacks are annoying and her ability to defeat the enemies just by touching a spell or something that belongs to them is also quite alarming. I might be more of a user in melee magic and semi-range magic skills which is why fighting against ranged enemies like her has proven it to be a challenge. If I have to be a magician that is versatile in things like melee and range magic, I have to get stronger. ... While Kazuma is steeled to practice his magician skills, the council of magicians that are formed by Voltaire and the others who participated during the reclamation of the Phantasmal Reality has gathered on the lounge except for Yaya and Raigaki, and Godou who is injured in the battle. Moonlight is also not present due to the matters on her family so only a few participants in from the war last time are gathered. "Looks like the pawns of "Shadow" has finally made a move. And from the looks of it, they are stronger than the last time we faced them," Voltaire said as he sips coffee from his table. "How many years has it been since we have a face-off against the forces of "Shadow? 20 years? Or more than that? If they managed to injure Yaya who is experienced in many battles already, they might have gotten stronger than before or they might have found another source of dark magic to leech upon, causing tremendous amp on their powers," Catmod said. "It''s getting dire and now they are involving normal people to the war. It won''t be long before they will also drag the normal people and use them for their dark dealings. They are too active in the neighborhood and crippling their dealings one by one seems to not work that much. They also managed to recruit some magicians to their cause which is now getting troublesome to handle, "Tsugimoto added. "If that was the case, are they also responsible for the demons to cause rampage every day? Lately, the apprentice magicians have dealt more than 20 dens of demon lairs disguised in many business buildings. They have been slowly merging with human society at a fast pace. Should we consult these matters to the higher-ups?" Rena looked at the others. "No. Zacharias and the others have plenty of problems they have to face already and if they help us again, their troubles will never end. It''s best to handle it ourselves and only call for their help if something dangerous that can threaten the city. We are senior magicians and handling these matters should be enough," Voltaire explained. "Still, it is quite a proof that Yaya and the others have been toppled and almost got killed if they have been careless enough. We shouldn''t underestimate those guys. Their abilities are strong but they are almost defeated. Which means we have to get stronger more than ever. If they managed to resurrect "Shadow" once again, the war that was prevented a few decades ago will occur again, "Catmod said calmly. "Magic wise, we are a bit advance than them since we also rely on magic tools but in terms of firepower, their magic is somewhat on a dangerous side. They can fully destroy our barriers and kill us. Aside from that, they have rare ability traits like what Yaya''s group encountered. If all the rouge magicians who have sided with "Shadow" has these kinds of abilities, we will be having a hard time. Which is why we need to make sure we are up to the tasks. Practice your magic skills and bodies everyone. Dying is not an option," Voltaire said before adjourning the meeting. All of the magicians except Voltaire and Catmod are left in the room. Catmod licked his fur before looking at Voltaire. "Are you sure that is the better course of action? You already know that the situation is much more dangerous. You didn''t even reveal the situation the councilors are dealing with the others. Will that help everyone avoid the same fate as Yaya does?" "You managed to see those things huh, old man. As expected of a cat," Voltaire smirked as he pulls out a cigarette from his pocket and stood up from his chair. "When you reach my age, perception is one of the things we old people have the most enhanced ability. Which is why we can easily spot anything wrong. So back to the question, why are trying to hide the real info?" "There is one of those secrets we can''t just let go of that easily. They might be seniors but they are still not ready to handle the truth," Voltaire puffed out a thick smoke to the air as he looked into the window. "Heh, I am looking forward to the time where it will all backfire to you, Voltaire," Catmod said before disappearing like the thin air. ... 5 days passed by. The revolving curse ritual disappeared after we made a mess with the original creation which is most likely the woman we fought against during the quest we needed to destroy enemies causing the curses. I have returned to classes and Godou also managed to return to school. Moonlight is still busy with her family affairs and is currently excused. Due to the outcome of the battle where we barely survived, Godou is now hanging out with me more and drags me with his physical training especially after school. "Let''s get physical Kazuma! If we don''t practice our physical strength and body, we will never be able to be strong guys!" "Eh, you are certainly buff enough to do things in physical terms but do I have to do that? I am already practicing back at home though, isn''t that enough already?" "Push-ups and other kinds of exercises that can be done indoors are always not enough! We should get real PHYSICAL!" Godou grinned and tap my back. "Alright, alright. So, are we going to a gym after class?" "What are you talking about? I already told you indoor exercise is not enough. Going to the gym might help bodybuilders and the likes but we are not showing off our muscles, we are going to use them for our battles! We have to do it real hard!" I don''t have any idea what kind of exercise he is talking about. Running on the streets during the afternoon is fine but I can run for how many hours without getting tired already due to how my body got trained to supply energy using excess mana to avoid losing stamina immediately. When the last bell rang, we met at the entrance and left the school together. People might find me odd for hanging out with Godou who is famous in the school as one who hangs out and commands delinquents but I don''t mind. After all, that was just the guise of Godou. "What are we going to do? Don''t tell me we are going to run a few kilometers?" "If we are going to run, we should have done that on the field. We are going home first and drop our bags and uniforms to avoid it getting dirty. Also, you should change to something you are comfortable to move around. We will be moving a lot later on." After dropping our bags and changing comfortable clothes, we meet up again but this time, we returned to school. It''s already dusk and the gates of the school are about to close already. "Why are we back at school?" "Just wait for a bit," Godou said and led me to the track field. Are we going to run or something real? "Let''s wait till it''s already 6 in the evening. It will tick in after 5 minutes so let''s be patient," Godou said. Even though I am so confused at the moment, I decided to wait. When the bell on the school started ringing as soon as the clock hit 6, Godou grinned and looked at me excitedly. "Activate your Mana Scan Kazuma!" Even though my Mana Scan already transformed into [Insight], it is still similar to [Mana Scan] so nothing is wrong with it. The moment I activated my Insight, I was surprised and did not expect this to see in the middle of the track field. "What the hell? Why is there a G.A.T.E.S inside our school!?" Chapter 139: School G.A.T.E.S "Why is there a G.A.T.E.S in the middle of the track field?!" I was surprised. This might not be my first time seeing a G.A.T.E.S but seeing one in my school is quite shocking. To think I am moving around here during P.E time, I am getting the chills. "It''s quite normal actually, Kazuma. You know that G.A.T.E.S appear during some specific time of the day right and they only show up in places where negative energies are gathered right? Then it would be logical to see one at school!" "Huh? I don''t get your point. Why would negative energy gather in school?" "Well, since you are somewhat good in your studies, you won''t understand but to someone who is not that good in studying, I can easily find the reason why a G.A.T.E.S would spawn here." "Ah..." I suddenly realized what Godou is trying to say. "Since students always a negative reaction especially if they are faced with a situation where they have to face exams and other extracurricular activities, students are bound to release the negativity in the air. Since there are countless of students here, gathering lots of negative energy is not a big problem, right?" "Heh, so you do understand Kazuma. As expected of a guy who can ace his exam if he ever studies and get serious. Anyways, that is the main reason why there is a G.A.T.E.S present here." "But if we are entering this G.A.T.E.S, aren''t we going to prepare things to succeed on venturing the G.A.T.E.S?" I asked since I have to properly prepare for my G.A.T.E.S diving during the first time. "Nah, this is a small scale G.A.T.E.S. But if we left it alone, it will be enough to get strong and will be raised to a higher level of threat instead. Since it is a lower level one, we don''t need to be too prepared. Besides, this is going to be a perfect place for us to fight enemies and move our muscles. We can also use this chance to practice magic skills if necessary. Besides, fighting with dummies are boring, real enemies will make our skills better since experience is the best teacher to teach us through life," What he said is right. Just practicing alone and using dummies won''t help much since you won''t see much difference in normal practice than in normal battles. Fighting enemies will allow you to see what is wrong with your battle style or if there is some sort of flaw that will cause you to have problems during a battle. Since I didn''t disagree with entering the G.A.T.E.S, we entered the ominous portal to begin our practice. Not too far away from the area, the school belle who was tailing them since earlier appeared and frowned as she saw the two guys disappear in the middle of the field. "So everything that occurred last time was not a dream..." ... Passing through the portal, we arrived in a labyrinth version of our school. The building looks similar to the main building of our school, with only the difference between the dark atmosphere caused by the miasma surrounding it. "Heh, they managed to even replicate the whole school building and then warp it badly. This is quite a wonder for a weird and dangerous phenomenon," Godou grinned as he stares into the building. "You seemed to be familiar with the surroundings of this particular G.A.T.E.S, are did you come here before?" I asked as I wear the gloves and the Skull Knuckles with me. "Of course. Scouting a G.A.T.E.S is one of the responsibilities of a magician. To make sure the G.A.T.E.S is not on the process of disrupting the real world, the magicians of the nearby vicinity has to make sure that everything is okay and still under control." "Have you already explored the place yet?" "Nope, I only scouted the first floor. I can''t clear this place alone. Despite being a low tier G.A.T.E.S, the monsters here are not something you have to underestimate. Some magicians in the past underestimated the monsters inside of a low-level G.A.T.E.S, which resulted in their untimely demise. If I wanted to clear the G.A.T.E.S, I would request help from others to help me secure the place itself. Now, enough talking let''s get inside before this realm close." Entering the building, I realized that it only looks the same as our school outside, when you talk about the interior of this phantom school, then everything is different already. Unlike the time where the mirror world messed up our school by mirroring around the place to create a labyrinth, this time around, it was an actual labyrinth in the looks of our school. Just from looking at the layout of the place using the Insight, it makes me want to rack my head. A maze for a place crawling with monsters. "Looks like the students are having a hard time in their studies. To see the whole school warped into a confusing maze, this turns out what the students feel," Godou said, as he was amused by the looks of our school''s layout. "How do we split the resources we will be gathering after we left here?" I asked. "50-50, it is not fair if we would have a 40-60 ratio or any ratio that is not equal. It is a win-win option and we would not be having any trouble dividing it." "Alright then. But now we have to face the enemies this time around. I have detected 10 enemies coming in our direction," I said before I ignite my hands using the help of the gloves. "Now we are talking!" Godou excitedly punches the ground and his arms transformed into rock form. "You guys are money-grubbers aren''t you? It was clear as day that you guys don''t have to discuss drops and here you two are already counting the profit! I am not sure if you are meant to be a respectable person or not," Blue muttered. "As long as it is business, then why not? Even though it is not money in the real world, I can use these to make myself stronger!" "Whatever, just go and do your thing already. The enemies are now on sight." The enemies slowly appeared from the shadows and gathered towards our location. The enemies all take variations but the most common enemy I see in the group of monsters is a floating book with sticky slime and a long tongue in the middle. I don''t need to doubt that they are carnivorous books. "HA!" I throw a fireball at the nearest book enemy but it managed to dodge without difficulty. But the next enemy who is not expecting the fireball catch the ball of fire and before the monster can react, it turned into ashes. "Dang, these books are too fast!" Godou said as he started ripping the books he managed to grab and destroying it with his arms. Despite being a book, the monsters started dropping resources left and right so we will be having a haul if we finish our training later. Not only flying books are moving here, but there are also different kinds of objects that are moving here. Even the cleaning tools like the mop and broom also started to move and attack us. "Master, should we help with your mission this time? It looks like you two are having some trouble with it," Yuri''s voice echoed in my head. "Nah, I have to practice my skills too. You guys don''t need to help me." "Ah... never mind that master. I change my mind, you can deal with it then," before everything goes to chaos, she stopped talking. Did she change her mind? Is there something that caused her to stop? "Ugh... the hell? That looks creepy as f*ck!" Godou said as he steps back away. Looking at what Godou is talking about, I finally saw what caused him to back off. Maybe this is also the reason Yuri hesitated and changed her mind. The medical model of our science lab has awoken from its slumber and currently walking inch by inch towards our direction. Chapter 140: Fears The way it moves, the way those plastic limbs move back and forth, the way it''s every step creaks once its plastic feet hit the floor, is enough to give someone weak at the heart to have something they will fear for their dear life. I got some shivers at first, after all, this moving monster is something that is supposed to be an inanimate object. The only time I got scared by inanimate objects like mannequins is during the time I am still playing the Silent Hill series. Seeing one in real life will always give you a shock. But I no longer fear these things. Especially that I have already seen much worse than these kinds of things. Since they are made of plastic, just throw some fireball to it and it will nicely burn like fuel. "Hey, Kazuma. Am I seeing this sh*t right here? Isn''t that the Anatomy Model in our school''s infirmary?! Why the hell is it here?!" Godou sweats as he slowly back off. "How should I know? You scouted this place first and this is the first time I step my foot in this realm. I don''t know how to answer that question! Also, don''t just back off! I can''t handle all the monsters at once!" "I didn''t encounter this one before! Sh*t man! I have phobias in mannequins and things like these anatomy models! I will face every abomination presented to me, just not these kinds! If I have known we would be meeting one here, I would rather stay back at home and train instead of coming here!" CLICK-CLACK-CLICK-CLACK-CLICK-CLACK The sounds of the step are getting faster as we slowly back off. I am also hesitant to fight this monster. Besides it is creepy, it also looks disgusting since the anatomical model''s open flesh with intestines and other organs inside looks too real. Just as this monster will continue to move like those mannequins in Silent Hill, its abdomen suddenly opened like a mouth and a long intestine suddenly pulls out, grabbing one of my legs and also the leg of Godou who is already farther from me. "Sh*t!" It was too fast that I did not get to react and counter the fast intestine. I didn''t panic because panicking will just stop you from thinking properly. However, it is always not the same as the others who share the same fate as you. "F*CK F*CK F*CK F*CK! AHHHHHHHHH! GET THE F*CK OFF MY LEG YOU SH*TTY BASTARD! WAAAAHHHHH!" Godou desperately waved his body to remove the tentacle-like intestine that grabbed his feet. "Calm down! Don''t keep on panicking! It is not a real mannequin! That is a monster!" "AAAAAHHHHH! JUST GET IT OFF ME!" I lost hope on this one with Godou, to think he would be too afraid of a mannequin, but I can''t blame him. Since he is no longer capable of fighting, it''s time for me to do my battle. SNAP! Snapping my fingers, my hands immediately ignited into blue flames. To make sure the monster''s tentacle-like appendages are taken care of, I made sure to make my flames hot. That way, the monster will be damaged even if they are resistant, though I doubt it since this thing is plastic, even the tentacles are hard and slippery which seems to be a plastic texture. Since the monster just keeps us dangling in the air, I make myself sure that it stays that way and quickly started my counterattack. I swing my body slowly until I managed to get myself a good tempo. I sensed the monster is about to retract its tentacle back so before it can retract, I bend my body up and reach the tentacle wrapping my feet. With my hands, I quickly form them into a karate chop form, a single swing immediately melted the tentacles and got torn off from the main body. Without wasting a single second, I burn the remaining appendages that were removed from the main body and fully released myself from the bind. As soon as I regain my freedom, the appendages on Godou''s feet came next. Just like how I did it myself, a single swing allowed me to cut off the tentacle appendage and catching Godou. But who said I will continue to carry him around? As soon as I managed to catch him, I put him down to the ground and returned my attention to the Anatomy Model. This time around, the Anatomy Model is no longer alone as the flying books and the moving materials in a school are already accompanying it. Then, the realization sinks into me. My mouth is forming into a grin and my blood is pumping faster. It''s been a while since I have enjoyed something. And now the feeling of the adrenaline rush finally kicks in. "This battle is going to be fun!" ... The rush of the battle slowly ran out when I also ran out of enemies to kill. The lesser enemies were all burned to ashes and those monsters who can easily withstand my flames were all roasted by my electricity combined with the water that came from my spell, [Water Torrent]. The mannequin did not even stand much chance against me. It was a fast monster but it wasn''t fast enough that my eyes can''t see the monster move around. Currently, the Anatomy Model monster is now reduced to a pool of plastic liquid after it melted after the battle. Then I just remembered Godou. When I look back to find him, I saw him curl up on the corner and shivering. From the looks of it, Godou seems to have shaken after encountering the mannequin. Since he said it was his phobia, looks like he deeply hates the mannequins and whenever there is one, he would never watch it. I have to snap him out of it. "Yo, stop getting depressed, man. The mannequin is already gone, you can even check if that guy is still alive or not. Of course, you won''t be troubled looking at the Anatomy model since it is no longer one." Godou raised his head and looked around. His pale face slowly recovered color upon seeing the disappearance of the monster. He sighed in relief and he stood up from being curled up on the corner. "Haaaa.... f*ck, that was the most frightening event that happened in all my life. I will remember that and will never come here again. Sorry about that Kazuma. Can we go back now? I don''t think my mental health will be able to hold on that much longer. My knees are still shaking a lot and I don''t think I can continue to fight monsters like this. Besides, I am drained and too tired to move." I was hesitant to agree to his plea but since it was indeed not good for him to stay here, I decided to comply. "If you still wanted to come back here for practicing your skills, then you can get inside here anytime as long as it is open. As for me, I think I won''t be coming here for quite a while. I don''t want to shorten my life that badly." Chapter 141: A Favor Not all of the magicians in the chat group are strong people. Most of them are still the same normal people. Godou is still a teenager like me but he acts mature. Today, he finally revealed his weakness. Even though he is a real warmonger, if he is facing an enemy he fears, he will never be able to fight against it. When I returned home, Maple came to visit again and is currently helping Anya. I was surprised when I saw her cooking in the kitchen but that doesn''t mean I don''t welcome her here. "I''m back," I said before removing my shoes and putting on the indoor slippers. "Welcome back, dinner is almost ready so please wait for a bit okay?" Anya said while she faced her back on me. "Welcome back Kazuma. Sorry to intrude into your home again. It just became my habit despite you are already awake," Maple smiled while holding a ladle full of hot soup. "Haha, don''t worry too much about it. You are welcome anytime. I am sure Anya is also happy since I am always out of the house anyway," I said to her before I climbed up the stairs to go to my room and change clothes. After changing clothes, I returned to the kitchen to wait for the dinner when the smell of the food wafted in the air. It was so good that all the weariness and fatigue accumulated in my body seems to be washed down the drain and was replaced with hunger. Who wouldn''t like some good food anyway? "Kazuma! Food is ready!" Maple''s voice echoed below. "Coming!" ... The dinner is delicious and warm. To think I would be able to eat with someone again on a table like this. It has been a long time for me but it still feels heartwarming. "Hey, Kazuma, have you heard about the rumors of missing people around your school lately?" Maple asked. "Missing people? I don''t think so? Besides, I am too busy with many activities so I don''t have properly been listening to rumors at all. What is all this all about?" "I am not too sure either but this was also part of the requests being sent by the higher-ups for us magicians to investigate due to how fishy everything is." "Fishy? Is there something strange occurring for it to be called so?" "Yes. The thing is that the victims themselves are acting too strange. Many of them have started to act like something a mental patient would act even though these guys have no record of whatsoever kind of mental disease from their whole life. Before they disappear, they will eventually start to hurt someone and it was to the point that they are ready to kill the other person!" "Really? Are you sure those guys that have done those things are not some group of lunatics?" "That doesn''t seem to be the case here this time around. They just suddenly start doing those things despite not a person who usually does it. And after doing those sort of thing, they will disappear and will never be seen again," Maple explained. "How many cases like this have already occurred?" "From what I have gathered, there are already 70 cases with similarities happening around Tokyo. And to make matters easier for all of us, it looks like all the cases are all just from Tokyo and nowhere else." "So why are you telling me this?" "I want to ask for your assistance on this matter. This case is important to me." "Important to you? Is it connected to you or something?" "5 years ago, these incidents occurred and many people have gone missing. The magicians have made an effort to stop these incidents by cooperating with the other locals to find out the truth of the incident. My parents were also magicians and they are the ones tasked to do the investigations to the incidents occurring all around. However, before they can even conclude the investigations, they were killed by someone. I was still a rookie magician practicing the fundamentals of magic at that time so when I heard my parents were killed, I decided to investigate the matter for myself. During that time, my older sister is the one dispatched to fill in the investigation of the incident. She is a senior magician so many higher-ups are already making their hopes upon her. However, it didn''t work well because she also got caught by the incident''s symptoms." "The one where the missing person gets to go on a rampage, attack other people, and disappear after?" I inserted. "Yeah, that one. She started to go on a rampage in the headquarters of the Magicians in Osaka and managed to incapacitate 10 magicians who tried to stop her attacks. After that incident, she disappeared and was declared by the magicians to be missing rather than going AWOL. She was also the last case of the missing people reported and the case stopped after that. The reason this is important to me is that I am still hoping my sister is still alive. I also speculate that the person who killed my parents is someone who is connected to the incident. So please help me with this one, I will make sure to pay you if you agree." The mission she was undertaking is a serious matter. I was about to decline her request when Blue interrupted me. "Accept this request Kazuma. If I am not wrong, this has similarities to the mission you have done with Yaya and the others. It is quite uncanny to be just a mere coincidence that her mission is almost identical to your missions too. Some things might help you get some sort of enlightenment in magic. The current you are too weak to handle serious matters so get it straight and get some experience. Staying holed up in here will not do much to you and going to school can be considered as something secondary for you." "Seriously?! You want me to get involved in something again? I barely get any relaxation time since I woke up from a coma and now I have to go and fight?" "Quit whining will you? You already accepted as a magician and now you wanted to relax or something? A magician never relaxes the way you do due to all of the dangers of the world so if I were you, change that attitude and become one honorable magician." "Are you messing with me Blue? I don''t laze around at all!" "Yep, I am. But I am just reminding you that you needed some effort. If you want to decline this mission, I am against it and I suggest you accept it. There is no harm with it and an experience in more magic battles will reduce your chance of getting killed in dangerous situations. You also need to remember, you still have yet gained the power to control the Skull Knuckles so if I were you, I would get my body working to get it done before it gets too volatile for you to handle." Chapter 142: Blues Business In the end, I accepted Maple''s request to aid her on her mission. She told me that we will be having this mission start next week so that I can rest my body from the injuries I received the last mission. Since she was already here until the night, I decided to let her stay in Anya''s room to sleep at night. On the other hand, I decided to practice the magic spells that I inherited from the two beasts to control it better and to also ramp up the damage on them whenever I use those spells. Recalling every magic spells I inherited from the two beasts is a hard job. Due to the number of spells that were given to me, a few of them were locked out. "Hey, Blue. How come most of the spells the two beasts that were given to me are not accessible? Whatever method I try to know how to learn them, they are all gibberish and rumbled words." "It was a restriction I think. Since some spellbooks containing magic spells have this kind of feature where the person reading has a low understanding of the magic spell displayed due to the gibberish look on the sentences and words and it doesn''t make too much sense unless you are someone who can easily understand jumbled words. However, this restriction is enough to stop someone to learn it especially if they are unworthy. So if you can''t read or understand the spell, then just leave it for now. Come back to it on a later date once you are strong enough." I sighed in disappointment. I still have at least 10 magic spells left on the Vermillion Bird''s inheritance and 15 magic spells that are not yet learned on the White Tiger''s inheritance. On the other hand, there are 6 spells that I can practice on the Vermillion Bird''s inheritance while 4 on the White Tiger''s Inheritance. It was kind of surprising to see that I can learn plenty of the magic the Vermillion Bird has given me compared to the White Tiger even though I defeated the latter first than the former which I fought last. Maybe due to how I can easily master fire magic might be one of the reasons I can easily learn them. Since the remaining magic spells are all incomprehensible on my part, I started listing all the magic spells I can use in my notebook. I will try to learn them all during this one week and master them one by one. "One step at a time, Kazuma. Mastering them all in one week will only get you crazy. Don''t overdo it. Mastering one or two magic spells from these is enough for a week, but mastering them all is not going to do good on you, more harm instead. Don''t be too hasty with it," Blue said. Hmm, Blue has a point, maybe I should do that. Since I have a little bit of time, I review the magic spells I listed in the notebook. I also added a few info on their effects based on the memory I managed to access so that I can expect things on what will they do once I cast them. Vermillion Bird''s inheritance: Rapid Blast ¨C Release 5 fireballs simultaneously in a single cast. The last fireball has the strongest damage while the first one has the weakest. Lava Geyser ¨C blast a spout of lava to the targeted area once. The lava appears below the target if cast. Ring of Fire ¨C Releases a ring made of flames to capture moving enemies and temporarily restrain them for 10 seconds and damage them for that duration. The user can choose to tighten or loosen the grip of the ring once it restrained a target. Volcanic Reaction ¨C increases the damage of the next flame magic released after the skill''s activation. Explosive balls of flames ¨C create a grenade-like thing that deals with a wide area of damage once it was thrown to the ground. Explosions will occur after that. Flame armor ¨C creates flames that cover the whole body of the user which then will protect the user against any type of attack. Volatile Burn ¨C increases the chances of the enemies attacked by flames to get burns that is hard to be healed by ordinary magic. White Tiger''s Inheritance: Lightning strike ¨C quick cast magic that invokes a quick bolt of lightning to the target immediately. Shock bolt ¨C this is the basic attacks similar to the fireball I usually use Overload ¨C a charge type magic that will get stronger the longer the charge time is. Has the same amount of mana consumption even charged up but the charging time can be easily interrupted. The Electric element of my magic spell is still underdeveloped due to how I usually just use the flame magic. If I am more biased in electric magic, I would have more access to the white tiger''s inheritance a lot more. But I am not complaining since the flame magic is more of my signature magic right now. I barely even use the dragon magic I gained from Anya''s father so it is more understandable that I get to learn lots of flame spells from the inheritance of the Vermillion Bird, Suzaku. My mana capacity is big enough already and with the help of the Seed of Yggdrasil to recover my mana a lot faster, I don''t have much problem with mana shortage and I won''t be a bit busy in focusing my efforts to increase the capacity of my mana tank. What is left is get used to combat. If only there is a place where I can get to practice my magic while staying in secret. After all, a beginner magician like me having multiple magic spells in different elements like mine is already something that the others didn''t know. Sure enough, they have seen me use them but I doubt they have remembered it. Also, I don''t want to destroy things in the training ground with my magic. A place where I can easily release my magic spells without worrying anything about being destroyed. If only magic like that exists. "A secret training ground where you can only access? I can help you with that, but I will be getting paid. After all, nothing is free in this world. An equivalent exchange if you call it," Blue suddenly popped up her voice to me who is just thinking about where to train. "Huh? You can help me with the practice in secret and will allow me to unleash my magic without any restraint?" "Of course. I am the great spirit of the app after all. I can do that easily. However, I don''t make you use it for free. I will let you use it for 100 demon shards or 100 shards you get in the G.A.T.E.S after killing monsters in there." When I heard the price, I almost spit out blood from how much it was. "F*ck, that is too expensive! You are more of a rip-off than Godou''s shop!" "Take it or leave it. I am not forcing you to spend those shards since they are important but I already told you before that you need to gather shards from demons, monsters, and anything hostile inside the G.A.T.E.S right? So you don''t have any say about it. I already told you about the matter of the shards so it is not my problem if you didn''t pick any at all." I sighed and checked the shards I managed to collect so far. I managed to kill lots of demons back during the reclamation of the Phantasmal World but I didn''t get to grab the shards much due to the amount of running away and sneaking from the demons we did so when I finished counting, I sighed in disappointment that my shards are not enough. The last time I spent them is during the time I went shopping at Godou''s store. When I was on the G.A.T.E.S though, I managed to acquire 256 shards from the monsters I killed. Seeing it sufficient enough, I showed it to Blue using the phone. " I got 100 shards. I hope you don''t say that I have to only pay an hour just to train there on the place you are telling is also limitedly accessible till the expiration of the timer of the coin''s amount or something." "Hehe, don''t worry about that one. I never intended to do that kind of scam. Once you paid me already, the place will be open and unless the user goes out of the room again which will reset the expiration and you will be charged again." Chapter 143: Training in the Training Space Even though this is not a real currency in the world and only applies as a currency for magicians, the amount that Blue tries to charge from me is quite expensive. It is hard to collect a hundred shards and now Blue is trying to get me that much? That is a total rip-off! "You should try it first before complaining. It is already too cheap compared to using a real practice place where you can potentially destroy it if you used too much strength. Besides, time will freeze in the real world while you are practicing inside this practice hall that I made. You can practice here for a year inside but not even a second will pass in the real world." "Isn''t that bad enough? I will be wasting a few years of my life in that place and once I get out, nothing will change at all?!" "You misunderstand. When I said time will freeze, that includes aging. As long as you are inside the place, even if you stay there for 100 years or more, you will not age. Sure, your senses might be saying that you spent a lot of years already in your life but not really. You don''t even need water and food inside. If you wanted to practice and get better on it, then you should just accept my offer." Hearing the explanation, I think the price still did not make sense. All of the functions he is talking about is just too big! If time stops in here and you can spend a lot of time inside and nothing will change in the real world but you already managed to practice a lot like you spent half of your life just to perfect magic? Then 100 pieces of shards are considered cheap! "What the hell man? Now that you said it, 100 shards are too cheap! Aren''t you going to be on the losing side with that amount?" "..." ... The 100 shards I collected were all lined up on the desk. "What should I do next?" I asked. "Use the camera of the phone and capture a photo on those stones. Make sure every stone can be seen on the camera." Following the instructions, the surroundings changed immediately. I am currently standing in an open field with nothing but green grass around me and the blue sky. The only thing that stands out is the mannequin standing in the middle of the field. It is so eyecatching as it looks like a real person standing. "Welcome to the training grounds, Kazuma. For the next few hours, days, months, or years you will be staying here, to practice your magic spells. The mannequin will act as your sparring partner. Don''t worry about breaking him, once a part of the mannequin is destroyed or disintegrated, or the whole body itself disintegrated, he will be immediately replaced. Also, the whole surroundings will self repair itself. Even if you go on a rampage here and do wreckage, everything will be fixed back to normal once again. Now, I won''t bother you anymore. If you wanted to get out of the place, just call me and I will transport you out." After that, the whole place became quiet. Aside from the wind blowing once in a while in the grasses, nothing else can be noted here. Cracking my knuckles and stretching, I grinned and flick my fingers. "Time to do some magic!" ... Before Kazuma entered the training ground and stopped the time, a few magicians who are all wearing black robes with a violet eye embroidered on the back of their robes gathered on a hall with prestigious air in it. What is more, it looks like the place is being invested a lot by a tycoon, seeing the walls and pillars are all covered in gold with rubies being socketed in many pillars. The place''s atmosphere is very heavy and any normal person who is not used to the place will surely drown. On the other hand, the magicians covered in black robes are all emitting evil aura that seems to be so abundant, you can see the "evil" auras flying around even if you are a normal human and possess no normal magic talent. Everyone is a bit busy talking to others while some are just idle and doing other things while waiting. Then, on the large altar placed on the stage, a person appeared from it like some sort of phantom image. The moment that person appeared, everyone present immediately bends to their knees and bowed down their heads. "Greetings to Light-sama," the magicians in robes said without lifting their heads. "How are the preparations for the upcoming merge plan? Are there any obstacles blocking our path?" the guy asked as he sits down to the altar itself. "Reporting to Light-sama, everything is well and the preparations are working as planned. Nothing is currently being held back." "Good. Looks like things are progressing without attracting the eyes of the pesky magicians who think they are the guardians of the world that didn''t care for them." "Additional report, Light-sama, it looks like a recent development had occurred and one the dark generals has to retreat after the confrontation of a few magicians who responded to the incident happening while the general is gathering the energy," another magician came to report. "Hoooo, interesting. Call this general and let me have a conversation with him. All of you may return to your job." After that, everyone in the hallway except the guy on the altar disappeared from thin air, which will freak out everyone left behind. When the hall returned to its silent atmosphere, the guy in the altar grinned and closed his eyes before he disappeared out of thin air once more. "Looks like I have new things to play again this time. Hehehe..." ... I lay on the floor exhausted. This is the most tiresome thing I have ever done in my whole life. Those little work out being done in gyms or what is nothing compared to the training and practice I have been doing. I look at the dummy that I have destroyed countless times but was always repaired after the incident. "F*CK, THESE SPELLS ARE TOO RIDICULOUS TO DO! This is troublesome!" "Stop whining dumbass, I think you also need to rework your mouth too to stop spouting nonsense. You already know many of the magic spells you tried learning so why not continue to career it?" Once again, I stood up and gathered all the mana I can exert and started to throw it to the mannequin. I usually repeat this method again and again before I hit another hurdle. One thing is for sure, the hurdle is much plenty than enlightenment of the spell. Most of the spells I managed to master are easy at first but once I reach the very middle of the learning process, I would immediately get into a hurdle. Most of the time, it is due to the uncontrollable surge of power that will suddenly manifest while trying to perfect the spell. But that doesn''t mean I am giving up... "Again..." ... 10 years passed by in a flash... Of course, inside the training ground, in reality, it is still the same time when I left. But during that timespan, I managed to master the six spells of the inheritance from the Vermillion Bird, Suzaku, and the three spells from the White Tiger, Byakko. I made sure that they are going to be in a way that can be used in multiple ways. Trials and errors made me realize that my skills in immediate learning of magic are too naive. All of those magic spells I have used these past months are all just the shallow part of the spell. However, out of these 10 years, I have stayed inside this training hall, I managed to break every single hurdle I got by sacrificing my sanity and my patience. Now, it is time to go back and perform the things I have to do. "Are you sure you will go back? You will need to give me another 100 shards for the usage of this room once again if you wanted to go back after going out. Also, since you have learned the deepest parts of the inheritance, the other undecipherable magic spells are now possible to be learned too." "Those can wait. I will be coming back to the real world." "My, even though time did not flow that much, you seemed to have matured. Oh well, if you insist, I will send you back." I blinked my eye a bit and my surroundings returned to the usual look of my room. It was like I was transported back to the past, but that wasn''t it. I checked the magic spell of my fireball that has been perfectly mastered after the magic training I did. As soon as the black flame appeared in my hand, I grinned to myself. It is time to go and raid the lesser G.A.T.E.S and test my newfound spells. Chapter 144: Revisiting the Chat Group The next day, the feeling in my body felt different. I usually have normal groggy mornings before, but now, it seems like I have changed not only emotionally but also physically. I know that I have trained non-stop on the training space but I also know that I haven''t gained any muscles from all the training. The mana in my body is also flowing with ease which is quite different before. Seeing these changes, I decided to ask Blue for a confirmation. "Is this the result of my training in the training space? Why is everything feeling so different than before?" "Just get used to the feeling. Whenever you try to train in the Training Space for how many years duration, the feeling will be similar to what you are feeling right now. That is a normal thing due to how your body needed to immediately adapt on your experiences back then. But that is not a bad thing, it will persist for a while but that will fade for a few days." "I see. Good to know." "Huh... you seemed to be really have changed. Your answers are now more precise and polite. Did the training ground molded you to be a better character than to be a whiny one?" "Have I changed that much? I think it''s just your imagination. Anyways, is it safe to bring Anya to the G.A.T.E.S located in the school? I wanted her to be strong and to avoid her dragon skills to be stale. I also wanted to witness some of her powers to get some inspiration on how to properly utilize the dragon power that her father has given to me." "Based on the danger level the G.A.T.E.S in your school is not much a threat to her. If you wanted to, then you can bring her along. I can guarantee that you two would be fine if you raid that place. Besides, you are much stronger now, what more can those monsters do to the two of you?" ... There are no classes today since it is Sunday. There are no missions to attend to and Maple''s request will not begin yet which means I have time to freely do what I wanted to do. Maple and Anya are still sleeping and currently, I am the one still awake at the moment. Since there are no work for me to do at the moment, I decided that this will be a good time to get some relaxation. Returning to my bed, I pulled out my phone and browse on the internet for a little bit but got bored after a while. As my finger hover on the apps, my hands stopped on the chat group''s icon. To be honest, its been a while since I opened the app. Due to the situation of demons and other magic stuff happening constantly, even chatting with the other magicians has been set aside just to prioritize saving everyone. Opening the app, I was surprised by all the messages that bombarded me. All of them are from the councilors of magicians that have participated in the battle to reclaim the Phantasmal Reality. I have not opened the app for quite too long that I didn''t expect them to be chatting me. Scrolling on the messages, all of them are sent to me 1 month ago! "What are they chatting me last month? Hey, Blue! You didn''t tell me about this. I thought you are the spirit of the phone and you are connected to this Chat group?" "I am indeed. However, it is not my duty to open personal messages of other people. You will definitely be angry if I do so. You are free to open and check the messages right now. Those guys will surely undestand if you explain the things. Don''t be rude to them since they are much stronger than you. Provoking them will only nail the death sentence on your forehead." "Alright," I sighed and opened the messages one by one. Thankfully, all of them are just words of appreciation and thanks for the sealing I made that time and they acknowledge me as a respectable magician. They also expressed their willingness to help if ever I need something in trouble. Although that was all most of the contents of those messages sent to me, the moderator of the chat group that I chatted last time, Zacharias also sent me a message different from the messages sent by the others. ... Zacharias: I am quite aware on how you managed to use a forbidden magic to seal the rift that separates the real world and the abyss. Although we don''t condone the use of forbidden magic due to how dangerous it was to use, we decided to turn a blind eye on this matter since you also did the right thing. However, we wanted to inform you that we don''t want you to use the dark magic once again. We already helped you cleanse a little bit of your curses after using the forbidden magic and thanks to Inari-sama, your familiar who helped remove most of it, you managed to survive. If you read this, remember that you should never use that skill again. Your body will deteriorate in a faster rate if you continue to do this. The forbidden magic that Zacharias mentioned must be the magic spell I used to forcefully seal the rift that the demons used to call the one they call "Shadow". I can''t forget that moment because it was the most painful experience I did that almost killed me. I don''t plan to use that spell again to avoid myself from dying. Since Zacharias mentioned those forbidden magic, there must be other magic that has similar attributes that causes harm to the user. Since it has been a month, I decided not to respond to the messages. After closing the messages, I head straight to the chat group. As usual, it is a rowdy chat. I have seen lots of new magicians than the usual line up of magicians though the usual guys are still in there. Since many of them are already my acquaintances, I decided to hop in along with the conversation. ... Chat Killer: Is anyone still here? Tsukoyomi: Hey, newbie. Welcome back, so you finally have time to chat here again? Zan: You can''t blame him, there were so many troubles involving before around him so there is no time for him to even chat. Yukizome: This is the first time I have seen @Chat Killer before, is he a newbie? Tsugimoto: @Yukizome, he is technically new but he is also not a real newbie due to how many things he have already performed. He is already considered as a senior magician. ("I didn''t expect the senior magicians also call me a senior magician. Does all of the feats I have done can consider me as a senior magician?) Truck-kun: If he is not well known, then how the hell you call him as senior magician? That is just unfair to us who are more gifted in using magic! Chat Killer: Don''t worry, I am not a senior magician. Zan: No, man. You have been already become one of the seniors. Even Voltaire acknowledged that. Yukizome: Even Voltaire-sensei?! Oppai is life: If that guy is not female, I don''t care. Mr.Bruhzone: Seriously @Oppai is life?! Can you change your ways in being a lecherous being? If there is a hole, there is a way! (Oppai is life has been muted for 1 week: Reason: Find someone who cares) (Mr. Bruhzone has been muted for 1 week and 2 days: Reason: You are much lecherous than Oppai is life) Catmod: Ah, yes. The mute hammer has finally release its fury after @Raigaki''s inactive status due to his injuries and recovery status. Chat Killer: @Catmod, is Raigaki and Yaya still fine already from their wounds? Tsukoyomi: Don''t worry about them. Although Yaya is now blind, she can still do her work properly. Raigaki still needs to calm quite a bit before he can be released again. His first seal is broken after all. Catmod: You have seen those guys, they are resilient enough @Chat Killer to survive. And they are strong people, you don''t have to worry much on them. However, the mission is still underway. Since Titan and you are the only one who are still capable of finishing the capturing of the enemy, we willissue a new mission to the two of you to catch the enemy. The previous mission will be immediately completed and we will sent the rewards to your house later. Yukizome: A mission? Chat Killer: Is this still related to the woman who escaped? Catmod: Yes. If I am correct, that person is one of the commanders leading the magicians who can use magic but using them to cause chaos in real world. They are identified as the members of the Cult of Light. Chapter 145: Bonding Time I spent the whole morning chatting with the other guys in the chat group. When I looked into the clock hanging on my wall, I didn''t expect to see it very late. I also realized that I have not eaten anything for breakfast. It is already lunch time, no wonder I am already too hungry. "Damn, I am too absorbed on chatting I didn''t even get to eat anything." "You really don''t need the need to eat much food right now, Kazuma. Although you are hungry, you can just direct your mana flow and help yourself alleviate the hunger," Blue said. "Even that is the case, nothing can beat eating the real food. Besides, there is no harm if you eat food even though you can survive without eating one," I answered. Since Anya did not even call me, it must be that she and Maple went to eat outside. After doing stretching, I change my clothes and go downstairs. And as expected, I saw a note on the table with food that has gone cold. [Sorry about this Kazuma. We didn''t want to disturb you so went and eat already outside. Also, we won''t be here until 2 in the afternoon. We will be shopping for clothes. Don''t worry about the expenses, everything will be on my tab.] I can''t believe that I got too absorbed on the chat. That only proves that I really need some relaxation time. ... Around 2 in the afternoon, Maple and Anya arrived carrying shopping bags. Looks like it was the right decision to stay in my room the entire morning or else I am quite sure, I am the one who will be carrying those heavy-looking bags. I am not a gentleman and besides, shopping with girls can be disastrous to the people carrying whatever they have bought. It is quite scary especially during the time they will move to shopping spree. "Good afternoon, Kazuma. I am sorry for taking Anya to shopping without your consent. You were busy upstairs so we didn''t bother to disturb you," Maple said. "Nah, don''t worry about it. Anyways, did you have fun, Anya?" "Yep, it was the first time I have ever experienced things like that so I am so excited. You should come with us next time!" Anya said with an enthusiasm on her face. "Ah-hahaha... Yeah, next time...indeed." "I will be going home Kazuma, I still have to train myself for the upcoming mission. I will return here once the mission will commence." "Alright. I also need to start my preparations too." Anya left via teleportation since she carries too many shopping bags. It will be convenient for me to learn teleportation but it is not yet time. I won''t be needing teleportation yet but I will reconsider that soon. I faced Anya and decided to ask her on going with me to the G.A.T.E.S. "Have you been training your dragon powers Anya?" I asked. "My dragon powers? No, I haven''t done anything yet." "Huh? Why? Isn''t it a necessity for a dragonfolk to constantly remain strong?" "That was indeed true. However, since I arrived in the human world, I am afraid if I wreck havoc here since I am a dragon. I have seen in television and many manga that I have read that humans slay dragons that are destroying properties. If I destroy something, people will start to kill me." She was right. A dragon has too much destructive power to begin with and if she wanted to practice her power in this place, chaos will ensue. She can either wreck havoc on Mirror World but it is unnecessary. "Want to practice your abilities then? You can freely release your full power in there and you won''t worry about destroying things in there. What do you say? I won''t force you though." "A place where I can release my full power? Is there a place like that except in the Phantasmal World?" "There is. Also, the magicians will be grateful too if you do an attack in there." "..." Anya fell into a deep thought. "You don''t have to force yourself if-" "I will go!" "OH?" "Yes, I will be going. My powers has been getting stale and if I continue to stay idle, I might trouble myself when the time comes that I needed to fight." "Then that settles it. Let''s go on that place around dusk. That place opens up at dusk time." ... Dusk came and the sun is setting in the horizon. As the sun begins to set and paint the sky in orange tinge, we arrived on the field. "Is this the place?" Anya asked as she looked around. "Not yet." In a few seconds, the whole surroundings once again got covered in malice and dark energy. The big portal also opened up. Anya insinctively cling to my side as soon as she see the G.A.T.E.S'' portal. "What is going on?" Anya is confused. "That portal is the place we will be entering. Be ready once we go in." The portal fluctuates a little bit but it didn''t last that much and it begins to settle down, which means it is now safe to enter the place an begin a battle. ''Let''s get inside," I said and led Anya inside. When we arrived, it looks like the whole school that is present in this place has grown a bit bigger than usual. The place is also darker than the last time I was here with Godou. Did this one gained a lot more negative energy to become like this? I don''t think I know how the G.A.T.E.S are formed but if that is really the case, that is the only explanation why this place has become more sinister than usual. "Where are we?" Anya asked as she wander her eyes around the dark surroundings. "This is what we call the G.A.T.E.S. It was spelled with a dot in every letter so I guess there might be some meaning behind it or it was just like that to classify the meaning of this place rather than mistaking the word for a real gate used in houses. Anyway, this place is where all the malices and darkness of the real world gather. According to what I know, all of the negative things that has been happening in the world will gather up in a place to make a place that will give birth to the drearest place, made from the negative emotion of people." "I can sense other beings here, are they the natural inhabitants here?" "You can say that way. But from my perspective, they were created here rather than living here. After all, they don''t exist like real creatures but rather, grotesque beings that seemed to came from nightmares." "So canI unleash everything here?" "Of course. But make sure to unleash it when those guys appear and try to attack us, got it?" Anya smiled and her skin started to grow some scales though not all part of her is covered in scales. More like some parts were covered. Her black horns also started to grow as she slowly transforms into a dragon. Chapter 146: Anyas Power She didn''t transform into a full dragon but she only have some features that you can tell she was a dragon. She grew horns, tail, and even wings. All of the features that appeared on her body that is dragonlike are all colored white except for the horns that are both color black. It was a cool transformation. If she is already an adult, she can fully transform into a dragon if she wanted to. Just to be safe, I summoned Yuri and Yuto out of the field. The more people we have on the battle, the better it is due to how the last time we are all still full of openings. I wanted to avoid things like that. I asked Inari-sama to be the support and to avoid the enemies from pulling off the area due to her radiance, I decided to just let her use her magic on us and can still communicate to me. "Let''s get inside the twisted labyrinth and check the entities inside this realm, shall we?" Anya nodded and from the look on her face, she looks so excited. She is ready to go to rumble anytime. Just as we reach the outside of the building and was about to enter the entrance, the monsters appeared and they have already been looking creepy. The good thing is that, they started to attack us blindly. Before the enemies can even touch us, they already showed plenty of openings, allowing me to quickly make my decision. Without bothering to say anything, I snap my fingers and light electric shocks immediately sent the attacking enemies to temporary paralysis. "Anya!" "Leave it to me!" Like a wolf hunting for its prey, Anya moved with precision, not even bothering to leave any unnecessary movements. Stretching out her claws, ready to shred the enemies to pieces. SWISH SWISH SWISH Before the paralysis disappear, the monsters that got paralyzed no longer possess the life essences as Anya shred them all to pieces in just a few seconds. "Extermination complete." I clapped my hands after that marvelous attack. Her speed is totally fast that I can only see some glimpses when she started moving. "Don''t waste too much energy, Anya.There are still many enemies inside so we shouldn''t necessarily waste it too much in one enemy. Let''s conserve our power until something worthy will appear." "No worries. I won''t just release all my abilities in one go just for attacking enemies with a lowly form. Let''s get inside. My instincts is returning." As expected from the daughter of an actual dragon. Even though Anya looks so innocent, the blood flowing in her veins is that of a pure dragon. She can do things normal humans can''t do and one of the obvious is her transformation. If she can utilize it more, she will be as powerful as her father. Entering the door of the twisted school, I noticed many differences from before. The interior of the school is much brighter than expected, but this time, there are some blotches of violet masses of unknown material. Aside from that, there are some mannequin parts, scattered on the floor. It was similar to the mannequins in malls but I am not sure about the feeling that something is wrong with those things but since I can''t pinpoint it, I decided to ignore it for now. The hallways this time are also very different. It was like it has been refurnished, only with the violet blotches that seemed to be almost all around the place, making it disgusting than a dirty toilet. "Brother, I sensed a lot of movement ahead of us. Should I engage?" "Let me handle it a little bit. Yuto, Yuri, look into our blindsides. We can''t afford getting hit here." "Yes, Master!" the two enthusiastically said. "Once I have done my bit, you can go attack it, sounds good?" "Let''s do some alternating then!" Anya said. "Alright then." I snap my fingers again and this time around, flames appeared on my hands. Unlike before, the black flames are quite emposing since it is black. And yes, this is already something that can be considered as a real emposing factor in the flames. "Time to clean up some mess." Throwing fireballs work properly here but after the practice, I find the throwing fireballs to the enemies quite boring. Although it is not really an unnecessary thing, I wanted a little bit of thrill. I didn''t bring the Skull Knuckles but I am using my bare hands which is now imbued with flames. Books that is already a living thing here released its tongue to wrap around me but I didn''t let it catch me, instead, I catch the tongue of the book and without batting an eye, I punched it hard that the book crumbled, leaving the monster shards which I quickly collected. "That''s one." "Two." "Three." "Four" ... "Ninety-nine." The last attacker died after my punch landed on the rough pages of the book. I was waiting for the 100 th book to kill, Anya approached me. "No more hostiles in this floor, I think we have cleared all the dangers in this place immediately." Hearing Anya''s report, I sighed and cancelled the flames in my hands. "If the monsters here are dead and no more hostile left, I think we can now proceed without restriction to the second floor." "Have you visited the second floor brother?" "Nope. And using my Insight does not work either to map out the second floor." Even though my Mana Scan has been upgraded to Insight, the force that stops me from seeing the interior of the second floor is still too strong for me to break. It was quite troublesome because you cannot choose to fight preemptively and prepare on what will happen on the second floor. "If you can''t see what is beyond the second floor, I will try my Dragon Senses if it will work," Anya said. She closed her eyes for a little bit before she opens it. I noticed that her blue eyes before has now turned into red and her pupils disappeared. She maintained that look for 1 minute until she stopped and quickly took a deep breath after. Sweat trickles on her face which means it was too much effort for her to activate it. "What is the result?" "I tried breaking through the second floor or try different method to check the second floor but it was impossible. The force that seems to prohibit any kind of peeping magic does not work at all," Anya said. So even the Dragon Senses are not enough. To think Godou evaluated this as a low leveled portal. This is clearly an A rank portal and not just some low ranked portal. Chapter 147: Second Floor The second floor of this twisted school is quite mysterious. Aside from the barrier that blocks any kind of mapping and peeking magic, nothing else can penetrate it. Not only that, it seems like it has something hidden that caused me to be wary on ascending to the second floor. Although our purpose here is to train and let Anya do her thing, the fear of the unknown made me anxious. Making our way to the stairway that will lead us to the second floor, I realized the violet blobs on the floor and walls are increasing time and time again. It was like it is slowly increasing as time goes by. I don''t really know but I am a little bit worried on what these things are. I don''t even dare approach or touch it. I also tested it with magic and it didn''t even graze it which is what made me frown. Yuto, Yuri and Inari-sama also have no idea what these things are. It might be normal for Inari-sama but it was weird for Yuto and Yuri since they are living inside a G.A.T.E.S for quite some time and they never didn''t have a slightest idea what these things are. Since I have no knowledge about these blotches scattered on the walls and floor, I decided to ask the magicians in the chat group for any sort of info about it. ... Chat Killer: Hey guys, can you identify what these things are? It kinda creeps me out and I wanted to know if these things are. Chat Killer: (Photo of the blotches) Yagyu: Hmm...I don''t think I have seen these kind of thing ever in my life. Sorry I can''t help. Rena: What the heck are those? Some kind of slime? No, I don''t think they look like one. Tsugimoto: Ugh... so disgusting... Zan: Someone''s cursed cooking spilled on the floor, I guess? Yukizome: Can''t unsee that sh*t... Truck-kun: Looks like a vomit to me or some sort of weird bubblegum. Catmod: Where did you even capture this disgusting object? Voltaire: Just by looking at it made me want to vomit. ... Their responses are normal but all of them are not sure what this thing is. I don''t have any other choice and I even asked Blue and allowed her to scan it but... "This is an unknown object to me and there is nothing in my database about it. I can''t help you on it." Due to Blue''s response, I am now more suspicious on it. But I didn''t have any arsenal with me that can help with this thing. I don''t want Anya to test this one either so I have to be patient.When we arrived the stairwell to second floor, the sinister aura in the air is getting really heavy from the direction of the second floor. "Should we proceed brother?" Anya asked. I hesitated at first but since I wanted to know what those violet blotches, I decided to keep going. "Let''s continue." ... When we reach the second floor, I didn''t expect it to covet the appearance of the school ground. Grasses, flowers, and lamposts, those are all present in the second floor. Even the iconic fountain located in the center of the campus is also present. However, this time around, instead of green, it was all color grey and white. The only different color you can see here is the violet color of the blotches. Compared to the amount of blotches on the first floor, the second floor has fewer of those things. "I detected a lot of enemies hiding in plain sight brother. How should we take them all out?" "I will trigger them out, then you can do your work, how does that sound?" "Doesn''t really matter, as long as those monsters will be removed out of my sight." "Alright, wait for a bit, this can get loud." SNAP! CRACKLE! Lightning fell to the sky rapidly and quickly revealed the location of the enemies. Didn''t expect the enemies are all statues. The statues present in our school that represent all of the previous principal. Now they are monsters ready to attack. To think they will do some ambush? As for the skill I used, that was just the normal [Lightning Strike] I managed to master. "Alright, you can do your job now. Go and release your stress." Anya grinned and she flap her wings, allowing her to fly. She waves her hands lightly and I can clearly see in my position the red pillars appearing one by one on the monsters that popped out after I released my Lightning Strike. The moment the pillars appear on the monster, howls and growls of the monsters started to rang out one by one. Anya continue her actions without stopping and the howls continue. Around 30 minutes later, Anya slowly descend from the sky and sighed in relief. "I never expected to see so many monsters to kill. I can''t even kill them fast enough due to their numbers, I am quite exhausted..." Anya wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Good job, rest here for a while, I will go and collect the shards. Don''t force yourself too much okay?" "Mmm, don''t worry about me." I ordered Yuri and Yuto to guard her for any enemy nearby while I am away from her. I don''t think I can trust what the G.A.T.E.S have for me to allow Anya to rest while in this place. As for the shards, although they are small and hard to see in this wide place, I already made sure that there are markings on where they will be after striking the monsters using my lightning strikes. It was one of the perks I managed to learn after getting to master the skill in the training ground. "Oh, these shards are looking great! They seemed to be brimming with energy that can be used!" Blue said as I pick up one of the shards and examined it. "I don''t think there it is any difference from the usual monster shards that I managed to collect last time?" "You are still a newbie in terms of identifying precious shards. The quality of these shards that you have collected are quite superior than the ones you have collected previously. So be sure to collect as much as possible. You can use 50 of these shards to activate the training space instead of 100 as long as the shards has the same quality as these." "Oh? So I can save a lot if I use these kinds of shards? Hmmm, I don''t think that is the case... I think you are scamming me instead." Chapter 148: The Blotches All the shards that I have collected are all high quality and even though I am not convinced, I can use 50 shards with this quality to open the training space instead of 100 shards. I am not so familiar with the shards but I feel like the fee is scam. Not really sure about that but lets just ignore it for now. The monsters that were killed by Anya were all cleanly killed. There is no chance for them to even stand again due to how they ended up being in pieces. It took a while collecting the shards but I managed to collect them all from the places the monsters were hiding. When I returned, Anya is currently poking one of the blotches on the floor. Good thing she is poking it with a stick, not directly through her hands. When she saw me approaching, she stopped doing it and stood up. "You are back brother. I am just curious about these blotches on the floor. They felt like they are alive and whenever I poke them, they try to fight back." "They fight back?" I frowned. "It was quite a weird thing. It felt gelatinous but it also feel like they are made from rubber. I have never seen this kind of material before even in the Phantasmal Reality." "Let''s just ignore that for now. I am not sure about it for now butI hope they don''t do much. They have been around the place since the first floor. Let''s go and ascend to the third floor. We have to finish clearing this G.A.T.E.S before dinnertime." We continue to our destination but I can''t help but look at the blotches that was poked by Anya earlier. Just what the heck are those? ... As usual, we tried probing to the third floor using our abilities that can scan the surroundings but just like how it happened in the first floor, it still didn''t work. "We still have to personally went inside again huh? Is there some kind of rule that prohibits us from probing further?" I scratch my head as I stare to the stairwell. "It might be a gimmick of this place. I heard from Father that things like the anti-probing magic or equipment are always placed to places where treasures and other things are present." "Treasure huh? I don''t think that is the case here inside the G.A.T.E.S. As far as I can tell, treasures do not exist in this plane. I think it was more like a prohibition teaser or something." Probing the place would be really good as I can plan preemptively if whether it is fine to proceed or not. "Are you tired already, Anya? We can postpone the exploration and proceed to the next floor in the next few days. What do you say?" "Hmmm, I am a bit tired and I wanted to rest for a while. If we can return here again the next time you are free, then we should go back. I also felt a little bit hungry." "Haha, alright then. We should make our way back to the ground floor." With that decision, we made our way back to the stairwell that connects the ground floor and the second floor. However, what appeared before us is a blocked entranced covered with the same disgusting blotches I am trying to figure out. There is no more exit that will lead us to the ground floor since all the gaps that is present evidence that the second and ground floors are connected is now sealed with these disgusting blotches. "It''s blocked?! I clearly saw earlier that its not blocked!" Yuri inspected the blotches on the floor. "Don''t touch it Yuri, you can just look at it but don''t touch it. We can''t afford to do careless things on what these things are." "Master, how about we teleport outside then? You came from the outside so it should be possible for us to teleport out of here," Yuto suggested. "That might work. Start the channeling process." "Alright." Yuto clasped his hands together and started to channel his mana to perform the teleportation. However, I realized the problem. The teleportation process cannot be performed at all. First of all, the mana that Yuto uses to channel and open a teleportation gate seems to be blocked by an unkown force. The magic circle that should have appeared does not take form at all. In the end, Yuto stopped his chant to channel the mana. "I''m sorry master but it seems like something is forcing my mana to stop before connecting the connection to complete the teleportation process. It was like I was cut off to the other end of my portal." "Is there any other way to reconnect?" I asked. "I tried to do so in several attempts but it was forcefully blocked." "Don''t force yourself. You will end up wasting your mana instead." This didn''t happen when I came here with Godou. Of course, it might not be a good situation to compare since we all just settled on the ground floor before we return to the real world after Godou''s phobia kicked in. Our problem now is how to get out of this place. Although I already tried blasting several magic attacks on these weird blotches before, it was a clear answer that these weird things can absorb magic. Since my magic disappears after it gets into contact with the weird blotches, I immediately assumed that these things has an ability to absorb magic. I tried kicking it since I am wearing shoes. I already practiced my kicks that has an applied mana to amplify the strength of my kicks so I know I can deal lots of damage in just a single kick. But my expectations were also ruined. As soon as my kick landed, a strong force seemed to retaliate on my kick. It was strong enough that I was sent flying from it. I was surprised but I quickly kept my cool and landed to the ground without hurting myself in the process. "Brother! Are you all right?" Anya flies towards my location followed by Yuri and Yuto. "No worries, I am fine." "So my description about those things are real! They do fight back!" Anya said. "I don''t think so," I quickly disagreed. "Huh? Why?" "From the way the force hit me, I immediately realized what this thing can do. It can absorb magic and reflect physical attacks. You can say it is the perfect barrier against us magicians and those specializing in physical attack enhancements." Chapter 149: Trapped "Reflect and absorb?" Anya was confused by my words. "In simple terms, if I throw a magic spell, it will be absorbed and it will never be released to perform its effect. If I throw a physical attack instead, I will receive the full force of the physical attack I released." "So then, that force earlier that caused you to be sent flying..." Yuri looked at me with shock. "Yes. That was the power I released on kicking that blotches. If I am not careful enough, my left feet that I used to kick earlier would have been destroyed due to the reflection attack I received. My leg would be a gone." Everyone gasped when they heard it. I shook my head and calmly assess the situation. Seeing this barrier, means we cannot escape here and since attacking it with any means is useless, we cannot continue to return from the way we came from. This sense has similar mechanics to those dungeon crawler games I have played before. If this was similar to a dungeon crawler mechanics, then the only way to get out of here is to find a special item to escape or kill the leader monster or boss monster. "If we can''t backtrack, we can only move forward." Anya sighed. From the looks of it, she wanted to go home and rest but due to the unforeseen circumstances, it turned out this way. "I am sorry about this, Anya. I have no idea that this will happen and will trap us here. If I did, I would have not brought you here." "No worries brother. In fact, I am satisfied by this. Ever since we left the Phantasmal Reality, my instincts in hunting seemed to get rusty. And since this realm is much more peaceful compared to the situation inside the Phantasmal Reality, I have no chance to improve my abilities. So when you proposed that we will be going to a chaotic area, I immediately agreed. So no need to apologize. We are in this together and we will finish this together." "Heh, alright, lets get ourselves on the move. We need to move faster or else, we will miss dinner." "Got it, brother." ... Since the situation has changed, we decided that we will be clearing the floors properly. Although I am not sure how tall this twisted school has and how many floors it possess, I don''t think it was infinite. Our first task is to find a way to escape the place and get out of the G.A.T.E.S and return to the real world. The second one is to clear the place and kill all the enemies that blocks our ways. To quickly finish our dileema, we have no choice but to climb up the third floor. If we wanted to escape this place as soon as possible, we will have to act like this was really a dungeon crawler game. I didn''t know this much on G.A.T.E.S so before we proceed, I decided to ask the experts on G.A.T.E.S on information regarding this. The magicians in the chat group. ... Chat Killer: I have an urgent question I wanted to ask, can you give me a hand if you know the solution? Zan: Urgent? Can you enlighten us? Chat Killer: We have come across a G.A.T.E.S and we decided to explore it. Titan and I explored the ground floor but we didn''t managed to finish it since we didn''t prepare much. I got the permission of Titan to explore it again if I wanted to. I decided to explore with my adopted dragon daughter this place and currently, we are in the second floor. We wanted to retire and return in the meantime for dinner but we found out we can''t escape after our means to return to the ground floor and to the outside is blocked off by something that can absorb magic and can repel physical attacks. Is there a way for us to return safely? Catmod: If you can''t get out, have you tried teleporting? I heard the incubus familiar of yours has the ability to do so. Chat Killer: We did but we can''t perform it due to how his mana is purposely cut off once he starts channelling mana to supply on our Teleportation. Yukizome: You are inside a G.A.T.E.S that can trap someone from leaving? Is there anything you can say to us regarding it? Chat Killer: Aside from our blocked exit, we can''t see how many floors this place possess and we also have no idea how to see what the next floor looks like. Everything is vague. Zan: That is quite strange indeed. In my entire time of exploring ancient catacombs and G.A.T.E.S, I never heard of a portal that can trap the people entering it from leaving. Voltaire: But can you proceed further into the next floor? Chat Killer: Yes, we can still go further ahead. Voltaire: If that is the case, go continue to the next floor and find any clues, items or devices that can help you return to the ground floor. In the meantime, we will be investigating this matter to make sure everything will be alright. Also, can you tell me the rating of the G.A.T.E.S you entered right now? Chat Killer: It was stated by Titan that this place was rated as a low ranked one. However, I don''t think it will remain low seeing the situation happening. There are also big monsters strong enough to kill other people easily that are not meant to be seen in low ranking G.A.T.E.S such as this. That is why, I wanted to reevalute this place as a medium ranked one. Yukizome: Medium? Chat Killer: The enemies are not that hard for experts and already has experience. Those guys who are still practicing, will surely have small chances surviving. I don''t think it was impossible to kill the enemies, they are just strong and has to be handled by experienced ones to take them down. Voltaire: We will be sending help in there in case the two of you so if possible, you guys find a way to escape. You stay in touch with us for developments in there so that we can assess the situation. We will also ask for Titan''s cooperation since he has more knowledge about it. Catmod: Be careful out there. We don''t know the real nature of this particular G.A.T.E.S so we might be wrong in assumption but if things is now getting out of hand, don''t forget to run. Escaping will certainly help you out. Don''t just take every single thing head-on. Rena: Good luck out there. Don''t be too hasty and keep yourself uninjured. Also, don''t die. Stay in touch. We will be glad to help immediately if needed. Chat Killer: Understood. ... After our conversation in the chat, we proceed to the stairwell that will lead us to the third floor. I don''t want things like this to happen but now, it is now or never. "Let''s proceed." ... As Kazuma and the others proceed to climb the stairwell, on the very top floor of the labyrinth that Kazuma and the others dwell, a monster that has the air of danger slowly awaken from his long slumber. The awakening of this particular monster will spark the trouble that will soon engulf the normal humans, the magicians and the demons into a spiral of chaos and darkness. Chapter 150: The Third Floor Our arrival to the third floor marks the situation different this time around. We are now in a place where the surroundings resemble the gymnasium. Another thing to note are the gym equipment scatterred on the altered hallways. There are too many basketballs, volleyballs, tennis balls, and some baseball bats along with other things commonly used during P.E. Not only that, while the hallway is darker compared to the first two floors, and there is the constant sound of balls bouncing on the floor, making this place a lot more creepier than the rest. Of course, the violet blotches is also present. "What is that sound?" Anya looked around the hallway to see the source but failed to find where it was. "Don''t bother finding it. It is more likely the work of the monsters here." "But there are no monsters around at the moment. I can''t detect any in our vicinity..." "But that doesn''t mean the enemies are not around lurking. Just don''t let your guard down." Proceeding the dark hallway that is a twisted version of the gymnasium, we tread with great caution. After all, the enemies are lurking in the dark and waiting for us as their unsuspecting prey. Every step we make greatly unsettles me due to how just a single step from our shoes will create a loud echo. Even the slight footstep is enough to cause a loud ruckus. "Master, I can feel entities staring at us. However, I can''t pinpoint their actual location," Yuto said. "Yuri, can you attract them to come out? That way, we can avoid ambushes in the dark." "I will try, Master," Yuri clasped her hands and started chanting the lure spell. The only thing is that... no one came. "That''s odd, the enemies are resilient and immune to my lures! I even tried using some charm magic to enhance the chances!" "It''s alright Yuri, you did great, rest a little bit and recover your mana," I said and focused myself around. Mapping the place is a little bit harder than the previous two floors. If the two floors will immediately show the whole place''s layout, the third floor is the opposite and only shows the parts where we passed by. The rest of the place where we have not explored will just remain black to my Insight ability. It was quite a hurdle even for me since we cannot immediately find the stairwell that will lead to the next floor, if there is ever one here. Though I am hoping this is the last floor and the solution to the blocked exits will be released. Just as we are on the next turn on the alley, I felt my scalp tingle and without any hesitation, I cast a quick fireball and throw it to the direction in the darkness. BANG! SKREEEEEE!!! A shriek came from the direction I throw the black fireball in. I was able to luckily strike the monster trying to attack us in the darkness. However, that doesn''t mean we already managed to get out of the monster whom I just hit. The fireball is not enough to burn a monster to cinders immediately but that was enough to cause a severe burn if an enemy was hit by it. "Get ready everyone!" Rumble started to shake the hallway and the bouncing ball sounds started to get really strong that you might mistake the rumbling sounds as earthquake but that is impossible here according to Godou after asking him last time. That means only one thing, this rumbling is caused by a monster. Slowly, the one causing the rumbling sound is a very big monster. No, he looks more like a muscle man than a monster usually seen in any stories I have seen. This guy looked similar to a guy who drunk a whole factory of protein and continue his exercises without stopping for a whole year. He is so BUFF. The veins are popping out on his muscles and the muscles no longer looked like muscles, they looked like rocks disguised as muscles. It looks disgusting and even a buff person who usually goes to gym will never want to become this buff. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!" Without any warning, it punched the ground, causing a strong shockwave occur and destroying floor. There is no point tanking that attack. Before the shock wave can even reach us and convert our surroundings to rubble, I ordered everyone to fall back and to make sure that we won''t get caught by the shock wave, I erected the Domain of Balmung. The Domain of Balmung is also mastered this time. Before, the shields I can erect at that time is the thinnest shields of the Domain of Balmung. Since the Domain of Balmung is specialized to defend from the attacks of dragons, anything below the dragon''s strength will be blocked without any problem. My shield before was fairly brittle and will easily be broken but after practicing it for 10 years, I managed to grasp the difficulty of putting the right thickness of the Domain of Balmung in the right time. Anyways, back to the situation. The protein madman is proceeding to pound the floor like it was pounding dirt. Every pound will release quite a troublesome shockwave that immediately tears down the floor to rubble. Thankfully, the rubble immediately disappear and the floor that was destroyed quickly "repairs" itself, returning to its former look. However, this is not the time to be admiring the floor''s self repair power, we have a bigger problem chasing us down. "Yuri, can you charm this monster down?! We have to deal with it quickly!" "I will try, Master!" Yuri made her cute pose to charm the monster, releasing a pink heart full of charm gases that any monster will be immediately charmed... but... "Eehhh!? This is the second time it got deflected! How come these monster is not charmed at all?! Even golems do not fair well with my charm magic!" "GRAAAAAAHHHHHH GOOOOOOOOO!!!!" "Can you destroy that monster, Anya?!" I asked. "Brother, that is beyond the scope of what I can do. Also, I don''t want to deal with a naked old guy with a muscular body! That is disgusting!" Chapter 151: Protein Madman We ended up running all around the place after being chased by the protein madman. Despite how heavy he looks like, he was so agile and he can run like an athlete. I have to carry Anya to make sure we can get away from the monster. The good thing so far is that no other monsters are trying to kill us when we run around the hallways. Except for this monster, not a single monster is currently blocking our way. It was quite troublesome for me to fight smaller monsters just to escape this abomination. Thankfully, I don''t have to do that and just continue to outrun this monster. And thanks to me running around from the protein madman, I managed to cover the whole area and map it to my Insight. Still, this madman is just fast enough to keep up with me. I can''t believe that even with my full speed of running by enforcing mana to my legs is not enough to outrun this abomination. I even tried releasing some traps like some electric shockwaves to paralyze the enemy but that didn''t do a thing, it just stepped on them like it was some mere pebble. I am quite sure it can shock and paralyze an adult human for 5 days and a few minutes if it is a magician or a monster. But to ignore the effects just transcends it. "Is that guy still chasing us?!" "Yes brother, that guy is still a few steps away from you but if it speeds up a little bit, it will catch up to us," Anya said as she looked behind me with disgust. My legs might no longer hurt from running and I can now run without stopping for a few hours but having a monster chase you is just too much. Certainly, outrunning this guy is no longer possible. Fighting this guy head-on is the only thing I can do. "We will stop running, we will fight." "Can we win?!" Anya almost panicked. "We have to win." ... We ran around in circles for quite a while. I also made sure everywhere is fully documented in my insight so that I can find a suitable place to start the battle against this protein madman. Around 7 minutes later, the whole place has been fully explored. I even managed to locate the stairwell and just like the other stairwell, it leads to another floor. And after mapping the whole place, the only place with the biggest space to cause a fight without being caught in walls is the space around the stairwell. The area around the stairs is pretty spacious and will be good enough to deal with the enemy. I am just hoping this monster will go down immediately but I know things won''t be that easy. "ROOOOAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!" "Brother! He is closing in the gap we have with him!" This enemy is quite persistent. To think it will increase its running speed just to catch up to me. What a monster... but I don''t believe it can''t die. Death will always be an inevitable outcome and even if you have been living for how many years, in the very end, you will still die. Of course, I refuse to die so early. I have not seen my children and my future wife yet. The protein madman is just behind my back, and I can tell that the monster is ready to squish me and Anya. However, I refuse that to happen! "Hold tight Anya! We are going full burst away from this guy!" Anya did not hesitate to cling to my neck. Having her secured in her place, I made a rash move. "WATER TORRENT!" Opening my palm and face it to my back, I released a torrent of water made from my mana and blast forward, leaving behind the monster due to the water pressure. It was not a planned move. I just made it like that to make sure we can get our distance off from the protein madman. With the help of [Water Torrent], our distance with the protein madman increased. BOOOOOMMM! The madman smashed the floor creating a wreck. If we are caught in that, I can''t imagine what will happen to us. Finally, we arrived in the stairwell area. "This is where we will be confronting that monster. Support me from the distance, Anya, make sure you hit that bastard some range magic skills." "Alright Brother," Anya said and flew not too far. "Yuri, Yuto, you also support me by disrupting the monster''s movements. Try to slow him down as long as possible." "Roger!" the two nodded. I looked at my hands and touch the Skull Knuckles. Although I wanted to use the ability to instantly kill the monster by using this, I don''t want to increase its bloodlust a lot more. The more I try to use its ability, the harder it will be to control the Skull Knuckles and I might go berserk by this. "It''s now or never. Kill or be killed." "ROAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!" The protein madman appeared on sight and still as angry as ever. "Do you want some advice to defeat that monster Kazuma? I have already scanned it and managed to pinpoint its weakness." "You already did?" I was surprised. Blue has done something I usually order her to do. Now, she just did it of her own volition. Still, every method to defeat this monster as soon as possible is welcome. "Give me the details!" "Hit the head and the crotch with any kind of attacks always. For some reason, the crotch has the weakest defense of all the body parts of this monster. You won''t be able to damage him much if you didn''t hit those two places." "The crotch?!" "It is one of his weaknesses. Once he lost the battle, not only he will lose the ability to fight but he will also be killed. Just hit him hard as always and he will never rise back up again." I shook my head hearing the weakness. Why the crotch? I don''t even see the genitalia of this monster and now I have to hit it properly?! As for the head, it is too risky, so the crotch part is the target of the magic. Without looking at it, I operated and release my magic to the crotch. Who cares if this is your sensitive area. But I will make sure this bastard will never rise back again. Chapter 152: Fight Back It was the testing time. After releasing the magic skill towards the protein madman''s crotch, I found out what Blue said is true. When I attack him in random places except for the crotch and head, the attack seems to be not connecting at all. While if I hit the protein madman on the head he will be stunned briefly while hitting the crotch, resulting in Protein Madman staggering. "See? You just wasted a few hours of running around being chased by this guy. You can just have this guy beaten to death from his head and crotch." Although this was a shameful weakness, I made sure to exploit it. Every time the madman is stunned, I will immediately inflict a heavy magic attack on the crotch, sometimes, I use physical attacks too especially in the crotch. Kicking the nonexistent balls, I slowly beat up the madman to death. But then, while it was on the verge of death... "GRAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" It howled in pain as it screams. I retreated a little bit from the madman and continue to monitor the situation. I was too focused on this guy when Anya said something. "Brother! He is fusing his body with the Blotches!" I cursed inwardly but I have no choice about this one. The madman continues to howl but the blotches started to cover his body on it. If he fused with it, I am sure he will become invincible for me to defeat. While the situation is happening in front of my eyes, my hands wearing the Skull Knuckles started shaking. The bloodlust is slowly dripping in the knuckles and I can tell that it is hungry for blood. My eyes slowly started to dim and I can feel my body getting heavy. My thoughts also start to waver a little bit despite my control over it. "RIP...AND... TEAR!" I tried controlling myself but it was too heavy for me to ignore. The madman is almost covered by the blotches already. If I let it go, then, I am certain my death will be inevitable. Despite the force of the Skull Knuckles trying to control me, I slowly poured all my energy into my mind and push myself to move forward to the madman. "RIP AND TEAR!" BANG! It didn''t take a single second before the whole body of the monster exploded to pieces. It was so quick that before the blotches can even cover the whole body, the flesh of the madman exploded and separated itself from each other. The incoming blotches also stopped coming and those that are just about to attach itself to the madman fell to the ground without moving. But if that occurred and managed to kill the monster in one hit, the arm I used on hitting the monster madman guy also released a lot of blood as countless wounds appeared on the surface, causing me to bleed. "Brother!" Anya rush towards me when Yuri and Yuto stopped Anya. "Don''t come! We can''t afford to get close to master while he was under this situation!" Yuto said before dragging Anya away from me. I held my hand bleeding and kneel on the ground in pain. Although it was not as painful as the time I suffered on the Sealing magic I used back in the Phantasmal Reality, it is still painful and my energy is slowly being drained. My eyesight slowly dimmed and all I can hear are the voice of Yuri and Anya calling me as I slowly passed out. ... "Yo, did you have fun sleeping?" Opening my eyes, the face of the faceless guy who I met before in my consciousness appeared once again. "Huh? I passed out?" "You are stating the obvious Kazuma. Of course, you just passed out. I won''t be meeting you if you didn''t pass out, there is no way you would be visiting this place." "Bring me back," I said as I try to stand up. "That depends on your body. You have already done something like this before and now you go and repeat it. Are you sure you don''t want to destroy your body like this? Your lifestyle will slowly kill you to the bone you know?" "There is no choice." "There is a choice Kazuma. And you choose the easiest way out. Of course, I won''t blame you sinceeven your alter ego, myself, will choose what you choose because it would be too much effort and danger if you choose the other option." "You sure are annoying for an Alter Ego huh?" "I am you, and you are me, we are both and the same. I, myself, is born from you, the main body but that doesn''t mean that I won''t follow my way of living. I am not some sort of preprogrammed entity. I am myself. So if you call me annoying, I usually copy it from you." "...I can''t argue with that and I don''t care anymore." "Really huh? You don''t care anymore? Oh well, I don''t care either. But remember this, Kazuma. Things are just getting started. If I were you, you should wake up in the real world as soon as possible. With you here, I am getting annoyed for no reason," the alter ego said. "Then, get me out of here." "If you say so, then goodbye. Of course, you are welcome if you wanted to come back... Just remember, things are just beginning and the wheel of fate has just finished its first rotation. Don''t forget that, the real me," the alter ego said and snapped his fingers. And before I can react and say anything, I am falling into the deep abyss. ... "AAAHHHHH!" "Woah! Master?!" I paused and look around my surroundings. My confusion is swirling in my head that I didn''t know what is going on. "Ah, Master. Thank goodness you are now awake!" Yuri said as she sighed in relief. "Where are we, Yuri?" "We are back home, master. This is your room." "Huh? We managed to escape?" "Yes, master. When you collapsed, the other magicians who helped you before on the Phantasmal Reality arrived and escorted us out of the G.A.T.E.S" "What happened to the protein madman?" "Protein Madman?" Yuri is confused. "Ah... I mean the muscular monster that chased us around. "You killed it, remember?" My mind is a little foggy and I don''t think I remember anything much. But one thing is certain. We managed to escape. "Where is Anya? Is she alright?" When I asked Yuri this question, she stopped and looked away from me. "Anya... is currently unconscious right now..." Chapter 153: Another Mission "Anya... is currently unconscious right now..." Her words immediately sank into my mind. "What happened? What happened to Anya? Lead me to where she was!" I said and tried to go out of my bed when my left arm hurts. I just realized that the hand I used to punch the madman last time is my left hand. Seeing the bandages covering my arm and the pain I felt from it, there is no doubt that the damage that I received after using the ability of the Skull Knuckle caused this pain. "Master! Don''t rush yourself! You are still too weak to move!" "I am fine. Bring me to where Anya is." "Go back to bed, Kazuma. Your injury is bad so you need to recover. Don''t worry about Anya that much. We are taking care of her," a girl appeared in the doorway who is always carrying the bamboo sword on her back. "Akari? You are back?" I didn''t expect Moonlight to appear in my room again. She disappeared for quite a while so I was surprised to see her. "My father''s funeral just concluded yesterday so I came back. Who knew that things like this will occur all of a sudden? I missed a lot of actions lately." "I need to see Anya." "Rest in there dumbass, you should stop being so stubborn. We are ensuring Anya is fine. You can visit her for two days. Recuperate before going to meet her." Despite my complaints, there is nothing for me to do in my situation. Moonlight guarded the door and I can''t get out to sneak. I was forced to stay put on my bed for 2 days. Although I passed out inside the G.A.T.E.S, I didn''t undergo a coma this time around which means my injuries are not so serious compared to the sealing of the rift during the reclamation of the Phantasmal Reality. When 2 days passed by, I finally managed to recover fully from my injuries. The wounds on my left arm finally recovered. There is still some slight pain but it is not as bad as before. Moonlight inspected my wounds first before she smiled and nodded in satisfaction. "You have recovered fine and dandy. Not bad, considering how bad you looked during the time we found you on the S-ranked G.A.T.E.S." Moonlight''s words caused me to stop in my tracks. "Can you repeat what you just said?" "Oh, yeah. I forgot to inform you, the G.A.T.E.S in your school is now considered as an S-rank Gate. It was a very dangerous portal due to how big it was. You are considered lucky that you managed to survive on the third floor. The monster you just took down is one of the monsters we rate as A-rank monster present in G.A.T.E.S and it was one of the Gatekeepers. If you and Anya are not that strong, you guys might have been dead before you can reach the third floor so consider yourself very lucky." "If that is the case, are you guys closing down the school?" "No. It would be too weird if the school will shut down without anything going on right? Some people will try to dig up information and it will be troublesome to deal with it so we decided to keep someone to monitor the situation. Once we get back to school, you can see the new rules during the afternoon so it is fine. Aside from that, this portal is only detected easily by magicians so we don''t have to worry about stray people entering the place." Everything was quite a shocker to me but I am not concerned about that right now. I want to know what happened to Anya. "Can I visit Anya now?" "Yes. Go to the other reality and visit your room there. We keep her safe there because her situation is not good. Otome and Maple are the ones nursing her right now." Without waiting for Moonlight, I went to the other side via a portal made for me to transition to the other realm and get in there. I am worried about that incident. Just what happened after I passed out? Did Anya fight the monsters all by herself? When I arrived at the room made for me whenever I wanted to stay in this realm, I saw Voltaire and Catmod outside talking to Otome. Catmod noticed me when I arrived. "Looks like you are now chipper and active compared during the time we found you passed out on the floor," Catmod said. "Where is Anya?" I immediately asked. "She is inside. Maple is currently tending for her so you don''t have to worry." "What happened to her? I passed out so I have no idea what is going on." "She is suffering from Soul Exhaustion. She used almost all of her energy including her soul power which is necessary for someone to live just to save you," Voltaire revealed. "To save me?" "You would have been consumed by the darkness and the corruption of your Skull Knuckles if not for Anya. Her soul transfer allowed you to regain your control from the Skull Knuckles and recover a little bit of your soul injury. Due to the intensity of power the Skull Knuckles emit that time, your soul is injured." "It''s my fault... all of what happened to Anya is all my fault..." "Dumbass, you should stop getting easily depressed, kiddo. Anya''s situation is bad, but not hopeless. Helping her soul recover from the Soul Exhaustion is a bit tricky but there is one simple method for her to recover but it will not be available until next week due to its limited amount released every year. If you want to heal her as soon as possible, we need to acquire one before everyone else. It has limited stocks so if you don''t want Anya to sleep for another year, we have to acquire it," Voltaire said. "An item? If that is the case, I have to acquire it no matter what." "For now, she is in stable condition but since she lost a lot of her soul energy, she will remain in a coma in the meantime. But you don''t have to worry about her too much, she did her best hanging in there even if she used most of her soul energy. In the meantime, you are tasked by the headquarters specifically to accept a mission. They are asking you to go to the top floor and meet someone there. Zacharias is waiting for you," Catmod said and handed me the mission. [Investigate the Riot Massacre and the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder] Chapter 154: Meeting with the Oracle The top floor of the magician society building is a place that I have no access to during my tour here before. Only high ranking magicians can enter inside since even Voltaire and the others can''t get in. Catmod can enter since he is one of the high-ranking magicians but the others who are already strong can just look at the top floor without any sort of access to it unless they are specifically called over. Due to the mission given me, I can enter the place with the permission of the higher-ups. I am not sure why they specifically allowed me to undertake the mission but since they have given me this, I would not decline this one. Although I am worried about Anya''s situation right now, all I can do is wait for another week before I can help her. Worrying will not do anything so I have to calm down and continue living in the meantime. Arriving at the top floor of the Magician Society building, I saw Zacharias waiting for me. When he noticed my presence, he smiled and approached. "Good day Kazuma. It looks like you have recovered your wounds just fine. Thanks to the info you relayed, we managed to uncover a new S-rank G.A.T.E.S. If left alone, this would prove a big threat to humanity. Since you managed to uncover the real identity of the portal after entering it, we managed to make some preparations to avoid great scales of danger happening especially due to the location of the portal that happened to be a school." "Danger? Is there some kind of danger the G.A.T.E.S possess?" "Yes. B-rank and above portals tend to be dangerous due to the possibility of the portal to link the real world and the world inside the portal causing the monsters to enter our world. Reducing the portal''s power by killing the monsters inside helps stop the invasion of monsters. Since the S-rank portal is one of the most dangerous, we will try to send magicians of high ranks to clear the place from time to time. That way, the danger of the portal to connect with our world will be reduced greatly." I just thought the G.A.T.E.S will only exist like that and can only be accessed by magicians but to think it can become one of the disasters, no wonder many magicians would prefer to find G.A.T.E.S and hunt inside than beat up some demons hiding with the society. As it turns out, if left untouched, the portal will open up and the different monsters will start invading. "Now, do you know why the top brass allowed you access to the top floor Kazuma?" "Is it about the mission I received?" "That is one of the reasons but that is not the only reason. Come inside the room and we will discuss what we needed from you and why we choose you on this mission." ... Entering the room, a huge round table with 12 chairs circling it appeared before me. I was kind of reminded of this on the Knights of the Round Table of King Arthur seeing this but I am sure it is different. Besides, I am quite sure these twelve chairs represent the 12 councilors that hold the title of every zodiac. "Usually, there would be the councilors sitting on those respective chairs but right now, they are dealing with some things so the only councilor that will meet with you is me. But that doesn''t mean I am the only person who will meet with you. Although this person is not a councilor like me, she is regarded with respect by everyone. She is also the one who entrusted the mission to you." After Zacharias said that, a woman who is sitting in a wheelchair entered the room. She was white, her hair is white, her eyebrows are white everything on her body is white. She looks like she has albinism. I was also surprised when I saw her pupils in her eyes. It was also white. So that means she is blind? "Who is this?" "She is the Oracle. She is the one hoping to meet you. I won''t take part in the conversation so I will leave the two of you alone to discuss the mission entrusted to you." Zacharias snaps his fingers before he teleported away to somewhere, leaving us alone in the room. "You must be the rumored Kazuma Fukuyama who started to rack up different kinds of honors and feats from missions and some unexpected scenarios and did exceptionally well despite still a human. To think someone as you exist, that was beyond the scope of my clairvoyance." "Clairvoyance? You can see the future?" "I don''t see the future, I predict it. Seeing the future means you will be able to see all the outcomes of the future, whether it is changed or not. I can only predict and give out thoughts on what will happen to allow the able people to do the job of either helping the future come to fruition or prevent it from happening. That is why they call me the Oracle," she said before she started to move around the room using her wheelchair. "Now that you are here, you must be wondering why I gave you a mission despite the situation of your adopted dragon daughter after she saved your life..." "That is the case. It was quite weird since most of the time, the missions I have undertaken are mostly volunteer missions and some unexpected missions that came along while I am on the area." "Yes. The past months of you becoming a magician from plain human in just a matter of days is considered as a monstrous growth. However, seeing you here made me realize why..." She stopped and raise her hands out. Then, all of a sudden, the black phone I am keeping in my pocket suddenly flew out before going straight to the Oracle. "To think I will be seeing the Spirit on this phone. What a surprising thing." To my surprise, Blue started speaking too in response. "I greet the esteemed Oracle of this timeline. You seemed to be doing well," Blue said... "It has been a while isn''t it Blue? Are you sure it is the right thing to help this kid become a strong magician?" the oracle asked. "He was a mediocre person when I first met him. Although he was extremely capable of adapting to magic, he is far too naive. But these past months, I came to realize that he might be fine and all of this. He already acquired two of the inheritance of the divine beasts and aside from that, he has the power of the dragon blood with him. He cannot revert to his human life and will have to become part of the magician world whether he likes it or not." "That is why he has quite the luck and also the skill to survive most of that. Seeing his body, I can tell that he is getting there but he is still far from the tough magicians we usually see," the oracle said. "Aren''t you already blind due to the accident that occurred the last time? How come you can still see things without using the eyes?" "I am the Oracle, my eyes might have been damaged but that doesn''t mean I cannot see anymore. To me, my eyes are just an indespensable part of my body. If it is damaged, nothing I can do with it. Anyways, I think it is time for you to return to this boy again." "Nice to see you again, Oracle. Be careful as always," Blue said before she returns to slumber. The oracle controlled my phone again and sent it to my hands. "You know Blue?" "Yes, I know her. However, I won''t divulge to it any further if Blue did not reveal much of her to you. If you wanted to ask me, I won''t be answering. But you can expect to see Blue say it if you are worthy enough to listen to her. Now let''s go back to the discussion of the mission." I didn''t expect she will immediately change the topic. But I have nothing to do with her on that. "Since you are going to be helping the dragon girl recover her Soul Energy, you will be going to the underground mall in Shibuya. The situation with the mission is about the Riot Massacre, a group of rogue magicians who made the place their turf. Lately, their recent actions seem to be getting more troublesome. We wanted you to check it out. Also, we heard that they are connected to the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. I heard you already accepted a request from Maple on this but this time, I want you to undertake this quest too." "Why me?" I asked. The oracle smiled but she didn''t answer my question Chapter 155: Infiltrating the Underground Mall My meeting with the Oracle didn''t last long. She gave me a little briefing on the situation which allowed me to grasp what is going on. Currently, on the Underground Mall of Shibuya, the alternate realm of this place is considered as a market place for magicians. All magicians, apprentice to experts will visit here to buy things related to magic and summoning. That is... until the Riot Massacre appeared. They started to claim the place as their own and the honest magicians who are selling here all got their business stripped away from them. Now that the situation has taken for the worse, all of the businesses in the underground mall alternate realm is now under the Riot Massacre''s jurisdiction. My task this time is to investigate the Riot Massacre''s purpose. One store managed to avoid the radar of the Riot Massacre and is currently helping the Magician Society take intel on what is currently happening on the Underground Mall. According to the intel given, the Riot Massacre''s clients are rogue magicians, and some influential most wanted enemies. They are also holding some illegal auctions that sell different kinds of forbidden things and most of all, it is selling slaves which is also a forbidden thing that even the good magicians will not hesitate to destroy. Slaves are usually being used as test subjects and living dummies by these guys so slavery is one of the most despised crimes the magicians have taken note with. I am not sure how to finish this mission seeing that I have to deal with gangsters and delinquents this time around. But if this can help Anya out of the predicament, then I won''t hesitate to deal with this. ... The mission is urgent and I have to immediately begin it after I get enough rest. Aside from that, this will be my first solo mission. Before, I have partners to execute the mission with. But now due to the movements of the rogue magicians and some dangerous individuals alongside the demons, many of them are not available to help me. But that doesn''t mean I can''t fight alone, in times like this, it would be a good time for me to enter the training ground. The shards necessary for the activation are currently within my grasp so one session will work. "Blue, activate the Training Space. I want to practice hand to hand combat." "Do you want to activate the dummy''s ability to move and fight?" "Yes." "Then scan the necessary shards for me to commence the activation." ... The next day, after a proper rest, I prepared for my investigation mission. I was supposed to go to class today but I think I am doomed to never get myself a good grade this semester. I can only sigh and just shrug it off. There is no point for me to think about it, if I fail, I will just go again to a new grade. As for my training, I made sure to persevere a lot and try to master different kinds of combat styles. Still, the only combat style I am most comfortable with is street combat style. Very unorthodox and quite hard to predict. After sparring with the dummy for at least 15 years, it made me able to predict different kinds of attack patterns from different kinds of combat styles. I am confident enough that I can take on multiple enemies at once without breaking a sweat. "You sure you are ready to take on the Riot Massacre? They are not some petty gang you can just take on whenever you want, they also have magicians too," Blue reminded me. "I don''t think I need to worry about them too much. Worrying will make me get old faster." "Well, according to my data, Sho Amakura is one of the notorious criminal magicians who have gained his fame on using unorthodox magic and melee combat. He might look frail but he is not an easy foe. Now that he is leading the Riot Massacre, we have no idea what strength he already has right now so don''t get too overconfident on everything." "No worries. Yuri and Yuto are with me and if they overpower me, I will ask for their help. Aside from that, I can also get the help of Inari-sama and the little foxes to fight." "Although they are part of your strength, you should rely on them less because there are times where you will be restricted on summoning. All I was saying is that you shouldn''t just stick to one kind of fighting style." "I will keep that in mind." ... Around 9 in the morning, I arrived in the normal Underground Mall of Shibuya. I don''t particularly shop here but I have explored this place before. I was given the [Realm Shifter] by Voltaire for me to use to cross to the other realm of the Underground Mall since there is no Realm Transporter present unlike in the Magician Society where I can transport back and forth to my house to the Magician Society building. The [Realm Shifter] looks like a pen with a switch on the top. By clicking the button on the top, I will be able to shift realms with ease. Looking around and making sure no one is around on the busy market, I clicked the button, allowing me to shift the realm I was in. As soon as the realm shifted, I was surprised because the whole place was a drastic difference compared to the real Underground Mall. Instead of stalls full of merchandise and people bustling about, all I see are wrecked stalls and scattered items, broken shards of glasses, and other debris. Voltaire and the others already informed me what the Underground Mall''s reverse side looks like right now but I was still surprised at seeing quite a place. To have this place looked like it was abandoned, just what does those Riot Massacre doing to cause this place to fall? "Hey, guys! I think I found a rat sneaking in!" "Ohoho, looks like we will have another one we can sell for a higher price!" I keep my calm even though they have managed to discover me immediately. Seven delinquent-looking guys are trying to surround me. Each of them has a weapon they are wielding and most of them are holding the metal bat with spikes attached to it. They might look menacing but that is not enough for me to be scared of them. "Oryaaa!" SWISH! The delinquent was surprised and almost went nuts when he saw his metal bat melt and turn into two pieces. "Don''t be afraid! Beat him up together!" "Tsk, as expected of delinquents," I mumbled before enhancing the mana flow on my hands and legs. BANG BANG BANG BANG! Due to how the delinquents mostly rely on their weapons instead of their instincts, before they can even attack me, I already made a preemptive strike and hit their vital points. THUD THUD THUD... The delinquents fell one by one without any signs of struggle. It was a quick but efficient way to deal with them quietly without relying on eye-catching magic like fireballs. After finishing them off, I search their bodies for any clues but there aren''t any kind of things they possess that will prove useful to me. After the battle, I started my investigations around the place. I made sure to take note of the unusual things, and any kind of different kinds of situations happening in the Underground Mall. There are also many delinquents hanging around here and there that made my movement limited. I can''t afford to make so much ruckus if I wanted to get into the store that gave us intel. When I reach the corner of the Underground Mall, I spotted a few guys talking about something. They have loud voices so I don''t need to get that close just to hear what they are saying. I positioned myself in the area where I can conceal myself and get to see what is happening. "The goods are always in good quality as always Mr. Amakura. To think you will get to secure this place easily and get your control on the whole underground mall. It only proves the strength of your group," the one talking is a fat man with a monocle on his left eye. "You are flattering me, it is not just my effort but everyone''s efforts to keep everything under control. Having those pesky magicians run this place only wastes the space it was meant to be used for," the one talking is a lanky guy who is called Mr. Amakura. If my assumptions are correct, he is Sho Amakura, the leader of the Riot Massacre. "Indeed. So when are the next goods will be arriving? If the item that I want is in that stock, I won''t hesitate to buy them." "There are some fine slaves we are trying to procure somewhere else. But not at the moment because the Magicians seem to have noticed our transactions. We will lie low for now to avoid the disruption of the supply." Now it is confirmed, these guys are indeed running slave trading. These f*ck up guys, they even involved other people? I need to make my move and get myself to the store before they can notice me here. I am now determined to shut down the operation of this place as soon as possible. Chapter 156: Mission Point There are many stall wreckage in the area and just by hiding in them, I can easily conceal myself from enemies. Due to this, it didn''t take me that much time before I managed to lurk in deeper of the place. Unlike the stalls in the entryway of the Underground Mall, deeper of it is the main market located. The store that managed to hide from the eyes of the Riot Massacre is currently opening a stall here. It is a wonder how they managed to open the stall without the enemies getting their eyes locked upon them. I was expecting a lot more quiet marketplace due to the Riot Massacre taking over the whole marketplace but contrary to what I am expecting to be a desolate place, it was instead very lively and lots of different people are currently shopping in every stall making me confused. ''Isn''t this place considered dangerous due to the Riot Massacre''s influence?'' Most of the shoppers here have one thing in common. They wear robes and hood allowing themselves to remain concealed inside the market. The good thing is that I also have the hood and robe that Voltaire procured for me to use to conceal myself or to use it for a quick escape. Since it is a piece of magical equipment, in just a snap, I am already wearing it on my body. After wearing the hood, I am now good to go and ready to infiltrate. Plenty of the shoppers are emitting dark energy, similar to the magicians we fought the other day though not all of them because some have no such auras. Still, I can''t rest easy. According to the information, for me to find the store, I need to find the Herbal Shop. It was called Herbal Shop not because it is selling medicinal herbs but they are selling herbs that can poison, paralyze, and sometimes, can make a person high, which is in short, a sort of drugs. I can''t miss this place due to the number of people lining up in here alongside the thugs and some delinquents. It took me a while exploring the place until I found the mentioned store. And just like how it was described, it was full of people lining up. As expected of a drug store, it was quite packed. Too many people are trying to get in first into the line that it was quite chaotic. I don''t want to be squished in the crowd so before it gets worse, I immediately made a step back. Finding the shop, I know I am near to my destination. When I am getting near to the location, I can hear voices of some delinquents that seem to be harassing someone. "Hey, quite a good store you got there eh? You guys still trying to resist us?" a delinquent''s voice echoed in the alley. "Get out of my sight," a deep-voiced guy said with a clear intention of getting rid of the guys. I look into the situation and finally found the store I am looking for. However, it is not good seeing 10 delinquents currently harassing a guy who looked like a middle-aged man. Just like the delinquents, I beat up earlier, they are also equipped with metal baseball bats. Did the cover of the store already got blown? Knowing the situation is something that can be problematic to my plans, I immediately activated Mirror World. CRACK CRACK CRACK BANG! The delinquents didn''t expect their whole surroundings to crack like a mirror and their faces displayed a bit of anxiety. "What is going on?!" "Bro is this some kind of witchcraft?!" "Sh*t, my eyes are playing tricks again. I think I have to lower the dose of my drugs." With the Mirror World materialized, I finally isolated the place from the other people. So even if we go on a rampage here, there will be no people who can hear us. Since they are still in a state of panic, I took advantage of this situation to go in for the kill. "[LEG ENHANCEMENT]!" Dashing forward and getting close to the first delinquent, I activated the Blazing Shoes and keep it ablaze before kicking the first delinquent to the crotch. I can tell that the future generation of his bloodline will stop on him. The delinquents have a slower reaction to my actions allowing me to make another strike. Igniting my hands, I released a punch on the unsuspecting delinquent into his jaw, causing his lower teeth to flew outside his mouth. They are so squishy that I even think those dummies back on the Training space are much tougher than them. I don''t know why I suddenly came to compare humans and dummies but honestly, they are so weak that I can yawn and close my eyes and these guys will still fall to the ground with the injured body. "Enemy! Keep your guards- puh!" before he can finish what he was about to say, I already disrupted him and punched his gut. I think I punched him a little too hard seeing blood flew out of his mouth after my punch. He ended up collapsing to the ground before he can recover. When the delinquents notice my actions that already downed three of their members, they immediately switch from panic to serious mode. Without warning, they swing their metal bats towards my location, but that is not enough to stop me. THWACK! THWACK! BAM! BANG! CRACK! I am not bragging about my strength that I can defeat many delinquents at once even if I am alone. They can''t defeat me. No delinquents are spared and all of them fall to the floor unconscious. With the job done, I was about to greet the guy earlier when I suddenly saw a big fist on my face. It was too late for me to dodge and that fist sent me flying. The good thing is that I quickly cast a small [Domain of Balmung] in front of me, allowing it to soak in the damage that it received. But heck, the force is still strong enough that it caused me to go flying. Making my bearings, I stood up and tried to get into momentum when I saw the person who punched me. It was the guy who was harassed by the delinquents. I can also tell that he is not willing to go on a talk with me so instead of stopping the fight and talk with diplomacy, I initiated an attack and went to the attack, releasing a low kick on his leg. PA! ...so hard. Did I just kick a concrete pole? Checking it one more time, I saw that it is not a concrete pole but a leg. The leg of the guy who sent me flying. But despite the hardness on the kick I released and how hard they kick landed, it didn''t hurt me in the slightest but I was a little bit dazed at first. Sensing the damage of my kicks is not working, why not I try my hands? Charging up my punch, I throw it straight to his stoic face. But... PA! All of the strength I poured into the attack immediately disappeared when my fist landed on the palm of this guy. And the stoic guy who never showed any kind of reaction grinned. "Good punch kid," he said before he retracted his hands and gave me a thumbs up. Frowning, I creased my eyebrows at what is happening. "It''s been a while since I saw someone who can quickly create his reaction to my actions that is too quick. You are not bad." "Huh?" I am confused. "Haha, sorry about that. I am currently testing you in your strength. I was not satisfied seeing you fight those frail and weak delinquents so I decided to test you personally. And as expected, you are a talented guy. That amount of fighting style, I can tell that is being honed for too long. You might have grown to fight every day in the streets for you to be able to use street fighting method easy for you." Yeah, yeah, I spent years perfecting this indeed. If time flows in the real world when I am inside the Training Space, you guys will be old already. "So you must be the shopkeeper of that store that managed to keep its operations despite the control of the Riot Massacre on the Underground Mall?" "Yes. You can call me Gakuto, I run the store of equipment and some other miscellaneous things needed by a magician. You must be the person the Magician Society sent to investigate the situation," the guy named Gakuto said. "Yes. I am currently able to find some valuable info I can relay later to the higher-ups. But since some parts are somewhat dangerous and hard to traverse without getting caught by them for acting suspicious, I wanted to hear your intel at the moment." "Sure, but first, we have to clean up these guys and tie them up. It won''t be good if you cancel the Mirror World and these guys are currently knocked out." "Should we throw them to the trash instead?" I asked. "Hmmm, I think it''s worth it." Chapter 157: Slaves The "cleanup" went smoothly and after Gakuto disposed of the bodies somewhere even though they are still alive, we continue inside the store where I finally canceled the Mirror World''s effect. "Even though I don''t need much of your help earlier, I am grateful for what you did since I don''t want to fight that much." "If you don''t want to fight, why did you fight against me earlier?" "I want to test your strength whether you can handle the situation in this underground mall or not. I am fine reclaiming this place alone but since I already don''t want to perform any battles anymore, I just decided to wait for the Magician Society to finish the task here." When I heard his reasons, I want to facepalm. You can finish and destroy the Riot Massacre by yourself and you decided to not act because you are now a pacifist?! Ugh... what frustration. I shouldn''t have to come here... Gakuto grinned as he stares into my face. "I can tell that you are complaining due to how I can do it alone but I didn''t do it, right? No worries, you can hate me, I don''t care much. But you can''t change my mind. It''s you young ones that needed to do this since the younger generation''s potential is almost infinite." "Yeah, yeah. You can stop there. I want to hear the details if you don''t want to fight. I can''t just waste my time here knowing there are slaves here." The moment I said "slaves", his face started to get serious. "So they have procured another batch of slaves? These guys have no care about human lives and just use them for the sake of money. Those gangsters have stooped so low." "Do you have any idea where they are putting the slaves they have gathered?" "I sent some spy mice around the place but only a few managed to return to me. It looks like they have tight security that my petty tricks don''t even work easily. But luckily, I obtained the info you needed. Currently, they are located much deeper into this place. Perhaps around the personal area where the leader of the Riot Massacre is currently holed up. The spy mice that I used to reach the place did manage to return but some pieces of the spy mice have been broken which means there is something that can easily detect spy mice." "Can you let me see what the spy mice look like?" Gakuto stood up and took one out of the cabinet. It was like real mice but the only discerning thing you can notice on this rat is that it has a red button on the belly area. Still, it is not enough to be seen as spy mice due to the uncanny resemblance to real mice. "Maybe they have a cat?" "Impossible. Spy mice are made with special materials that cats and dogs don''t like to smell so even if they spotted this, they won''t dare approach it if they don''t want to smell what the spy mice have in store for them so a cat is impossible." If what Gakuto said is true, that means there is indeed some sort of security that can easily identify the spy mice, destroying most of them. "What else is currently happening here?" "There are lots of illegal things happening here. Even the underground connection of dark magic users have opened. Slave trading is one of them, second is rare monster selling." "Rare monster? They have procured it somewhere?" "Yes. Some realms and some portals have those rare monsters that can be used to tame or to experiment with. The magicians banned the latter since it is kind of a taboo. After all, we ask for help on rare monsters that became our familiars. However, that taboo was broken after Sho also opened up his business involving that." "Is there any more info about Sho?" "He is quite famous in an underground society where he made dealings with different kind of shady dealings that is widely known for being illegal and a crime. Aside from that, he practices dark magic which made him a little bit troublesome. He has been a wanted man by the Magician Society after he was involved in an experiment and killed a talented magician who was kidnapped by him. Lately, we don''t know how strong he was now since he stopped using magic and instead used physical means to fight others. Now, he is running the Riot Massacre, and just like usual, he is running another illegal business. I have no idea what he is running deeper in this mall though. I suggest you investigate further. Of course, I will be helping you by giving you some materials, tools, and some other necessities you might be needing. "So I will still go and investigate alone?" "Of course. After all, I refuse to participate in these battles." "..." ... Gakuto''s info is quite limited due to how most of his spy mice are destroyed. But that doesn''t mean things are not dire. I have to infiltrate further on this place a little bit more. The good thing is that Gakuto managed to get me something I can use to infiltrate the place easier. "What is this?" I asked and shake the bottle that contained some sort of blue little candies. "I call that the shrinky candy. It is one of my inventions when I am still a well-known magician. Eating that will allow you to shrink to the size of an ant. If you wanted to infiltrate the facility a lot faster without any risk of being detected, this is the solution." "By shrinking? How about returning to my real size?" If the first bottle he showed me has color blue candies, the one he showed this time is color green. "This candy is the one I call reverter. Eating this will revert you from your normal status. It is not only effective on the shrinky candy''s effect but it works on other things too like poisoning, injury, and some other things like curses. If you eat this while something occurs to your body, your state will return to the point where you are still fine. It can be called an all-cure candy." "Wait wait... if I shrink, then my clothes will be left out?" "Ah no, aside from your body, anything in your body that is with you will also shrink to your actual size. So as long as those clothes are on your body, once you drink the shrinky candy, your clothes and some belongings will also shrink including these candies." I was hesitant at first but look at me now, I am currently under the shrinky candy''s effect. I also got a spy mice that I will be controlling and will be using this as my means of transportation in the market. With the situation looking grim, I needed to hurry. Controlling the spy mice reminded me of controlling an RC car. It was kind of easy and fun to use but I am not enjoying right now because of the people around the place. I have to maneuver around the place carefully or else I might get squashed by these people walking about. From the perspective of an ant, it was quite a very big place. I didn''t even imagine that being this small is quite a scary thing. Most of the fast movements of the people are too slow once you are small. However, seeing them as towering people made you feel like you are witnessing the real-life titan attack. Since the Spy Mice''s movements are quite fast, I can use it to my advantage and get myself infiltrate deeper into the underground mall. The delinquents have no idea I already passed by their fabulous guarding time. Entering the deeper area of the place, I was not expecting to feel heavy pressure of dark magic. It was heavy but it was not on the scale of heaviness before where we barely defeated the female enemy but that doesn''t mean what I feel is not something you can just scoff off. This time, I made my moves slowly. I can''t let them discover me or else it will be over. Using the underneath of the furniture, I have gained the way to move from the enemies without them detecting me. I can''t afford to be spotted. As I traverse a little bit more in a tight hallway, I arrived in a room full of big cages. These cages are big enough that a person can be placed inside. I was not expecting that they put all the slaves they have inside the cage?! Making sure no one is around and any kind of surveillance is not present, I decided to check around the cages. And I grit my teeth in anger. I saw children gagged and tied up in one cage, the other is young teen guys and the other are some teenage girls. The slaves that they have been keeping has now been found! Chapter 158: Rescue Slavery has been part of human history and that cannot be erased by forgetting it. Even novels and popular media now feature slavery in characters making this a common topic. Of course, that doesn''t mean in modern times, doing slavery is okay. It never became an okay thing and it will never be. Seeing the big cages with people inside makes me seethe in rage. Screw the mission, I will trash this place to ashes. "Hey, Kazuma! Calm yourself down and keep your head cool!" Blue said. "And what, leave them be on their fates? I won''t just stand idly and leave these people be!" Blue did not even get to argue with me as I drink the reverter to revert myself to normal size. The slaves were surprised by my sudden appearance and they quickly huddle on the corner of the cages. The male slaves are ready to fight if necessary. "Don''t be alarmed guys, I am not one of those guys that kidnapped you in here. I just sneaked in here to get you all out." The others were not convinced but I didn''t care. I was just about to destroy the locks on their cages when one of the patrolling thugs noticed me. "Hoooo, an intruder huh... how brave of you to enter the lion''s den by yourself," the thug slowly approached with his menacing big body displayed in front of me, probably to intimidate me into submission. But that only failed miserably for him. I am not afraid of that body of his, instead, I wanted to squish it to smithereens right here, right now. "Let''s finish this quick," I mumbled. "Huh?!" before he realized what happened, I overload his body with mana, causing him to feel heavy. He is still conscious but that won''t last long as he is struggling to even breathe properly. I still control the mana that I inserted in his body. Manipulating the mana, I immediately disabled most of his body functions, making him suffer but enough to let him live. Of course, he will instead wish he is dead than living while suffering from the injury. Death is a mercy to these lowly humans. After dealing with him, I immediately move to the cages and looked at the locks. The good thing is that the locks are just simple padlocks and not some complicated ones. There is no need for a key on this one, with a snap, I melt the padlock and destroyed it, allowing me to open the first cage. There are also padlocks in other cages but they are nothing to me. The slaves were not sure whether they have to escape or not seeing me who is currently standing outside their respective cages. "Don''t come out yet, the enemies are still on the lookout. Yuto, Yuri, come out." With my call, my two familiars appeared from thin air. "What are we going to do, Master?" Yuri asked. "Lull them all to sleep." Without second thoughts, the two activated their abilities to the slaves who are not expecting things like that to happen to them. In just a few seconds, all of the slaves fell asleep as nothing happened. "What should we do next, Master?" Yuto asked me. "Beat up all the enemies that come in to retrieve the slaves. Defeat them without killing them, we will hand them to the magician society later." "Understood, Master!" ... Leaving my two familiars behind, I started to move and look around the innermost area of the Underground Mall. Since I entered the place via the Shrinky Candy, I am not pretty familiar with the surrounding sectors of the place. When I turn to the side of the walls, a group of gangsters appeared in my sight. "An intruder!" They are annoying so before they can ask for help, I will be silencing them first. "Get paralyzed!" SNAP! "URK!" "GAH!" "F*CK!" Without bothering to look at what happened, I continue to walk down the path of the road and try to see what else is hidden here. All the nooks and corners of the place are being explored to map out the place especially the suspicious corners of the place using [Insight] ability to avoid getting lost in this labyrinth Underground Mall. If this was the real underground mall, you won''t be easily lost since you can just follow anyone and you will eventually find what you are looking for along the way, in this realm, on the other hand, there are hardly any helpful guide in here. More like dangerous locals ready to prey on you once you lower your guard. Then, when I made a turn, I was surprised to see a dead end. "What the hell? A dead-end? But according to my insight, there should be supposed a hallway that connects to a room here. Why I am seeing a wall instead?" No matter where I look at it, it is a wall. However, I have my suspicions. Most people will just avoid the wall if they ever found one in an alley, but due to my [Insight] telling me it is a hallway instead of a wall, this might be that thing. I tried holding the wall with my hand but to my surprise, it was not even solid. It was like there was nothing there at all! "A classic illusion huh..." I sighed. So there were also classic wall illusions around here. I thought that only exist in games... Since it was just a basic illusion and I can pass through it without any sort of problems, I continue to move forward. WHACK! WHACK! What are those loud noises I keep hearing after entering the illusion? When I was still outside the wall, I don''t think I am hearing any of those. WHACK! There it is again. And this time, it is a bit more near and I am not sure if this was the sound of someone whacking another person or it is an actual sound of a whip since it sounded like one. Getting near the location, I am now certain that the sound I am hearing just now is a whip. Someone is whipping something without any sort of sign that this someone will stop the whipping. Also, I am now able to hear someone in the room with an angry voice. "This motherf*cking cat! You might be some sort of strong beast but you are nothing right now! Your life is on the line and whether the boss likes it or not, you will follow my orders! Understood? UNDERSTOOD?! ANSWER ME!" The guy whipping is sure to exhibit some sort of superiority vibe in his voice. And he was abusing a cat?! Such a disgrace, is he doing this to torture everyone who likes cats? When I can get near, I saw a tall and bulky man holding a big whip." "GET SUBMISSIVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!" This guy raised his whip once more but I can''t tolerate it doing anything to the poor cat like that again so before the end of the whip land, I release a little bit of flame that devours everything and burned the whip. "What the? My whip! Who cut my whip?!" the guy shouted as he waved the handle of the whip. "Still aggressive despite having his weapon missing? Oh, what a guy," I said before closing the gap between us and releasing the damage to his body as soon as possible. I kick the back of his knees causing him to lose strength in his legs and was forced to kneel. When the knees touched the ground, I immediately grab his neck and aimed my hands on his throat. "You can''t treat me like that kid. You can only see that in movies." I grinned. "Oh really?" Without him noticing, I slowly touch his neck using the tip of my nails and slowly ignite my hands in flames. Black flames as black as the night sky appeared on my hands. This flame is the hottest variant in my skills.The gangster almost wet his pants when he saw the flames in my hands and slowly push my hands to the guy. "Now, are you sure I am not a threat for you~?" ... The guy collapsed on the ground after beating him up so badly. I wanted to beat him up to pulp before he wakes up again but I decided not to do it instead. Besides, just like the last guy before, I already disabled most of his motor functions by using mana tweaks. He will wish he was dead instead. Now that the threat is taken off, I looked around the room first. First that I noticed is the smell of some sort of incense? I am not confident if it is incensed but it smells like one. Just like the first room where the slaves are kept, this place is also full of cages. The only difference is that the cages are empty which allowed me to sigh in relief. However,.my eyes landed on the cat that this guy is mentioning earlier but... no matter how you look at it, this is not a cat but a white tiger. Chapter 159: The White Tiger Pup The white tiger''s appearance is quite pitiful though due to the number of whip lashes on its body. Some of the whip lashes hit so hard on its skin that the white fur was removed, revealing its wounded skin. "Inari-sama." With my call, Inari-sama appeared behind me. "Master. Healing this little guy is will take a while due to the whip''s special property," Inari-sama said before she approached the white tiger who is too weak to even properly move. "The whip''s special property?" "Yes. I can tell that the whip has a spell invoked on it that lowers the healing capabilities that will be applied to this little guy. In short, this white tiger will suffer from wounds that will heal very slow." "Can you remove it?" "It is a type of dark curse so removing it is easy. You don''t need to worry about it. I just needed some time and if any people will disturb me, I have to do it in the very beginning again." "Alright then. Help this little guy with its predicament. I will guard you." Inari-sama nodded and started to heal the white tiger. Meanwhile, I move towards the broken whip that has I have destroyed earlier to render the enemy from fighting in long ranges. I didn''t notice it at first but now that I have taken a closer look at the whip, it was indeed enchanted with some spell. I can''t tell what the spell is but based on its aura, it is a debuff spell that lowers any stat parameters or effects. Since Inari-sama said it has a healing reduction spell every hit, then it really must be the effect of this. Still, I am doubting that it was the only debuff it can make. Even though I didn''t smell it, it has some sort of weird pungent smell that I have never smelled before. Maybe it has something to do with its effect. "Kazuma, you can extract the spell of that whip and use it for yourself. Even if you dispose of the whip, the ability of the whip is not something you can easily learn making it important," Blue said before I can even throw the weapon away from me. "Extract the spell? I have no experience in doing things like that!" "I know how to do it so just follow my instructions and you can finally use the spell for your benefit." Healing reduction spells are great against enemies like demons who have tricks on their sleeves that allowed them to get healed in the middle of combat so when Blue asked me to extract the spell, I didn''t hesitate about it. This is a free estate, why deny it? The process was a little bit complicated at first but I managed to do it without messing up. I just blindly followed Blue''s instruction. It was just a quick extract so it didn''t last that long. "Alright. I have analyzed the spell. It is some sort of passive-type magic spell. Once you learn it, you can immediately use it. If you wanted the spell, I will post the instructions on learning it." "Okay, but I won''t learn it right now since I need more concentration. Let''s explore the place for now since it is a room and some suspicious items are lying around here and there." There are cages but it didn''t take up that much space compared to the number of cages I have seen in the room where the slaves were kept. I can also tell that other animals are being held here before due to the smell permeating in the air. But since I don''t see any animals here except this white tiger, then it must have been sold already. Looks like I am too late. I checked the image of the room using [Insight] but sadly, there are no hidden rooms where I can say they might have some sort of potential loot. There is also some stack of books available but they are not worthy to read much. Other than that, nothing catches my eye. Just when I was about to move away from all the clutter and go back to guarding, my feet stumbled on one crate, causing it to fall. When it fell, I saw something shiny and red on the ground and I frowned. "What is this?" pulling the thing out of the clutter, I found out it was some sort of bottle of liquid that is glowing a little bit. "Hey! Kazuma, don''t throw that away!" "Huh?" "That thing is precious! Don''t ever throw it!" "Just what is inside this bottle? This looks like normal water to me that only shines with some small light flashing inside." "It is quite precious. I will talk about that later, just keep it safe for now. Don''t worry about the bottle since that is not an ordinary bottle either. That won''t be destroyed whatever physical abuse you do on that." "I am confused but since you are going to explain it later, I will keep it for now," I said before stuffing it inside my pocket. After trying to see if there are any other kinds of things hidden on the box that I toppled over but to my disappointment, there is nothing worth noting. I checked Inari-sama and the white tiger. Inari-sama smiled as she cast a healing spell on the white tiger. "Master, the healing reduction spell that was applied to this poor creature has now been removed. I am just giving it some healing and blessing spell to allow this guy to immediately recover from its wounds." "Thanks as always Inari-sama. By the way, is this a white tiger? I am not sure if it was the same tiger I always see in zoos." "No, Master. This is a magic beast." "Magic Beast? This little guy?" "Yes, Master. However, even though it is a magic beast, it is too weak at the moment due to exhaustion and also it is still young to be away from its parents. It will die if no one takes the role of the mother of it so I suggest you adopt this one Master." "Huh? But that is a tiger! Surely my neighbors will freak out if they see this one!" "Don''t worry Master. This tiger looks like a dog at first since it is still a pup. Once it grows big and strong like Kon, this guy will be able to undergo into its spiritual form and physical form at will. We don''t need to worry too much about our neighbors." "If I am going to adopt it, where will I bring this guy? I can''t carry this little guy all day around me and I still have some enemies to fight." "Don''t worry Master. Since it is a Magic Beast, I can easily help this little guy go in spiritual form and bring it along with me to the spiritual realm where we stay when we are not summoned by you." "If that is the case, I beg you to take this guy in, Inari-sama." "No worries. I don''t want to abandon this kid too," Inari-sama said as she takes the tiger from the ground and lifts it. She returned to her spiritual form and returned to my spiritual realm alongside the little tiger. Since the matters that Gakuto heard from the rumors are true, that means it is time to purge this place and return it to its former glory. [Insight!] Activating my [Insight], I memorized all the locations of the enemies stationed around the Underground Mall near me and rush towards them. I can''t waste my time and just leave it be. ... Screams and whacking sounds can be heard in every corner of the Underground Mall. Due to the number of delinquents patrolling the area, it took me a while before I managed to even take out all of them. But to my confusion, I don''t see the guy who caused all of this named Sho. I tried looking out for any secret walls too but there is none available right now. "Did Sho already escaped?" Then, my senses tingle when I feel something coming, I didn''t make any late action and quickly crouch to the floor and a fireball smashed into the broken stall. Looking up, I saw the same guy that I saw talking to some businessman guy. "Escape? You must be joking. Why would I escape to a person like you who has not yet even established himself? I can easily flick you off the map if I wanted to," the arrogant voice is very clear and this guy is Sho. The leader of the group, Riot Massacre. "I don''t talk to people like you," I said before making Enhancement on my leg and allowed me to burst in speed. BOOM! Since he was using flame magic, then I would be using electricity since my only water spell available to use is the Water Torrent. "You won''t talk to me? Then I will allow you to talk to me before you get beaten to death." Chapter 160: Sho Amakura Sho Amakura. "One of the influential dark magician that can warp and bend space on his will. Controls a group he named the "Riot Massacre" and caused several uproars on his actions. He is one of the guys with the highest bounty in the magician world and his capture is one of the main priorities while the second is his death. Still, death is far impossible to do since he was rumored to be "unkillable". Although the rumors are quite unreliable, he is a real deal of a magician. I witnessed his escape when he was still a young man. He managed to defeat many pursuing magicians and disappeared without a trace after. So if you are going to face Sho in a battle, do not try to let him use his space magic..." The words of Catmod are still fresh in my mind and I mentally take note of that. Fighting hand to hand combat with someone who has been hunted by the Magician Society is a bad move. I wanted to face him head-on but I am not confident to win. If someone who is good in battle and can escape several people all by himself tries to fight against you, you will either get screwed or you will either get lucky on the strike. Though I am quite sure that getting the latter option is close to impossible. PA! I blocked his punch using my arm that I have enhanced using my mana to avoid injury. But I despite the attack had absorbed most of the pain, that was too reckless of me. The punch is too strong. His attack is enough for me to retreat a few steps backward. "Ho? To be able to block my punch without getting his arm fractured from it, I think I have underestimated you quite a bit. You are quite interesting..." Igniting my shoes and hands, I darted forward and aimed my fist at Sho. Sho did not block it but dodged it. Still, that is within my scope of expectations. SNAP! Crackling electricity popped out on my hands and it quickly crawls towards Sho who just dodged my flaming punch. "NAIVE!" He didn''t even turn around and the electricity bent sideways, causing my attack to fall apart the moment it bent. But that doesn''t mean I am already amazed and now have a hopeless chance against him. I don''t believe he has no weakness, even a dragon can be killed, what is more of a human? "Is that all you have got?" he looked in my direction earlier and grinned. But his grin froze when he saw me missing on that spot. BANG! "Tch," I clicked my tongue when he managed to block my Dragon Fist. Sho was genuinely surprised when he saw my Dragon Fist. "I never expected to see a Half-Dragon here. Did I finally hit a jackpot?" he grinned and grip my Dragon Fist. But as if I will let him do that. Releasing the electricity I am just storing, he reluctantly removed his gripping hand away from my hand and retreating a little far from me to avoid the electricity that is crackling around my arm. Keeping my Dragon Fist, I chased him down and released a lot of fireballs in his direction. I can see the irritation on his face as I continue to release an assault in his direction. My almost infinite mana pool will allow me to keep on throwing fireballs at him without exhausting my mana pool. But he was quite a thinker. He didn''t tire me out like most tactics would do to someone releasing fireballs in his direction. "If you think you can prolong the battle, let me tell you something. I hate long battles. If I can do it, I will shorten it. I hate doing it for some sort of effort that I can just do with a small amount of work. Just drop and stop moving." With a wave of his hand, the surroundings start to bend and twist. Without waiting for it to get worse, I started retreating away from him. Then, I just realized that I am not getting farther away from him. Instead, I am getting closer to him. "Trying to escape?" he suddenly appeared before me and released a punch that I have not prepared. BANG! I was sent flying to the distance and I can feel my nose release a warm liquid of blood due to the punch. My head is also a bit dizzy due to the punch causing my surroundings to shake a little bit on my eyes. "Kazuma! Watch out!" Blue''s voice allowed me to wake a little bit and quickly stopped the incoming attack of Sho to me. With the help of the Dragon Fist, I can hold on to Sho''s punch without getting squashed further. "Water Torrent!" Sho was caught off guard from the Water Torrent and was sent a few distances away from me though it is not as far as the distance he sent me flying with his normal punch which is frustrating. But thanks to that, it''s payback time. "Freezing Wind!" Cold air started to blow on the surroundings and the wet Sho who didn''t expect the Water Torrent started to freeze all over his body. "Multi... element magician?! You are a multi-element magician...?!" His whole body freezes up as the cold win slowly blows over his wet body. He tries to wiggle out but I managed to freeze him over. "I see. So the Magician Society has finally gained its trump card. However, this information is something I cannot just withhold by myself. So I will disappoint you this time, kid, but you will win this time. However, the next time we meet, you will not be so lucky..." Cracks suddenly appeared on the surroundings like it was undergoing the mirror world transformation. However, it is not the Mirror World. Instead of the same mirror cracks, it suddenly bent and everything did not form into another field of the mirror but a new rift. Sho who was frozen from neck to toe fell to the rift while grinning. "We will meet again boy, look forward to our next meeting because I will make sure that is your last." Sho''s body disappeared in the rift that seemed to be swallowed by the abyss. I tried reaching out but Blue stopped me. "Don''t follow him. You have a 1% chance of getting out of that rift alive. Besides, we have no idea where that rift will lead us in case you survive. Only he will be able to get out of there alive." "Then, are we going to let him go?!" "That is the only possible option we have, Kazuma. At least, he has escaped this realm which means we can now reclaim this place once again. Call for backup," Blue said. Since I have no choice, I have to let go of Sho as the rift he opened up closed and everything once again became still as nothing happened. But now that he is gone, I sense someone''s presence not too far away. "Damn it, the fight was cut short and I am still craving for a fight. I will settle with this eavesdropping bastard instead." ... As per Blue''s suggestion, I called the Magician Society and in a few minutes, back up arrived alongside Voltaire and Catmod. The slaves were rescued and the remnants of the Riot Massacre''s members were all captured. Illegal goods are also confiscated and will be sent to the investigation team to track down where these illegal things came from. Other than that, the Underground Mall has been swept and was later declared by Catmod as liberated from the hands of Riot Massacre and the Magician Society has reclaimed it once more. Voltaire and Catmod asked me for a bit of a report on the situation that occurred earlier. I reported many things but I didn''t include the part of the Multi-Element Magician part. I don''t want to reveal it yet since the only thing they know is that I can use Electric and Fire Magic. They don''t know about the other elements I can use at my disposal and the lesser people know, the better. I don''t want to cause too much trouble. "Looks like you did a good job on this one Kazuma. Although we failed to capture Sho Amakura, you performed well in reclaiming the Underground Mall. This only proves that you have the capabilities to even solo a mission. It takes a lot of power to even do things like reclaiming this place and you easily did it," Voltaire said. "I don''t deserve the praise. And besides, fighting against Sho is not easy. If I didn''t have a few trump cards with me, I would have died. I also have to activate a little bit of the Dragon Power I acquired back then and now it is taking a little bit of toll on my body." "That dragon power huh? I suggest that you don''t overuse it. As a human, using the power of the dragon is too much for a human body. Do not kill yourself. We already told you, you should retreat if things get too awry. Being captured or killed by the enemy is something we have to avoid at all costs. You only live once," Catmod said. "Go home for now Kazuma. I can see your hand still has the scales of the transformation and it is trembling. Get some rest and recover from it to avoid some backlash. The higher-ups will reward you later." I bowed down and used the teleporter that the Magician Society use. While teleporting, Inari-sama communicated with me. "Master... I think we have a little bit of a problem. Remember the beast we rescued earlier? It has already settled into your Familiar Field." Chapter 161: The Magic Beast Settles Down According to my knowledge, Magic Beasts are known to be monsters that are usually depicted in novels and other media types with fantasy tropes. However, they are not just some sort of fantasy, they are real and currently wandering all around the world. Though it takes luck to find one. Now that I met one, I met trouble involving this one. It settled into my Familiar Space. A special area where I can allow my familiars to hide or stay temporarily. This place appeared after I gained a familiar and it is not uncommon for it to appear. Now, what happens if an unrelated beast that cannot be your familiar entered the Familiar Space and settled in without getting into your contract? Honestly, I have no idea but according to Inari-sama, it will go awry and things will go chaotic in case the beast goes out of control. The teleportation circle flickered before I slowly emerge from it after teleporting from the Underground Mall of Shibuya. Resting would be my main priority but due to these circumstances, I am forced to find some solution to this." "Have you found a way to get the Magic Beast out of the Familiar Space? I can''t command it out since I have no contract with it," I said to Inari-sama. "My servants already tried but the Magic Beast is quite stubborn. Even Yuri and Yuto are doing their best to let the beast out but it proves to be a real tough job!" Inari said. "Master!~ Help us out here, please! This beast is hard to move! My arms are getting tired and my magic has run dry trying to even let this guy move out!" Yuri whined. "I hate to admit this but I agree with my sister on this one, Master. This beast just refuses to move out of his position!" What the hell did I get into? I rubbed my glabella while thinking about what to do with this beast. To encounter a situation like this is quite troublesome. Maybe I should ask Blue? "I can''t help you with that problem, Kazuma. My expertise involves magic, knowledge of it, weakness of demons, and some monsters, usage of magic, and history involving it. Magic Beasts are out of my expertise so don''t expect me to help because I can''t. Ask someone more expert on it." An expert in terms of the Magic Beasts? Aside from Catmod who is a literal cat, no other guys I know currently knows much on Magic Beasts. Since it was too rare, it is not just something that can be solved. "Is it doing anything?" I asked Inari-sama. "Not at the moment. Looks like it is sleeping quietly and whatever we do, it won''t budge and won''t open its eyes. He is still alive so I think this guy here is a heavy sleeper." "Alright. Since we have no idea how to get that white tiger out of my Familiar Space, just look at it for now. I''m going to check for someone who knows how to deal with Magic Beasts. Just don''t let it go on a rampage." "As you wish, Master!" everyone inside my Familiar Space said. My first destination after arriving from the mission is Anya. Opening the door, I saw Maple taking care of Anya who is still unconscious. "Ah, Kazuma. You are back, how is the mission?" Maple asked as she put down the wet cloth soaked in water after using it to wipe Anya. "The operation is a success, though the main culprit of the trouble managed to escape so it is not a flawless mission." "Well, that is good. I thought you will be doing the mission for a few days. To think you will just finish it in one day?" "There was no helping it. The mission involves slavery and abuse so I have to immediately stop them. Anyways, enough of the mission, I want to ask how is Anya right now?" looking at Anya, she seemed to lack energy in her body. Is that why her presence is too low because she transferred it to me? "She is out of harm, Kazuma. But she still won''t be able to awaken as long as the medicine for her is safely acquired. But Anya is no longer knocking on heaven''s door so you don''t have to worry too much about her." That thing they keep on mentioning as something that can help Anya must be so valuable for magicians to immediately secure one thing out. "It will take a few more days before the auction begins. However, you still have the mission right? It also involves the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder." "Yes. They said you already filed a quest but the quest where I requested for you last time is still viable. I am planning to depart tomorrow so that I can cover more ground on the investigation. If you wanted to come with me to cover more grounds, it will certainly help a lot." "I will. I already agreed with you before so why wouldn''t help? Things might already be so bad if this mission is also issued by the higher-ups alongside the recapture of the Underground Mall. Anya''s cure is still not available so might as well investigate what is going on." "So it comes to this already huh? I don''t know why this illness has appeared after so many years of being buried." "There must be someone who is causing this right? If a sickness that usually comes is something the scientists have discovered, then someone else might be causing this one perhaps?" "There is no definitive answer to that. The Crazed Phenomenon Disorder is something of an enigma to us. The severity and bizarreness of the disease are just too uncommon." We chatted a little bit with Maple a little bit until I felt hungry so I said goodbye and went back to the real world and go to the kitchen to cook some food, I still didn''t get my lunch. While on the way, the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder is bothering me a lot. I don''t know why but this disease seems to be a lot more serious than I thought it would be. If the mission to investigate this is similar to how I investigated the Riot Massacre and their takeover of the Underground Mall, then it is severe enough for the higher-ups to deploy magicians to investigate it. Due to my involvement in many different big cases lately, it is not a wonder that I am included to investigate it. "Blue, can you tell me some tidbits of info about this Crazed Phenomenon Disorder? If you are ancient enough, you must have some sort of info regarding it right?" "Indeed I have. It is a history involving the magicians after all. However, I have incomplete data about it due to the lack of real information regarding it. Just like what that Maple girl said, the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder is some sort of disease that causes their mana to go berserk. Although they appear crazed, it was due to the disturbance of the mana flow in the body. It is either being disrupted by something or it is purposely done by someone else. That is the only thing I know and it is just some theories I heard but this theory is the closest thing I can agree with than a sickness caused by some sort of curse or virus." "Huh? The information seems different than what I have heard from Maple?" "Of course. Her info is also one of those theories but I don''t think her theory is close to the truth according to what the info and clues gathered about this disease." "This is getting confusing. So everything I just learned is all theories? Not concrete proof that can explain that disorder?" "Yes. As I said earlier, this has only some sort of theory due to how bizarre this case is. If you want to crack up the origin, reason, and symptoms of this disease then you should investigate it properly tomorrow. It''s not like I am a great encyclopedia that knows anything. I am not some sort of deity that knows everything so spares me the angry talk alright?" "Right, sorry about that." "Good. Still, if you want to investigate this disease, you should be careful. According to the history of magicians, almost all of the magicians who investigated the disease either got crazy and disappeared somewhere." "I heard of that before from Maple. So it is true. Did they go and kill other people?" "The rampage didn''t go that far but the victims are close to death''s door when rescued so it is possible that the rampaging person who acquired the disease to kill someone." "So even a single person, there is no magician who managed to survived the investigation?" "...Actually, there is one. She has survived the ordeal indeed and has managed to bring the most information that allowed us to form the theory of the disease. However, she is now blind and old. If you want to ask her about it, you should visit the Akihabara Other Realm. She is currently the chief in command to the establishment that deploys magician mercenaries to the whole world." Chapter 162: Akihabara Other Realm The moon in the night sky shines through the window of my bathroom. After making sure the water in the bathtub is warm enough for me to avoid scalding, I entered the bathtub. SPLASH! Entering the bathtub, I felt all of my fatigue that accumulated from the battles wither away. A relaxing warm water bath helps to calm my nerves and my tired body. Back during I lived with my uncle and aunt, I would do this just to relieve myself from the stress accumulated from school. And this method still does not fail to this day. "Master~ Will you allow me to scrub your back? I can also rub my chest to you to get some pleasure~" Yuri popped out from my Familiar Space. "No thanks, I already finished doing the scrubbing and besides, I know what you wanted to do and I don''t want to do that." "Aww Master, don''t be such a killjoy, it will be fun~" "Thanks for the tempting offer but I still refuse and don''t force me, I will not supply your mana if you keep on saying your advances to me," I said. "Then why are you not covering and you are just letting yourself bare for me to see?~" "There is nothing to hide for me. You guys have seen my crotch many times before while bathing or taking a leak. There is no need for me to be ashamed of this though." "Eeehhh... Fine..." Yuri pouted. Yuto and Inari-sama alongside some of the foxes appeared too which I don''t mind. "Your charm does not work on Master, sis. Accept the reality already." "No! As long as I can still charm others, I can also charm Master, just not now since he is really hard to conquer," Yuri said with determination. "My, my, everyone is so lovely today, even Master is elegant in the bathtub," Inari-sama said before she flicks her fingers which resulted in a censor smoke to appear in my crotch area. "Hey! Why is this cloud covering the lovely view!?" Yuri frowned. "Now, now. Even a lewd succubus like you should also take control of your libido. Look at your brother, he doesn''t even have any slightest lewd intentions on women despite being an incubus," Inari-sama said. "Of course, I am only attracted to 2d girls nowadays," Yuto said with a smug. "Not fair!" Yuri sulked. Although I still feel the pressure of the mystery of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder, I have to take it off on my mind for a slight to avoid getting stressed. Who knows what info will I obtain once I investigate the matter? The real danger also marks there since every magician who tried to investigate the sickness also got infected and got crazy before disappearing somewhere ... The very next day, I prepared for the mission to investigate the source of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. I still have no idea where it came from or what caused this. To avoid getting it if it was spread in the air, I grab a mask and wear it in case it is due to a virus as Maple speculated. As for the mana disturbance, I will find a way to stop it if it comes to that. After a few more preparations are done, I receive a call from Maple that she is ready to go to the mission and we will meet up in the teleporter on the Magician Society building. "Remember Kazuma, only one woman managed to escape the curse of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. It would be best if you can ask her how she did it for reference before you guys start to look for leads just to avoid the trouble of getting infected by that illness." "Noted." Returning to the other realm and heading to the teleporter, I already spotted Maple waiting outside in her same outfit. I thought she would dress up differently but looks like my assumptions are wrong. "Did you wait for long?" I asked. "Not at all. Should we get going?" Maple asked. "Let''s set the destination to Akihabara Other Realm. I found some sort of clue that might help us on our investigation on the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder and might reduce the danger imposed on it. Of course, it is not a guarantee." "Akihabara Other Realm? Is there something worth checking in there? I heard there was a branch of the Magician Mercenary Guild located there. Is that our destination?" "Yes, that should be it." Maple nodded in confirmation and we entered the Teleportation Circle. She raises her right hand and the surroundings glow in bright red. "Change location! Akihabara Other Realm!" The magic circle starts to revolve so fast once again and sparks also fly as the circles spin like a roulette. FWOOOOOOO~ Just like how it always been, it only takes a few seconds before the surroundings we are in change into bright light. After a few blinks and customizing my vision to the new scenery, we arrived at our destination. "Looks like we arrived," Maple said as she also is trying to accustom her eyes to the surroundings. Unlike the usual Akihabara I used to see before, this Akihabara has the different look. The place is filled with lights and floating colorful balls. What is more, it is more like a fair, than a place where mercenaries are hanging out frequently due to stalls and some party flags hanging on the street... I also see a few kids who are playing with other kids... using magic. Compared to the usual Akihabara that is a place for business and different trades, this place is screaming for liveliness and fun. "What is this place?" I frowned since my expectations of the other realm of Akihabara is much more serious, similar to the Magician Society''s atmosphere. "I have no idea either. This is the first time I have entered this place so I did not have the slightest idea that this place would be very lively." "Damn, then how do we get into the Mercenary Guild?" I asked. "Let''s explore the place first. Maybe you should also map it out using your mana scan so we can easily find our way." "Alright then." Activating my ability, [Insight], I managed to map out a few of the area''s surroundings. Since the place is not the real Akihabara''s road, I have no idea what buildings might be erected or removed. Moreover, some parts are just not familiar enough for me. We didn''t bother to ask the other people the questions on the location of the Mercenary Guild. We can''t trust other people so easily so instead of risking yourself to ask direction only to get scammed, then it is better if you just find the way yourself. "Just what is the occasion here? It seems like it is doing some festival of some sort since there are also vendors selling things related to magic and other stuff that you can''t find in normal markets." "Looks like a celebration that is enough to cause the whole Akihabara Other Realm to also hold a celebration. It is indeed a festivity since this is not how it should look like if this was just some sort of bazaar or a flea market. There are too many attractions here." The strange thing is that this place is crowded with people. It was like the real world integrated into this Other Realm peacefully. But it seems everyone here is magicians since they can use magic like us. The vendors in the stalls too are all smiling and they seemed to be happy with everything here which made me wonder, is this Other Realm different compared to other realms? Exploring the streets of the new Akihabara is enough to make you feel lost. I am glad that my [Insight] skill allows me to avoid getting lost by making a sort of mental map that will help on mapping this place without using pen and paper. It acts also as a GPS just in magic form for me. After around 2 hours, I wiped my sweat in frustration. Where the heck is the Magician Mercenary Guild located?! "Kazuma, it looks like it is time for us to find the right person that can lead us into the Magician Mercenary Guild. Just by us, it seems like we don''t know any of these buildings that looked suited to a place like the Magician Mercenary Guild Located." "Should we find help?" "Maybe we should," she said. We nod in agreement when... BOOM! The explosion is very strong that the peaceful surroundings filled with laughter and joy from the kids and the people around suddenly grow anxious. Fear also emanates from the place as people started to flee after the explosion. BOOM BOOM! Another set of explosions occurred not too far from our location. "What the heck is going on?" I frowned. Then, I overheard one man running and getting the little girl who is still busy eating cotton candy. "Dad? What are you doing?" "We need to get out of here! The rift has opened once again!" Chapter 163: Monster Portals Rift?! The same kind of rift I sealed back in the Phantasmal Reality?! "Maple! Let''s go!" "I was just waiting for you to say that!" Maple nodded and pulled her set of knives out of nowhere. Since the explosion is just near, we sprinted towards the location while readying ourselves on what is going on. We arrived at a plaza that never existed in the real Akihabara since this place is full of buildings on that spot so that place must be an exclusive park only seen here in the Akihabara Other World. In the middle of the plaza is the rift that the man earlier said. "Monster Portal! What is that doing here?!" Maple was surprised when she saw the rift. "Monster Portal?" "You have encountered the G.A.T.E.S, right? Then the monster portal acts similarly except that you cannot enter it as the former does. Instead, the inhabitants inside will emerge and go on a rampage to the other side where the portal appeared. Unlike the G.A.T.E.S, the Monster Portals can be closed once the monsters that emerge all get killed. Also, it only appears whenever the balance of mana in the surroundings suddenly spikes up which will cause an imbalance that will allow the monsters to rip open a portal, giving them access to our world." "So, everything got messed up due to the imbalance of the mana in the surroundings? Then how can we return its balance?" "As I said earlier, we can only close the portal once the monsters emerging on it are all killed. There is no other way for us to force close it." Looks like there is no easy way. I wanted to preserve my energy instead of going to pointless battles but there is no way I can skip this one out. If killing the monsters is the only way, then so be it. "Let''s end this quickly so that we can go straight to the investigation right away." There are already a lot of people killed by the monsters in surprise. Male, female, adult, or young, none are spared. The monsters that appeared on the portal are humanoid flesh that has no definitive feature except the white circle on its forehead area and a small hole placed on its mouth. Other than that, it looked like a lump of mashed meat piled together and shaped like a humanoid which looks disgusting enough. Surprisingly, they might look like wobbly creatures but they possess a strong physique that they can easily rip out a human body to shreds as it did to some victims that we failed to save. "I''ll handle the left, Kazuma, you handle the right side!" Maple suggested before running to where she assigned herself. "No problem with me." The gore on the streets seems like it came from a horror movie where a monster wreaks havoc on unsuspecting people. Getting close to one, I can smell the strong smell of blood and the vomit-inducing air coming from their body. As one spotted me, it hurled itself to me like a lump of meatball rolling from the plate. "Get away from me!" BANG! Punching them on their body then overloading them with mana caused the fat body of my target explodes. I didn''t have time to enjoy the explosion as I quickly moved to the next target and kill it. They move slowly when nothing is around them but their reflexes to move when there is a target is insane as they can quickly move from where they stand to a few meters ahead as long as a target appears on their field of view or field of their senses as I don''t think that white circle on their forehead is an eye. Despite the massacre they did in just a short time, they are weak enough to be easily killed. Just annoying to deal with especially their insane speed to attack a human. I sighed in relief after killing the last monster on my side. Looking into Maple''s side, she also finished her side and cleanly cut everything to pieces. Looking at the monster''s corpses, and surveying the place for any enemies, I noticed the portal started to shrink until it disappeared without a trace. "Alright, we have closed the portal," I said and wipe off the sweat on my forehead. "Good job on your part. Anyway, I was wondering why I don''t see the mercenary magicians around? They should be here prioritizing the closure of the portals," Maple said. Just like what Maple said, the mercenaries that were supposed to be present here in the Other Realm of Akihabara did not even help to close the portal. But then, there was someone who suddenly started speaking raising our defenses. "Don''t attack. We are the mercenaries in this area. Sorry, we came in late!" one man who is wearing a hoodie jacket said. Behind him are two females wearing casual clothes usually seen on girls who are going outside to visit some places. They don''t look like they are mercenaries to me at all. "Mercenaries? You came in late. We already finished off all monsters here and closed the portal. There is no need for you lot to stand in here. If you want to clean up the mess here, then we will gladly hand the job over to all of you." The three were surprised when they heard that the portal is closed. They looked around for a while to confirm if we are lying or not. "It looks like they are telling the truth. The mana residue in this place is quite high and the surroundings are full of corpses and demon carcasses. They might not look like strong people but they are telling the truth," the girl with glasses said as she assesses us. "Just the two of them?! The monsters we killed on the other portals are hard to defeat and they defeated them easily?" the guy in the hoodie said. "Sota, you underestimate others, aren''t you? From what I can see, these guys REALLY have the abilities. I can tell from their mana storages that they are not just your average magicians, especially the guy over there," the girl that looked like a fashionista pointed at me. "So there are multiple gates that have appeared here? No wonder the mercenaries that we expected to appear did not appear here, turns out they are busy with other portals," I mumbled. "Since you guys are here, we will not be staying here since we still have something to do. Farewell," Maple said and beckons me to follow suit. The three mercenaries or so they call themselves did not stop us and just stare at us moving away from the scene as we are still trying to find where the hell is the building that has the mercenaries are. We didn''t bother to ask those three as they seemed to be warier on us so it is more unlikely they will cooperate with us. ... As the two odd magicians left, the three looked at the surroundings and the male named Sota scratched his head in confusion. "These monster carcasses are a mess! How the heck did those two wrecks the enemies easily?" Shizuka, the girl with the glasses crouch down to one of the flesh scattered on the street and inspected it, though she didn''t touch it, she levitated it using magic before she inspected the whole thing. "Based on this flesh of meat, the monster that got killed is the Moving Mounds. With the droplets of blood scattered all around, I assume that the way it was killed is by an explosion, however, there are no signs of flesh burned so this monster must have been killed via brute force or magic that can cause this kind of damage to a degree. There are no signs of magic damage dealt from the flesh but there is overwhelming mana residue on their flesh attached." "Moving Mounds are pretty resistant to Physical Attacks. So if there is no magic involved, but there is mana residue, isn''t this blowing up enemies by overloading them with mana?" the fashionista looking lady, Reiko said. "It is possible. But isn''t overloading mana only possible if the magician has a boundless amount of mana to expend? From the looks of the number of corpses, there are so many of those monsters killed. The other group of monsters on this side did not get killed by explosion but they are diced to pieces in cubes," Sota said as he examined the area where Maple fought. Hearing what Sota said, Shizuka went to Sota''s location and looked at the cubes of flesh from the Moving Mounds. It was cleanly cut that not a single shred of flesh that is out of place stands out." "This... it''s possible if they used some sort of blade that can easily cut things to pieces. If I may guess, the girl earlier is the one who did this stuff. Cutting up the monsters to pieces might be her work due to the sword bag she was carrying earlier," Shizuka said. "Then, are you saying the one who exploded all the monsters using mana overload is that guy?!" Chapter 164: Mercenary Magician Guild Aside from the one we encountered before, other portals have appeared all over the Akihabara Other Realm. Fortunately, the mercenaries in the area have already taken control of the situation and the monsters that appeared from the portal are already annihilated. "This is the first time I have seen a massive Portal appearance. Most of the time, there is only one portal open which will result in the invasion but portals these many? Not in a chance," Maple said. "Is this a unique event here? This is the first time I have visited this place so I don''t know the custom of the events here," I said. "Nope, this is the first time I have heard of something like this. If this was a well-known incident, the Magician Society might have already deployed some magicians to handle this phenomenon. They just don''t leave something half-assed and dangerous if they have known it and portals appearing is already considered dangerous." "You got a point. This would never escape the eyes of the society if they have heard of a phenomenon like this. Even the G.A.T.E.S are under their control. So does that mean this event is a sudden one?" "Most likely so. Unprecedented events that have yet to be recorded to the Terminal records are not included in the scope of the magicians so this incident may be exclusive today." As we continue walking down the street, we saw a building with magicians outside the entrance alongside some people who have wounds on their bodies. "FALL INLINE PLEASE! PRIORITIZE THE WOUNDED, ALL OF THE AFFECTED MAGICIANS WILL BE RECEIVING HELP SO PLEASE BE PATIENT!" "They are helping the injured? " "Ah! I recognize their armbands!" Maple said. "Their armbands?" Staring at their arms, I saw the not so eye-catching armband that Maple is talking about. It has a blue color on it with a wand and a magic circle design on it. Now that she mentioned it, those three earlier who introduced themselves as mercenaries too has this particular armband. "So that means that building is the mercenary guild of magicians? It looks like they are busy." "Let''s wait for them for a little while until the coast is almost clear and everyone is no longer that busy. We can''t blame them for the incident." "If that is the case, let''s keep watch for a while and see things for now. We don''t know if a portal of some sort will appear around here out of nowhere." "Alright then, there is no need to rush out anyway," Maple said, "So, should we find a good place to stay?" "Ack, I have no money at the moment... Can you lend me some?" "..." ... Maple rented a room for us two. Although we share the same room since the inn has only one room left, the room is big enough for us two. Of course, I won''t sleep together with Maple on the same bed. I will be sleeping on the sofa. It is too indecent for me who is not married to Maple to sleep on the same bed. Around the afternoon, the people gathering on the main entrance of theMercenary Guild has finally dissipated and the mercenaries helping them have also gone back inside without any event. There are also no portals that appeared without warning which is why it is peaceful in the otherworld Akihabara. The only thing that has changed is that the usual lively place has now become peaceful, without any signs of the usual lively festivities. "Hey, Maple, should we move towards the Mercenary Guild?" "I will pass, for now, Kazuma. After overusing my usage of my blade, I have to tune in the blade for now. I will entrust you on the info gathering for now since you are much more able and does not need to tune in equipment." Glancing on her sword, I saw some parts of it are almost chipped off from the blade and some have already cracked. It is in the worst state of her fight. "You didn''t bring any weapon aside from the sword?" "There are some flying daggers on my leg here but they are for emergencies. The only weapon I can use without limit is my usual daggers so if I wanted to be more efficient in my battles, I have to tune in this sword and repair it." "If that is the case, then I will head into the Mercenary Guild. We can''t afford to lose a good clue about the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. I will be back a bit later after the meeting if I ever get to have one." "Good luck." ... When Kazuma went out of the inn, Maple sighed in relief. "What a blatant lie you said in there, Maple-sama. Even though the sword that I possess can auto-repair itself, why did you insist on staying behind for a tune-up of the sword even though it is not needed? Are you sure you don''t want to follow the young man towards the Mercenary Guild?" her sword vibrates and the spirit that resides inside appears. This spirit is the familiar of Maple who takes over before on the battle last time on the Phantasmal Reality. "There is no need for me to see who he was going to meet on the Mercenary Guild. If I am right, he is about to visit the first person who managed to stay alive after the investigation on the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder." "You loathe that person, aren''t you? But why? Isn''t she the one who informed you of the fate of your Mother and sister?" "For someone who failed to save my family, I don''t think I would like to see her. I still can''t get to face her." "Ha, humans have complicated issues in life. Even though she is the last relative left on your family tree..." "She is only my aunt. She cannot be considered a family to me." ... The Mercenary Guild is not that marvelous but it is simple enough that you can call it a headquarters for mercenaries without ruining the image of the mercenaries. It is more inclined in the modern world theme. Different magicians are walking about. I can tell that they are magicians due to the mana they release every time they walk and pass by through me. Also, there is no single normal human on them, they have all the mana flowing in their body. "This place has a lot of differences compared to the Magician Society building. Still, it is quite extravagant even for a mercenary building." "What are you expecting, some sort of PUB looking place? This is not some medieval times so that has already changed," Blue said. "I usually think guilds should be similar to a pub and gather in the counter to get some quests or something like that." "Your imagination is so far from reality, the Mercenary Guild is the same as a modern society. It would be strange if they still maintain the look of the guild to look similar to a PUB." Noise and chatter welcomed me when I entered the place. The people who were injured were slowly being treated for their wounds. Many of the people helping the wounded are healing magicians seeing them use holy magic made me sure they can use holy magic which specializes in disposing of evil and darkness built monsters and has the most efficient skills, the healing, making them needed almost everywhere in magician councils to this place. Mercenaries are also helping people who have trouble walking around due to injuries they sustained on their legs. It was really busy that nobody even paid attention to me. Since they didn''t bat an eye on me, I headed towards the counter where the receptionists are currently working. They are not as busy as the mercenaries but they are still doing some work. Getting into the counter, the short-haired blonde girl dealing on the counter is the first one to notice me and quickly goes to my way to entertain what is my business on the guild. "Hello, mister. You are a new face here. Are you perhaps new? Do you want to register as a mercenary here?" she cheerfully smiled. "Ah, no. Nothing like that. I am not here for any missions, mercenary kinds of stuff, and the likes.I wanted to make some appointment with someone which I am sure you are very familiar with." "An appointment? Sure. But who are you trying to meet up with? We can check their schedule if they are currently free right now. Most of them are busy due to the situation that occurred earlier outside but if they are now not so busy, then maybe they can agree to meet you." "I am looking for "The Raven." Can you make a schedule and will she agree to have an appointment with me?" As soon as "The Raven" escaped in my mouth, the nearby receptionists and magicians were stunned that they looked at me like they have seen someone crazy. Even the cheerful receptionist that entertained me on my appointment was stunned. However, I am not surprised by their reactions. Last night during the conversation Blue and I have... "A woman who survived the investigations? Someone like that exists?" "Yes. She has indeed survived the sickness of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. It was quite a little bit strange that she returned blind after that but she is one of the formidable magicians that have made a mark in history. They are not just mere stories but the real truth. It is not even an exaggeration that she can defeat demons all by herself even if she is outnumbered by a hundred high ranked demons." "That is pretty strong. Someone like me struggles on small fry demons and she can already defeat that much?" "You are lightyears away from her power Kazuma. She was called "The Raven" due to that. Due to her ability to control mana without moving her body and for her signature to use ravens to attack enemies, she was dubbed as "The Raven who covers the Night in Blood." Chapter 165: " The Raven" Based on their reactions, my notion is ridiculous and scary. They said she is a literal monster, not just in a sense, but the literal meaning. There is not a single thing you can describe her aside from the Raven and a monster which means she is pretty strong for her to be described like that. And she made a bigger name for herself after she managed to gather some intel on the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. Since most of the magicians deployed did not even get the chance to live up to the mission even though most of the deployed magicians are elite ones, they all fell victim to the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. Only "The Raven" managed to escape its grip and live to tell the info she knows. Of course, she didn''t say much on how to stop the disease. She only said to leave "it" alone. Although her words are cryptic about it, she keeps on stopping further magicians from getting involved in it because it is not on the league of someone to tackle it. The only thing that can be done with it is to avoid it or wait for someone who can handle the sickness. Still, these people''s shock seems strange enough for me. Is she that scary? "A-are you sure she is the one you are looking for?!" the receptionist stuttered as she looked at me with a face saying, "Are you out of your mind?" or something on that line. "Yes. If possible, I want to meet her today." Not only the receptionist paused, she shook a little bit when she heard what I just said. However, she quickly recomposes herself and smiled. "I will try to contact "The Raven" and check if her schedule is fine, please wait a minute," she smiled and bowed. After that, she left her post and went upstairs using the elevator near the counter. Without the receptionist, I took a seat on one of the vacant chairs and waited for her return. The people staring at me ticked me off a little bit. Not only does it feel annoying but they seemed to pierce me with those gazes of theirs. "You seemed to be getting popular, kiddo," Blue said to me. "Oh, shut up. That is not the gaze of someone trying to idolize a person. That is a gaze of disdain and judgemental opinions!" "Still, it means you are garnering attention to other people!" "If this is the attention I will be getting, I will gladly decline on it. That is not a good thing even for me." "Still, those reactions from other people were strange as soon as they heard the nickname, "The Raven." Maybe she has a low reputation despite being the leader and founder of the Mercenary Magician Guild in Akihabara?" "I think that''s not it. She might be a symbol of fear since she is described as a "Monster" by many magicians. Maybe that is the reason why these guys are afraid of her and mentioning just her nickname might invoke the wrath of "The Raven". "Huh... For once, you seemed to be thinking much more logically." "What did you say?" "Nothing~" It took the receptionist to return to the counter. When she returned, I saw her so wet from her sweat like she just took a bath. Seeing her in that state made me frown. Just what did she experience to go from a presentable state to a wet state? "Ha... um... she said she is available right now and...if you wanted to talk to her...ha... you can take the elevator and... go to the top floor..." After that, she went to her chair previously and sat there in a daze. Her subordinates looked at her for a bit before they turned back to their work as nothing happened. I wanted to ask her but seeing the reaction of the others, I decided to just not ask instead. Whatever she has experienced there, I hope I won''t experience it either. While entering the elevator, I can feel the gazes of everyone behind my back. However, whatever things that will happen upstairs, I can only endure. Besides, if they knew something, they should have told me. ... Around 30 seconds later, I arrived on the top floor. Now that I think about it, whenever they are higher-ups or important people, their offices would be always at the top of the floors. Is there any particular reason why? "You have some random thoughts Kazuma. I don''t really know why you always think random things like you are speaking to someone." "Shut up, I am not even saying anything and here you are, saying things like this and that." "Oh well, I never cared less about what you are doing but maybe you should lessen the talk all by yourself? I might think that you are going mad already. Anyways, here we are. "The Raven" is currently on the other side of this door," Blue said as I stop in front of the big doorway. "This is a big door, why is it so big?" "You can go in and see for yourself." Blue didn''t say anything about what is on the other side so I have no choice but to push the door open. CREAK... As I push the door open, I saw a woman sitting on a chair, in front of her is a table full of papers and books. She is currently writing something so I can''t see her face a bit. However, I can tell that she is around the age of 25 above. Her short black hair which is around the length only on her neck catches my eye. It might be the usual black hair but it exudes a little bit of bluish to me which looks similar to how the mana flows in the air. My only question is that, how can she still write using a pen? She isn''t using braille so I am wondering how. "You must be the visitor that the receptionist earlier told me who wanted to schedule a meeting with me." Just by her voice, I can immediately feel the pressure she is exuding out. But to me who already experienced severe pressure before, this amount of weight being forced on me is nothing for me. "Yes, I am the one who did requestto meet with you. My name is Kazuma, one of the magicians sent by the Magicians Society to investigate and put to a stop the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder." As soon as she heard the name of the sickness, she stopped writing and raised her head to face me. Just like what Blue said to me, she is indeed blind.Her eyes are all pure white, it wasn''t a normal eye feature and some blind people manifest the white pupils after it was damaged on sickness or accident. Aside from that, her face is quite pretty though there are scars present that somehow add more charm to her face. Still, I must say that she is one hot mature woman and she is not that old yet. But why the other people are afraid of her though? "I see. So that sickness has once again resurfaced. But you should have known now the sickness is a curse itself that will keep on eating on you once you started searching for it. Why did you accept it?" "Because I needed to do so, to save someone," I said firmly without shaking and getting nervous. If I don''t do this job, I might not have a chance to get the medicine for Anya to wake up. If these jobs will help to have a chance to obtain that single medicine, then I would take as many of this as possible. "To save someone, huh..." she smiled as she muttered those words. Then, the pressure in the air starts to get heavier all of a sudden. But just like what I said earlier, this is nothing to me compared to the pressures I experienced the past few months. "Ho~ a person who can withstand my intimidation ability. That is quite rare for someone to possess." "You can see what is happening even though you can''t see?" "I am a magician. I have a variety of abilities and opening the third eye to see things through is easy for me. You don''t have to be surprised about it. Now tell me why you wanted to meet with me so badly that you wanted to schedule our meet up already. Is this about the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder?" "Yes. I have heard that "The Raven" is the one who managed to survive and tell the tale of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder for the first time." "So that thing is still going on in the Magician Society eh? I never expected them to remember that since it has been a long time ago since that happened." "I researched on my own about your circumstances about your escape on the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder''s grasp. If everything about it is true, then perhaps you know some sort of spell or whatever ritual to stop reduce its effects?" "The Raven" looked at me with a serious eye and smiled. "If you are someone who wanted to get the effects of the sickness reduced, then first prove you are worthy enough." Chapter 166: Kazuma vs. " The Raven" "Prove myself?" I frowned. Those words are something that I don''t like to hear from higher-ups. Good thing the Oracle did not do this when we met last time. "Even though I am blind, my abilities as a magician has never diminished. If you are underestimating me, then it might cause you pain." I knew it. But I am not underestimating her I am wary of her abilities. Not only that, if she can produce this much pressure by just releasing a little bit of mana in the air, her magic skills cannot be weaker than that. "If that is the only way for you to tell me what to do to prevent the effects of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder, then I have no choice but to accept," I said before I wear the Flaming Gloves on my hands. "Good answer," she smiled before she snaps her fingers. SNAP! It was so sudden that I was surprised when our surroundings suddenly changed from her office to a land floating at the center of boiling lava. I can even feel the heat coming from the lava just by standing here. The land in the middle of the boiling lava is big enough that you can call it a mini arena. It''s not small and not big enough. Just right for two people to fight their hearts out. "I don''t want to ruin my office so this place is fine," she said while still smiling. "Where are we?" "Ah, yes. Currently, we are inside the Other World Mt. Fuji. Since this is the Other World version of Mt. Fuji, there is no need for you to hold back. Ah, and yes, I won''t be fighting to my fullest since this will only beat you up to the pulp. I will also give you five preemptive attacks and I won''t be attacking you until you used up the 5 preemptive attacks given to you. I won''t be attacking but I will also be defending myself. After 1 minute, I will end the battle regardless of the victor, sounds good to you?" "Yes," I nodded. "Then, let''s begin." Once she gives out the signal, I ignited my blazing shoes and darted forward. While mid-air, I activated the electricity charges and throw them on "The Raven" like lightning bolts. ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP! The electricity was too fast for the normal eye to see. But yes, I used up all of the preemptive attacks in range magic attack. For some reason, I am a bit wary about getting close to her range, so to be on the safe side, I decided to use range attacks first. "Electricity, eh? Those bolts are pretty destructive if used in the wrong way." BANG! One electric bolt I have thrown landed on her arm. "Oh, that was strong. That was something!~" The other bolts are also incoming and coming fast in her direction. However, instead of dodging, she raises her arm and slaps the incoming attacks rapidly. The moment the electricity bolts hit her palm, they immediately disintegrated. "Looks like the preemptive attacks are finally used up, then, I will be attacking!" In a split second that I was distracted, she disappeared from where she was standing. Another blink in the eye, she was already on my left side. It was so quick that before I can even cast the Domain of Balmung shield, she already kicked me. "AH!" I felt like I was bashed by a sledgehammer on my side. The impact is very strong that I felt my lungs halt for a whilebefore I was sent flying. When the damage connected and my lungs stopped functioning for a bit, I immediately supply mana to my body especially on my side and my lungs to mitigate the damage and to lessen the wound that it might have inflicted. After regaining a little bit of my power, I quickly positioned myself to stop myself from flying further and landed on the ground. But the moment I landed on the ground, "The Raven already managed to get close to me and smiled. "Not bad!" She punched me this time around but because I already prepared myself, I managed to block her this time and countered it with a fireball in close range, causing her to step back a little bit, but that did not stop her and she disappeared once again before reappearing to my blindside. "Ngh! No wonder people call you "The Raven", you are so fast and I can''t just pinpoint where you will pop out!" "Flattery will get you nowhere, boy." BANG! Our fists collided with each other and that''s when I know the difference between our strength and power. Even with the help of the Skull Knuckle''s hardness, it seems that it didn''t even graze her one bit. On the other hand, my fist that collided with her''s seems to have gotten injured and the stinging pain suddenly registered in my whole arm. I didn''t bother to get near her and quickly moved away. "You are not getting away~" She was too fast that I can''t catch up to her. She appeared once again and this time around, she appeared before me, still smiling with her eyes closed. To think I will get beaten by a blind person. "Hehe, I had some fun for a long while, kiddo. You are lucky that the time limit is already over." SNAP! Preparing myself for the pain, I already steeled myself. However, I heard her words and the snap of her fingers. Opening my eyes, we are already back in her office. "Although I held back a little, most people wouldn''t be able to retaliate against me. You are the second person who managed to retaliate to me without getting beaten to a pulp in the allocated time limit. Congratulations." I sighed in relief but I still can''t do much in my arm. After all, my arm is broken after the collision of our fist. To think her fist is is very hard, if I knew that, I wouldn''t have caught it and attacked it blindly. "Sorry about it earlier. I thought you already have done the body tempering process but it seems like you still didn''t do it. Here, let me heal you." SNAP! The moment she snapped her fingers once more, green light enveloped my arm and the stinging pain disappeared. "My arm healed?" "That bit was easy so don''t worry about it too much." She has indeed lived up to the rumors. All of the things being said about her is real. Her fighting style is straightforward and physical. Now that I think about it, she never used real magic in our battle. She just used up her punches and kicks. Even when I used up the electric magic, she just slaps it off like mosquitoes buzzing around her and even though one bolt managed to hit her, it didn''t even graze her at all. "You have already passed my test. Although you lost, it is an honorable loss. Fighting against me is already something that will make everyone crazy. Now, what do you want to know about the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder?" "Many rumors said that you have already known the way to counter the effects of the disorder. Getting infected by the disorder the moment you start investigating it, how did you do it to stop the effects?" "The Raven" sighed and sits down on the table. "Looks like many people have misunderstood my reports last time. Those old faggots are a real pain in the arse as always. To think they would assume to stop the effects of that disorder is easy? Ha, what a bunch of pricks. But since you have the right to know, I will tell you." "There is no such thing as a cure. When I investigated the disorder, I found out that this has no such thing as a cure. Once you get infected, you will be infected. Nothing more to do with it. One thing I can tell how I escaped it is when the time I became blind. After all, the creature that caused the disease is much dangerous as it was meant to be. Even I will have trouble in defeating it. I sealed it last time due to the sheer amount of power it possesses and to make sure it will never appear again." "Huh? Creature? Seal it?" "Yes. The cause of the disorder is not some virus or curses. A creature caused it. It was a corrupted creature that saving it is no longer possible. Due to its ability, [Cursed Eye], every human, magician, or other creature that catches its gaze, will immediately contract the disease. One thing I accidentally discovered is that it is only affecting the people who can see it. The effect gets removed once you are blind." "You purposely blinded yourself just for the sake of sealing this creature?" "Hahaha, of course not. I am not that silly to blind myself just for defeating a creature. I was accidentally blinded by that creature itself. It was too strong and I got caught off guard by its abilities. But it isn''t so bad. If I didn''t get blinded, I might be one of the people that is missing right now. After weakening it to some extent, I managed to invoke the sealing magic and sealed it off. That''s it." I never expected the answer to "The Raven". If she, who is much stronger than me almost fell victim to the enemy, what about me who is inferior to her? Also, if she sealed it, why did it reappear? Did someone break the seal and freed the creature? Chapter 167: Mini-Phantasmal World "I know it must be shocking for you to know the truth. The misconception of the magicians about the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder is that they thought it was some unknown illness that only magicians can acquire. In reality, even non-magicians and non-humans can acquire this due to the creature''s ability. Let me guess the situation, the victims of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder are rising once again after all these years of this sickness being buried in the past right?" "Yes. The number of missing people and victims that got injured from the attack of the infected crazed people has risen. Due to that situation, we are deployed by the Magician Society to search for the cause and put a stop to it if possible," I explained. "We? You have a companion?" "Ah, that''s right. But Maple said she can''t go with me for now since she has to fix her sword that got a little bit broken during our battles on closing a portal earlier." "Maple?" "Indeed. Perhaps you know her?" "Never mind, I might be wrong. Anyway, I can only tell you that this mission can be easy or might put your lives in peril. I have even regretted the times when I remember all the lives that have lost when we faced this creature. So if things don''t go on your way, don''t bother finishing the mission. Running away is not a cowardly thing as it is proof that you are eager to fight again for another day." What she said is correct. What is the point of your battle if you died? It''s not like you are forced to fight to the death. I just realized it and thinking back to my past actions, I am too reckless. Maybe because I am too gung-ho on the new things I am experiencing? No, I am just thirsty for adventure. Maybe changing my ways will allow me to avoid accidents from happening again? "Do you want my advice in fighting against that abomination of a creature? I have fought toe to toe last time so I might be able to give you some hints on how to fight against it. Just don''t follow most of it since we have different fighting styles. Wanna hear it?" "There is no harm in me getting advice from the one who managed to seal the enemy that causes the disease so I will gladly listen." SNAP! She surprised me again and this time, she brought me to another place. It has a similar structure to the Training Place that Blue usually invokes for me to use, of course, with the shards as the entrance fee. "Welcome to my own Mini Phantasmal Reality, here, the time moves slowly so I can train you here and remember what you needed to do." "Mini-Phantasmal Reality? Similar to the Phantasmal Reality of Nekoyama-sama?" "No, this one is on a mini scale though it has a similar structure, this place is just a room compared to Nekoyama''s where you can call it another continent already. Also, this place of mine is for training. There is nothing much for me to do here except for the training part." I was right to assume that this is similar to Blue''s Training Space. The only difference is that the time here still passes by unlike on Blue''s Training Space that has the time stopped until you get out of the place. This is a downgrade to be exact but it''s not much different to Blue''s. "Shall we begin?" I nod at her as a confirmation. She smiled and waved her hand in the air twice. Suddenly, a massive magic circle appeared. Instead of blue, it was bright red and it is blinking rapidly. Aside from that, it is emitting very strong mana fluctuations. So far, this is the strongest magic circle that appeared that I have seen so far. "Come forth, Mephistopheles." Dark energy bursts out of the magic circle and the bright red color it emits before turns into blood-red color. The sparks that it releases earlier turned black. What''s more, the magic circle''s layers expanded. "Confirming, summoning of aDevil Class familiar! Its tier is much higher than Inari-sama! Mephistopheles, the trickster!" Blue said as she scans the incoming summon. It didn''t take long for me to see what "The Raven" has summoned.A man wearing a mask with two emotions, the sad and laughing mask appeared on the circle. He wears a black coat with some red line designs on the hems of his coat. He also wears a tall man''s hat with a moon symbol attached to it. Around him is the black and red energy balls that I have no idea what is, currently revolving aimlessly like they are orbiting this man. He looks like he came from London''s middle age time where Jack the Ripper was still famous. "Ohya? What an unusual time for you to summon me out, Master. So where is the enemy?" Mephistopheles said as he hovers above the ground. "Ha, good old friend, we are not going to battle, I just needed your ability to produce something here." "Oh, I see what you mean," then, he turns in my direction and rubs his neck a bit, "So are you the guy who seeks knowledge from our Master? You seem fine to me. I am Mephistopheles, Mephisto for short." "Kazuma Fukuyama." "Since Mephisto is finally here, then, we shall start the simulation, alright? Mephisto, if you please do so." "Okay~" Mephistopheles waved his hands around and dark energy gathered beneath his feet. "Recalling Imagery: Phantom Summon!" The dark energy that gathered beneath his feet suddenly rose from the ground, swirling like a whirlpool, and forms a shape of a monster in a matter of seconds. "GRAAAAWRRRR!" It was a monster of black mud. It has little to no form, except that it has a human face on the middle of the blob-like mud. "This is the face of the creature that is causing the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. However, due to the power of Mephisto, it cannot replicate the real color of the creature. Only the black color can be used. But the look of this creature is replicated properly from the real deal." "It looks like a creature from nightmares but it doesn''t look that terrifying to me. I have seen worse than these," I said as I analyzed the look of the creature. "Oh? Impressive! To think you won''t be scared of something like this. If I saw this the first time before, I will be a bit afraid of it since it is a real abomination," Mephistopheles said though he looks insincere. "Don''t mind him, he is speaking nonsense. It was indeed not as terrifying as it looked like. The real one has a much more terrifying air on it but if you are not afraid of this thing, then you won''t be afraid of the original one." The creature roared once again and it shook the surroundings, emitting a nauseous odor that invades your nasal cavities. Even when covering my nose, the smell permeates which disturbs me a lot. "Does the smell affects your mind? The real creature indeed produces this smell to confuse and stop its enemies from getting close while it can cast the disorder in just a single glance. Kind of unfair, isn''t it?" Mephistopheles remarked. It was unfair. But that is the defensive mechanism of this creature so it is kind of normal. But this is too troublesome. If the imitation can emit this pungent smell easily, how bad is the original? "Mephisto can recreate things easily using his trickster powers. Any imitation he copies can be comparable to the original ones. If you wanted to face the creature later on, then fight this imitation and learn its patterns. Now, try to fight it right now and I will try to see your flaws." ... My mind is in a mess. I don''t know what to say and I think I blank out in the middle of the fight. The creature is still standing, alongside "The Raven" and her familiar, Mephistopheles. However, I am currently laying on the floor with blood and bruises on my body. All of my muscles are aching and I can''t even stand. "Did I just die?" I asked. "Silly, if you died, you should have not been able to speak and you will be already an ethereal being floating around us," "The Raven" said. "You were resilient. But you lack the experience and power to help you with that. As one of the Devil beings, I can say that I am impressed. Only a few humans can go fight seriously like that," Mephisto said. "What did I just do? I think I blanked out earlier? I don''t remember at all..." "Rest for a bit. You used too much power when fighting against the creature that Mephisto created. Don''t tire yourself too much or it might cause big consequences on your body." My mind is all groggy. I don''t think I can even remember what I just did against the creature. "Don''t worry Kazuma, if you have missed or did not remember what you just did, I recorded your fight earlier. You don''t have to worry too much about it," Blue said. "You recorded it? " "You seemed dazed earlier, and I know that you will say something on that line that you forget this or that. So before you start complaining, I initiated a recording to stop you from whining." "Haha, damn it but you are right. Thanks." "The Raven" healed my injuries and helped me get up, although she healed me up and my open wounds already closed, the fatigue that accumulated from my body seemed to get really bad that getting up seems like a chore already. "Come back tomorrow and pick up the talisman that I have prepared for you and your companion Kazuma. This will help lessen the effects of the disorder though it cannot prevent it fully. It is just there for mitigation and to allow the two of you to either escape or eliminate the cause. May I pray for your success." Chapter 168: My Consciousness 2 in 1 After saying my farewells to "The Raven" and Mephistopheles, I went back to the inn, ready to go to sleep. The sun is almost ready to set, making my drowsiness intensify. My eyes feel droopy and heavy already due to the fatigue I accumulated. Even the mana circulation failed to lessen the fatigue I felt. "Are you alright there, Kazuma? You look pale," Blue asked me while I exit the Mercenary Building. "I am fine. Just a little bit tired, nothing too bad after a few hours of rest, and this fatigue will disappear like nothing. Nothing too serious." "...You say that but your complexion tells me otherwise. You cannot just lie to me like that Kazuma. Remember that I can scan your body easily so lying about your condition is not a good thing for you. I will scold you whenever I wanted to!" "Tch, I don''t really have any idea what this is but the fatigue has accumulated too much in my body.More like I needed to sleep as soon as possible." Without bothering to keep bantering with Blue, I returned to the inn as quick as I can and go to the bed. Lucky for me, I managed to return to the room and reach the bed before I feel things going really bad. "Welcome back, Kazuma. How are things?" Maple asked. "It is fine... I got the info. However, I need to hit the sack... good night..." "Huh? W-wait Kazuma, don''t just drift off to sleep yet! You haven''t eaten dinner at all! Hey!" And that was the last thing I heard before I drifted to sleep and arrived in the land of slumber. ... "Huh? You are back again?" I slowly opened my eyes and once again, I found myself in the world of my consciousness. And the guy who keeps on calling himself my "alter ego" appeared in front of me once again. "What the hell, did I overexert myself again this time around for me to arrive back in the depths of my consciousness?!" "You are reckless aren''t ya? I don''t know if I should have to praise you on that or ridicule you to some extent. This is too much even for an average person ya'' know? How many screw-ups did you perform these days eh?" "Shut up, you are a blabbermouth aren''t you? Why do you keep on summoning here as always?" "The heck? Why are you blaming me? I don''t have the slightest idea why you keep on intruding on my domain. I didn''t even bother you so why are you angry at me? I should be the one going to be angry at you as you have breached my property!" I shook my head and stood upon the ground. Unlike before, I can now stand up without any difficulty. "Oh, now you can get up and move around here without any problem. That means you have gotten stronger than before. That is commendable for someone who is a complete mess of a person." This guy keeps on mocking me but I decided to just let it go for now since he isn''t really doing much on me except the mockery. Looking around my surroundings, I noticed that the walls seems like made from jelly matter and some sort of foreign material. The ceiling also looked like it came from alien craft. Did I just got abducted by aliens? "You are mocking the inside of your consciousness you know?" the alter ego said grinning. "How did you know what I was thinking?" "Because we share the same mind. The only thing is that I can hear what you are thinking clearly while you have no similar rights to do so on hearing mine." "That is a little bit unfair..." "Hahaha, that is the law of this world. If you get frustrated, you can''t do sh*t about it, hahaha!" I am close to getting pissed by this guy but I am holding it in. "Hahaha, try and hit me and you will feel the pain I felt twice the amount. Don''t worry too much, you can hit me as much as you like unless you are a masochist." "..." "Now, what are you going to do? Surely, you won''t be going back to reality soon since you are still here and not yet fading. How about you walk around with me? I know this place like the back of my hand. You won''t worry about getting lost around here with me guiding you until you awaken. What do you think? Is that good enough? If you wanted to explore around here all alone, you will have the bigger risk of getting lost and if you got entangled to something unexpected, you might be tied up in here and you will have no more chance to return." "...Fine. Lead the way. Don''t you dare do tricks on me or I will screw you up." "Hahaha, screw who? Don''t you remember? If you hit me, you will feel the pain, more like screw yourself!" There is no other choice. As much as I want to beat up this guy, if I can feel double the pain he felt, I am still screwed up. Also, even if I wanted to explore this place around all by myself, it cannot beat the one with the guide. I still wanted to return to my body rather than get stuck here. "Shall we go?" the alter ego asked. "Yes, leadthe way." ... I was thinking that this place is small at first since all I ever have seen so far is the room where I ended up with. How naive I was. It is indeed small but that was only a single room. Outside is a massive place with several hallways and open spaces. "Is this really my consciousness?" I asked as I marveled at the place. "Yes indeed. This place is your consciousness. Although most of the places here are empty, as you grow older, this place will be filled with different things based on your experiences. Call it your memory bank." "Every wall of this place will be filled with different books that are all about your life. You can say that your consciousness is a massive library of knowledge and personal record of your life. Anything you encountered so far and everything you learned is immediately stored here." "If that is the case, how come most of the walls here are empty?" I asked. "Naive. Do you think during that age of yours is enough to fill up a whole room of books? Your life currently is only composed of 4 books so how do you think you can fill these shelves with books if that amount barely even consume the top shelf of a normal bookshelf?" "4 books? That little?" "Indeed. Since human lives are long, especially if you become a magician, there is no way you can have a lot of those books at your age. Most will only have 3 or 4 books and yours are the average amount people get." "So, can I read them if I wanted to?" "Your abilities are too small and too weak for you to access an akashic record like this. Since all memories of yours will be part of this massive library of books in the future, it will be treated as one of the akashic records though if it is compiled together in the shelves of the akashic records, your record will be as insignificant as a small piece of dust in the air. If you wanted to read it, be sure to increase your abilities and keep yourself worthy of accessing it. Only a few individuals gifted and blessed enough can see and read the entirety of the files the Akashic Records can give." So much info came into my mind that I don''t think I can easily catch up with what he is saying at all. "Don''t worry too much. You will get used to it and sooner or later, you will encounter this again. It is just something I advise you to do if you don''t want to get troubled in accessing it in the very future." "Just who are you?" "I already told you to haven''t I? I am your alter ego, your other-self. There is nothing much in there except I am just another being born from you." As we continue along the way, we passed by a hallway that seemed to have a glass attached which acted as windows, allowing anyone to view what is outside. On the other side of the hallway we are walking on, a wide body of water with glittering glows of different colors catches my eyes. It was so eyecatching since I never expected a place like an ocean appears in this place. "What is that place? Why is there a body of water here?" "Oh, that? I call that the "Sea of consciousness". All of the ideas, choices, and many other things that provide a sort of intelligence and decision making came here. Every wave from this sea is a single action you did. The bigger your decision is, the bigger the wave it does." The sea of consciousness is big. It is indeed a sea despite that it only exists in my mind. I wonder if this is part of my brain but I decided to just leave it at that. We continue our tour but nothing is interesting much in here. There are occasional places where my alter ego pointed out some traps that shouldn''t be triggered because it is troublesome to deal with. We returned to the last room I was in earlier after that. "The tour is quite boring, isn''t it? Because your consciousness is also boring and barren. There is nothing much for me to even give myself entertainment. So next time, be sure to make lots of memories, entertain me too so that I won''t get bored. Maybe you can get some after your battle against that creature or whatsoever in your mission." I wanted to say something but then I noticed my whole body is fading. "Oh? You are waking up so soon? Then, until the next time you arrive here. I expect new things will appear here after all right? Don''t bore me out, I am not a patient person after all." My answer did not manage to reach the alter ego as my consciousness slowly drifted away... ... "Aah!" THUD! Pain registered on my face as I realized that I fell from the sofa. I clearly remembered that I fell asleep on the bed without waiting for Maple due to fatigue but now, I am on the sofa. Did Maple carried me away from the bed and put me here on the sofa? We agreed earlier that I will be sleeping on the sofa so there are no hard feelings. However, who carried me to the sofa? There is no way for me to know since my consciousness is wandering around somewhere. I looked into the bed and Maple is still sleeping. I can see the spirit of Masamune floating above Maple as it guards her while sleeping. He noticed my presence and he grinned at me. "Looks like you are awake, boy. You were like a dead man last night since you did not move at all when you were being moved from the bed to the sofa." "You carried me to the sofa?" "Of course. It would be unprofessional of me as familiar to let his master do the work." It looks like Masamune is quite a workaholic since he even volunteered to do some work. Even now, he seems eager to work on something as he keeps on tinkering with a knife that seems to be broken.Maybe it is one of the throwing knives of Maple. Since Maple is still asleep and my body feels groggy since I didn''t take a bath last night, I asked Masamune to tell Maple that the bathroom is occupied. While taking a dip in the bathtub, I asked Blue to replay the battle that was recorded when I fought against the Creature that Mephistopheles created. The video indeed contained lots of info that the mock battle against the monster made clear. The only problem is that I was too haggard in the video that I feel like smacking myself in embarrassment. ... Morning, 10:00 A.M Maple is already awake and ready to start the investigation. On the other hand, I retrieve the thing that "The Raven" told me to fetch from her once we begin the investigation. The receptionist did not stop me from going up to the office of "The Raven". Maybe she already got the go signal for me to climb up. "You are no longer scared from knocking on the door of "The Raven" huh..." Blue said with some mocking tone in her voice. "Why would I be scared? "The Raven" is not that scary in terms of personality.m Yes, she is scary in terms of fighting power but why would I be scared if she isn''t an enemy?" "Hmmm, you have a good point. Now, let''s get inside!" I knocked on the door first before entering. As usual, "The Raven" is busy with her paperwork. I still can''t believe she is already blind but she can still do things a person who can see can still do due to her third eye-opening. I should recommend Yaya to also open her third eye so that she can still properly see. "Good morning, I came here just like what you told me, Miss "Raven". "Good morning Kazuma, please wait a moment, I am preparing it right now. I can''t afford to mess it up since your lives might be at risk if I managed to make a wrong move here," she said as she writes something on an object I can''t quite see due to the clutter on her desk but I am quite sure it isn''t paper. A few movements on her hand and another which ended up with a mana transfusion on the object ended up with something glowing on her hands. "It''s done!" She stood up from her chair and held the items she keeps on fiddling earlier. "What is that?" "This is the obsidian stone imbued with pure mana from me. Although it is not designed for offensive purposes, its main purpose is for defensive against the curse. Just by simply having this with you, the disorder can be prevented a little bit though that is not enough to ensure your survival against it. It was to lessen the effects it might inflict on you so still be careful and do not be confident about taking that thing head-on. Also don''t forget all the things I have taught you, so relay it to your partner, understand?" "Yes, Maam!" "Also, one last thing. Come back safe. That is all it is for me to wish." From her words alone, I can feel the pain she is experiencing. I think she has suffered a lot due to this creature. If I can defeat it, then I will do it without fail. After saying goodbye, I went back to the inn but I didn''t get back inside since Maple is already waiting for me outside. "Are you done with the guild?" she asked. "Yes. We are set to go," I nodded. She pulls out a little stone from her pocket and puts it on the ground. "What is that?" I asked as I looked at the stone she placed. It doesn''t look any particular. The only difference it has with a normal stone is that this stone is currently emitting a faint amount of mana. "This is a teleport stone. I made it before we started the mission so that we can fast travel from one place to another to avoid wasting time. Are you ready? This is instantaneous so be a little bit prepared." And before I can react, she steps on the stone and destroyed it, which in turn glow and swallowed us. ... Back at the office of "The Raven," she was currently drinking tea while facing away from her table, just looking outside the wide transparent glass that shows the high skyscrapers made by other individuals for the Other Realm. Her appearance is calm but she shows a little bit of nervousness in her body language. "Are you sure to entrust the obsidian to that boy? I know that your sister also entrusted that to you but you failed on the task which ended up at the cost of the lives of countless people. Are you planning on passing the token to him?" Mephistopheles appeared behind "The Raven". "I am not even sure about my actions either. It has been a while since the last appearance of that Creature but the faces of my comrades and my sister after they died in my hands are all as clear as day. There is no way I will forget their faces and their sacrifices just to ensure the creature will no longer cause disaster once again." "But remember that it is not your fault. As someone who personally witnessed you claim the lives of your comrades and your sister just to let them out of their suffering is already heroic enough. It is best to let it go and move on from the past." "Letting go is not easy. And I will not just forget what I did that time. The burden they left me that time will always be carried by me and I will carry that until the day I draw my last breath." "I don''t understand you, humans, at all..." Mephisto shook his head. "There is no need for you to understand it. After all, humans are complicated creatures." ... Osaka: 11:00 A.M Somewhere in between the buildings, in an empty place where trash bags were being thrown away, a large blue magic circle appeared, rapidly rotating on the ground. There was no one around the area so they have not seen the very strong surge of energy gathering in the magic circle. If any normal person has seen the spectacle, they might think it is a form of divine retribution appearing in the middle of nowhere. ... FWOOOOOOOO! SHUA! It was sudden and when I blinked again, we are no longer in the other world streets. We are currently standing in a place filled with trash bags and the likes. It also has some pungent smell of some sort that I can''t seem to fully organize. "We have arrived in the coordinates I set up here in Osaka," Maple said as she wiped off the dust on her clothes. "You planted the tools to set up the coordinates here in the dumpster? There is no other place you can do it?" "This place is the most suitable place due to the dormant mana hovering in this place. I don''t need a few catalysts like mana imbued stones to put in here to set up a waypoint for our teleportation. It''s much more convenient. Aside from that, this place is quite desolate from the people so there is no need for us to immediately get out of the place to avoid the eyes of the normal people." "I see, but why here in Osaka?" I asked. "There was a tip that someone in here seems to be afflicted with the symptoms of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder around the area. It is best if we check the infected person and check around the vicinity if we can find the clues about the origin of things around here." "Where shall we begin?" "The victim visited Hirakata Park before. It was near here in our location so we will search for some clues in that area. But we have to be always vigilant as it is crowded. We can''t afford to show ourselves as magicians to the public. We must also ensure that if the enemies make a move, we immediately intervene." "Who is this infected individual? Is this person currently in Hirakata Park right now?" "He is somewhere else entirely. The reason I suggested here is because of some suspicious activities happening here. If these suspicious activities prove to be connected to the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder, then we need to remove them out before they grow much stronger which is why we should begin here." With the clue on hand, we have our next stop, the Hirakata Park. We just needed to walk from our location for a few minutes before we arrive at Hirakata Park. But before we can even get out of the alley we are in, I immediately noticed the heavy bloodlust and demonic energy that suddenly arrived in our vicinity. "We have company," I mumbled and immediately ignited my hands into flames. Maple also pulled out her two short swords from her hip that suddenly materialized after I said that we have company. "Show yourselves!" Maple said before throwing two flying knives in every direction. I can tell that those are the flying knives she controls with mana so it is fine for her to throw it without retrieving it since they will return to her like boomerangs. "...AAGGH!" Oh, it looks like one is hit. As soon as a scream echoed in the alley, several cloaked men appeared from the shadows, wielding dark magic balls. Seeing them charging up to us, I grinned widely and increased the intensity of the flames in my hands. "Let''s dance!" BOOM! The enemies were surprised and did not expect me to cause a strong explosion all on my own while they are closing in. The unfortunate ones are those guys that closed in while targeting me. They were caught up in the explosion and they were burned badly. "We were not informed that they are dangerous! How can those idiots mess up things like this! Retreat!" Maple''s eyes squinted. "Do you think I will let you lot escape like that? DIE!" The flying daggers she has thrown earlier came back and it didn''t just return to Maple, it passes by from the escaping enemies and slit their throats before they could react. The others who are in the range of Maple were not safe either as they were immediately sliced by Maple using her short swords. We were assaulted but we killed them. Killing them did not invoke guilt from me even though I just killed a few guys. "It looks like they are now watching us Kazuma. The enemies have already detected our current position. We should expect things to get rougher now. This is a "kill or be killed battle." Chapter 169: Journey To Hirakata Park We disposed of the bodies by teleporting them back to the Magician Society. Maple already contacted Rena to receive the bodies to investigate who are these people. "This is the first time someone brave enough to attack us in broad daylight appeared here in Osaka. No one has ever done that before," Maple mumbled as she picks up one of the insignia that one of the guys who assaulted us dropped after he was killed. "Is that a famous insignia in the Magician World?" I asked since this is the first time I have seen that thing. "No. This is unfamiliar. This is the first time I have seen something like this as a mark of a group or an alliance. I assume they are a newly formed group or might be some magician cult fanatics. Either one of them or none of them. It doesn''t matter though since they decided to attack us, that means they are enemies." "Then we should stick together once we get into Hirakata Park. Since this is their home base, we can''t just easily trust other people here. Even if they say they are helping us since they are part of the Magician Society, we shouldn''t expect some help from them since this is a private mission. We should be vigilant." "You are right. Let''s get going before the reinforcements of the enemies comes in. We can''t afford to keep on fighting all day." We made sure no reinforcements are lurking anywhere from our blindspots. I even double-check using [Insight] which ensured that we have no pursuers. "Did you detect anyone?" Maple asked. "None, we have no pursuers. It looks like we defeated most of them when they attacked us." "Good, let''s get going." ... During our walk to reach Hirakata Park, I can see a few people following us which prompted Maple to use her flying knives to do the work. It was troublesome at first since there are multiple people that we might mistake as an enemy but with the help of my observations and proper judgment, we managed to remove the enemies hiding in the shadows. It was a good thing that Maple is quite well versed in Osaka, or else, we might have gotten lost already. "Hirakata Park is already up ahead. Check if there are enemies. If there are enemies, be sure to tell me to obliterate them immediately." "Affirmative," I said before activating the ability, [Insight]. Although my [Insight] ability can''t differentiate friend from foe, due to the reason we are in Osaka, I already locked on to the people who have highly dense mana in their body and seems to be strategically positioned somewhere near us. That way, anyone who has a high mana count in their body but not part of these people can be spared. We can''t afford to hit and kill civilians. "I spotted 5 people, 2 northwest, 1 east, 1 northeast, 1 north!" "Good! Let''s dance!" ... Seeing Maple''s ability to kill enemies silently is too frightening. The way she also disposes of the bodies of the dead before other people notice is also quite professional. As soon as the enemy fell after getting their throat slit by the throwing knives, Maple will immediately throw Teleport stones to the bodies and use her throwing knives to destroy them in split second, disposing the bodies before even a drop of blood fall to the floor. It was really quick that I am not sure how to feel now seeing her easily do that. When all the enemies I mentioned were taken down by Maple, we finally arrived at the entrance of Hirakata Park. Since Hirakata Park is an amusement park, we have to pay money. Luckily this time, I have money to spare which made Maple sigh in relief. As soon as we passed through the entrance, a strange feeling creep into my body. It was like I passed onsomething solid but invisible. "Did you feel that Maple?" "Indeed. I think that is an invisible barrier that triggers the owners in case a magician or someone else has entered." "So we are spotted already here? We are now notorious?" "From the enemy faction, yes. But to the people here who just came to enjoy the attractions of the place, that is unlikely. But we can''t be too sure." "We have no time to worry about the enemies, time to gather some information so that we can get out of here as soon as possible." For starters, due to the lack of information, Maple has to activate her Mana Scan ability while I have to activate my [Insight] to get any sort of info. However, as soon as I activate it, I saw lots of people blended in the crowd, a few people who can use magic. What is more than that is that they are in a populated area and they can easily ambush us if necessary. However, before I can even do it, staff from a ride suddenly drag me away from Maple. Maple was also dragged away from me by another staff that is managing another ride. "Hey, sir, please have a ride in this roller coaster! I am sure you will enjoy things here!" "What the f*ck is wrong with you?! Who cares about a roller coaster! Don''t bother me and unhand me now at once!" I was surprised by the strength of this guy. He can easily drag me out like he is pulling nothing! But that doesn''t mean I have to comply. Besides, I don''t want to puke while riding the roller coaster. "Just try it, sir! I know it will be a pleasant experience for you!" "...Wanna die, right here, right now? Because I am willing to do it if you don''t unhand me," I said before releasing pressure using my amplified mana. The person trying to pull me suddenly turn pale when he heard me and looked at me in fear but he still keeps on trying to drag me to the roller coaster. "Please sir, I know you will like it! This roller coaster is safe and fun!" "Don''t blame me for what will happen next," I mumbled before releasing mana to cause pressure on this guy. I don''t want to kill him because we are in a public place and aside from that, he is only a normal human. His pale face got paler and paler until he suddenly collapsed to the intense pressure. The people were stunned at first before they started calling the nearby paramedics which are currently positioned near our location. "Sir! Someone has collapsed over here!" one of the bystanders shouted. The chaos started to cause the people to flock. But since the guy already managed to let go of his hand from me, I silently went with the crowd and blended in myself on them. Once I managed to get a little far from the chaos, I immediately went to search for Maple. I don''t know why but, for some reason, the whole place is just too crowded. It was like the crowd is about to go on a stampede soon enough if something that caught the eye of these people will cause them to go into panic mode which I hope won''t happen. There are lots of them that traversing on the road seems to be hard enough even for me. Also... ''Why does it feel like a sort of rush hour in here?!'' Amusement Parks are always crowded with people unless it is the closing time since people will no longer be in there once it is closing time. But seeing the number of people here is quite abnormal. My [Insight] ability is useless here too due to the number of people. Having all these people appear in my mind is making my head spin. All I can do right now is to manually find Maple amid the crowd and get her out of the crowd. "Blue, can you help me with finding Maple in this crowd?" "Crowd? What do you mean by "crowd"? I don''t see any people around you though? Why are you asking me something easy for you to do?" "Huh? You can''t see the crowd here at all? I am struggling to move around due to these visitors visiting Hirakata Park. What are you saying there are no people here?" "If you are seeing lots of people right now, there is no doubt, that is called "Physical Manifestation of Illusions" spell. You might think you are seeing them, speaking with them, and touching them or whatsoever but all of them are just illusions with some sort of mana flesh to allow them to have a sort of body. They are not real." "What? But my [Insight] ability can perceive them... ah..." then I just realized it. No wonder I can see them in my scans. Since they are mana, they can also be perceived as one, but they are not a real manifestation of people. And due to the little amount of mana circulating them, I thought they are normal humans. "Can I dispel this illusion?" "Like other illusions, they can only be dispelled if the main source stops it, or has been destroyed, or the person who made it is defeated or killed. Any other method other than that is not going to work. So if you wanted to dispel it, find the main source, and do any one of the things I mentioned. This illusion is most likely tied to the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. Try to resolve it as soon as possible." "What about Maple? Can you find her?" "She is currently in the horror house. Just like the rest of the place, I can only detect slight mana in there. No people are currently alive there except that girl. You are free to thrash that place and no one will complain." So everyone in here is just illusions? Not a single person is alive here?! What the hell is this development? These people that have been trying to let me ride on the rollercoaster, the people who started to flock when that guy fainted and the paramedics, all of them are just illusions?! Then where are the real people? "I just scanned the whole place. There are no real people around you. And I think the two of you wandered inside the "Crack." "The "Crack"? What the hell is that?" "The data is not clear since this is a rare occurrence. But the "Crack" has a bit similar effects with the Mirror World, G.A.T.E.S,and the Phantasmal World where unless you allowed them to enter, there is no way for them to enter. In this case, this place can only activate if magicians entered. The real Hirataka Park is indeed bustling but the two of you are not inside of the park at all." What a mess, we are dragged into another trouble but this time, it is connected to the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. Maybe this is one of the abilities that "Creature" can do? If so, this is a big chance to find it and defeat it. "I have to get Maple out of here immediately." If these are all just illusions, there is no need to hold back right? Then, let''s blast these bastards off. BOOM! Without a shred of hesitation, I plowed through the illusion of people. Everyone showed signs of terror when they saw explosions coming from me and they started panicking. The people who tried to stop me have all blasted away. After they die, they immediately turn to ashes and disappear. Due to my attacks, the cramped road has finally loosened in space, allowing me to move once again. I didn''t bother about those other people looking at me, they are mere illusions after all. Time to get Maple out of the Horror House attraction! Reaching the horror house, the woman who pulled over Maple is currently attending to the line of customers by working on the ticket booth. Ignoring the attendant of the ticket booth, I went straight to the entrance of the attraction when the woman managing the booth shouted. "Hey! You can''t go in there unless you have a ticket!" she shouted as she runs over to me. But before she can get near me, I already went ahead to meet her. She was about to speak when I grab her head and ignited my hands. "DIE!" Chapter 170: Horror House "AAAAAAAHHHHH! IT BURNS! AAAAAHHHHH!" The scream of the woman who runs the booth screams in agony as she squirms and tries to remove my arm from her head but I just grip her head harder without letting go. I also intensify the flames in my hand causing her to squirm harder and scream louder. The customers buying tickets from her were so terrified that they are stuck from where they were standing with horrified expressions on their faces. She continues to scream for a while until her movements stopped. When I released her, her body disintegrated into ashes despite only burning her head. The mana also dissipated as soon as her body disappeared into the air. The bystanders cannot do a single thing and no one from them dared to approach. Finding that no one is willing to step forward to fight against me, I went ahead and entered the Horror House. ... The atmosphere of the horror house is quite heavy. You might even think that the horror house inhabits real ghosts due to the heaviness of the surroundings but it is quite clear that only dark energy remains here, making it obvious that everything is just part of the gimmick. "ROAR!" a ghost performer appeared on the window to scare me, however, I find it annoying. "Get lost," I said before shooting electricity towards the performer, electrocuting the person to death. Looking on the window for any traces of the person, I only managed to glimpse the fragments of mana dissipating in the air. "Are you afraid of killing innocent individuals?" Blue said after seeing the dissipation of the illusion. "I am just making sure that the person I shot magic is not a real person. Killing innocent people using magic will only make me no different from the magicians who use magic for their gains." "Indeed. Humans using magic for their gains are one of the reasons why there are always conflicts in the magician world. If these greedy magicians did not exist, maybe the world is much more flourishing and the demons are only a small threat. Now go, I can sense that girl''s presence not too far from your location. Get going to reunite with her." "Understood." The Horror House is not that complicated. There are just too many interactive traps that hamper my progress from time to time. "ORA ORA!" BANG! "Do you needed that "ora ora" sound just to kick down a blockade?" Blue asked. "It''s some sort of war cry. It can enhance your strength just by shouting it." "I don''t think I comprehend much on your logic. Are you messing with me since I don''t know much of modern culture?" "Just don''t dwell too much on it." ... As I move deeper into the horror house, the heaviness pressure that has been keeping me feel dread is getting heavier than before. Thankfully, Maple is finally in my sight. "Maple!" Maple looked in my direction but instead of getting happy, she looked serious and pulled out her katana. "She is suspicious of you Kazuma!" "Huh? Wait, wait! It''s me Kazuma! I am friendly! I am not your foe!" "Don''t try to deceive me! I have enough of you bastards trying to deceive me in here! I have to cut you down!" Maple brandishes her weapon straight to me, while on my side are the flying daggers she used earlier to slit the throats of our enemies. "Woah, Woah! Chill out! It''s me!" I shouted and quickly evaded her strikes. Her strikes are quite fastfor me to follow so I barely manage to dodge them. All I can do is keeping the distance away from her while keeping on convincing her. "I can''t blame her on her reaction. With these illusions breaking one''s sight and their decisions, Maple is now wary of anyone unless she is convinced that you are the real deal." "Yes. Convincing her is hard since I don''t know how to get her to immediately trust me that this is the real me." "If you can''t convince her using practical persuasion, then use physical means to keep her convinced. Overpower her to make sure she calms down." "There is no other way. Alright, let''s do this!" I stopped running and ignited the flames in my hands. "If I can''t convince you this is the real me, then I have no choice but to convince you forcefully!" Flames grow bigger on my hands and after getting it to a certain size, I hurled it to Maple''s direction in succession. SWISH! Maple''s quick slices allowed her to cut through the fireballs I hurled at her and she is keeping it on the same speed as before. I focused my eyesight on her movements. Not only they are flawless and precise but they don''t have any kind of extra movements, making her look like she has no gap in her defenses. But that doesn''t mean she cannot be defeated. Quickly evading her attacks, I go for a punch on her abdomen to knock her out but she managed to block it using her katana. Luckily for me, the Skull Knuckles defended my fist, or else, it might have sliced my fist like butter. "GOTCHA!" With my Skull Knuckles coming in contact with her katana, it is time to shock her a little bit. Before she can retract the katana off from my fists, I activated the electricity on my fists, controlling the intensity that is enough only to paralyze the enemy and shock them a little bit. ZAP! "Ugh!" Maple didn''t expect it and when she received the shock, it caused her to stop in place and shook a little bit before she fell to the ground. She did not collapse though and managed to stay awake but she is paralyzed. "Now, listen to me. I am Kazuma Fukuyama, not an illusion you see around here and I came here looking for you. Now please calm down and keep yourself cool without going on a rampage. You almost killed me back there," I said to her. "Ah....ah...I''m... sorry...ugh..." Maple had a hard time talking since the effects of the paralyzing electricity I discharged on her is still numbing her movements. It''s partially my fault so I pulled out the blue candies placed in a clear bottle that I obtained during my infiltration inside the underground mall. The Reverter. This candy does not just revert the user from the effects of the shrinky candy but it can also revert them to the time they are still fine, which can be called also an all-cure candy. Since I got a bottle of it, why not use it in times like this? "Take this candy and eat it. It will help the paralysis to fade away. I am sorry for not restraining myself." She opened her mouth slightly allowing me to pop the candy inside. She slightly chewed it a bit before she slowly stops shaking from the paralysis. It didn''t take long for her to recover and she manages to get back on her feet. "I am sorry earlier Kazuma. I just have enough of the people here which I just found out to be mere illusions." "No worries. I understand it too. The illusions here seem like they have minds on their own. I tried killing a few earlier and they act like real people. However, anytime they die, they just vanish like dust in the air, not leaving any corpse, allowing me to identify if they are human or not." "Someone must have caused these things to happen to us. Since we are investigating the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder, this illusion might be disrupting our senses?" Maple looked at me to hear my thoughts. "Might be so. However, I got info that we are not in the real Hirakata Park. This is not the Hirakata Park at all. This is an alternate space that trapped us inside, allowing us to wander inside this place forever. The only way for us to get out of here is to eliminate the source of the illusion and break out of this space." "So, we should be tracking the source of the illusion? How can we do that? If they have imitated the size of Hirakata Park, then we have a lot of space to cover!" "There is not much to it but we can just get out of our way and destroy this place slowly. Even if we don''t find it immediately, if we destroy bit by bit, eventually, that source we are looking for will appear for us to seize and destroy. Now, let''s get going." "I''m afraid we can''t get out yet, Kazuma." "Huh? Isn''t it fine to exit outsi- UGH!" I just tried walking out of the exit near us since this was apparently the end of the Horror house and the exit will lead us outside, however, when I tried crossing, some sort of barrier blocked my way out. "The exit is blocked by some unknown force. I tried slicing it down using Masamune but it doesn''t work." "Have you tried using Muramasa?" "You have already seen that Muramasa is something I can''t control easily, but I doubt my Muramasa is not able to slice it too. It seems like it is invulnerable to anything even the power of Masamune doesn''t work." Then, are we just doomed to stay here without any methods of going out of this sh*thole? Chapter 171: Destroy the Horror House Despite the lack of a way to get out, that doesn''t mean I will just stop and cry on a corner because we cannot get out. Since earlier, the pressure that is trying to keep our body heavy seems to have gotten worse around here. I tried using Insight but I can only see dark energy miasma flowing in this place. "It seems we have to interrogate the people around here, that way, we might have a chance to see how to get out of here," I muttered. "You mean, those illusions?" Maple looked confused. "Although they are illusions, it seems like they have minds on their own. This means they can communicate and they are some things you can have a conversation with. If we interrogate them, we might be able to find out how to escape from here." "Are you sure that will work? I don''t think they will tell since they are illusions." "We can only try." Maple decided to agree with my suggestion since there is no other choice because brute force is not working as expected. We backtracked to where we both came from and checked the place for any actors currently available. I didn''t kill all of them after all. As we walk into the dark corridor, a bloody man appeared in the hallway, walking towards us like some sort of apparition. "Is this supposed to be scary?" I asked Maple. "Nah, souls are not looking like this. Either they are dead people animated to walk again or they are some sort of demon trying to imitate human looks. Human souls are more like wisps." "Heh... is that so? Then this one is just an actor? Then, time to take some action," I said and cracked my knuckles. "Let me catch this guy. I am still pissed by these guys ruining my day," Maple pulled out a whip with barbed thorns on the end of the whip making it look very painful if it ever hit you somewhere in your body. "[Restrain]!" She cracks the whip to the floor and the whip suddenly moves on its own, quickly making its way towards the actor. The actor was just not expecting anything except to scare the customers. He didn''t expect that a whip will suddenly wrap around his body and restrain his movements. "WAUGH?!" he fell facedown and no matter how he tries to move, his body wriggles as he tries to escape from the whip of Maple. "Give it up, this whip will not undo itself unless I wanted to do so," Maple threatened the guy. "Spare me! I didn''t do anything to you guys!" "We will do so once you answered our question. And if we are satisfied with your answer then we will let you go. However, if the answer is nowhere to be a good one, then we have no choice." "I will answer! Just don''t kill me!" "We are reasonable so just be honest with us and you will immediately be freed from the whip. Now, here is the question. How do we get out of here?" "Huh?" the worker was speechless when he heard my question. "How do we get out of here? Are you deaf?" The worker smirked at us and he let out a small laugh at us. "If you want to get out, just use the exit, and you are done! How simple is that?!" His way of answering is sarcastic. You can tell it was sarcastic on the way he delivers it with the exaggerated tone in his voice. Maple looked at me in hesitation. "What a good answer. You deserve a reward." Before the man can react or do something more idiotic, in his lifetime, I grab his head and bashed it on the floor before igniting his head into flames. His screams echo in the empty hallway but that didn''t matter much to the others as they thought it is a customer. It takes a few seconds before he was reduced to dust after his death, his scream still lingered a bit but it slowly disappears after he dissipated. "Even the illusions know how to spout nonsense," I sighed as we lost one clue. "It doesn''t matter. If one is useless, there are other guys here we can interrogate." Just as we are about to leave and continue our backtracking, the walls on the side from where we are suddenly collapsed, revealing a new hallway. "A new hallway? How did the walls collapse and reveal this place? This was just a wall a few minutes ago!" Maple is confused. Due to this sudden event, I activated my [Insight] to make sure this is a real hallway and not just an illusion meant to confuse our eyes. And thank goodness, this was indeed a real hallway, newly opened and ready to be explored. "Who would have thought we would be able to see a new road here. Maybe we can find a clue on how to get out of here?" Approaching the new hallway, I just realized that the rubble that should have scattered all over the floor has already disappeared like it didn''t exist, to begin with, and this hallway already existed before. Inspecting for traps, I immediately concluded it is safe to walk past here. "It is safe. We can get past here." "No traps laid out for us?" "None from what I can see. I tested a few things before going in and nothing was triggered. I can safely assume this hallway is trap free." "Alright, let''s proceed." The more we get deeper into the new hallway, the heavier and spookier it gets. The designs of the place also get older and the floorboards also start to creak every time you take a step. "Is it just I or the hallway is changing every step?" Maple looked around her as she holds the hilt of Masamune Sword. "It''s not just you. I can tell the hallway is changing like it is being decorated as we slowly walk in the corridor. Maybe this is part of the illusion." "No, I can sense intense mana fluctuations from these walls. It seems like it is holding a big curse or something similar for it to produce lots of negative energy." Hatred seems better in the description of the energy that seemed to gather around. I usually feel this kind of negative energy in monster-infested places like the G.A.T.E.S I first entered and the Phantasmal Reality of Catmod during the monster stampede. However, this is the first time I felt that kind of energy around here that is not connected to any of the latter places. A few more steps later, we arrived at the end of the hallway. There is nothing here except a room that leads us to a big empty room that looks like a former bedroom due to some clutter and a broken bed on the side. Most of all, a noose is hanging on the ceiling with a toppled chair beneath it, making the room more ominous. "Is this some sort of haunted room?" I inspected the noose and found out that it is attached to the ceiling. The texture of the rope used as a noose is also very sturdy that anyone trying to use it for suicide will immediately die. "I don''t like the look of that noose, Kazuma. I request you to burn it to crisp. Might as well destroy the evil things left to allow the negative energy to dissipate instead of gathering in one point." Maple has a point. The noose is a big taboo symbol of suicide so it is best to get rid of it. But as soon as I ignited the flames in my hands, the noose, all of a sudden stretched out and moved on its own. "What the f*ck?!" The noose did not just move all by itself, it became similar to a snake and it quickly attached to our necks and suddenly tighten. "Muramasa! Cut these ropes from us!" Maple commanded as she was slowly lifted in the air by the noose. Muramasa goes out from the scabbard and with a swift swing, the moving ominous noose was immediately diced to pieces. However, I can still feel the negative energy from it even if Muramasa managed to slice it so thinly. I didn''t waste my time and ignited the remains of the noose. I almost died back there. If not for Maple''s command, my coffin must have been nailed already. "Although the noose has been burned, the darkness still looms around the place. The ones who controlled the noose are still here. But where is this enemy hiding?" "No one can hide if we destroy this place to pieces!" Igniting my flames to their maximum potential I can immediately pull off, the method of demolition. BANG! Big explosions appeared all around the room as I thrash the place with my flames. I am getting impatient already. If the main reason we can''t get out is due to the bastards trying to trick us. As I said before, destroying them will be the only fate they will receive from me. "Calm down Kazuma!" BOOM BOOM! It took some time before the whole place was thrashed to the ground. The negative energy that has been hanging around the place has no longer manifested and the heaviness in the air suddenly got lifted all of a sudden. "Ha~ Nothing beats around a good old thrashing. I always feel satisfied.~" Maple was speechless looking at all the rubble that fell after I destroyed the whole place. It was like she never expected things to get this serious. While the rubbles slowly disappear, one of the walls that have been part of the room collapsed, and just like the last time, a hallway once again appeared. Blue then suddenly popped and started speaking. "Now I know why. Once you destroy part of the place or one of the main employees of the horror house has been killed, a new path will appear. Just continue that way Kazuma! Things will go smoothly as long as destruction occurs on your way!" Chapter 172: Thrash the Next Destination Destruction... One of the things many people try to prevent and yet, all I did in my wake is destruction. Maple did not even get to contribute to this destruction and all of it was my own doing. However, I did not regret it one bit at all. Because after all... We managed to get out! After spending a considerable amount of mana on the whole place, it allowed me to open up the path, and by destroying the whole Horror House, it allowed us to get out of the hell hole. "Finally, we managed to get out of that place. It was too troublesome that I didn''t expect it will take us some time to get out of the place. We even missed our lunch..." I mumbled. "The one who made us do this is the one we need to blame this into. If we did not get caught up to this ridiculousness, then we wouldn''t be here at all." We made our way back to the crowded area of the fake Hirakata Park. It was like nothing happened to us back in the Horror House and we blended in without being suspicious. "Now that I properly sensed it, the Hirakata Park is nowhere similar to this one. No wonder I keep on thinking why there is something wrong with the park. I remembered there was no Horror House in Hirakata Park. Turns out, my instincts were right," Maple said as she looked around the attractions and the stalls on the side. "Did you visit Hirakata Park before? You seemed to be familiar with it," I asked. This is my first time visiting Hirakata Park "During my childhood days, my mother would let me play around here whenever we visit. Most of my happy memories were made here. However, after I trained to become a magician, I no longer visit Hirakata Park anymore. I was a little bit excited about the thought of visiting it again today but now it is ruined due to this stupid illusion." "Now, now. Don''t worry about it too much. Let''s find the source first escape here before we are trapped here forever." "Right. Where should we start? This half-assed copy of Hirakata Park is quite big, exploring this place all day will not be enough for us." "Our best course of action right now would be to visit the attraction that has garnered lots of attention, for example, the roller coaster and the Ferris Wheel. For something that needs a lot of energy, then something like those two would be enough to gather energy due to the traffic of people that might help charge up the energy to maintain this place stable." "Then, let''s go to the roller coaster first. It is much nearer than the Ferris wheel in our current location." The roller coaster is the attraction ride that I denied earlier as the attendant keeps on forcing me to take a ride of it even though I don''t want to do so. Now, we are going to check it out for the source of the illusion that trapped us here. Just like earlier, the line for the roller coaster is a real crowd that the feeling of suffocation intensifies as you join in with the flow. Somehow, it is bad for anyone who is not used to crowds. "Uwaa, these illusions are insane. They are trying to get into the roller coaster!" Maple was amazed by the sight of the crowd. "This is no time to be admiring the crowd. We have to see this attraction if they have the source that we are looking for." However, the moment I said "find the source", all of the people around us suddenly looked at us simultaneously. Not only that but their eyes looked empty, making them very creepy. "Prepare for battle. The illusions have finally shown their true colors!" Maple pulled out her katana and flying daggers immediately. "I don''t like the looks of this," I mumbled as I ignited my hands in flames, getting into the stance to battle. "Did something trigger while we are going near the Roller Coaster for them to turn like this?" "Not too sure but I think it is due to our conversation earlier though I am also not too sure." After a while of observing, the people started to move erratically and their faces started to twitch like something is moving under their skins. Then they started to open their mouths that seemed to have melted to the point that even their teeth have become liquid as it slowly flows out of their mouths. "REMOVE... ALL... INTRUDERS..." Their voices are monotone robot style and they are creepy as hell to listen to. Their bodies are also starting to melt. "Sh*t, they are morphing! They are giving up their normal forms! Let''s get out of here Kazuma! Blast our way out open!" "What about the Roller Coaster!?" "We will return to that later! Let''s just get out of here first or we are a dead meat!" Since there is no other choice to be made except to escape, I released a fireball to the lump of melting flesh piled together before us, trying to get close to us in any way they can. BANG! My flames managed to make a hole out of the blast, but that didn''t last a few seconds before it regenerated rapidly, repairing the hole I made. "Not good! The regenerative speed it has is too fast! At this rate, it will immediately overwhelm us! Let me help!" Maple throws one of her flying knives to the flesh of the illusions but it only sliced a little bit before falling to the ground. Maple retrieved it immediately before it gets swallowed by the growing flesh of the illusions. Meanwhile, I continue releasing fireballs without stopping but it is not working as intended as the flesh repairs itself faster than it is damaged by the fireballs. I even tried a few magic spells to no avail since it only absorbs most of the attacks. "REMOVE... THE... INTRUDERS... REMOVE..." "Damn it, are we going to just die like this?" Maple now fell into despair as she looks into the growing mass of meat that is about to engulf the two of us. "No, I refuse to give up. This is just too early to die, if we survived the Phantasmal Reality reclamation last time, then this thing is nothing! Come you sh*tty monster! Come out and fight me! I am not afraid of you! Come with everything you got you f*cktard and stop relying on illusions!" My voice echoes everywhere, but not a single response can be heard that answered my challenge. The flesh continues to move and expand, which is only a few more minutes before our surroundings will be covered in these flesh mounds of meat. I already tried calling for my familiars earlier since the meat flesh started expanding however, it does not connect at all. My last escape plan failed... But suddenly... "ROAR!" It was a sudden appearance but there is one thing I always remember, this creature in front of us has been big trouble for my familiars. "What?!" Maple was surprised by the sudden appearance of the creature that she steps back a few times seeing it. Just as I was not sure what is happening, the little tiger, yawned and before I can react, a whole section of the flesh that is covering us has been removed, or to be exact, it has been incinerated to ashes. It was so sudden that I didn''t properly witness everything. "Wha..." The white tiger looked at me a bit before it transformed into white light before entering my body. "Kazuma! This is our chance! Let''s go!" Maple said as she runs out of the expanding flesh using the newly formed path. I followed suit to her and can''t help but notice the lump of flesh''s edges after it got incinerated. The whole flesh has been taken like a laser has passed by, destroying the flesh of it. To be honest, that attack that caused this is something I have not seen immediately due to the almost instant cast it did. But the last thing I remember before the lump of flesh has been incinerated is the time that the white tiger yawned lightly. We managed to escape without being gobbled by the flesh. Looking from the outside, the growing lump of flesh looks like skin peeled off and has been dumped somewhere. It looks disgusting. Aside from that, the changes of the place are now too obvious and it is no longer copying the Hirakata Park with some new attractions, it is now revealing what is the real state of the place. Not only that, the illusions earlier have now transformed into the lump of meat and the reason it is expanding is that, all of the people who are all illusions that have just been acting as customers and vendors have now been absorbed by the big lump of flesh. The attractions also have been discarded and now have been looking like abandoned. Trash here and everywhere, it isn''t the same park we knew. It is now a ruin that seemed to have witnessed some sort of apocalypse. The stench of death has been wavering in the air for quite some time, that it hurts on your nose. "Is this the real deal? The illusion has been lifted?" Maple furrowed her brows as she looked around the new Hirakata Park. Her gaze stop when she noticed the big black shadow, on the horizon. "Kazuma, are you seeing what I am seeing?" Of course, I already am seeing it. However, I have no idea how to describe the feeling of seeing it. More like things will no longer seem to look good. Because I can confirm this. This is exactly how the Creature that "The Raven" has made for me to fight against. The only difference this time is the size of it. The replica is as tall as me, however, this one is as tall as the Tokyo Tower. Chapter 173: The Source of Disorder The abomination creature I fought against when I met up with "The Raven" is right in front of my eyes. However, the former is quite the inferior version of what I am seeing right now. It cannot be compared to the one that I am seeing right now. No wonder Mephisto and "The Raven" keeps on saying that the replica is the inferior version of the original. However, if the replica can already cause severe effects on my body that I can''t even remember what happened, then what about the original? Maybe worse than that? "GUUUUUUUUUUUU~" Its cries are low but it exudes great pressure on one''s body that when heard, you will get weak on your knees and your mind will suddenly go on a turmoil. "ACK!" Maple clutches her head as the roar of the creature echoed in the surroundings. "Maple!" "I am alright, it''s just that my head started getting painful after hearing the roar of that monster... Ugh..." Maple is holding her head like she was in severe pain. "Calm down and relax. Do not stress out your body too much and do not look at the creature constantly. We have to make sure that you won''t go crazy as we approach the creature since that is our target." "Our target?" "From what the intel I got from the mercenary guild, that is the cause of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. If we wanted to end the disorder, defeating it will be the key to ending it." "But... that is a giant enemy...ugh... can we defeat it?" "We will be able to do so. Don''t give up yet even if the enemy is a giant. Remember, you have Muramasa and Masamune. You are a magic swordswoman and if you wanted to avenge your family, then this is your chance." "Avenge..." Maple was hesitant but her face looks eager after hearing that she can avenge her family from this monster. Since Maple is still a little bit in a daze, I have to pull her with me since we have no more time to dawdle. Now that we managed to escape the illusion, the creature has spotted us already and is ready to kill us anytime if it can. But that is not the case with this creature... ("Remember, when you spot this creature, the symptoms of the disorder will not manifest yet, however, once you managed to get close to the creature like 20 meters or less, the creature will now start to take notice of your actions and will be ready to release the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. Until then, you guys will still be safe. Remember that, so while you are not yet in the range from the creature, utilize a plan you can use for later. That will help on avoiding dangers that the creature possess.") Just like what "The Raven" said, I have to make sure that I am within the minimum distance necessary to avoid the gaze of the enemy as long as possible before I can fight against it, one on one. "ROAAARRRR!" The creature is keeping on roaring that it induces more pressure on our bodies. It''s hard to continue moving when the pressure keeps on tolling your body. It is not a good thing especially for me who is under constant pressure from different individuals with magic different from my magic and creatures that can do things similar to this one. "I am fine now, Kazuma. Thanks for dragging me for a bit while I am on a daze." "Can you properly do rational decisions now? It will be dangerous if you still keep on doing that." "Don''t worry about me on that. If that is the cause of my family trouble then I will not just stand idly. I will do it." "Are you sure Masamune and Muramasa can do it?" "I have." At that moment, Masamune appeared. However, Muramasa did not get out of the sword but instead, he possessed Maple''s body. Masamune just floated in the air but Muramasa started speaking using Maple''s voice. "I am not against fighting that enemy, however, my host''s body will not be able to withstand the effects of the enemy. Therefore, if possible, I wanted to control her body. As a spirit, curses are not so effective although the strong ones can also affect us if we are exposed for quite a long time. But her body is not enough, I need someone to support her and that''s where you come in. You can switch from supporter to attacker. You are going to be the key to this mission." "Alright. That''s what I am going to do anyway so there''s no way I will decline. This is part of my mission." "Understandable, then let''s get going," Muramasa said as he controls Maple''s body. "Wait, wait there are no plans?" "Always has been." ... All of us started running towards the creature. Since Muramasa has taken over Maple''s body and Masamune is chilling in the air I am thinking if things will go wrong with this team composition. It is a little bad for me since I can''t summon anyone at all. For some reason, they don''t respond at all to my calls which is a little bad. But I have no choice, so I have to suck it up and rely on my power and these two blacksmiths using their swords. "I can see that it is now starting to move and it is currently looking in our direction," Muramasa said, readying his sword. "Will that creature starts to attack?" "I assume that it will not yet do so. It might have started to ready its attack or curse but it is not showing any signs yet so maybe not until we get a little bit nearer." "Shall we use the stalls to use for our cover? All of them are abandoned," I suggested. "It will be fine for now but that doesn''t mean we can already escape the eyes of that monster. It can curse someone. I can only hope of cutting it before reaching us but I don''t think I can do that if it shoots out unexpectedly." "Then, if you miss it, then I can do catch it," Masamune said while he is still chilling in the air." "Bah! Are you sure you can do that? I have never seen you do something like that ever." "Heh, you old man, you sure are underestimating me a lot. Just because you have not seen it, doesn''t mean I cannot do it. Just wait till that happens and I can show it off on you." The two continue to argue with each other. I cannot join their banter though since I am focusing my eyes on the creature''s movements. I can''t just be a little distracted on this or else things will get rougher from here. "Blue, can you tell me the situation now? It''s hard to see while I am here obstructed by store stalls." "It hasn''t shown any dangerous movements yet but be careful, it will do so once you get to the 20-meter radius. Just keep on going." There might be buildings here and there but that is not enough to obstruct our path. We can just jump from them and continue to move. I didn''t realize it since I have been doing it since then, but I can now leap from building to building like a ninja. And I didn''t even notice it since I have been doing it that way since, though I can''t remember when exactly. As we are getting near the creature, tremors and frigid winds have been stronger than before. The surrounding buildings near the creature''s feet have been reduced to rubble and some are ground to dust. Even the trees and the ground itself has been reduced to dust, nothing left to be told except dust. "What an enormous beast, it looks like the sharpness of my "cursed sword" will be put to its limits though I doubt it cannot be cut." "You braggart, a sword will always have something that they cannot cut! Though for swords made by my hands they can cut anything!" Masamune grinned as he brags about his sword. "Still cocky as ever eh? But you know that the swords only serve their purpose. It should be the wielder who will decide whether they can cut it or not. Isn''t it true to you, Masamune? Since you are not a swordsman, I am quite sure that you are not that proficient in the way of the sword." "Ha, you thought I am a petty swordsman? I won''t become a swordsmith if I don''t know how to wield a sword!" Masamune argued. I have enough of these two arguing so I decided to intervene since the creature has finally made a move. "Guys, the monster is now looking at us, judging from the movements of this guy, I don''t know what it will be doing but I know that I won''t like the look of it." I thought they will continue to do their arguments but the good thing is that they finally stop the bickering and started to get serious. "So that guy is about to make its move eh?" Muramasa pulls out the katana from nowhere and exudes bloodlust from his katana. Masamune also did the same and a surge of mana starts to leak out from the katana. I have seen Maple used them before but to see the two spirits wield them and giving them power, I didn''t think it would feel this heavy. "Kazuma, I know you are going to engage in a battle against this guy but I suggest we do the first move first. We would like to try if our trusty pieces of work will pay off," Muramasa said as he points his katana in the air, causing it to ignite in black flames. "Time to cut some slack, monster." Chapter 174: The Creature Two legendary swordsmiths who are currently residing on the katanas they forged, Masamune and Muramasa, have shown their prowess today. Although he was in his ethereal form, Masamune didn''t wane his power as proof that he can give out strong energy of mana from just the sword alone. On the other hand, Muramasa might have not used his ethereal body and chosen to possess Maple''s body instead but that doesn''t mean he was weaker than Masamune, he possessed Maple so that her body can withstand the curse of thecreature if she ever gets to contract it. Also, while using her body as a medium, it seems that Muramasa can release much stronger power than when she was just by herself. Currently, the two are trying to get close to the creature as fast as they can, Masamune is just floating but he is also moving swiftly, running up ahead of us. Of course, Muramasa did not get left behind either, they were very fast like they are riding on the wind. I can still catch up to them but barely. I can get by and catch up to them by enhancing my legs with mana to be able to catch up to them without any trouble that I will have cramps later. "Kazuma, you guys have finally entered the creature''s curse range. Be careful, we cannot be taking this lightly even if you got something that will allow you to lower the probability of contracting it. The better option is to defeat the enemy immediately." "Easier said than done! That creature is much bigger than any enemy I have seen before! Its size is not even close as big as the size of Raigaki and Yaya''s teddy bear. Don''t you think we should just seal it again?" "What are you saying? If "The Raven" sealed this creature before, why is it outside now? That only means that the creature managed to escape from the captivity of the seal. Now, I don''t want to sound so bad, but do you want to seal that? I think eliminating it as soon as possible is the best course of action if you don''t want to deal with it again in the future." "But... can we kill that thing? I mean, we have Masamune and Muramasa but I don''t think their katanas are enough to mince through the enemy." "True enough but that doesn''t mean you can''t defeat it, remember your mana overload?" Mana overload. That is the method I am using due to the reason I have so much mana at my disposal with the help of the Ygdrassil seed embedded on my head, which supplies infinite mana to my whole body. Out of all the magic skills I use, this is the magic skill that has the most burst damage of all I use though I have to get close to the target to activate it since there is no way for me to activate in range mode. "Are you saying Mana Overload can help?" "Of course. Even though you will have to get close to that creature to use it, you will be getting close to that enemy anyway to fight against it, so why not use it? Besides, it can be used to chip away parts of that monster''s body bit by bit. I know you can get something to defeat it immediately using it. Just discover it out and test it for maximum damage output." If Blue is saying this will be helpful but does not divulge on its further uses, then I have no choice but to test it out and see what it can do against this monstrosity. "ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRR!" The ground shook once more and the wind started to blow harder than before. The creature is now trying to face on our way right now. Masamune and Muramasa are now just a few meters from the monster as they race through the buildings. In a single momentum, Muramasa used Maple''s body to leap high enough for him to land to the body of the creature and stab the katana to the body of the monster. Masamune just drifted since he can float and continue moving up the body. When I reached the nearest spot to the monster, my head started to get heavy and painful. Several scenes played out in my head like it was a sort of twisted thing I can''t properly understand. I bit my finger and forced it to bleed, allowing me to regain a little bit of my sanity after feeling the pain in my bleeding finger. "So this is the symptom of that disorder eh?" I muttered to myself. Staring into this monstrosity, I felt a little overwhelmed, and while looking at Masamune and Muramasa high up without feeling any fear made me a little jealous. While staring at the creature, my skull knuckle shook a little bit. After the time I tried to purify the Skull Knuckles, the ability to destroy enemy bodies has toned down and it cannot easily do so like how it can do so before. The spirit inside it is also not responding, which made me a little bit disappointed that the dangerous power it possesses disappear when I cleansed it from dark energy. Although it still functions properly, it is not as powerful as before. When I purified the Skull Knuckle, it starts to shake little by little like it is trying to do something but only has limited freedom to unleash or just too weak to use it. Whatever it is, I am just hoping it won''t start releasing its harmful curses power to decay almost anything it touches. But it would certainly help if it can easily kill this creature in one go. That would solve a lot of the problems we are facing. Since it is hard to climb without flight ability or a sword to use as your climbing tool, I have to do some makeshift version to reach the top of the creature. Using the barriers on Domain of Balmung, I created little shields that are enough to handle my weight once. And using them as small platforms, getting up the back of the monster is made easy, at least for me. The creature now totally annoyed by our movements roared and our expectation of a slow-moving creature has been destroyed the moment it started to swiftly turn around and opened its big mouth which now revealed to me as a big black hole. "Kazuma! The creature is charging up an attack on its mouth! It will fire in 5 seconds! Get out of there! Your Domain of Balmung will be useless in this part!" "5 SECONDS!? The f*ck?" That is barely enough time for me to escape! "ROOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!" A black ball formed at a very fast rate on its mouth, continuously pulsating energy on it. I didn''t hesitate to jump down from the Domain of Balmung I created to dodge the attack, but the 5-second limit is not enough for me to immediately reach the ground. I was prepared to catch the beam with my body but I didn''t expect someone else will appear in front of me. "First form: Void Slash." The next thing I saw baffled me, the thin blade of the katana that is used to slice against the beam of energy is none other than the katana of Muramasa. The beam of energy didn''t remain whole as it suddenly split into two. The beam ended in one strike without getting to strike both of us. "Muramasa!" "Keep climbing kid. I will be following you in case things get awry." "Thanks for the backup!" "Don''t relax yet. This monstrosity is big which is going to be a bad thing. We have to get on top of this creature and detect where the beast core is located. We have to destroy it if we wanted to kill this enemy." I nodded and cast the Domain of Balmung once more, making another pathway towards the top. I made sure to double-time to immediately reach the top before the creature can fire off another beam.The creature cannot fire for a few minutes after the first blast which means that is enough time before the next move. Luckily, the creature did not move after the attack, allowing me to safely reach the top with Muramasa. Masamune is also at the top of the creature and is currently observing the creature. "What are the results of your observation, old guy?" Muramasa asked. "This creature is somewhat complicated in status and this is the first time I have encountered so troublesomely in my whole life even when I was still alive." "What do you mean?" "To start with, the creature''s body is covered in different types of curses. Even this part of the creature that we are standing in is covered in curses but don''t worry about it since I cleared the curses in this surroundings. We just have to be careful about the area I didn''t clear because the curses are potent for humans and magicians." "Have you found the core of this creature?" Muramasa asked. "Yes. It is in a troublesome location and hard to reach the place. It''s the forehead. The blue glowing orb on the forehead is the main source of its life and magic force. But if we wanted to even get near on the core, we have to really get near its head and just hope that while we are destroying its core, it will not release the same beam earlier where both of you are almost obliterated." Chapter 175: Destroy the Core Beast cores. Animals do not possess one but as soon as they get to manipulate mana of their own will, they will develop beast cores though that is usually happening in rare cases. Once a beast core of a beast is broken, they will either revert to their harmless form if they came from a normal animal form or they will die if they are born from in the very beginning with a beast core. They are highly sought by magicians and relic collectors along with some alchemists due to their magic energy stored inside that can be used for different purposes. That is why beast cores are always in demand to almost everyone. Now, we are facing one of the bearers of Beast core and one that can cause the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. Even now, I still felt the symptoms of the disorder and I am trying my best to suppress it. It was a good thing that I have the stone that "The Raven" imbued with magic but that is just right enough to suppress most of the symptoms that will cause the "crazed" effect of the person. I don''t see any problems with Masamune, Muramasa on the other hand, seems to be struggling like I do since he is using Maple''s body. The body of the creature starts to move once again and is trying to shake us off the ground, to no avail. With Muramasa casting a barrier to stop us from falling, we still managed to keep ourselves on top of the creature. "This creature is just too big for us to obliterate immediately. Destroying its core is also close to dangerous and suicide," I said as I continue to analyze our situation. "There is nothing we can do, Kazuma. We have to destroy that beast core of this monster to defeat it and to destroy whatever it has in store. Honestly, the Master''s body is going to acquire that sickness syndrome or something if not for my possession. Which means it is a very potent kind of curse disease. Although we can resist it, doesn''t mean we are going to be fine staying here. The sooner we finish the job, the better, so let''s formulate a plan no matter how impossible it is to destroy that beast core of that creature," Muramasa said, while carefully assessing the situation. "You have a plan, old man?" Masamune looked at Muramasa. "Getting close is tricky but not impossible. We can try different tactics but we have to anticipate the next action of the enemy after we do these moves and what is the best course of action to do if that happens. And also, we have to eliminate those actions that will or might lead us to our doom alongside with the lowest success rates we can assume," Muramasa explained. "If that is the case, then let''s list out some of the tactics that we can immediately deploy. We have to hurry, or else, this monstrosity we are riding will try to throw us off again," Masamune said as we begin the tactics meeting. ... At the very end of our tactics meeting, we ended up our discussion after the finalization and honestly, this is also one of the suicidal tactics that we have come up with but it has a lower percentage of failure compared to what we have to think about now. Most have a high chance that we won''t be able to see the sun the next day while some are just ridiculously impossible to happen. "Remember the plan, Kazuma. Once I deactivate the barrier that holds us in this body, the mission will commence immediately without any trial and error. This is a one chance action, understand?" Masamune quickly brief me with the circumstances unless I want to fail this. "Yes. I know that. And screwing spells death here." "Glad you know it, you should be fine if you keep calm. Do not panic since it will just make you more nervous and will just cause you to make wrong moves." "It''s alright. I can take my focus on without getting distracted as long as the situation is staking my life. There is no way I will die just for this." "Okay, good luck. We will follow suit once you have done the job." "Mm," I nodded and ready my magic spells and skills that I will be using for this operation. One failure and this plan will be over. The barrier surrounding us collapsed and that means, the time for the operation to begin is now. "Leg enhancement, done, let''s do this," the moment the barrier collapsed completely, I let myself loose and move forward in quick movements. I also made sure that I can keep my footing in the body without interacting with the cursed body directly by using the Domain of Balmung mini versions, enough for my feet to step into without getting in contact with the curses. "First, let''s catch his attention to me." CRACKLE! ZAP! Sending electricity to the creature''s head is a gamble. Trying to get its attention will be hard since it is a big creature but if possible, I have to make sure that this creature will be able to move and take its time to look in my direction. The first zap did not work, the second zap is an increased voltage but it still didn''t work, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth zaps, still didn''t work despite increasing the voltage power it has. However, that doesn''t mean I will give up because giving up is not part of me. "Turn your head damnit! Electric Overload!" ZAAAP! The moment the electricity made contact with the body of the creature, it exploded which didn''t happen to the previous zaps I released earlier. I expended a large amount of mana at that time but it is worth it. When the explosion occurred on the skin of the creature, it didn''t take a second for it to turn its head and open its mouth, releasing again the same dark beam of energy. I didn''t waste my time and escaped from my previous location using my enhanced leg. FWOOOOOOOOOOOOO~ SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.... The beam released is a little bit painful in the ears like a full volume of a rock and roll concert right on your ears, just that it is much more painful than usual. The beam it released was strong enough earlier so I decided to give it as one of the tactics. Since the creature will target any enemy regardless of where they are as long as it is within the accepted range, it will fire at will. So if it fired its beam at its body, will the body will disintegrate? Turns out, the body will not. It didn''t give any kind of damage or even a single scratch which means even if it used its beam, the beam will not damage its body, which makes the self-destruction plan a failure. Abandoning that plan, I immediately shifted to the original plan and that is to destroy the Beast core directly. It also coincides properly with the first tactic I did because of the stun time this creature has which will allow the others to also do their work. When the creature stopped moving, Muramasa and Masamune immediately moved to wield their katanas and moving straight to the Beast Core. SWISH! SWISH! The moment their katanas made contact with the beast core, I only see two slashes happen and before I can even react, the beast core cracked and the moment the two retreated and returned to their usual spots before. Beast core has been destroyed and the moment it fell off the head, the huge body of the creature is shrinking, or more like it is being evaporated as slow as possible. The black curses on its body are being purified the moment. The body also starts to shrink which I didn''t expect since I thought this humongous body is the real body size but boy my assumptions are wrong. Also, the moment it started shrinking, something break in my pocket. I checked it and saw the shards of the stone that was given by "The Raven" earlier. Suddenly, the headache I am feeling felt worse. My vision is getting blurry but the last thing I saw is Masamune and Muramasa descending since the body is shrinking. But this thing buzzing... It is like my head is ripping apart and I WANT TO RIP APART WHATEVER IS CAUSING THIS TO MY HEAD! "AAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" I WANT TO RIP IT APART, RIP IT APART, RIP IT APART! AAAGGGHHHH! "Kazuma! Oy, Kazuma! Damn it! Snap out from that sh*t!" LET ME RIP IT APART! IT HURTS, IT HURTS, IT HURTS! BUT I WANT TO RIP IT APART! LET ME RIP IT APART!!! GAAAAAHHHHHH! "Kazuma! I thought you won''t succumb?! Idiot! SNAP OUT FROM THAT!" I''M GONNA BREAK, I''M GONNA BREAK, I''M GONNA BREAK! LET ME RIP APART SOMETHING! ANYTHING! I WILL RIP IT APART! "RIP AND TEAR!" "I have no choice but to do this..." PA! RIP... AND... TEAR... Huh... what is going on? Thud. A woman that is looking similar to a goddess appeared beside Kazuma and scratches her head as she observes Kazuma. "What a piece of work, to even let me move around despite just someone who supports and act as an A.I, like seriously, this is no longer part of the job I was told to fulfill." She continues to mumble while letting Kazuma''s body descend to the ground without falling badly before disappearing like she never appeared. Leaving behind Kazuma''s body to the ground. ... Two weeks passed by after the incident that played out on the Mini- Phantasmal World that contains a small world of a crowded Hirakata Park, the magicians assigned to the clean up has appeared and collected everything that is involved in the Hirakata Park incident. During the operation, Magician Kazuma and Magician Maple successfully neutralized the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. However, the two were forcefully extracted from the place since they both collapsed and from the studies, they have contracted the disease but just a little bit since they managed to suppress it before it gets worse. The two are now safe from the disease after the treatment and will no longer manifest the danger of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. As for the missing people due to the said disorder, they are found petrified somewhere inside the world of the Mini-Phantasmal. They are now extracted and transferred to the Magician Society building to check for their life signs if they can still be salvaged and saved from petrification. An additional report, Magician Maple has finally awakened after the incident and has been relieved for the time being from any assignments for the sake of recuperation. As for Magician Kazuma, he managed to awake a little bit later after Magician Maple. Unlike Magician Maple, Magician Kazuma seems to have forgotten some of the experiences he just experienced while fighting against the creature that caused the disorder. Rewards will be given to the two after solving a decade long problem. "The Raven" will also be commended for her help with the situation during the time the two asked for help to stop the disorder. As for the case, the status will now be changed from "ABANDONED" to "SOLVED AND NEUTRALIZED." -End of report. Chapter 176: After the Battle Sun rays penetrated through the thin curtains in my room which effectively shines through my face, allowing me to wake up from my slumber and stand up. "F*ck, my body is still stiff and painful as ever..." I grumbled as I stood up from my bed. Today is the very first day I can properly move without struggling much. It took me two days before I can finally get myself recover. Even when I have taken the reverter, some things remained especially the scratch marks on my hands and some pain in my head and neck. Some parts of my body also felt painful but enough for me to endure. After the incident involving the cause of the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder, I finally got the deserved rest I wanted to get but unfortunately, I don''t think I have the leisure to enjoy that. I lost most of the memories I have when I am fighting against the creature last time. The only time I remembered only ends during the time Masamune and Muramasa are about to slice off the Beast Core of the creature. After that, nothing, I don''t remember a single thing however I try to recall. I heard that the problem was solved and the investigation of the sickness was performed again to make sure the illness is solved once and for all. And due to that, the previous victims were also found but they are petrified. I don''t know any updates regarding the people who got petrified but I hope they are still alive. Checking the weather, I sighed seeing it a little bit sunny but the clouds on the horizon are warning of the impending heavy downpour. "It''s not good weather huh." Once I finished taking a bath, I feel a little bit refreshed though it hurts my body a little bit. The scratches on my skin also contribute to the pain but the part that hurts the most is in my neck though I am unsure what caused this pain. The next thing I did is summon my familiars out since I can''t call them out while I am inside the Mini-Phantasmal World of the fake Hirakata Park. "Master~" Yuri dash towards me but I simply dodged her. "You need to be mindful of your actions once in a while Yuri, you know that a succubus is quite a trouble to males since you can easily mess up to them," Yuto shook his head. "But Master is uncontactable during that time! It was like we are locked in the Familiar Dimension forever!~" "It''s alright Yuri, here, some mana that you wanted to get." "Yay!~ Thank you, Master!" Inari-sama gracefully walked out of the portal with the other fox. The white tiger also came out but it immediately lay its head to the floor after going out and went to sleep. "Thank goodness you are fine, Master. Did something happen when we can''t contact you?" Inari-sama asked. "Yes. It was a certain mission that got me transported in a closed world. I tried calling anyone of you out but there is no response so I guess that summoning familiars are currently sealed while I was staying in that place. But the only thing that I got confused about is the little tiger that I rescued and settled in my familiar space." "Huh? What about this little tiger here?" Yuto looked puzzled when he looked at the tiger who seemed indifferent to what is happening around him. "During one of the critical times inside that place, we were saved by this little tiger. It was kind of sudden so I never expected it to appear. Did it managed to escape from the restriction?" "I don''t quite follow you, Master. We are guarding this little tiger all the time without letting it out of our sight so it is impossible to have this little tiger protect you." That''s not right. I am quite sure during the time we are sieged by the lump of flesh from the illusions is that little tiger over there. If that is not the tiger then what was it? ... After taking my breakfast, I went to Anya''s room. Since Maple is still recuperating, Rena is the one who is taking care of her in the meantime. Entering the room, Rena just finished dressing Anya. "Oh, Kazuma, you came again. I just received good news for you," Rena said as she put Anya on the bed and cover her with a blanket. "Good news? What good news is this?" "Remember the medicine that can help fix Anya''s condition? It is finally announced that they will be ready to auction it tomorrow." "The medicine is finally released for auction? That is indeed good news!" "It will be further become a piece of really good news if you managed to win it since it will be in the auction. With so many people competing to get the medicine for themselves, getting it will not be easy." Urgh, I got overwhelmed with the news that I remembered that it was an auction. The highest bidder will win and take any item they won home. Since the medicine that Anya needed is currently one of the items that some magicians are looking forward to getting, then that means this will be hard to acquire especially if a tycoon currently has his or her eyes on it. They will not care if it is about the money, as long as the item is in their hands, they will waste money to obtain it. "We know that you don''t have enough money to buy that thing so we have decided to hire a tycoon that can easily spend money to obtain it in exchange for a mission that he wanted to resolve." "You hired a tycoon?" "He has some sort of problem but we have no idea what it was but he said that only magicians can solve this. Although he was a human, he has knowledge about the magician world and inner workings about it due to his work as a businessman that allows magicians to conduct transactions easily and convert real money to demon shards or monster shards or vice versa. He also considers the Magician Society as one of his regular customers and he is extremely loyal, which means he will help." "Let me guess, I am one of the magicians hired to solve his problem right?" "Yes. He has heard of your exploits and the success rates of your missions so he wanted to also include you in the mission. And since you require the payment, we initiated to do this instead. You will be hired by him alongside two other magicians to undertake this mission. You can decline this mission if you don''t want to do it." "I accept. If this is for the sake of Anya''s fast recovery, I will do anything." "No, no. Don''t quickly accept it. You should ask the one who will give you a mission first and inquire him about the mission. We already added him to the chat group. You can private message him later and you can decide whether to accept the mission or not. Don''t be hasty." ... Another mission. To be honest, I am indeed not sure if I have to accept it or not. Of course, I am obligated to accept it, but there is a part of me that hesitates to accept it, After all, plenty of the missions I have undertaken are either too much life-threatening or just hard enough for me to deal with. Almost all the missions I have undertaken end up being comatose or collapsed. "You wanted to get stronger right?" Blue''s voice echoed inside my mind. "Blue?" "You wanted to be stronger than you wanted to avoid getting collapsed or comatose after severe usage of something right? Then, how about you undergo my trials then?" "Is this one of your schemes to use a facility same as the Training space where you needed some resource again? No, I don''t have enough shards to use for that whatever you are proposing." "Idiot. This is free. I won''t charge you up for using it. So wanna try? This is free of charge thing and just like the Training Space, time does not flow here, and you will still get what you learned in that space into the real world. What do you say?" "Are you sure this is free? Not a scam? I will beat you up if you say it is a scam." "Can''t you trust me when it comes to my facilities for you to use? And I am being nice to you," Blue seemed to be upset. "Of course I trust you since you saved my bacon many times before but I just have uncertainty when it comes to something like this. It seems like you are about to pull something nasty for me to try." "Don''t worry, this will be worthy for you since you have shown your growth since the first day I met you. You can now access the Magician Trials. A place where you will be put to your limits." Chapter 177: Tower of Demise; Babel Blue''s new features have forced me to accept it. It also enticed me since Blue said it is free of charge and I am a sucker for freebies. However, I never expected things like this. "Welcome to the tower of demise, Babel." This time, I was not expecting things like this. I thought Blue had set up something on the Training Space for fighting something but this is not what I had in mind. This place that Blue transported me is another world undergoing the end of the world with the skies so dark and the ground black enough that you can feel it is already a dead place. The only thing you can see on the horizon is the tall tower made out of something like bones and flesh, stretching up into the black sky. "Why do I feel the chills even though I am just standing here..." All of a sudden, something materialized beside me that I unintentionally activated my flames to defend myself. "As always, you seemed to be on guard but you are always too tense. Don''t worry, it is not a monster. It is I, Blue." I quickly moved to the side and extinguished the flames in my hands before I take a proper look at the person talking to me. The person who was proclaiming she was Blue is a teenage girl around the same age as me, has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a face you can only see in movies and models. Her body also has curves and she has good assets, which is why I don''t believe it is Blue''s real body. "That is not your real body right?" "I may look like this but I just altered a few parts of my appearance to resemble a normal human. But don''t be mistaken, most of my appearance is not altered. You can say this is my real appearance if I appear in human form so don''t be too surprised or enthralled by my beauty." "Hmm, quite passable," I said to her. "What do you mean passable?!" "Anyways, this place is looking like hell. What is this place? And what is the purpose of that tower on the horizon?" "Let''s get near the tower first and I will explain it to you since it is a little bit longer." While walking, I observe the surroundings a little bit if there are any other living creatures around besides us. Unfortunately, this place is desolated and dead. Not a single living being in sight, not even grass. "Just give up looking for any living being outside the tower except for us. This is an uninhabited land that can''t support normal life like plants and animals. The only place where something can support life is inside that tower," Blue said to me and point to the tall tower of flesh. "Just what the hell is that tower made of? I don''t think it is made of stone or concrete. Heck, it doesn''t even look like metal." "I will leave that to your imagination Kazuma. I am now going to explain what you are going to do here. This is the tower called Babel, it is a place where you can test yourselfif you are worthy enough to be strong and overcome your limit or just remain the same as right now." "What kind of trials are in there inside?" "You can find out once you are inside. However, when you are challenging the trials, there are instances that you will die." "Huh? I will die?! Then, isn''t that dangerous?" "Silly, I won''t bother to let you in on this trial if you will die for real since that is dangerous. I am not that bored to let you do that." "Then what is this thing you are saying I will die then?" "I mean it. In this trial, you can die. Also, dying here is alright. You will experience death first hand yourself. Isn''t that exciting?" "The hell? I still wanted to live, let me out of here!" "Haha, don''t worry, dying here is normal. Just imagine it like you are playing a game. Once you get a game over after your character dies, you can try again on that stage." "Try again? You mean, I will revive if I die here?" "Yes. Though your deaths here are limited to five. Once you have already experienced death five times, you will be forcefully expelled from here and will not be able to enter until the next 24 hours. Once that time is done, your five chances to retry will be charged up once again and you can challenge the tower again from where you left off or where you can reset your progress and restart from the very beginning. Either of those is fine." "One question. Once I die here, will my body regenerate from the spot where I die or it will appear somewhere?" "You will appear somewhere beside the spot where you die. Also, the body that died will remain on the same spot you died so that you can see what you look like after your death. That way, you will work hard to avoid getting the same fate from your premature death. The details will be real so you will be able to analyze what caused your death and what you did wrong to get killed. Satisfied now?" "Last question. How can I increase my abilities here?" "I bet you have played games before you became busy with your work as a magician. In that case, you will understand this," Blue then snaps her fingers and a panel interface appeared in front of me. [Kazuma] Highest floor cleared: None Current Floor: Ground level Enemies killed: 0 Times died: 0 Lives left: 5x Gained Magic: 0 Gained Stamina: 0 Gained Physical Strength: 0 It''s a panel of my status on the tower. So that means whatever I do in the tower will be reflected in this little panel. "The stats you gained will be added to your stats every time you clear a floor. However, if you died, all of those stats you gained will disappear and you will be back to zero once again. To avoid losing those stats once you die, you need to find a checkpoint terminal I prepared every 5 floors. After you activated the checkpoint, the stats you gained from fighting will not be lost if you died after doing so, making it secure now. If you want to see it, just say "Status". I read that once in a book on the internet so I imitated it. Now here it is." "Must be good to always be connected to the internet huh..." "Ha, don''t be jealous, it will get boring too so it would be a nice place to be in the offline world sometimes. Now go, and stop wasting your time. Even though you are in a place where time doesn''t move, that doesn''t mean you can waste your time like this. Time is the essence, now go and do your trials. I will monitor you from the outside until you ran out of 5 lives." Blue pushed me into the tower and I was transported inside without any warning. ... The moment I was inside, the portal that leads me to the outside disappeared without a trace. And the next things I saw are demons and monsters alike that you can only see in movies, video games, and in your nightmares. Keeping my calm despite the danger in front of me, I ignited the flames in my hands and started my assault. However, before I can even get my game up, an attack from behind knocked me out and before I knew it, the monsters diced my body... ... "Sh*t!" It was only a split second but I can still feel the pain. When I look to my side, I saw the monsters slicing up my body and I almost wanted to puke seeing my dismembered body. Seeing the monsters still preoccupied with my dead body, I conjured a big ball of fire out and hurl it on them. "BURN IN HELL!" BOOM! The busy monsters didn''t expect a big ball of fire to land on them, which resulted in them fried to the crisp. I finished off the stragglers too allowing me to gain a chance to fight off against them without fighting them in one go. After crushing the last monster down, I looked into my status and see the changes. [Kazuma] Highest floor cleared: None Current Floor: Ground level Enemies killed: 10 Times died: 1 Lives left: 4x Gained Magic: 0.5 Gained Stamina: 0.5 Gained Physical Strength: 0.5 The numbers seem little, but maybe it is normal since I am on the lowest floor yet. Maybe that is the case here. Seeing that there are no checkpoints around and only a portal that seems to lead to the next floor due to the green light it emits that seems to be sucked upward, that is the only way. I have to do this, to get stronger, I need to get to the next floor, find a checkpoint terminal and avoid dying as long as possible, for Anya''s sake as well as mine. Chapter 178: Grinding Goblins, Orcs, giants, even golems are present in this dungeon. They are quite overwhelming at times but I managed to preserve my life without dying, keeping it at 4 lives. However, this latest monster I am fighting against is resilient to almost anything that I don''t think I am damaging the monsters much seeing them looking fine. The skeleton undead. I know about defeating them in books and games but it seems like they don''t die. Cracking their heads, breaking their whole body to pieces, attacking them with magic, or destroying them physically, they don''t just die and stop moving. They just keep on reviving. Even grinding their skulls to dust, it seems it is not working either. "F*ck, are they all unkillable at all?!" What is worse about these enemies is that they multiply like crazy. I am just fighting 5 at first but now they are already numbering 20. Instead of decreasing, they are instead increasing. "Blue! This is insane! Why did you include monsters that cannot be killed?!" Blue''s voice echoed around the place. "Hey, I never include monsters that cannot be killed alright? How would you even clear and proceed to the next floor if you can''t kill a monster? It is either you did it wrong or you are just too weak to kill it. Now continue killing enemies and stop complaining!" After that, everything went silent except for the sound of the rattling bones that are currently trying to surround me. "Damn it. Can I just blow them all up from within? Even if I have lots of mana in my body, I still get exhausted using too much magic spells for the past few hours..." Then, a sudden realization came to my mind. What if I try what I just mumbled earlier? Seeing the skeletons now gathering around, it doesn''t hurt to try. Igniting my hands in flames, I meet up with the skeletons head-on and grab two skeletons in the skulls by my two hands, and separated them from the group. Although they are fourth-floor monsters, they are not that strong, they are just annoying and they multiply which is why the difficulty of the battle. Now let me try this attack. "DIE!" BOOM! BOOM! I made quick work on the two and ignited them from the inside of their bones. By channeling mana to their bones and letting it run through their whole body, I can easily do that. Now the next thing I did is to control the mana on their bodies and put a spark on the mana. And destruction follows. The skeletons did not leave a single bone intact and all of their parts were reduced to dust. After doing so, I started dodging the remaining skeletons and observed the skeletons that exploded from my magic. Usually, another one will rise on the ground depending on how many I destroyed the last time. If I destroyed two enemies, they will multiply to 4 skeletons. If they continue to multiply and add new enemies even with that technique, then everything is bad even for me. "Come on, come on, do not resurrect please!" After a few more minutes, I saw no changes from the ashes. Seeing not a single reaction is present to the dust, I felt excited, enough to change my despair into hope. Seeing the skeletons are still attacking, I am not going to hold back now since I know what to do to destroy them, then, it is time to break them all down. There are still 18 skeletons to defeat. Igniting my hands, I will be breaking all of you down. KLAK KLAK KLAK Grabbing the next two skeletons'' skulls, I didn''t waste my time and supplied their bones with mana however, the skeletons are not just petty creatures, the moment I grab their skulls, they would try to stop me by swinging their arms armed with swords to detach my hands away from them. The good thing is that I can still supply them with mana before I cut the source. When they are almost loaded with mana, that is the time it is needed to ignite their insides. BOOM! BOOM! Rinse and repeat. Dodge and repeat, explode, and repeat. It took me around 3 minutes to finish them all off. But sweat and blood pour in my forehead. Pain lingers in my arms and back as I ascend to the next floor. I never underestimated the skeletons but they are quite the pain in the neck. The novels and games describe skeletons as weak enemies but in real life, they are tough nuts to crack. I don''t want to deal with skeletons next time. Ascending to the next floor, I sighed in relief seeing the fifth floor is empty except for the Checkpoint terminal that is present. It looks like a magic circle but it has a more complicated design than usual and has many Sanskrit on the edges. It is also spinning slowly counterclockwise which is quite mysterious. "So how do I activate this?" I looked around for anything that I can interact with besides this but nothing is around except this big magic circle. The very first thing that I know in activating magic circles is either standing in the middle of it or do some incantations while your hand is currently in the middle of the magic circle. The latter is not possible since Blue did not say anything about an incantation so I guess that the former one is the right one. Taking a deep breath, I took a step into the magic circle. It started glowing the moment I step into it, allowing me to activate the checkpoint. My stat panel appeared once more but this time, all of the stats I earned returned to zero. At the same time, my whole body suddenly got tensed and my head suddenly became painful. It didn''t last long and disappeared a few minutes later. I checked again my stat panel and yes, all of them are zero. "What the hell? Where did my stats go?" This time, Blue''s voice rang once more."I forgot to tell you that once you go to the checkpoint, all the earned stats will turn to zero. However, that only happens because it is now converted to your body. You must have experienced pain in your head earlier and your body suddenly felt strange right? Then that means the stats you earned has finally assimilated to your body without a hitch. Don''t complain it is gone. The stats in the panel is just there for the sake of showing how much stats you gained and monitor it in case you died once again." "Oh, I panicked there for a second. I thought all my hard work has gone to waste." "As long as you don''t die and you managed to get into a Checkpoint Terminal then it will not be lost. However, as I said earlier if you died while fighting against any enemies on any floor while not yet able to access any Checkpoint Terminal will cause your points to disappear and get drained out of your system which will result in the loss of your hard work and progress. Now, got it?" "Nice and clear. You should have told me from the very beginning before I panic too much." "Yeah, yeah. Now go and continue your work. If you can fare and get to the tenth floor without dying, it will be really good and you will get stronger easily since the stat gain in the next floors will be double or triple from the last floors," Blue revealed to me. "Let me guess if these rewards are too good to be true, to obtain it must be to survive a harder risk, right?" "Heh, you catch up easily. Higher risks, better rewards. That is the rule as always. So if you wanted to get stronger, you should go and start training on the top floors. You can stay on the lower floors to grind, but it would be much better if you challenge high risks if you are ready." "How to reset back to the first level?" "You want to go back to the first level?" "I am not an idiot man who will just charge forward to the enemy on the next floor. If I can grind like in the games for stats, then I will grind enough stats that will help me overpower the next floors." "Hmm, that is a good strategy, I am not surprised. Anyways, if you wanted to reset your progress and return to the ground floor, then just activate the Checkpoint Terminal by putting your right palm to the magic circle and say "Reset". Simple as that." Since time does not flow in here, fighting in the lower floors will net me lower stats but easier to reach Checkpoint Terminal, allowing me to get my stats into my body permanently. I can''t challenge high risk blindly since I know how bad it is to blindly go into a level you are not sure if the enemies are strong or not in games. So even though it is a not-so-profitable effort, it is safe and has a bigger worth if you are still a beginner in battles like this. Since dying is a pain and can also cause you to lose your gains, it is much better to do a safer approach. Putting my right palm into the magic circle, I take in a deep breath before I mumbled the keyword. "Reset." The magic circle starts to spin wildly and sparks appeared before I was engulfed in a bright light once more, transporting me to the ground floor once again. Just like the usual, the first enemies appeared this time around but since I have mastered their craft, then I will not just lightly do it. I have to immediately gain enough stats to go to the next floor. Maybe I should perform a speedrun on this one to determine how fast I can clear the first four floors. Chapter 179: Next Mission Details In the end, I ended up getting killed after challenging the sixth floor. I tried fighting them after grinding for around 50 times on all 4 lower floors. However, it is later proven that it is quite hard for me to tackle the sixth floor. I lost all of my lives on the sixth floor due to the harsh attacks it gives out. After I lost all four of my remaining lives, when I respawn, I am back outside of the tower. Blue is waiting for me outside the tower and is looking amused. "I thought you will be grinding like a madman? How come you are already back in here?" "Don''t ask me, I am pissed so don''t ask what is obvious." "Hahaha, just try again tomorrow. You don''t have to be so pissed about it." "I can enter this tower again after 24 hours, right? Then remind me if the time limit for the entryto the tower is up. I need to defeat that gargoyle whatever it takes!" "Alright, alright. Now that you have gotten a little bit stronger, then you should return to reality. You still need some preparations for the auction and the mission right? Then you should get there immediately." Blue snaps her fingers and I was transported back to the real world. ... The moment I blinked, I returned to the real world. Looking at the time, not a single second pass by when I was inside the tower. Which means it is similar in structure to the Training Room. The only difference between the tower and the Training Room is that I can stay however long I wanted in the latter than the former which limits my stay if I die inside five times. My mana flow seems much stronger than before too and I think my body seems much stronger than before? I can''t test it right now but there is that feeling in there that putting it to words to describe is hard. "If I can grind every day into the Tower of Babel, I can get stronger easily, while on the training room, I can also train my magic spells and skills to master their usage in case I have a hard time mastering them." Blue started speaking on my phone. "This is your chance to get stronger and tackle hard enemies. That way, you can try and beat up the two celestial beast trials soon enough." The Celestial Beast Trials. Last time, I managed to clear the Byakko and Suzaku trial, I still haven''t cleared the Genbu and Seiryuu trials so a little bit of preparation will help me since these trials are hard as hell. Obtaining their inheritance will be beneficial to me in the future and since I can access the trials once I am worthy enough to challenge it, I just needed to get stronger and stronger to gain the worth to try the trials. "Don''t be too greedy if you can''t clear it. Take your pace and get yourself accustomed to your abilities. The Tower of Babel might have increased your stats but it might have increased too much that one mistake might cost you the lives of your comrades. Try to see if your magic has increased its power too much or still the same as usual." "I will remember that." "By the way, isn''t it time for you to inquire about the mission in exchange for the participation in the auction and bidding on the medicine?" "Ah, I almost forgot about that. If I remember right, the client is already added to the chat group. I just have to direct message him and ask for the mission details. But what is the name of the client again?" "You should ask Rena first. I don''t think I know the name of the client when Rena told you about it." "Maybe Rena-san forgot it, let me chat her real quick. Open the app, please." "The hell, Kazuma? You are treating me like SIRI again." "Nah, it''s the same, you are in charge of the phone and sometimes I am a bit lazy so can you please do so?" "..." ... Shungo Takuya is the name of the client that was requested to take the bidding. According to Rena, he was an exceptional businessman in the magician world even though he is just a normal human. I was a human too but was dragged into the magician world and ended up becoming one of them. On the other hand, Takuya Shungo is the son of two magicians. He avoided using magic since he was a kid because he wanted to be a businessman in the future and he doesn''t want to be in trouble always so he wanted to keep his normal life. He ended up becoming a businessman but as someone connected to magic, he still cannot escape magic things which resulted in him becoming a businessman in the magician world. His connection with the magic is not so easy to be severed. According to Rena, his name here is MoneyMaker which is precise since he is a businessman. Searching for the name of Takuya in the chat group, I finally spotted his name which has a profile pic of a paper cash bill with wings, and clicked it to send a personal message. He is currently online so getting a response will be much faster. ... Chat Killer:Hello, Takuya-san. This is Kazuma. I presume Rena-san already told you about me? MoneyMaker: Of course, I heard from you. You have a good reputation in the Magician world and one of the promising new magicians we ever had. Chat Killer: Then, I would like to discuss the mission that Rena-san mentioned in exchange for buying the medicine that will be auctioned. MoneyMaker: Alright then, let''s move to the little subgroup chat where the two magicians that will accompany is already invited. Please click the link sent to you so that I can move the conversation to the sub chat. Takuya sent a link to me which immediately sent me on a sub chat where only Takuya, the two other magicians, and I can know the conversation. Checking on the two magicians that werewith me, I realize they are not the usual magicians who chat on the chat group. Although I am not frequently chatting on the chat, I am quite familiar with those guys who keep the chat occupied even those new names that seem to have just entered the chat group. They must be new guys or they are just lurkers. MoneyMaker: Looks like everyone is in. I will now give the details for the mission. Is everyone online? Please say yes or a thumbs-up emoji. Chat Killer: :thumbsup: Dragonpalm: :thumbsup: MindReaderAddict: Yes, and also :thumbsup: MoneyMaker: Alright then, here are the details. This mission cannot be shown to others since this will be a confidential one. Only a few people knew the details of this mission including the higher-ups. The others are not allowed to know the contents of this mission. Dragonpalm: How come this is a confidential matter? This is the first time something like this has been issued. I never received anything like this before. :thinking: MoneyMaker: There are other confidential missions but lately, there are no missions that are on that degree for it to be labeled confidential. Now, it was labeled by the higher-ups that this mission is very, very bad to be labeled in the public so it is now labeled as confidential. The mission difficulty is also labeled as SS which means it will be a really hard mission. MindReaderAddict: Is this the reason why we are the ones called into this mission? MoneyMaker: Yes. Your special abilities are what we are looking forward to this mission. You three are specifically mentioned to take on this mission. Dragonpalm: I understand MindReaderAddict to be with us on the mission but who is this Chat Killer? I never heard of him before and his or her exploits. MoneyMaker: I specifically picked him out for this mission. You can ask him for the specifics of his achievements since it''s a little bit longer. MindReaderAddict: His achievements are long? Is this guy the rumored one? You know, the one named Kazuma, I think? Dragonpalm: Kazuma? Aaaahhh... that guy. So that guy is here eh... That newbie who just lucked out on most of his missions and luckily gained all the honors for them eh? MindReaderAddict: What the hell are you talking about? I heard he earned those praises by his strength! Dragonpalm: A beginner and on top of that, a complete novice to magician things? I don''t think so. You can just tell us the truth @Chat Killer that you just suck into the others and let them handle all the things to be done and I will stop. This Dragonpalm is quite cocky for a magician. This is the first time I encountered someone like him in the chat group but this is not the first time I encountered someone with behavior like his. This kind of behavior is something that needs constant attention. If he or she does this and tries to provoke the other party, that means he wanted to create chaos and a fight. However, doing so will fuel their arrogance, leaving them babbling things will just cause them to fume in anger. The outcome will be either of those two and honestly, I prefer the latter one which is to ignore him completely. I didn''t come here to fight with another guy, I am here to get the details of the mission. That way, he will just continue to fume in anger. Chapter 180: Portal to Isekai MoneyMaker: Cut it out @Dragonpalm. I have the authority to reject you on this mission so if you still wanted to participate in this mission then please stop provoking your teammates. This will be your first warning but if you decided to do this again the second time, I will banish you from the mission. Dragonpalm: Alright, alright. MoneyMaker: Let''s move on to the main mission you three need to undertake. A portal that leads to another world has opened up in Akihabara. Many people were swallowed in the portal and were sent to the world inside the portal. People who read mangas will be familiar with this phenomenon known as "isekai". However, we don''t govern that here since the people who were sucked in the other world is not one of the people that are meant to be transported since only the Heavenly Beings can decide whether to send that person to another world or not. So when the incident occurred, 150 people have been sucked into the other world, and their fates are unknown. We have already made some measures to hide it from the public. We also did some mind wipe to the witnesses of the events so no one has known it yet. Although the news and the family of the people that were transported to another world cannot be stopped, they have not been involved directly in the situation so we will just keep the news of them as the "mass disappearance" event. MindReaderAddict: In short, our job is to pull out those 150 people from another world right? MoneyMaker: This another world is infested with monsters. I know there will be people who will charge up to monsters and attack them since they were the "chosen ones" especially if they are transported to another world like the cliche thing happening in novels, anime, and mangas. And since most people who visit Akihabara are otakus and some are gamers, I am quite sure many have done that. It has been two days since that occurred so I presume we have many casualties already. I can see that. I even dreamed once of being going "isekai" before but that was a childish dream before when I was addicted to reading those genres. Now that I became a magician, I don''t think I wanted to go on an isekai adventure especially it is involved with lots of fighting. I am already fed up with many battles when I was a magician. What if I will be transported to another world to become a hero and slay the demon lord? That is not going to end well, especially if there are officials who will do what they wanted and corrupt the government. MoneyMaker: Since we already assumed there are already some people who already are part of the casualties, we will have you three pull the remaining survivors who managed to survive the other world. And since that was the other world, flaunting your skills, using your magic in the public ban is now lifted inside the other world. Of course, you three should avoid doing criminal acts. We will be monitoring you guys inside so we will not tolerate criminals and we will bring down punishments. Understood. Dragonpalm: :thumbsup: This time, I have some doubts that all people who got dragged to another world are all just powerless humans. After all, I have the talent to awaken magic and I ended up using magic. What if other people managed to awaken from their magic too? This time, I asked a question and started speaking for the first time in the discussion. Chat Killer: I have a question. What should we do to those people dragged to another world who managed to awaken some sort of skill or power? MoneyMaker: Ah, yes. That is also possible since some people gain some sort of abilities after someone bestowed them spells or abilities. Some may have awakened from their dormant magic abilities. That is indeed possible. According to the higher-ups, there will be two options. One is to let them remain there as a permanent resident to the other world and the second will be to let them become one of the magician operatives like you guys. As for the people who were not able to awaken any of those, they will be done with a mind wipe and make their experiences in the other world a dream. It is either to them if they managed to remember it though most of the time, I doubt it. Dragonpalm: Then, what about those people who managed to awaken their abilities but started to use them for bad things? What about them? MoneyMaker: As I said before, we don''t condone criminal acts like using magic as abilities to use for making crime. If that happens, then immediately neutralize the target. Now, are there other questions? MindReadingAddict: So what is our actual objective? MoneyMaker; The higher-ups decided this. The main objective is to gather the people who were transported to another world. Also, solving the conflicts in there such as killing the demon lord or whatever it was will be a side note. While that is happening, we will be transporting the portal to another place so that Akihabara will be a safe place once more. Other questions? Seeing no one is typing, Takuya ended our discussion right away. MoneyMaker: Okay then, the mission will begin tomorrow. Be sure to prepare yourselves properly. We will meet tomorrow at noon so be sure to take lunch before going. The meeting is adjourned. The moment our meeting adjourned, I quit the chat group on my phone and lay down on the bed. "Are you not going to stick around the chat a little bit longer?" Blue asked. "I don''t want to keep on chatting to Dragonpalm. He is annoying and I don''t want to brew bad blood between us especially that we are going to be teammates in this mission. Sowing discord will only trouble you instead of cutting down bad things." "You seemed to be too experienced on that note, huh?'' "Indeed I am, so you don''t have to force me to stick around on the chat because I know it will just cause more conflict which I am not a fan of." "Yes, yes I hear you. However, if you are going on a mission to cross over another world, aren''t you going to take a long time to finish that? Then what about Anya? She will be left behind once again." "This is for her sake. I am not just going to neglect my task of saving her. I promised her father to protect her and save her from harm. I failed to do so on that so it''s my responsibility to see this through." "Heh, responsibility eh, you keep on fulfilling that no matter what it takes. Typical Kazuma as always," Blue said before going quiet. "..." This new mission is now tackling out the other world. To think isekai is real and I am going to visit one world to rescue the people who are dragged along to the isekai. That didn''t happen in most novels I think. And maybe the stories being done by the authors themselves are real events and records of the exploits of a certain individual who managed to cross the dimension. It is not impossible at all since magicians can do many things using the mystics so it is quite possible that this was also a thing to inform their family indirectly what happened to them after they were sent to another world. I don''t want to be too hard on myself so I decided to sleep and get some rest since we will be going on a mission that might take a long time to complete. Proper rest will be a good thing if we ever get plunged into a place of constant war. ... The next day came and my preparations are now underway. Since things will be hectic and troublesome, I decided to bring along the mimic and act as my dimensional bag. Although this mimic is Anya''s property originally, I am one of the main owners of it after defeating it before so now I can convince the mimic to act like my dimensional bag in exchange for food like gems. While preparing, Blue started to speak. "Kazuma, are you going to skip today''s tries for the Tower of Babel? Your chances have been restored to 5 once again so you can now begin your killing spree once again." "Thanks for reminding me, bring me back." That day, I decided to keep on farming the lower floors a bit longer instead of challenging the sixth floor. It was a tiring method and I almost have gone crazy due to it but I finally stopped once I farmed the place for at least 30 or more times. Although the increases are too small, I don''t think this will be a problem. And when I tried to defeat the sixth floor, I managed to succeed. However, the seventh floor ended up another one of those hard places. That day, I ended up spending all 5 lives on the seventh floor without any signI can win. Chapter 181: The Day of the Mission I might clear the sixth floor of the tower but the seventh is just another kind of hell. The very moment I ascended to the seventh floor after clearing the sixth floor, ended up in a disaster. Without even a warning, I was splat flat to the ground before I can even see the enemies. I managed to get a glimpse of what the enemies are. They are metal golems. However, unlike the first golems that are too slow for me to feel any danger, these guys are fast... too fast in fact. The moment I respawned, the golems immediately moved that I barely manage to give a good reaction to defend. In the end, I expended all of the lives that have been stored before. "That was so lame, Kazuma. You just managed to clear the sixth floor but you suddenly go splat on the next floor. You should have at least put up a fight at least!" "Did you think I didn''t try to put up a fight? Even if I did, those f*cking golems are just too fast for me to even defend myself! They hit so hard that I will never survive them even if I managed to fight back!" "Ha, that is pathetic reasoning Kazuma. At least you should have lasted a few minutes before getting flat to death but only a few seconds? That is pathetic." "Yeah, yeah, it is pathetic. So stop saying that already! I will try this floor again tomorrow!" "Sure sure, now you are going to the other world. Good luck and be sure to not die like how pathetic you have been during the battle on the seventh floor." "..." ... After taking lunch and getting my final preparations done, I headed to the other world and visit Anya. As usual, she is still sleeping and her breathing is still fine, but the fact that she is still unconscious made me steel myself to continue the job. "I will return, this is for the sake of your medicine. Since you helped me that time, this time, I will be the one helping you. I never get to say this to you when you were awake, but thank you for saving my life." She still didn''t wake up after that, however, I have to do this. To cure her of her state, then I have to work my best. ... Akihabara. It was crowded as always, however, I can see that among the populace are the magicians blended in. To make sure things go well if an incident occurs like last time, the magicians deployed them to immediately respond to the trouble if things do not work well and also to reduce the panic effect. "Kazuma!" Someone is calling me but I am not familiar with this particular person''s voice. This male''s voice is not the voice of anyone I knew of. Looking around, I saw two teenagers, one is a punk boy with reddish hair and a girl who looks like a gyaru, minus the tan on her skin since she has a flawless skin color. On the other hand, the one calling me is a guy around 25 years of age, wearing a suit and currently looking like a businessman. "Kazuma! Here, over here!" If my speculation is right, those three are the ones I conversed with within the subgroup in the chat group. I take off my hood and move towards them. The guy in the businessman suit is much more welcoming than the two. The punk boy is more hostile to me while the girl is around neutral on me. "You are early but that is also good enough since the three of you can depart earlier." the guy in businessman suit said, "He sure took his time, huh, if he is a responsible magician, he should have come here early in the morning to help out with the others in maintaining the portal," the punk boy said while glaring in my direction. "No one wanted to come too early like that idiot. I am not that excited about the mission anyways so why go too early? It doesn''t change much since you can''t go inside the portal that early," the gyaru corrected the punk boy. "Ignore them for now, Kazuma. I have yet to introduce myself, I am Shungo Takuya, the employer. Those two are the guys last night, Dragonpalm and MindReaderAddict. Their real names are Amakura Yami and Kakyoin Ishana. They will be your teammates for the remaining duration of the mission." Ishana looked at me from head to toe and nodded before she introduced herself. "I am Kakyoin Ishana, looking forward to working with you on this mission." "Kazuma Fukuyama, also looking forward to working with you." Amakura Yami is...understandable enough that he won''t bother to even talk to me considering his hostile behavior while we are chatting last night. I didn''t do anything wrong so I am not the one who should be begging for reconciliation with the other party. "Hey, Yami, you should also introduce yourself," Ishana said to Yami as she tugs his shirt. "I don''t think I needed to do so. Besides, Shungo-sama already said my name earlier so there is no need for me to repeat things." Takuya scratch his head and decided to break the ice of discomfort. "You guys should just quit now, it is time to enter the portal to another world." We are led by Takuya to a hidden road in Akihabara that led us to another street alley where the massive portal to another world is swirling crazily. "Can we go back and forth from this world to that world without any hassle or we are going to stay in that world for the duration of the mission?" Ishana asked Takuya. "Unfortunately, you guys have to stay there until the duration of the mission. We can''t afford to keep on using the portal as it will destabilize if it was being used again and again. We can''t afford it to suddenly close without any warning and let you guys get trapped inside. Therefore, you guys should stay there for the remaining duration until the last person that was swallowed was rescued. Now go and set forth. We will wait for a good result." After saying the final instructions, Takuya allowed us to finally get into the portal and set out into the new world to find the whereabouts of the people sucked inside. Before going in, Yami glared in my direction and clicked his tongue in annoyance. "Don''t you dare get in my way." ... ... ... The moment my land landed on the soil, I can immediately tell that this is no longer the same place as Akihabara. Emerging from the portal, the portal disappears from our view but I can still feel the presence of it which means that it is still there but it will only stop anyone from seeing the portal aside from us which is convenient. The wind and the smell of the air are quite different here. The smell is more closer to nature rather than industrial smell where the smoke and some foreign smells are more abundant than the smell of the trees itself. "It looks like the main entrance of the portal is a forest which is pretty logical for an isekai setting," Ishana said as she surveys the surroundings. "That is normal, considering isekai portals are always much easier to materialize in a place where mana is plentiful and only a few people visit. This place is much more peaceful than the usual," Yami said as he grabs the nearby leaves of the plants and examines them, "Oak trees huh?" "Our priority is to find the nearest civilization and gather our intel on the people there. Maybe we can find a good chance to find at least one of the people who got transported here," Ishana said. I didn''t say anything but I already started mapping out the whole area to make sure there are no hostiles inbound or lurking in the vicinity. And I must say that our current location is just very near to the nearest village. However, the village seems to be on fire and being under attack? "Spotted the village already. However, it seems to be under attack by something," I said and quickly ignite the shoes I am wearing into flames. "Kazuma? You already spotted the village? You have a clairvoyance skill?" Ishana was surprised. "More like a mapping skill. Follow me," I ordered and quickly made my move. "Hey! Why are you acting on your own!" Yami looked pissed but he also followed suit after Ishana. I keep my [Insight] open to make sure that everything happening in the village is monitored properly. I don''t want to get in danger after going to the village due to a random ambush.Since we got the permission to use magic and let loose here, then I will not hold back and will use every magic I have in my arsenal if that will help lessen the casualty of the village. While my terrain is not familiar, with the help of [Insight], traversing the forest and accessing shortcuts are now easier, allowing us to cut short our exit out of the forest. The moment we managed to get out of the lush green of the forest, the village that I am talking about is now in sight. Chapter 182: First Battle in Another World There is that feeling of freedom when you finally managed to get to do something freely which was previously restricted to be done in which in my case, it is the unrestrained usage of magic freely on the public. Now that we are in a place where magic is normally seen as a norm, using it in public is no longer a problem. As we are approaching the village, I noticed that the attackers of the village are not muscular humans but muscular green ogres wielding clubs and the like. On the road to the village, I already saw lots of ripped body parts of humans and some mashed to pieces of human limbs. Now, I am quite sure that the villagers are now being slaughtered one by one in there and the more time to waste, the more villagers will die. There was one magic that I have read before in the spells whenever I asked Blue to let me see some spells I can learn. This was the magic spell [Legs of Haste]. It increases your movement speed twice the amount of speed you can muster while running. Activating it is a little bit easy since it only needs you to let the mana in your body flow more in your legs and feet. I am not joking that it is easy. Since I already mastered using mana to enhance parts of my body, letting the mana only flow in your legs is much easier than using mana to enhance your body. "[Legs of Haste!]" The moment I tried the method, my speed burst out greatly and I was like riding a motorcycle at full speed as I am getting closer to the village. Seeing the nearest ogre holding a dead body of a man, I conjured an electric spark in my right hand and the burst water magic, [Water Torrent] to my left hand. Since water is a conductor of electricity and deals more pain and damage to anyone who was exposed to water, this should do the trick. Releasing the [Water Torrent], the first ogre who got hit by it staggered when the water hits the body before his eyes suddenly became white after getting electrocuted by how many volts of electricity. "One down!" I pass by the houses and continue my way to the innermost part of the village. I stopped on the way when I saw some ogres destroying a house''s entrance. I can still hear the cry of the kids inside. But before I can get to the battle stance, a large fireball exploded to the ogres, blasting them off the entrance of the house. When I look in the direction the fireball came, Yami was standing there, with his palms still smoking. "What are you looking at? Go and find other people, don''t just stand in there!" Yami glared at me before walking to the dazed ogres he blasted earlier. Seeing Yami take care of the rest, I moved to the next area where a bunch of ogres is in sight too. However, Ishana is already doing her battle against the enemies as she blasts her magic to the enemies. It was all just a blast of magic so I can''t tell what element of magic Ishana has, but she is doing well. She looked at me and smiled before she continues her battle against the orcs. Since that area is also being taken care of, I headed to the next place which is the little town square. There, the female villagers are being gathered, a teenager, a wife, or a kid, as long as they are female, were being held captive there. The ogres are also gathered around the females, stopping them from escaping and blocking. Are those monsters going to keep the girls as human cattle?! Unforgivable! "Yuri, come out." "What''s up, Master?~" "Here''s the mana you want, now charm them all." "Hai hai!" SNAP! Pink waves of gases float around the ogres who were busy with the women. They suddenly stop from their duties and stood there like idiots. Now that they are no longer holding their sanity in after being charmed by Yuri, I ignited the flames in my hands. To make sure that the females are not going to be injured, I went closer to them and ignite them one by one from the inside. The moment their insides were ignited to flames, they will immediately break off from the charm magic and will scream in pain before they will fall to the ground, dead with their insides all reduced to ashes. I repeated this method to the ogres one by one and kill them all. It took me a little bit of time before the ogres guarding the female villagers were killed and disposed of. The villagers did not expect what happened before their eyes and still in a daze. "Everything will be alright," I reassure them. A few ogres appear from the alley carrying a few unconscious girls. However, the moment they saw me with the girls, they started howling and pull out their clubs. "They are now angry huh, however, you guys are small fries compared to the monsters I faced on the Tower of Babel. Let''s see what you guys are made of! Yuri, make sure none of these monsters gets close to the girls! If they ever managed to get real close, charm and kill them!" "Of course! For the sake of the precious mana, I will do it~" With roars, the ogres started to charge towards my direction, while swinging their clubs like barbarians. "Get roasted!" SNAP! Magic circles appeared above the ogres and Lightning strikes emerge from them, raining down to the charging ogres. It was a quick lethal strike, controlling them to hit the ogres in their weaknesses and vulnerable parts of their bodies. They are too weak against lightning that they immediately died the moment the lightning strikes upon them. Of course, not all of them can die immediately from the lightning strikes due to their strong defenses and some have armors to protect them. But that doesn''t mean I will just resort to the Lightning strikes to kill them off. "Die." The remaining ogres who were not able to move after the lightning strikes drew their last breath as flames burned their bodies, turning all of their bodies to ashes. After making sure that no ogres will attack after the ruckus I made, I released the female villagers from their restraints. I asked Inari-sama to help guard them alongside Yuri on the side. I didn''t pull out Yuto since he is an incubus and the villagers are all female. Even if he already said that he is not interested in women, incubus instincts might kick in and I heard that they can''t control it if it is too strong. Screams are still echoing around the village so there must be enemies left behind that are still attacking the villagers, therefore, I made a final swoop in the village. ... Yami and Ishana already cleared most of the village''s roads. The one I hear screaming is someone attacked by the last ogre alive. Killing it as easy as it let down its defenses since all of its attention is focused on the villagers. It was already sunset that we declared the perimeter of the village safe. Only a small amount of men survive the ordeal but most of them are wounded after fighting the ogres. The rest are now corpses and dismembered parts of them due to their main body being squashed to paste and no longer recognizable via physical means. The families of the deceased all cried seeing their deaths while the surviving male villagers held back their tears as they saw the other male villagers'' corpse sprawled out on the ground. As for the ogre''s bodies, they decided to keep it since they can report it to the city guards and administration offices in the city to gain some compensation for the ogre rampage incident. "Looks like we have no luck finding those lost people here in this village. If they have stayed here if they are male, they were most likely dead while if they are female, they should be one of the girls we rescued but from what I see after the rescue, most of them do not resemble any Japanese girls at all," Ishana said. "No luck huh, this might take us a bit more time to find a single Japanese person around here. Even a village has been almost destroyed, what if they were in the forest?" Yami scratches his head. "Fortunately, we don''t need to search for any casualties in the forest we just went out earlier. The forest we entered does not have any signs of anyone coming from the portal and explored the forest. They must have been transported here in random locations so this is not the only place we need to look. We have to search far and wide to look for 150 people and we are not sure how many died from them," I revealed to them. "How did you know? Do you have perhaps a spell that can map out the surroundings or a bird''s eye view magic? You have acted first earlier so maybe you have one to immediately see the surroundings of us?" "Let''s just say I have that sort of magic, but that is not much. Relying on it is not that easy as it is quite troublesome to use." "Ha! Excuses. That is just pathetic. If you can''t use it properly, you shouldn''t have learned it!" I frowned hearing this. Yami wanted to make some trouble again with me? Chapter 183: Signs of Bloodlust Ever since he has known me after our chat in the sub chat, he has been in a hostile mode that I can''t ignore anymore. He has been giving the bad vibe from the very start even when we have not met personally but now, he is still doing it. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at him in confusion. However, I decided not to voice out things. If his purpose is to make sure that he is superior compared to me, I am not caring about that stuff. It would be better if I just go and stay silent about it. "Yami, this is no time to bicker with anyone," Ishana said. "Tch, suit yourself," Yami grumbled and went somewhere. Ishana sighed and shook her head in annoyance before she looked at me with an apologetic look on her face. "I am sorry for the behavior of Yami. I don''t know what is going on in his head for him to behave like that." "Don''t worry about it. More importantly, we have to rest for now or we will be dead tired for tomorrow." ... The villagers were grateful for our help in getting rid of the ogres and saving the village so they gave us a place to sleep and food for dinner. The language of the people in this world is different so we used the Translator Magic that we learned before going here so that we can understand what the people in this world is saying and we can also translate our language to their language. Not only that, our ability to write and read will also be affected so it will not be a problem for us in the future. Since we will not be staying for long, we decided to accept the hospitality of the villagers. Some of the villagers asked us where are we from and we decided to use the script of Takuya that he made for us to use in case these people asked where we are from. It was surprisingly effective. We managed to get a hold of a conversation with the village chief who was injured during the ogre invasion and blinded his left eye. We asked for any signs of new people appearing on the village these past few days but he said that there is no one sign of them aside from us which nailed our point that these people who got transported to this world are all not transported in the same place. After getting our bearings and our temporary lodging for the night, the two went to sleep due to the exhaustion they felt after the day''s events. On the other hand, I am still awake. For some reason, sleeping in this world felt a bit weird and I am not too comfortable doing so. "Having trouble sleeping?" Blue''s voice vibrated on my phone. "Blue? This is the first time you used the phone as the source of your voice. You usually use my mind to say things to me." "I can do it but I should use your phone, for now, to test it if the phone still works here in this world." "Oh, that''s right. I wonder if I can still browse the chat group even if I was situated here in another world." "I just checked it and the phone still works properly and can still browse the chat group and other internet services without any problem." "What? Seriously, I can still connect to the internet without any problems? Is this phone part of those rumored black technology thingie?" "Huh? Don''t be ridiculous, black technology things are beyond human reach, this phone is just one of the normal phones, with the only difference in my presence. You should be glad that I am here to allow that privilege to you alone and you can use the phone for your exploits here in another world." "You want me to make a name in this world? Nah, that is not my thing. I will leave that to the hands of those destined to do so and not on someone who just barged to this world uninvited." "Oh? You don''t want to get some glory in this world and mark your name here to be remembered by the people?" "Ha, there is no benefit in doing those things. I am more inclined on doing things my way and doing it incognito rather than spreading my name for fame. If that is a request, I will respectfully decline," I shook my head. "Wow, I never expected to hear than on you. You have matured after a short time." "Anyway, enough of maturation. I still can''t find any way for me to sleep properly in this foreign world. Is there any way for me to properly take a rest?" "Did you forgot Kazuma? As you get more advance in your magic spells and magic training, sleeping will no longer be part of your routine as the mana will just cleanse off your fatigue and any kind of benefit you will get from sleeping will be gained normally as your mana goes strong. What you are experiencing is the same as that. Due to your exploits inside the Tower of Babel, it is showing off changes in your body, and the small stats you gain every time you grind in the tower and managed to save them in the checkpoint terminal is now showing physical changes to your body." That''s right. She has indeed mentioned that before but since I only felt that slightly, I have already forgotten about it. Now that the effects are manifesting, I was reminded of it by Blue and everything makes sense on why I can''t sleep and my body is still refreshed despite not sleeping. I thought I developed insomnia or something. "Maybe you should go out and smell the fresh air of the nighttime in this other world. It is much more fresh and refreshing to feel the air here thanthe air of the city isn''t it?" "Ha... That is now the case, I think I have to do just that. Forcing myself to sleep will just make me frustrated so I will just use this extra time to go outside and feel the air." I stood up from my bed and went outside. The villagers are no longer to be seen and the other villagers who lost their houses after the attack merged with the other families with intact houses and went to rest in there. The lights of the houses are already extinguished so there are no longer signs that anyone is still awake at this time of the hour. Strolling around the village, it felt different when strolling in the streets of Tokyo at night. Even though it is nighttime, there are still many things happening which makes matters much livelier compared to here. Just when I am enjoying my nighttime stroll, I felt a bloodlust not too far from my location. It is too heavy that I don''t think I can ignore this. "Reveal what my eyes can''t see! [Insight!]" My eyes glowed a little bit and my sight of the surroundings became clearer to me. Just like Mana Scan, the whole layout of the surroundings is revealed in my eyes. What is revealed to me is another troublesome matter. Several indicators appear that there are many creatures camped up on the northern side of the village. It doesn''t appear to be human based on the silhouettes that my eyes can grasp just by looking and they emit severe bloodlust that I usually feel against demons and beings corrupted by the darkness. Are they demonic beings? Seeing these, I no longer have a choice but to make an action, or else, things will go chaotic again. I am not too confident I can handle them all, all by myself but that doesn''t mean I will go down without a fight and let the village get attacked again. Yami and Ishana are still both sleeping so there is no point for me waiting for their backup. I will just have to do this without anyone''s help. This way, I can grasp a good way to fight properly and use my knowledge that I acquired during the battles in the Tower of Babel and use them to my advantage. "[Leg Enhancement], [Legs of Haste!]" After all the buffs I applied to my legs, I dashed, allowing me to move forward in great speed and far distance. The long road is just a few dashes for me, which helped a lot in covering lots of grounds to reach the area I am looking on. As my legs carry me deeper and deeper into the forest, the bloodlust is also getting stronger and stronger, causing my entire being to shake a little bit from the effects of bloodlust. As they say, the more a person is exposed to bloodlust, they will also be affected by it and will not be able to control what they will be about to do even if they wanted to, once they are affected too much by the bloodlust. You can say that it is a forced berserk activation. The moment I am a few meters from my destination, I smell the corruption and the smell of stink in the distance. I can''t be wrong about this, this is the smell of demonic beings. Chapter 184: Demonic Beings in Another World Facing demonic beings is not a joke and a matter to be laughed at. During my time inside the Phantasmal Reality, a hundred Demonic beings, creatures corrupted by the darkness is one of the foes I am having trouble with. They might be a little bit weak in comparison to the demons themselves but that doesn''t mean they are not considered as a danger. Their numbers alone are considered as troublesome as a single demon. "So demonic beings are also here too huh? It looks like even this world is infested with demons too." "That is already understandable Kazuma, as this world also has the demon lord where heroes are usually tasked to slay to ensure the survival of the human race and to stop the invasion of the demons. It wouldn''t be strange to see things like this often." "Trouble as always. These guys don''t give me a rest, do they?" Letting my open palms crackle in electricity, the moment I arrived at the nearest enemy, I slam my palms to the ground and let the electricity go on a rampage. Instead of going to the ground, it acted like a snake and the volt of electricity started to jump to the ground before reaching the demonic beings. But hey, this is the effect I am trying to produce and I succeeded in doing so. "BEGONE!" CRACKLE! ZAP ZAP ZAP! ZZZZZZZZZTTTTTTT! The resounding sound of the electricity echoed in the night. The enemies are too surprised by my sudden arrival that they have not reacted to the attack I made, causing several of the demonic beings to fall one by one without being able to resit. However, that attack I made is not enough to wipe out all of the demonic beings. The ones that fell are just the frontline, the backlines and support frontline enemies have yet to emerge. It is dark and adjusting to the dark is a little bit troublesome but with the help of [Insight], it is not a problem to walk around at night. The first monsters are shaped like wolves but due to the corruption of the darkness, they looked like shadows instead. The others are looking like ogres but smaller versions. They also wield some clubs and some wield knives. From their shape and their sounds, I am assuming those are goblins but due to their shape only showing due to the dark power corrupting them, I can only guess what they are based on their silhouettes and characteristics. Since my surprise attack only managed to kill a few enemies, it is time to make some proper moves. "Time to test out the electricity and roast some of them." I didn''t use the flames on them since we are in the forest. Igniting the forest due to my magic is going to be a bad thing so before I can do that mistake, then let us use the lesser magic that can still cause destructive power against enemies, but has a lesser chance to invoke flames in the surroundings. However, it still has a chance to burn things if it was used with too much power. Besides, the power of my electricity is not that strong compared to the flames that I keep on using in my fights. This is a chance for me to test out the damage output I can dish out on every skill, that way, I can use the full potential of electricity. The demonic beings did not stay in the shadow for long and started attacking me like crazy. But that doesn''t mean I will also stay put and let them attack me. "DIE!" Dodging the attacks of the enemies, I also proceed to shoot them electric shocks with medium power in the right palm while large voltage power in the left palm. Some of them like the goblin-shaped enemies are easily killed by the medium voltage power but the wolves seem to be able to resist a little bit, but they don''t last in the large voltage power. Dodging, attacking, and repeat. The goblins and wolves are fast, but, they don''t seem to be doing that much. "Kazuma, be careful, I just noticed just now that they have corrosive properties. Look at your sleeves and the knee area of your left leg. They are all corroded," Blue warned. When I heard her warn me of the corrosion, I immediately stepped back a little bit and examined quickly my clothes. And just like Blue described, both the sleeves of my hooded shirt and the left leg knee area of my pants are a little bit corroded with damage. I was almost attacked by them in slight times during the skirmishes so I think these corroded parts of my clothes came from those. The smaller enemies were now thinned out and seeing the lesser amount of the smaller demonic beings left behind, I saw the bigger demonic beings moving. Based on their size and silhouette, they are the corrupted ogres. These corrupted ogres started roaring before attacking with their clubs and arms. They are fast and they hit real hard seeing the crater created after smashing down their clubs to the ground, I almost break a sweat in nervousness seeing the damage output. "You think you guys can squash me? Not so fast!" I dodged all of their attacks and countered them using the electricity. Since they also possess the corrosion property the smaller demonic beings possess, I didn''t bother going to them and deal a melee blow but just sent a strong electric strike in quick precision while dodging constantly from their attacks. ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP ROOOOOAAAAARRR! They are getting a little bit annoying and every time they roar, they also increase. The wolves also regained their numbers and the annoying little f*ckers increased. The ogres also increased in numbers but that is not my kind of sh*t. Stepping back, I charge up my magic and convert the charging mana to electricity. I have not mastered much electricity so I decided to improvise and do it on my own instead. "Be careful on that Kazuma. Unlike fire magic which is easy to improvise, electricity might backfire. Do not be hesitant to deploy your Domain of Balmung anytime after casting the magic!" Blue suggested. The demonic beings charge to my location as I continue to charge the mana and convert it to electricity. However, that is what I am hoping for. The monsters attack me simultaneously. It took a little bit of dodging but the moment my hands started to feel heavy, I didn''t hold back. "Eat this, f*ckers!" BZZZZZZZZZTTTTTT! Electricity exploded in front of me and the enemies charging towards my direction were all caught up by the blast. It was a strong magic spell so I doubt Yami and Ishana didn''t notice it but it didn''t just make a huge ruckus, but the demonic beings that are attacking me were all wiped out in one strike. The attack that occurred cost me lots of mana that I almost emptied my storage bank of mana the moment I released it. It felt a little bit bad in my head since emptying your mana bank is enough to cause mana bite which happens during the usage of strong magic. I am a little bit lucky I didn''t felt it since according to the records, once you experienced it, you might have already experienced a gruesome pain in your body that you will think your body has been slowly being ripped apart by an unknown entity. "The seed of Ygdrassil helped out recovering my mana immediately the moment I lost all of them in one single attack allowing me to avoid the bite of mana. But damn, that was electrifyingly troublesome," I mumbled as I looked at the aftermath of my attack. I didn''t hold back on the last attack, so when the electric damage landed on the ground, the surrounding trees were also blasted with strong mana and their magic suddenly rose after the incident. Looking in my [Insight] and scan the place, I immediately confirmed the place free from the demonic beings. I might have damaged the forest for a bit to obliterate the demons immediately, I didn''t expect things to get troublesome. "That attack might have caused great disturbance to the village. I think I have to immediately escape here and return to my room immediately." "Do it immediately! I can sense the movement of your two companions closing the distance between you guys!" Without looking back and loitering around, I immediately dash forward and begin my escape and return to the little house before anyone discovers me. Chapter 185: Epilogue of Arc 3 A strong wave of mana suddenly emanated in the air and Yami who was sleeping opened his eyes and quickly stood up from the bed. ''What strong mana! Just who released that here?!'' For a person like Yami who wanted to become the strongest magician, magic, and users who can use strong magic is one of his fascinations. The moment the strong magic was caught on his radar, he immediately decided to investigate. As he was leaving the shack he was staying in, he saw in the distance a bright yellow light that seemed to be similar to a lightning strike appeared. "That seems to come from the forest adjacent to the forest we came from. Is someone fighting over there?" He was about to set out and investigate the place when he noticed that he is not the only one awake. "You are not sleeping Yami?" Ishana asked as she went outside her shack. "I should be the one asking you that," Yami answered while he is still fixated on the source of the magic wave. "I felt that strong mana earlier. That is already comparable to Voltaire-sama''s magic power release." "Indeed. I was not expecting that someone in here can use that," Yami seems giddy to check it out already. "Are you joking? This is the alternate world. There would be strong individuals to be seen here so it is normal to see someone like that appear here. Anyways, wanna check it out? The person who released that might still be there and still fighting. We can''t miss the opportunity to see who this person was! Maybe it is also a fellow Japanese!" Ishana said and invited Yami. "Let''s get going then. We might be too late if we dawdle for too long." Ishana nodded and the two dashed in the darkness of the night. ... Before the two arrive, I already saw them coming quickly in my previous location a few minutes after moving away from the area. I still monitored them using the ability of [Insight] so even when I was already far away from them, I can still see them. "That was too close and I was almost got caught by them," I sighed in relief as I managed to return to my shack without anyone noticing. "You should be careful about your magic spells. It might look like normal lightning strikes but those lightning strikes are the inheritance of Byakko so it is normal to be strong enough to deal damage like that and of course, to attract attention," Blue reminded me. "I am just testing it and I never expected I would be able to do that here. It was just too strong and I wished I never did that." "Just be careful next time. And from the looks of it, you need to be able to practice the intensity of your lightning magic damage. It just too much destruction if you keep on using it without restraint." During my time inside the Training Space, I only trained a little bit on the lightning magic as I focused more on the flame magic which I mastered after a few years of training in the training space. I might be using electricity magic but controlling the intensity of the damage is hard which resulted in inconsistent damage output. "Indeed I needed to train, but I don''t have the currency to use at the moment to open the Training Space. Don''t tell me there is an alternative since we are in another world?" "There are still so many things we have no idea of in this world. You should explore more and gain different items so that I can determine which will be a good thing to use as the new currency in this world." "Which means I have to postpone my electricity training?" "You don''t need to do so. I suggest that you try training to test the intensity of your magic using palm-sized electricity to control it bit by bit while I am still analyzing any item we can use as a substitute for the demon shards and monster shards." Palm-sized? Ah, those electric balls I usually do whenever I try to use it for throwing against enemies much farther away as I use normal lightning bolts if it is a little bit nearer than me but a little bit farther than my arm''s reach. Following Blue''s suggestion, I slowly started to practice my electric magic to avoid doing overload. It took me a little practice on maintaining it. Unlike letting it go after materializing, maintaining it the same after a few minutes is hard as it will immediately crumble and ruin my practice. I still have a long road ahead... ... When Kazuma already arrived at his shack, Yami and Ishana arrived in the vicinity of the source. They didn''t expect to see big damage to the surroundings. Ishana tried to move closer but she was suddenly stung while approaching. "Ouch!" Ishana immediately retreated as she rubbed the parts of her body that suddenly hurt while approaching. "What happened?" Yami looked at Ishana in confusion. "I felt like I was suddenly electrocuted. It has a similar feeling when you accidentally got electrocuted for a few seconds when trying to plug something into the electric socket. The feeling is similar but has a little bit of stronger effect." Yami got curious so he approaches while reaching his right hand on the boundary. The moment Yami''s fingers crossed the borderline, his fingers got electrocuted that he immediately retracts his hand. "That is indeed electrocution. So that bright light earlier is an electric shock voltage?" "We can assume that is the case. However, we can''t test out if it was an electric shock or not. There is some type of magic that has similar effects but we don''t know if that is the case here." "It doesn''t matter if it is electricity or not. Let''s look around maybe the one who caused this damage is still around." Just as Yami was going to start investigating, he suddenly felt a faint bloodlust emanating in the air. It was just a slight one so it is easy to miss. However, since Yami is now fully alert, he cannot mistake it. "Did you catch the bloodlust too?" Yami looked at Ishana. "You are not the only one. It was a little bit and just a small amount but that was a demonic being''s bloodlust alright. Don''t tell me there are some demonic beings here?" "It might be possible since this is another world. Let''s search around." The two made their investigation around the vicinity. They only investigated around the perimeter of the blast site as they cannot approach while they can still get electrocuted the moment they approach the barrier. Then, Ishana found the source of the bloodlust they have noticed earlier. "Yami, I found the source of the bloodlust earlier. Come here." Yami immediately approached and looked at the source. He frowned when he saw the dying demonic being wolf on the ground. It is already dying as it''s lower torso is already torn off and its intestines have been dangling out of the body. "A demonic being. Looks like a corrupted wolf." "Demonic beings do exist here too? I never expected that. Still, that means the battle that occurred here is caused by the fight of someone and the demonic beings alongside this one?" "It might be so. Seeing it here in the blast site, it must have been caught by the blast before it can escape fully from the attack. Since it is still alive, that means this demonic being is a strong one to manage itself from dying despite the fatal wound it has on its body." "That explains things here. The only piece of the puzzle we have yet to find is who is the one who caused this much damage. If that person can help us, it will ease our work and might be able to impart knowledge in magic," Yami then ignited his right palm and shoot the dying wolf with a fireball, releasing it from its suffering. ... Morning finally came and the three left the village after a night''s rest. They are on the road and have no idea where to go next. "Where should we go next?" Ishana asked. "No idea," Yami shrugged and looked at me with some expectation that I will say anything. But I didn''t say what is in my mind. It was clear that he will disregard what I will say, so I will just reveal what I am thinking if Ishana asked. While on the road, we saw black smoke billowing from the distance and a few rough laughter that has malicious intent. "Is that an attack?" Ishana frowned and ready herself. "Looks like something is going on in there. Let''s check it out!" Yami said and dashed forward towards the source of the smoke. "Wait! Don''t just rush by yourself! Yami! Urgh!" Ishana is pissed as she followed suit on Yami. Today will be the second day of our exploration in another world. Where things will get chaotic due to our involvement and the appearance of the so-called "chosen heroes" alongside the corrupted side of the government of this world. .... Arc 3 End Chapter 186: The Other Worlds Order The World of Terrifal. A world filled with mystery and magic. Over 70¨G of this world is yet to be explored by humans. However, that doesn''t mean humans are not prospering in this world. Currently, there are 5 continents this world has, 4 are occupied by humans and one is completely uncharted land. Magic and Magical Phenomenons alongside monsters and demonic beings are the normal things here and no one would freak out if you can use magic. Reincarnated people and transported to another world guys are also the current norm here too. Becoming an adventurer is the main occupation most people have in this world and the business of the people here is all related to the needs of adventurers. Subjugation and odd jobs are usually issued here. In other words, the typical world of fantasy. No wonder many novels these days have been about isekai here and there, transported to another world here and there bullsh*try. It was due to that phenomenon that people that died on Earth are practically new powerful people here with cheat powers and the like. F*ck, that is too cringy as hell. "Stop cursing this world. You just can''t accept this world to be so cliche and too overused in plots in novels and manga in your world," Blue interrupted my narration moment. "Who wouldn''t be pissed? This is exactly why many people in our world go die to arrive here. I was so fascinated by novels like that before only to find out that most of those novels are real and they are the real records of humans living in this world and being recorded as entertainment in our world as a form of novels and manga! Isn''t that invading privacy? Do the magicians enjoy these?" "It''s an honest business, Kazuma. It''s not much but at least it contributes something to entertainment things in our world for people who wish isekai exist." I scratch my head in frustration. I don''t want to get into the isekai if I ever die. Just let my soul rest instead. "Enough of that Kazuma, I think it is time for the three of you to depart," Blue said. I finished breakfast we have ordered earlier as soon as possible. With our search for the people transported to another world accidentally after the portal leading to another world was opened in Akihabara, we are now tracking clues of our first lead of someone from another world. "Are you sure the info you managed to dug up in the pub plausible Yami?" Ishana asked as she tries to read the map properly. "There is no way I will get the wrong info. I also have to check the validity to make sure I am not just leading ourselves to a fake destination that will lead us again to square one. "A man in weird clothing has been spotted around here before he was captured and was sent to the slave traders. It might be one of the targets we needed to bring back. Its info might be a little bit questionable but it is part of our clue that we have the very close to get right now. It''s worth a shot to check it out." This is one of the clues we thought to be unreliable at first since the other clues we got before are more believable at first but it was proven to be another case. We didn''t expect it this time to be the real deal of info. ... "How long is it before we arrive at our destination? It''s been four hours since we started walking and the sun is quite hot, I don''t think I can last a few more hours," Yami said as he wiped his sweat. He no longer looked proud on his face. "I don''t know Yami, this taking us longer than we thought it would be..." Even Ishana is on the verge of collapsing. "Let''s get some rest first. We can''t afford to get weakened while we are heading to an enemy area," I said to them. I am not tired of myself since the Seed of Ygdrassil is helping me cool down my whole body. Too bad I can''t share this ability with them. "Damn, Kazuma. Even though I am more superior than you, why are you not the only one affected by the heat of the sun?! What secret did you just do to do this?!" Yami is ready to collapse from the heat already. "Let''s have some rest first guys. There is no point in going quickly. We can just go slow. We will reach our destination soon," I reassured them. "However, I don''t think you people will be able to reach your destination soon." I turned in the direction of the person speaking and saw a priest guy appear before us with some other guys also wearing the priest garbs. "Blue, I don''t like where this is going. Religious sects in another world are all messed up sh*ts who seemed to be addicted to fulfilling their own god''s words above all else." "I don''t think you are wrong indeed Kazuma. Even I had a bad feeling about these guys." Since the two are still tired, I decided to take the confrontation this time around. Yami usually does that but he is tired as heck so might as well do this. "Who are you guys?" "Us? Ha! Some heretics don''t know us? What truly pathetic scums!" "Just what the f*ck? How high are you guys when you drink your prescriptions?!" "Blasphemy! You dare to answer back to Cardinal?" one of the priests pointed his staff to me. "Now, now. We should instead teach them how things happen if they ever defy us. Take the two to the cargo since they can''t fight. We will be taking them with us and use them as a sacrifice." Two priests nodded and quickly made their way towards Yami and Ishana. However, before they can even approach us, I released a few voltages of electricity, enough to shock them to paralysis. They are close to death but not too close however they are not as far either. If I command it, they will immediately die without any confirmation from me. The priest they call cardinal looked at me with his big eyes filled with eyebags. He seems to be seething in rage. "You dare do that to a servant of God?" "Yes, I dare do that. You guys are provoking the wrong guy. If you guys think you are all holy beings, then let me show you how chaotic people do their things." "You will not go unpunished, young man! I will kill you for the sake of god!" Without warning, I ignited my flames and looked at their bewildered faces. "Time to burn some trash and send them up to god whether they are worth keeping or worth throwing." Chapter 187: Truth of the Order I opened my palm and increase the intensity of the heat in my flame magic. In terms of holding back like I used to do, those things are unknown to me now. "Blasphemy! Are you trying to defy the church?!" "Maybe if you guys respect humans, I might still have some neutral stance to all of you. But since you have proven yourself as worse than the worse trash there ever is who never respect human lives by robbing them of their freedom, then I don''t need to hesitate to defy and destroy all of you." The priest grits his teeth before he calms down. "Fine, if that is your wish, then we have no choice but to sent out divine retribution to you! Prepare to receive the punishment meant for blasphemers like you!" He raises the staff he was carrying into the sky, causing the surrounding area to start getting cloudy. He closed his eyes and started chanting an unknown language. The others also started chanting along with him. I have read too many fantasy novels to know where this is going. So when he raises the staff into the sky, I also made my move using the 15 techniques of flames that are part of the inheritance of Suzaku. "1st style, Dismemberment Flames" SWISH! A thin thread-like flame appeared in my left and right forefingers. They were so thin that only those who are observant enough can notice the thread flame in my forefingers. Controlling them is easy and like a whip, I throw them to the arms of the priest raising the staff into the sky. During my first training, I was having trouble controlling them but now, I don''t think it is a problem at all. The moment it was attached to his arm, I immediately controlled it and bind his arms with it. He still didn''t notice it even when it was coiled in both arms. Seeing his lack of reaction, with a quick pull, the thread-like flames did their jobs easily. The priest who was too busy chanting finally grinned and opened his eyes as he finished his chant. However, instead of a creepy smile, it was replaced with confusion and horror the moment he discovered that the two arms he was raising earlier while holding the staff are already on the ground, still tightly holding them. Shock and terrifying experiences occurred to the believers as they saw the head priest they regard as one of the prominent users of holy blessings lose both of his arms without even noticing. The head priest is shaking, as he looked at both sides of his body missing those arms of his replaced with his white clothes tainted in blood. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" He screamed on top of his lungs, tears flowing from his bulge eyes and sweat flowing from his body. He is even drooling as he started spasming. "IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE!" I am not too brutal with someone to let this guy suffer too much but the hate he accumulated is enough. With him holding several crimes, I am already set I won''t let him go. "2nd Form. Incineration Flames!" Biting my thumb to bleed, I immediately channeled my mana to my dripping blood causing it to ignite and cause a flame. Controlling the flame, I form it into a circle and used it to stop the group from moving from their spot. With a snap in my finger, the flames that have been showing to be weak and just stop these group from escaping is no longer under merciful stance. It started getting stronger and stronger. The believers who noticed these immediately decided to escape but they were not someone I can''t let escape. If they don''t see mercy to other people, then mercy is no longer an option for them. I increased the intensity more and more, causing the flames to burn badly. Screams and shouts were heard within the circle of flames. It took around 3 minutes before they stopped screaming. I took a little bit of safety assurance with it and continue burning them for 5 minutes. Since we are on a road that is rarely used due to the rumors of the people disappearing once they cross this road, we are in a relatively safe area. It took a bit before I extinguished the flames. The bodies were now burned. Checking for anyone who managed to survive, I already concluded that no one managed to survive after the flames devour them. Since they are already corpses, I have to dispose of them by burning their remains to ashes. I increased the intensity of the flames similar to the heat of the incinerator and burned them all within 5 minutes. After getting rid of the guys, I went to see the two currently asleep. They were suddenly tired earlier so I thought they collapsed from exhaustion but that doesn''t seem to be the case with this. "Kazuma, your companions have been shot with sleep darts which induced them to sleep. You are also shot once but you are immune since your body''s mana cleansed it immediately before it can create a sort of troublesome effect to your body, which resulted in your survival," Blue revealed. Huh, so that was the case. No wonder these guys are all sleeping deeply. Those religious fanatics in this world are all troublesome people..." "It looks like they are connected to the disappearance lately in this road. Their church is just a little bit near this road so it is understandable that they are here and ambushing people. Just who are those people anyway?" "According to the data I managed to compile according to the situations done here in this world, this religion is called the Order. They were known as part of the main government and they hold a tight spot in the power of the people. They usually enforce the law of their religion to everyone, which also in return will punish those who were deemed by their religion as blasphemy. Additional data also said that they use the people and experiments to deliver god''s retribution to the people though it was revealed as an excuse to continue doing so." The enemies we made just now has the possible connection between the missing people and their dumb reasons to cause trouble. Next stop, the Church of Order. Chapter 188: The Pure Ancient Mana and the Guardian Part 1 Since the two of my companions are currently asleep due to the darts used on them, I have no choice but to camp in a nearby clearing in the forest. It was a troublesome thing as I have to pitch a tent for those two by myself. Wait, this is the perfect opportunity. I summoned Yuri and Yuto out. "Hey, Master! What can we do for you this time?" Yuto asked as he sat on the nearby rock while eating potato chips. Wait, how did he even have potato chips, did he also transform it into spirit form? "Master~ Give me some of that precious mana of yours~" I am generous enough so I gave my familiars mana, even Inari-sama who was not summoned out is also able to get her share. "Now then, I want the two of you to pitch a tent with me. Although I can pitch a tent all by myself, doing three tents all by myself is a lot of work." "Just pitching the tent?" Yuto already understood why I summoned them. "Guarding the perimeter for intruders will also be part of your work for now." "Oki-doki!" Yuri said and went to the first tent bag of Ishana. Yuto nodded and fly towards Yami''s tent bag and started pitching the tent. Since the two already have started working on the tents, I also went to work on my tent and finish it before the sun fully sets. ... Night peacefully came. I yawned while watching in the bonfire. The two are still asleep from the sleep darts used on them so I can''t blame them if they have very low resistance on sleep darts. I was lucky enough that I did not fell victim or else we would have been brought to the facility and we might have been in danger. Although it can also be said that it is a shortcut to reach the facility, I still prefer to do the safest way and that is to sneak in ourselves without having the risk of danger upon us. "Master, I finished patrolling on my side and there are no dangerous elements present that we might need to be wary of," Yuto said. "I also finished mine too~ Nothing strange is going on in my side." "Thanks for the hard work guys. You can go back and rest or you can stay outside a little bit longer to accompany me. Your choice," I said. "Ah~ I wanted to stay outside but I am too tired right now so I will rest for now, bye Master, goodnight," and with that, Yuri returned to my Familiar Space. "I will not be staying out for long too Master. I have to rest too so I will be going back, good night Master," Yuto bowed before returning. In the end, I am left alone once again but it''s understandable. "Oh man, this is so boring. The other world is not as fun as the novels depict them to be." "Ha, that was the first time I heard you complain in your situation Kazuma!" Blue chuckled. "Shut it. It might be the other world but it lacks the image of the other world that is usually depicted in the manga and novels. It lacks many parts that all I can do is just complain about the quality of this world. In short, things are not what it seems in reality and fiction. Reality is just disappointing as it is." "It''s not as bad as you think it might be. You just had been here for a few days so don''t judge it too quickly. You guys have not even traveled that far so you shouldn''t be too quick to judge on it." "I guess you are right. However, will we be able to finish our task? Meeting one person seems impossible enough. I don''t even know who are the missing people that we are looking for." "Don''t worry, I got the record. It''s posted in the chat group by Zacharias. You can check it out if you wanted to who is missing. It''s a complete list so you won''t be missing anyone in any case." Since Blue said that, I opened the chat group and looked at the list. It took me a bit of searching before I found the post of Zacharias to the group on the lost people. I am focused too much on the missing people''s photos when Blue once again started speaking. "Hey, Kazuma. I am detecting a faint trace of pure ancient mana not too far from our location. It seems to be moving straight to our location." "How big is it?" "It''s not big. Rather, it is tiny. The one carrying such pure mana seems to be a tiny being that can only be found here in this world as I don''t have records of the structure of this creature in our world." "A local inhabitant on this world huh? Still, I can''t get to lower my defenses this time. This world is dangerous if I lower my guard a little too much." "That creature is coming in here fast. Prepare Kazuma!" Focusing on the incoming entity, I saw a small being with wings fluttering aimlessly towards my direction. I squinted my eyes a little bit to see what is that. It fluttered past me and continues to fly however, it is now flying lower and lower than the previous height. "Confirmed. One record of species appeared in my database. The entity is a pixie. Since it has the pure ancient mana on it, it seems to be carrying a relic containing one on its being. Go and fetch that pixie Kazuma." "Huh? Why?" "That pixie is injured. Based on the wounds, it is attacked by some sort of beast that is local to this world. We can''t just let something like a pixie die as they are one of the creatures that bring balance to the world. If they disappear, the world''s balance will be destroyed and everything this world has will no longer exist." "On it." I went to the location where it fluttered earlier and found the pixie on the ground, collapsed and currently bleeding badly. Little did I know that this little pixie and my intervention will set the gears of the fate of this world on the road of redemption and recreation or destruction. Chapter 189: The Pure Ancient Mana and the Guardian Part 2 "Go! Don''t look back! Protect the Chalice of Life and don''t let them take it! Find the fated Hero to take the Chalice of Life and save the world from ruins!" I have no idea what is going on. Nor do I have the chance to properly know what it was. All I know is that I have to fulfill my duty. It is of the utmost importance, more important than my life. "Father! We have to escape!" "Go ahead first Aria! I will hold them back before I follow behind!" "Promise?" "...Promise!" "...Okay!" That day, everything I knew fell apart. That promise my Father released is also the last words I heard from him. The place I was born, and the place I called Home... It is all ruined. The day our land fell apart... ... It''s been two days since I have lurked inside this tree. Although it is not the safest place for me to hide, it is also the only place I can think of to avoid the detection of the demonic beasts tracking my presence after I escaped our village. My wounds are not yet ready to heal and they still sting when grazed slightly. Despite my efforts in healing myself, it won''t easily get healed if the attack came from Demonic Beasts. Healing Crystals that my father gave to me barely managed to heal most of my wounds. Though a few of the most critical wounds have already been healed, it also expended my remaining supply of Crystals. However, I can''t just fall and die just yet. I can''t afford to just give up because of my wounds. Until the Chalice of Life is handed to the rightful owner, I can''t just die yet. If the Demonic Beasts have already left the area, it should be safe enough for me to escape and head to the human settlements and find the fated hero my father mentioned. ... "How?! How did I get discovered?!" I was so confident that my location is safe enough to hide my presence but why did the demonic beings able to spot me so quickly?! What is going on?! "Catch that pixie and take the Chalice of Life from her hands. As for that pixie, you already know what to do to her." "NO!" There is no way that is possible! No... that is not my father... why is he working with the enemy?! WHY?! My reason and my confusion clashed together, however, my instinct made me move. There is only one thing I have to do. ''I can''t die in a place like this!'' "Attack! Don''t let her get away!" The demonic beings attacked without hesitation. The wounds that already managed to heal for a little bit, were once again grazed by another wound, opening old wounds once more, creating a bigger and much more painful wound. With the cover of the darkness during nighttime, I keep on flying with all my might. I didn''t look back even a single glance at the ones chasing me. Attacks keep on grazing my skin and even if I am bathing in blood, I carried the Chalice of Life with me. KACHAK! One of those things thrown on me has been able to hit my back. It hurts and it burns. I don''t think my left wing is still there but I never stopped flapping. I keep on doing so. There is no way I can''t just give up on this. My vision starts to get hazy, my flight pattern is no longer straight and I am no longer doing my best. However, I have to do this. I can''t let myself fall here... Without even bothering to notice any details in my surroundings, I continue flying. Until the time I pass out... ... "Is it right to probe on her memories just like that without even asking her?" I asked Blue. "Unless you did read her mind for malicious intents, then that is already considered as part of the wrong. However, you used the Memory Probing Magic to check what happened to that pixie so it is on the passing side. Nothing bad about it. So what did you get from her memories? "Her memories are in shambles and her mind is quite muddled by confusion and the like." "Much like your brain?" "..." "Anyway, what did they call on the Ancient Mana vessel she was carrying?" "The Chalice of Life. Some sort of tool that is needed to awaken the "Hero" and liberate this world from evil." "Pah! Liberate from evil? You can suppress evil, but total liberation? That is not going to happen. The world will be in chaos if evil disappeared. You can say that Evil is necessary for the balance of this world," Blue said. "Ha, you have taken some of my remarks I see," I grinned when I heard Blue said that. I was also thinking the same thing when they said that liberating the evil is the duty of the hero but that is just a mere pipe dream. "This chalice might be quite a good vessel of the Ancient Mana but using this as a method to awaken the chosen one is not something to be used on any normal human. This thing shouldn''t be used on people as this will only cause the human body to bloat and will cause a severe backlash. Instead of awakening, it will instead rush the "hero" to its eternal slumber." "Then what is the true purpose of this thing?" "In the records that I have gathered in our world, the Ancient Mana is used to power one of the Hidden Islands on Earth to operate it and float in the sky." "Laputa?!" "Idiot, that is a fictional place. This one is real. Anyways, ancient mana is considered by magicians as an inexhaustible source of mana to everyone. If you put it on a mana gun to act as the cartridge that contains the bullets, then that mana gun will have unlimited bullets and will no longer need the feel of loading it another set." "Then, isn''t this enough to be a phenomenal thing?" "Ancient Mana is limited and most of the time, it is only used to power up most of the ancient civilization''s instruments like that island I mentioned so if you see an ancient mana on Earth, it will be immediately seized by many people." "So what should we do with her? I already used reverter to her and she will wake soon enough." "Keep her close for now. I detected several demonic beings in the vicinity alongside a pixie infected with demonic corruption." "A pixie infected by demonic corruption... so that means her father who should have died has already been taken over by the demonic presence has already followed her here." "Oh, you know the pixie? Is that one of those guys you have seen in the mind-probing you did earlier?" "Yes. But since it is a demonic presence, as a magician dedicated to the eradication of demonic beings, it''s my duty to destroy and defeat them all." "So you are going to shield this pixie? Aren''t you trying to interfere with this world''s affairs?" "If that is the case, I will shoulder the situation myself. It''s time to face with the enemies." Chapter 190: The Pure Ancient Mana and the Guardian Part 3 If based on the memories of the pixie alone, the one who took over the body of her father is capable of using dark magic and demonic magic alongside the ability to command various demonic beasts. It sounds annoying as heck but it''s not that troublesome compared to the beast causing the Crazed Phenomenon Disorder. "Oyah? I think I am seeing things. Is that a human? What is a human doing in this forest?" the male pixie floated near me as if trying to grasp my intention. However, I am not a patient person, and seeing a pixie carelessly do that near me only makes him more dangerous. Without any warning, I grab him with my bare hands. I didn''t even bother to let him speak. Even though he was the father of this unconscious pixie, as long as he is someone corrupted by the demonic energy, I will not hesitate to defeat any of them. "Heh, a mere human is trying to kill me? You dare to do-" "Shut up and die quietly. I am not in the mood to talk," I said and started squeezing the tiny pixie in my hand. "Hmph, let me see you try once I get out of here... urgh..." he tried exuding his power to my arm. However, this power is not even strong enough to lift my finger. I am not expecting this power of the pixie to be this weak. Since I am now annoyed to the point of boredom, I looked into the squirming pixie and ignited my free hand. "M-magic?! A human that can use magic?!" "Surprised? Then, that is the last thing you need to see. Now, die and disappear completely." "Damn it! Demons! Attack!" The hounds that are on standby in the distance started attacking. To normal people, that is dangerous. To someone like me, those guys are nothing. I sighed and snap my fingers. Before the hounds can even get near, lightning strikes fell from the sky, straight to all of the incoming demoniccreatures. ZAP! ZAP! ZAP! Quick but lethal lightning strikes immediately ended the lives of the demonic creatures trying to attack me. The pixie is terrified beyond his imagination as he tried to squirm out of my hand. "Impossible, this is not happening- GAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" I ignited my palm holding the pixie, at the maximum temperature. Before he can even try to escape, his body is reduced to dust. I also saw that before his body got burned completely, it transformed into an indescribable monster before it was reduced to ash. "Confirmed entity. You have killed a body eater. It is a slime-like creature that is also considered to be a parasitic demonic creature that devours other beings to give form to itself. Anything it has devoured before can be used by this creature as its disguise. It also can read the minds of the previously devoured creatures and individuals." Body Eater. One of the creatures that have been in the records of monsters to look out on Earth that might have blended with the humans according to the list of Demonic Creatures that might have existed with the humans alongside with the demons. Aside from demons, Body Eater is also a priority to be killed without hesitation as they would never be able to be tamed as normal monsters and spirits do. The moment you see one, you kill them. "So body eaters are also existing in this world and already managed to devour a pixie? Damn, this is much serious than I thought it would be." "Indeed. Demonic entities are also more rampant here so we will expect to see demons soon." No wonder the demons in the isekai novels are always causing wreck and chaos all over the place. It is because they are also the same demons that exist on Earth. They just have more influence here since they are a threat that has high notoriety to the people. Confirming that a pixie that has been devoured by the Body Eater and a few wolves infected by the dark essence of the chaos has appeared, I scanned the area for the immediate check to make sure that there will be no more attacks as the two of my companions have yet to awaken. After a few minutes of scanning, I confirmed that it is already safe and the enemies I just killed earlier are the last ones left. "Now, what should we do with this little pixie and this Pure Ancient Mana?" I asked Blue. "We don''t need the Pure Ancient Mana and you don''t have any need to use it either. You just keep it in safety for now and let the pixie have it once she wakes up." "Understood." I opened the chat group and click the tab of Item Rankings. Most of the items known in the magic world are all listed here so if you wanted to know what is the rank of the Ancient Mana, then you will have to search it. It is in alphabetical order so I only needed to check the items listed with the letter A at the beginning. It took me a few minutes before I found it. Ancient Mana Rank: SSS Info: [Redacted](only high ranking magicians can view the info) I can understand why the info is redacted since Blue have mentioned it to be one of the most sought things by some magicians and the item is also a limited stock thing so it''s normal. "Ngh... what the... where am I?" I look into the tent and notice that Ishana has finally opened her eyes after getting hit by the darts earlier. Looks like the effects of the darts have finally been wavering. "Looks like you are now alright. We are in a clearing in a forest near the road we are walking in." "Ugh, I can''t remember what happened, my head is a little bit hazy than usual..." Ishana rubs her forehead a little bit. "You can rest for a while since it is already night time. You don''t need to stand for now and continue with the rest." "Nah, once I woke up from my slumber, I don''t need to sleep again. By the way, I want to ask you, what are those things smoking near you?" Then she pointed into the demonic beings that I toasted earlier with the Lightning strike. "No need to worry, they are just nuisances. I already disposed of them." Chapter 191: The Pure Ancient Mana and the Guardian Part 4 My name is Ishana. I am a magician since I was a kid. My talents in magic have been exceptional and outstanding that my parents are quite proud of my progress. Mastering spells and magic skills here and there helped me overtake all of the magicians who started the same time as me... until I met Yami. Yami is a boy who is also outstanding in magic. He is quite good at fighting and although he is not that skilled in many kinds of magic, he excels a lot in battles, allowing countless of the rookie magicians nicknamed him as "The incinerator" due to his mastery in using flame magic. Not only in melee, but also range fight, he won''t be defeated that easily. Both of us are childhood friends and as magicians who compete with each other, we progress together until today. Both of us are competing to exceed the other to get stronger. Then, a special mission was given to us since we have shown exceptional magic mastery and it is time for us to undergo missions. This time, we will be accompanying someone who is also a newbie but has a great record in the magician society. We thought that the person we will be meeting is someone insignificant but we were wrong as the one who will accompany us is none other than the one and only Kazuma Fukuyama. His reputation in magician society is quite high. He also has the largest contribution to the Magician Society out of all of the newbie magicians. His magic spells are not that mentioned but he is usually seen using the Flaming Gloves and Burning Shoes magic and ability effects. Although I find his records a little bit dubious, I immediately concluded that he relies on his luck to survive the troubles he has done so far and all the missions he succeeded on operations are all fluke and he is too reliant on his luck and his equipment rather than using his magic spells. I am not the only one looking down on him but Yami too since the two of us don''t rely on tools and will do it by our magic without any sort of help to channel out spells. The moment we saw him when we met up, he was just plain looking and he doesn''t even show too much energy as a magician. He is much more civilian than a magician like us. However, that was broken when he already shows his prowess during the ogre invasion of the nearby village we found earlier. He was attacking without even much help. And just like Yami, he uses flame magic. However, I noticed his flame is different compared to Yami''s spells. Most of his flames burn only while Yami''s ability explodes. It is more self-explanatory which of their magic spells deals more damage right? However, Kazuma''s abilities are more flexible than Yami and he seems to be toying with the enemies. I didn''t confirm his abilities much since I am busy fighting against the ogres but he is the one who managed to free the villagers and managed to kill a group of ogres in a few minutes all by himself. I didn''t believe it at first but now I am convinced. Earlier, I already woke up from my slumber. My instincts kicked in when I detected a heavy pressure caused by the demonic presence I felt in the surroundings. I was inside the tent so I didn''t know what is going on outside. Opening the entrance of my tent, I check what is happening, and there, I witnessed Kazuma under the night sky, surrounded by wolves that are corrupted by chaos and darkness which means they are already demonic beings. Seeing the number of demonic beings nearby, I was a little bit terrified. This is the first time I have witnessed something like this. I usually fight with other magicians and some monsters in practice so I never actually fought against demons and demonic beings head-on. However, my curiosity won over my fear as I am wondering why Kazuma is surrounded by demonic beings. There, on his left hand, I noticed a small being squirming. Since some glittering things behind it look like some wings, I suspected it was a pixie. However, why is Kazuma holding one? During that time, the demonic beings attack together Kazuma who remains indifferent to the situation. I didn''t blink at what will happen next but I also did not jump in to help as my fear nailed me at the place, making me feel pathetic. What I didn''t expect is that Kazuma raising his hand in the air and snapping it. It was a split second one and several lightning bolts fell from the sky and fell towards the demonic beings. It''s a quick but fatal execution that the moment I started blinking, the demonic beings are already killed and burned to toast. The demonic presence earlier remains but it has a lesser impact compared earlier after the deaths of the demonic beings. Then, I saw Kazuma kill the pixie on his hands. I was about to stop him when Kazuma didn''t even blink as he did the execution. The moment the pixie on his hand died, the heaviest feeling of the demonic presence disappeared. Now I am wondering whether this guy is a real newbie or a dangerous magician hiding his ability. That is the real mystery... ... Morning came, Blue already notified earlier about the Cooldown of the Tower of Babel''s lives left has finally replenished. I already managed to reach the 11th floor but it is harder to continue climbing with many of the enemies currently not helping to be easily killed, causing me to remain on the 11th floor until I get stronger again. Yami also woke up from his slumber but he is still an idiot and a musclehead so I didn''t bother to talk to him. Ishana is the one who talked to him about why they suddenly passed out and everything. As for the pixie, I think she will be waking up soon but I don''t think we can afford to keep on camp and wait for her waking up so before she opens her eyes, we will be departing to reach the place we call the Church of Order as the chances of a captive Japanese being held there are much greater than you think. Chapter 192: The Pure Ancient Mana and the Guardian Part 5 The other world''s surroundings are much full of greenery compared to Earth''s scenery where mostly,you can only see buildings and the greenery you will see is only artificially planted for the sake of decoration. Here, you can barely see any building and workers cutting trees and cultivating the land to become their place to call as their land. There are occasionally a few animals passing by on the road, which proves that the forests are lush with life. Of course, you can''t avoid to meet up hostile creatures such as wolves and goblins. Still, they are not a threat and the road is much more peaceful than usual. As we are walking, I noticed the pixie on Kon''s back is now regaining her consciousness. We are resting for now since we just managed to take down a horde of goblins earlier. "Master, it seems the pixie is about to wake up, should I get her off from my back and hand her to you?" "Let her stay on your back for now. I don''t want to squish her accidentally." Ishana and Yami also approached and looked at the pixie that is currently about to open her eyes. "She is finally waking up?" Ishana asked. "It''s obvious since her eyes is about to open. Her eyes slowly opened, revealing her clear green eyes. Her eyes wandered around her and she slowly get up from Kon''s back. "Kyaaah!" The pixie didn''t expect to touch the fur of Kon when she is about to get up, causing her to flutter her wings and hover slightly on Kon''s back before she returned to the his back. Her eyes then landed on us who are staring at her. "Humans?!" She was surprised at first but she quickly calmed down. "Are you the ones who helped me?" Ishana smiled and she shook her head. The two of us here did not help but only this guy did," Ishana shook her head and pointed her finger on me. The pixie looked nervous at first but she bow her head to me before she suddenly blurted, "Hero-sama!" I frowned when she suddenly said "Hero-sama while looking at my face with innocent eyes. Being called a hero leaves a bad feeling to my body. "Are you calling me hero?" "Yes! Your aura is much more radiant th the rest and you saved me from harm! There is no way I will be mistaken by this! I am trained by my father to detect auras and pinpoint the chosen one for the chalice! That is the duty of a guardian!" "Well, if that is your job, then you just failed miserably as I am not the one you are looking for," I said, immediately dismissing her claims. "What the hell is wrong with you Kazuma?! You are chosen! For starters, shouldn''t you be happy with being the one of the chosen ones?! If you don''t want to become the chosen one, then let me be the chosen one instead! I can work much better against this bastard!" Yami said. "Hmph, I will be glad to hand over that as I don''t need it," I said to him. "But he is not compatible! You are the one with the most compatible frequency of aura I can sense my whole life which means you are the one! Don''t worry! If you use the chalice, your powers will awaken!" The pixie said convincing me. "You mean this chalice?" I put my hand in the air and opened the little portal to take the items inside the mimic bracelet. With a slight tug, I get a hold of the Chalice of Life and pulled it out like I was using a dimensional storage. "Dimensional Storage Magic?!" the three were surprised seeing me use one of the magic spells that were so envious of, dimensional storage spells. They were really fooled which is beyond my expectation since I thought someone from them will notice the mimic bracelet but for some unknown reason, they don''t seem to be confused but amazed instead. The only one who is confused is the Pixie. "You already can use magic? You don''t seem to have used the Chalice of Life! How come you can use magic already?" The pixie is extremely puzzled. "Indeed I don''t have since I don''t have any usage of that other than to use it as fuel source instead." Ishana is sharp enough to know what I am currently holding right now. "Isn''t that the Pure Ancient Mana? Something like that exist here too?!" "You know that thing Ishana?" Yami asked. From the looks on his face, he has no idea what the hell is the chalice of Life is made of and usage with. "Just like what Kazuma said, the Pure Ancient magic is used to fuel things like magic guns and automatons. I even heard that they even used it as a fuel source to make the crashed floating land in the sky to once again hover and fly into the sky." "Looks like someone did their homework. So yeah, little pixie, this thing is not meant to be used to awaken dormant things but used to awaken things that needed them like mechas and golems. This is not used for people unless they are machines. So if you want to find the hero, find him or her yourself. Here, take this back." I handed the Chalice of Life to the pixie. She grab the chalice and creased her eyebrows. "I am not called "Little Pixie!" I also have a name too! My name is Aria!" "Alright. Now go and find that chosen one. We are going to a dangerous place so if you don''t want to be tangled in our affairs, then please you can leave," I said. "Kazuma, that is harsh. You can just let her stay for a while. You are sounding harsh already," Ishana said, defending Aria. "We are not a charity Ishana. It is also for her safety since we are going to fight some enemies. Entangling her to our business is only going to do bad for her than do something good." Aria pouted and lay down on Kon''s back. "I won''t be going. If you are going somewhere, I have to follow. I firmly believe you are the one who needs to inherit the power of the Chalice of Life!" In the end, the stubborn fairy stick with us in our task to find the missing people sucked in this world. As a guardian of the Chalice of Life, it is her task to find the chosen one. As for the chosen one, we don''t know who you are but if you are someone from us, in Japan, take this fairy already and give thwart the enemies immediately... Chapter 193: Church of Order After an hour walk, we finally reach the Church of Order that the informant said to us to be the main responsible for the disappearance of many individuals. The Church of Order looked is more comparable to a castle than a church. The Holy Church situated in the last town we visited is not this grandiose. You can tell that the architect and the workers of the place is quite skilled as they built this place to look as detailed as possible from the edges to each and every sides of the walls and pillars. However, unlike the Holy feeling you get whenever you look in a church, the feeling you get here is heavier and darker. What is more, the malice and hatred is overflowing in this place. There are no other buildings around since the Church of Order is built on a place where you can only see the plains and trees without anything else obstructing the path. "What are you guys trying to do here?" Aria asked. "We are going to do our task here and confirm the information if it is real or not," Ishana said. "I can tell that the aura of this place is very heavy and looking at it for too long is making my head hurt," Aria said before she put her face on Kon''s fur. As expected of someone sensitive in Mana sense, detecting the malice and the dark energy this place is emitting is something she can detect but had a hard time looking at it. As someone who experienced that before can relate on what Aria is experiencing right now. "Shall we head in now?" Yami asked. "I am not confident to do this task but I can go in too." I know they are eager to enter the place, but that is just pure suicide for the two of them. "Lets wait till nightfall. It is too risky for us to sneak in the daylight," I suggested. "Then what about the kidnapped victims? Are you saying we should take our time instead of rescuing them?" Yami immediately disagreed. "Are you an idiot who only has brawns but no brains? If you want to rush to your death then be my guest and go ahead. I am stalling until this nightfall since it is much safer and we can use the darkness of the night to cover our movements, lessening the rate we will be discovered by anyone. If we go right now, getting into a fight and be discovered is very high and if we lost on them, no one will rescue them anymore plus we are also captives. Now, you get my gist? This is for the safety of everyone and not for selfish reasoning," I explained since this thickhead seems to just not think for the greater good but only think for quick way without thinking about the result on his actions. "I agree with Kazuma''s plan to sneak in at nightfall. It''s much less riskier than sneaking right now," Ishana agreed. Yami wanted to say something but he decided to keep quiet instead of saying it since Ishana agreed to my plan. "Let''s make a temporary place to camp for now. Somewhere less conspicuous but still possible to observe the church." ... As we wait for nightfall, only Ishana and Aria are having conversation right now. Yami is sulking in the corner, while I am busy with spying on the church using the [Insight]. Since the [Insight] has an ability to see through everywhere like having x-ray vision to the surroundings, I am making a good use of it to spy the place without moving a single inch from our temporary camp. "What is Kazuma doing?" Aria asked. "Hush, he is using his mapping spell to check our surroundings, I don''t now what spell he is using but he can see the surroundings even when he is stationary," Ishana said. "Oh? That is indeed amazing! If I have the ability to use that, I might have not been ambushed by enemies earlier!" While listening to their talks, I noticed a few priests went outside the church and went to the nearest road. I followed their movements using the [Insight] and they arrived on the nearby road. From their formations, they are setting up an ambush. "I found some priests laying out an ambush on the road. I will go for now and capture them. Stay put for now. I will be quick." Without waiting for their confirmation, I went to the location of the ambush site immediately. I made sure to cover my tracks and movements to avoid the detection of the other party. Based on their movements, they are not anticipating an ambush to them so this will help deal with them slowly. A few seconds later, one of the priest holding on what I assume to be a blowpipe which might be the one they uses to inflict sleep to the people passing this road. There are no other people near him as he needed to hide and attack in range while the others will deal the finishing blow. It was a perfect chance for me to deal damage to him. With my crackling palm, filled with electricity enough to down someone to sleep, I struck the priest in his neck and before he can even response, he collapsed to the ground. He will not be able to wake up the next few minutes. Getting the one who will deal the sleep blow, I went to the nearest attacker. Unfortunately, they are in a group of 3. I don''t think luring them will work so if it does not work, one thing is for sure, deal an AOE spell to them, which is unfortunately also a no go. if I want to avoid the detection of these guys, I have to stun them or damage them without making any dangerous sound. Arriving in their range, I saw the three are still fixated to the road. I quickly made my turn and covered my two palms with a satisfying electricity that is enough to stun them. "ZAP!" Two were stunned immediately while the other one has noticed me already and gritted his teeth. "What are you doing?!" He quickly pointed his staff to my face. "Nothing personal." And the last thing he saw in his eyes is the palm of electricity I invoked to make sure he won''t die but he will be paralyzed that he will wish he shouldn''t have dome what he just did today. Chapter 194: Captives To silence everyone, I let one remain alive while the rest were killed. Letting them live will be a big mistake. The last one I let to live is the only source of information for me at the moment before we enter the premises of the church. He is currently unconscious after I electrocuted him earlier, knocking himself out. Normally, I needed them awake to get the info out of their mouth but I decided to not let him do so since him being unconscious is a big advantage for me. This is because I managed to learn the spell [Mind Invasion]. It has several effects that is very similar to the effects currently used by the magicians to erase a memory of a mortal to remove parts of their memory. The higher leveled ones even has the ability to plant false memories to the person, allowing the magicians to deceive the person on what happened. Since I didn''t practice it much, I only have slight mastery on it. "[Mind Invasion]." Before he wakes up, I planted my mana to his head and allowed it to explore his memories. The moment I felt that my mana sensors have taken a hold to his head, I grasp it without hesitation and read the memories that is important information. It took me a bit of time before I managed to get a hold of the information all in all because it was more than what I expected. "Damn, these guys are too sinister," I mumbled as I detached my mana sensors to his head. But before I fully detached them, I already did my work and used my mana sensors to quietly kill the priest without making a bloodshed. "I never expected to be able to kill people without even feeling guilty. Perhaps this is a side effect after arriving here in this world?" Blue answered my question. "You wanted to blame the other world for your behavior? Don''t you think you started to become one after you start fighting on the tower of Babel?" "Is there some sort of effect with me fighting inside the Tower of Babel?" I asked. "There is none except the increase of power, mana and a few changes in your body that affects your fighting proficiency. As for negative effects, there is none that I can think about." "Then why do you say it was due to my battles inside the tower?" "If a person who usually fights until death gets to live for another day, they will immediately have some changes in attitudes in terms of death and killing. So it must be for that reason why you are like that." "It''s possible since after my first challenge on the Tower of Babel, it was also the day I entered the portal to another world. Dying inside the Tower of Babel is something else so it must be the reason." If that is the real reason, then there is no escaping in getting emotionless over killing a person. After making sure that their bodies are properly disposed, I returned to the temporary camp. "Oh, you are back. How did it go?" Ishana asked. "I managed to gather the info about the situation inside the church. And I was right on the call of sneaking in at night since during the day, the priests or should I say the torturers are occupying the rooms of the captured prisoners and goes on to "harvest" on those people. If we have entered now, we will cause too much chaos since we will not be able to avoid contact with the priests." "Torturers? Harvest? What are you talking about?" Ishana has no clue. "He means that those priests are currently harvesting something from their bodies. Are the people that are harvested already killed?" the one who spoke is actually Yami. It looks like he is not a real piece of an idiot at all. "No. They are still alive." "I see. So that means they are harvesting their blood. If they are harvesting them with organs, it is no longer possible to rescue people," Yami theorized. "Blood? Why are they doing that?" "You know that blood is one of the main source of good mana right? If that is the case, the blood will be used as some sort of catalyst for doing something like summoning or creating something using the blood," Yami continued. "You mean, the philospher''s stone?" Ishana looked at Yami. "Indeed. What this guy is saying is correct. They are harvesting blood from them and creates Philospher''s stone." The Philosopher''s stone is one of the items that gains lots of money for being sold in the market due to their ability to recharge a lot mana and energy where in this world, they call as Aura''s. I didn''t see them personally but that is what I think this is all about since I heard in this world that Philosopher''s stone has gotten quite popular now. "That is a product of Alchemy. So are you saying that these people are working on Alchemy?! That is unforgivable! Researching on Alchemy is fine but using real people to create Philosopher''s stone is just not right!" Ishana wanted to go and rush forward but Yami stopped her in time. "I know how you feel, Ishana but not now. If what he is saying is true, then all we can do is keep out of their sight for now and keep ourselves ready. We can''t let ourselves die due to a sudden change." Yami has finally caught up and understood why I am not going in yet. Although Ishana also did before, she was now influenced in anger right now so I am quite sure she wanted to went in to the church and engage to battle. "I heard that Alchemy makes the world go round and people will be able to use magic using Alchemy. Even my father is using Alchemy to properly use magic," Aria said. "You mean even you guys are not able to use magic?!" I frowned hearing this. Faries and pixies should be able to use the magic. Why are they saying they have to use Alchemy to use magic? "No. I heard that only the chosen ones and the Hero-sama awakened by the Chalice of Mana are the one capable of using magic. So seeing the Hero-sama using magic already without undergoing the awakening is a blessing!" So that means this world is able to use magic by using Alchemy?! Isn''t that something only in that anime where his brother has to use a metal body and the main protagonist has to replace his arm and leg with metal? Chapter 195: Infiltration to the Church of Order Part 1 This is not what I expected. No wonder the mercenaries I have seen so far are all warriors. Even though there are medics among them, they are usually carrying big bags containing herbs and concoctions inside a bottle all stuffed inside their bags which is opposite to what I envisioned of Healers who are all carrying a staff and wears a white robe. If all people are reliant on using Philosopher''s stones to use magic, then the people are all going to have a dire need of supply to the Philosopher''s stones. Since I got the proper layout of the church''s main interior, I have gained a good knowledge of what to do once we are inside. I am not a selfish person so I quickly laid out to the two the plan once we are inside. They didn''t doubt my plan about the structure inside since I can see what is the entire layout of the place using my so-called "mapping skill" though I won''t deny it since the [Insight] ability of mine can see the whole surroundings which work similarly to a mapping skill they are talking about. ... It didn''t take long before nightfall came. Since we didn''t have any sort of time measuring device like watches since the time in my phone doesn''t work the same way as the time here, we have to rely on the sun''s movement. Once the darkness creeps in and the church is no longer shining in the light, is also the beginning of our operation. We made sure to move as quietly as possible without letting the enemies alert us. With the memories of the priest I neutralized earlier, I can determine the best place to sneak in and has the least amount of guards that will be patrolling the hallways. Getting in successfully, we make our move to the basement. The movements of the guards are not random, they follow their routines of walking, and just like in some games, as long as you are not in their line of sight, you won''t be spotted. It''s kinda dumb but it works for us so I am not complaining. Due to that, we can enter the basement without being detected. With our arrival in the basement, I hand them the robes of the priests. "Wear those. That way, we can imitate the priests," I said before handing them those robes. "A disguise? Is this possible enough for them to be fooled?" Yami complained. "We don''t need to act like one. We just needed to use this for fooling those guys," and pointed the guards in the hallway. "Are we going to eliminate them?" "That is my job. You guys should locate the prisoners. It''s my job to dispose the trash. You guys don''t need to worry about them." The two quickly put the cloaks on and followed my lead. The guards didn''t check who passed by as we are in cloaks. However, I made sure they will never ring their alarms ever again as I electrocuted them to the point where they will never be able to wake up again. Their armors released a burnt smell as the guards who were standing strong earlier slump down to the floor. They were taken care of. We continue walking in the hallways and we are not yet in the center of the facility when we heard a scream of a man. "GYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" "Eeek! What was that?!" Aria who is currently on Ishana''s cloak peeks out of curiosity. "That scream is around this corner!" Ishana said and headed into the corner first. I followed suit and we arrived on the dead-end of the underground room. The screams are coming in this room which means the person inside is currently being "harvested" with resources for Philosopher''s stone. However, we can''t see anything past the door since it is a metal door without any gaps or anything we can use to take a peek. I can tell what is happening inside the room using my [Insight], however, I don''t need to activate it because the situation is already clear. Aside from the screaming voice of a male, we can also hear a terrible, sadistic laugh inside. I can''t make out what the maniac is currently saying but based on his tone, he is enjoying the torture he is giving to the victim. "Yami, your ability is fire right? Can you melt a metal door using the magic you possess?" I asked. "Of course. If you want me to blast through, I will do it," Yami is determined. "Burn the metal hinges as fast as possible and make sure that the door can be removed after doing so," I ordered. Yami didn''t complain this time and went along to my orders. He quickly melt the metal hinges of the door and the moment it melted, he forced the door open immediately. I didn''t stop him from doing so because I was about to do the same as him. He just did it first. The person who was inside the room was surprised by the ruckus. "Who are you people disturbing my "harvest session?!" he aimed his knife in front of us. However, that knife didn''t pose a threat to us, I simply throw a small fireball in a size of a marble and flick it to the maniac''s hands, deflecting the knife and causing him to release it from his grasp. Yami quickly grab a hold on his head and before he can say anything, he bash his head to the wall, causing the guy who is torturing earlier to collapse. Ishana took the opportunity to use the ruckus to release the bleeding man from the restraints. I already asked Inari-sama to help get the wounded out of the area which is to use her foxes to escape the facility. I don''t know how she did it but I already can tell that the guy we rescued just now is already outside the facility. "What shall we do about this guy?" Yami asked. "Let''s go, he won''t be able to stand back up again." I said. "Are you sure? I mean, this guy is a potential danger!" Ishana said. "Don''t worry. Didn''t I tell you guys I will be disposing the trash? I am not someone who will just let one trash go." Chapter 196: Infiltration to the Church of Order Part 2 We managed to save around 20 people underground but we have no yet seen any Japanese people held captive by them. "Are we back to square one again? I don''t think a Japanese person is currently being held captive by them. We already rescued a lot of them but I don''t see any sign of them," Ishana said asshe keeps on track the survivors we managed to rescue. "There are still 5 rooms left in the central chamber, maybe they are held captive in there. We haven''t checked it yet and from what I have found in my scans so far is that they are also occupied. You guys should focus on going in there and rescue them." Ishana nodded after hearing that. It looks like she didn''t want it to be another operation where our main mission to find the transported to another world people who were tossed here around. The four of us, including Aria who is keeping herself quiet from the battles finally arrived in the central area. The central area, also known as the main prayer hall is the place where the priests gather for morning mass and also the place where the meetings between the priests are held. Mass is being held every morning and afternoon. It was a good call for me to avoid infiltrating in the morning or else, we will be facing the wrath of those priests. "Wow, look at this place! It looks amazing!" Ishana marveled on the central area. "Hey, stop daydreaming and get going already. We can''t afford to waste our time here," Yami said. "Yami is right. We have to split up to cover more ground and rescue everyone." Ishana pouted but she didn''t complain. We split up and the two made their way to the prison rooms. However, I didn''t went to the prison room immediately but rather going to the prisoner''s chamber, I decided to go further in the central hall. Making my way to the central hall''s deepest part, I noticed one room is emitting a heavy amount of magic movement. It doesn''t feel like it is coming from mana so I am sure this is coming from Philosopher''s stones. Activating my [Insight], the room that is emitting a terrible amount of magic power contains two people. One is standing, a long haired guy with his right hand raised up in the air and the power and magic I felt earlier has been converging on his palm. The other one is kneeling and is currently kneeling on a pool of liquid that is unidentifiable using [Insight] alone. However, I have a hint on what that pool of liquid is. Things are not as easy as I thought it would be. "Are you sure you are going in and disrupt that thing on that room? It is potentially dangerous, since the flow of magic and mana seems to be in chaos and the mana in the air is currently in turmoil as it is being ignored due to the Philosopher''s Stone," Blue warned me. "I know. Things are just too troublesome so before it gets too hard to handle, I will destroy it first." Next, I launched myself forward to the room and before my body goes in contact with the door, I covered myself in magic circles and activated them simultaneously though all the spells it contain is only one single spell. "[Domain of Balmung!]" BANG! The magic that is being gathered at the moment was immediately cut off as it got disturbed by my entrance. "YOU! HOW DARE YOU INTERRUPT MY CHANNELING RITUAL!" So that was what he was doing. According to the notes on this world, channeling ritual is the act of using Philosopher''s stones to revitalize one''s body. It is usually used on people who are about to die or those who have bad injuries. However, there is one forbidden practice of using it and that is the "Immortalization Channeling Ritual." Basically put, it is a ritual that can lengthen one''s life. However, it was also hard as it needs to be thepurest Philospher''s stone is needed to perform this and bt I mean purest, means it comes from a person with the highest amount of blood. "Trying to get younger? Too bad, death is not so patient and generous enough to give you a life extension." "You dare insult me!? Then DIE!" He raise his arm once again. I didn''t respond that much as I try to feel how strong the power of a Philosopher''s stone. "BLOOD SPIKES!" Blood colored energy gathered around his palm. He then slammed his palm on the floor like how I use some of my magic spells. CHAK CHAK CHAK! Blood-red spikes appear on the floor beneath me and tried to pierce and impale me. However... DANG DANG DANG DANG! All of the bloodspikes he released did not even get to properly penetrate my skin. The moment they made contact to my body, all of the sharp spikes immediately crack and broken. "WHAT?!" Is that the power of the Philosopher''s stone? Blue whistled and explained things on me. "I see now what is the power of those stones. Indeed they are powerful, however, to someone like you who is already strong enough to survive a bomb explosion which exploded on your feet and still managed to live intact, that power is nothing but trash. It can only be describe by you as mediocre power." I wanted to laugh hearing it. So the result of my training in Tower of Babel just managed me to score a trained body that is enough to stop someone who uses the power of Philosopher''s stone. This was pathetic. "Aa... aaa...aaaaahhhhh! Monster! Why you didn''t die! That is an ultimate technique that is quite sure to devastate my opponent! Why are you still alive?! Why!?" the guy earlier who looked so smug is now no more and is currently shaking. "Heh, you are asking me that? It''s because you are weak that trampling you will be fun." Chapter 197: Infiltration to the Church of Order Part 3 For an ultimate technique to be a mere blood spike, it was utterly disappointing. I already expected it but the disappointment I felt just doubled it. The guy looks like he was going to start grinding his teeth as he struggle what to do. Then, out of desperation, he went to the person who was covered in the head and tried to grab that person as a hostage. However, I am not someone who will let his guard down and let the enemy get the advantage. I learned that when I am fighting on the tower of babel. Snap! The kneeling person is immediately covered in Domain of Balmung before the person who tried to grab can even touch a part of the hostage. "GAH!" his body rebounded from the barrier, repelling him from going further. "Is that the only thing you can do using your Philosopher''s stone? And here I thought it has more uses than I think about.Too bad, there is no challenge at all. However, I prefer it like that rather than something I will put my life on the line for," as I was speaking, I opened my palm and flames came out from it, greatly shocking the guy. "Sorcery!?" "You can say that, but we call this Magic." And that is the last time he screamed before he dispersed to ashes. ... After disposing the guy, I picked up the Philosopher''s stone to secure it before going to the person with the head covered in a sack. Burning up the restraints and taking off the sack on the head, I saw that this person is a male teenager, a little bit younger than me to be exact. He is unconscious due to the severe blood loss but from the looks on his body, he is not in life-threatening situation so I didn''t panic. Dragging his unconscious body to the corner, I pulled out the reverter and popped one piece on his mouth. In just a few seconds, all of his wounds disappear and the color on his pale face has finally returned. He is still unconscious but he is now fine. He looks like a Japanese but he also looks similar to those handsome guys I saw in town who are being flamboyant about their looks and flirting ladies. Pulling out my phone, I check the missing people list. Although according to the data filed here, not all of them are currently displayed here as they were all people that were currently has a missing report on the police so these guys are the only ones with records. As for the rest, we have to find them by ourselves which sucks a little bit. After a few scrolling, one face matches the face of this guy. "Blue, can you scan this guy''s face and compare it to the guy on the photo? I might give out a wrong guess if I guessed it wrong though." "Although I keep on telling you that this is not my job, since you asked nicely, then lets just get over with this." Blue scanned the face of the unconscious guy in a jiffy before she compared it. "Hmm, 100% same face. This guy is the legit one of the missing people. You got one of them down!" "Thanks. Now we got one finally!" "Wow Kazuma. Did you eat something unusual today? You seemed to be quite different from usual and you just thanked me. Did an evil spirit just possessed you or something?!" "How rude! I also know how to say thank you to someone. I am not a jerk like the usual." "Yeah, yeah, now get your butt off and carry this guy to safety. You still needed to bring him to the safe zone," Blue said, avoiding the topic. "Alright." But I am glad that things has finally been to us and one of the leads we have been looking forward into has finally come to fruition. I will let everyone know we got one of the people transported to this world accidentally later. "Hey! Kazuma? Where are you now?" That is Ishana''s voice. If she is now shouting here, that means they have already cleared the remaining rooms. Checking out the rooms for double checking using [Insight], I concluded that the mission is successful. ... After that, the guy was returned to Japan using a Portal Scroll that connects this world and our worlds just fine though it only works one way and doesn''t work as a gateway to use it to come in our world to this world. Only those we send back using this can get into the portal and return. While they are doing that, I decided to start chatting on the chat group. Although I was in another world, I can still connect to the chat which is pretty helpful. With this, I can check on what is going on while I am away and since no one from the chat group except the higher ups know my current location, the others will only think I was sent somewhere to fulfill the mission. I checked on Anya''s health and luckily, she is now awakened from the medicine. However, she still needed some rest as she exhausted a lot during the skirmish so now, Anya is currently stuck on the bed for now. There isn''t much topic right now from the others since everyone is also busy from their quests and jobs to chat, therefore, things are a little bit quiet. Godou and Moonlight are both not online so I guess I have to check later. Going back to the others, the two had smile on their faces as we finally managed to complete one missing person rescued. Although this is too early to call as celebration, it is not bad to call a celebration. "Let''s get back in town and celebrate! I got to loot a few chests here and there in this church so might as well take them!" Ishana happily said. "Huh? You took some coins? Are you sure we won''t get cursed by the church by this?" Yami asked. Clearly, he is not sure either. "The spoils goes to the winners. It is not bad to take them use them rather than leaving them and letting the others obtain the riches. Now, lets get going already!" Now that the very first lead that we received has allowed us to find someone, that means even the rumors has the likely to get us connected to the right people. Chapter 198: Arrival to the Northern Kingdom .After wrapping up the mess we made inside the Church of Order, I destroyed the Church itself. As to why I did that, if there is no evidence to find, then there is no way for you to be tracked by anyone. The people that we rescued were all handed to the nearest guards. To make sure that we remained anonymous, I acted as an informant to the guards that I found a few people in a certain area in the forest currently needed help. After that, I flee from the scene and went to the rendezvous area with Ishana and Yami. "You are late. We have already let the first guy back to our world. We also made sure to wipe out his memories regarding to this world," Yami said. "That is good. We can''t let that guy get traumatized from everything that happened in this world. It is not a good idea for us." "So, we have one down but we still a lot more to find. Where should we go?" Ishana asked. I looked to Yami since most of the time, he has the most intel out of us. "No idea. The other intel I got are all dead ends and has no definite proofs to be worthwhile for us to check," Yami said. "If that is the case, we should instead go to the nearest village or city we can get immediately while we are in this place!" Ishana said. "Random choice, eh? Well, that doesn''t sound bad," I nodded and pulled out the map. For someone like me who read books a lot, reading the map of this world is proven to be a not so easy task. Unlike the normal map we usually use to check the geography of the world and to check the names of the countries and continents, the map here is much more on the illustrative side. The map we are using is the oldest version of the map of this world as the new one is considered to be a real high tech and purchasing it is not possible for our current budget that we got from doing random requests these past few weeks. We have to suffer using this one. "Let''s see, the nearest landmark we can actually go right now is the Northern Kingdom. The villages are all part of the Northern Kingdom''s territory and to visit the nearest one, we have ton`enter the kingdom''s border." "I got some info of that place. I heard that is the kingdom who is the one leading the frontlines against the battle to repel the demons. They are also quite well known for their ability to summon heroes from another world," Yami explained. "Hey, I also have that info too! I even heard that they summoned a few heroes to take on the demon invasion that might occur anytime soon. From what I heard, the group the heroes are all classmates," Ishana said. "Oh, so this kingdom is quite notorious for those transmigration sh*ts happening. We might have a chance here to find someone that got transmigrated here to be in mixed in with them." What I said is not just some speculation but I am already suspecting things like this is already happening. "Is that our destination this time?" Yami asked. "Yes. And since it is the center of business, we might get a good chance to get bigger jobs that pays more, which we can use the money to buy that expensive map of theirs." That night, our main destination is finally set and the beginning of our involvement to the war with the demons in this world. ... We only travelled for one day and we already arrived on the border of the kingdom. We have to pay for the entry pass for the gate to get inside without too much process. In exchange, we are left with half a day amount of money to use for our food. The lodging cost does not include in our current budget which means we have to do some job to get enough money. "Those f*cking guards! They have the smell and traits of greediness emitting from them!" Yami gritted his teeth. "Now, now, we shouldn''t do a scene here, Yami. I know you are upset due to the expensive entry pass but we can''t do a single thing about that. Besides, earning money is easier here since we can do odd jobs here and there. We don''t need to worry about it too much," Ishana said, calming down Yami who is already ready to fume out his anger. "Ishana is right. We have to stay low for now. We don''t need to attract the attention of those people to us." "Tch," Yami clicked his tongue. Although he is hot-headed, he can hold his temper well enough. Aria peeked outside of Ishana''s hood as she looks around the place. She has the sparkle on her eyes. "Wow! There are so many buildings here! This is the first time I have been into a human settlement!" Aria said as she wander her eyes around. "You should hide for a little bit, Aria. We can''t be sure if the people around here are trustworthy enough or they have no ulterior motives to capture a pixie like you," Ishana said. "Huh? Aren''t the humans are the protector of the world?" Aria innocently asked. "Yes, but actually no. There are people who does the protecting though there are also those who wish destruction. There are also those people who indirectly destroys the world slowly due to their greed not satiated easily. And as rare as a pixie like you, it will be a real treat for some people to catch someone like you," Yami said without even holding back. "Aaaah... no..." Aria shrink back to the hood of Ishana, shaking. "Ugh, Yami, you are really ruthless with your mouth aren''t you? You should at least sugarcoat your words a little bit to avoid scaring the others," Ishana said as she calms down the little pixie. "Sugarcoating it doesn''t help anyone at all. It only worsen things and will only make someone blind of the truth, don''t blame me if they keep being ignorant if they are being treated like that always." Ishana stayed silent. Yami''s words might sound harsh but that is the truth. However, we are wasting time here so I decided to stop the conversation when one of the villagers came running around and is shouting to the people around to inform them. "The heroes will be passing through alongside with Princess Sera and her fiancee Saratovio!" The heroes eh? This is going to be interesting... Chapter 199: The Summoned Heroes Everyone on the road went to the side of the road, makinga free passage in the middle of the road. I can understand this if it is a parade, however, this is just the princess, her fiancee and the heroes summoned going to pass which I assume is to go hunting in the forest. There''s no need for some of thw racket like this. "What is going on?" Aria peeks out once more out of Ishana''s hood after she heard the commotion in the surroundings. "The summoned heroes will be passing by," I said to Aria. If she heard it, she might have some interest to look at those guys and maybe she can find one of the ''chosen one'' she is looking for. "Ooh! I want to see!" Aria is quite excited. Ishana went near the road, enough to let Aria peek from the hood. Yami followed suit to Ishana while I stay behind the crowd as I can see the situation of road just fine using [Insight]. There were some tables and chairs free after the people went to see the heroes. It''s tiresome to continue standing around so with the vacant chairs, I can finally relax my feet. I am not the only one who has the same idea of staying in the very back of the crowd. One female wearing a hood on her head with tan skin tone is sitting opposite to my table. She is sipping coffee and seems to lack interest to the ruckus. From the looks of her appearance, she seemed to be similar to those mysterious people wearing cloaks and hoods, acting strange and will appear to the protagonists to either give subtle help or clues to anything. She has a longbow strapped on her body and on her legs are two quivers, full of arrows with silver lining. Based on her weapon of choice, her looks and her body language, she must be an archer. She doesn''t appear to have any other weapon of choice in her body except the bow and arrow so that is already a precise guess. Some people just uses the bow and arrow as design since they would look cool on it even though they are clearly not even proficient in using the bow. She still didn''t notice me judging her appearance, which is why there is no incident of anything that will link the two of us, just like how those people in the novels and manga handles these kinds of people. My eyes squinted when I noticed in the distance the group of people walking on the road. Based from their numbers and rowdy behavior, those must be the summoned heroes in this world. As expected to the trope, they are also Japanese and based on their interactions with other heroes, they are indeed a whole class summoned to another world. Another trope added is the main leader of the heroes. From the looks of it, the leader is a delinquent male who seems to act as the Alpha Male of the class. He acts haughty and his expression, though it shows a jolly appearance hides his manipulative and dangerous behavior. As additional to his Alpha Male package, he also has the supporting lackeys that will follow him whenever he goes. I counted at least 6 of them so that means this guy has quite the influence and charisma to spend to get them loyal to him. There are also quite a few girls but I can tell some of them are just plain thots as they have been currently sucking up favor to the guy earlier that acts as the Alpha Male. They are just flirting to him which he seems to be happy about. There are also those girls who are just on the neutral side. On the other hand, there are those the supporting characters or should I say the "fodders" of the group. There are always people who don''t stand out in a group and these type of people are always behind and will never exceldue to the trampling done by the others to them. It is pretty common here and in real world. "Hmph, heroes from another world? HA! How many times does these people wanted to give up their life for the sake of a kingdom they are not born with? Summoning them without even caring of the feelings of those being summoned. The kingdom had become too selfish, don''t you think so?" I was surprised when I heard the hooded girl speaking while mocking the heroes but I was also surprised to see her address me. "Isn''t it much better for the people of the kingdom to fight the threat using their own soldiers? Using people from another world to take out the threat seems to be a very bad move to me," I said, voicing out my opinions. "EXACTLY! However, these idiots keeps on doing this and that, summoning innocent individuals, making them a hero and stuff and in the end, will just make a temporary peace after sacrificing thousands of lives then rinse and repeat. I honestly have no idea what this people are thinking at all. Are they happy with this rinse and repeat history of theirs?" While she was speaking, I catch out her evil aura she emits on her body. She was not an ordinary individual. However, she is hiding her aura and suppress it tightly. I stood up and transfered to the vacant seat opposite to her. I then whispered to her ear that anyone else but us can hear. "You are the demon lord aren''t you?" Her eyes looked at me with hostility all of a sudden but she still remained her composure and continue to suppress her aura. "I can tell that you are a unique individual at that. Yes, I am. So what, are you going to fight me and kill me, then report my appearance to the heroes?" "Ha, I don''t really care about whether you are a demon lord or not. It''s none of my business," I said, shrugging what she just said earlier. She grinned and looked at me with a smile like a normal maiden. "You are an interesting human. If you did exactly what I just said and try to slay me, you might have died already." "Ha, what a funny remark. However, I am confident that I can best you out without much problem. If you wanted to have a test, you can just ask me. We can do a friendly sparring match. It will be an interesting battle." I stood up and waved goodbye. " Have a nice day, young lady. I am quite sure we will meet again." "Hey." I looked back and saw an incoming object to my direction which I immediately caught. "Take my memento. If the time is right, we might see each other again. See you around, weird human," she sips her coffee before she disappeared in thin air. The memento she gave me is a necklace with red orb as it''s pendant. Despite being the demon lord, she has no connection to the demonic beings we have been fighting so far. Her smell doesn''t resemble to the demons I have defeated before which means the demon lord is innocent to these conflicts and appearances of the demonic beings in this world. If that is the case, it is another individual causing the massive outbreak of the demonic beings in this world. As the heroes pass by, the crowd slowly disperse too and returned to their normal routine like nothing happened. Yami, Ishana and Aria also dispersed from the crowd and reunite with me. "The heroes are too weak. The strongest hero in their group is only as strong as one normal demon back in our world. Quite pathetic. Let''s go and find a job," Yami said. "You guys can go. I will handle our job of finding the transported guys here." "Huh? Are you just trying to run away from your responsibility to find a job to earn money?" "No worries. I found our second person of interest and he is part of the people we just saw pass by earlier, he is one of those so called ''heroes summoned from another world." "Are you saying..." "Yes. One of the missing people in Akihabara is mixed in with the summoned people of the kingdom. I presume the moment he was sent here is also the time the summoning of that class occured, and he was also pulled in to the gig." "Well, it would make a good cover up if one of the missing people is along with those people. However, he is along with the heroes. Would it be alright for you to take one back away from them? I am quite sure the princess will stop you from taking one of them without any valid reason at all. What will you do?" Ishana asked. "You don''t need to ask. They will surely be allowing me to pick the guy out from them. If they resist, I will not hesitate to take him forcefully." Chapter 200: Random Passerby The name''s Haruki Kyouya, just a normal, ordinary guy who quit school and started working in a pc cafe. There is nothing special to me. My face is not even handsome and you can say my face is a pretty dull one and some people even call my face a punching bag. One day, I was tasked to buy a computer part in Akihabara since the spare parts that we have stuck is already out. However, my life changed when something unimaginable happened after I arrived in Akiba. It was just a moment but I was suddenly swallowed by a very blinding light. The next thing I knew, the place I was in, no longer resembles the busy street of Akiba. I am quite sure this is not Akihabara''s attraction. There is no way a grand place like this is present in Akihabara even if it is the paradise for otakus and tech geeks. One more thing, not only I was in an unfamiliar place but I was also with my classmates, or to be exact, former classmates since I quit school 3 months ago. But why are they here? Everyone is in turmoil and confusion as they try to keep their bearings around them and get accustomed to their surroundings. They didn''t even notice me yet. Just being with them felt so suffocating and painful to my mind. ''I want to get out of here...'' "Welcome future heroes!" Every one of us went to face the source of the voice and we saw an old man wearing robes that are similar to a mage in fantasy novels and games. He also carries a staff and the long white signature beard is also present. One thing that made me want to rewind what he just said. Did he just say "future heroes" to us?" "Who are you? Where are we? What is going on?" The first one to start questioning our whereabouts is the class president, Shizukawa Sayaka, who is also known to be the one who do the initiative to assess situations like this. She is leader material. "Forgive my manners. Though I am not the one who will be explaining things. Please listen to Princess Evangeline for she will explain your circumstances. Don''t worry, you guys will be able to understand what she will be saying as we have the artifact we use so the heroes can understand us," the butler said before the guards handed out a necklace for us to wear. The mage is already wearing one that is why we can understand him. Then, a girl who is much prettier than the prettiest females from my former classmates appeared and faces us with a smile. The lecherous people in my class already started catcalling her and already started whispering to each other. "Future heroes, I am the first princess of the Northern Kingdom, Evangeline Taravon. I apologize for this sudden request of ours and for forcefully dragging you guys from your world to this world. But we are in dire need of help." The men in my former classmates immediately started showing off to the princess despite not knowing the bizarre situation we are in. If there is a princess and she is always addressing us as heroes, then there is one reason why we are here and it is now pretty obvious unless you are not someone who read fantasy novels. We are summoned to another world. I didn''t bother listening to the princess and the conversation of everyone. Because unlike the others, I am not enthusiastic about this sh*t. Screw going isekai, we are all going to die here. No one from our class is proficient to fight. Is there a way for me to go back home? I don''t want to be dragged into a conflict that is not even affecting my daily life! I just wanted to kick back and relax playing my games and be alone than going on an adventure, risking my life and go with these people I hated the most! Although I am not listening to what the princess is saying, I can tell that she is showing off some fantasy things like magic and the likes. However, I am not interested in that. While everyone is enthusiastic and quite excited, I raise my hands and sternly looked at the princess. "Is there a way for me to go back to my world?" When I said that, everyone from my class looked at me simultaneously. Then they started laughing. My former bully, Hirokawa Daichi, grinned and approached me before putting his big arm to my neck and grapple me like his former buddy. However, he is putting more strength to his arm and he is already choking me lightly, which doesn''t look like one on the outside. "Ha! If it isn''t Kyouya! So you are also summoned? But why are you summoned along? You quit school, RIGHT? Why are you among the people summoned?" "Let... go..." I already can''t breathe properly and he still didn''t let go. As expected, no one from my classmates is even intervening and stopping him from doing it to me. Even the princess and the others are just looking at me like I am just a sort of person who doesn''t have any kind of worth. The good thing is that he let go of my neck before I ran out of air. "As always, you are still f*cking weak," Kyouya said before returning to the group. I have to catch up on my breath and cough a few times to stabilize my breathing. Still, I can hear those f*ckers whispering to each other already. Then, the princess is the one who continues my plea earlier. "Are you saying you wanted to go back to your world if you are asking if there is a way to go back?" "Yes. Is there a way for me to get back-" "So, are you saying you don''t want to participate in the war against the demons?" "If possible, yes." The princess has that odd look on her face. Then, before I can even react, I was sent flying. BANG! Pain suddenly entered my whole body and it was all sudden. Blood went out to my nose and mouth as I got injured when I flew to the wall that caved in after landing on it. My whole body hurts. However, I am still conscious. I didn''t collapse from that since there is a much worse experience I have felt in the past. "Check his potential," the voice of the princess rang out. I can''t properly move when the mage from earlier pulled out a big glass ball similar to those fortune tellers. The soldiers picked me up from the rubble and forced my hand to touch the crystal ball. The moment my hands made contact with it, a sudden shockwave traveled in my injured finger. "AAAAGGHH!" I screamed and the moment I did that, the mage shook his head. "He doesn''t have potential! He is just a normal human!" When I heard that, I felt the joy of being normal since I have a chance of not being put on the battlefield but boy, I was wrong. "Put him in jail and whip him 15 times. After that, he can become a courier for the heroes. Struggling is not possible for me. I am not accepting what is happening to me. I tried to scream but before I can even shout, a gag apparatus was attached to my mouth before I was sent to jail and received 15 whips. ... 6 days passed by and now I am in here marching along with the heroes while carrying a bag full of equipment by the so-called heroes. Just when will I have to endure pain from the tortures? I barely can walk as my body is screaming of wanting to give up. However, I don''t want to die. Who knows if I will be killed the moment I give up. The others take turns kicking me to force me from kneeling which will also result in a whipping. The so-called heroes have the blessing and gained the "system" kind to enhance their growth. I don''t have them so I don''t know how it works. That is why now these guys are already stronger than usual. "Ha! MOVE! Stop slouching and stand up straight, you sh*thead," Daichi said. He kicked me in the knee which forced me to stop as I endure the pain on my knees. It didn''t help that I am carrying a very heavy bag full of metal weapons and armors, I can barely stand up without risking myself from kneeling. "Whip him again," the voice of the princess said. SH*T... What did I deserve to experience this hellish torture? Then, I suddenly heard a voice different from the rest of my classmates. It''s not from the princess'' fiancee or the guards. However, someone is speaking in Japanese. The others immediately went on full alert. Then I witnessed the whip the guard is holding to use on me to burn to ashes in seconds. "To think humans are capable of doing this to their fellow humans... this just proves the humans are rotten to the core." The princess is calm and looked around the direction where the voice is coming from. "What is your business here?" "Me? I am here to take this guy with me," then someone pulled off the heavy bag from my shoulders and throws it to the ground. "Who are you to make chaos to us? Don''t you know me? I am the first princess of the Northern Kingdom!" "Heh? Did I ask you?" The princess gritted her teeth. The guards tried to pull their weapons and even the fiancee is ready to pull out his sword but the princess stopped them. "Who are you?" "Me? Hahaha, I am just a random passerby." Chapter 201: Rotten World After Yami and Ishana agreed on following the heroes to fetch the one who should not be with the heroes, I followed them who are not yet too far. Aria also decided to follow me as she detected something from the heroes earlier. The heroes are clearly not yet combat-ready and are still too virgin to bloodshed and absolute violence. They still everything around them too casually which is somewhat similar to the behaviors of the characters of isekai mangas I have read before who treat everything like just a game and are too reliant on the cheats bestowed to them. I observed them from afar and I try to look where the unfortunate guy who was dragged to this hero summoning scheme was currently and I find him on the side of the group, carrying a very big backpack full of weapons and other stuff for adventurers. In short, he was turned to a courier. His body is full of wounds which made it clear that he was being abused by the heroes and I can also tell that he was not being helped by anyone which is kinda brutal and disturbing. He is bleeding and his wounds are all too severe and yet they are still whipping him. "How cruel. Are they really the heroes that are tasked to protect this world?" Aria asked as she saw what was happening with the poor guy. I didn''t respond to it but continue my observation. The person that I am planning to fetch is one tough guy. Those wounds on his body are quite severe and I don''t think a normal human can endure that. He is also carrying lots of weapons on the bag which means not only his wounds are bringing pain, even the weight of the bag is also taking a toll on his body which is impressive in its rights. "Kazuma, I can detect that the person we are going to fetch right now is currently manifesting a mana awakening. If this continues, he will be able to unleash his hidden potential to become a magician." "Eh? Really? He is achieving an awakening from all that torture?" "There are various ways of an awakening of their latent mana and one of them is from intense predicament like near-death experiences and some are tortures. Though these cases are rare, they do exist and they managed to last and cling to their life, allowing the magic and mana in their body to fully manifest." "Is it unstoppable?" "It can be suppressed once it awakens. However, to do that, it needed the user to forget the existence of magic. If that is secured, then sealing the magic in the body is now possible." Everyone who awakened the ability to use magic will choose to either keep their magic and work with the magician society to keep the world in peace, or to forget everything. If that is the case, I will ease his problem and hear his thoughts. The group has finally arrived in the forest. Around this time, the person who was the strongest among the heroes kicked the poor guy in the knee, causing him to almost collapse. He still managed to stop from falling down but he was forced to kneel to balance himself. However, the princess looked in the direction of the guy and squinted her eyes. I can tell that this innocent-looking princess is a devil inside. "Whip him again." Her voice is calm, but it was cold. Too cold. This is not a princess, this was not the ideal person who will inherit the throne and gain the queen title. "Kazuma. You need to help him! He doesn''t deserve this!" Aria said as she tugged my hood. "You don''t have to remind me. This is no longer tolerable." One guard who is carrying a whip approaches the poor guy who is already closing his eyes and seems to be ready to accept the fate he was in. "Hey, courier boy, you shouldn''t give up so easily." After saying that, I snap my fingers and send flame particles to the whip, causing it to ignite to flames. The guard didn''t expect it and panicked as the whip immediately reduced to ashes. And as expected on the heroes, they quickly ready their weapons and even though their stance is still bad, they are ready to strike if they are given the opportunity. Since I didn''t appear in front of them yet, they are still looking for my current location. "To think humans are capable of doing this to their fellow humans... this just proves the humans are rotten to the core," I said as I observe everyone''s reactions. "Kazuma, your lines are such delivered badly. I feel the cringe creeping in my skin," Blue snickered. "Just let me be like this once in a while. Remember I can''t show off like this back on Earth. I wanted to at least feel badass once." "Pfft, hahaha, go on, entertain me. It is indeed rare to see something like this on Earth. Don''t disappoint me though. Let me grab some popcorn too." Blue still never changes but it is good enough to feel at ease. The princess looked around and did not find me but she managed to pinpoint the right direction on where I was speaking. I thought she will ask "who are you!" dialogue to me but I guess this one is not similar to the princess in most mangas I read. "What is your business here?" Quite a straightforward question. And based on her choice of question, she didn''t care about my name and went straight to what I am doing there. She is looking down on me but that is alright. "Me? I am here to take this guy with me," I said before going out from my hiding place and went straight to the courier boy and rip the bag off from his back and toss it to the ground. It was heavy but it is alright if you are a magician. That amount is nothing but for a normal human, that is not something you can easily carry. Your back will suffer a problem. "Who are you to make chaos to us Don''t you know me? I am the first princess of the Northern Kingdom!" Pfft, what an arrogant person. I really wanted to punch her face so that she awakens from her delusions but I decided to hold back for now. "Heh? Did I ask you?" Honestly, I don''t care if you are a high ranking official or not. I have my purpose and that is to get this person with me. The princess gritted her teeth and is currently very angry. She might go explode if she continues to act like that. Even the heroes are giddy to strike already but I made sure they will hesitate by applying a slight amount of pressure. The man who is introduced earlier as the fiancee of the princess is also ready to attack too. "Who are you?" Now you have the nerve to ask now? You should have asked me the first time I appeared. "Me? Hahaha, I am just a random passerby." The princess this time is now too pissed that she raised her hand and issued a command. "Capture that insolent man and bring him in front of me!" Blue snickered and laugh in my head. "Lol, this princess is too cliche and you too are also using cliche lines too, damn it, I am dying from laughing hahaha!" "Don''t ruin my moment damn it." The guards pulled out their swords and started attacking me. However, they are too weak for me to use my magic. Even if they are clad in full armor, they are no match to me. A sword quickly swings in my direction but this is nothing. I grab the blade of the sword and applying a small amount of mana to my hands, grip the iron, and crush it to pieces. "WHAT!?" the soldier didn''t expect what I did. But I didn''t stop there and lunge forward to him and grabbing his helmet. Applying the smallest pressure, I slam the guard down to the ground and made sure the impact is only enough to incapacitate him I repeated this to the remaining guards who didn''t even put out a fight. I just kicked and punched while applying a little bit of mana on my attacks. It didn''t take me a few minutes to finish every guard and reduce them to incapacitated states. "Did you really bring capable guards? I doubt they are capable at all. I mean, the smaller weaker monsters around here prove more challenges than these guys." "You insolent bastard! I can no longer tolerate your behavior towards my fiancee!" I slyly grinned and looked at him while applying pressure. "Is that so? Do you think I care if your fiancee is a princess?" The fiancee seems to have enough of my taunts and ran out of temper. He pulled out his sword and applied some sort of force to it, causing it to unleash an aura similar to the aura released when the priests of the Church of Order used their magic using the Philosopher''s stones. "Goddess of Life, guide me to the path of light, for I will smite my foe with the holy power..." Chanting? Is that even necessary? He is not using magic at all but just channeling the magic power contained in the Philosopher''s Stone in his sword. The chant he is using is not even increasing the intensity and power of his charged attack. "Just let him be, Kazuma. He might think it is necessary or he was taught to chant it to unleash the power." "... bring the power to my strike! Holy Smite!" White beam appeared on his sword and the heroes around looked amazed. However, I shook my head in disappointment. This is a blatant rip-off version of Excalibur. "Che, what is this, are you even trying?" I said before raising my left hand and flick off the beam, causing it to bend and break. "H-HOW?!" "How disappointing. You guys are all just a joke." Chapter 202: Differences in Power The beam of the sword didn''t live up to the long ass chant the owner did. Comparing it to the sword of King Arthur, the Excalibur is already an insult to the sword of selection as the sword used by this guy failed to even exert the best power it can release, not to mention the long-ass chant he did that didn''t help to strengthen the power the beam his sword can exert. For me, the sword''s power is quite underwhelming but not against the surroundings and creatures who are not on the level of strong. The deflected sword beam bended to the other direction and destroyed the path the beam travelled, burning the trees, grasses and other things caught up on the attack. "HOW!? THE LEGENDARY SWORD SHOULDN''T HAVE FAILED TO BEAT THIS GUY OUT!" the fiancee shook seeing his "ultimate" attack failed. "Don''t blame your sword, blame your incompetence," I said before lunging myself forward, attacking the guy. He has quick reflexes and before my fist land, his sword blocked my attack by using the blade itself as the shield to my punch. The blade would normally damage me instead on my handhowever, I didn''t get damaged by it. The reason is that I enforced my fist with mana enhancement to make sure it won''t get hurt by anything sharp or hard. Fighting barehanded feels cool too. Since he blocked my fist, I immediately ignited my Blazing Shoes to flames. Now here is one thing I discovered with my Blazing Shoes I didn''t know until I used it accidentally in Tower of Babel. Not only it can inflict burn damage and can change its form by using the forms of the other shoes I know. I only thought of this ability of the shoes to be for aesthetic and disguises purposes but I was wrong. Every kind of shoes the Blazing Shoes copied, the appearance and the purpose will also be copied. For example, if you choose to copy a roller skates, it will also copy the roller skates function which means it also includes the wheels and you can use it. After igniting my Blazing Shoes, I changed it to Combat Shoes and kicked the guy. Since the combat shoes is much harder compared to normal shoes, the moment I landed one kick to the guy, he was immediately toppled to the ground. The guards who seems to wear different uniforms than the guards I fought earlier appeared and now took action to my attack to the guy. "You are hurt our Prince! You have to be killed immediately!" I was surprised when the guards pulled out their swords that has the same look as the one used by the first guy earlier, only a little bit shabbier and common looking. They then began unleashing their powers, allowing the summoned heroes to cheer. "Go! Go! Kill that guy!" "Don''t leave him alive and let him suffer!" The heroes are even cheering for them huh? What rotten and spoiled kids. I am pissed off. Shrugging, I decided to be fair to my opponents and did not attack them while they are in the middle of chanting. Just like the first guy''s sword, they also have the beam like attack. The moment their chants are done, they swing their swords together to my direction and the swift beams are immediately released. SWOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHH! The guy who was knocked out by my kick was helped by one of the guards stand up. "Did anyone get him?" he asked. Smoke slowly dissipated from the area and I am still standing without any scratches and wounds. Their disbelief was immediately reflected to their faces. In reality, I decided to use the Domain of Balmung to block them. Turns out, the domain of Balmung is enough to block them. It didn''t even break even though it usually does especially if it is a very strong attack. "How pathetic," I muttered. Then, my gaze landed to the sword the prince was using. I grab the hilt of the sword and some sort of barrier stopped me from touching it further. "HA! The sword can only be used by me alone! You think you can use it? Ha! In your dreams!" the fiancee showed his awful attitude now. "Really? Because I think it was pretty useless." After saying that, I reached out and grab the sword once more. The moment the measly barrier appeared to block my attempt, I break it by applying enough mana and some force to it, easily breaking off the troublesome part. After it was removed, nothing stopped me from grabbing the hilt of the sword, allowing me to wield it. "Huh? How did you touch it and hold it?! You are not supposed to be able to hold and wield it unless you are the chosen one!" the fiancee panicked. "Really? What a lame sword. To think the chosen one can only wield it, talk about lame, this can''t even be sold or given to your children once you were old enough since they are not the chosen one, isn''t it better to create it as a scrap metal instead?" "You think you have the right to talk sh*t on the Holy Sword?" "Oh yes, I have. Because this is useless. It only can use power by using the little Philosopher''s stone attached to it''s hilt." After saying that, I melt the surrounding iron on the hilt, allowing the Philosopher''s stone embedded to it to be removed. "You guys are so reliant on these stones and think you are so powerful which is in fact weaker than a normal human. Fighting against me is suicide since I don''t need these sh*t to use power. Let me show you guys the difference of my power to you guys." Casually swinging the sword, it was swallowed to flames. Knowing the intensity of my flames, I already know that the sword won''t last. The guy cried in grief as he saw his beloved sword reduced to a puddle of melted iron on the ground. "Now, whoever wants to stop me from taking this man will have to face me, you all can step in now." I thought no one foolish enough will accept my challenge but then, one of the heroes, the guy who kicked the target stepped in. "Heh, I will be the one to stop you. Do you think I will allow you to take our plaything from our hands without stopping you?" "Of course," I said confidently. "How cocky, then let us see who will go home crying! As one of the SSS Rank heroes, you will have to surrender!" Without wasting his time, he pulled out his sword and rush forward. In just a single glance, the openings on his movements became clear already. However, I am too lazy to fight him in a prolong battle and I also have to tend the wounded guy''s wounds I have to quickly end this sh*t. As he was nearing me, I brushed off him and shot out an electric volt that is enough to paralyze a normal beast for 5 days. As for the humans, I don''t know how long will it take before it takes. He was still in mid-air when I shot the electric volt out of my fingertips. Paralysis kicks in and he no longer can''t move. He landed to the ground stiff and shaking. "NGGGGGHHH! URRRGGGHHHH!" He moaned as he try to move only to feel the numbness of his body. Even speaking is no longer possible, meaning he will be not able to move at all except for involuntary movements like blinking, breathing and any other stuff, other than that, he will be stuck like that for the duration of the spell. There is no point taking things longer so I went to the bleeding guy and carried him to my back. After that, I summoned one of Inari-sama''s foxes before running away and leaving the heroes and the royalties to whatever things they have to do. ... After getting out of the forest, I noticed that the courier guy has already fainted and has no longer been moving. I ordered the fox to stop and put down the guy on the ground before pulling out the Reverter out of my pocket and popped out one reverter and put it on his mouth. As always, the reverter revealed its effectiveness as an all out cure despite its effects of a tablet that can revert back to its former state once ingested. Still, that doesn''t mean it was a complete recovery. Most of his bruises and wounds did not heal at all which means it was done to him a few days ago. "Blue, is his situation critical right now?" ''"I scanned his body earlier when you carried him away from the group and thankfully, he will be fine and will manage to wake up in few hours." "Did he awaken his latent Mana after that?" "Yes, though it is a little bit unstable. Things will go wrong if the power became uncontrollable." "I see, nothing much I can do with that except to ask him later. However, as a bonus for rescuing him from them, we already made enemies with the Northern Kingdom." "The kingdom of that fiancee too, don''t forget." "Do you think they will send guys to kill me later on?" "That is a big possibility as you have ruined one hero candidate after all." "Pff, whatever, if they are looking for a fight, I will gladly take them on. I survived much more hellish places after all," I said smugly. "...braggart..." Chapter 203: Awakening Due to what I did to the princess and her fiancee, I am quite sure that she already sent a command to the guard in the city to get a lookout on me after I left. It was expected to happen. I already told Ishana and Yami about this and since this involves in taking one of the heroes from their grasp, events like this will always be unavoidable. The guy I rescued from the heroes is still unconscious but he is already safe and will not be in danger though his wounds are still not going to heal anytime soon unless he is healed. Seeing this situation will be frequent in another world, healing magic will be one of the magic spells essential for continuous survival. "Blue, are you up?" "I am always up. I don''t need to sleep." "Alright, can you search me a magic spell for healing purposes?" "You are in luck, I am currently browsing the Healing Spells section as it got updated earlier by the management of spells. For a beginner, you can build up your mastery using the spells, [Heal] and [Wide Heal]. Both are same variants of heal spell but has different usage." "An AOE and a single target spell, am I correct?" "Yes, you are correct. If you want to use healing spells, this is the best way for you to properly utilize its usage. You need to properly master these two spells before advancing to the next circle of magic to avoid downgrading the effects and quality of your magic. You will also get familiar to the feeling of the spell whenever you use it and you will not feel troubled in the future once you get to use the magic spells of healing that has more than one magic circle." After explaining some of the basic fundamentals in healing magic, she sent the info of how to learn the two magic spells, [Heal] and [Wide Heal], As for the more advanced healing spells with more potent power, Blue didn''t share them yet as they are much more complicated than this one which is fine since I don''t want to complicate myself with so many magic spells and many of my other spells I tried learning during the beginning are too niche to use now. Just like what Blue said, the healing magic has distinct difference compared to the normal spells I learned before. It was a bit confusing to the feel at first but I slowly get the hang of it without problem and getting accustomed to it is much easier than I thought it would be, with the only exception of the [Wide Heal] as it needs much more better concentration to fully master compared to the first [Heal] which only needed slight focus. It took me two hours to master both spells. "I still can''t believe this. You just learned spells that should be not something you can learn in a single day!" "Eh... It''s not that hard. I don''t know why you keep on saying that it is abnormal for me to learn spells like nothing. Maybe because I am compatible to all elements and spells?" "That shouldn''t be the case. There are plenty of people with the same affinity as you who are neutral to all elements and can learn different magic spells just like you. However, your learning time is what makes you different to the rest! Yours are just abnormal!" I can only sigh on this. My learning progress might be too abnormal to others but to me, it seems like that is just the normal things to go my way. Without any way to explain my capabilities, I decided to just let it go for now and let it bother for later on. Its time to try my healing capabilities to the wounded guy. Since [Heal] is not that potent since it is a low tier magic, I have to keep on using it repeatedly to keep its effects reach equally to the effects of a higher tier healing spell. "[Heal]!" His body barely changed anything but he is clearly recovering from some of his scratches that has not yet recovered, while some of his bruises lighten up from its previous violet marks before. When the little effects of [Heal] subsided, I cast [Heal] once again to his body. I repeated this a few more times to keep its effects potent. It took me 30 minutes before his wounds has almost disappeared. Some of his wounds have formed scars and cannot be healed no matter how I try which means he will have to rely on recuperating from the wounds that formed scars. He is now waking up from his slumber and his eyes flutter a bit as it struggles to open up. He rolled his head in the pillow a few times before he suddenly opened his eyes fully and rise up from the futon. "Don''t move yourself too much. Although most of your wounds have healed, your body has yet to recover from the bruises. I would suggest you rest a little bit more to let your body recover a lot faster, allowing you to return to your former form," I said to him as I give him a bottle of container. "You¡­ you are the guy from that time." "Oh? You saw me? I thought you are having a hard time opening your eyes that time since it was too battered up." He must have remembered his injuries and he touch his face and inspected his arms and abdomen. He even checked his legs and aside from some wounds which I mentioned earlier that can''t be healed by normal [Heal] unless it is much more potent and a higher tier healing magic. "My wounds are gone? What did you just do?" "Isn''t it obvious? I healed you. Your wounds are too heavy to ignore." "Healed me? Did you use your ability on me?" "More or less. Anyways, you should continue resting. I will stand guard outside." "Wait! You are a fellow Japanese right? Are you perhaps also a summoned hero?" I smirked when I heard him asked. "Me? A hero? Hahaha, what a joke. Don''t lump me with those stupid heroes, also I am not summoned, I came here. Now enough questions and answers, go rest now or I will stop answering your questions even if you have already recovered." After that, I left the tent and closed it. Things will be busy for me later once he got enough rest as I needed to answer his questions later on. When I got out of the tent, Kon and Aria arrived carrying a few boar-looking creature with them. "Master! I hauled a beast after hunting a little bit! We can now eat some meat for later!" Kon said. "I also helped out too you know!" Aria said proudly. "Good job you two, we will have some meat fest later for dinner." Kon and Aria are clearly elated when they heard that. The moment Kon dropped the carcass, I cleaned it up, skinned it and after that, I store everything including the bones of the boar to the Mimic bracelet for consumption and other usage later. Around sunset, Yami and Ishana arrived carrying a few bags of supplies. "How is the princess when you confronted her for the target?" Ishana asked after putting down the bags on the ground. "Hmm, how should I put this¡­ she is a typical aristocrat, I think?" "Typical?" "She has the tendency to look down on others the moment her eyes landed on someone. She also seemed indifferent to the pain and suffering on the people who has a lower status than her, in short she is not a good ruler in the future." "Did you test whether they are capable of using magic?" "I did. They are pathetic and just like the priests on that church, they are also using the accursed Philosopher''s stones though this time, instead of using it directly, they use it to power up their weapons. It is also the weapons of the heroes summoned in another world too," I explained. Yami shook his head and rub his glabella. "Looks like my judgment is right this time. Just from looking at that woman, I can tell she is a wolf in a sheep''s clothing. She looks elegant but I have doubts on her. Anyway, how is the target doing?" "He is resting after suffering too many wounds on the hands of the bodyguards of the princess and her fiancee. I had to beat up some of the guards and a few guys just to bring this guy off from them. I already know I am in trouble the moment I did those things to the guards though I am already prepared for the consequences of all my actions." "Before we left this afternoon, the guards are posting wanted posters with your face crudely drawn. Although you won''t be found by them using the posters, we should just go to another place." "I see, that is a shame but this is what I should do on my job," I scratch my head. "Anyways, should we sent him back to Earth?" Yami asked. "Unfortunately, we cannot do that. He has awaken his magic power. He is now on the doorstep to become a magician." Chapter 204: Choice Revealing the circumstances of the target, I explained them how he has the possibility of awakening his latent mana flow and convert into a full-fledged magician. Ishana didn''t know about this stuff while Yami has a little bit knowledge of it but since he hasn''t seen any kind of things about it, he didn''t really know much apart from the info he knows. "So I want to ask the two of you for your answers. We can secretly wipe his memory involving this world and his experiences prior to his transportation to this world before we can seal his awakening, or we can just let him do the ultimate choice." "This is tricky for me... hmmm..." Ishana tilt her head, not knowing what to choose. "Becoming a magician is an honor. However, we should know if he was a person who will use magic for the good and safety of the people or he will use the magic for darkness and for his own gains. Other than that, I am going to let him choose what he wanted to do," Yami said. "How can you be so sure if he will use magic for good or for evil?" I asked. There are many instances of that where a person promises to do good only to break it. "I can detect lies and deepest desires of a person. If he ever has those thoughts, I can just knock him out and we can erase everything," Ishana smiled. "Oooh!" Blue is quite impressed all of a sudden. "Huh? Why are you reacting like you are very impressed right now?" "Because I AM IMPRESSED! Lie detector magic is a rare magic only compatible to certain individuals. It is not a common magic trait to learn so easily and most of the time, this can onlt be obtained randomly after that person''s birth. It is pretty rare for someone who is not born with it to learn it in other methods. Even you cannot learn this as I already scanned you if you are compatible to that magic and the results are negative." Okay, it doesn''t matter much to me but I can''t deny that the lie detector would be really helpful especially in situations like this. "So that means you are going to go in our choice?" Yami asked. "I can''t choose at all and it is a pain choosing things like that as there are more side of the coin but since the majority wins, I will not object either." Hearing their answers, it is time to get the guy up and listen to his answer. Opening the tent, he has already risen from the futon and currently examining his body on the mirror, checking for his wounds and some scratches perhaps. "Hey man, looks like you got your needed rest as much as you can. How are you feeling right now?" Although he looked gloomy, he didn''t show much emotion and answered me while shaking his head. "There are some things I felt to be somewhat different than usual and the headache in my head is not that bad compared when I didn''t get any rest. My body is fine now." "Well, that isn''t so bad. Anyways, I am calling you since we will be eating dinner later, and you also needed the breath of fresh air. You can''t just keep yourself inside this tent. Besides, we have something to discuss too." "Alright. I will be out for a few minutes." I nodded and left him inside his tent. He needed some alone time for now. For the time being, it is time for me to start cooking. Since this will be a meat fest, I decided to summon all of my familiars out. Even the little tiger who resides in my summoning space also went out but it only did thay before sleeping again. Yuri, Yuto and Inari-sama are happy they are out once in this world. Aria who was playing with Kon is immediately captivated to see Inari-sama that she immediately stopped playing and went to her with glowing eyes. "Damn, so those rumors aren''t just baseless rumors? He has Inari-sama as one of his familiars?" Yami was indeed surprised seeing Inari-sama came out. Contrary to his reaction, Ishana is not and smugly looked at Yami. "Haha, you should believe things if I tell you to do so. I don''t just collect rumors just because they were interesting but because they are facts and anyone should know," Ishana flexes her camera that she brought along. "If I didn''t see it with my own eyes, it will remain as a baseless rumor." With Yuri and Yuto helping me set up the fire, I pulled out the meat and took out some of the skewers I prepared beforehand in case things like barbecue would come in our situation.While preparing for the meat, the guy from earlier left the tent and went to the bonfire. He was surprised when he saw all the foxes and the others sitting in the bonfire. "Yo, you finally came, come here and sit with them," I said and pointed on the seat where Ishana and Yami are sitting. Ishana happily her side on the log they were currently sitting on while waving for the guy to agreed. "Um... who are these people?" he asked as he was unsure what is happening as he was so sure that the camp is so quiet than usual, only to hear the noisy activity of everyone. "These are my companions. Those two will introduce themselves so get to know them first before asking me, I still have to prepare our dinner." He nodded and they strike conversation. With Ishana and Yami''s questions along with their capabilities to keep the conversation going, he answered many of our questions and in turn, I know something on him. His name is Kyouya and as expected, he was also one of the guys who were accidentally pulled to another world and he was not one of the heroes. He explained his experiences and things done when he was transported and we know what happened to him and by the time the meat skewers are done, his flashback retelling also finished. "So your experience in this world is just utter sh*t, huh?" I said to him as I sit down to the stump near the bonfire for me to check the meat. "I don''t want to remember much about it. My body seems to still remember the things that happened when I was tortured." "Do you want revenge?" Yami asked. I was surprised to hear that from Yami to ask preemptively about it. I was going to ask him about it once he gets to calm down but I don''t think I will be able to do that with Yami doing it first. "Revenge? Although I wanted to do so, I don''t want to drown in revenge. Besides, I am a normal human and competing against them will not begood idea. If I provoke them, it was like asking myself to them for me to be sent to my final resting place." "What if we tell you that right now, you are in the middle of a crossroad where choosing the first choice will change your life forever, while the other would be to continue with your current life. What road will you choose?" I asked him in the form of a little riddle though it is not a direct way for me to ask him about becoming a magician. "My life is not interesting at all and if I continue my life again, there is nothing for me to change and I will remain an insignificant person. However, if I can change my life from that dull world, then I won''t hesitate to change my life forever." Yami nodded and he snaps his fingers, engulfing his fist to flames. Ishana waved her hands and the water on a nearby puddle floated in the air and she plays with it by forming it to different shapes. Kyouya was surprised and he back off unconsciously though I stopped him. "You don''t have to worry, we are just showcasing our abilities," I said to him before activating the Blazing Shoes. "What are you guys? Are you summoned heroes also?!" Kyouya is in a state of panic. I deactivated my ability and smiled at him. "No, we are just people who has some work to do. We are the people hidden in the side of the world. We exist in this world for the sake of protecting the public for the dangers lurking in the dark. If you accept the proposal, you will become one of us and your ability to use things like we did earlier will be something you can do too. We are not called Heroes but we are Magicians." "Magicians." "Yes. And you have the potential to awaken as one. However, this is the crossroads we are talking about. If you decided to awaken your ability, we will be helping you awaken your ability and you will no longer live the normal life again. Aside from that, you have to accompany us in our job. On the other hand, you can reject everything including the chance to learn the magic spells but in exchange, we will be wiping out your memory involving us and this world and sent you back to your world without any connections to this world. Your choice is vital here." Chapter 205: The Dangers of the Other World Kyouya is conflicted hearing the choices. His face tells me he is not sure of what is going to happen once he declined. Mind wiping is a bit too vague even for him even though it is the literal meaning of what will happen to him if he declined the chance. "I don''t know... I am still unsure whether I have to do this or not. Getting my revenge on them is something but changing my whole lifestyle just for a single power is another matter." Yami tapped Kyouya''s shoulders. "We are not forcing you. We are giving you a choice whether you want to continue your normal life or throw it away and gain magic powers. You are always free to decline." "Why do you need to wipe clean my memories? Can''t I keep my memories intact without being forgotten at all?" "That is not possible. It is one of our protocol and to keep the anonymity of the magician world''s existence to the public populace. We can''t let you return back on Earth without your mind restored to the way it was before to ensure the secrecy," Ishana explained. Kyouya bit his lip. But he didn''t take too long before he give his response. "I have no choice but to accept. There is just something strange in my mind that detest the mind wipe. I want to keep on remembering especially the things that my classmates have done. I will get stronger and I will stop them from trampling the weak!" "It is nice and all Kyouya but you have a long way to go yet. Since you just officially joined us, go a bit to the back for now and watch for now. Things will get messy for a little bit," I said and activated my flames. Yami frowned as he whip a sniff in the air. "Demonic Beings again..." Yami prepared his magic too. "Since you have yet to learn any magic spell for now, you should sit back and relax for now. You can also study the enemies we are going to fight against with so that when it is your time to fight with us, you won''t have any problem dealing with them," Ishana said and ready her index finger pointing out in the distance. One of Inari-sama''s foxes picked up Kyouya which almost terrified the young man after seeing how big the fox that picked him up from the ground. He panicked at first and screamed a little bit before he calms down when he realized that the fox did not meant to harm him as the fox put him to its back. Soon, the enemies that we are anticipating are now on sight. Unlike the first demonic beings I encountered in this world which is inthe form of a dog, the demonic beings right now are taking its appearance in birds and zombies alongside with the skeletons with their chests glowing red. BANG! BANG! BANG! The first one to release the attack is Ishana using her finger gun, that once aimed to a target, a blue laser beam pops out from the tips of her fingers. Yami, like usual, covers his hands to flames and immediately started attacking likemadman against the demonic beings. Ishana has her attention full on flying demonic abominations which is a little bit plenty, giving only Yami a choice to fight against a horde of skeletons. "Don''t be too reckless man, just because they are skeletons doesn''t mean we have to underestimate them," I reminded Yami. "Hmph, don''t remind me, I am fully aware of the dangers I am getting myself at." The skeletons vary from different attack styles but they are all bearing the same weakness, the chest area where their cores are usually placed. Due to the easy nature of these guys, I didn''t use my magic spells and just did a body part strengthening to avoid wasting my mana against these monsters. PA! CRACK! SLAP! BOOM! I took the time to keep my flexibility intact and keep the enemies at bay by doing hand to hand combat. Enemies are much easier to deal in physical ways, compared to when you are alone. The Skeletons are too weak and just by a single rip from their cores, they will immediately collapse. The zombies on the other hand needed some traditional way to kill and that is to smash their heads to pieces or anything that destroy their brains. The moment they are killed, they will immediately be reduced to ashes. "The demonic beings are too many to just disregard! What is going on?!" Ishana frowned as she continue to shoot down all of the demonic beings who are all able to fly. "We can think about it later and defeat them first!" Yami shouted before he continue his attention to the demonic beings. I look back to where Kyouya was and I saw Kon and the other foxes did the job protecting him from harm. Just as we thought things will be almost over after we managed to thin out the demonic beings, I suddenly felt stronger wave of danger once more, much stronger than the demonic beings. Activating my [Insight], I saw the incoming enemies which are going to be troublesome, flying in the distance. "Undead wyverns spotted! Kill them all in sight!" I shouted. "WYVERNS?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Ishana shouted when she heard the word of undead wyverns. Not only the wyverns, I am also seeing big snakes appearing on the ground as big as a building pillar. They are quite big and they are quite a threat if you are not prepared enough. I am just wondering how do the cities and empire are capable of sinking enemies similar to these guys despite not having the real source of power with them and only relies on Philosopher''s stones. It didn''t take a few minutes before the demonic beings in question have appeared. "This is getting interesting! Hahaha! I don''t think I have to find a stronger enemy right now! THEY ARE NOW COMING TO ME!" Yami laughed maniacally as he ignited his whole body and started slaughtering whatever in his way. Chapter 206: Earth is Just too Peaceful While Kazuma and the others are doing their very best to fend off the demonic beings horde, it is another peaceful day on Earth without any threats or whatsoever fron the demons. "It''s a little bit strange that the demons has been quiet lately. There are no attacks and no incident involving the demons lately... heck, its one peaceful week already!" Godou said as he bite his melon bread once before swallowing everything else. "Isn''t it a good news? Whenever demons are involved, we have no rest as we have to keep on doing missions. Since it is very peaceful, I managed to catch up with my lessons easily after missing lots of them," Moonlight said while gazing to the students walking with them while they are going to school. "Damn, I am itching for a fight ya know. It''s not like I am waiting for chaos to come but its been a while since something happened and even delinquents are so well behaved these days, I have nothing to vent out my thirst for fighting..." "You musclehead... why don''t you even try to work with your grades once in a while? It won''t hurt if you even do some studying once in a while and fix that low grade of yours." "Agh, that is bothersome. You know that is my very bad area. I don''t even understand a single stuff. I even ask Kazuma for some answers one time since I totally forgot what to answer." Moonlight can only facepalm hearing what Godou''s reasoning for not studying. "Ah, speaking of Kazuma, its been a while since he accepted that unknown mission right? Have you heard any news from him? I can see his chat account is online sometimes but it was only for a moment before he will go offline once again," Moonlight "Huh? Can''t you just sent him an offline message so that once he is back online, he can chat with you?" "I sent one a few days ago but he is not sending any replies yet. I even think he is purposely avoiding my messages." "Maybe he is just busy." The two stopped talking after they arrived at their destination and split for their respective classrooms. While Moonlight is on her way to the classroom, her homeroom teacher stopped her. "Akari-san, can you come here for a second?" Moonlight is confused on why she was called. During the busy days, she has to go cutting classes to respond on the operation and on some cases, she has to take a day off without even sending any sort of excuse letter or message to the teacher, causing her to be called most of the time. However, she has not been doing any cutting classes lately and she is not absent for a week already. She is also thinking if the teacher is going to give her some sort of task though she is unsure too. "Is there something wrong, sensei?" "Ah, no. Its not about you. I just wanted to know when will Fukuyama-kun will be back from his urgent business. He is getting behind the class already as he skipped a lot of days from class. I heard you are friends with him, did he say anything?" "I''m sorry sir but he is out of reach lately. We have no means of contact to him yet and I am still trying to contact him for any updates." "Hmm, is that so... I see. Well, if you managed to contact him, please make sure that he can get back soon enough. It''s almost time for the second quarter of the tests. I hope he can''t get behind the other students in lessons and manage to catch up." "I will let you know, sensei." "Thanks Akari-san. Just let him know when you can contact him," teacher smiled before he returned to the faculty to take the books and items he needed for the class. ... The day is nothing special and class ended without incident. Moonlight has nothing to do and Godou has been itching to go into fights so he decided to find one and went ahead. Moonlight on the other hand, is bored and just like Godou, is looking for something for her to do. "Ugh. I can''t get used to this... peacefulness. Maybe Godou is right... it''s just too peaceful..." Moonlight sighed before she decided to drop into the Magician Society. Just like the world at peace, the Magician Society is not that bustling with magicians. Sure, there are some of them walking and taking some requests on the bulletin board but other than that, nothing else. Many of the magicians are just loitering and has nothing to do at all. Moonlight takes a look at the bulletin board for something she can take on. She made sure that she is looking for some easy to finish requests to avoid long term quests that will cause her to go on absent spree once more. While checking on the bulletin board, Moonlight notices Anya and Maple putting some requests on the bulletin board together. "Hey there, Maple, Anya. Good afternoon!" Moonlight greeted them. "Oh, it''s you Akari-san! It''s been a while!" Maple smiled as she finished her stack of papers to the bulletin board. "Good Afternoon too," Anya said softly before she continues on her task. "Are you here to take up some requests?" Maple asked. "Indeed. It''s been too peaceful lately and I have nothing much to do. I was hoping to find some request that is easy and quick to finish like simple gathering request or extermination quests." "Unfortunately, the society is out of those types of quests at the moment. Things like those are currently not available." "Not a single one? What about those new requests out there?" "Nah, they are long term requests and they needed a party to accomplish what they wanted to. Some are also investigation types which will take quite a lot of time before it will be done." "Not even those gathering requests" Anya answered my question the moment she heard me ask. "There is nothing for you to take. All of the gathering requests issues, are already undertaken by some most magicians who are bored so if you wanted to find one, I suggest you needed to wait for a few more days." Moonlight sighed and scratched her head hearing the reason. Then, she just realized something. "Why are you helping out here in Magician Society Maple? Aren''t you a magician too? Why become a receptionist?" Moonlight asked. "Haha, just like you, I am getting bored from everything and most requests I have been eyeing for is already taken. I wanted to get something done." "Then, is Anya-chan also helping you since she was bored?" I asked. "No. I helped Maple-onee chan to find out the quest that my stepdad take to wake me up from my slumber." "You what?" Moonlight was shocked. "Hush! We already know what is Kazuma doing but because it is confidential, we had a hard time checking it out," Maple revealed while whispering. "Confidential? I thought Kazuma is taking a job somewhere while working far away." "That''s what I thought too when I discovered that Kazuma is not working on his job here but on the job on the other world. He is working in another world." Chapter 207: The Remaining Trials Part 1 Things started getting serious when the tough Demonic beings started to appear one by one. They are no means weak, which is going to be tiresome in my opinion as we have defeated a few of them in exchange for some gold. Yami is quite excited as he started doing his usual rampage while Ishana is quite angry as she keeps on cursing the monsters despite only dealing the flying ones. Then, Blue started speaking when I was fighting against the monsters. "Kazuma! I suggest collecting the shards they drop! You can use 10 pieces of those things to get to open the Training Room once again!" "10 pieces? Isn''t that too cheap? Your previous cost is much expensive before." "Aren''t you going to take that price? I can change it to higher denominations if-" "No need, let it stay like that, don''t increase that price, damn it. Your greediness is just immeasurable as always." "Hoho, I am not the one who will suffer from the cost, hohoho." Anyways, since Blue said that, isn''t it good enough for me? Since the demonic beings always attacks every night, it is beneficial for me to hunt them for the chance to train myself? That is not a big loss for me but a big profit. "Heh, the night is still long, lets get farming!" ... The relentless attack of the demonic beings felt like endless but it still ended without a hitch when dawn arrived. Despite not losing lots of mana doesn''t mean I am already immune to the tiredness in my body. Cleansing them in away using the mana to flow properly in my body is easy but I am too lazy to move that I just remained laying in the grass. The others too are also lying on the ground, with their breaths ragged. The only one from us not tired is Kyouya who is observing from one of the foxes of Inari-sama. "Is this your routine everyday?" Kyouya asked. "On Earth, no. This is not a common occurrence unless a demon or some sort of calamity appeared that only magicians can stop, other than that, everything is just normal," I said. "Uh... will I earn money if I became a magician too?" "Why are you asking that? Of course you can! As long as you have some contributions in the Magician Society, trading for money is not impossible. Even those guys who has almost zero ability in fighting but has contributions will not become poor!" Ishana said. "...What she said," Yami nodded. "Then please accept me as one! I want to become a magician!" And with that declaration of his, he became a trainee magician. Since I suck at teaching and I have no talent in doing so, Yami decided that he will be the one teaching him to awaken his abilities. Since the two is too tired, they decided to go and hit the sack. Kyouya also wanted to sleep since he stayed up all night. As for me, due to the help of the seed of Yggdrasil supplying me with endless amount of mana, and my body endlessly regulating it, there is no need for me to sleep. After everyone went to sleep, I pulled out the magatama out from the mimic bracelet. "It''s time for me to continue the challenge and claim the inheritance of the remaining beasts." "Are you sure Kazuma? You said before that you barely survived the assault of Byakko and Suzaku last time. You still haven''t mastered most of the inheritance Byakko and Suzaku has given to you so why rush it?" "I am not rushing it but I am confident I can at least take them on without problem." "Is that so, because I think you still lack the training. You also know that I can''t help you in this trial at all right?" "Of course. I have already a plan on how to deal with it so don''t worry about it." "Well, if that is the case, I won''t stop you. However, I still suggest that you fight with it after you trained and mastered most of the spells you learned. It''s not that bad to be too prepared." I didn''t bother to train and placed the magatama on my palm. With a little bit of concentration in my mind, I inject my mana on it, allowing it to gain more bright color. And in a snap, I was transported to the same place the first trials occurred. The boy who conducted the trials, transported me to the Fake Agartha and gave the Seed of Yggdrasil has once again been waiting for me. "Welcome back, chosen one. I presume the reason you came here for the remaining trials?" "If there is other purposes here other than the trial, may I possibly know?" "This place is meant for two individuals to fight, nothing more, nothing less. So if you are expecting for more features, you will just be disappointed." "If that is the case, then I will not be asking any further. i want to begin my third trial againstGenbu." "Alright. May luck be on your side. If you can''t win, we will force you out of this space back to where you were before. Understand what I am saying? Good, now get into it." He snapped his fingers and Genbu roared on the other side of thr room. Compared to Suzaku and Byakko, Genbu is big and a giant for me. Genbu might be a tortoise but that doesn''t mean this one is not dangerous as Genbu''s tail is a viper''s head. Genbu has the defensive and offensive advantage However, I already expected that. "[Weakness Perception]!" I rarely use this skill ever since I learned it but this has been a huge help to enemies who are harder to kill especially inside the Tower of Babel. The moment my ability activated, I immediately checked where the weakness is located. There are 4 weaknesses Genbu currently has and defeating the body and the tail are separate as you can''t defeat them both at the same time. But that doesn''t matter much to me. It is time to fight!"