A few days have passed since the conclusion of Kazuma's first quest. During that time, Kazuma decided to use his spare time to practice his ability to use magic and to train his body. Knowing how dangerous the Qlipoth is, if he wanted to have a smooth progression with the next missions he will be taking, he needed to be strong physically and mentally.
As for his magic, Kazuma continues to practice the fire element. He asked for guidance from Voltaire about this and the latter suggested he focus on one first before moving to the next one. Mastery over one element over learning all elements in one go, clearly the former has the advantage. Mastery of one beats mastery of none. He has plenty of time to master it so there is no need for him to rush and once he is confident to tackle a new element, then it will be fine to move on.
But he also considers at least learning one more element. What if the Qlipoth he was fighting with is immune to fire? Then he has no choice but to escape or ask for help. Getting one element for assurance sounds a lot better as well which will help increase his odds of survival on a very hostile enemy. Besides, if he can't handle training two elements, then he will have to postpone training one and focus on the other to improve.
After a few times of hesitation, he steeled himself and opened up the mail he got before and clicked the file that is labeled for the water element. It's a great element to grab. Not only does it gives him assurance, but it's also a way of dousing flames left behind from his magic. The last thing Kazuma wanted is to cause a massive fire in the area he was working.
He steeled himself for a bit and opened the file of the water and his head immediately got filled with various thoughts. It was fine at first but soon, Kazuma felt a sharp pain in his head and he was forced to kneel in pain. It wasn't as painful as the time during his learning in fire but it was still quite painful even for him.
"GAHDAMMIT!" Kazuma grits his teeth in pain. The pain was too much for Kazuma to handle even if it is a bit of a lesser pain compared to before and collapsed once more.
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Kazuma slowly opened his eyes. The pain in his head is gone but the knowledge is now flowing in his mind and how to control water properly. Not only does he get to control the water, he can even conjure water out of nowhere as well.
He grab his phone and checked the amount of time he collapsed and was surprised that only an hour have passed by before he managed to awaken again.
"Perhaps the water magic is a bit more mellow compared to the flame magic huh?" Kazuma muttered to himself. After all, the pain is not that troublesome this time around.
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And so, a few days passed by once more, and before Kazuma knew it, the school is going to reopen once again and school will soon begin. Kazuma is not that thrilled. After all, this is a new school and he will be a new face there. Kazuma is not sure whether the students will be good enough for him to handle, or if the teachers are nice and dandy. But he is just gonna stay quiet for a while.
Then something just pops up in Kazuma's mind since schools will always have some urban legends of some sort, like ghosts. If that were the case, doesn't that mean the Qlipoth is also present there?
Kazuma can feel that there must be a lot of Qlipoth lurking nearby. If most urban legends and school mysteries are real, then they must be Qlipoth or the work of Qlipoth Manifestation or whatever it is called.
But there must be an associated quest for the Qlipoth available at his school and perhaps he can get it and clear it himself, which is a big win for him. He will no longer meet a Qlipoth at school, and he will earn money as well, a big win indeed.
His phone vibrated which means there must be a notification from the Harmony app. Kazuma thought it comes from the Kabbalah group chat but when he opened it, it was actually from his school's group chat. It's a reminder that the classes will start tomorrow and a morning assembly will be held with the attendance necessary to be filled up later.
Although he skipped one year due to the circumstances regarding the death of his parents, he is now ready to dive back to school. Still, he will be missing the staycation days for quite a while.
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The next day...
Kazuma woke up much early than usual. Took a bath, and prepared his uniform before cooking his breakfast and his lunch. Without anyone to help him with this task, he has to do this every day from now on. It's not that he didn't like it, it's just tedious to do every single day except on weekends. He was thankful as well that this school of his doesn't have compulsory Saturday classes. Of course, there is a chance that a Saturday class will appear but according to the messages from their teacher, it's not always present and is only there in cases that they needed to catch up on some lessons. Besides, some clubs also ask some students to practice on Saturday so it's still pretty much the same thing.
Once he is done cooking, he started eating while browsing on the Harmony app. The group chat in his class is now pretty busy and many students seem to have already joined in as well in the discussions. Kazuma just read the messages and didn't participate. It's not in his nature to talk to people he has yet to know personally and he does not like short talks as well. So, until then, he will remain as an observer there for now.
Once he is done eating, he prepared all of the stuff that he needed before he heads out.
"I'll be off."
Kazuma looks back at the empty hallways of his house. It's kind of lonely that no one will respond to him but he still developed that habit. But he needed to get used to it.
After locking the front door, he heads to school on foot. The school is not that far from his home and can be reached within a few minutes of walking. He can use a bike to arrive faster but Kazuma prefers to walk as that will also allow him to slowly get used to the streets to and fro. If he was in a hurry, then the bike would work.
But it is still pretty early and Kazuma is not used to the streets towards the school, walking on foot is the best choice to remember the key areas that will allow him to remember and get used to the place.
After following the directions that were saved on his phone towards the location of the school, Kazuma got some gist on the path. It didn't take him that long and he soon joined some of the students in the same school heading there as well so he put his phone back in his pocket and followed the crowd.
Since he is not focused on his phone anymore, he has time to look around the surrounding perimeter of the school.
The school is not that far from the train station and it's even close to the elementary school that Kazuma infiltrated before during his questline. As he was approaching the school, there was a little convenience store in front of the school and some students are hanging out there, perhaps to meet up with some people they knew before they go inside the school premises. Kazuma has no one to wait for at that place but he mentally takes note of that in case he wanted to buy something for lunch later.
Sakura High School.
Although it's not a prestigious high school for rich kids, it can compete in terms of specialization and academics and can even compete with the highest in terms of excellency.
The buildings are not dilapidated and it's actually a fairly big school that can compete with those expensive schools in terms of facilities. Teachers even encourage students to do their best in this school and hone their talents and pursue their interests as well. In short, students are free on what they wanted to do as long as they don't violate the school regulations and they are also in line with the school's vision.
The only difference is that this school is accessible to all students, rich and poor. With the school fees pretty much affordable even for poor families and some special lessons catered for those who can't come to school due to working hours in their part-time jobs, it's pretty much a perfect school for working students and they are able to compete with students who don't have any absences due to this.
If Kazuma decided to grab a side job, then perhaps he might be able to experience that but due to an unexpected venture, he has no need to do that.
Kazuma is about to step into the front gates when he immediately detected something. He frowned and started to look around, wary of what just happened.
Was it just his imagination? No, for Kazuma, that wasn't just an imagination. He did feel it, but what was it is what he didn't know. It was pretty sudden and it was like just some passing gust of wind but he is sure that something happened
"Was that a sign of the Qlipoth's presence in this school?"
Kazuma ponders to himself. Because he has no solid proof, he stops and decided to continue on. However, Kazuma is keen on investigating the source later on. His school days have just begun.