The sun finally set and the floodlights lit up.
"They weren't kidding when they called you the beast of OUTE." said Ae-Ri.
Fedyenka calmly asked, "Are you one of the few people who can be close to me?"
"Yes. I am from OUTE too. I graduated two years ago. I am now in the middle of the session of ascension to the next rank."
"What is your next rank?"
"Okay so the ranking system is like this, lowest are called trainees among netizens but their actual name is bij, second lowest are called puspa, middle ranked are called dhon, second highest are called toru and the highest are sabios. The King from the southern land first ever created this ranking system so most of the names are southern as well."
"King Gopal of Vidyavela right?"
"Oh...so you know it. Yes it is him. Even though you have failed to create a shield I gotta say you are impressive."
In all of a sudden, Fedyenka and Ae-Ri were in crowds of people and robots. Two of them were going to put handcuffs on Fedyenka. She ran away from that place holding Ae-Ri's hand. On the way, she saw the a woman blocking her way.
"Mind to explain yourself, kitten?" said the woman.
"I'm sorry I was just trying to practice." said Fedyenka.
"Come with me. We cannot let anyone know what you did. Ae-Ri, get the hell out of here. NOW!"
Ae-Ri left without a word.
"I believe you still have some explaining to do." said the woman pulling her close.
"Who are you?"
"I am the fourth sage, Sabia Fourth."
"Oh..."
"So ignorant heh?"
"Um..."
"Still so unsure about everything?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Tsk tsk tsk... Such a young soul. Too bad you are a mere-"
"Sabia Fourth." said Miss Charlotte.
"Greetings Sabia Second." said Sabia Fourth.
"Leave her with me."
"Okay."
Sabia Fourth acted as if she works under Sabia Second. It made Fedyenka thing low of the woman called Sabia Fourth.
"Oh dear, why did you run? I was coming towards you." said Miss Charlotte, or perhaps one should call her Sabia Second.
"I didn't run because I saw you. I ran because of the marionettes." said Fedyenka.
"Alright dear, I understand. You have to be more careful. The more you show your power the more you will gain not allies but enemies. This occasion itself will give you a couple of foes."
"I'll try to be careful next time."
"Don't try to be careful. Be careful."
"Okay."
"Can you go back to your room alone?"
"No...this place is pretty huge and I've never been at this part before. I might get lost."
"I will summon a marionette then."
Sabia Fourth clapped her hands and a marionette got there. She asked it to lead Fedyenka to her room. It scanned the device on Fedyenka's chest and said, "Serial no. 10. Please come this way."
The marionette led her to her room. Another marionette came and delivered some chocolates, chips and a cup of tea to her as evening snacks. She kept the food on the table in the room. She felt like her vision was getting a little bit blurry. She started feeling tired. When she dropped the teacup, the tea spilled on the ground without leaving a single stain on her. She was amused to see such thing. She grabbed a knife and tried cutting herself. She could cut through. Fedyenka came to a conclusion that she herself can do something to herself whilst others cannot.
"Maybe it's a shield created on me after I unleashed such power. I mean, I fancied a transparent shield. Maybe this is why it cannot be seen. Besides my mana is white, so it makes more sense."
She widened her eyes and realized that she is being seen. She could feel someone's presence. She feels it when someone is watching her. She acted normal, how someone would act to see something like this. Fedyenka at last, fell asleep wondering about it.
On the next day, she woke up from the bed and heard someone knocking on her door. She opened the door and saw a marionette which brought her some food. It told her that she has been waiting for her since night. She apologized to it and reached her hands to take the cold meal. The marionette refused to give her the cold meal. It opened it's suit's bottoms and pulled a tray out of his belly. He put the meal on the tray and shut it. Sound of microwave oven was being heard. After thirty seconds, he pulled the tray and gave her the meal. Then he left saying goodbye to Fedyenka. Fedyenka took the meal on the table. After brushing her teeth she ate it. While she was eating, someone knocked on the door again.
"Fedyenka. Fedyenka! It's me Ae-Ri. Are you still sleeping?"
Fedyenka said, "Coming." and went towards the door. She opened it and saw Ae-Ri wearing the same dress as yesterday. Even though she was comparably really younger than Ae-Ri, Fedyenka is taller than Ae-Ri.
"Ayo, Fedyenka. Sabia Second sent me. She sent you this fugu sashimi. Enjoy!"
Ae-Ri left. She didn't want to eat it right away after having her breakfast. Still she had to because or else it would get cold. After she ate it she felt a pain in her stomach. Her vision was getting blurry.
"How could I forget that pufferfish can have toxin if not made the right way. Owh...What should I do...What should I do? I don't want everything to end now." thought Fedyenka.
Sometime later, the pain stopped by itself. She could get up and walk. Her vision was getting better. She realized that the toxin made her antibody stronger since she survived. She swore to herself not to be careless again.
Right after she got up and sat on the chair beside the table, someone knocked on the door again, which made Fedyenka annoyed. She had no other choice but to open the door.
"Miss Fedyenka, the DPS check will begin anytime soon. Please come with me." said a marionette. He pressed on the device on Fedyenka and the dress appeared again on her.
She went to the participant's room. She could see the fight from the room since it was made of glass. The counselor at first gave a speech pretty much identical to the first one he gave. Then he shouted with the mic,
"Now will begin the DPS check. The first participant is Kaiko Kirin!"
Everyone clapped their hands whilst, some were cheering for him. He appeared with the same warm smile.
"Now, the most unusual DPS dummy will appear. Phantom!" said the counselor shouting with his mic.
Phantom appeared in his usual appearance. When everyone saw him instead of the dummy, they were surprised. The counselor gave the mic to Phantom.
"Well I am certainly not so good at speeches and stuff so I will be a bit straightforward. Usual dummy training and DPS checks are boooringg! This is why I came up with the idea to be here instead of the dummy. Don't worry though, I will not be hostile towards these lovely participants. After all, they haven't seen much blood and brutes. Now, let the fight- Oh wait wait wait, I gotta say one more thing. I will not use my speed in this battle. Instead I will simply be a one trick pony here. I will use my knives. Now, let the fight begin!"
After his long informal speech, everyone cheered with him. Kaiko's energy was filled with flames. His DPS check wasn't prefect but the way he could control his power even without gauntlets was enough to tell Fedyenka how much he practiced. He dodged almost all knives Phantom threw. Each participants has one minute in their hands so his fight didn't take so long to finish. After him, came the big guy. Fedyenka finally knew his name. His name was Roland Logan. He swiftly failed the DPS check. It was obvious that he has not practiced dodging even a bit. Then came, Ae-Ri. Ae-Ri was one of the senior trainees who's rank was dhon so Phantom didn't go that easy on her. Though she swiftly dodged his attacks and did attacks which made her score the highest at the moment. Her attacks were like cherry blossom petals, pink and tender. Her moves were elegant too. Then a lot of trainees came. The last one did scores that surpassed Ae-Ri's score. His name was Qiang Li. He could use his mana and give it a form of golden dragons through his bow.
Finally after a long wait, Fedyenka's turn came. She nervously went to the ground to face Phantom. She chose a sword to be her weapon. He was smiling under his hood. Fedyenka could see that. He started throwing his knives in the ultimate speed. Fedyenka tried dodging them but she couldn't dodge them all. Her body already got covered in wounds.
"What's wrong? Getting tired already?" said Phantom with a sarcastic voice.
Everyone booed at Fedyenka. Because everyone expected her to be a beast yet she couldn't do much in the fight at the moment. Without any premonition, Fedyenka suddenly stopped taking any attacks. She stroke a pose. No one could see why she was doing that so they started laughing at first. But it didn't last long. When they saw that Phantom's attacks were stopping or being destroyed midway, they became silent. She went close to Phantom and pulled out her sword with another hand. She unleashed a powerful strike on Phantom that even the protective field on him couldn't stop. Phantom was thrown away by her one swoop. Her score stood one million. But for doing a serious injury to the Twentieth sage, Five hundred thousand points were cut off from the screen where points were being shown. She rushed off to Phantom to see if he was doing alright. Even while being drowned in his own blood, Phantom didn't let go of his ego. He pushed her away and suddenly fell on the gound.