A couple of weeks have passed since I started going to the academy. Right now, I was sitting at the academy's restaurant with the usual group of people. Thankfully for me, nothing extraordinary happened these days, but there were a few things that caught my attention.
One of those was the way that both Steven and Brian were acting. I hadn't seen them as much as I did in the first week, which was to be expected as they were sent to another rank, so none of us had the opportunity to meet with each as much.
I looked at Steven, who was sitting a few chairs next to me as he excitedly talked with David about ways to improve himself.
Steven had been diligently working on his training with the coach—even if Reeta wouldn't pay him nearly as much attention as he wanted. He had also insisted a few more times that I personally train him just like I had been doing with Nicole, but my response was almost exactly the same as Reeta's: he was still not ready to try anything higher.
However, despite the many rejections, his spirit and will to become a 'Hero' remained the same as when we first met, which I think is a good thing to see, as long as he doesn't turn to extremes.
On the other hand, Brian hadn't been quite as friendly as in the first week. He had hardly been going to the gym as much as Steven or David did, and when asked to spend time with us by anyone in the group, he would usually say that he already had other things to do.
I found such a shift in attitude strange, but I didn't inquire deeper into it as I hardly knew him, and this could very much well be just his personality.
I turned my eyes to Victoria, who was sitting across from me as she quietly watched both David and Steven with a soft smile on her face.
She hadn't changed much during those days. She'd usually find herself at a loss for what to do when faced with strange situations, but so far, nothing like what happened with the explosion on the first few days happened again, and she had been diligently working with Reeta to get some combat ability. But it was clear that the girl didn't consider combat or magic to be important—or rather, as something that she wanted to do.
David had remained the same, with the same kind of training, the occasional scolding from instructor Stormwind, and the surprise attacks on me that would always end in failure.
Someone that had surprised me was the young girl sitting next to me, who was also happily adding things to the men's conversation. Nicole had managed to control her fire much faster than I expected. She was now able to easily keep a ball of fire in place without it going off, and she was able to do it without as much effort as before. She had also managed to make it much bigger, which meant that her Magic Power was increasing just as fast as her proficiency with it.
She even told me that she was close to turning into the D rank, and that it was all thanks to me, but all I had ever done was give her a few pointers and a space to train. Nothing more.
As for me… I had been training with Reeta and her gym much more than any of the other people, going so far as prompting the coach to ask me if I shouldn't take a break from time to time. There was no reason for me to take a break, since I was just doing things no different to the time when I trained in the past—these were even much more tame than what I used to do.
I had also been training my magic just as often as I could, but in this case, Stormwind wouldn't say anything. He'd hardly even talk to me. At most he would just give me an unreadable glance before turning to teach another person. Once more, I worried that perhaps there was something going on with him, but just like with Brian, it could just be his personality… or so I would think if it wasn't plainly obvious that I was the only one he treated like that.
However, as long as he didn't do anything to me, then I was content to keep our distance as I kept improving my magic.
And despite all the training, there was one issue that I noticed. My body and magic weren't improving nearly as fast as when I went into the Tainted Land to kill Dark Beast.
Knowing that I wasn't improving faster to get to the point that I needed to be to face a God gave me a feeling of desperation, but I had to shake away this notion, since getting the power to fight Salrak still took me many years of intense and constant training.
While everyone else was distracted, I pulled out my phone to check my bank account.
There was one skill that I had improved in this time, and that was my ability to use the phone. I no longer took quite as long as I used to write things on the screen, and now it was easier for me to understand how to use the computer. But it seems like I still have a long way to go, as Nicole still teases me by saying that I use those artifacts as if I was a grandma.
I had also learned something important about the magic that they use in movies, and that was that they use computers to create that magic. I couldn't really understand how an artifact that has no magic could ever create the magic that one sees in those superhero movies, but that could just mean that I still have a long way to go before I could really understand how these things work.
While pondering those things, the bank app finally showed me the screen with the amount of coin that I had. I frowned as I looked at the number. I was nearly at zeros again, which meant that I had to once again find a way to earn money. And the only way that I knew was to go back into the Tainted Land and get paid for extracting Magic Cores.
I swapped the app over to the chatting one. I wasn't someone who liked to use these things to chat, mostly because I was far too slow to use it and almost every time I tried to use my voice to send a message, it would usually come out completely broken up.
There was one thing I noticed about the way others used it, and that was that people seemed to like to send strange things—Nicole and Bo'guth in particular. They both would send me drawings of either a 'cartoon' cat or a demon, with Bo'guth exclusively sending those things without saying anything, even after all these weeks.
And now that I was planning on going back to the Tainted Land, it was as good a time as any to tell him that I'd be going over.
After sending a quick message that said I'll be passing by, he replied almost immediately with a drawing of a demon giving me a thumb-up—something that he liked to use a lot.
With a shake of my head and a sigh, I put away the phone.
"What's wrong?" Victoria asked, shifting her attention from the others to me while carrying the same soft smile.
"It's nothing important. It's just that I'll have to go to the Tainte—Capital Magic Labyrinth soon," I said with a serious tone.
"Huh?!" the other three people exclaimed as they turned to look at me.
"You have to go to the Capital Magic Labyrinth?" David asked with one eyebrow raised. "I don't remember there being an excursion, or being asked to do that."
"I'm simply in need for coin, and that's the best way I know how to get it," I replied and poked the food on my plate with a fork.
"Wait! If you're going, then, do you think that you can take me as well? I think that that's what I need to become—"
"Absolutely not," David interrupted with a stern glare directed at Steven. "You can hardly lift your weights and do a handful of pure mana balls. What makes you think you're going to survive in a Magic Red Zone?"
"W-well… maybe if I stick in the back and watch… it could be a good—"
"No, don't be stupid. You'll just die," David interrupted with a shake of his head.
"Hehe, I must admit that I'm also tempted to go but…" Nicole said as Steven was taking air to continue. "It's better if we listen to you. Right, Althea?"
I nodded. It was true that if there appeared another Unholy Dark Beast, I wouldn't be able to keep someone like Steven or Nicole safe with my current power. I might not be able to even keep Victoria okay if she went into a panic. As for David… he might be able to pull his own, but he doesn't seem particularly interested in going with me.
"I don't think I have the power to keep you safe. You need to be able to defend yourself in those places," I said before taking a bite out of my meal.
Steven grunted with a pout and sat back straight to finish his meal. Nicole simply smiled and did the same, while David turned to me with a wide smirk.
"Well then, if you're planning to go in there, you better be on top form, so what do you say we go all out today and get the most out of the training. In a couple of days, you'll feel that improvement," he said and slapped his fists.
I wasn't planning on doing that, but it could be a good way to prepare myself for anything if I asked Reeta to fight with me with as much as I can take. So I nodded in response and quickly finished my meal so we wouldn't waste any time getting to training.
* * *
"Hi-yah!" Reeta exclaimed as she threw a punch my way.
As David suggested, I went to ask Reeta to spar with me and to take it as far as I could handle so I might be able to easily see the holes in my defenses, and anything I might be lacking in my attacks. At first she was somewhat reluctant to fight, as she already knew that all I needed was simply power, but when I told her I was going into the Tainted Land, she agreed to fight, believing the same in that I should see for myself how far I could go.
I could clearly see all of her movements, it was just difficult to properly react to her with my current power. But that didn't mean that I couldn't.
I blocked the punch with my own hand, and followed it up with a mana explosion that I had prepared in case I managed to block her. It activated as soon as she touched my skin, creating a bright blue pulse that pushed her back a couple of steps. I followed up with a wide kick, imitating one of David's moves as I created a powerful blade of wind.
And just as swift as the wind, the magic struck Reeta, sending her flying a few more steps back.
The Beastkin woman smirked after blocking the attack, and with the same nimbleness that she usually moved, her body blurred and she reappeared right in front of me, as if what I had done to push her back was nothing. She followed up with the same kick, only that she wasn't shy about using fire to follow it up.
She was much faster than me, so I had to keep barriers and defenses up constantly to ensure that none of her attacks could directly hit me.
However, the first one I had prepared was easily broken, shattering in pieces just like glass, before her kick landed on my raised right arm. There, another skin-tight barrier activated, withstanding the blow from her kick and allowing me to follow it up with a lightning bolt from my other hand.
Surprisingly, she reacted just as fast as I had done to activate the lightning, and with a slap of her hand, she redirected the spell to the ground, creating a bright blue light as a thunderous explosion resonated in the gym.
Reeta wasn't one to let any opportunity slip, so that slap was followed up with a swipe of her claw-like nails, which were ripping the air as they were getting closer to my face. I couldn't let her hit me. The body of the Beastkins is their most powerful weapon, and such an attack could break all of my barriers and even my skin.
I empowered my legs with as much mana as my body would allow me to wield and kicked the floor to jump back and away from her. By the hair of a bald frog, I managed to dodge her claws and take a long distance from her. But there was no room for resting, so even as I retreated, I activated as many spells as I could.
From the ground, a rock spike popped up right under Reeta. It was coated in lightning to ensure it would do as much damage as possible. From where I was standing, I sent an ice spike which was pushed by a jet of powerful water. And from above Reeta, I used what I had left of my mana to create a weapon, which was a sharp spear of mana that I pushed down with as much strength as I could.
Reeta raised her eyebrows in surprise, and the spells all landed on her at the same time.
There was a loud explosion of rock shattering, lightning striking, water splashing, and blue mana motes flying in every direction.
I finally landed some distance away, heaving as I tried to recover myself. We had been going for a while now, and both my body and mana levels were already reaching their limits. Reeta, on the other hand, appeared to just be enjoying herself as she just smirked and battered me as if I was just standing still.
I'd hoped that that last attack would be able to stop the Beastkin woman, but I knew that someone as strong as her wouldn't be stopped by something of that level. Sure enough, from the dust of elements and mana, she popped out like an arrow, flying straight to me.
There was hardly anything I could do anymore, so with my last remaining strength, I raised a Mana Barrier as thick as I could, but I expected her to easily break it, just like she'd done so far. She crashed with it like a ram, and the barrier stood in place, cracking only slightly.
"Hahaha!" Reeta laughed as she heaved just as hard as I was. "I had to spend a bit more mana than usual to stop that last attack. Well done!"
I just shook my head in response. Despite saying that, Reeta was completely unharmed. She didn't even have the dirt from the rocks on her, which meant that I was still a long way to go before I could go toe to toe with someone like her. She proved that even more when she winded her fist back and broke my last barrier with a powerful punch, shattering just like a wall crumbling down.
I didn't have more strength to keep fighting, at least not without harming myself or using Darkness and Hellfire, so I lowered my arms, and looked back at her while heaving. "I cannot keep going."
Reeta chuckled and nodded her head. "Yes, I can see that." She looked back at me and gave me her usual confident smile. "But, you're more than good enough to go into the Magic Red Zone. So go rest, and take your toys with you."
With a gentle hop, Reeta skipped the rest of the arena and landed outside, taking a towel as she wiped the sweat off her skin. Even then, she still had enough strength to move around as if what we had done was nothing more than just playing.
I sighed and once more reminded myself that I still had a long way to go.
I followed after her and left the arena. Nicole and Steven had been watching the whole time, and the two of them looked at me with bright eyes.
"That was amazing! I didn't know you could fight that much!" Nicole exclaimed and Steven nodded along.
I thought that the young man was once again going to ask me to teach him, but he moved with a brisk pace towards Reeta once he noticed that she was leaving. "C-Coach! Wait!"
Reeta sighed and waited for the man, but I didn't need to listen to them to know that he was just going to ask her what I thought was going to be asked of me, so I ignored them for now as I turned my attention to Nicole.
"And yet, I still couldn't put a scratch on her…" I said with a tight-lipped smile.
Nicole giggled and lightly punched my arm. "Don't be like that. If you don't recognize the good things, then you'll only see bad things." She smiled and gave me a thumb-up. "I'm sure you'll get there in no time."
While looking at the cheerful girl, I had to admit that she was right. I had once been much stronger, and I could do it again. So with a soft smile, I nodded. "Yes. Come on, I have to go rest now."
"Okay!" she happily smiled before pouting. "Although, I can't stay with you today…"
"Then I'll accompany you to the same bus stop," I said and wiped the sweat off my face.
"How do you feel? Awesome, right? When you get home and rest, you'll really feel the fruits of that training," David said as he approached from behind.
He wasn't sweating nearly as much as me and Reeta were, but he did look tired as well. He had been spending his time working out with the machines for a while, before going elsewhere to practice his own moves.
"We shall see," I said before turning towards the exit of the building. "I'm leaving now."
"Right. I'll go with you guys, since I also have to get to the bus stop," David followed up and we all left the building.