"Why did you beat him so hard?" Vivian covered her eyes with her right hand. "Do you think you're cool just because of it?"
Nathan frowned. He wanted to test Vivian's character as well to see whether she would be a good teacher or not. She might be strong or something, but if she was the type of person who abandoned her disciple or was just a full hypocrite, he would create a line between them.
"I beat him that hard to show others that I'm strong. It's not about cool or something. It's about stopping people from bothering me. I know that Fenrir is not a humanoid familiar, but I don't want people to cause unnecessary problems just for that very reason."
"Even if you manage to do it today, people might not think of it that way in the future." Vivian raised a finger. "And there will be some people paying attention to you. They'll be troublesome to handle."
"I'm aware of it. At the same time, they're not the only people. Those who are interested in me… As you said, I have to be independent. If I want to have all the resources I need as well as create a connection, I have to show my strength as well." Nathan shook his head helplessly.
Vivian fell silent after hearing his reasoning. She only added, "Well, I'll be warning the baron to not touch my disciple. However, you should have shown a weaker performance."
"If I do that, people will just come at me."
"That's exactly my point. Get some people to challenge you to a summoners war, extort them, and get a bunch of cores."
"…" Nathan was speechless. If it was just to prove his strength, fighting several people would definitely give him more cores.
Nathan had thought about this option before but chose to show his strength right away. After all, this was a test for Vivian. He said, "Is the Summoners War that the principal mentioned a joke?"
"Hoh?" Vivian's eyes turned cold. "If you're going to mock the principal, even I might not be able to protect you."
"I apologize." Nathan shook his head helplessly. "What I want to truly say is that… when there are common enemies in front of us, why would the humans keep fighting each other instead of uniting? When you are on the frontlines, why do you need to watch for an attack from your sides or even from behind? Who will suffer because of that conflict? The common people."
The answer blew Alisha's mind. Even Vivian was tongue-tied.
"For me, the duel between two summoners can't even be called a war," added Nathan.
After regaining her composure, a smile appeared on Vivian's face. However, it was filled with happiness and pity.
"Your path will cause you to be alone, you know."
"Does humanity have to face extinction first to understand the meaning of common enemy?"
Vivian waved her hand. "No. I'm just saying that this is the reason why we know the seven sins can be simplified to one word: stupidity. Those who have it will try to become the head and control over the people like you.
"At the same time, if you try to change them from within, you will probably either die as a hero or live long enough to become the same as them.
"I'm not saying your path is wrong. However, I just want you to know about one thing. What is your goal as a summoner? Believe in it and never lose your path." Vivian looked at the ceiling in reminiscence. "I hope you can become such a person."
Nathan closed his eyes. He could understand what kind of person Vivian was with this conversation. She was probably the same person as him, but ended up losing and becoming the person she originally hated.
"Take this." Vivian tossed a hand-sized crystal.
Nathan barely caught it with both hands. It was a double-terminated crystal with a transparent color like quartz. "What is this?"
"Try to infuse the crystal with your Ena."
As soon as Nathan followed her instruction, there were particles appearing inside the crystals. They were floating still, but there were a lot of them.
Suddenly, a small magic circle embedded on the crystal's surface lit up and projected a number.
"21."
"So your Ena is 21 points." Vivian nodded in understanding.
"Is this…" Nathan was dumbfounded.
"Yeah. That crystal was what I came up with after listening to your answer. Unfortunately, it could only measure people who don't have a lot of Ena as of now. After all, it's going to be hard to accurately measure the amount of Ena of someone like me. We also need a huge crystal for that." Vivian shrugged.
'21, huh?' Nathan muttered inwardly, 'Fenrir took 30% of the remaining Ena, which must be 30 at that point. And he said he took half of my Ena for the original summoning, meaning that my Ena was originally 60 points. It's much easier to understand now.'
"You get 150 cores from the match, along with your 30 cores. I want you to record the number of Ena you will have after swallowing all those cores. Of course, it'll be better if you record it one by one. This way, I can create a general amount of Ena you can get from a proto-class core. Also, as thanks for your idea, I'll be adding you as my co-author for this project."
Nathan shook his head. "I'm grateful for your appreciation, but I don't think my name deserves to be there."
"No can do. If I can't even be fair with my disciple, why would I even take you as my student? This is also so that people will recognize you more."
"If that's the case, why don't you add that you get inspiration after getting an absurd answer from a certain student? Once people know about me being your disciple, I think they will understand the connection sooner or later." Nathan suggested while adding inwardly, 'By that time, I should understand the world enough to know what I should do in case I get into trouble because of it.'
Vivian nodded. "Alright. In two weeks, you are going to Tevlan Forest with your classmates. It is to experience the fight against alien symbiotes for the first time. The teacher and his familiars will be watching over, so it should be pretty safe, but don't hold back. For now, you can go back to your dorm and continue with the lessons."
"I understand." Nathan politely bowed before taking his leave.
Once he left, Alisha couldn't help but smile. "It seems that you're pretty happy with his answer, Mistress."
"Do I look that way?" Vivian scratched the back of her head. "Well, I don't really understand him. Sometimes, he is just like a normal kid, having naughty thoughts here and there. Other times, he is like a different person."
"Still, I hope that he can grow as much as possible in the next one month."
"Yeah. It'll be time for him to summon his second familiar. If his second familiar is also an animal, it means he is different from anyone else. If his second familiar is a humanoid creature, it means this is just a coincidence." Vivian nodded.
"If it's the former, there might be a lot of people interested in him."
"I'm not going to let any of them have him." Vivian snorted.