Waking up back in my bed in Neutral Zone, I felt my body ache since I'd travelled back to the world of SCOG mid-spar with Shizune. My arms and legs were bruised and I was drenched in sweat.
I dragged myself off the bed and walked up to the common shower to clean myself. In the shower, I healed my bruises so Agnes wouldn't get suspicious of where they'd come from and dressed in clothes that had been washed in the 'magical' washing machine which washed and dried everything in the time it took me to shower.
Returning to the dormitory I walked out of the door to go towards the gym because it was already seven in the morning and Agnes was likely waiting for me.
As soon as I stepped through, Agnes frowned for a few seconds before she asked, "Have you done anything after our training yesterday?"
I quickly shook my head and explained, "No. I had a dream where I was training though, maybe that helped?"
Agnes's frown only deepened and she looked at me with doubt, but knowing that I wasn't lying about doing anything since she could easily catch me by just checking the CCTV footage she let it go.
She helped me train my 'new' body until the afternoon when she told me something strange.
"I have a message for you from someone outside the Neutral Zone."
"Oh? Does someone need my help? Will they make my life worse if I reject them?"
"Well, they don't exactly know who you are right now since I haven't told them about you. They only requested help to heal another candidate in the Neutral Zone. If you reject their request to heal, they won't know it was you since we'll only tell them we have no way of doing what they requested."
"I…see…"
There was silence for a while before I asked Agnes, "Who exactly do I have to heal?"
"Yun Seora, she's the daughter of the President of Sinyoung. She entered the Neutral Zone with a lightly damaged right arm and focused on healing it for the entire first month hoping to gain enough points to find someone to heal it."
'Ah…I remember her…wasn't it because of her that Seol had to join Hao Win's team to earn a lot of points?'
"If she spent the month healing it did someone damage it again?"
"No, shortly after classes were decided and her class was set to warrior instead of a magician or priest, people stopped partying with her since no one wants a warrior with a crippled arm."
I frowned. While it didn't take much for me to attempt to heal her, I was wary of the people behind her. If Sinyoung learnt that I could heal others when I wasn't even a priest, they'd likely want to control me in some way, especially when I don't have a handler of my own.
Noticing my frown and guessing what I was thinking, Agnes spoke calmly, "You could try and speak with them without revealing your identity, I can guarantee you that much. If you then feel your time is worth the amount they're willing to pay then you can proceed as you see fit."
I thought for a while and nodded since I would be safe no matter my choices. I had enough trust in Agnes to believe her when she said she wouldn't let the other party learn my identity.
"Alright then, I'll arrange a meeting between you and the other party. I'll also bring along an item that will help hide your identity. But a word of advice, the other part is a little cunning, so much so that she's been given the epithet of 'Foxy'."
'Kim Hannah?'
'I see.'
"Ok."
I spent the rest of the day studying magic.
Since Agnes had deemed my basic mana control passable we moved on to the second stage which was controlling and manipulating an element to perform elemental spells.
Surprisingly the element I had the most affinity for was water and so Agnes gave me three spells to get me started on the topic.
'Water Bullet.'
A spell that shot out a single bead-sized water pellet at the enemy at high speed. It had good penetration power and could be spammed as long as there was enough mana. It consumed very little mana and I could sustain about six hundred bullets before I started to feel the strain.
'Water Dome.'
A defensive spell that created a spherical barrier of water around me to stop any incoming projectiles or weapons. It was good against blunt weapons and could be strengthened by pouring more mana into the spell. It consumed about a twentieth of my mana to cast once. Meaning I could create twenty shields before running out of mana.
The last but not the least was, 'Water Force.'
A movement spell that allowed me to expel water from any part of my body so that I could perform complex acrobatic movements and even dodge potential attacks while in midair. I could control how drastic the speed of the water expelled was with a few mana diagrams and it consumed a bit of mana each second it was kept active.
For now, I could sustain it for five minutes at a force that would keep pushing me forward so I could glide across a smooth surface.
Any longer and I'd start feeling my headache.
The trouble with these spells was not only the amount of mana I had to use to keep them active but also the mental strain it took to form the magic circles that created them without letting them break from shock or fatigue.
With the meeting time approaching, I took a quick cold shower to relax and then dressed by covering my face with a scarf while using sunglasses to keep my eyes hidden.
Above all, I used the transformation jutsu to change my appearance in spite of keeping everything about myself hidden. I really didn't want to get caught up in Kim Hannah's plot or anything Sinyoung might've planned for me.
I approached the meeting room Agnes had informed me about and found Agnes standing outside with a soft frown on her face.
She looked at me and spoke softly, "Are you sure you want to do this?"
I nodded, "You said it wouldn't affect me negatively right?"
Agnes nodded and revealed a necklace. "Put this on, they'll help disguise your voice and identity. Just relax when you talk to the lady inside and don't impulsively answer any questions that might be trying to probe into your identity."
"Alright." I nodded and took the chain necklace Agnes was holding. It had a clear shine to it and its pendant was a metallic plate carved with strange symbols of which I recognised a few because they were the same as the images made with mana for performing magic.
With the necklace hidden under my scarf, I opened the door to the room and walked in.
My eyes first fell on the office dress the lady seated in her chair was wearing before it found its way to her strangely lit eyes that looked serious yet annoyed and frustrated at the same time.
The lady stood up and walked over to me and extended her hand, "Hello, I'm Kim Hannah. I'm here to represent Sinyoung, to make a deal that benefits the both of us."