Nick hated the fact that Slade was willfully withholding information from him, especially now when he was so close to a giant, menacing snake.
(What is going on Slade, why did you lead me to this place when there's a vicious monster living in that lake?)
[Vicious? Do you see the aqua serpent trying to attack you? That creature has strength equivalent to a rank 4 Apprentice Magician but it won't necessarily attack creatures that aren't even as strong as a rank 3 Apprentice Magician unless you get too close to the lake. The magic energy coming from this magical beast acts as a sort of repellent for other magical beasts just like the soul eating lion that I possessed before so you should be safe for tonight, that is, from magical beasts.]
Nick was relieved upon hearing Slade's explanation. He walked a couple of meters away from the lake and found a low standing tree; Nick sat on the ground with his backpack, leaning on the tree and closed his eyes in order to try and get some rest but he was so uncomfortable that it took him over an hour to fall asleep despite his tiredness. By the time Nick fell asleep, the area had already gone completely dark, the only thing that could be be heard being low howls in the distance and the slight movement of the lake water.
Hours passed by and soon the darkness eventually faded as the sun rose from the east.
Nick woke up and got to his feet, letting out a mild groan.
(Sleeping in that awkward position messed up my back, this sucks. Sigh, I don't even have a place to take a shower.)
Nick thought about the stream that he had seen when he first got to the realm but shook his head. There was no way he was going to try to find that stream again just to wash himself in it. Nick took a bottle of water from his space band and used some of it to wash his face. He then took a meal container from the space band and spent the next twenty minutes sitting by the tree where he had slept all night, eating. When he was finished eating, Nick got up from his sitting position, stored his meal container and water and picked up his backpack.
"I'm ready to move out."
Slade chimed in:
[Then lets get to the soul eating lion graveyard, I'm about to place the directions in your thoughts. Let's be quick about it.]
Nick nodded in understanding. A few moments later, after the directions appeared in his mind, Nick started his journey through the woodlands again about one hour after sunrise and kept moving through the trees, shrubs, bushes and occasional tall grass until he came upon a familiar scenario. When Nick had momentarily stopped by a large tree, a soccer ball sized fireball was shot towards his position. Nick jumped out of its path with a sense of calm and landed a few feet away from his original position, searching for his attacker; Nick found a toddler sized bipedal lizard closing its mouth, emanating magical energy from the distance.
(I'm starting to get the hang of sensing the magical energy of these beasts. Much of what I'm sensing should be fire magic, right? This creature tried to surprise attack me instead of making its presence known. The last time that I met one, as soon as its attack failed, it ran away. This magical beast is most likely physically weak, just judging from its size and behavior.)
Slade chimed in:
[Not bad, kid. Your analysis is fairly on point. I call that magical beast a sneaking lizard; generally, they are only as strong as a rank 1 or 2 Apprentice Magician. You are not very likely to run into a magical beast that is as strong as a rank 3 apprentice Magician because the few that exist in this realm are in hiding, slowly growing their strength. That is because there are a few magical beasts that have strength equivalent to rank 4 Apprentice Magicians that kill anything they find with strength rivaling rank 3; you don't have to worry about them even if you run into them because you are so weak and they won't waste their time killing you; once a magical beast gets to about rank 4 strength, it will develop human like intelligence. As for the wary dogs, despite their tendency to grow to large sizes, their magic power never gets stronger than rank 2 but there are many of them and they breed like common rabbits.]
Slade's explanation only took Nick about a few seconds to process before he struck out with two of his throwing knives in hand, one in his left, the other in his right.
(Big.)
(Big.)
Nick's spell, Big, can only be activated on one individual target at a time since activating it requires a fair amount of concentration on his part and so Nick pointed the knife in his left hand directly at the sneaking lizard and its blade extended towards the magical beast in an instant. As if sensing the danger, the sneaking lizard moved out of the way with a supernatural quickness so characteristic of lizards but as soon as it got to its new position, the blade of Nick's second knife was already only an inch away from it.
SQQQQUEEEEEEEL!
The sneaking lizard made a shrill sound just as it was stabbed in the abdomen by the throwing knife; the lizard bled profusely for several seconds before it died.
(I won the bet; it really did have a fragile body. When I extended my knife the first time, I knew that the situation would go one of two ways: the sneaking lizard would either dodge to the left or to the right. Lucky for me, it dodged to the right where I was already planning to extend my second knife towards. The worst case scenario would be if the lizard dodged to the left and got enough time to run away but that didn't happen, its loss is my win.)
Slade was clearly pleased with Nick's display.
[Your lack of other spells to use is a clear problem but since this realm is not so dangerous and you were sent here for an exam, you should be fine for now unless you do something really stupid. Decently done, kid, however I'm only saying that because you manged to kill it. If you had allowed it to escape despite using your spell, I would have called you trash; half baked plans like the one that you just pulled off are a waste of time and magic energy. You should have just kept moving towards your goal if you did not have a more effective way to kill it.]
(Huh? So you are saying that I should have just let that thing off after it tried to attack me. What if it followed me when I ignored it and tried to attack me again?)
[Then that would have been its funeral but I know that you were attacked by one of these beasts before and saw their nature. The probability that that beast would have followed you is almost nil and if it did, that would have given you a more realistic chance of killing it, using the terrain and your own wits. Instead, you chose to gamble on whether your attack could kill it, possibly wasting your magic energy and your time and now that you've killed it, tell me what you've gained?]
Nick wasn't sure what to say for the moment; he looked at the lizard's carcass and knew that he could do nothing with it but he did not want to prove Slade's point.
(I gained experience in killing a magical beast.)
[Ha, ha. Experience in killing a magical beast? Listen to me kid, a warrior acts and only fools react. Your objective is to get to our destination, that's it; not to engage in fights with lowly creatures. If it had stood in your path, then so be it but it only sent a measly attack your way and you've delayed your objective just to waste time killing it and you've gained no real material benefits from killing it. Killing, whether it's magical beasts or other humans is merely a tool to gain physical benefits, not to stroke your own ego. Don't waste anymore time with the irrelevant and head towards our destination.]
Nick could partly understand Slade's line of thinking but it still felt a little unnatural to him; he continued on his journey thinking about what Slade said to him.
[You think what I said is unnatural? Of course it is, most people operate based on the idea of an eye for an eye despite there being all sorts of available wisdom that encourages otherwise. They think: you attack me, I attack you. While that sort of thinking does have its place, that should not be the foundation of your thought process. As a Magician that won many difficult battles, kid, I can say with confidence that the only thing that matters in the end are the material benefits that you gain from the conflict. In other words, if there's nothing to gain, don't waste your time with petty conflicts.]
Nick thought about all the time back in high school when the other students slandered him and he did nothing about it, only focusing on studying.
(Was I right back then? I thought that even if I became violent in that sort of situation, it would somehow make things worse. But in the end I had no one's respect and I was treated as an outcast and a fool. If I had openly went against the people who were causing me problems...)
[What? You think you would have gained something like respect from your peers? Ha, laughable! Kid, the only kind of respect that matters to a Magician is 'self-respect' and that comes from doing what is best for you and what you have the stomach for. You say that they did not respect you, but did their disrespect alter your future or make your hard work invalid? No, it did not. Take pride in enduring the problems that they brought to your doorstep and doing what you had to in order to safely and efficiently achieve your goals. There is no shame in that. If I had understood that in my younger years, believe me, I would have gotten to my strongest level many times sooner.]
Nick clenched his right fist, some of the doubts that he held for so many years fading away at this time. He slowly unclenched his fist as he moved past the trees and said to Slade:
(I understand.)
[Good.]
Nick moved through the woodlands for another three hours before encountering an area of mostly plain grassland. Nick moved away from the trees and heard the sounds of battle in the distance. All sorts of lights from spells and sounds coming from wary dogs could be seen and heard, the fighting being visible from his position. Slade spoke with a solemn tone:
[We are heading into the wary dogs' main territory and away from the influence of any of the rank 4 magical beasts so you will run into magical beasts more often now. Be careful of both beasts and other humans from now on and keep moving towards our destination.]
Nick nodded at Slade's words but he still wanted to gain experience by taking a look at the battle up ahead; he could see from his current position that it involved more than two dozen students and a large group of wary dogs.
(I want to at least watch some of the battle so that I can know what the other students are capable of.)
Slade wasn't surprised at Nick's insistence on watching the battle; he knew that this young man seemed to have a curious nature.
[Fine, just don't get caught up in the fighting if you can avoid it.]
Nick moved slowly towards the battle but since there weren't that much trees around, Nick was plainly visible to the other students present who were not currently fighting. When he got to about twenty meters away from the fighting, two students came out to meet him, a male and a female. Nick recognized the female.
"Marsha!"