Chapter 20 - Combat Training (2)

Slam!

“You’re the bastard who dared to injure Evelynn Isolde, aren’t you last rank?”

I looked at the boy who slammed me against the wall of the building and let out a tired sigh. He was the third one of the night and honestly, I was getting a little annoyed.

“What’s your position in the Isolde fan club? Bootlicker? Ass wiper?”

“What? I’m asking the questions here!” he yelled out.

Rolling my eyes at the cliche words and forgettable appearance, I analyzed him.

[Robert Mare]

Age: 17

Rank: F

▷Stats:

[Strength – E]

[Stamina – F]

[Speed – F]

[Perception – F]

[Vitality – E]

[Magic power – E]

[Intelligence – E]

Gifts: ▷Dash (F), ▷Wind Blade(E)

Familiar: None

Mana attribute: Wind.

“Are you analyzing me? Don’t you know it’s rude manners to do that?” he asked incredulously even as his hands remained on my chest.

“Don’t you know it’s rude manners to attack someone at night?” I retorted before yawning again.

“Anyways, I’m tired. I suggest you release me. I’m in a bad mood today.” I replied while covering up another yawn. After all the running I had to do today and even lifting weights in the training center, I was truly exhausted. All I wanted to do was head home, experiment a bit with my gift, and go to sleep since I had to do it all again tomorrow.

I didn’t have the time or patience to deal with a third-rate angry bastard who was defending a crazy girl who would probably attack him if he ever crossed her.

“You think this is a joke? I'll rip that cocky mouth of yours straight off and destroy that face of yours, pretty boy.” Robert retorted as he yanked on my shirt, wrinkling it.

“You know, normally I would just shoot you but I promised a certain professor I would be on my best behavior. Last chance to let me go peacefully.” I told him conversationally even as I created a small knife in my hand.

“Nice try last rank. I know you’re afraid of me. And you should be. Begging won't save you today. I'll force you to get on your knees and beg for forgiveness” He sneered, his mouth twisting in an ugly smile.

“Impossible.” I shrugged before stabbing the hand that held me, embedding the knife deep in his palm.

“Arggggggh.” He screamed as he scrambled backward, clutching the bleeding hand.

With no hesitation, I created my favorite bat and swung it straight at his knees knocking him to the ground. Stomping on his uninjured hand, I began my third beating of the night.

“I” Slam.

“Don’t” Thud.

“Know” Crack!

“Why do you random fuckers keep messing with me!” I grabbed his head and slammed it into the ground.

“Do I look like a joke?” I dragged him up by his uniform before tossing him into the wall, hitting him with the bat once last time for good measure.

“Arghh!!”

“Shhh shhh shhh. Remember I told you, I can’t be caught by the professor.” I calmly held my fingers to my lips. As long as he behaved in a reasonable manner, I would let him off lightly.

“You bastard! You stabbed me! I’m going to report you!” He screamed in anger as wind began circling his body.

“Shut the fuck up.” I backhanded him, causing him to look stunned. Slapping him once more for good measure, I willed the bat away, before holding my sword to his neck with a gentle smile, digging the blade in a bit until I saw blood staining his pale neck red.

“Do you hear yourself? Of course, I stabbed you. You attacked me.” Irritated, I dug the blade in deeper. A few more inches and he would be saying good night to the world.

“If you don’t want to die tonight, I suggest you lower your voice and answer some questions.”

“You- you can’t kill me. You’ll be caught and expelled! The dean would never allow it!”

“Fair. I might get in trouble, but you’ll be just as dead. Do you want to die, Robert? Hmm? And be respectful when you respond.” I pulled the sword out and lightly tapped his chin, laughing as he shook his head frantically. The kid looked as if he were going to piss himself.

“N-no, sir.”

“Good. Put your hands up where I can see them. And if I feel even a light breeze, this goes back in your neck. Now, let’s talk. Who sent you?”

“N-no nobody.”

“I don’t believe you. You're the third one tonight. Did Evelynn sick you on me?”

“No,” as I lowered the sword to his neck again, he relented, “ She didn’t! She just complained about getting into trouble with Professor Lee because of you.” Robert shouted before lowering his voice at my glare.

Hearing his words, I couldn't help but sigh. It seemed Professor Lee was correct. Evelynn was indeed petty enough to set people on me.

“Dumb bitch. And you and all the other low lives took it on themselves to attack me? What, you think she’s going to clap and cheer for you if you beat me or something?”

He didn’t respond and just continued shaking his head carefully while looking as if he were about to cry.

“Heh. Lucky for you, I don’t mind. I have a condition that makes me want to beat bastards like you up every day. Now, how much do you value your life hmm? I’m running low on credits and want to eat a good meal tomorrow. Think you can loan me some money? If not, shall cut off a body part? I heard the school nurse can heal anything as long as you’re not dead. I kind of want to see it happen so shall I use you as the test subject? Do you want to experience regrowing a limb?” I intentionally looked at his bleeding hand before smiling.

“You’re insane,” Robert whispered.

“No, I’m just very tired of dealing with bullshit because of a crazy girl with an inflated sense of importance. Plus, do you know how many miles I ran today? Just shut up and transfer the credits.”

As Robert looked into the golden eyes of the boy holding a sword to his throat while smiling, he felt that maybe had made a rash move and messed with a crazy person.

***

After that day, I slowly fell into a rhythm. In the mornings, I would go train with Professor Lee, drag myself to the infirmary for a quick round of healing from a bedraggled Professor Julian, eat a quick breakfast before attending class, and then sneak into the library. Easily avoiding Rachel’s gaze who looked despondent each time I saw her, I would exchange the books I had stolen for another batch before grabbing lunch and dinner and heading back to my dorm. Late at night, I would run to the training center to use the machines to lift weights and run according to the plans Professor Lee gave me. By the time I would head home, some loser would try to jump me in the name of Evelynn Isolde and I had to quickly take care of them so as to not to catch the attention of whichever professor was on duty.

I assumed luck was on my side as I was never caught, but judging by the knowing looks of Professor Lee each morning, I figured she was just letting it slide under the radar.

Fortunately for them, I was really too busy and tired from running myself ragged to do much more than handle the situations as they came. I had more important things on my mind.

“Still, things are going well.” I smiled happily to myself as I overlooked the numerous stacks of crates in my living room.

Mana Craftsman. This gift was truly a scam no matter how I looked at it. I analyzed the potion I collected from Rachel once more.

[Low-Rank General Recovery Potion]

[Drinking the potion would heal a user of minor injuries and help slowly replenish mana*

*Drinking too many potions in a short period may negatively affect your body and reduce efficiency.]

[Creator: Meraki Corp]

The potion I took from Professor Lee was an even higher level.

[Mid-Rank General Recovery Potion]

[Drinking the potion would heal a user of minor to mid-level injuries and help slowly replenish mana*

*Drinking too many potions in a short period may negatively affect your body and reduce efficiency.]

[Creator: Mirage Corp]

The reason I was constantly at the library wasn’t just for my classes. No, I wanted to understand the extent of what potions could do and what went into creating them.

After doing some more reading, I went to the student depot and bought 3 low-level potions for the steep price of 3000 credits apiece.

[Low Rank Mana Potion]

[Creator: Meraki Corp]

[Low Rank Stamina Potion]

[Creator: Meraki Corp]

[Low Rank Energy Potion]

[Creator: Meraki Corp]

All the low-ranked potions at the student depot were naturally manufactured by the Meraki family.

After analyzing them repeatedly, I began trying to craft the potions with my gift. The results were less than successful.

[Low Rank Mana Sludge]

[Creator: Asani Martin]

[A highly volatile, highly combustible liquid made of mana. Will ignite explosively if struck with any type of force.]

[Handle with caution!]

[Low-Rank Energy Sludge]

[Creator: Asani Martin]

[A highly volatile, highly combustible liquid made of mana. Will ignite once it comes in contact with the air.

Handle with caution!]

Regardless of my will, various types of mana sludge kept popping out. All highly explosive, corrosive, and unusable unless I wanted to sell them as bombs.

After spending hours crafting a hundred of the ticking time bombs that I carefully stored in my bedroom, I made a couple more trips to the library to borrow more books about the creation of potions. Starting from the most basic informational books, I utilized knowledge to learn about the basics of potion making without passing out until I came to understand.

Mana potions were crafted as a mix of mana crystals which were mined from dungeons before being synthesized with water as well other ingredients to keep it stable. The exact mixture and ratios were something known only to people who manufactured them. But the core of it was a form of crystalized mana. The purer and denser the mana crystal, the higher ranked the potion would be. In terms of rank, a low-ranked potion would be between D and E while a high-ranked one should be around rank A.

All other potions were variations that stemmed from the base of mana potion. In theory, I shouldn’t have been able to create the potion unless I was in a lab with the proper ingredients and tools, but Professor Lee’s words kept ringing through my head. Mana craftsman was a nonsensical gift that made whatever I understood and could visualize possible. Even with that gift alone, it might not be fully possible to do what I wanted. However, she wasn’t aware that I had an even more nonsensical git.

Beloved by Mana. I could communicate with mana. Mana loved me. Anything was possible with mana. That description gave me hope. It was because of that gift that I could use Mana Craftsman as much as I wanted with no limit and rarely suffered from depleted mana.

Thinking it through, it should be possible for me to make a mana potion with just these two gifts. Since the core of a potion was in essence crystalized mana, Beloved by Mana should be able to fill the missing gaps.

Additionally, I had never gotten the message that I didn’t have enough knowledge to create the object. The problem lay with my lack of proficiency or the rank of my gift. What I wanted should be possible if the rank of my gift increased.

During the time I had between going to class, and training I proceeded to craft any item I could think of. Pens, papers, books, weapons, clothing, small furniture, and anything that I had analyzed previously I tried to create before imbuing it with random attributes. I repeated the craft and imbue cycle, giving myself several nose bleeds, using up all the mana potions I bought, and almost passing out before finally, success. The two gifts went up a rank.

Beloved By Mana(E): Anything is possible with mana. The user can communicate with mana. Mana is attracted to you. Mana barriers have difficulty working on you. Mana can be used to easily enhance your physical skills. Mana is reluctant to harm you. Mana will heal you slowly. The user can use any attribute of mana with equal mastery and no harmful effects.

Absorb(Passive): the user will passively absorb mana to replenish their own*. When using mana, more ambient mana will be utilized along with the user’s own mana.

*When at rest the absorption rate is higher.

Mana Craftsman(E) (44.00%): Create things out of mana.

Craft(Active): The user may craft any object that is visualized and understood. The object will last as long as the user's mana is available. Analyzed objects may be recreated at the user's level.

- Limited to creating objects totaling a size of three cubic meters and 90 pounds in weight.

- By utilizing extra mana, the crafted object may become permanent.

- Store a preset of three crafted and imbued items (1/1)

-*Creation of non-permanent objects will increase gift proficiency by a minimal amount.

- *Creation of previously crafted objects will increase gift proficiency by a negligible amount.

Imbue(Active): The user can imbue mana traits into objects.

- Able to imbue up to 3 traits in an object.

I glanced at my status sheet with a smile, happy with the payoff that I saw.

[

Asani Martin

Child of the Nox Clan

(Cursed L-Rank)

(Blessing L-Rank)]

Age: 16

Rank: F

▷Stats:

[Strength – E]

[Stamina – E]

[Speed – E]

[Perception – F]

[Vitality – E]

[Magic power – E]

[Intelligence – A]

[Charm – A]

Gifts: 3/3

Gifts: ▷Eye of Odin (D), ▷Beloved By Mana (E), ▷Mana Craftsman(E)

Familiar: None

Mana attribute: N/A

]

Due to the training with Professor Lee, I was more than halfway to Rank E. The only stat holding me back at E rank was perception.

Sighing happily, I sat on the couch in the living room and held my hand over the coffee table.

“One more time. Craft low-ranked mana potion.”

A black light flashed and an ominous-looking black liquid in a black test tube appeared.

“Analyze”

[Low-Rank Shadow Mana Potion]

[Creator: Asani Martin]

[ Drinking the potion will slowly replenish mana*]

[*If the potion is drunk at night, the effects will double and mana will be replenished at a slightly faster rate.]

[*As the creator has high mana affinity, the purity of the mana potion is high and there should be no negative side effects due to overconsumption.]

“Beautiful. I quickly drank it, feeling my mana immediately replenishing.

“Craft another one with the creator as Nyx.”

Another potion appeared on the table.

“Analyze”

[Low-Rank Shadow Mana Potion]

[Creator: Nyx]

[….]

Perfect.

Once I got the groove of creating potions, it was easy, especially as I could drink as many as I wanted while creating them.

Getting off on my own supply I supposed.

Having achieved the most important step in the School Convenience Store Plan, it was time to focus on crafting my idealized weapon.

Crafting bullets was easy enough even though I couldn’t imbue more than one trait inside them due to the low rank of the bullet. Still, I replicated the magazines given to me before imbuing each bullet as I wanted. I created a variety of options from explosives, to freezing, to wind cutting, and tested them out on Professor Lee with various degrees of success.

As for my shortsword, I crafted a version for my own use and it was my crowning achievement during this period of crafting. I had painstakingly looked up attributes of weapons and tried different combinations until I found the ones I thought fit best.

[Shadow Imbued Shortsword]

[Concealment (D): The user becomes difficult to see in darkness

*Utilizes the user mana for each use

]

[Fortified (B): The sword becomes as strong as the average between the creator’s Magic Power, rank, and intelligence)

*Due to a high mana affinity, two ranks have been added.]

[Blind (D): Temporarily blind the target with a shroud of darkness*

*If the target’s perception is higher than the rank of the effect, the effect will not work

*More effective at night

*Utilizes the user mana for each use

]

“Now time to test it out on the professor.” Smiling to myself at the thought of shocking Professor Lee, I happily went to sleep.

*****

As soon as I appeared on the eastern track field, I heard the familiar sounds of two wolves howling.

“You know the drill, begin running. 20 laps.” Professor Lee told me with a cold smile.

“I feel like the number of laps keeps increasing,” I grumbled as I began stretching.

"They are. Your stats are going up. And you smell….stronger? Stats and a Gift rank up?” She began sniffing the air and I backed away.

“You have the nose of a dog. I can’t hide anything from you.” I muttered under my breath.

“Wolf actually and the ears of one too. For that alone, add an extra 10 laps.” She bared her teeth before turning to the wolves.

“Little Red. Since Asani here has started getting cocky make sure to properly chase him today. If he dares to slowdown, properly burn him to a crisp.”

The wolf with the red gem panted with what looked like laughter as his large paws began glowing and were slowly engulfed in flames. As he took a step forward, I could hear the ground sizzling and see smoke rising as the grass around it turned black. The air around it began shimmering from the heat rising from it and I could feel sweat begin to drip down my face. Of course, Professor Lee looked cool as a cucumber.

“Red, my favorite wolf. Would you be interested in a very tasty very expensive steak from the dining hall? It’ll be all you can eat. All you have to do is turn off the flames” I asked hopefully. Unfortunately, he shook his head and stretched before shaking its whole body, the flames around its legs growing bigger.

“Is it too late to apologize?” I gulped as I glanced at Professor Lee.

“Most definitely. If you don’t want it heard, you shouldn’t have said it in the first place. Now, if you don’t want to get turned into barbeque. Run.” She growled.

I ran.

Then when it was time to fight, despite utilizing my new weapon, she simply laughed before proceeding to beat the living daylights out of me in the name of training.

As I lay panting on the floor, parts of my training uniform burnt to a crisp, I heard the professor’s amused voice.

“What did we learn today?”

“That the elderly have better ears than expected?” I quipped, laughing to myself.

Professor Lee: “……” Perhaps she was losing her touch and hadn’t beaten him enough?

I felt sharp teeth nip my leg and I couldn’t help but chuckle as I sat up.

The wolf with a blue jewel bit at my leg once more before shoving her face and body into my lap.

“Blue, you’re way too big to be doing this,” I grumbled as I pushed her away but she came back to lick my face before plopping directly on my legs and letting out a cooling mist. Sighing happily at the cold air emanating from her body, I patted her head.

“She likes you quite a lot.” Professor Lee commented.

“All animals like me.”

“Because you bribe them? I see you sneaking her treats when she’s supposed to be chasing you. She’s getting fat because of you.”

Asani: “…”

“Anyway, professor I have a question about-”

“One second, there’s a rat skulking about.” Professor Lee cut me off before turning towards the forest.

With a quick movement, she grabbed her spear and threw it into the forest.

I focused on it, watching with maximum clarity as it flew over a thousand yards away and pierced the trunk of a tree, causing the whole thing to violently vibrate and all the leaves and small branches to fall to the ground.

Once the shaking stopped, a figure on one of the thicker branches was exposed. It was a girl in a black skin-tight suit wearing a plain black mask with only holes for the eyes. In her hands were a pair of binoculars that sparkled in my mana vision. As I focused on the mask, it looked like a layer of mana disappeared and a face I saw daily in class was visible to me.

Even across the distance, our eyes met, and she waved and blew me a kiss before fading away into a purple mist.

“Little Blue, stop being lazy and go get my spear. You need a run.”

After whining for a bit, Blue ran off into the forest and the professor turned to look at me.

“Your little girlfriend?”

“I don’t know her.” I immediately denied it.

“Sure sure. Keep lying.” She snorted. “What did you want to ask?”

“What exactly is perception and how do I raise it?”

“You can consider it a way of interacting, experiencing, and observing the world. There are your five senses which when trained fully increase your perception but with the addition of mana, you can think of it as gaining an extra sense, almost a sixth sense? It develops differently per person. Some people gain enhanced physical senses, and some can utilize mana to the same or better effect. When battling others or even fighting in a dungeon, it can help you anticipate things, notice things you might otherwise miss, and more.

“Mmm, would it be something like increased reaction speed or visual acuity and do you gain an actual skill?” I asked in a confused manner.

“Yes and no. It’s difficult to explain but as it increases, you’ll definitely notice the effects. Why are you asking? Is yours low? With the way you fight, I figured it would be one of your higher stats. Your eyes are very good.” She commented.

“It’s my lowest stat. Everything else has gone up but that.”

“Hmm, so you should be close to becoming rank E. Good. We can have you join the disciplinary committee soon and you’ll need to be at least that for our first combat outing.” Seeing the professor chuckle darkly, I could only hold back my sigh. Anytime she laughed like that, I knew it was the prelude to a time of suffering.

“Heh. Anyways, you know my answer is always more training so add in another segment when you go to the training center. One of the rooms there simulates battle against a variety of monsters. You can try the perception battle setting there which should at least help you raise your physical senses apart from just your eyes. With the way you are now, you can probably last up to the third level there. Maybe the fourth if you really put everything on the line. Either way, take lots of potions with you. The room won’t let you die, but you might get close. The injuries you get will be quite real hahaha“

Asani: “….”

“Don’t make that face, isn’t it fine as long as you don’t die? You won’t have the opportunity to practice safely once you start tacking dungeons.”

“….I guess. I’ll try to do that then.”

“Good. See you in class.”

As she turned to walk away, Red came to lay by me with a pleading expression while whining.

“No. You burned my clothes up. Your steak money is going to be used to replace it.”

“Whine.”

“I don’t care that she’s your boss.”

“Whine.”

“Look at Blue. She’s a good girl. She never hits me with ice or water when it’s her turn to chase me. It’s always you that’s burning my things up. Do you think you’re a flame thrower? And don’t think I didn’t see you laughing. See if I bring you treats again.” I lightly smacked him on the head.

“Whine.”

Seeing the wolf still pleading, I sighed before relenting, scratching his chin and whispering, “Next time control the flames to not touch me okay? Just pretend to hit me with it. I’ll bring you some bacon next time.”

“I can still hear you! Stop bribing him!” Professor Lee yelled without looking back.

Winking at Red, I mouthed, “Our secret.”

The large wolf panted happily before imitating Blue, plopping down on my lap and licking my face.

Disgusted, I shoved the big head away, “Go away. Your breath is hot.”