(EP-133.1) Exam Time #1
133 – Imps And Exam Time #1
A few days passed since my meeting with Professor Balan that night.
The spring flowers had slowly faded, while the summer heat started ramping up.
It had been two weeks, to be exact.
A fortnight.
14 days.
During that period, which could be described as either short or long depending on how you looked at it, I dealt with various bothersome tasks.
First of all, I decided to accept the Sages’ offer. Thanks to this, I received a lot of credit and was able to climb up to Rank 98, which was at Gold Rank.
And I finally had a private room!
Although it was modest compared to the luxurious dormitories of the Single-Digit Rankers, having my own personal space was truly delightful.
━You caused my ranking to drop! I challenge you to a duel-!
Of course, since I ascended the ranks in a non-traditional method, it naturally incited jealousy among others which led to petty disputes. But…
━Pauli lost? What kind of magic did that guy just use? I didn’t even see anything!
━I don’t know, something like a gust of wind shattered his armor-!
They weren’t significant enough to warrant a detailed mention.
However, it didn’t mean I was just sitting idle.
“Oh, what? You’re running a bit more like a human now, about 10 seconds faster than yesterday.”
“Haaa, heuu-.”
Thanks to Elga’s harsh training, my stamina had been steadily increasing.
Of course, there wasn’t any dramatic change. But working out diligently got me closer to the level of an ordinary person’s stamina – an achievement at my level that I could be proud of, I guessed?
“Now then, Theo. Drink this. It’s a special tonic made by the Lioness Family. Don’t mind the taste and just swallow it, got it?”
“Hieek…!”
“What are you ‘hieeek-ing’ for? You’ll freeze to death. I’ll say it again, if you spit it out, you’ll die. It’s all for your own good, alright?”
It didn’t work.
“Then can you at least tell me what’s in it?”
“… It would be better if you don’t know. Do you really want to know? Are you sure you’ll drink it after hearing it? As I said before, you must drink it all!”
“… Then I’ll just drink it blind.”
Over the course of 2 weeks, the relationship between Elga and me had been progressing smoothly.
There were really no big incidents or happenings, but Elga seemed to like seeing me work hard in my training. She even gave me expensive tonics and such.
She said it was for the body and stamina, but surprisingly, it also helped in increasing my magic power. So my Mage job was also steadily increasing.
If my total mana capacity was 200 two weeks ago, now it was around 220.
Someone might scoff and say it would only be a ‘10% increase’, but in two weeks, a 10% growth was quite significant.
In fact, even Hynax, who started to teach me magic, couldn’t believe my progress.
“Sir Theo, judging by your magic power, it looks like you will soon reach Rank 5. To achieve what took me 30 years at such a young age is nothing short of amazing. A mystery of Half-Fairies….”
“Then what magic am I going to learn today?”
“Today is also a meditation.”
“When will you teach me something like Fireball?”
“You’re already trying to learn Fireball… But it wasn’t until my fifth year that I finally graduated from meditation and learned about magic. Now let’s meditate.”
For two weeks, all I learned about ‘magic’ was meditation. Sitting still and meditating in a state of emptiness without dwelling on any thoughts was agonising.
However, meditating allowed my depleted mana to quickly replenish, so it was useful in practice.
━Jicheucheucheu-!
“Theo Gospel, it’s heading your way! Can you use more magic? Should I take him down?”
“Lady Mirna, I will take care of it!”
I stopped meditating, raised my arms and pointed the wand at the giant wasp’s head; imagining a lethal point.
─Air Bullet-!
Passeuseu.
The blast of air fired from the tip of my wand cleanly pierced through its head. The monster slumped to the ground with its wings spasming, before finally succumbing to death.
Seeing that, Mirna circled around me.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“No, I’m fine.”
I looked at the small hole in the wasp’s forehead and blew out the residual magic energy that was swirling at the tip of the wand.
Air Bullet was a modified version of the High Rank magic spell Paimon, which consumed less magic power, while increasing lethality by single-point focus.
It was good, as it was able to pierce the Hercules Wasp’s exoskeleton and defeat it with minimal magic power.
Adapting to my version reduced the risk of exposing my identity, as there was no longer a need to chant the Demon King’s magic directly. I should have done it this way from the beginning.
* * *
“This dungeon seems to be a dud. No treasure chests, no Demon King’s magic circle.”
Mirna looked at the last room in the underground dungeon and clicked her tongue.
It might be disappointing for Mirna, but it was a great opportunity for me to accumulate experience points for my Mage job. It was nothing but beneficial.
As we emerged from the dungeon to the surface, it was already evening. Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since Mirna and I had dinner together. So I turned to her and asked.
“Mirna-nim, if you have time, would you like to have dinner together?”
“Are you asking me out on a date?”
“If you put it that way, I guess you could say that.”
I awkwardly scratched my nose. It suddenly struck me that I asked a woman to a ‘dinner together’ just like that.
Of course, Mirna and I already did something more extreme than just dinner, but now, looking back after a considerable amount of time has passed, it didn’t feel real, and I wondered if I really did those things with her.
However, Mirna shook her head at my proposal.
“It feels like Narmi has been keeping watch on me lately. So, it’s a little bit inappropriate for just the two of us to be together at night….”
“Miss Narmi keeping watch?”
“Yes, it doesn’t seem like she has caught on to us… but whenever I try to go out, she always asks me about it. I think we need to keep some distance for a while.”
“Hmm…”
Edited by: faker
