Alyssa saw the breakfast made from the meat of monsters with a lot of mana in their bodies. Unfortunately, not every monster was edible, and some were even poisonous, so such food was very expensive and rare for other people.
But Alyssa didn't have a surprised expression on her face. Being in the Ranker's dorm for months, she also had similar dishes, which helped young hunters a lot.
Emmy didn't speak a word as she let Alyssa eat peacefully.
After some time, finishing the breakfast helped her recover some of her energy, which was spent ranking up to D-Rank.
She had spent a lot of energy creating another mana ring, so she needed such food to replenish her body quickly.
In the practice area at the end of the hallway,
Sweat was dripping from Asher's head as he was breathing heavily. Training for three days straight was not something people his age did.
His body temperature was quite high as he had used his mana circulation a lot in the short span of three days. And combining it with various techniques increased the strain on his mana meridians.
[ Mastery in Node Art is increasing (21% → 23%) ]
Asher moved his sword upwards as the aura around his sword grew bigger.
He had finally mastered the second step that was needed in the technique he was trying to master.
A thin coating of mana started to envelop the sword below the aura as a shell was created.
He looked at the dummy target before him, moving his sword to strike the dummy. But he didn't move his sword fully. Despite reaching halfway through, his aura had already struck the target.
[ Host has learned Phantom Strike ]
[ Mastery in Node Art is increasing (23% → 27%) ]
Asher's eyes looked at the dummy, and he saw a small cut on it. The principle behind the technique was to mimic an aura attack while making a pseudo sword using your own mana as a shell.
But this was just a product of the second step; it was not a powerful attack but added versatility to Asher's attacking skills.
Asher dropped the sword on the ground as he sat, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
"Huff, huff, huff," His breathing was out of order because this one strike took a lot of practice for him to successfully pull off.
There were similar attacks like his new Phantom Strike, which used aura to create a medium-range attack, but pulling off such a thing using much less mana and at his current rank was only possible due to his unique sword art.
But despite the similarity, he could feel that it was not the true potential of this skill.
"It's incomplete," Asher felt this technique was incomplete.
Something felt off in his attack; there was no essence behind his strike like he did with Swift Strike.
The fact that he could change his feints into actual attacks, but if their damage was low, it would not work against stronger beings.
"Is this related to that scripture," Asher thought of that one scripture that he could not see completely.
But he stood up again as the defensive technique was still incomplete, and it had one more crucial step that Asher needed to do correctly.
The third step, which was needed to perform this defensive technique, was a tricky one. Asher needed to control the mana outside his body and use that mana to move his aura around the air to create a barrier of sorts.
This special technique allowed him to form a shield with a single slash of his sword, but the third step had tremendous difficulty.
Even now, performing the first and second steps in continuation took a lot of effort from Asher, and he needed to return to the World Academy, so he decided to stop for today.
Asher stood up and went to the shower in the training facility. Most of his body was red due to the amount of mana he was trying to control both inside and outside of his body.
After a couple of minutes, he left the room and went to the hallway, where he saw Alyssa coming out with Emmy.
"Young Master, your breakfast is ready," Emmy said.
"You are done with your training, right?" Asher asked Alyssa, who was looking at him.
"Yeah," she replied.
"We will leave for the World Academy soon, so you can rest in the meantime," Asher said as he went to eat his breakfast.
Unlike Alyssa, his body was almost out of energy. He not only needed a good amount of food, but his body also needed rest due to the extreme pressure it was under for the past 3 days.
"Make sure that nobody enters this mansion," Asher told Emmy, who was serving him his food.
"Any movements from the Moonlight guild?" he asked.
"Not for now," Emmy replied.
"If Tom asks for money, use the funds under Aztech," Asher told her.
After the quick breakfast, Asher stood up to leave for the World Academy. He had already achieved his goals, so there was no need to stay outside the World Academy any longer.
He would have gone to a dungeon to increase his level, but he had a time limit before they needed to return to the World Academy.
He stood up and saw Alyssa, who was standing near the entrance lobby of the mansion.
He could see that she was wearing the ring-type artifact she had received from Asher.
"Let's go," Asher said as Emmy opened the door, and their car was already ready.
Alyssa was wearing a hoodie, so nobody could recognize her with Asher.
Alyssa looked at Asher briefly before stepping into the car but quickly averted her gaze.
'Why am I calm with him?' Alyssa questioned herself but she had no answer for it.
In the last three days, she spent forming her mana rings to reach D-Rank, her nightmares had worsened. Even when she came out of the room, all she wanted to do was kill all those who had become the source of her nightmares and avenge her mother.
Asher noticed Alyssa's gaze but didn't react to it.
Only those two knew what was going on in their heads.
In less than an hour's drive, they had reached the Portal Dome.
Emmy checked for a second if it was safe and then opened the door of Asher's car.
Asher and Alyssa exited their car and entered the Portal Dome to return to the World Academy.
As Alyssa stepped out, her hair color was briefly revealed.
*Click* *Click*
A man examined the photos he had just captured from a nearby building close to the Portal Dome.
"Who is that?" Although the man couldn't identify the girl, a name crossed his mind.
"It can't be her," He doubted that Asher Greville would associate with a girl connected to the Garcia family.
"This should be enough. Time to send this message," He muttered, preparing to leave the building.
He had been hired by an anonymous individual to spy on Asher Greville and was provided with the schedule of when Asher left the World Academy.
"The payout will be huge," The man grinned, thinking about the money he could make from these photos alone.
"Let's go-" His words were cut short as his eyes widened in shock.
Looking down, he saw a dagger piercing his chest.
*Slash*
The man died instantly as his body slumped to the ground, and his camera got splattered with his own blood.
A mist enveloped the surroundings, obscuring the corpse and the camera.
Emerging from the mist, a woman picked up the camera to examine the photos stored in it.
The corpse had already disappeared from the ground, and even the blood was disappearing.
"Only two," Emmy commented as she browsed through the images.
She had already noticed the man, so killing him had been easy. Then, swiftly, she crushed the camera with her hands, destroying it completely.
"Idiot," Emmy said with a stern look on her face.
At first, when she noticed the man, she couldn't believe someone would be bold enough to spy on the Greville heir in Soran. Seeing it herself, she didn't know whether to laugh or be angry at the audacity of this man.
With that, Emmy turned, and the mist dissipated from the surroundings.
****************
Inside the Portal Dome,
Entering the portal dome, Asher looked at Alyssa.
"Don't reveal your rank until necessary," he advised her.
Alyssa nodded back at him.
"Any other tasks for me?" Alyssa asked, knowing the amount of resources given to her.
She knew that she needed to show her worth in some way to repay the amount of resources that Asher had spent on her.
"Not for now," Asher replied, as Alyssa was not needed for his current plans outside the World Academy.
Until the stage was ready, there was no need to bring Alyssa into his plans.
Both of them showed their special rings that were given to them by Arman and used the portal to go to the floating island where the World Academy was built.
Alyssa went ahead of Asher as he was going in a different direction.
Asher saw Alyssa's back, and his eyes went cold as he looked in a specific direction.
He tapped on his ID bracelet, messaging a certain person about something.
