Hell Difficulty Tuto Chapter 169: Bag of silver color

Chapter 169: Bag of silver color

"Nat, I think I might have fallen for Tess," Kim says.

What the heck? Why are you throwing such a bomb at

out of nowhere?

As if knowing what I'm thinking, the boy continues, "I can't tell it to Aaron or Dennis. They would surely tell her, and I don't know how I would survive that. But you, I know, will keep it to yourself."

Oh boy, should I ruin it for him? I might not tell it to Tess, but she is smart when it cos to this kind of stuff. I'm absolutely sure she has already noticed. Maybe even before Kim did, "It will pass with ti," I simply say.

Kim is only 15 years old, and Tess is four years older. The boy is in puberty, so there is no surprise he is noticing girls, and Tess is... well, Tess. Tall, good-looking, and she has an aura that no surprise attracts the boys.

I glance at him, and his eyes are still on Tess, who continues to spar with Maya. Tess is moving swiftly, her figure looking nice even in the n's clothes she is wearing. She is nimble and moves with decisiveness while keeping a focused look on her face the entire ti.

And Kim nearly drools.

Ew.

Anyway, I do not have the energy to deal with teenagers. Still, I continue to listen to him a bit longer before giving him a few more challenging tasks to train with. They are more difficult than usual and will likely take his mind partially off useless stuff.

Then, for the fifth ti, I confirm that, no, Tess and I are not dating, and I'm not thinking of dating her. He mumbles sothing about good news for Lily, which almost makes

want to call Tess here and tell her about what Kim told .

Kim probably notices that I'm at my limit, and he quickly stands up. Before leaving, he looks at , "Nat… you can call

Min-Jae if you want," he says hesitatingly, with a look like a puppy left outside in the rain.

Oh boy, "Ok, Min-Jae, now go and practice," I shoo him away, yet he still looks happy.

"I overheard bits of your conversation," Tess says as she sits down next to , and Maya does the sa. They both grab towels and water bottles nearby, wiping sweat off their faces before taking sips.

"You didn't even have to listen; it's too obvious not to notice," Maya says and laughs, "But it's kind of cute."

Lately, Maya has beco a bit more comfortable around , probably thanks to a few pieces of advice from Tess. She's not pushing as much, but she also doesn't speak as carefully, as if I would lash out after a single wrong word.

"Well, all of them are still young, and now that we are in a slightly safer place, it's not surprising. Yet it doesn't make it less annoying," Tess adds.

As the two won talk, I just listen while practicing infusing my mana and kinetic or thermal energy. I shape them into orbs and keep trying to apply them to my skills. My goal is still to replicate alghouls' flas and infuse my flas with disruptive mana. It's surprisingly difficult, more so than I expected.

"Are they at least practicing?" Maya asks, offering

so dried fruit from a small pouch she brought as snacks.

I take it and, while chewing, I nod. "Kim... Min-Jae practices the most, but everyone else does too. It doesn't feel like they are totally slacking. They're just enjoying so free monts here and there while still being aware of our surroundings." I take another piece and inspect it before eating. Tasty; I'll have to find more of it.

"Oh, he asked you to use his first na?" Maya asks with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Yes," I confirm.

"First na?" Tess asks as well, taking another sip from her bottle.

"Kim is South Korean, and they usually introduce themselves by their surnas. Kim is a surna, and Min-Jae is a first na. The order is switched compared to us. Usually, only family and closest friends call them by their first nas."

"Oh, that's..." Tess realizes the implications of that.

Yup, it looks like little Kim considers

a close friend, sothing like an older brother figure.

Momthaniel, Brothaniel, Natbro, Natmom.

Hmm, how should I call myself now? And how the heck did that happen? I'm acting like an asshole most of the ti, so why do so many of these kids look at

like that? They should be scared and do so fun stuff I can watch when bored, not annoying .

Be ready to stab

in the back at any ti, talk shit about . Anything that would make it easy to deal with situations where... I stop, I shake my head. They have to be doing it on purpose after discovering my weakness. Devious little twerps.

Hell-difficulty people are all dangerous.

So why is it even my weakness? Is it because I had a kind of ssed-up childhood around their age? Is it because their stupid naive faces are sowhat cute? Little jerks, all of them.

Anyway, back to Tess, who's staring at , "What?" I ask her.

"Are you flying, Nat?"

"Not really, just floating," I answer and continue to focus on keeping myself afloat with kinetic energy generated by my heart. I move it delicately and keep releasing it gently, instead of using force like the way I did up until now.

"Seems difficult," Tess says and moves closer to the edge of the roof, sitting there with her legs hanging over the edge.

anwhile, I'm floating just a bit in front of her, above an empty space around three stories going down beneath . Yes, it's difficult, but don't I look graceful? It's ti to improve; I can't continue using my poor man's version of flying forever.

"Lily was asking for you. Kim too, even Hadwin," she said, tilting her head slightly. I feel her mana reach out to , and she starts to observe what I'm doing to keep myself afloat.

I let her and respond, "There are two days remaining until we et with the king, so I plan to train a lot and on my own. I slacked off quite a bit the first day and helped everyone."

"I see," Tess's mana continues to observe , and I sense that even her [Psychokinesis] joins in. "I guess it's better if they don't rely on you that much and practice on their own. You can't be here forever giving them pointers."

"Sothing like that. Primarily, it's super annoying," when I say that, Tess lets out a short laugh, and I continue, "and they should be mastering their skills. Only getting advice from

might help in the short term, but in the future, it will hurt them." I send a bit more kinetic energy out and let myself float a bit higher while moving slightly from side to side. "Sure, I will share so good stuff if I feel like it, but there is a limit to it."

I pause as my senses catch sothing. "Edwal is coming," I say to Tess and then land on the roof next to her.

Then we wait as from far in the distance, golden lightning cracks, and we see Edwal flying through the air. No, it's not flying, he lands on the ground, and then, without causing any damage to the cobblestones, he jumps through the air so quickly and far that it looks like he's flying. He does it a few tis, jumping from roofs, roads, and even from so common areas, and with shining armor around him, the young blonde man lands on the roof just a little bit near us.

"Hello, Miss Hansen, Nathaniel," he greets us almost as if we're friends and smiles at us.

I then feel a pulse of mana from him as he quickly detects everyone else in the house and then turns to us. "Well, I just wanted to say that I'm disappointed, quite disappointed," he takes another step toward us and then hands us a bag of silver color, a ball big enough to fit a waterlon in.

At the bottom of the bag, blood is leaking through and dripping onto the roof, "I did not expect any of you to try to escape," he is still smiling, but the aura around him is more dangerous now, and even his eyes seem saner, "To be honest, I'm quite surprised you were able to escape my detection and cross the wall without triggering an alert, but that's it," he throws the bag at , and I catch it.

Then I also send my detection through the manor, locating everyone inside. I open the bag and pull out the head of a dead man, the last remaining mber of hard difficulty, Icy guy.

I put the head back inside the bag and then burn it with a continuous dark yellow fla, "I would like to tell you that this man didn't co here with us, and we left him behind, in between the white and blue walls. At the place you called the garden for your king's pets," I inform him, and I feel Tess imdiately calming down.

The handso blonde man then stares at

for a long mont and smiles again.

I don't know why he went to that place, but I do know that he is not normal. His eyes are absent as he looks at . He is trying too hard to not admit to himself that he screwed up. He doesn't want to admit that his mind is on the verge of breaking after thousands of years in this place and that so details he just keeps forgetting or not putting together.

Edwal is still smiling, as if the simple act of forcing his lips to twist into a smile makes him feel slightly better, "It doesn't matter that much. He was dealt with anyway."

Golden lightning starts crackling around his body, and he bows with his right hand on his chest. "Miss Hansen, Nathaniel." When he straightens up, he jumps far into the distance, lightning trailing behind.

But I do notice that this ti, he is using more energy and less effectively. He is moving it more aggressively, and there are also so cracks on the roof he jumped from, unlike when he got here before.