Kazi yawned and stretched his arms high in the air. He sat on top of the Giant Anostos Bird, his blade driven through its skull. Slowly, the corpse dissipated. All together, the XP from killing the hundred so Anostos Birds and their giant leader hit his soul.
[ You defeated Mini Boss: Giant Anostos Bird! ]
[ Receive:
990,000 XP ]
[ Level up! ]
"My mana regen is back." One arm fell but the other remained up. "Lucky Break."
[ Receive:
1x Heart of Giant Anostos Bird ]
"Phew." Kazi got up. "Have to be careful next ti. I get why dominating monsters is so specialized. You do that in the middle of a battle—"
The ground began to tremble beneath him, and with a sudden, violent eruption, a giant worm stord into the clearing and bashed against the massive tree.
Kazi quickly assessed the worm’s level—it was Level 31. He got up. As he had anticipated, the resulting commotion roused the surrounding creatures here. Previously, with his Foresight, he managed to avoid any danger. Why?
Kazi surmised that the Giant Anostos was the alpha in this region. Taking it out ant the dark tree was opened for others. In other words, all the monsters in this region were going to co and attack Kazi to take the territory.
They didn’t know it but they were leading themselves to death.
Kazi launched himself at the giant worm, spinning and tearing through its thick, segnted body from the front. Blood spewed everywhere as he cut it right in half from the front. The worm writhed and thrashed and died before being able to do anything.
’No gain XP window. The other monsters are close by.’
More and more monsters were coming to die by his hands.
More kept coming until there were none left.
That day, Kazi leveled up two more tis. He was officially Level 78.
***
Marta’s room was ssier than the last ti he ca. The blonde was sitting on her bed, books and notebooks thrown everywhere. Patches of black smoke and holes were littered on the carpet and floor. Arms crossed, tapping at her lip with a pen in the free hand, Marta couldn’t seem to figure out whatever it was that she was reading on.
Sensing Kazi’s presence, she looked up and smiled. "Oh, Kazi—" Her face scrunched up, glasses nearly tipping over. She recoiled and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ewww! What is that!?!"
"I took a shower twice and I still sll?" Kazi groaned and face-pald. "Is the sll still there?"
"Yes!"
Killing thousands of mutated monsters, from worms, birds, to oxens and dogs, and getting soaked in their blood did the worst to his natural scent. His hair was wet from the showers he took and he wore a white dress shirt and black slacks.
Marta blanched and pushed herself till her back was to the wall. "Did you try the tomato sauce trick?"
"Marta, this is the after life, not Tom and Jerry."
"But you sll bad."
"You’ve been going to university, isn’t there a spell for sothing like this?"
"No! I think! Wait, no, this was on a quiz!" Marta opened her mouth, stretching out, "Uhhhh....Healing! That would fall under Healing! Can’t be Enchantnt since it’s...I an, technically, I could enchant a better sll...right?"
Kazi crossed his arms. "The Healing Discipline is contingent on a defect. Is slling bad a defect?"
"Uh...no, sir!"
"So by process of elimination?"
"It must be Enchantnt!"
"A hundred marks! Good job!" Kazi sent a thumbs-up. A beat passed and Elena suddenly appeared.
"Kazi, you’re here too?" Elena’s nose wrinkled. "What’s with that sll?"
"I ca back from a gate," Kazi explained.
"Did you go inside a pile of mud or sothing?"
’More like a pile of blood.’
"More importantly...I brought you cake." In the arms of the middle-aged brunette was cheesecake. "Dark coffee, just the way you like it, Marta."
Marta was quite excited and took the whole cake to put in her lap. She didn’t bother to cut it into slices, she just began eating. Kazi squinted. "Don’t tell you haven’t eaten anything yet?"
Marta froze. "Err..."
Kazi crossed his arms, judgntal and stern. "Marta, I tell you to eat breakfast and drink water because I want you to be healthy. Stuffing yourself with cake is a horrendous idea."
"That’s..."
"Let guess, you’re going to drink milk afterwards?"
"Ummm..." The blonde looked like a child that broke back their report card and failed several of their classes. There was no escaping it. All Marta could say was, "Sun-young would let eat."
"Do I look like Ms. Sun-young?"
"How about we let it slide just this once, Kazi?" said Elena. "She went to school today and has been studying nonstop since then."
"That’s precisely why I can’t let it slide. She does it once and she’ll do it forever."
So while Marta guiltily stared at the cake, Kazi gave her a stern lecture on her body and health. It wasn’t like he could force her to stop. She wasn’t his daughter. But he did want the best for her and for soone that was recovering, eating unhealthy was a terrible idea.
"...know you and William used to go behind my back and went with Ms. Sun-young to the Endless Bar. I don’t mind it, I really don’t. But not like this."
"Okay..."
Marta said that but imdiately went back to eating when the lecture was over. Kazi let out a sound that was between a chuckle and a sigh.
"How was your day, Marta?" Elena asked. "Was school good? Did you make friends yet?"
"Uh...not...yet. I’m busy studying and catching up to everyone. Right now, they’re outlining the Four Magic Circle Principles and today the professor did a lecture on shape. Circles aren’t the only shape a magic circle can start with. There’s squares, triangles, hexagons, and, uh, octagons. Each has their own ups and downs. Apparently, the tiniest change in shape can change the direction of a spell. It’s interesting."
"It’s magic. If that isn’t interesting, I wouldn’t know what else would be," Elena remarked, laughing.
"If you ever find yourself falling too behind," Kazi began, "I know a guy."
The sprawled textbooks, the bad eating habits, and the fake smile she plastered on. She didn’t say it out loud but Marta was struggling greatly at Mage University. Besides the fact that she was already weeks behind in an Accelerated Program, Marta couldn’t write down notes. Oh, sure, she could draw magic circles but only after a lot of ti and effort. She just couldn’t write on the fly like a normal university student and that alone put her way behind her peers. She was pretending that the price of it was worth it; that she had moved past her prior trauma and fears.
She hadn’t but she was good at pretending that she had.
"Like...a tutor?"
"Exactly like a tutor. All you need to do..." A long pause of anticipation. "...is bring him cake."
"Cake?"
"Yep, cake. You can buy as many as you’d like at the bazaar." Kazi sent a discreet, aningful glance at Elena. Neither woman noticed, already thinking.
"Oh, sure. That’s not—"
"If it’s cake you need," Elena interjected with a big smile. "then leave it to . I can teach Marta how to make so."
"Wait, teach ?"
"You were complaining yesterday that you couldn’t cook, right? Practice makes perfect." Elena flashed a smile.
"Practice does make perfect," Marta admitted. She stared at her tal hands and clenched them. She couldn’t write like she could before. But maybe with this, she could push past her limits and do it.
Kazi believed she could do it.
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