Chapter 16
“Yes, rise!” I watch my experience bar tick up. “Rise and give me power!”
“What happened to your philosophical side?” Lyra gives me a sidelong glance. “Did you give up on that persona already?”
“Absolutely not. It shall make its return, when the time is right.”
Lyra shakes her head. “I’m surprised you didn’t drive Selkie insane.”
“She said the same thing, though I can’t imagine why.”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
The headmaster we’re talking about has yet to even fight a single mist creature. She hasn’t needed to, since the teachers and older students have been able to handle each group of monsters.
However, she has swapped tactics, focusing on ensuring the battles go as planned, rather than judging the new students on their first trip into the mist. To do that effectively, she needs to be close to the front line, ready to join the fight in case something goes wrong.
That puts her well out of earshot from our conversation, as unlike every other student here, we’ve been excluded from this battle.
We’re deep enough now that the lesser mist creatures are all but gone, replaced by nothing but aberrants. And these aberrants aren’t like the ones we fought before. They’re faster, stronger, and capable of using more dangerous magic.
And that’s quite a problem for us because of one, particular reason.
“Why do I have to sit back here and protect you?” Zoe pouts as she looks up at me.
“Isn’t guarding the world’s weakest hero an important task? You should be proud.”
“No! I don’t care about that! Do that thing! The one where you get strong! Then Selkie will let you fight!”
“I don’t wanna.”
“Do it!”
“No.”
“Yes!”
“Alright.”
“Just hurry up and–wai, whaaaaa–” Zoe’s confused words cut off as her teeth crunch down into something soft. “Ack. I bith my thongue…”
As Zoe looks up to me with tears in her eyes from the pain of biting her own tongue, I do exactly what she asks of me.
My hair shifts to a light blue, the precise color of the larger of the two moons that orbit this planet. At the same time, anyone with any ability to sense mana feels the spike in strength that floods me when I unleash Runa’s power.
But that power vanishes in a blink.
“There.” I take a sip of my fresh tea. “I unleashed it, just like you asked.”
“Wah!?” Zoe has fully recovered from her tongue chomping. “That was too quick! She didn’t even see how strong you are!”
“That’s not my problem.”
“Cheater!” Zoe pouts again.
The battle that we’ve been forced to stand and watch finally comes to an end. Although Selkie never needed to interfere, it’s obvious to me that the aberrants this deep have pushed the younger students to the limits of their ability.
The teachers and older students did almost all of the fighting, with the younger ones only acting as support. But if we go any deeper, a single mistake can lead to a cascade of disasters where the inexperienced ones can easily lose their lives.
With Selkie here, such an outcome is unlikely. But it’s not impossible.
So, it’s no surprise when…
“We’re heading back.” Selkie informs everyone as soon as they gather up after the battle. “We’ll be taking a different route than the way we came in, clearing out any mist creatures we find.”
The younger students look relieved, no doubt realizing just how dangerous it is for them to be this deep into the mist.
Though the truth is that we’re still near the mist’s edge, by my standards.
Although I have to sit out the next battle as well, we eventually reach a safer zone where the aberrants are weak and the lesser mist creatures are abundant. That gives me something to do, since Selkie doesn’t want me fighting the more powerful monsters that lurk in the depths.
Eventually, we break out of the mist and back into the clear, mid-afternoon sun.
On my first trip into the mist, I found out that only monsters on the scale of an aberrant even give me experience points. But as I am now, it’s difficult to fight them. And if I unleash Runa’s power to give myself an edge in the battle, I’ll have to spend even more time recovering before we can try to make our trek through the mist.
That’s why…
“Level 9.” I close my status screen. “I’ve nearly doubled my level in just one day!”
“And yet it’s still at a single digit.” Lyra points out the obvious problem.
“Even so, my base stat growth is far higher than anyone else I’ve met. As I am now, I can take down an aberrant without having to use my true power. Well, one of the weaker aberrants closer to the mist’s edge. The real ones deeper in would still be a problem.”
“I don’t know much about the humans, but a spiritkin is recommended to reach level 25 before facing a weak aberrant alone. Just how absurd is your stat growth?”
“Here, it’ll be easier to just show you.” I pull up my status screen and make it visible to Lyra and Zoe.
“What…” Lyra stops in her tracks. “What are these numbers!? Isn’t there an extra digit that shouldn’t be there!? There’s no way these are real!”
A few heads turn our way, from the students and teachers walking around us. We’ve kept a comfortable distance from them so we can speak privately, but that only works if we keep our voice down.
Suddenly becoming the focus of several gazes, Lyra begins walking again, as if she never said a word.
“They’re real.” I return the conversation to a normal level. “Even I was a little surprised by how fast they’re going up. At this rate, I’d be even stronger than before if I manage to reach the same level I was last time.”
“And what level were you, exactly?”
“According to all the scrying artifacts the people of this world use to read people’s stats, I was exactly level 150.”
“That’s absurd. The highest level ever recorded in the spiritkin lands is only 98. Many even believe 100 to be the limit of our physical bodies. Yet not only are you saying you passed that limit by 50 entire levels, but your real level was even higher still?”
“I knew that phrasing wouldn’t slip by you.” I give her a thumb’s up. “But just so you know, level 100 isn’t the highest humans or spiritkin can reach. In fact, humans have someone right now who’s level 102.”
“Someone that powerful exists on this side of the mist?”
My eyes fall on the academy headmaster. “Yup. She must have done a lot of fighting in these past 15 years.”
Lyra follows my gaze, understanding filling her face. However, she quickly turns back to me, a sharp look in her eyes.
“You never answered my question.”
“Eh? What question~”
“I’m not letting you dodge this one. Just what level did you actually achieve 15 years ago?”
“It’s a little embarrassing, so I don’t like to say it.”
“Don’t be shy.”
“Just promise not to laugh, alright?”
“I’ll probably be more likely to cry than laugh, though it would be less because of your level and more because of your personality.”
“As long as you don’t make fun of me, it’s fine to cry as much as you want.”
“Well, spill it. What level were you?” Lyra holds my eyes with conviction.
“I only managed to reach…” I take a deep breath. “Level 553.”
“Level…” Lyra stops again. “Level what…!?”
She manages to keep her voice down, despite her heavy tone. It’s a little unfortunate, as I was looking forward to making another scene.
Alas, it will have to wait for another time.
“Level 553. Barely halfway to my goal of reaching level 1,000. It’s one of the greatest failures of my life…”
“Failure? Hahaha…” Lyra’s laugh is as hollow as her eyes.
“Hey, you laughed!” I cross my arms and turn my face away. “Liar.”
“How?” She completely ignores my pouty mood. “How could someone that level even die? Was the Great Spirit of Night really that strong?”
“Oh, her.” I recover in an instant. “Well she had basically become a demigod, having gained control over the planet’s primary source of mana, the Well of Power. But to be honest, beating her wasn’t that hard. She actually went down pretty fast. I guess you could say I did too many sidequests before finally tackling the main story.”
“I have no idea what you mean.”
I wave my hand. “Don’t worry about it. Just know that it wasn’t her that nearly took my life, it was the out of control Well of Power, which was about to explode and wipe out all life on the planet.”
Lyra’s eyes go wide. “Something like that almost happened?”
“Yeah. If I had reached level 1,000 like I wanted, I wouldn’t have had to sacrifice my body to stop it. And Runa wouldn’t have had to save me.”
“So she was the one who reincarnated you back on Earth?”
I nod. “When she realized what I was about to do, she ripped my soul from my shattered body and flung it back. But since the Well of Power was still going out of control, she sacrificed herself in my stead, sealing the energy within and preventing it from devastating the planet.”
“But Runa was the one who summoned you back here, wasn’t she? And since her spirit still resides in your body, doesn’t that mean she will recover?”
“Not until I free the part of her that remains trapped at the Well of Power. Even if I didn’t need to retrieve my own strength, reaching the well would still be my top priority simply to get her back.”
After a rather short walk, we reach the entrance to the nearby town. It exists almost exclusively to attract spirits that repel the mist, keeping this section of the kingdom from being lost to the fog.
But it is still a real town, complete with a wide variety of people and businesses. Of course, being so close to the mist is dangerous, which is why they built such a thick wall to protect it.
Normally, anyone entering would be thoroughly checked. But with Selkie here, things like procedures just vanish like morning dew exposed to the warm sun.
“Listen up.” Selkie speaks to us after we get past the wall and into the town. “As stated before, accommodations have already been prepared for all of you. I don’t care what you do from here on, but if you’re late tomorrow morning, we’ll be entering the mist without you. And if you cause trouble in the town, you can expect to be left at the academy next time. Am I clear?”
“Yes, Headmaster!” A chorus of voices responds to her.
“Oh, and one more thing. As you know, we’ll be hunting in the mist for five days. The next three days, we go alone like we did today. But on the final day, we’ll be joined by another group.” Selkie looks over us for a silent second. “The heroes are hunting nearby, and we’ve decided to join forces for a trip into the mist.”
Selkie drops a bombshell on us with a casual tone.
Well, that’s going to be interesting.