Reader Mage 162-They Are Different From Magic

“This is nasty,” rlin said, seated beside Nora where she lay in the infirmary. “Was there no other way? What did you even do to yourself?”

Nora snorted, shifting slightly on the bed in a rather candid manner like her right arm and ankles weren’t bandaged, and a needle connected to a drip wasn’t poked into a vein on her left hand.

“Why not watch the video instead?” she retorted.

“Not only have I not had the ti—as you can see.” rlin gestured at the attire he wore, which was not much different from the sa one Nora had on, in that they were clinic gowns. “But I’m also here before you, so I would like to hear it from the horse’s mouth.”

“Then you’ll be here for all eternity,” Nora scoffed.

rlin’s eyes twitched. He wanted to smack her on the side of her head, but he held himself back. She was obviously in a lot of pain, despite how she tried to act otherwise, and he was not wicked enough to try to worsen it. And he also didn’t want to reopen his wounds by moving too much. Dr. Eleanor, coupled with dragging his mana to nearly its limits, had made a ss of his internal organs. He wasn’t even supposed to be in Nora’s room, Professor Jung’s orders, but no one was keeping him from paying his sister a visit.

“Will you be able to fight in the second stage?” rlin asked. “It’s only a few days away.”

Nora raised a brow at him. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

rlin glanced at her arm, inclining his head. “Let’s see. Whatever you did nearly ruptured an artery, which could have killed you. And then there’s the fact that you just narrowly escaped aneurysm, high blood pressure, micro hemorrhages, and—”

“I’ve heard enough,” Nora cut him off. “Not like I even understand all those big words. Geez.”

“You don’t understand much about Blood Magic and yet you were able to defeat a Blood Mage. You really are sothing.”

“Tell what I don’t already know.” She grinned.

rlin shook his head. If soone was to listen in on their conversation, they would think rlin was the smarter of the both of them and more careful. If only that were truly the case.

“Sweety!” a voice broke into the room as the door slid open. Aunt Zuzu appeared, panting. “My goodness. Are you all right?” she added, hurrying into the room.

“I’m fine, aunty,” said Nora. “It’s just a little scratch.”

“Don’t lie to ,” Aunt Zuzu said firmly. “I watched it all. The hotel has good wi-fi, you know?”

Besides the fact that making such a point felt weird, for soone who had hurried over from her hotel, she looked quite kept. rlin would have expected her hair to roughed up, her feet to be covered by pams or sandals, and not wearing any make-up. But Aunt Zuzu was not like other people. She never wanted to be caught off-guard, so she was presented in the opposite of rlin’s thoughts.

rlin stood up from the stool, and slowly retreated towards the door. It was best he escaped now before his aunt shifted her attention towards him. Nothing good would co of that. He managed to escape just a second before she uttered the famous “cheesecake” nickna she had given him, and he made sure not to look back.

Two things were likely to happen in that room. Aunt Zuzu bickering, and then she would call their parents, and they too would, as usual, fill Nora’s ears with complaints.

Until he had proven he could handle himself, rlin didn’t want to be involved in such conversations. And his fight against Dr. Eleanor wasn’t exactly the best of displays.

Chatter ca from the rooms in the infirmary building as rlin walked outdoors. He wasn’t keen on heading back to his room which was filled with the sll of drugs and the ambience of loneliness, so he craved fresh air instead. And as he had expected, it really was reinvigorating for his psyche.

rlin inhaled deeply and exhaled. His stomach stung at that, but it was bearable. Then, as he let his eyes peruse the trimd grasses and blood flowers surrounding the building in silence, his eyes fell onto a certain figure seated on a bench. Blonde hair in crown braids, and dressed in a simple floral gown. Sofia Petrovna.

rlin’s thoughts were instantly jolted as he was reminded of Aunt Zuzu’s warning.

Perhaps now was the ti he beca a man and took responsibility.

rlin walked forward, clearing his throat as he approached her.

Sofia flinched and turned around. She exhaled when she saw rlin.

“Lost in your thoughts there,” he said. “May I join you?”

She gulped. “Of course.”

rlin nodded and sat down beside her.

“Is there a problem?”

Sofia glanced at him for a second then shook her head. “No. Well, not really. I… Uhm…”

rlin pressed his lips. They hadn’t really talked ever since they had returned from the Tower of Xéros, and the way that had gone wasn’t exactly the best, which was his fault and the reason why he was here.

“I have soone I like,” rlin said imdiately, his heart sinking deep into his chest as the words hurried out of his mouth. From experience, he knew that the longer he put things off, the harder it would be for him to finally say the words. The earlier the better.

Sofia turned to him, her eyes wide and distant.

“This might be presumptuous of to say since I might have read the signs wrong,” he continued. “I’ve always known you liked , ever since that first day of our class when you approached , and my plan was to tell you how I actually felt on the day of our date. But I couldn’t. I was angry and my emotions were all over the place; I had just been rejected by the person I liked, and then that whole fiasco with the Dungeon Break, the headmaster, and the unwanted sudden popularity. In it all, you offered a sense of peace during our date. I rember asking you if you didn’t want to know, like the rest, and you said you didn’t.” rlin chuckled. “You’ve always been a nice person, and I realized that on that day, and couldn’t bring myself to tell you. But that has gone on for far too long. I don’t think it would be right to keep playing with your feelings. I like soone else, Sofia.”

The silence between them spread out long enough for rlin to begin feeling uncomfortable. A pressure pressed down on him, and if Sofia didn’t say a word for another second, he would pick himself up and hurry away from here.

“But you said she rejected you,” Sofia said. “Then why?”

“I honestly don’t know,” rlin said. “But that’s the thing about feelings, they are different from magic which follows set rules and can be explained. They make no sense. Right? Like I don’t understand how you could have possibly fallen for even though we t for the first ti that day in class. It’s absurd.”

Sofia glanced at him, letting her eyes linger on him for a mont, then she sighed heavily.

“I understand,” she stood up. “I think I’ll head back to my dorm. It’s good to see that you’re okay.”

rlin’s brows furrowed. He knew that revealing his true feelings to her would probably break her heart, but for so reason he felt like that was not the exact reason why she was suddenly in a haste to hurry away. He was curious, but he was well aware of how rude asking about that would be.

He opened his mouth to say sothing else, but was suddenly caught between two minds. Did he apologize for not reciprocating her feelings, or did he tell her that he hoped they remained friends. By the ti he was done making his decision, Sofia was already on her way to her dorm, and none of the words swirling in his head managed to leave his lips.

rlin sighed and leaned back on the bench, staring straight at the sky. It was almost evening, and the dim sky represented his current feeling.

For a mont he wondered if he had made a mistake, and to keep himself from having such thoughts he pulled out his phone and opened the System’s app. It always worked to take his mind off of things, and that was further proven as the notifications he had pushed to the back of his mind during his fight with Dr. Eleanor appeared before him.

[Deconstruction Complete]

[Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 43.5%/100%] → [53.5%/100%]

[Free Attribute Points received: 10

[That was quite the risk, rlin Tyrrell]

rlin humd at the sight. He had not sustained any injuries when he’d deconstructed the spell Dr. Eleanor used to catch Sangook’s ice magic, but it seed he had just been lucky.

[All progress increased by 20%]

[Progress to leveling up Strength: 63.25%/100%] → [83.25%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Agility: 84%/100%] → [04%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 43.5%/100%] → [63.5%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Perception: 01%/100%] → [21%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Resilience: 46%/100%] → [51%/100%]

[Free Bonus Points received: 10] → [50]

[Agility has leveled up!]

[Agility Level 45 → Level 46]

rlin pushed aside the feeling of a substantial amount of his pain subsiding and his body feeling a lot lighter than it had been a second ago, in favor of the crawl in his Resilience’s progress.

Imdiately, his brain got to work.

He was well aware that at level fifty, every gain his Resilience had was halved. What he was not aware of was that at level sixty that would change. His Resilience had gone up by only five percent, in other words it was quartered.

rlin’s breath hitched.

Since it had taken a whole fifty levels for his gains to be reduced by the System, rlin had been expecting it to take at least thirty more, or maybe even twenty more for it to be reduced even further. In Singularity Mage, Kieran only had his gains reduced once, and that was when he attained level fifty in his Attributes.

“An effect of that darn modification,” rlin swore, pissed.

He would have not been so annoyed by the reduction of how much his progress would be plagued by such a reduction if only he didn’t have to risk his life every goddamn ti for sothing even remotely worthwhile. And he was not even taking into consideration the possibility of it being reduced even further the more he leveled up.

It was so infuriating. But he took a deep breath and relaxed. There was no point in cursing; the System did what the System wanted. He would have to adapt.

Speaking of adapting, he wondered how Sangook was doing and if his father was eating into him despite the fact that Prestige Academy had gone on to the next stage of the tournant regardless of how it had played out.

rlin shook his head re monts later.

It was none of his business.

He assigned his Bonus Points to his Intelligence Attribute and then brought up the notes he had made on the martial skills Kieran had. At least, the ones he was able to get to as at where he was on his reread of the novel.

There were quite a lot of them, and rlin ca to the realization of why he couldn’t recall most of them. It was because they had been gotten off-screen, and so were even relegated to the background in most fights.

[Reader’s Bookmark] required him to understand the skill to be able to replicate it, and since most of the skills were barely used or even relevant, rlin knew he would have a hard ti replicating all of them. So he decided. He would replicate the major martial skills, and make use of the background ones as a base for creating his very own skills. He had proven that he could do that, considering he had created a few skills of his own already. [Mana Whip], [Mana Slide], and the latest two, [Mana Spike] and [Mana Spider].

The next round of the tournant would take place mid-day on Sunday, two days away, and rlin decided he would use that ti to create a versatile skill that would ensure he was able to co out victorious in his fight.

rlin’s phone beeped at that mont, and he glanced down at his screen to see a ssage pop up from a sender who very rarely contacted him.

[Park Yuri: Let’s et tomorrow. I want to train.]