Reader Mage 85-I Won’t Associate Myself With A Murderer

rlin’s gaze was plastered onto his phone, his head filled with thoughts as to how Janeth was faring back in camp, as well as how splendid her display had been in their battle against the Ice Wyverns.

He had not talked to her since then, his phone having been damaged, and now he was thinking it would be awkward if he just randomly checked in. That was also considering the fact that she had gotten into trouble because he had asked her out on a date.

He clicked his tongue, infuriated, as he scratched his head.

“Am I boring you?” a soft voice ca from the other side of the table. rlin looked up, eting Park Yuri’s quiet green eyes. “I’ve not even started speaking yet.”

He shook his head imdiately, dropping his phone on the table instinctively as he waved his hands. “Oh, sorry. It’s not that. I was just—”

“It’s fine. I was teasing you.”

rlin blanked; she’d said that with such a straight face that he couldn’t help but be taken aback. What a cold way to make a joke. He sighed.

“So? What is it you want to talk about?” rlin asked, deciding to focus on the whole reason why Park Yuri had dragged him out of his room this evening.

He had been sore after their fight, hoping to kick back and rest as soon as he’d gotten to the dorm, but she had surprisingly found his number through so arcane ans.

Anyway, it didn’t matter how they ca to be seated in a cafe opposite each other; he was so tired he just wanted to rest, so it was better if they got over things quickly.

Thankfully, Park Yuri shared his sentint.

“I’ll get straight to the point,” she began. rlin swallowed, his anticipation peaking as she said that. “I want you to help with my training.”

A gasp escaped rlin. He blinked as he arched his brows. Park Yuri grimaced and he snapped himself back, ridding his face of the dazed look that had been etched onto it.

“I’m sorry,” he started. “It’s just…I don’t understand. I should help with your training? Did I hear you correctly?”

Park Yuri didn’t hesitate to nod. “You did. I want your help.”

“Why?”

“Why?” She tilted her head. “I don’t understand.”

That’s my line…

“I’m asking why you need my help with your training when you just absolutely manhandled earlier?” rlin was genuinely curious now. Was she out of her mind, or was she just kind of slow?

“Manhandled?” Park Yuri seed lost. “I did that?”

Okay… She was just slow.

rlin cleared his throat. “I think you’re misunderstanding sothing here.” The cups of coffee they had ordered arrived then; rlin thanked the waiter with a nod and imdiately turned his attention back to Park Yuri. “Look, I was not holding back in our fight. I don’t get why you think that. You’re stronger than . Way stronger. If anyone is to be training the other, it’s you to .”

And rlin would honestly love that. If he dueled with Park Yuri ti and ti again, he would get a lot stronger. The problem was in how the duels would turn out if she kept blowing his actual capabilities out of the water. For instance, she could go all out and blast him with those fire roses of hers. If possible, he wanted to escape being turned into scorched cake.

Park Yuri’s forehead wrinkled. She stared into her cup of coffee, then back at rlin.

“But,” she said, “you kept pulling new tricks out of your bag, so I thought you weren’t being serious.”

Oh… rlin jerked back slightly, his eyes widening. It was his fault after all. But what could he do? He always tried his best to win.

He chuckled. “Haha… I understand. But I hope I’ve cleared that now?”

Park Yuri nodded.

“Still,” she went on. “I would like it if you assisted .”

rlin grimaced, picked up his cup of coffee, and took a sip. His throat had gotten abnormally parched from their conversation.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

“I’ll explain,” Park Yuri bobbed her head. “You use anti-magic and I’m a Mage. It’s only normal that training with you is going to end up boosting my abilities,” she said. rlin nodded. That much was obvious, but that wasn’t the essence of his question. “Yes, I understand that I’m probably still a bit stronger than you.” It wasn’t a bit, but rlin didn’t interrupt. “However, I have this feeling that you’re going to get stronger, far stronger than the rest of us. You just, well, give that uneasy vibe.”

Uhm… Was that a good thing? And how long had he been giving off this vibe to her? Was that why she was staring at him back at the library like she wanted to gouge out his eyes?

rlin sighed. It seed what he thought about the whole thing didn’t matter. Park Yuri was hellbent on training with him, and he honestly had no reason not to—that was besides being scorched, of course, but he would be optimistic. And, furthermore, this was a chance for him to finally scratch off one of the things he’d had on his bucket list for a while now.

“Alright,” he said. Park Yuri’s eyebrows twitched upwards. That was the height of the emotions she had displayed ever since he’d co across her. “I’ll do it; but on one condition.”

Her emotions further intensified with a series of blinks. “A condition?”

rlin nodded. “You were not expecting to risk my life for free, were you?”

“Well, technically, you won’t be risking your life since it’ll all be a simulation, and—”

“Uh-uh…” rlin shook his head. “Even in a simulation anything can go wrong. Rember that the injuries only disappear when one leaves the simulation. Have you considered what happens when one is struck with a blow that will kill them? It’s simple, really. They’ll die. With how strong your flas are, that’s a possibility.”

rlin was not just speaking without any reasoning, he’d thought about the possible ways the simulations worked. From what he’d been able to glean from his experience, the residue of the pain inflicted within the simulation always remained even if the injury disappeared, which ant that the pain was always registered. It was normal for people to die from shock, so the likelihood of one dying in the simulation simply because their brain had registered the pain of dying was very possible. So, if he was to take that risk, then he had to earn his keep.

Park Yuri stared at him like she didn’t understand what he was talking about. He blinked.

“Do you need to explain?”

She raised her hand. “No. I get it.” She sighed. “What’s your condition.”

rlin smiled. “A bow and arrows,” he said. “I’d like ones specially made for .”

Park Yuri surprised rlin by doing the impossible; she flinched, frowned, and blinked several tis. Now, that was better suited to represent her height of emotions displayed.

“What are you saying?” she blurted. “You know the Academy doesn’t allow students to wield weapons.”

She’d guessed that, because it was possible that he hadn’t known. However, that didn’t matter.

“That’s why I’m asking you to get it for , and not the headmaster,” rlin said.

“That… That doesn’t make it any better.”

“It does.”

“How co?”

“Can you get them for or not?” rlin made sure the conversation didn’t take a sharp turn in another direction.

“What do you need them for?” Park Yuri asked. “I won’t associate myself with a murderer, just so you know.”

rlin frowned. “Why would I be a murderer? Tch. Just… Get the bow and arrows, okay? I need them, and I promise it’s not for any horrific thoughts that might be swirling about in your head.”

Park Yuri paused, then clicked her tongue. “Alright. Do you have certain specifications in mind?”

rlin blinked. He had none, obviously. He had never touched a bow in his life, and the only reason why he was even considering dabbling in archery now was because he had finally grown past his childish phase of deaning the Warrior path—the reason quite apparent—and he really needed a way to attack without having to put his body on the line. With archery, he could stay a safe distance away and fire mana-infused arrows at his opponents, like he had done against the Necromancer back during the Dungeon raid exam. It would make him a versatile opponent in battle, and the sooner he started to learn, the better.

Park Yuri seed to be rather quick on the uptake with his silence. She nodded. “I understand. I have a question, though.”

“What is it?”

“Why are you asking to get you a bow and arrows? I’m just a student like you.”

rlin almost scoffed. Again, she had said that with a straight face. He settled for raising his brows instead.

“You’re the granddaughter of the Guildmaster of the Silver Dragon guild, and the daughter of one of the greatest S-Class Mages,” rlin replied. “Do you still need to explain why I asked you?”

She sighed. “No. I understand. I’ll get it to you as soon as I can.”

rlin would have liked a date, but beggars couldn’t be choosers, even though, technically, he wasn’t.

“Let’s set up our training schedule then.”

###

rlin huffed as he completed his last bench press set for the night and sat upright. Sweat trickled down his forehead, soaked his chest, and gave him a sense of euphoria. He remained seated for a brief mont to catch his breath, then he pulled up his progress.

[Progress to leveling up Strength: 83.75%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Agility: 99%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 26%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Perception: 4.5%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Resilience: 68%/100%]

[Free Attribute Points received: 7]

rlin scoffed. He had bench-pressed sixty kilogram weights for an hour, of course split into sets, and yet his growth was abysmal. His Strength and Resilience had only moved up by one-point-five percent each and he had only received two free Attribute Points.

But at least his Agility was knocking on the door to a level up. A simple run on the treadmill would achieve that for him, but he was so tired, so he settled on using his free Attribute Points to push past that threshold.

Assign two Attribute Points to Agility and five to Intelligence…

rlin smiled as his body tingled with the sensation that ca with him leveling up an Attribute, reminiscing about how his life had changed in more ways than one a few months back.

[Progress to leveling up Agility: 99%/100%] → [0%/100%]

[Progress to leveling up Intelligence: 26%/100%] → [28.5%/100%]

[Agility has leveled up!]

[Agility Level 16 → Level 17]

rlin pushed the notification away as soon as he was done and moved on to his next agenda.

Now that he had successfully placed an order for a weapon, he had to make certain that he was up to par with the way he channeled his mana to make sure he did not waste a good material once it arrives.

He had been falling into trances every night whenever he was not beat as a ans to attune better with his mana. The progress was visible, but it was still lacking. After all, he had a feeling that when he could control his mana better, he would be able to employ it into doing a lot of absurd things. And that was because he was already doing crazy things with it, like his [Mana Whip] and [Mana Spring].

I wonder why my mana is so different, though. The things I do, I doubt other Mages can do the sa. Is this all because of the System, or does being a Deficient Mage share a hand? He clicked his tongue. Too much thinking. Practice instead.

rlin closed his eyes and plunged himself into a trance. He felt his body lighten, and the bench beneath his buttocks disappear. Then he fell into a sea, warm and familiar. It was the stream of consciousness deep within himself.

rlin let himself flow into the line of path of his mana, like he always did. As always, it was rather violent at his entrance, crashing and seemingly trying to claim ownership over his own body. It was like a battle between two consciousnesses that made up one body. This made it hard for him to truly understand his mana and attune with it to a greater degree.

But rlin didn’t give up. He pushed through, remaining in its midst for as long as he could; however, his consciousness was not ant to be split apart from his body for too long. And, like he had been jolted awake in the middle of a dream, he snapped back to life with a gasp.

Tsk… Learnt nothing new this ti. Explains the lack of a pop-up from the System stating my progress. He glanced down at his palms and frowned. What am I missing here?

“It’s late, Master rlin,” Eun-Wol said from behind, her cold tone startling rlin from his thoughts and forcing him up from the bench.

He turned around to see her standing at the door, one hand placed daintily over the other just slightly below her navel.

How long had she been there?

“Miss Eun-Wol,” rlin greeted. “Sorry, I kind of lost track of ti.”

“Just Eun-Wol is fine, Master rlin,” she replied and rlin’s eyes twitched. He wanted to reply to her with the sa thing regarding him being called ‘master’, but he kept quiet on that part. “If you don’t mind prying,” she continued. “What were you doing?”

rlin blinked. “Huh?” Then he recalled that he had fallen into a trance; to anyone watching it would look like he was half asleep, or, perhaps, ditating. He decided not to lie. “Ah… I was kind of trying to, how do I put this, attune with my mana.” He noticed Eun-Wol’s brows jump up slightly. The cold maid had broken character for a mont there. rlin went on, “Well, I really don’t know what I’m doing, but—”

“How do you feel whenever you do that?” Eun-Wol cut in.

rlin pursed his lips. “Hmmm… Slightly nauseous? My mana is always so chaotic that it's disorienting. I barely manage to keep myself together after the whole process of feeling for it.”

Eun-Wol blinked. “That’s because you’re doing it wrong.”

rlin had a dazed look. “Huh?”

“It’s already remarkable that you’re able to feel for your mana, because, after all, attunent is a second year course here at Prestige Academy,” Eun-Wol said, startling rlin and filling him with a sudden sense of achievent. She was basically saying that he and Nora had already taken a step into the curriculum of the second years at Prestige Academy, which was superb. “However, if you keep going at it in the sa way as you currently are, you’ll only end up hurting yourself.”

rlin gulped. “What do you an?”

“If you keep testing the patience of your mana by willingly entering into a battle with it, one of these days, it will win. And you won’t like the outco. It’s very bizarre, if I’m being honest.”

Well, rlin didn’t like the sound of that. But he liked the way the conversation was headed. He’d already had an inkling that Eun-Wol was not your run-of-the-mill Mage, but she was proving it now. For one, she seed to be a far better teacher than Professor Jung. Which was why rlin didn’t hesitate.

“How do I win over it then?” he said.

Eun-Wol paused. “It’s simple. Don’t focus on the structure of your mana as a whole, but its molecules and how they are bonded.”

Huh? rlin’s expression blanked. What about that was simple.

But he didn’t complain and decided to figure it out on his own. However, when he looked at his palms and tried to begin the process, he was stopped.

“Surely, you’re not planning on doing that here and now, Master rlin, are you?” Eun-Wol said and rlin froze. “Please, head back to your dorm.” She turned around then paused. “Also, about coming to use the headmaster’s gym late at night, please don’t let that repeat itself. I like my sleep—a lot.”

rlin’s lips twitched. “I’m sorry.”