While the three poor geniuses were relatively dangerous for Michael, since all three of them are able to easily kill him, Michael was truly afraid of one of them. This genius was Lisa. This girl, at the young age of 16, has killed many men before, without being arrested. While Michael is undoubtedly afraid of Lisa, he very much cares for her, and she has visited him many times, at first it was for business but as time passed, the two became friends. They show their own style of caring for each other. They met when Lisa was 15 years old and Michael was 19, their friendship blossomed after spending a year as friends. When they became very close friends, Lisa opened up to him, telling him that for the first time in 3 years, she found someone she could trust.
After all, it is commonplace for young women with good looks and a growing body, in a poor place like this, to be taken advantage of.
Spoiler: Spoiler
At the ripe young age of 12, poor Lisa was taken advantage of her, waste of a space, father. For a full night, she had to endure his lustful advances, the next morning she broke the window, slit his throat with a shard of glass and ran away. The police found her a few days later, starving and hiding, behind an orphanage.
And due to this, Lisa acts distant and unaffected by people, but in truth, she just wants someone to care for her. When Michael was in excruciating pain from Eric's spell, she secretely visited him when she saw that he unconscious. She tidied up his place and left some food for him to eat. Michael woke up a few hours later surprised at the change in his house, but he happily ate the food, realizing it could only be Lisa, who would do that for him.
"Lisa, it's not good to do jokes like this." Michael chuckled as Lisa removed the knife poised on top of his neck.
"But that was our first greeting though." Michael turns around to see a young cute and definitely beautiful girl wearing comfortable clothing, that's fit for fighting and movement. 'She really is conservative.' Michael smiles and Lisa smiles as well, her bright red hair reflecting the sunlight. Her eyes that were once clouded are bright and clear.
"Yes, I know but... an accident might happen one day and I might hurt you."
"Pfft..." Lisa laughs "No offense Michael, but we've been friends for a year and if it wasn't for your tinkering skills, you would've been dead by now. It's like your mana refuses to grow past what you have."
Michael sighs.
"Is that true?" Demiurge asks with a slight tone of grimness.
'Yes...'
"... Damn all the hells, I'll be stuck with you for an eternity." Demiurge curses himself for picking such a shitty talent.
'I've never thought of you as a person who swears.'
"I'm a devil, did you expect me to be calm the whole time we would be together?"
Michael simplys sighs, not replying. His talent was really shitty, and it was impossible to explain why.
"Yoohoo? Pardegan to Michael!" Lisa waves her hand at Michael's face, breaking him out of his stupor.
"Oh... sorry, I was thinking."
"Sorry... I didn't meant to offend, I'm just being realistic." Lisa said smiling "I only have two years left before I graduate high school and my grades are perfect! I can aim for a scholarship once i'm in college, and I can focus on making money so I can move out of this dump."
Michael smiles happily, this wasn't finding a good treasure happy, or learning a new spell happy, this was happiness borne from the rare moments that come from a world full of suffering.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"That's amazi-"
"Come with me." Michael freezes from Lisa's offer.
"What?"
"Come with me."
Michael smiles melancholically.
"... Is that a no?" Lisa's smile disappears.
"Yes..."
"Can I know why?"
"... Is it okay if you wait?" Lisa opened up to Michael, but Michael couldn't bear to tell her of his past.
Lisa chuckles "I've been waiting for a long time now. For 3 years, I've never had someone, you think I plan on letting you go."
Michael just smiles sadly. For a while now, he noticed that Lisa has been acting weird. He suspected that she might have developed feelings for him, but Michael didn't reciprocate it, not because he didn't like her, but because he wanted her to experience the other parts of life first. Lisa has experienced so much hardship, and she worked so hard to reach where she is now, he didn't want to drag her down with his talentless self. He wanted her to be happy, after all, out of the 3 geniuses, she was the one who worked hard the most and she was the only one who had pain comparable to Michael.
"Lisa... you know we can't be together." Michael smiles, rejecting Lisa's offer.
"Why not?" Lisa asks non-chalantly.
"Because..."
"Is it because I'm 16 and underage?" she hefts her growing chest, probably around c+ and growing. "One day I'm going to be a beautiful adult! And you'll regret rejecting me!... so please?" she keeps a stern face but her quivering lips and slightly teary eyes showed that she was obviously dispirited.
Michael shakes his head one last time and Lisa sighs dejectedly. "You're stupid Michael."
"I can see that, I'll regret my choice a few years from now, I'm sure of it." Lisa storms off before saying anything else but she immediately comes back to give Michael a tight magically enhanced hug, then she immediately runs away.
Michael watches Lisa run away with superhuman speeds. 'She's faster now. At least, she'll give up on me now.' Little did he know, that a certain red-headed girl had no plans on giving up.
Once Lisa was gone to do her own stuff, Michael turns to the wreckage. Jordan and Eric were still fighting, and how everything looks, it seems Jordan is winning. Jordan's nigh-impervious body was truly a sure win tactic, Eric barely did any damage to him, even when Jordan wasn't dodging.
"It was lucky that idiot hit another idiot."
"I call that very fortunate, but is your talent really that shitty?"
"Yes, it is. Anyway, let me rest, I need to recuperate my mana."
Michael finds a relatively safe and clean spot, and proceeds to sit down and rest.
"Your talent is really garbage."
"Yes."
"Even the girl has average talent, yet she has 4x your mana pool."
"She works hard."
"I can see that. I had a glimpse of her thoughts when she momentarily weakened, due to your rejection." Michael cringes at that.
"Don't remind me. I don't want to hurt her or waste her time."
"You're afraid."
"... I thought we had an agreement."
Demiurge doesn't answer and Michael doesn't speak anymore, as he meditates to regain his mana.
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"Ahhhhh!!!!" Eric was thrown into a large pile of junk and if it wasn't for his body enhancing magic, he would be pierced by the sharp debris. 'Damn this rockhead! Why is he so hard to kill? His body is nigh immune to everything I throw at him!.'
"I swear to Paragon, if you touch me one more time with those solid fingers of yours, I'll pry them off, one by one, from your cold dead body." Eric stands up dusting his clothing.
"You started this first, and I will not stop until I hear my apology." Jordan stretches and his stone body heals all of his damage.
"I'd rather die than apologize!" Eric charges again with his body wreathed in lightning.
*A few hours later*
"That shitty rockhead, why is he so hard to kill." Eric walks back home with a huge sack, filled with the junkyard treasure he picked up.
"Smoking at such a young age?"
Eric immediately lets the sack go and turns around, only to find a knife's edge right on his neck.
"Lisa... What are you doing here?" Eric immediately turns off his lightning abilities, but he keeps his body enhancing power, just in case Lisa tries to slit his throat.
"Don't try jumping backwards, this knife was specifically enchanted by Michael, you know how sharp they are. And it's vibrating with my sound spells. One movement and your head falls off, unless you manage to focus all your mana on your neck. Only Jordan can do that." Eric sighs and releases his body magic. "At least you know how to listen."
"What do you want Lisa?" Eric stares at the older teenager with all the defiance he can muster.
"I heard you almost killed Michael."
"So? Wait... you're helping someone? Stoic Lisa?" Eric laughs.
Lisa's face was blank and deadpan, devoid of all the emotion she showed when she was with Michael.
"I never imagined that you preferred being the dominant one in a relationship. So you only prefer weak males?" Eric smiles maliciously.
"If you do that again, I will kill you."
"Kill me? Didn't you hear the news?" suddenly two nicely suited men appear behind Eric.
Lisa keeps the knife on Eric's neck.
"Eric, the organization decided to take you in." a deep voice comes from one of the men.
Eric pulls away at Lisa confidently, and Lisa doesn't move but she keeps a careful stance.
"Tell Michael, that I keep grudges."
"Why not tell him yourself?"
"It would be more fun bringing your violated body to him, with my own strength. Right now, I'm sure you can kill me but in the future, you'll be the first victim of my wrath. I've lived long enough with people like you looking down on me. I will rise to the top! Women will clamber to my bed, the gods will bow at my feet, and the weak shall hide from my shadow. I swear you will be the first one I take vengeance on." Eric chuckles as he's taken away by the men.
Lisa waits for them to leave and once they're gone, she sighs heavily.
"What did I just do......" Lisa grumbles to herself, while she walks home.
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Somewhere in the junkyard, while night continues to fall. A lone young man
"Found one!"
"What did you find?"
Michael showed a beautiful sword, its magical enchantment has long faded and it had no handle but the blade itself was beautifully made. Michael felt especially proud about what he found. He has never found a material of this high quality in the junkyard. He knew that every once in a while, stuff like this would drop, but he never had the chance to get some of them. He's about to boast to Demiurge what he found but he stopped immediately, when he heard the following words.
"That is one low-quality sword."