For the next period of time, Jessica’s celebration was canceled. From what she expected to happen to what happened after her self-proclaimed graduation exam. It was completely opposite her expectations.
Jessica had for the last three years left Mercury City very few number of times. After the first year, she stayed in the central district with Cassie for two years. Unlike her mentally unstoppable teacher. Jessica didn’t have it in her to shut herself in for such long periods of time.
She had left Joe’s place and found a place for herself inside the quieter northwestern district. In the mornings there were far more people, but when night fell, because she was situated in the inner circle closest to the central district.
Everyone around these parts had connections, in one way or another. Usually they were not moving around at night. Jessica even suspected that they too had some ways of leaving outside the front door. But that was not something she could poke her nose into, nor would she want to.
In the two years she stayed in the central district, she had been pushed into Grade D. Leaving once, Jessica felt like she had cheated. A dungeon hidden in the surroundings of Mercury City. It was a place for promotion. The dungeon was small but difficult.
As if to show that their members were a cut above the rest. The difficulty was supposed to be far higher than Jessica had expected. The reason being that Cassie started to take up attacking methods that followed what she would find inside the dungeon.
Not knowing at the time, her teacher had already prepared everything for her to advance into Grade D. To that point she could only sigh looking at Saleh in front of her. He sat there with his green hair and slightly long black hair.
He looked the same as he did three years ago, outside a difference in his gaze. Likely only noticing it because they only saw each other sporadically during this period of time. Unable to tell, she could only meet his eyes, as if attempting to discover what was so different.
“What?” Saleh couldn’t take it.
“I don’t know. There is just something different about you, just don’t know how to describe it.” Jessica spoke a bit restlessly.
“I only came by to let you know I will be gone, teacher said it is about time I go for my promotion. Also, Joe told me to tell you to come back and visit. He hasn’t seen you since you advanced.” Saleh waved before leaving after a few more pleasantries.
Stolen story; please report.
Jessica could only look at Cassie, who was sitting at her desk with a thick ledger in front of her. Unsure if it was because of her gaze, or if it had been there all along, there was furrow in her brow.
Without looking up, she fiddled with the writing instrument in her hand, “What are you a dog? Figure out if you want to go or not yourself.”
Pausing a moment, she looked up, “It might do you some good. You aren’t making any progress. It appears I have kept you locked up for too long. You’re going crazy. However, this is something you will need to get over. The stronger you get, the more important meditation will be.”
“What about the people that go out adventuring for their fortunes?” Jessica couldn’t help but quip. Knowing full well, she wouldn’t win.
“Do as you see fit. Though if I remember correctly there are many things you said you wanted to do in the future. Even if magic is used, mana can do many things, but you already received so many injuries before. How many more do you think it will take before you receive permanent damage that is nearly impossible to heal?”
Turning around. She closed her eyes as she let mana follow a route she had memorized from repetitive cycles. After a while, her mind wondered.
Jessica couldn’t get the image of Saleh out of her head. She was Grade D, he was still Grade E. Having spared a while back. After returning from a trip, one of many he had been making with Everblood.
His gains were more than hers. The gap between them had grown. She could suppress it, but his grasp of Everblood’s mana technique and battlemage battling had started to progress by leaps and bounds.
His hair before used to slowly turn blue as he got excited, and by the end of a fight, he would have enough strands to show that he was no longer completely human. Last time she fought, the time between this change had shortened.
A little less than, maybe 10% of his hair, had turned blue. While originally being a sign he was going to get sloppy, the excitement caused him to make many mistakes. Now, with more self-control, he had increased sharp senses without the flaws that used to follow.
This continued to make her feel stifled. Her next growth would come from increased mastery of the technique the old man had left her.
Having memorized the pathways, she was able to feel her nodes being fed. She was not completely accurate in her first judgement. The nodes didn’t become permanent. Though, the effect wasn’t very far off. As it was a technique used not just for combat, but as an aid to meditation, it gave her a slight increase in speed of gathering mana.
As she nurtured her nodes, when she meditated, the mana was refined faster. Allowing for more progress during the same amount of time. Getting up, she waved at Cassie. Moving upstairs, she saw the shop was as empty as usual.
With a slight smile, she left, feeling that her affinity for desolate shops was becoming a thing. Though it wasn’t always like that. During the day, it saw a fair bit of traffic, unlike Beast’s shop in Aruna.
Jessica’s cover was a backroom employee. In reality, Jessica would only help every once in a while. It was a simply a reseller of medicine. With Cassie’s connections, she is able to buy certain things in bulk and ship it to sell for small profits.
It appeared their trip to the Blue Wolf Tribe was not just for Mercury City.
Stopping at home, she found Victorina, dragging him along. The two moved towards the northeast district to enjoy a hearty meal.