Chapter 10 Calm
Yuelian
“Yue, get up!” My grandfather’s voice was stern.
“Yes……grandfather.” My legs are shaking. I thought I could last for another 2 hours, but I guess an eight-year-old's body is still too weak. My uncle could stay in a horse stance for 7 hours before his legs started shaking.
“You are showing too much emotion on your face. What do I always tell you?” Grandfather walked in a circle around me.
“Only show emotions to the family.” I thought of the thousands of family codes that I have memorized since I could remember.
“.......” Grandfather stopped pacing around in front of me and he gently pushed me to the floor. While I was lying on my back, I saw my grandfather's sorrowful face.
“I am sorry, Yue. The duty I asked you to carry.” I could see tears in the corner of his eyes. “..........why don't you ever complain or run away from these lessons?”
“Grandfather, I am proud to be your heir.” I thought it was the right thing to say.
“.......” Grandfather smiles as tears fall from his eyes.
—-------------------------
I sat up from my bed.
“Another dream………. Well, at least this dream was a good one”
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We spent the next two days repairing and fortifying the building. The two teachers decided to leave the school to search for their family, so we gave them some supplies and said goodbye. Our group has dwindled to only the five of us, Jackie and 5 freshmen girls. After seeing Mali and Miyong returning injured a few days ago, the freshmen girls regretted trading away their skills. However, they can still use mana, so we have decided to put them on support duty, fortifying the building, preparing food, and cleaning. Regretfully, their supplies of HC had already been spent. It was a waste to spend HC for food. There are so many other useful things to spend HC on. For now, we have to go back to relying on hunting.
Mali and Miyong have made a full recovery. While I am a bit concerned about retaliation from those people, we don't have the luxury to worry about that. The invasion is coming in 6 days.
Ninth-floor meeting room
“Do we have any idea what it is?” Jessica asked, she sat next to Mali who still looked a bit pale. Next to me, Miyong is looking through the system’s news section. Jason preferred to stay inside my shadow these days.
“Nothing on the News section. I thought at least there would be something in the comments, but no luck.” Miyong leaned on me as she closed her eyes. She should be resting, not pushing herself like this.
“From the wording alone, we can guess that it will be a large-scale battle of some kind, but that's all we know.” I kept my eyes on Miyong the whole time. I am eager to end the meeting so she can rest. “Anything else before we end the meeting?”
“Do we have to go hunt soon?” Mali smiled. I noticed that she was rubbing her arms. She already made a full recovery, but the trauma is still there.
“I already got seven rabbits this morning. It's in the cold chest. Probably don't have to worry about food for at least two days.” Miyong was already strong enough to hunt red rabbits alone, but I felt annoyed by these people for giving her so much responsibility.
“We can't do anything except fortify our base and gain as much strength as we can. That goes for you too, Jackie. Invisibility is not going to be effective if a monster with heightened senses or someone like Mali appears.” I pointed to the corner of the room where I felt the air moving irregularly.
“I know. I won't let you guys down again.” Jackie appeared suddenly. We were shocked to see his face. A nasty wound runs from the top of his forehead across his face. I don't know where he got that, but I could guess.
“I can heal you if you want.” I felt sorry for his boyish, charming face.
“No, this is a reminder for me. A reminder of a time when I was weak.” He looks like he has grown up. I felt kind of sad in a way.
“It's not a sin to be weak,” Mali said, her face showing pity.
“It is not a sin, but the weak can not complain when they are stepped on.” He turned and disappeared. I can feel the air moving towards the open door, Jackie must have felt insulted by her pity.
“Everyone else too, please prepare yourself. Train as hard as you can. Meeting over.” As everyone walked out of the room, I turned to look at Miyong leaning back on the chair. Her eyes were still closed.
“Jason, please give us some privacy.” My shadow slid out of the room at my command.
—-------------------------
I am casting regeneration on Miyong again. Her wounds are already healed, I am simply cleansing her old cells at this point. She leaned on my chest as usual.
“Are you ok? How is your body?”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“..........I am alright……….So, you told me not to level up. What do you have planned?” Miyong asked me.
“...........” I have dreaded this topic. “We have two choices. You can level up right now with no special ritual. Your power will probably be doubled, but that's all.”
“.........Or?” She nudged me with the back of her head like some type of animal. Stop acting cute.
“Or………you undergo a ritual to level up and gain a special type of strength like I did.” She is the only one I will tell this secret to.
“Wait! Do you have some special powers now? Is that why you can waste that old fucks like that?” Miyong jumped up and turned around. I can see the excitement in her eyes. I missed that smile.
“You look excited all of a sudden. Let's go to the fifth floor.” If I don't want her to get hurt again, all I have to do is make sure she can't be hurt ever again.
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Miyong
I have never felt so scared in my life. The feeling of cold steel in my eye, I could still feel it even now. Closing my eyes helped me to calm down, but that fear did not subside even after so many days. Even seeing that old fucks get sliced in two did not ease my fear. Staying close to my charming prince is the only thing that makes me feel calm.
I feel like he has become something that I can't reach. What he did on that day, I could still see it when I closed my eyes. His eyes blazing with hatred, the mana around him was so sharp that those thin swords bounced off of him. He massacred dozens of people without blinking an eye. He has changed. The shy boy with the cute smile that I love, I miss him. But a thought crept up in my mind, maybe he has always been this way.
I should feel fear to see him doing that, but I don't. I felt jealous. Jealous of his power. That overwhelming power could shred everything in his path in seconds. And I also felt exhilarated, the person with that power is at my command. I think all women know, instinctively, when a man would do anything for them. Yue would die for me, without hesitation. I almost could not control myself at the thought. Maybe some women would lie and say that they don't like that, but I will not lie. I love the thought of that. At least, I thought I did.
I am changing. These powers draw on our deepest desires and darkest tendencies. Our primal instinct. I am not as smart as Yue, but even I could feel it. My inhibitions and my desires flared up ever since my mana veins were awakened. Our thirst for battle is stronger, jealousy amplifies by magnitudes, and lust almost explodes. As we are walking down to the fifth floor, so many desires rush through my head. Yue is carrying me on a piggyback ride, our bodies pressed together. These urges are getting stronger, just like when I was consumed by the lust for battle. My hands started to wander on his body. Then, Yue covered my body with some type of cold mana, the urges were immediately tamed. I felt too embarrassed to explain myself and chose to bury my face in his back instead.
“I…………would be honored to become yours, but not when your mind is clouded.” He said something cool.
“I guess you are really a prince. Always saying pretty things like that. I thought it was kind of corny before, but knowing what you are changes how it sounds.” I sneaked a small kiss on the back of his neck.
“Really? Then you can't cuss at me anymore. I am a prince! Show some respect.” I could hear the smug smile on his face. This jerk is getting cocky.
“Fuck you. I don't care what you are.” How could I be afraid of this?
“I will punish you later for that.” He chuckled as he thought of something amusing. Then, the air seems tense suddenly. “You are not going to ask me about my family?”
“No. I have met your parents and grandparents before. They are great people. That's all I need to know.” I am dying of curiosity, but families are complicated. Better not to poke my nose unless he tells me himself
“.......” He said nothing as we continued down the stairs. “I have always loved you.”
“......I know” That caught me by surprise. It's not the first time he has said it, but I still feel like I couldn't breathe. I wonder why I can't say it back to him. I have always loved him as well. For now, I will reward him. I kissed his neck more forcefully this time.
“If you don't stop taking advantage of me, you will get in trouble. In case you forgot, we are alone right now.” He sounded a bit annoyed. I think I stepped over the line a bit here. Let's change the topic. Getting pregnant in this world sounds like a nightmare.
“Ahem, so what am I doing? A ritual? I have seen the description for the level-up as well, but we don't have sacrificial materials. Maybe we should have kept a few of those thieves as materials.” Based on the description of the process, I think we need a human sacrifice for the ritual to reach maximum power.
“...........That's what I was afraid of. Even you thought of human sacrifice. Look at the way the description is written. When people read the description for leveling up, their minds will immediately go to human sacrifice. As if the words were carefully crafted to point people in that direction. I imagine most people will use that route to gain the most power.” Yue put me on one of the tables inside a random classroom as we reached the fifth floor. His hands rested on my thigh as we sat next to each other. Ah, this guy is also losing control. We should get this done quickly or this will turn into something much more exhausting.
“While looking through the news earlier I saw so many articles about entire communities that were wiped out. It could be related.” So many communities couldn't be wiped out like that by accident.
“Some of them are probably attacked by monsters or other communities, however, some of them were probably used as sacrifice.” Yue looks like he is thinking deeply about something.
“So what are we doing here? There are no humans we can use as a sacrifice.” I look around the fifth floor, desks and chairs scattered about, broken doors and glass. There is nothing here.
“Your main strength right now is physical attacks. Even your stats are leaning in that direction. So I planned to focus on that.” Yue waves his hand and the metals in the area come together to form a human-sized metal ball.
“What is that? You are making one of those training chambers from an anime?” This metal ball is hollow, it's clear what he made this for.
“Miyong, you need to listen, think carefully, and decide.” He cupped my face and forced me to look him in the eyes. “The sacrificial materials needed for the Level up process do not need to be a physical object. I have already tested this theory by using the vast mana sea as my material. What we will sacrifice for your level-up is mana, intense heat, pain, blood, and pressure. I will forge your body into something indestructible.”
Yue is not a handsome guy. There are millions of men better looking than him, but in my eyes, no one is more attractive than this crazy bastard.
—----------------------
This is worse than hell.
My entire body is being melted by intense heat, and crushed by pressure at the same time. How am I still alive? Yue is using his healing skills to make sure that I am not dead, but I wish I was dead. My consciousness slips away, but the healing skill brings me back every time. He told me that I couldn't quit until it was done if I decided to enter this chamber. That was a mistake on my part.
The ball suddenly opens. My pain is over. I can see Yue's smiling face. You fucking asshole. How can you smile after doing that to me?! How long was I in that ball? No words came out of my mouth. I am surprised that I have not gone insane from the pain. The mana awakening has changed us more than I thought.
“I am sorry, Miyong. However, we were successful. Take a look at yourself.” He said as he took my hands and brought them up so I could see.
My hands are no longer made of flesh. It's almost transparent, sparkling in the sunlight.
“Did I turn into a diamond?” I am not happy about this, even if I have turned into the most valuable woman in the world.
“No, it looks more like glass.” As he said that, my human skin slowly crept over the glass. I have returned to being a human.
“What? Is it not permanent? What the fuck Yue?” If I went through all of that for a temporary buff, I am going to break his head open.
Yue thought about something then he flicked his finger. A piece of sharp metal nearby shoots at my hand with unimaginable speed.
Clank!
The metal bounces off my hand, shattered to pieces. My hand had turned back into glass again, specifically, the spot where the metal piece hit my hand turned to glass and then slowly returned to normal skin.
“What a beautiful ability. We have succeeded in our objective.” Yue held my hands and kissed them. “I am sorry for doing that to you. Let's take a rest for now.”
Yue forged a couch with the material nearby while waving his hands about. He reminds me of a music conductor. I was amazed at the proficiency and versatility of his powers. At this point, this guy is pretty much using actual magic, at least compared to other mana users we have seen. Healing, making stuff with the waves of his hand, magic is the only word I can use to describe his powers now.
“Take a look at your new powers while we rest.” I could hear his rough breathing immediately after he said that. He has already fallen asleep. I experienced unimaginable pain, but Yue was outside that ball controlling the heat and pressure, making sure it was sufficiently intense but also did not kill me. On top of that, he was also using healing magic on me the entire time. Yue was probably struggling as much as I was.
So adorable. I will reward him later. As we rested on the couch, I took a look at my stats.
[Kim Miyong]
Title: Beloved
Lv.1
Mana:35
Strength: 7
Agility: 17
Endurance: 12
Control: 10
Skill: Infusion
Trait : Elemental Physique (Manite)
The screen looks much more detailed than before, and a few new things were added. I will ignore that cringey title for now. The stats are pretty much self-explanatory, but what is this? Trait? Is that the special power Yue talked about? When I focused on it, no explanation screen popped up. Oh well, let's at least take a look at the actual trait itself.
[Elemental Physique]
Elementals are the rulers of the immaterial plane. Their bodies could not be harmed by any weapons from the physical plane.
Am I completely immune to all physical attacks? Whoa, that guy really did something insane. What about this thing? Manite?
[Manite]
Only one piece of Manite exists in all the known universes. Can not be broken. Sensitive to mana.
Maybe I should just give myself to this guy right now?