That was so irresponsible of her.

—"Are you serious?" he sighed, feeling a twinge of anger reverberating through his voice, —"So you're telling me that because you couldn't do your job, now I have to potentially live with a mentally-fucked failed experiment?"

She chuckled, —"I hope she didn't hear that."

—"Do I have a reason to be worried?"

—"Meh, not really. You have that spell, don't you? If anything happens, you can just absorb her. But do it only if you feel threatened. It would be very nice if she surrendered herself to us again. She has incredible potential, trust me. Our organization would benefit from it."

—"I think she's here..." Jered stared at his closet. One of the doors was slightly ajar, and the sudden drop in temperature reminded him of their first encounter at the asylum. The reminiscent stink of putrescent flesh didn't go unnoticed either, —"Yes, definitely. God, this smell is terrible. Don't tell me I have to sleep like this every day..."

—"Hmm. You could try the 'Cleanse' sub-spell, but mana doesn't work on spirits."

Jered was not in a good mood, —"Yes, yes, I remember. What a pain in the ass. Do I get paid for this shit?"

—"Hah, sure, I'll make sure to send you a few nudes later."

—"..."

—"Yeah, you probably want your sister's anyway."

—"..."

Rainey rolled her eyes, —"Jeez, it was just a joke. Seriously, you have no sense of humor."

—"Not the right moment to make fun of me."

—"Fine, fine. I'll send you your first paycheck by the end of the month," she pouted, —"It's not fair, though. It's not like you're doing much..."

Jered growled, —"I'm working hard. I'm even skipping classes to train, just as you wanted."

Another creak alerted him of the fact that he wasn't alone.

—"And I'm very proud of you for that!"

—"Hmhm..."

—"Look. I don't think the demonic entity has any ill will towards you. So please, do me this favor. Akashka is still in its infancy, we need more talented members, be it Magicians, Spirits, Monsters... anyone who's willing to join our cause would be great!"

It was not as if he could refuse, right? Akashka's growth was of his interest too, —"I'll see what I can do."

—"Awesome! Thank you, sweetheart. Mwah!"

And with that irritating kissing noise, Rainey hung up. Jered tossed the sheets aside and headed for his closet. All of his experiences with the supernatural so far denoted that spirits had a huge thing for closets. Wasn't that lovely? He pulled the doors open. And as he had expected, nothing was there. Hide and seek all over again. Nice.

"Whatever..."

He didn't feel like hunting for her. At least not now. Jered sat down on his bed, mindlessly staring at the floor. He stayed like for a good ten minutes, waiting for her to show herself up. She didn't seem to be shy last time. However, she didn't. From the corner of his eyes, he saw something move in his closet. Perfect. Now he had two invisible entities by his side. He rolled around and stretched his legs, clearing his head, and entering his meditative state.

It was also the fastest way to regenerate mana.

As for the demonic entity?

Fuck her.

----------------------------------------

Jered was not surprised when Evelyn texted him as soon as the sun was up. It was just a curt message with the time and location of their rendezvous. What was surprising, however, was that their meeting place was the woodland Jered had dumped that corpse in. Of course, he was better prepared this time. He had trained hard for the past few days, and even learned a new spell. Whether was that going to be enough to deal with that creature remained to be seen.

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After going through his morning routine, Jered got dressed and promptly left for Little Spirit Forest. He had to get there on foot since Jane had taken the car. Jasmine was cooped in her room. He had knocked on her door to check if she was fine, "Yes, yes! I-I'm fine, just busy!" she had said in a breathy voice. He trusted her she wouldn't do the same mistake twice. Besides, he really had to go to that meeting. His standing in the organization would begin with his first impression.

He was glad he was not particularly late or early when he got there. It almost felt like a job interview, even though he had already been promised the job. Little Spirit Forest was less intimidating under the daylight, you could even call it beatific if you weren't aware of what lurked there. Jered had chosen to wear practical clothes, which in hindsight, hardly mattered. He was not a melee fighter. Magicians could wear tuxedos, high heels, and sip wine while they burned a Behemoth the size of a skyscraper to death.

Before the entrance to the woodland, Evelyn stood by two younger people. Their chitchat didn't reach his ears until he was close enough that they finally took notice of him. Evelyn waved at him enthusiastically, her smile so bright that it could be used as a weapon. She was clothed more modestly than when she was at school. A plain black blouse, a pencil skirt, and high heels. In fact, the testosterone-pumped young man next to her couldn't keep his eyes from shining like some axe-yielding movie psychopath.

The third member of their circle was a girl, presumably in her mid-twenties. She reminded him a bit of Arya, perhaps because of her eastern heritage. She had a very delicate, porcelain-like face, with high cheekbones and monolid eyes. She tucked a chock of her black mane behind her ear, staring at him.

"You're just in time!" Evelyn walked out of the group to greet him, "Jered, come, let me introduce you to these two talented young people!"

A whiff of strong perfume made him wrinkle his nose.

"This charming young man here in Santiago De La Cruz. He's very knowledgeable in Hispanic spellwork. He's 23, yet he's an Adept Magician, just like you," the disguised flattery didn't go unnoticed. Evelyn then led Jered to the quiet young woman that had been watching him, "And this little treasure here is Eun-Kyung—did I pronounce your name correctly, dear?"

Eun-Kyung nodded.

"She's from South Korea, and still has some difficulty communicating, so I hope you'll be able to assist her in the future. Of course, she's also very talented. Her family is an important one, and she has an exhaustive grasp on eastern spells. You could learn a lot from her, I'm sure. She's 26 this year, and she's an Adept Magician."

Jered proffered his hand with a smile, "Nice to meet you."

Eun-Kyung shook it, "Nice... tu meet yu tuu," her voice cracked a bit due to the change in the phonetic system, but it wasn't hard to understand her.

He then walked up to Santiago, who had been eyeing him up and down attentively, "I'm Jered, pleased to make your acquaintance."

They shook hands.

"I know who you are," Santiago spoke fluently, "Evelyn told us a lot about you. It's quite the pressure to work with someone as talented as you," he chuckled good-naturedly, "I hope we'll get along, Jered."

"I hope so too, Santiago."

Evelyn gently squeezed Jered's shoulders, "I'm sure you three will make a great team!" she gushed, however, her smile soon faded into a more serious frown, "Jered, we were supposed to go have breakfast together, but something came up recently, hence why we're here. Our organization has received intel on magical activity in this area, which is very concerning for a few reasons. First and foremost, this patch of woodland used to be a gateway to the Other Side. I'm talking about aeons ago. Little Spirit Forest's life dates back to 200 CE. Creatures would move back and forth between the realms, unrestricted. But that was a long time ago, now this forest is devoid of mana. Well, it should have been."

"Has it anything to do with the Sems Lunar Cult?" Jered asked.

She shook her head, "They have a different modus operandi. Furthermore, we believe they're scouring for another organization-less town to sacrifice," at her words, Santiago and Eun-Kyung tensed. Clearly, they knew what was going on, "We have found traces of magical creatures here. This area has been deemed unsafe, therefore no civilian will come here until we clear this place up. We have to find out what's going on."

Jered, who had seen one of those magical creatures, voiced out his pressing concern, "Do we have any info on what kind of magical creature we're going to deal with? I'm worried our strength might not be enough to face whatever is inside."

"Hmhm. I've been told that mana density here is around that of an Adept Magician, so there shouldn't be any problem," Evelyn reassured, "But if something we can't handle appears, we can just teleport away with this!" she fished out a talisman, "This is a Manaport. If we encounter any peril, it'll take us back to Ashy Petal's headquarters."

Santiago was curious, "Do we have to be near you when you tear it apart?"

"Nuh-huh. As long as you have the organization's ring, and you're within a one-hundred meters radius, it can take you away even if you're inside a monster's stomach."

"Hahaha, that's good!"

Jered cupped his chin in thought, "How do you make one of those?"

"Oh... you need to be an Enhancer, a good one at that. It takes a surgical-like delicate control of mana."

He nodded, wondering if Jerry could make a bunch of them for him. He didn't know how good of an Enhancer the psychiatrist was, but he believed he was at least a Royal Magician in terms of power.

"Alrighty," Evelyn clasped her hands together, "Are there any more questions?"

Silence.

"Good, let's go then. Remember," she cautioned, "Stay close to each other, don't neglect your surroundings, and if anything happens, don't break the formations. We're Magicians. We're the best the supernatural world has to offer!"