Love is like a truck, you are dead when it hits you.

I am now gonna practice magic, Feric made me memorize a chant. Unlike pooch’ way, I only have to say the chant, and the name of the spell. I don’t know what language the chant was, but I could easily pronounce it, cause I am a genius

“Fire ball”(Shera)

A small ball made of flames was released from my hand, but it vanished before hitting anything.

“...So small” I made a sad face.

“You should be proud, do you know it takes a normal mage a month, just to learn their first spell. And you were able to create weaker version of the spell in your first try.”(Feric)

“It isn’t strong enough to kill though”(Shera)

“…Why do you even plan to kill someone with magic?”(Feric)

“No, it’s just a countermeasure. I’ll only use my magic on dangerous situations, and when I do, those situations would probably force me to kill.”(Shera)

“We are just traveling, there are monsters, but we probably won’t encounter the situations you are imagining.”(Feric)

“Anyways, what’s next?”(Shera)

“Just practice using fire ball, if you can create a normal fire ball, then we will go to the next lesson. Don’t rush it too much, and go at normal pace.”(Feric)

I chanted again, and started releasing fire balls. There was something I noticed, I feel like something inside of me, is moving away from my body every time I cast a spell. I wanted to test something, and imagined a certain flame. I tried to move what’s inside of me, to my arm. It was hard, it’s felt like it didn’t have any form, and when I lose focus they will scatter again. It took me a few minutes to focus every energy on my body, and started imagining the energy turning into flames.

“Fire ball” I said the name of the spell, a ball of black flame, at the size of a truck, appeared, I released it, and it moved at speeds comparable to my full powered run. When it hit something, it slowly expanded, after it expanded with a radius of 500 meters, it quickly got smaller, and disappeared, leaving nothing behind.

“That was stronger than I thought.”(Shera)

“…That didn’t even look like a fireball, it looked more like a void magic.”(Feric)

I suddenly got dizzy, and blood started flowing from my mouth, and soon, blood also came out of my eyes and ears. My body is still strong, yet I feel like I have no strength left.

“SHERA” Feric ran to me, and carried me back to the coach.

___

I am now resting inside the coach. I can’t move my body, which was odd. My body doesn’t feel damaged yet I can’t even move a muscle.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Nero looked like he could kill a person.

“…”(Feric)

“Weren’t you just practicing basic magic? How did something like this happen?”(Pooch)

“I was just teaching her how to use fireball, she learned it quickly and started firing like it was nothing. She suddenly concentrated for a few minutes, and released a black ball of flames that is bigger than our coach.”(Feric)

“WHAT?”(Pooch)

“The flames expanded, before quickly disappearing.”(Feric)

“WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HER?”(Nero)

“I…I didn’t know she would do that.”(Feric)

“Calm down Nero, it isn’t his fault, it is master’s fault. She used my way of using magic, and probably used more mana than her own capacity. A normal person would die from that, even I would die if I do that, but my master should be fine in a few hours.”(Pooch)

“Tsk”(Nero)

“…”(Feric)

I could only watch as they argued, I couldn’t even move my mouth. I didn’t think using magic was this dangerous.

“For now, you should let her rest. She would regenerate on her own.”(Pooch)

Good thing they didn’t think much about my regeneration ability. Although it should be fine to tell Ciela & Nero that I am a majin at this point. After 2 hours, I could move my body a bit, and I could finally talk. Everyone was out, except for pooch and I.

“So, what kind of imagination did you have to create void magic from a simple fire ball spell?”(Pooch)

 “Void?”(Shera)

“I looked at the area where you used your magic, and it is without a doubt, void magic. It may look like flames, but nothing was burned, instead everything was erased.”(Pooch)

“I don’t know, I just imagined something from my past, and used it as a base for my flames.”(Shera)

“…I don’t know what happened in the past, but please imagine a normal flame next time. Wait, I thought you didn’t remember anything. Ah, nevermind, just don’t use that spell again, or at least don’t use it until you have enough mana for it.”(Pooch)

“Ok…by the way, what’s mana? Probably something like a stamina for magic, right?”(Shera)

“Correct, so what you did was something like, moving your body even after you have no stamina left.”(Pooch)

Nero entered the coach and hugged me.

“Don’t do anything like that again, ok?”(Nero)

“…Ok, so stop hugging me already.”(Shera)

“No, do you know how worried I was? Just the thought of something bad happening to you is…”(Nero)

“Sorry, so please let go of me.”(Shera)

“As punishment for making us worry, I’ll hug you until you are better.”(Nero)

“What?”(Shera)

“I’ll help Ciela a bit.” Pooch left the coach leaving Nero and I alone.

“If you don’t like it, then promise me you won’t do that again.”(Nero)

 “I…I promise.”(Shera)

 For some reason, I was ok with him hugging me. It felt really comfortable, it felt like I could rely on him, and I felt happy that he was hugging me. I leaned my head on his shoulder, and slowly fell asleep.

___

When I woke up, my head was on Nero’s lap. I could move my body, and everything seems ok. Only Nero and I were in the coach, and Nero was sleeping. I sat beside him, and observed his sleeping face. For some reason, he looked better than before. It stared at his face, his hair was still the same, his skin is also the same, lips…red as usual. While looking at him, his head moved to his left shoulder letting me see his neck.

Nothing really changed, but his neck looked attractive. I stared at him for long time, until he woke up. I quickly jumped back, and acted like I was doing something else.

“Ah, looks like you are ok now Shera” Nero smiled at me like he always do, yet I feel like something was different…

“T…thanks for the pillow”(Shera)

“Hahahaha I just copied what you always do with pooch. He always looked happy when sleeping on your lap, so I just did the same.”(Nero)

“I see”(Shera)

“I am quite happy that you didn’t hate it.” Nero stood up and started walking out of the coach.

“It is almost time for dinner, so I’ll start cooking. Do you have any special request?”(Nero)

“No, anything you cook is fine.”(Shera)

His lap felt comfortable…wait, what am I thinking? Ok let’s change the subject, fire ball, fire ball, fire ball, fire ball, Nero…wait why did he suddenly appeared in my head? Since he helped me a lot, and he is always there for me…THAT’S RIGHT, I SEE HIM AS A FATHER THAT TAKES CARE OF ME. It is only natural to think of you father, yup, I am right, cause I am a genius.

___

We continued traveling, and Feric became extremely quiet. He still teaches me magic from time to time, and pooch was there to look after us. I can use, lightning, fire, wind, and water magic. At first it was only basic magics, and when I understood how each element works, I was able to freely manipulate the strength of the spells. I could make a basic lightning spell as strong as an advance spell, and I could also weaken an advance spell to a basic spell, which was unique based on what Feric said.

A spell is already set, it can’t be changed. It can altered a bit, but not at the same level as mine, where I make a spell jump to a higher rank. The magic ranking are:

Basic > Advance > Black > Brown > Green > Blue > Orange > Yellow > White > Divine > Eternal

I am currently at advance rank, and if I use all of my mana for 1 spell, I can reach black rank. Feric is at Brown rank, while Pooch is at divine rank. For the spell I used before, pooch said that it’s between yellow & white rank. Since he is at divine, he can even use an even stronger spell than what I used before, so if you think about it, he is a bit scary.

I continued my training, and slowly increased my magical powers. Feric was surprisingly ok, unlike his initial behavior, he was quiet inside our coach. He is even doing more than work than me, he is the one in charge of cleaning, and bath…that’s right, bath. He can use earth magic to create a tub, and water magic for bathing.

Less monsters are appearing compared to the time when we were headed to Deron city. When they have free time, Nero & Ciela would spar. By the way, Ciela started using a sword, while Nero was using a gauntlet, which we bought at Deron city. For me…I don’t really need a weapon, my bare hands are enough.

Like that, our travel continued. By the time we got to the Kanaria city, I was already a yellow ranked mage. Most of my spells are created by me, with my awesome naming sense.

___

The first thing we did was to find an inn. The city was looked the same as Deron city, except for the fact that it was 3 times bigger. Houses made from stones, and some that were made from marbles in the middle of the city. Most of the houses didn’t have a 2nd floor, and there were light post that works with magic. There were more stores and stalls in this city, and add the gigantic circular building in the middle.

The dome was made out of white rocks, yup, it’s not a rock painted in white. It is really a white stone, a special mineral of this world. It is called the saphia stone, which is the second hardest mineral on this world. They probably molded the rocks using magic…Anyways, it was 20 floors tall and there were 4 entrances. In the middle of it, there was an open space that’s as big as 4 soccer fields. The ceiling was open except for the seats around the open space, which was elevated by 4-5 floors.

This was the place where the tournament will be held, which was 3 weeks from now. People that want to join could register at the entrance, there were 2 different tournaments. Individual battles, and a party battle. The prize for both is the same, 20 reis coins. The people would obviously join the individual battle to get the money for themselves, but the party battle will also give noble a noble status to every member of the winning party.

The king, dukes, and nobles will be watching the tournament, to scout for talented individuals. If duke osdwin will come here, why didn’t he come with us? Anyways, we will join both tournaments, except for pooch, who will probably stay at the inn.

Since Feric was still not a part of our party, we only registered on the individual battles. After that we went to the adventurer’s guild to add Feric, and check our stats. The first to check his level was Feric, followed by Nero and Ciela.

Spoiler :

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NameFeric Morc OsdwinRaceTalarAge156GenderMaleTITLES[Anti-Social Prince]Level58ClassWizardVitality47Agility30Strength38Defense24Magic Attack173Magic Defense112

NameNero VentusRaceVallarAge77GenderMaleTITLES[The Hated]Level51ClassBerserkerVitality107Agility80Strength98Defense74Magic Attack3Magic Defense2

NameCiela VentusRaceVallarAge31GenderFemaleTITLESLevel22ClassSwordsmanVitality66Agility24Strength28Defense19Magic Attack3Magic Defense2

“Feric and Nero’s level aren’t that far away from each other, why is Nero still at silver(high)? He should be at least gold(mid) with his level…”(Shera)

“You probably just started so you don’t know much, but one could also raise their rank by doing quests. You can increase your rank by having a high level, but it stops at platinum(high), no matter how strong you are, you have to accomplish missions before you could move to reis rank.”(Man)

Now that you think about it, we never did any quest on from the adventurer’s guild.

“But to think you would reach silver(high) without doing anything, quite the talent.” The man glanced at Nero.

“Wait till you see Shera” Nero looked at me as I walked to the orb.

“She is a gold rank like me, and I think she also the same as Nero. Her sheer power let her reach the gold rank without doing anything.”(Feric)

“Ah, I forgot that I didn’t tell you about it”(Shera)

I took out my card, which made Feric and the man widen their eyes.

“P…platinum card? When?”(Feric)

“When we went to the adventurer’s guild of Deron city.”(Shera)

“Don’t tell me you got that simply by being strong? You can only get to platinum(high) rank without doing anything, if you are at level 250. It is even easier for a level 150 person to quest his way to platinum(high) than train himself until he reaches 250.”(Feric)

“…Actually, I’m level 478.”(Shera)

“WHAT?” Feric looked at Nero & Ciela.

“It’s the truth, we were there when her rank got raised…I didn’t know she was 478 though”(Nero)

Ah, so I didn’t tell them, not that they needed to know.

“Let me take a look” Feric took my plate, and looked at my level.

“…it’s true”(Feric)

By the way, the man fainted when he heard my level. I took back my plate, and checked my stats.

NameShera Nillin RaceUltima Majin Age1GenderFemale TITLES [Goddess of Destruction][Goddess of Beauty][Rift Walker][Void Magician] [Chain Caster][Maiden In Love] Level492ClassSage Vitality165,754Agility1186 Strength2279Defense1624 Magic Attack1415Magic Defense987

What’s with my new titles? Especially the last one, when did I fall in love? There is something wrong with this machine…not that anyone will see it anyways, so let’s forget about it. I finally have a class…but why sage? Aren’t I a magician? Sigh, there is always something new on my status screen…

“I still leveled up a bit…I am now 492”(Shera)

“H…how? We didn’t fight anything strong, how did you still level up?”(Feric)

How would I know? I just enjoyed my life for the past months, and my level increased on its own.

“Ok, time to form a party. Nothing will change even if you ask her questions now, or do you want her to hate you by sending tons of questions to her?”(Nero)

“I….no, it’s ok. Sorry”(Feric)

Nero is really good at handling people…he is a fatherly figure after all.

We went back to the counter, while Nero was carrying the fainted man. We told the man at the counter to let ferric join, it seems that we need to make a new party if we want to add someone, but we could still use the name of our former party.

I gave 10 silver coins to the man. Heh, I am good at handling money now…cause Nero would always scold me when I just gave out gold coins when we were at Deron city. The man gave me a paper, stick with a feather, and an ink. Since I know how to write now, I was the one who wrote our names, cause I am a genius.

After writing, I still used Stygian Cipher as our party name, we gave our plates to the man. The man at the counter almost fainted when he saw our plates, especially mine…when our new party was formed, Ciela’s rank was raised to Copper(High), and she was really happy about her growth.

 Since it was getting dark, we decided to postpone the registration to tomorrow, we have a lot of time before the tournament so we don’t have to rush. Even though this city was bigger, it was crowded. It seems most of the competitors went to the city early. Only expensive inns were available, so we had no choice, I didn’t really care about price, but Feric & Nero were strict about money. Using his name as the duke’s son, we got a 50% discount. It is now 5 silver coins per day, and 2 silver coins for place where we could park the coach. It’s just 2 gold coins a month, I don’t see why they say it’s expensive.

 Our room was on the top floor. We were all in one room, there were 3 beds, 2 small tables and a chair, and 2 small rooms. The first one is storage, and the other is the washroom. The washroom had a bath tub, and small hole for excretion, there were green slimes on the bottom, that eats the waste, and converts them into magical energy for the room. There was even a shower…wait, this inn is surprisingly advanced compared to the duke’s mansion.

 After checking the inside of the room, I lied down on my bed. Pooch & I were on the left most bed, Nero & Ciela on the middle, and Feric was on the right....by himself.

 “So, what do we do to pass time?”(Shera)

 “We haven’t really taken any quest since we formed the party, maybe it’s time to try and take missions.”(Nero)

 “I think it will be a good experience for our party. We could practice coordination, and other party stuffs.” Feric was surprisingly energetic about our party. It seems that he was a solo adventurer before he joined us.

 “How does a quest work anyways?”(Shera)

 Ciela already fell asleep at this point.

 “Quest have the same ranks like us, although you shouldn’t take the same level of quest as you. It is recommended for 3 gold(high) adventurers to take a gold(high) quest, as far as I know, the hardest quest that the guild posted was a platinum(high) quest, where you have to kill an elder dragon. You can still get a higher rank even if you take lower level quest, every time you finish a quest, you will get points, and if you get enough points you can get to a higher rank. The thing is, the bigger the gap between you and the quest, the less points you will get.”(Feric)

Nero was listening seriously, while I was starting to get sleepy…

“The is also a limit to what you can get, an adventurer can only take 1 quest a week, so they can’t hoard the lower leveled quest.”(Feric)

“What happens if you fail to accomplish a quest? Does point get deducted?”(Nero)

“No, you will have to pay as compensation though. If you can’t pay…I don’t know. It didn’t really happen to me, and I don’t really have that much friend to ask.”(Feric)

“So, what do you recommend that we take?”(Nero)

“We can take the highest leveled quest with Shera helping us, but I suggest taking a silver(mid) or silver(high) quests. It would be a challenge for the 3 of us, and she should only join when we are in danger. It would probably bore her though”(Feric)

They continued talking with each other, while I slowly closed my eyes. The last thing I saw was them looking at me with a serious face, and walking out of the room.