It took a couple of minutes for Halia to explain the circumstances of her being inside of a necklace, and Brewan eventually calmed down and started listening to what she was saying. After a bit, he took out his book of magic and started flipping through it while reading off parts and explaining them to Halia.

On the other side of the room, a frown started to grow on Kai’s face.

Hmph, how irresponsible is it to trust any random stranger? If it was one of the other sect members, I’d be grateful for some time without her yapping in my mind, but we barely know Brewan. Halia can’t even do anything to protect herself if this guy tries to run off. I’ll have to keep a close eye on him, just in case.

After about a minute of listening to Brewan blabber about random magic stuff, Kai’s ears started to ache.

“Oi, you two. You can chat while we cook up this venison.”

Kai started dragging the deer carcass toward one of the unused, empty rooms. They’d already decided the day before that it was best to do any butchering and cooking in one of the rooms they didn’t need to use for other things.

Using a knife claimed from Sydney’s belongings, Kai went for round two of deer processing.

“Hey, Kai. Halia wants to ask if you can think of any reason that she can manipulate your mana, but not mine.”

Eh? She can’t do anything with this guy’s mana?

Kai shrugged, but a tiny smile unconsciously grew on his face as he went back to working on the deer.

Even if Brewan could preserve the meat using the dispersion spell, Kai didn’t want to leave the carcass whole. It would get stiff if he left it as it was, and he was used to preparing meat before it could spoil.

It took him almost an hour to strip all of the meat from the deer, and Brewan was chatting aloud the entire time. Aside from when Brewan went to check on Sydney, Kai didn’t get a moment of silence.

When Kai was finally done butchering the deer, Brewan started a tiny fire using magic, and the duo started roasting lunch. They didn’t have anything to use as seasoning, but both of them had enough experience in the wilderness not to mind it.

“Back to what you were talking about before, Brewan. You said that a mage like you would probably die this far out in the wild, right?”

Brewan looked over toward the room Sydney was resting in.

“It’s probably because of his standing in the academy that someone weak was sent. I know that he’s an obstacle for a lot of the other top students who have connections, and a lot of them would probably prefer it if he didn’t return.”

We never had to deal with traitors in our sect, but similar stuff happened all of the time elsewhere in the cultivation world. It seems that humans are just as willing to betray each other here.

After spinning the meat over the fire, Brewan looked back up and spoke again.

“In my grade, I have a reputation of being good at running away. I guess I was probably the best person to pick who would probably not find Sydney but still survive.”

Brewan paused for a moment, listening to something that Halia was saying in his mind. After a few seconds, he explained to Kai.

“I only made it this far into the wilderness by avoiding as many fights as I could. With a dispersion spell, you can escape the notice of almost every beast. It’s only if something has you in its vision and is intent on chasing you that it won’t work.”

Kai nodded as he pulled the cooked meat off the fire, then put on a couple new pieces.

He could’ve run away multiple times, but he’s stayed and saved me instead. If he really was a coward who runs away at the first sign of danger, I probably would be boar food right now. Hmm… maybe Halia was right, and this guy might be a decent member for our sect.

Once the food was finished cooking, the duo extinguished the fire and brought the meat over to Sydney’s room to eat. After prodding the injured man a few times, Brewan managed to wake him enough that he wouldn’t choke on the food they started shoving into his mouth.

“Wh- who are you?”

Sydney’s eyes flickered open as Brewan raised a water flask to his mouth.

“I’m one of your juniors at the academy, I was sent here to find you.”

Sydney coughed a few times as he struggled to ingest the water.

“If you’re a junior… you need to get out of here right away. There’s a tier two beast in the area, a Deep Ursine-”

“It’s dead.”

Sydney sat up too quickly and started coughing again.

“What? How?”

Kai crouched down by the side of the cushions as he responded.

“A big, angry bird ate it. The bird tried to eat us too, but ran into what we think was a leftover formation from the academy. It’s injured, but still out there somewhere.”

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Sydney’s eyes stretched wide with terror.

“A tier three beast…”

“Probably a bit weaker than that. We think it was just a strong tier two one.”

Kai shoved another chunk of meat into his mouth before he continued talking, but when he looked back down, Sydney’s eyes were drifting shut again.

This fellow is really weak right now. Hopefully he can make enough of a recovery for us to escape from this area before the terror bird heals enough to come back for us. I don’t know much about bird facial expressions, but I’m pretty sure that thing isn’t done with us.

“Here, Kai.”

Brewan pulled Halia’s necklace off and handed it back to him.

“Your be- Halia said she wanted you again.”

Kai’s forehead creased into a frown.

What nonsense did this idiot spout about me? Brewan was about to say something else.

[Ahh… I missed you, Kai.]

“It’s only been an hour.”

[That didn’t stop my heart from longing for you~]

Kai’s cheeks flushed for the slightest fraction of a second before he made a retching noise.

“Bleh, who’d want that?! I enjoyed my hour of silence, go back to bothering someone else!”

Halia’s annoying, mischievous laugher ricocheted through Kai’s mind for long enough that he actually considered taking the necklace off and handing it back to Brewan.

[Oi, oi, stop. I do actually need to talk to you about something important.]

[Brewan- Level 7]

Kai paced toward the other side of the room as he looked at the blue stat window hovering in his vision.

“Two levels higher?”

[Yep! He doesn’t even have an amazing, beautiful, incredibly designed, masterpi-]

“Ahem”

[-Masterpiece of a sword like you, that can absorb strength from the beasts you slay. He does, however, seem to grow stronger based on experience, and by using his mana. After the fight, I’d put him at level 6.]

Kai looked back down at the number on the blue screen again.

Maybe she isn’t actually that good at math.

[Hmph, if you’re going to be rude, I’ll take a bigger chunk for myself again.]

[You reached Level 3!]

[Mana +5!]

[Mana -3, Strength +3.]

Did she just read my thoughts?! And what kind of nonsensical power system is this, I’m leveling up without fighting or cultivating?

[No, I’m not reading your thoughts. You’re just predictable. Also, that meat you just ate was killed by Brewan, not you. When the beast died, all of the mana in its core- the thing your sword absorbs to give you mana- spread out, and a lot of it went into the venison.]

Kai had to think for multiple seconds before he understood what Halia was saying.

“So basically, your sword is pretty much useless. I can get all of the energy just by eating, which I have to do anyway to survive.”

[No. The sword absorbs almost all of the mana from the beast. You’ll gain way less strength from eating it. It’s still some though, so you should try to let Brewan get some kills whenever you go out hunting, and use those beasts for food. It’ll help Sydney recover a lot faster, as well as making the other two of you stronger.]

[You don’t need to worry too much about his fireballs attracting more enemies, either. I’m pretty sure I can work out a new spell for him to use before tomorrow. I will need your cooperation, though.]

If it’s to help us hunt and get stronger, it’ll be worth it.

-

-

Six hours later, as the sun was diving below the horizon.

In a large classroom, two young men clutched at their skulls in unison.

“I feel like there’s a mind-eater beast rampaging through my brain…”

[Hey, you’ll have a supporting fighter when you go out to hunt tomorrow! Shouldn’t you be happy?]

That was not worth it.

Kai had discovered a number of things over the past six hours of torture. Apparently, if Halia moved around his mana too much, or tried to cast spells without having the proper resources, it would give him a splitting headache.

In Halia’s words, “Practicing to mana deficiency will slowly increase your total mana pool, pain pain torture.”

Kai had been rewarded for his efforts with +2 mana, both of which had been claimed by Halia.

It really is like having a parasite attached to me. Physical and mental pain, loss of strength, and general annoyance. And she does it all while acting like she’s doing me a favor!

Kai resisted yet another urge to chuck the ruby necklace at the now chalk-covered blackboard.

“I never knew magic could be broken down into numbers and ideas like this…”

Standing a few meters away, Brewan was doing only slightly better than Kai. While Halia couldn’t directly manipulate his mana, she’d still managed to get him to expend everything he had, granting him an intense headache as well.

She’d forced the two men to pass the necklace back and forth between each other, relaying instructions and making them jot everything down on the blackboards left behind by the academy’s original owners.

[Oo! I just had another idea, grab the chalk again!]

“Brewan, do you have any mana left to use your fireball?”

He shook his head.

“Damn. I was hoping you’d be able to cast it on me. Can you punch me instead? Full force, right on the jaw. Put me to sleep.”

[Fine, fine, I’ll stop. Researching new stuff like this is so fun, how can you not like it?]

Kai just pointed up at his head, which still felt as if it'd been crushed by a stampede of buffalo.

[That’s only because you don’t have much mana right now! Once you’re stronger, it’ll be great! When you’re fighting, I’ll even be able to help you. You can do your sword stuff, and I’ll cast spells at the same time!]

“If I ever get a headache like this while in a fight, we’ll probably die.”

[Don’t worry, I’m sure that’ll never happen.]

Halia let out a short, ominous-sounding chuckle after her last line. Kai did his best to ignore it as he laid down on his bed of cushions. The pounding pain in his head only increased the more he moved around.

[Ooh~ Hooo oh~]

Halia started to hum softly, her normally mischievous voice softening. Kai shut his eyes, his mind somehow relaxing as he listened to her humming. In a matter of seconds, he was already drifting off to sleep.

[Ooh~ Somewhere~ Over the rain…]

Kai’s consciousness faded into darkness as Halia sang softly.

[Kai- Lvl 3]

[Strength: 14 -> 21]

[Mana: 0 -> 6]