Chapter 159: Remember to schedule an appointment when opening a portal.

The sword sliced at my head, barely missing my cheek as I ducked underneath it. That was a mistake. My opponent’s leg kicked out from below, pushing my right foot to the side and breaking my stance. I tumbled and a flash of steel was the last thing I saw as the sword plunged into my chest.

"I win." William’s triumphant voice echoed in my ears.

He towered over me and offered me his hand. I clasped it and he helped me stand up. I looked down at my wound. The battle each damage brought wasn't insignificant.

There was a trickle of blood coming from a quickly closing wound in my chest.

I grimaced.

“It's shallower than a paper cut.” William rolled his eyes.

“It stings like crazy.” I tapped my chest.

My finger touched undamaged flesh. The cut was already gone.

"I thought you had pain tolerance." William gave my shoulder a playful punch.

"Let me complain, that's my right as the loser." I grinned.

I closed my eyes and a faint blue message appeared in my vision.

[Mana Manipulation has reached rank 4, level 3]

[Mana Vitality has reached rank 2, level 1]

[Mana Vitality: Your mana reduces the impact and severity of any wounds inflicted on your body. Each reduction uses up mana.]

Heck yeah!

I pumped my fist into the air and William looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I didn't care. It was time for me to celebrate.

Levels had become a lot scarcer in the two months since I'd come back from Gesti Sky.

After Amanda’s fifteenth birthday I'd spent a very successful weekend at the book fair. The entire group had applauded my choice in gift and hoisted me up on their shoulders in celebration.

Okay, it wasn't that good, but we did have fun.

When we returned, there had been a lot to do. Training was at the top of the list.

"Mana vitality? Or mana manipulation?” William asked.

I looked over at him. He’d stopped ingesting strength concoctions, but the boy wouldn't stop growing. He was one of those people who was in the middle of a massive growth spurt.

"Both." I grinned.

Ever since I’d started using [mana sanctuary] and [mana vitality] I’d noticed a startling side effect.

My [mana manipulation] skill was increasing in level rapidly. The reason was simple. Before, I had been manipulating external mana in order to achieve my goals. I only used my divine mana to convert into other types for spells.

The moment I started using my divine mana as the direct medium of the spell, my [mana manipulation] skill was activated.

[Mana sanctuary] helped level it the most. Manipulating my divine mana outside of my body and controlling it to defend against attacks was a lot more work than taking hits.

"For the record, pain tolerance only helps me tolerate pain. It doesn't get rid of it.” I wagged my finger at William.

"That's an awful lot of tolerating I hear coming out of your mouth.” He shot back.

I chuckled and leaned back against the nearby wall.

We were inside Ophelio’s church training room. Symbols littered the walls, providing rapid healing and pain reduction to all the people within its field.

Because of the way my [mana vitality] skill worked, I had to receive genuine attacks in order to level it up. I couldn't use the academy arena or the symbol arrays that prevented me from being harmed.

There were no shortcuts.

"What’s the score now?" William asked.

"It's funny that you only ask that when you win.” I grumbled. “30 to 31, your favor.”

William let out a happy grunt and I flicked my finger. A pile of dirt appeared in mid-air and flew at him. He pushed off the ground, dodging it perfectly.

The first time I’d done it he’d gotten a mouthful of dirt.

I had that memory memorised.

"You wouldn't do that to Gerial.” William clicked his tongue. “Where is he?”

I paused and a smile crossed over my features.

"He's gone to pick up his girlfriend.” I whistled. "He was more excited than a rabbit in an unguarded vegetable patch.”

We both chuckled at that. However, I felt a slight shiver of anticipation of what was to come.

Gerial’s ‘girlfriend’ was Alyssa.

The golden-eyed Marked one of Fue.

We were only joking about them dating. 

Gerial liked her. William and I could tell from the way he gushed about her every time she came up in conversation. This semester she’d finally joined Koshima academy.

It was a decision that we were sure was made only because Gerial was there.

Otherwise, the church of Fue was big enough to accomodate all of Alyssa’s training needs. They also wouldn't want her going into unguarded territory. The presence of two Marked ones added an extra layer of security.

Gerial didn't care about any of that. He just wanted to see Alyssa again. Today he'd gone in person to welcome her to the academy and give her a personal tour of it.

"Okay. I've got to take a shower,” I gazed down at my robes. “And then I need to get to Roxxy’s.”

I gripped my robes in my fingers, examining the fabric.

The church had provided me with formalwear. The robes were a lush purple, and self-repairing. I wasn't sure how it worked, but I wanted to find out.

Beautiful silver patterns were sewn into the fabric.

The only issue I had with them was that they all met together at the giant eye sewn into the middle.

"Not Amanda’s today?” William’s head perked up. “I thought you were ‘feeling it’ with your fire-attunement.”

"I am." I nodded my head. "But she's visiting her grandpa today. He wants her to start officially learning the family business.”

William went quiet.

Alexis still hadn't woken up from his coma. Neither had Cresp, Hutton or Unice. It had taken over two and a half months for the rest of the class to wake up since they’d gone comatose.

It had also taken that long for Amanda's father to appoint her the official heir. Now she was learning the trade.

There was no way for him to deny the damage that had been done to Alexis.

Every single other student that had woken up had been crippled in some way, shape or form. Even the people they had been copying had mana stolen from them.

Some had lost a lot more.

"I'm feeling good about my water attunement too.” I smiled. "Before long you'll be soaked after every session.”

I'd been focusing on attuning to both water and fire ever since I'd returned from Gesti Sky. Nobody had said it was too greedy, and instead my friends had agreed to help me.

"Remember that you said that next time you're on the ground after trying to splash me.” William made his way to the changing rooms.

We were using Ophelio’s church for our training sessions. A fact that the bishop had been over the moon about.

Gerial had organised the church's tests to speed up. It came with a lot of strings attached. Including the need to go once or twice a week and demonstrate my abilities in front of a panel of experts.

He couldn't guarantee that they would verify me quicker, but it was already showing results.

The church was allowing me to use their facilities to train.

More importantly, I wasn't the only one being tested.

"I've got to go get his majesty from his royal massage parlour." I separated from William.

Gold was undergoing a rigorous training program, improving his regent creation skills every day. His shield’s potential was being brutally tested and every last regent he created was used up within minutes as the church determined their limits.

The puffer also hadn't lost any weight. Apparently, there was a physical portion to the training as well, but church hadn't had any luck getting him to do that one.

However, he had convinced them to give him the full pampering treatment after every training session.

I don't even know how.

The church corridors had become a familiar setting in my life. There wasn't a single nook or cranny of Ophelio’s church that I hadn't explored.

That was why it only took me a minute to reach Gold’s after-training area.

I pushed open the doors to the room and strode in confidently, my purple robes rippling around my body.

"All right, all right. Let’s see what trouble you’v—”

I paused.

In front of me was a long table spread out across the room. On its surface there were different dishes of food from all across the world. I could smell a richness in the air that made my stomach grumble.

Clacking his talons on the wood as he examined each morsel was Gold.

The puffer’s head perked up and he chirped at me.

"Gold, how long is it gonna take you to eat all this?"

He tilted his head and poked his long leg out to test a plate.

Then he chirped.

Time.

I rolled my eyes.

It had slowly become easier to understand the puffer, and now my [spirit communication] skill was at rank 2 level 3. It was the skill that had levelled the fastest and it helped that I was with him all day every day.

However, the skill mainly applied to concepts. Gold didn't talk in exact words, and instead sent vague and general meanings in his chirps.

"We can stay here and eat, or we can visit Roxxy. We don't have time for both.” I crossed my arms. “What'll it be?”

Gold looked at the food and then at me. Then he lowered his head and clacked his beak.

It was his equivalent of sighing.

"I'll pack it in my inventory for you." I unfurled my arms and laughed.

Gold chirped happily and hopped onto my arm, making his way up to my shoulder.

That was when he dropped something out of his wing and onto my hand. It was a rock.

"Another one?" I held the regent up to my eyes. “Not bad, you're getting quicker.”

He preened at my praise, and I chuckled.

I left him with the food for a moment as I changed clothes. Within minutes I was back out into the corridors, and then I made my way outside of the church.

It wasn't uncommon for people to wear religious articles of clothing, but Roxxy didn't know about my Mark yet and I didn't want to make her more suspicious.

Spending a lot of time with people meant that they caught on to things and Roxxy was no different.

Thin purple mists accompanied a chime in the air as my portal appeared. William had already left, not having to wait for his booking. With his father’s staff he could leave whenever he wanted.

I stepped through the portal door and into the nexus corridors.

There was something I wanted to check, so I took my time walking through the purple water and breathing walls.

"Status window.”

Name: Andross Silver

Class: Second Chance

Level: 1

Health: 100/100

Mana: 28,520/28,520

Vitality: 10

Intelligence: 83

Wisdom: 11

Stamina: 8

Dexterity: 14

Available stats:

Class: 10% to any stat (unassigned)

Free stats: 10 (unassigned)

Skill list:

• Earth Creation (VI): Level 4
• Earth Manipulation (VI): Level 1
• Earthen Spear (II): Level 4
• Stone Grasp (II): Level 1
• Metal Manipulation (II): Level 2
• Meditation (VI): Level 1
• Fear Tolerance (II): Level 2
• Pain Tolerance(V): Level 3
• Manapool Enhancement: Level 1
• Mana Manipulation (IV): Level 3
• Mana Sense (IV): Level 2
• Mana Affinity: Level 1
• Mana Vitality (II): Level 1
• Mana Sanctuary (II): Level 1
• Mana Communication(I): Level 3
• Spirit communication (II): Level 3
• Symbol Inscription (II): Level 2
• Celestial Convergence: Level 1
• Mark of the Crijik(III): Level 2

My skills improved tremendously over the past two months. The only issue I had was that once I reached rank six (VI) in any skill it became multiple times more difficult to gain even a single level.

I was also facing the issue that I had too many skills and too little time to train them all up at once. Thankfully, that was offset by my huge mana reserves. I could afford to train multiple skills at once as long as I could concentrate on them.

However, I hadn't assigned any stats to myself yet. I was still waiting to see which stat would benefit me the most.

The obvious choice was intelligence.

However, I had plenty of that. On the other hand, my dexterity had increased beyond average levels even without any boosts. The reason was because I required incredible care and skill when inscribing symbols.

The higher my dexterity, the easier writing symbol inscriptions would be.

That was a very tempting option.

Gold squawked at me, interrupting my thoughts

He was looking down at my new clothes, simple casual wear for the day. He was asking why I wasn't taking my robes.

"I'm not against telling Roxxy about my Mark.” I pursed my lips. "It's just not something I've done before."

The last two times I’d had my Mark revealed to my friends during forced circumstances. With William it had been necessary. I'd created a portal for Gerial to come and find us.

Amanda had found out for a similar reason. I was in more immediate danger at the time.

Gold nodded his head in understanding.

"And you're not allowed to tell her." I tapped his head lightly.

Gold and Roxxy had been getting along like fish in water. Both of them were social animals and could communicate with each other easily.

On the other hand, I preferred a quiet atmosphere.

Thankfully, Amanda thought the same when we did our fire attunement practice.

There was also the other elephant in the room.

My calm act dropped the moment I wasn't in front of William anymore. I wasn't sure how to feel about Alyssa coming to Koshima academy. I knew what I'd seen the day of my death.

I'd been thrown off a roof by a girl with golden eyes.

In my mind there was no way that was a coincidence. Too many strange things were happening to me for me to consider them coincidences.

I intended to get answers, but that proved more difficult than it sounded.

Obtaining an audience with the Marked one of Fue was harder than fighting a monster barehanded. Even Gerial hadn't been able to see her much since that time two years ago.

I wasn't sure what I would say when I finally did meet her. She would join my class after this weekend was over.

Gold flapped his wings against my cheek to get my attention.

There was a light at the end of the corridor as I drew closer towards my destination.

“Okay, you're allowed to fly off or stay with us, but you can't use the cultivation room as a bird bath again.” I said to him.

Gold slapped his wing against my neck and let out a chirp.

He felt like flying after his feast.

"Andross?” A voice called out to me.

I stepped out into the light and found myself inside a well-lit room. Roxxy called it her visitor’s station. It was empty except for a space in the middle where a portal could be stationed.

Standing in front of the portal was a brown-haired man in blue robes. Water mana glided over his robes and skin as he gazed at me.

It was Roxxy's dad.

"Hello, Sir.” I gave him a small bow.

"There's no need for any of that." He waved his hand dismissively. “I told you to call me Etrias.”

Unlike the other nobles I’d met, Roxxy’s father was younger and laid-back. That didn't mean he didn't keep his secrets.

After he had awoken from his coma, he had gone silent for a while.

Roxxy had too.

Cresp had been using his dad as the template for skills to unlock. That meant that at the least Etrias had lost some of his manapool.

"I was about to leave to visit my son." He crinkled his nose. “Roxxy didn't mention you were coming.”

Etrias had his three-eyed silver mask by his side. The sign of his post and rank at Zodiac.

"I'm still trying to attune to water.” I stepped to the side to give him room to summon his portal.

His face broke out into a grin.

“Don't let her break you.” His expression shifted into an apologetic smile. “She got that teaching style from her mother.”

I grimaced and Gold tittered.

Every lesson started with meditation. After that came constant water element attacks from every angle. There was a method to Roxxy’s madness. That didn't make it any easier for me.

"I'll try to survive." I nodded at him.

The portal shifted behind me, and I sensed a change in the mana in the air. There was a chime and Etrias stepped forward, giving me a friendly wave goodbye as he did so.

I didn't know how much he knew about the monster event, but ever since he’d come out of the coma, he’d been extra nice to me.

Zodiac could've told him about my involvement in its killing.

William’s father, master Wilhelm, also knew. All levels of Zodiac had some level of knowledge about my participation in that fight.

I made my way through the corridors of Roxxy’s mansion.

Unlike Amanda's house, this area was filled with decorations.

Most of them involved fish of some kind.

When Roxxy had told me about her family in other regions focused on fish farming she wasn't kidding. Her mansion’s walls were an aquarium.

Part of it was stone but interlaced within the stone were bubbles and long stretches of water behind transparent materials.

Hundreds of creatures and sea life littered the walls, swimming in the tanks of water.

Gold eyed them hungrily and I flicked my palm in front of his face.

He squawked at the interference but then went quiet when he saw I was holding a treat in my hand.

"Don't eat the fish." I spoke.

He gobbled up the treat eagerly.

"Are you spoiling him?” Roxxy’s voice reverberated through the corridor. “How do I get some of that?”

The aquariums made the acoustics in the room stranger than normal.

I looked up and saw Roxxy standing at the end of the corridor, her hands by her side as she bounced toward me.

"A bird treat?” I tilted my head at her. “I guess I can spare one, but you might have to fight Gold for it.”

"You know what I meant.” Roxxy rolled her eyes, a playful smile dancing on her lips.

She stepped beside me, and we made our way to the cultivation room.

“Or do I have to make today’s training even harder?” She batted her eyelids innocently.

"William already stabbed me in the chest today." I patted my clothes. "Good luck topping that."

"Really?” Roxxy paused.

She wasn't a stranger to my skills, with the exception of [mana sanctuary]. She didn't know the exact details, but she knew that I could mitigate some damage.

"Relax, I'm fine." I gave her a thumbs up.

Gold chirped and Roxxy turned to him.

"Outside? What's this about a buffet?” She grinned.

She took a detour left of the corridor and opened a side door, and Gold flapped off my shoulder and into the open air. His big lunch hadn't slowed him down at all.

"Don't you spoil him as well." I watched the puffer shoot into the air. "I have to live with him."

"Gold can fend for himself. He just chooses not to.” Roxxy closed the door.

The cultivation room was deep under the mansion. It was done on purpose to funnel water into it and keep the mana trapped under the earth and inside the room.

It gave Roxxy’s family space to add different functions to the room as well.

The chamber itself could become a steam room, an ice chamber and everything between the two extremes.

I walked into the lobby that came before the cultivation room and looked around. There was an even bigger aquarium here. I wasn't sure how the family maintained them, especially since I hadn't seen any staff around.

Part of it had to do with their water element practice.

"Okay, get changed." Roxxy smacked me in the back. “Chop chop. Don't be late.”

She waved her hand and a pair of blue robes appeared over her shoulder.

I did the same.

Her family had been kind enough to lend me a pair of water magician robes. It followed the same philosophy of surrounding myself in an element.

Except something in the material actually gathered water mana towards it.

When I came out of the changing room I saw the water mana starting to gather and cling to my robes.

"Not bad.” Roxxy nodded in appreciation. “Good job keeping them clean.”

"It's harder not to when you keep hitting me with water.” I waved at the nearby mana.

Roxxy saw my movement but didn't comment on it. She was already used to it. It had confused her at first, especially because I could see fire as well.

"All I'm hearing is that you want me to add more attacks.” She joked.

We made our way into the cultivation room, and I was instantly swamped by water mana.

It clung to every orifice and my exposed skin was caressed by the thin mist. There was a veneer of heat inside the room, but most of the mist was cold.

[Mana Sense].

I turned my skill off. I could hardly see a thing in this room in normal conditions, let alone when the water mana was striking me from all directions.

We stopped at the edge of the doorway, looking in.

Roxxy’s cultivation room was different from the earth and metal ones I had visited

For one thing, it was mostly composed of water.

The ground was water, and the walls were water too. I took a step forward over the liquid floor, my shoe pressing down on a hard surface.

There were rocks on the water. Cultivators could sit on them if they didn't want to swim or cultivate underwater.

I fell into that category.

My steps were methodical and careful. My first time here I'd fallen into the water and Roxxy had laughed her head off.

"Come on land dweller.” Roxxy skipped over the stones without a care in the world. “It'll be nighttime soon if you keep up this pace.”

Her robe fluttered around her as she moved from stone to stone.

Roxxy was an underwater meditator. I wasn't sure how she did it, but the only reason she stayed on the rocks was to make sure that I was doing things properly.

I reached the middle of the room, sitting down on a large flat stone.

[Mana Communication.]

I activated my skill.

[Mana Communication] was one of the most used skills in my repertoire. It was also the slowest to level. It was stuck at rank 1, level 3.

I took a deep breath, the emotions and thoughts of the water mana resonating with me.

Joy, playfulness, curiosity, friends.

Every word was a concept.

Both mana and animals communicated in a language that wasn't spoken.

Roxxy settled down in front of me, crossing her legs and letting her hands and robes fall to her sides and dangle in the water.

“Today we’re going to start small.” Roxxy bobbed her head gently. "Meditate for the first half hour. Then we’ll begin the hard yards.”

We closed our eyes, breathing in unison. Within seconds we had synchronised, falling into [meditation] naturally.

The veil of reality was pierced and all I could see was the light of mana.

Most of it gathered around Roxxy, but there was enough for the both of us.

I disappeared from the world and fell into my mind until I was in the blank space that harboured my attunement symbols and mask regent.

Earth and metal.

The two symbols radiated power out in waves across my mind. There was plenty of space in my mind, and I could afford to fit more attunement symbols within it.

Hopefully, fire and water would come soon.

There was an order to these things. I had an affinity with fire, water and wind. Either water or fire could come next, but I couldn't attune to wind until I had both of them.

The reason was because it would conflict with my earth element attunement. However, once I got fire and water together, the earth attunement would block them from interfering with one another.

It was a delicate cycle that required a lot of careful attention to maintain.

I focused on the water mana, communicating with it and letting it gather around my body. There was more mana within the water itself, however I wasn't at the level of being able to breathe underwater while maintaining peace of mind.

There was a snorkel I was using to practice when I had spare time.

As the time passed, I began to feel a steady rhythm forming. The mana around me twinkled as Roxxy and I breathed in and out, and it began to ripple in and out of our surroundings in conjunction with us.

We were a drop within an ocean, but we were also the ocean itself.

Every twitch I made was mimicked by the mana. Every exhale brought a sense of closure from my surroundings.

It was unity. Connection.

It hurt.

A lot.

I frowned. There was something wrong. A crawling sensation stemmed out from deep within my skin and bones.

The crawling quickly turned into pinching. Then it transformed into searing pain as a thousand needles crawled through my flesh, tearing at everything they found as they searched for a way out of my body.

It was only things to my pain tolerance that I didn't scream in agony.

I felt a single tug inside my heart.

“Guards.” I called out weakly.

“Andross?” A concerned voice echoed in my ears.

It was Roxxy, but her voice sounded like it was coming from far away.

I wasn't focused on her. Or on the seven bursts of power that I felt coming from my guards as they appeared inside the room.

The tugging at my heart wasn't stopping. I recognised the source instinctively, like it was part of me.

It was Gerial.

He was activating [Celestial Convergence].

The searing pain grew sharper as mists of purple expelled from my pores. It was mixed with a divine golden presence that overwhelmed the mana around me.

The divine mana inside my body was expelling into the air.

My Mark and my divine mana were working in conjunction, forming a portal above my head.

I couldn't stop it.

Nor did I want to. This was what Gerial had gone through each time I'd activated the skill. I'd had no idea that it hurt this much for him as well.

Through teary eyes I saw my guards surrounding me, standing on top of the water and rocks.

Then I felt something.

It felt like someone was stepping over my heart. It squished inside me as something far bigger than me roamed through me.

Something was coming through the portal.

“Gerial is in trouble. Prepare yourselves.” I gasped the words out.

The portal lit up the surroundings, the water illuminated by its golden radiance.

Then there was a change.

Something clanged against the rocks in front of me. I couldn't see what it was through the pain. It looked like a glowing rock. Before I could get a closer look there was a sharp tug in my heart.

A shadow fell over me, and a single body, beaten and bloody, fell through the portal.

It was instantly caught by one of my guards.

The others formed a perimeter around me, and something hit my nose.

It was the scent of fire and something else. I wasn't sure what. It reminded me of the earth.

The body that had fallen from the portal turned to me, its face bruised and cut. Its lips spoke out and I tried to push past the pain and concentrate on what they were saying.

“Close the portal.”

I clenched my hands together and focused on the portal above me. Purple mist swirled in the air, and then flung back into my body. It felt like trying to fit a bag that was already full.

The mana did it come back. It had been used up to create the portal in the first place.

Water mana sloshed around me in panic as the presence of my divine mana disappeared, and the last of the purple mist withdrew into my body.

The portal closed above me, and the pain stopped.

I huffed, the mental and physical taxation almost overwhelming me. Even if the pain disappeared, the trauma of feeling it didn't.

My eyes were drawn towards the bloody body in my guard's hands.

Even as damaged as he was, I recognised him.

“Gerial?”