52 Chapter 50: The Neutral Zone, Part 9
** Seol Jihu (POV) **
It has been almost three weeks since the Neutral Zone began, with less than 10 days left until the Awakening Chamber opens and we all obtain our Classes. During this time, I have witnessed the progress of everyone in the group. They have definitely strived to make the most of the situation, and the majority have already met the mana requirements to obtain the Mage Class. I haven't told them, but if they were to check their status windows, they would realize it.
The only person in the group who had already met this requirement and has managed to further improve her mana is Odelette Delphine. She is quite talented in the use of mana and magic in general, obviously not close to the talent of Eun Yuri, who is beyond calculable margins.
However, Odelette's talent in magic is slightly inferior to mine, which is quite good. And if there's something surprising about her, it's her mana circuits. I'm not sure, but they seem to be more resilient than normal. So far, she has not shown any symptoms of overheating in her mana circuits, and from what I can see, her condition might be more special than I thought. I will have to verify it personally at some point, and based on that, I might change her training to a different one.
**
"Can you tell me why you waste the valuable limited time of the Neutral Zone training these people? Instead, you could be training yourself and become much more powerful. I have seen you train before and know you could do it full-time instead of part-time as you have been these days just by overseeing the training of these novices," asked Claire. At this moment, it's just the two of us in a shop on the first floor having some drinks.
"Right now, I can't take advantage of even 10% of the training benefits that the Neutral Zone offers. Only when our Classes are assigned and the special training zones open will I be able to take full advantage of the benefits. In contrast, the group I am training is the opposite; right now, with my help and resources, they can gain a benefit of perhaps 500%.
So instead of doing something that would hardly benefit me, I'd rather take advantage of doing something that will greatly benefit them. And don't get me wrong, I'm not doing it out of charity. These people are talented and reliable. If they can become strong quickly, they will be of great help in my plans to save this world. I can be strong and capable, but I am just one person. I can't be everywhere. However, with the help of capable people, I can cover more ground and reduce my worries," I explained the situation as best as I could.
I saw that Claire understood my explanation, but despite understanding, she cannot accept it. It seems she wants to say something but is hesitating quite a bit.
"If you want to say something, don't hesitate and just say it. By now, you should know that unless someone does something that exceeds my limits, I will not retaliate. Besides, you and I have known each other for a long time, and among the people from the underworld, you and Taciana are the ones I get along with best. So, it can be said that we are close in confidence," I said, trying to reassure her.
"Can we have a training combat? On Earth, I could never gauge how strong you really are, but here I can say that at least I am among the top 10% of the strongest people, and I am curious to see how well I compare against you," she said with quite a few doubts and fear of how I might react.
"Sure, it will also be a good experience for me. I want to see how I compare to the people at the top of the power hierarchy in Lost Paradise," I said as I stood up. I followed Claire to the mission board, where she picked up a basic combat training talisman.
We broke it together, and it transported us to a combat arena. On the outskirts, there were many training weapons, none lethal, with blunted edges meant only for training.
For my part, I took a sword, and Claire took many daggers, placing them in sheaths around her body.
"I've been wondering this for a long time, is your weapon really a sword? As the god of death and leader of The Shadow, who use the scythe as a symbol, I thought your weapon would be a scythe," said Claire, quite curious.
"Haha, actually, the scythe is just for the image. As for the sword, I've learned three martial arts based on swordsmanship, but that only makes me a master swordsman. The sword is not my weapon; my true weapon is a secret, and only if you prove strong enough to force me to show it to you, will I satisfy your curiosity," I said, quite amused.
"Then I must warn you that I will be serious, and you better prepare or you might get hurt," she said as she got into a combat stance.
"Alright, start whenever you want," I said as I took a combat stance, putting one foot forward, my left hand behind so that it was hidden by my body, and my right hand holding my sword in front, a basic fencing stance.
She attacked immediately, throwing one of her daggers in my direction. I deflected it with my sword while preparing to block her next attack.
She attacked me quickly and efficiently, with almost no wasted or unnecessary movements between her attacks, always aiming for vital points. She also knew how to create and take advantage of opportunities, trying to distract me with her daggers, and when she saw me in trouble, she did not hesitate to throw them or give me an unexpected kick.
For my part, I deflected or dodged all her attacks. She is faster than me, but she loses in strength, so every time we clashed, she ended up on the losing side. That's why she quickly changed her fighting style and stopped trying to clash against me. Instead, she began to attack me from a distance, throwing her daggers, and only approached to attack in a hit-and-run tactic.
Our exchanges of coming and going and her dagger throws only lasted about 15 minutes. She clearly looked satisfied with her work and had a face that said victory was hers. The reason is that all the daggers she had thrown and I had dodged or deflected were tied with very fine threads that are imperceptible to the naked eye, so she believed I hadn't noticed. However, although they are imperceptible to the naked eye, they cannot escape my [Sensory Perception]. From the beginning, I knew of her strategy and only feigned ignorance.
"It's time to end this," she said with a smile.
"It was fun, but you're right, Claire," I replied.
She immediately threw the last two daggers she had in her hands in my direction, with the idea of forcing me to dodge those weapons and fall into the net of threads around me. But to her surprise, instead of dodging, I deflected one with my sword and caught the other daga with my free hand. It seems she forgot for a moment that I had only been using the hand with which I hold my sword and at no time had I used my other hand.
"I didn't expect that after not having used your left hand throughout the entire fight, you would decide to use it at the end, but that changes nothing," she said and pulled both hands, which were connected to all the threads around me. The net of threads began to close and trap me inside. In a few seconds, I would be completely bound by the threads.
"Good move, but it leaves you open to retaliation," I said as I threw the dagger I had caught and my sword. She was forced to dodge and lost some control over the threads she was manipulating with her mana. I took advantage of the opening and ran towards her. Although she is faster, she is forced not to escape because she would lose her prepared threads.
And now our confrontation turned into a competition of who captures the other first. Will she capture me in her net of threads, or will I capture her first?
In a matter of seconds, the outcome occurred. She trapped me in her threads at the same time that I captured her, leading to an embarrassing situation where both of us were caught in her own net. Being trapped and stuck face to face, Claire turned completely red.
"If your idea was to trap us like this from the beginning, let me tell you that I acknowledge that you are bolder than I thought, Claire," I said, and I can't believe she turned even redder than she already was. If this were an anime, this would be the moment when she starts to emit steam from her ears and faints.
"This was not my plan; I didn't plan this," she denied, all embarrassed.
"Well, I believe you, and although I am enjoying the current situation, I think it's time for you to release us, Claire. If you want us to be together, there's no need to resort to these kinds of traps; you just have to tell me upfront, and I will gladly agree," I joked, but she did not release us.
"I can't release us. The net was controlled by my mana, but now that it's closed and we're both trapped, I can't release it from here; we have to break it," she said, even more embarrassed.
I laughed. I'm sure that normally she could release us, at least if it were a normal situation, but right now she's so embarrassed that she surely lost control over her mana and can't concentrate enough to manipulate the net.
"I lost my sword when I threw it at you, so I have no way to break the net. We'll be trapped for life unless you have a way to break the net on your own, Claire," I said, and she just closed her eyes, trying to forget the situation and regain control of her mana, but it seems it didn't work. Her embarrassment and blushing did not diminish at all.
For my part, I'm just enjoying the situation. To begin with, during this confrontation, I did not use either my [Mana Cloaking] or [Physical Reinforcement]; I only used my base Stats and my mastery of the sword based on my training on Earth.
Even now, I could easily break these steel threads if I used my [Physical Reinforcement] or [Mana Cloaking], but the situation seems funny to me, and seeing Claire so embarrassed is also amusing.
When I saw that she was recovering a little, I decided to tease her more and said, "You know, Claire, I understand that the person in charge of the Neutral Zone, in this case, Taciana, can see what happens in the entire Neutral Zone from her room, so she surely took an interest in our friendly combat and has been watching our situation from the beginning."
Until that moment, her blushing had diminished a little, but after hearing that, she turned completely red, buried her face in my chest, and to my surprise, she fainted. Well, I really didn't expect that to happen in reality, but she really fainted from embarrassment.
Seeing that the joke got out of hand, I decided to free us, and using [Physical Reinforcement], I easily broke the threads that bound us.
Then I carried Claire like a princess and took her out of the fighting area. I thought about taking us directly out of the dueling zone, but decided against it. If I appeared in front of the mission board carrying a fainted and blushing Claire, surely the gossip and misunderstandings would get out of control in a matter of minutes.
I waited several minutes until Claire woke up, then she realized we were free and asked me what had happened. I told her I was just joking around with her a bit, and when I saw the joke got out of hand, I broke the threads and untied us. She was a little upset to discover that I could have broken the threads from the beginning, but she did not reproach me and just blushed every time I mentioned the topic.
"So, you didn't fight seriously against me from the beginning? Am I not strong enough for you to show me your true power?" she asked, disheartened.
"Sorry, even though you are strong and fast, that's not enough. If we talk about my base power, you are definitely faster than me, but as you could see, you lose in strength and endurance. As for technique, I can say that your mastery of the daggers and threads surpasses my mastery of the sword, and I must congratulate you for that, but it's still not enough. I can't use all my power against you because it would be unfair, and you wouldn't stand a chance," I said, stating the harsh reality. It's not that she is weak, but if I use my [Physical Reinforcement] to the maximum along with [Mana Cloaking], I'm sure that at the very least, I am as strong as a parasite commander with their divinity unleashed.
The reason I can estimate that is by comparing my base stats with those of Seol Jihu in the novel when he was able to face the commanders with their divinities unleashed, and although my base stats are still inferior to his at that time, if I use [Physical Reinforcement] to increase my Stats and [Mana Cloaking], I can estimate that I don't lose to him.
"Can you show me your full power? I would like to have the experience of facing a deity in all their power. I have rarely seen the parasite commanders unleash their divinity, and the few times have been experiences where thousands of people have lost their lives just to make them waste time and wait for the effect of their divinities to pass. But if I can experience the same level of power from an ally in a controlled environment, I feel it would be an invaluable experience," said Claire.
"Mmm, I can show you all my power, but it won't be the same type of experience. To start, I perfected my skills to not be flashy and perceptible. In fact, you might not even notice the change in my presence when I am showing all my power. I trained a lot to keep my power hidden, but you will definitely be able to experience my capabilities at maximum performance," I said and used [Physical Reinforcement] to the maximum without hurting myself and [Mana Cloaking] to cover my body and the practice sword I had already recovered, then I went back into the combat zone.
Claire recovered her daggers and followed me. She waited for me to do something, I guess she expected me to unleash some power or something that would give her a hint that I am at maximum performance, when in reality I already am, as I said, I trained a lot so that my abilities would not be perceived by anyone.
Perhaps only someone with an ability like [Sensory Perception] or a very developed intuition could realize it, but there are very few who have that level of sensory abilities.
"You can start whenever you want, I am at maximum performance, as I said, my abilities are almost imperceptible," I said, and she looked surprised.
She took several deep breaths and lunged at me.
Unlike before, when she was faster and I had trouble keeping up, now that I have [Physical Reinforcement] active, my ability to process and perceive information is also increased, and I can see her moving in slow motion. I didn't wait for her to reach me, I ran in her direction, positioned myself behind her, and placed my sword near her neck, making sure to immobilize her and not hurt her.
"Impossible, there's no way there's such an overwhelming difference, I couldn't feel even the slightest change in your presence," she said, completely surprised by what happened.
"I told you, I've trained a lot to keep my abilities hidden. When I use all my power, very few can notice the difference from when I don't, and that's one of my trump cards, so I hope you won't divulge it," I said and let her go. She was happy, as if her curiosity had finally been satisfied.
"Well, it was good practice. Thanks to you, I now understand a little better how I compare to the strongest people in this world, at least on the human side. When it comes to the parasites, I think I'm at the level of a commander with their divinity unleashed," I said, and she agreed. It might overwhelm her a bit right now, but it's worth considering that she's not using any magical artifacts of any kind, and as a level 6, she surely has many that increase her stats, provide support abilities, and other things. If she were using them, she could surely put up some resistance.
Then we left the training area and appeared in front of the mission board. Everyone there looked at us with surprise, but no one said anything and just moved aside, giving us space to walk freely.
We walked a bit away from everyone.
"Thank you for the fight; it was a good experience for me. I learned a lot, and now I have more motivation to train and get stronger," she said quite enthusiastically.
"There's no need to thank me; it was also a good experience for me. Besides, thanks to your kicks, I was able to see something very interesting during our fight. But if I had to say, pink or yellow would suit you better than purple," I said and waited to see her reaction. For a few seconds, she was completely blank, as if she didn't understand what I was referring to, but when she realized, she turned red again and ran off.
Before she got too far, I made sure to shout, "By the way, the little bear was quite cute; it definitely suits you well." She increased her speed and disappeared from my sight in a few seconds.
**
"So, you still haven't suffered from overheating?" I asked for the tenth time, and the answer I got was the same as before.
"Nothing, I've exhausted and replenished my mana hundreds of times and still haven't suffered any symptoms of overheating," Odelette replied.
I found it strange; she has exhausted and replenished her mana many times over these weeks and has not suffered any symptoms of overheating in her mana circuits. Apparently, she has very durable mana circuits.
But it's not an ability, since it doesn't appear in the abilities section of her information window when she looks at it, nor does it appear when I view her information with the [Nine Eyes'] Observation.
The strange thing is that it also doesn't appear in her Aptitude. Normally, when someone has a talent, whether physical or mental, and it's not an ability, it tends to appear in under Aptitude in the status window, but her situation doesn't appear.
It's not the first time I've seen something like this happen. For example, Shadow #41 has very developed vocal cords and is capable of making very high or very low sounds, to the point that anyone else would quickly damage their vocal cords by emulating the same sounds. I even tried to imitate him, and he was fine at the end of the test while I had to use [Self-Healing] to repair the damage I received by imitating him.
But as I said, when I used observation on him, I couldn't find anything in his abilities or Aptitude. It's simply something that doesn't appear, and now with Odelette, it's the same. She has very durable mana circuits, but there's no information about it in her status window, nor in the information provided by the [Nine Eyes'] Observation.
That's why I decided to test something; if it works, it means that even if her talent with magic isn't as good as Eun Yuri's, she will still have many opportunities to reach unimaginable heights on the path of magic.
"Alright, if you agree, I will try to transfer some of my mana and circulate it through your mana circuits. The amount I'll pass will be greater than yours, and I'll test how much your mana circuits can withstand before showing any signs of overheating. Based on that, we'll see if we change your training," I said, and she agreed.
We sat facing each other, and I said, "Give me your hands, I will circulate my mana through your circuits and gradually increase the amount. If you feel any symptoms of mana overheating, let me know immediately," I said.
"How bold of you, Mr. Jihu, to ask for a lady's hand; you certainly get straight to the point," she said with a laugh, giving me her hands.
"Be careful, Miss Odelette, perhaps you don't know, but I actually have a reputation as a terrible womanizer who chases after pretty girls, and when I catch them, I don't let them go," I said, playing along.
"Your reputation certainly precedes you, but know, sir, that I am a lady who likes adventure and romance, and from what I've seen, you represent both aspects very well. So now that you've asked for my hands and caught me, you'll have to take responsibility," she joked, and then we both laughed. Over these weeks, we've gotten along well; like me, she enjoys jokes. Although she has tried to play several pranks on me, she has not yet managed to catch me in any.
"Alright, jokes aside, I'll begin. Please pay attention, and if you feel any symptoms of overheating, tell me to stop immediately," I said, and she nodded seriously.
I began to channel my mana into her circuits, starting with 1% of my mana, but she showed no reaction, so I increased it to 2%. As there was still no reaction, I continued increasing it by 1% increments until we reached 10%.
When I reached 10%, she began to show a reaction, but it wasn't the overheating of the mana circuit I expected. Instead, her reaction was different; she began to breathe more rapidly, and her face blushed slightly. This surprised me, so I stopped and asked her, "Are you alright, Miss Odelette? Do you want us to stop?"
"Mm, no, I can feel something, but it's not unpleasant; on the contrary, it feels good, like a warm sensation coursing through me. Please, let's continue," she said happily. For some reason, her reaction seemed quite familiar to me, and I don't think it's right to continue with this if her reaction is related to what I'm thinking.
"I think it's better to stop; I don't think it's a good idea to continue with this test," I said with considerable hesitation.
"How much of your mana have you used so far?" she asked instead of responding.
I sighed and replied, "10%."
"That's very little; I want to know how much I can endure. You said you would change my training based on how much I can withstand, and if we stop now, then any training plan will not be formulated correctly," she replied with a valid argument.
But aside from using my mana in very small proportions to help others awaken their [Mana Circuit Application] ability, I had never circulated so much of my mana in someone. Seeing her reaction, I can say that this is not going well, but it is her wish to continue, and she is right that I need to know her limits to modify her training. The problem is, if I continue down this path, I feel that the dimensional FBI will come for me.
I took a deep breath and decided to increase the mana a bit more to see if we could reach the limit of her mana circuits instead of escalating her other situation. I continued to increase the amount, this time going up by 2% increments until reaching 20%. Her breathing became more irregular, and her blush intensified; now I could see that she was shifting a little in her seated position.
"Alright, I think it's time to stop," I said.
But she surprised me when she said, "Please, not yet, I can endure more, just a little longer."
"Miss Odelette, this is no longer an appropriate training situation and is becoming more oriented towards matters of men and women, it's not suitable for us to continue or I will indeed have to assume responsibility unlike the previous jokes," I said in a more serious tone. Odelette is still a 16-year-old girl, and although I accepted Seunghae when she was only a year older than Odelette, the circumstances were different.
Seunghae and I have known each other all our lives, and I even gave her two years away from me so she could clarify her feelings, whereas Odelette has only known me for a few weeks. Anything that happens will be more my responsibility and my taking advantage of a young girl who doesn't know much about relationships and isn't really aware of her feelings.
I tried to pull my hands away from her, but she held on tightly. Obviously, I could use force to free myself, but that would hurt her, so instead, I stopped circulating my mana through her circuits. Her breathing began to normalize, and her blush also started to fade; she opened her eyes and looked straight into mine.
Without letting go of my hands, she looked into my eyes and said, "Is it because I don't have a very developed body? Is that why I'm not attractive to Mr. Jihu? Is that why you refuse any romantic situation with me so strongly? When I said that you cover the aspects of adventure and romance that attract me, I wasn't joking, and it hurt me that you thought I was. You have been the first gentleman I have come to like; you are intelligent, strong, fun, know how to cook, are educated, attractive. I really like you, but I understand if my feelings are one-sided. If that's the case, then please leave me alone, I don't want you to see me in an unseemly state," she said with tears about to form in her eyes.
This time, I can say that I was caught off guard. During these weeks, Odelette and I have joked quite a bit with each other, and some jokes were flirtatious, but I really thought we were just joking. I'm not dense, but I couldn't tell that she was serious when her attitude was always too playful, sometimes even more so than mine.
She is a pretty young girl, and I can't say that I don't like her, but the problem is that she is very young, and as I said, her circumstances and Seunghae's are different. I wanted to wait a couple of years for her to reach the age of majority, but she won't accept that now. I'm sure she just gave me an ultimatum, and at this moment what she wants is a more direct answer here and now. Any answer that is not direct she will take as a rejection, and if I reject her at this moment, I'm sure Odelette will end up heartbroken, and any chance I might have with her will be over.
I took a deep breath and exhaled, "You are quite an attractive girl, Odelette. I want you to know that I like you, but you have to seriously know that I am a womanizer, even worse than what the rumors say. I have three girlfriends, and just like you, there are several other girls that I like and I will also ask them out to be my girlfriends. Only If they are okay with the fact that they will have to share me with other girls," I said while still maintaining our eye contact.
When I said that, her eyes opened wide in surprise, but then she began to laugh, and for a moment I thought it was the beginning of a hysterical attack, but to my surprise, it wasn't. She continued laughing and it seems that she is indeed having fun.
"Sorry, it was a joke, I couldn't help it, my confession was a joke. I can't believe that Mr. Jihu really fell for my joke, haha, God, I can't wait to tell everyone and charge them for the bet, I was the first to play a successful joke on Mr. Jihu," she said while laughing intermittently and wiping the tears from her eyes.
Once again, I was in shock; I really have not been able to read this girl, she's a box of surprises, she truly caught me completely this time.
I sighed, a bit relieved and disappointed.
"Well, you definitely deserve that for being a womanizer, but I want to ask you something now that I'm on the winning side and have the victor's right to ask. Are you really dating three girls at the same time? And do you really want to date more? Do your girlfriends know about each other and are they aware of your intention to have more, or are you just deceiving them all while seeking to deceive more girls? And if you're not deceiving them, how does your relationship with them work?" she asked with quite a bit of curiosity.
"Okay, I'm the loser, I'll answer the questions honestly. First; yes, I'm dating 3 girls at the same time. Second; yes, I want to have more girlfriends, I told you, I'm a worse womanizer than you've heard. Third; My girlfriends know about each other, infact, we live in the same house. Fourth; I don't deceive any girl I pursue, I usually make my situation clear to them before asking them out" I responded quite defeated.
Odelette has been looking me straight in the eyes the whole time, and even though I stopped channeling my mana into her, we are still holding hands because she never let go.
"Well, I believe you, Mr. Jihu, but there is one last question I want you to answer honestly, after that, my questioning will end. When you said you liked me, did you mean it, or was it just to take advantage of my confession?" she asked me quite seriously.
But I replied in the same way, "I didn't lie nor did I intend to take advantage of you, I really like you. However, I was not expecting the confession to be a joke; I thought it was real and took it seriously, you caught me off guard, I admit. The reason I had not pursued you seriously is that I consider you very young, and it would be taking advantage of your inexperience for you to fall in love with me, which is why I didn't plan to pursue you for a couple of years," I said and sighed resignedly.
She seemed quite satisfied with my response and finally let go of my hands.
"This is for being a fool, dense, airhead, and womanizer," she said as she slapped me. Fortunately for her, she didn't use real force behind her slap, so she didn't hurt her hand; it's most likely she only intended to tease me a bit more.
But her next action did take me by surprise... again.
"And this, is because I wasn't actually joking when I confessed," she said and gave me a kiss on the lips. The kiss lasted several seconds and was quite awkward on her part; I responded as best as I could to improve the experience.
When we parted, she looked into my eyes and said, "But I needed to know if you, Mr. Jihu, were taking me seriously or just wanted to take advantage of me, and that's why I told you it was a joke," she finished speaking and kissed me again.
"Those were my first and second kisses, aswell my first confession, not to mention that you, sir, excited me before we even shared our first kiss or had our first date. Now you must truly take responsibility, or I assure you, you'll have the French nobility after you," she said with a teasing attitude, but now I definitely know that I should not take any of this girl's words or actions lightly.
"I told you from the beginning, I'm a womanizer who chases and catches pretty girls, and now that I've caught you, you can't dream of me letting you go," I said, holding her by the waist as I leaned in and kissed her. And to get a bit of revenge for all her jokes and actions that caught me off guard, I began to channel 20% of my mana into her body.
I quickly noticed changes in her breathing and her face blushed deeply; she even became enthusiastic in our kiss. But instead of continuing to stimulate her, I stopped both the kiss and the flow of mana and said, "A little punishment for a naughty girl."
All she could do was look at me with puppy eyes, trying to ask for more with her gaze, but I just gave her a kiss on the forehead and said, "Enough excitement and action for confession day, besides, we haven't even had our first date yet."
After that, we set aside any thoughts of training and took the day to have our first date.
