The Author's POV

Once Kevin won his match, he was quickly brought to the medical area. Even though he looked fine on the outside, I knew for a fact that he was anything but fine.

Having used [Overdrive] for the lengthy period time that he did, his internals must've been heavily damaged.

Besides that, Vaalyun was no easy opponent. That last energy blast was something that even I had trouble handling. Let alone Kevin who was weaker than me.

"Congratulations on your victory."

Entering the nursing area and seeing Kevin all bandaged up, I tapped onto the mask on my face and my face warped to my regular face. With hair, obviously.

There was no chance in hell I would ever let Kevin find out about my hair situation. Not even if I was on the verge of death. Just imaging the consequences of the reveal made me secretly clench my teeth in anger.

Absolutely no way!

"Let me take a seat over here, you don't mind, do you?"

Currently, it was just the two of us in the room. The reason for this was because Emma was in a wheelchair and thus Amanda took it upon herself to push her here.

That being said, it would still probably take them a while to come here, therefore, I quickly took a seat next to Kevin.

Sitting down, I massaged my chin and complemented.

"It was a pretty good fight, not going to lie."

Not that I watched it. The moment I arrived the match was already almost over.

"T...thanks."

Kevin weakly said as he laid on the bed. He had a serious look on his face.

Noticing this, I asked.

"What, you not happy about the fact that you've won?"

"No, I am."

Kevin replied with a difficult look.

"It's just that..."

Halting himself mid-sentence and turning his head, Kevin faced the window that was beside him.

"Nevermind, I'll tell you later. Right now is not the right place to tell you this. Maybe once I sorted my thoughts out."

"Oh?"

My eyebrow raised when he said this. Just as I was about to say something else, Kevin quickly switched the topic.

"How are you holding up?"

Despite noticing Kevin's attempt at changing the topic, I decided to feign ignorance to it. Since he wasn't planning on telling me right now, I was planning on waiting till he felt comfortable enough to tell me.

"I'm fine."

I replied with a smile as I flexed my bicep. Kevin's brows knit when he saw this.

"You don't look fine to me."

The smile on my face froze.

"...You can tell?"

Were the side effects of the pill that obvious for him to see?

Crossing his arms together, Kevin nodded his head.

"Yeah, the mana revolving around your body seems extremely weak."

"You're more perceptive than I originally thought."

Crossing my legs, and leaning back on the chair, I let out a long and extended sigh.

"I've currently ingested a pill that will boost my rank, so for the next two months I will be in a weakened state."

Surprise flashed across Kevin's face as he asked again.

"Ingested a pill?"

"Yeah, it's a pretty strong one at that."

"That's problematic. What if someone suddenly attacks you?"

"Small price to pay for strength."

Well, it wasn't just that.

What was truly special about the pill was not only the fact that it allowed me to cut a considerable amount of time for me to rank up but the fact that during the two months that I was in a weakened state, I would be able to perceive the psyons in the air a lot more clearly.

In fact, as of right now, my perception of psyons had boosted significantly. Although I couldn't quite see them as the elves could, I still had two months to get to that level.

Under this ultra-perceptive state, if I took advantage of my situation properly, my psyon control should reach a level far above what I had in the past; Therefore, although it only looked like the pill made me rank up, it actually had the added effect of drastically improving my perception of psyons and thus give me a considerable strength boost.

This itself was what made the pill so miraculous and tempted me so much. The stronger my psyon control, the stronger my general moves would become, and not only that, so would my mana consumption efficiency.

Simply put, this was a must-take pill, and I was glad I took it.

Snapping out of my thoughts, I suddenly recalled something. Lifting my head, I looked at Kevin.

"Before I forget, Kevin, what are you going to choose for your reward?"

Clank—!

Before Kevin could reply, the door opened up and Emma walked in with Amanda pushing her from behind.

The moment Emma entered the room, Kevin's eyes lit up.

"Emma."

Pushed behind by Amanda, Emma smiled in Kevin's direction.

"...congratulations on your victory."

"Thank you."

Staring at them who had just entered the room, I glanced in Kevin's direction. The moment I saw the expression on his face I already knew the answer to my question. Letting out a long sigh, I pressed my hands over my thighs and stood up.

Stretching my neck, I patted Kevin on the shoulder.

"Guess this is my cue."

Taking his eyes away from Emma, Kevin looked up at me and dumbly nodded his head.

"Huh, ah, yeah sure."

Seeing the state that he was in, I shook my head and secretly spat inside of my head.

'Simp.'

Glancing in Amanda's direction, as though we were in sync with each other, she quickly bid Amanda goodbye and we both left the room, leaving the two of them alone together.

Stepping out of the room, Amanda pursed her lips before she turned to look at me.

"...What are you planning on doing after this?"

Thinking for a bit, I responded.

"I'm going to pack my stuff, you?"

Actually, that was a lie. I didn't really need to pack up. However, as I've previously mentioned, with my perception of psyons intensified, I wanted to take advantage of every little moment I had to study them, and thus improve my control.

Every second that I used was precious.

"...My mother."

Amanda answered with a calm look on her face.

"Is she going back to the human domain with you?"

"Yes."

"...I see."

Not sure why she decided to leave, perhaps because she wanted to help out with the guild? I wasn't really sure, but, in a way this was good.

From what I've heard, Amanda had been having a hard time back in the guild since she was taking care of everything single-handedly. Having her mother help her was a good thing.

***

Two days passed since then.

The conference was officially over, and every human that had come to participate was slowly leaving to return to the human domain through the portals outside of the city.

Waiting at the front of my residence were a couple of familiar figures.

Gervis, Douglas, and Ornol, Malvil's disciple.

After having spent over a month in Issanor, it was finally time for me to return to the human domain. How long had it been since I returned home? A year, or two?

Honestly, I had lost count, but it had been too long for my comfort.

"Here ya go."

In the midst of my thoughts, I suddenly heard Gervis's voice as he tossed me a small transparent flask. Snapping out of it, I quickly raised my hand and caught the flask.

"Thanks."

Without needing to look at it, I knew what it was. The elven tear.

Since I had promised Hein that I was going to get him one for his father, I naturally pulled some strings and had Gervis get one for me. Of course, this was at a price and not for free.

In exchange for the elven tear, Gervis had asked me to do something for him. Fortunately, the task required me to be at around <S> rank, so I still had time.

Taking a look at the flask in my hand, I decided to put it away. Then, raising my head I alternated my head between Gervis and Douglas.

"...About the result of the conference."

"You don't have to worry about that."

Raising his head to stop me from speaking, Gervis smiled.

"If you're asking about whether humanity will be able to join the alliance or not, although we have not come to an agreement just yet, things are looking promising for you guys."

"That's great," Douglas replied with a smile.

Clasping his hands together, he turned to look at me.

"Are you ready? We will be leaving soon."

"Yup, give me a second."

Glancing in the direction of Ornol, I extended my hands forward and took an object that was currently enveloped in a white cloth from him. It was my sword.

After my fight with Kevin, since I was no longer planning on fighting anymore, I gave Ornol the sword to check for any damages. Even though it was made out of a material that made it almost impossible for it to break, it was never bad to double-check.

Handing me the sword back, Ornol reminded.

"As I've said before, there are no damages to the sword, and the first seal should break as soon as you reach <A-> rank."

Putting the sword back in my dimensional space, I nodded my head.

"That's good."

With a displeased look, Ornol crossed his arms.

"Take good care of it. My master said that the sword will only be yours if you can fully unlock all of its seals. If before the age of twenty-eight you can't unlock four of the five seals, he said that he will not unlock the final seal for you."

"Yes, yes, I know, you don't have to remind me."

This wasn't the first time that I heard this. Malvil had repeatedly told me the same thing before. I naturally understood his intentions.

Malvil wasn't the type to give out his works easily. One had to prove to him that they were worthy of them, and therefore, as I had still not proven to him that I was worthy of holding onto the sword, the sword was still not actually mine.

Well, in a sense it was as Malvil wouldn't actually take it back, but without his approval, the final seal of the sword couldn't be opened and therefore lose a lot of the potential the sword had.

With all the seals unlocked, I didn't doubt that the sword's rank would reach a level near or even above <SS> rank.

"Alright Ren, it's time for us to go."

In the midst of my thoughts, Douglas's voice reached my ears, snapping me out of it.

"Ah, sure."

Spending the next minute or so bidding Gervis and Ornol farewell, I soon followed Douglas from behind. It wasn't long before we arrived at our destined portal station. Because Douglas and I did not go to Issanor the same way as the others, we were led to a different portal to get back to the human domain.

Apparently, it was for 'security reasons'.

Pausing in front of the portal, Douglas turned around and asked.

"Did you bring everything with you?"

Patting my clothes and checking my bracelet I nodded my head.

"Yes, I have everything with me."

This included the red book that was currently resting inside of my bag.

Upon hearing my words, with a soft smile on his face, Douglas turned around and stepped into the portal.

"Okay then, let's get going."

Entering the portal, his figure soon disappeared from my vision and I took a deep breath.

"Haaa..."

'This is it'

I thought. Finally, I was about to return home.

Taking another breath, I slowly stepped into the portal and a familiar sensation washed over my body.

***

A/N : If you're wondering why there have only been one chap updates in the past two days, it's because I'm taking my time planning volume [4]. I will go back to two a day in a day or two. I just need a bit of time to properly plan.