Life didn't get easier, even in another world

98 Less mana

‘Too many flaws...?’

“....”

Kairen had never heard that before. He knew he had mistakes, but he didn’t expect them to be that many. He had been doing everything wrong according to the captain’s words.

Even Serria had never told him anything about putting too much mana in his spells or something like that. He expected to hear everything but that one.

‘I run out of mana too quickly, was it because of that? I thought I lacked mana or something.’

Kairen raised his head and looked at the woman in front of him. He was waiting for her to tell him how to solve the problems now that she had pointed out all of his mistakes.

Captain Neal, realizing the meaning behind his gaze, placed her hands on her hips and sighed.

“For now, train to control the amount of mana you put into your spells. Put less mana in them. It won’t weaken the spell but strengthen it instead.”

“....”

.....

Kairen tilted his head. He didn’t understand how he was supposed to do that.

“I’ll show it to you with the same spell that you used. I’ll do it only once so look closely.”

“Y-yes.”

She turned towards the remaining training targets and started to move her mana to cast the same spell that Kairen used.

Just like when Kairen cast it, her mana was divided into five and created five dots. The five dots created by her rapidly increased in size and started to burn in an instant. All five of them merged together, created a big fireball, and headed towards the targets.

The fireball created by her was bigger than that of Kairen’s. Kairen could even feel the fireball’s heat even though he wasn’t standing too close to it. She also finished casting the spell much faster than Kairen. It took her half the time, or maybe less than half of what took Kairen to finish the spell.

B-BAANGG

A loud explosion erupted when the spell hit the targets. The poor targets didn’t even burn like when they were hit with Kairen’s attack, they all turned to nothing as soon as they were hit by the magic.

And that wasn’t all.

BOOMM

The spell not only destroyed the targets but also hit the ground and burnt a part of the gym’s floor.

“....”

“....”

Kairen looked at captain Neal and blinked.

‘The spell was the same but stronger with less mana...’

“WOAH!”

“What was that?”

“Look at there, the floor!”

“Was it captain Neal’s spell?”

“The floor is burnt. What spell was that?”

Shocked people started to gather around the burnt area while talking among themselves. They stared at Kaire and the captain once more, wondering what was happening and what they were doing.

Captain Neal ignored them all and glared at Kairen.

“You got it, right?”

“I think so...”

Kairen didn’t really understand how she did that but nodded his head nonetheless.

The captain looked at Kairen once, then clicked her tongue and walked towards the door.

“Tomorrow is your day off, right? Train what I told you. I’ll come here to see the results the day after tomorrow at the same time as today.”

Kairen flinched and turned towards the woman.

“Pardon? The day after tomorrow?”

“Bye.”

“....”

Kairen looked at the woman’s back, then looked at the training targets. He didn’t expect her to say that. He thought that captain Neal wouldn’t come to teach him again for a second time. He thought that this would be the last time they met and talked.

Also, he didn’t expect her to arrange a meeting for the day after tomorrow.

‘I wanted to enjoy my day off. How disappointing.’

Captain Neal didn’t look back at Kairen and walked straight to the exit. She had a frown on her face while walking and was deep in thought.

‘What did they think, letting such a person enter unit 5?’

She couldn’t understand what team leader Dains was thinking when he let such a person enter his unit.

‘Did they need a mage that much? Were they that desperate that they even accepted such a mage?’

No. That couldn’t be the case.

The team leader Dains that she knew wasn’t such a person. He wouldn’t let someone incompetent enter his unit even if he was in need of a mage.

Captain Neal couldn’t get it at all. She couldn’t understand the team leader’s thought process. The boy’s abilities weren’t that good for him to be able to work in unit 5 of all places. He was a good mage, but not at the level of being one of unit 5’s members.

The boy he saw wasn’t officially a member yet, but entering this training course almost meant that they would be joining that unit sooner or later. He was more or less a member of that unit now. ????????????????????????????. C????ｍ

‘Did he choose him by mistake?’

It wasn’t also possible. Team leader Dains wasn’t someone to be that careless in choosing his subordinates. He wouldn’t let someone enter his unit without checking everything and thinking thoroughly.

And even if it was a mistake, he must’ve realized it till now. He must’ve seen that boy’s abilities by now. They had even completed a mission together. He should’ve kicked the boy out of this place by now.

But instead, the deputy team leader came and asked her to teach that boy. Deputy team leader Bray’s words were no different than team leader Dains’s own words. She wouldn’t do such a thing without getting permission from her team leader.

Those two people going so far for a mere newcomer? How is that possible?

Even if they wanted to forcefully keep that boy in there, he would die sooner or later in a mission if he worked in that unit with such abilities.

“Sigh.”

She sighed.

‘I guess I’ll have to wait to get to know the answer...’

Captain Neal looked behind once. She saw Kairen standing at the same place and circling around his mana.

‘At least he is trying.’

She took her eyes off of him and exited the gym.

. . . . . . . . .

“HAAA!”

Kairen took a deep breath and plopped down on the ground. He picked up the bottle of water and drank half of it.

While still plopped down on the ground, he glanced at the result of his hours of training.

Numerous burnt and destroyed training targets, burnt floor, and a lot of burnt marks on his hands and clothes. He was also tired, hungry, and out of mana.

Kairen had been training nonstop the whole day. It was his day off so he was free. He had been here since morning and it was already evening.

‘It is not even close to her magic.’

Kairen didn’t like the idea of training hard, he wasn’t the hardworking kind from the beginning. However, he had been practicing magic nonstop.

He found out that what the captain had said was indeed true. He could still cast the spell even if he decreased the amount of mana that he put into it. Kairen was so excited about that that he tested the same spell with different amounts of mana the whole day and only stopped when he was out of mana.

‘My head hurts.’

Kairen had a headache and was slightly dizzy. He didn’t think he would run out of mana this soon. He realized again that the captain was indeed right about him using too much mana.

“You’ve improved I can say?”

Kairen stopped thinking about the magic spell and looked up. He recognized the face in front of him immediately.

“Ah, it’s you!”

She was one of those mages that helped him out before he took the entrance exam. She also sat on the floor in front of Kairen and smiled.

“I saw you training nonstop. You must be out of mana.”

“Yeah...”

“Ah! I forgot to ask! You must’ve passed the exam, where did you get employed?”

.....

Kairen opened and closed his mouth. Was it alright to tell her that she worked in unit 5? He was told to not tell everyone about his position. In addition to that, Kairen didn’t like to go around and babble about how he was working in unit 5.

“Yes. I am temporarily working in Special Units.”

That much was enough.

“I see.”

The woman’s smile disappeared from her face after hearing that. She looked at the destroyed targets and raised one eyebrow.

“I heard that you came here with captain Neal yesterday, is that true?”

“... Yeah.”

“Wow! Did she really agree to teach you magic? Weren’t you rejected the last time?”

Kairen scratched his cheek and looked away from the woman.

“Yes... kinda...”

“I see...”

Once Kairen looked back at her, the smile was completely gone from her face and she instead had a kind of unkind expression.

“Well, I wish you luck!”

She said that and patted Kairen’s shoulder, stood up, and walked away.

“...”

Kairen stared at the woman’s back.

‘What’s wrong with her?’

Kairen shook his head.

‘Anyway, let’s rest a little bit and go back home.’