Are you sure you are fine?” I asked, walking up to Connor. The man had not seemed fine since our fight. Heck, his hand still hadn’t stopped switching.


    “Yes. Just injury.” he said.


    “I wouldn’t call an ‘injury’ fine.” I remarked. “Is this because of the fight? Is your injury hurting you because you extended yourself too much?”


    Connor remained silent for a few moments.


    “Yes.” he answered, his left eye twitching as he held himself very, very still.


    I did not answer. What could I even say? Offer to heal him? I did not have that power. Light magic would block me if I tried. This had happened because of me. Connor hadn’t informed me of his condition, so it wasn’t really my fault, but I still felt guilty.


    The guy had been injured helping me learn how to fight.


    “Like fight.”


    “What?” I asked, turning outwards Connor with a puzzled expression on my face.


    “Like fighting. Don’t blame. I knew.” Connor repeated, his words even more unclear than usual.


    “Are you telling me that I shouldn’t blame myself because you liked the fight? That you knew this would happen?”


    The man nodded. I just stared at him. On one hand, that seemed foolish. The guy had known this would happen, and done it anyway.


    On the other hand, it wasn’t as if his injury was going away if he didn’t do it. I suppose he thought it was worth it. Getting denied what one loved was cruel. I could see myself doing something like this if it happened to me. A little twitching wasn’t the worst thing in the world.


    The two of us walked together in awkward silence, unsure what to say.


    “How did you even get this injury?” I asked after a while.


    Connor just grunted and continued walking.


    “Connor? Hello?” I asked as the man just continued walking. That was a pretty clear message that he didn’t want to talk about it.


    I suppose that was fair. Not my business. Now that just left me with, I don’t know, staring at the water for a few more hours until we made it to the city.


    Travelling on foot really was a pain. I hadn’t realized just how convenient cars were. Getting somewhere without spending days to get there was a luxury I really missed. Even more than toilets. But that was just because I hadn’t had to use one…and probably wouldn’t have to for the rest of my life. Rank 3 meant I didn’t have to deal with it anymore.


    “If you want, you can head back to the city.” Alice said.


    I raised an eyebrow at her. “What about you guys?”


    Alice shrugged. “I don’t see why you should have to stick around with us now. The mission’s pretty much over. With your speed you could get back to the city by night. ”


    “I’m not sure about leaving all of you here just because I am impatient. I can wait.”


    “As you wish.” The woman answered, walking away.


    I went back to staring at the water. Then I started conjuring bolts again. If I was going to be spending so much time, I should at least get a bit better at mana sensing.


    Two extra bolt’s worth of mana. That was how much I had gained from killing the Fast Fish. I was really starting to see why people didn’t want to hunt them. Going so far out of the way to kill something so annoying while also not making so little mana from it?


    I wouldn’t be taking this job again.


    But back to work for me. I conjured mana bolts, sending them here and there and making darkness mana into random shapes. Perhaps I should throw some other shapes too. Did it make a difference if I threw a bullet? Perhaps it would take less mana.


    I tried that. There really was less mana needed. But it also did less damage. The amount of mana used seemed to have more of an impact than the shape it made. But I wanted to try other shapes anyway.


    So I made a car of Darkness mana and crashed it against a boulder. That was surprisingly effective. Then I tried a truck. Alice looked at me rather strangely when I conjured a twenty wheeler truck and sent it towards some seaweed. I had run out of boulders to throw things at.


    The truck wasn’t even effective against the plants. There was a lot of mana in it, nearly all I had. But the wheels were the only part that actually struck the seaweed. And with how big it was, there was very little mana in each part of it.


    This really did look stupid, didn’t it?


    “I’m just bored.” I assured Alice. “Miss Emily said I should spend my mana and get it back over and over again just to get better at mana sensing.”


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Alice nodded slowly, looking at me like she couldn’t decide if I was in my right mind. I swear this was actually helpful.


    …but perhaps I should not be conjuring things from another world. That did seem like a good idea.


    The night came. I went to sleep, and by the time I woke up I was strongly considering just heading to the city myself. After having breakfast, I did just that. If Alice minded, she did not say a thing.


    I did consider waiting around for Elena, but…there was little need to. The girl had already made a bunch of friends and was spending time with them. The smile on her face made it seem like she was enjoying it.


    I couldn’t really see myself joining her though. Talking about random things for hours just seemed boring to me. But I suppose that''s what she wanted.


    I pushed Blade mana onto my feet, running as fast as I could. My surroundings blurred around me as I ran, reaching speeds that I could scarcely even imagine running at. If I had the Water element, I would be even faster. Or even Air.


    Blade mana was fast, but Air was faster, especially underwater. The rest of the journey still took me nearly half an hour. But I got there. The city guards stared at me as I came to a stop just before the wall, their spears pointed at me as they seemed to consider whether they should strike.


    I ignored them, looking for the hole in the wall instead. The thing probably wasn’t that far. The wall just looked a bit too same from the outside. I couldn’t tell which part of it I was in. The guards continued to point their spears at me as I walked, looking like they were ready to strike.


    But none did. I was starting to wonder if this was normal, or if they were trying to threaten me. I could already feel my mana cloak twitch at the spears pointed at me. Darkness and Blade mana both disliked it.


    Darkness wanted to destroy the threat. Blade thought it was a challenge. I just conjured a shield around me. Picking a fight with a bunch of Rank 1s following orders wasn’t on my schedule today. That just sounded like it would bring me trouble.


    I walked beside the wall, trying to find a hole through the wall until I found the actual gate. A large thing that was nearly as tall as the wall itself with little pointy things emerging across its body. There were guards stationed outside it, who immediately turned to point their spears at me.


    Oh, great. This was the wrong direction.


    I turned around, deciding not to deal with the guards. There was little point in doing that. So I just started walking away. An explosion of mana behind me put an end to my hopes of actually pulling that off. I could tell that something was up by now. The guards were just too focused on me. I turned around, conjuring bolts of darkness as I got ready to face whatever trouble had found me.


    A Rank 2, dressed in what was basically a better looking version of the guard’s uniform was staring at me. Mana exploded out of him in a way that looked like he was trying to show off.


    “Do you want something?” I asked him, conjuring more bolts. Now I had more mana put in the bolts around me than he had in his mana cloak.


    The Rank 2 gulped at my unspoken threat, but did not back down. “The City Lord would like to extend an invitation.”


    “An invitation?” I stated. And that was how he decided to deliver it?


    “A get-together has been held in the City Lord’s Mansion this night. You are expected.”


    I just stared at him.


    The Rank 2 gulped, looking more nervous by the second. How easy. This guy would not have survived a second back on Earth. The security guards were the first ones people used.


    “Does the City Lord usually send his invitations as threats?” I asked lightly, making sure my voice wasn’t raised. But it wasn’t silent either. There was little reason for it to be loud. The city was more than silent for even a normally spoken sentence to be clear.


    And it was just more threatening when the person you were facing was calm about it.


    The Rank 2 looked terrified, taking a step back as if he wanted to run away from me. So he probably hadn’t asked for this either.


    How great. That left me with a real problem. How did I respond to this? Did I just let it go? Even a fool could tell that wasn’t a good idea.


    The reason I had any say was because I was a Rank 3. Act weak, and they would roll over me. But showing off my power against these people wouldn’t accomplish much. And I couldn’t forget that I might not be able to beat them.


    I had more mana than them, but that did not mean I would just win. Connor had barely used mana against me. Heck, he had just used mana shaping once. And he was still such a threat. This was a trained Rank 2. I had to be careful.


    I walked up to him slowly. With each step taken heavily, like I was about to kill someone. The Rank 2 sent blade mana across his body to defend himself, looking more nervous by the second. I could barely keep my expression from showing my own nervousness. Blade mana at such a small distance was dangerous.


    But I had little choice. I had to make sure I did this right.


    Walking up to him, I looked him in the eye, conjuring more mana bolts with every second until we were surrounded by them. Then I lifted my hand.


    The Rank 2 gulped as I dropped my hand onto his shoulder. But he did not attack.


    “Well then,” I said, giving him my most threatening and confident smile. “I suppose I shall simply have to ask this City Lord of yours. Perhaps it will be entertaining.”


    “I—I am sure it will be, my lord. The City Lord is known to host very entertaining get-togethers.” the Rank 2 said.


    I couldn’t hold back my scoff at that. If it was called a get-together, it wasn’t going to be entertaining. This was a function where people came because they wanted something from each other. Or just wanted to get an idea of what the other person was up to. I had been to too many not to know.


    “Yes, I am sure it will be.” I said, walking towards the gate. “Are you going to stop me?”


    The guards quickly shook their heads. I looked at the gate. That did not look like something I should try breaking. Even if I somehow did it, the royal knights probably won’t like it. So I just jumped over it.


    Blade mana let me jump high, hitting the top of the gate at once. Then I just jumped down on the street. A street I thankfully recognized. This was the very road that led to the awakened district. So if I just headed through that road on the right, I should reach Miss Emily’s place.


    And I had a lot that I really did want to speak to her about. Even a few questions that may need asking.


    The City Lord was from the House of Life. So was Miss Emily. The Witch in Green should know something about what was going on, shouldn’t she?


    Or was this part of her plans?