157: Test (3)

“L-learn it today?”

“A joke, right?”

Ann and Lennon couldn’t believe it.

The whole body mana breathing method is the basis of all magic, and everything.

Depending on how familiar one is with their breathing technique, their qualification as a magician is determined.

And unlike the usual breathing method, the whole body breathing method was the original method which Jamie depended on after learning it from Linmel.

And he knew how difficult it would be to learn it without a book, so he prepared one.

“Not a joke. If you don’t get it done, you won’t be a disciple.”

“B-but…”

“No buts, can you do it or not? These are the only two things you can do now.”

Jamie didn’t smile anymore, he was looking at his students with a serious face.

“Becoming my disciple isn’t an easy task. If you aren’t confident, then go back.”

Ann bit her lower lip and Lennon frowned.

Neither of them answered. And Jamie waited silently, he knew better than anyone that answering wouldn’t be easy.

But it wasn’t an impossible task.

‘Ann. You can do it.’

A girl who understands in an instant after seeing the process and thinking back on it.

Ann Myer with her Talent of a Scholar.

And Lennon.

‘Lennon too can do it.’

It’s nothing compared to Ann, but it wasn’t impossible for him either. Of course, it will be difficult to understand it like Ann, so he might feel frustrated.

However, just by opening up the possibility of it, Lennon will grow significantly.

He might fail, but this wasn’t a test to see the end results.

“Made your decision?”

Ann was the one who answered.

“I will. I will do it.”

Seeing her determined eyes, Jamie smiled and looked at Lennon.

“What about you?”

“… same here. I will do it.”

Lennon too responded in the same manner.

A satisfactory answer for Jamie. He nodded his head and handed the book to Lennon and raised his hand.

“It’ll be a waste of time to explain it more. Let’s start right away.”

As he lowered his hand, the space around changed.

The two were shocked at the changed surroundings.

Either they were shocked or not, Jamie continued.

“The time here is half that of outside. In other words, 24 hours here is 12 hours outside. So, practice with ease.”

“W-what is this?”

“Any questions will be taken after everything is done.”

When Jamie snapped his finger, the two disappeared.

Each was moved to a different room.

Jamie created a chair and sat there.

The space was created by combining Gremia and Beyond Avalon.

It was the result of using Gremia’s free form building and Beyond Avalon’s world.

“This is one real thing.”

Beyond Avalon.

He wasn’t sure who made that staff, but they sure had the ability to manipulate space and time.

Besides, its compatibility with Gremia made it very useful.

“Let’s see.”

Two screens came to his eyes when he tapped the staff.

They were Ann and Lennon.

And Jamie just looked at them while crossing his arms and leaning back in the chair.

Ivan knew Ashtar, so he naturally approached and shook hands.

“Mr. Silver couldn’t come today.”

“I heard about it. I’m sorry. Mr. Silver would have been delighted to see the progress of the new drug in development.”

“He didn’t even come to work today.”

“Aha. Well, I can tell him about this later. Everyone, follow me.”

Ashtar smiled and took the lead.

A few steps away the children approached Ivan and asked.

“Have you been here a lot?”

“Did you come here with Mr. Silver?”

“Now, now- calm down. Ask me later when this is done. This elder brother will answer every question.”

Ivan lifted his fist and pounded on his chest.

Everyone thought that he was reliable apart from Finn who didn’t think that. He couldn’t help it. All of the kids were in Beta class and only Finn was from Alpha class.

He had been in Alpha class for a long time, so he knew only Ivan.

Ivan turned around to Finn and said,

“Finn, don’t move alone and come along. We will be moving together in the future.’

“Ah, right.”

“We need to set rules for those who have been ignoring us till now. If only we had Apophis, we might even be in the top 10 in class, no in the entire academy. Isn’t that right, Mr. Ashtar?”

“Hahaha. With the newly developed Apophis EX, it is more than possible.”

“Oh!!”

The children couldn’t hide their excitement at the word Apophis EX.

An upgraded version of X.

It was the name of a new drug under development. Ashtar looked at the children and opened the door.

“Over here. It’s a little cold because it’s a place to store medicine.”

As he said, it was like a cold storage room.

Various glass bottles were lined up in transparent storage.

Ashtar walked to the centre and touched the floor and a small pillar came up.

When he tapped the small pillar with finger, it split into 5 parts and a transparent glass tube appeared inside.

It was about the length of an adult man’s index finger and Ashtar carefully pulled out a glass tube.

“This is EX. It hasn’t been finished yet.”

“A-amazing.”

As the transparent liquid was projected onto the light, a faint rainbow colors shone.

The students gulped at it.

“It was confirmed that the mana absorption rate is 1.5 times higher than X and the concentration also doubled.”

“Wow, it doesn’t even compare to X anymore.”

“However, this isn’t a finished product and the side effects are quite severe, so we haven’t put it on the market yet.”

“What are the side effects?”

“Fever, body aches, like those. Haha.”

Hearing the words, fever and body aches, Finn raised his hand.

“Does X have any side effects?”

At that question, Ashtar looked at Finn. After taking a good look he said,

“Your skin is pale and your face slightly shrunken and your shoulders seem heavy.”

“Yes. All of a sudden from morning…”

“Are you suspecting it was from Apophis?”

“Rather than suspect, no matter how good a drug is, they are bound to have some side effects…”

“Ah, I am not questioning you. I said this because I wanted to correct a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?”

Finn titled his head and Ashtar continued.

“Simply put… your name please?”

“Finn Batik.”

“Finn. It seems to be muscle pain.”

“Muscle pain?”

“How does a body feel the next day after an intense workout?”

“Muscles get sore and hurt when moved.”

“Sucks. Apophis increases the mana absorption rate. In other words, you will be taking in more mana than usual, so what happens to the core of the heart?”

“It also increases.”

“Yes. What if it turns bigger than it used to be?”

“… tears?”

“The core doesn’t tear. However it draws the energy from the body to maintain the new size. And that naturally makes you feel weak.”

“And that is my current situation.”

“Right!”

Ashtar snapped his fingers and answered cheerfully.

“Don’t worry, the longer the core stays its size, the better it feels.”

“Phew, th-thank god. I was wondering what to do if there were side effects.”

“It differs for each person, but it gets better as time goes. Please continue to take it.”

“Yes.”

As expected of Apophis X.

Ann said overdosing wasn’t right, but the experts here were saying differently.

After that, they spent time exchanging short questions and answers and gave the students a small bottle of Apophis EX before they left as a gift.

“It is a relaxed version. The effect isn’t different from X, but it will taste better due to the added orange flavor. No side effects.”

And when he talked about side effects, he looked at Finn.

Finn sighed in embarrassment.

“Then bye! Next time we will come with Mr. Silver!”

“See you again!”

Ashtar waved his hands at the students and when he lowered it, the smile vanished.

“Dog shit. Why do I have to deal with those brats?”

He ruffled the silver hair back and forth. And with a cigarette in his mouth, he entered the lab, but someone blew out the cigarette.

Ashtar frowned and turned to the side.

“Crazy?”

“No smoking indoors.”

A woman in a black robe.

“Sigh-really annoying.”

“Trash should be in the trash cans.”

Ashtar threw the cigarette butt on the floor and the woman with magic and moved it.

“Don’t be so annoyed. I’ll have to kill you.”

“Mr. Silver’s body has been cleaned up.”

Mr. Silver.

A teacher in the Phoenix Academy who died last night after his head was crushed by Ashtar’s feet.

And the homeroom teacher of the Beta class students who left just now.

Thinking that far, Ashtar couldn’t hold back his laughter.

“Those brats, kuakauk! In front of the man who killed their teacher, they were laughing. Especially the old one. He believed that I was telling the truth. Muscle pain my ass. Kekekeke.”

The woman didn’t respond to it.

Ashtar coughed and said.

“Rather, the doctor?”

“Checking the side effects, he headed back to the lab.”

“Such a busy person. Isn’t life boring to live that way? No smoking, no drinking here, no bringing in women. So annoying.”

“What’s boring about making money while playing most of the time?”

“See, Mary, I didn’t come here to make money.”

“..”

“I came to see blood.”

A mad light flashed in Ashtar’s eyes as he spoke.

Then he grinned and tapped the shoulder of the robed woman called Mary.

“Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”

“If you kill me, well even Mr. Ashtar will have to die.”

“Well. The doctor won’t leave it alone. But that doesn’t sound too bad, right?”

As Ashtar wiggled his fingers, Mary took a deep breath.

“I will not ask you to move for our purposes. Instead, please act according to the contract. This is business here.”

“Oh oh. The employee must serve the employer.”

Mary didn’t respond to the sarcastic words.

Losing interest, he threw off the suit and opened the window.

“I don’t have any reservations today, so this manager will go out.”

“Just don’t create trouble.”

Ashtar jumped out and smiled.

Left alone, Mary called someone.

“Teacher. Ashtar is gone.”

-Don’t worry. He’s under surveillance so if there is any accident, it can be fixed quickly.

“Then, okay.”

-Please suffer a little more with him, Mary.

“Yes, teacher.”

Mary inserted the communication device into her robe and walked to the window where Ashtar left through.

A cold wind blew. As the robe moved back, her blue hair flowed out.

Ann sat down at the desk and read the book.

It was difficult.

It was a different level of difficulty than what she had learned in the academy.

‘Can I do it?’

Anxiety was creeping up, but she shook her head and shook off her thoughts.

It can’t be done, but must be done.

She definitely wanted to be a magician and build a name for her family. And her dream hadn’t changed till now.

But disappointment was inevitable.

There were a lot of great kids. Since she was young, she often heard that she was smart, so she entered the Alpha class, but no matter how much she tried she couldn’t head further.

So, she studied magic. If magic wasn’t enough, she’d use her brain too.

But even that proved to be difficult.

Someone at the age of 9 with the skills of an adult. Some who grew rapidly as if their potential had exploded.

And she was here for a year. If she hadn’t learned magic, would she have had fun like girls her age?

“No. I am going to become a magician!”

She can play freely with her peers and be in the arms of her parents. But that wasn’t what Ann wanted from her life.

“I can do it. I need to do it.”

At the age of just 10, she turned into an adult.

It was the same with the boy.

“I can’t lose.”

Lennon knew from an early age that he was gifted with a talent that was higher than his older brother.

He could learn anything. It wasn’t hard to study and magic wasn’t difficult.

Even manipulating people from behind and messing with them was simple.

All he wanted was his father’s acceptance. And he thought it could happen if he grew more.

And then he met Jamie Welton.

Miserable. The frustration he felt at the younger boy didn’t recover.

And his father, Count Simon reached out to Lennon and that began a change.

Everything worked out well. Although not acknowledged by his father, he received the positive attention he wished. He quickly learnt everything his father taught.

Even when he came here, he had no doubts that he would succeed.

Ann Myer. If only he didn’t meet her.

“Such experiences are meant to be had only once!”

The memory of being trampled on by Jamie Welton.

It is unacceptable to have someone else stand above him.

So he had to prove himself to be superior.

By replacing envy, jealousy and inferiority with strength, he was going to learn the whole body breathing method.

He knew.

Ann had an advantage with this.

So what about it?

“I am Lennon Simon. The proud son of Richter Simon!”

The boy and girl whose eyes were shining, began.

Jamie mumbled looking at the two students who were immersed in the book with joy.

“Pass.”

They deserved to be disciples.