Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

"EEK!"

As he moved his body back out of reflex, he saw Alan\'s dagger shine right before his eyes.

\'He is too close!\'

A mage should never get too close to the enemy and should always keep the distance at all costs. After getting beaten up to a pulp by that soil dude, Kairen had completely grasped the meaning of that phrase. 

He also learned that if the enemy was too close to you, using spells was probably the worst idea. You could get used as a human shield against your own attack and that was not good! 

That said, Kairen had thought about some solutions for such situations while he was being forcefully held home by Kain. 

No, actually it wasn\'t thinking for solutions. He was just dreaming about how he could possibly win the battle against that man and the different things that he could\'ve done, just like how one thinks about the ways to win an argument of 5 years ago while taking a shower.

As a result, he had some ideas on what would be the best to do in such a situation.

Strength

The Strength spell was a basic and actually a weak magic spell that boosted your physical power based on a percentage of your own body\'s strength. 

It wasn\'t actually the best spell out there. The aura users didn\'t need such a low boost in their physical ability when they could get other kinds of supporting spells instead. Mages also didn\'t need to boost their strength as they always stand at the hind lines of the battle formation, and even if they wanted to use the spell it wouldn\'t change anything as a small percentage of their physical ability being boosted wouldn\'t mean much against an aura user or others with high physical abilities.

But as Alan wasn\'t an aura user, Kairen just tried his luck. He only needed Alan to move a little bit back so that he could cast a shield around himself.

After casting the spell, Kairen could feel his body gaining a little bit more energy compared to usual.

\'Oh wow!\'

Moving all that energy to his fist, Kairen twisted his body.

BAM

And punched Alan in the stomach with all his might.

"...."

"...."

But...

"What was that?"

Instead of being pushed back, Alan just looked down at his stomach with a stupefied face.

"Um... W-wait!"

Kairen moved his fist back and punched him once again.

BAM

"...."

"...."

By now, Alan had lowered his hand that was holding the dagger and was looking at Kairen as if he was watching an unknown species that he had never seen in his life.

Kairen looked up at Alan and lowered his fist.

\'I want to cry.\'

He looked down at his swollen fist with teary eyes. Seeing him, Alan patted his stomach a few times.

"Oh no, it actually stings a little bit."

Kairen could see the edges of Alan\'s lips twitch. That made him want to cry even more.

"...."

Looking at Alan, Kairen suddenly pushed the remaining energy of the boost spell to his legs and jumped back, creating a shield around him at the same time.

\'A-anyway... the plan was a success. The goal was to cast a shield!... I never planned on hurting him! Yeah... yeah...\'

But how come he couldn\'t push Alan back a little bit even with boost magic? It wasn\'t like Alan had a muscular body or something like Reyan or the others! Sure he was in better shape than Kairen but still, he wasn\'t that strong! No! Kairen wasn\'t that weak! Alan must be hiding something! There was no way Kairen would still be so weak after using boost magic!

\'Now my right-hand hurts! I should\'ve just used the boost to jump back!\' 

Alan resumed his attacks as soon as he saw Kairen move back and cast a shield.

CLANG

The dagger hit Kairen\'s shield. 

\'Can\'t he just manipulate time to get rid of the shield?\'

Kairen couldn\'t hold himself back any longer.

"Why don\'t you use your power?"

He said that while casting another spell.

Alan frowned at his words and gritted his teeth.

"Who said I don\'t?"

"Ah?!"

CLANG

And hit the shield with the dagger once more.

"Damn it! Just as I thought!"

"Yes?"

Kairen suddenly got chills after seeing Alan\'s face. His eyes were just... too scary. He looked at Kairen as if he wanted to chop him to pieces.

CLANG

By the time Alan hit the shield with his dagger for the third time, Kairen\'s spell was done being cast. 

CLACK

CLACK

Chains emerged from the ground and headed towards Alan\'s limbs.

"Shit!"

The Dagger fell from his hand as the chains got wrapped around his body and pulled him down to his knees.

"Okay Okay! I lost! Oy brat! Cancel this shit!"

Kairen was scared of canceling the spells after remembering Alan\'s eyes just seconds ago, but canceled the chains and the shield and approached Alan after seeing Alan curse. He was back to his own self!

"Why didn\'t you use your power to stop me?"

Alan didn\'t answer him and instead stood up from the ground while frowning. Ignoring Kairen\'s question, he just glared at his face with a meaningful gaze.

"...."

"....??"

Kairen tilted his head with a questioning gaze.

"What are you two doing??"

The two of them turned around after hearing Reyan\'s urgent voice. Reyan pointed at somewhere while running towards them.

"In what dictionary is \'this\' called a simple sparring?"

Kairen turned to look at what Reyan was pointing at. There, he could see one-fourth of the training ground completely damaged.

"Oh!"

Kairen gasped.

\'Maybe I shouldn\'t have created so many wind blades...\'

There were huge cuts in the walls and a big burnt spot on the floor.

"Tsk!"

Alan clicked his tongue and walked towards the damaged part of the training ground.

Something amazing happened as he did that.

Wherever he stepped, the damaged parts disappeared, turning to their original shape.

Alan stood there with his back to Reyan and Kairen, staring at the surroundings with a deep gaze.

"What happened to him?"

Reyan asked Kairen, who also didn\'t know the answer. Kairen shrugged his shoulder.

"Donno!"

The whole training ground was back to normal by the time Kairen said that.

"Oh?! You are here early!"

All three of them turned to the source of the voice. Captain Neal tilted her head a little bit and looked between the three of them.

"MM?? Did something happen? Were you probably... sparring?"

"...Yes."

Hearing Kairen\'s answer, captain Neal smiled and walked to him.

"It\'s good. You need to spar with others often to get stronger. Now, let\'s begin the lesson."

She pulled Kairen towards another part of the training ground without waiting for his answer.

"Uh? I will go then."

Reyan waved at Kairen and walked to the exit. He stopped in front of the exit and looked at Alan.

"Aren\'t you coming?"

"...."

Alan was still staring at Kairen with a frown.

"No. I\'ll stay here a little bit longer."

"...Alright."

Not caring about Kairen and Reyan\'s confused faces, Alan walked to one corner of the training ground and sat down.

Reyan nodded at Kairen once and left the training ground.

Captain Neal glanced at Alan for a moment, but didn\'t say anything and started to talk to Kairen.

"Umm... So first of all we have to check what you have learned after reading that book. The exam results were quite good but that doesn\'t mean you can perform them perfectly because you have learned the theory to some extent."

Kairen nodded his head in understanding. Captain Neal turned back and walked away from Kairen.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"First, cast that energy beams of yours, but without there being any attack boosting symbols."

She pointed at a target as she said that. 

"Yes."

Kairen nodded and started to cast the spell, but there was something different while casting the spell this time. He had to stop at one point of the spell and skip one part of it while making sure that the spell wouldn\'t get twisted in the process. He had to do all those in a few seconds for the spell not to fall apart.

"Huuu..."

Kairen took a deep breath before filling his spell with mana. Once he was done casting the spell, a shiny and bright sphere was floating in front of him. 

\'It seems different...\'

The energy beam was definitely different from the ones he had been using until now.

SWOSH

Kairen took his eyes off of the energy beam and looked at the target. With a slight movement of his hand, the energy beam was sent towards the target, faster than before.

B-BANGG

As soon as the energy beam collided with the target, the target exploded to pieces.

"OOHH!!"

Kairen exclaimed in surprise as he looked at the tattered target. Captan Neal looked at the target with a satisfied face before turning to Kairen.

"So? Did you feel the difference?"

Nod Nod

"It used less mana but had more destructive force."

"That\'s right. Next, cast that spell you used when we first met in the gym. This time, remove some of the attack boosting symbols and add two more fire elements instead of them."

\'The fire spell?\'

Kairen nodded and started to cast the same spell that he had practiced a lot to cast before while doing what he was told to.

B-BAAAAANNGGG

The spell swept away almost half of the training targets in the area.

"WOW!"