Nathan

Year 2849 | Month 10 | Day 19

I grimace after taking a shot with my sniper rifle at a distant zombie. Sure, the shot hit it, but I missed its head despite it being only a couple hundred meters away. And that’s not something I would’ve missed just a month ago…

Damn it. I really should’ve kept practicing my shooting instead of focusing entirely on my magic.

I change my aim at the sight of the zombie rushing in this direction with an arm missing before shooting again and taking it directly in the forehead.

At least I put in time to work on my swordplay over the last month. So there’s that.

But it was kind of hard to get the time to work on my shooting considering how focused I was on training my mana arcs – which have reached a total of thirty now, which is the same amount as a Class D magician even if I don’t qualify spell-wise yet – and how I’d have had to leave the tree to go train my rifle instead of just running drills in the tree for my swordplay.

Either way though, Leo would kill me if he knew.

Which makes me wonder. Will I ever see him again?

Because I’m starting to wonder how long I’m gonna be starving myself out here in this dead forest.

My thoughts trail off as I find another zombie to shoot at.

The instant I step into the tree tower again, the voice of the ever annoying skeleton enters my ears, “Welcome back, child. Did you have a pleasant time with my children?”

My eyebrow twitches in irritation at his insistence on calling me child. It started ever since he told me the story about the mutagen a few days ago, and he hasn’t let up since. As if he’s mocking me or something.

Despite my clear irritation with him, I humor him by answering, “Yes. Shot several of them to catch up on my shooting skills.”

Which reminds me. I still need to figure out what the hell is up with this rifle. Unlike my original rifle, this one has a gem located on the magazine – which I’ve learned creates bullets from my mana after converting the mana to metal mana and forging the bullets – along with a gem that I can’t figure out the purpose for on the side of the rifle, one on the very end of it which extends the barrel, and another one I can’t figure out the purpose for on the other side of the rifle from the first one I couldn’t figure out.

Both of the ones I can’t figure out are blue and purple in color though, so I get the feeling they might only take in space mana or something. Which means they’re useless towards me.

Unless I somehow figure out a way to make use of the space mana being generated in my body, which I highly doubt will happen. At least not until I can manipulate mana directly.

“Wonderful!” the so-called-king responds with a jubilant attitude clear in his voice, which I could’ve sworn wasn’t this clear the first time I spoke to him. But maybe I’m just imagining things. I have been constantly pushing myself without any food or water for over a month, and even if my body doesn’t care, my mind does. “Now, head down to my lab and this one will continue your lesson on encryption. We’ll then move on to the security basics of the hardware behind the terminal.”

I just nod my head at that and immediately begin making my way towards the source of the miasma.

The entire reason I started humoring him. Because I can’t stand the idea that I’m being tracked and watched by the doctor. And who else to teach me how to deal with the terminal in my hand but a Class S magician?

As for the documents the doctor left in the files I managed to decrypt? Those were details on some Tier 2 and Tier 3 spells, such as a couple of basic spells for beginners working on those Tiers and instructions on how to start designing my own.

“Come on. I don’t have all day,” the skeleton suddenly says, for some reason trying to rush me into coming faster with a crappy excuse.

Excuse me, but you do have all day. Considering that you’re locked in a glass prison.

It takes me a couple of minutes to navigate the halls to his lab again before I come in to find him floating in the middle of the cage again. But I ignore that to walk over to the cage and sit down while activating my terminal, bringing the flaming screen above my open palm.

“On another note, young one,” the skeleton continues while floating around in a circle in the cage like a child himself, “would you like me to help you with those Tier 2 spells you’ve been working on for the past couple of days?”

My head jerks upwards to meet his flaming gaze as I blurt out, “How did you know-” only to cut off again as I force my mouth shut.

I never worked on those spells inside of this lab. So how does he know about them?

I know the guy can sense me wherever I am in the tower somehow, but is he also able to tell what exactly I’m doing at any time? Because that might just be as bad if not worse as the doctor’s constant gaze.

After several seconds of silence, with the only noise being that of the crackling flames in the death magician’s eyes, I eventually answer, “Yes. I would.”

The skeleton’s creepy laugh echoes through the lab for a few seconds before he says, “Then I will do that after this lesson.” He then immediately dips into the lesson we stopped in the middle of earlier about encryption.

I can’t help but feel tense whenever I’m learning from him, or even in the same room as him though. Because for some reason, I can’t help but feel as if he sees me as a test subject. Particularly for that mutagen of his.

In fact, I have to reassure myself multiple times every time I come into this lab just to feel safe doing so. To the point that if he wasn’t helping me so much, and if this place didn’t have that damned immovable star diagram, then I’d have left long ago to stay away from the crazy magician.

But the benefits are too much to pass up. So here I am.

I spend the next few hours or so listening to the skeleton’s lectures before something about the cage stands out to me.

Is it just me, or is the life mana in that cage at a lesser concentration than it was the last time I looked?