Chapter 356 - Reflecting
When Ria Ross exited the training tube, she found Kai sitting on the chair near the system control, which was supposed to be her seat.
"Congratulations. You managed to kill me." Ria smiled.
"That killed you?" Kai raised his eyebrows, looking surprised.
"You didn\'t see it?"
"Nope. I lost my vision right when I aimed the Sound Bullets at you. Because I believed you would move, I gambled in which direction you would move." Kai shook his head in disappointment.
"That\'s a shame. I thought it was not a coincidence, but it was good enough. You managed to beat me even though I hid my real power this whole time." She gave a thumb up and continued. "I didn\'t plan to beat you with this, but that was something necessary for you since you looked a bit overconfident after getting that blood power, magic control, and the sonic boom."
"Fair enough. I thought I could do anything since I had a long-ranged attack which is my Sound Bullet…Or My Sound Blast in a smaller version called Bullet Version or Sound Bullet. As for the blood power, I have nothing to say. I feel like I gained a huge pride after mastering the instinct, probably the side effect? Either way, humble is something that can be trained. I will train in that aspect to counter the pride." Kai nodded, knowing what to improve.
"It\'s fine then. If you feel anything weird in your body because of that blood power, call me anytime. Besides, I have a few bags of your blood here, so I can test it again to see whether the current blood has a different characteristic than the previous one. How about your magic control?"
"Everything is fine. Concentrating my magic in one spot allows me to create another one near it. With that strengthened instinct of mine, I believe I can pinpoint enemy attacks and use a concentrated Oscillation Shield." Kai nodded.
"That\'s good. You have gotten stronger, and this is the end of our practical training. Tomorrow, we will move to the last stage of your training, which is the battle simulation training. We are going to have a battle in terms of strategy. Of course, real-time and prepared one, depending on the circumstances. For now, you can rest first." She smiled and patted his shoulders.
"Before that, I need to ask you this first. What was that magic that could transform you into something…" Kai didn\'t know the term and stopped talking while looking at Ria, who should know what he was talking about.
She grinned and teased him. "Do you want me to tell you? How about begging me for it?"
"If you don\'t want to, I won\'t force you." Kai shrugged. "Besides, you are my teacher. If knowing it is bad for me, you won\'t tell me even if I beg you and vice versa."
"You smart brat." She stroked his hair, looking at Kai fondly. The little man had truly grown up. Hesitating for a second, she decided to share it with him. "Don\'t tell anyone else about this yet, alright?"
"I understand."
"That technique is stimulating my body into the finest form. In other words, it\'s a kind of releasing my limiter. You must have heard the terms of the limiter, right?"
Kai contemplated and answered. "Yes. For example, if I ask someone to run and tell him that he can stop when he can\'t do it anymore, I am sure that he will stop when reaching his limit. However, this is the first limit which is a pseudo limit.
"I can tell him to run one more lap before he can finish. And surprisingly, he can still do it! He can even do a few more laps before reaching the second limit of his body. This second limit is called the body limit, while the first limit is the mind limit.
"There is a third limit, and this is the most dangerous one. It will make you collapse on the spot, and in a serious case, you might have some accidents." Kai suddenly realized and narrowed his eyes. "You…"
"Nope. I am only at the body limit. I trained when I had time, but I kept doing it until I really couldn\'t stand up anymore. When I continued for a few months, I realized that something changed in my body. It was like having a breakthrough, albeit it took longer than I expected, so it wasn\'t ready for the S Rank magical beast yet." She let out a long sigh.
"Do you have any injuries? Even though the body limit is the maximum limit, I am sure it will give you some kind of injuries, no?"
"Don\'t worry. If we didn\'t have Magic Power, I wouldn\'t dare do something like this. However, this magic power allows us to recover a bit faster than normal people in the past. And the more magic power you have, the faster it gets. So, I have no injuries right now."
"That\'s good then."
"Yeah. I didn\'t know for how long, but I felt like when I reached that stage, I could understand my body a bit clearer than before. That\'s when I realized a kind of imaginary limiter in my body. When I turned it off, I could release the magic power in my body at a bulk."
"That\'s why it was leaking?" Kai narrowed his eyes.
"Yes." She nodded. "Because the limiter is not there to restrain my body, obviously I have nothing to stop the magic power from leaking. For now, I can handle that state for about ten minutes, but I will be too exhausted to do anything after that."
"What is it called?" Kai asked. "I wonder if I should learn that as well…"
"Nope. This is what I really want to say. You will surpass me in the future, but I can\'t afford to lose to you yet. After all, you have yet to reach your limit."
"Then, are you saying you have reached your limit?" Kai narrowed his eyes.
"Nope. No one can tell their limit. However, I can feel a giant wall that will stop me in the near future. That\'s why I have this technique to shatter and the wall for ten minutes." She smiled helplessly. "As much as I hate to say it, I couldn\'t keep up with your strength, giving you more motivation to surpass me. When you graduate, I won\'t stand a chance against you anymore."
Kai\'s body shook and immediately hugged her. "Teacher…"
He wanted to cry after seeing how caring his teacher was this whole time but endured it. He shouldn\'t show his weakness here.
"Look at you. You shouldn\'t be this weak. Don\'t cry, alright?"
"I am not crying." His tone was still clear but penetrated her heart.
She smiled and hugged him tightly. "Your path is more horrendous than mine. I might not be able to share your burden anymore, but I won\'t stop being your teacher and watching you from behind. Go and soar to the sky."
Kai closed his eyes as a smile appeared on his face.
"Enough of this." She slowly released him before making a big grin. "Doesn\'t this mean you are still overconfident for challenging me, brat?"
"…" Kai let out a long sigh. "Yes. You don\'t need to talk about it again because I know I have made many mistakes during our last fight."
"Well, I applaud you for remembering it at the last second."
"You told me yourself that I should have never given up when fighting an opponent." Kai shook his head. "I thought that even if it was mutual destruction, it was still better than dying alone. Wait, mutual destruction?"
"Hmm?!" When she was about to tease him again, she realized that Kai seemed to think about something important, so she stopped for a second and observed his expression.
"Do you still remember when I reported about the magical beasts going on a suicide mission?"
"Yeah. They sacrificed their lives to bring you down." She nodded. "We thought there should be a protector giving them a lesson to do that or it can even be an order too."
"But there is one more problem. What if there are a thousand of them at the same time?" Kai asked. "This is going to be a big hurdle for us."
She furrowed her eyebrows and looked down, falling into deep thought.
"I wonder if I should make a barrier tool that could protect us from something like that?" Ria came to a conclusion that if they couldn\'t stop them, they just needed something to protect them.
"Yes, but I don\'t think you should do it."
"You don\'t believe me?"
"No. I will be asking Ayaka\'s family to do this. It will give them a high standing too if this is important to us." Kai\'s expression turned serious. "Her family is the same as mine, but unlike me, who received the favor from the president because of you, she doesn\'t have anything to raise her family standing other than being a merchant family."
"So, you want to use this to raise their standing and have the government protect it like other families that have been fighting on the front line?"
"Yes." Kai nodded.
"I see. That\'s something interesting. Michelle and Sofia already have a high standing with their Graham and Campbell Families. The only one left is Ayaka since you don\'t need to think about your little sweetheart in United Asia."
"Exactly. That\'s why I will be negotiating with them to prepare for the incoming danger in a few years."
"Alright. I will agree with you. Just tell me if they need a sponsor. I have been making a lot of money in my early days, so I can become their sponsor." She smiled.
"Thank you, Teacher. For now, we should prepare for anything possible, especially regarding the protectors."
"Okay. Go rest now. We will continue our talk tomorrow. I will take care of the recording first."
"I will take a bath and sleep. You should take care of yourself too." Kai nodded and left the room.