Skyler blinked once, twice, then let out a sigh and raised his arm to cover his eyes.
"Well, maybe not."
His answer must have been acceptable, as the man smirked and sat down beside him.
"Don't be disheartened. Your fundamentals with the scythe are excellent. You know the basics almost instinctively, and that's after only three months of wielding it. I will give you a perfect score for that—generously."
Skyler rolled his eyes beneath his arm.
Perhaps because of his defeated posture, or maybe because the calamity couldn't see his expression, the latter failed to notice the mischievous curl of his lips and the wisp of silver lightning—so weak it couldn't even kill an ant—emerging from his fingertips. Like a snake, the wisp of silver lightning slithered toward the man, ready to deliver a tiny zap.
Skyler's smirk widened, and honestly, it made him look nothing short of devious.
His plan was succeeding. A while ago, he had sworn to hit the man at least once.
Even a tickle counted… right?
Hehe.
Yet, his happiness faded when his master casually reached out and crushed the wisp of silver lightning with his fingers.
The calamity sneered at him.
"I know you better than you know yourself. These tricks won't work on me. You should train a bit more before I let you leave."
Skyler groaned in protest.
"At this rate, will I ever be able to land a hit on you!? I don't want to grow old here! You said you'd only let me go when I land a hit on you—is that even freaking possible?"
The calamity just shrugged.
"That's for you to figure out."
He stood up and glanced down at him.
"Come on, stand up. I'm going to teach you a powerful skill—one you're going to love."
Skyler raised a brow, his interest piqued.
"What skill?"
"Teleportation."
Skyler's eyes widened a bit. His body was exhausted, his muscles aching in protest—yet the word teleportation held a magic that made him spring to his feet in an instant.
"You're the best master, you know that?"
A speechless look was thrown his way.
Even though the calamity was shameless, he could never get used to someone else being even more brazen than him.
But Skyler didn't care. Not at all.
Teleportation. The name alone sounded overpowered. If he mastered such a skill, people would regret ever challenging him!
After all, he could just simply smirk and vanish if he was at a disadvantage!
Just the thought of it made him giddy!
Yet his smile faded the moment he was tossed into a place filled with fissures, hell-bent on shredding his body to pieces.
That was where he spent another grueling month—the longest, most agonizing time he had ever endured just to learn a skill.
According to his dear master, it was to help him understand the space element better.
But he knew. He knew it was bullshit! Just like the nonsense he spouted when he was trying to secretly do something devious.
***
A few days later, in the outside world at Starlight Academy, the space inside the familiar training dome trembled faintly.
Then, a blinding gray light flashed.
Alfanzo, the man who had failed to get his hands on Skyler, and all the other powerful Lights sent by the government present at the scene, instantly sprang to their feet.
One of the Lights, bearing a scar on his forehead, glanced at his colleagues.
"More students are coming back from the Battle Royal—finally. It's not as shocking as the young man who came back in under a week, but still, it's barely been two weeks."
Alfanzo nodded at him, watching as two figures materialized within the gray light.
"It seems Moore's map was actually reliable after all. I was starting to fear the worst—no one besides Skyler had returned until now."
The Lights watched as a gray-haired young man of short stature, with sharp pitch-black eyes, staggered out of the light, followed by a taller man with dark hair and silver eyes.
Both of their clothes were soaked in fresh blood—not human, but monster blood—and their bodies were covered in injuries.
Zack shuddered, his breathing ragged as he looked at the lights, his body on the brink of collapse after battling countless monsters.
"We survived... We're back…"
Just as those words escaped his lips, the shorter gray-haired young man before him fell face-first to the ground with a thud and fainted. Zack glanced at Charles' body, let out a small 'Oh', and collapsed as well.
He fainted too, muttering inwardly,
'Let the world be damned.'
At this point, they were barely breathing.
First, they had to survive the wrath of that damn dragon whose jewels were stolen.
Then came the countless troll monsters, roused by the chaos and noise it caused.
Ultimately, when they finally discovered the gate to the second level of the Battle Royal and barely began to feel a flicker of joy, they found themselves surrounded by powerful dark monsters they could barely survive.
Unexpectedly, those monsters were the guardians of the wooden gate, and even when they were killed, more kept coming.
Fighting their way through those powerful dark monsters and reaching the gate had drained the duo completely. Now, all they wanted was to sleep—nothing more. They just wanted to rest their aching bodies.
Alfanzo's eyes widened at the sight of the two fallen bodies. Like the other Lights, he was momentarily stunned, failing to react immediately—then he sprang into action, rushing toward the fallen students and shouting to one of his guild members.
"Use your light skill to heal them!"
The one he called immediately used his strongest Light skill to heal the injuries on the two unconscious students' bodies. But when they didn't wake up, he checked their condition and looked at Alfanzo.
"Their bodies are completely drained. It seems they've been fighting nonstop for days. They need rest—they probably won't wake up for the next few days."
Alfanzo's face hardened in frustration.
"Damn it. Skyler came back fine. What happened to these two?"