"Are you okay?"
Katrina didn't answer and kept walking. She was fidgeting and sweating heavily.
Her small figure was shrinking every time someone passed by us.
Every few seconds, her body would jerk and she was trying to stay away from crowds.
It made me recall her hallucinations.
Katrina's inferiority complex grew to the point where she started feeling gazes and voices commending her.
...Or so would be the medical result that Leon would get.
In truth, it was some kind of mind magic used by an elven spy inside Ward to stop cadets from awakening their stigmas.
However, depending on the cadet's mental strength, it would take time to encroach on their mind.
For Katrina, it didn't even take a month to activate and came in the form of hallucinations.
I looked at Katrina from the corner of my eyes. With every passing second, her expression was growing paler.
'It won't work like this.'
"Come with me"
I pulled her behind the buildings.
She became afraid when she noticed that I took her to a desolate area.
"w...why are we he..re?"
She backed away in fear.
I recalled the magic used on her.
The ancient magic used on Katrina was a kind of ancient magic with no remedy that slowly corrodes the person's soul.
The elves were going overboard by using something like this, but in their defense, they had no guarantee what kind of random bullshit power-up stigma some human might awaken, thus they were only doing their best.
As far as I know, even in the future, only Anna can remove the magic. If she doesn't die and grow to her full potential, that is.
"Don't move."
'What was it?....'
My brows furrowed, trying to recall the method to suppress the magic.
'Touch the skin of the person directly and transfer Ether slowly to them, the greater the area of contact, the better. In Katrina's case, it helps her by stopping the hallucinations.'
I held my chin and gave her a stare.
Her robe was hiding most of her body. Only her hands and face, peeking through the oversized robe, were visible.
"Let me touch you."
Katrina shivered and backed away hurriedly.
I opened my mouth to explain, but closed it back. It would be faster to act.
"s..stay away or I-I'll shout"
She was waving around her fists, which wasn't very threatening when you consider her 150cm height.
My arm moved swiftly.
"I'm not doing anything"
I grabbed her face in an iron claw grip and lifted her in the air.
'I'm touching her whole face. This should work, no?'
"No! Help!"
She flailed her arms and legs to hit me. However, I couldn't put her down or she might run away.
I mean, what if she hits me in the crotch because it was in the range? Yup, can't put her down.
"Wait, a few sec-!"
Thuck-!
Her foot landed on my face.
'Calm down...she is only doing it to protect herself...don't be angry.'
Thuck-! Thuck-!
Maybe because she realized that it was my face, she hit it two more times.
"Kat~ Look here~"
The moment she looked me in the eyes...
'[Domination Decree]'
...I used one of my skills.
Her body went limp and fear grabbed hold of her.
"Don't annoy me while I'm being nice, understand?"
She nodded.
I let go of her and she fell to her knees.
I deactivated [Domination Decree] and got to work.
This time, she didn't resist.
I had used the skill at its lowest power and for a few seconds at that, but it would have been amplified due to the mind magic on her.
Channeling Ether through my right arm, I passed it into her head.
I could see visible changes.
Color returned to her face, and her complexion improved. Her eyes still held fear towards me, but now they weren't dim like a dying flame, rather they held a revitalized spark in them.
I withdrew my arm.
Now, she won't feel the gazes and noises haunting her for a day.
With everything done, I gave her my palm to help her stand.
She looked at me, then at my arm, and stood up by herself. I awkwardly withdrew my hand.
Both of us walked in silence.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
She was no longer shivering as much while walking in between the crowd, however, her stare was intense, as if she was trying to drill holes into my head.
"..nothing"
Katrina looked away.
We were going to the meeting point where we would meet Henry. Henry was the one climbing along with me.
Also, he was my ex-classmate too.
"uhm.. what did you do earlier?"
"Helped you."
"But h..how did you…"
I didn't answer and kept walking.
Katrina might be feeling cheerful at this moment, but this was only a temporary solution.
Only Anna, after she gains and understands the 'Dispel' magic, can treat her permanently. This was what I knew from the novel.
Besides, Katrina's troubles were nowhere finished.
Unlike what she was thinking, the owner of the warehouse knew she was stealing. He was planning on using those footages as blackmail material if she plans to go to the authorities to complain.
"uhm..what is your level?"
"Lvl.11"
"T..talent?"
"2sp/Lvl"
Katrina's feet stopped, and she looked at me with a half-questioning and half-surprised gaze.
"Your c-cadet r….rank?"
"I'm 2969rank, wait, was it 2169? Hmm… anyway, I'm in the bottom 1000."
I turned around and started walking, but she didn't follow.
Sigh
She wasn't putting her trust in me, even though she should know that what I did a few minutes ago wasn't simple.
'And I'm doing this to help her, too."
I was taking her to the Dungeon of Trials because the physical stress and mental stress can help her to awaken her stigma.
It was good that she could now think of other things than hallucination but her distrust in me wasn't helping.
I opened my mouth.
"Do you want to give up this chance?"
"Chance?"
I nodded.
"How long do you think you have to wait until you will become strong enough to explore the dungeon by yourself? I might be helping you, but frankly, do you think someone else will do the same?"
Someone would actually.
Leon would help her next year and she'll awaken her stigma after that, but she doesn't need to know that.
"Your level is too low, resulting in your low mana capacity. How are you going to advance in your carrier as an alchemist without a proper mana pool?"
"With e..equipements…"
'Oh, would you look at that?'
True, alchemists can use external mana sources if they don't have a large mana pool themselves, but to think she would talk back. How much does she fear going to the dungeon, or am I not reliable?
Tsk
I'm not.
"And you need money to buy the necessary tools."
"Ugh…"
She shrank back at my response.
"You are here!"
Someone interrupted us.
Henry, who had been waiting for me, came running.
"Where did you go? You weren't even answering my calls?"
"The battery was dead."
Henry looked at me with an expression saying he didn't trust me. Nevertheless, he knew this wasn't the time to pursue such matters.
"We should leave. We are behind th.... who is she?"
He pointed at Katrina.
Katrina hid behind me when he looked at her.
"She's my mentor. I thought I'll help her climb the dungeon since I was going there, regardless."
I didn't introduce Katrina. It would be a problem if Henry says something about Anna and triggers Katrina's complex.
"But aren't you climbing with me?"
"That's why I brought her. Isn't Sir Henry in the top 100? It shouldn't be a problem if he has to carry two dead weights, should it?"
[A/N:- Carry is a term used in team games where one person wins the match for everyone else. Basically, the rest of the team was either useless or just played a supporting role to the one person who "carried" the team]
Henry belonged to a high-ranking family that followed the tradition of knights from before the first disaster.
Hearing 'Sir' boosted his ego, and he nodded without hesitation.
"It's no problem. I was told that you will be useless in combat, anyway. Bringing one more person isn't a problem."
"As expected for Sir Henry."
I stopped my twitching eyebrow and used my bootlicking skills to the full extent.
Hehehehe...
With ether core, you could say I was pulling monster and beast's aggro 24/7. It wasn't without reason Eth hesitated to go alone into the dungeon.
"I knew that I can depend on Sir Henry."
From the corner of my eyes, I saw Katrina giving me a dubious look.
What?
This is why bootlicking skills were invented! To be used with pushovers!
And as an honest person, I must fulfill the wishes of their inventors and trick every pushover with my skills!
Ahem.. I digressed.
The three of us went towards the Dungeon of Trials.
We passed a security check. The guards didn't question Katrina, as even though the exams were going on inside the dungeon, it was still open to everyone.
"Did you bring the materials you left to bring?"
"I did"
Before I left Henry saying I forget something and had to bring it, the something in question being Katrina.
As I engaged in small talk with Henry, we finally reached the entrance of the Dungeon.
It was a portal of all sorts of colors appearing and disappearing in it.
Henry turned to us and spoke with a serious expression.
"What floor will both of you start in?"
"Floor 1"
"F...floor 3"
I never climbed the dungeon before, so I had to begin from the first floor.
Henry nodded at my words.
"I'll also start from Floor 1. Nathan, I'll create a signal, we'll rendezvous there, and uhh.."
"Katrina"
"Katrina, if you want, you can climb without us. However, since you came with Nathan, I'll take it as you'll be climbing with us."
Katrina timidly nodded her small head.
"You should hide and wait for us on Floor 3. As with Nathan, I'll create a signal after we reach Floor 3. Can you come to us from there?"
At Floor 3 Katrina will be Lvl.3 and her combat ability will be repressed greatly, not that she had any.
In that state, it will be hard for her to wait for us, as it will take us at least one day before we reach there.
Henry wanted to know if she was okay waiting for us.
"I..I'll manage."
"Shall we leave then?"
Henry smiled brightly and went inside the portal. Katrina also walked inside under my watchful eyes.
Lastly, I entered the portal too.
'Here, I come main cast'
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