Familiar Face

To the left of the wooden warehouse entrance- the place Kai had originally come out of- were a collection of old stone portrait statues. Most of them had sustained severe weathering and damage, but something about one of the more complete ones was sparking something in Halia's mind.

[It's still hard to tell… Ah! I've got it! That statue looks just like Edwin!]

"What?"

[What do you mean, what? Edwin! The second disciple!]

Kai pulled his arm out from where he'd been scooping the deer's organs out. He'd pulled back the arm of his robes, but the once-white cloth already looked too stained to be saved.

Halia said before that she thought the others were transported to other places, but if there's a statue of Edwin… did he somehow end up in an earlier time period than us?

When Kai walked over to the statue to examine it closer, though, he realized that it probably wasn't the case.

The cracked visage of the statue looked similar to his fellow disciple, but it was distinctively different.

[It's definitely not him, but the resemblance is odd. How can there be someone who looks so similar, when we just arrived here? This temple looks just like the one back home, too…]

A relative, maybe? How could Edwin have relatives here, though? I'm pretty sure we're in a whole different world than before.

Kai rubbed at his chin.

There was plenty of unusual stuff back home at the sect, different from the rest of the realm-

BOOM!

A sudden explosion from somewhere outside the temple rocked Kai out of his thoughts, and a bright flare of orange light exploded in the courtyard.

What the hell is Brewan doing?!

Kai hefted his sword and ran out of the temple, just as there was another explosion.

[Flesh-eating Deer- Level 3]

[Furred Shriek- Level 4] [Dead]

The scorched body of a cat-looking beast lay in a heap in the center of the courtyard, and another deer similar to the one Kai had just slain was bucking wildly, its pelt ablaze with angry flames.

A few meters away from them, Brewan raised his hand for a third time, a faint light flickering in front of his grimoire before another fireball lept forth from his hand and rocketed toward the deer.

The effect was vastly better than when he'd fired it at the boar. The deer's pelt was a lot less resistant to the damage, and the force of the explosion had definitely increased as well. After eating the second fireball head-on, the deer collapsed into a lifeless corpse.

[Magic, hell yea! It's so much cooler than swords! This guy isn't as bad as I thought right away!]

Brewan quickly tucked his book of magic back into his robes, then ran over to Kai.

"They must've heard you fighting, they were both heading straight for the temple! We need to get out of here before anything bigger comes."

[He's right, I can sense a few other beasts approaching quickly. You don't have time to grab that deer you killed, just take the one out here.]

Kai clenched his teeth at the thought of all of the wasted meat, but he still followed her instructions.

"Brewan, do you still have mana for that dispersion spell? We don't need these things following us and trying to break into the classrooms."

The mage nodded, then ran over to help Kai lift up the deer's fresh corpse. Before he could do anything, though, Kai already had the body gripped tightly in his arms. He felt considerably stronger than he had before he killed the other deer.

Brewan cast the spell, and the duo booked it to the classrooms before any of the other beasts could arrive. According to Halia's mana sense, the dispersion spell seemed to work, as none of the beasts bothered to check where they'd run off to.

"That went… well."

After helping Kai sling the deer corpse through the window and into the classroom, Brewan slumped down against one of the walls.

"We got water and food… I burned a good chunk of my mana, though. And we know that there are a lot of beasts still in the area."

[I sensed at least eight of them heading toward the temple, and I think the strongest one was probably in the late single digits in terms of level.]

Kai nodded, then looked over at Brewan.

"I didn't know you could kill two beasts that fast."

The mage rubbed the back of his head at the praise.

"I've gotten a bit of experience recently… I was already almost out of mana when I ran into that boar before, and I couldn't lose it long enough to use a dispersion spell. Fireball also sucks against tanky beasts like that."

Brewan looked down at his hands, his voice getting a bit quieter.

"Honestly though, it's a miracle a blew-average tier-one mage like me even made it this far out into the wilderness without dying."

Kai tilted his head.

"Didn't you say your sec- academy sent you out here to search for Sydney?"

Brewan nodded, but didn't say anything more.

[Hey, this is a perfect opportunity! If this guy's sect wants to send him off to his death, let's take him in as a member of our own. Even if he isn't good at magic yet, there's an easy solution!]

[Pass the necklace over to him, I'll make up a spell he can learn right away!]

Pass the necklace…

"Will I still be able to hear you?"

[No… Hmm? Would handing it over to someone else make you jealous?~]

"Obviously not! Hmph, why would you ever think that?!"

Kai quickly pulled off the ruby necklace and pushed it toward Brewan, who looked to be at a total loss for what was going on. From his perspective, Kai randomly started shouting at the wall in front of him.

"What are you doing?"

"Put this on!"

Kai thrust the necklace over Brewan's neck, only adding to the young man's confusion.

[Sup, bro.]

"AAAAHHHHH!!!!"