Chapter 12

Nick was stunned, he looked at the body of the dark-haired kid and panicked. Nick calmed his breath and trekked not to pace.

Rais watched from four feet away his eyes opened in shock.

Nick thought of all the ways to bring him back and kneeled over Max and a thought hit him. He rubbed his hands together " Um I'll use chest compression combined with electricity to re-"

*gasp

Nick was cut short. Max's opened his eyes wide and sat up "Wooo! I feel great." Max shouted, "I am so pumped up!" He looked around. "What happened?" he asked innocently and concerned lifting an eyebrow ever so slightly.

Nick looked at Rias and the message was clear not to speak of it, don't ever mention it.

Nick thought and he realized the answer to Max's resurrection 'He must have restarted his heart with the electric variant. That's some insane luck.'

He was roughly right Max's body produced a small surge of electricity primarily in his heart that caused him to come back.

Max stretched "So we got that down awesome!" His excitement and simplicity flowed out in each word (possibly caused by acute brain damage and lack of blood flow).

Nick forced him to take a few minutes to rest. Later they primarily focused on cardio

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The following days were comprised of mostly camp craft and cardio along with a few trips outside to the forest.

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Max ventured out near the mountains following Nick for a special lesson

Max trudged up the mountain already slightly tired. He was carrying a bag on his back and took a few mental notes about the environment;

It was hot but slightly colder than the last time he went out. A few clouds were making it cooler.

He sweat plenty and could not express his gratitude that no bugs bit him or irritated him that being said it was an almost perfect day.

The hike up the mountain had many beautiful trees whose trunks and build were reminiscent of pine but didn't have the same foliage, he took note of the few large rocks cold on the surface.

This served as a reminder of his love for nature and he smiled though at the same time wished he was dead as the quietness made his thoughts seem louder and his will lessened, before the voices caused him to give they made it to a small clearing a flat chunk of land grassy with minimal rocks, a beautiful landscape seemingly untouched by man the exception being fire marks in the soil.

Max's mentor faced him "Today we are going to train with more complex moves since for the most part I've just taught you the basics and exercising. Today I will show you some of my major moves," Nick said calmly with natural charisma dripping from his voice.

He waited for Max to get ready and he jumped using the tip of his foot then changed his balance in the air to the other foot springing the air as he extended it stiffening as he fell he moved his leg and transferred all of his energy to the palm of his hand and struck downwards.

That move took weeks for Nick to master

Max smiled and tried his best to copy it looking at Nick's muscles and breathing so he jumped on the tip of his foot and mastered the rest of the move in one try except for a barely noticeable twitch in his leg so he steadied himself and did it again

Nick was speechless frozen in disbelief but after half a second he processed it.

He groaned quietly "Augghaa" he tensed up and paced for two seconds "motherfucker" He whispered, "You don't know how long that took me to get."

He walked to his left for a few steps to where the base of a mountain started, sharply turning up. he punched It.

*crack

*Thud

Max watched in amazement as anyone would. Nick let go of his composure and his punch split the mountain cracking it down the center slightly off from the tip.

Nick took a deep breath and fixed himself "Well, it seems you have what I think is a full. A full attribute for combat that explains why you didn't get any fulls or high-fulls for your mana." He muttered "Don't mention this to anyone. Come on we have to train more." He said at first pinching the bridge of his nose, and near the end gaining his enthusiasm back. They practiced, and Nick tried to get Max to tap in more with nature.

Max went back to class the same as always at least except for weekends but he still liked to train

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Max was training again with his magic teacher and after finding out she couldn't teach him everything he asked this simple question "Where can I learn more skills?"

And was informed that "You can go to the live air they should have some simple ones." So when he finished his lesson he walked to the Library and read a bit about it and asked the librarian about more spells

"You can buy some special spells if you go hunts or dungeon raids."

When Max inquired about that he was told

"Those are secrets of the capital and some extremely powerful spells?"

And when Max asked about them he was informed about their abilities

"Some can teach you invisibility and how to make certain things." And listening to her tone he left.

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As time went on Max was allowed under the supervision to go to dungeons and hunt not only to get stronger he found out that he both got money for participating in the raids but also for selling certain body parts of the monsters and the monster's loot sometimes with his classmates sometimes without.

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After four of the students (Alex John Max and Jack) took a small morning run they went back to class and were told to go somewhere, Nick guided them down the halls.

When entering the large room with many people in and practicing multiple skills at stations like rope tying and Weapon polishing.

"So, today you guys will be meeting your new teammates. These are the teammates that I may have mentioned so talk to them and you guys will both tell us who you like, then match you up ." Nick said and patted Alex on the back and pushed him forward, the rest followed and then split up, they started talking to random people, petering out

Max talked to a few unremarkable people and just stood for a few minutes looking at people working until he saw a small woman in the fire starting station, he noticed she was dark-haired and something was strange about her face Max couldn't focus on it

'Is she wearing something?' he wondered

but first noticed that she was not starting the fire right. After watching for a bit he approached and crouched over to her side and waited for her to notice. He awkwardly scratched his head.

"Um you're not doing it right," he said softly and the women looked up at him "You're supposed to move the spindle down while spinning it. Can I see?"

He extended his hand and she gently passed the wooden stick and he demonstrated the correct technique. "See you're supposed to move your hands down while spinning it annddd" he stretched out the word and an ember formed "Hazaah" he explained "Now you try." He smiled and handed over the equipment after the ember died. "Thanks" the girl whispered Max just smiled and watched her as she fixed her form.

Maxlightly critiqued the posture making sure to be nice and calm "Thanks," she said sounding truly touched "You're welcome." He said smiling with his right hand's thumb up and trying to make his eyes gentler. When she made eye contact he fully saw something that he couldn't focus on at first and was trying to piece together

She wore a black mask with glowing white eye holes and Max smiled not focusing on it "So, how are you " He asked "I'm f-fine." she replied "Great" He said trying to sound as nonthreatening as possible

They talked for a bit and Max found himself sitting cross-legged on the other side of the station talking.

"So why'd you wear your mask?" He asked gently with an uncertain smile. She fumbled, Max could practically smell the panic.

"U-uh I" she stuttered and played with her hair "have some scarring…" She looked down And Max seemed confused "Oh, I'm sorry are you okay?" He asked

She glanced up, and even with that mask on The black-haired menace could sense her confusion "Uh-a you don't have to talk about it. If you don't want to… of course." He said nervously.

"No, it's just." She stopped and thought.

They sat silently for a while.

" So where do you come from?" Max asked trying to break the silence. She looked at him, thinking.

"I used to be part of a noble family." Max nodded at the information and she continued

" My father was a duke. We were attacked, pillaged many died… I was the only survivor ." She whispered it out. Max sat there thinking and processing the dark turn.

After another brief period of silence, Max talked again "Cool, do you have any hobbies or cool skills?" He asked

"My family used to teach me how to knit… oh I can use multiple types of magic" she answered quietly

Max smiled "Awesome what types? And I also used to knit a bit."

"Oh, earth ice, and lightning also a bit of fire."

"Awesome I also do a bit of those I think that's so cool.

Even though the mask's face didn't move Max could still feel her emotions

The girl smiled "Oh, you mentioned knitting?"

Max smiled with pride "Yeah I used

To knit a bit, though I never really did much since my hands are a bit shaky and clumsy." He put up his hands and he looked confused about how steady they were "Weird." he whispered

After a bit more small talk Max was about to get up but he stopped himself. He scratched his hair and asked for something "So you see that guy over there?"

Max gestured towards his friend "That's John, he's not the best conversationalist so can you please join his team… only if you want though." Max said as calm and soft as he could and talked for a bit more

They locked eyes or well she did. Max stared at the glowing holes in her mask and she stopped moving Max just looked at them having a habit of making very intense eye contact, he realized she might have been scared and broke away from the eye contact.

"Oh sorry about the red eyes." He said trying to sound clumsy and forgetful "No that's not it." She muttered, Max stopped 'Why else?' she elaborated after seeing his expression

"Your eyes are a bit hollow," she said thinking about the unstable eyes going from dead to frozen static and strange.

"Oh yeah, my eyes I used to be a bit crazy." He swirled his finger near his ear "So I started at a wall into nothingness for hours thinking of the same thing for hours without moving just thinking, again and again, and again, but I just got over it one day." he said his eyes resuming his former craziness for a second "but whatever." The dark-haired boy muttered like it was a joke trying to keep his eyes from twitching and redirected the conversation

"Hey, I never got your name" He glanced at her "My name is Max" he introduced himself "What's yours," He asked flashing his teeth

"I'm Donava, a former duke's daughter." She bowed

"Awesome," Max said and waved her goodbye to other people to see if he could help or learn.

John looked around and saw the girl looking at him he didn't notice the mask at all to him it seemed like a normal girl then he looked at Max walking away and assumed he was trying to help so when he saw the girl standing looking at him he decided to approach.

"Hi," she said "Hi," John said waving lightly as they exchanged greetings and sat down and she followed sitting as well. "Did Max tell you to help me," he asked and took her nodding as a reply, they talked for a bit and then she asked more about Max he told her "He… is special. He is crazy." he tried to swallow what he occasionally though he was 'monster' he took a deep breath and resumed "He is actually a nice guy though a he is a bit unpredictable I... I'll tell you something about him about what he did"

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A/N I don't know how I want to spell Rais so you have to suffer too hahaha you will have to think about Rias's name so often haha. Also, I'm probably going to rewrite more chapters so sorry, and also fix some other chapters