Chapter 12

"Walking through a forest with you wasn't what I expected on a teacher-student journey," I say with dry humor after already having been walking for over twenty minutes.

The forest was of tall trees, with little or no undergrowth. The biggest difficulty of the terrain was crossing high relief levels and rocks that form a climbing obstacle.

"Oh? This I feel coming from you, is it fear?" He looks to the side as if disappointed.

"Hmph. I'm not afraid of a stupid forest," -Obviously I was afraid of what we were going to do here, Hikimage still hadn't enlightened me and the suspense was even worse.

To be fair, seeing that trail of blood in his house had my head delirious with wild theories and I didn't want to voice any of them.

"There, we're here," said the giant as he pulled out a bag that was tied around his waist and threw it on the floor.

I look around suspiciously as I still haven't understood the purpose of coming here today.

We were in a giant clearing, the size of at least a football field, and no signs of life beyond us could be seen.

"I don't see any monsters or anything," I looked around pretending to be unnoticed, but the hairs on my legs stood up in alert.

Hikimage was acting weird-I mean-weirder than usual.

My only consolation was knowing that because of the contract he could not have any intentions of harming me.

"We are on the border between Norway and Sweden, next to a nest of Harpies of a very interesting subspecies." He raises his right hand and large circles light up the darkness of the night.

A large circle was marked on the ground at least twenty meters in diameter.

"Harpies?"

"Yes, this subspecies is interesting as they release pheromones imperceptible to humans near their nests, which ward off powerful magical creatures even if their power barely reaches low-class devils."

I use appraise magic on the circle drawn on the ground and I discover that it was a barrier that had some curious features.

A dome-shaped barrier rose from the edges of the circle, surrounding us with that blue-colored energy.

"You will be inside this circle for the next few months, the backpack I dropped on the floor has supplies for at least a few years," Hikimage said with his giant body facing me.

"MONTHS? Are you crazy in the head?" I say with my eyes wide with horror and anger. "I have school. I have a family!! I can't-"

"Whether you like it or not --- you will stay here!" said Hikimage in a cold tone.

*Screech**Screech**Screech*

A countless crowd of harpies started to form around the dome and they were very noisy and annoying. They slammed their claws against the dome trying to get in, but they couldn't.

"YOU BASTARD!! I thought I was your student! This is absurd. This is a breach of contract," I said in a maddening tone. "You're going to lose your magic, aren't you afraid of it? Huh?"

"Look boy, apparently you don't really understand how contract spells work. Everything I'm doing is with my best intentions, after all, I'm preparing you to face your worst enemy."

*Screech*

The unbearable noise reached the point of causing a slight headache, as there were many harpies.

"I feel your fear towards me, you try to hide it but it doesn't go unnoticed by me. My whole life people have looked at me with fear and judgmental eyes, so I know how to recognize what a person's eyes say." The giant approaches me slowly. "You fear me and I can say only one thing..."

My heart is afflicted, in my past life, I was just an ordinary human. I've never been through a real battle.

I don't know how those protagonists who reincarnate who were once simple otakus pass into another life and they mysteriously become natural-born warriors.

But this shit doesn't actually happen!

When a fight is putting your life or death at stake, you fear, you despair. It is natural for every human being not to want death.

"You are right to fear me, for I am your own worst enemy." Hikimage stops a few meters in front of me. "The contract prevents me from trying to harm you while it's active and makes me truly seek to help you. And I'm helping you -- if you don't fight you'll die to these harpies, detail, they'll copulate with you to death."

I grit my teeth in anger and start thinking about what I could do to get out of this situation.

I still had spells in my slots that I hadn't tested in battle yet, but I doubted it was enough to face so many enemies.

"Because they are a female-only race, they will desperately look for your seed. Being human is even better in their concept, as this subspecies has a certain preference for humans. The good news is ---- If you go through this challenge you will be much stronger. That's why I say I'm here with the best of intentions, I'm just here to make you stronger."

"You're just a bastard! I'll tell Rias-senpai everything about what you're doing. She won't want anything to do with you anymore," I try to intimidate him and make him back off. "But if you bring me back home, I promise to forget we came here today. How about it, huh?"

"Oh? The Gremory girl? I confess that her beauty attracts me, but you are wrong to think one thing, my dear student," He puts his hand against his chest and says, "The one I desire most is you. Since I first met you, you haven't left my thoughts. You are an unknown. You hide so many secrets and think you can hide them, but I can't wait to discover every one of them. You can call it love at first sight if you want."

Needless to say my stomach is in knots with those statements, as I didn't expect the first I hear a love confession to come from a man.

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I don't swing like that way," I spit the words venomously.

"Ohh? I am a man of very peculiar tastes. Don't worry I will teach you diligently."

"You are disgusting."

He laughs pleasantly, before saying, "In four months our teacher-student contract will expire. If you haven't died by those harpies by then -- I'll come back here and fight you."

I look at him with contempt.

"Stay strong my dear student. Perform a miracle as I believe only you can," A teleportation magic circle begins to form at his feet. "Otherwise you'll lose to me and be all mine."

"You!! Aren't you afraid that I will kill you? For I swear that from this day forward I will do everything to kill you, Hikimage."

He gives a truly joyful laugh and says, "And this would be the best gift you could give me. Stay strong, get over me, and take my life --- I can't think of a better ending than this. I'm putting my trust in you, my dear student."

Hikimage has disappeared.

That bastard, I thought.

Luckily I had used Appraise magic on his teleportation circle and managed to copy the coordinates and the safe way out of here.

At the barrier, one of the harpies managed to get inside.

The barrier is programmed to only let one of them in at a time, with a one-hour cooldown for each wave.

Over time, the cooldown periods would become shorter and shorter, allowing for a greater number of enemies simultaneously.

How did I know this? I analyzed the information obtained by Appraise magic.

"*Screechhhh*" yelled the harpy who had just entered. She has the beak of an eagle, instead of hands she has wings, she also has a thin female body much like a human, and on their feet sharp claws of a bird.

So fast, my eyes widened at the sight of her coming toward me.

*Splash*

Blood flew in every direction.

It was the figure of me lying on the ground with the harpy on one of its legs and claws across my chest. My mouth opens and spits out a mouthful of blood.

"Cough, cough..."

The harpy seems to sing in happiness that it has caught its prey and could enjoy it alone.

Until...

An unexpected thing happened before her eyes.

Where my body used to be, my figure starts to become translucent and my blood spilled on the floor also starts to disappear.

The harpy who had a low intelligence level looks at it confused.

"Looking for something?" I said as I appeared a few feet behind her.

She looks back confused.

There I was, unharmed for the poor creature's incomprehension.

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[Mirror of Adonis]

An unbroken spell used to manipulate the six senses. Only three senses can be manipulated simultaneously.

Sight, sound, taste, touch, smell, and supernatural sense.

First sphere spell.

Activation/deactivation key: One-handed sign.

Recharge time: None.

Effective range: 20 meters.

Mana spent: 0

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It was one of my new tricks up my sleeve and a deadly weapon in my hands.

Because it doesn't use mana and doesn't generate fluctuations when using spells, people would have difficulty noticing the activation of illusions.

The harpy rages, screams, and after climbs higher into the air to get momentum.

"Schreeeechh" It plummets towards me in the form of a bolt of lightning.

"Fighter on" I say softly and...

With a speed beyond human capabilities, I rolled to the right, dodging.

boom.

A cloud of dust formed where the harpy landed with full impact.

"Tsk," I wipe off my dirt-stained arms as I lift myself off the ground. It had gone crazy. My elbows and arms hurt a little from the inexperienced rolling on my part.

When looking at the scene in front of me.

"Damn, that harpy is so dumb," I said quietly to myself as I saw the small crater she now finds herself in. She is injured by the attack itself.

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[Fighter]

A non-stop spell that passively increases speed by 3 times and natural body healing by 5 times.

It's a mix of two sphereless spells: [Fast Steps] and [Minor Healing].

Activation/deactivation key : 'Fighther on' ; 'Fighter off'.

Recharge time: None.

Mana spent: 0

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I walk slowly to the hole where the harpy is lying on the ground.

If it had been sooner I would have avoided what I was about to use.

The [Mirror of Adonis] spell was the perfect skill in my arsenal as with it I could normally scream my other spells and from the outside perspective, I would be casting without a word.

Because I was using the control of: Sight, sound, and supernatural senses.

Not to mention I could camouflage my spells to look like they use mana with supernatural sense control.

"I hope you die painlessly," I hold out my palm to her fallen and scream.

"Firebolt."

After casting the firebolt twice, she lay still and soundless on the ground.

I really hoped she had died painlessly.

For the only one who must die in agony was...

Hikimage.