Chapter 23- Testing one’s potential

"I'll be fine… thanks to my years of lonesome gaming, I should be able to make do with anything I have at my disposal, no matter how little it might be! Everything has potential!"

Or that's how it was supposed to be…

After going through a series of tests that determine what my affinity is and what I currently excel at regarding magic, I kneeled in the corner of the facility as some of the staff looked at me with pity while some looked perplexed and curious.

"I had the affinity for each element they covered… BUT! It's all useless because it's down to the weakest of the weak!!"

Basically, I was able to use any element at my disposal, which impressed some of the staff. However, despite having an affinity with all of the elements, they said my wavelength or flow of magic within me was too weak.

Some staff was even curious how it was even possible for someone to even produce such a weak and pathetic spell!!

Even the most basic of basic of spells or ways of using them looked incredibly useless and pathetic compared to normal. Like when they thought me how to light a fire with my hand, they said that one of the weakest versions of it in their record should be the size of a stove fire.

All went silent the moment I lit a fire weaker than a pocket lighter could. It was pure silence where nothing could be heard apart from the crumbling of my soul.

"How could this even be…"

I lowered my head in extreme shock and disappointment after accepting the whole truth. I felt like crying, yet I stopped myself from doing so to avoid further embarrassment.

After giving me some time for myself, the staff of the area awkwardly dismissed me, telling me that it was all of the tests available. They gave me a paper containing the results of the tests and then guided me toward the exit.

Walking back toward the entrance, of the facility, I looked around with a heavy heart.

"So they're still not here… maybe I should walk around…"

Feeling depressed, I continued to walk outside aimlessly until I stumbled upon a familiar area.

"This place… it's that park…"

Without thinking, I instinctively walked inside and sat on the exact same bench where I was last time…"

"Now that I think about it, there's that unfinished business I have with that little girl…"

As I was about to reach for my spatial sack in my pocket, I suddenly heard a high-pitched voice that of a child from a distance, getting louder and louder by the second as it quickly got closer.

"Misssteerrrr!!"

As I glanced my head in the direction of the voice, I was suddenly tackled head-first by the little girl on the abdomen, making me let out a gush of air in shock and pain.

"Agh! I… It's you…"

I took a good look at her sobby expression as she held my stomach with her tiny arms tightly.

"Thank goodness you're ok!" the child said, holding back her tears with a sobby voice, "I thought I might have sent you to your death, I'm glad you're ok!"

Her words once again shocked me, sending chills up my spine.

"A… as you can see, I'm ok! Here… the watch that you said was precious to you, right? You can calm down now…"

As I pulled out the national-level treasure watch from my spatial sack, her face quickly brightened, and took it from my hand.

"YES! YES! Thank you! So much!"

She jumped repeatedly with joy as she smiled brightly while hugging the watch, making my heart feel a little lighter.

"This is nice… seeing her reaction like this…" I mumbled.

"This is so great!" the child said loudly with joy, "Now I won't have to worry about you getting hunted anymore!"

"excuse me…?"

"Ah! Remember what I said earlier? When I said, I thought I could have sent you to your death? I was actually referring to two things. One, you could have been in danger and was caught up because of me, second, when I reported to my caretakers, they said they'd hunt you down if you found it and was keeping it to yourself,"

Riyoko fell silent with a pale expression.

"You mean, up until earlier my life could have been in trouble?" I mumbled as she kept cheering in front of me.

From before, she is highly likely to be rich so it would be reasonable for people to hunt me down, not to mention I was holding a national-level treasure anyway…

"I'm so glad I came back to this place!" she said cheerfully.

"Me too… Me too…"

I looked down at the ground, feeling exhausted from the consecutive stress that was laid upon me.

"Hmm? What's wrong mister?" she approached me with a curious look on her face, "I noticed since earlier, but… you seem down, what's wrong?"

"I… It's nothing…"

"Come on! You helped me and I basically put your life at risk twice! You can just tell me so you can at least get it out of your chest, I'll listen properly,"

She looked at me with a serious expression, making me have mixed feelings due to her being able to say things like putting my life at risk so lightly. I seriously don't know what to think of this girl…

I let out a sigh, "fine… but don't laugh at me, ok?"

I thought that despite her overall personality, I found her to be innocent and that it couldn't hurt to tell her.

"Why? Is it something funny?" she tilted her head with a face showing amusement, "if it's something funny then I can't promise that I…"

"Then we can forget about it…" I said blatantly, not letting her finish her sentence as I stood up from the bench.

"Wait no! stop!" she grabbed onto my shirt with a sobby expression, "please don't go! I promise I won't laugh!"

I continued to look forward as I gently tried to shake her hand off.

"Wait don't please! This unpaid debt will hunt me for the rest of my life if it ends like this!"

"You say some pretty serious things for a child you know that!?"

I snapped.

After taking a deep breath, I calmed down and sat down again on the bench while she kept her tiny hands on the bottom of my shirt, holding it tightly.

After taking a short moment to collect myself, I then told her what had happened and how I felt regarding the matter.

As I was expecting her to laugh after finishing my story, I found it confusing as she tilted her head toward me with a baffled look.

"Umm, are you confused? Thinking how someone could be that weak?"

I said it as a joke to make her feel lighter about it, despite hurting me with my own words deep inside.

"No… it's just that, that isn't possible!"

"Eh…?"

She outright rejected what I just told her.

"I told you before, didn't I? I have special eyes so I know you're more than capable… did you do the spell wrong or something?"

"I did what they told me to…"

She pouted, letting out signs of frustration and disapproval.

"then let's go ahead with a simple spell! Right now!"

My face suddenly turned pale, hearing one of the most recent traumatic words I've ever encountered.

"Simple… hehe," I lightly laughed with a hysterical expression.

"Come on, Mister! Get yourself together! Follow my lead!"

She continued to slap my face back to back with her tiny hands, forcing me back to reality after a couple of slaps.

"Ah… mhm… I'll follow,"

She thought me how to cast a spell the same way the people at the facility told me to. Except she gave me a more detailed explanation of how mana or the magical energy flow works.

"You feel it in your body or your surroundings once you focus, then channel all that energy into a certain part of your body as an extraction point, come on! Focus on it!"

Following her words, I felt the flow of energy around and within me clearer than before. And so, just as she said, I gathered all of it in a single point which was the palm of my hand.

"Here it goes! Fire!"

Suddenly, a fire tinier than a lighter could produce came out floating on the top of my palm and was quickly put out by the wind.

"Why!?"

"Why!?"

Both of us looked devastated.

"I'm not sure what's wrong… but I'm not giving up! I'll make you unleash the potential I see in you!!"

She suddenly pulled out her spatial sack and stuck her hand inside in a hurry.

"Please stop the act of desperation! It's putting salt on my already painful scar!"

"Got it!" she pulled out what seemed to be a crystal orb.

"And what's that supposed to be…?" I said, losing even more hope.

"This is… umm, I forgot what it's called but it's a magic-absorbing orb! You just need to place your hand on this orb and push your mana through it, then I'll show you just how special you are!"

"Ok… but please stop with the 'me being special' non-sense…" I said depressingly.

"Oh, just shut up and put your magic on the orb! You're pissing me off!"

"EEP!"

The tiny little girl said something so audacious and unexpected that caught me off guard, making me follow her orders by the second.

As I placed my hand on the orb she quickly asked me to pour my energy within it, following what she had told me.

She's starting to be scary for some reason… I better try my best and give it my all on this one so that it won't be too disappointing!

And so, I began pouring energy onto the orb and it began to glow in multiple colors.

The little girl's scowling and frustrated face quickly brightened, "ahh, it's filling up so quickly! I knew you'd…"

I closed my eyes and focused on pouring all of my energy onto the orb, making me disregard anything else.

"Eh…? Umm, shouldn't you be reaching your limit about now…?"

Not hearing or understanding what she was saying, I continued to push even more energy.

"Eh? Umm, you should probably…" Her bright smiley tone and expression suddenly switched to a worried look and a shaky tone.

"H… Hey! S-STOP!"

As I was continuously focusing on the orb, she suddenly pulled it off my hands.

"Eh? What's wrong?"

As I opened my eyes, I saw her panicking while looking around as she held the ball up high.

"Ah- Ahhh! what do I…."

"OOBICIE!" she shouted as she cast a spell that wrapped the orb in a thick bubble.

"SUPERNATET!" she cast another spell, covering the orb with a green light.

After casting consecutive spells, she threw the orb as hard as she can, making it float straight above continuously, not being bound by gravity.

She then covered her ears, crouched, and ducked her head.

"Huh…? what are you…"

BOOM*