Life Hunter

Arister coughed and stood up, he looked at Arima "What do you mean?" He asked. He knew that Arima didn"t put enough strength to hurt him in that kick.

"You only healed it on the surface. You actually broke my bones, and twisted my nerves" Arima said and the blue light vanished. He stretched his arm a bit to see if there was any problem.

"Ah" Arister understood what happened "Sorry" He wryly smiled and apologized.

"Don"t mind" Arima sighed "I know why you can"t cast it" He said and Arister concentrated "You misunderstood the chant. Rather, you omitted an important part of it"

Arister frowned "What do you mean?"

"The "reverse" in the chant. You failed to realize its meaning. That word is supposed to work with time magic. Reverse means coming back, usually, people think of returning back in time" He explained "You didn"t think of Time when you cast your magic"

"Huh?" Arister was baffled "How could I know that? Time magic is said to be the hardest theory existing. The people who understood it in the whole human History can be counted on one hand. I never thought that your art had anything to do with time. And even before that, how the h.e.l.l do you want me to understand time magic?"

Arima sighed "You don"t need to. That"s what the set is for. You don"t need to think of the theory behind the chants, as long as you understand what you"re chanting, it"s enough. The moment you add the art"s rank and category before the keyword, the theory will be automatically completed. Thanks to me" He explained.

Arister pondered "Are you saying that the theory behind each art is basically yours, and I don"t need to think about it?"

"Yes" Arima answered.

Arister blinked once "That"s cheating" He exclaimed.

"Well, you"re also cheating now. Welcome to the club" Arima smiled and said. Arister gaped and shook his head.

"Can I try again?"

"No" Arima instantly answered "Just test it later on some beasts or monsters you"ll hunt" He instructed and Arister shrugged.

"Now, since we have still a lot of time in this dimension. I"ll teach you all the arts until the third rank. The second arts and particularly the first ones, are too much for you" Arima said "I"ll show them to you on a smaller scale. Remember the chants and the flow of mana, the basic stuff"

Arima declared and Lanya and Arister nodded.

********************************************

Twenty days later. Arima taught all the arts to Lanya and Arister but at the same time, answered to their questions while sparring with them. The former was now at the peak of the ninth level and the latter managed to break through the second sky.

Night and Karma also trained together and the latter succeeded to rise to the first sky and also to control her new physical condition.

These two rejoined with Arima"s group first, saying they had finished their training.

"Well then, let"s get out" Arima said and severed the link with the dimension. The five of them, all reappeared at the Inn. Ultimately, they all sat down at a table to eat. It was also the first time for Karma, so she was ecstatic to finally taste some food.

"By the way, Arima" Arister raised his voice "Why do you want to partic.i.p.ate in the rank compet.i.tion? You even said that you would build up a cla.s.s, that wasn"t in your contract with the FDA, right?"

"No, I just wanted to do it" Arima answered "If I had to pa.s.s two months working for the academy, I thought that I should at least make it interesting somehow. So, I decided to take care of a particular cla.s.s"

"Are you going to create little monsters at your image?" Night said sarcastically.

Arima laughed "I hope they become some little monsters, I won"t expect less than that from my students. In the cla.s.s I"m picking, I"m only choosing those who have great potential or a great talent"

"Little monsters..." Lanya muttered and then turned toward Arima, quite awkwardly "Hum, is me fighting with Velvet still a thing?" She asked.

Arima smiled "Yes" He answered and then turned toward Arister "You won"t partic.i.p.ate though"

The latter shrugged "Of course, I won"t fight some kids without experience"

"And me?" Karma asked with a full mouth as she raised her hand. Everyone looked at her and squinted their eyes "…What?" She asked.

Arima mused "I don"t even know" He just abandoned the thought in the end "Karma, for now, just listen to my lessons, it should be enough"

"Understood, Arima" Karma nodded and resumed her meal.

Arima sighed and stood up, directly leaving toward his room. Everyone followed except Karma and Night. The former just kept eating while the latter waited for her with a tired expression.

"You"re already acting like a small guardian for her?" Arister smirked and commented.

Night"s expression twitched "Just go sleep!" He snapped at him and Arister left to his room. Lanya smiled and also left.

When she was left alone with Night, Karma swallowed what she had in her mouth and looked at the former.

"Why do you need to keep silent about what that woman said?" Karma asked.

Night sighed and stared at her "Didn"t I say it already? Lilis advised to not do it. Even if maybe Arima doesn"t care or won"t be perturbed at all. It"s still better to not say it to him, as a precaution. I only said it to you as an insurance, don"t you dare blurt it out" He answered.

Karma hummed and swallowed an entire salad "Then why are you here?" She smirked "Are you waiting for me?"

Night"s patience was really put to a test today "Yes, I am. Do you have a problem with that?" He empathized each word and said.

Karma chuckled "Not at all"

******************************************

The next day, Arima went to the FDA, when he entered the cla.s.sroom, everyone had already taken their seats.

At that moment, Karma also entered the cla.s.s and placed herself just in front of the teacher"s desk "I am Karma, Arima"s…" She paused and turned toward Arima "What do I say?" She asked.

Arima rubbed his eyes "Who told you to present yourself like that?"

"No one" Karma directly answered.

"Then why are you doing it?"

"Because I thought that I should. Otherwise, your students would not know me and wouldn"t be able to concentrate on your lecture" She explained and Arima opened his mouth but closed it just after. He frowned, he was irritated at the fact he couldn"t retort that.

"Fine, move" Arima pushed her away and gave her a seat "Her name is Karma, she"s a very old friend of mine. She will just attend, quietly, so don"t pay attention to her" Arima emphasized the word "quietly" while he shot a look at Karma.

Arister and Night snickered while Lanya laughed a bit. Even the students were a bit amused by the scene.

"Anyway" Arima raised his voice. He waved his hand and a paper appeared before every last student that was here "That"s your tests" He just said and they were shocked.

Even Ofia"s eyes widened. The number of people who had taken his test were around a thousand since he gave it for two days and some people would stay later to do it. Then, how did he correct them so quickly?

"I, of course, corrected them and wrote what was wrong on it. Revise that" Arima added and everyone became even more shocked.

"Now let"s continue the lessons. This time, we"re talking about non-elementals. There"s no scientific explanation for most of them. It"s just theories that I will teach you. Don"t forget that theories are just theories. You can find some yourself, different from mine. And it will still work" Arima paused "As long as it makes sense, of course"

"Now let"s begin" Arima waved his hand and seven words appeared in the whiteboard behind him, which he had never used until now "There is seven non-elemental magic, you can also call them theoric magic. We have, Mind, s.p.a.ce, Soul, Neutral, Life, Death and Time magic" Arima listed.

"Then let"s do it in order this time. So, the first one is Mind magic" Arima said and the word corresponding, on the whiteboard, glowed.

"This magic is usually the easiest one to understand. But it can be very tricky and also has a lot of different uses. Mind makes reference to a being"s mind. Of course, I said being, meaning it"s the same for every kind of living being in the world as long as they have a mind" Arima paused "One thing that derives from mind magic is our mind"s spirit. Of course, there"s no correlation with Spirit magic"

"When people talk about one"s spirit, they make reference to the strength, the density and the threat of an individual"s mind. The more a person has a great spirit, the more he can spread his mind far, for example. It"s also true that people tend to call "spirit", the "mind" that leaves the mage" Arima explained.

"Now, to explain in details what is the Mind. It"s basically, one"s personality and memories. In a world of magic, your Mind can also become a target. If someone ever gets in it, you"re finished. But to be able to enter one"s mind, the victim needs to at least be weakened or, be weak compared to you. I have a magic for that, it allows me to sentence my opponent and take his memories" Arima smirked "Very useful"

His students could only smile wryly at such words "Well, the other practical use of the Mind is to probe and scan things. In a fight, you"re able to sense things clearer and better if you boost your Mind. Of course, the mind is also used to create illusions. For that, you don"t need to enter the enemy"s head. It"s more like putting a veil on his eyes, to alternate his vision of things"

"One last thing that I discovered" Arima said and everyone became curious "To use Mind magic, you don"t need to use it directly on the opponent"s mind. As I said, you can spread it and probe the situation. But you can also create creatures made of spirit, capable of attacking, you can also control weaker creatures in the surroundings to help you"

"There"s also the limit break that you can do with Mind magic, but I already taught you that" Arima declared and his students nodded with a smiling expression, remembering that they had that kind of technique rejoiced them "After that, there"s also of lot other uses for Mind magic, like controlling someone, hypnosis, erasing or creating memories and many more"

"Now, I have one last thing to teach you about this magic" Arima suddenly turned serious "To be honest with you, it"s one of my trump cards" He announced and the students exclaimed in surprise, even his companions were surprised, actually.

"That one?" Night frowned and asked. Everyone heard him, it was also the first time the students heard the small wolf speak.

"Yes" Arima answered "But don"t forget, what I will teach you is something that can be easily considered as a forbidden technique. Do you understand?"

"Yes" Every student answered in unison.

Arima nodded "Everyone possesses a dark side, you must understand that. Negative emotions can always get the better out of us" Arima said "But, you must understand, anger, fear, sadness, hatred, even madness, and cruelty. What if someone was invaded by these emotions all at once while discarding every other?" He asked and everyone gulped.

"One of the things I realized in my life is that good emotions clean your blade but dull it, while bad emotions sharpen your blade but destroy it"

"I"m sure you understand where I"m heading to with this. This is the ultimate choice you can make with Mind magic. Discard reason and sanity to gain power. To gain the strength that you only can obtain by falling into madness, using everything without any inhibition, it"s more than the limit break, once you use it, you can be sure that you won"t last more than a few minutes"

"The more your mind is filled with different emotions, whether it is dark or bright ones, when you use this, you"re bound to destroy yourself and everything around you at the cost of your sanity" Arima paused and grinned "There"s a simple name for that technique, "Et In Semita Berserker", literally, "The Berserker"s Path""