"Huff…huff…!"I was swinging both my swords, following the pattern that Dad taught me. After so many years of practicing, by now the moves had been so ingrained in my body that they felt like natural reflexes. My wooden blades knocked against the wooden training dummy, again and again, sending splintered chips out.
After my swordsmans.h.i.+p training, I moved on to summoning. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and gathered my mana about me. The training camp had helped me a lot, and it seemed that I could summon my Constellation spirits slightly faster now. My Celestial Guardians still required quite a lot of time to summon, thanks to their greater power, but that was only logical.
However, lately I had begun experimenting with my Constellation spirits to see if I could summon much stronger ones that were on par with, or even stronger than my Celestial Guardians. I had been working on conceptualizing and manifesting a few that might possess firepower of a magnitude several times that of say, Vermillion Phoenix or White Tiger.
So far, I had only succeeded in conceptualizing one. He was still a work in progress, and required a tremendous amount of time to set up, but again, that was only natural. I never expected to succeed in such a short period of time.
For now, I decided to go through my summoning spells, from the fastest toward the slowest. First, I started off with Gemini, and then practiced a few swings with them. Then Aquarius. Then Sagittarius. Then Orion. Then Canis Minor. Then Ursa Minor. Then Corvus. Followed by Canis Major, and then Ursa Major. Then Taurus. Capricorn. Aries. Just as I was about to summon a few new Constellation spirits that I had recently conceived, Dad walked into the dojo.
"What are you still doing here?" he did a double take when he saw all of my Constellation spirits glowering down on him, but rather than fear, he felt impressed. "Whoa…that"s quite a lot of summoned beasts you have there."
Then he cleared his throat, especially as I began to dismiss them from our dimension and returned them to whatever soul dimension they resided in when I didn"t summon them.
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"Never mind that. What are you still doing here?"
"Training," I replied as I suppressed the urge to add, "Obviously." Dad wasn"t going to take too kindly to me mouthing off.
Dad sighed as he slapped his forehead. "I know that. What I mean is, why are you still training?! Shouldn"t you be leaving now?"
"Leaving? Where am I supposed to go?"
"The campfire party." Dad glared at me, not sure if I was pretending, or if I really forgot. "Don"t tell me you don"t remember. Today"s Sat.u.r.day, isn"t it? It"s already six. If you don"t move out soon, you"ll be late."
"Ah…that campfire party." Honestly, I didn"t forget about it. I just didn"t want to attend that gathering of normies. The atmosphere was too stifling for me, and I was certain the d.a.m.ned disco music or whatever music they played would be too loud. Those kind of events weren"t for me. I didn"t really like parties.
"Yeah, your friend Yue Chu knew you would try to give it a slip, so he told me about it. Asked me to ensure you go." Dad glared at me. Inwardly, I seethed. d.a.m.n that Dong Fang Yue Chu. He really went through such lengths to ensure I partic.i.p.ated. "So go. Don"t stay cooped up at home all day. You need to go out and socialize more often. What are you, a hikkikomori? Hang out with your friends. Live a little. You"re still young, you know? If you don"t take this chance to enjoy your youth, it"ll be over soon. Then it would be too late."
I honestly didn"t care. I had better things to do with my life than to enjoy my youth.
"Don"t give me that, and just go." Dad grabbed my shoulder and began herding me out of the dojo. "What are you, some kind of edge lord?"
"I didn"t go that far and say dumb, nihilistic things. I just have…priorities." Which was to get stronger before the university exams…next year. Okay, maybe I was rus.h.i.+ng too much. But even so, I was impatient to get strong, otherwise readers would complain about what a weakling I was and drop the story. Okay, if that"s the reason why they dropped this stupid story, then so be it. I wasn"t going to pander to their tastes and suddenly become a G.o.dlike, overpowered protagonist who could curb-stomp any opponent stupid enough to cross my path.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, just go. That cute girl…Alicia, was it? She"s waiting for you in the party. I"m sure of it."
I raised an eyebrow. "You"re thinking too much about it. Alicia and I are just friends…"
…I trailed off when I realized that wasn"t exactly true. Didn"t she kiss me right in front of everyone after I defeated her in a ranking match? After that, we had the training camp, so we didn"t have many opportunities to meet and talk it out. Consequently, our relations.h.i.+p was still in some kind of limbo. I wasn"t sure what exactly our relations.h.i.+p was any longer. And since Alicia didn"t bring it up, I found it too awkward to approach her to ask her about it.
There was some sort of fear inside my heart, that Alicia would just laugh it off and say she did it in the heat of the moment. Or an impulse. Then I would back off, embarra.s.sed. Oh, well.
Eventually, we were going to have to talk about this, but…not yet. I guess.
"Whatever. I don"t care what sort of relations.h.i.+p you have with her, as long as it"s nothing unhealthy. Just don"t get her pregnant…"
"Oi!" I snapped.
"Sorry. I know you"re not the type to give in to your desires. Anyway, just go already." Dad glanced at the clock hanging high on a wall of the dojo. "Have fun."
"…yeah, yeah."
Resigned to my fate, I reluctantly headed to my room to change and get ready to depart for the campfire party.
*
While I was busily preparing to leave for the campfire party, a trio of students were making preparations of their own. They were seated around a table at a café, their cups of coffee left untouched as they schemed and argued in low voices, trying their best not to be overheard by the waitresses in maid uniforms, or other customers.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, boss?"
Terence looked around nervously before turning back to Lin Zhan Long. The vice-president of Holy Saints glowered at his lackey.
"What, don"t tell me you"ve gotten cold feet now?"
"No, but…isn"t it dangerous?" Terence swallowed.
"Yeah." Adam nodded with a grim smile. "That"s the whole point, isn"t it? Those idiots deserve it!"
"But…luring a high-level demon toward the campfire party…what if it ends up killing all of them? I thought you didn"t want to go as far as murder?!"
"Oh, come on!" Lin Zhan Long snorted. "Are you an idiot? Of course we"re not going to attract a monster that"s too powerful. Otherwise there"s no way we would be able to escape its clutches. Never mind our schoolmates, we would get slaughtered before we could get our revenge."
"So a mid-ranked monster then?" Adam asked. "Somewhere along the high mid-ranked monsters? A Wyvern, maybe? Or an Infernal Salamander? A rank C monster?"
"Yeah, rank C is good." Lin Zhan Long nodded. "I was thinking rank D, actually. I mean, where are we going to find a rank C monster in these parts? There"s no way we"ll find high mid-ranking monsters near the city."
"That"s true," Adam conceded.
"Hmm, with such a large group, they definitely can handle a rank C or D monster." Terence looked a little more relieved. "They also have a barrier set up, so they will notice when the monster tries to break through the barrier, and they will have ample time to prepare for combat."
"The aim is not to kill them, but to give them a scare." Lin Zhan Long was grinning as he plotted. "Imagine the shock they will experience when a mid-ranked monster crashes their party! It"ll ruin all their fun and cause all of them to panic! There are some pretty strong students in there, so they"ll take care of the monster eventually, but by then the whole mood would be ruined, and they will call off the party. That will teach them to mess with us!"
Yeah, that made a lot more sense than mere students trying to scheme the murder of their schoolmates over a cla.s.sroom feud. Seriously? What were those web novel authors thinking? The whole "schoolmates trying to kill the protagonist for no reason other than he"s trash and they resent him for rising to the top" was so incredibly contrived that I didn"t understand why they continue using that cliché setting.
It was just so dumb.
"Now…the problem is, where do we find such a monster?" Lin Zhan Long pondered for a moment, his brow furrowing. "Not in Jing Tian Forest…"
"There definitely are rank D monsters deep inside Jing Tian Forest, boss," Adam a.s.sured him. "But it"s dangerous to venture inside the depths of Jing Tian Forest, especially with just the three of us."
"I still don"t think this is a good idea," Terence muttered. "Maybe we should think of some other plan. Unless you"re willing to risk our live just to take revenge on our schoolmates."
"…ugh…" as much as Lin Zhan Long hated to admit it, Terence had a point. Only a reckless idiot would risk his life for something as petty as revenge. There were so many ways to take revenge, so why pick a dangerous method?
"Like what?" Adam was one such reckless idiot. "Do you have a better plan?"
"That"s what we should be thinking of right now." Terence shrugged. "I want revenge as much as you do, but I don"t want to risk my life getting chased by a monster. And how do we lure the monster toward the campfire party, anyway?"
"Ugh. Good point." Lin Zhan Long felt a headache building in his temples. Initially he thought this was a brilliant idea, but now when they were trying to execute it, they were running into all sorts of problems. He was reluctant to call this scheme off, and the campfire party was a perfect opportunity to ruin their schoolmates" fun, but there had to be…
"Excuse me, but I overheard your conversation."
The trio jumped when a man approached their table. He looked extremely suspicious, wearing a hat that obscured most of his facial features. Even as he lowered his head to look at them, his eyes were concealed behind a pair of sungla.s.ses. An odd choice of eyewear, considering it was nearing evening and the sun was slowly setting.
The three of them immediately stiffened and backed away, but the man raised his gloved hands in a nonthreatening manner. His silhouette was cloaked by a long, brown trench coat that hung over his features, despite the sweltering heat of summer. Yeah, he was pretty suspicious, and despite his gesture, the trio remained on guard.
"I"m not here to discourage you from your prank. In fact, I"ve a piece of advice for you." he smiled mysteriously. "If it"s a monster you want to attract, then you need a lure. That way, you don"t have to go deep into Jing Tian Forest to look for one. Of course…" he raised a finger. "Don"t stupidly activate the lure inside the city. Or the authorities will arrest you."
Lin Zhan Long and his lackeys glanced at each other. They weren"t that stupid.
"…lure?"
"Yeah. Especially for a powerful monster. Perfect for what you"re thinking." The man slid his hand inside his trench coat before extracting what seemed like a ball. "This way, you can play your prank on the party held by Violet"s daughter."
"Thank you!" Lin Zhan Long received the lure, staring at the mechanical contraption in wonder. His two cronies leaned closer to gape at it.
"How does it work?"
"There"s a switch here. I guess that"s what he means when he said activate it?"
The three of them turned to look up, but the man was no longer there.
"Where did he…?"
"Who the h.e.l.l was he?!"
Adam and Terence glanced around wildly. Lin Zhan Long shared their alarm, but there was a more discomforting sensation that bothered him, even as he gripped the spherical lure tighter.
They never mentioned Alicia"s name at all during their conversation, so how did the man know that the party was organized by "Violet"s daughter"?