Scared Teras climbed down the hill and searched for the others
When he arrived he saw everyone sitting and enjoying their lunch
"Guys I have something to tell you!" Teras said with a serious expression
"What's the matter?" Lia asked
"Someone here is dead, we have to find him"
The selection of words confused the group
"Pretty sure we are all alive buddy, I don't know about you though, you did break every bone in your body this kind of injury could kill somebody" Ronie said with an awkward smile
Nobody seemed to take it seriously, Teras then left without saying anything, he was mad at their reaction
'HEY! Why does he know that you are here?!' Ronie asked the tall man
The 2 of them could speak telepathically now that Ronie possess the tall man's power
'I don't know, I made sure that nobody saw me' The tall man answered
'Whatever I will figure it out later, now I have to act like everything is ok'
Ronie wanted to hide the truth, that's why he treated what Teras said as a joke
After that Teras went to Recka's house, he wanted to get his sword and gadgets, but when he entered the house he saw Recka eating homemade meat pie, the smell of it was amazing
"Oh hey there Teras, I'm eating a meat pie I made, come and try some, I want your opinion on my cooking" She told him
Teras didn't want to stress Recka so he obeyed
"It's good! Where did you learn how to cook this good?"
"It's a family recipe, mom loved it too" Becka smiled while saying this
"After the exam is over I want you to teach me if you want of course" Teras told her
"If your desire to learn is that big then how can I refuse?" Recka told him
"Thank you Recka, I will now gear up and go training since I'm not attending the classes I will do some light exercise"
"Don't even think about it! You will stay here and recover first, your body is damaged, is better for you if you stayed until you fully recover" Recka said as she blocked the way
"Don't worry I told you, I will only do a light exercise, I feel depressed sitting in bed all day"
"I still can't allow you, your body is very weak, and you can't possibly wield a sword"
Recka was trying to keep Teras from going by any means, she didn't want to let Teras train and possibly injure himself more
"Here I will prove to you that I'm alright" Teras said, he then started to jump around the place and slowly running "See I'm alright"
Becka sighed and moved out of the way
"Be careful"
'DAMN! This hurts like hell but at least it worked, let's see, now if I was a tall dead person where would I hide'
An idea came to his mind, he planned to search behind the dorms
He thought that the best place to hide was behind the dorms since the area was not safe, no regular person went there, and it was full of wild animals and mana beasts, it was the best place to hide
When he arrived there it seemed relatively quiet, no birds or even animals made any sound
'I don't know what's more creepy, this place or the fact that I'm searching for a dead man'
Upon activating mana vision, he found traces of mana
'This is...'
Before he could complete his thought he heard a voice
"What are you doing back here Teras?!" Ronie asked
Teras let out a small gasp
"HEY! Don't creep up on me like that, I came here for some alone time what about you Ronie?"
"You could say the same thing for me" Ronie told him
Teras feared to, but in the end he activated his mana vision
"Seems like you came here yesterday too right?" Teras asked
'He knows, what should I do?' Ronie asked the tall man
'Nothing, even if he knows he can't do anything right now, you are very strong' The tall man told him calmly
"Ronie are you ok?" Teras asked him, he notice that Ronie was spaced out
"Oh yea sorry, I'm just sleepy, so better not disturb you, I will go to sleep, we have mana training later" Ronie told him
"Ok see you later"
Not long after Teras left too, he didn't find anything behind the dorms but he left a mana trap, if someone tall from the forest were to come from behind he would activate the trap, Teras had placed a smoke bomb with color inside the trap, the color of the smoke can stick to whoever activates the trap so Teras picked the color blue so they could stand out from the forest, he then returned back to Recka's house
"You came early why is that?" Recka asked him
"I got tired so I stopped, I guess you were right my body is very weak for me to train" Teras replied with a smile
He didn't want to reveal his secret to Recka, he didn't think she would take him seriously
"It's okay Teras you can take a bath and go to bed, I will prepare some clothes for you" Recka told him
"Thank you Recka, I will make sure to enjoy it"
Teras then left his equipment on a desk and went to the bathroom
"Take this towel and wear it as you go inside the bath" Recka said
Teras took the towel and went inside the bathroom, he stripped and put on the towel
The bath was a hot spring, apparently Recka built her house around one down here so she could have the best bath
Teras got in, it felt like his wounds were burning but it helped for sure, he then closed his eyes to shield them from the heavy fog the hot spring produced
...
...
"Becka? What are you doing here all alone?" Teras asked as he was taking a night walk after his bath
Becka was dressed casually, she was enjoying her tea under the warm moonlight, after she noticed Teras coming her way she made some space for him to sit
"You seem down! What's troubling you?" Becka asked as she took a sip of her tea
"Can you promise you won't laugh if I tell you?" Teras asked her, he figured if someone believed him it had to be her
"Tell me, what can possibly trouble you? Wait, do you have a crush on my sister?! I will totally help you if that's your question!" She said with a smile
"What? NO, it's not that..." Teras said as he was taken back by Becka's enthusiasm
He then took a deep breath
"Somewhere in the camp there is a very tall man, he has bad intentions, I have to stop him and I need your help"
Becka simply stared at Teras confused
"You mean your friend? He is pretty tall but I didn't think he is a bad guy" Recka said
"No not Har! I'm talking about a dead man, for some reason he can walk around like he is alive, also he is much taller than my friend" Teras replied
"I don't know kid, I'm willing to help but all those things about dead people creep me out, you better not be joking around with me or I will smack you! Everyone knows dead people can't come back to life"
"D-Don't worry I'm telling you the truth, when you finish my treatment I will take you to the place I suspect he is" Teras said
"Well if you help too we can finish faster so how about you ease my job?"
"Yes ma'am" He said
Teras then quickly started healing his legs, and after some time they both ran low on mana, after that Teras found it easier to walk, the pain wasn't as unbearable as before
"Ok now follow me, I will show you the spot, but we also need to arm ourselves since the area is said to be roamed with dangers, or at least that's what they say"
Both of them took their swords with them and left, after some minutes of walking they reached the back of the dorms
"Be careful! I placed a magic trap the last time I was here, come this way so we can go deeper into the forest"
Becka followed Teras into the forest, it was quiet, with no animals or beasts in sight, it was a big and empty forest, the air also felt like it was dusty the whole place brought a feeling of loneliness
"Are you sure there is something in this forest? it seems like this place is dead" Becka asked
"This is the only place he can be, as you can see it's full of trees and no animal is here, that means he can't give out his location" Teras replied
"Teras I have a bad feeling about this place, let us not go any further" Becka said concerned
Teras felt the same so they agreed to back down, they arrived at perfect timing for mana training, Recka had already gathered everyone at the field, and most of them had started to channel their mana
Becka and Teras stood by and watched them, it was the last part of the training for the day, after that they would go to the hot springs again and relax, Teras got jealous watching them train so he decided to enforce his mana flow
"I suggest you relax, you are already holding your mana flow all day to reduce your pain and to help yourself move around, so I personally think is stupid to increase the intensity of your mana flow now, you will just end up tiring yourself"
Teras ignored her and kept on maintaining his mana flow, he felt like he would fall behind if he stopped training, almost an hour passed and Recka ended the lesson
"We are finished for today, you can now go to the hot springs" Recka told them
Teras slowly picked up his clothes and a towel and went to a hot spring all alone, he wanted to train there too, he then picked a small spring and meditated in there
His mana aura was incredible, and the water was shaking like a wild sea, all of his muscles were rock hard, he had entered an absolute level of concertation that sky rocked his performance, he was also increasing his mana like crazy
Teras felt a weird sensation of power running through his body, he was so focused on his flow that he almost fainted, Teras didn't notice that his whole body was burning, his body temperature was higher than the water's, after some time Teras was interrupted by Har
"Are you alright?!" Har said
"Har! Why did you stop me? I was alright I was just maintaining my mana flow" Teras said, he was disappointed
"Well the reason I stopped you was that it's time to head back, also be careful with your mana usage, it looked like you were going to overflow again" Har told him
'It's time to go back already? I swear I was here for at least 5 minutes' Teras thought to himself
For him, time had stopped existing while he was meditating
"It's okay Har you can go down now, I will shortly follow" Teras said with a smile
Har then left him alone and went back to the dorms, Teras left the hot springs too, and went back to Recka's house, he wanted to pick up Cromi, he hasn't taken her out for a walk for a long time, once he entered he saw Recka playing with Cromi, when she noticed Teras she immediately turned back at Cromi
"Recka I wonder who is stronger, you or Becka?" Teras asked as he was finally able to see a glimpse of her mana aura
"What? That's an odd question to ask twins!" Recka replied angrily
"Going overflow gave me a huge advantage, and I also caught you off guard so I feel like, I need to know, I have a basic idea of how strong Becka is, so it would really help if you answered" Teras said with a serious look on his face
Teras also witnessed the dead man so he also had a basic idea of his strength, Becka was slightly weaker than him so he wanted to know how much he would struggle against the dead man if he used mana overflow
"Becka is way stronger than me..." Recka said as he stared at Cromi
'Just like I thought' Teras thought in anger
"I swear I will become the strongest person you have ever seen leave here!" Teras said with D E T E R M I N A T I O N in his eyes
"W-What brought that on?" Recka asked confused
"If you don't mind I will now take Cromi for a walk, and after that, I will come back to sleep, sorry but I will have to ask you to stay awake for a bit longer" Teras said ignoring her question
"It's okay I also have work to do, be safe" She told him as he was leaving
Teras used Cromi as an excuse, in reality, he wanted to check if the trap had been activated, he then approached stealthily the location of the trap, and he could see Ronie anxiously waiting for something or someone
'What is he doing here this late at night?' Teras wondered
He decided to stay hidden, after some moments he saw him, the tall man was walking in Ronie's direction
'Should I warn him? But he can clearly see him, what's happening?'
Teras was very confused about the situation
"Great job Ronie, I will now give you more of my power, and keep in mind that you can't just get stronger in a flash, people will start to suspect you" The tall man told him
"I know all that, I just got carried away, your power really is something else, I can easily use mana flow now" Ronie said
Teras was shocked, he couldn't believe his eyes, the traitor was Ronie all along, Teras was in a debate, kill him now or tell the others, both seemed hard decisions, he couldn't choose, Teras then saw the tall man placing his hand at Ronie's chest and giving him his power
"That should be enough for now, before I go I will tell you again, don't show your REAL power to anyone before I tell you" The tall man said
"I will not, but before you go tell me your name, I don't even know the name of my precious friend, don't you find it weird?" Ronie told him with a power-hungry smile
"I don't see how it is necessary but I will tell you, my name is Prodo Cordyard"
Teras then quickly left, because he saw that Prodo was very close to activating his trap, Prodo then did it, and he fell into the trap
"What is this human? Did you set this?" Prodo asked
"I have no idea, but I have to leave quickly or someone will see me!" Ronie said with panic
So he did, he threw away his pinked stained clothes and went to sleep, the night was successful for Teras, the only thing that remained was to comfort Ronie