"Auric, I’ve brought some..." Ellia opened the door, bringing some drink and food for Auric. However, she abruptly stopped when she witnessed what was happening.

Auric looked like he was writing. If it was just taking a note or something, she would ignore it.

However, he actually wrote in the air with his magical energy. He only wrote down two words.

"Major Healing."

The "Major" word was red in color, while the "Healing" part was dyed gold.

This place wasn’t supposed to be used as a practice site. More importantly, even though Auric had only just used "Major Healing," blood suddenly leaked out of his nose.

Auric completed the last part with a line underneath the two words. He then flicked the words, which caused them to combine.

But if she observed more closely, the line he drew also combined with the two words.

In fact, this line was the most important part of this battle technique. The line triggered the fusion between the two words.

Of course, the elemental fusion also occurred in the process.

Auric basically did three things at the same time. He first created passive and active energy. After that, he used elemental fusion.

Last but not least, he used the fusion technique that allowed him to combine everything.

The process required was simply too much for Auric’s brain, causing a nosebleed.

Fortunately, the process was completed.

The combined energy flowed into Eric’s body.

The healing attribute from his light element allowed the blood element to increase a person’s natural regeneration speed.

In other words, this healing ability was much more effective than most other healing abilities.

Still, it definitely drained his energy and mental power. "Kh."

Auric fell back onto his chair and clutched his head, experiencing a headache.

"!!!" Ellia rushed to the side of the bed. "What are you doing?"

Ellia wanted to question Auric, but she suddenly noticed Eric’s complexion was gradually improving.

Ellia shut her mouth immediately, understanding what Auric was trying to do. She went around the bed and checked on Auric’s condition, taking out her handkerchief.

"Are you alright? What have you done exactly?"

"I’m... just trying to help him..." Auric shook his head.

"..." Ellia had been telling him it wasn’t his fault. Eric was the one who decided to go.

"I’m fine."

"Why don’t you go back? Maybe take care of your store or something. Besides, Katarina and Milinda are outside. They’re waiting for you to come out." Ellia shook her head helplessly.

"..." Auric had asked the two of them to close the store for him before he rushed to the hospital. "I understand."

"Let’s go." Ellia helped Auric up.

As soon as they came out, Milinda and Katarina stood up from the bench. It looked like they had been waiting outside. Most likely, Ellia had told them to leave him alone for some time.

"How about you guys get something to eat?" Ellia asked, giving a smile that signaled Milinda and Katarina to drag Auric away. She was convinced that letting Auric remain here would just affect his mind. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Both of them understood the assignment.

"Right? Let’s go. I’m a bit hungry. We’ll visit again later." Milinda grabbed Auric.

"I know a good place." Katarina nodded in agreement.

Ellia nodded to them. Only after they had left could Ellia feel a bit relieved.

"I don’t know if I should worry about him or not. On the one hand, it’s good that he cares about his friend. Well, Eric is probably his best friend or something, even though he doesn’t admit it. On the other hand, his mind is quite fragile in this regard. I’m afraid that he will be overcome with guilt if something big happens..." Ellia shook her head helplessly.

"Well, Auric is someone who comes from an ordinary family. He might have faced his own hardship, but it’s nothing that will have significantly strengthened his mindset." Ellia remembered how she had grown to be cruel when necessary.

"Still, I’m sure that he’s going to learn from this and fix his mistakes." Ellia let out a long sigh before returning to the room.

When she looked at Eric, she said softly, "You can wake up. Auric is not here anymore."

"..." Eric remained still for a moment before he gradually opened his eyes.

Ellia noticed that Eric moved slightly earlier, so she knew he had woken up.

Ellia sat down and said, "How are you feeling?"

"I’m not too sure..." Eric muttered weakly. "My body is extremely weak, but I don’t feel any pain."

"Well, your body has endured that battle and the surgery. So, it’s normal to be exhausted."

"No. I’m talking about..." Eric weakly raised his hand. "I feel like... my body is tired because it has just done excessive exercise."

"..." Ellia frowned. "I will call the doctor."

"That can wait." Eric shook his head. "Can you... tell me what happened after I was unconscious?"

"Sure." Ellia recounted everything from Vera’s story to what Auric did.

"That fool..."

"It looks like you and Auric have a good relationship." Ellia crossed her arms.

Eric looked down. "Auric was a lonely person."

"He? Lonely?"

"Yeah. It made me physically sick to say this, but his specs were just too good. As a result, people came to him because of that. He couldn’t exactly get any genuine friends. I’m sure that you will experience the same thing."

"I had Arine, so I didn’t feel isolated, but I could understand." Ellia nodded.

"Perhaps because I kept challenging him... out of jealousy, of course. He was having fun because he didn’t feel isolated anymore. He kept talking to me in a friendly manner, and that was the situation."

"I see." Ellia nodded in understanding. That was enough to explain Auric’s desperation. "Now that you know the situation, can you tell me why you ended up like that?"

Eric looked at Ellia. "I want... to handle this by myself."

"As much as I want to respect you and your decision, Auric has asked me to investigate the situation. For me, Auric’s request has a higher priority. So, even if you don’t tell me what happened to you, I will find out and tell him anyway."

Eric scratched the back of his head. "I guess that’s how it is."

Ellia nodded.

"That idiot must really think that this was his fault." Eric shook his head helplessly. "Can you at least do something for me?"

"What is it?"

"If you plan to tell him, wait until Monday. Let him rest tomorrow."

"That should be fine." Ellia nodded in agreement.

Eric took a deep breath before recounting what had happened.

"The one who asked me to participate in the mission was Leus, a freshman like me. We were supposed to go on the mission with four other students. Two of them were freshmen like us, and the other two were seniors.

"Apparently, the senior wanted to know the standard of another academy because he intended to participate in the next student exchange program. Looking back, it was bullshit.

"The senior in question called himself Trevor. We were supposed to go on Friday and return by Sunday.

"Everything went smoothly on Friday. We killed a lot of beasts, but they suddenly moved to a different path because of a problem. I didn’t know the problem, but I trusted them.

"However..."

Eric clenched his fists. The memory was etched deeply in his mind.

Nine hours ago.

The six of them were running in the middle of the forest, not far from the city.

"We just received a distress signal. I need everyone to be on their guard. If we can find the enemy’s location, we will approach with caution. We go there to rescue people, not to kill ourselves after all."

Everyone agreed, but suddenly Eric turned his head to the left, noticing an incoming presence. It was a beast. No, it wasn’t just a single beast. He could see numerous beasts coming.

"Beasts!" Eric shouted. He formed his scythe and struck the incoming beast before taking a step back to gain some distance. "Get ready!"

Eric alerted them. Normally, the others would have started moving to their positions. In fact, the senior who was also a scout should have sensed these beasts before they even reached their group.

"!!!" Eric suddenly glanced back and saw the group had actually distanced themselves from him. It wasn’t because they didn’t hear him. They heard him.

They even stopped at a distance, but they were just laughing while staring at him.

"Look at that country bumpkin. Does he think he’s at our level?"

"This is a punishment. You shouldn’t have gone to this place. A mere country bumpkin, thinking that you can enroll at Kallarnos University. Who do you think you are?"

"Not everyone can enter this university."

Eric felt like cursing. If he wasn’t on their level, he should have been ranked last. However, he believed that he could rank pretty high even among the first-year students.

So, it was either prejudice or discrimination.

However, he couldn’t say anything because two beasts pounced on him.

"Kh." Eric gritted his teeth and struck the beasts, blowing them away. But more and more beasts were coming, preventing him from escaping.

"Tsk." Eric clicked his tongue. If he were in a group, his teammates would have provided cover fire so that he could retreat and reform their ranks.

Yet, these five people were just staring at him.

"Let’s go. If he can survive by any chance, he won’t be able to do anything."

"Take this as a lesson."

"You fuckers!" Eric roared while swinging his scythe around. He couldn’t see how many beasts were coming at him.

’Am I going to die here?’ Eric couldn’t help but think. It was a natural thought. For someone like him to be surrounded by so many beasts, the only result would be death.

If he were as powerful as Auric, he would have been able to break free. But Eric was only at this level. Even though he ranked pretty high, there was still a huge gap between him and Auric.

’No, I’m not going to think that way. This is the same as everything I’ve experienced.’

Roar!

Roar!

The beasts were roaring as if trying to intimidate Eric as they came toward him.

’Shut up. Do you think I will be scared of all of you?! I don’t care how many will come. I will just kill every single one of you! I will beat up even gods if they dare to stop me from getting the last laugh.’ Eric’s eyes turned bloodshot. He screamed while swinging his scythe. "Come at me, all you bastards!"

The battle was brutal. He had truly become a demon in that battle.

Even when the claws hit him, the pain was nothing compared to his will to survive. If the beast roared, he would just roar back while swinging his scythe.

The blood soon dyed him red, not only from his own blood but also from the beasts’. He killed one beast after another. No matter how many times the beasts struck him, he refused to fall.

Ultimately, he killed every single beast.

His memory was a bit fuzzy once he became frenzied. His body moved by instinct at that time.

The only thing he could remember was the desire to survive and to attack everything that moved around him.

He didn’t care about anything else.

However, he vaguely remembered how he got rescued.

Eric couldn’t see anyone or recognize them. However, there was one person that kept flashing in his mind. It was Vera.

Because of Vera, he managed to make it back alive. If she hadn’t found him, he would have died from blood loss.

Eric told Ellia everything before finishing with, "It looks like I owe Vera a lot."

"You don’t have to worry about that. Her group has just returned from the mission and happened to find you. After hearing about the situation, it’s more like your group’s fault. They intended to do that from the start."

Eric clenched his fists. He really wanted to take his own revenge, but he was still too weak. Besides, his background wasn’t as good as that of the people in the capital city.

"You’ve done a very good job of surviving." Ellia smiled.