“Hey, Miranda, are you ok? I kind of went a little overboard…”

  “Ye-Yes, I’m ok… Don’t worry about it.”

  Wait a second, did she stutter? Not only that, I could barely hear her voice at all right at the end! And she’s avoiding eye contact with me yet again… What did I do now? I mean, yeah, I did go just a tiny itty quadrictly circly otty bity overboard but! That’s it really, I don’t have many excuses for my overreaction... This is Miranda that we are talking about, she could easily deal with the Shadows with a simple flick of her fingers and yet, here I was treating her like a fragile lady mere moment from being devoured by the cruelty of the world itself. Sigh, why do I act like this? Why can’t I stop my instincts from immediately seeing her as someone who needs protection? Is it because she’s a woman and as a man I somehow will always feel the need to protect her even if she was a hundred times stronger than me? Whatever, I will just ask what I thought of and get this over with.

  “Uhm, can I ask a question?”

  “Hmm, hmm.”

  Hey, can you at least say something concrete rather than, “hmm, hmm”? I mean, I can easily understand that you “allow” me to ask the question as you nod in agreement to what I asked but that does not make me feel any better at all! I mean, you’re facing a different direction than where I’m from! I’m right in front of you, for crying out loud! Awawa! I seem just like a little girl that was asked to go on a date but I have to deny it as the guy is ugly as hell and I’m afraid that he will retaliate! I don’t know how to react! Let alone what to do! Actually, why the hell did I come up with this comparation? Sigh, just calm down… You have fought and defeated monsters that could end an empire, no need for you to be this anxious or whatever. Take a deep breath and casually ask her what you need to ask. There, you have calmed down (not really), now you can ask her the damn question.

  “If I take too long here, will it affect Kiana?”

  “Oh, it’s about her... Of course, she’s the only one in your mind it seems.”

  Alright! I quit!

  I can’t deal with this! I simply cannot understand her at all! Nah man! This is ridiculous!

  Why is she mad now!? Her tone of voice is beyond cold, especially if we compared to just a few moments ago! This is a simple damn question! It does not warrant this reaction from you!

  “Yes, it does affect her. The longer you take to defeat the Shadows, the more damage they will do.”

  “I see, thank you.”

  I don’t know how to react to this, she still sounds as cold as the damn temperature for the north, one that easily reaches below -50 degrees. Not only that, it was harsh, extremely so almost to the point that the vibrations of sound themselves seemed to be sanding my ears away. However, at least she actually gave me a normal answer so, I will be content with that. Actually, I’m quite relieved as I can take my time around here. Don’t get it wrong, I’m not walking in the park and therefore without a care in the world. No, what I mean is that, I don’t have to speed run this place, quickly defeating the Shadows and moving on to the next area, missing everything in the process. The only thing that I have to worry about are the Shadows, a problem that I have to be quick to eliminate in each area. This of course helps me tremendously as in each area I will quickly identify the real source of the problem, as with both Magical Eyes and Sense I can easily figure out where those Shadows might be. The same can be said about this place as with a simple usage of Magic Sense, not only I’m easily able to sense that, this place is much bigger than what it seems, I can also sense all the Shadows present here. For now, I simply need to pay attention to the Shadows and deal with them accordingly, everything else, I can take my time exploring per say. There is something inside of me that is telling me that I will have to worry about other situations than only the Shadows themselves but they still are the most important factor to consider. Call it Heroic instincts but, they never failed me in the past so, I will keep my mind sharp and my body ready for unforeseen situations.

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  Moving on, I still have that Shadow to deal with. Although, the moment I turned around towards it, one that in this precise moment is behind me near the entrance but outside, the individual where my instincts shouted at me to protect her, without me noticing it, she disappeared without saying anything and of course, without leaving a trace behind. It was perfectly executed as I really didn’t notice her leaving. She has so much magic energy that I should’ve in an instant notice her gone but no, somehow my brain turned off, disabling my senses with it and allowing this to happen. To make it even worse, it will take me a few minutes to notice.

  Step! Step!

  I walk up to the entrance and I’m instantly greeted by some nice visitors. The one that I mentioned before plus a few others that are a few meters from us but more than close enough to sense me. In other words, I’m about to demolish five other Shadows in a row and in an instant.

  “Not that it will make a difference. The results will always be the same even if we added a zero to their numbers.”

  Who would’ve guessed that, C+ rank Shadows are not a threat to me? Either way, enough of my jabbering. The one in front of me gets ready to attack me, he also has the same shape as those Shadows that seemed to be bears. He has his arms well extended to the sides, ready to grab me and crush me into a pulp while simultaneously biting my head off to finish the job. A gruesome scene if I may say so and unfortunately, there have been a few reports of that happening to a few unfortunate adventurers that messed with the wrong Shadows. The atrocities that these Shadows can do is nothing to be taken lightly however, monsters are the same and even some humans. Well, in this case, he won’t be able to do much as my natural defence is at A- rank, anything below that will literally do nothing to me. I mean, you can try to stab me and it will simply bounce back as my skin is that sturdy, though I cannot say the same about my clothes that I might be wearing at that time. This is a consequence of having high levels of magic energy, said high concentration of magic will “mutate” your body. While you won’t grow a new pair of limbs or regrow them if you lose them, your body will simply become sturdier, stronger and faster because of it. I really like to yap, don’t I?

  Woosh! Kapow!

  Again, nothing special on my part, just another simple straight punch and since he had his arms wide open ready to hug me and give me some “love”, anyone can guess that, he was wide exposed, allowing me to strike his core without any difficulty at all. As expected, the Shadow is defeated, four more to go although those four sure are eager to come at me and avenge their friend that just died in front of them. After all, they are running up to me! And they sure look quite excited at that. Their disgusting mouths are wide open, some even stretched to the sides beyond what it would physically be possible, all thanks to their chaotic magical form that allows them to achieve these bizarre and horrifying facial expressions. However, something akin to saliva drops down their mouths as they understand that, food is right in front of them, a good looking and excellent “food” asking to be devoured by them. You can guess that, the higher the quantity and the denser the magic is, the more attractive it is to them and since they lack intelligence, they do not give a crap if said magic energy is hundred times higher than what they have. Simply run up to it with everything they have, just like a moth does when it sees a light source, unable to distinguish between a natural light such as fire from an electric lamp. To them, they all look the same even if both can potentially kill them.

  “Well, since I didn’t overreact a few moments ago, how about another course of Ignatius magic spells?”

  I’m not too excited, shut up! This is a good time to practice that family of magic spells as I should be able to use them without an incantation and yet, here I had to spell it out to the world just like a beginner would have. I might have been panicking just a tiny itty bit as I saw the three Shadows getting closer to Miranda (I’m still wondering why the hell I was feeling like that) and of course that did not help at all as it forced me to spell out the incantation as in that moment it was the faster way to use it. I mean, its efficiency was not lower or anything like that in fact, since I spelled out the incantation, it actually increased its efficiency by roughly 5%. It’s not a significant increase and that is why if you can, you don’t spell out the incantations as it’s much faster than when you do so. However, using a magic spell without spelling out the incantation is not something that a beginner nor even an intermediate for that matter can do in fact, they can’t even dream to achieve it. You need to have a certain amount of magic control for such not only that, you need to understand how the magic spell works. How the magic circle does its thing basically. Even I, if I use a spell that I never used before, I will have to spell out the incantation. A second time? No need for that as one time is more than enough for me to understand how it works, how it will perform and what can I do to change it. But that’s me, your average joe cannot do this, it will take him probably hundred times of trial and error until he can do it once without an incantation.