Records of Rebirth

Chapter 170 - A Can Of Worms

"But why?" I protested. "I want to learn it."

«Showing you more will only make you overthink again.» Sensei said with finality, and refused to bring up the topic anymore.

I felt slightly conflicted.

Surely he wasn't really upset at my reaction, right? 

I refused to believe my words had affected him, judging by how much he'd criticized me in the past. Rather, I expected him to counter and throw some criticism back at me. 

However, it seemed Sensei was a big marshmallow, and this made me want to tease him more. 

"If I find anything suspicious, I will ask about it, I promise." I replied. "And you still haven't explained to me why you can use my magic, or how. You can't expect me to ignore your inconsistencies when they have plenty to do with me."

We settled into a deadlock as I waited for my MP that had been expended on the dark blade to gradually refill.

I've long had the suspicion that Sensei was hiding something from me, and I could also guess why. 

Perhaps he thought I would become a threat to my classmates if he told me too much? But quite frankly, I wasn't interested in them or their lives.

As long as they don't interfere in my life...

My one concern with Sensei was that he was constantly making me suspect him by not being open with me.

"I don't care about them, you know." I said, as a matter of fact. "Yes, I was upset about the 'snake' thing at first, but I've gotten used to it now. I don't mind it anymore." 

Jeez. I didn't sound convincing at all!

But it wasn't a lie either. I would continue to mind my own snake business in peace without disturbing any of them. 

But if any of those b**tards came looking for me...I wasn't sure exactly how I would react.

«What are you talking about?» Sensei asked, which made me even more annoyed.

"My classmates?!" I exclaimed. "Who else could I be talking about? You know where they are, right?"

Sensei sighed. «I do, and I already said I cannot tell you.»

Tch…did he think I was going to eat them or something? How rude!

"Do you think I'm so desperate to meet them?" I scoffed in ridicule. "I would much rather live with my nestlings instead of them"

«Then why are you bringing them up?» Sensei responded.

"Oh, I just want to be friends and bond over our shared experience of having you as our system" I retorted, and heard Sensei sigh in exasperation.

"I just want to know how you can use my magic?" I circled back to my original question. 

«It's very normal for a system to have access to magic.» he gave a half-assed response.

Not my magic! I wanted to shout, but then I realised he had confirmed far more than he intended.

If he could freely admit that the situation was the same for the others, this meant what he was hiding wasn't about them.

So what else then?

The only thing I could think of was my magic itself. There were a couple of times his skills could have come in handy, but he chose not to do anything.

Perhaps, he was placed under some restrictions by the gods or maybe because my level was too low?

I decided to probe more. "So, why have you never used magic until now?"

Sensei sounded exasperated with all my questions, but surprisingly he continued to answer them.

«It's simple. Because you've never had enough magic until now. Rather than overthinking it, you should be happy your pitiful MP has finally increased to a usable amount.»

I half expected the answer but the way he said it irked me to no end.

This b**tard! 

Why do I get the impression he was saying I should be happy I finally became worthy of his help? 

I didn't agree and I certainly didn't like his narrative.

He should've been helpful from the start, but after how he phrased it, he could take his help and shove it!

While I was happy to hear what he thought, sometimes, I preferred him giving me advice on things I had little or no experience on, not him using my skills. As for his help with magic, the answer was a resounding no.

"Fine! Keep your stupid magic skills with you." I shot back angrily.

«Huh? Didn't you pester me to show you? What are you unhappy about now?»

"I don't want to talk to you anymore."

Although I couldn't physically ignore him, I made a point of not replying to any of his questions until Sensei eventually stopped talking. 

I focused on recreating the smaller dark blades instead.

However, it wasn't going to be easy.

While I could move my shadows easily, I was only semi successful in condensing them to form the dark void. It was quite difficult to compress the shadows down to the size of a bead and I could only manage this for a second before the shadows became unstable before returning back to their former shape.

Rather than give up or ask Sensei again, I decided to form the blade without condensing it - the same way I did with my poison spheres. 

The result was a fuzzy dark blade that constantly shifted in shape due to how unsteady the energy it contained was. But with enough practice, it held its shape long enough for me to fire it at the wall.

But unlike Sensei's dark blade that was completely silent, my blade collided with a loud crash and a scattering of dust and rubble.

??Darkness Manipulation: LV2?has become ?Darkness Manipulation: LV3??

That was a good sign!

I rushed over to the wall to examine the damage, but it was disappointing, as the cut was not deep and it seemed more like someone took a sledgehammer to the wall. 

Instead of cutting through the bedrock for miles, the damage was spread out over the surface in a rather messy way that looked more like an explosion.

While I was disappointed, I didn't let the failure deter me and continued to practice. As a system, Sensei had to have more knowledge than me on magic, which was probably why he did so well on his first try, but I wasn't giving up that easily either!

As a reward for my continuous efforts, the size of the shadows I could generate had now increased by three folds. So much so that an ominous black haze started to spread out towards Typhon and the dark fae who were fighting at the side.

I didn't want to lure the pesky fae my way, but I was more concerned with obscuring their visibility, so I tried to rein in the darkness in one more attempt at a shadow blade - a larger one this time, to test the limits of my control.

However, I realised it was a terrible idea as soon as I started. 

While my [Shadow Magic] had increased to a decent level, my manipulation skills were still abysmal. I could only dream of compressing it all down to a single deadly shadow blade, so when I tried, my shadows rebelled against me - seemingly refusing to shrink! 

Unlike before, when I was able to fire it at the wall, the current shadow blade was so uneven it exploded not long after I compressed it, and a wave of energy hit me in my face, right before I felt the deadly blade zoom over my head.

There was a loud clang as something rebounded off the wall, and when I looked back, I saw something familiar, small and shiny embedded inside.

No way. 

That looked like my horn!

No! No! No! 

It had sliced off a shard of my obsidian horn?! 

I reeled about in panic, straining my head from left to right to try and see. 

"Tell me which horn was hit! Tell me!" I cried out in panic. 

«Calm down, it only took off a small piece.» Sensei replied quietly. «You're lucky it didn't take off your own head.»

"What does it look like now?" I sobbed. "Does it look bad?"

«Is that what you're concerned about?» Sensei huffed in reply. «There's only a small chip  in your left horn.» 

No! Not my majestic, shiny horns!

They had saved me from so much. How could he act like it wasn't a big deal? 

I wanted to cry. 

After such a disastrous attempt, I had to stop using my [Shadow Magic] entirely. Controlling such unsteady energy was far too dangerous, and I couldn't keep practicing after such a huge blow.

«You could just ask for help, you know?» Sensei added, much to my annoyance.

"So you can show off again?" I snapped.

«I never tried to show off. » Sensei protested. «You can't expect to be good at it after only trying it once.»

"Hmph. I still don't need your help." I scoffed.

«Your method is far too reckless! Mastering dark magic takes time and practice, not careless luck! What if it backfires again?»

I stopped listening to his complaining.

After that last dark blade that almost splintered my horn, I wasn't going to use it just yet. Plus I was thoroughly wiped out, so I went over to find Typhon and the fae. 

It was time to return.

I soon found Typhon and saw the multitudes of dark worms he had killed lying all around him.

Out of the many that had attacked, there wasn't a single one alive and the corpses there could tally up to fifty or more, and this was without including the dark fae's share. The damage he had caused was simply unbelievable, and I couldn't help but look at him with awe and approval.

However, as the dark fae rushed towards me with eyes full of tears, I noticed the ground beneath me had begun to rumble again, which I found quite odd because Typhon also looked surprised. 

Soon the spikes he created out of the rocks started to break apart as the vibrations grew even more intense and before we realised, the ground in front of us was swallowed up in an instant.

We only managed to leap back in time as a ginormous worm creature ate its way out. 

Easily ten times as large as the worms we so easily slaughtered before, it rose up from the ground, swallowing the dark fae in one swoop, before coiling up much like a snake to strike at us with its salivating maw.