Chapter 35: At Least His Pride

Kera and Zeldryn both saw and heard the small explosion that had just occurred, and for several moments, neither of them said anything.

Both were surprised, but for completely different reasons.

One of them seemed almost unwilling to believe what had happened, as though he were trying to reject the reality directly in front of him. The other accepted it with far less resistance, almost as if this result was exactly what he had expected from the beginning.

Because that child's potential was...

Zeldryn continued staring at the spot where the explosion had occurred.

'Huh? That was a coincidence, right?'

He genuinely wasn't sure.

Zeldryn had already been close to giving up. He had tried touching mana, blowing on it, imagining it moving, and even attempting to direct the mana inside his own body, yet every method had failed. After nearly twenty minutes of being punched and kicked around by some lunatic he had only met that morning, all he had accomplished was becoming increasingly exhausted while enduring Kera's endless mockery.

He let out a heavy breath, but before he could properly think through what had just happened, Kera suddenly smiled.

It was the same strange smile Zeldryn had already learned to distrust, the kind that immediately made him feel as though the man was thinking about something he had no intention of explaining.

Then Kera released the mana that had been concealing him.

Zeldryn's eyes widened instantly.

Kera reappeared in front of him.

“So you've been sitting there this whole time, you bastard!” Zeldryn shouted.

It turned out Kera hadn't been moving around the room nearly as much as Zeldryn had imagined. The man was casually sitting on Zeldryn's bed with one elbow resting on his knee while his hand supported the side of his face. He looked far too relaxed for someone who had spent almost twenty minutes turning Zeldryn into a punching bag.

Kera raised an eyebrow. “I've been here the entire time.”

He tilted his head slightly.

“Where did you think I was?”

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Zeldryn gritted his teeth.

Kera saw his reaction and only smiled wider before glancing toward the place where the small explosion had occurred.

“However...” Kera began. “After all the torment I've put you through for almost twenty minutes, all you managed to make was something like a firecracker?”

He looked back at Zeldryn and laughed.

“Hah! Hahahaha! You really do deserve to be called a loser of a Young Lord.”

Zeldryn immediately went silent, but this time it wasn't because he was angry or because Kera's insult had gotten under his skin.

Something far more important had caught his attention.

Firecracker.

Kera had called the explosion a firecracker.

Zeldryn looked back toward the spot where it had happened and replayed the man's words inside his head. Kera was a Level 3 Manholer, someone who clearly understood mana far better than Zeldryn did, and he had just indirectly acknowledged that the explosion had been caused by what Zeldryn had done.

That meant it hadn't been a coincidence.

'So I really controlled it?'

Zeldryn's expression changed.

Kera was still sitting comfortably on the bed, looking down at him, while Zeldryn remained on the floor with his body aching from the kicks he had endured earlier. This time, however, a small smile slowly appeared on Zeldryn's face.

Kera noticed immediately.

“Hm?”

Zeldryn didn't answer.

Instead, his gaze shifted away from Kera and settled on several mana particles floating directly behind him.

More specifically, behind Kera's neck.

'If I really did that earlier...'

Zeldryn focused his attention on two particles.

'Let's try it again.'

He imagined them moving toward one another.

Slowly, the two particles responded.

They moved.

Zeldryn's eyes widened slightly.

It worked.

This time, however, he didn't stop with only two.

Zeldryn focused again and drew a third particle toward them, followed by a fourth and then a fifth. Finally, a sixth mana particle began moving as well.

One by one, all six particles gathered behind Kera's neck.

Zeldryn concentrated entirely on the cluster, forcing himself to ignore everything else in the room while imagining the particles continuing to move closer together.

Kera remained seated on the bed.

Strangely enough, the man was still smiling.

In fact, his smile was becoming increasingly unusual, almost as though he already knew exactly what Zeldryn was attempting.

Zeldryn didn't notice.

His attention was fixed entirely on the six mana particles behind Kera.

'Just a little more...'

The particles drew closer.

The distance between them continued shrinking until they finally converged.

BOOM!

An explosion far larger than the first erupted directly behind Kera.

The air around the bed trembled from the impact. The mana particles that had collided released small sparks before dispersing into a thin cloud of smoke that quickly spread around Kera.

Within moments, the entire upper half of his body disappeared behind the haze. Zeldryn could only make out the faint silhouette of the man sitting inside it.

Even then, Zeldryn didn't smile in satisfaction.

He wasn't stupid enough to believe an attack like that had seriously hurt Kera.

The person he had just attacked was a Level 3 Manholer. There was almost no chance such a small explosion could kill him, and even the possibility of causing a meaningful injury seemed close to nonexistent.

Zeldryn simply stared at the cloud of smoke hanging above his bed while slowly steadying his breathing.

'I wasn't expecting to hurt you anyway.'

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly.

'At least I hope that hurt your pride a little, bastard.'