Chapter 36: A Candidate for Level 1

Zeldryn continued staring at the cloud of smoke covering Kera's upper body. Several seconds passed before he noticed a fluctuation of mana moving around the man. The particles gathered, and the air around Kera began to shift in a way that immediately reminded Zeldryn of wind.

At least, that was what it looked like from his perspective.

The current slowly swept through the smoke until it thinned and disappeared, revealing Kera's face again. The moment Zeldryn saw him clearly, he clicked his tongue.

“Tch.”

Just as he had expected, Kera wasn't hurt at all. There were no wounds, scratches, or even the slightest sign that the explosion had caused him any trouble. Judging from the mana Zeldryn had seen moving moments earlier, Kera must have formed some kind of barrier around his upper body just before the explosion struck.

What irritated Zeldryn even more was that Kera was still sitting comfortably on his bed. One arm rested casually on his knee while his body leaned slightly forward, giving him a posture that looked far too relaxed for someone who had spent almost twenty minutes tormenting the owner of that very bed.

Zeldryn looked down at himself. His clothes were disheveled, his body ached from the beating, and his breathing was still heavier than normal. Then he looked back at Kera, who continued sitting there as though none of this had required any effort.

'Tch, damn bastard. How am I the one getting beaten to hell while you're sitting there posing on my bed like that?'

Kera caught his expression and smiled faintly.

“You're still a thousand years too early to try something like that on me, troublesome brat.”

Zeldryn only glared at him.

'Well, obviously, damn it. You're way above my level.'

“But at least...” Kera paused briefly. “You didn't disappoint me too much.”

Zeldryn frowned.

Kera's smile remained as he continued. “So allow me to congratulate you.”

That only made Zeldryn more confused.

“Congratulations on becoming a candidate for Level 1 Manholer.”

Zeldryn's eyes widened slightly.

'Candidate? Even something like that still isn't enough to be called Level 1?'

At first, he found the distinction difficult to believe. Once he thought about what he remembered from Life Really Is Happy, Right?, however, it made sense. Level 1 Manholers were still insignificant compared to someone like Kera, but they had already surpassed ordinary humans by a considerable margin.

Zeldryn, meanwhile, had only managed to move several mana particles and make them explode, and even that had happened only twice.

The difference between himself and Kera was still absurdly large. From Zeldryn's perspective, it felt almost like comparing an ant to a human. The human could crush the ant whenever they wanted, while the ant couldn't even comprehend the full size of the creature towering over it.

This text was taken from NovelPhoenix. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Zeldryn looked back at Kera. “After everything you just did to me, now you're congratulating me?”

Kera raised one eyebrow.

“What kind of psychopath are you?” Zeldryn continued.

Kera responded only with another smile before finally standing from the bed.

“Well...” His gaze traveled over Zeldryn from head to toe. “Either way, I am responsible for those minor injuries.”

The casual way he said it immediately irritated Zeldryn.

'Minor injuries, you say? This is the body of a twelve-year-old kid, you bastard.'

While Zeldryn continued cursing him internally, Kera raised one hand and moved his fingers.

SNAP!

Zeldryn immediately looked around as the mana in the room responded. This time, however, the flow wasn't gathering around Kera.

It was moving toward him.

Zeldryn's body tensed instinctively, but after several seconds, a warm sensation began spreading through him.

He immediately fell silent.

'This feeling...'

There was something incredibly familiar about the warmth. It felt almost identical to the sensation he had experienced while emerging from the strange loop.

Kera's mana continued enveloping Zeldryn's body, spreading across his chest, stomach, back, arms, and every other place that still hurt from the beating. The sensation distracted him so completely that he didn't immediately notice the physical changes taking place.

The bruises across his skin gradually faded. Swollen areas returned to normal, small wounds closed, and the pain from Kera's punches and kicks disappeared. Even the deeper aches inside his body slowly faded until, within a surprisingly short amount of time, the punishment from the previous twenty minutes seemed to have been erased.

Zeldryn only fully realized what had happened when he moved.

There was no pain.

He rotated one shoulder, then moved his arms, chest, and waist. Everything felt normal again.

'So this is the ability of a Level 3 Healing Manholer?'

The thought barely lasted before Zeldryn rejected it.

'No. This has to be one of his more basic abilities. He must be capable of something far crazier than this.'

Then Zeldryn stopped moving.

Something about the sensation bothered him.

'Wait...'

That warmth had been too familiar.

His thoughts returned to the previous night, when unbearable pain had spread through his body and made it feel as though something were destroying him from the inside. He had eventually lost consciousness, but when he woke up that morning, every injury that had covered him before was suddenly gone.

Zeldryn slowly turned toward Kera.

'Don't tell me... the one who healed me last night was...'

Before he could finish that thought, Kera raised one hand again.

Mana gathered in front of him.

Zeldryn immediately focused on what was happening as the empty space directly before Kera's hand began to change.

Something dark appeared.

It reflected no light and seemed deeper than an ordinary shadow. As Kera moved his hand, the mana around it shifted, and the empty space itself began to look as though it were being torn open.

A narrow gap gradually formed.

Zeldryn froze.

The space in front of Kera genuinely appeared to have been split apart, revealing nothing beyond it except pitch-black darkness without any visible end.

'Is this dimensional magic like the stuff I always saw in novels and comics?'

Kera inserted his hand into the opening, and part of his arm immediately vanished beyond the dark gap.

Zeldryn already knew abilities like this might exist in the world. He had encountered far stranger things while reading the novel, but once again, imagining something from written descriptions was completely different from watching it happen directly in front of him.

He could only stare while Kera appeared to search for something inside the darkness.

A few moments later, the man's hand emerged again.

This time, he was holding an envelope.

Zeldryn examined it immediately. A red emblem seal had been stamped onto the front.

Once Kera had retrieved the envelope, the dark gap in front of him slowly closed until the empty space returned to normal.

Zeldryn remained on the floor, still trying to process what he had just witnessed, while Kera briefly inspected the envelope in his hand.

Then he turned toward Zeldryn.

“Here.”

Kera raised the envelope.

“An invitation to Marquis Zorin's birthday celebration.”

Without saying anything else, he tossed it toward Zeldryn.