"Finally…" Jason muttered upon finally reaching the stream.
It had taken him an hour and half worth of travel to finally reach the stream. Glancing at it, he couldn't help but wonder whether some creature was waiting to eat him.
'Better be safe than sorry.' Jason thought while placing his hands in the water.
Lightning ran across his arms, passing straight into the water. Any creature present inside the stream died after experiencing continuous lightning shots.
Jason removed his shoes and dipped his feet in the water with a satisfied expression. He jumped in the stream a second later.
Since he didn't have any soap, Jason had to clean his body using plain water. He thoroughly put the water all around his body in hopes of eliminating all types of smell produced by his body.
Once he was done, Jason walked out of the water and changed his clothes.
'Now I have to get some drinking water.'
Jason bent down and started drinking the water fresh from the stream. To prevent himself from getting sick, he had already summoned dark mana inside his mouth.
Though it left a bitter aftertaste, it was better than falling sick in the middle of such an environment.
'I can take some water with me by using a container of sorts. But to get out, I have to head towards the portals. The light above the portals will not only attract beasts but the others as well. There's no knowing who is your enemy or friend.'
After careful consideration, Jason started heading towards the portals beside the stream.
He could use it as a cover and if anyone stepped inside the water, he could easily electrocute them.
Two days passed by in this manner. Jason had managed to travel a good distance while walking alongside the stream.
He encountered very few beasts in the area. Once he had revealed that he could use lightning, the beasts had fled as well.
No one wanted to fight a lightning mage near a water source.
'The problem is that after a few more kilometers, the stream starts going in the opposite direction. I will have to abandon it to reach the portals.'
Jason decided that the best course of action for him was to rest for one day and run towards the portal after that.
He could recover his energy and would be in a good condition to run.
'Perhaps I should put the white lightning to use here.' He wondered for a few minutes before finalizing the plan.
That night, Jason fell asleep near the edge of the stream and asked Zara to guard him. Though he was forced to wake up three times throughout the night, Jason was able to get the rest he wanted.
Once he had left the stream behind, he activated his white lightning and dashed towards the portals.
It would take him at least fifteen to sixteen hours of continuous travel to reach the portals. Calculating the time taken to rest, he would take another day and half to reach the portals.
Jason also observed that one of the five pillars of light had recently vanished.
Some student had managed to enter the pillar of light and was either fighting his or her fear or had already made it out to the real world.
'Someone is following me…' Jason observed.
He had stopped to take his first rest. Using his white lightning for an hour was his physical limit.
It was necessary to take a rest after that or his muscles would start contracting. His mana flow would also become irregular, giving him a dizzy feeling.
Jason summoned a bit of his dark mana and formed a harpoon in his hand. He waited for an attack to come but nothing happened for the next five minutes.
'Is it a beast or a human?' he frowned.
Since the number of students present in the expert zone wasn't clear, one could only estimate it based on the talent.
'Zeke and Mila didn't make it to the expert zone. I am sure that some guys from the A class did make it here. Are they perhaps looking to obtain some revenge on me?' Jason wondered silently. 'So young but already so petty.'
Jason stood up from his spot and continued to advance towards the portals. His speed remained constant for the next hour.
All of a sudden, his feet slipped from a branch and he fell face first on the ground. Jason managed to minimize the damage by rolling to his back mid air.
Once he landed on the ground, Jason rubbed his feet with a pained expression. Simultaneously, a bolt of lightning appeared in his vision.
The bolt hit him in the right shoulder, drawing black blood. Jason's eyes turned towards the branches above to see a young child standing their with a smug expression.
"You can stay here and become food for the beasts." The child scoffed before summoning another lightning bolt.
"Are you working alone or did someone else ask you to do this?" Jason calmly questioned.
"Huh? Why would I waste my time carefully chasing you on someone else's commands? I am just doing this so that everyone can know that those in the Z class are just a bunch of overprivileged nobles." The child replied.
"Oh, is that what you think we are?" a grin appeared on Jason's face. "For once, I wish I had that life. Your reason for attacking me would've made more sense."
The child suddenly had a bad feeling. He threw two more lightning bolts at Jason, both aimed at his legs.
"You know when two lightning mages fight, the one with the higher affinity and larger mana pool wins." Jason stood up. "But when a lightning and a thunder mage fight, the former gets obliterated."
Jason raised his right hand forward and called upon the lightning bolts thrown by his opponent. This was the first time he was trying this.
There was a chance that something could go wrong but overall, Jason wouldn't be harmed.
"My thunder is superior than your lightning in every way possible."
The pair of lightning bolts came in contact with Jason's hands. He simply focused on them for a few seconds, a smile appearing on his face.
"What…" the child's jaw dropped when he saw his lightning bolts vanishing inside Jason's palm.
The silver-haired boy had just converted them into his own lightning mana by simply focusing a bit. This was an ability of the thunder mage job class he had never gotten to use before.
He did the same thing with the lightning bolt stuck in his shoulder.
'Good thing I faked falling. He could have managed to catch me off guard.' Jason sighed mentally.
His grip on the trees had been quite firm. His lightning also allowed him to jump off branches in the nick of time even if he slipped a bit.
Furthermore, Jason could've easily broken his fall by landing on his feet. He hadn't done any of those things since he had wanted to draw out his pursuer.
"Now, let me show you what a real lightning bolt is."
Dark purple lightning flickered around Jason's right arm. He summoned a lightning bolt buzzing with energy and immediately threw at the child.
In a matter of seconds, the lightning bolt had embedded itself in the child's right shoulder. He could only blink in surprise as another lightning bolt embedded in his other shoulder.
"AHH!" a cry of pain escaped his lips. The damage caused by the lightning bolts was far too severe than what he could deal with.
"You thought that it was a good thing to catch me off guard. Though it was a smart move, you should have paid more attention to my movement. Also, you didn't paralyze me." Jason pointed out.
He waved his hand once, making the lightning traverse through the child's body. He shot another lightning bolt in the next ten seconds and paralyzed his lower body as well.
'How can he be so quick… his mana is also at a higher level than my own and he can control it at such a distance.' The paralyzed child wondered.
It was true that he hadn't paralyzed Jason. The major reason for that was the overconfidence he had in his abilities.
But that was not all.
Unlike Jason, the class A student couldn't control lightning from that far of a distance. His limit was one meter.
The delusion thought up by the class A student shattered at that moment. Unfortunately, it was too late.
"So young but already so petty." Jason sighed. He knew that a beast would definitely come and kill the boy later on so it was better for him to do it instead.
Also, it would end up in handicapping the boy sooner.
"Perhaps when we meet outside, you will have some sense in that head of yours." Jason said at last before summoning another lightning bolt.
The class A student blamed himself from his foolishness. He swore that once both of them had managed to appear in the outside world, he would worship the silver-haired boy as an idol.
"My name is Rodrick. Please remember my name, Master Jason!" The child suddenly shouted.
Jason almost spat blood like a Chinese young master. Here he was about to kill the student and he was calling him a master.
"Don't spout such nonsense to save yourself." Jason replied with a glare and threw the lightning bolt.
The class A student didn't have the time to protest. The lightning bolt simply pierced his head, turning his body into particles of light.
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