192 Circle of Darkness and guidance from goddess
{Your battle intrigues God Apollo.}
{He gives you another chance to become his follower.}
Rio read the notification from Apollo and didn't show any surprise. He had already expected it. Instead of replying and refusing to Apollo himself, he let his goddess do the talking.
{Hela scoffs at the shamelessness of this dimmed out lamp}
{Nyx shoots away the annoying presence of light from her follower}
'Hahaha, poor guy,' Rio thought as he chuckled inwardly after reading the messages of Nyx and Hela.
[Was that necessary?] System asked, once its host was away from the crowd and the chatter.
"What do you mean? Of course it was. I just stopped the protagonist from showing off in front of the whole class. That's some free points for me." Rio replied with a sly grin.
In the original novel, at this time the whole class would've surrounded Leon who was called on stage. Since everyone was curious about his skills and spells, they would all gather around the stage and watch as he showed his fire spells to Miss Freya.
But now no one looked at the direction of the stage since he started a spar just at that moment. Plus his spar and display of ice element's control would interest another girl who wields ice. And thus, cutting the first meet up between the hero and the 2nd heroine, Katherine Winston.
'She should be coming to ask for some help from me now.' Rio thought, as he looked at the opposite side and saw Katherine practicing by herself.
In the original novel, after seeing Leon's talent in elemental control and mastery of fire element, which is the bane of ice element, she would ask him to spar with her. So she can get better at using her own element and learn its shortcomings. This way Katherine vs Leon became the first spar of the first year. And it also became the starting point of the relationship between those two.
But now he had already changed the spar angle and Katherine might just ask him to teach her about the method of transformation magic instead of learning it from Leon.
Transformation magic, a method of casting magic, where one can turn one element to another and one spell to another midway. Like how he turned water into ice or vice versa. Leon, on the other hand, knew how to change spells midway, like turning a fireball into a shield of fire or sword of flames into ring of fire.
He wasn't interested in fooling up girls or going out of his way to trouble Leon, but he wouldn't mind doing it, if it can annoy Apollo.
'That guy gotta pay the price for ruining my plans last time.' Rio thought bitterly, remembering the incident in the dungeon two years ago.
[He didn't even know what you wanted to do.]
'Doesn't change the fact that he still did it.'
2 years ago, during the final tournament for first year students of the world association academies, he had made a plan to kill some annoying people who were planning to fight against the Blake family from the shadows. He couldn't just leave them be, knowing they're coming for his family, now could he?
And in his plans to root out the enemies during the Warzy attack, followers of Apollo appeared out of nowhere to intervene. Just so they can gain tidbits of publicity and a little bit of belief power for their God.
Their arrival led one thing to another and just like a house of cards, all his carefully crafted plan lit up in shambles.
He would even ignore that, but then shit started going even more out of control and he ended up getting trapped in a dungeon full of zombies. Now that is something he can't ignore. The fucking pain of spatial distortion is still giving him chills, everytime he uses a teleportation circle or a gate.
It's hard to forget, and this guy still has the gall to ask him to be his follower.
'Be glad I'm not planning to kill you motherfucker.' Rio cursed the God, as he brought out a water bottle filled with mana potion and drank it.
He still had to show his skills to his now professor and past senior, he can't just do it half heartedly.
"_ Blake"
'Hum, did someone call me?'
[Nah, I don't know? Didn't notice.]
'I'm here thinking of ways of our survival and you can't even keep an eye on my surroundings. Get yourself a scanning function or something.' Rio chided the system for its uselessness and stood up. As he heard someone calling his name again.
[If you need it that bad, why don't you buy it for me. I'll give you a limited offer, just for 49000 points.] System said in a playful tone.
'Fuck off. I'll just keep my eyes open next time.' Rio said and closed the system panel.
"Hi, senior," Rio greeted as he turned his attention to Professor Freya, who was waiting for him.
Miss Freya shook her head with mock exasperation. "I called you last, and you're still late."
"I was just taking a little break outside after the spar," Rio explained, offering an apologetic smile. "I couldn't hear you calling."
"I saw your spar. You got quite the many spells." Miss Freya said.
"I'm a jack of all trades," Rio replied with a shrug, "Who knows when which element will come in handy?"
"Let's see if you still remember your main element or not," Miss Freya's tone turned into a serious side, as she continued. "If you don't show me a new spell, I will just have to increase your training time."
After thinking for a while, Rio remembered about a perfect spell and chose to show that. "This is something I learned from a dungeon, senior. Tell me if I got it right."
*CIRCLE OF DARKNESS*
His spell had just finished when a circle made of darkness started to spread on ground outward with him as a center. It reached till miss Freya and covered her shadow in it too. Once that was done and the circle stopped expanding, Miss Freya tried to move forward, she found her steps a little too heavy. Like something heavy was tied to her feet and she had to drag it with her.
'First shadow magic to tie and hold the opponent and then darkness magic to cover up the shadow. A clever trick.' Miss Freya thought as she figured out how his spell worked.
While the opponent focused on the growing sphere of darkness, he used his shadow element to tie them to a place. And before his opponent could notice anything, the darkness circle covered it up. Now since their shadow is tied to a place, they can't move freely. And with the cover of darkness over it, breaking shadow control isn't easy.
"It's a nice spell to use on someone your rank. But you'll fail badly if you pull it on people above your level." Miss Freya said as she created a blaze below her feet. The gust of hot air and flame soon broke the shadow's control, and she rose from the ground and started floating. Once the shadow control was totally lost, the circle of darkness cracked too and the spell lost its effect.
"You should try to merge the elements of nature or water in it. That way the spell can be more deadly." Miss Freya said, as she floated down near him and gently slapped his head. "Now go, you wasted too much time."
"Thanks senior. I'll try that after I master it completely." Rio replied.
"I'm a professor now, not your senior." Miss Freya said with a warm smile.
"Yes ma'am. Congratulations on the promotion though." Rio said as he smiled and gave a salute to her.
"Getting a job at the academy you graduated from isn't exactly a promotion." Miss Freya said with a smile. They were both walking down the stage. Since Rio was the last to be called on stage, the class for today was done.
"But you always wanted it," Rio pointed out. "Besides, I did say you were going to be the best teacher in the academy two years ago, remember? And after listening to your lecture today, I know I was right."
"Did you really listen though? I thought you were busy staring at the girls." Miss Freya teased.
"Come on," Rio protested, "that was just for a moment. I only glanced at her because her answer was interesting. That's all."
"Mana is a tool to get what we want." Miss Freya repeated Katherine's answer and nodded "Interesting answer indeed. Kinda reminds me of your points back then, doesn't it?" She finished her words with a smile.
"Yupp, that's why I was looking at her." Rio admitted with a grin.
"It's good that you're back. Now don't slack off in your classes and training this time. Otherwise even if you bring the student council's letter, your results will still be in my hands. And I don't think the academy will let you repeat the first year a third time." Miss Freya informed him and left.
Some students gathered around her and started asking her questions or showing her the result on the pointers she gave earlier. After all, it's not everyday that they can get the guidance from the one considered a goddess by many.
'Student council huh. It's better that I stay away from them.' Rio said, as he remembered about the dear sister of the protagonist and the big brother of the princess.
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