All the other girls did the same, except Kamila, who gave Kayden one last hug and shed a few tears on his straight, emotionless back. After that, it disappeared.
"Hello, Mr. Kay. I’m Kayden and I specialize in fighting and developing geniuses," Kayden made a short introduction and received an aura of pressure that didn’t even make him sway.
"What would happen if I tried to kill you right now?" Kay said in a neutral voice.
"I don’t know, I’d probably be dead," Kayden said without any emotion in his voice.
"Good, show me your aura." Kayden always kept his aura closed, it was instinctive.
"Weird, but stable," Kay commented as she found herself faced with...nothing. It was a completely neutral aura without any emotion. Kay had never encountered anything like this before, at least not this stable from a living person.
"Find an empty room. I’ll assign you some weaker students and put them on the same level as the others. Your salary..." Kayden interrupted the man.
"Just give me protection and access to divine mana. I don’t need anything else, Mr. Kay."
"Then welcome."
***************
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A few dozen people were standing in a cemetery, all wearing red out of respect for the dead. A rain fell while everyone watched the tomb being prepared, a culture very similar to that of Earth.
"That’s what makes my aura sad, seeing my students die after getting attached to them. But it’s something I can’t stop doing," Kay commented to Kayden.
The student in the tomb lost his life while trying to pass to the fifth realm hurriedly. Kayden and Kay became great friends, their personalities were, in some ways, similar.
At the moment, Kayden commanded one of the specific wings of the academy, where only geniuses were sent. It only took a few years for Kay to notice his talent and take him under her wing.
"I know, you’ve repeated that phrase dozens of times over the centuries," Kayden commented. At the moment, he was at the fourth level of the fifth realm and had gotten yet another jewel in his crown.
Its advancement process was being done in a slow and controlled manner. He was also improving other areas of his strength during this time. At the moment, Kayden was one of the oldest fifth-realm mages in the city.
"History repeats itself when we do the same thing over and over again."
************
"Kayden, don’t you plan to advance to the sixth realm?" Kay asked after almost a millennium at Kayden’s side.
"Not yet, I will enjoy every day of the fifth kingdom," Kayden replied sincerely, and the old man beside him was surprised. It was a long time.
"How much longer do you have to live?"
"Something close to 10 thousand years." With that amount, Kayden would become one of the oldest mages in this zone, even among those in the sixth realm.
"You’re strange. It only took me 30 years to break out of the fifth realm. I currently have about 12 thousand years of life left. When I was young, I suffered ridiculous damage to my base, and at the moment, I can’t cultivate or mess with it without going through the feeling of almost dying."
"Why don’t you destroy it and just rebuild it from the beginning?" Kayden would have done it without even thinking twice.
"Fear. It took me ages to realize that. That’s a step I don’t dare to take." Kayden understood perfectly. Someone who has already come this far should be very afraid of going back to the beginning.
*******************
Kayden’s latest piece of jewelry was supposed to be something special. It would be placed in the center of the crown and had to be different from the others. Kayden knew this because even after two millennia in the city, he still hadn’t reached the sweet spot.
It always seemed like something was missing for Kayden. He could advance to the sixth realm right now if he wanted, and with the number of meters of conversion he achieved during these years, he could probably obtain seven rays.
"Kay, from the fifth to the sixth realm, I only got six lightning bolts in the fifth realm. Can I get more than seven in the sixth?" That was one of Kayden’s fears, having too much strength and being held back by something outside of his control.
"It can. At the level of demigod, there is no such limitation, all thanks to divine mana," Kay reassured Kayden’s fears.
At the moment, Kayden had managed about two miles of turning. His attacks were on a completely different level. Kayden estimated that he could kill a sixth realm powerhouse in just one move.
Logically, in a prolonged fight, he might end up getting the worst of it, but if he was able to launch just one attack with all his strength, he could do different things.
Kayden was slowly growing to monstrous heights. His quest for perfection was becoming an obsession. Every second of his life was being focused on improving, even if it was 0.00001%.
*******************
"Mister Kay, we need all the help we can get. It’s going to be a war, a real bloodbath against the golden and white bears," one of the town leaders was talking to Kay and other teachers.
According to some special information, one of the golden bears had managed to reach the seventh kingdom, which gave him the freedom to gather all the tribes under his rule. One of the first things he would do was clear the Arctic of other species.
"We can just abandon the city. Give me some good reason to stay here." Everyone knew that Kay was in love with this city. He would never abandon her; in fact, I just wanted some benefits.
"Everyone who helps will receive a share of the proceeds from the crossing forest." This forest was where everyone went to move on to the next zone. The wizard of the seventh kingdom in this city charged a toll.
The movement of people was immense, easily exceeding tens of thousands per day. Even a small portion was still a large portion for any organization in this city. In some ways, it was a great deal.
"We’re in."
*************
"I want protection in a soul contract. You will defend me regardless of who comes after me," Kayden was in front of one of the strongest people in this zone.
A wizard dressed in red and with all his body hair in the same color was sitting on a chair in front of him. His aura was deep and seemed to burn the things around him, his presence was heavy, worthy of a wizard of the seventh realm.
"How big are your enemies?" Julian was trying to understand why Kayden didn’t ask for treasures, but rather protection.
In recent years, a war between bears and all races in this Arctic has broken out. After just a few months, Kayden was identified as one of the most valuable assets, not for his destructive ability, but rather for his reading and range in combat.
Most of the time, the direction Kayden was in was the one with the least fatal injuries and death toll, almost double the second-best area of the city. It only took a few months for leaders to notice this anomaly.
Fortunately, Kayden was under Kay’s protection, and they couldn’t just order him around like a doormat, and not that that would be helpful either. The higher you climbed, the more you understood that you couldn’t control other people.
"I have no enemies, but I want to use all my power and that may end up attracting attention," Lucian raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, but in exchange for the position, I want to be able to freely manage which direction you will act in," Kayden nodded, and the two discussed some more details.
This small conversation gave Kayden one of the most adrenaline-pumping moments of his life. He was floating in the skies, and in front of him were a few hundred white bears, all in the fifth realm and with great physical strength.
"Your existence is no longer necessary." For a few miles around Kayden, everything ceased to exist. Immense trees disappeared into mana, and the ground itself was sunk a few dozen meters.
The divine mana from the region went towards Kayden along with normal mana, it was a ridiculous amount that not even someone in the sixth realm should be able to handle easily, kayden felt invincible with all this mana around him.
Kayden snapped his fingers and a shower of lightning began to come out of a blue circle, each bolt was ridiculously strong and had the same strength as an attack from someone with seven bolts of lightning and at the peak of the fifth realm.
There was only one difference, there were thousands of rays falling without stopping, Kayden would not be able to do this without divine mana, because at the moment he changed his techniques a little, he used normal mana to give shape and divine mana to polish, this small change caused immense damage.