Teras: the deadly game of cards

Adventurers' exam (Part 5)

Teras was worried about the situation with the tall man, he thought he wasn't a threat because he was dead, but he was wrong, after the message he received from the dark figure he climbed down and went to the lunch area, he wanted to inform his friends about the danger

When he arrived he saw everyone sitting and enjoying their lunch

"Guys I have something to tell you!"

Teras said with a serious expression

"What's the matter?"

Lia asked

"Someone here is dead, we have to find him"

Teras said, the selection of Teras's words confused the group but they laugh it off

"Pretty sure we are all alive buddy, I don't know about you though, you did break every bone in your body this kind of injury could kill somebody"

Ronie said with an awkward smile, nobody seemed to take it seriously, Teras then left without saying anything, he was mad at their reaction

'HEY! Why does he know that you are here?!'

Ronie asked the tall man, the 2 of them could speak telepathically now that Ronie possess the tall man's power

'I don't know, I made sure that nobody saw me'

the tall man answered

'Whatever I will figure it out later, now I have to act like everything is ok'

Ronie thought, he didn't want to give the others the idea that Teras was saying the truth, after that Teras went to Recka's house, he wanted to get his sword and gadgets, but when he entered the house he saw Recka eating homemade meat pie, the smell of it was amazing

"Oh hey there Teras, I'm eating a meat pie I made, come and try some, I want your opinion on my cooking"

she told him, Teras didn't have time to spare but he still stayed, he was still hungry, Teras then picked a slice and took a bite

"Hmm, It's very good! you are an amazing cook Recka! where did you learn how to cook this good?"

Recka was flattered by his compliment, Teras saw that Recka was blushing, and the first thing that came to his mind was the words of Becka

'It's not like that! I'm her student and she is my teacher and nothing more'

Teras tried to calm himself

"T-Thank you but you don't have to exaggerate! As for your question, I learned how to cook when I was younger, since mama and sister couldn't I had to take on this task"

Recka replied

"That's impressive, after the exam is over I want you to teach me if it's possible of course"

Teras told her

"If your desire to learn is that big then how can I refuse?"

Recka told him

"Thank you Recka, I will now gear up and go training since I'm not attending the classes I will do some light exercise"

"Don't even think about it! you will stay here and recover first, your body is damaged, is better for you if you stayed until you fully recover"

Recka said to him as she was blocking his way

"Don't worry I told you, I will only do a light exercise, I feel depressed sitting in bed all day"

"I still can't allow you, your body is very weak, and you can't possibly wield a sword"

Recka was trying to keep Teras from going by any means, she didn't want to let Teras train and possibly injure himself more

"Here I will prove to you that I'm alright"

Teras said, he then started to jump around the place and slowly running

"See I'm alright"

he said, after what he just did he convinced Recka that he is alright, but it came with a cost, for him to do these actions required a lot of mana, he basically enforced his whole body so he could act like he was alright, he was feeling incredible pain but he tried to hide it until he left, Teras then quickly grabbed his stuff and quickly left

'fuck! this hurts like hell but at least it worked, let's see, now if I was a tall dead person where would I hide'

he wondered, an idea came to his mind, he planned to search behind the dorms, and scout there, he thought that the best place to hide was behind the dorms since the area was not safe, no regular person went there, and it was full of wild animals and mana beasts, it was the best place to hide, he then went behind the dorms, it seemed relatively quiet, no birds or even animals made any sound

'I don't know what's more creepy, this place or the fact that I'm searching for a dead man'

he then activated mana vision, he found traces of mana

'This is...'

before he could complete his thought he heard a voice

"What are you doing back here Teras?!"

Ronie asked, Teras let out a small scream

"HEY! Don't creep up on me like that, I came here for some alone time what about you Ronie?"

"You could say the same thing for me"

Ronie told him, in reality, he wanted to try his brand new mana flow, Teras then activated his mana vision

"Seems like you came here yesterday too right?"

Teras asked

'he knows, should I kill him?'

Ronie asked the tall man

'NO!!! not yet, even if he knows he can't do anything right now, you are very strong'

the tall man told him in panic

"Ronie are you ok?"

Teras asked him, he notice that Ronie was spaced out

"Oh yea sorry, I'm just sleepy, so better not disturb you, I will go to sleep, we have mana training later"

Ronie told him

"Ok see you later"

not long after Teras left too, he didn't find anything behind the dorms but he left a mana trap, if someone tall from the forest were to come from behind he would activate the trap, Teras had placed a smoke bomb with color inside the trap, the color of the smoke can stick to whoever activates the trap so Teras picked the color pink so they could stand out from the forest, he then returned back to Recka's house

"You came early why is that?"

Recka asked him

"I got tired so I stopped, I guess you were right my body is very weak for me to train"

Teras replied with a smile he lied, of course, he didn't want to reveal his secret to Recka, he didn't think she would take him seriously

"It's ok Teras you can take a bath and go to bed, I will prepare some clothes for you"

Recka told him

"Thank you Recka, I will make sure to enjoy it"

Teras then left his equipment on a desk and went to the bathroom

"Take this towel and wear it as you go inside the bath"

Recka said, Teras took the towel and went inside the bathroom, he stripped and put on the towel

"I'm surprised! you have a very big place to bath"

Teras told her in surprise from inside the bathroom

"That's because this bath is a hot spring, and since it was located this low I decided to build my house around it, so I can have clean water and a hot bath 24/7"

Recka replied

"You are really clever Recka!"

he told her but she didn't reply, he then went inside the bath, and relaxed, he started to heal himself, he had the help of the crystal too but his wounds didn't seem to heal

'I guess healing a broken bone is harder than I thought, I also have to find a way to utilize my mana overflow, Becka made it sound like something bad, but in reality, it was my mistake all along, if I had used some mana to prevent my body from breaking then I would have been ok, but at the moment I couldn't think straight I was too focused on winning'

Teras had many plans to grow stronger but the only thing that held him back was his own injuries, so he hastily tried to heal, after some time of healing he stopped, he was about to run out of mana

'damn! I will have to wait for days until I can move normally again'

Teras was about to go out but to his surprise, Recka entered the room with a towel covering her, Teras was shocked

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE RECKA?!!! I'M NOT DONE YET!!!"

Teras's face was bright red, and Recka was blushing too

"I know t-that but I want to save water, it's a big f-fuss cleaning the water twice so I f-figured that it would be better if we bathed t-t-together"

Recka said embarrassed, Recka entered the bath, and the situation was very awkward, the 2 of them remained silent, they didn't look at each other, and they both avoided eye contact as long as they could, Teras wanted to say something to break the ice but before he could say anything he heard the front door open

"It's my sister quick hide somewhere!"

Recka told him, she was panicking, and there wasn't any place to hide so Teras quickly grabbed the healing crystal and dived into the bath with it, soon after Becka busted through the door

"Sister, have you seen Teras? I'm looking for him so I can help him heal, do you have any idea where is he?'

Becka asked her

"H-He is t-training!"

Recka replied anxiously

"Oh then I will wait for him inside if you don't mind"

before Recka could reply Becka had already closed the door and gone inside the house, Recka then signaled Teras to come out, he did and he took a big breath

"Damn I was about to dro..."

before he could finish Recka closed his mouth

"Shsss!!! she didn't leave, she is waiting for you inside"

she told him

"Then what are we supposed to do?"

"Don't worry I will open a wall for you to exit the house"

"Are you insane?! I'm almost naked I will not go out like that"

Teras whispered, they both were panicking

"There is no other way go out fast"

she said as she raise a wall slightly, Becka heard the sound and thought something was wrong so she entered the bath, she caught them red-handed

"I told you my sister is interested in you but I didn't think you would make a move so fast Teras, you naughty boy"

Becka said with a smile on her face

"You.... wha.."

Recka was terrified

"Becka is not like that, she tried to save time, she didn't want to clean the bath later that's why"

Teras tried to explain it to her

"Ahaha, don't make me laugh, this is a natural mana hot spring, these kinds of things clean themselves"

Teras looked at Recka and she was very red, it was like blood in a stable form

"Both of you leave!!!"

she quickly kicked them out and threw some clothes at Teras

"What just happened?"

Teras asked Becka

"Don't worry in a day or more she will be fine, for now, put your clothes on and come to my tent to heal you"

the 2 of them quickly went to Becka's tent, Becka told Teras to sit down and started healing him

"So what's the story between you 2? I'm very invested to know!"

Becka asked Teras

"I don't know myself, to be honest, but that's not the problem right now, somewhere in the camp there is a very tall man, he has bad intentions, I have to stop him and I need your help"

Teras wanted Becka's help because she was the only person he could trust

"You mean your friend? He is pretty tall but I didn't think he is a bad guy"

Recka asked

"No not Har! I'm talking about a dead man, for some reason he can walk around like he is alive, also he is much taller than my friend"

Teras replied

"I don't know kid, I'm willing to help but all those things about dead people creep me out, you better not be joking around with me or I will smack you!"

"don't worry I'm telling you the truth, when you finish my treatment I will take you to the place I suspect he is"

Teras said

"Well if you help too we can finish faster so how about you ease my job?"

"Yes ma'am"

he said, he then quickly started healing his legs, and after some time they both ran out of mana, after that Teras found it easier to walk, the pain wasn't as unbearable as before

"Ok now follow me, I will show you the spot, but we also need to arm ourselves since the area is said to be roamed with dangers, or at least that's what they say"

both of them took their swords with them and left, after some minutes of walking they reached the back of the dorms

"Be careful! I placed a magic trap the last time I was here, come this way so we can go deeper into the forest"

Becka followed and the 2 of them went into the forest, it was quiet, with no animals or beasts in sight, it was a big and empty forest, the air also felt like it was dusty the whole place brought a feeling of loneliness

"Are you sure there is something in this forest? it seems like this place is dead"

Becka asked

"This is the only place he can be, as you can see it's full of trees and no animal is here, that means he can't give out his location"

Teras replied

"Teras I have a bad feeling about this place, let us not go any further"

Becka said concerned, Teras felt the same so they agreed to back down, they both felt uncomfortable so naturally, they left, they arrived at perfect timing for mana training, Recka had already gathered everyone at the field, and most of them had started to channel their mana, Becka and Teras stood by and watched them, it was the last part of the training for the day, after that they would go to the hot springs again and relax, Teras got jealous watching them train so he decided to enforce his mana flow

"I suggest you relax, you are already holding your mana flow all day to reduce your pain and to help yourself move around, so I personally think is stupid to increase the intensity of your mana flow now, you will just end up tiring yourself"

Teras ignored her and kept on maintaining his mana flow, he felt like he would fall behind if he stopped training, almost an hour passed and Recka ended the lesson

"We are finished for today, you can now go to the hot springs"

Recka told them, Teras slowly picked up his clothes and a towel and went to a hot spring all alone, he wanted to train there too, he then picked a small spring and meditated in there, his aura was incredible, and the water was shaking like a wild sea, all of his muscles were rock hard, he had entered an absolute level of concertation that sky rocked his performance, he was also increasing his mana like crazy, he felt a weird sensation of power running through his body, he was so focused on his flow that he almost fainted, Teras didn't notice that his whole body was burning, his body temperature was higher than the water's, after some time Teras was interrupted by Har

"Are you alright?!"

Har said

"Har! Why did you stop me? I was alright I was just maintaining my mana flow"

Teras said, he was disappointed

"Well the reason I stopped you was that it's time to head back, also be careful with your mana usage, it looked like you were using mana overflow again"

Har told him

'it's time to go back already? I swear I was here for at least 5 minutes'

Teras thought to himself, for him, time had stopped existing while he was meditating

"It's ok Har you can go down now, I will shortly follow"

Teras said, Har then left him alone and went back to the dorms, Teras left the hot springs too, and went back to Recka's house, he wanted to pick up Cromi, he hasn't taken her out for a walk for a long time, once he entered he saw Recka playing with Cromi, when she noticed Teras she immediately turned back at Cromi

"Recka I don't want things to be complicated between us, can we just forget what happened today and start our next day like normal?"

Teras asked her, he could clearly see the feeling of uneasiness on her face

"I'm fine with that but my sister won't stop mocking me"

Recka said with a sad look

'she really seems like a small child being teased right now'

Teras thought

"Don't worry, just ignore her, and she will eventually get bored of it, she only wants to see your reaction, if you don't react she will most likely stop"

Teras told her in an attempt to ease her

"I guess you are right!'

Recka told him

"If you don't mind I will now take Cromi for a walk, and after that, I will come back to sleep, sorry but I will have to ask you to stay awake for a bit longer"

"It's ok I also have work to do, have a good time and come back safe"

she told him as he was leaving, in reality, Teras wanted to check if the trap had been activated, he then approached stealthily the location of the trap, and he could see Ronie anxiously waiting for something or someone

'What is he doing here this late at night?'

Teras wondered, he decided to stay hidden, after some moments he saw him, the tall man was walking in Ronie's direction

'Should I warn him? but he can clearly see him, what's happening?'

Teras was very confused about the situation

"Great job Ronie, I will now give you more of my power, and keep in mind that you can't just get stronger in a flash, people will start to suspect you"

the tall man told him

"I know all that, I just got carried away, your power really is something else, I can easily use mana flow now"

Ronie said, Teras was shocked, he couldn't believe his eyes, the traitor was Ronie all along, Teras was in a debate, kill him now or tell the others, both seemed hard decisions, he couldn't choose, Teras then saw the tall man placing his hand at Ronie's chest and giving him his power

"That should be enough for now, before I go I will tell you again, don't kill anyone before I tell you to"

the tall man said

"I will not, but before you go tell me your name, I don't even know the name of my precious friend, don't you find it weird?"

Ronie told him

"I don't see how it is necessary but I will tell you, my name is Prodo Cordyard"

Teras then quickly left, because he saw that Prodo was very close to activating his trap, Prodo then did it, and he fell into the trap

"What is this human? did you set this?"

Prodo asked

"I have no idea! but I have to quickly leave, or someone will see me!"

Ronie said with panic, so he did, he threw away his pinked stained clothes and went to sleep, the night was successful for Teras, the only thing that remained was to comfort Ronie