The Villain's Story

Chapter 908: Earth(2).

Patrick guided Alan throughout the entire campus, although Alan remembered most of the buildings… the new additions were certainly eye-catching. They mostly belonged to the military, but there were some other, uniquely shaped buildings. He could sense a large amount of mana from them, but was clueless about their purpose.

Patrick was the same, merely stating that Sir Oliver had built them himself using magic, which was enough to deter Alan from actually going inside them without permission. He was curious, but not that curious.

“Nobody is allowed entry as well, except for Vice Principal Elaine.”

Alan nodded as he noticed many other odd things. Almost every student was out and about, either following a sergeant in running or practicing combat with both sword and gun. It was an odd thing to see, for guns had almost become extinct.

As an awakened ascended the ranks, they veered away from the standard firearm and even the more specially crafted ones. First and foremost, there weren’t many skills that existed for firearms; the ones that did exist were more suitable for bows and crossbows. Second of all, they weren’t like Alan, who could control mana that had left his body for a long while, and with such precision.

Special artifacts, like Maxwell’s gun, were extremely rare and difficult to make; furthermore, they required special bullets, ones that certainly weren’t cheap.

Awakened were limited in their choices with guns; there were some that still made them work, but until humanity figured out a solution to the mana issue, melee weapons and bows were in demand.

Still, it didn’t mean guns were useless. While they wouldn’t do anything to someone like Alan or an A-rank monster, they were effective against the lowest class of monster, up to rank C. Above that would require heavier armaments, and only a nuke could injure an SS-rank monster.

Nuclear weapons had declined in use during the age of the Awakened as well, mainly because they were ineffective during the invasions and were stopped by the barrier on Terra Damnum. However, this could change in the war later on.

Nuclear weapons existed, but hardly anyone used them. Awakened were far cheaper and also more viable.

Shield had changed drastically, seeing as so many new buildings had popped up and how every student was focused on improving themselves to the point of fainting from exhaustion, but Alan hardly cared for it. His nose was begging for freedom, to be released from this realm of sweat.

He was also getting increasingly irritated, although he attributed this to Earth’s weather. Strictly speaking, it was hot! Much hotter!

Alan had spent a significant amount of time on planets that were suited for him! Lanekia, The Realm of Shadows, and Nocumbra were all suited for the dragons of the house of death! Especially Lanekia.

Lanekia was practically heaven for Alan, and once a man had gotten a taste of heaven, would he settle for anything less? Earth appeared to be much hotter, and this was slightly getting on Alan’s nerves, forcing him to cast magic on himself to keep himself cool.

But even he couldn’t perfectly imitate the bliss that Lanekia possessed, and so, he was still a bit uncomfortable. Alan sighed, missing Lanekia, The Realm of Shadows, and Nocumbra.

After finishing the trials and acquiring the panoply of Death, Alan had expected to be transported to either Earth or Lanekia, but unfortunately, he came face to face with the Supreme of Darkness, Valus himself.

Apparently, he needed to learn what a Prince of Death really was and train to truly become one. This training mainly involved Alan learning more about his affinities, the specialties of a dragon, some tidbits about Aether, and also getting the living daylights beaten out of him by the vengeful Supreme being.

He had learnt a lot, and he had been beaten a lot. Regardless, the results were apparent. Alan was no longer a novice in Spatial magic, limited only to his portals and instantaneous teleportation, with some illusion magic thrown in, which he hardly used if he was being honest… Alan had learnt a lot about spatial magic, and his aura’s affinity had improved by leagues and bounds.

He could truly call himself a Spatial Sorcerer now, and no one could refute that!

Furthermore, he had also tapped into the three specialties of the Ice, Shadow, and Darkness dragon species. The Winter Heart was the first, the second being the specialty of a Shadow Dragon to be impervious to all damage for a brief moment, and the third being the reality manipulation of a Darkness Dragon.

Frankly speaking, Alan was only confident about The Winter Heart, the second one was something he was still getting the hang of, and the third one was the most difficult and the most useful, but also the one with the most significant drawback. His proficiency with the Darkness and shadow element had stalled for a long time, however, and Death had not shown any improvement whatsoever.

His core affinities were still Ice and Space… and Chaos! Alan, under the ‘guide’ of Valus, had been forced to use Chaos magic as well, finally using the affinity meant for this body the most.

While he was still apprehensive about the affinity and the dangers it possessed, he no longer avoided it like the plague and wouldn’t shy away from using it if he ever felt the need to.

His training had brought him many boons, but many nightmares as well… the latter was something he was still dealing with. Who knew that the moment the seal was removed, and Alan was finally free from the ‘recollections’ of the previous iterations, a new set of nightmares would appear?

‘Curse that damn…’

He didn’t complete the sentence in his mind, aware that Valus would find out. The last thing he wanted was for a tide of darkness to swallow him and transport him to that abominable lighthouse once again…

“Senior.”

Patrick called out to him, dragging Alan out of his thoughts. Alan stared at the serious expression on his face with confusion, unaware of why the youth had suddenly grown so serious.

“Please fight me.”

Taken aback by the sudden request, Alan didn’t respond for a while. His first thought was…

‘Why? You meet your senior and ask him to fight after you give him a tour? What is this behavior? Are you perhaps psychotic? What kind of mental issue is this?’

Before he could consider if he had any right to call someone a psychotic… knowing his own ‘normal’ behavior, Patrick explained.

“Every half a year, capable students are eligible to issue a challenge to the current top ten of any year. Everybody chose you, but since you were not available, they had to go for someone else. I am one of the many who chose to duel you.

Now that you are back, please accept my request.”

Alan let out a whistle. Considering the proposition, he had nothing to lose and was amused as well. Was the reason why Patrick was so eager to give him a tour just so he could ask this simple question.

Alan laughed inwardly, amused, and agreed.

“Sure, what are the rules?”

Surprised, Patrick eyed Alan for a while. It was clear he hadn’t expected him to agree so quickly, or at all even.

It wasn’t like Alan had anything to do at the moment, he was as free as a bird. He had come back to Earth simply because if he stayed with Valus even though his training had ended… The supreme may begin a new training session.

If he went to Lanekia, to Lanesha, she would definitely start rambling about fate again, something he wasn’t so eager to witness.

As for the Realm of Shadows, he found it creepy, really creepy, so he opted to go to Earth instead.

Gigantium was also someplace he could go, but Alan was craving human delicacies. After this short duel he would go to a restaurant to eat his fill.

He was free, until Richard or anyone else tried calling him, he had tried to call Sabrina through the Astral bond, but she didn’t respond.

Maybe she was asleep? Perhaps becoming a vampire had forced her to change her routine. Vampires did like to sleep during the day and toil at night.

“It will be like a standard duel, the loser is he who falls unconscious, incapable of fighting, or if he falls out of bounds.”

After that, Alan followed him to the gymnasium, which had plenty of platforms for duels. Patrick had a hurried stride, one that was both excited and anxious.

Upon arriving in the gymnasium. They chose a platform and got on other sides, having a random student present act as a judge.

Patrick wielded a large Zweihander, an interesting choice of weapon in Alan’s eyes, and as soon as the duel begun, Patrick lost.

The boy, still in his stance, was confused as to why the hell he was off the platform, without even having experienced anything.

“Loser is he who falls out of bounds, right?”

Alan laughed from the platform, sitting cross legged with a slight smirk on his face.