The Mysterious Black Magician

Yman pushed his body to get up. Weirdly, he felt like his stamina had fully recovered already.

He clenched his hands repeatedly and figured out that his stamina had fully regained truly. He was about to stand when his eyes landed on an empty vial laying on the ground. He picked and smelled it.

"This is...!" He muttered with wide eyes and he frowned in puzzlement. The smell on it was familiar to him.

|What is a stamina potion doing here? And who was that person who just left now?| Yman had some questions in his mind. He could also taste the smell of potion at the tip of his lips and tongue.

He then glanced around and noticed that he was inside a medical tent. Looks like he was carried here after he passed out again.

He believed that it was Keremi and Bob that carried him here. Like always.

He could not return to the training grounds. Although his stamina went back fully, the accumulated fatigue still exhausted him.

And he needed more rest. He felt hungry also. All the food he ate yesterday was donated to the toilet last night. And now his stomach started to rebel.

Yman took a mobile device and contacted Sistela to give him permission to access the Cyber Storage. Magicians who were not with their deity could access their Cyber Screen after getting their deity's permission.

Although Yman had his own Cyber Screen, he needed to used his Black Mana first. And it's not easy to activate it.

After getting permission, he quickly took his lunch box from inside the Cyber Storage and gnawed his lunch ahead of time.

Someone entered the room right after he finished eating his lunch.

"Miss Pai?" Yman was surprised to see Ms. Pai enter the tent.

Ms. Pai also had a surprised face, "Oh, I thought you passed out, but seeing you now with a grin of food on your face, I bet you faked out losing your consciousness. So that you can have your time eating your lunch in advance. Hehe," Ms. Pai giggled.

Yman suddenly wiped his face with his hand, "No it wasn't like that, regardless, did you see someone came out from here?" Yman denied shyly and asked when he remembered the leaving figures of a girl and a deity a while ago.

"No, I didn't, why? Did someone come here?" Miss Pai asked curiously.

"Hmm... yeah, but I only saw their leaving back. I could not tell who it was since my vision was blurred at that time." Yman explained.

Ms. Pai narrowed her eyes, "Hm, did that person do something to you? Did you feel something unusual right now?" Ms. Pai fired consecutive questions.

"No, it's not like that. Here..." Yman denied and handed the empty vial to her.

Ms. Pai took it and smelled it.

"A potion?!" She muttered.

"Stamina Potion to be specific," Yman replied.

"This type of potion is expensive." Ms. Pai thought that that person who just came here might have fed this to the resting Yman without him knowing.

"It's weird that someone had the heart to feed such an expensive potion to you. You must feel gratified."

Ms. Pai said while handing back the empty bottle. But Yman declined it and said, "Can you check if there are some foreign substances mixed on it?"

"Ok, but you must come with me." Ms. Pai replied and urged him to come with her.

"Eh, is something wrong?" He asked.

"There's someone that I want you to meet." Miss Pai replied.

"Hmm..." Yman didn't answer right away and checked the time first inside his Cyber Screen.

Seven hours and twenty minutes in the morning was shown on it, "Okay!" He nodded.

He followed Ms. Pai. The two of them walked in the hallway and stopped in front of the door of one of the rooms inside the outer layer building.

When they stepped inside, Yman's eyes were greeted by a row of apparatuses. Monitor screens of different sizes could be seen around. And he noticed a door, towards a room where he could see through a glass window. And inside that room was a stale bed. A woman of about 20 years old and in white clothing was sitting in a swivel chair in front of a big monitor screen.

Yman suddenly felt a bad premonition after seeing the inside. He froze where he stood and wore a sour face.

Ms. Pai felt Yman's change in the face. She was taken aback when she saw his grim expression on the face.

"Y-Yman, c-calm down." She did not expect him to have such a reaction after seeing the room.

"Ms. Pai, what is the meaning of this?!" Yman bellowed.

Yman could not believe that Ms. Pai would sell him to those people.

"It's not what you think, please calm down Yman. Besides, we are inside the academy," Ms. Pai tried to calm him down.

He bit his lips until it bled.

"Yman listen to me..." Ms. Pai approached him and slowly reached him. But he subconsciously stepped back with an afraid look on his face.

"Yman looks at me, Listen to me!" Miss Pai forced him to look at her.

He stared at her eyes and noticed that they were the same eyes from that day when she helped him escape from that hell-like place. And what she just said was sensible. That they are inside the academy.

However, he could not get rid of the feeling that started to creep out once again from within.

"L-Look, I'm sorry for not telling you ahead of time. I - l thought, you've already gotten rid of your trauma from that place," She added in her trembling voice as she slowly embraced him.

Yman was standing still. Letting himself be embraced. He could even feel her slightly trembling body, and her breasts poking on his chest. Yet, for him, she was like an older sister to him and Yana. A moment of silence before he finally let a sigh escaped from his mouth, after he calmed down himself he said to her, "Sorry, for my sudden outburst," Yman whispered his sorry shyly.

"Ahem!" When would the two of you stop flirting in my lab?

"!!"

"?"

The two of them got startled, by a sudden question from someone. Ms. Pai immediately released him.

Yman glanced ahead and noticed the woman who was sitting on the swivel chair just a moment ago.

Now she was standing in cross-arms while leaning her shoulder on the door of the room that was separated by a glass window.

"W-W-What do you mean flirting, Elona?!" Ms. Pai stammered her voice.

Yman was stunned. This was the first time he saw her like this. He always saw her as stoic, calm, dignified, and a woman of good virtue. But right now she looks awkward, but he finds it cute though. Very different from her usual self.

Miss Pai immediately introduces the two of them.

Yman learned that Ms. Elona was Ms. Pai's cousin. And they even had the same last name. Looks like their fathers were brothers.

The two of them are both physicists. But Ms. Pai quit after he helped him escape that time. And now she works as an adviser at this academy.

"So this is the kid that you are very interested in, huh," Elona said while walking in a circle around him, like sizing-up him. Yman was standing stiff.

"W-What do you mean interested, Elona? Yman is just my student." Ms. Pai said with a red face. "In any case, stop walking in circles around him and do your work!" Ms. Pai roared.

Elona was older than her for 1 year. But the two of them were as close as real sisters. "Ehehe," Elona snickered at Ms. Pai's reaction.

"What's the rush, Pai. Although this kid was not so handsome, he's not ugly as well. He's thin yet cute. But don't worry I won't steal him from you, ehehe." Elona cracked a joke and chuckled once again.

Yman noticed that Ms. Pai had become redder every passing second. He really didn't know why. His first impression of Ms. Elona was someone who likes teasing other people.

"Ms. Pai, what is the reason for me coming here?" He asked. Actually, he just wanted to change the topic.

"Ha?" Ms. Pai startled by his sudden question as she gawked. "Ah, that, yeah, Uhm, erm... I mean... I asked Elona to help you and have an in-deep inspection of your Hollow Cell. Hah!" She said in a laggy voice and breathed a sigh at the end of her words while pressing her chest with her hand.

"In-deep inspection to my Hollow Cell..." Yman repeated.

A moment later, Yman was now laying on the steel bed, connected by some apparatus. He was nervous though. Since it was like this when he was being experimented in that facility. Four big chords were connected to the crown on his head towards the device that was seemingly an amplifier.

The steel bed was slightly bent upward like he was sitting on it. And beyond him, Ms. Elona and Ms. Pai were staring at the large monitor in front.

Suddenly, the monitor lightened up and a display that separated the monitor screen into two areas was being displayed on the monitor.

"Yman, what can you see inside the monitor?" Suddenly asked by Ms. Elona.

Yman narrowed his eyes and opened his mouth, "On the left side, it is like a snake that is spiraling away from its hole. And on the right side... on the right side, why there's no movement on it?" Yman was puzzled on the right side of the monitor.

"Hehe, on the left side, that is the normal reaction of the Hollow Cell inside a magician while distributing mana to every part of the body. And on the right side —- that is your Hollow Cell... in a dormant state." Explained by Elona.

"Dormant —- state?" Yman repeated with a frowned.