142 Kino
“Do you still want more?”
Eren heard a playful voice in his surroundings. It asked if he wanted to continue fighting more opponents. After all, it had said that it would adjust the difficulty level as per Eren’s preference in case he wanted to gain better rewards.
He had fought with four more mini giant puppets after taking care of the ax-wielding puppet. He had gone above and beyond in clearing the first phase of the testing grounds. As a result, he was breathing heavily.
Taking care of the ax-wielding puppet was the bare minimum requirement to clear the first stage of the testing grounds. But since Eren had been using his infinite mana core extensively, he was able to deal with four more opponents of the same caliber as him. These four opponents had come to fight with him two at a time, increasing the difficulty level even further.
Eren’s mana circuits as well as his muscles felt sore. He had expended a tremendous amount of mana to achieve this result.
At this point, he firmly believed that nobody at his level would be able to clear this stage without the infinite mana core backing them up. Either that or they would have cleared the stage as a party of four or five rankers.
Eren looked around himself warily when he heard the question. He had two axes in his hands. His Blitz Whips spell was active as well, wrapping the weapons’ handles.
“How… how many are still left?”
Eren asked while being a bit out of breath. He had decided that if the enemies were more than three, he would rather quit.
The voice giggled before answering.
“I was just messing with you. You have cleared the first stage with a 100 percent clearance rate. Congratulations.”
The voice said. However, Eren could feel that the voice he heard this time didn’t come from every direction. It came directly from behind him. So he turned around to see who was speaking.
Eren saw a girl with orange hair and rosy skin. She seemed to have a bit of freckle on her nose and cheeks. Yet, she still seemed beautiful despite her imperfections.
This orange-haired girl had a medium build. She was a few inches shorter than Eren. she carried a staff in her left hand that had a huge green orb attached to its one end.
The most eye-catching things about this girl were her semi-transparent wings that looked to be made of wind-element mana. These light green wings flapped as she stayed in the air, just about 2 inches away from touching the ground with her feet.
Wearing a green dress that boded well with her moderately feminine figure, this girl looked elegant. Her green eyes looked at Eren with keen interest as she spoke up.
“Nice to meet you, Eren. I’m the caretaker of these testing grounds. Name’s Kinowa. You can call me Kino.”
Kino introduced herself to Eren. The latter wasn’t sure whether he should check Kino out using his mana sense or not. But the girl didn’t feel like she was a ranker. And yet, she was able to use magic.
Eren was a bit puzzled by what he was seeing. But he didn’t let that derail him from getting some answers from Kino.
“I’m glad you decided to show up, Kino. Pardon me, but what the fuck was this test? This is what you call the first stage of the test. How will I survive in the next stage? How many stages are there in the first place?
I have heard that the Hexers’ testing grounds are tough to clear. But… this is just beyond insane. I refuse to believe this is the norm on other known testing grounds. People wouldn’t have survived the challenges if the tests were this tough right from the get-go.”
Eren said while looking a bit disturbed. Kino looked at him with puzzled expressions before responding.
“Let me get this straight, Eren. You knew that this place was reserved for Hexers. You knew that the testing grounds for Hexers have a high difficulty attached to them.
And yet, you still decided to have an easy time here by using normal magic? Why didn’t you use Hexes if you were in a pinch?
You have Bear’s Creed gear on you. Why didn’t you make use of it in the right way?”
This time it was Eren’s turn to feel stumped. He wasn’t sure how to reply to Kino’s rebuttal. In the end, he just coughed before speaking up.
“Um… I don’t know how to use Hex magic.”
Kino looked at Eren with a grim expression. But in the next moment, she started laughing. She had tried to hold her tears off by keeping both her hands on her mouth. But she failed miserably at that task.
“It’s helpful that you have some kind of transcendent-grade artifact on you that allows you to power up your spells for this long. Otherwise, you have been a goner without knowing why you died.
It would have been funny if the first challenger this first received ended up dying because he didn’t know how to use Hex magic.”
Eren looked at the laughing Kino with a blank expression. But from the inside, he had come to realize that he had dived into these strange waters without knowing anything about them. It would have cost him a lot if he didn’t have his infinite mana core to back him up.
Eren also realized that Kino had associated his spell spamming with a transcendent-grade artifact. He just let that slide off and didn’t correct her.
“Well then… it was my bad. Sorry for my rude words earlier. I was a bit frustrated. Can you tell me what Hex magic is?”
Eren said with a serious tone. He took a long breath before adding up.
“To be honest, I had tried to study about Hexers as much as I can before coming here. But the only things I learned, in the end, were vague concepts and blurred pieces of news.
I can’t get more details on Hexers and Hex magic with my current reach. So it would be very helpful if you were to guide me about these things.
And if possible, let me know how to use my current gear.”
Eren looked at Kino with eyes that told her he wanted to know. She stopped laughing and landed on the ground before answering.