L.E. Miranda
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SSR - Book 2 Chapter 45: Assignment (6)
🕑 Added 2025-05-10 00:29:37 +0000 UTCRylan stared at Jasmine as she slowly made her way to the middle of the stone arena.
She’s too nervous.
Sweat flowed down her brow, and she was gripping her wand too tightly. She kept glancing at him, as if looking for support, and then looking at the steel cages. Was she really this afraid of fighting a monster? Rylan resisted the urge to shake his head.
That’s a problem.
To Level up, one needed to fight and kill enemies to obtain XP. This was an immutable truth. She couldn’t keep relying on her family for kills, and he was sure that she knew this as well. So why was she reacting like this? Was she afraid of being injured like she had in the battle between them? Or was she scared of death itself? Rylan furrowed his brow.
Finally, Jasmine reached the middle of the arena. Alice opened her mouth, but Rylan hurriedly raised his hand, making her look at him and stop in place. She threw him a questioning look, but her expression changed once she looked into his eyes. He looked completely serious.
“Jasmine,” Rylan said slowly as he walked forward, closer to the arena. “Calm down.”
Jasmine blinked, flinching.
“I-I’m fine!” she hurriedly replied.
Rylan looked at her hands. She was gripping the wand so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. He shook his head and approached her.
“I’m not going to say this so that everyone can hear,” Rylan stated in a low tone, just enough that only she would be able to hear him. “What is going on?”
Jasmine looked at the stands, where the other students were staring at her with confusion, and gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and looked back at Rylan. She appeared calmer.
“…I don’t think it’s because of only one thing.”
“Then tell me all of them. I’m here to support you.”
Her face reddened a bit before she nodded and looked at the steel cages.
“First, I’m scared of the pain. You see, our battle was the first time I had ever gotten truly wounded. My family had sheltered me from it all my life. Except this time, the enemy isn’t you, and we’re not in a school tournament. If I let my guard down, the monster will tear my throat out. Even if I don’t, it won’t hesitate to shred my muscles and cripple me to kill me.”
Rylan simply nodded. This was in line with his expectations. In the end, Jasmine was just a teenage girl who had been protected all her life. Even if her family had helped her Level up as she grew up, it was completely normal for her to be afraid of pain and death. Still, she seemed to be disregarding the fact that this assignment was a controlled environment, too. With both he and Alice here, the odds of anything too serious happening were simply too low. He let her continue.
“Second,” Jasmine hesitated. “I’m scared of killing.”
Rylan was about to furrow his brow when he understood the meaning behind her words. Jasmine’s eyes were fixed on the monsters.
“It’s a crazy thing, isn’t it? That we need to take a life if we want to become stronger. We take the lives of those who would willingly take ours in turn. An eternal cycle that results only in mountains of bodies,” Jasmine continued, smiling bitterly. “Blood flows like a river, all for XP and Levels. We inflict suffering and destruction on those around us for our benefit. I’m scared of being part of this, to the point that I get sweaty and look like I’m about to ask the boy I like on a date.”
She looked at Rylan, keeping the same bitter smile. He could see the complicated emotions she was feeling in her expression.
“I know it’s a silly thing to worry about in a world like this. I’m weak, aren’t I, Rylan? I’m only being honest because it’s you,” she finished.
Rylan stared at her for over a second before suddenly smiling. He put his hand on her shoulder and gripped it firmly.
“No, Jasmine,” Rylan said. “You’re just kind.”
She blinked.
“But there’s no way to avoid killing right now. Maybe, one day, once you’re strong enough, you will be able to choose not to do so. But currently, that isn’t the case. I understand what you mean and your feelings. But there’s just no way to keep moving forward without putting them aside for a bit,” he continued.
Jasmine sighed and looked at the steel cages.
“…I know. Maybe one day.”
Rylan nodded and took a step back.
“You can do it. I’ll go back to Alice’s side now.”
She nodded back at him, looking at him as if she didn’t want him to go. Rylan turned around and walked back to his spot beside Alice. She was looking at him with narrowed eyes. Rylan raised an eyebrow.
“What?”
Alice grinned.
“Are you done comforting your girlfriend?”
Rylan saw no need to reply. He only shook his head. After giving him another look, Alice turned to Jasmine.
“Jasmine Lamollet! Are you prepared now?”
Jasmine nodded firmly. Alice waved her hand, making the white-robed students release a hobgoblin. Unlike the first one, this one had yellow skin. Very much like the same one, however, its expressions revealed a twisted desire to kill the teenager in front of it. This time, Rylan laid his hand on Silver Twilight’s hilt.
Once the hobgoblin shot forward, the battle began. With a determined expression, Jasmine reacted. She started casting Magic Missile, finishing less than two seconds later. The arrow of mana took shape and pierced through the air at the hobgoblin’s head. The monster tilted its head to avoid the Missile, but she didn’t stop casting. Mana coalesced into water around her, then froze into sharp ice spears. Like the Missile before them, they flew at the creature. Two aimed at its legs, two at its arms, and the last one at its chest.
The hobgoblin immediately moved. It dashed to the side, but the spears followed its movement. The monster narrowed its eyes and kept running. Once the spears arrived, it twisted its body, avoiding the one coming for its chest and the ones aiming at its arms. By moving quickly, it even managed to get one of its legs out of the way of one of the last two spears. The other one, however, hit its right leg in full and pierced through its hide and muscles to impale the limb. The hobgoblin screamed, a layer of frost slowly spreading over its right leg. Rylan looked at Jasmine.
She hesitated.
At the last moment, the spears had slowed down. Judging by her expression, it was because she hadn’t been able to completely put his advice into practice.
But that’s natural.
She wouldn’t change just because he had encouraged her a bit. It would be difficult for her to have discarded her fears just because of his words. Still, that didn’t mean he would stop helping her. Over time, she would learn about the necessity of fighting decisively in a world like this.
The ice spears collapsed, including the one that had impaled the hobgoblin’s leg. However, the frost didn’t stop spreading. The monster looked at its leg and snarled, then started running toward Jasmine again. She immediately moved, widening the distance between them again. Soon after, she fired another round of projectiles. Rylan nodded to himself as he watched the hobgoblin desperately struggle to keep up with her movements and get within melee range.
She’s fighting well.
The most effective way to deal with a melee combatant that did not have ranged attack options was naturally to stay away from them. At their core, Mages were long-ranged fighters to begin with.
With Magic Missile, Wind Blades, and other First Circle spells, Jasmine pressured the hobgoblin. The wounds on its body piled up as spell after spell fell upon it. Gradually, their lacking accuracy improved as she grew calmer. By now, the frost had completely taken over the monster’s leg, decreasing its speed considerably. Eventually, after leaping to the side to avoid a projectile, it stumbled with a pained groan. It was the last move it ever made. Its forehead was punctured by a Missile, unceremoniously ending its life.
The moment the monster fell, Jasmine turned to look at Rylan with a bittersweet smile. He only gave her the same kind of smile, aware of what she was likely feeling. After Jasmine came Isa and then Maria. Both of them fought well, though Isa acted more boldly. Maria used the spells she knew with surprising mastery to end the battle almost uninjured.
The next one to fight was Isaac. He kept throwing angry glances at Rylan. It was during this fight that Rylan needed to interfere. It happened as the enemy, a kobold chief, got too close to Isaac and stabbed with its right claw. Rylan unhesitatingly dashed forward and unsheathed his sword. There was no need to circulate his mana – the stat increases from the leveling in the Basilisk Wilds made him far faster than he had been when he fought in the tournament finals. Just a moment before the claws reached Isaac’s throat, he arrived. Silver Twilight flashed. The claws froze in place before the kobold’s carcass dropped to the ground.
Rylan looked at Isaac, wiping off the blood on the blade.
“Are you okay, Isaac?”
Isaac gritted his teeth. Rylan fully expected him to argue that he hadn’t needed his help, but Isaac only nodded after a few seconds. Rylan looked at Alice and waved at her to signal that everything was fine. She nodded at him and continued with the assignment.
Soon after, all battles ended. The afternoon of real battles was over.
Comments
Raymond Mouton
Thanks for the chapter.
Stephen Pearson
Thanks for the chapter! :-)
