Chapter 66 (Patreon)

Mayalyn landed on the beast's head near one of the joints that controlled a quarter of its jaw. She plunged the sharp end of her tonfas deep into the flesh and let her lightning chakha loose.

Her body lit up like a firecracker as waves of electrical energy scoured her skin. The force of the rampaging energies stunned her while simultaneously running through the beast's head.

The shock had a different effect on the nightmare gopher. The quarter of its jaw that Mayalyn was attached to flapped with far more power and speed than she had in her little body. The result was a Mayalyn torpedo that rocketed through the air before exploding a tree.

Both of them screamed in agony together. Jiran plugged his ears with aura from the intense waves of sound coming from the beast. With his ears inoperable, he relied on his aura senses to hear Mayalin’s scream.

He made a quick scan of her body and found that she was fine. Burned badly from her own attack, but the skin was already healing as her mana went to work. The tree had been too soft to deal any real damage and the flapping of the monster’s jaw had been more of a throw than an impact.

So why is she screaming bloody murder?

Jiran watched in equal parts shock and amusement as the tiny girl launched herself back at the beast without hesitating. The look of completely demented ecstasy on her face would have suited a witch bathing in the blood of innocents.

She’s ahh, really getting into this.

Mayalyn had lost one of her tonfas. The claws of her unoccupied hand were fully extended and easily lopped off one of the beast’s whiskers.

It immediately stopped screaming when the flesh of the whisker was severed. A bone-chilling energy began leaking from its fur as the suddenly enraged beast opened its jaws wide.

The acid oozing from its teeth began flowing out rapidly and sprayed the entire area in front of it. The motion of its four jaws slamming shut sent droplets of the foul substance spraying chaotically in front of it.

Mayalyn did her best to dodge but ended up getting splattered on her left leg and arm before escaping. She circled behind the monster and leaped again, this time at a different jaw. Another whisker was parted and fell to the ground with a meaty thwack.

The muscles in the appendage continued to twitch as it flailed about on the ground like a snake.

Another scream from the beast sent quivers through the air and ground. Jiran could see Mayalyn’s ears leaking blood and pus from the damage but she shook her head savagely and went for another whisker.

Girl is a berserker. Fast, deadly, and resilient. The more it hurts her, the faster she gets.

“You’re doing amazing, Mayalyn. Keep it up, you can do it!

“Oh, she can’t hear me.”

Jiran watched, impressed, as she slowly whittled away its eight whiskers. Twice it caught her, wrapping one of its appendages around her torso, only for her to shock the beast forcing it to launch her away.

By the time the beast was blinded, its acid spray had also run out. It could only scream in frustration as she plunged the sharp end of her tonfa into the joint of each jaw until it stopped functioning.

The once mighty beast was a wreck of blood and torn flesh when Mayalyn walked inside its mouth, taking special care to evade its long and deadly sword-like teeth.

She then plunged her weapon deep into the soft inner tissues of its neck. She kept the shock running through her weapon, burning her own skin and the beast alike until it finally stopped moving.

As its dying body collapsed in on itself, a huge wave of fetid air was forced out of its body. Mayalyn was blasted full in the face with mucus, blood, and the half-digested remains of whatever it had eaten for the last several meals.

Predictably, she immediately hurled and then after two shaky steps forward, puked again. She crawled out of the beast's mouth on all fours and then fell flat on her face a few meters away from Jiran who was still filling up containers with sap.

Huh, this sap is starting to harden. I need to mix it with something. What was it again? Didn’t they use piss in that documentary? I think it’s just the ammonia that's needed though. I’ll try that.

Forming a shaping to produce pure ammonia, Jiran added a tiny amount to one of the skins of sap. The ammonia immediately worked to stabilize the milky white liquid keeping it from drying.

Eventually, Mayalyn wiped off her mouth with the back of her hand and got up. She found her missing tonfa and limped her way over to Jiran.

He pointed toward a nearby tree.

“Go over there, you’re stinky.”

“Oh, you still can’t hear me. Lean on the tree!” He shouted while waving her away.

She complied and when she was in position, he created a cold water shaping and doused her for several minutes. Jiran watched as she luxuriated in the cold cleansing waters. The grime and blood were slowly scrubbed from her body and when Jiran cut the flow she collapsed onto her butt in the dirt.

Mayalyn leaned against her shower tree and watched him play with the sap he had collected. Her painful grunts and moans eventually ceased as her body healed. After about an hour, she was mostly recovered. She still sat on the ground watching Jiran with a complicated expression.

“W-w-what do with sap?” Her dry throat cracked before the words came out.

“I’m going to make you some armor so you don’t keep shocking yourself every time you use those tonfas.”

“Sap craft make to armor?” She looked at him like he was the crazy one who had just won a slugfest with a beast many times larger than himself.

Jiran dripped a bit of the sap onto his finger and warmed it up while passing a current of air over it. The sap quickly dried and formed into a semi-smooth flap of putty.

“This is called latex, it should protect you pretty well from the currents. I still haven't figured out how I’m going to make you a suit, or how to actually make anything with this stuff, but I’m sure I’ll think of something.”

Mayalyn watched as Jiran continued to rub the material between his fingers while mumbling to himself.

Some kind of acid? There’s a lot of impurities in the material and it’s not holding its shape like it should. I could probably brute force it with mana to get her some gloves then work on a better system later.

“Hold out your arms like this,” Jiran held his arms out with his fingers spread wide.

After Mayalyn raised her arms, Jiran rolled up her sleeves past her elbows. He started by firmly grasping every inch of skin from her fingertips to her elbows in his aura. He then poured half a skin of the milky, natural latex over her arms.

Jiran focused on his memories from Earth. He remembered the texture, smell, and insulating properties of the finished product he had in mind. With his image set, he fed mana through his hands that lightly gripped her wrists.

He used half his focus to maintain a solid communication bridge with his flowing mana, trying to understand if what he wanted was even possible with his current tier’s available skills.

His mana flowed into every portion of the liquid material as his aura pressed it into shape around her skin. Mayalyn’s face scrunched up cutely at the icky feeling of the mud-like substance pressing in tightly.

After several seconds, the mental image he had formed connected with his mana. If what he was trying to do was impossible, the image would not solidify. With confirmation he could press ahead, Jiran pushed more and more mana into the liquid.

With only twenty percent of his energy remaining, the white liquid solidified into thick, rubbery-smooth gloves. They fit snugly and covered her hands and arms to just past the elbow.

Awesome! That means whatever processes I need to mold the latex can all be accomplished with shaping alone.

“Try the tonfas now. Hopefully, the graphene tubes are long enough to penetrate the thinner latex on your palms,” He let go of her wrists and stepped back, analyzing the first test.

The currents of mana-charged electricity flowed under her skin and into the tonfas. When they didn’t immediately burn her skin, a huge smile blossomed on Mayalyn’s face.

“They works!” She jumped up and down excitedly.

“Is shock still here, but only little,” She pointed to her palms where they directly touched the handles of her weapons.

“I’m not sure there is anything I can do about that, sorry.”

“No sorry, thank you, Jiran.”

“You’re welcome,” He gave her a soft smile.

“Let’s head back, I’m sure you’re hungry after that fight.”

Her eyes widened in sudden realization of her own physical condition. Mayalyn’s stomach let out a loud rumble of agreement as she nodded her head vigorously.

“You did really well in that fight, Mayalyn. You’re very strong, you know? It was smart of you to attack its whiskers to blind it, too.

“What could you have done better though?”

While Jiran lifted both them and the beast carcass into the air, Mayalyn tilted her head thoughtfully. They flew slowly through the air with only his aura to propel them.

“Don’t know what do better,” She shrugged her shoulders.

“You were in too big a hurry. Focus more on protecting yourself. There was no reason to end the fight so quickly. Healing the damage you took from attacking recklessly was a large drain on your mana.”

Mayalyn crossed her arms over her chest at the criticism. She turned her head away from him with a petulant look.

“Felt good to fight hard,” She mumbled.

After a few more seconds of thought, she spoke again.

“Jiran there, protect me. Safe to fight hard,” Her voice faded off in embarrassment at admitting she was relying on him to save her if the fight had gone badly.

“So long as you understand you shouldn’t fight like that when I’m not around, that's all I care about. Also, it’s worth noting that fighting so recklessly does damage to more than just your body.”

Jiran charged his fifth channel and formed a reflective surface in front of her so she could see her reflection.

Mayalyn’s jaw dropped at what she saw. Her clothes had holes from acid and electrical burns. Her pretty blue hair which had been beautifully braided was a ragged shamble. At least the shower had done a good job cleaning off the dirt, blood, and grime.

Jiran let the mirror fade as Mayalyn started running her hands through her hair trying to salvage what she could from the damage.

It seems she learned how dangerous that style of fighting is. I’m definitely worried she will do that when I’m not around. I need to prioritize finishing her armor. Always more to do.

“Pretty soon you’ll understand Imperial well enough to start answering my questions,” She looked at Jiran with a curious expression prompting him to continue.

“I want to understand how your skills work. For instance, you’re fifty percent faster than a human at your tier when you activate your chakha. You can naturally camouflage specific parts of your body. I want to know how your connection to mana functions so I can help you improve it.”

“Many words new, sorry,” She shrugged her shoulders and then took out her tonfas.

While they flew, Mayalyn enjoyed herself by marveling at how her new gloves protected her when she activated her electric attack through the weapons.

They arrived at the city gates just as Second Father was reaching the horizon. The guards paid them for the beast corpse without issue and then they rushed to the inn for dinner.

Only a few locals had finished work for the day and were trickling in to start the nightly festivities. Mayalyn changed clothes while Jiran grabbed a table.

She came out in a fancy red dress and sat across from him. When Miila came out and saw her hair was a mess she stomped her feet and glared at Mayalyn without saying a word.

“Be gentle with her Miila, she had a fight with a monster bigger than the entire inn! You should have seen how strong and brave she was protecting me while I worked,” Jiran sent a stealthy wink at Mayalyn.

Miila’s mood changed dramatically. She began chattering at super speeds, begging Mayalyn for all the details of their adventure.

Jiran’s thoughts shifted to the next day as the girls gossiped.

How should I teach my class tomorrow? It’s not possible to cover all the essential details in a single class. Teaching once a week is out of the question. If I’m going to correct a lifetime of inaccuracies then I’m going to have to teach every day.

He shook his head at the thought.

I doubt many will show up. They need to take those awful mandatory classes at the same time I’ll be teaching.

Where will I start? At the very beginning, I suppose.

Before he realized it, six plates of food had been set on the table in front of them. Five in front of Mayalyn and only one in front of him.

He eyed the blue-haired girl suspiciously. She didn’t notice his look as her attention was dedicated to the delicious-smelling food in front of her. Jiran watched in equal parts disgust and amusement as she greedily swallowed one mouthful after another like a wild starving animal.

After dinner, Jiran fell asleep in record time. He awoke in darkness, long before the suns would rise. Nervous jolts of emotion zipped through him, instantly bringing him to full wakefulness. He left the inn quietly after dressing and soon arrived at the academy.

His first stop was the M-class homeroom where he poured over his notes for the upcoming class. He made several adjustments before he felt completely prepared. With several hours to go before classes began, he decided to burn off his extra energy in The Garden.

He was surprised to see two groups of students there working on team tactics and basic fitness. He chose an empty field and ran through his morning stretches.

When the thirty-minute mana wave swept through the academy Jiran finally headed to twenty-two B, ready to teach his peers for the first time.

As he rounded the final corner and saw the doors to his classroom he was surprised to see several students from the disciplinary committee including the brothers from yesterday. They were barring dozens of students from entering his classroom with black metal batons.

“What is the meaning of this?!” Anger seeped into his commanding tone.

One of the brothers raised his hands in a placating gesture with palms facing toward Jiran.

“The room is already full. We can’t allow any more people in. My apologies Master Jiran.”

Really? That’s a surprise. What should I do? Best to take a look first and then come up with a plan.

Additional students were filing in from all three adjoining hallways as Jiran pushed past the line of enforcers and stepped into the room.

As he had been told, the room was packed. Every seat was taken and there was no room left to stand as the aisles and entrance hall were also full. The only empty spaces were the two stages in the center of the auditorium.

Hundreds of pairs of eyes tracked his every move as he made his way to the central platform’s podium. Once there, Jiran took a minute to sweep his gaze across the gathered faces. He had expected to behold a field of youthful faces, eager to learn.

Almost every scrutinizing look came from battle-hardened veterans in full military dress. They watched him with hungry expressions.

Why are there so many military officers here?!