Zastin didn't appear even at dinner time.
Although it wasn't the same, until dinner time, Rito trained in his room.
'Should I ask Lala to create a training room?'
An unexpected event like today's could happen and he particularly wanted a more exclusive place to train.
This made him remember the money he won from Sona.
He could very well use part of this money to expand their house.
Opening his room door, Lala appeared wearing pink pajamas: "Rito! Shall we sleep together today?"
Patting the bed, he said: "Come here."
"Yay!" She cheered and jumped towards him.
When he saw her trip and fall towards him, involuntarily, the green wind came out of his body and enveloped Lala like in a cradle.
"This..."
Before Lala could be surprised, Rito made her float towards him and caught her in his arms.
"That was close." He smiled at her.
Sticking out her tongue playfully, she said: "Yeah, thanks, Rito~!" And she enveloped him in a hug.
"You're welcome." He replied.
"Can we stay like this for a while?" Lala asked.
"Lala, you're really spoiled, huh?" He touched her nose.
"It's fine, after all, Rito is my fiancé~!" She hugged him again.
"True." He smiled: "By the way, Lala, do you happen to have something like a book that talks about planets and different species of beings from other planets like the Memorzorians?"
"Oh, that? Yes, I do." She replied: "Want one?"
"If possible, yes." He replied.
"Understood. One moment." She got off his lap.
Her smartphone transformed into a flip phone and after typing on the keypad, she made a very thick book appear.
"Here it is, it has all the information you need." She handed the book to him.
"Thanks, Lala." He accepted.
She put her hand in front of her mouth and said with a giggle: "Hehe, weird Rito. You don't need to thank me for something like that."
"Changing the subject." Rito said: "Lala, there's something I need to tell you."
"What is it?" She sat next to him.
Making the thick multi-page book float to his desk with the wind, he held her hands: "Actually, not long ago, an alien appeared at school. He came after you, but I kind of scared him off. If I'm not mistaken, his name was Ghi something. A short green guy."
"Ghi Bree? Ah, so that's what it was. Hehe, no need to worry, I don't care about him one bit. You did me a big favor scaring him~!" She hugged and rubbed her face against his.
"S-Being that way, I'm relieved." He said.
"Weird Rito. Hehe~" She laughed a little.
Remembering something, Lala clasped her hands and closed her eyes: "Rito, you won't believe it. I got a prize-winning popsicle today. Here, this is the proof~!"
From her pocket, she pulled out a popsicle stick. On the stick it was written: [You won!]
"It's true." He nodded.
"Isn't it?" She asked: "Shall we eat popsicles tomorrow after school?"
"Sure." He agreed.
"Yay~!" She cheered happily.
Even being a princess, and not just any princess, Lala could still get happy with simple things like these. That was one of the reasons he liked her so much.
Smiling gently, he said: "It's getting late, shall we sleep?"
"Mhm." She nodded.
After they lay down on the bed, he said: "I'll turn off the light."
"Okay."
With the wind, Rito turned off the switch.
==
==
In a plain, in an extremely familiar setting...
An endless pasture with tall grass, just a solitary tree on top of a hill.
Rito, who had just opened his eyes and sat down on the tall lawn, seeing this scene, used the wind and detected hundreds of creatures nearby. Or rather, underground.
'Those are those rats!' He guessed instantly.
As the old saying goes: One day is for the hunt, another day is for the hunter.
Before, these wicked creatures attacked him with mental attacks and practically made his head explode with pain.
Immediately, he activated the Eyes of the Sage.
When he did that, the map was completely analyzed. Practically nothing escaped his eyes.
Information was being sent to his brain from the points of each square.
Per minute, he was losing around 0.5% of Spiritual Mana to keep the Eyes of the Sage active without copying any skill.
Using the wind, he managed to capture a frightened rat that was hiding among the tall grass.
"Squeak! Squeak...!"
The rat struggled for freedom and when it got very close to Rito, it used mental attacks, wanting to inflict damage on his mind.
A calm smile curved on Rito's lips and he returned the favor in kind.
When he did that, the rat began to agonize and the sounds emitted by it increased.
'So your mental defense isn't that strong after all, is it?' He thought.
At the same time, he ended the rat's suffering, making the green wind around him cut off the head of the blue-furred rat which soon turned into dust, leaving behind five purple orbs the size of passion fruits.
"Squeak! Squeak...!"
"Squeak! Squeak...!"
"Squeak! Squeak...!"
Disturbing sounds began to echo.
The same as what happened last time, Rito saw dozens of blue-furred rats surround him and use mental attacks.
However, he was no longer the same.
Among the rats, there were some over 30 cm, reaching up to 50 cm.
The mental attacks started to hurt and Rito entered Burning Mode.
When he did that, the mental attacks lost their target.
'As I imagined...'
Of course, soon some mental attacks passed through his flames and hit him.
However, he only needed this small breach to create dozens of wind spheres in the air. Soon, the spheres underwent a small deformation and from the spheres, in the form of drops, they shot toward the rats like heavy artillery.
This was his version of the attack he saw the Green Wolf use.
The wind drop shots were like a powerful ice rain, piercing the rats, turning them into sieves.
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak...!"
"Squeak! Squeak! Squeak...!"
Their screams echoed across the plain.
In less than a minute, dozens fell and were transformed into dust.
Only ten larger ones remained that tried to flee, but they were already in his sights and the shots were fired.
*Whoosh! Whooosh...!*
*Bang! Bang! Bang...!*
Legs, shoulders, and heads. Little by little the rats fell and stopped moving, soon turning into dust.
A wind passed through the destroyed lawn carrying the ashes and several purple spheres shone amid all of it.
Using the wind, Rito brought all the spheres to him.
There were more than 400 purple spheres. It was a gigantic harvest.
'I really have a lot of luck~' He smiled while deactivating the Eyes of the Sage and Burning Mode.
This time, he spent 90% of his Spiritual Mana, not to mention that his mental defense was reduced to zero.
He managed to endure through sheer willpower.
If he hadn't activated Burning Mode, he would have died.
"Huh?"
Amid the passion fruit-sized purple spheres, he saw five glass spheres.
'Could it be... Divine Mental Art?'
He made them float to him and observed them closely.
Just like the other crystal spheres, there was something in the center. It was a kind of almost colorless mist.
For now, he collected all the spheres.
Finishing, he walked toward the solitary tree on top of the hill.
Upon arriving, he climbed the tree and began to rest.
==
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