Chapter 26 - Simulated battle. (Patreon)

Kael then asked Hestia to update his Falna. As soon as she finished the entire process and looked at the sheet containing his new stats, she was extremely surprised. Kael had become much stronger.

Name: Kael

Title: Teleporter

Familia: Hestia

Level: 2 (88,600/500,000)

Strength (STR): G 277

Endurance (END): G 241

Dexterity (DEX): G 249

Agility (AGI): G 253

Magic (MAG): G 228

Abilities: Teleportation (EX) LV3 / Swordsmanship LV3

Not even Bella, who was considered a prodigy, had managed to improve this quickly. Bella, who had accompanied him during their last expedition, looked at his stats and said, “This doesn't make any sense.”

Hearing her words, Kael and Hestia looked at her in confusion. Hestia then asked, “What do you mean?”

Bella was straightforward. “He hasn't killed that many monsters. It doesn't make sense for his Falna to have improved so much. He doesn't have an ability that helps with his growth like I do, does he?”

“Yes, you're right.” Hestia brought a hand to her chin. “Kael can grow much faster than anyone else. It's as if every monster gives him an extremely high amount of excelia, much more than normal.”

“I never really stopped to think about it, but you might be right,” Kael said. “Honestly, I never paid much attention to it, even though I knew my growth was much faster than it should have been.”

“Well, that's not a problem, is it? In fact, it's a good thing.” Bella said after letting out a sigh. “But if you keep growing at this rate, you'll soon become stronger than me.”

“Wouldn't you want that?”

“Of course not. I have so much to teach you... If you become stronger than me, there won't be anything left for me to teach you.”

Those words didn't make much sense to Kael.

Raw strength had nothing to do with knowledge.

After talking a little longer, the three of them left the church. They walked toward the Tower together, drawing quite a bit of attention. Once they arrived, unlike Kael and Bella, who entered the Dungeon, Hestia headed up the Tower.

'She's working for Hephaestus because of her debt. I want to help them pay it off as soon as possible,' Kael thought.

After Kael and Bella entered the Dungeon, they descended to the fifth floor and reached a spacious chamber. Since Hestia Familia didn't have a training ground, and fighting in the middle of the city wasn't exactly recommended, the two decided to train right there.

More specifically, they would have a sparring match.

However, they were using real swords, so they needed to be careful.

Kael, who still didn't have much control over his sword during battles, said, “I'm afraid I might end up hurting you.”

Bella heard his words and laughed. “Don't worry. You won't be able to hit me even once. Maybe when you get a little stronger.”

Hearing Bella's words, Kael became excited. He liked being challenged.

He wanted to make Bella surrender. He wanted to win.

But, of course, it wouldn't be that easy.

####

Kael gripped the hilt of his sword tightly and pointed it at Bella. He silently waited for her to attack, but she didn't. She remained where she was, silently holding her sword.

She was watching Kael intently because she knew he could teleport at any moment. His ability was tricky, and she wasn't sure she could keep up with his movements.

'I need to be careful...' Bella thought, clenching her fist.

Kael then smiled and said, “You look nervous. I thought you were going to attack...”

“I'm not an idiot. If I attack, you could use your ability and escape immediately.”

“Well, what if I don't want to attack either?”

“Then we'll be standing here all day,” Bella said with a smile.

However, she obviously wasn't serious.

Kael sighed and gently closed his eyes. But the moment he did, he teleported away. In an instant, Bella was standing where he had been just a moment earlier.

And Kael? He was several meters away.

With a smile, he shouted, “I knew you were just waiting for a distraction. But honestly, I didn't expect you to attack so impulsively the moment I closed my eyes.”

Bella turned toward Kael and rushed at him.

'I can keep up with her movements. Not very well, but I can,' Kael thought.

He began teleporting around the room, avoiding Bella's attacks. She was attacking recklessly, without giving much thought to what she was doing. After all, there wasn't much she could plan against Kael.

She couldn't corner him because of his ability.

The only thing she could do was put as much pressure on him as possible until he got tired. But how many times could he use his ability? She didn't know, but probably quite a lot.

Kael would appear somewhere in the room and disappear just a second later. There were so many consecutive teleports that Bella was starting to get confused. She even stopped moving.

She stood in the center of the room, carefully looking around.

Kael was playing with her.

'It's as if there are several of him,' she thought before clicking her tongue.

Kael noticed her impatience and suddenly appeared right behind Bella.

“Here.”

But he didn't finish speaking. He disappeared before she could hit him with a kick and reappeared several meters away. He stopped teleporting and stared at Bella.

“I can keep doing this for hours. What about you? Can you keep running around for hours?”

“...”

“I don't think so. You can give up now. You know very well you won't be able to defeat me.”

Kael was teasing Bella. He was just playing around, trying to annoy her. And he succeeded. Bella rushed toward Kael even faster than before, surprising even him.

However, before she could attack, Bella suddenly turned around and shouted, “Firebolt!”

She had essentially predicted where Kael would teleport.

The moment he appeared, the fireball was already practically inches away from him.

'Shit...'