Hell Difficulty Tutorial

As we walk through the streets, I continue to observe the small girl by my side. She still refuses to look at me, and when our eyes meet, even for a second, I can see the anger behind them. Surprisingly, that anger doesn't seem to be directed at me, and that leaves me confused.

Does she not hate me? I mean, I wouldn't blame her for it. After the first fight, I forced her into a few more like it, and this time we didn't even go to the healer. Even now, she is bruised, her clothes bloodied and torn.

Yet, I ask her before every fight: “First, second, or third option?”

And as she did the first time, she answers simply: “Third.”

There is no hesitation in her answer, no hate towards me. Still, she doesn't invite me to have food with her, she talks less, and she delves into training, usually not responding to my taunts.

Well, it's fine even if she hates me. I just need to make her as strong as possible. Because of her wish, because of the floor quest, because of the fact she is currently my disciple, and my Pride won't allow her to be weak.

“I’ve noticed that you haven’t been very aware of your surroundings lately,” I tell her.

Immediately after, a dozen or so veilshriekers pour from the fallen building around us and charge. [Redistribution] encompasses them all, and I stop all of them other than level twenty-one. That veilshrieker reaches my disciple and crashes against her before she has a chance to react. A pained scream escapes her mouth, and I force myself to stop myself from helping.

I watch as she pulls out the dagger, but the monster hits her hand, sending the dagger away. For a short moment, a look of panic appears in her eyes, and she looks toward me as if asking for help. I just return her gaze.

Her expression changes, the panic disappearing from it, replaced by a blank expression. She twists her head, avoiding another punch, and then she bites into the monster's hand, drawing blood.

A weak, smokey mana emerges from her hand, slowly taking the shape of a dagger, and she stabs it into the monster's neck. The dagger dissipates, not even piercing the skin, and the monster throws my disciple aside, and she rolls on the ground until she hits the side of the building.

The bloodthirsty monster screeches and rushes her again.

Meanwhile, my disciple pushes herself back to her feet, grabbing a piece of wood from the ground. She quickly coats the stick in her pale blue mana, bringing it to a point. Her red eyes are calm, yet full of emotion held back by her will, and she charges the monster as well.

She dodges the swing and stabs deep into the monster's thigh, and the monster screeches in pain, scrambling to pull it out.

My disciple, not wasting a moment, jumps on the monster and stabs her fingers into the monster's neck, coating them in her mana. Again and again, she repeats the movement, even as the monster falls to the ground and weakly swings its arms at her. She ignores the feeble blows and doesn’t stop until her control wavers and her fingers slide off the monster's skin, without piercing it.

Her chest moving heavily, she stands up and looks towards me.

I weaken my Mantle and then slowly move my mana so she can observe the process. A dagger made out of mana forms in my hand and then dissipates.

When I do it for a second time, I feel her senses touching me and observing the process. Her senses should be heightened after a life or death situation, so I create another mana dagger. And I do so slowly, even if it is extremely wasteful and inefficient. It should be easier to observe this way, and she can take care of the rest later. First, she needs to learn how to do it.

When I feel like she has had enough, I let her go so that she can explore the rest on her own.

I turn to the remaining veilshriekers, still held in place by my skill, and with a high pitched shriek, a concentrated blast of kinetic energy tears through them. Each one dies as Half of their body explodes into a vapor of blood, bones, and flesh without damaging the surroundings.

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 16]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 38]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 19]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 27]

…

Again, side by side, we start walking through the street.

It only takes a few minutes before a weak voice next to me says, “I'm sorry that I’m weak, master.”

It’s the first time in days that she’s talked to me, I think about it a bit more. In the end, I ask, “Weak?”

“Yes…” her head is down, yet I can feel her using her mana to scan the area around us, she hasn’t done this since I’ve been taking care of it.

I stay quiet, and after a moment of silence, she continues, “You want to help, you let me decide for myself, yet I still… I was looking for help from you. I got scared, I got angry at you when you didn't help. Angry at you even when you were so nice to me.”

What life did she even have to consider what I'm doing nice?

“Minion, that's your problem,” I say, and she looks up at me.

When she tries to avoid my gaze, I grab one of her horns and force her to look at me, “You should be angry at me, I'm an asshole,” I declare proudly. “I said I would help you, yet you keep bleeding under my care and even risking your life. You are so young, yet I’ve forced you to make such a hard decision. What am I but an asshole?”

I sense a few monsters beyond the range of my disciple, and before they can interrupt us, I create an anchor next to them and send a blast of kinetic energy through.

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 61]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 12]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 7]

[You have defeated Veilshrieker - lvl 9]

Still holding her horn, I shake her head. “My silly disciple. It's not you who is wrong. It's the people around you. Everyone is an asshole, everyone is annoying, everyone is a weirdo. You alone are normal; that's how you should look at it.”

At my declaration, she wants to say something, but I shake her head more.

“You are weak? So what? Do you plan to stay weak forever? I don't think you do. Just do the best you can and give it time. Make your decisions and follow through. Who cares what anyone else thinks? Who cares if people call you names and laugh at you? Just nod, smile, and agree with them. And then, when they least expect it, come back and fuck them up.”

Isn't it all simple?

“Have pride in yourself, my minion.” I let go of her horn and drop to my knees so I can look into her eyes, “You will fuck up, you will make mistakes, terrible ones, but such is life.”

“Master…”

“Yes?”

“I'm not a minion, I'm your disciple.”

“I don't remember my disciple being such a crybaby.”

“Master is mean.”

“I didn't hear you.”

“Master is an asshole!” she shouts at me.

I feel a small smile crawl onto my lips, “Yup, I am, so what are you going to do about it?”

“I will become stronger and beat you up.”

Damn, I'm almost proud of this silly disciple of mine.

As a reward for her dedication, I grab her horn once again and shake her head. What makes me even more proud is that she actually tries to kick me, and I let her. There is barely any damage, but I appreciate the spirit.

I let go of her horn once more and sit down, and she joins me. In the middle of the street, surrounded by empty skyscrapers overgrown with vegetation, she takes out a few clean pieces of cloth and lays them out in front of us.

“Will you eat with me, master?” she asks shyly. As is her custom.

“Gladly,” I reply.

She smiles and takes out a few pieces of fruit and a bottle of water which she offers to me. She only ever does it with her food, the food she bought from me with information, or by completing tasks. She never takes any of the food I’ve given her access to.

Gradually, I’m coming to realize that she hasn’t been angry at me at all, nor has she had any ill feelings towards me. No, she was too ashamed, maybe even scared that I would ditch her if she didn't do well. There was anger too, directed at herself not me.

I watch as she uses a bit of water to clean her bloodied hands and then takes a sip. When she grabs a piece of sweetened dried fruit, she takes a bite quickly. Her favorite snack, as I’ve come to learn.

We don't talk during the meal any more than we did before, waiting until we have finished, she grabs the pieces of cloth and then carefully gets rid of leftovers and dirt that got on them. She carefully folds them and puts them into one of the bags I gave her.

Observing her and her mana for a bit, I reach out and form a small dagger out of [Regalia]. I attempt to imitate her mana frequency and constantly change it with my [Resonance]. It's not perfect, but similar enough.

“You will be using this mana from now on. You can train with it as well.”

She takes the dagger from me thankfully and starts to examine it.

The dagger is dark blue with streaks of light blue mana. I used quite a bit of it, so I'm sure the dagger won't dissipate anytime soon. A week or even more should be fine. I haven’t given it any enhancements. No, the dagger is mostly normal, the only exceptional thing about it is the mana circuits I left inside. Pathways she can use to train and as inspiration for her weapon.

The circuits are the only part I'm somewhat worried about, so I will make sure to check them every time.

“Next, your detection is lacking. Starting now, you will maintain it constantly and you will focus on making it as efficient as possible. It doesn’t matter if we are speaking, training, or fighting. Constantly. Understood?”

“Yes!”

“Good. I like how you fight, so for now there is no need to change that much. Some might tell you that you should focus more on defense, but they are wrong. You can defend as much as you want, but if you don't have enough power to kill someone, it's a waste of time. No, you are lucky to have me as your master. I will teach you some powerful attacks, and I will help you avoid some of the small mistakes I made.”

The way she listens and nods at my every word feels heavy. No matter how she behaves or what she went through, she is still very young and naive. But no worries, I'm here!

“We will make you into the most powerful half-demon ever.” I find it strangely fun. Is this why people like pet simulators so much?

The level of trust she’s giving me feels undeserved, but I will make sure she won't regret it. It will be hard, it will be difficult, and I'm sure there will be times when she will want to cry, but in the end, I'm sure she won't regret it. Because if you are powerful enough, you can do whatever you want and not be swayed by anything.

“Then I will teach you where to kick to make it hurt and what to be aware of.” She looks like she will become pretty when she grows up, so I will teach her where to kick a man, or woman who becomes too… touchy. A few broken arms and well-aimed kicks should show them the limits.

There is a bit over two weeks left, but there is so much I can teach her.

“Master?”

I cut off that line of thought and look at her, “Yes?”

“I lied to you,” she starts, and this time her voice sounds weak, but she is not using her skill to escape the emotions, “I don't have a name, they always called me… things. The most common was…”

“No need to say more.” I interrupt. It's clear that it's not something nice.

“I'm sorry for lying that it is forbidden.”

“I don't know… breaking our deal like that right away. Is that how you treat your master?”

“I'm sorry,” her voice becomes even weaker.

“So to punish you, I guess I will have to do something. Maybe I can give you a terrible name, right?”

She looks up, her eyes big and shaking.

“Maybe Pipsqueak? Or how about Minion? Nathaniela also doesn't sound bad,” I wonder.

“Master?”

“We already have Biscuit and Noodle, so how about Mochi or Omelette?”

“I…”

Not letting her speak, I continue, “Vega... I will call you Vega. It's decided and there is no room for argument."

For a short moment her eyes water and cloud over, but she quickly blinks a few times and wipes them on her sleeve.

Poking her cheek I continue, “It has a little bit of meaning behind it, but for now you will have to suffer without knowing. Maybe I will tell you one day.”

The smile on her face is as big as I’ve ever seen. Gone are the calculating expressions and plays on my sympathy. The little half-demon just seems to be happy.

“I'm Vega?” she asks.

"Yes, because I said so. You can complain when you’re stronger."

She wipes her eyes with her sleeve again, "Master is an asshole."

"Yup."