The Magician of Sound

Kai looked at her while pondering about her request. In the end, he nodded his head. He also didn't want to experience it again.

"All right, I won't use it again. I promise," Kai promised.

"Then, that's good." Ayaka nodded.

Not long after, Shirotsuka Sanae came and led them to the gym. They chose the same practice tube. But unlike last time, the practice tube had been adjusted back. So even if they used it, they would be teleported to the same world as the others.

They opened the tube and went inside. But before they started the machine, Ayaka said, "I… I've been practicing a movement skill. I think I need to tell you about it. The movement magic is called Fire Amplifier.

"I can use it all over my body, be it on my hands, feet, or even my weapons. It's a small explosion that can increase my power or speed depending on how I use it. But don't misunderstand. I'm not doing this because I like you or anything. I just pity you since you gave me the advice."

Kai was surprised as he opened his mouth unconsciously. He thought, 'Is this girl in her tsundere form? But I thought Ayaka doesn't have the potential to be a tsundere?'

"Well, all right. I appreciate that, thank you. Should we go now?" Kai asked casually.

"…" Ayaka felt a bit speechless seeing Kai's surprised expression. She didn't know why, but she somehow felt that he was thinking about something rude about her. She shook her head and decided not to think about it. She replied, "Sure."

They put their hands on the screen to start the machine. As soon as the machine started, their consciousness got teleported to an unknown world yet again.

They were surrounded by woods, but unlike last time, the woods at this place were much denser. They remembered that the previous world was made according to the data from the real world, so they were wondering if this place was also made with data from the outside world.

When both of their eyes locked, they didn't know why, but they felt that both of them were thinking about the same thing.

Ayaka asked, "This is a forest, right?"

Kai nodded his head. "I think so. Judging from the density of the trees and the temperature, we should be in a rainforest. If this place is also made with data from the outside world, I don't know which rainforest we're in, though."

"I was also thinking the same thing. I was wondering if this place is also made with data from the outside world," She agreed with him. She then asked, "Any magical beasts around us?"

Kai nodded. Because he didn't put on his headphones for a while, he immediately picked the sound from his surroundings. But from his observation, the magical beasts were distributed evenly. There were a lot of magical beasts that were alone, so they could kill them one by one.

And surprisingly, he only found a few magical beasts that lived in a group. And all of them numbered not more than ten. He finally realized how absurd the previous world was.

He said to Ayaka, "Good news. The surroundings are good. A lot of magical beasts are alone, so we can target them one at the time."

"And the bad news?"

"Well, they're a bit too alone. No, they're a little bit far from each other. So we'll need to move around a lot, too. I don't think we need to set up a base," Kai told her what he got from his observation.

Ayaka nodded her head, as she completely trusted him on this. "All right. How about we kill the one closest to us?"

"Sure," Kai agreed.

The first monster they faced was an E-rank magical Elephant. From the outside, it was like a normal elephant, but it could move very fast. Ayaka and Kai were a bit surprised by its speed, but they suppressed and killed it in a matter of seconds.

They moved on to the second closest magical beast. This time, they met a D-rank tiger. Kai and Ayaka killed it within a few moves.

They moved around to kill as many as they could. Kai set up a Sound Insulation Room if there were quite a number of magical beasts nearby so they wouldn't be surrounded. After a few hours, they took a break.

Ayaka sat on a big trunk while Kai leaned on a tree.

"We've killed 100 F-rank magical beasts, 39 E-rank magical beasts, 17 D-rank magical beasts, and 4 C-rank magical beasts. It's nowhere near our previous score. And I'm a bit tired from moving around," Ayaka sighed.

"Don't be fixated on the score. It's just a number. I mean, you can try various magic attacks because of the scarcity of the magical beasts. Just treat this as training."

"I know… I know, but it's a little bit frustrating." She said.

Luckily, they didn't make any more bets with Katsuragi Takaki. If not, they would be in a bad position. After all, unlike Katsuragi Takaki, this was the first time they experienced this world.

"Frustrating, huh…" Kai murmured.

Ayaka heard that, and she immediately corrected herself. "Well, the frustrating part isn't because of our result. It's just… it's frustrating because there's such a big difference between this place and the previous one.

"Two weeks ago, we fought with so many powerful magical beasts, and that kept us challenged. The dying part and my helplessness were indeed frustrating, but I could learn lots of things from that frustration.

"But this… this world doesn't provide that. I mean, there isn't much action. We mostly just found a single magical beast and killed it. But the magical beasts themselves were weak."

"I see. You're frustrated because you can't show your power or maybe the result of your training," Kai said while pondering something.

Ayaka was startled when she heard that. She didn't understand how Kai could arrive at such a conclusion.

"No way. I'm not frustrated because of that," Ayaka denied it immediately.

"But you said you're frustrated because of the lack of action. You clearly want to show your prowess and make yourself feel good. Or are you a musclebrain?" Kai glanced at her.

"A musclebrain? Are you insulting me?" Ayaka was starting to get angry. Even though Kai was her partner, she couldn't accept what he just said. After all, she knew that she wasn't a musclebrain. She was just a delicate woman.

"I'm not insulting you. But just think about it. Why are you frustrated by this kind of battle? For me, I'm glad and I feel good to have this kind of battle.

"I prefer an easy battle. After all, I don't need that much energy to deal with the battle. Of course, it doesn't mean I love battles that are too easy… especially when fighting a human. If everything sounds too good, then you need to question why.

"The enemy might bait you with that trap. Although there might not be something like that, that kind of thought would always linger in my head. As for a hard battle like that of two weeks ago… I don't have anything to say other than I certainly don't want to repeat that battle again unless it's necessary.

"Anyway, what I want to say is I love easy battles. Although it might be rude for me to say something like that to you, I'm sorry to say that. But I want to ask you, what's the real purpose of a battle?"

"The real purpose of a battle?" Ayaka looked at Kai in confusion. She didn't know why Kai asked her this question, but she pondered the question inside her head.

Not long after, her eyes flashed. She looked at Kai with her eyes wide open.

Kai smiled, "What is the real purpose of a battle? It"s an easy question for me. I'll answer to win or to survive. For glory? Nah, it's not for me. For wealth? I don't have any problems or any obsession with wealth. As long as my family is safe and sound, I'm good."

"…" Ayaka could not say another word after he said that. She realized that she was still too immature. In the outside world, there wouldn't be any glory or wealth. She suddenly recalled what her grandfather told her when she was a kid.

"There's no glory in the outside world, nor is there wealth. If you're too greedy for glory or wealth, you'll lose everything you have. After all, the higher the reward, the higher the cost. Back then, it cost me a good friend before I could realize that. So no matter what you do, fight to survive."

Ayaka looked down, weighing something. Not long after that, she let out a long sigh. She then looked at Kai and apologized, "I'm sorry. I was too immature."

"I'm also immature, so I don't mind about that. I'm not saying you're wrong about the previous world and this world. After all, with experiences like that, we can slowly mature and get stronger. Fighting strong opponents is good since we can learn lots of things from the fight. It's a fun thing to do until someone dies, literally."

"… I know." She nodded her head and stood up. "I'm good now. Fighting to survive is good, but we still have a mission from Teacher. Let's go."

Kai knew the mission was to score as many points as they could. If not, they might be suspected of cheating or whatsoever. It would be more of a trouble than him fighting hard in this world.

Kai nodded and led her to another monster. But they got unlucky. The first monster they found was a giant B-rank centipede. The centipede suddenly crawled out of the ground and stood tall. It looked at Kai and Ayaka.

"Scree!"