房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"...hurgh...! And... And you are telling me that Mizoe figured it out in less than a week...?!"

Devios\'s body was shaken by nausea as he was crouching on the ground.

"What can I say? His stubbornness is on another level."

Zoemi shrugged his shoulders and smirked boastfully at the younger boy.

Both of them were standing in the middle of the clearing deep within the forest at the foot of the mountain chain. The sky was clear and so the light of the moon and stars was just bright enough to allow for comfortable movement for those who got used to it.

That place was the secret training spot for the black-haired and the blue-haired boy where they could actually train without getting unnecessarily large attention.

For Zoemi it was because at least for the moment he was claiming to be a shadow magician, while Devios who remained fused with Zoemi\'s sentinel from the past timeline had the mana reservoir of a sage – despite the concept of a sage not existing in their current timeline.

"You can do it, you just need a sufficient level of focus."

The black-haired boy instructed while stretching – his body was a bit sore because the whole time that Devios was attempting to make the spell work, he was meditating for three star powers at once.

"No, seriously. Is it even possible? Enhancements exist to strengthen the whole body creating a protective shell out of mana. The concept of shrinking the area of their circumference and concentrating on tendons rather than muscles is outrageous in and of itself! The stress that it would put on the body of the caster would break them into pieces!"

The blue-haired boy shook his head violently from left to right and declared spreading his arms apart.

"You want to leave muscles alone – that\'s how they will grow stronger while you use mana to pull your body around. You have witnessed my father, his body didn\'t look like it was falling apart, did it?"

Zoemi breathed out and change his tone into a lecture appropriate for scolding a sulking child.

"Maybe you are trying to pour too much mana into your enchantments and there\'s where the strain is coming from?"

"Listen, I...! Huh...? I didn\'t think about lowering the mana input into the spell... That makes a lot of sense - if the enchantments are too strong, the unprepared muscles will not be able to put up with the sudden strain causing the pain. I should have figured it out long ago!"

The black-haired boy pointed out to which the blue-haired one groaned about to retort but then his eyes widened in realization and he mumbled to himself.

"..."

The next moment he closed his eyes and his whole body began shining with blue light. After a few seconds of silence, his expression changed – his brows furrowed and he started biting his lips while clenching his fists.

And then, the blu light began changing – some parts of his body were lighted up while some were not anymore as the glow seemed to be compressing.

Slowly but surely the overall glow was becoming lines spreading through the whole body but not encompassing it all like a normal enchantment.

"Gah...!"

But before the thickness of those glowing lines became anything less than seven times the width of the ones of Mizoe\'s special enchantments, Devios groaned and fell to his knees, releasing the spell and gasping for breath while drops of sweat were dripping from his face.

"Now, you are finally on the right way. Keep up the good work – I will go hunt a bit with Cat and we can have a sparing afterward."

Zoemi nodded with a satisfied smile before turning around and throwing Devios a smile over his shoulder.

"S-sure..."

"Cat, come here, girl~!"

After Devios\'s weak response, Zoemi called out and within seconds a happy brown wolf burst forth from between the trees, wagging its tail like crazy.

"Did you track that annoying smell? Was it really a unishark?"

"Nnn... nnn..."

The black-haired boy asked while scratching the wolf behind its ears and the monster whined while digging into the ground with its front paws in unease.

"Ah... So it already grew up into a bishark? No, you were not a coward, it was a good thing that you didn\'t try to fight it alone at night. Unless it is a variant, a normal bishark would have a darkness attribute. Definitely too dangerous for a gentle puppy like you."

Zoemi nodded in response to the whines and gently stroked the wolf\'s head.

"Let\'s take it down together. Alright? Law of Aries, law of Taurus, law of Capricorn, law of Sagittarius, law of Leo, law of Cancer~!"

​ The black-haired boy smirked devilishly and activated a whole bunch of star powers at once.

His body release a faint glow and changed to some degree.

His teeth sharpened into fangs, his fingernails grew into black claws, and even his ears turned sharper while his posture became more hunched over as if the joints in his legs changed their location and the rest of the body adjusted accordingly.

"Graugh!"

Seeing him like that caused his wolf to bounce up and bark in excitement.

"Hmm... I should be careful with that one, but I also need to train it a lot more... ah, it\'s worth the risk. Law of Scorpius."

Zoemi thought in consideration before shrugging his shoulders and using yet another star power – this one caused his claws to turn oddly shiny as if covered with some sort of vapor.

"Cat, lead daddy to the bad bishark that scared you~"

"Graugh~!"

Zoemi straightened his back and said after briefly admiring his right hand and his wolf barked.

That bark, funnily enough, was Cat\'s spell incantation, and the next moment the earth trembled a bit when various rocks were pushed towards the surface where they became parts of her stone armor, forming a rather intricate head-piece that looked more fit for a demon than an armored wolf.

After the human and the monster nodded at each other, both rushed between the trees, leaving Devios to his own devices.

"...wait, wasn\'t bishark a natural predator of the seven-limbed bears...?"

The blue-haired boy was about to try casting the special enchantments again when a realization hit him and his eyes widened.

"Then, is it the mysterious creature that wiped out the village of the highlanders...?!"

He added in disbelief.