Destroyer of Ice and Fire

"You finally woke up," the woman shouted, facing him. She immediately came to Ayrin's bedside.

Ayrin was certain now he'd never seen her before, but the worry and the joy on her face instantly gave Ayrin a feeling of intimacy.

Only now did Ayrin clearly realize he was wrapped in thick white bandages, looking like a big radish.

"Where am I? What, how long did I sleep?" Ayrin said, a little embarrassed, still half conscious.

"This is the infirmary in the Office of Special Affairs. You were unconscious for three days," the female medical master answered. Then she introduced herself. "I'm called Cana, a medical master of the infirmary, also a graduate of the medical department in our Holy Dawn Academy. I was Ciaran's classmate."

"So you're a medical master coming from our Holy Dawn Academy." Ayrin became excited all of a sudden. Then he immediately thought of something and asked, his tone urgent, "Teacher Cana, how's Ferguillo?"

"He woke up before you did, he'll be fine."

A dry cough came from the sickroom's door just then.

A middle-aged uncle with disheveled hair came in, seemingly still asleep, two big black bags under his eyes. He was even holding a meat pie and eating it.

"Teacher Songat! This is a sickroom, you're coming in again while eating!" Cana looked about to pass out from anger as soon as she turned around and saw this uncle.

"Ohoho…"

This sloppy uncle who didn't seem to care for his outer appearance let out two strange laughs, not looking embarrassed at all. "Don't worry beautiful Cana. Didn't I say this guy would be fine? He won't die even if we randomly tossed him outside. Bah, eating something is nothing."

"How is it? Young man, does it hurt?"

This panda-eyed sloppy uncle stuffed the rest of the meat pie inside his mouth and chewed vigorously while he directly walked beside Ayrin and firmly squeezing his leg.

"Ah! It hurts!"

A miserable shout suddenly came from Ayrin.

"Teacher Songat, what are you doing!" Cana immediately jumped. She almost seemed like she was about to fight with him to the death.

"Relax, nerve reaction and the sense of pain are all normal, that's a good sign. It means this body is his own again."

After saying some very casual words, this sloppy uncle called Songat immediately looked at Cana and said with a suddenly grave face, "Beautiful Cana, with wounds as severe as his, the most important aren't injuries to the flesh and bones, but injuries to the nervous system. If the nervous system controlling the body is broken and can't recover, then he'd be a living dead even if his flesh and bones totally recover. He'd still slowly wither here, with nothing to do but wait in bed for time to come eh."

Cana's expression eased up when she heard him.

But the next second, her face filled again with black lines.

Because, as if Songat were treating Ayrin's bandages like hand towels, he rubbed his hands on Ayrin's bandages, his greasy hands still covered in sauce that had been holding the meat pie moments ago.

If not for this guy being the number one medical master in the Office of Special Affairs, she'd have immediately blasted this guy with an arcane skill already.

"You can do whatever you want in the next few days, just don't leave this sickroom and receive our treatment on schedule," Songat very casually said, looking as if he didn't even notice Cana's eyes filled with murder. He didn't seem to treat Ayrin like a patient rescued from the brink of death either.

"With the injuries he suffered from, shouldn't he lie obediently in bed and convalesce without moving in his situation?" Cana was already starting to wonder whether Songat specialized in saving people or in harming them.

"Beautiful Cana, that's what you're missing eh. Someone ordinary should of course lie down and rest, but it's fine for freaks like him and Ferguillo to move around. Anyway, even in case they're shaky on their feet and take a fall and break some bones or whatever, they'll very quickly heal themselves back to shape anyway," Songat said. Then he immediately patted his head. "Oh wait, what am I saying, an ordinary person would have been dead already, they wouldn't need to convalesce either."

"What you mean is, their regenerative abilities are enough?" Cana said, black lines filling her face.

"That's right eh. They still have to depend on themselves for the most part." Songat nodded, looking at her with a wide smile, saying, "Beautiful Cana, are you free this evening? How about we have dinner together, then go stargazing afterward?"

"I'm busy!"

"Are you free tomorrow night?"

"I'm not free tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or the day after the day after tomorrow!"

"Then what about the day after the day after the day after tomorrow? Are you free"

"…"

"Err… Teacher Songat, I can really do anything I want starting from now, other than leaving this sickroom?" Ayrin's voice suddenly came to their ears.

"Of course you can." Songat turned around and glanced at him, then whispered to himself, "Tsk, why are the wounded all male this time. None of Audrey or the others were wounded, otherwise I could have chatted with beautiful girls like them, it'd have been very interesting."

"Bastard, what are you saying. Even if you're a horny pervert, could you please not make it so damn obvious, alright?" The veins on Cana's forehead were about to pop.

"Can I condense arcane particles then?" Ayrin asked, looking at Songat with an expectant face.

"Condense arcane particles?" Songat blinked.

"Why do you want to condense arcane particles at a time like this?" A lazy voice came to their ears just then. Wearing Holy Dawn Academy's uniform, Liszt appeared in the doorway.

"Why can even someone like you come inside?" Though she was usually very happy to see Liszt, Cana almost had the urge to puke blood in here. "This a critical sickroom in the Office's infirmary, why does it look like a food market now where anyone can casually stroll inside?"

"Don't be depressed, I'm a special case, I obtained a special permission. I'm going to be in charge of his post-injury rehabilitating training from now on, haha," Liszt said, laughing heartily.

"Teacher Liszt?"

Ayrin looked at Liszt in a daze.

His perception of Liszt still came from the various rumors and legends in Holy Dawn Academy. In Holy Dawn Academy's legends, Liszt had the bloody, cruel, addicted to killing tags and so on all piled upon him.

Even the Belo who wasn't afraid of anything and anyone was very fearful of Liszt.

"He doesn't look all that frightening."

After silently mumbling to himself, Ayrin glanced at Songat, looking a little hesitant.

"Haha, now's our Holy Dawn Academy's time. Songat, it looks like you can go rest outside." Liszt lazily patted Songat's shoulder. He'd apparently understood Ayrin's thoughts with a single glance.

"Alrighty then. I heard Donna came too, I'll go look for her," Song immediately said, walking outside full of excitement and expectations.

"Worthy of the Songat who kept getting beaten up because of his lasciviousness, and then became the best arcane master after he kept healing himself back to shape." Looking at Songat's back, Liszt couldn't hold back his smile.

"Alright then, now you can tell me why you want to condense arcane particles at a time like this," Liszt said after a smile, looking at Ayrin.

"Because…" Ayrin carefully tried to sense it again. His face shone with excitement. "I sensed that my second arcane gate seemed open. I should be an arcane master with two open gates now, so the arcane particles I condense should be much more powerful than when I only had a single gate."

"So you really opened your second gate." Liszt had a faint smile; he didn't look surprised at all. "So you were eager to find how much stronger your arcane particles are now. That's the reason you're so impatient to condense arcane particles so you can have a look."

"That's right. Teacher Cana, can I?"

With quiet swish swish swishes, the mummified Ayrin immediately sat up on the bed.

After the start of the national tournament, professor Plum had always imparted onto him the idea that the level of arcane particles was more important than having one more arcane skill, that he had to open his second gate before the start of the match against Silver Trout. This had been the goal of his recent training as well, so he was naturally delighted to find out he opened his second gate.

Cana subconsciously shook her head.

"You haven't recovered yet. Your strength isn't sufficient yet to use your body as a compression vehicle right now, so the answer is that you can't," Liszt said with a smile, actually very direct.

"Then about how many days do I need?"

"The open gate isn't going anywhere. Since you passed the boundary of the second arcane gate, then you're already a two-gates arcane master," Liszt said with a faint smile. "It doesn't matter if you wait a little before condensing arcane particles. You can still study arcane skills in the meantime."

"Teacher Liszt, do you have any powerful skill you can teach me?" Ayrin was re-energized as soon as they started mentioning arcane skills. He couldn't help but think back to the scenes of him fighting against Massay, as well as against Lotton and the others. He immediately looked at Liszt and said, "I feel that my attacking patterns are a little monotonous, my offense still relies mainly on Evil Flaming Eye and Crown of Ice and Snow."

"In fact, you've already grasped many more skills than an arcane master of the same level. You're the only one who thinks it's too monotonous and not varied enough," Liszt shook his head, saying seriously. "In fact, the greatest challenge facing you right now against an enemy isn't too monotonous an attacking pattern, but the lack of arcane skills with particularly astounding destructiveness, or a control skill that can give immediately exercise control over your opponent and give you the initiative."

"So, even though you already have a formidable fighting awareness, you might seize a decisive opportunity or deceive your opponent in a match, but you can only injure them because the might of your arcane skills is insufficient. You might not even be able to break through your opponent's defenses. That's the reason why you have an especially hard time facing your opponents."

"I think it's just like you said." Ayrin thought a moment after listening to Liszt and immediately nodded.