Ch69.Fun.

After dealing with Grimply, I made my way back to the Academy in order to start some more fights, and so the next weeks days progressed in a similar fashion. I would wake up, work out, deal with a few business dealings that my clan members can't handle and then I would make my way to Swernoot in order to cause trouble.

At Swernoot, I would roam the initial area for a while trying to find some 'easy' prey and beat them up, this helped both practice some moves without having to worry about dealing with much retaliation as well as allowed me do deal with dome of my pent up 'stress'. After getting bored with the first years, I would head deeper into the Academies grounds in order to make trouble for the third years, who more likely than not, would beat the living crap out of me.

Luckily, I have nerves of steel and through all of these fights, I have been able to gain a much needed understanding on my Magical Resistance as well as in dealing with long distance Mages. I have discovered that, as long as I can approach them, I am basically able to win most fights, since my Toxic Breath is really useful in bypassing all sorts of magical Barriers.

There were definitely many defensive barriers that were able to block my breath, some almost effortlessly, such as water based barriers that flat out dissolve my usual 'non lethal' toxins, as well as ones that have no gap that will allow air through. These are some of the things that I still need to figure out how to deal with, but for now, I just try to smash through those barriers that my poisons can't pass.

My strength is constantly growing along with my enhanced defenses, I am able to tank quite a lot of damage, so I am able to tire out most of my opponents and it isn't that hard to accomplish, as long as I am able to stay close to my opponent.

On the other hand, if I am unable to approach my opponent, I more often than not, get embarrassingly decimated. I have no true ranged attack so I usually just get bombarded with a large variety of blasts as I try to approach, more experienced opponents generally have some sort of method that allows them to control my movements and prevent me from approaching them.

They also have more than just direct, obvious attacks, they also have a few spells that restrict movement, ones that enhance themselves in certain ways and even crowd control spells that should be useless against a single opponent but can still be used in interesting ways that are hard to understand.

So yes, I have had my fair share of wins and losses, but I have gained immense benefits during this time. I now know how to better deal with Mages of different attributes and I have gained a better understanding of my weaknesses.

Another advantage is that, by joining in on our Academy traditions, I have become much closer with the other students and now often get invited to parties and events held by the older students. On more than one occasion I have found myself laughing and getting drunk with a fellow student who has either beaten me up severely or I have recently beaten into the ground, these people don't care much about winning or losing, just the fun of it.

I guess that staying in this academy, with an environment such as Swernoot, tends to change the students and as time goes on, more and more students adapt to these traditions leading to the eventual embrace and happy participation in them, thus resulting in a group of battle hungry, carefree students.

One of my more memorable fights was with Emilior, the one I previously made crazy after making him inhale some of my bad quality Blaze. After running into him again, he immediately picked a fight with me, what was crazy though was that when I didn't blow smoke in his face like the first time, he continued to provoke me asking me to stop 'holding back' and use my 'Smoke Magic'.

That confused me quite a bit initially, until I realized that he was the one who was blocking my path during the pre-Auction incident, and since I was training in magic battle and didn't want to use external substances, I refused to use that tactic again. Emilior got more and more worked up, the longer I refused to use my 'smoke magic' the more he started getting annoyed, until he eventually cracked and literally started begging me to use my 'smoke Magic'.

It was then that I realized that he was most likely suffering from withdrawal symptoms and his first encounter had caused him to become severely addicted to Blaze, even though that shouldn't really be possible considering how little he absorbed.

I still decided to deal with him in a positive manner, he was a year 4 student and he was more than half way to becoming a Circle 3 Mage, I told him that if he agrees to become my sparring partner as well as my 'bodyguard' for when I do something a bit more crazy for my Clan, then I would provide him with all the Blaze he desires. He initially agreed, but after testing some of my high grade Blaze, he started complaining that this is not what he wanted.

It turns out that he actually wants to experience the induced mad rage experienced when consuming the lower quality, shitty Blaze. He wasn't actually addicted, in fact he truly believes that the 'bad' Blaze enhanced his strength drastically, allowing him to release his true strength. He wants to use this 'rage' as an enhancement as well as a path to follow with his future path in Magic. Interestingly enough, by letting go of his sanity, he was able to defeat his entire crew, something he couldn't even dream of previously.

After some negotiation, I relented in allowing him to use that bad Blaze, but only if he has a way to filter the negative side effects, I don't want my bodyguard to go completely insane and die on me.

That would just be a complete waste of a valuable resource, anyway long story short, he has adjusted his future plans for his third circle to include a heavily modified version of the 'Toxic Adaption' Rune as well as a few other Runes that will boost his power while under a mad state and allow him to still somewhat function under that influence.

I, therefore, have gained a rather powerful subordinate and with some luck, he will hopefully continue to become stronger while continuing to 'serve' me, even after he graduates. Well not like it matters, by that time, I should be more than capable enough to launch a comprehensive war against all of the other Bosses in this City! Powerful subordinates will just be a luxury at that time as I will hopefully have mastered the Rune Injection technique by then.

Anyway, things have been pretty quiet lately, and besides my ventures into the Academies traditions, nothing much has been happening on the Business side. I do hope it stays like this for a while longer, that way I can put more focus on increasing my strength. After my newly acquired battle experience, I have discovered that what I currently need the most is a way to move faster or a method to reliably close the distance between me and my opponent.

I have a few ideas in this regard, one in particular will suite me perfectly, I just need to find a decent base Rune that will allow me to adjust and manipulate in order to get it to suit my needs in the ideal manner. Finding the base Rune shouldn't be too hard, but in the event that I cant find one by myself, I can always fall back on the numerous Professors that I have bribed, in order to get some assistance in finding the best Rune.

Another Rune that should help me overcome my weakness is one that allows me to better utilize my animal instincts. I feel that all the instincts that I gained in my previous bodies, seem to be slowly fading away the longer I spend living a 'normal' human life and I am not happy about that! I need to find a way to harness this part of me in an effective manner while ensuring that I don't lose that side of me, I don't want my past lives to just 'disappear'.

I am not too sure on the last two Runes needed to create my second Circle though, who would have thought figuring out what Runes one needs to add could be so hard?

The worst part is that I am only at Circle 1!! This may be another reason why it takes people so long in order to advance, finding the correct Runes for yourself is not that easy. You don't want to just choose any Runes, since everybody naturally aims to become the best that they possibly can.