Training Room

Ethan was still sitting on the floor while using black box stool as a backrest but there was no sitting on it.

Ethan head slipped and hit the floor…or at the least supposed to but there was a cushion right at the place where he hits his head.

His eyes flapped. He yawns and stretched on the floor.

"Rise and Shine. It's already morning."

Ethan sat straight up and looks around. He was surprised to hear a woman's voice as the first thing. He looks toward where he slept last night and faintly remembers he sleepwalked here.

Raven was sitting over couch while there was a glass of wine in her hand. Raven was shaking the glass while lost in her thoughts.

Ethan looked at her while sitting and raises himself up. He yawns and stretched his body when suddenly full figure of her body comes into his vision. Ethan can feel all the blood in his body circulating at unstable pace. His eyes refused to blink or twitch or anything and stay darted to her long legs to her thighs.

She was wearing a red velvet night gown which was barely covering her thighs. Her long legs were whiter than her visible skins with clothes. Her long legs and thighs were symbol of perfection. They were thick and slender at right places.

Raven felt a wolf like gaze on her. She felt like her whole body is wrapped in its tongue. She comes out of her thought and looked at him. She raised her hand and pointed at him with her fore-finger.

Ethan diverts his attention to her finger. She thrown her finger sidewise and pointed toward the door at the left wall close to left corner. Ethan didn't understand her and raise his chin up in questioning. She looked at him and pointed her finger downward.

Ethan slowly looks down and hastily turns around as to hide himself. He popped a boner without even realizing!

He feels miserable thinking what Raven was thinking about him right now. He didn't know that Raven already marked as a pervert at the first meeting.

He walks sidewise slowly at the edge of the room. Raven again opens her mouth.

"You can run, you know?"

Ethan ran toward the door the moment she said that. Raven just shakes her head at his stupidity. She really can't understand him at all. He is strangely sharp yet so dumb that she almost regretted saving him.

"Wow."

Ethan can't help but be amazed at her bathroom. It is large and gives a feeling of royalty. His dorms' bathroom looks more like a village toilet compares to it.

After an hour,

Ethan comes out of bathroom while Raven was sitting on the chair with table outside, in balcony. Raven was surprisingly wearing clothes. He moves toward her while using the towel on his shoulder to rub his hair.

Ethan notices a cup of latte with an extra chair opposite to her. Ethan looked at her and takes a sit in front of her. He looked at her with questioning gazes. She took a sip of tea or…at the least it looks like but Ethan smells that it is alcohol.

"Mostly boys of your age prefer latte so I pick it for you."

Her tone seems strange to Ethan. He felt a little distance with her. He lowered his head in embarrassment and apologize to her as he thought that previous accident, or at the least he like to claim it as an accident, had anger her.

"I am sorry, Raven…I…didn't notice it…I am sorry."

He really doesn't know how he should apologize to her. I am sorry I popped a boner on you? I am sorry I found you to be so irresistible? I am sorry for seeing you in nightgown even though it's not my fault?

In the first place, it's not his fault. She was the one who dose him with sleeping pills. She was the one who seduce him with her soul resonating music. Why the hell should he apologize-

"It shouldn't happen again."

Ethan raised his head and meets her eyes. She was also looking at him straight in his eyes. Her tone was neutral with no excessive emotion but it was filled with an invisible authority. It was not a threat but an order!

Ethan just lowered his head and nods as he knows he is wrong.

Atmosphere relaxed along with his nod. Raven was back to sipping her tea…alcohol. She was looking toward the tall building standing along with her penthouse. She opens her mouth as she raised her cup to her lips.

"You don't have anything to ask of me?"

"...Hmm. Why are you drinking alcohol in the morning?"

"Cough. Cough. Cough."

"Are you fine?"

Ethan raised himself up to pat her back but she just shows her palm to tell him she is fine while using other hand to cover her face. She really doesn't understand him. He is strangely sharp yet stupid. It is like he can see everything yet he doesn't understand even though it is right in front of him. She fixes her sitting posture and clears her lips. She deliberately used cup to hide the alcohol but she underestimate his sense.

"It's not alcohol. It's wine."

"…Isn't that worse?"

Wine enters blood streams faster than the alcohol. She should at the least use a better excuse if she is going to convince him. Ethan took a sip as he waited for response.

'It's hot.'

"Ethan…when you become an adult; Coffees and teas become useless and only wine can wake you up."

She called his name and look outside with a lost expression. Her eyes seem to be seeing far away in horizon. Ethan would have thought that she is trying to act cool to hide her flaws but it seems too real to be fake.

"You aren't going to ask me about anything that happened yesterday."

She again looked at him and asked.

"I won't since you have no intention to answer anyway. Raven, I have notice that you only talk when you want to and if I ask something that I shouldn't have, you will try to twist it or change it to avoid it. Even your name is a pseudonym, after all."

She is again taken aback by his unexpected sharpness. Its first time someone actually seen through her even though it's minor thing but she knows he just lack knowledge and wisdom. She is really starting to like him. She almost regretted approaching him like before if she knows him better, she would have convinced him other way around.

He would have become a die-hard subordinate on whom she can trust her back anytime and any moment.

'It's a shame it's not possible.'

But then again, she is already used to work alone. It will be better to work alone like always than trust anyone around.

"…Raven."

She raised her head in response to his voice.

"What is this job you are putting me on pedestal for, from last night?"

"It's information gathering."

"…Like a spy?"

"…Kind of."

"So what do I have to do actually?"

Ethan push himself back and put his one leg above other. He raised his cup to his lips while looking at her, waiting for her to continue.

"It will be infiltration, stealing, acting and convincing people etc."

"…Like a scammer?"

"You understand the job so easily. Congratulation, you are hired already."

"No. I am not! Is that really the job you are putting me on edge for?!"

He pretended to be calm all this time but she is asking him scam people! He kept calm and was waiting for some difficult job as running in front of a train with a lamp, or making a dead person blink, or seducing a woman who is a lesbian but this is not what he was expecting at all!

"I rather think you are suited for this. You have all the quality one needed for."

Ethan looked at her with skepticism. In all honestly, He believes that she is just bullshitting him and hiding the truth. Ethan doubted that as she chose to not say anything instead of a lie though that doesn't mean she doesn't lie.

"You are underestimating the job, Ethan. Information gathering is one of the most important jobs in Human Domain but the thing is there are not many people who will employ for it as it is also the one with the most risk. I also happen to be doing everything myself until now and it was quiet tiring and exhausting. Now, I have you so I can take easy way around."

She finished her wine tea and pushed herself up. She walks inside while signaling with her hand to follow her.

Ethan hurriedly finishes his latte and followed her. Both of them stand in front of lift when Ethan asked her.

"Where are we going?"

"Training Room."

Ethan looked at her. He is trying hard to guess where the hell training room exists in this place! This place is more like a sex dungeon! If he didn't know her better he would have think she is also part of it.

'It must be situated outside or in neighboring building.'

Elevator opens and both of them went down to the lower floors. Elevator went down while both of them wait silently.

Ting.

Elevator opens and the sight stunned him. Ethan was taken aback by the sight. It was a white room with checked floor, with an area of 100 m squ. Ethan was standing stunned in elevator. It is a training room, a training room below the club! Why am I not surprised?

What's more it is larger than training rooms in his academy! Academy only offers around 50 m squ. training ground for all rank but amount of mana inside it what differs from other. Space in itself can expands as far as you may want but it become thinner along with mana density. So the larger space expansion thinner mana density inside the room.

There is an easy solution to it. That is Rune. Every Training Room is installed with a Mana Refining Rune Formation beneath its ground which refines mana from mana stones and increase mana density in training rooms. Of course, that is excluding the charge of mana stones that depending on its ranks.

Mana stones are like panacea stones in legend. They can be used for any purpose and any way or converts into any energy of choice. Ataraxia held power in Human Domain previously because they held monopoly over it.

"Come inside."

Raven enters her training room. She walks toward the wall besides her and tap on to one of the checked tiles on walls.

Ting.

A screen lit up joining a four checked tiles square. Raven furiously clicks on the screen with all fingers. Ethan made a note that Raven is technically advance for a woman...

(Faster clicking sound echoed in white training room)

…too advance for a woman.

Training Room shifted and wall starts rising from the ground in front. It didn't long for it to become something similar to shooting range. Ethan just waited for things unfold as he knows interrupting her won't do any good.

Shooting Range forms with control booth being just in front of them. There were distance tags along the edge of control booth.

"This room can be shifted in any way as long as you don't try to stretch it or ask for something impossible by dimension."

"What is durability?"

"A-Rank."

Ethan frowned when he heard her. Ethan doesn't about her strength but if she is really an A-Rank then it will be really hard for him in future. He can't estimate her strength, for him, anyone above E-Ranks appears same.

"I am not A-Rank but it's not like I will never become one. I choose to make it as renovating again is quiet hard."

"…Aren't you illusionist?"

Its common tale that illusionist lacks destruction. Why bother with such things?

Raven smiled and looks him in the eyes as she heard him. Ethan knows that he talk too much right now even if it's out of curiosity.

It is unspoken rule in Human Domain to not ask or talk about someone's strength. It is consider rude or insulting to the person in question.