Chapter 113 Impress Me (Part 3)

Daichi’s expression finally changed as he realized this woman in front of him wasn’t going to make his life easy. Except… Instead of being upset he was thrilled!

“Sounds fun! Okay! So what’s the deal? What’s first?”

Lydia gave Daichi an odd look before speaking up “Normally we would test using a device to see if you have an attribute, if you do not then we would test you to see whether you have any ability in some other regard. Since I can’t test to see if you have an attribute and you won’t be able to enter the city without first having a recommendation from me…”

Daichi understood the meaning of her words. Even if normally he could enter and be tested based on his potential. He wasn’t in the city nor was he a resident, and therefore the only way for him to get this woman to agree would be to prove that he was worth the effort on her part. Except a small part of her comment nagged at him.

“That’s fine… But why wouldn’t I be able to enter the city without your recommendation?”

Lydia’s eyes widened for a second as a realization that should have been obvious struck at her before making her smile at the strangeness of the situation.

“I suppose you wouldn’t know… But the city is special because it has a barrier protecting it. Aside from internal strife, the city is generally safe as beasts and monsters can’t attack the residents. It has been the policy of the city due to over-population not to allow anyone to enter and live within the city for some time now. Although there are exceptions, these exceptions are normally only for those who can prove their value to Lumea or they are related to those who’ve entered Lumea Academy.”

“Hmm” Daichi nodded in understanding. ‘With all the beasts even our city would have been destroyed fairly quickly even if everyone hadn’t been killed that day. We had to leave so soon because of the beasts so this isn’t too shocking. It’s always survival of the fittest isn’t it?’

“What do I have to do in order to prove my ability? Something specific?”

Lydia gave Daichi a mysterious smile “Not at all. Just… Impress me.”

‘Just impress you eh…?’ Daichi thought to himself as he wondered what to do. He realized that he had to do enough to become valuable enough in Lydia’s eyes to invest in. At the same time Daichi also didn’t want to reveal all the cards up his sleeves, he didn’t know these people or the woman in front of him and revealing too much would be far too foolish. The question in Daichi’s mind was ‘How much?’

Ever since coming back everything had left him surprised. Nothing was quite like how he remembered it, and if he did too little perhaps he would just fail to meet her expectations… ‘Maybe I should just start from the ground up…?’ he wondered. If for whatever reason he came off as unimpressive he could continue showing one card after another up until he didn’t want to reveal anything more. He’d base things on how surprised or intrigued Lydia looked.

‘Although it isn’t perfect, it’s a plan.’

Daichi was feeling more than confident. He wasn’t afraid of failing despite how surprised he’d been by the things he’d seen. He was just too cautious to believe that he should show too much. He didn’t want to leave himself exposed. He also figured if he showed too much he’d garner too much interest to be able to move around freely and do the things he’d hoped to do in Lumea.

…

Lydia crossed her arms over her chest waiting for Daichi to show her something worth seeing. She had more than a sneaking suspicion that he would show her something amazing but up until now, there was no proof that he was in any way more special any of the other “talents” or “geniuses” she’d come across before. All too often she had heard of people heralded as being “once in a generation talents” but the reality was that, talent and potential were nothing more than pretty words to her. She had long thought that talent was merely a resulting factor of luck and potential was merely a fancy word to describe possibility.

Unlike a lot of the other professors of Lumea Academy, Lydia had been born with no attribute and without any natural affinity for any elements. The parents she’d loved her entire life had cut off her path towards magic or the elements before she’d even gotten a chance to try due to words like “potential”.

Memories were like the ocean, once the tide pulled you in you simply couldn’t help but be swept away. A memory of herself getting into an argument with her father and for the first time getting so angry that she yelled at him and the disappointed face he’d face. He hadn’t spoken to her for weeks after that, not until she agreed to stop being unreasonable. Except… From her perspective she hadn’t been being unreasonable. She wanted to practice to become a mage. She wanted to become strong, and they wanted to stop her from going down this path merely because other people had told her that she wasn’t suited for such a possibility.

On her own time, without a single shred of help, Lydia dedicated hour after hour doing nothing but training. She pushed herself past her limits time and time again. She did it not to prove others wrong, not to throw it in others faces and mock their shortsightedness. Lydia invested her time and dedicated her heard and mind because it was the path she wanted to thread. ‘I’ve walked a thorny path. I know that potential is meaningless without the drive and passion to attain a goal and need. I know that luck is limited, in the end only effort and good decisions will lead someone to end up where they want to be.’

Daichi had stood out because of his demeanor, the situation and his eyes. Not to mention that he managed to dodge one of Crimson’s attacks, but even that any regular ol’ genius could do. She’d watched this batch of applicants and wouldn’t find it too far-fetched if Leo could do it as well. Except to bring a stranger into Lumea, it would take far more than that level of potential for it to be worth it to the higher ups in the academy. It would also take far more than that for Lydia to bother, her reputation was on the line after all.

Lydia watched as Daichi raised both of his hands in front of him with his palms up as two small red flames appeared within his hands. ‘Eh not bad.’ She thought to herself. Although something as small as this wouldn’t be nearly enough to impress someone like her.

Mild interest turned into genuine surprise as she watched Daichi turn those red flames into orange then yellow and finally dazzling white flames.

Although she herself wasn’t well acquainted with anything related to fire, she was more than aware of what white flames were. They were the peak of genuine natural flames. Wracking her brain she was trying to remember how many people within the academy could create pure burning white flames with such seemingly relative ease.

Finally that surprise turned into shock as those dazzling white flames turned into pure blue flames. Even from where she was standing she could feel the heat from the flames and even she wouldn’t be able to take these flames head on or otherwise. She stared at Daichi and the flames trying to figure out if it was some sort of illusion or whether he had really manifested flames of such a degree.

Then at that moment that shock that turned into a daze. Daichi’s blue flames turned into the shape of a small dragon with indistinct features as it extended and coiled around his body. ‘Such a high degree of control with flames!’

‘He must be fire attributed! He must have a fire attribute for sure! Even so, to have such a high degree in control with such burning hot flames and somehow not burn himself. He doesn’t even look slightly afraid of the flames!’

While Lydia was in a daze staring at Daichi in awe, Daichi was similarly feeling frustrated as he watched Lydia who seemed to have a stone faced expression.

‘You’ve got to be kidding me. Even this isn’t enough to be considered impressive to this woman?’ Daichi thought to himself as he considered how he’d killed a group of people who’d attacked him with this attack alone. Daichi figured showing her a few different evolutions of the flames would be more than enough. He didn’t expect that he would have to not only get the flames to their highest degree, but that even launching this newly created attack wouldn’t be enough for the woman’s expression to change in the slightest.

Daichi maintained the flames as he watched Lydia and considered what to do next. He didn’t anticipate this wouldn’t be enough and now he wondered what he should do next.

‘I could use my flash skill… But I’d rather keep that one up my sleeves. I want her to feel impressed not threatened. I could tell her about my mana sense, but I don’t know how impressive that would be and it’s hard to show. All my chaotic attacks from before are over-powered but they aren’t too flashy… Moreover I should keep my chaos attribute under wraps… It seems I’m going to have to try something new again…’

Daichi smiled as he realized it was time to try something new. He was already prepared to try this when he was surrounded by that group of people earlier. Except he hadn’t found it necessary to do so then, now he still didn’t think he had too but figured that impressing Lydia took priority. Not to mention he was excited to put his theories to use again.

Lydia was in a daze and hadn’t been able to so much as twitch as she’d watched Daichi do something incredible and shocking. She didn’t realize that she’d been dazed for more than a few seconds, staring at Daichi with an unchanging expression prompting Daichi to take things one step further.

“Excuse me if this gets a bit out of hand. It’s new and I haven’t had much chance to practice it.”

Finally registering his words Lydia watched as her shock turned into awe as she finally admitted she was standing in front of someone worthy of the title of “genius”.

“Preposterous…”

Lydia couldn’t help but let the word slip out of her mouth as she stared at Daichi as her lips quivered as she watched everything around her change as Daichi did something she thought impossible before her very eyes.

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