Strongest Among the Heavens
Chapter 279: Pauline

Chapter 279: Pauline

Protect the village; that was their goal. The sun was coming down. Night was coming close. For the past couple hours, the teams were arranged and set: Kazi and Pauline, Akihiko and Kenzo, Sarah and Emma, and, of course, Jackson and Sylvia. The complaints for the last one were immense.

"Wait, I can help Pauline—"

"No, I can—"

Jackson and Sylvia, shoving and complaining and wanting anything but each other.

"Just don’t make me team-up with him/her!"

Pauline smiled awkwardly and decided to stick with Kazi. Because those two, no matter which way she sliced it, were crazy.

Deep in the evening, the teams decided to head to their sections and do some preliminary scouting. Kazi didn’t have to scout due to his focused Magic Sensitivity. Instead, he used the time to discuss with Pauline in regards to battle strategy.

"So you know Fire Ball. Anything else?"

"I can amplify my spells. Some of them, anyway," Pauline admitted. "I have the Intro to Magic Circles Textbook in my inventory. It’s an older version but the professor says it checks out."

"Does it include traps?"

"Oh no, solely simple stuff. Fire Ball, Spark Bolt, Aqua Bolt, Gale Burst. They teach us the basics of magic circles."

Right, it was an accelerated program. Before they got complicated, it was important to understand the basics. Unfortunately, that wasn’t very useful in their current predicament. "What element do you use then?"

"Oh, I haven’t decided."

Kazi looked back at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, like..." Pauline put her hands behind her, interlocking fingers. "Like...I haven’t spent any of my distributive points."

Another player might have gasped and reprimanded her. Kazi saw right through her. "Because you’re nervous."

"Yes, I mean...what if I mess-up? You can’t get the points back so that means you have to be perfect about spending them. Imagine if I choose fire and apparently I’m bad at fire? That would be a waste."

"So you’re waiting for someone to tell you what you’re good at?"

"H-huh? No." Pauline turned introspective. "Technically, yes but like...no. I don’t want to make a mistake, that’s all."

"If you say so." Kazi eyed the forest. His left eye pulsed. In the next five seconds, nothing happened. In the next minute, his magic swelled to normal. "I’m going to go ahead and collect the bark and leaves on those trees. Watch my back."

"Okay!"

"Equip." Summoning Stormedge, Pauline fell a step back. He stabbed his blade into the bark of the tree and pulled back. Like a spring board, the bark ripped out.

"Do you ever think about how trees are alive and us chopping them down is like chopping off their bodies?"

Pauline did not hesitate or blink so neither did Kazi. "Nope, never. Why?"

"It was in a storybook I read once," she said without missing a beat. No humour in her tone either. She was saying this because she genuinely thought it was interesting to say.

"That’s one hell of a storybook. Mind telling me the author?"

"Hmm, I think it was Merlin..."

"Merlin, yes. Children’s story books, wrote about uprisings against monsters." He vividly recalled those books being among the first hundred he read at the library. He remembered closing the book and nearly getting caught. When he went outside, the master’s younger brother clicked his tongue, grabbed him aside, and whipped his back till he could see the innermost layer of muscle. "I met the guy once. Merlin is his pen name, he’s from Uzbekistan. Surprisingly stoic for how outlandish his stories can get."

"Really? Stoic, huh? So like me..."

Uh, sure.

"Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say trees are immortal?" Kazi stripped more bark. "You can chop them down but as long as their roots are in tact, they can grow back."

"Ohhh, that’s a good point. So it’s closer to dismemberment, hm?"

"Precisely."

Casually, he walked up what seemed to be an invisible fleet of stairs around the tree and cut down more bark. Pauline’s lips parted. She was in awe and in confusion.

"Why are you doing this by the way?"

With his sword, he peeled off another piece and the layer of gum Kazi spoke of appeared. "See this? The wood from these trees can be used for flooring and even boatbuilding. However, it’s not ideal for intricate carving due to the high gum content. But even the gum has its uses, like in medicine. The bark is even used in brewing beer. Not that I drink."

"Me neither, haha. My parents forbade me from drinking," Pauline replied. She didn’t seem interested in the tree. However, his blade was certainly fetching to her eye. "That’s a scimitar, right? It looks high-quality."

"Been checking out blacksmith stands?"

"Yes, I, ah, always check but I’ve never bought one," Pauline admitted. "I wish I could though."

"Do you want to be a swordsman?"

"I’m...well, I don’t like fighting, per say. It’s like...I love battleship games. I love strategizing and stuff. For that, you need to be smart and charismatic. Cunning."

Kazi finished up gathering what he needed and turned to her. He looked her up and down. Her long lashes accentuated her expressive violet eyes and with her slender frame and graceful demeanor, she possessed an effortless beauty that drew the eye of those around her. Her white tunic dress and black leggings weren’t exactly prepped for battle though. Other than the staff she equipped and unequipped, she was a pretty young woman that seemed more in place at a banquet than at the Heavenly Tower.

"You look plenty charismatic to me," Kazi said.

She did a cursty. "Thank you!"

"You should probably buy a battle-ready outfit though. The clothes don’t make the person but they certainly compliment them."

"Oh." Pauline looked at herself and smiled thinly. "I don’t have much in the way of points so this is all I could get. They told me it’s effective against ghosts."

"Then let’s hope we go against some."

Pauline’s smile turned upside down. "By the way..." She scanned him and squinted, violet eyes shimmering with memory. "I know this might sound crazy but...have we...have we met before?"

Kazi winked and made a choo-choo sound. "Haven’t we?"

"I mean like on Earth, not on the train," she said.

"I meet a lot of people," Kazi decided to go with.