The Survival of the Third-rate Villain

Raye prepared himself.

He hadn’t used Tear much because there had been no opportunity back in the dungeon.

Also, since his proficiency with it was still low, its damage was low compared to its mana consumption.

So, Raye had deemed it unsuitable for combat back then.

Anyway...

Tap—

Raye stood in front of a tree.

Jerusha was beside him, watching expectantly.

Pat—

Raye put his left hand on the trunk.

And with his eyes closed...

"..."

He started concentrating.

After a few seconds...

SWOOSH—

A very compressed, sharp gusts of wind covered his entire left arm!

"...!"

Jerusha stayed silent, but her eyes widened.

Then without further ado...

"[Tear]"

Raye mumbled that word!

And immediately after...

SLASH—

The tree Raye was touching was cut in two!

Thud—

"Wha..."

Jerusha was unable to finish her words after seeing that.

Looking at the fallen part of the tree, Jerusha saw the area where Raye had been touching earlier.

And there...

"..."

She saw many small but deep cuts in the trunk!

’He’s really good at this.’

Jerusha thought, pertaining in creating skills.

Having missed Raye’s Flash Step earlier, she watched closely so she wouldn’t miss Blaze or Tear.

And because of that...

Jerusha saw what happened to the tree!

’After compressing sharp gusts of wind, Raye activated his skill, and immediately after doing so...’

’The winds shot forward at the tree trunk, cutting it cleanly!’

Jerusha thought, recalling what she had seen.

’After that, the other small sharp gusts of wind scattered and cut the tree all over the trunk!’

She added, explaining.

Anyway, cutting off her train of thought...

"What do you think?"

Raye asked her.

"Hm?"

Jerusha looked at him.

And she just stared at his face.

Then, after a while...

"The name is boring, change it."

Jerusha said that.

"Ugh, I know."

Raye responded, slightly hurt by her blunt words.

(Help Raye name his skill; he can’t find a suitable name. Definitely not because of the author.)

*****

After Raye finished showcasing his skills...

"You can see spirits now because your mana sensitivity increased a lot. Though, I can’t say the same for your mana pool."

"You can’t get contracted with your third spirit yet."

Jerusha started teaching him again about spirit magic.

-She knows a lot of things, huh.

Zephyrus said, talking to another spirit.

-Yeah, she knows a lot about us. That’s why we like her.

Then, a blue eagle-looking spirit responded to him.

Meanwhile...

-Meep meep!

-Kyu!

-Beep boop!

Pyro was playing with the other young spirits.

Anyway, going back to Jerusha and Raye...

"I’ll teach you how to summon your contracted spirits."

Jerusha declared that.

And being interested to learn...

"..."

Raye listened properly.

"Hmm."

Jerusha nodded her head, seeing him like that.

"As you can see, I’m not always with my spirits. After all, I’m contracted with many of them, unlike you."

And then she said that innocently!

Raye frowned.

’The last part was uncalled for.’

He thought but didn’t say anything.

Continuing...

"And this time, I’m gonna show you how to do this."

Jerusha said.

Then opening her mouth...

"[Phobos]"

Jerusha mumbled that.

And Raye recognized that name!

SWOOOOOSH—

A strong gust of wind surrounded Jerusha.

"Urgh...!"

Raye felt like he was being blown away!

-Meep?!

-Kyu?!

-Ugh, this mana...?!

And it was the same for the spirits!

’What the heck?!’

Raye cursed inside his head, feeling the strong wave of mana overwhelming him.

And after a while...

Fwish—

The wind disappeared, but the strong mana remained.

"..."

Raye looked in Jerusha’s direction.

And there...

-Greetings, Raye.

He saw a white Griffin, standing over 5 meters tall! 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Acting unfazed...

"Ah, hello."

Raye responded. He was nervous.

And luckily for him...

"Now, let’s start!"

Jerusha butted in, cutting his interaction with Phobos short.

"Right, let’s start."

Raye said awkwardly.

-----

In the background...

Raye and Jerusha didn’t notice.

-Phobos?

-Zephyrus?

But it seems like Zephyrus and Phobos know each other!

*****

Even after trying for a few hours...

"Ugh."

Raye was unsuccessful in learning spirit summoning.

And now, their private lesson had ended...

"It’s okay, you’ll get it later."

Jerusha said, reassuring Raye.

With a slight nod...

"Yeah."

Raye responded, frustrated.

And with that, they headed back to the cabin after saying goodbye to the spirits.

-Meep!

-See you tomorrow.

Pyro and Zephyrus said.

Oh, and Phobos left earlier, going back to rest deep in the forest.

...

...

After getting back to the cabin...

"Oh, you two are back. Let’s eat."

Old Man Rey greeted Jerusha and Raye.

And with that, the three of them had dinner together.

-Meep!

-Mhmm...

With Pyro and Zephyrus, of course.

*****

After eating, Jerusha quickly excused herself.

Old Man Rey and Raye saw her off.

After that...

The two of them went to their rooms, saying their goodnight to each other.

And now, lying on his bed...

"..."

Experience tales with empire

Raye stared at the ceiling.

’I should probably fix that next.’

He thought.

Then...

"Not all butterfly effects are bad, huh."

He muttered that to himself!

His proof of this statement was Kyle and Devin!

Something good had happened because of him existing.

And knowing that...

"..."

Raye smiled silently.

’Hmm, if my existence is gonna bring change anyway, let’s just make it a good change.’

And then he thought!

Raye had been thinking about this for a while now.

Seeing Kyle and Devin succeed, he decided to go with it now!

’I’ll just use my knowledge from the game and use it to my advantage.’

He added.

Then Raye started planning and thinking about things.

He still wasn’t directly messing with the main scenarios, though.

And after a while of that...

"..."

Raye fell asleep.

-...

-...

Pyro and Zephyrus were already fast asleep long ago.

*****

The next day...

Raye’s daily routine continued as normal.

This time, he started fixing the cabin again after getting back from Kyle and Devin’s shop.

After that, he trained spirit summoning with Jerusha in the Northern Forest.

Phobos visited them.

Giving Raye pointers, which he was thankful for.

And this routine of him continued for days.

And just like that...

A week passed.

And the day of the class re-evaluation arrived.