Mystical Journey

Panda Novel

They waited until the doctor and the others had left and Garen’s parents had gone to work before Mina and the rest said a few words quietly and sat beside Garen’s bed again.

“What did you want to tell me?” Garen was still unable to move his body. However, the nerves in his head were not injured so severely as they were located in the area that was protected by the Soul Seeds. Aier, who was beside him, helped to lift his head and lean it against the pillow.

Mina paused for a moment.

“Although the instructor forbade me from saying it, this is something that you’d need to know sooner or later. It’s about the problems with your recent operation fees.”

“Oh?” Garen furrowed his brow.

“The cost of the operation wasn’t reimbursed by the academy?” his younger sister Ker asked in a puzzled manner. This was a question that the others wanted to ask as well.

Mina shook her head slightly.

“It wasn’t,” she glanced at Garen and his younger brother and sister around him. “It’s not what you’re thinking. Nono, your medical bills were actually paid in advance by Instructor Hamm. The academy was completely against the application for your expenses and did not provide any funds.”

“Instructor Hamm?” Garen was slightly shocked.

None of them spoke for a while. His younger brother and sister did not know what to say. Meanwhile, Garen had never been one to reveal his emotions. He merely leaned against the sick bed as if he was pondering something.

Mina did not care about what Garen was thinking about and chose to finish talking about the things she knew first.

“Aier and I asked about these things in the academy for you. Initially, you could have sent in a request for your operation fees to be reimbursed. However, the family of Oscar, the student you injured, has connections. In order to punish you for injuring Oscar badly during the test, although they could not take revenge on you directly because of the school rules, they were able to pull some strings to ruin your medical fee application easily.”

Her expression was somewhat grave when she told them everything that she knew.

“The operation cost 1.5 million dollars. The cost of nerve restoration operations are certainly not cheap,” said Aier beside her. “Even for Instructor Hamm who’s earning a good salary…”

Garen glanced at Aier and Mina beside him. Both of them really had good relationships with Nono and were clearly his trustworthy friends. Most people would not put in so much thought for the sake of others.

The people whom Nonosiva came into contact the most in the academy were Mina and Aier. Although Instructor Hamm liked him a lot as well, his affections were distributed equally among the top three students in the class, not just Nonosiva. Frankly, he had never expected the bearded man to do something like pay for his operation fees with his own money.

The nerve restoration surgery had really helped him. The effects were even better than anticipated. Coupled with his self-healing abilities, he would only need to lay in bed for a month before he would recover completely.

“Thanks for reminding me. I will remember Instructor Hamm’s favor,” answered Garen sincerely while nodding.

“Our instructor didn’t do this just so you could return the favor, he was only hoping that you would not lose your future just because of this accident,” answered Mina honestly. “It wasn’t just you anyway. Instructor Hamm has helped many other students this way. He’s a good person.”

“Is he? Good person…” Garen allowed his eyelids to droop while repeating the phrase once more.

The personalities of Garen and the previous Nonosiva were naturally different. Although Nonosiva was originally quiet and preferred to listen when he was with his friends, Mina and Aier merely assumed that he had changed after this incident. They found it somewhat strange but did not think that it was a major suspicion.

“That’s right, your body will probably take a month to recover. Once that’s over, come to class as soon as possible to catch up. Otherwise, we won’t wait for you,” Mina stood up and smiled. “It’s time to go back to class. We’re off. You should rest properly.”

Aier followed suit and stood up as well.

“Go on. Don’t worry, I’ll be able to catch up to you in no time,” Garen smiled.

“Goodbye Big Sister Mina and Big Brother Aier,” his younger brother Baylon and younger sister Ker stood up and sent them off as well.

******************

A month of recuperation passed by quickly.

Garen spent his days laying on the sickbed. At first, he was unable to move at all but could gradually move his hands slowly during the later stages. After that, he could get down from the bed and walk when his recovery speed increased.

He was usually supported by his family members, especially his younger brother Baylon. Occasionally, his parents would come over and help as well.

Garen did not share many sentiments with Nonosiva’s parents. But in this world, Nono’s parents were merely sincere people who had made quiet sacrifices without complaining. This gave him a slightly favorable impression of them.

After all, the money that was used to pay for his daily hospital stays were paid for by Nono’s parents who worked from dawn to dusk. Therefore, he owed them some gratitude at least. Since he had occupied Nono’s body, he would naturally be responsible to perform the necessary duties of a son to Nono’s parents.

His recovery went smoothly. However, the places where that woman had brutally fractured his bones were still aching slightly. Although the restoration surgery had solved the problem of his fractured bones while his Soul Seed’s stimulated restoration had been fully healed as well, the memory of the young woman with red eyes continued to appear in Garen’s mind.

That person had nearly caused him to lose one of his Soul Seeds.

Moreover, the most pressing issue was his Willpower.

After Garen had occupied Nono’s body, once the body had healed completely, he began to fully test out and understand the inner workings of the body structure at the first opportunity.

He did this in order to comprehend the true meaning of Willpower.

Meanwhile, the conclusion that he obtained shocked him greatly.

This thing called ‘Willpower’ was actually a force field that was condensed and formed by the entire body of the people here.

If the brains of humans could produce empty powers such as one’s consciousness, then one’s Willpower basically referred to treating one’s entire body as a brain and producing a special force field using it.

Moreover, only people from this world possessed physiological structures that could produce Willpower.

Once Garen had painstakingly investigated the source of Willpower, time was almost up and it was already time for him to leave the hospital.

After a series of procedures were conducted, Instructor Hamm, Nono’s parents, family members, Mina, and Aier had arrived. Once everything was settled, Garen returned to Blackboard Academy and assumed Nonosiva’s identity.

***************

Blackboard Academy

Physical examination and testing room

Beep beep…

When the red indicator light flashed, Garen straightened his body while sitting in front of the large silver crab-like scanner so that the pincer-like scanners of the ‘giant crab’ could move around his body continuously.

“All of your health data is normal. Student Nonosiva, you should lose some weight,” announced the giant crab loudly without holding anything back.

“I’ve gotten chubbier after living on campus recently,”

Garen got down from the machine and walked in front before speaking to Aier who was waiting on the side.

“Where’s Mina? Why haven’t I seen her during my recovery training sessions during these past few days?”

“The Jujitsu Association that she’s part of has been selected by someone. As the Vice President, she was forced to return to deal with the situation,” Aier smiled and shrugged.

“Oh? Why were they chosen?” Garen and the other two people had become even more familiar. Although he was a slightly cowardly person, Aier was still a young man who would truly dare to step forward for the sake of his friends. His continuous contributions during Garen’s hospitalization period had allowed him to gain Garen’s approval as well.

“Recently, there’s a new student who’s already extremely arrogant despite just joining the academy. He’s been sweeping through the martial arts associations throughout the school for the sake of making things lively.” Aier was unconcerned about matters like these. “We’re just peace-loving enthusiasts so why would we care about things like that?”

“You’re right,” Garen nodded in agreement. “We’re peace-loving enthusiasts. Things like hurting and killing just don’t suit us.”

“It reminded me immediately of the collective tests of our C series classes. The instructor’s fury was released on the top three students including yourself. Have you recovered?” Aier patted Garen’s shoulder.

“I’m still alright.” Garen did not what to say and could only answer honestly.

“Instructor Hamm placed all of his expectations on the three of you,” Aier lowered his voice. “You should go and test your Willpower since your body has healed.”

“You’re right.”

Garen did not have most of Nono’s memories. Although he could remain quiet and use the excuse of losing his memories from the severe injuries to gloss things over, he had yet to obtain enough information about the problems regarding his Willpower. All of the memory fragments regarding Willpower had disappeared and Garen had yet to come into contact with teaching materials that dealt with the Willpower aspects. He could only take one step at a time.

Once they had heard that Nono’s body had healed completely and could already reach the standards to test his Willpower, Instructor Hamm and Mina, who was still at the Jujitsu Association, rushed over at once.

**************

Inside the testing room

Tiny red and blue indicator lights flickered on the various testing equipment. A female school doctor in white clothes carefully placed a series of testing leather goods such as leather gloves, leather apron, and a leather helmet on Garen. He was made to wear all of the test attire.

Garen stood on the testing platform. It was a circular silvery-white platform that resembled a large coin that was placed on the ground.

Instructor Hamm stood and Aier stood on the sidelines and had arrived specifically to observe Garen’s test.

“Good luck!” Aier raised his thumb towards Garen.

Garen smiled and stood on the platform steadily.

“The test is starting…” an old-fashioned mechanical voice echoed throughout the testing room.

A ray of blue light rose upwards from below Garen’s feet before slowing down gradually and moving above his head.

Even Garen felt curious now. After he had occupied Nonosiva’s body, he wondered about the changes that he would undergo. Apparently, his Willpower would form a force field that was produced by his body. Since he had replaced Nonosiva, he pondered about the changes that would happen. He could not even guess the possibilities.

To Garen, Willpower was an incomprehensible existence that could not be physically touched. Furthermore, this was completely foreign territory and power.

He could feel a hot sensation when the lines of blue light rose from the bottom of his feet.

The time it took to scan him was not fast but considerably slow instead. Garen closed his eyes after looking at his current condition and state in the large mirror on the opposite side of him.

His long black hair covered half of his face and he had pale skin that seemed as if it had never felt sunshine. His body was slightly plump and he wore the standard school uniform of a white shirt with blue stripes. He gave off a somewhat dejected air. However, faint glimpses of coolness and confidence could be seen in his blue eyes, allowing the reflection in the mirror to give off a calmer personality.

“This test should be able to assess the true condition of this body,” he already assumed that he was unlikely to possess Willpower. After all, this thing was related to his soul, but his soul had never undergone Willpower training. Therefore, it was impossible that he would have it. However, once his body had undergone certain modifications and the unconscious influence of the Soul Seeds, it was still possible that changes would occur later. Nonetheless, it would not necessarily be a high probability.

“I’m afraid of disappointing Instructor Hamm this time,” he knew that the instructor had high expectations towards Nonosiva.

When the blue line passed over his legs and moved closer to his abdomen and rose above his chest, Garen could see Aier baring his teeth and making funny faces at him from the side. Instructor Hamm had understood something from the female school doctor’s speech as a smile had appeared on his face.

Was there really going to be a surprise?

He had some doubts as this body had never undergone Secret Technique training. Although he was barely able to use certain techniques to release his destructive powers, this was still a regular human body at the end that could not even hear quiet words that were spoken from afar.

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