The Author's POV

Manticore building, Friday

-Fwaaa!

As black smoke rose in the air and enveloped my room, I stared at my right hand where a slick black ring rested on my index finger. Its design was rather dull as it looked like any regular ring that could be found on the market, however, if one looked closely, one would be able to see a red hue pulsating from it.

Staring at the ring on my finger, I softly mumbled

"Nice..."

[Human, you better keep your promise]

'Yes'

Nodding my head, I once again looked at the ring on my finger as I curiously asked.

"How does it feel being a ring?"

[hmph, if not for your deal, I would've never done this. How humiliating]

Yes, the ring on my finger was in fact, Angelica. Since I couldn't bring Angelica with me in her cat form, I decided to make her turn into a ring.

The reason I asked her to be a ring was because her cat form would be a burden to me.

If a situation arose where I had to run away, Angelica wouldn't be able to catch up to me and Kevin as she couldn't use her powers lest she wanted to let the demons around us know of her presence...and considering the fact that she had no core in her body, the situation would not be good for both her and me.

That aside, the primary reason why I didn't want her to be exposed was because it would ruin my plans as well as give away my location as demons had a way to tell if another demon was near them.

...until the part of my plan that required for her to expose herself played out, she had to hide as a ring.

Only with her would everything that I had planned for the past two months come to fruition. Therefore, I couldn't stress enough how important it was for her to remain as a ring. If even a little detail of my plan went wrong the chances of me surviving were slim to none.

To be honest, I still preferred her cat form, however, this would do for now.

Prior to now, I had thought about turning her into a ring before, but after a bit of thinking, I decided against this idea as that would mean I would have to carry her with me at all times, including class...which would just be annoying.

Especially considering the fact that she tended to nag all the time.

...please no.

'I know you hate it, but please bear with it for a bit. I promise I'll hold my end of the deal'

[You better, since we've signed the mana contract, you must naturally hold onto the end of your deal, lest you wanted to die...]

'I guess that's true'

As I conversed with Angelica for a couple of minutes, after I explained everything that I wanted to tell her, I then proceeded to touch my waist where a thin black sword quietly rested.

Bleak Star

The new sword that I had ordered a month and a half ago with Amanda.

Because it was freshly crafted it only arrived a week ago and so I didn't have much time to play with it. But as soon as I laid my hands on the sword, I knew that it was a cut above the other swords that I had used before.

Especially with how it felt on the grip of my hand.

The sword was neither too thin nor too thick and only weighed around two kilograms. To me, this was practically nothing as I could curl 100kg dumbbells without any problems now.

From the weight to its design the sword was perfect.

Moreover, I especially liked its effect [Psyon coating] that allowed me to coat the sword with elemental psyons.

experiment with the sword, but after learning about psyons from Donna for the past few months, I found a

with wind psyons I could create electricity and thus in doing so, I found out that

with the Keiki style, would prove devastating as lightning was both strong and fast, which was

that focused on killing the

-Clank!

I was in the middle of admiring my sword, entering my room was Kevin's tired figure. Currently, his condition didn't look the best as he looked extremely tired and worn out. This was especially made apparent from the glaring

his condition, I couldn't help but

look a

at me,

been challenged every day by the exchange students, of course, I'd be

head, I gloated at

what happens when

but it had to

guess that was

he was publicly challenged, Kevin had no other option but to accept their challenge or the people from the other academies would think he was

all of the academies have been trying to

an annoying cycle that Kevin had to go through

getting challenged, but since Kevin had his own pride, he wouldn't stand for it and thus

not like he didn't benefit

partners during this time. The only problem was that most of them were weak as the truly strong

pity and sympathy. Taking a seat on the couch

anyone see you when

head, Kevin flatly

made sure that no one noticed me, cameras and instructors

that mean

at me, Kevin sighed and nodded his head. Extending his hand in my direction,

"Yeah...give it to me"

eyes I pretended to be confused

"Give what?"

in an

already told you beforehand, give me the D ranked

*Tsk*

took out a spherical object that pulsated a purple

give you my

"Give it"

of seconds, I tried to protest but after being cut off by Kevin's cold voice, I could only reluctantly

...goodbye 50+ million U

"Thanks"

the core in his hand for a couple of seconds, as he made sure that everything was sorted, turning his attention back to

"Are you ready?"

"Yeah..."

my head. Nodding his head back, just as Kevin was about to

leave, do you have at least a year's worth of

"Yes, I do"

head and showed

worth of supplies with me. With food not getting spoiled inside of dimensional storages I could pretty much store all the food that I wanted without worrying about it

the first dungeon fiasco, I made sure to always keep with me at least a couple of months

that much food, I had bought an extremely expensive dimensional bracelet that could hold 10x more than

clothes...basically anything

me as it was the best cheat I could have when traveling with Kevin. Just the book alone could increase the chances of my

that important that

of my thoughts, remembering

"What's the conversion rate?"

"one-ten"

Frowning, I carefully asked

every ten days we spend there

"Yes"