Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

[Mia's POV: ]

At first, this person, Ball, was no special student in any of our house member's eyes. Including mine. 

I only saw him as a good kid that wanted to help Captain Zoe for helping him with the entrance exam with anything he was capable of.

'We knew he admired her, however, that was it.'

There was nothing special about him. Nothing that was visible to any of us at the very least.

But then vice captain Lucifer chose him as one of the members that would take part in this alchemy competition and made all of us question his intentions.

'We thought he was nothing more than a big, healthy kid that was good at heart and a little dumb in head. And we continued thinking that until that one day he used his special absorption skill for the first time and, everything changed.'

For him and for all of us as well.

'He became someone the team had to rely on for a lot of things and, slowly but surely, that fat boy started turning into an attractive, muscular, healthy guy that many ladies in the school now wrote love letters to.'

But this guy was still the same boy that we knew from the start. Only his appearance had changed.

He was still kind of dumb in many ways, had little awareness of the special things that he was capable of and the powers that he had yet to realise he possessed.

'Out amazing Captain Zoe found this bastard and helped him when no one even knew of his existence and the Vice captain looked after him personally for a reason.' 

And now I can understand what the reason might have been for that.

"What do you want me to tell you, captain? Just as I said, I did what I needed to so that I can get out of all those uncles and grandpas.

They are asking for too much even though I said I don't want to do anything with them as politely as I could.

Cursing is bad or else I would have cursed at them as well! 

Did you know some of them were even touching me!"

He was still kind of dumb, but that is beside the point here.

"Just tell me what you did and what you saw after that. Tell me every. Single. Detail. You can remember. Everything."

"Whaaaaaat? Captain! I am tired-"

"Ball Marvin. Do you want dinner tonight or not?" Just this one threat from me was enough to make him put into the most worried state he could be in.

"O-of course I do!"

And since only Captain, vice captain, and I had the authority to actually starve him, this threat worked in all kinds of situations against him.

"Then start speaking. How did you do it? What did you see? What did you feel?"

His absorption skill wasn't simply about absorbing things and channelling them with his body. 

It was practically about 'absorption' itself.

Like, he can absorb anything and everything as long as he wished for it, or his skill's limitations allowed it.

'I remember the 'incident' that happened a few weeks before with our house members and the ones from Turtle defenders where vice captain told me something that still remains between a few of us.'

This bastard's unique skill is special and can do much more than absorbing things when 'he' wished for it himself.

No. 

The skill didn't really need him for anything in the first place. It is a passive skill that is active all the time instead of an active skill that needs a specific amount of energy to trigger.

'It is a skill that's active all the time, and even the vice captain realised it after this bastard had almost come back from the verge of death.'

And that was the very reason he started teaching him how to properly control this passive ability of his.

And he certainly had gained significant control over the skill in this short time. We were able to come all the way to the last round mostly thanks to his skill.

However, to do what he was saying was not just outside of his capabilities at the moment, he should not have been able to do it in the first place as a human.

"Ummm… so… where should I start? Hmmm… well, captain, the things is… I just thought about how it was so uncomfortable being surrounded by all those people and wanted to get out of there.

And then, I suddenly remembered the invisibility potion that the lady who was here before me made during the fourth round of the competition."

He was fidgeting his fingers nervously, but his eyes were still making an attempt to stay focused on mine. Which was a good sign in this case.

He understood this was no normal situation and that I wasn't playing around right now. 

This was serious. He understood that.

And it was surprising how he was inspired by Lady Ëthereal's invisibility potion. Such unique coincidence, hun?

"So… the lady's invisibility potion… I remembered you saying how special it was. That's how it was applied to the body instead of drinking…

You said it reflects the light and blocks the presence of the body matter itself so that one could not perceive it, so… so I thought… I thought about how I can also make my body disappear if I can absorb all the light that makes me visible, including all the things that give away my presence…

I don't really know how I did it exactly, but after this thought came to my mind, my vision blanched for a moment, and, I started seeing strange things along with everything else that was still there…"

He was sweating since just speaking with me like this was difficult for him.

'He's still the same boy he was weeks ago even if he might have changed significantly. This kind of pressure was not something he was familiar with just yet.'

But, he will learn it going forward. And he will become much more successful person than even me perhaps.

He IS that much special.

"It's a little difficult to describe what I saw… but as captain wants… I will do my best."

He was weak, even though he had strengths surpassing most normal humans. And he was dumb, even after practically absorbing more knowledge about many things including alchemy that I knew right now.

Even I had to rely on his knowledge when we were in the middle of the main production today. Was the greatest support unit any army could have.

But he was still timid to the responses of the world, unfamiliar with the things that went on around him in normal situations, and introverted despite his talents.

'It wasn't easy for him to sit before me and tell me all this, but he was still doing it. And that just shows how desperately he is trying his best.'

He is a good boy.

"The world there was a little greenish, like everything looked kind of greenish as if a green layer of something was painted on my eyes.

There were strange shapes beside people and people also has this strange light inside them was difficult to understand.

And, the light that I saw from here, captain, was the brightest of them all. Almost blinding."

What he was saying definitely made sense to me since I had heard something similar from vice captain when he was teaching me the Epistemology of Lilanka. 

"I didn't understand what that light was, but I just walked towards it. However, just when I was about to reach it, the light vanished. And I felt a thunderous pain throughout my body.

So much so that everything went back to normal the next minute and, when I came to my senses, perfectly fine and without any kind of pain anywhere, you were here. And I saw that Lady walking away from you…

I do not know what that light was, but the way that place felt was so chilly and weird I don't ever want to do it again!"

"And you shouldn't even try to, dumbass. Haaaa…"

This guy is unbelievable.

"Hmm? Captain? Do you know anything about that place? What did I do exactly?"

And he's even more unbelievable to ask that kind of question with an innocent and cute face like that.

'Why doesn't this guy have a lover yet? Is he also mentally unprepared to accept others?'

Many young noblewomen would love to have this cute guy as their partner, and there are many with unique preferences if he wasn't interested in women anymore as well.

He should just get over the past and live better.

"Of course I know, dummy. That place was another realm different from this one. And, simply speaking, you turned into a Spectre for a moment and were thrown out of that place since you didn't belong there.

Consider it your and Our luck that you didn't get lost, bastard. You would be a goner if it weren't for that light or whatever."

He would have definitely been lost to the flow of time and space in that realm and since mortals did not belong there according to the rules, he would be dead by now.

"Haaaaa… don't do that again, bastard. We still need you. All of Wisdom Phoenix does."

I hugged the cute bastard and slapped his back.

He even made me emotional with all this… he ruined my good mood!

"C-Captain?! W-w-what are you doing?! And what do you mean by spectator?!"

This dumb little thing… he's all shy and pink after only a hug.

'What's he gonna do if his partner turns out to be a naughty one?'

Ah, and, looks like he still doesn't understand.

"I didn't say spectator, you deaf little boy. I said Spectre. Ghost it means, phantoms as well. Technically the dead. 

You were in a place where no 'matter' exists. 

The realm of the dead, a place where the souls and energies that could not cross over to the Afterlife await their turn: Shadow Realm. 

A place where no unauthorized living shall trespass."

It is a dangerous place, the source of power for many who practise dark arts, and one of the ultimate power sources for those who could wield Shadows.

'But for those who couldn't, it's just a death sentence.'

He was lucky that he got out unharmed. That he followed that light…

Had he not done that, he would have faced beings that no sane human shall ever see if they wanted to keep their sanity intact. 

Never.

Ever.

Ever…