The Magician of Sound

Ria Ross's visible disappointment also affected Kai. They could somehow understand the reason after her explanation. It could be said that the reality was different than their expectation, or at least, it wasn't possible to reach the expectation yet in this era and technology.

"Anyway, you already have an increase in sharpness. I've read the report about you fighting the turtle that led you to change with Michelle. With this Vibration Sword, you should be able to cut its shell… probably." Ria shrugged and rose from her seat, walking toward an alchemy table with many kinds of tubes containing weird-colored fluid.

Kai's eyes followed her, and a weird expression appeared on his face when she walked back and brought one of the tubes.

"And this is my real birthday present for you." Ria shoved a tube containing a blue liquid into Kai's hand.

"This is…" Kai looked at the small tube in his hand and furrowed his eyebrows, as he knew it was for him from the moment she picked it up.

"This is what I promised you back then." Ria smiled.

"Don't tell me…" Kai gasped while staring at Ria with a dumbfounded face. "You've finished it?"

"Hmph. Who do you think I am? As I said a few years ago, I'm going to give it my best for my only student. And naturally, I did." Ria made a smug smile.

"Uhm, thank you very much, Teacher." Kai bowed his head out of habit.

"Although it's been successfully created, I need to test it first." Ria waved her hand, telling him not to thank her yet.

"You're right. I was too excited earlier." Kai took a deep breath. "We need to test it first. How do we use it, Teacher? Knowing your skill, I'm fine with being the subject of the experiment."

"It's not an experiment. The first and the last thing I said to you as an experiment subject was when I injected the Lion blood inside you. I've already done the necessary experiment, and I just want to see the effects…"

"Yeah…" Kai nodded with a smile before asking, "So, what should I do? How do I use it?"

Ria paused for a few seconds and before saying, "First of all… strip!"

"Eh?" Kai blinked a few times, wondering if he heard it right. "Strip?"

"Ah. I used the wrong word." Ria waved her hand, apologizing to him.

"Right?" Kai nodded, followed by weird smiles from the others.

"I don't want you to strip, I want you to ejaculate and give me your sperm!" Ria Ross finally corrected herself. Her correction invited more misunderstandings.

Kai's face distorted as all the gratitudes he had on her vanished in a split second. "I'm leaving."

"Oi, oi. I want your sperm to see whether the medicine is effective or not. This is the reason why you never do the deed, right?" Ria quickly shouted as she watched Kai walk away.

Kai halted his steps before turning around with an annoyed face.

"What do you mean?" Ayaka was stupefied, confused by their discussion.

Michelle and Tasha exchanged looks and made a weird smile as they knew the reason.

Ria turned to Ayaka and started explaining. "I didn't tell you this from the beginning because the medicine is ready. The blood of magical beasts is far superior than you think. Their genes will be carried on to your child. That's why Kai doesn't want to do that. Even if you use a condom or something similar, there's still a chance for a child to be conceived."

Kai rolled his eyes before saying, "It was five years ago when you said this to me."

"Haha… At least we already have the solution. I want to have the last check of your sperm to make sure it's effective. Anyway, I should continue talking about the risk. When a child is born with one or both parents being Zodiacs, the child will carry the gene of the magical beasts. However, you need to know that this is reality, not fantasy.

"Like Kai's Vibration Sword, the child might have some animal features, but it won't be like cat ears or a tail. It would be worse like fur… Maybe your child will be covered in fur, or they might have paws instead of hands. When that time comes, will you be able to say you love the kid? It's easy to say that you will love them, but it will take a lot of determination to fulfill that love.

At that time, your kid might even be hated by others." Ria closed her eyes and sighed. "I should stop here."

Kai looked at the medicine in his hand before asking, "This medicine can make the animal gene dormant, right?"

"Yeah. Though, your partner will also need to take another medicine. The medicine will kill only the animal gene. For now, I only have the medicine to kill the Lion gene, and each Zodiac will need some tweaking to match their blood. In other words, Aries can't do the deed for the time being, but the other two can." Ria said nonchalantly.

"I see. How about the rest? Like Pisces and Sagittarius?" Kai asked.

"They're the same as you right now. Anyway, rather than talk about them, I need to talk about Ayaka first." Ria's expression turned serious as she called Ayaka by her name rather than her nickname. "The situation is more complicated on the female side, especially when you decide to have a kid.

Even if the gene has been successfully eliminated in the first phase, they would still need to take daily nutrients for the baby, and the gene might also come along at that time. This means, if you want to conceive a child, you'll need another medicine to make the magical beast gene dormant for at least a year."

Ayaka gasped as she never thought that far. She glanced at Kai's expression, wondering if he was mad because she turned into a Zodiac because of that.

Kai nodded and let out a relieved sigh. "I see. Teacher has everything covered."

"Of course. I needed to think about that as well before I turned her into a Zodiac." Ria snorted.

"Anyway, you can put your luggage here and stay for a few days. We can have the last test for the medicine before I give you a go." Ria smirked. "Hehe… little virgin boy."

Kai stared at her and let her say whatever she wanted only because of the medicine.

"So, do you want to test the medicine first? Or do you want to finish our talk first?" Ria asked.

Kai pondered for a moment before saying, "Let's talk first. There are a lot of things that we need to talk about."

"Sure. First of all, I want to know more about my student. What kind of magic are you researching right now?"

"Sound Levitation." Kai simply told her the topic.

"Oh. That's a pretty cool concept, but how are your ears?" Ria Ross only thought for a few seconds before she found out the weakness of the concept.

"It might be possible with Sound Insulation Magic, but if I use it continuously just to float in the air and observe my enemies, it's better to use my ears more than my eyes." Kai shrugged. "Though I admit, if I can move freely in the sky, it will be pretty useful."

"Move freely? Do you mean fly?" Ria asked.

"Yeah."

Ria looked down for a while before saying, "I can't really help you with sound concepts since those ears are the only ones that can help you understand sounds."

"Still, thanks. This Vibration Sword alone is enough for the time being. As for Sound Levitation, we'll see later." Kai nodded. "Now, how about we talk about the things I want to ask?"

"Right. We're done talking about the Vibration Sword, the medicine, and your magic. Now we should talk about that." Ria nodded. "As you know, my research is related to you, so all the animals in this will be related to strength, speed, instinct, and eyes. These are the four abilities you received from the Lion blood."

"Yeah. The eyes don't really stand out that much though. It only makes my eyes a bit better than normal humans. It's still far below Eagle eyes even though Lions have pretty good eyesight," said Kai while crossing his arms.

"Indeed. Ayaka has received the blood of a Wildebeest, which symbolizes speed, and the blood of a Leafcutter Ant, which symbolizes strength. And the animal instincts mixed together into one entity, thus I gave her the name of Aries," Ria explained. "I still need to register her identity as a Zodiac to the government, so they can give some power with that identity."

"Thank you, Teacher." Kai bowed his head.

"You better thank me. How about fighting me after this? I want to see your progress after a decade. Listening to your achievements on the battlefield makes me curious about your current prowess. You don't mind, right?" Ria Ross smiled, revealing her real intention once again.

He became speechless and looked down.

"Don't worry. We will only have one match, not a hundred."

With that assurance from Ria, Kai finally nodded. "All right. As long as it's only one match."

Michelle and Tasha were astonished while Ayaka was eager to see Kai's real prowess. All of them were looking forward to the fight.

"Let's talk about the raid mission then. I'm sure that as my disciple, you've gotten a pretty clear plan, right? How about you show it to me right now?" Ria smirked, changing the topic and planning to tease him about his plan.

Kai gulped down before walking toward her. "Fine."

"I hope you don't disappoint me too much, my beloved student."

The bar had been set as Kai handed her a few sheets of paper and began talking. "All right. First of all, we're going to talk about…"

Kai began his explanation.