Chapter 17: Regrouping

“Belmont.”

A dim black flash flickered through the forest.

When the darkness faded, Xia stepped out from within it.

“Finally changed back.”

He hadn’t expected the transformation effect for returning to his original form to be the complete opposite of transforming into Dolores.

Turning into Dolores released magic power like a giant flashbang.

But reverting back felt more like a black hole, frantically absorbing the surrounding mana particles.

Only…

Wasn’t the amount absorbed way too little?

The absorption looked incredibly intense, like a storm inhaling everything nearby, but after checking—

Only half his magic had recovered?

If this were an ordinary person’s mana pool, he might’ve been satisfied already.

But he was Xia.

His mana bar was already shorter than other people’s to begin with, and it only recovered halfway.

That was way too little.

Xia seriously suspected the Demon God had also secretly deducted ninety percent of his mana recovery.

He braced himself against a tree and recalled everything that had happened earlier, feeling mentally and physically exhausted.

Today, he had finally gotten a chance to level properly.

Yet before he could really start farming, he was forced to transform.

Then, while transformed at less than half condition, he had to fight the Shadow Demon.

And he couldn’t even beat the Shadow Demon.

His experience bar remained stuck just short of leveling up.

The entire process had basically been pure suffering.

At the end of the day, he was still too weak.

Both as himself and as Dolores.

Dolores had high stats, sure, but she was only a level 1 swordsman who had just started out.

Aside from basic attacks, she had practically no skills.

Not to mention sword aura—that was still a distant dream.

As for Xia’s original body…

Anyone who saw it would only shake their heads.

But the most ridiculous thing was still Philly’s appearance.

Why did a Philly always seem to spawn nearby whenever he transformed?

This wasn’t transformation at all.

It was clearly a Philly summoning device!

Philly’s yuri radar had completely locked onto Dolores already.

Xia even felt that if he transformed inside the Demon Realm, Philly might directly break through dimensions to find him.

Earlier, he had thought he could simply disappear afterward and be done with it.

But now that he thought about it carefully, how could he possibly avoid transforming forever in the future?

Forget it.

No point thinking about that right now.

He needed to quickly find somewhere to regroup with them.

Where should he wait?

Xia released the tree and carefully considered his options.

Originally, he had planned to run ahead of them.

But Dolores had already exhausted all her stamina and couldn’t run anymore.

His original body had terrible endurance and ran slowly too, so there was no way he could catch up.

Better head toward the canyon exit first.

If he stayed here too long and missed them somehow, that would be a disaster.

“Xia?”

“Xia?”

Delina called out several times, but there was no response.

“No answer…”

She bent over slightly, catching her breath.

Ever since parting ways with Dolores, she had been calling Xia’s name nonstop along the way.

“We’ve reached the end~”

Philly reminded her.

Delina looked up and saw there was no path ahead anymore.

They had reached the cliff wall.

“There’s no sign of Xia anywhere here…”

“How about we search over there next?”

Delina straightened herself and prepared to head deeper into the forest.

“Delina, we can’t keep searching.”

Philly suddenly stopped her.

“Why?”

Delina turned around toward Philly in confusion.

“If we waste any more time here, we won’t make tomorrow’s commission submission deadline.”

“But Xia…”

After hearing that, Delina unconsciously stepped forward.

“That Dolores girl’s commission was probably to clear this forest.”

“Now that it’s safe here, Xia probably won’t encounter any danger.”

Philly walked beside Delina, gently comforting her.

“He may have already left the forest and returned to the academy ahead of us.”

“Really?”

“Mm-hmm~ Xia isn’t the type to die so easily.”

“Maybe we’ll run into him at the canyon exit.”

Philly didn’t believe Xia would die here.

The Demon God residing inside Xia wouldn’t allow him to die that easily.

“I understand…”

“Let’s head back first.”

“I hope Xia is really alright.”

Delina bit her lip.

Thinking about the moment Xia pushed her out of the teleportation array filled her with guilt.

She looked back one more time toward the pitch-black forest before reluctantly following after Philly.

“Let’s go.”

The two of them walked out of the forest.

Delina pushed aside the bushes blocking the path and suddenly spotted a familiar black-haired boy sitting near the canyon entrance.

“Xia!”

She immediately ran over and began checking him all over, trying to see whether he had any injuries.

“Delina… ah, there’s no need. I wasn’t injured this time.”

Seeing Delina immediately begin her “routine inspection,” Xia hurriedly waved his hands.

Ever since going to that ruin together, Delina constantly checked him for injuries.

“Really? That’s good.”

After confirming Xia was unharmed, Delina finally relaxed.

Philly walked over as well.

Seeing that they really had encountered Xia at the canyon exit just like she predicted earlier, she didn’t seem surprised at all.

After reincarnating so many times, this kind of thing no longer felt unusual to her.

If anything, it only proved once again that her intuition was always accurate.

“We finally found you~ Xia~”

Philly walked up beside him and lowered her gaze toward him.

“Were you waiting here specifically for us?”

Looking at Philly’s smile, Xia knew this question was a test.

Fortunately, he had already prepared his explanation.

“Yeah.”

“I was originally planning to leave, but then I saw a female student come out from inside.”

“She said you two were searching for me in the forest and told me it’d be best to wait here.”

He pushed himself upright to stand, mentally preparing for the next question.

“Oh?”

“You met that girl?”

“Which direction did she go?”

Upon hearing that, Philly’s ahoge perked up as she stretched her neck and looked toward the outside of the canyon.

???

Xia instantly filled with question marks.

That’s your main concern?!

So your brain automatically filters out anything related to Dolores, huh?

“No idea.”

“I was exhausted, so I just sat here to rest.”

“I didn’t pay attention to where she went.”

Xia answered calmly.

“Really~?”

“A pretty girl like that, and you didn’t notice her?”

“How can I believe that~”

Philly turned around and stared directly at Xia.

“……”

Xia no longer wanted to talk to her.

“Now that everyone’s together, how are we supposed to get back?”

“This place seems pretty far from the city.”

Looking out across the endless grasslands ahead, Delina seemed somewhat lost.

Philly was just about to suggest that she and Delina head back first to submit the commission—

When she suddenly saw Xia pointing into the distance.

“There seems to be a carriage coming from over there.”

“It looks like it’s headed in the same direction as us.”

“Why don’t we ask whether they can give us a ride into the city?”

The two girls looked toward the direction Xia pointed.

Sure enough, a carriage was approaching them.

“That’s great! Let’s go ask them!”

Delina happily jogged a few steps toward the carriage before turning around and gesturing for them to follow.

Philly’s eyes widened slightly.

She had just been worrying about how to persuade Delina to abandon Xia and leave first.

And afterward, getting back in time would’ve been another huge issue.

She followed after Delina.

At this point, it genuinely felt like fortune itself was favoring her in this lifetime.

But behind her, Xia suddenly had a bad feeling.

Judging from Philly’s reaction…

It seemed like she had absolutely no idea this carriage existed.

Don’t tell me that across all her reincarnations, she never once rode this carriage?

Had she seriously been running back on foot every single time?