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Chapter 42: A Spar among Friends. [Release Version]
🕑 Added 2020-02-28 21:21:10 +0000 UTC<Multiple proficiency requirements fulfilled. [Dark Magic Lv. 6] [Unarmed Technique Lv. 2] [Sundering Enhancement Lv. 2] [Piercing Enhancement Lv. 2] [Prediction Lv. 6] [Tracking Lv. 3] [Night Vision Lv. 6] [Evasion Lv. 6] [Acrobatics Lv. 6] [Bleed Resistance Lv. 2] [Torpor Resistance Lv. 2] [Identify Lv. 6] gained>
<Multiple acquisition requirements fulfilled. [Unarmed Mastery Lv. 1] [Holy Resistance Lv. 1] [Water Resistance Lv. 1] acquired>
<Proficiency requirement fulfilled. [Chant Revocation Lv. 9] evolved into [Chant Revocation Lv. 10]. 50 SP remaining>
<Abilities acquired: [Just Blink] [Shadow Descent]>
<Spell acquired: [Shadow Snake]>
“Are you really sure about this, Saori?” a high-pitched voice asked me, skeptically.
“Of course, otherwise it would not be a fair fight, correct?” I responded to the girl’s question, unwaveringly requesting she not hold back her strength. “A week has gone by and the only thing you fought was a kobold, and you finished it off with [Fire]. Your hands are trembling, your eyes have grown sharper, and your tail is on constant alert!”
Two days have gone by since Hestia gained [Toxin Secretion] and Miss Tasianna bought the ice skills. We were currently standing in a large arena Hestia created using earth magic. I stood at one corner, staring at her scratching her messy hair.
I was currently pointing out the many symptoms of [Battle Frenzy] Hestia was showing since yesterday when she instantly killed a kobold who was trying to catch Tasianna as if she was a fly. The early signs of her body wanting to fight something were showing.
Initially, when she explained [Battle Frenzy] to me, I dismissed it as Hestia being impatient about me hoarding all the kills. Until I learned how this was an actual issue. From what I could see, it probably was her draconic instinct controlling her personality a bit, which made sense since she was just born as a dragon. Children could be rather energetic, you could say. As such, I had to take it seriously to help her feel at ease, so I asked her of any symptoms to help me identify them for her in the future.
Now, they were resurfacing. Constantly sharpening her claws to destress, her tail restlessly swinging around like a pendulum, and an overly energetic behavior as if she had to let steam out.
Like a certain coffee addicted student I had, she was showing signs of withdrawal. In this case, it was the lack of a good fight to unwind herself. My dear friend, Hestia, was extremely close to being inflicted by the status ailment [Battle Frenzy (Minor)].
“You know how dangerous my spells are,” she argued.
“You do not have to tell me twice, but this is a spar. Just make sure to not kill me, it is that easy~” I pinched my fingers together after giving that sarcastic remake, reminding her why we were doing this. “You are this close to having [Battle Frenzy] come active. We have not found anything which can fulfill your urge to fight.”
As promised, I made sure to control my urge to gain experience. Ever since I gained the power to fight by myself, I wanted to progress faster and faster. Strong enough so I didn’t have to rely on Hestia too much.
Unfortunately, before we gained these party bracelets, the only way for me to gain experience was to be the one to land the killing blow. Seeing as all I ever did in my second life was to scout monsters, my detection skills were steadily outpacing Hestia’s, allowing me to strike any prey down first.
It was inconsiderate and who knew what would happen if [Battle Frenzy] worsened and reached the moderate stage? To prevent that, we would hunt together when we weren’t using the idol concert strategy. However, a week had gone by since we fought those trolls and even stuff like the bears she killed after her toad incident weren’t worth her time, really. She was killing them far too fast.
If Hestia couldn’t get excited or engaged in a battle, then it wouldn’t satisfy her urges. If she wanted to earn experience, then all she needed to do was to activate [Spark Flame Veil] and jump into a horde of weak monsters. She could literally fall asleep and wake up unharmed with one or two level ups if she wanted to.
Hestia required stimulation from fighting strong opponents or through exciting hunts to keep herself stable. It was a problematic trait to have but living in a forest filled with monsters made it easy to manage… was what I imagined.
[“Alright, Miss Tasianna, please hide in this pocket,”] I called our fairy friend over.
[“M-Must I really do this, Madam Saori?”] She hesitantly flew onto my shoulder, worry and fear clearly shown on her face. [“I-I can’t imagine being able to survive Princess Hestia’s attacks.”]
I decided to put Tasianna’s newly found power to the test. When I agreed to have Tasianna join us, I knew she wasn't a fighter. She was a simple maid who served a royal family and barely ever experienced any real fighting.
Upon joining us, however, she had been steadily proving her determination to become stronger to me. Her goal was to protect Hestia, obviously, as a way to atone for her past failings. Although she taught me the basics of magic casting, she too was still a beginner. She had not neglected her magical training, once. Not to mention, she was also teaching us Peolynca’s lingua franca while also attempting to perform her duties as a maid.
The amount of work she had been doing was admirable. Her hardworking attitude was something I respected, and I was beginning to like Tasianna with each passing day. It went without saying how elated she was to learn she could buy [Ice Magic] and [Cryokinesis] from the Skill Shop.
According to my two magical companions, [Ice Magic] was a hybrid skill; a compound elemental magic similar to [Lava Magic], as Tasianna explained the technical term. It normally required the user to have [Wind Magic Lv. 10] and [Water Magic Lv. 10] for it to unlock in the first place, however, Tasianna somehow was able to skip that requirement entirely. None of us had an explanation, outside of Tasianna probably having an innate talent for ice magic, as the SP shop would translate affinity into the skills you could buy cheaply.
We also learned Hestia was extremely susceptible to ice spells, similar to how she had weaknesses to dark and water magic. Besides receiving more damage, when her body temperature would lower, her senses and movements would become duller than usual. She could mitigate it with [Body Temperature Control] but she needed to spend mana to use it.
There was no better opponent to test Tasianna’s newfound powers than Hestia. She gained a lot of levels from our power leveling and we needed to see how well we could fight together.
Name: Tasianna Marina Silverpond Level: 36 Race: Fairy
Age: 87 Years Job: Mage
Status: Health: 552/552 (+80) Mana: 2178/2178 (+427)
Strength: 65 (+23) Intelligence: 873 (+175)
Vitality: 75 (+39) Wisdom: 559 (+92)
Agility: 608 (+157) Stamina: 414/414 (+102)
Effects: None
Skill Points: 0
Skill: Magic skills and related:
[Fairy Magic] [Arcane Mind Lv. 6] [Ice Magic Lv. 2] (New)
[Water Magic Lv. 6] [Wind Magic Lv. 2] [Chant Revocation Lv. 4]
[Silent Casting Lv. 1] (New) [Mental Warfare Lv. 2]
Senses and movement skills:
[Stealth Lv. 2] (+1) [Enhanced Enemy Sense Lv. 2] [Prediction Lv. 1]
[Danger Perception Lv. 1] (New) [Enhanced Vision Lv. 1] (New)
[Night Vision Lv. 2] [Evasion Lv. 3] [Acrobatic Lv. 3]
[Flight Acceleration Lv. 1] (New) [Mid-Air Maneuvering Lv. 1] (New)
[Concentration Lv. 4]
Resistance:
[Physical Resistance Lv. 3] [Pain Resistance Lv. 3]
[Poison Resistance Lv. 1] (New) [Paralyzation Resistance Lv. 1] (New)
[Torpor Resistance Lv. 1] (New) [Mana Leak Resistance Lv. 1]
[Holy Resistance Lv. 1] (New) [Fire Resistance Lv. 1]
[Water Resistance Lv. 4] [Earth Resistance Lv. 2] (+1)
[Wind Resistance Lv. 2] [Dark Resistance Lv. 1] (New)
Stat growth and related:
[Enhanced Health Capacity Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Mana Growth Lv.´4]
[Enhanced Mana Capacity Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Intelligence Growth Lv. 4]
[Enhanced Intelligence Enforcement Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Wisdom Growth Lv. 4] (+1)
[Enhanced Wisdom Enforcement Lv. 1]
[Enhanced Agility Growth Lv. 4] (+1)
[Enhanced Agility Enforcement Lv. 2]
[Enhanced Stamina Growth Lv. 1] (New)
[Enhanced Stamina Enforcement Lv. 1] (New)
Others:
[Identify Lv. 2] (+1) [Cooking Lv. 1] (New)
[Royal Etiquette Lv. 4] [Cryokinesis] (New) [Telepathy]
Magic List: Custom spells:
[Create Water] [Greater Create Water]
Ice spells:
[Ice Spike] [Frozen Shield]
Water spells:
[Water Ball] [Water Wall] [Water Bolt] [Cleanse] [Protective Water]
[Droplet Torrent]
Wind spells:
[Wind Bullet] [Wind Cutter]
Title: [Hestia’s Retainer]
From the 2100 SP, she had available to spend, she spent 700 SP for [Cryokinesis] and 650 for [Ice Magic]. With the rest, she bought the other stat growth skills she still needed. However, as a fairy, her Health and Vitality growths were pretty abysmal. to begin with. Taking the "enforcement" skills for a flat increase in her stats were better than the “growth” ones.
Fairies only needed to prevent their Mana from dropping to zero to survive but under the influence of the System, once their Health dropped to zero, they would fall unconscious. It would be safer to have her Health become higher regardless of its niche use.
Speaking of limited usage, Tasianna chose to completely ignore her Strength stat. With Hestia and me around, it was unnecessary to increase her least used stat when she was a pure mage.
[“Alright, so what are the rules again?”] Hestia asked while shrugging her shoulders.
[“Everyone may be liberal with their skill and spell usage,”] I pointed a finger up. [“Of course, please be careful of inflicting lethal damage. Once your Health reaches 25% then you must forfeit the battle.”]
[“Yeah, thanks for the advantage,”] Hestia said sarcastically with a laugh.
I ignored her obvious concerns and continued raising my finger count from one to two, then to three, [“Your winning condition is to subdue both of us with that 25% Health rule or through submission. While ours is to steal your party bracelet.”]
Hestia glanced at the bracelet around her left wrist, now understanding the goal of this spar. [“Ahhh, I get it. In other words, instead of focusing on offense, you want me to concentrate on my defense.”]
I nodded. [“In the future, Miss Tasianna will be our supportive rearguard while you would switch from vanguard to midguard, depending on the situation. [Dark Magic] does not have enough offensive spells for me to be a pure mage. I have to be in the midst of a battle for my skill set to shine.”]
Aside from [Dark Tendrils] and [Shadow Clones], my skill and spell list were skewed towards infiltration and killing. When I was choosing my evolution choices, I had three choices I could have taken. Those choices were: [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo], [Young Fenrir], and [Young Guardian Inugami].
<Young Shadowstalker Cadejo: An immature black-furred wolf with eyes of blood red that appear like mist when they melt into the veil of the night. These wolf monsters use their extreme bloodlust to eviscerate any monsters that dare to challenge them. These wolves have no predators, as anything is prey when these monsters begin hunting. Rank C>
<Young Fenrir: An immature mystical wolf type monster that is a descendant of the wolf monster Belzac. Using their enhanced magical powers, they prey on their enemies with the tricks of the god of darkness and fangs of the goddess of monsters. Rank B>
<Young Guardian Inugami: An immature mystical wolf type monster that acts as a guardian for a single person. While fighting together with their “ward”, they gain enhanced abilities and parameters. Their abilities skyrocket when their “ward” is close to death, finally displaying all their destructive might. Rank C>
I had a hard time deciding on which evolution would benefit me the most even when I only had two real choices. Like Hestia, SP was more important to me than the extra stats I could have gotten with evolving into the rank B monster [Young Fenrir].
During the time when Hestia was recuperating after the troll battle, I had the time to look through the Skill Shop for some more skills. Unfortunately, there was nothing that immediately caught my eyes.
Compared to Hestia’s and Tasianna’s more "colorful" and varied skills, my status board was pretty simple. My magical potential was above average, but not enough for me to be compared to Hestia. I have been improving my magical skills, but I was still conflicted about buying the other elemental magic. I wasn’t the most flexible person, admittedly, so I thought a tighter, more focused set of skills would help me improve faster.
Buying [Space-Time Magic] further deteriorated my confidence as a magician. I had more practice and more mana, but it still was exhausting. Hestia made magic casting seem so easy; I couldn’t help but compare her with myself.
… But it wasn’t good to do so. My mother always told me how comparing oneself to others could be useful for motivation but doing it too often would only the opposite effect. Especially when it concerned money or status.
My family wasn’t wealthy, but my father’s profession as a firefighter did earn us enough money to enjoy our lives in an expensive city like Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city. We had comfortable lives, but it never was enough for a trip outside Japan, just because our medical bills and my tuition costs didn’t give us too many options.
That, unfortunately, changed when my father died during work. My parents did a terrible job with our savings and the survivor benefits we got only lasted for a few years. My mother became extremely depressed to the point her health deteriorated drastically. All of this happened while I was still in college, so not only did I have to juggle a side job with my studies, I also had to take care of my mother like a caretaker.
Until I got my position at Shirako High School, I couldn’t help but be envious of everybody without money and family problems. Money became the world to me the moment I realized I needed it for everything in my life. And unless I worked hard than everybody else, I would be stuck stressing out how to pay next month’s bill. How many times I would just randomly start crying at home, I didn’t know.
Comparing my mediocre magic abilities to Hestia's was similar to comparing my family's situation to a "normal" one. It just sounded like I wanted to sabotage myself here.
So, instead, I chose something I was good at. It wasn't my dream to be a teacher, but it was a stepping stone to fulfill my father's wish. I could earn good money by being an amazing teacher at a private high school where people with massive amounts of throw-away money would send their children.
I would slowly build up our savings through this job and when we had enough, then I would take a vacation and go around the world with my mother. We would take pictures, eat exotic food, and be happy for my father, who wasn’t there anymore.
I took these memories to heart, so instead of choosing magic, I chose to specialize myself completely with what my body was best suited for. I had one magic element I can use well, and I had skills that complemented it well. Too many options can be detrimental. From there, I knew what my path was from there on out.
Hestia’s tip was correct, “Why must we fight if we can take them out before we even engage in the first place?” Why must the mage be the bait, when the assassin can slay everything before it gets to that point.
Why should I support Hestia by defending her with [Young Guardian Inugami] when she can do it better? No, to protect my friend, I needed to specialize myself. Take the initiative with [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo] and shred any soul willing to threaten us before they could even move a muscle. If I was forced to fight, then I would choose the evolution most suited for it!
“Sanctuary!” Casting her [The Light] spell, a holy barrier encapsulated Hestia under its protective light. [“I guess we are also fighting in our humanized form, right? How about you turn back into your [Humanize Lv. 5] version, so you don’t have [Humanized (Moderate)]?”]
Hestia initially thought we would be fighting in our monster forms, and while I saw the importance of it, I knew I couldn’t contest with her, right now. I only evolved and I still needed some time to get used to my body. The goal here was to help Hestia calm down, while helping me spar a bit. Also, her dragon form was scary.
In addition, I also argued Hestia down by mentioning how we needed to learn how to fight as “humans.” We’ve only been fighting in our original forms up until now, but once we reached the elven kingdom, Saelariel, we needed to start learning how to fight in our humanized forms. The elves probably wouldn’t mind a dragon and wolf fighting, but to avoid scaring them, we needed to practice in these forms. Also, Hestia was an idol, so she had to appear cute.
[“Hey, that means my stats would be high… Well, I guess that would make it fairer,”] I said with exasperation. [“Fine, I lose too much mana in [Humanized Lv. 6]’s form anyway.”]
With that said, I transformed back into [Humanized Lv. 4]’s form. The edge of my vision registered black hair appearing around my eyes, growing long enough that it restricted my vision. The cold air assaulting my naked face suddenly disappeared, replaced by a cozy mantle of wolf hair.
<[Humanized (Minor)] inflicted on [Young Shadowstalker Cadejo, Saori Segawa]>
My body also started to transform, elongating my claws and strengthening my muscles. The fur on my body also started to grow, making it difficult to wear my dress at this point.
I chose this form as it was the only one where my mana regeneration could fully compensate for the mana cost of keeping [Humanize] active. Also, my [Humanized (Moderate)] degraded to [Humanized (Minor)], leaving me now with 2/3rd of my monster forms stats. I now had more Strength, Vitality, Wisdom, Agility, and Stamina than Hestia, however, by only a small amount.
In a sense, this would make the fight fairer for me, since Hestia was more than just stats. She had a lot of skills and spells, and she knew how to use them well. It would make the fight slightly harder for Hestia, but even that was good for our spar.
[“Alright, I’m ready,”] I stated while loosening my neck. [“You?”]
At that moment, eight magic circles appeared around Hestia’s silhouette, ready to shoot out holy, fire, earth, and wind spells at me. [“Ready.”]
[“Miss Tasianna, stick with me and follow our plan.”] My body tensed up after I saw Hestia’s smirk. [“Using [Telepathy] will use up our precious mana so you must react properly, despite my silence.”]
["M-Must my first battle really be against our Princess we swore to serve? Urghup, I-I understand. I will do my best,"] Tasianna replied with trembling hands.
[Hestia’s Retainer] validated our role as “servants” in the eye of the System but Hestia, the person we were supposed to serve, didn’t want us to treat her as our “master.” I might have teased her about it when we found out about it, but I would have hated it if our relationship turned around. She had similar worries.
We currently were at the phase where we could joke about it. We felt comfortable around each other and she knew I was only having fun whenever I pampered her. Maybe I got too used to it when I was still taking care of my mother.
Tasianna, on the other hand, understood my relationship with Hestia was just friends, but she still thought she and I had to live up to being “retainers.” She honestly thought we had to be attendants and couldn’t wire her mind around that fact. Hestia and I were indulging her, but we needed to find a way to persuade her to think otherwise.
It would take a while, that was clear. Tasianna grew up in a different environment and grew up with a submissive attitude. It was prudent to not force her to change too fast. Neither did we want her to force us to act how she would like us to.
[“Ahh, by Goddess Plesia… I swore to protect Princess Hestia, but now I must fight her. Just imagining hurting her makes me anxious.”] Similar to Hestia, Tasianna has a bad habit of overthinking things.
[“There is a saying from Earth I would like to use here, ‘If you have no confidence in life, you are twice defeated. With confidence, you have won even before you have started,’”] I said with a smile while my eyes were still glued to Hestia. [“It is a quote from a famous man from Earth’s history, Marcus Cicero. I like your optimism, Miss Tasianna, but if you believed we would heavily injure Hestia, then you should correct that thinking. Hestia is the one who has to hold back!”]
[“Y-Yes! I accept your wisdom with gratitude, Madam Saori!”] Tasianna tensed up from what I said.
Knowing Hestia, she wouldn’t treat this too seriously, otherwise, we really wouldn’t have even an inch of a chance here. This was the girl who could sweat lethal toxins, survive a point-blank mana cannon shot, and fought two giant C rank trolls simultaneously and won. She was firework of destructive spells, able to create bombs to demolish a cliffside.
While I did fight three trolls at once, I couldn’t have done it without Hestia’s fire support. I understood my limits very well. Even if Hestia were to hold back, my instincts were currently telling me this would be an uphill battle, no, that it would be better for me to run. I felt pretty nervous since I was going against what my body wanted to do.
However, this wasn’t the time to cower. This was my time to test myself against Hestia. Not to mention, sparring sounded like a good way to level up skills without overhunting things! If I couldn’t trust in my own strength, then what have I been doing for the last two months?
Asking to fight her when she was this close to awakening [Battle Frenzy] would be dangerous, and I would usually dissuade others from endangering themselves. However, I trusted she would be able to control herself, and without a bit of risk, nothing great could be achieved.
Did I just use two famous quotes in a span of a minute? Heh, the wisdom from books gained is a life-long possession, I said to myself while smiling.
I disconnected my telepathic link with Hestia and steeled my will.
Let me show you everything I learned, my friend!
