Chapter 139 (1/2)

Index

Editor: Anna

Proofreader: Xemul

“Are you sure about this, sir?”

“Yeah. With how we approach our fight now, I’m the only one dealing the finishing blows to the enemy monsters. That wouldn’t get you any EXP, you see. I haven’t done this before since your level was already ‘maxed out,’ but now… I say we must.”

“Whatever works to get your level catch up to mine, Master.”

Pochi said, arrogantly snickering up her nose to emphasize her point.

Normally she’d come off as sarcastic, but right now she was totally serious, and talked like that only to try and make things less awkward.

It’s been about half a day since we’d left Sodom together with Giorno and Lylia. On the way, we’d discovered a Wyvern nest, and decided to take a break here since it provided good shelter and concealment from other enemies.

Behind us was a cliff, while in front of us was all forest, save for a single narrow animal trail. Not many people used this path originally, but it seemed to have caught on with the adventurers as a shortcut to Brunnera.

Although the individual Wyverns here were C-ranked, their threat was comparable to Rank S when they formed a group, so the Adventurers’ Guild naturally classified their hunt requests accordingly.

I wasn’t so reckless as to take a break in such a dangerous place, of course, but just now, the original inhabitants had been instantly wiped out by Giorno, using his special skill, the Brave Blade.

Now that was what I would call a true slash. To my n.a.k.e.d eyes, it was a single horizontal sweep, but when I’d asked him for an explanation later, it turned out to be twelve perfectly timed shockwaves in extremely quick succession.

Sword wave techniques weren’t anything out of the ordinary, but I’d never seen one so powerful and with a range so wide.

Traditionally… by which I mean in the future, one would gather arcane energy on the blade, and then release it by swinging extremely quickly. The ‘gathering’ step was absolutely necessary.

However, I hadn’t even seen Giorno gathering the energy; only him unleashing the waves at blinding speed. He’d been using that super-powerful technique of his like it was nothing, making short work of everything in his way.

He’d told me that he had used this skill to take down the Kiryu as well, so now it makes sense how he was able to keep up with that Dragon, I suppose.

If I had to identify the major difference between this era’s melee combatants and my era’s warriors, aside from power levels, then it would be how arcane energy manipulation was incorporated into the combat form.

Warriors had low arcane energy stock, so they generally tried not to needlessly expend them throughout their fights.

Essentially, fighters like Bruce expended their arcane energy to invoke their special abilities, while Giorno expended his ‘during’ the abilities’ actions, ticking down with every movement while they were active.

The arcane energy manipulation methods in this time period were even more advanced than what mages in my time were capable of. It was quite understandable that the people here may have a far easier time in battle.

The latter method required one to have a high amount of arcane energy, of course. One of the many perks of being in a time when Limit Breakthrough was readily available, I suppose.

When Pochi had gone up 32 levels, I’d noticed how one’s rate of HP and MP growth was greatly increased once one’s level exceeded a hundred. The same could be observed from her physical performance, with remarkable improvements in attack power, speed, and reaction time.

As she was now, Pochi could hold her own against an S-ranked monster.

However, it came down to my magical attacks to sweep down hordes of monsters and finish off powerful ones.

Seeking more flexibility, I took this occasion to discuss with Pochi, and in the end, decided to override the Familiar Contract.

The process entailed adding a clause that equally distributed EXP gained in battle between us.

With it in effect, both Pochi and I would gain EXP regardless of who dealt the finishing blow to a monster.

When we’d departed from the Dungeon three years ago, I’d suggested implementing this at one point, with the intention to take advantage of Pochi’s level, but she’d naturally shot it down. Her reasoning was that it wouldn’t be good for me to gain levels without actual combat experience.

But that was no longer the case now. Both Pochi and I understood that, so when she asked if I was sure, I could say without a doubt that I was.

“-and that’s a wrap.”

“Oh? That didn’t take as long as I expected.”

“Well, it was pretty easy. All I needed to do was write over the Familiar Contract’s formula, then confirm it with your approval. Besides, I’m not enough of a fool to mess up this simple spell, you know.”

“Hey, you fool over there.”

Yes, fool here.

“What is it, Lylia?”

“Unless you lack common sense, you ought to remember not to release your arcane energy whenever not necessary. If there are monsters nearby, they may attack you, thinking you to be a weak power source.”

“H-huh? Do the monsters in this area have a higher sensitivity to arcane energy, or something?”

“They all do. Did you not hear the Nation’s announcement when the Devil King entered his Fetal Stage?”

“Ah, oh… right… hahaha…”

Seeing how clueless I was, Lylia heaved a sigh out of exasperation.

Strange – hers was clearly different from how Irene sighed at everything; her eyes and face were practically warped in disgust. Quite a surprise how such a beautiful Elf could emote this… prominently.