Chapter 18: First Day Of Travel
Chapter 18: First Day Of Travel
We left the city and walked to the north. To Mellian City over there. That city is close to mountain and ruins where many strong monsters resides. I thought that place would be ideal to find the monster I needed to defeat. And since it's close to the city, I can let Angela and Kayla rest there and wait for me at the city when I discover the monster so I can fight it alone.
"And why were we on foot? Why aren't we going with carriage?"
"In case I find the monster I need to fight with."
As I pondering about what to do? It comes to mind that it will be easy to introduce Victoria to them. And she might also have ancient knowledge of magic suited for the girls.
I looked around to find that there's only us three in the area, so I summoned the Black Slime.
"Victoria will tell you about it."
"Victoria? Who is she? Isn't she Blobby?"
"Victoria is Blobby's other personalities. She used to be human."
As I answered Angela's question, the Black Slime in my hand spoke.
"Are you sure it's fine to tell them about Aura and me?"
"It's fine. I trust them."
And even if they spread my secret, no one would believe them. For people in this world, Aura is like a myth or legend of the past. It's only a story in a children books.
Meanwhile, the girls looked at Victoria with surprise and shock on their faces.
"Blobby just spoke! I mean Victoria!"
"So you're Victoria. Nice to meet you."
"Yeah. Nice to finally able to talk with you. I already know about you as much as Roy does, so we no longer need any introduction. And now my personality able to surface for about one hour, I'll entertain you with a story of the type of strength Roy pursuit. If you have any question, you can save it for later, okay?"
Then the black slime I was holding jumped to Angela's hand. And I also sensed some monsters approaching so I readied my spear.
To make it easy to carry, I split the spear into half with the same length and carried them on my waist. I used my belt to hold them on my waist. Now since the monsters appeared, I took the spear and pour my magic on it to recover the spear back into one. Then I made a fighting stance as I hold the spear.
"There's monsters approaching. I'll take care of them all. The three of you should try to get along in this one hour, okay? If you still have other questions, I'll answer them after Victoria's gone."
Thus I went on my own to fight while protecting the three of them. Meanwhile Victoria told them how I got this strong.
The first monster that appeared is a wolf. Since it's also a good practice before I found the right monster, I decided to only use my Aura and spearmanship.
Let's start with a thrust attack!
As I ran forward and tried to pierce the wolf, the wolf dodged to the side easily. A weak monster able to dodge my attack? Well, considering that I'm lacking in the weapon mastery of spear, it's normal. And my choice of attack is thrust which is easy to dodge. Then I should thrust faster.
My first living target practice while using a spear able to doge most of my attacks. It's annoying! I know that thrusting attack is easy to dodge than slashing attack, but this wolf just dodged all my attack like that? I'm annoyed with my own weakness. Then I tried to add more physical strength rather than just weapon mastery, and my speed went up a level. The wolf went down in one thrust soon after I pierced its belly.
"Fuck! I'm too weak! With this level, I can only always rely on Blobby or Victoria! If my target is too strong, there's no chance for me to defeat it!"
After venting my anger, I practiced swinging the spear for a bit before the next monster appear. Angela and Kayla were still listening closely to Victoria while their eyes locked at me.
"I thought he could defeat a wolf in no time. How did he get weaker?"
It was Kayla who seem confused seeing me grow weaker. Then Victoria answered her.
"He's not getting weaker. He just realized his own weakness. That's why he is angry at himself. Usually, he would attack without any technique at all. He would rely on his exceptional strength, and the unpredictability of his ever changing weapon which is me. Now he has to defeat a monster alone without relying on someone else's help and without magic. He can't even use me so his only weapon is that spear and the several knives hidden under his jacket. He's smart enough to know by now that if he could master more weapon, he will undoubtedly got much stronger. And the first weapon he needed to master is a spear."
I can barely hear Victoria said that in between my spear practice and soon, I will see another monster appear. It was another wolf.
I put my stance again but this time I lowered my spear so that the tip is facing the wolf's vision. This way, if I thrust my spear, as long as I did it properly in a straight line, the enemy will misjudge the distance. And sure enough, the wolf died in one shot this time.
The sensation of attacking with technique rather than attacking wildly like I did before is vastly different. This is Just like Victoria said. If I could master at least one weapon, I will be much stronger than if I can use many kinds of weapon. The biggest different is whether I could master a weapon, or just use a weapon. Anyone can use a weapon, but not many can master it.
Then what if I could master a lot type of weapons? I smiled slightly with that thought. But before that happen, I need to at least earn spearmanship properly first. This is the weapon I choose to defeat whatever monster I have to face. Even if I found this spear by chance, this is still something I have chosen.
After I defeat the second wolf, seems like other monster that's approaching us noticed it. They were probably weaker than wolves so they choose to retreat.
"Alright, let's move forward! We need at least 2 days if we move at this pace to arrive at Mellian City. The sun is still bright so let's move forward and look for a good place to rest before the sun set."
I lead the way and the two girls and a slime following me behind.
One hour quickly pass by and Victoria can't resurface anymore. It's just Blobby jiggling right now without any intellect at all. Only following my order. Meanwhile, the two girls who heard about Victoria and Aura for the first time, haven't asked any question at all. They must have a lot to ask me but seems like they choose to do it later.
"The two of you have no question to me?"
"A lot! But we can ask you later. You need to improve your weapon mastery first, right? Then we will just ask you during dinner after we set up our camp."
"Well, thanks for your consideration. If you want to fight then just tell me."
"No need. We have learn how to increase our magic faster without any resources from Victoria. We're doing it at the moment. I'm practicing by lighting flames on each tips of my fingers."
Angela showed me that there are fire on the tip of her index finger and middle finger of her right hand.
"I can only light two at once. Victoria said that an average beginner level mage can do this. If I can just lit another flame on my finger, I can defeat every mage under intermediate level."
"As for me, I'm practicing healing magic. I keep using it lightly so only the spot I aim will be healed. I'm using it on my legs so I will tire less during the walk."
This time, Kayla spoke. So that's why I sense something from her feet. That was healing magic that she keeps using.
"Won't you be tired of exhausting your magic?"
"Maybe. But Victoria said it will be fine since you will defeat any monsters we see. Since that's the case, I'm practicing right now."
"Well, as long as you two still have some strength for the night watch, its fine. We will walk for a bit before we found a good spot for camping. Let's go."
We continued our journey. There's no more words spoken among us. Each of us is too busy with our own matter. Angela and Kayla is concentrating on their magic practice, while I killed monsters to improve my spear mastery.
Soon enough we found a good spot to rest and we set up our camp there. Because we're practicing as we walked, our pace slowed down. Seems like we will reach the city in three or four days instead of two days. But it's fine as long as we're growing stronger.