We were having a short break right now. We have been training Claude and by the evening she was becoming accustomed to the extent that she could fight alone. When I launched a double white sphere at the Mist race, Claude was able to kill it in one of her sword blows.
「Your movements have improved, Claude」
「Is….Is that so? Ehheheh」
「Yeah, yeah! You're so cool Claude! Just like a pretty boy♪」
Milly was letting out a carefree smile, and Claude could only smile back bitterly. It's not fair, when I call her a pretty boy, she always complains back…. When the Mist race disappear I see a high-level medium being dropped of its corpse.
「Ah, it dropped again. Zeph-kun」
「It drops so often doesn't it～♪ Can I also try using it?」
「It's still too early for Milly」
Whilst saying this, I picked up the high-rank medium and placed it into my pouch. White sphere and White crash requires the use of high grade mediums to cast, on top of this what I used was a white sphere which was amplified to double the strength using my time square (When using time square it costs two high-ranked mediums to cast the spell however, the levelling rate of my Spirit Magic is also doubled). The magical sword I created for Claude was using a mixture of White Shot and White Weapon. These two spells are only medium ranked spells so they didn't really have that much destructive power in them.
It was true that Spirit Magic is much more effective against the undead, however considering how skilled Milly was with Blue magic, her Blue Gale would probably be just as strong if not stronger than her using Spirit Magic for the first time. If she purposely uses the high costing mediums just to try things out when she can already substitute her damage with a more efficient magic, it would honestly be a waste of resources.
「What should we do guys? Should we head back home?」
We have been hunting for a long period of time now so it's probably about time to head back. The sky was also beginning to darken.
「That's true, we don't really have to push ourselves too hard」 (Milly Speaking)
「I am also a little tired」(Claude speaking)
This is because today, we made Claude stand in the vanguard position all day. On top of this both Milly and I toyed around with her quite a lot. When Claude turns her neck, a cracking sound could be heard. Milly stealthily closes behind Claude and creeps out her hand towards Claude's white shoulders and begins to give her a massage.
「Hyaaah!? Wha….What are you doing Milly-san!」
「Nfufu～♪ You are so stiff here aren't you〜?」
Claude was trying to escape from Milly by twisting and turning her body, but Milly was adamantly clinging on to her. I think she gave up on running away? But the moment she accepted the massage her face changed into one that seemed to feel good as she started to purr like a cat. Seeing this spectacle I think that Milly must be really good at giving massages....Maybe next time I will ask her to give me one as well. Whilst looking at the two girls playing around with each other, I chanted Scout Scope on myself.
Zeph Einstein
Level 39
「Red」Magical Value 30, Magical Limit 62
「Blue」Magical Value 27, Magical Limit 87
「Green」Magical Value 28, Magical Limit 99
「Sky」Magical Value 29, Magical Limit 89
「Spirit」Magical Value 25, Magical Limit 97
Magical Value 1420/1765
Moreover I managed to raise the level of my White Sphere to level 7 and the level of my White Crash to level 9. The amount of high-level mediums I used was approximately 450 pieces. The supplies I bought from the stalls have almost been used up. I am going to have to backorder some products from Lydia in a while. I should ask her about it when I get back home.
Nevertheless, I have been able to rapidly raise the levels of my spirit based magic considerably efficiently. When fighting against strong monsters and continuously shooting magic towards them, the levelling rate of spells increases quite a bit, however, when facing such strong monsters one must also be careful and prepare their defenses well, you can't just keep attacking blindly, therefore, having Claude as a vanguard this time is really convenient for the group. At the pace I am going, it doesn't seem that far before I can use the spell Summon Servant.
By the time we teleported away from the Wanaruta City Ruins and reached our town of Beruta, it was already night time.
「I have a little something to do, so can you guys go ahead and return to the inn first?」
「Nn, I understand. Let's go, Claude」
「Yes」
I parted with the two girls, and whilst making my way towards Lydia's store, I sent out a guild message towards her.
(Lydia are you free right now? I wanted to talk to you about the High-grade mediums….)
....I waited for a little while but there was no response. Maybe she was serving some important customers? She might be really busy right now, so I decided to just go to her store directly and see the situation. After buying around 200 high-grade mediums from the nearby stalls, I head into Lydia's store. Lydia was nowhere to be seen inside the store, instead her dad was coming to greet me.
「Hello」
「Oh, Zeph-kun, it's just you by yourself? Did you have something you wanted from Lydia?」
「Ahh, yeah」
「If you are looking for Lydia, she's at the back」
Saying this he pointed his thumb towards the back of the store.
「Can I go see her?」
「Yeah sure. By the way, has your relationship progressed with Lydia?」
「Of coursee nott?!」
「Hahaha, you sound so suspicious〜 are you telling the truth ?」
I suddenly remembered the fact that I thrust my hands into her clothes when we were at the Sun Ray Mountain range, and my face reddens a little. The father-san just looks at me whilst grinning. Surely, he didn't notice anything…..?
I was being teased as he led me into the backyard, and as I approached the place I heard a sound of dry wind *Swoosh*. A big tree grows in the backyard and many logs were wrapped in worn-out blankets as they hung around the surroundings of the big tree. What I saw there was Lydia who seemed to be dancing whilst striking and lunging at the logs. Lydia launched a kick towards the log which was suspended like a punching bag. I could hear the sounds of the log as it creaked from being kicked. The shaking log was hit twice, no three times with her fist, and after kicking it, the log dances in the air. Just as the log was about to swing back down she rotated her body and performed a revolving kick sending it flying again.
Gakon! A nice sound echoes whenever she kicks the log, she kicks it with such force that the log flies to the limit of the rope which was attached to the big tree.
「Fuui〜」
Lydia took a breather and wiped her sweat from her forehead, she had glistening skin and her hair was shaking buoyantly. I think she was in her training gear, because she was wearing a black shirt without a sleeve and short pants. You could see that she was training really hard as even from this distance, you could tell that both her pieces of clothing were drenched in sweat.
「That was splendid」
I was clapping my hands as I called out to Lydia whilst walking towards her…..
「Wha…..Why is Zeph-kun in here?!」
For some reason or other, Lydia was acting really strangely and she was moving backwards.
「Well, I tried to message you using the guild message but you didn't reply, so I thought to just visit you here....Did I come at a bad time?」
「It's not that you can't visit but….Mouu〜 Dad shouldn't bring you in here....It's really embarrassing to have you see me like this...」
Whilst she was grumbling to herself and muttering her own soliloquy, the glass next to her was taken and she greedily drank from it with a *gulp, gulp*.
「What do you need to feel embarrassed about? Aren't you always in a similar type of outfit?」
When I asked her in doubt, she replied in a seemingly unsatisfied tone.
「It's not about the clothes I'm wearing…..I just don't like being seen in this place! When I was a child, one of my friends saw me in here training and then they kept of making fun of me for it」
Is that why, she does the practice in her backyard?
「....I see, but I feel that you are really amazing for being able to stay disciplined and continue to train even after they made fun of you」
When I said this, Lydia's face looked really sweet.
「....That's true, father once told me that when the time comes, I would be able to protect my most precious baby with the strength, so day after day, I would continue to train even though it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears」
Lydia has her own natural affinity with being able to easily master physical arts, however, as expected from her she is not only talented, she also puts in the hard work that comes with it. As for me, I only train in sorcery right now, however, if I was able to learn physical arts, I would definitely be able to more efficiently use my magic in many different situations. I think that it might be a good idea if Lydia is willing to teach me.
「If it's alright with you, do you think that you could teach me some martial arts?」
「Eh? Zeph-kun, even though you are a magician, you want to learn martial arts?」
「Even for magicians, if they are able to fight in hand-to-hand combat, it would be a lot more efficient don't you think?」
I realized this fact after battling the Sunny Raven. Even when I was battling the Mist Race earlier, if only I could move a little faster, it's attacks wouldn't even be able to graze me.
「U〜nn....I think its fine but...Doesn't this mean that we will be training together? I'm a little embarrassed〜…..」
「I'm relying on you」
「...…I understand. Let's do it!」
「Thank you」
When I bowed and gave Lydia my thanks, she smiled bashfully as she laughed.