When Sian and Illianna returned to the inn at noon, Emily was sleeping. Since she still needed to rest after the treatment done in the magic formation, they decided not to wake her up for lunch. But just in case she woke up suddenly, they made the meal in the room.
Leaving the dirty dishes on the table, Sian approached the window while stretching out.
"I wish I could take a bath."
"I agree with you." Illianna's voice came from behind. "But this is the best inn in town and despite this here barely has a latrine, having a bathtub is already beyond the impossible."
"Why do you prefer to take a normal bath when you can use a convenient spell to clean yourself?" Ophilia asked Sian.
"Well, every time I clean myself with magic, I become odorless. It gives a strange feeling, so I prefer a normal bath, it makes me feel refreshed." Sian said as he headed towards his room.
As he was passing by Illianna, she held his shoulder.
"Where are you going?"
"Rest?"
"No, now we're going back to work."
"No, I'm going to take my noon nap first."
"You can do it at night, now we have to catch up on the delay in the construction schedule."
"But-"
"It was you who set such a small time limit, so don't complain."
Knowing he would not win Illianna with words, Sian simply gave up and followed her back to work.
***
Under the hot midday sun, Sian and Illianna were walking on the clay road toward the construction site.
"Did we really have to work this time of day?" Sian yawned.
"Do you really need to sleep at noon that much?" Illianna asked as she covered her head with a small white scarf.
"It's not exactly a necessity, but it's customary to take a nap after lunch, you know?"
"Being honest, there wasn't that much need for us to come at this hour. Although our schedule is behind schedule, we can make up that delay." Illianna said. "My skills and levels are rising faster than I anticipated."
"If that's all you wanted to say, we could talk to mental transmission magic."
"I prefer to talk normally, it's more comfortable than having your voice inside my head." Pausing briefly, Illianna looked at the scarce stone houses on either side of the street, only after confirming that no one was around she continued in a low voice. "Shortly after lunch, I went through a second bottleneck and reached level 20."
"Are you sure?" Sian cast a look of disbelief at her. "I didn't see you glowing like last time."
"I don't understand that either." She looked thoughtful. "But I believe the connection between us must have influenced it last time, since it had just been formed."
"Maybe that's right." Sian nodded as he put his hand over his eyes and stared at the blazing sun. "Can we go back now?"
"No, I'm not done yet." Illianna said. "Perhaps because we are connected by a mana bond, my skill was able to analyze and quantify your power into levels."
Sian got surprised. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, and you aren't the only one who is surprised." Illianna seemed to contain a slight expression of admiration on her face as she continued. "You are extremely strong!"
"I'm not as strong as you think." Sian shook his head. "It's just that you've only encountered weak people."
"No, it's just your common sense that is totally distorted." Illianna retorted.
"Maybe…" Sian shrugged. "But that doesn't change the fact that I need to get stronger."
"For what do you want so much power?"
"To return some of the beatings Ayze gave me. Compared to her, I'm still very weak." Sian clenched his fist. "If she fights for real, I can't last 2 minutes against her even using everything I have."
"If even you who are so powerful can't get to her feet, I wonder how monstrous she is..." Sian's words seemed to have made Illianna lost in thought.
"Hey, before I forget, what's my level?"
"196." She answered.
"Is that high or low?"
"Considering my father's level as a benchmark and the difficulty of leveling up, that's high, very high." With doubt all over her face, Illianna continued. "Or rather, what kind of training did you do to be able to get to this level?"
"Since I was 11 years old, Ayze was forcing me to fight monsters with my life on the line." Sian felt chills throughout his body as he remembered his years of training. "I always had to give my best every day just to survive, and every time I was on the verge of death, Ayze would show up to prevent me from knowing the afterlife."
"She's pretty ruthless..."
"You don't know anything." Sian said with a bitter expression. "Now that it is hard to find powerful monsters, she is the one who beats me until I am on the verge of death..."
"It is becoming increasingly clear why you are so cruel." Beneath her scarf, her eyes stared at Sian. "In the end, you are simply throwing out your accumulated frustration on others."
"That's why even though I'm grateful to her, I also want to return some of the beatings I've received." Sian said. "I'm curious about something, you said before that your father was the strongest person in Hosnein, what level was he at?"
"First of all, like yours, initially it was also impossible to see his level." Illianna said. "My father was very powerful, even by the standards set for heroic warriors. He probably didn't earn the title of legendary because he had a terrible relationship with Uncle Frank."
"You really like to stall to get to the point. Did you get to see his level or not?"
"I'm just contextualizing the situation so you can understand how out of the curve you are." Illianna showed a disgruntled expression. "And yes, after so many years of living with him, I could see his level, it was 93."
"My level is twice as high as his."
"It's not because your level is twice as high that you are twice as strong."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that it's much more than that." Illianna said. "If I take Cassianno as an example-"
"Who is that?"
"My older brother."
"The one who is in love with you?"
"Yes." She answered. "He is quite powerful even though he is young, so he has always been considered a genius. The moment he was about to receive the title of heroic warrior was when you stormed the mansion. I know that these classifications are mostly unreliable, and although Cassianno is a bastard with a sister complex, bestowing this title on him would not be undeserved. Even though he is hard-headed, he is somebody-"
"I don't need the biography of his life." Sian interrupted Illianna.
"Anyway, his level is 71. The difference between him and our father was 22 levels. But even with little difference, whenever they trained together, Cassianno was oppressed." As if remembering something, she added. "Even the head of the guard who was only 9 levels higher, could beat him easily."
"The combat experience says a lot." Sian said.
"I know, but it wasn't just a matter of combat experience, I think overall status was the most important. I believe the higher the level, the more glaring the difference between them, where even 1 level will make a difference." Looking thoughtful, she continued. "But of course, what I said is just guesswork and I'm also not including the skills, spells and stuff like that."
"While we're on the subject of levels, what is the average level of normal people?"
"Using the people in the capital of your duchy as a reference, the levels range from 1 to 4. Of course, that depends on the occupation of those people, such as those at levels 3 and 4 being mostly people who do heavy work." With a short pause, she continued. "In the case of soldiers, the levels also varied quite a bit, but they were mostly between 3 and 14."
"What else can you see about me?"
"Nothing." Illianna shook her head. "My skill couldn't even tell your gender."
"Was that all you had to say?"
"Yes." Illianna answered.
"Then, can we go back now?"
"No, since we're already here, let's get to work."
Looking at the huge white wall in front of him, Sian realized that they had already reached their destination. Sighing, Sian just followed Illianna inside.
Just as they passed through the gate, they spotted 3 people under a tree.
"Oh, that's Bardock and the other two." Sian recognized them. "These guys are really hardworking, they're already waiting for us here."
"It's not like they have a choice." Illianna said.
Without wasting any more time, Illianna quickly began giving instructions to everyone. Doing as he was told, Sian carefully raised the walls of the rooms on the second floor of the underground.
According to Illianna, this floor is where the warehouse will be located. This is where various products will be stored and conserved. Because of this, there were several rooms that were designed to fit the needs. Even though it was time-consuming and laborious, having Illianna's skill projecting it made everything easier and faster.
While they were immersed in their work, time passed quickly and the orange glow of the sun had already fallen on them, signaling that it was time to go home.