"If I had to judge, though I am more skilled in mana usage and swordsmanship. My raw power is actually 10 times lower than what it used to be." Osiric explained to me.
It was currently evening, we were walking around the carriage together, since G-rank+ adventurers, no, even high G-rank adventurers are actually able to walk for days without getting tired.
And due to that Dave had actually occupied all the space in the carriage, though we didn't mind it. We just wanted to do a chill quest for once.
"That's actually kinda high, considering that your skills are two times more powerful, heck, you even have more enhancement skills. But due to your stats being halved your power output is now 10 times lower." I said to him, I knew for a fact that stats were the least important variable in combat.
The most important were skills and such, but being 10 times weaker was actually surprising. But considering that skills, in the most basic form, were actually modifiers it wasn't.
"Yeah, I know right. Stats are the last thing you think about when you want to grow stronger." Osiric replied.
"Os, do you think you can beat one of us if you went all out?" Emma asked Osiric an interesting question, Osiric can actually fight against people stronger than him and win due to his natural talent and skill.
So I was very curious to find out if he can beat us even now, since right now - if we only count our combat prowess - we are all classed on the same class, low intermediate.
"I don't think I can even beat Emma right now, you guys would be very strong low intermediates; plus you both are even familiar against fighting me so I will pretty much lose immediately if I tried to fight against you two." Osiric answered calmly.
"Heh heh." I and Emma were very happy to find out that Osiric himself had said that he can't beat us now, our appraisal was very helpful in finding our enemies' skills and stats, but any professional fighter would have a better understanding of the enemy's power.
It was a truth we had learned two weeks ago when I and Emma were alone - due to Osiric having to run to the guild. We had found an orc, due to one of our quests needed us to kill some orcs. We decided the attack the orc - which we had already deemed to be weak by our appraisal.
The result was us almost getting killed if Osiric hadn't came. And even then Osiric had problems with it, and that time we were way weaker than Osiric, so we could only watch the fight - unlike now where we could easily help him out.
Thinking about it will give me nightmares so I quickly changed the topic to something trivial, we then kept on talking for an hour straight.
I spotted the entrance to the forest - to my surprise even faster than Osiric. The trees, the grass, the shrubs, even the insects gave off an eerie feeling. I experienced it when I fought Brad's entire party at the guild.
It was unholy magic. Unholy magic, like its name states, is unholy. It gives off an eerie feel to anyone who doesn't have an affinity with it. Its mainly used for casting curses and debuffing; its the opposite of holy magic.
Sadly, holy magic is actually better since it can all the things unholy magic can do - but to a lesser extent, when I mean mean lesser its only a 5% difference - and can even buff you. Its aura is also surprisingly chill compared to holy, since holy will keep on doing chip damage to your enemies, while unholy just gives you a weird feeling and higher chance to get debuffs and the also make them longer - which holy aura can do as well.
Actually, isn't holy the more unholier magic. Its kinda ironic.
"Os, don't you feel that holy is more unholier magic compared to unholy magic?" I asked him,
Osiric looked at me, and replied, "Yep, its true. You will be happier to fight a unholy magic user than a holy one due to how much damage the aura can do to you and also because you won't be able to heal. I think most adventurers think the same way as you. Actually," Osiric looked at Emma, "do you think your magic is unholy, Emma?"
"Yeah, I mean do you even know how much debuffs I am able to put on a monster, and those debuffs aren't just your weak debuffs. They will cripple the monster since they will get hurt easily, their wounds won't heal, and the wounds will start getting infected in a second after I or you guys injure the monster." Emma answered.
Then Dave looked at us, from his seat. Dave then said, "I want to keep going further, do you guys want to do it?"
We then, "politely" with a smiling face, answered, "No."
We didn't want to remember the 3 continuous all-nighters we had done for quests. And that we really loved relaxing and got new found appreciation for it at the spring.
...
It was night now, we and Dave were sitting around a camp fire I had prepared with my magic. Due to it the campfire was very comfortable. The fire mana radiating made Dave and I feel cozy, but even to the people without fire affinity the fire felt comfortable.
It was the result of my level 5 fire magic skill, I had used it a lot with my wind magic so they leveled to level 5. With fire and wind magic, my attacks were stronger and faster. I could even control the aoe a little. If I somehow had an awakened skill, then I can finally fulfil one of my dreams in this world, giving a middle finger to the conversion of energy.
With it, all my spells would cost way less than what they usually were. I actually even use it now, it lower the cost of my spells by 10%, at higher levels I can push it to its limit and only need 10% of the required mana to use my spells - and most, if not all of it, was due to me using magic to give the conversion a middle finger.
"So Dave, what are you delivering?" I asked him, a little curious to what could be so important that he could waste 10 gold coins to see it done, he was a low mid merchant.
"I am very sorry, it's not something I can share." Dave said as he looked at the fire, a little sad.
I didn't want to see him like that, due to his kindness and gentle nature. "Don't worry about it, I just wanted to ask." I answered cheerfully, trying my best to make sure he forgets it.
"Actually," Dave looked at me, "you are the party leader, right?" he asked me.
I wasn't surprised to think of me as the party leader as when we walk normally, Osiric and Emma usually follow behind me. And even when we go to a battle, Osiric will only be 2-5 m away from me.
"Yes, what do you want to ask. I can answer most of your questions?" I replied, I would be able to answer all of his questions if we hadn't found the katana, no, on an another thought I probably won't since there are too many embarrassing things, which I even want Emma to forget about. This includes my fetishes and my search history on my computer - there are more, but those are the most prominent one.
Heck, I won't even tell Osiric, no, Emma about it - though sadly due to that incident we both know each others' deep dark secrets. I am sure if either one of us even tries to disclose any information about it, we would probably kill each other. Even if Osiric, no, god himself tries to stop us I will kill her if she makes any of those things public. And if I can't I would probably kill myself, or be killed by the embarrassment.
"How long have you guys been adventurers? Your friend over there," he pointed to Osiric, "looks quite strong, and both of you as well have a strong presence - if I had to take a gamble probably F-rankers. You guys are also very close, I mean even an ignorant person would be able to see that you trust each other very much." Dave asked us politely.
I was happy that he didn't ask any weird questions, the question he asked was normal. If I was a normal person, I would ask us the same question as well.
F-rankers in this world were generally 20-25 years old, 5-10 years older than us. And the trust we had for each other could only be found with people who knew each other for a long time. For an average person in this world, we probably looked strange.
Though there were anomalies - who were more stupid than even us - called lord classers. They were the kind of people who had a 100% chance to reach S-rank or lord class.
They had over 200 stat points at level one and were blessed with blessings as strong as, or maybe even stronger than, Osiric without any curses and would only take only 1/10 of the normal experience - way higher than our 1/2 exp requirement - required to level up. They also gained +10-20 natural or passive stat growth and would get +20-40 stat points per level.
They also would get crazy high skill levels very quickly, just training for a day in a new skill - in which they had no talent - would level it to level 2, while with the one they specialized they would reach level 4. Lord classers were even stronger than otherworlders - the strongest race, I mean if you summoned a dinosaur from our world it would be stronger than even the strongest species of dragons. Though they were very rare, only 1 in about an octillion are lord classers.
This planet is actually very lucky to be blessed with 5 lord classers - the previous dragon lord, Lieus Vret Dragoras, the sword lord, Reins Furguld Lordsword, the magic lord, Alistair Almiest Lordmagic, the blacksmith lord, Dwarvus Drix Lordsmith, and finally, the human lord, Furmius Cross Mercxus Lordhuma I - the first king and the only retired king of Mercxus and the biggest reason its soo big.
"We haven't been adventuring for a long time, its only about 2 weeks at most. Though we still trust each other very much." I answered him politely, making sure he doesn't know that I am an otherworlder - since we will have to start explaining, or not but I don't want to take the risk, since I would have to explain why we didn't want money for the quest and why we "overpaid" for the sword.
"I think, you can attribute our trust to our personalities. We all have mostly the same personality." Osiric added, a little satisfied with himself.
"I think the same as well." Emma replied to Osiric.
"Oh," Dave looked a little surprised, "so you guys are Saint-classers?"
Saint-classers are the people who are guaranteed to reach B-rank or saint class, like its name states. They were rare, but not rare as grand saint or lord classers. Actually, all otherworlders are grand saint-classers, meaning we can reach A-rank at minimum - though it would take some years.
"I guess you can say that." I answered him.
We kept on talking about for sometimes, the question Dave asked were all question I could answer properly - though I still had to hide or not answer some of them properly. It would've made us more suspicious.
It was then Dave got tired, we didn't get tired because of the mana in our body and our power. Osiric, on the other hand, was starting to get tired; so we all planned to sleep.
I said that Dave could sleep at the front of the carriage, while we will sleep on the ground, Dave agreed.
Sleeping on the ground wasn't weird for us and didn't make us feel uncomfortable because we have done it many times two weeks ago. Especially since with my magic, I can make sure no insects or monsters come near us and make the surrounding clean - and also cozy for me and Dave.
We took out three sleeping bags, Osiric and Emma slept first - Emma could also spread out her mana to feel more comfortable, but she doesn't have enough control to do it like I have.
I then used my own mana and the mana from the atmosphere to cover the area in a dome that had a radius of 10m. The air felt clean, the temperature was just right - for everyone due to the fire and water mana, the ground and the trees felt wonderful as well.
Though, people other than Dave - who only felt the fire mana, couldn't fully enjoy this sensation. I then quickly slept, the cozy environment made me go to a deep slumber. I didn't worry about any look outs because of Osiric's natural senses, which - except his sight - were better than mine in every single way.
Osiric also had a better instinct and intuition that me, so we would be well aware if a monsters tries to attack the dome. And that if someone did try to pass the dome, I would be alerted as well.
...
It was about 12 o'clock, 4 hours after we had slept. We didn't get any monsters coming close to us, it was surprising considering our monster magnet - Osiric.
"Tyler wake up," Osiric tried to wake me up. I was in a deep sleep so it was hard to understand what he had just said, but my instincts told me to wake up now - I had learned to trust it 2 weeks ago.
So I woke up, "W-what happened," I asked him, barely making out sensible words. "Ogres." Osiric said, a little happy.
That one word, woke both me and Emma up. Ogres were the bane of our existence last two weeks ago. They had almost made us fail 4 quests, they were also very hard to kill, since in this world they were cousins of trolls - more accurately, lesser versions of them.
"Let's go and kill them." I "calmly" said to Osiric and Emma, they both agreed. We shared a common hatred for them, not as much as orcs, but still we hated them.
I then went to the front of the carriage and woke Dave up, "Hey Dave." I then explained him what's going on, he understood and just stayed in the dome.
This time, I used 500 mana to make a barrier. This barrier was stupid strong, even Osiric - before he got the sword - would have to use half his mana to even break it.
"Let's go." I smiled sinisterly as I thought about absolutely destroying them. Emma and Osiric smiled as well. If someone had came and seen us they would probably think we are weird, no, very weird.
Especially if that person's a G-ranker, an ogre was a hard monster for even high G-rankers; they actually were one of the strongest monster we can find in the low level of the Dark Forest.
We then ran, due to Osiric's stats being halved he had a hard time catching up to us. Though he could still run faster than us, but that would cost him mana; he didn't want to waste mana since all his attacks would use mana due to how powerful they were.
They were 100m away from us, I wasn't surprised that Osiric sensed when they were 100m away from us; he has even sensed a monster 1km away.
There were about 20 ogres, they would give about 1300 exp. With the experience we naturally gain for existing and training in the past week, I only needed 100 exp to level up. This would give me 2 levels.
"Osiric, why don't you go and fight them." I asked Osiric, since right now he was the weakest person on our party, due to us being a party and otherworlder we would get 100% of exp that he get, thought its not the same for him as he would only gain 30% of the total exp if he didn't contribute. Now that he needed the same amount of exp as us to level up, we would out level him pretty quickly.
"Ok, but you should also snipe some of them. I really want to sleep quickly because others are also coming, so let's finish this quick." Osiric said as he unsheathed his katana from his back, "Also, I won't last for long due to the mana consumption."
Osiric then dashed and in an instant, 3 ogres were immediately cut so many times that they couldn't be recognized at all.
If we had just came to this world, that would've been pretty repulsive for us, but we had experience dealing with them. And we enjoyed seeing them suffer, for the suffering they had caused us.
I then made a fire arrow, this fire arrow's power was incomparable to the one I had made at the guild test. This arrow was yellow in color, with some blue fire coming of it. It was due to me making the attack more efficient and powerful.
The power of fire magic also depended on its color like how it did back home, so yellow fire is stronger than orange, orange fire is stronger than red and so on. The heat radiating from it would burn the air, but with a little magic no one could feel the heat, except the orcs.
I then fired one, due to high amount of mana in it, it immediately burned an ogre.
"Gyaa!!" the ogre screamed on the top of its lungs, but still couldn't lose its focus from Osiric.
This sight made me realize that his new curses were double edged swords, since monsters would only focus on Osiric - I though about every scenario where it would be bad for us, so that I could find a solution.
But, everyone of them - unless it was something irregular - could easily get solved by us.
Then Emma also made a arrow, no, it looked more like a javelin. I was surprised to find that she could make it solid, its likely because of her mana weapon skill. The javelin gave of gold-yellow holy light.
She then fired it, the javelin-arrow was faster than even my fire arrow, no, way faster. My fire arrow moved at 400 km/h while hers moved at 2000 km/h. It was so fast that even Osiric - before he got the sword - would have trouble dodging it.
I looked at the battle field to see that 6 ogres were already dead, Osiric actually stood in there - because he could - and looked a little stupidified. Emma seeing Osiric looked smug.
"Well then look at this," I made a spear made of fire, I used fire and wind, then I made another spear of ice, another made from pure metal - I made it with earth magic. I used wind magic again on all of them and made them even faster.
Then I fired four of them at once, ogres ignored our attack as they attacked Osiric, Osiric beautifully blocked every single one of their attacks pretty easily. He even killed three ogres. With nine ogres killed, my spears landed.
They were going so fast, that even Osiric couldn't see them properly and only saw a blur, I mean they were 5 times faster than sound. It killed 5 ogres. I then looked at Emma, smug.
"That's cheating!" she complained, "You used 4 types of magic at the same time!" she pouted a little. It was amusing to see her like that.
Then with a large boom, Osiric killed every single ogre in a single attack. I leveled up 2 times, Emma as well, though Osiric only leveled one time.
I quickly put my all my stats in magic, increasing it by 52.
And that's how we killed the ogres.