Billy closed his right eye out of reflex and clenched his teeth due to the pain in his arms. He prepared to block another attack, but nothing came. Natalie's special moves were just two quick hits. The first was to force the target to block the attack, and the second was to destroy the block.
"Tsk… I failed, huh," Natalie said.
In the end, it seemed that Natalie had planned to either forcefully destroy Billy's block or destroy his weapon. Neither of those was achieved… for the first time. They realized that those stone materials were a lot sturdier than expected. However, Billy could see that his weapon lost half of its durability… that attack certainly was on the level of Light Spear.
"Not bad, I guess," Billy said while massaging his hands. "It isn't flashy, but it is highly effective. As long as you can attack like that with all stances, your dual wielding style will be fearsome."
"That will take too much time… I would rather keep improving the same moves over and over again," Natalie said.
That is why kids will be kids… she doesn't realize that by training that technique and using it in all types of attacks, her strength and speed will increase naturally, making all of them evolve. What is the point of relying on a single move that can be sealed or read after being used so many times? Still, Natalie was a child that could only understand such a thing the hard way, so Billy showed that he could do many things when he knew that the attack was coming. Repelling with Light Spear, repelling with sole quick thrust attacks. Stepping backward… Eventually, Natalie began to train that technique with different combinations.
At first, Billy thought that it was only a matter of time before Leo could appear and make noise due to Lily. Still, after several weeks, Billy assumed that it was no longer a problem. During that time, Billy also learned Block Mastery, and he taught Alexander how to do the same. The trick was simple. He just had to repel an attack with the same level of strength in order not to have his stance broken.
The next day, Drew praised him for learning that by himself. Even though Drew wasn't surprised by his son's learning speed at that point in time. He came up with the blocking technique to face the stone Bullets of the elementalists. Still, only a few warriors could put it into good use.
"I have a lot of skills and even though I am practicing them daily, I still am not leveling up like before even though all my mana is being used to that," Billy thought. "I need a new skill to increase my mana recovery, Zen may do that, but I don't know how it works… so, I guess my best option is to level up some equipment and see what happens."
Billy was helping his home with a part of his money. However, he still had been saving quite a lot… before the elementalists could come, he needed to discover more of his options to grow stronger. When Billy had the chance, he asked his father to let him pay a visit to John's shop. Aside from ordinary weapons and armor, he also had accessories, line rings, and amulets. Even though they were pretty old… the city wasn't that rich, after all. There was no way its inhabitants would waste money with that kind of thing.
"It has been a while, kid," John said. "I heard a few stories about your accomplishments."
"Are you going to sell me your wares for a cheaper price because of that?" Billy asked.
"Of course not," John said as a matter of fact.
Well, Billy wasn't expecting that anyway, but it didn't hurt to try. Nevertheless, he began to check the old items of the shop, the rings, amulets… Billy didn't remember seeing bracers before, but he found them now, and they seemed pretty useful and powerful.
Iron Bracers - Lv 0 (0/10)
Endurance + 3, Strength + 1
Durability: 10/10
Fighting with those alone didn't seem like a good idea, even though it seemed cool to fight while fists alone. Nevertheless, Billy checked the rings and amulets and confirmed that they increased his magic by two and five points. They weren't just made for appearance purposes. They existed because they could mage. In the end, Billy decided to buy one of each.
"I didn't think your tribe would be into that kind of thing," John said.
"It is a gift for someone," Billy lied.
John was a businessman, so he didn't try to pry any further. Regardless, the ring cost thirty copper coins, and the amulet cost one silver coin. Speaking of which, silver coins were equal to one hundred copper coins. So, Billy spent in a single time almost one month of his entire salary… he would feel truly depressed if they didn't give him what he wanted.
"I suppose I can make money if I resell weapons after making them with Earth Manipulation and making them level up, but people would wonder how I created them and how they are stronger than the others," Billy thought.
Without wasting time, Billy began to infuse his mana into the ring. He did that for several days while making use of Meditation to make his mana recover faster. However, even when the ring reached level ten and had fifty skill points to exchange for effects, Billy didn't find what he wanted. Aside from the usual bonus in HP, MP, and SP, Billy only found effects that granted elemental bonuses to increase the power of attacks… Billy sighed so much after such a waste of time.