Ryuma sat in the house cross-legged and eyes closed. The scene of his battle with Geneo and his men replaying through his head. No matter how much he thought about it, it's not as if he could just rush towards the Skylands and fight everybody. His face scrunched from the memory of the fight. He barely got out of that alive. Even with Aeragis inside him, nothing's changed. He was back at square one. What to do and where to go.
Obviously, he needed to increase his soul force. Let alone the fight with the priest, the spectral great ape as well almost busted him.
And that was only a level two.
There was no way he could keep living down here under these conditions. Travel was a life-or-death decision in this case. The only thing he could do realistically was to increase his soul force.
Amidst having his eyes closed, Ryuma felt a tiny weight descend upon his lap. He dropped a deep breath knowing who it was. "Maruna. I'm a little busy right now. Can we play some other time princess?" He asked.
"No fair. Maruna wants to play right now," She pouted.
"How about a little later. I have some work to do on my soul force and I promise I'll play later," He said picking her up and placing her off himself.
He went back to closing his eyes. Maruna folded her arms and looked away. She was obviously frustrated that he was too busy but there was nothing Ryuma could do.
He again felt the weight of the little girl sitting on his lap again. He sighed again. "Maruna…"
"Shhhh… Maruna's training just like big brother Ewin,"
Ryuma smiled. "Ok. Training takes time and patience," Ryuma let her sit there. So long as she wasn't moving and getting obstructive.
He inhaled and exhaled slowly, summoning his weapons, and whipping his hands above himself and laying them flat on the ground in front of them. He had to hold back his soul force even as he summoned his katanas. Not knowing how well the priest here could sense the activation of soul force, Ryuma made it an effort to only summon his katanas with as little soul force as possible. Right now, he couldn't even cut through water with how weak it was. They shouldn't be able to sense this.
"Wow! So pretty!" Maruna said. She put out her finger and touched the blade. Ryuma smiled at her amusement. "Can I make some?"
"No… I'm afraid you can't," Ryuma said. It was rare for people in the surface world to be able to use soul force. It'd be beyond shocking if she could. Not to mention dangerous for her. The last person that he knew was a surface dweller and could use soul force got executed.
Unbeknownst to his thoughts, Maruna puffed up her cheeks and narrowed her eyes. She got off him and faced him with a stern face. "Ewin is a liar. The fairy's say I can,"
{Fairy's?}
Ryuma looked around and saw nothing. "Fairy's? What Fairy's?"
Maruna stuck her tongue out and ran towards her room. Ryuma chuckled at her antics. She might be mad now, but she'll be back in ten minutes having forgotten about her anger. The reprieve would give him a break to focus.
He straightened himself and turned back towards his katanas. Looking at them, Ryuma noticed something different about them. Whereas before, they were straight like normal katanas.
This time, on the side, there were these markings on them. They were easy enough to read but what did they do and when did he get them?
Ryuma sat still and wracked his brain as to what could have happened. At the base, right after the guard of the black katana he could see the acronym LVL and a one by it. It was followed by a number.
{One-thousand-five-hundred-eighty-four.}
It was an out of place number that threw him off. What was this number doing on his weapon? Why this number specifically?
Ryuma sat and contemplated before turning his attention to his white blade. This one had similar markings. It also had LVL one at the base followed by a number. This time, the markings were dark to contrasts against the white katana's color.
{One-thousand-five-hundred-eighty-eight.}
The number was extremely close, but it was a different number. What did it mean? He looked further up the blade and saw another LVL on it, but this time it was two instead of one following.
{Three-hundred-ninety-nine.}
"That's weird… I'm only one down from four hundred," Ryuma said to himself. His eyes widened as he soon caught on to what these numbers were.
He switched back over towards his black blade and found the level two spot. Just as he thought, it displayed the number four hundred.
"I get it now!" Ryuma said with a little more excitement. "I only killed one spectral great ape, which was a level two apparition. These numbers represent the apparitions I kill. It's a countdown,"
Still… why did the count go towards the white blade and not the black one? Ryuma thought on it some more. Though the white blade is the only blade with a level two kill on it, the black had killed more of the level one monkeys that was in the vicinity by about four kills.
Thinking back to that day, the white blade was in his left hand, while the black one was in his right. Ryuma's known to be right handed and would naturally use the dominant hand to make a kill. If he was to go by that, then the count would go to the blade with the killing blow.
In the case of the level two, Ryuma clearly remembered how he killed the ape. He was spinning at such a high velocity, any one of those cuts could have caused the ape to die. It was luck of the draw it went towards the white one.
"So I have to clear the countdown," In order to do that, he has to increase the power of his soul force. Otherwise, fighting seven hundred and ninety-nine level two's was going to be such a bitch. No… at his current level that was a mere pipe dream.
"Wait a minute!" Ryuma said. Now that he thought about it, his weapons were duel weapons that didn't share the same experience. Didn't that mean that duel weapons took double the effort to complete than single weapons did?
He simply wanted to cry tears.
Then he thought about it some more. What happens to the blade after it's complete? He closed his eyes and thought back to that fight with Peko and Arvent. Both their weapons had an ability that was unique to them on it, despite both using a katana like him.
Do they get an ability like those two? Ryuma thought on it some more. If they don't share the same experience, then do they each get a unique ability? That was indeed a possibility. Maybe unless both were completed nothing would change and they'd get the same ability when it does. That too is a possibility.
Nonetheless, with his current level, there was no way he was going to complete this. Aside from the level one and two, the final one was a level three.
He's never even seen one yet, and already knows he can't win. He almost got wrecked by a level two, but to have to then turn around and fight fifty level threes for each blade…
Ryuma sucked his teeth. He was going to have to put off trying to upgrade his spirit weapons if it was like that, and focus on upgrading himself.
He folded his arms in frustration. Then it dawned on him. Something didn't add up. If Peko and Arvent had their blade awakened, wouldn't it mean they can fight on par with a level three? If that was the case, then by rights, Ryuma shouldn't be alive right now.
Or was that simply the benefit of being in a group as opposed to his solo adventure. The two of them were capable of getting boosted into a better blade.
In the end, even with their released blade, they still got killed by Ryuma's raw technique and skill. Now he was sure of it. Being in a group had benefits of unlocking the blade earlier, but at a personal cost of growth. If those two were in his position, they'd naturally have to train themselves to unlock their own blade. Regardless, Ryuma cursed his luck. Why didn't they teach any of this at the academy?
With the way things were going, he was going to have to learn everything by trial, error, and personal experience. It was a crappy way to learn when his life is on the line with every insight. Priest had enough time trying to survive the surface world with each other. Now he was expected to do even this?
He chuckled. Life truly was a cruel gesture.
Before he could find out more, his vision got entirely obstructed by darkness. He could feel stubby little hands covering his face.
"Guess who?" Maruna giggled at the prank she was pulling.
Ryuma smiled again. He was really being taken by a five year old. He couldn't help himself, she was just too adorable.
"Why I don't know, why don't we ask… THE TICKLE MONSTER!" He flipped her over and began bombarding her with tickles.