"Cough, cough, wow, I almost died!"
Yami leaned on the ground with his Nichirin Sword in the smoke and dust, coughing lightly.
Looking at the remaining defensive magic on his body, recalling the terrible impact just now, Yami couldn't help but feel a wave of fear in his heart, but his face was full of joy after the disaster.
Ais's conditioned reflex erupted, and the intensity was beyond imagination. If it wasn't for Riveria's timely application of defensive magic, he would not have been able to stand anymore.
Whether he would have died or not, Yami didn't know, but at least he would have been seriously injured. Maybe he would have lost a limb.
Now even sparring has become high-risk. This feeling of facing death was really uncomfortable!
"Sure enough, I can't be too arrogant, especially in battle. If I had known it earlier, I wouldn't have agreed."
Yami shook his head helplessly, stood up slowly, and stored the Nichirin sword in his inventory.
This kind of thing happens every time. This sparring had obviously come to an end. There was no need to continue, win or lose... it was not that important anymore.
Both Yami and Ais got what they wanted.
What's more, this sparring was not started for the sake of arguing about winning or losing.
"Ais!"
"Are you OK?"
The members of the Loki family rushed up directly, asking the blond girl with worried expressions.
This scene pulled Yami back from his contemplation. His mood, which had been calmed down after self-comfort, fell to the bottom again, and he felt a little bad.
He was the one who was almost killed, okay?
Ais didn't answer and looked past the people around her towards Yami with a rare worried look in her eyes.
Obviously, she also realized what she had just done.
…
"Hey, boy, are you okay? You almost scared me to death just now~"
With a faint smile on her face, Tsubaki pushed Yami's arm with his shoulder, "But you seem to have made a lot of money this time. Look how the 'Sword Princess' looks at you, her eyes full of worries, tsk, tsk, many relationships are fueled by sparks."
"You know, the 'Sword Princess' is the dream lover of many adventurers. If she falls in love with you, Orario will go crazy. It's just a pity. You are from our family."
"Captain, I didn't think you were the gossiping type."
Tsubaki's words made Yami roll his eyes, and now he was becoming increasingly ignorant of his familia captain.
His first impression of Tsubaki was obviously perfect, but as time went by, after getting to know her more, he realized that it was not what he had imagined.
In front of strangers, she looked superior, but when she was around her acquaintances, he didn't think she was this wild.
In a sense, getting along with people with this personality was very comfortable but also troublesome.
"Don't be shy, boy. What if she really falls in love with you? Then you will become the man who has made countless male adventurers heartbroken, and you will definitely become an after-dinner tea talk~"
"Hehe, you just want to watch me suffer, right? Forget about that kind of reputation. I can't bear it."
After all, Yami felt a little shudder when he thought about the gods giving him weird aliases.
He didn't want to wait until he leveled up to discuss the title. Because of the influence of these things, he would be given a title like 'Sword Princess's Favored' or 'Adventurer's Enemy.' He might as well just die!
Moreover, the current Ais didn't know what love between opposite sexes was.
These things would probably only become a burden for the blond girl who only wanted to become stronger.
"You're really boring. Can't you dream a little, boy!" Seeing that Yami didn't fall into her trap, she couldn't help but curl her lips.
Probably because of the influence of her main god, besides forging, Tsubaki also liked to have fun by teasing other people, but it was a pity that she failed.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't control my strength."
At this moment, Ais, who pushed through the crowd, walked quickly to Yami, apologizing with an apologetic face, and at the same time, there was a strong sense of guilt in her eyes.
If it wasn't for Riveria, she didn't know what consequences she would cause.
Fortunately, Yami was not hurt, making Ais feel less guilty.
"Although I really want to say it's okay, but the feeling of facing death makes me unable to lie to myself. I still have anger, but no one forced me to agree to spar with you right? All risks were taken by me myself.``"
"But it wasn't completely bad. At least it made me realize the gap between me and the first-class adventurers. I got something of value."
These words could only be regarded as forced smiles.
"sorry.…"
Ais repeated her apology again, but these words seemed a little bland.
After a little hesitation, the blond girl's voice sounded again, "What's the name of the sword technique you used just now? Why can you create flames?"
'In the end, this was what you wanted to ask about?' thought Yami.
Yami was a little dumbfounded. She was still concerned about him but suddenly changed the topic.
If he didn't know about Ais's personality, Yami would have regarded her as bipolar.
"Is it not convenient to say?"
Seeing that Yami didn't respond immediately, Ais also realized something, her expression suddenly dimmed, and she no longer had the same expression as before.
"No, it's not impossible to say. It's a sword technique called the Sun Breathing."
"To be precise, this is a way of assisting combat. It strengthens the cardiopulmonary function through a specific breathing method, allowing the blood to absorb a large amount of oxygen in a short period of time to greatly improve physical ability. What I showed before is the accompanying swordsmanship; the sword's flame was also produced by breathing."
With a succinct description, Yami explained about sun breathing. He was not worried about the problem of skill leakage.
Without a systematic study, it was undoubtedly a fantasy to figure out the mystery of the breathing techniques.
Rather than being randomly guessed by other adventurers, explaining his skill himself was better. At least he wouldn't have to worry about all kinds of gossip.
"It has to be a lie. Breathing creates fire? How does that work?"
The outspoken Tiona questioned directly, mainly because it was too unbelievable.
In fact, she was not the only one. The others were more or less surprised, including Tsubaki. This was the first time she had heard of this ability.
It was simple unbelievable, just like the first time she encountered magic. It was novel enough.
"If that's the case, if I can also learn Yami's Sun Breathing skill, wouldn't it be unnecessary to use a furnace for forging in the future?"
Tsubaki's eyes lit up suddenly.
"Eh..." Hearing this sentence, Yami felt a little disturbed. Why did his leader always have such strange ideas? Bring back that straightforward and admirable captain I first saw!
"This Sun Breathing, can you teach me? I can pay enough fees, or other conditions are fine, as long as I can do it."
"Ais!"
Riveria, on the side, hurriedly reminded her that this kind of request was rude.
If it was a member of the same family, then there was nothing wrong with it, but she was applying to learn from adventurers from other familia, and it was not ordinary training. Undoubtedly, they all wanted to learn this unique skill that had almost created another class itself.
The ability described by Yami could be used as the familia's foundation. How could it be taught to other familia?
However, Ais seemed to have not heard Riveria and still looked at Yami with burning eyes, hoping to get a response from him.
"Well, it's actually not such a great skill."
Fearful of being stared at by the blonde girl, Yami could only scratch his head and explain.
In comparison, whether it was the Mark or the transparent world, it was obviously more precious than the breathing method, but only in terms of preciousness. From the perspective of practicality, the popular breathing method would be more convenient.
"Actually, I think Miss Ais's own swordsmanship is enough. I can suppress you in swordsmanship because you rely too much on strength and speed. Although strength and speed are indeed more useful when facing monsters, the mastery of the skill cannot be ignored."
"Miss Ais, if you can improve your mastery and meet opponents of the same level, your chances of winning will definitely be greater."
Yami said it in a rather tactful way.
He didn't promise that he could do it, nor did he promise that he couldn't do it. Although the breathing method was not expensive, in his opinion, there was no reason to teach it to others.
Suppose they were the members of the Hephaestus family. In that case, Yami might not have been stingy if they had a good character and heart. Still, Ais was a member of the Loki family. The gap between the two was natural, so in the end, whether to teach the other party or not still needed to be considered.
In other words, at least enough benefits must be exchanged.
"I understand, but can't you teach me about the Sun Breathing?" Ais asked again, unwilling to give up.
A helpless smile appeared on Yami's face, and after a little thought, he said, "Give me some time to think about it, and when the Captain and I return to Orario, I will ask Hephaestus-sama to invite Loki-sama to clear up today's misunderstanding, and I will give you an answer at that time!"
"All right."
Although a little regretful, Ais still cheered up and nodded slightly.
The girl's heart was full of anticipation. She really wanted to learn more powerful skills from Yami. After all, Orario's gods may have great power, but their skills were not as good as their strength.
Even Ares, who had the title of "God of War," was no match for Ais with swordsmanship alone.
Therefore, if she could learn more powerful skills, Ais's strength would also strengthen, so the girl was so eager for Yami teaching.
However, it would take some time to achieve it.
After the sparring was over, Riveria and Tsubaki exchanged pleasantries, and then they left with the others.
The members of the Loki family were all stationed outside the town of Rivera, so the two sides did not take the same road. On the way back, only Yami and Tsubaki were left.
The sparring took too long, and the light released by the crystal was obviously brighter than before.
Simply put, the sunrise that belonged to the safe floor was about to appear.
"Hey, Yami, that's an opportunity to be alone with a beautiful girl. Are you really giving up like this? And you can also get a huge favor from the Loki family. There is no reason to refuse!"
"Captain, I haven't refused yet, and even if I agree, I'm not that desperate yet, okay?"
Having gradually adapted to Tsubaki's behavior, Yami didn't react much.
"Please let me think about it."
"Okay, anyway, it's your skill. I can't give too many suggestions. Just make your own decision. No matter the final result, Hephaestus-sama and I will support you."
"But can I learn your breathing method? I really want to try and forge without a furnace!"
"Although your perspective is novel, captain, if you want to learn, I have no problem. After all, you taught me my forging, so teaching you my breathing method is not a problem."
"That's really great. Let's hurry back to the workshop. I can't wait!"
Under Tsubaki's pull, Yami couldn't help but quicken his pace.
Under the gradually brightening sky, the two ran wantonly.
For two whole weeks, Yami and Tsubaki stayed on the safe floor.
Because they didn't have to worry about food and a place to live, they were not in a hurry to return to Orario and devoted themselves wholeheartedly to their current task.
Yami also really felt the earnestness of the adventurer himself.
He got up very early daily, learned forging with Tsubaki in the morning, and went to the sixteenth floor to level up in the afternoon. In fact, Yami was the one who was fighting, and Tsubaki was on the sidelines to keep him safe.
Of course, the teaching of the Sun Breathing was naturally indispensable during this period.
However, it might have been because of the matter of compatibility. Tsubaki had been unable to get started with Sun breathing. Therefore, Yami could only try to teach her the Flame breathing.
The compatibility between her and Flame breathing was very high, probably because Tsubaki was also a passionate person in her heart.
bang bang bang—
Three times in a row, three white rays of light flew out of the finished glyph simultaneously and directly hit the roaring Minotaur.
On his right arm, the last sword energy hit the delayed position of the bull monster.
The precise attack caused the Minotaur to fall directly to the ground, killing him on the spot.
However, the fall of a single Minotaur did not stop the progress of the Minotaurs behind. These monsters refreshed from the dungeon were of varying low intelligence.
Most of the human beings who attacked with a beast-like force would rush forward without hesitation, even if the difference in level was too large.
In a sense, the difference between monsters and humans was probably that they were still alive.
Borrowing the words of a big guy who once said.
'When any creature is attacked, it will feel pain and fear, thus revealing its flaws, but monsters will not feel that way.'
"It's a pity. If the Minotaur was a little smarter, it might have been able to bring a greater sense of pressure."
Yami waved the Nichirin sword indifferently while making an evaluation. This kind of creature was without much intelligence and would easily become angry due to provocation.
For the current him, he only needed to wave the blade in his hand, coupled with certain skills, and he could easily kill it.
A large number of Minotaurs fell one after another in front of him, but Yami's heart remained unmoved as if what he killed were just some insignificant creatures.
Perhaps, he had also become that kind of hard-hearted person!
When attacking a creature, some would stop attacking because they felt pity and sympathy, but some people didn't feel that way.
boom
With another wave of high-speed slash, the last Minotaur fell, and the ten Minotaurs that appeared in front of Yami were all cleaned up.
It was hard to believe that the person who did all this was just a level 1 adventurer.
After all, even when Ais was leveling up, she only gained enough great experience by defeating the infant dragons, but Yami defeated so many Minotaurs alone that it was hard to imagine.
How much experience had he accumulated? He also doesn't know. But it's definitely enough for him to upgrade to lvl 2.
After removing all the magic stones, the Minotaur's body also disappeared.
"Is it over already?"
"Yami, your improvement speed is terrifying, and you can easily handle so many Minotaurs. It seems that it's time to return to the ground for a status update."