That night, as I was fully focused on reading the Foundation of Light Magic I had borrowed, Nicola suddenly burst into my room again with a loud "bang".
The scene was the same as yesterday's - she stumbled onto my bed.
"What's up? Was it difficult to separate the gases? You look completely exhausted." I put down my book and asked her expressionlessly.
"Separating gases was quite easy. After all, I'm already very skilled at it..." Nicola mumbled into my mattress.
"But after you guys left, Reed suddenly had the idea of getting me to try making a sword. That wore me out..."
"A sword?" I was puzzled. That's a weapon, isn't it? When we were at the library, Reed was still worrying about compressed gases. How did she suddenly decide to have Nicola make a sword?
Could it be that she saw the power of Nicola's Condensation Sword and wanted one for herself to play with?
But does Nicola even know how to make other weapons besides the Condensation Sword? I've never seen her create any other celestial weapons before.
"Oh forget it! Let's not talk about that..."
Nicola suddenly sat up and said seriously,
"Let's get to the point. The main reason why I'm cooperating with Reed's experiments is because I discovered that improving my control over the wind element has an amazing benefit."
"What benefit?" My interest was immediately piqued. I had been wondering why she suddenly became so enthusiastic. So she had an agenda all along.
"It's related to the Condensation Sword of course!" Nicola gave me a mysterious smile. Then she held out her palm.
"Remember the experiment we did before? At most, I could only summon one Condensation Sword. But after seeing my future self wield so many swords, I kept thinking of a way to do the same..."
"So after two days of training my control, I finally succeeded! Ta-da! Behold!"
She smugly summoned a Condensation Sword like she always does. Then without stopping, she summoned a second Condensation Sword!
"Although this is the limit of what I can do for now, it should be enough for the both of us."
"Amazing!" I took the two identical Condensation Swords from her and examined them repeatedly. I couldn't find any differences at all. But I still had to confirm,
"Did you test how sharp they are?"
"Of course I tested them! Same quality, same sharpness!"
"If one sword disappears, the other won't vanish along with it right?"
I still couldn't believe I could just easily obtain an extra celestial weapon like this. I kept trying to find the catch.
"I already considered that issue too. Unfortunately..." Nicola deliberately made a regretful face.
"No problems at all! See for yourself!"
As she said that, she pointed at the two Condensation Swords in my hands. Indeed, when one vanished, the other remained.
"In...Invincible!" I stuttered, feeling like I had reached the peak of my life. To finally have my own Condensation Sword!
And Nicola had the smugest look ever.
"Even if you can't use them, I can dual-wield them myself! Hahaha! Galaxy Explosion Slash! Here I come!"
"Don't be delusional..." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. But gaining an extra Condensation Sword was indeed a huge increase in our battle power. In the future, we could even try to give everyone including Cyra and Reed their sword. That would virtually make us untouchable!
Although I called Nicola delusional, I also couldn't help grinning excitedly at the thought.
"Let's go! Let's go test them out quickly!" I couldn't hold back my eagerness any longer. I grabbed the swords and rushed for the door, wanting to dash out. Come to think of it, the last time I used a Condensation Sword was when I first joined the Adventurers Guild. After that, I never really had the chance. It's been so long since I got to enjoy the thrill of 9999 damage per swing.
From now on, as long as I have the Condensation Sword in hand, I can look down on any monster below Rank 6. If that succubus Camille dares to bully me again, I'll hack her into eight hundred pieces!
The only slightly troublesome thing was that the Condensation Sword doesn't come with a sheathe, unlike normal swords. But no problem, that's what storage rings are for. I'll probably have to borrow Nicola's again later.
"Feliciana, wait for me!"
Seeing me dash off down the corridor in a blink, Nicola rushed to catch up from behind.
"I'll be at the training grounds!" I yelled back without stopping. I leapt out of the corridor window and flew off.
The training grounds had practice dummies I could use. Guess I'd have to get Elara to foot the bill...
Just as I happily wondered exactly how many pieces I should slice the dummy into, I suddenly felt my hand grow light. The Condensation Sword in my grasp had inexplicably vanished!
"..."
Could it be Nicola dispelled my weapon in annoyance when she couldn't catch up to me?
I stopped flying and hovered in midair, waiting quite a while before she finally flew over slowly.
"Why are you so slow?" I asked, slightly miffed. The training grounds were within Tivi Palace grounds. It was just a few steps away. How could she take so long even when flying?
"You didn't even shut your door. I helped you close it. And I'm in no rush to test the swords out. After all, I've used them countless times already. What, were you hoping we could do a twin-blade resonance?" Nicola grinned and retorted.
"Ew! What twin-blade resonance! Even if you're bored of using them, you didn't have to drag me down..." I glared at her.
"Hurry up and summon the Condensation Swords again! Too unfair."
"What happened to yours? Did you drop it somewhere?" Seeing my empty palm, Nicola's expression changed slightly as she glanced down at the ground below.
"It wasn't you who dispelled it?"
Seeing her reaction, my heart skipped a beat. I suddenly had a bad feeling.
"It disappeared? Vanished?" Hearing what I said, it seemed Nicola also realized something. She immediately summoned two more Condensation Swords in her palm again.
"Of course, it wasn't me! I never touched the one in your hand..."
Right after she said that the two newly summoned swords disappeared again.
"What happened? Could it be there's a time limit after exceeding one sword?"
Seeing that, my face changed slightly. How could the two swords that were just summoned vanish so quickly? The one in my hand earlier managed to last at least a few minutes!
"No, I stored them in the storage ring."
Realizing my misunderstanding, Nicola quickly clarified. Then her expression became serious again, and she sighed softly.
"As expected..."
"What's going on?"
I was rather confused, what does this have to do with the storage ring
"I didn't expect the Condensation Sword would have a distance limit..."
Saying so, Nicola summoned two Condensation Swords again before passing them and her storage ring to me.
"Try keeping them inside the storage ring, which should be like moving them very far away into a separate space.
"No way..."
Despite all my guesses, how did I miss this vital point...
Although I'd always doubted it was too easy to obtain such a powerful celestial weapon, I'd never imagined the catch would be a distance limit!
After placing both swords into the storage ring and closing then reopening the entrance, they predictably vanished entirely.
"Alright, looks like I won't be able to keep the Condensation Sword for an extended duration..."
Feeling rather discouraged, I returned Nicola's ring. I gave a helpless shrug then slowly flew back.
Come to think of it, a distance limit made perfect sense. After all, these were weapons personally created by Nicola. She could even remotely dispel them anytime. Naturally, there would have to be some special connection maintained between the creator and the weapon. On the flip side, having no distance constraint would be truly illogical.
"Hey! It's not that bad!"
Nicola hurriedly flew up to reassure me.
"There's a distance limit but as long as you don't stray far from me there's no issue right? We'll always be together!"
"That flaw is too obvious... At most, it probably works within a hundred meters. While fighting alongside each other there's no major problem. But if we separate even slightly, or enemies intentionally keep their distance, it'd be no different from being disarmed."
I glanced back at her and shook my head.
"And it's not like I can always remain by your side. Who knows if we might suddenly separate in the future? Besides, over-relying on these external things isn't good..."
Calming down, I realized I still had to rely on my ability to truly become strong.
"How could we separate!"
Hearing what I said, however, Nicola became agitated. She rushed forward to grab my arm.
"We crossed worlds together and barely survived! How could we easily go our ways? Have you forgotten? We're...aren't we good friends?"
"Why are you getting so emotional..." I was quite exasperated. I hadn't expected her to react so intensely. I could only gently persuade,
"I didn't say we must separate! Just that it's a possibility I brought up. After all, this world isn't peaceful like Earth. Dangerous magical beasts are everywhere. And we don't know what will happen in the future either. All we know for sure is that your future self turns out fine. But my fate is uncertain. Even if I don't get into trouble in the future, we might have gone our separate ways already. Am I right?"