[You have risen to level 23!]
"Sigh…" Zinon shook her head at the sight before her.
Kayla, the girl who until recently had attempted suicide, was now bathed in blood in the middle of monster corpses, her recent hunt
"Zinon, the synergy between skills is incredible!" Kayla shouted excitedly as she approached. Hunting had become incredibly easy since his abilities synergized!
"Obviously it's incredible, for your abilities to have enough compatibility to create a synergy is something incredibly rare." Zinon was envious of Kayla. Her first synergy occurred when she had almost reached her third-class promotion...
Instead, Kayla hadn't even gotten a class and she already had one...the difference was like heaven and earth.
"Hehe, I guess I'm a genius then" Kayla puffed out her chest with pride. She loved the feeling of Zinon praising her skills!
Zinon realized that, but she would rather inflate the girl's ego than see her depressed...
"Hahaha I guess so…" Zinon smiled. "In fact, your synergy is quite unique. Normally people achieve synergies that increase their combat ability against an enemy or improve their destructive capacity."
"Instead, your synergy, the battle path, is only useful in large-scale battles." Zinon made a pretty accurate analysis as he wiped the blood off Kayla's face with a tissue.
"Yes... This synergy only helps me more easily analyze the movements of several targets at the same time and based on the experience with weapons of my one-star skill and my personal talent, form the best plan of action than ever it would have occurred to me in an instant" Kayla nodded, her face now bloodless.
They both continued to talk about the uses of her synergy as they continued their journey. This is how the last four days had passed since Kayla faced the herd of giant rabbits with horns.
Their main topic of conversation these days had been Kayla's synergy. They both experimented a little with synergy, trying to discover its principles. Since, like innate abilities, these did not have an information window to know what they did.
And what they tried to discover the most was...
"But hey, it sucks that my synergy only activates when I face more than five enemies!" Kayla complained. The condition for activating his synergy was very strict in his opinion!
Yes, the synergies had conditions to be activated!
That was the main difference between synergies and normal abilities. Synergies only existed thanks to two or more skills working at the same time, creating a more powerful and even new effect of the skills, which seemed to have no relation to the original skills. It was obvious that something so strong was going to have restrictions.
"Spoiled brat, compared to other conditions, this is relatively simple…" Zinon wanted to strangle this senseless brat. She had been given an inch and now she wanted a mile!
"You know, creating a synergy is not as simple as using two skills at the same time!" Zinon hit Kayla's forehead. "Synergy is only possible when two highly compatible abilities go beyond their original purpose under your guidance, whether intentional or not."
"And that's why there are those strange conditions, to try to replicate the conditions in which you originally created the synergy" Zinon exhaled. It had been a while since she had talked about the mechanism behind synergies.
"Err...yeah, ok, I get it." Kayla nodded, a large bead of sweat running down her face. Although short, what Zinon had said had been complicated as shit!
"Sigh...ok, to put it simply, those conditions exist because you are not good enough at controlling your abilities." Zinon sighed. The synergies were too complicated for anyone to understand right away.
"Ah ok, then I just have to practice so I don't have to fight five opponents at once to use battle path!?" A light bulb lit up above Kayla's head.
"Haha, if we take several hours away from the explanation, then yes. But come on, there are only less than four days left to get to the city" Zinon smiled and moved forward, somewhat in a hurry.
"Uh, sure" Kayla nodded and followed her as she looked at her, worried. She had noticed that Zinon had been more alert these past few days. As if she was waiting for something...
What would have happened for someone like her to be alert?... Kayla couldn't be sure, but she had a bad feeling...
They both continued moving forward, but before long Zinon increased the pace of her walk to a run.
"Hey Zinon! Why are we running!?" Kayla chased after Zinon with some difficulty.
"Don't ask and take this." Zinon didn't turn around as he handed Kayla a bag. Kayla tried to deny it, but a withering look from Zinon made her obey.
"Hey, why are you giving me all this!?" Kayla asked urgently. His bad feeling was increasing.
"You'll find out soon, so don't worry." Zinon shook his head and gave some instructions to Kayla. "Listen well, since your survival depends on this, in a few days you will arrive at the city of Aelton, when you arrive, show the bag to a guard and he will take you to a person to whom you would have to give one of the letters in the bag, the one with a blue seal"
Kayla's eyes began to fill with tears. She was beginning to realize what was happening.
"You... You won't die, right?" Kayla asked with a broken voice.
"Hahaha, of course not, the church was not so cruel to me, I am a rare genius after all. The seal on my soul also can protect me when I am about to die." Zinon smiled smugly.
Kayla ignored Zinon's smug smile and gathered her thoughts. She... will surely ask me to escape... and I will have to do it immediately, I will only be a burden to her if I stay...
Kayla had come to that conclusion quickly. She wouldn't stand in the way, futilely thinking she could help with something only to put herself in danger and make the situation even worse for both of them. She knew that the best option for both of them was for her to run away.
But why... even though I'm aware of it... why do I still feel so bad!? Kayla clenched her hands in helplessness with such force that her nails pierced her skin, creating lines of blood that fell from her hand.
"Kayla" Zinon called suddenly.
"...W-what?" Kayla blurted out in surprise. They had taken her out of her thoughts.
Zinon smiled, it was very evident how Kayla's voice broke at the end.
"You don't have to feel guilty about this, my Goddess was the one who asked me, plus I wouldn't be able to abandon you with your situation being so bad. So just trust my word and wait for our reunion."
Kayla couldn't stand it anymore and the tears began to fall. He wanted to say many things, but only a few words came out of his mouth.
"... I will be waiting"
"Clear!" Zinon responded cheerfully.
Shit... how come even I am like this? Zinon smiled wryly as his eyes turned red.
Zinon wanted to say something, but suddenly, she pushed her away, darting to the side, narrowly avoiding an arrow traveling at sonic speeds.
Kayla paled. She had not been able to see the arrow even with her foresight!
Is strong! Although she already expected it, her heart skipped a beat.
"Hello, darling~"
Derick jumped from the top of a tree a few meters away from them and bowed like a gentleman.
"What did you think of my gift for our reunion? You like me?" Deric smiled warmly.
"Yes... It almost arrowed my heart, literally." Zinon rolled his eyes. Derick was an enemy who got on her nerves too much.
"Hahaha, I'm glad, I sent it to you with love" Derick laughed a little and finally decided to look at Kayla, who was looking at him with eyes full of pure hatred. "Oh wow, that's an intense look you have there, little one."
"You!" She trembled under his gaze, remembering everything she had suffered for him, but the hatred deep within her gave her the courage to open her mouth. "I swear I'm going to kill you one day, you bastard!"
"Hoho, that's a nice look there, but I suggest you think first about how to survive my hunt." Derick smiled playfully, but there was something in his tone of voice that gave Kayla chills.
"Okay, enough talk, Kayla, go on without me, you know the way. I will kill this bastard while you get ahead" Zinon intervened. She couldn't let Kayla stay and the sooner she left, the better.
"Oh, and how are you planning to kill me? Your divine power must have been exhausted in our last fight. You shouldn't have much." Derick smiled viciously. Excited about the surprises that his revenge could bring.
"I certainly haven't recovered all the divine energy I spent last time, but…" Zinon smiled as he made various hand gestures. "I don't need all my strength to beat you."
Derick's smile widened. He longed to destroy the source of Zinon's trust!
Even though he knew he lost his last confrontation, Derick didn't care. It was more exciting to destroy people when they were more powerful than you!
Meanwhile, Kayla's face paled a little. She didn't know that ZInon was not in the best moment of her.
"Zinon, you won't be able to beat him if you're not in your best shape! It's best to run!" It's better to run!" Kayla didn't know how strong Zinon was, so the mental image Derick had left her made her think Zinon would lose.
"Tsk, am I so unreliable?" Zinon shook his head. "Kayla, calm down. I'm much stronger than that guy, it's just that I'm a little restricted by... you know what, but don't worry, that guy won't be able to beat me."
Zinon avoided the issue of the seal. He didn't want Derick, who was watching them with amusement, to notice. of his greatest weakness.
"B-but…" Kayla had teary eyes. She didn't know if Zinon was telling her the truth. She could very well be telling lies... Even though Zinon had gained her trust in a way that no person had ever done in her life, she didn't know if she would be capable of lying in a situation like this.
"Kayla, there is no time, it will be worse for me if you stay. So please leave and don't be a nuisance." It hurt Zinon to say those words. But she couldn't prolong the problem. She didn't think Derick would wait much longer.
Tears ran down Kayla's face. Those words tore at her soul. She had already been called similar names very often in the past and it honestly wasn't pleasant to hear words like that again, but she knew deep down that she was right.
She would only be a nuisance if she stayed. She had to run away and continue living with the weight of that. With the weight of being a coward...
"Like I said... I'll be waiting for you." Kayla wiped away her tears and turned around, planning to circle the area where they were.
"Hehe, did you think she would let my target escape just like that? Maybe you thought about it because I wasn't doing anything?" Derick smiled. He thought it was cute that the girl was trying to escape from him, a hunter.
Kayla froze and looked back, but a single confident look from Zinon calmed her and she continued running. She had to trust the person who had been constantly saving her since she came into this world!
"No, I let him run because I won't let you do anything to him, it doesn't matter if you act or not" Zinon smiled. She had never stopped making hand seals of her own and finally, she had completed all of them.
"Haha, I can tell you're finally done, but don't think you're the only one who's been preparing." Derick smiled warmly as he moved his right hand upwards.
Following the movement of his hand, his shadow began to split before beings of various shapes stood up.
Some looked like wolves, some looked like bears, and some even looked like skeletons. An army of a hundred shadows had risen beneath her feet, leaving Zinon stunned.
"You..." Zinon's face darkened. He recognized that hability and knew the conditions for its use. Zinon realized thanks to that that Derick was more than just an idiot who loved fights, he was a deranged lover of fights...
"Hahaha, yes, that's the face he was looking for! Desperation, pain, or even humiliation! What will your face look like while experiencing all that?!" Derick's scarred face blushed a little.
Zinon's face was filled with disgust. But that was all. She had already used an analysis skill on the shadow beings and immediately noticed that her levels did not exceed fifty, they couldn't do anything to her...
Zinon's eyes suddenly widened. Yes, they can't do anything to her... but they could cause serious problems for Kayla!
"You damn!" Zinon's eyes filled with rage and she decided to finally complete her transformation. "Encarnacion, Saint of the fight!"
Golden particles began to swirl around her, fusing with her clothes before changing them completely.
Her priest's robe was changed into a comfortable martial outfit. White pants and a shirt with gold details now covered her body. The costume was both divine and mundane, perfectly representing her Saint.
"Haha, you realized quickly huh! You are smarter than you look!" Derick smiled, showing his pearl-like teeth. With a wave of his hand, all the shadows scattered, searching for his prey.
Zinon looked at them, but he didn't try to stop them. She could only do close-range attacks now and the moment she got distracted by those fries, a knife would stick into her neck.
I can only trust that Kayla will hold on... Zinon began to approach Derick, increasing his speed little by little, reaching the point of running at inhuman speeds with his fist raised, ready to smash Derick's face!
While I finish off this bastard once and for all!