Afterward, I ask Sophia to tell me more about herself and her abilities. It turns out, this woman is a jack of all trades. Not only a mage but also a potion crafter, a spirit user, and an enchanter. I can imagine what a mage and a potion crafter can do, but what exactly is an enchanter?
"Ah… I don't know if you can understand this, but it's basically the art of imbuing magical properties into items, something like that. For example, you can make a sword sharper by writing the Sharpness enchantment on it."
Sophia then tries to explain more about enchantment to me. It is interesting but pretty confusing at the same time. I get that people can boost an item's abilities by enchanting it with different enchantments, but the process of doing so is quite complex, requiring special magical ink and the ability to read and invoke the language of gods. Thus, I will need to see it directly to fully understand it.
"But Master, is your blood talent really Common Rank?" Sophia suddenly asks. "There's no way it's Common Rank! Being able to carry that girl while running at full speed for hours… your physical abilities… it makes no sense!"
"Huh? What do you mean?" I ask. "The Grand Mage said that my talent is only at that rank, and I don't have any elemental affinity either. You think she was wrong?"
"Well, I do not doubt her judgment, since she must have used a high-grade artifact to measure your talent rank. But, normally, Common Rank people cannot reach your level of physical capabilities! Your insane strength, ridiculous speed, and endless stamina… it's like you are an Elite Warrior!"
"What? Elite Warrior?"
"Yes, that's also the rank of the two royal knights that you've killed."
It seems like there's another ranking system here, so I ask Sophia to explain.
According to her, jobs like Warriors, Mages, and Assassins also have different ranks depending on the person's power level. When it comes to Warriors, the rank is based mostly on physical abilities.
- Beginner Warrior: Can punch through brick walls easily and knock down small trees, capable of winning against an adult bear.
- Master Warrior: Able to shatter boulders with a single punch and outrun a galloping horse over short distances. Their strength and speed are enough to take down multiple armed opponents effortlessly.
- Elite Warrior: Can break through reinforced stone walls with their punches and move fast enough to dodge arrows at close range. Their stamina allows them to fight for extended periods without tiring.
- Champion: Capable of pulverizing iron with their fists and moving with such swiftness that they appear as a blur to the naked eye. They can engage in prolonged battles against numerous elite opponents without breaking a sweat.
- Destroyer: Their punches can create craters in the ground, and their top speed can sometimes break the sound barrier. They possess immense endurance, able to fight for days without rest, and can take on entire armies single-handedly.
- War Saint: Can obliterate entire sections of a castle with a single punch and move with such speed that they appear to teleport. Their resilience allows them to withstand attacks that would annihilate lesser beings, and they can sustain high-intensity combat for weeks on end.
- War God: The impact force from a punch can smash a mountain to bits. They can move at speeds that are several times the speed of sound, and their stamina is virtually limitless, allowing them to fight for months without fatigue. Their very presence on the battlefield can turn the tide of wars.
This is quite eye-opening. If Sophia's words are true, even the lowest rank warriors would certainly be crowned as top fighting athletes on Earth. And the higher ranks? They are ridiculous!
Basically, I am just lucky. If I didn't catch those knights by surprise, I wouldn't even be able to injure them, let alone kill them that easily. But to think that my personal strength is also on the Elite Warrior level... not bad, I guess. However, getting stronger from now on could be problematic.
"Huuuh!? It-it's true! You- you don't have any mana!" Sophia exclaims.
I just allowed Sophia to use a basic magical spell to see the mana within my body.
"Unbelievable... to think that you can be this strong without absorbing any mana at all..."
In other words, my strength comes purely from physical training and body enhancement with technology. However, I'm already at the peak of how strong a human on Earth can get.
"So, is there any way for a Common Rank talent like me to use mana?" I ask. "As you can see, I want to get stronger, but without mana, I'm stuck…"
"Hmmm… that is supposed to be impossible. But now, knowing you, perhaps we can find something if we search hard enough. I can go look for some information at the Library if I have the chance."
"I see."
There's no point delving further into this matter. So, I move on to the next important question.
"By the way, Sophia, have you come across a summoned individual resembling me? A young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes named Anna?"
"No…" Sophia shakes her head in response. "I haven't seen anyone like that in Valeria…"
That answer stings a little, but it's fine. My Anna is not here in Valeria. To find her, I need to gather much more information. I wonder if there's a database, a list of all summoned individuals hidden somewhere that I could check.
Anyways, we move on to planning ahead for what to do next. Sophia looks very tired, so I offer her the bed to sleep with Yumi.
"But… I'm a slave? Is that really okay?" Sophia seems hesitant due to the nature of our master-slave relationship. It seems she doesn't expect me to allow her such comfort.
"Yes, it's fine. I'm a man. I can't sleep on the same bed with Yumi anyway. So you sleep there, I will be on the floor."
Sophia hesitates a bit more, perhaps thinking I'm testing her, but eventually, she settles down and quickly falls asleep.
Meanwhile, I open my backpack, taking out a bunch of pills—sleeping drugs. They are the same ones I gave Yumi earlier today, but the real reason I carry them is for myself. Insomnia has been hitting me hard, especially in the past few days as I prepared for this trip to another world. Without a dose enough to knock an elephant down, I simply can't sleep.
Pop.
I open my water bottle, drink some water, and swallow the pills.
As I close my eyes, memories flood back to my childhood. I remember purchasing a Snow White storybook for Anna, and for the subsequent five months, I became the protective dwarf to my little sister princess.