I briefly looked at a man with yellow hair and red eyes then at a woman with long greyish hair and brown eyes next to a big backpack.
"Uh, are you Alius?"
Alius nodded excitedly and asked loudly while approaching me with his system window open.
"Yeah, anyway what's your level!?"
'I don't think you should say that....'
I flinched slightly and looked at the woman.
In the worst case she would think he was suspicious and report him to some unknown authorities.
But fortunately she was sighing while staring at the sky probably asking herself some very important questions.
'How many times has he said that for her to react like that?!'
I was stunned by the surprising revelation that this was common.
"You definitely seem like a madman."
I said to silently.
"Anyway, who's that?"
I pointed towards the sulking woman.
"She's a baggage carrier her name is-. Crap, what was your name again?"
The woman sighed lightly and shook my hand.
"It's Samira, nice to meet you?"
"Kazumi, nice to meet you Samira."
'Hmm, she doesn't seem to know how to use mana-.'
'Bad habit.'
I immediately analyzed her to a certain degree without permission.
I sighed lightly and looked at Alius.
"Alright, what's the plan?"
Alius started explaining.
"I found some strange propaganda, and that lead to finding out that something was hidden in the forest of wishes."
I nodded.
"Can you show me?"
"We can't, it has always disappeared after observing it. But at least it's consistent."
I sighed lightly.
"I guess that makes sense... no it doesn't."
'Why would it disappear after observing it? Why not just make it invisible or inaccessible? This isn't a video game.'
I sighed and looked at Alius.
"Why does it disappear?"
Alius's expression became serious.
"I don't know. I've tried to find out the reason but came up empty."
'Corruption could be involved but I have nothing to go off.'
I thought about changing bodies but considering the awkward conversation that would follow deterred me.
'I would rather avoid that.'
But it would be better to at least try something rather than stay still.
'Let's try.'
I moved my arm upwards trying to replicate a slash.
[Activating authority: Slash that purifies(none)]
[The authority does not activate due to low proficiency!]
I looked at the system window in disappointment.
'I guess that makes sense. It's a slash, not a scan that purifies.'
I decided to examine him later when I eventually changed avatar.
"Huh? Is he also insane?"
I heard Samira say quietly.
'Dang, that's unfortunat-'
*Clap!*
"Alright, let's eat."
Alius cut off my thought process and looked at Samira.
Samira sighed and asked.
"Can you help me organize this?"
She looked pretty exhausted.
"Of course!"
'He's loud.'
I was bothered by his loud response. Was I tired?
'I guess it makes sense. Quite a lot of things happened last week.'
I sighed internally and asked if I could help.
"What can I do to help?"
*******
'I'm stuffed. I wonder why there was so much food?'
If took about one and a half hours to make everything but it was worth it.
'I wonder if I got a cooking skill?'
I briefly checked my notifications and chuckled a little.
[Awakened skill: Cooking(D-)]
'If I remember correctly, I had an F rank monster cooking skill before.'
I reminisced about the past for a bit.
'It tasted disgusting and my poison resistance had to save me a few times....'
I briefly looked around and smiled.
Samira was sleeping in a sleeping bag.
'I guess the second chance succeeded.'
Samira was comfortable enough to fall asleep before Alius and I.
It was a good sign.
'Hmm, I wonder what the other guys are doing?'
I was reminded of the fight I had with Alius and the sword guys.
'If I were to guess. They're probably training or something.'
"So, what's your level?"
Alius asked again for the sixth time.
"38."
I said casually.
Alius looked surprised for a second before sighing.
"How did you level up so quickly?"
'Hmm, if I remember correctly life or death battles always level you up at least once.'
"I fought an opponent that should have killed me? That's probably how."
I said while looking at the sky.
Alius seemed to understand and asked.
"So, how did you survive?"
"I can't pinpoint the answer but. It was probably because of luck."
Alius shook his head lightly and asked again.
"Let me rephrase that. Can you explain in more details instead of just sounding cryptic?"
I looked at Alius pretty surprised and sighed.
"Alright, but normally when people talk like that they don't wanna reveal the information."
"I know that but I'm just that curious. Extremely curious after waiting for multiple hours."
Alius stared blankly at me.
"Cough, I'll tell you. Ask away."
I coughed in vain and offered to answer all that I could.
*********
"Lastly, what's up with your hair?"
"Uh, I'm not sure. It changed when my mana reached low c rank."
Alius nodded to himself and quickly went to sleep.
It took quite a while but all questions were answered.
Including some minor things like 'what's your favorite animal' and such.
'I guess I should go to sleep soon.'
Tonight the moon was covered by clouds.
I closed my eyes and tried to sleep.
*******
Status report: I couldn't fall asleep.
My stats synced and I kept being bothered by what [Fince] said.
[Tip]
You're no weapon master. You're at best a shitty copy. Learn how to use different weapons jackass.
Or just stick with your sword, dumbass.
I didn't know how to interpret the message.
'There are quite a few insults but. He's definitely stronger than me so I can't just dismiss his "tip." It is a tip right?'
[Equipping: Threaded sword(A+)
I walked pretty far away to avoid waking Alius and Samira up.
'Slash.'
*Swish!*
A simple swing of the sword.
'Arc.'
*Woosh!*
A swing using the entire body to drawing an imaginary sword arc. This could later be turned into a flying sword strike. Although it wouldn't deal a lot a damage.
'Line.'
*Phfuu!*
A straight stab focused on a single point.
[The skill: Weapon mastery(?) has been slightly stabilized!]
[Weapon mastery(~B)]
'The rest is just blocking, deflecting and parrying.'
I stared briefly at the weapon mastery skill.
'If I were to guess.'
[~: B rank]
~A [Swordsmanship]
? [Archery/sharpshooting]
? [Axe proficiency]
More...
As expected everything was grouped there.
'Now I can use power equal to a low B rank without much mana.'
It wasn't good enough to go against corruption, but it's a start.
'I should continue. Draw.'
I sheathed the sword and drew it.
*Swish!*
A quick and precise sword draw. There were two types, defensive and offensive draws.
******
'I should try using another weapon.'
After swinging my sword around for a while I sighed.
*Rustle..*
I looked around and examined a big tree. I noticed some movement in the distance but ignored it.
'That seems to be Samira. I guess it would be good to show that I'm not weak.'
I went up to the tree and cut off a big branch.
'First I should make it holdable.'
[Activating skill: Physical enhancment(D+)]
'Hmm.'
Using a sword in this situation would just dull it unless it was swung near perfectly.
'Ah, I think I get it.'
The message [Fince] left behind.
'I'm not good enough as a swordsman. That fact was covered up by war aura(SS).'
Even with all my training I was still barely first rate in sword technique due to training in so many weapons.
'If I remember correctly, I've trained with 9 or more weapons.'
I tried to form mana around my arm to destroy the branch smoothly but quickly stopped.
'It's not efficient.'
It uses too much mana I would've liked to have some mana for tomorrow.
I focused the mana to my hand and swung it down like a blade.
*Snap!*
Now I had a big branch about one and a half meters.
'Its balance is trash.'
I sighed lightly while staring at my "fancy new stick."
I held it up with both of my hands and swung it.
*Swoosh!*
I prepared to follow that attack up with another swing but.
*Snap!*
My fancy new stick broke.
'Oh, oops. I should try to reinforce it next time.'
I sighed and decided to try to use sword aura.
'I think I may have enough mana?'
Now the problem was mana usage.
'Well, here goes nothing.'
I unsheathed my sword while silently looking at it.
'If I remember correctly, the basics should be infusing mana into the blade.'
You had to fill up the sword with mana like filling a sponge with water without it pouring out. And on top of that you had to evenly distribute the mana.
'A true pain that is only solved by experience and muscle memory.'
Too much and your mana is wasted. Too little and nothing changes.
I focused on transferring my mana into the sword.
[Developing skill...]
I looked at my sword.
"Huff."
The sword didn't show any visible change.
'More...'
I pushed my mana into the sword.
The sword didn't change.
But I was starting to sweat and my head was spinning.
'Ugh, I should make it circulate for now.'
When making an aura sword there are different ways.
A simple brute force method is to inject the weapon with as much mana as possible making it visible to the naked eye.
Or trying to make it flow through the sword. Normally this is achieved by circulating the mana throughout the entire length of the blade.
There are also more specific methods but those are based on the person or group.
[You have no mana!]
'Ah.'
All my concentration disappeared and my body felt heavy.
'Failed I guess.'
[Activating skill: Mana breathing(D-)]
'I wonder if my mana sensing improves, if I could absorb mana more easily.'
That was the main problem but I couldn't focus on absorbing mana while creating my sword aura.
'I wonder if that time stopping place helped me when I was creating my first weapon aura?'
I had to create aura for each weapon type I used.
I realized quickly that the A- next to the mana sensing skill was practically a lie. The body of Sira Katsumi was just that overpowered.
I sighed lightly and went back towards Samira and Alius while breathing in mana to recover.
They were sle- no hold on.
'Samira, looks like she was awake? Is she trying to hide it? That's bad acting.....'
Samira was breathing way too calmly and was as still as a statue.
'Did she see? Not like it matters.'
I decided not to dwell on it and went to sleep.
'I should rest, we're not done with that propaganda yet. Weird and creepy. I wonder what its origin is?'
*******
Alius was the first one to wake up.
I was the second one.
'Huh, where the heck is Alius?'
When I woke up Alius was simply gone.
I decided to ask through the system chat.
Quint: Where are you?
Martial-Puncher: Punching some loose slime to warm up.
'Loose slime?'
I sighed lightly while looking at Samira who had just woken up.
"Good morning."
Quint: Samira just woke up so come back quickly.
Martial-Puncher: Got it.
"Yeah, good morning."
Samira avoided my gaze and started packing things.
'Now that I think about it it's weird that we're sleeping here.'
It was right outside of the forest of wishes.
There were no nearby water sources, and there was even a chance that people would see us if they decided to go through the forest.
'Maybe he's just crazy.'
I sighed internally and shook my head.
He was from a world of martial arts so an unfortunate encounter us could be an opportunity for him.
I imagined some ridiculous world with martial arts fanatics running around challenging everyone at all times.
'Hmm, but he didn't seem like that. At least when I he was talking about the heavenly demon.'
Instead of jealousy or something similar he was lamenting when talking about his talent.
'He- I should stop.'
I stopped myself from thinking too much about his personal business.
Shortly after Alius came back while wiping a liquid off his gloves.
"Alright let's go into the forest."