"...Um," His smile strained slightly. "Are you...mad?"

The girl stared silently.

'She's mad, isn't she?' Evel lamented, anxiously tugging on strands of his hair. Being who he was, he'd never been great with quiet people. "The ones who spoke the least thought the most!" His dad, and he easily agreed with it.

So he waited, preparing.

Then,

"I'm...not." She said slowly, eyes trailing to what remained of the goblin she'd slain. "Just surprised. To find someone."

He blinked. That...made sense, somewhat. This is a rather remote area, but it wasn't completely devoid of people. The villagers would come here occasionally; he'd met several villages himself. Some would come to fish, others would search for fruits, and most came for the river itself.

Still, he didn't expect to find the enchanted sword's owner so quickly!

And what magic was that? The girl stabbed the goblin through the head, and the goblin just vanished, breaking into nothing but ashes and blood.

It was remarkably similar to how his magic plants withered after their fruits were plucked.

...He'd leave his ponderings for later.

"Are you interested?" She suddenly said, her eyes glowing as she pointed at her sword. He blinked again, surprised she'd noticed his interest.

Nonetheless, he nodded, smiling as he saw the silent excitement in her eyes. "Magic sword. Enchanted with [Degrade]. When sword hits breaks target."

"[Degrade]..." Evel hummed for a moment. "Does it work only on living things, or can it also break stone and steel?"

She nodded. "Also works. Power depends on magic." She explained as she trailed a finger across her sword's blade. "But will immediately break corpses. Gives more Exp."

His eyes shot wide open. Being able to gain more Exp for every kill was an amazing effect. Of course, it was unfortunate that the corpse would disappear because of it, but that was only because he had an alternate use for them.

"How about you?"

"Me?" He asked. She nodded, pointing at the many wooden knives strapped onto his belt. "Ah, these! They're nothing special. They're just normal wooden knives I bought from the local woodworker." He grabbed one of the knives and held it to her. "See? Just normal knives."

"Mm." She looked at his belt again, pointing at his other knives. "Why so many?"

He smiled. "I throw them."

She blinked. "Throw them?"

He shrugged, placing the wooden knife back onto his belt. "I don't know. It works though!"

Which did make him wonder slightly. Why did he decide to add knife throwing into his arsenal? The information the skill gave didn't prompt him in any way, and no one had told him to do so. It just felt right, for a lack of a better word.

"Mm." She nodded. "Good idea. Attack from close and far."

He didn't really think of it that way, but-

He stopped. "Oh, right! Does your sword have a [Resistance] enchantment as well?" He quickly asked. The girl tilted her head, confused, and he explained further. "I mean, your sword was in the river for so long, but I didn't see any rust on it."

Her eyes widened. "You wiped sword?"

He nodded, and she blinked. "Ah." She went silent for a moment, before she bowed. "Thank you."

Evel smiled. "No, it's fine. I just wiped it, after all." He then looked up to the slowly darkening sky, and frowned. "It's already evening?" He muttered with a grimace, somewhat hoping he could make it back before dark.

"You need to go?" She asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. My mom will scold me if I come home too late."

"Alright." She nodded. "Thank you for talking. It was fun."

He smiled.

"Oh, right." He said. "Have you eaten?"

She shook her head. "Do you want to?" He then asked. She pondered over it for a moment, before she nodded. His smile widened. "Alright then! Let's..." His words trailed off at the end as he frowned. "...Um, what's your name, by the way?"

The girl blinked, surprised. She went quiet, thoughtful, before she finally spoke. "Um. Aria."

He smiled. "And I'm Evel. Nice to meet you!"

Their introductions made, the two went off, Aria just a step behind him as he retraced his steps back home.

Aria was panicking.

She hadn't expected to meet someone, and she definitely didn't expect to find herself heading towards some dinner. She'd planned on killing that goblin, perhaps make some small talk with the boy she encountered, before making a hasty retreat towards the small base she'd made in the forest.

But she'd gotten swept up by her excitement when she noticed his interest in her sword, and she found herself dragged along.

So, here she was now, silently hoping to every deity she knew as she stood before Evel's house.

It was a small house, much smaller than she'd expected, but certainly enough to house a family of three. The living room was connected with the kitchen; there wouldn't have been enough space otherwise, and there were two other doors leading towards separate bedrooms.

And-

"Oh, you must be the blue phantom!" Evel's mother cheerfully said, and Aria barely restrained a grimace at those words. She wasn't fond of that name. Being called a 'phantom' brought up a few unfortunate memories she'd hid in the back of her mind.

She made a small bow. "I'm Aria."

"Aria, is it?" The woman repeated. Aria nodded, and she smiled. "I'm Deliah, Evel's mother. It's good to meet you."

"Mm. Me too."

She hoped she made a good first impression on the woman. Would be terribly awkward if she didn't.

That aside, evening soon came, and Deliah excused herself as she went off to make dinner for them all. Evel then asked about the Exp boost [Degrade] gave, and she let her excitement carry her as she explained on.

She didn't have a name for her sword; she didn't really find a reason to. The sword itself was forged by an old blacksmith, but the enchantment was her own work.

It was simple, unassuming, but powerful. A perfect combination.

She'd enchanted other weapons of course; she'd be a failure if she only did one. Some she did as requests, but most were simply her own passion projects. Some were more successful than others, some exploded from too much magic, and some simply rejected the enchantments.

Which was fine. Magic was unpredictable at times.

"20%..." Evel muttered, idly tapping his fingers on the table as he hummed. "That's pretty big. If something gave you 100 Exp, it'll become...120?" He frowned for a moment. "...Yeah. 120 Exp."

She nodded. "Wanted more. But couldn't. Too complex."

He blinked. "The bonus can go above 20%?"

She nodded. "Can get to 40%." She said, running her thumb along the blade. "Maybe even 50%."

She wasn't actually sure how far the Exp boost could go, and the books she learnt from never specified a limit. The upper limit would probably be somewhere around 100%, but that was only a guess on her part.

"Hmm, does [Degrade] give any other effects?"

She nodded. "It also-"

"Dinner's ready!" Before she could explain, an array of dishes was placed atop the dinner table, each steaming from the lingering heat.

There was quite the amount of food over the table, and Aria was slightly worried they wouldn't be able to finish it all. She was quickly proven wrong as she watched Evel devour his food.

"He inherited his appetite from his dad." Deliah explained, smiling as she took a bite from her portion.

She would've asked more about his father, but she restrained herself. Her own father had passed away when she was young, and she was fine with that, but she wasn't sure how the two would react to that.

Several minutes later, the entire table was miraculously cleaned of food, and she could sigh. The food was delicious, incredibly so, and she wouldn't mind having another serving of it. She was already full however, so she doubted she'd be able to finish another serving even if she tried.

The woman would probably make quite the fortune if she opened up a restaurant of some kind.

"Was it good?" Deliah asked.

She smiled. "It was."

A couple minutes later, as she listened to Evel, she felt something soft bump onto her legs.

She looked down, and blinked as she saw a fluffy white rabbit cling onto her legs. Gently, she brought the rabbit into her hands and carried it up, silently watching as it nestled into her arms.

"Who's this?"

"That's Lo. He's a rabbit I found sometime ago." He said.

Lo gave a small yawn before it fell asleep, and Aria couldn't help but smile.