“Too slow! Faster, faster!”

I yell at Saki, who was running around the inn, carrying a rock on her back. Of course, it’s is something that’s suitable for her physique. I sure don’t want to hurt herself now.

Thirty rounds around the inn. That should be good enough for her current bodily strength, I hope. I’m not really an expert on such things, so I’m just giving a haphazard guess on what to do. Maria gives her own input from time to time, and that does help me out. It seems she was trained by her father, and her father had her do all this, from a very young age.

After the run, she had to stay in a half squat position, for the maximum time possible, to increase her leg strength. Of course, having her do a handstand is pretty much impossible, so I decided to give her push ups and chin ups in the routine for now, since that’s pretty much all I know.

Fashioning dumbbells in this world doesn’t seem like a bad idea.I could popularize and sell it, earning me a lot of MONEY!

Well, I refrain from spreading the ideas of modern Japan, since typically, that would cause problems. Leaving aside the possible intervention of gods, there might be other unlikeable consequences. Kidnapping, interrogation. Is it really worth it?

I’m going to head to the caves to train again today, since I’m searching monster caves and hunting in them, just to increase my skill with Blink. It’s really tough, and with my current experience, I can do it about… 5 times, give or take.

Apparently, Maria and the others had already found out that I snuck out, and they immediately questioned me when I returned. Stealth mode failed… Of course, I told them everything, but I left out the parts about me crashing into the building and almost getting caught. That’s not necessary, right? Of course.

I keep reading while keeping an eye on Saki, since it’s sort of dangerous watching Saki running. The sight is quite… stimulating. The challenges faced by an adolescent boy.

I kept reading the catalogue in my hand intently. The Legendary Weapons. It was quite interesting, reading about the various functions and strengths of those cool sounding swords. I added another objective to my list, to collect legendary weapons if possible.

Right now, I was reading about the set of ten unique swords, the Three Swords of the End, Death, Demise and the Eternal Rest.

The Three Swords of the EndThe end of a war, the destruction of an empire. The Three Swords of the End symbolized this, with the great havoc they wrecked in the defensive war of Alsiar. Against the mighty Polius empire, the three swordsmen of the End, as they were popularly known, entered battle, swinging the blades of Death, Demise and Eternal Rest. They gifted their foes what their names symbolized, as the greatest event in history was recorded, the victory of a small kingdom against one of the greatest empires of an era…..

I kinda feel sleepy…. Books always get me sleepy.

Saki walks upto me, sweating profusely. I throw a towel at her and turn away. Wiping, might be too much.

“Master.. Good?”

“Nn? Of course!”

“Good…”

Haha~ I have no idea what she said, but since she said good, and since it was a question, yes was most likely the correct answer, I think.

I head inside, with Saki stumbling behind me. Her stamina is too weak, since she was a slave for a long time. We need to fix her up, even more.

“Yuuya, you’re here? Training’s all done?”

Maria asks me as I enter the room. She was checking her arrows, polishing the arrowheads. I wonder why she does that. True, it does look shiny, but maybe it has some added effects?

Mili was on the bed, reading one of the magic mastery books I gave her.

Well, our party is forming, bit by bit. Me as the vanguard, Maria and Mili as the rearguard, with Saki as…. A trainee?

Today, we decided to head to the weapon store, to get some new stuff. I also need to sell of the old sword, and get some better swords if possible. Right now, I was using an iron sword, the typical weapon for Bronze ranked. My Rebellion, which I’m thinking of renaming into something more original, is too ‘conspicuous’ so it spends most of its time in my ring. Poor sword.

Saki heads on over to Mili almost immediately, and both of them immediately start chatting. Mili doing most of the talking, of course.

Since everyone were busy, and I had enough time till our planned shopping tour, I headed to the corner of the room, and sat cross legged on the dusty floor. I closed my eyes, and began meditating.

A technique that was really essential for me had caught my eye in one of the books that I had read, which I immediately taught to Mili and Maria. The Seventeen paths technique. A truly complex technique, it involves locking the mana pool in a closed space, and forcefully expanding your mana. By expanding it, you push against the limits of the mana pool, enlarging it. IF you can do it. If it fails, your mana pool goes berserk, and shatters, End of story.

The technique is just right for me, except it’s ridiculously slow. Since I have so little mana to spare to bombard the limits of my own mana pool, I have to do it bit by bit, like a snail. On the other hand, Mili, with her naturally huge mana pool, can explosively expand hers. Uuu… Makes me jealous.

Maybe it might help me in the long run, but without doubt, for me to expand it enough for me to cast two intermediate spells, I’d have to do it regularly for a year, at least.

There is another method, according to the book, and that is external mana. Mana crystals and the like, when combined with the Seventeen paths technique, can boost the expansion. Except, mana crystals don’t come cheap.

I close my eyes, and feel my mana pool, entering the anatta state. The inner mind.

It felt like I was in a large space. I was drifting there, like a feather.

In the four corners of the room, I could feel four humongous energies, surging around like an uncontrollable sea. They pounded at the space, and I could feel the vibrations in my being.

My mana pool.

In the center of my mana pool, a small whirlpool of mystic blue energy swirled around. It felt strangely eerie, yet familiar. Like a slow current, it spiraled around, calm as the sea.

I willed the eddy to disperse, into several battering ram like structures. They were quite small, but they’d do. I kept chanting the technique’s scriptures, as I willed the battering rams to bash the walls of the space.

Visualization. It was an essential method to do it. The manual said to do it by making the mana pool rapidly expand, but since my quantity was too low, I improvised.

“Yuuya!”

I opened my eyes, exiting the anatta state.

Everyone were looking at me, all geared up to leave.

“You aren’t coming?”

Maria looks at me, cocking her head. I get up, as I reply.

“Of course! Let’s go!”

“Woah. That’s …..expensive”

I muttered, looking at the necklace. The Blood Queen’s Relic, was a cursed item that was on display in the shop. It was like typical jewelry, except adorned with beautiful deep red rubies, which had a mysterious charm to them. The cost of it was something I could never afford.

I gazed around the shop, checking out the products.

The Belmion’s General Store. The store sold anything and everything, and it was divided into three floors. The first floor housed the enhancement items, like jewelries, headbands, and various other stuff, with exorbitant price rates. The value of one of them could get me in to debt for a million years. That was how expensive the jewelry was.

The second floor was the Armor and weapon displays, showing off the various works of the blacksmiths all across the continents, and the seas. It was an extensively huge display, with such a great variety of stuff. On the third floor, it was the VIP floor. Of course, I couldn’t even step foot in there. The top floor had the most secretive and expensive goods. Many people have tried to steal from here, and the same number of people had failed at it. That was the iron clad security of Belmion’s General Store.

“Ah! Young master! Here’s the appraiser!”

A short heavyset man called out to me, with his pot belly bouncing up and down as he moved. He had dark red hair, and he stared at me through his monocle with his dark yellow eyes.

Belmion, the head of the Belmion trading company. He was the one who founded it, which was now a multicontinental organization, but bored from the stress and pressure he had to go through, he left behind the empire he had made, to start this shop.

Next to Belmion, there was another man. He was long and lanky, with thin fingers and stick like hands. Boy, even I have looked better.

His cheeks were hollow and sunken, as dark bags were present under his dry eyes. His dark red hair was made to stand upright, with the rest of the hair missing.

“Ah, yes”

I take out the bandanna I had got from the Curas hideout, and hand it over. The appraiser takes it, and begins examining it.

My first objective after coming to the General store, get some good stuff, and buy some weapons. Then, see if I can get any info about this.

And to my luck, this shop had an appraiser. The appraiser runs his long fingers covered with latex like gloves over the surface of the silky cloth, looking at it closely.

“I have appraised it”

The appraiser talks with a barely audible voice, as I struggle to hear his comments.

“A cursed bandanna. That much is obvious, yes? The curse is fairly strong, and it may become a hindrance in most battles. It can be used to… make stuff shiny and golden. That is all that it can do.”

The appraiser demonstrated it by rubbing the bandanna on his robe. Like a treasure, it immediately glowed like gold, looking all expensive. Oh~ho. Might be useful. In some cases.

After a while, he hands it back.

I put the cleaning cloth in my ring and thank the owner. I pay him the required fee, and headed to the upper floors, where Maria and the others were shopping.

A familiar sting of the curse affects me, but it was weaker than the pain caused by Rebellion. I grasp the bandanna tight and put it inside the bag on my back, acting if I actually stowed it inside, to fool people effectively. I put the cleaning cloth in my ring and thank the owner. I pay him the required fee, and headed to the upper floors, where Maria and the others were shopping.

“Yuuya, what do you think about this bow?”

Maria asks me as soon as I get to the first floor, showing off the shiny bow she had. Well, I’m not an expert in bows, and it did look quite good, I guess? The wood of the bow was inscribed with intricate runes, so I’m guessing that means it’s a good thing.

Mili, on the other hand, was checking a small wand. There were two types of weapons magicians mainly used, the staves and the wands. They were made with specific materials and enchanted, so that mana consumption could be decreased. It could also be used to boost the power of a spell. Staves, being larger and longer, naturally were more efficient than the short wands.

Saki just roamed about the huge room, gazing at each and every weapon and passing onto the next. The items were covered with glass panes to prevent direct contact, but the store officials would give it to you if you wanted to check it. The store gave off a luxury feel, with the embroidered green carpets covering the floor, and the sculptures decorating the walls. People here normally wore expensive looking clothes, and the adventurer’s equipment was no joke.

In the end, we decided to buy a new bow, restocked Maria’s arrows, a small wand for Mili, and gauntlets for Saki. She said she wanted to try something, and so, I bought it for her.

I fiddled around with the pommel of my new ‘Dortoh tusk sword’. As its name said, it was made out of the tusk of a Dortoh. Thick and light to an extent, it was much better than the iron sword I used to use. I asked for the sharpest one possible, as I had noticed the difference in sharpness between the Rebellion and the iron sword. It was like heaven and earth. The Dortoh sword was of a curved kind, with a broad blade like a falchion. It was single edged, with an ivory like color. The crossguard was like an S, made of some steel like material. The pommel was decorated with a deep blue jewel. The grip was made by rolling some sort of soft twine repeatedly around it, making it comfortable to hold. The sword was thick to an extent, but the sharp edge was nicely thinned out, making it perfect for hacking at some monsters.

We walked through the streets of Ugras, chatting about our new weapons. Saki immediately wore her deep red gauntlets. The fists were shaped like the mouth of a tiger, and the back of the gauntlets were shaped into spikes, giving it a bit more of a menacing atmosphere. I told Saki to be careful with it, since they could end up hurting her too.

“Yuuya, do you not use armor?”

Maria questioned me, looking over my equipment. Huh. I guess I didn’t. I only used the old coat I bought at the Pioneer’s village, and pretty much skipped out on everything else. The white shirt and pants I wore were ones I had got at Baras, and I didn’t mind getting any replacements. I wanted maximum mobility, so I always focused on minimum armor. The coat Arcus san had given me compensated for the lack of armor, so I ignored it. But perhaps.. I should get some light armor. Something that won’t hinder me too much. Better safe than sorry.

“Mmh.. I don’t I guess. Well, I tend to go for speed, so I avoid wearing armor”

“Oh… But you should get some, Yuuya…”

“Could it be, because I look fragile, Maria?”

I question her, remembering what she had said about me at the guild when we first met.

“Ah ha ha… No way … ri-right..”

She stammers, and her eyes begin swimming around. Sigh.. Maybe I do look fragile. I do have a moderate amount of muscles, but my overall figure is skinny upon first sight. As we talked about other stuff, we see someone familiar.

“Niviel san!”

Maria calls out to her before I could even mention her. Niviel san was standing there, in the middle of a group of people wearing long white robes. On their right chest, a symbol was embroidered. A coiled snake. Is it something like an emblem? Niviel san was wearing the same outfit, her long yellow hair braided into a ponytail. She looked at us as we called out to her, and looked visibly flustered, for some reason.

After a while, she waves back, her hand half raised, as if she were conflicted on whether to respond. Hm? Does she feel uncomfortable greeting us in public? Maybe it was a bad idea to call out to her.

“Ara? Isn’t it Yuuya-kun? Mili chan and Maria chan are here too!”

For some reason, she kept looking around when she was talking to us. Was she being chased? Now that I look closely, I could see that the others who were with Niviel were looking back at us and whispering.

“Niviel san? Are we disturbing you?”

“Ah-haha ! There’s no way for that Yuuya-kun”

“Is that so…”

I trailed off, unconvinced. Without doubt, something was fishy.

AUTHOR HERE!!

Yo! Nexus here!

Ahem~

Let's proceed now, shall we.

The Tale of a Slayer, ToS and I'm the Descendant of the Maou, DoM, will be on hiatus for an indeterminate amount of time.

I can't update it, since I have my exams, and I have also decided to train my writing skills. So, I shall be reading other fics on RRL, to power level my writing skills (hopefully)

I'll try to update again as soon as possible, but this will be the last chapter for a while. Do not worry, for i shall be back.

Also, please leave a review and suggest ways for me to improve.

Thank you for reading, and Hope you keep reading too!

If you have any complaints regarding the novel, please inform me what's wrong so that I can avoid that in future chapters, if possible.

In the name of Theyios.

Ciao!