Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Numerous Secrets 

“Are we back?” I asked after the scenery around us completely transformed. No longer in the sewer we had been in a moment ago, we were now inside a cave. This was one of the many caverns in the wall of the ruined city. 

The four of us came here from Vistelya, and unlike when we went there, the soldiers didn’t give us a second look when we left. The inspection for exiting the city was even simpler than when we entered. We didn’t even have to present identification. I hated to criticize my country, but they didn’t seem vigilant enough. I guess they didn’t care about anyone who left unless they had been to the aristocratic district. They checked us when we entered, so they didn’t need to bother when we left. Maybe that was the logic, but that seemed too lax. It was just one example of why Yaaran wasn’t a more significant country. 

“So we went from Vistelya to this dungeon in the Empire, and now we’re teleporting again to get back to Hathara? Now that I think about it, we’re traveling ludicrous distances in the blink of an eye,” Lorraine whispered. 

Something about what she said made me think twice. Not that there was anything strange in it, but something stood out. 

“A dungeon, huh? I wonder if I can use the Map of Akasha here,” I said. Lorraine’s wording reminded me of my magic item that automatically mapped out any dungeons I went to. If its powers applied to all dungeons, then it also had to apply to Good King Felt’s underground city, the sixtieth floor of the Old Insect Dungeon in the Empire. But maybe mapping out the sixtieth floor by itself didn’t mean much, and I had no way of getting down here from above. For just walking around the underground city, though, there might be some use in it. 

“Now that you mention it, you should check and see. I’m curious too,” Lorraine replied. 

Gharb and Capitan looked confused. 

“The Map of Akasha? What’s that?” Gharb asked. 

I had no reason to hide it, so I told her. “Oh, it’s a magic item that a strange person gave me in a dungeon. It’s very useful. Here, this is it,” I said and took the rolled-up piece of old parchment out of my magic bag. 

“Just looks like some ordinary parchment to me,” Capitan said as he crossed his arms. 

“It looks like that, yeah, but its effects are incredible. All you have to do is walk around the dungeon, and it’ll accurately map it out for you. For an adventurer, no tool could be more convenient.” 

“What? I want one too. Can you buy these at the stores in Maalt?” Capitan asked. My insufficient explanation seemed to have given him the wrong idea. Capitan used the teleportation circles to go all kinds of places, so he probably did his fair share of dungeon diving. He would know how helpful the Map of Akasha was. But I couldn’t tell him what he wanted to hear, unfortunately. 

“Sorry, but Maalt’s a way smaller city than Vistelya. If someone had invented a map like this, it’d already be on sale in the capital, I’m sure. But no, it was just given to me. The person I got it from was pretty odd. She gave me this robe too, and Lorraine says it’d be impossible to make something like this. The same goes for the map, of course,” I answered. 

Capitan gave me an extremely disappointed look. “All right, then I’ll duel you for it,” he said. 

“No way. I wouldn’t win; I’d just get torn to shreds. Leave me alone!” I shouted. 

“If Lorraine’s illusion magic is anything to go by, then I don’t think that’s true. I’d never challenge someone way weaker than me,” he replied, surprising me with a compliment. Maybe I really had gotten a bit stronger, even from Capitan’s point of view. I almost felt better about myself, but I took a glance at Capitan’s face and he was looking a little mean. 

“This is a trap, isn’t it? Lay off me. I don’t stand a chance,” I said, calmly rejecting his proposal. 

Capitan was also joking. Mostly. “Fine, I’ll give up on the map,” he said. “But we’re going to have a bout anyway. I need to see how much stronger you got. And there are things I want to teach you.” 

If there was nothing on the line, then it was hard for me to say no. “Fine, just go easy,” I requested, then I opened the Map of Akasha to give it a look. 

“Oh, turns out that it works here too. It’s mapping the place like it’s supposed to. Not only that, but the path we took with the shahor melechnamer was recorded as well. I guess it even works when you ride a mount,” Lorraine immediately speculated upon looking at the map. 

Most items of this sort would only work when walking on your own two feet, or they would have some other strict limitations. The Map of Akasha didn’t seem to have any such limits, so as far as magic items went, it was amazingly handy. If I could mass-produce it, I would be rich. But even Lorraine didn’t know how it was made and thought reverse engineering it would be nearly impossible. I was a novice in magic and alchemy, so mass-producing the Map of Akasha was a pipe dream. Anyway, the fact that it recorded the path we rode down on the shahor melechnamer wasn’t as deserving of our attention as another fact that became clear after we looked more closely. 

“It says ‘To Hathara Ancient Kingdom Fortress Ruins’ here, and ‘To Vistelya Founding Era Sewers’ here. Does this mean what I think it means?” I asked. 

“Well, those are definitely the destinations for the teleportation circles,” Gharb said. “I’m shocked that it lists those too.” 

“If we made a map like this that featured all of the teleportation circles, we could easily travel anywhere from here. We could almost start up a travel business,” I said with amusement, but the other three were too deep in thought and didn’t hear me. I knew how they felt. The Map of Akasha left us with a lot to think about. I just wanted to try and lighten the mood, but they were a tough crowd—the kind of crowd that’d kill me if I was an entertainer, but I wasn’t good enough at entertaining to deserve that title. 

“These teleportation circles weren’t always part of this dungeon, were they? They were added by the people of Hathara?” Lorraine asked Gharb. 

“Yes, that’s right,” Gharb said. “There are no records of a teleportation circle that goes to Hathara, but back when we moved to that location, we probably added a circle to help travel between here and there. The one that leads to Vistelya’s sewers was left by the village chancellor long ago, as I think I mentioned.” 

“Right. I see. Then I wonder where the Map of Akasha is retrieving this information from. Magic items like this use all sorts of methods, but they generally take advantage of their user’s senses and knowledge to obtain data. I don’t know about this one, though,” Lorraine explained and looked at me. 

I thought for a bit then shook my head and said, “This is probably different. I might have had some idea that that fortress was from an ancient kingdom, but I had no idea that the sewer in Vistelya was from the founding period. I’ve heard it’s centuries old, but nothing more than that.” If the map did use my knowledge and senses to gain information, then the listed locations would have just been “Some Fortress Near Hathara” and “Really Old Sewer in Vistelya.” I would have preferred somewhat cooler names, but if it was using my senses and knowledge, then that’s what it would have come up with. 

“I think so too,” Lorraine said. “Even I couldn’t have guessed when the sewer was built. You have zero knowledge on that subject, so of course you wouldn’t have known. As such, we can assume the map isn’t basing anything on your knowledge. But if so, where in the world is this information from?” 

Gharb was the one to answer Lorraine’s question. She was also a magician and alchemist, so she had some knowledge of magic items too. “First, I would consider the possibility that it’s based on the knowledge of the magic item’s creator,” she said. “That would mean that whoever created this map knows about this place.” That did seem like the most logical explanation. 

Lorraine nodded, but then she mentioned another possibility. “Yes, but I have another idea. This may be crazy, but it could be pulling information from the Akashic records.” 

I had never heard of the Akashic records, and neither had Capitan, from the look of it. Only Lorraine and Gharb seemed to know what it was. We were more on the brawn side than the brains side. We did our fair share of thinking, and sometimes we had some decent input. Sometimes. But we had question marks over our heads at this moment, for sure. 

“The Akashic records are really just a concept,” Gharb said, appalled at our ignorance. “It’s where the records of all existing phenomena are stored. But this isn’t a place that the eye can see. It’s another dimension, one might say. Lorraine is right to say this is a crazy idea, but that place is extremely important to magicians and alchemists. All of the inner workings of magic are recorded there, so if one were to make contact with the Akashic records, it’s said that there is vast knowledge to acquire. But no magician in history has ever reached it.” She peeked at my Map of Akasha. The name “Akasha,” it now seemed, came from Akashic. If that was correct, then it meant Lorraine’s hypothesis was correct. 

“Well, this is only a theory. The map may have only been named that to make it seem more remarkable. It’s like how one might name a sword the Dragonslayer when it’s never slayed a dragon before,” Lorraine said, reducing the tension in the air. 

Weapons and magic items did tend to have exaggerated names, to be fair. In addition to Dragonslayer, there were plenty of weapons that bore names like Giantslayer and even Godslayer. When I went to the weapon shop in town, ones like that were always in stock. There were probably more weapons with those names than there were dragons, giants, and gods in existence, and they weren’t likely to be killed by random equipment forged in a little shop, so these names could only be lies. Maybe a skillful warrior could kill them using one, though. But until the sword was actually used to slay a dragon, it would best be called the Theoretical Dragonslayer or something. In a similar way, the Map of Akasha might have simply had abilities incredible enough to convince someone that it accessed the Akashic records, even if it didn’t. 

“Well, you may be right,” I said. “But if so, then whoever made the map must’ve known about this place. What do you have to say about that?” 

“We would have to ask the creator to find out. There’s a good chance that the person you encountered was the creator of this map, but I doubt she’s easy to find. I think we’ll just have to put this question aside for now,” Lorraine said. 

“Right. I can’t get back to where I found her anyway.” 

The path to the depths of the Water Moon Dungeon had closed. I couldn’t break through the wall, so there was no way for me to get back there. All I could do was look for clues elsewhere, but I had nothing for the time being. There was no use thinking about it further. 

“Well, for now, I think the best thing you can do is see how useful that map is,” Gharb said. When I cocked my head wondering what she meant, she scoffed and explained. “See what it says when you go to the other teleportation circles. Then maybe you’ll see how its mapping works.” 

There was no time to check out all of the many teleportation circles in a single day, so we limited ourselves to only a few. Gharb and Capitan picked out all the ones we went to. They made regular use of some teleportation circles that we hadn’t used yet, so they already knew where they led. It was an ideal test of the Map of Akasha’s effects. 

“Hm, looks like it does map out places you’ve been before,” Gharb whispered. “But until you’ve used a teleportation circle, the map doesn’t seem to display its destination.” 

The Map of Akasha now said ‘To Albasa, Kingdom of Lina’ and ‘To Daris the Merchant’s Abandoned Warehouse, Daris’s Island, Republic of Thorn.’ Both were written beneath the locations of teleportation circles, which told us a few things. 

“It tells us the exact destinations for teleportation circles we’ve used, but for unused ones, it seems to give more vague information like the name of the city and country,” Capitan said. 

The teleportation circle to Albasa was one that none of us had used. We only stood in front of it. But we did go to and from Daris’s Island via the other teleportation circle. We checked the map before using it, but it just said ‘Daris’s Island, Republic of Thorn’ at the time. When we came back from the island, there were more details. 

Daris’s Island was beautiful, by the way. The Republic of Thorn was an island nation in the south that was made up of thousands of islands. They had a highly developed marine transportation industry, apparently. If I ever had the time, I would’ve liked to go swimming in the ocean there. Although, it wasn’t like I was actually that busy. I had plenty to do but no real deadlines. I wanted to become a Mithril-class adventurer as soon as possible, but if I tried too hard, I could trip myself up. It was best to fit in some time for relaxation, I thought. But maybe I was just lazy. 

“Maybe it’d be best to use every single one of these at some point, just to get their exact destinations recorded,” I said. 

Lorraine looked unsure. “Maybe that would be a good idea if possible, but we don’t know if all the destinations are safe,” she said uneasily. 

“That’s a valid concern, yes,” Gharb agreed. “But even if, say, an exit was blocked by rubble, using that teleportation circle wouldn’t fuse us with the rubble or anything of the sort. I don’t think that’s anything to worry about. But perhaps one of them would take us straight to some country’s throne room, so we should keep that possibility in mind.” 

That was frightening to consider. It was nice to know I wouldn’t get teleported inside a wall or something, but ending up in a throne room didn’t sound like a good time. 

“It seems to be that while the teleportation circles to Hathara and Vistelya are only a few centuries old, some others could be as ancient as this city itself,” Lorraine added. “In fact, I would guess that most of them are. If so, it’s possible that buildings were constructed on top of the teleportation circles at their destinations, with nobody even knowing they were there. We all know that they couldn’t have destroyed them. Or rather, they would just regenerate if they tried. Based on some experiments, a blocked teleportation circle will teleport you to the nearest safe position above the exit.” 

“What does that mean?” I asked. 

“To put it simply, say that the teleportation circle on the other side is drawn on the floor. Then let’s say that the teleportation circle is paved over with stone. What happens when you teleport to that teleportation circle?” 

“It wouldn’t work, right? The teleportation circle would just be stuck under there, so you couldn’t teleport to it.” 

“In theory, that makes sense. The magic circle is completely blocked off in this example. But if you tried this, it would actually do something rather interesting.” 

“What?” 

“It would teleport you onto the stone pavement.” 

That sounded convenient, but from our perspective, it could be scary. If a building were built on top of a teleportation circle, we could end up inside of some place. That meant that what Gharb said about being warped into a throne room was a realistic possibility. Not only that, but if the teleportation circle on the other side was blocked, then there might be no way to return to this city. 

“I’m sure that there are some circles like that,” Gharb said. “And some might be in old fortresses or castles that have been renovated so they can continue to be used even now. Sometimes I hear about the history of some noble’s castle, and they were first constructed an unbelievably long time ago. Most of the time, that history is made up to make their homes sound more significant than they are, but they aren’t all lying. I think some of those buildings must contain teleportation circles to this day. Consider that fortress in Hathara. There are other such forts and castles, and they may still be in use, their history unbeknownst to their users. There could be inactive circles that are simply covered by carpet.” 

“If a teleportation circle were covered by carpet, would you still be able to use it?” I asked. 

“After everything she said, that’s the question you ask?” 

Lorraine questioned me like I was clueless. I didn’t know why she had to be like that; I was just wondering. When I shrugged at her, she sighed and explained for me anyway. I liked that about her. 

“If it’s blocked by a carpet or some other cloth, then unlike with stone or other thick material, it can still be used as normal. And if the teleportation circle on the other side is blocked by a carpet, of course, you’ll simply be teleported onto the carpet. I’ve never done this before, so I can’t say for certain that I’m right. Assuming I am, though, then it’s reasonable to assume that we could be warped into someone’s throne room.” 

Her explanation was hard to understand in places, but I can try to sum it up. Firstly, if the teleportation circle at the exit was blocked and was activated, the user still wouldn’t collide or merge with the material blocking it. The magic circle would still send you to the exit, just at a location where no matter was in the way. And that location had to be somewhere above the teleportation circle, meaning that it would place you on top of the obstructive material. The teleportation circle at the exit would still be blocked off, though, so there would be no way to return to where you came from. That would be pretty devastating for us. 

In the event that a teleportation circle was only blocked by a carpet or some other thin cloth, however, then it would still be usable. That didn’t sound like too big of a problem. We could only hope that if the exit was blocked, it wasn’t blocked by anything thicker than cloth. That pretty much covered what we needed to know about how teleportation circles behave. Maybe there was more to learn, but it wasn’t anything important at the moment. 

“So what should we do? Want to try a teleportation circle we don’t know anything about?” Lorraine asked, a serious look on her face. 

“If we might not be able to get back here, I’m not sure we should,” I said. 

“Right,” Lorraine answered, a hint of disappointment in her voice. 

“There may be a way to test whether a teleportation circle only works in one direction. I haven’t tried it yet, though,” Gharb said. 

“Will you teach us?” I asked. 

“Please do, Gharb,” Lorraine requested. We totally jumped at the opportunity. 

“It’s simple,” Gharb said. “Dab a little blood on some rock and place it on the teleportation circle. If the circle works both ways, then it should come back after a few minutes.” 

That was easy enough to understand. Blood was the key, so any object with blood on it would naturally behave that way. But it sounded like there could be problems with this approach, as Lorraine seemed to immediately notice. 

“But if there’s a throne room on the other side, they’d see a bloody object materializing out of nowhere. They’d find out that there’s a teleportation circle in the room, and may even find out that they can use it. Maybe we could use a small enough amount of blood that it’s hard to notice, but if they were to investigate closely, they could find out,” Lorraine said. 

“Right, that’s why we haven’t tried it, but it’s an option available to you. Maybe there’s no way to do it without some risk attached, but you do have a way to reduce the risk considerably,” Gharb replied and pointed at the Map of Akasha. The information it displayed was incomplete until we visited the location, but it was at least something even before that. If the map said that a circle led to the capital of a kingdom or a republic, that one would be rather risky, but if the map didn’t say that, maybe it would be worth testing. 

Aside from that, I thought maybe I could make use of Edel’s underlings. If I were to drip a little blood on them, they would be able to activate the teleportation circles. Then they could return through the circle if possible, and if not, they could use their small size and great agility to escape. If something like that happened, maybe the best they could do would be to get to water as soon as possible. As long as they washed themselves, nobody could use them to activate the teleportation circles or research my blood. 

And if they didn’t get any results, they would have to give up eventually. Even if they had court magicians and alchemists, they apparently got fired if they didn’t get results after a long time. I heard rumors about that on the streets sometimes. I always felt bad when I heard that some kingdom’s court magician was dismissed. Life is hard. 

“That’s true, and maybe if I had Edel and his underlings help, we could do it all in secret,” I said. 

“Edel?” Gharb asked. 

“Oh, Edel is my familiar, sort of.” 

“Rentt, you’re a monster tamer too?” Capitan asked, a little surprised. But only a little surprised, considering the wide variety of skills I had used while at the village. Capitan himself had taught me some of them, even. I might have learned more skills from him than from anyone. 

But I wasn’t actually a monster tamer, so I shook my head and said, “No, that’s not it.” 

“Then how’d you get a familiar? Doesn’t that require some special skills?” 

It was true that aside from learning directly from a monster tamer, there weren’t many ways to gain the skills to keep a familiar. That wasn’t to say there was no way, but those were highly unique circumstances. My case was one of those unique circumstances, but I didn’t know how to explain it. I felt like it might be fine if I were just honest with them, but then Gharb seemed to catch on. 

“Hm, so you have a secret, do you?” she asked. 

There was no need for me to pretend I didn’t. She would’ve seen right through me anyway, so it was better for me to be honest from the start. 

“Yes, you could say that. I’m not sure if I should tell you two about it, though,” I said. 

“Why not?” Capitan asked. 

“It’s not that I mind telling you what it is in itself, really. I’m sure you’ll keep my secret. I don’t doubt that, but it’s the village I’m worried about. You want to keep Hathara a normal village, don’t you? If I told you about it, you might end up embroiled in something.” 

Gharb and Capitan had said they wanted Hathara to remain a normal village, despite its great secret. If they needed to keep even more secrets, they would probably find it exhausting. I knew they had much more tolerance for these things than the average person, but no matter how remarkable they were, they were still human. They had to get exhausted at some point, and they already had to shoulder a great burden. I didn’t need to thrust more on them. They were also like family to me, so I was hesitant. 

It was different with Augurey because he was the sort who liked to stick his nose in people’s business. Or so I’d like to claim, but honestly, I just wanted the support of a friend. I did already have Lorraine and Sheila, and they were trustworthy, but Augurey was a close friend in a different way. We both suffered as Bronze-class adventurers, so we were like war buddies, in a way. Not that this was any excuse for getting him wrapped up in my business, but I wanted him around to back me up at least a little bit. I didn’t feel quite the same way about Gharb and Capitan. I didn’t want to give them any trouble. 

“Is that all?” Gharb said with a sigh. “Rentt, you’re our disciple. If we couldn’t handle something that you could, what would that mean for us as your teachers? Right, Capitan?” 

“Absolutely,” Capitan agreed. “Not that I know what your secret is, but knowing you, I can’t imagine you did anything wrong. It’s more like you got yourself wrapped up in something, I’m sure. Now, if you committed some serious crime, I’d suggest you turn yourself in. But you didn’t, did you?” he asked jokingly, simply to signal that he trusted that I didn’t. The world was in an age of endless conflict. There was no way to be sure I did nothing wrong, but he believed that in the end, I would always make the right choice. I appreciated that he thought so much of me. 

Lorraine seemed to think the same. She patted me on the shoulder and said, “You were blessed with some fine teachers. Nothing at all like mine.” It sounded like there was a story behind that statement, but I decided not to pry. 

From what I could recall, Lorraine’s teacher threw a wand at her when they were making wands. That sounded pitiful, and considering that, I certainly seemed to be fortunate when it came to my own teachers. Gharb made me drink poison, and Capitan tossed me out into the wilderness and just told me to survive, but I guess it could have been worse. To be fair, Gharb took precautions to make sure I didn’t die or suffer any lasting harm, and even Capitan was secretly watching me out there the whole time. 

“Of course I didn’t commit any crime,” I said. “Well, some people might consider it a crime.” 

If the act of being a vampire was itself a crime, then I was a criminal. Nive would have killed me on the spot if she’d found out. She would’ve pounced on me faster than a kitten pouncing on fresh snow, and that would’ve been a nightmare. She wasn’t even cute like a cat. She looked pretty enough, but that look in her eyes was as fiery as a carnivore’s. I guess cats are also carnivores, but those are the cute ones. I feel like I’m going to make someone mad, so I’m just going to stop here and move on. 

“Some would consider it a crime? What in the world does that mean?” Capitan asked. 

By contrast, Gharb seemed to have some vague idea as to what I meant. It was crazy that she could know with so little information, though. And as soon as I started to think about how crazy that was, she glared at me. Her intuition was off the charts. I almost wanted to ask her to stop knowing everything all the time. 

“Capitan, I think I get it,” she said. “But it’s hard to believe. If what I think is true, Rentt, then you must have been through a lot of anguish. And yet you still look like you always did, either thanks to your hard work or that of the people around you. You’re incredibly lucky.” 

Now I definitely knew that she knew. 

“Gharb, don’t talk like you’ve got it all figured out,” Capitan complained with a shrug. “I have no idea what’s going on here. How do you even know anything based on what he said?” 

“Oh, just the experience that comes from old age, I suppose,” Gharb said in jest. 

“Come on,” Capitan said and scowled some more. Even the village’s greatest hunter was like a child around this old lady. 

But it didn’t seem like Gharb was trying to dodge the question. After thinking for a bit, she said, “I’m sure you’re brave enough to accept what happened to Rentt, but you’ll understand quicker if you see it for yourself. Capitan, fight Rentt. You’ll feel how he’s changed.” 

“What do you mean, Rentt’s changed? Because he’s gotten stronger?” 

“That’s not all. Rentt, you’ve changed on a fundamental level, haven’t you?” Gharb asked, turning to me. 

It was true, I had. I learned the basics of my fighting style as a Bronze-class adventurer, but after my body transformed, I was able to do so much more. For example, I could flail my sword however I wanted without having to worry about my shoulders. That meant I could continuously gyrate my shoulder in all directions. I’m talking about full 360-degree movement. The same went for my neck and legs. All of my joints had become freakish, but I was now a freak, so of course they were. 

However, I almost never took advantage of that when I fought because all of the combat techniques I knew were meant for ordinary humans. They were structured around ordinary human joints. If I wanted to use any techniques that weren’t, I would have to come up with them myself. I didn’t know if I could manage that, but if I got myself in serious danger, I’d have to try. I also practiced such techniques occasionally. Maybe I could just show off some of those, but I didn’t want them to think I was gross. I mean, I still had trouble even looking at myself in the mirror. As an aside, this new physiology seemed to have cured my shoulder aches. 

“I’ve changed, yeah, but I don’t know if Capitan can force me to use those changes,” I said. “Not even the tarasque did that, for the most part.” 

My body was more durable than before, so maybe all I had to do was demonstrate that. I could show how my wounds would instantly heal. Anything more than that would depend on Capitan’s strength. But to be honest, I did think I would have to take him seriously in a fight. We had already agreed to fight each other eventually, though, so I just wanted to rile him up a bit. Capitan was even more muscleheaded than I was. Gharb knew as much, which is why she made this suggestion. He tried to act like somewhat of an intellectual around me or his subordinates, but he had his limits. 

Capitan responded exactly as anticipated by saying, “You’re on. If you think you’re so tough, then yeah, let’s fight. But if you want to cry and say you’re sorry instead, you’ve still got time.” 

So we decided to fight, but not right on the spot. We had done far too much that day and were all exhausted. Whether physically or mentally, I couldn’t muster up the will to do anything more. Not only that, but Capitan had a family to get back to. It was almost nightfall, and if he stayed out any longer, he would incur the wrath of his wife. Even for a valiant man like him, his wife was to be feared. It seemed like most of the hunters throughout the years had terrifying wives. When you were in a profession that’s constantly exposed to danger, maybe you needed a wife like that to keep yourself going. I never considered if adventurers might be the same way, so I decided to ask Guildmaster Wolf next time I saw him. I suspected that he would bitterly agree. 

“Do you have a shot at winning?” Lorraine asked. 

“I’m not sure.” 

We were in the mayor’s house, which is to say, my family home. We had returned from the dungeon. Gharb and Capitan had explained in advance that we would be absent, saying that we had business in the forest. 

Only Ingo looked at us and asked, “So you know now?” When I nodded, he said, “I see. It’s in your hands. Not that we won’t be involved at all anymore, but use the place as you see fit. It will be a bountiful treasure for someone in your profession, I’m sure.” 

Rather than simply handing over the management of the ruins, maybe my foster father intended it to be something of a present. It certainly broadened my capacity to work as an adventurer. However, it could undoubtedly cause problems if not used carefully, so I did have to keep that in mind. 

If possible, I would have wanted to unveil this treasure to the entire world, but while that would make me a famous adventurer, it would be absolute chaos. Yaaran held the key to the teleportation circles, so it would go from an insignificant country to a massive target. I could imagine the Empire gleefully attacking in the future. I didn’t want that to happen, so I couldn’t tell anyone about the ruins. Maybe one day I could reveal it to the world, but if I ever did, it would be best to destroy the teleportation circle in Hathara first. Then only Good King Felt’s underground city in the Empire would face problems. The people of Hathara would still be the key, but it was unlikely they would ever find out. 

They could also try hardening and processing my blood into some sort of key instead. If they did that, maybe the Empire could actually conquer the entire world. But whether it would function as a key once hardened was a mystery. Even if it weren’t hardened, filling the container I’d received from Laura with my blood and using that as a key would probably work. Handing that over to Lorraine might have been a wise idea. Testing whether it mattered if my blood was solid or liquid was likely something we needed to do sooner rather than later. We were the only ones using the teleportation circles for the time being, but it would be good to know for the future. 

“So Capitan is strong?” Lorraine asked. “I know he was your teacher and you respect him, but I don’t know how powerful he actually is. I’ve only seen him fight on the way to that fortress, so I wouldn’t know.” 

On our way through the northern forest, Gharb and Capitan defeated most of the monsters while Lorraine and I watched. But it didn’t seem like they took those fights that seriously; it was more like they weren’t fighting to their fullest. Capitan knew all about the monsters around Hathara, so of course he could beat them easily. He knew their precise behavior, so he had no need to get serious. And while the monsters in the northern forest were strong, none of them were legendary or anything. Any veteran adventurer could deal with them handily, and Capitan did some adventuring work somewhere. The question of how strong he’d be against a human opponent couldn’t be answered by his fights with these monsters. At the very least, he would have to compete with someone of equivalent skill to see the full extent of his abilities. This was true of any master of their craft, and Capitan was definitely a master. 

On top of that, his main weapon was a hunting knife, so he was a bit different from the average opponent. I learned to use one a long time ago and still practiced with one, but gauging the proper distance to stand from your opponent was harder than with swords or spears. And rather than just attack with the hunting knife, Capitan would also draw close to strike with fists or jujutsu. He was a hunter, so these moves were meant more for fighting humanoid monsters, but he’d said that they were perfectly effective against humans as well. Thinking about it now, these techniques must have been passed down for generations. Many of them were inherited from the Ancient Kingdom, presumably. All in all, he would be tough to fight. 

“He’s strong,” I said. “I could never have matched him back in the day. Of course, I’d always hoped to beat him one day, but now I’m really shaking.” 

“What, are you scared?” 

“No, I’m shaking with excitement. I can’t wait to see just how good I’ve gotten,” I claimed, but to be honest, I was kind of scared. Or rather than scared, I worried that I would disappoint him. After everything Gharb implied about me, I had to give him a good showing. I needed to give this everything I had. My spirit, my mana, my divinity, everything. I even intended to make full use of my monster abilities. If I still couldn’t win even then, I would just have to accept that. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, and I could still pursue my dreams. My sole objective was to become a Mithril-class adventurer. 

“Well, good, then. You’re fighting early tomorrow, right? So the villagers don’t see?” 

“Right. Very thoughtful of Gharb.” 

She knew that if people were watching, I wouldn’t be able to use all my abilities. We were also going to fight near the fortress in the northern forest. There was no risk of a villager happening across us there. 

“Then how about we get to sleep for the night? Goodnight, Rentt.” 

“Yeah, goodnight.” 

Lorraine left the room and went to the room provided for her, so I got in bed. I wasn’t that tired, but today was a day that deserved some sleep. 

“Now then, is this a good place?” Capitan asked after we had walked a ways into the northern forest. I figured we were close to the fortress. We weren’t entirely surrounded by trees, though. It was a spacious enough area, perfect for what we came here to do: a match between Capitan and me. 

Of course, we weren’t going to kill each other. It would be a serious and dangerous battle, but we would stop before landing any lethal blows. It wasn’t impossible that somebody could get killed, but it was highly unlikely. No ordinary wound could kill me, and Capitan knew how to avoid any killing blows. Even if he were severely injured, my divinity could heal the damage. I didn’t know to what extent, but as long as he didn’t die instantly, I could save his life if I healed him with all my power, probably. Although, after a fight with Capitan, I didn’t know how much energy I would have left. 

“Yeah, looks fine. Fighting in the forest feels like it gives you the advantage, though,” I said. 

“Well, nothing to be done about that,” Capitan replied with a chuckle. “Not like you haven’t been trained as a hunter anyway. And you go into the forest all the time as an adventurer too, don’t you? I don’t think I’ve got that much of an upper hand.” 

It was a reasonable argument, but I still thought I was at a disadvantage. Capitan knew everything about the forest north of Hathara. This location completely gave him the upper hand. Even so, I had my own secret weapons. That put us on about equal ground, I suppose. However much of a master Capitan may have been, I had the ability to flop my limbs around like wet noodles. Maybe that gave me a chance, or something. I hoped so. 

I tried to encourage myself and attempted to act cool as I observed my surroundings. It was a perfectly ordinary forest. Compared to the sparser forests surrounding Hathara, there were different trees here of different sizes, but it would be easy to mistake them as identical. 

“I know I said I’ve done some training, but I haven’t spent decades in the forest like you have. And it’s not like I’ve ever once beaten you,” I said, hoping that would make him let his guard down. 

“You think I’ll go easy on you? I know you’ve got something up your sleeve. You’re not the same kid you used to be,” he responded. It would’ve given me a better chance if he had underestimated me, but it didn’t look like that was something I could anticipate. 

If you think I’m a coward, just remember that winning is all that matters. Well, maybe that was going a bit far, but it was a lot better than losing. If I could make him take it easy, then I wanted to do that. And if I saw any other opportunities, I would take them. I learned that from none other than Capitan. Problem was, that meant he could see right through me. Oh well. I had no choice but to fight fair, then. 

“Can we get started now?” Gharb asked as she rubbed her eyes. “I would say I’d be the judge, but these old eyes can’t see so well nowadays. Instead, I’d like to leave it to Lorraine, if you don’t mind.” 

Capitan and I looked at Gharb, both questioning if her eyes were actually that bad, but she just glared back at us, so we turned away. Even as we walked through the forest, she could point out birds that were pretty far away and tell Lorraine their species, their color, and the materials they could be made into. Calling that bad eyesight was an insult to bad eyesight. But we didn’t have the guts to say that to her face. 

“Fine by me,” Capitan said. “You all right with that, Rentt? Might give you an advantage.” 

“Lorraine wouldn’t judge me more generously just because she knows me. She’s very serious about the facts.” 

That was probably because of her job. As a scholar, she wanted to know the actual results, no matter the subject. Maybe Lorraine would support me in spirit, but she wouldn’t deny the results of the match. If she could accept that I’d turned into a monster, then she could accept that I might lose. That was how she was. 

“Good to hear. Might as well get started, then, if that’s good with you,” Capitan asked of Lorraine instead of me, for some reason. 

“That’s perfectly fine,” Lorraine answered tersely. 

“No hesitation, eh?” Capitan said with surprise. “You that convinced Rentt’ll win?” 

“No, I wouldn’t say that. But whether he wins or loses, I’ll value him as much as I ever did.” 

“I see. Now that’s passion. Reminds me of when I met Cami.” 

“Hey, what are you talking about now?” I asked before he could go off telling some story. “Let’s fight.” 

“I was in the middle of some sweet reminiscing here. You didn’t have to interrupt.” 

“I’ve heard about how you met your wife a hundred times already, for the love of god.” 

“Oh? Have you?” 

Capitan was usually pretty calm and collected, not to mention a dependable boss when we were out hunting, but when he got drunk, he was an absolute mess. He’d drone on with stories about his family. They were more about his children than his wife lately though, apparently. That was sure what he talked about during the banquet the other day. I only had to sit through these stories on the occasions I returned home to visit, but I felt for Capitan’s subordinates. None of us wanted to know, and you probably don’t, either. 

“Well, should we start, then?” Capitan said, seeming to also recognize that nobody was interested. “Prepare yourself, Rentt. Don’t go down too quick, you hear?” He drew his hunting knife and held it with an underhand grip. Capitan knew how to wield it both underhand and overhand. He’d taught me the basics of fighting, but that was a long time ago, and I couldn’t imagine that his fighting style hadn’t changed at all since then. I had to watch his movements closely while we fought. 

“Don’t get beat too quick yourself, Capitan. Let’s do this!” 

I shouted and leaped at Capitan in an attempt to land the first strike, but next thing I knew, he had already gotten in front of me. I saw his fist rapidly approaching, but he wasn’t actually trying to punch me. For some reason, I was sure of that. He was going to slash with his hunting knife instead. But knowing that didn’t necessarily give me an advantage. Capitan’s underhand grip made it extremely difficult to gauge the potential distance of the attack. He held the blade such that his arm obscured it from my eyes, so if I didn’t already know he was holding it, I wouldn’t have known it was there to begin with. 

That level of skill could only have been achieved with practice against humanoid monsters. Not only did they resemble humans, but their range of vision was similar as well. I would know, because I was one. This technique of Capitan’s was designed around hiding his weapon from such eyes. Of course, this couldn’t have been honed overnight. He had to be able to predict his opponent’s movements and line of sight, whether consciously or subconsciously, and be able to do so on command. 

But in spite of all this, I knew the position of the hunting knife and could follow how it moved. This had nothing to do with me being especially talented or anything. It was simply a vampiric ability that gave me this advantage. Vampire eyes sure were something else. But as for whether I could actually react to Capitan’s attacks, that was a separate question. 

The attack finally reached me, and with a loud clang, I somehow managed to deflect Capitan’s hunting knife with my sword. I saw the attack coming well enough, but I still only barely managed to block it. It was hard to predict his movements and gauge the distance of his weapon. He also knew all about my habits in combat, and this attack was probably meant to take advantage of them. This was an especially bad match-up for me, but in any case, I did avoid this attack. 

If he had now decided to rethink his approach and back off for the time being, that would’ve been nice, but of course that’s not what happened. Rather, Capitan seemed to know that was what I wanted and kept up the pressure instead. I felt it from both his blade and his fist, but first I had to be sure I blocked his blade. Maybe his fist could have smashed my face, but the hunting knife could gouge my flesh. And it didn’t look like I could expect him to stop before critically injuring me either. Capitan was serious. To prevent such an incident, I moved my sword as he did his hunting knife. 

Then, just in front of my face, Capitan’s fist came to a stop. I looked and saw that his hunting knife had been caught on my sword. Had he stopped just a moment later, either his knife or fist would have struck me and dealt major damage. He had used both for a two-layered attack. I could probably have done the same if I’d tried, but the scary thing about Capitan was how he could get so close and unleash this attack within a matter of seconds. Not only that, but his onslaught didn’t stop there. 

Capitan chuckled and then jumped into the air above me. It didn’t seem like a good move to me, at least not right away. Placing yourself in the air at close quarters is generally not advisable because of the lack of control one has in midair. Seeing this as my chance, I thrust my sword at Capitan’s most vulnerable area, his stomach. 

But just before my sword could pierce his abdomen, Capitan somehow dodged the attack by moving unnaturally parallel with the ground. My sword hit nothing but air. I squinted to try and see what had happened and noticed something shining in the direction that Capitan had moved. It was probably some sort of string. 

I recalled that for his job, Capitan used some sturdy string made of monster parts. It could be utilized for repairing tools or for hanging up prey. There was a good chance that he had used some of that. It was strong enough that his weight wouldn’t break it. However, I had never seen him use it in this manner before. He must have developed this ability in the time since I’d been gone. I was impressed. I looked around and didn’t notice anything else out of the ordinary, but after seeing this, it seemed safe to assume that there were other traps about. He was the one who had taught me that anything goes as long as you win, and he was putting that into practice. But I would’ve appreciated it if he’d held back against his disciple. 

I shouted with all my heart and chased after Capitan. Now I was determined to use everything at my disposal. By using my monster abilities and the power of my spirit, I caught up to Capitan in no time. He looked somewhat surprised, but he was also smiling a little, as if to say that now things were getting interesting. 

I thought I had gotten back at him a little for that first attack, but I thought wrong. Maybe Capitan expected this much from me to begin with. I never could have turned the tables like this before, though, and Capitan knew my skill level from back then quite well. He must have thought a lot of me, but I didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Either way, I had no intention of giving up, and there would be no sense in doing so. This may have looked like a serious fight, but it was a mock battle. Losing the match wouldn’t lose me my life. I had no reason to surrender. 

I swung my sword at Capitan. No matter how talented he was, he was still in the middle of traveling through the air by string. I didn’t see how he could avoid this. And yet, he easily surpassed my expectations. Just when I thought that my sword struck him, I sensed spirit energy condensing on the surface of his skin. My sword struck him with a metallic clang, a sound no human body would make. 

Clueless as to what had happened, I looked at Capitan’s body. My sword had certainly struck him, but it left no wound. Capitan was a hunter and far more hardy than the average adult man, but to take a heavy strike from a sword and come out of it without a scratch was, of course, strange. And yet, that was what had happened. 

Admittedly, I had some inkling as to what he did. Just before my sword touched him, I sensed spirit energy condensing on his skin. He probably used that to massively increase his defensive power. That had to be it, but I didn’t know if such a substantial physical enhancement was possible. 

To be honest, there was a lot I didn’t know about spirit. I knew it could be used to enhance one’s stamina, physical abilities, and natural recovery speed; that’s how I used it. But the idea of hardening the skin so much it could deflect a sword sounded impossible to me. Regardless, I couldn’t deny that Capitan seemed to have done just that. I wanted to ask how, but we were still in the middle of a fight. 

After my weapon bounced off him, Capitan realized that my offense couldn’t break through his defense, so he shifted to a more aggressive stance. His flurry of slashes, punches, and kicks forced me to back away. I wouldn’t say the tables had turned quite yet, but if he kept repelling me, it wouldn’t end well. I had to fight back. 

My last attack didn’t work on Capitan, but that didn’t mean it was hopeless. It was probably just a poor choice of attack against this opponent. Most of the time I found it easiest to imbue my sword with mana and fight that way. A sword enhanced by mana simply cut better. Imbuing a weapon with spirit, however, might make the opponent explode if I didn’t control it perfectly. And while divinity was powerful, I didn’t have that much of it at my disposal. Because of that, I’d used a slash enhanced with mana for my last attack. Now I wondered what would happen if I tried other forms of energy. 

First, I decided to fill my sword with spirit instead. It used to take me a while to switch between types of energy, but by now I had grown so accustomed to it that I could switch instantaneously. Capitan grunted, apparently noticing that something was different. A mana-imbued sword performed differently from a spirit-imbued one, so when our blades clashed, he could feel that something was off. 

Capitan was already using spirit on his hunting knife as if it were normal, but most adventurers would use mana. They differed in strength, but even on a more fundamental level, they felt different. Crossing blades with a mana-imbued sword felt like you were being drawn toward it by gravitational force. Spirit did the opposite and pushed you away. Everyone had their own preferences, but if one weren’t aware of these differences, fighting an opponent who switched between them would undoubtedly catch one off guard. 

But Capitan adapted to the situation surprisingly smoothly. I’d thought I would shake him up a bit more than that, but he surpassed my expectations. Either way, my intention with switching from mana to spirit wasn’t to confuse him. It would’ve been nice if it had, but that would’ve only been a bonus. The important thing was to test whether this spirit energy could harm him. 

Capitan managed to react to my sword, but it slightly broke his tempo. I took that as an opportunity to leap at him. I figured he’d be able to counter it if I tried an overhead slash, so I just thrust to give him as little opportunity to react as possible. But Capitan almost seemed to know it was coming, he looked so confident. He blocked my thrust with the flat of his hunting knife. 

I’d considered the possibility that he’d pull that off, knowing him. This was the man who’d taught me about spirit skills and the basics of combat. His performance so far wasn’t unpredictable, but now I had an idea. I filled my back with tons of spirit energy. 

Capitan thought he had successfully guarded against my sword, but now he was in a panic. He couldn’t hold it back. The combination of my physical strength, the pressure from my spirit energy in my sword, and the inhumanly powerful propulsion pushing me from behind was too much for even him. 

When he could no longer take it, the attack flung him backward. It also flung me forward along with him. His back crashed into a tree, knocking it down with a loud roar. 

A cloud of dirt hung in the air, but I could still see clearly enough to know where Capitan was. I probably couldn’t have seen him with normal vision, but my eyes were special. Whether in darkness or debris, I could precisely pinpoint the location of other lifeforms. It was a unique skill of mine. 

Maybe it was a cheap move, but I took this chance to unleash an overhead slash. However, Capitan rolled out of the way. 

“What the hell?! How’d you know I was attacking?” I asked to the cloud of dirt. 

“The air is moving. I used that to determine your location,” he answered, looking right at me. 

He was able to tell where I was despite the cloud of dirt. Now I began to fear that he had no weaknesses at all. But at least this seemed to be enough to startle him. 

“And what about you?” he said. “What in the world was that just now?! Your power increased out of nowhere. Couldn’t have just been your sword or your footwork that did that. It was like a hundred men were pushing you from behind. That’s impossible!” 

Capitan’s shock made me happy. Since I came to Hathara, both he and Gharb had been constantly surprising me. I was hoping to turn that around on them at least once this visit. 

The cloud of dirt cleared. Capitan was staring at me. His eyes soon turned to look at my back. “What is that?! Is that how you did it?!” he exclaimed. 

What he saw was my special equipment, a pair of wings. 

These wings didn’t burst out of my clothes or anything, by the way. They came out of two perfectly sized holes in the back of my robe instead. I tested this out in the past, and the robe automatically created holes big enough for the wings. And when the wings retracted, the holes instantly sealed themselves. 

This robe happened to have a lot of functions. I was glad it did, but thinking about it alongside the Map of Akasha, there was probably a lot more I didn’t know. Unfortunately, the robe’s magic resistance was so high that it limited how we could research it. We would just have to ask about it at the God of Appraisal’s temple. It was doing no harm, at least, for now anyway. 

I did have to cut holes in my clothes, though. That let a bit of air through, but the robe was enough to protect against the cold. 

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t,” I answered Capitan. “You’re not about to explain your secrets either, are you?” By that, I meant how he enhanced his defenses using spirit. I wanted to learn that technique for myself. It’d give me another secret weapon. 

“So you’ll tell me about it later, is that what you’re saying?” 

“That’s what I’m saying,” I said as I attacked Capitan. 

Most of the dirt cloud had cleared away, so we could see perfectly now. In my case, I could see Capitan pretty well either way, but Capitan was now able to follow me with greater accuracy. It turned out that limiting his vision wasn’t totally meaningless after all. It just didn’t keep him from dodging everything I did. Even now, it was hard just to graze him. There was no use in holding back anymore. I had to try everything at my disposal. 

Next, I tried divinity. Just in terms of energy output, divinity was the best. 

When Capitan noticed my attacks were hitting harder, he started to lose his composure. His defenses were so great that I thought I might never get a good attack in, but now it looked possible. My inhuman nature gave me boundless stamina. I was far from immune to mental fatigue, but I barely ever felt physical fatigue. However superhuman Capitan may have been, he had to reach his limit eventually. I just had to hold out until then. 

But it looked like holding out might be rough. Besides, Capitan probably already figured out I wasn’t getting tired. He was giving me a puzzled look. Generally, someone who displayed as much stamina as I had would have to be using illegal drugs. But he likely knew I wouldn’t use any of those. At least, I hoped he wouldn’t think so. 

But stamina aside, my divinity was finite. I didn’t have enough to keep using it forever. I had to use it sparingly and throw other energy sources into the mix while I fought. I could simply use mana or spirit by themselves, but it appeared they weren’t enough to tire Capitan out. Instead, I began to fill my sword with mana and spirit at the same time. Mana-spirit fusion, in other words. 

I raised my sword over my head and swung it down at Capitan’s hunting knife. My intended target wasn’t Capitan but his weapon itself. This was because of a unique feature of mana-spirit fusion. 

But when Capitan saw how I was moving and where I was looking, he realized I was up to something. He had been trying to keep his blade against my own, but now he suddenly lowered his hunting knife and pulled it away. As a result, of course, my sword missed. Mana-spirit fusion attacks didn’t do anything special when they missed, so it looked like a normal attack. Capitan looked confused as to what I was trying to do, but I remained on the offensive. I merely had to hit him with my sword. 

I focused on flailing my sword, but now Capitan had fully switched to avoiding my attacks rather than blocking them. I kept missing by a hair’s breadth. I thought just one hit would do it, but it was tough. 

Regardless, he had a limit. As Capitan kept retreating through the forest, he eventually lost his balance for a moment. Seizing my chance, I swung my sword straight down. Unable to avoid doing so any longer, Capitan held his knife up to block the attack. And as soon as my blade touched his, there was an explosion. 

The unique property of mana-spirit fusion I mentioned earlier was that it destroyed its target from within. Maybe it could also do more if I knew actual techniques, but this was all I could pull off given my lack of knowledge. And even if I wanted to learn more from someone, hardly anyone possessed these skills. Nevertheless, this packed enough of a punch by itself. When I tested it out before, it blew up the training dummy. The human body wouldn’t be able to withstand this attack, so I figured I could destroy his hunting knife instead. And it seemed like I’d landed my attack, judging by the explosion. 

Or so I thought, but neither the hunting knife nor Capitan himself looked especially damaged. I was stupefied, wondering how that could be. Then I heard something whiz toward me. I frantically backed away as an arrow flew past where I had been standing. I had triggered a trap, but I didn’t know when I did it. Then I saw something shining on the ground. It was one of Capitan’s strings. 

“Don’t tell me that’s what I just cut,” I muttered. 

“I set up that string, yeah,” Capitan answered. “It looked like you were up to something, so I figured I’d lure you into a trap. Man, that was a close one. Was that mana-spirit fusion?” 

Apparently I was pretty predictable, considering Capitan had picked up on my plan. He successfully trapped me, whereas I didn’t catch on to his strategy at all. That brief moment when he appeared to stumble was probably intentional. He just wanted to make me cut the string. He had to figure out my intentions and get me to trigger this trap all in the middle of a fight for this cunning plan to work, but he did it with ease. 

But even so, I still had the upper hand. Capitan was forced to dodge, meaning that as long as I managed to land a hit, it would be effective. There was no way he could keep setting up traps forever either. As long as I took my time to corner him, I could win this. And he by no means knew about everything I could do. I had more at my disposal. 

I still had the option of utilizing mana, spirit, and divinity all at once. The one big problem with that was my weapon wouldn’t be able to take it. Clope had specially made this sword for me, and even he said not to use that technique. Regardless, it was a secret move available to me, and I did have another weapon on hand that could handle this technique in case I wanted to use it. However, it was a dagger, since the swords were too expensive. Even the dagger was pretty expensive. 

But if I landed one of those attacks, it would be a guaranteed victory. That was why I always wanted to be prepared to use it. It would destroy the weapon I used it with, so the cost usually wouldn’t be worth it, but maybe now was the time. The only question was whether the time it took to prepare would give Capitan a chance to attack. But I had to try. And if it didn’t work out, I would have to accept that. I’d already used my wings, so I decided to pull out all the stops. 

With that in mind, I started using the power of my wings as well. They allowed me to move faster and more freely than when I ran around on the ground. But Capitan was even able to counter this. He never ceased to amaze me. I flew through the sky and used the propulsive power of my wings to swoop in and swing my sword at Capitan, but he saw it coming. 

Maybe I should have expected as much. Capitan was a hunter by trade. He fought flying animals and monsters regularly. The little flying I could do was nothing to him, as I wasn’t exactly that mobile in the air. I didn’t even have the ability to fly until recently, so I couldn’t do much about that. Not that I hadn’t practiced, but Capitan did battle with creatures that had been flying for their entire lives, so maybe my maneuvers looked simplistic to him. 

But I never expected this alone to do Capitan in. All I wanted to do was hit him with a blow packed with mana, spirit, and divinity. Filling my sword with all of that took longer than simply using mana or spirit, and Capitan seemed able to sense when these energy sources were triggered. If I let him get too close, he might have realized what I was doing. So I figured that flying would be a good way to hide that I was using all three. 

Capitan was surprised to see me flying at all, so he didn’t seem to notice that I had something else in store as well. But he still didn’t fully let his guard down, so I had to stay alert. I was using an excessive amount of mana and spirit, so I wasn’t in the best position myself. The end was near. 

“Man, you can even fly? Guess I can see why Gharb said you’ve changed. But whatever crazy plan you’ve got up your sleeve, it won’t be enough to best me. If there’s more to this, then bring it on!” Capitan shouted as I glided around like a flying squirrel, charging my sword with energy. What he said made me think that this would be the final clash. 

This was the most draining fight I’d had since becoming a monster. Now I realized that I had gotten too conceited in a few ways. Capitan had far more experience than I did. Simply in terms of pure strength, I probably outmatched him by a bit, but his superior skills and greater combat experience kept me on my toes for the entire fight. He’d always used trickery rather than brute force, but I had forgotten that. Maybe over the decade I remained a Bronze-class adventurer with no improvement at all, I had actually regressed in ways I didn’t even realize. I already knew I had failed to improve physically, but maybe there were at least some tricks I could have used. You should never forget the basics. 

Unfortunately, my only option right now was to win with brute force. He had defended against every trick I could throw at him. If this didn’t work, then I had nothing left. If it did work, I could probably even follow up with a couple more attacks; but if not, it was all over. 

Once the dagger was filled with enough power, I sent spirit energy to my back. I could only really fly in a straight line, so to get near Capitan, I had to travel at a speed he couldn’t react to. I would need to do a bit more research on these wings in the future. The way I used them thus far was pretty powerful as it was, so I’d kind of slacked off on that. I at least had to work at it until I knew everything these wings could do. I was gaining power at a greater rate than ever before, so I got by without trying to come up with special tricks or anything. Maybe it showed that I was an amateur. 

I needed to change my approach to these things. After the battle was over, I planned to talk with Capitan and Gharb about it. They would likely have some good advice. But before that, I wanted to show them everything I had here. 

I considered shouting to psyche myself up before I moved in to attack, but then Capitan would definitely avoid me. Instead, I decided to take a silent approach. 

The spirit energy in my wings produced such powerful propulsive force that it momentarily warped the surrounding scenery. I couldn’t even comprehend how fast I was going before I found myself right in front of Capitan. He didn’t understand what had happened either, looking at me wide-eyed as if I had just teleported. But despite his surprise, his hunting knife was already on its way toward me. I also held out my sword, or dagger rather, and stabbed at him. 

Then we crossed blades. For Capitan, he probably would have been better off dodging. He must have known as much, but I had driven him into an inescapable corner. In other words, my strategy was a success. If he had managed to dodge, though, I would’ve planted myself in the ground. I’d never gone so fast with my wings before, so that was entirely unexpected. The only reason I used so much energy was because I thought this surely wouldn’t work on Capitan otherwise. Had he been any average opponent, whether human or monster, then I probably would have pierced a hole in him or blown him to pieces. 

When my dagger struck Capitan’s hunting knife, it began to make a strange creaking sound that no blade would normally make. The tip and hilt of his weapon suddenly began to twist like spirals, then the whole blade started to implode. Capitan immediately noticed that holding onto it could be dangerous and tossed it out of his hand. I suspected that he would, so I threw my shattering dagger aside and punched at Capitan. Seeing this, he smirked and punched back. 

I’d say it was a cross-counter, but it wasn’t anything so fancy, really. Capitan didn’t have the energy to unleash any sort of effective attack. We just ended up hitting each other simultaneously. Our fists pounded one another’s cheeks. My fist hit his skin directly, of course, but his fist bashed my mask. The mask didn’t break, so it looked as if it had completely blocked the attack, but the impact actually extended into the mask by way of his spirit energy. 

He could pour spirit into his hunting knife, so there was no reason he couldn’t do the same with his fist. Using this technique with a weapon carried less potential risk in the event that you lost control over the energy, so I only ever did it with a weapon, but I probably should have been training on how to do it with my fist in the event of something like this. 

In any case, I wasn’t expecting this to turn out the way it did. I was physically incapable of running out of stamina, but I ended up taking a beating. The wounds instantly healed, but not without paying a price. It consumed a proportional amount of mana or spirit. Now that I had been so thoroughly drained, healing was difficult. I would still mostly recover within an hour, but not right on the spot. 

My fist slid off of Capitan’s cheek, and I fell to my knees. Capitan did similarly, his chest heaving as his legs buckled. 

“So it’s a draw, eh?” he said with a laugh. His stamina and spirit energy had seemed limitless, but now he was at the end of his rope. He looked like he couldn’t move much more. He came across as perfectly fine until now, but he had been refusing to show weakness to the enemy until the very end, presumably. 

My teacher was clearly on a level beyond your typical village hunter. Now that I thought about it, I questioned why our village even needed to bother hiring adventurers to slay monsters, but it was likely just a means of deception. Any ordinary village would seek help from adventurers when they were threatened by monsters. Well, Capitan also was away from the village at times when he was using the teleportation circles. His subordinates were strong, but only in an average way. 

Capitan and Gharb were special because they’d both inherited special roles in Hathara. That made me wonder if my foster father was also strong. He’d inherited the role of the king, so maybe it didn’t involve any special combat skills. 

“It’s a draw,” I muttered after Capitan. 

“What, not satisfied?” 

“I wouldn’t say that. I wasn’t expecting to win, so this is good enough for me. That’s not to say I wasn’t fighting to win.” 

“Oh yeah? Rentt.” 

“What?” 

“You’ve grown strong.” 

That took me completely by surprise. It wasn’t the first time Capitan complimented me or anything, but something about hearing that from him at that moment made me deeply emotional. It was like I had his unbridled approval. I felt incredible warmth in my heart, and I finally thought I could act confident around my teacher. 

I left the village to become a Mithril-class adventurer ten years ago and spent all that time on the lower rungs of society. I didn’t know how I was supposed to show my face to the other villagers with pride. They were all still happy to see me, so I came to visit on occasion, but each time, I felt like a failure. I still couldn’t say I had accomplished that much, but now I was starting to feel some hope for the future. A path I never saw before had opened up to me. It felt like it was Capitan who showed that to me just now, so I was glad we had this fight. 

Both of us had now lost a weapon, though. Capitan’s hunting knife was even one he’d been using for ages, so I felt kind of bad. But I couldn’t go easy on him, so there wasn’t much choice. 

“Thanks for saying so,” I said. “This is the first time I’ve had such a close match with you.” 

“I’ve never struggled so hard against one of my disciples, actually. Only high-ranking adventurers or monsters in the uncharted hinterlands could put up more of a fight. But looking at you now, I’m sure you’ll be a match for them one day.” 

Capitan was strong, but there were stronger beings out there. Some Platinum-class and Mithril-class adventurers were so powerful that they were virtually inhuman. Those sorts couldn’t be found just anywhere, so there was seldom a chance to encounter them. Capitan had met some before, so maybe he got the chance to watch them fight. I also saw one fight once, but it was hard to imagine how I’d ever reach his level. Either way, I had to try. 

“Well, from what I’ve seen here, you’re plenty strong now,” Capitan continued. “I can rest easy letting you go off adventuring now. I thought you were doomed until just recently.” 

“Uh, really?” 

“Yeah, I mean, I know you were doing the best you could. But your goal’s not something just anyone can achieve, after all. I thought you’d call it quits eventually, or worse. Well, turns out I was worried over nothing.” 

Capitan cared more about me than I thought. I only returned to the village periodically, but maybe I didn’t look in the best shape on those occasions. I tried to act relatively cheerful, but he knew me for long enough that he probably saw right through the act. 

“Anyway, we have something else to talk about,” he said. 

“What?” 

“You were going to explain some things, right? Like those wings, or the inhuman ways you moved during our fight.” 

From the sound of it, Capitan already had the general idea about my secret. Unlike when Gharb guessed based on almost nothing, he had now seen me transform in a monstrous way. No human being had the ability to sprout wings from their back. Winged folk existed, but they were a type of beastfolk. My situation was fundamentally different. They knew I was human initially, but somehow I had grown wings. That was the problem.