Chapter 73: A spar with the Hero (I).
Kein's POV
"Oh! If that's the case, you need to get hurt. How about a little spar, reincarnated one?"
…
She holds my hand and pulls it over a little, her eyes glittering in excitement. Avery is most likely imagining the battle we'll have once we spar.
"Come on! You'll be alright I'll hold back!" (Avery) pulls my sleeve another time and chimes to spar with her.
Avery suggests testing the magic potions out for a spar but was it really about to test the potions and not my abilities?
This girl who I saw slashing a wyvern's stomach being cut clean in half?!
"Besides, fighting with me might unlock some super-secret skill that you have!" (Avery) continued to persuade me and I felt like I'm beginning to lose some of my patience.
Yeah, she's definitely testing me out not for the potions but my level of combat.
"Why do you think I ever have any of that? I'm pretty sure this body is... slightly not that special." I take my hand back from her and cross my arms. Kein's body is pretty peculiar with all the dark magic and stuff running through her veins.
Not to mention how she's part of some shitty royal family I didn't ask to be in.
"A special kind of magic and body that absorbs lots of mana, conjured spells placing it into the sword?! You dare say it's slightly not special! You're clearly overpowered!" She gets her face up close to me and Rose pulls me back, fearing that Avery might accidentally kiss me or something.
I was thankful, but this girl in front of me once she starts talking, she can't stop from the looks of it.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Imagine all of the things you can absorb and just release like whoosh! I swear this is like that one anime I've watched-" Before she could even gush hours on end with her anime watchlist I stopped reminding her of my status.
"Avery you've seen my status and my magic isn't that overpowered... I have a little bank for all the spells I've absorbed. I'm not sure how big it is in numbers, so I would only know the feeling." Whenever my mana bank would overflow, I would feel something heavy has carried onto my weight. It doesn't have much effect on me, but it alerts me that my mana bank is close to full.
If it does get full... and I don't use that mana to the point my body is getting destroyed from absorbing too much. I'm forced to use it on my sword and place the spells that I've absorbed there.
It doesn't help that occasionally whenever I would use the cursed sword [Nirvana], many voices would pop up into my head.
"Right! And I assure you that some parts of your status have locked symbols which means you haven't reached your full potential." (Avery) grins chanting [Scan], opening up a window that was something similar to those in games. Her finger scrolled just above the title area of my spells.
Rose was intrigued with the little floating window. She tries to scroll it up or down like Avery did, but it seems that Avery is the only one who can move the wheel through the skill window. "Quite fascinating these floating things- are they only spells meant for you?"
Avery nods, scratching the side of her head. "Well, that's what I also tried to see. It seems that it was only meant for summoned heroes, people from this world can't have it. Even Miss reincarnated over here it seems that she didn't come with this function."
I rolled my eyes at her words; sure, I didn't come with this function because my soul just got moved to another body but my real body in earth itself is probably buried deep under the soil now.
"In my defense you guys probably met some god or goddess on the way telling you of some mission or something. Then they're going to bless you to be filled with hopes and dreams to save a problematic world in need of saving." I looked at the floating window, too busy to read my information.
"Well! I did! It was this goddess lady that was really bright, and she didn't tell me her name but definitely she did tell the 'whole kingdom is in need of aid' speech." (Avery) places her hand under her chin and looks a little sad. "Very cliché but nonetheless deep inside I was very excited to have an isekai adventure!"
"Little did I know it wasn't all that I imagined but at least I'm alive and helped a couple of people while adventuring." she shrugs laughing a little and the princess gave her an understanding smile.
"The path of a hero is not easy, but I thank you for all of your service that you've made." (Rose) bows her head a little and continues to show a wide smile. "Helping my people on the parts of the kingdom that I cannot touch... needing aid I couldn't even do anything, so it pleases me to hear of your tales of help."
Rose... really loves her people even if she doesn't know all of them and her people can only see her being on top of a throne. If they only knew how the princess loves her home... I would even begin to feel a little jealous.
"Aw shucks, thank you. You've been saying your thanks to me so I feel a little flustered."
"Oh and perhaps the goddess lady taking the form that you've met is the light goddess that our kingdom serves. After all, you've been summoned to our kingdom so she must have sent you." (Rose)
"Oh? Does she have a name?"
"We don't usually say her name because we are no one near her status. My people are rather devoted to our beliefs as well as religion." (Rose) borrows my sketchbook and pencil looking over to the hero. "They take that rule to heart. However... I suppose we can write it down for you?"
Avery sat down with Rose for a bit while she handed over the floating with me to observe my [Status] over to study some more. "So that's why even after living here for a year here I've never once heard the most famous light goddess' name."
"Yes, even the light princesses even in my status I'm not one to say her name often. In different kingdoms, her name has been thought to have many versions."
While those two were busy talking to one another forming a lovely bond of friendship. I finished looking over the floating window and reading them.
"Well there's [Absorb]... [Release]... [Cancel]... " I noticed that there were only three spells that I could use at the moment. The first one was the day I awakened my power, a deep voice would call onto me and tell me to chant [Cancel].
Maybe there's a few more but I don't know what they are, I don't suppose the [Puronian] royal library or any library in the country would even have information on dark magic such as mine.
"Those are really just the spells I use often and I only found them out thanks to some occasional voices appearing in my head at random times whenever I use [Nirvana]." The moment I mentioned my sword to her, I forgot that she was also curious about it considering that she herself has a cursed sword too.
"Oh! [Nirvana] is your sword right?! Can I take a quick [Scan]?" (Avery) asks me enthusiastically and pushes the window away from us.
As long as she would forget the need to spar... I took out the sword in my [Storage Ring] but I didn't hand it to her.
"You can take a quick [Scan] but you can't hold it. I'm the only one who can hold this thing without dying because of the curse." I warned her and she took immediate caution onto the blade while wearing a smile on her face.
"That's a really awesome but deadly curse to put on a sword- well at least now you won't have anyone managing to steal it without getting away." (Avery) raises her hand over the sword and chants [Scan] over it.
"Oh? It's different." (Rose) mutters looking over the floating window.
The floating window suddenly had a different design than it usually has before.
On the usual scanning it would be all white with dark fonts on the words but...
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Oh- right when I scan different kinds of weapons the floating windows will also change their appearance if they're a special kind of weapon. We have cursed swords so- if I scanned it we'll have this very glowing black flame design." (Avery) shows us the floating window and we were definitely impressed, especially Rose. While I might have seen these kinds of effects on games, the princess might have never imagined such a thing to exist.
"I have a holy sword with me too. I suppose I don't use it as much since you know... but it helps me stabilize my dark magic when it's needed."
"Oh! I haven't seen that one either- can I take a look later? You have so many weapons I want to try!" (Avery) reaches out for the cursed sword and I swat her hand away with a glare. Clearly she's careful but stubborn in wanting to try it despite the warning.
"As I said you'll die if you touch it." I put back my sword away and made sure to tuck it in where she can't take it for a test swing.
"But what if- I don't die? Have you tested it? Maybe my hero powers will protect me from this one." (Avery) tried arguing with me on wanting to test out the sword and I shook my head.
"I was really careful not to let anyone touch [Nirvana] ever. Especially on accident or even the reason of curiosity or experiment. Heck even the blacksmith on where I got this was wearing some special gloves so that he won't die." I told her Avery, who felt like having droopy ears above her head and a sad dog tail behind her back.
"And I don't think your hero insurance can cover this curse besides you already have one, you don't need another cursed sword in your collection." I raised my eyebrows at her and she began giving me these puppy eyes that won't work on me. "Besides, it's a rather cool looking blade."
I eye the sword by her hilt. A dark black blade with some red stripes on some parts of the edge and the middle. "Oh this? You'd be surprised on how the lore of this world is mostly true, especially on weapons. If there's a tale of cursed or holy weapons capable of bringing monsters down I hunt it."
"Or sell it?" (Avery) thinks it over and thinks of money more important than the glory of an awesome weapon well... I mean some of the weapons have curses so she'll be keeping those ones.
Not many people would like to get a hold of a cursed weapon that will just haunt them to death.
"Goodness me! If you find a holy weapon please hand it over to the church! Those weapons are said to be blessed by the light goddess herself!" (Rose) looks over to me and I shrug at her suggestion.
"That's what the academy told me as well but... the sword would just stop becoming holy if I gave it to them. It would just return to being a regular sword?" I explained to Rose.
Of course, the church has fought tooth and nail for the thing seeing that it was a holy weapon but when they realized it turned into a simple weapon by the time the pastor held it in his hands.
They gave it back and called it a cursed sword.
I clicked my tongue thinking of the look on those pastors personally insulting me in the academy of how much of a fraud I was for fooling them to think it was a holy weapon blessed by the light.
What a bunch of power hungry bastards.