The morning after the golems were defeated, just as the sun was about to rise, an azure sky spread above the Galarc Castle.
In the garden of Rio’s mansion, there was a shadow moving swiftly about. It was the mansion owner himself; no one else was in the garden, and it appeared as though he were fighting an imaginary opponent with his bare hands.
He had hidden the fact his body wasn’t fully recovered from the effects of assimilation yet, but thanks to everyone worrying about him yesterday, he’d been able to go to sleep early. Because of that, he had woken up early this morning and was now checking his own status.
Feels like I’m at seventy or eighty percent of my best condition.
His current state was somewhere along the lines of feeling fatigue or exhaustion.
My body still feels a little heavy, but it shouldn’t get in the way of fighting.
All that was left was to wait and see if the fatigue would fade or if it would remain forever.
I’ll have to refrain from strong assimilations until I recover.
According to Lina, it was best to avoid complete assimilation and prolonged durations of assimilation.
Other than that...
Rio came to a sudden stop and activated his spirit arts. Countless orbs of light floated around him. He controlled each one individually, making them move in complex paths around him.
It’s gotten a lot easier to cast my arts.
He had been vaguely aware of it already, but his sense for spirit arts was much clearer.
I wonder if this is an effect of assimilation too.
During assimilation, his spirit art ability had been strengthened. The same thing had happened the first time he’d assimilated with Aishia, but the feeling back then had remained after the assimilation ended. The beneficial side effects appeared to be a lucky fluke.
All right.
Rio made the orbs of light he had summoned vanish instantly.
Next up...
He held his left hand before him and began to refine the magic essence. He cast a partial physical enhancement on his left hand only. In this state, he should’ve been able to punch a boulder without hurting his hand.
“Ugh...”
When Rio wrapped the same light energy around his hand as the light orbs he’d summoned earlier, he frowned in pain. The area covered by the energy was protected as though it were covered by an elastic barrier, but at the same time it exposed him to the light and heat of the energy.
Sora did the same in her battle against the golem, but it really is a huge burden on the physical body. Increasing the degree of enhancement may help enduring it at higher outputs, but...
There was a limit to what a human body could withstand even when enhanced. It was more practical to wrap the energy around a sturdy weapon.
Rio drew his steel dagger with his right hand and sent essence into the blade, wrapping it in energy. But as he increased his output, the metal blade began to chip and crumble from the burden of the energy.
Normal weapons will end up breaking from the burden. It has to be a dwarf-made mythril weapon or a Spirit Arms.
Even then, a mythril weapon wasn’t entirely reliable against an enemy as strong as a golem. In reality, the sword Rio had received from Dominic in the spirit folk village had been destroyed in his battle with the upper high-rank spirit possessing Erica.
What’s scariest is when the weapon fails to block an attack from a golem-like opponent...
Human bodies were too fragile. A regular human could withstand a blow from a blunt weapon if they used physical body enchantments, but a blow from a golem was instant death.
It’d be a good defense method if I could keep my body constantly wrapped in energy...
Based on his testing just now, the light and heat emitted from the essence energy made it too unrealistic to wrap around his body. It would burn Rio’s body as well. If he had to do it, he would be limited to a low output.
If I limit the energy cover to the moment I attack and the moment I defend myself, I should be able to lower the burden, but...
That would require watching for the right timing to release the energy and would make it no different from defending against the attack itself. What he wanted was a way to defend himself against surprise attacks. Rio continued pondering things.
“Dragon Ki— Ah! Master Ri... Master Haruto! Sorry...”
Sora’s voice echoed through the garden. She had a look of shame on her face from forgetting that she was meant to call him Haruto while they were at the mansion.
Rio sheathed his dagger and smiled at her gently. “Good morning, Sora. No one’s around right now, so it’s okay. Come over.”
Sora hurried over with a skip in her step. “Good morning. You looked really tired yesterday; are you feeling better now?”
“Yeah. I was able to rest the whole night.”
“That’s great! Were you practicing the use of your fighting aura just now?”
“Aura? Do you mean this energy?” Rio looked down at the faint energy he had wrapped around his left hand.
“Yes. Sora calls it ‘fighting aura.’ Sora learned it from the Dragon King a long time ago.”
“I see. I saw you use it during the battle with the golem and wanted to know if I could do it too. I was just about to ask you some things myself.”
“You have questions for Sora? Ask away!” Sora beamed, happy to be of service to Rio.
“Thank you. I noticed my physical body couldn’t withstand the effects of the aura, so I was wondering if there was a trick to it.”
“Right, because human bodies are so fragile. And there’s a limit to how much they can be enhanced by spirit arts...”
“My body gets a bit sturdier when I’m assimilated with Aishia, but I can’t always be assimilated with her. That’s why I wanted to be able to protect myself with an aura...”
“R-Right, you shouldn’t rely on Aishia all the time. Sora will think of something...”
Sora hummed in thought, motivated by her rivalry with Aishia.
“Were you able to withstand such a powerful aura because you’re a disciple of the Dragon King?” Rio asked.
“Yes, Sora has a tough body bestowed on her by the Dragon King! Sora doesn’t even need to materialize her dragon body to use auras!”
“How sturdy is your body in its unguarded state?”
“Even without physical enhancements, Sora’s body is the hardest thing in this world. Sora can’t be hurt by any physical object. All magic and spirit arts are repelled, and no amount of flames can leave any burn. But the Dragon King was stronger, of course,” Sora said proudly.