After we got back to the inn, I looked out from the window on the second floor, down to the city below. All those people hurried about their lives with such purpose…
“What are we going to do tomorrow?” asked Filia as she sat down on her soft bed. “I think I’ll probably be well enough to strain myself by then.”
“I don’t think I wanna take any requests tomorrow. Nah, I wanna take a day to train. Haven’t done that in a while. What about you, Filia?” I asked.
“Hmm, well, I think I have a pretty good handle on how to use the Wind God already, so I’ll just take a nice stroll about town. To train my Clairvoyance,” said Filia.
I’d noticed her Wind God expertise in our fight. Filia seemed to know all the ins and outs of handling the Wind God now, even though she’d been pretty uneasy and unsure about it at first. It seemed like her training with Ashley had produced some awesome results.
Honestly, though, while Filia’s Wind God ability was definitely amazing, I thought her Clairvoyance was way more powerful, no matter how she framed it. The ability to know both your opponent’s abilities and their aptitude for magic? And better yet, it told you what they were thinking? It was so powerful that it was almost funny.
Add to that, Filia was way strong. Sure, I’d beat her the other day, but in the future…I couldn’t be so sure I’d be able to do it again. To make sure Filia couldn’t defeat me and to keep up with even stronger opponents, I had to train even harder.
“You don’t mind splitting up?” I asked.
“Oh, no, it’s quite all right with me. Just don’t get too lonely without the light of my presence, Yuri,” said Filia with a teasing chuckle.
I responded with an exasperated smile of my own and set to figuring out my training for the day.
As for Filia, she moved from her bed to the desk and started writing something. I couldn’t see what she was writing, but I probably wouldn’t have been able to understand it even if I did see. I could still take a guess as to what it was about: magic.
Since Filia had left her home village, it seemed she had been reformulating her theory of how her magic worked. I didn’t really get it, since I didn’t really need theory for muscle magic, but her magic power had really been improving of late. Whatever she was doing was clearly working.
I can’t afford to lose, I thought as I watched Filia scribble away so furiously it was like she was carving the words into the desk.
The next day, I left the inn without waiting for Filia to wake up. I wanted to practice a new technique I’d come up with on our first day of separate training. I needed to refine it until it was of practical use. For that reason, I had elected to continue prioritizing training over requests for the next little bit.
“What I really need is better cardio,” I said to myself. “Gotta train with everything I got.”
I set off and made my way to the city outskirts, then beyond. The area around the city of Jeepupp was well-maintained, so there was no need to worry about monsters. I walked farther and farther away from the city until the ground became uneven and the roads less populated.
“All right, this looks like a good spot.” I made sure that no one else was around, then I started sprinting as fast as I could go. My minimum goal? Five hundred miles per day.
“Graaah!”
I didn’t run like the wind; I outran it. I overtook it. For the next three days, I ran with all my heart and soul at an incalculable speed, kicking up clouds of dust in my wake.