“Gah!”
An incredible bursting sound rang out, and Lowe was blasted away by the shock.
“Ngh!”
Jade leaned way back but managed to stay on his feet, staggering. Meanwhile, Lowe was rolled along the floor of the training grounds. The dark red lights instantly melted away, and the skill that Jade had been maintaining with all his energy vanished.
Lowe got scraped all over as he rolled across the ground, but before he could groan in pain, he let out a wail of frustration. “Agh, I can’t do it at all!”
Their attempts to combine Lowe’s skill, Sigurth Ashinu, with Jade’s skill hadn’t succeeded in the slightest. That was because Lowe couldn’t control his skill.
Sigurth Ashinu was wild and uncontrollable by nature; once activated, it would completely ignore the will of the caster and keep reproducing endlessly until its target was destroyed. If he could control it, they wouldn’t have limited him to using it outdoors to begin with.
“Agh, I’m beat…” Whining, Lowe tried to stand up. But he was hit by instant vertigo, and he stuck out his hands to catch himself.
“You’ve overused your skill. Let’s stop here for today,” Jade said, but he still seemed to have some strength left, enough that he could stand on his feet with his hands on his hips.
“…” Lowe, on the other hand, was completely sapped of strength and couldn’t even stay upright on his own. He did feel somewhat frustrated by this difference, but at the same time, Lowe also knew that Jade had been pushing his body for quite a while now in an attempt to improve his skill endurance.
Jade had been working hard. He would endure backbreaking training during the day, and then, astoundingly, would help Alina with overtime at night.
This endurance monster…
Once again impressed by Jade’s superhuman endurance, Lowe sprawled out on the ground, spreading his limbs out wide. “It’s no use. I’m really exhausted…” The harsh sunlight poured down on his heated body. He lay on the hard earth and let the strength leave his body; it was comfortable, kind of like he was floating.
“Why am I the only one who can’t use a composite skill?” Lowe griped. “You had no problem working with Lululee, right? This is bringing up some complicated feelings.”
“Maybe we’re just compatible. I guess it’s since your skill is too powerful…” Jade tried to figure out what was wrong as he sat next to Lowe. The two of them gazed out at the huge training grounds together for a while.
“Want to try restricting the range a bit? I could control it a little. Just a little.”
“Yeah…,” Jade muttered, tilting his head curiously. “I feel like something is off, unlike the time with Lululee… Lowe, Sigurth Ashinu is a Sigurth skill, right?” Jade asked nonchalantly.
For a moment, Lowe was struck speechless. But it really was just an instant, just the slightest moment that a normal person wouldn’t really be bothered by. “Of course. If that’s not a Sigurth skill, then what is it, right?”
“Yeah, of course.” Jade fell into thought.
Privately, a touch of guilt crossed Lowe’s heart. Noting that Jade really did have good intuition, Lowe smoothly changed the subject. “Once we can use a composite skill, just having you alone might be enough.”
“Maybe for normal battles, but not against dark gods.”
“Well, yeah.”
Even if he and Lowe did manage to create a composite skill, they couldn’t necessarily beat a dark god with it—in fact, it was pretty unlikely at this point. Jade understood that plenty, but he had been pursuing composite skills anyway.
It was impressive that he could work so hard for something they didn’t even know would be useful.
Lowe didn’t like wasting his efforts when results weren’t guaranteed, but he kind of liked how Jade could be that way. Besides, Jade did get frustrated sometimes, too.
That was why Lowe would stick with this endurance monster until he was satisfied.
“Lowe, you’re actually kind of enjoying yourself, aren’t you?”
“Ah, you noticed?” Lowe grinned openly, and Jade responded with a knowing smile.
“I’ve never practiced with someone like this,” Lowe found himself saying. “I’ve always practiced magic and my skill on my own.”
“You’re self-taught? Why…?”
“I wonder.”
He didn’t even have to think about it—there was one very good reason why. Back then, he couldn’t have let anyone—not his enemies and not even his friends—see his abilities. Not that he’d had any friends.
“I think it’s because I was embarrassed to have other people watch,” Lowe lied, smoothing things over with a smile.
“It’s unusual for you to talk about yourself, Lowe.”
“Huh, do I seem closed off?”
“Yeah. It’s like you draw a line for important things.”
Jade really did know Lowe. It goes to show why he’s been the leader of Silver Sword all this time.
Just then, Lululee’s anxious voice flew at them, along with a patter patter of hurried footsteps. “Ah! Lowe! Are you all right?!”
Oh yeah, she went off somewhere earlier…, Lowe thought. Then an intense smell hit his nose, and he forgot his exhaustion and leaped to his feet. “That reeks!”
“Don’t say that!” The source of the stink was a cylindrical bottle that Lululee was carrying.
“L-Lululee… What is that…?!” Jade, whose eyes and nose were sharper than the others’, must have been hit harder by the intense smell. Despite how he had been totally fine with overusing his skills, he was now crawling on the ground, trembling all over.
“I made a special recovery medicine that will work—maybe—on skill exhaustion!” Lululee announced. “Since heal spells don’t heal skill exhaustion…I tried mixing a bunch of things through trial and error to see if I could come up with an effective medicine. And since we’re close to guild headquarters, I got help from the researchers as well.”
“Huh…? Y-you can drink that…?”
Inside the transparent bottle Lululee carried was a black-green fluid that was thick, like mud. Occasionally, it gurgled and spat out an ominous bubble, and it was not colored like something that should be put in the human body.
But Lululee smiled at Lowe like an angel as she clutched the suspicious drug. “Of course! I tried combining every single medicinal herb that seemed like it would be effective.”
“A-ah, I think I’m feeling a little better. Yeah, I think I can stand. I’ll be able to get up in five seconds, so can you take that suspicious concoction and go far aw—?”
“No need to hold back! Come on, come on!”
Lululee took advantage of Lowe’s inability to move and grabbed him by the head, pressing the bottle to his mouth.
“Mmmmmmmmggh!”
A few seconds later, Lowe’s shriek rang throughout the training grounds.