Chapter 468: Chapter 468 - Old Man
"H-Hey, it’s working! Look!" Exclaimed Celestia excitedly, as she managed to float one of her blades off the ground, sparks of lightning crackling across the space between her hand and the blade.
She then began to try and lift it up towards her hand, before losing her grasp over it, letting out a frustrated sigh as the blade hit the ground with a clatter.
"Nice, looks like you’ll be able to pull it off. It’ll probably take a lot of practice before it’s viable in battle, though. I wasn’t sure if it’d work on your blades, since it’s made of an alloy of metals that didn’t exist in either of my previous two worlds. Huh, I wonder if there are metals that are more magnetic and would be more condusive to this technique than Arcanite is," I mused thoughtfully, before turning my attention back to my System, which was open on the World Map tab.
"What are you upto there? Are you looking for something?" She asked me as she peered over my shoulder curiously.
About a week had passed, and after we finished the anime I showed her to give her an idea of how electromagnetism works, she began working on it right away.
She didn’t really make any progress at first, and I thought maybe it wasn’t possible after all, but she adamantly kept working at it, and now, her efforts have finally been rewarded.
"Yeah, I’m looking for a certain plant. The climate in this forest would suit it, so it could grow here. Of course, this forest is pretty massive, so searching the entire place is going to take a while," I sighed wistfully, as I zoomed into a grove of trees and swiped the screen to pan across the area.
"What kind of plant?"
"The one I mentioned before, that gets you high by smoking it."
After she mentioned alcohol, I asked her if weed was a thing in this world, but she had no idea what I was talking about. I hope that just means it hasn’t been discovered yet, and not that it doesn’t exist.
We’d have to bust into a populated area to get booze, and that’s a risk I’d rather not take, so I decided I’d try to find some weed instead. I wish my System had some kind of search function, that’ll let me find whatever I’m looking for just by typing it in.
"Cool, hope you find it," She replied, before getting back to working on her electromagnetism.
"Hey, I was thinking, since those blades are so valuable, you probably shouldn’t use your electromagnetism with them in battle too much. Like, for example, once you master this technique better, you could be able to, say, spin your blades at high speeds and launch them towards your opponent. But with that, you risk them stealing the blade if they manage to block or grab it," I pointed out.
"Huh? Oh, crap, I didn’t even think of that! Also, spinning the blades and launching them is basically exactly how I was thinking of using this technique, how did you know?" She responded in bemusement.
"I mean, that’s exactly how the character in that anime we watched used it, so..."
"Right, yeah...so, what do you suggest, then? These blades are easily the most valuable possessions I’ve ever owned, and I don’t want to lose them," She frowned apprehensively.
"Well, we could get some cheap daggers or throwing knives or something. Weapons that wouldn’t be much of a loss even if they broke or got stolen," I suggested after mulling it over.
"Oh, that works. You know, I’ve kinda been itching for a fight lately. I wanna fight someone and then say something cool like ’you need more training’ or ’is that the best you can do?’ or ’not bad, maybe I’ll use ten percent of my power’, stuff like that!" She grinned eagerly.
Oh, God, what have I created? I’ve turned her into a full-blown weeb.
"Uh, it’s probably not the best idea to go looking for a fight. After we killed all those S-Ranks, you’ve probably become the most wanted criminal in the entire nation," I pointed out.
"Huh...yeah, probably. Actually, I’m kinda surprised that no one else has shown up here. I guess that means those S-Ranks didn’t tell anyone they were going to look for me in this forest," She mused thoughtfully.
"I suppose so. If I had to guess, maybe several groups were formed to hunt you down, each group spreading out across the nation to cover as much ground as possible. Since long-range communication isn’t a thing in this world, they’d have no way of reporting which area they’re searching without going back to make the report in person.
So, I’d say there’s a good possibility that no one alive knows where you are. Although, they’ve likely narrowed down the location to this region of the nation. Unless they decide to abandon their search for you, it’s probably only a matter of time before more Adventurers show up," I reasoned with a sigh.
"Fine by me. With how much I’ve improved lately, not to mention how powerful you are, it’ll take a pretty sizeable force to kill us. The most powerful S-Ranks are about on the same level, or maybe slightly stronger, than Jerik was. And there are only two such S-Ranks left," She informed me.
"Right, he mentioned something along those lines too. But have you actually seen these other two S-Ranks in action?" I asked her.
"Well, no..."
"In that case, we should assume that they could be more powerful than everyone thinks they are. Just like how you were hiding your Electro-Velocity Spell, they could have some tricks up their sleeve too," I pointed out.
"I guess that’s possible. Actually, the S-Rank who’s currently considered to be the strongest is known for being pretty mysterious and quiet. I also heard that he solos a lot of Dungeons, he’s basically the only one besides me who does that. But while I did so because I basically had no choice, since hardly any Adventurers were willing to form a party with me, he definitely wouldn’t have had that problem."
"About that, why exactly did no one want to team up with you? Adventurers who come from Nobility, I can understand, but Commoners too?" I inquired curiously.
"Well, I kinda had a target on my back, you know? Since I’m the only Commoner in history to become an S-Rank, there was a lot of negative attention on me. The other Commoners were probably afraid that they’d get targeted more if they associated with me. That aside, I’d be forced to take on lower level Dungeons if I teamed up with low-ranked Adventurers."
"Makes sense. What level Dungeons did you solo?"
"Mostly B-Ranked ones. Though, before I got framed, I did conquer a handful of A-Ranked Dungeons by myself. I’ve tried soloing three S-Ranked Dungeons, failed twice, which earned me a whole lot of ridicule, and succeeded once, though I came very close to dying that time."
"Sounds rough. I have to say, I’m surprised that you were promoted to S-Rank at all, given how poorly it sounds like Commoners are treated."
"That’s because of how the rank assessment works. I told you about how Mana Crystals work, right?"
"Yeah. They’re normally embedded in gear and weapons, in order to boost the wearer’s Magic. But they react differently with Barrier Magic, and can cast a Barrier Spell on a large scale for a few hours. What does that have to do with it?" I asked her.
"Well, there are some Mana Crystals that work differently. In the past, they were thought to be defective and useless. But it was then discovered that can be used to measure an Adventurer’s power. By running your Mana into it, the crystal glows. It goes from light blue, to dark blue, to purple and then finally, red. Light blue means C-Rank, dark blue is B, purple is A and red is S.
Normally, Commoners reach their limit at B-Rank, the crystal doesn’t go past dark blue. But then it turned purple for me, which made me the first Commoner to reach A-Rank. A while after that, I went in to get assessed again, and it turned red. And I proceeded to get a whole lot of unwanted attention.
The thing is, Commoner blood shouldn’t be capable of potential greater than B-Rank, which almost definitely means that I’m the bastard of a Noble. But I grew up in an orphanage and never met my parents, so I have no way of proving it. Noble bastards are usually executed as soon as they’re born, so I must have slipped through the cracks somehow," She sighed wistfully.
"I see. Sorry to hear that, you haven’t exactly had the greatest life, huh?"
"Mm-hm, the short time I’ve spent in this cave has been the most pleasant phase of my life," She replied with a smile.
"Hm...by the way, how old are you? I’d guess around mid-twenties, maybe around twenty-four or twenty-five, based on your appearance."
"Close, I’m twenty-two. What about you?"
"Uh, that’s kinda tough to answer. I’m technically just a few months old in this world...but if we’re talking about my mental age, I was around twenty-one when I died in my previous world, and a few years older than that in my first world, so...mid to late forties, I guess?"
"Oh, wow, so you’re an old man," She smirked teasingly.
"Please don’t call me that...in my head, I still feel like I’m in my twenties, since I started over from birth in my second world."
"I mean, when you consider that this is your third life, less than fifty years is actually pretty low-...," She began.
"YES!!! LET’S FUCKING GO!!!" I suddenly exclaimed, startling her, before adding apologetically, "Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you. I just found what I was looking for and let my excitement get the better of me, my bad."
