(Maia's Pov)
We were around 2 kilometers up, somewhere above the village. Around 15 minutes had passed since Cael fell asleep and I relieved his pain as usual.
"Found it."
I had asked Mio to look for a goblin nest, and of course it didn't take longer than a minute or so before she spoke up. We needed it in order to move on with the last stage of Cael's training, before switching to practicing the stuff I taught him until my birthday.
"How far is it?"
"Around 16 kilometers due north from town, it's in a small forest."
"Alrighty then, let's go check it out."
Her black and purple aura then enveloped both of us, this time in a spiraling motion starting from our feet, fully engulfing us and instantly allowing us to reach the destination. Mio's teleportation really was convenient honestly. On that note though, the effects used can vary depending solely on her mood. They're all different on purpose, and for that matter she could also just do it with absolutely 0 aura leakage but chooses to alternate from time to time since it looks cool.
Hmm, so it's a cave, huh? That should also work pretty fine, but first…
"How many are there inside?"
There were quite a few goblins outside the cave, but it seemed like neither one of them was willing to go past a certain point. Spreading in a circle in all directions, they didn't go past around a kilometer and a half away from their cave. I guess that was probably just the limit of their territory.
"Around 730? More or less. They do also have a king and queen in there, so that number could double in like a year given the time, but I guess we don't really have a need for it."
"Yeah, Definitely not. 700 is more than enough though, since we have to also make sure he won't fail…"
There was a river around 3 kilometers due East from the cave's entrance which was most likely out of their territory. Water didn't seem to be an issue though, so
I guess there's probably a bunch of tunnels that get to the river inside? And as for their food, goblins can live off of underground insects and small animals, so I doubt it would be an issue in general. Not like it matters much how they're living though, since they'll all be gone by tomorrow.
"Still though, The structure of the cave is actually pretty impressive for a bunch of goblins honestly. There are close to 100 different tunnels, and all of them seem to be at least 5 meters in height and 7 in width… I guess that means Cael will have more than enough space inside."
"Fortunately enough, we won't need to modify anything of the structure at least. How long do you think it'll take him?"
"Hmmm. Goblins are an E rank monster at most, and even though Cael is still on the same level as an F rank now, with all that you taught him, normally he'd be done in a matter of 3 hours give or take as long as he found them quickly enough? But considering the limitations he'll have this time, I guess he'll be done by dinner time if he starts at around 10 in the morning at the latest."
"I thought so… but we can't help it. we need him to get used to it, without gaining too much."
"Yeah, I Agree. We can't really do much if it happens in a few years while he's in some adventure, but for now it's best to not have him realize it yet. Which is why…"
Obviously, I didn't even need to tell what was needed next, which is why Around 2 seconds after pausing her sentence, the goblin king and queen had been teleported in the air, next to us. The air beneath their feet was already hardened so they didn't fall, but before they could even try to react to the situation they had randomly found themselves in, their heads had been completely disintegrated, cut into so many pieces that you may as well have called it minced goblin meat.
"…We can't leave the 2 of you to him."
Following her, I quickly burned their cadavers, leaving behind no trace of them. With that out of the way, and having checked the area already, she then proceeded to harden the whole structure of the tunnels, of course without moving a finger, then set up an invisible barrier.
"This should do it."
The structure hardening was a choice made in order to avoid the whole cave collapsing in him because he charged up an attack a little too much… which would definitely happen normally. So it's better to take any possible precautions, and not risk having him get squashed down inside.
On the other hand, one of the purposes of the barrier was to keep any monsters from going inside the goblin's territory, and vice versa to keep all goblins inside. While the other was to actually enhance the goblins, and apply the most important rule that we'd be basing the whole training session on. The only way to kill them was with either a mana attack, or a mana blast. Magic aside since he can't use it anyway, no simple physical attack would work, even if it's with a strengthened weapon.
"Thanks as usual, Mio. By the way also, I'm not really sleepy yet, so if you wanna go somewhere i'll accompany you tonight. we finished the preparations pretty quickly as well anyway."
"I'd love to go try out a new nocturne restaurant that serves spicy food which opened yesterday, but unfortunately we can't tonight. I have to go somewhere and take care of something. I can teleport you home if you want though."
Mio putting aside trying out some new spicy food to do something, huh? That's a new one.
"Alright then, I'll gladly accept that teleport. But where are you going? Though you finished today's work before Cael even fell asleep, didn't you?"
"Yeah, I did finish my work already, this isn't actually related. Sylara asked me to help her with the preparations for the festival since it's pretty close, and she's waiting for me now."
"Oh, right. It's already been 10 years, eh? Guess it can't be helped then, you shouldn't keep Sylara waitin-…"
"Hm? Is something wrong, Maia? You suddenly paled up like that."
Her head tilted casually with confusion as she looked at me.
D-did I hear that correctly? There's no way I did, right? From her? From Mio???
One thing that you should probably know about Mio, is that she probably developed a pretty inconvenient habit from Cael. If he doesn't care enough about someone, he won't even remember the first letter of their names, let alone the full thing. Mio on the other hand, not only does she not remember the names of people she doesn't care about, but even if she does remember them, she won't use one's name unless she actually has some ounce of respect for that individual. For that matter, she had never even called any of the other captains by their names, whenever she talked about them.
"…Did you just call her by her name?"
"Yeah? What about it?"
And to make it even worse, neither one of them is actually aware of how obliviously disrespectful they are. As an example, let's take the dwarf captain. Instead of calling him by his name, Mio gave him a nickname like she does to pretty much anyone that isn't a friend or close to her. Now, I know how it sounds, and you could be thinking something along the line of "what's wrong with nicknames? It could be a cute way to call them. Or maybe it's a cool ass nickname that she came up with in honor of their strength!" But unfortunately, we're talking about Mio here. Regular ones? Sure, they can be awesome, but the nickname she had chosen for him was "overpowered gnome".
"…"What about it" my ass! What's up with that?! You never call any of the captains by their names!"
"So what? I don't really think it's that deep, you know?"
She had a confused and almost annoyed expression, as if saying "who cares about what I call them, I'm their boss anyway…" which is exactly why I was so curious. This was genuinely, a completely unheard of change of events. like, She wouldn't even call the dragon king and prince themselves by their names, but she's doing it for The queen of nature?
"Yes, it is. It reaaaally is. So spill it. Spill it all out! what made you respect her enough to use her name?"
After letting out a resignant sigh, followed by a side eye of annoyance, she finally replied.
"I think you're looking too much into it honestly, especially the respect part.. but anyway, It's really not that deep. She's the first sentinel I reached out to you know?. Not to mention we spend a general amount of time together. Sure, she's a questionably sadistic woman, but in the end she's pretty kind. Also, I don't see why I wouldn't respect the First Commander… she's technically my superior after all."
Ohhhhh, yeah that makes sense haha. Hahaha, how naive I was. They're pretty good friends, that's it haha. She's also her superior- ...
"Say, Mio. Can you repeat that last part? I don't think I heard you correctly."
"Hm? I said that I don't see why I wouldn't respect the first commander? She is my superior technically after all."
"…"
"Are you sure you're alright?"
"…"
It's no use… this girl is way too casual about insane lore drops.
"Let me get this straight. You're saying that the queen of nature is actually the first commander. Even though that isn't said in any book regarding the sentinels?"
"Ah, that. yeah sorry, I forgot you only know what you learnt on your own about this world haha. My bad, my bad. But every single record that speaks of the sentinel's history is fake. I won't really bother going into detail now though, but making it short: She is in fact the first commander."
"…"
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie. My surprise was instantly washed away as I sighed in acceptance at that point. She's going to explain it some time later anyway, so there's no point in thinking too much about it. So I decided to just move on, and completely try to ignore and forget about that insane plot twist she just dropped momentarily. It also seemed like she was in a bit of a rush for that matter, so I guess it's about time I send her off.
"…forget about it. She's waiting for you though, right? Don't keep her waiting too much."
"You're right haha, I'll go then. Good night, Maia. See you tomorrow. "
The portal opened right as she finished her sentence, this time choosing a gate looking one, for easy access I guess.
"Yeah, goodnight, Mio."
And I passed through without wasting another second, intending on just going back to my tent and sleeping relatively early tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Cael's Pov)
"Oii, time to get up Cael… the bears called and they said they want their hibernation spot back…"
There it was. Today's wake up call which as usual, has been different each day for the past 2 months. At the same time, not only did they get more and more creative, but also they have gotten passively more aggressive as we progressed. I honestly didn't even know what to expect anymore, but I was also just way too sleepy to contest it. I decided to thug it out, and just open my eyes…
"Wuaaaahhhhh?!!!!"
But when I did, I was forced to jump out, backing away as fast as possible, with my heart about to stop from the absolute jump scare I just got. Why, you ask? Because when I opened them, what I saw in front of me was the severed head of a real fucking bear, a few centimeters away from my face.
"My, how nice of you to clear out our little bear's favorite hibernation spot so quickly. You're quite the gentleman, Cael."
"What the fuck is wrong with you, you psychopathic gorilla?! Also, That thing is already in permanent hibernation, it did not fucking need my hibernation spot! Where the hell did you even get the head from anyway??"
"I saw this guy trying to eat up our stocked meat, so I took care of him, but then I got the idea for today's wake-up so I kept his head."
She said while raising it, and playfully keeping it in front of her face as some kind of "mask". At this point, questioning her mental sanity would be nothing but a waste of time. There was no need to ask any questions, this girl was completely out of her goddamn mind.
"Is that so…"
The poor bear was trying to eat some of our meat but now is probably part of the stock. Rest in peace, nameless bear.
Putting the head aside, or rather, Straight up dropping it on the ground inside my tent for some mysterious reason, she then walked past me to get my clothes as usual, leaving them inside.
"Wait, you can't be serious! Are you just gonna leave this her-"
"I'll see you outside in 10 minutes as usual then."
"You're ignoring me??"
Clearly, the simple answer was yes, as she left the tent without replying. I sighed as I looked at the bear's head, on which I swear I could see an expression that was as resigned as mine, as if even he was sick of Maia's bullshit.
"I feel you man. I feel you."
As usual, we first went into town to grab breakfast, but today as we walked around towards the restaurant something was a little off. It wasn't anything weird or necessarily bad though. There were a lot of posters on random walls, and I'd say that a solid 80% of people that passed by seemed interested enough to get closer and check them out.
"Wonder what's up with those."
"Hm? Are you curious?"
"I guess? Almost everyone seems interested in it after all."
"I guess that makes sense. An event that happens once every 10 years is about to begin in around a month or so, that's why."
"An event?"
"Once every 10 years, there's a hunting event that takes place in the elven kingdom. It's specifically restricted to adventurers only of any rank, and it's kind of a charity thing I guess in the end? The adventurers get to keep all the bodies of the monsters they hunt themselves, which sell pretty well."
I mean, that does seem pretty cool. But is it really that big of a deal?
"Why is everyone so excited though? It's in the elven kingdom, no?"
"Oh, that's right haha. I forgot you don't know.."
"I don't know about What?"
"It's not the case with the one in our village since it's a pretty small one, but every city and town broadcasts most live events, Tournaments, so on and so forth. They're all excited since they're going to see it live."
What kind of insane commercialization even is that?? I've wondered about it a few times before, but this world is definitely not a medieval era type of setting… I guess it's closer to those Korean historical romance manhwas, but with some modernized twists? It's convenient so I won't complain, but it's definitely confusing sometimes.
"I see. If it happens once every 10 years then the last time was when you were 4, right?"
"Yep, mom and dad did actually take me here to watch it as well. Of course, we both covered our eyes and she had her hair covered as well but still. From what I remember, it's overall pretty entertaining but it's nothing that special honestly. I'm pretty sure also that the adventurer that slays the most monsters, or the strongest types gets a special reward from the Queen of Nature who's the one behind the event to begin with. I don't really remember what it is though, I think it changes every time maybe?"
Nothing special, huh? Is that really the case or is it just because to you it's like a few kids playing around?
For the past 2 months, the people of this town had definitely gotten used to seeing us around, and while most of them started just ignoring us, a good chunk still glared at us with death wishes in their eyes. Right now though? I could even recognize some faces of the fellas that usually glare at us, but even they were completely ignoring us. Do you have any idea how insane it is for even your biggest haters to suddenly ignore you just because an event is upcoming? I have doubts about the entertainment value myself, but I don't think I can just take Maia's opinion as valid in this case honestly.
After eating, we went on our way as usual, and after arriving at today's destination which was really nowhere in particular, just a few kilometers away from town it was time to begin.
Finally, the day has come. I don't even need to ask, I can already tell what today's lesson is.
"You have a really creepy grin on your face right now, Cael… stop that."
"Hehehe, my bad my bad. I can't help it though. Today I'll finally…"
Even she was giving me a slightly disgusted glare at that point, which kinda made me question how creepy my grin actually was but, hey. I do Not give a single fuck right now. I'm way too happy, and I have no intention of hiding it. She let out a sigh, before talking.
"Alright, I get it. Keep that grin all you want, as long as you don't look at me too much with it. Yes, today I'll teach you the 2 only offensive attacks you can use, and the only one's you'll need in the end."
The makeshift getsuga and cero, I'll finally be able to use them!
"Mana blasts, and mana attacks, right???"
She nodded.
"Considering you already learnt how to extract natural mana and make it your own, and even enhancing objects, this should be extremely easy to do. I'll cut it short, and just tell you for starters how to do the blast."
"Roger!"
"Your hand placement doesn't really matter. You don't even need to do anything with your hand for that matter. you may see people make some kind of hand gestures before using them, but it's really just all for show. The process itself is fairly easy as long as you have a general control over your mana. It's basically just: materialize your mana outside of your body, pretty much the same way you did when making a small layer so you could fly. Then imagine that blob of mana blasting forward with as much strength as you can, and boom! You're pretty much done; there's obviously some other factors that come into play, like the condensation of the mana but that's besides the point, first of all begin with actually letting a blast out, then we'll go from that."
"Got it."
The hand gesture being optional and just for show basically translated to "absolutely do use some kind of hand gesture, and make it look as cool as you fucking can." So obviously, that's what I'll do. Not really sure what to go with honestly though, so I guess I'll just start with a simple one. Maybe you can't even call this a particular hand gesture, but still all I did was the classic extended right arm. Open palm and fingers, but slightly clawed finger tips. Simple, but absolutely magnificent if done correctly.
Now, while the pose itself probably didn't look that good on its own, there was an easy way to enhance the overall appeal by at least 10x in a matter of an instant. Simply, make the coldest expression you can. Imagining some kind of monster in front of me, as I was about to blast the shit out of it, I put on the coldest eyes and expression I possibly could at the moment, completely immersing myself in that fantasy which I swear I'll turn into reality one day.
Alright, I still have some of the mana I absorbed yesterday, so thankfully my blasting funds should be more than enough.
I had no doubts that I could do this. I managed to do something that not even Maia could yesterday, so there was no reason why I shouldn't be able to do something easier than that. Feeling the inside of my now fuller pool, I allowed it to flow through my body, with the end goal being my right hand. When I thought I had enough piled up there, I materialized it outside of my body, and I could even see it slowly build up layer after layer inside a red and black mixed ball of pure mana, right in the middle of my palm.
Hohohoooooo, this is insane!!! I really want to smile, or rather, I have to smile! But no. I'll stay faithful to the fantasy! There's an ugly orc in front of me, that's coming towards me at full speed. I have to charge up this blast and fuck him up. Yeah, that scenario works!
Boy oh boy was I excited. But I managed to not let any emotions out on my face as I kept charging up the blast. There was something that lingered on my mind at that moment though. There was a forest around 5 kilometers or so in front of me, so what if my blast ended up vaporizing it?!… would I be held responsible for it?… alright, I was a little scared, and I did try to be considerate and thought of the possibility of just charging it up less. But in the end, my desire to release a cero was dominantly superior to any sense of responsibility and worry I had, so who cares?! Blow that damn forest up, erase it from existence, I do not care anymore!
Alright this should be enough. Finally, after a good few, and painfully long years, here it comes!
Imagine it. Imagine the ball of mana becoming a powerful blast, splurging through with enough strength to vaporize that stupid orc that exists only in my head! In 3…2…1!…
-eh?
"Pfft- hahahahahaha!"
She fell to the ground, laughing her lungs off. Why do you ask? … My blast that I poured my mind and soul into… it was only around a meter in width and height… and uhm-… it only went around 2 meters ahead before dissipating into nothingness.
I want to kill myself.
someone, please blast the fuck out of me with a properly functional one. I fell on my knees, with my forearms on the ground as I held back my tears of embarrassment while that stupid gorilla was still laughing
"Hahahahahaha! A-all that preparation… y-you had s-s-such a cold expression… hahahaha for nothing… stop, this is way too funny! I'm dying, I can't!"
I can't even tell her to shut up. If our roles were reversed, I might've been laughing even harder. This was beyond humiliating. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why was I so confident! Or rather, nah, the better question would be, why the fuck did it go like that?! I did everything right, and I had more than enough mana already to make a proper blast; so then why? Why?! Why did it go like that?
When she finally calmed down enough, she proceeded to actually explain what went wrong, her being the one smiling this time around.
"The reason why it turned out like that, is because mana attacks are all relative to your own strength. Your general strength level is dictated by your base mana density and amount, regardless of the mana that you temporarily absorb. So yes, you had a lot of mana prepared for that blast, but it still scaled up to the strength of your own."
"…will that also apply to my getsu- I mean, my general mana attacks?"
"Did you not hear what I said? A mana blast is also a mana attack. Wherever you release it as a blast or from a weapon, the result won't change, my sweet little delusional brother."
"…is there any chance I can just give up now?"
"Haha, absolutely not."
God I hope someone crushes my skull.
And so as I internally cried while yearning for death, I moved on to try to use a makeshift getsuga Tenshou, which did in fact have the same result. Why does the world hate me so much man.