During his endless training and experints, he thought to himself that
’What if I don’t just enhance the blade?’
’... What if the sword itself beca the spell?’
The idea manifested in his mind, and after countless failures and attempts...
*Woommm... Bzzzt...!*
Mana surged through his veins.
Dawnbreaker seed to vibrate in his grip.
"Fusion Magic: Arc of Lightspeed."
The blade shuddered like it was trying to break open the blade itself.
Crimson and golden light coiled along the tal.
The blade itself blurred, growing brightly that it refused to stay still.
’Still need more practice.’
But it was definitely enough for now.
Then Nero struck.
*Swiiiiisssh–!*
The short blade, which was supposed to be a fixed tal, dematerialized into a sharp light towards the monster.
There was no suspense.
With a fluid motion, the swing passed through the Colossus in a single, clean flash.
There was no spray of blood.
No frantic regeneration.
No slow collapse.
The entire middle of the creature’s torso simply disappeared as if soone had erased it from a drawing.
*Thud! Thud!*
The top half crashed down.
Then the bottom half.
Both hit the ground with heavy thuds.
’As expected, imbuing magic affecting souls is worth studying.. just like what Luna said.’
Seeing that it didn’t move or regenerate after a few seconds, Nero nodded to himself before the dematerialized light converted back into a tal blade of the hilt.
"..."
Silence settled in almost too quickly.
The dungeon dimd as it recognized its guardians had been wiped out.
Nero stood over the fallen monsters, his breathing was a bit uneven but not fully tired.
Dawnbreaker still glimred faintly in his hand.
Luna observed him with the expression of soone quietly impressed.
"Your integration is impressive... Though, your mana consumption increased by 23% during the altered blade state. If you encounter an opponent who can outlast bursts like that, the technique would fail."
There was clearly a lot to be improved, but overall, the approval behind it was real.
Velraeth practically grinned with excitent.
"Now that is what I wanted to see!"
Her tail flicked so hard the air whistled.
"You have finally gotten decent enough, alright."
She folded her arms, smirking like a proud teacher.
"But!... Your footwork got sloppy near the end. If that thing had clipped you once, you would have lost the rhythm."
"Yeah, I’m still working on that. I could’ve made my reflection more direct and killed the last one faster if it weren’t for my footwork."
Nero shrugged as he checked his footing, trying to retrace the moves he perford just now.
anwhile, hidden across the chamber, Christoffel nearly fainted.
’You call that just decent enough?!’
He had been spying with every bit of stealth training he had, but watching these three discuss SR tier monsters like they were practice targets had drained the color from his face.
His brain landed on a single conclusion.
Monsters!
All three of them!
"..."
He slowly backed away, step by step.
If he could just get out, he could report what he saw.
Preferably from very, very far away...
He almost made it.
Until,
"Do you need sothing, pal?"
... A hand tapped his shoulder.
Christoffel jerked so violently he almost bit his tongue.
He turned stiffly and saw Nero smiling at him, calm and friendly, as if he hadn’t just perford sothing that defied common sense.
’Where did he co from?!’
He felt a cold sweat drench his back, as he clearly just saw that man far from him...
"For a human, he looks tough."
"!!!"
Christoffel’s eyes darted toward another source of voice.
A pair of vertical amber pupils was staring back at him.
And the way she looked at him... made him feel like a prey being politely inspected by a predator who had already chosen seasoning.
It seems Velraeth appeared behind without him noticing too.
’T-This is bad!’
He needs to explain himself, quick!
In order to survive!
"A-Ah!, you s-see I...!"
***
After several rushed explanations, apologies, and near panic attacks, Christoffel finally stood upright again.
Nero listened with a confused expression the entire ti.
"Why would King Arthur want to et ?"
It seems he was here because he was being invited by the king representative of Legendor.
He looked genuinely puzzled.
To that, Luna let out a quiet sigh.
"You have been defeating monsters that typically require entire raid teams... Of course, every major faction has noticed. Any king and ruler would pay attention when soone strong enough to alter a region’s threat level appears out of nowhere."
She spoke like she was explaining common sense to soone who often forgot common sense existed.
"They are assessing potential threats. This is normal."
Nero blinked. The realization finally reached him, and the confusion on his face shifted into sothing like reluctant understanding.
"Oh... right."
A single syllable left Nero’s mouth, and it carried the weight of soone finally catching up to a joke everyone else understood a while ago.
’Guess my sense of normal really did get ssed up sowhere along the way.’
With the SSR waifus constantly at his side and the monsters he had torn through each and every day, it was honestly surprising he still felt surprised about anything at all.
"..."
He rubbed the back of his neck, giving a wry smile as he genuinely forgot about the power balancing of this world.
"Sorry.... What feels like regular monster cleanup for must look pretty sketchy when you’re not hanging around people who treat SR-tier monsters like practice dummies."
"Hmph."
Luna made a short noise.
It sounded like agreent and disapproval blending together, and it fit perfectly with her usual reaction whenever Nero’s awareness of social norms lagged far behind his talent for combat.
"Ehem... Anywho, sure, I’ll go."
Mildly coughing, Nero looked at the trembling man in front of him as he gave a casual affirmative.
"..."
Christoffel finally loosened up sowhat.
His shoulders dropped in relief once Nero confird he would respond to the royal summon.
The man looked like he had narrowly avoided being turned into a sar on the ground... for now.
"That being said, you should avoid tailing others, alright? I thought you were a stalker or so sort... almost killed you there, you know?"
"!!!"
Christoffel imdiately stiffened in fright, knowing he was a centiter close to almost being killed.
"I-I apologize! I won’t do it again...!"
"Mhm. It’s fine."
Good thing, the man in front of him isn’t unreasonable...
"Mr. N-Nero... should co as soon as you can... with the ladies, of course,"
Christoffel added, already preparing to leave before anything stranger could happen.
"T-There’s a major celebration happening for the arrival of the Inquisition representative. A priestess from the Celestial territories. P-Posters will be everywhere. The whole city’s preparing."
Grabbing what he could from his uniform, he then gave a letter to Nero, as he then made a respectful bow, still faintly trembling.
"W-Well then, I’ll excuse myself, Mr. Nero and the ladies..."
He slipped away with impressive speed.
... Whether it was bravery or pure instinct for self-preservation was up for debate, but Nero watched him vanish around the corner, trying to process what the priestess’s arrival actually ant.
"..."
Velraeth wrinkled her nose in annoyance.
She crossed her arms as her tail flicked behind her, the motion sharp enough to make loose stones on the ground look like they regretted existing too close to her.
"Are you really planning to go?" she asked. Her expression made it clear she hoped the answer was no. "The church, especially their white wings, is full of annoying types. So walk around like divine permission gives them the right to scold everyone about morality."
Her draconic amber eyes narrowed with a mory that looked like it involved flas, argunts, and possibly more than one collapsed building.
"Dragons and angels have history. Most of it is loud and involves property damage. You get the idea."
Luna followed up in a calr tone, though sohow her calm made her words even heavier.
"I cannot speak for all of them, but you should never let your guard down around church officials. Even if their public image looks holy, not everyone in their hierarchy lives up to it. Power attracts opportunists, even under the guise of sacred authority."
Nero smirked, leaning into their reactions like he was poking two dangerous animals for fun.
"Oh? Are you worried about ? How adorable."
"..."
Clearly it was a failed joke for such individuals with strong personalities as both won stared at him with a cold deadpan look.
He raised his hands in surrender, still laughing.
"Relax. I get it... I know what I’m walking into."
Under the grin, a quieter thought lingered.
This world isn’t innocent.
Nor is it kind to people who think being righteous automatically gives them plot armor.
The mory of Vincent’s betrayal passed through his mind, followed by the Obsidian Covenant’s shadowy operations.
If divine organizations claid purity, then the danger behind the curtain was likely twice as sharp.
Assuming their intentions were clean would be foolish and possibly fatal.
As they always say:
’The brightest light always casts the darkest shadows.’
For sure, there’s quite a history for sothing existing since the ti of Celis...
But even so, there was sothing more important buried under the risk.
If this priestess had ties to Celestial territories, there was a chance she knew sothing about Aurelia.
Maybe she had access to church records or could put him in contact with angels who understood Aurelia’s past more deeply.
It was worth the political theater.
Worth dealing with judgntal officials.
Worth the trouble.
*Clap!*
He clapped his hands once, loud enough to snap the tension in the air.
Both instructors looked at him, unsure what he planned to say next.
"Alright! Enough planning for now."
A grin spread across his face with renewed enthusiasm.
"It’s ti to gamble."
Both Luna and Velraeth stared at him like he had suddenly switched topics mid-sentence, which was exactly what he had done.
Their confused expressions amused him so much he had to cough to hide his laugh.
"... I an it’s ti for another summoning session with my system."
Luna’s eyes brightened instantly.
She tried to hide it behind her usual composed look, but her excitent was clear.
Velraeth was similarly curious about the thing that summoned her towards this bold "master" of hers.
"After a week of dungeon clearing," Nero began.
"You an training," Luna cut in.
"Ehem... — training through dungeon clearing," he corrected. "Either way, I’ve built up enough tickets for a good gacha run."
He opened the system interface, the glowing window appearing with its familiar soft chi.
The numbers displayed made his smile widen noticeably.
===
[Premium Waifu Tickets: 40x]
[Premium Relic Tickets: 95x]
===
Nero held his finger over the interface with his gambling addiction back.
’All or nothing, baby!’
Let the gambling begin!
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