Chapter 23: The value of companions
Chapter 23: The value of companions
I was surprised by Ibuki's overreaction, but knowing how the power a name represents for a monster I think I can understand why she's acting like this.
After naming her I'm exhausted, my head is aching and my body is weak, I tell her to get up and I'm going to lie down to rest now.
Ibuki wasted no time and went straight to the sword resuming his training, I could see in his eyes that his determination became even stronger, giving her a name was more difficult than I expected, but it was worth it, I can tell just by looking for her that she admires and respects me, it's not hard to say that she has become extremely loyal to me, that's the most important thing for me.
I don't care about her current strength, I can train her and even help her evolve into a stronger race, but none of that will matter if at a critical moment she turns against me.
The most important thing in this kind of world is not the power someone has, the most important is those who are close to you, no matter how strong someone is, if you fight an army at some point you will die to the waves of enemies or from the depletion of energy or carelessness caused by mental exhaustion, it can also happen that you die from poisoning or cursed or you can even be killed in your sleep if you keep people with ulterior motives around.
What matters is who is around you, your friends, subordinates, slaves, family members, and companions. Regardless of their strength if they are loyal you will have the help that will be indispensable in a time of need, but if you only choose the people around you by their authority or power then you will be doomed, after all, no one can keep their guard up for time whole.
"(Skills like mine [Blood Servant: 1 ] that serve to enslave may be useful in the short term, but I will have to earn their loyalty and respect for me in time.)" (me)
The big difference between someone fighting or striving for obligation and fighting or striving of their own will when someone does something of their own volition, they can give their all and may even exceed their limits for what they believe in, now someone with no will he will have difficulties even to do the best he can.
That's why I'm glad my dear Ibuki seems to have become so loyal to me, it means I can trust her, and finally, I can give my all to train her once we move to the new base.
With that resolved, I'm going to get back to the focus of what I should do after this rest.
"Hmmmm..." (me)
I think I'll keep training with the sword for a few hours and then I'll hunt something, our food supply is running out, I also have to complete my martial training, for that, I have to think of a way to fuse magical power in my body.
Hmmm...
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After two hours of resting and getting my energy back, I get up to test something.
Now that my abilities related to sensing and controlling magical power are at a level that I find acceptable, I'm going to start trying to get the mana out of my body and mold it into various shapes.
I tried to do this and after a few minutes of controlling the mana inside me and I managed to make it go towards my right hand and get out of my palm, as soon as it worked I tried to control it, to help control I tried to imagine ways I tried to do it. he took it, after a few more minutes I had half of my MP, but I got it.
Seeing that I was getting mana to follow my thoughts I tried to make the most basic of games and novels from my ancient world which is to use the magical power to strengthen the body, to start with I try to imagine a 3D form of myself in my mind and then using my biology knowledge to know where the muscles in this body are, with all that done I try to control my mana in small amounts to flow to all the muscles at the same time, this step is a bit complicated and it took me almost twenty minutes to try. and wrong as if I wasn't careful I could damage my muscles as far as I know.
When I finally got the right amount of Mana for the muscles I tried to make the mana I put into them integrate with them, as I did I felt a huge surge of power go through my whole body.
Ding!
<[ You have acquired the skill:
[ Magical Body Reinforcement: 1 ] ]>
It seems this is a skill that already exists, but it doesn't matter how I start training my martial arts while I'm in this state of power, my punches and kicks have become stronger and faster, now to complete I use the mana inside my body and expel it from my body through my blows, this makes each blow I make a small explosion directed forward.
I still don't seem to be able to send waves of flying Mana with my punches as I used to win games, but that's good enough, and as I test my explosive punches I fall to the ground with a lot of headache and all the muscles in my body screaming in pain.
Ding! Ding!
<[ New technique acquired:
[ Explosive punch ] ]>
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<[ Your skill leveled up [ Mana Control: 4 > 5 ] ]>
When I look at my MP is zero, it looks like I have to check the consumption of my new abilities.
"Master gii be alright?" (Ibuki)
It looks like Ibuki saw me fall during my training and was worried about me, she came running towards me with a serious face.
"I'm fine....Ibuki" (me)
I tell her I'm fine and then she keeps keeping me company until I recover, we spent the next two hours talking, when I could move again I told her we were going hunting and she went to get her sword and the net trap, I said for her to leave the net and follow me.
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My body was still aching but we had to hunt before nightfall, it took thirty minutes since we left the ruins and reached the forest and finally found a monster.
The monster we found was a Gray Wolf, I told Ibuki to back off that I would fight him, I wanted to test my newly learned martial art against him, more than the training I need battle experience to improve faster.
After Ibuki walked away I wanted to take the first blow, but as I get close, a breeze of air passes me towards the Gray Wolf and he notices me by the smell.
Wasting no time he attacks me first and I dodge spinning to his side using the footwork I trained from my martial art, I position myself and I punch him in the rib hearing a sound of something breaking, he howls in pain and tries to get me to hit with its claws that are shining and I had no time to dodge so I elbowed the side of the wolf's paw making him miss the blow, following the movement of turning the body that I used to elbow with my left arm. a punch to the side of the wolf's head just bolstering my right arm muscles with mana, I could hear the wolf's skull bones crack and he fell to the ground with bloody eyes and ears.
After defeating the Gray Wolf I quickly bit his neck and drank his blood as fast as I could, I must get this body to the base before the other wolves come towards their mate's howl.
Ding! Ding!
<[ You gained 6 EXP from killing Gray Wolf ]>
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<[ Your bloodline has become stronger and purer [ Gray Wolf: 38% > 53% ] ]>
I grabbed the body and carried it on my back running to the base, Ibuki didn't understand why he was running after defeating the wolf but he followed me without saying anything and when we were almost reaching the ruins we heard a lot of howling coming from the direction I defeated the wolf, luckily before reaching us we finally made it to base, upon entering base I push some boxes to cover the entrance just in case.
Ibuki looked scared by this event, but for me I expected, wolves to be creatures that walk in groups, and when a wolf howls it's usually a warning of its position and it can mean there's food or danger nearby, as I've known since mine. Old mute because of the research I did, I hurried and drank all of his blood to leave an as little trail as possible so his group wouldn't track us.
One thing I discovered after evolving is that these ruins smell like blood all over the place, so it's going to be hard for them to track us down here.
I call Ibuki to eat and then go to my bed to start my magic training again, now that I've raised my level a little [Weak sense mana: 6 ] I don't need to meditate all the time to feel mana.
I sit cross-legged and concentrate on the energies flowing inside me, after feeling my mana I take it in my hand and make it leave my body and I keep training it making it mold itself into various shapes to increase my control.
I do this training for an hour and a half until my mind is heavy, then I stop and go to bed early.
Ding!
<[ Your skill leveled up [ Weak mana sense: 6 > 7 ] ]>