The group made it back to the city in the evening. The area they were searching earlier was somewhat close to Angla City, though on foot it was still 2 days away. It was a good thing that they had Silver and the modified carriage.What would normally take people days to travel would only take their party a couple of hours to do. Of course, they had Cecil to thank for modifying the carriage. All the reinforcement runes and enchantments helped keep the durability of the carriage even after Silver"s reckless pulling which would normally damage an ordinary carriage.
They were resting for the rest of the day after they turned in their quest. As usual the high leveled quest wasn"t known to the outside, but people were constantly seeing the high leveled quests being constantly cleared every week.
The faction scouts were constantly keeping track of the quest completions, but even they couldn"t give a clear answer to who or what, were clearing these high leveled quests. Of course, there were some factions and individuals who were privy to the party that kept on clearing these high ranked quests.
They sent many to cause problems on the group"s quest, but their attempts were only for naught. The factions wanted to do more, but even the leaders were beginning to feel helpless at the power that the particular group displayed.
Cecil only smiled and thought that it was better for them to spring the surprise to the rest of the students after the academy announced the results. Their powers were now far above everyone else, so he felt that it was now safe for them to reveal just how powerful their little group was.
If problems came then just like Lucia said, the guys with the biggest fists have the last say.
"Hmph. We"ll just power through all our problems~" Cecil grinned.
"What"s up Cel? What"s with that dubious smile?" Lucia asked.
The two were currently resting on top the carriage"s roof at the outskirts of the city. Ainz and the rest were currently training or sparring with one another.
"Nah... I just thought it was kinda pointless for us to hide our strength..."
"Oh! Have you finally come to your senses?" Lucia asked happily.
"Tsk, it"s actually your fault y"know!"
"How"s it my fault?!" Lucia asked indignantly.
"Just think about how high profiled we"ve been during our entire time since we"ve enrolled in the academy, our magic evaluation battle, the magic research event, and everything else!"
"HEY! It"s not just my fault! Even your little stint with the sage caused many eyes to turn to us! And how was our battle MY fault?! YOU were the one that decided to use Mana Burst in our fight!"
"..."
"Hah! Can"t retort now can we?" Lucia said with a smug smirk.
"Tsk..." Cecil turned his body away and tried to fall asleep.
Despite all the hubris he said about being low-profiled, their past actions just weren"t in line with what he had intended. Cecil just thought that it wasn"t his fault that their fellow peers were just so weak.
"...it"s not my fault that everyone else is so weak." Cecil mumbled.
"Exactly! It"s not OUR fault! So why the h.e.l.l should we sink to their level?" Lucia responded to his rhetorical question.
"...you didn"t have to answer that."
"Well, I want to! Seriously... trying to hide our powers was the most stupid decision we ever took. Even when we were adventuring we had no reason to hide anything! Seriously, why should we fall to the level of weaklings when we"re strong?"
"..."
Seeing as Cecil kept silent, Lucia continued, "It"s okay to be low-profiled since the attraction we attract to ourselves come in good and bad, but if there are fools who want to try anything on us... can"t we just eliminate them? It"s not hard! A single tier 7 spell and buh-bye fool!"
"I get it, I get it.... jeez... I just thought it would be better for us to "fit in"."
"Fit in?"
"Well, it"s something I learned back on Earth... it"s something I heard from my siblings."
"Ooohhh!! Story time!"
"Ahaha! Well, listen then if you want. Back on Earth, the schools there weren"t so accommodating like our academy... if you stood out, then the rest of the cla.s.s was bound to hammer you in."
"?"
"Like I said, if you stood out, whether it"s in a good way or bad way, the rest of the cla.s.s doesn"t like that."
"What? That"s stupid!"
"Yeah, it is stupid. I didn"t experience it personally, but my brother Gabriel did... also my eldest sister did as well."
"..."
"In Gabe"s case, he had his twin, my brother, Luca by his side. Fatima, my eldest sister was innately cold so she didn"t care about what everyone thought of her. But Gabe... even with Luca"s help became pretty introverted after all the bullying..."
"Hmph. If they bully you, then you should just bully them back!"
"What happens if the entire cla.s.s was the one that bullied you?"
"...well..."
"Yeah, if it was on Alterna, then Gabe could have just beaten the s.h.i.t out of everyone in the cla.s.s. He"s strong y"know? My entire family practices martial arts so there"s no reason for him to not be able to crush those fools under his foot."
"So why didn"t he?"
"The schools on Earth are a little different. They have a system that doesn"t condone to any sort of violence." Cecil paused for a moment before continuing.
"Unlike at the academy, if there are two people or a group who don"t get along then you could just settle it with a duel and that"s the end of it. On Earth however, there"s no such thing. Even the teachers can"t do anything about it. The only way they "help" is by saying some stupid superficial advice that in no way helps out with the student"s situation. It"s stupid and I"m honestly glad I didn"t go to school, although I was still extremely curious about it."
"...Well you"re lucky then Cel~"
"Oh? How so?"
"You got to go to school in Alterna! And! You"ve met a whole group of oddb.a.l.l.s that are just as unreasonable as you are!"
"Pfft... Ahahaha!!!" Cecil laughed uproariously at her words. He couldn"t deny that. Cecil turned an eye towards his friends who were now staring back at him, wondering what made him laugh out loud like that.
"A group of oddb.a.l.l.s huh... that doesn"t sound so bad..."
"Hihi~" Lucia giggled at his words. She jumped down from the top of the carriage and landed on the ground. She turned her head upwards and called out to Cecil.
"Hey! Cel~ let"s go a round!"
"...why not." Cecil followed suit and jumped off. The two made their way to an empty s.p.a.ce close to the area where their friends were training.
The two stood a few meters apart from each other, the two didn"t take out any weapons and planned to fight barehanded.
Lucia"s eyes immediately changed to a fierce glare. She activated Elemental Burst and her body began emitting a dark crimson aura. She took a stance from Cecil"s martial arts and waited for him.
Cecil saw this and did the same. The two were mirroring each other, one enveloped in a dark crimson aura while the other was wrapped in a golden aura.
The dashed towards each other and immediately began exchanging blows. Each punch, each kick, rang loudly in the air when they blocked each other.
Their mana enhanced body flickered and flashed across the field. Their speeds, that they no longer had to put a limiter on, were way too fast for the naked eye to keep up. Their friends were currently observing their fight, but they didn"t even know what to look at.
They were moving too fast that the only indicator that they were actually sparring were the loud booms and the occasional afterimage that flickered in the field, when they clashed.
Cecil had the upper hand in the fight since they were essentially fighting using his family"s martial arts. Lucia was able to adapt to some degree to his a.s.saults using her talent and combat sense, but even then she was always on the back foot in their entire bout.
Cecil was enjoying the fight until all of a sudden Lucia stopped.
"CEL STOP!"
"Huh?" Cecil immediately halted, he was staring questioningly at the girl in front of him.
"Your mana!" Lucia said while pointing at her bracelet that tracked Cecil"s mana. It was glowing in an orange color. It was close to the red, anymore and Cecil would fall.
"c.r.a.p..." He immediately deactivated Mana Burst and retracted his aura. Lucia did the same and worriedly asked.
"Are you okay? Do you need my mana?"
"No. I"m good." Cecil sighed, "Phew... I didn"t feel the side effects at all...strange."
"You"ve stopped feeling it after your breakthrough."
"Yeah... I"m not sure if this is a good thing or not."
"It"s better to be safe than sorry... I don"t want you turning into a monster..."
"Ahaha, well, I"m pretty much already a monster judging by others" standards!" Cecil joked.
"...y"know what I mean idiot." Lucia said while pouting.
"Don"t worry about me, but you sure have gotten stronger."
"Hehe~ Of course! Though, I"m still far from your level." Lucia shook her head helplessly.
"You"ll get there... eventually."
"By the time I"m there, you"d probably be at a higher level already!"
"Maybe..." Cecil replied with a smirk.
The two walked back towards their friends who were now looking at the incredulously.
Find authorized novels in Webnovel,faster updates, better experience,Please click for visiting.
"Hey... you two... what on Alterna was that?" Ainz asked with wide eyes.
"...just us fighting with no restraints." Lucia replied simply.
"No restraints? So you"re saying you"ve been holding back all this time?"
"Basically, well we could go a level higher if we added magic into the equation."
"..."
"Tsk, looks like we"re still far apart." Eli said in frustration. She went back to her training and began doing the monotonous sword strikes that Cecil had her do.
He wanted her to find some form of enlightenment and awaken her sword intent. It was some vague term that his father constantly told him, but he knew that there was a degree of truth to his father"s words since he himself has one. Cecil was still in the process of awakening his sword intent, but he had already awakened his spear intent from a young age.
Cecil was a natural genius when using a spear, the only reason why he"s been using a sword more often was so that he could awaken his sword intent.
A Weapon Intent was an invisible force that a martial artist could emit when they attacked with their weapon of choice. Unlike, an aura that needed mana to activate, weapon intent was something that could be generated pa.s.sively simply by holding a weapon.
Cecil has never used a spear when facing anyone before, but from his experience he knew that a Weapon Intent was important. Just the pressure and change of presence one would emit from releasing their intent was frightening.
If Cecil had ever used his spear while releasing his intent then he could with a one hundred percent certainty freeze his opponent in place relying on pressure alone and just walk up to him a strike him down. That"s just how potent Weapon Intent was.
Cecil has already tested this during his stay on their family"s private island back on Earth. Whenever he held a spear and emitted his intent, the animal he was hunting would just freeze in fear and he"d just walk up and stab it.
This was also what Cecil wanted to help his friends achieve, this ethereal realm where just by relying on their presence alone, strike fear in their enemies. Since he could do it when he was still a child, there"s no reason why his friends couldn"t do the same, right?
He could only train, Lucia, Eli, and Velicia in this aspect since they were fighters. As for Ainz and Fina who were mages, there wasn"t much he could train them in in regards to martial arts, but his magic theory and knowledge from Earth was enough to satisfy the two.
Cecil looked towards his friends who had went back to train more seriously than ever. It seems that their fight had ignited a flame in their friends.
"...we"re totally going to win this tournament."
"That goes without saying." Lucia smiled seeing her hardworking friends.