"No, that’s all wrong, your Mana flow is too rough," I remarked, as I batted away the incoming water Spell with ease.

"I can’t help it...it’s too difficult," She sighed wearily, catching her breath.

Today’s the 1st of September, 2013, a couple of days after I’d escaped from the capital city, Dianus. We’d been making our way to the nearest town, and we should arrive there sometime early tomorrow.

The day after my escape, I decided that it’d be best if I train Prysm to at least a basic level. Her Skills might be super useful, but if she doesn’t know how to fight, she’ll still be a major liability to me if things get rough.

As things stand right now, if we’re attacked, I’ll have to toss her into my Pocket Dimension to keep her from getting in my way. So far, we’ve been attacked by a number of low level Monsters, which were easy enough to deal with, so it hasn’t been an issue yet.

And, admittedly, she’s not completely helpless. It turns out that she’s been trained in hand to hand combat, I guess Duralles wanted all his children to become Knights. So her movements and reactions aren’t too bad, but she’s been struggling with Magic and Spellcasting.

I suppose it makes sense, she was taught about Dark Attribute Magic, so to use Spells with her Light Attribute, she needs to learn from scratch.

Fortunately, the book of Spells that Gior gave me has been really helpful. The book itself is highly detailed, but he had also added his own notes to make it easier.

Other than the healing Spell I copied from that slave woman, my Light Attribute Spells had been super weak before, but they’re now close to halfway as potent as my Dark Attribute Magic.

Once my mastery over both Attributes is even, I’ll start working on combo Spells between both, like combining fire and wind. I’ll have to be careful about when I use such combos though...I can only use it against opponents I intend to kill, and where there are no other witnesses.

"Well, I suppose your rate of progress isn’t exactly terrible. Alright, let’s set aside Magic for now. Come at me with your Skills and Soul Weapon," I decided, as I brought out my whip.

"Uh, that thing can cut me in half if it hits me, right?" She frowned warily.

"Relax, I can control how sharp it is, it’s at maximum bluntness right now," I informed her, as I hit a nearby tree trunk with the whip to demonstrate.

"Oh, it didn’t get cut. Okay, here I come, then...Manifest Soul Weapon: Gravity Axe!" She chanted, a Magic Circle appearing over her hand before her weapon formed.

It’s not a half-bad weapon, she can manipulate its weight at will, or rather, going by the name, likely manipulates the pull of gravity on it. She can make it feel like it’s as light as a feather or as heavy as a boulder.

In other words, the ideal way to use it is to swing it while it’s light and then drastically increase its weight right before impact. She’s been struggling to get the timing right with it, and she isn’t used to wielding a weapon like this one, so there’s a lot of work to do before she can use it at its full potential.

If she strikes something with the axe while it’s light, it’ll just harmlessly bounce off, maybe leaving a small cut at best. But at its heaviest, it can split the ground, maybe more after she masters how to use it.

It could also be used like a hammer, as the back part of the axe blade was wide and blunt. So she can use the weapon for either cutting or smashing, depending on the situation.

"You move too slowly when you’re carrying your axe," I informed her, easily dodging her swings and slashes.

"Initiate Skill: Telepor-...!" She began, before I swiftly tripped her and knocked her onto her back.

"And you’re too slow to activate your Skills. Try to use them without chanting out loud. Otherwise, even if you are fast about it, your opponent will know exactly what Skill you’re about to use before you can use it," I instructed her, as she got back up.

"It doesn’t work when I don’t say it out loud though," She responded with a sigh.

"Focus on the feeling you get when you activate a Skill...try to replicate that feeling and don’t chant out loud," I advised her in response.

"Uh, okay, I’ll give it a try..."

I probably shouldn’t be too impatient, it’s not like I improved and mastered my abilities overnight, so I can’t expect her to do any better.

It’s just that training her is a real pain, and since she isn’t a challenge to me at her current level, it doesn’t help me improve much at all.

Still, if she’s going to tag along with me for who knows how long, I should make sure I gain her trust and affection, so I’ll play nice.

There’s still the possibility that she might backstab me if she starts feeling sorrowful about the loss of her family. Granted, that seems unlikely given how she thinks, but sometimes, strong enough emotions can overrule any sense of logic.

So I need to be wary of her without her realizing it, but at the same time, I can’t be too nice or she’ll be suspicious of the drastic change in attitude. It has to be gradual, make it seem like she’s wearing me down and lowering my walls.

Oh, she’s attacking, better focus. It’ll be embarrassing if she lands a hit while I’m distracted. She let out a determined yell as she leapt at me and swung her axe down, which I jumped back to evade as it hit the ground with a thud.

"Hm? What was that? It was a pretty weak swing," I remarked in bemusement.

"I know. I was trying to activate Physical Boost without chanting, and I got distracted when it didn’t work," She replied with a shake of her head.

Woah, if that had worked, I might have been in a bit of trouble, since I’d been distracted. I’m fairly sure that I could’ve dodged it, but the shockwave upon impact would’ve hit me for sure.

Physical Boost is another powerful Skill, boosting both the user’s strength and speed. I remember seeing Strength Boost and Speed Boost in that list of Skills during my Reincarnation, Physical Boost is basically like having both at once.

She also has Slow Motion Vision, which makes Physical Boost even more effective as she’s able to more easily keep up with the increase in speed and strength.

Considering how many useless Skills are out there, she really hit the jackpot. Argent’s Limit Breaker Skill is kinda similar to her Physical Boost, though it’s a fixed boost of x15 for five minutes, while her Physical Boost can range from x2 to x10, and lasts for a maximum of ten minutes.

Come to think of it, most of the Knights I’ve fought never used any Skills, likely because they don’t have any that are suitable for combat.

Well, there might have been some using active or passive Skills that boosts some aspect of their abilities or something like that, there would’ve been no way for me to know if they were or not.

After all, even in my case, Magic Eater is the only Skill that’s genuinely suitable for combat, though I guess I could count Super Hearing as the same we well. Universal Resistance is a passive Skill, Monster/Magical Beast Thought Communication is kinda useless in a fight and Pocket Dimension is a storage Skill.

Well, not that I’m complaining, I’m reasonably satisfied with the Skills I have. If I could, I suppose I would trade Super Hearing and Thought Communication for some other, more useful Skills, but since that’s not possible, complaining about it is a waste of energy.

Anyway, after training for a while longer, I decided to wrap things up for the day, since she was looking pretty worn out and her attacks were getting really sloppy.

"Okay, that’s enough for today. There’s a nearby stream if you want to wash off and get changed," I remarked, as I put away my Soul Weapon and sat down on the grass, taking out a bottle of water from my Pocket Dimension and taking a gulp.

"Yeah, okay," She nodded with a tired sigh, wiping off the sweat from her brow, before sitting on the grass and removing her sash from around her waist, freeing up the oversized t-shirt she was using as a makeshift dress, before she began flapping at the bottom to fan herself.

"You probably shouldn’t do that while facing me. I can see everything, and you’re not wearing any underwear," I reminded her dryly.

"H-huh? Hey, don’t look, and I can’t help it, I only had the one pair I was wearing when we ran away!" She exclaimed indignantly, as she turned red and closed her legs.

"Whatever, I don’t care. Hey, I have a question. Three years ago and before that, were there any incidents in the capital?" I asked her.

"Hm? Um, let me think...oh, there was a Commoner who went around assassinating some Nobles about four years ago, he killed over twenty people before he was caught and executed."

Huh, is that so? Interesting...I never heard about anything like that.

"Anything else?" I inquired curiously.

"Yeah, there was an incident around the same time where a group of slaves held a Noble family hostage while demanding their freedom, they killed some of them before the Knights showed up and cut down the slaves. That’s what I heard from my old teacher, anyway," She informed me.

I didn’t hear about that either.

"What about any incidents regarding Commoners, specifically slaves and the like, successfully escaping the capital?" I asked her, starting to see a pattern.

"Uhhh...I think I remember hearing about something like that, but I’m not sure," She frowned uncertainly.

"Hm, from the sound of it, whenever something happens in the capital, the Nobles must try to avoid having Commoners find out," I surmised with a nod.

The people in my old village were super gossipy, if they caught wind of anything interesting, they’d be chatting about it for days. And they badmouthed Nobles pretty often too, but I never heard them refer to any specific incidents.

The Nobles are desperate to uphold their image of being better than Commoners, so of course they wouldn’t want Commoners finding out that there have been Commoners who’ve gotten the better of Nobles.

Which means...they won’t spread the news of my recent escape. I was concerned that they might plaster my description all over the nation and put me on a wanted list or something like that, but maybe that won’t be necessary.

Still, they might send out Knights undercover to try and find me, I doubt they’re gonna ignore what I did and leave me alone after all that. Well, it’s unlikely that most Knights would be willing to pretend to be Commoners, but I can’t be too careful.

Hm, we should probably get disguises once we get to the nearby town. I really should’ve stolen some money while I was in the capital, the only way I can think of to earn some money is to register as an Adventurer.

But I don’t want to register until I get a disguise...specifically, I want to get colored contacts, to hide my heterochromia. I’d also like to get some makeup in order to cover my scars.

I’ve never used makeup before, but I was pretty good at painting in my previous life, so it can’t be that much different, right? We really need to get some money somehow...

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