Chapter 151: Peace I
So she had learned of a ninth ability.
Suddenly Airi was quite surprised; the sword absorbed energy and grew brighter. Her eyes widened in surprise; she had just thought of something more.
"Oh, so that's it; it absorbs external energy. If so, the reason I haven't seen it absorb energy until now is because I am a new master and haven't let it absorb external energy yet. Now I am like unlocking it; before when fighting it did not absorb energy, but now it does."
"Like this, it is truly powerful, having this sword in hand. It helps me strike harder, not to mention the feeling of controlling energy is easier; that way, launching energy slashes doesn't require too much, so it will save energy."
"Indeed, ancient swords are different; the abilities are truly strong."
Actually, this sword still had a few abilities that were not mentioned in the book at all. But they had followed the master of the sword into the ground; one only hoped that one day Airi could discover the eleventh ability, or if there were more than eleven abilities, it would be wonderful.
Currently, the whole group was almost eighteen years old; some only had a few months left. Only Kazuka was sixteen years old, two years younger than everyone else.
But the environment determines the personality. Having gone with everyone for a long time, he was no longer childish.
Airi took a bit of her hair; the long, light pink hair could be mistaken for white. When standing, her hair was truly long, past her buttocks; this made fighting quite inconvenient for her.
"Should I cut my hair a bit? Too long, it keeps swaying uncomfortably when fighting."
"But Elyssia's hair is even longer than mine; doesn't she feel uncomfortable?"
"If I braid my hair now, it's like carrying a large rope behind my head. But just tying it up still feels a bit off."
…
One month later…
Although the whole group had a house underground, almost no one wanted to stay down there. It was currently summer, so it was still quite hot underneath compared to above.
Currently, life was quite peaceful; everyone was more relaxed than before.
So Aoto, Kazuka, and Takeshi—the three of them—came up with another idea, which was living in trees. So they alternated between training and working.
Training from morning until noon, then starting to work.
Not long after that, they had finished six treehouses for the six of them.
Quite a long time before that, places all over the world had entered the biggest holiday of the year. That was the old year passing, the new year coming again.
The atmosphere was bustling; the crowds were busy. Laughter echoed.
Meanwhile, the whole group was hiding in the mountains and forests, praying no one would find them.
Aoto flew in the sky; the two large and long wings of an **Elemental** flapped very fast to lift him up and change direction, accelerating. The two pairs of wings were green, transparent, with swirling patterns on the wings, just like the wings of a dragonfly. And naturally, when wings grew behind his back, his shirt was pierced with four holes, but the holes were not too large, just enough to fit a thumb through. Elyssia was different; she had armor that healed automatically when she deployed her wings. The armor would cling tightly to the wings; when the two pairs of wings disappeared, the armor also healed.
Looking at the world from above was always an extremely interesting and exciting thing. In his sight, a color of tree canopies huddled together and stretched to the end of his vision. The bright sunlight shone everywhere, adding a bit of color to his wings.
Flying to the top of a treetop, the treetop of the large trees that everyone planted. He circled once on the treetop, his face calm as he looked around. Then he slowly landed on a large branch; in front of him was a wooden door, and there was a window too. This was the treehouse everyone made.
Stepping forward and opening the door, the space inside was quite small. There was a wooden bed, a cabinet, and a small drinking table; if the six of them sat there, it would be a bit cramped.
Kazuka and Takeshi were sitting and drinking tea. Kazuka coughed violently because the tea was too hard to drink.
The wings disappeared behind Aoto's back; he stepped to the chair and sat down.
"So boring."
Takeshi poured tea for Aoto.
"If it's boring, what can we do now?"
This tea of theirs was accidentally encountered in the forest, so they pulled up a few plants to grow; Airi didn't buy tea to bring along.
Kazuka stopped coughing; he poured a cup of water and drank it "*glug glug*" and let out a sound after finishing.
"How about we go find some dangerous ruin to explore."
Aoto sighed, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the sky.
"Where could we find one here? If there were any, the militaries of various places would have occupied them. Finding a dangerous ruin that no one has reached is very difficult; most that are found are by luck, although there are a few ways to find them, it's very hit-or-miss."
Kazuka pointed at Takeshi.
"But Takeshi can burrow underground. You try burrowing down and searching."
Takeshi was calm.
"That could work too."
Aoto took a sip of tea to wet his dry lips.
"Exploring dangerous ruins is very dangerous; a lapse and you lose your life."
Kazuka's face showed clear boredom.
"But we can release energy to scout, covering a large range, so it's hard to encounter danger. Even if there are traps underground, our energy crawling into small cracks can also know which are traps."
Aoto sighed; he was also too lazy to explain because he was feeling sluggish.
"If it were that simple, people wouldn't have died exploring dangerous ruins."
"There are traps that our energy cannot encompass, or traps that force us to fall in, then what? Not to mention there are large monsters living inside."
"In short, it's very dangerous; when you guys can swing a slash that cuts down an entire mountain, then we go. For now, staying home is safer."
"I know training like this is long, and fighting is the best way to train. But we train with each other and can't use full strength, so it's also difficult. But slow and steady; if you feel you're progressing slowly, you guys should learn how to control energy."
Aoto put his hand outside; currently, the door was open. From his palm, a column of green energy—his energy color—shot out.
Aoto calmly said:
"There, wait until you guys can do that. Remember, releasing energy from the hand; Kazuka, you release from the mouth or elsewhere, that's all you having to gather energy and then release it outside."
"While Elyssia and I can calmly release it like this."
Kazuka and Takeshi were quite surprised, but their faces were still bored.
Kazuka: "So does training this take long?"
Aoto turned and stood up, jumping onto the bed because his back felt a bit tired.
"Of course it's long; if it were simple, there would be no distinction."
It seemed this group was gradually becoming similar; before speaking, they would cough once; when bored, they would sigh.
Takeshi sighed once.
"Sigh, but I still want to find dangerous ruins more."
Kazuka turned to Aoto, who was lying on the bed with a blanket pulled up and eyes closed.
"So is there nothing else more interesting? The training you just mentioned, we will train."
Aoto was closing his eyes but still listening.
"You guys have been training much stronger lately; just keep it up."
"Controlling energy better is the best way. You are injured, you control energy better than the opponent, so you recover faster; you will gain many advantages."
"You control energy well, you use it more easily. You and the opponent both create an energy ball; both sides have equal energy. But your ability is superior, you will form the energy ball faster."
"In general, just train; sometimes when it's peaceful like this, a big wave comes and it's tiring. Did you guys forget our group is very unlucky?"
Kazuka and Takeshi knew, but both were still quite bored. They trained with each other until they were too familiar.
Takeshi's voice was weak and bored:
"Damn it, why are there no monsters in this forest? Just simple animals."
Aoto still had his eyes closed and said:
"Who knows, maybe we are in the territory of some extremely large monster that no other monsters dare to approach; the animals might just not know."
"You guys go ask Ayaka. She used to live in the forest; maybe the area around here is entirely in her palm."
Kazuka: "So lazy."
Suddenly Takeshi seemed to remember; he ran to the cabinet and took out a few wooden tags and a die.
"Want to play a bit?"
Kazuka's curiosity was clear.
"Play what?"
In Takeshi's hand were ten wooden tags, with one side carved with different elements. They were Water, Earth, Fire, Wind, Thunder. Placing them on the table, he turned around to get a wooden board.
"I just thought of it; let's try playing."
Kazuka still didn't understand but nodded.
"Oh... oh."
Takeshi gave Kazuka five rectangular wooden cards. Both sides had five cards, and all were the five elements.
"Now it's like this. We will play; out of five cards, choose three, then face them down. We will decide who plays first with the die."
"Whoever plays first flips any wooden card up; for example, if I flip a Fire card."
"Then it's your turn; you will flip one card up. For example, if it's a Water card, then Water counters Fire, I lose. If you flip Wind, it will be more complicated."
"Wind will blow, making the fire bigger. Forgot to mention we will have 3 points, representing 3 losses. But because mine is a Fire card and yours is Wind, Wind blows fire making the fire stronger, I will win and subtract two points from you, because the fire is stronger."
"But if at this time you have a Water card, then I will lose because Water counters Fire."
"Understand?"
Kazuka stroked his chin.
"Understand for now."
"So what if Earth meets Fire?"
Takeshi: "Then Fire will burn dry the earth, which is Earth, so Fire wins."
Kazuka nodded.
"I see, understood for now."
Takeshi and Kazuka quickly drew three wooden cards for themselves and placed them face down in the groove Takeshi made to set the cards.
Takeshi tossed the die.
"Even is me, odd is you."
The die fell; it was the number five. Meaning odd, and odd meant Kazuka would go first.
Kazuka was silent, looking at the three wooden cards.
"If I attack first now, it will be quite hard to lose the advantage. I see it's also quite difficult."