Chapter 42
“The First Blade is the Final Blade—beneath clashing blades lies hell; take one step into the Asura Path.”
Having finished her incantation, Rinka dashed toward the colony――.
The Skill wrapped Rinka and the Deathbone Sword in her hands in a red fighting aura.
She looked like a beast hungry for blood.
Rinka’s only Skill: 【First Blade】.
It explosively enhances her physical abilities, but it has two drawbacks.
The first is its terrible efficiency.
Activating it requires 7 MP, and it consumes another 1 MP for every minute it remains active.
With her current magic reserves, she can fight for only four minutes at most.
The other drawback is that it’s difficult to control.
Once activated, this Skill can’t be canceled by her own will.
It won’t stop until she loses her weapon, runs out of magic, or slaughters every monster nearby.
During the fight against the Quad Skeleton, her weapon broke, forcibly deactivating the Skill.
On top of that, once it deactivates, she can’t even stay standing. She collapses and can’t move for a while.
What an unwieldy Skill.
An ordinary party would have no idea what to do with it.
It was no wonder Rinka had never been able to fit in with any party.
But things were different with me around.
With 【Magic Lending】 and 【Auto Charge】, I could keep Rinka’s magic topped off at all times.
My magic recovered at a rate of 20 MP per minute.
Supplying her with 1 MP a minute was negligible.
I could keep supplying her with magic forever――and Rinka could keep fighting forever.
An unstoppable slaughter began――.
Before the goblins even noticed her, Rinka closed in on one and effortlessly severed its head with a single swing.
The goblin’s life ended before it even realized it was about to die.
By the time the goblins finally noticed the attack, three bodies were already lying on the ground.
The goblins hurriedly took up combat positions.
But they were far too slow.
Every time Rinka swung her sword, another body hit the ground.
One.
Two.
Three.
――――
As if a war god had taken possession of her body, Rinka’s rampage showed no sign of stopping.
She raced toward the scattered goblins and swung the Deathbone Sword, a ghastly smile on her face.
Goblins couldn’t withstand even a single stroke; one by one, they lost their lives――.
It was a massacre tinged with madness, but I was captivated by Rinka’s movements.
――Beautiful.
Her graceful dance, stripped of every unnecessary motion, set my soul ablaze.
I wanted to join her.
I had to fight with all my strength to keep myself from rushing in.
“That’s so cool~!”
“Yeah, it is.”
When it was just the two of us, MP, who’d been quiet until then, spoke up.
I still hadn’t told Rinka about MP.
I planned to tell her tonight.
“What do you think of her?”
“She’s even better than I expected~. If we train her, we’ll rake in magic by the bucketful~!”
By forming a party with Rinka and using 【Magic Lending】 on her, MP could now obtain information about her from the Central Information Organization, Yggdrasil.
MP had apparently sensed it instinctively from the start, but now the data firmly backed it up.
MP still seemed to care about nothing but accumulating more magic, but to me, being able to support Rinka’s growth mattered far more.
I thought back to when I’d just started out as an adventurer.
Back then, I was simply happy to see my companions grow stronger thanks to my 【Magic Lending】.
Rinka had reminded me of a feeling I’d forgotten somewhere along the way.
I wouldn’t fail this time.
This time, the two of us would grow stronger together.
Thinking that, I gazed at Rinka’s valiant figure――.