As evening approached, Iwaf found his way to the base.
If it had been Jie, he would have certainly had to worry about wandering through the mountains.
“Who is this?”
Iwaf asked who Melorna was, looking at her.
“This is Melorna, who will be attending to you while you are here.”
Iwaf lightly patted Melorna’s head as she bowed politely.
“You’re from a slave background, aren’t you?”
“Oh, um, that is….”
“There’s probably a tattoo around here somewhere?”
Iwaf lifted Melorna’s leather armor and lightly touched one of her breasts.
“Iwaf, stop it.”
“Yes.”
At Riki’s words, Iwaf stopped his mischievous teasing and introduced himself to Melorna.
“How did you know I was a slave?”
“You’re too polite for an elf.”
The elves I had met generally didn’t have much of a different atmosphere from Melorna.
“Then you must have been in Latnia.”
“Yes, I was in a place called Tolis.”
“That must have been tough. When did you come over?”
“It hasn’t been long, just a few years.”
Tolis isn’t that large of a country.
Perhaps I had passed by it at least once somewhere.
“It’s almost dinner time. I’ll guide you.”
Following Melorna, we arrived at what was called the dining area.
It was merely a tent where meals were being distributed, and the scenery reflected that.
However, the food was decent enough that I had no complaints.
After finishing a light meal, everyone was spending personal maintenance time in their tents.
While I was refining my mana in bed, Melorna approached quietly and stood nearby.
“Is there something you want to say?”
“Are you a magician?”
“Why?”
“Unlike the others, you don’t have a weapon, and your mana is quite unique.”
I said that not using a mana manipulation technique but refining it was essentially the same thing.
Therefore, I didn’t feel that my mana was especially unique at all.
“I’m sorry if that was rude.”
“No, it’s not that serious….”
I was quite taken aback by her bowing her head in apology.
Had she spent a long time as a slave? Melorna seemed to have a fairly low self-esteem.
“You don’t need to apologize for everything. You can ask if you’re curious.”
“Yes, so can I ask why your mana is special?”
I briefly explained my mana, but Melorna still looked unconvinced.
“What’s that thing attached next to your heart?”
“Sorry, I can’t tell you that.”
This object gained from the relics left by dragons continues to grant me power.
Recently, that power seemed to have accumulated enough to allow me to grow another level.
At the time, I didn’t realize the sudden change, but looking back now, this must be the only thing that could have caused it.
“Melorna, can you wield a sword?”
“A little.”
“Then let’s go out for a bit.”
When I learned that the battlefield was a mountain, I had one concern.
The power of magic I used could blow away an entire mountain.
If I used it nearby, collateral damage to allies might occur.
If this was the battlefield, there were bound to be limits to the types and powers of magic I could use.
To prepare for that, I needed to practice swordsmanship as soon as possible.
There was a training ground set up at the base, so I went there with Melorna.
Under the dim moonlight, many soldiers were scattered around, each conducting personal training.
“My swordsmanship is Quick Sword.”
Melorna drew her sword and lightly swung it in front of me.
It was a mix of slashing and stabbing, and her movements were quite swift.
“Give it a try.”
I created an iron sword and held it in my hand.
Melorna looked quite surprised at the sight.
I took the stance for stabbing, recalling the movements Melorna had shown earlier and replicated them.
“Somehow, it seems like you’re better than me?”
“I only learned the basics. Can you teach me something else?”
“Yes?”
At my question, Melorna looked quite troubled, but she began to move with the sword in her hand.
Swish! Swish!
A series of soft and fast attacks began to unfold sequentially.
The movements were all small and precise, executed with accuracy in a narrow range.
“Watch my movements and try to follow along.”
I held my sword and attempted to swing it in sync with Melorna’s movements.
Melorna slowed down intentionally for me, but her speed was still quick.
“Where did you learn this?”
“I learned it from a grandmother when I came to Roran.”
“A grandmother?”
“Yes. Despite her age, she looks really young.”
It seemed she had been taught swordsmanship by a demon.
Afterward, I learned a few more movements, but only about two or three could be practically applied in a real situation.
“Practice is important. Shall we try?”
“I, um, I’m not very good at sparring….”
“It’s fine.”
Even weak undead could easily be dealt with by just swinging Last Ape.
The issue lay with the commander-level undead who led them.
In Latnia, simple attacks had not worked against them.
Attacks infused with mana, like those from Wikes or Jie, worked, but for some reason, magical attacks did not.
Even the entirely mana-formed Last Ape was easily blocked by them.
I pondered for quite some time about what the difference was, but I could not deduce it at all.
Facing Melorna in a corner of the training ground, we prepared to spar.
“I’ll attack first.”
“Go ahead.”
“I’m coming from the waist!”
Clang!
I raised my sword and blocked the waist-level attack with my elbow tucked in.
“This time, from the head!”
I lifted the sword and blocked Melorna’s attack as it came.
Melorna informed me beforehand of where she would strike, and I was struggling just to defend myself, even when she said so.
The speed of Melorna’s attacks was incomparable to the others.
Whoever her master was, she must have been an exceptional swordswoman.
“You seem to have gotten used to it, so I won’t tell you where I’ll strike anymore.”
The moment she declared that she wouldn’t indicate the direction of her attack, Melorna’s figure began to blur.
“Magic?”
Clang!
“It’s just me moving quickly.”
In the dark night, her swift movements left afterimages in the dim moonlight!
To counter Melorna’s movements, I would need to swing my sword several times faster than now.
“Oh, over here!”
Thud!
“Huh? How did you know?”
“I just thought it might be that way.”
As Melorna crouched down to attack my lower left, she slowly got up from her position.
“You’re the first person to block this!”
Melorna seemed quite surprised and maybe a bit pleased.
“I was just lucky.”
Honestly, I had a sense of where it was coming from; if I had been just a little late, I wouldn’t have been able to block it.
I could only say that I was really lucky.
“Since you blocked my attack, you won’t be caught off guard in a real situation.”
“Can I not win?”
“I don’t think so, not yet.”
In this regard, Melorna replied with confidence, without any hesitation.
After a simple training session, we returned to the tent.
Lying on the bed, I kept replaying the sword movements in my mind and gradually fell asleep.
Not long after I fell asleep, loud alarms echoed throughout the base.
When I woke to the soldiers’ boisterous shouts, Riki and Jie were already gone.
“There’s an enemy raid.”
Melorna reported the situation to me in a relatively calm state.
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“Because we have enough people to handle it.”
An enemy was attacking, so I couldn’t just leisurely sleep; I hurried out of the tent.
“Are you heading to the front lines?”
“Yes, that’s the plan.”
Iwaf rubbed his sleepy eyes and got up.
The undead were invading from the direction of the base’s main gate, which was at the bottom of the mountain.
“Have you ever seen their commander?”
“Yes, just once. They were really strong.”
“How strong?”
“I couldn’t cut through their bones with my sword.”
Compared to regular soldiers, the commander-level ones certainly seemed to have sturdier bones.
As I stepped outside the base, I could see white waves slowly crawling up from below the mountain.
I quickly scanned the surroundings and started looking for the commander leading the undead.
The undead began to shoot bone fragments that rained down.
The soldiers each used their shields or weapons to block the incoming bone shards.
It seemed they were shooting them like arrows, but they weren’t very powerful.
Boom!
With a loud noise, a giant clad in armor began to walk up from the base of the mountain.
“That guy is the commander.”
“But it’s not a skeleton?”
In the direction Melorna pointed, a muscle-bound giant at least three meters tall was coming up with a spear and shield.
As it charged forward, blocking arrows shot by our side with its shield, it resembled a modern-day tank.
When two people appeared before the giant that was smashing anything in its way, it halted its movement.
The giant opened its mouth wide and began to speak.
“It would be worth fighting you. I am the warrior Hinopf! Who are you?”
“This is Jie, and I am Riki.”
“Good, come forth!”
The giant stomped its feet and provoked the two, but they didn’t budge from their position.
“If you’re not coming, then I’ll come at you!”
Swish!
The giant thrust its spear toward the two.
It was astonishing how such a large body could perform such agile actions.
As Jie aimed for the giant’s right leg, Riki vanished from sight.
Clang!
Jie’s sword was blocked by the shield.
Just when the giant was about to slam the spear down on Jie, the giant let out a sudden scream.
“Ah!”
It dropped the spear it was holding and began to grope its own neck.
Blue blood gushed forth from the giant’s neck.
While Jie drew attention from the front, Riki had split the giant’s neck.
Melorna, watching that scene, seemed quite amazed and fascinated.
“That’s incredible. My sword would only leave slight wounds on the skin.”
I imagined my sword would not be much different in that regard.
The giant picked up the fallen spear and firmly secured his shield to one arm.
Using both hands, he began to spin the spear, preparing his stance.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve fought humans like this!”
Despite suffering severe injuries, the giant became more aggressive.
Swoosh!
As the giant swung its spear, the large trees around us were cut down in an instant.
“This guy… No way!”
“It’s been a long time since I used this. You call it mana, right?”
The spear tip gleamed with bright blue mana, shining like a bright lamp.
