Chapter 114.2

114 Part 2

Haruki could finally understand the meaning of Karen’s facial expression when she first picked up the staff she used.

“I’d love to be able to do an energy-based attack while wielding two short swords at the same time.”

— Imagine how cool that would look.

However, as long as he couldn’t pour his energy into his Werewolf Short Sword, a dual attack would be impossible.

Eventually, he would have to replace his Werewolf Short Sword. As soon as he would get the chance to obtain a stronger weapon, he would try to look for one that he could efficiently pour energy into.

His dual-wielding energy attack would have to wait for a little longer.

Haruki sheathed his Werewolf Short Sword and went back to practicing his energy-based attack with his Magic Sword.

“It feels nice.”

His attack power was higher than usual. However, the Centipede’s level was too low for Haruki.

He couldn’t feel just how much stronger his attacks were because of the overkill.

Still, it could work as practice so that he could pour your energy into his blade more quickly.

Fully conscious of his own energy, Haruki concentrates only on grasping the exact flow of energy.

The flow of energy gradually became smoother as he attacked ten, then twenty times. The charge time, which initially took about 5 seconds, was now taking him about 2 seconds.

If he continued practicing at this rate, he should soon be able to become proficient with it.

After taking a short pause, Haruki poured his energy into the Magic Sword and held it there.

“Could I shoot this energy?”

To send the energy poured into the blade flying towards an enemy.

Haruki had imagined some kind of shockwave attack with his short sword.

It is said that some adventurers had opened their eyes to abilities similar to releasing shockwaves from their swords.

Haruki wondered if those attacks had something to do with energy manipulation.

A masked adventurer would appear gallantly before other adventurers cornered by monsters.

That person would slash away with his short swords.

As he does that, the distant monsters would be cut cleanly in half.

[What incredible shockwaves!! Y-You wouldn’t be—!?]

[That famous adventurer…]

“Uwaaa!”

Haruki was tremendously stimulated by his wild delusions, in which he appeared as an epic adventurer with an impressive presence.

With motivating battlecries, Haruki tightly grasped his short sword.

“Take this! And that! Hyaaaaah!!”

Filled with energy, Haruki swung his Magic Sword twice, then three times, with the image of sending an energy shockwave.

However, it was hard to shoot that energy forward.

“Hmm? Maybe I’m not imagining this the right way?”

Haruki changed his mental image from a shockwave into water droplets.

He gracefully swung his Magic Sword as if he was waving his hand over water, splashing water droplets about.

Then…

“Oh!”

In his fifth swing, a small amount of energy was sent flying from the tip of the Magic Sword.

What was shot out was a bullet of energy that looked just like a water drop, exactly how Haruki had envisioned it.

Having succeeded, Haruki smiled cheerfully.

— Alright! This is another step towards that future where my presence is stronger!

Haruki concentrated and repeated the practice before the image in his head disappeared.

After repeating it over and over again, the energy –which looked like a water droplet– changed into a line.

“Haah… I wonder if it should be something like this…”

How many hours had passed since he started practicing?

Although it was shorter than the time he had been chasing after Centipedes, Haruki had become very fatigued.

He had used up a lot of energy.

The core of his body felt extremely heavy.

It was like when he was instructed to completely revise a draft immediately after having stayed up all night working.

If there had been a bed there, Haruki would have quickly crawled into it.

Karen had said that if she used up too much magic, her body would start feeling that lack of energy.

— Is Karen always fighting while feeling like this? And here I am, letting Karen exhaust herself like that…

Thinking about that, Haruki took his hat off to Karen’s hard work.

He had thought about it the first time she went into a dungeon with her, but now he was reminded of it.

Her efforts were tremendous.

And she had the strength to back those efforts up.

He was glad to have Karen on his team.

Haruki felt he could do his best because she was there with him.

He shouldn’t lose to her, but he also shouldn’t be ashamed of having her around.

“Alright!”

Haruki motivated himself and started searching for Centipedes again.

Expanding his Detection, Haruki looked for signs of his beloved Centipedes.

“Let’s go!!”

He raised his voice so as not to lose to his own fatigue, and poured his energy into the Magic Sword.

He sent out energy from the tip of the Magic Sword with a snap, just like a drop of water.

The energy that came out changed into a line and flew towards a Centipede at a slow speed.

That line of energy came into contact with the Centipede.

In the blink of an eye…

*Boom!!*

“Nuoooh!?”

The Centipede was torn to pieces on the spot.

Haruki froze with his eyes opened wide after seeing the attack’s outcome.

Far from giving it his all, he had intended to make a light attack.

Despite that, the Centipede had been splattered all over the place like a piece of tofu that had fallen on the floor.

The attack had a terrifying power that Haruki had never experienced before.

It felt as if he had only stepped on the accelerator pedal lightly, and yet having sped up to 100 km/h in a single second.

Haruki had thought that the energy-based attack he had released would cut through its target.

However, the actual result was more akin to having crushed the Centipede with a huge hammer.

“This energy is really strong, huh?”

The cause is probably the energy’s density.

Just because it came out of the Magic Sword, it didn’t necessarily mean that it would have the same sharpness as the Magic Sword.

The nature of the energy-based attack changed depending on its shape.

If it was thick, it would be a blunt attack. If it was thin, it would be a slashing attack.

This was similar to magical attacks.

For example, if it was made to look like one of Karen’s lightning magical attacks, his energy should take on the nature of lightning.

Of course, the dimension of change in this case would be totally different, as Haruki couldn’t change it into lightning.

“The range of possible resulting forms for that energy will expand considerably depending on how you change it…”

When made thicker, it would be effective against monsters weak to blunt attacks, and when made thinner, it would be effective against monsters weak to slashing attacks.

The short sword was a weapon with a lot of disadvantages, but there was a possibility that those disadvantages could be canceled out somewhat when using an energy-based attack with it.

However…

“This attack is a mess right now…”

Haruki couldn’t handle the power of this attack at the moment.

He couldn’t send his energy flying smoothly enough, and even if he could, the way it flew forward changed too much.

If its motion kept changing, an enemy could read the attack and avoid it.

In addition, the energy released resulted in a high-powered attack that exceeded Haruki’s control.

This was an overwhelming lack of skill on his part.

If used poorly, it could end up destroying things that he wasn’t trying to destroy.

If he could learn how to shoot energy from his short swords, he would probably gain a stronger presence.

However, the safety of things and people around him was more important than a stronger presence.

Otherwise, Haruki could start being seen as nothing more than a brute by others.

“I’ll refrain from using this attack until I learn how to properly control my energy…”

It was good to know that the attack was too dangerous before he ended up hurting anyone or destroying something important.

With that conviction, Haruki finished his practice for the day.