I was making my way towards the Traveler's Inn. After my breakfast, I was looking forward to seeing Asfi's reaction to my mystery skill gain.
When I entered the place, no one stopped to question me, as it was a common sight for me to come and go in this place.
"Oh! Look who graces us with his presence." Lydia's voice stopped me in my tracks as I was moving towards Asfi's workshop.
"Lydia…" I said, looking at her.
"What's with that reaction? Are you that disappointed to see me first, instead of Asfi-chan?" She said with a teasing smirk on her face.
"Yeah, I am. Now let me go and see Asfi to purify my eyes." I started walking away from her, but her laughter followed me down the corridor.
"Ouch! That actually hurt a little," she called out dramatically, placing a hand over her heart in mock anguish. "And here I thought we were becoming such good friends."
I paused, turning back with a slight sigh. "What do you want, Lydia?"
"Nothing much, just wanted to congratulate you on leveling up. Word travels fast in these circles, you know." Her teasing expression softened slightly.
"Thanks for the congratulations. Now, if you'll excuse me—"
"Oh, but wait! You seem more impatient than usual today." She held up a finger, her mischievous grin returning. "Let me guess—You got a good skill during your level up?"
I tried to keep my expression neutral, but her sharp eyes caught the slight shift in my demeanor.
"Aha! That reaction tells me everything I need to know. You actually managed to get something interesting, didn't you?" She clapped her hands together with genuine delight. "Oh, this is going to be good. What was it? New magic? Or is it that Mystery Skill that you and Asfi were trying so hard to get?"
"You're surprisingly perceptive," I admitted, finding myself slightly impressed.
"I have my moments. Now go on, don't keep our little genius waiting. She doesn't know yet, does she? Oh, this is going to be fun to watch." Her grin widened. "I'm sure Asfi-chan will be thrilled. She's been so focused on trying to find a way for you to get that skill lately."
With that, she waved me off with a knowing smile, finally allowing me to continue toward Asfi's room. As I walked away, I couldn't help but think that perhaps Lydia wasn't as insufferable as Hermes.
I knocked on Asfi's door, anticipation building as I prepared to share the news that would undoubtedly make her day. After all, just as Lydia said, Asfi has been trying really hard to find a way that will help me get the Mystery skill.
"Come in," came her familiar voice from within, carrying that focused tone she always had when deep in work.
I pushed open the door to find Asfi hunched over her desk, surrounded by scattered papers covered in diagrams and notes that I was able to understand now. And that taming crystal, which was used on the Infant dragon, was placed upon her desk. Her aqua blue hair was slightly disheveled, as if she'd been running her fingers through it in frustration.
"Hm? Were you researching that, Crystal?" I asked as I walked into the room.
"Oh, Arin," she said, looking up with tired but brightening cyan colored eyes. "Yeah, I thought of putting more effort into understanding it after that hideout incident. How did your level-up go? Any new developments?"
The eagerness in her voice was barely contained, and I could see the hope flickering in her expression. She'd been working so hard on helping me awaken the Mystery skill, and the repeated failures had clearly been weighing on her.
"Well," I began, unable to suppress the smile spreading across my face, "I have some news that might interest you."
Her attention immediately sharpened, and she set down her quill. "What kind of news?"
Instead of answering directly, I pulled out the same knife she'd given me to analyze for flaws and placed it on the table in front of her. But there was a clear difference now—all the flaws had been repaired. Using the mystery skill had been surprisingly intuitive, mainly because I'd already identified every imperfection during our previous sessions and in my free time—her eyes widened, and she leaned forward so quickly that her chair scraped against the floor.
"Mystery..." she whispered, her voice barely audible. Then, louder, with growing excitement: "You awakened the Mystery skill! Arin, you actually did it!"
She shot to her feet, her exhaustion forgotten as pure joy radiated from her features, which was saying something as usually she always kept her calm. "When? How? Was it during the level-up?"
"It appeared when I leveled up," I explained, feeling warmth spread through my chest at her obvious delight. "All those experiments we did, all that research—it finally paid off."
"This is incredible!" She moved around the desk. "Do you realize what this means? You are one of the only five people with this ability in the whole of Orario. We can finally begin practical magical item creation! All those ideas we spoke about, now we can work together on them."
I was happy that she wanted me to be a part of that process, even if she was perfectly capable of making those items on her own, and I found myself smiling widely. "I was hoping you'd be pleased."
"Pleased? Arin, this is beyond pleased—this is..." She paused, searching for the right words, then suddenly stepped forward and threw her arms around me in an impulsive hug. "Thank you for not giving up on this. I know the repeated failures were frustrating."
Okay, this warm, Wholesome, and Sweet Asfi is too much for my heart!
The embrace was brief but warm, and when she pulled back, her cheeks were flushed with excitement and perhaps a hint of embarrassment at her spontaneous display of affection.
" *Cough* Anyway," she coughed a little and quickly returned to her professional demeanor, but was unable to hide the smile that kept tugging at her lips, "Even if you have gained the mystery skill, you still have to practice and start from making small and less effective magic items."
"Yeah, I will work hard and make you proud for choosing me." Her face turned red hearing my words. Hehehe Cute.
"Can you not phrase it that way?" She said with a cute glare. Ooops, looks like she caught on to my intentional phrasing.
"So, anyway, what did you find about this crystal?" I said, changing the subject.
"Haa…" Asfi just sighed, a small smile gracing her lips. "Nothing much, it's just a magic item that binds the monster to the user's will."
"Then, does that mean they can control any monster?" I asked about my doubt since in the canon, Jaggernaut overcame the effect of the magic item.
"No, this magic item is only capable of controlling monsters that are level 4 or weaker. And even in that case, there is a chance it will fail. There are a lot of small flaws in it."
That is understandable. "Is there a possibility that it was just a prototype rather than a finished magic item?"
Asfi thought for a moment. "While there is a possibility of that. I still would say that they did not have that many of these crystals with them. The material used to make these is quite rare. And the Evilius should not have the financial strength to mass produce these crystals, especially after the last raid. A lot of their sponsors were found and detained after all."
That's good, but I still feel uneasy, knowing they still might have a few of these. I was hoping that in the last raid I would find Jura and eliminate him. But looks like hoping for that was too much.
"Arin?" I saw Asfi near my face as I came out of my thoughts. "Are you okay? You have gone silent all of a sudden."
"Ah. Sorry about that, just thinking how many of these crystals they might still have with them." She accepted my reasoning with a nod.
"Don't worry, I don't think they have that many. And all our familias are working together, it won't be long before we put an end to them. Now let's start with a basic magic item creation."
I smiled, and despite all the uncertainty about what the future held, I knew I only needed to focus on two things:
Getting stronger and protecting them.