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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Ruby
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Two weeks.
Two weeks had passed since Yuma’s group first set foot in the Mullen tribe’s territory.
Yuma didn’t have much to do.
Although he came here to work, for the first time in a very long time, he felt like he was getting a proper rest while clearing his mind completely.
Perhaps it was because the Melkus, a land fruit eaten by the Mullen tribe, suited his taste better than expected.
Yuma spent most of his days walking around the island.
At the sea, Tisha, the Mullen king’s daughter, and Cloney were always practicing magic.
And near the back mountain’s clearing, Bell was always training in close-combat martial arts.
The highly sociable Hestia had already become close enough with the Mullen tribe people to be on familiar terms with them.
Yuma felt time flying by just watching them from a step away.
Yuma watched Bell engaging in close combat sparring with Tornos, a senior warrior of the Mullen tribe.
*slash!*
The arms of the two warriors crossed fiercely.
The fist of Tornos, a merfolk with green skin, collided with Bell’s fist.
*crack*
The air shattered.
Shockwaves scattered hazily.
After one direct hit.
Their arms crossed countless times.
Savage fist-winds brushed past faces.
The martial arts battle continued.
Blue battle qi overflowed from Bell’s entire body.
Red battle qi flowed from Tornos’s green body.
This wasn’t the first time they had sparred using battle qi.
From the start, Bell had no choice but to borrow the power of battle qi to properly face Tornos’s superior merfolk physique.
That’s how Bell quickly learned ways to deal with merfolk.
Yuma then headed toward where Cloney would be at the sea.
The right hands of Cloney, holding her brown staff, and Tisha, the sky-blue skinned merfolk, rose simultaneously.
Tisha looked at Cloney.
‘Still not working, is it.’
Tisha observed Cloney’s magic that showed little progress over two weeks.
Though saying it showed no progress wasn’t quite right.
It was naturally almost impossible.
It was nearly impossible to pioneer new mana circuits while leaving existing healthy ones alone, and make them usable in such a short time.
The Mullen tribe’s mana operation method had fundamentally different circuits from those used by human magicians.
‘Mana circuits designed for merfolk bodies from the start.’
The mana operation method itself wasn’t compatible with human bodies.
Despite being told this fact, Cloney didn’t give up on imprinting [Mulerne], which could be called the Mullen tribe’s unique mana operation method.
Beside the golden mana circuit created by [Akarne], the advanced mana cultivation method Cloney had originally learned, a navy blue mana circuit was pioneering its path.
And she had been continuously polishing it for two weeks.
Golden mana currents flowed through Cloney’s magic staff.
Tisha looked at the sea’s surface where Cloney had submerged more than half her waist.
The sea was still calm.
‘Another failure this time?’
Tisha watched that sea with a hardened expression.
A moment later.
*splash*…
Ripples arose in the calm sea.
The waves spreading in circles didn’t stop at just that phenomenon.
*plop plop*…
Water drops rose from the sea.
Dozens of water drops.
Both Cloney’s golden eyes and Tisha’s blue eyes turned to those water drops.
“Wow… it worked!”
Cloney’s blank expression brightened brilliantly.
Water drops were rising up.
And those drops gathered to form a stream of water.
A stream of water with pure light swirling around it.
To the Wave Spiral formula.
The sea began to respond.
*swish*─
The water stream drew a circle in front of Cloney.
The spiral-surrounded circle created a shield barrier.
Though it was an infinitely thin
And small degraded version, its form was clearly a Wave Spiral.
A clear success.
“Ugh…!”
However, Cloney’s [Mulerne] mana circuit was still too narrow.
*splash*
The spiral shield that had risen from the sea seeped back into it.
“I did it!”
Cloney smiled brightly with a radiant expression.
Watching Cloney smile so brightly, Tisha managed an awkward smile.
“Congratulations.”
“I need to… keep practicing.”
Cloney wiped her face, now completely wet, with her white hand.
*splash*
And began slowly raising water streams again.
Tisha thought Cloney still didn’t quite realize how remarkable what she had done was.
Completely constructing the mana circuit of [Mulerne], which was like an inherent power of the merfolk.
If the Mullen grand magician who taught her magic saw this, they would be astounded.
“Well done.”
Cloney turned her head at the familiar voice from beside her.
Yuma was standing there.
“Yuma!”
Cloney approached Yuma with a bright smile.
“I just saw it. Drawing water from the sea to create a shield.”
Yuma took Cloney’s hand as she expressed pure joy and led her out of the sea.
Though the water reached up to both their knees, he didn’t mind.
He was wearing shorts anyway.
Yuma wiped the water thoroughly covering Cloney’s head and face with a towel he was holding, then handed the cloth to her.
The meaning was to wipe the rest herself.
“Training is good, but you need to eat while doing it.”
Cloney smiled broadly.
“Yes.”
And taking the towel Yuma offered, she went up onto the island.
*splash*
After Cloney disappeared up there.
Tisha, who had no reason to stay in the sea anymore, slowly withdrew from the water and walked onto the beach.
Tisha’s footprints marked the sand.
“Yuma.”
Tisha’s mysterious voice seeped into Yuma’s ears.
“Were you certain? That Cloney would pioneer the Mullen tribe’s unique mana circuit?”
Yuma tilted his head.
“Why do you think that?”
“Two weeks ago. When Cloney first tried, you seemed to believe in her.”
“I had a feeling she would succeed.”
He thought she would accomplish it someday.
Though he hadn’t expected it would take less than a month.
Right after Yuma gave that answer.
Tisha opened her mouth as if to ask something more but couldn’t continue.
Because a large man came running with heavy footsteps.
“Yuma! Tisha!”
Tisha furrowed her brow at the merfolk man who came running while sweating profusely.
“What’s wrong? Korger?”
“Those bastards. Those bastards have started invading the Mullen tribe’s coast!”
The Servants of the Evil God.
Those whom the Mullen tribe’s warriors and magicians had referred to as such showed themselves after three weeks.
Following Korger’s guidance, Yuma and Tisha moved to the Mullen tribe’s great plaza.
A war council was being held with Yercur, the Mullen king, at its center.
Yercur’s yellow eyes fixed directly on Yuma.
“You’ve come, Grand Duke Yuma.”
Yuma nodded.
“If the enemy has appeared, shouldn’t we depart right now?”
Yuma’s long black coat fluttered violently in the sea wind.
At Yuma’s words, the gazes of about 50 muscular Mullen tribe warriors turned to him all at once.
Yercur looked at Yuma and twisted his lips.
“Indeed, War God. As I heard, you have no fear of the battlefield.”
Yercur raised his large body.
“You show no fear at all even knowing this battlefield is not the land you’ve walked on, but the sea, and that you must fight on that sea. Quite impressive.”
Yuma thought with an expressionless face.
‘That’s not quite it.’
He had actually been quite troubled about having to fight in the sea.
He just meant that there was no point in sitting around theorizing like this.
“Yes, as the War God Yuma says. The enemy has appeared, so we just need to fight. That’s all there is to it. Isn’t that right, warriors of this great sea?”
The Mullen tribe warriors shouted while striking their weapons on the ground.
*thud*─ *thud*─!
Spear shafts mercilessly stamped the sand.
“That’s right! My King!”
Those with blue bodies raised their various weapons high.
A powerful current spread through the Mullen tribe.
“Prepare the Silviria!”
“Everyone to battle!”
With resounding battle cries, the Mullen tribe warriors and magicians scattered.
To head to the battlefield.
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Yuma’s group was also preparing to go out to sea.
Of course, most of the preparation was being done by Tisha.
“You’ll need to ride this Silviria to the sea. You’ve practiced for three days, so you should be able to, right?”
Tisha stroked the back of a creature.
It was a giant white seahorse.
*neigh*- *neigh*
The Silviria made quite cute crying sounds.
It was greeting Tisha happily.
The Silviria’s overall appearance was identical to modern sea horses.
Of course, since its size was comparable to land horses, it couldn’t be called identical based on size alone.
And its white body was hard like a turtle’s shell.
Silviria.
The Mullen tribe’s means of transport and friend.
Yuma sat in the Silviria’s saddle and gripped the reins.
Just like when he rode the black war horse in the previous war with Pineon, and when he first rode the Silviria three days ago, Yuma didn’t feel much difficulty.
*neigh*…
The Silviria Yuma mounted made a stable crying sound.
His cold personality trait and [Noble] trait contributed greatly to taming mounts.
Cloney, who spent most of the two weeks at sea, had already become friendly with her Silviria over the past week.
In contrast, Bell and Hestia were struggling quite a bit.
“There, there, good boy?”
Bell smiled while stroking the seahorse’s smooth head.
But the Silviria shook its long snout and head slowly while snorting.
Bell concluded she needed deeper communion with the Silviria.
And beside such a Bell was Hestia.
“Let’s go!”
The type who believed communion would happen automatically once they entered actual combat.
Hestia lightly tapped the Silviria’s body with her right foot.
The signal to depart.
And following that signal, the Silviria that Hestia mounted did depart.
*swoosh!!*
But its speed was much faster than expected.
The Silviria charged forward fiercely, cutting through the water.
“Uwaaagh!”
Hestia barely managed to press her floating body back against the Silviria while gripping the reins.
Her scarlet ears that usually perked up drooped in surprise.
“Ugh… huk.”
Tisha smiled slightly.
“Shall we all depart now?”
Yuma’s group all nodded.
Behind the many Mullen tribe warriors who were already far ahead,
The five followed in formation.
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