Heroine-Saving System: Reborn In A Third-Rate Manga As The Protagonist-Chapter 125 - 126: Rank-Up

Victoria however had different plans, she flew in front of him and stretched out her bat wings.

"You're not going anywhere… I don't want to be a widow so soon." She said, though she didn't remember this worm from back during her time.

She had very bad experiences with worm monsters so she wasn't going to allow it.

"Come on." Koya said. "I'm not going that close."

What did she think he was? A brute? He would take out the worm first using fire then fight off the Gorilla after that. He wasn't going to risk getting that close to it since he disliked worms as well.

"Well, uh… Let me come with." Victoria said and he nodded a bit.

"Master, please be safe." Yuna said and his eye twitched, it was literally just a building ahead and it wasn't like he could be killed by this or something.

Regardless he jumped through the air, soaring from the building where they were to the one directly in front of the two monsters and as he landed, Koya took a deep breath.

"Disgusting." At this place, he could see the worm's wound more closer with the worms now snaking over the Gorilla's body and entering through it's ears and mouth, causing blood to come out from it's eyes and nose.

"Hubby, should I do anything?" Victoria asked while visibly flinching and even Riffi was uncomfortable. It seemed all of them shared the hate of worms as well.

"No need, I have something to test out." Koya replied while the gorilla pounded the worm with it's other hand in an uppercut to the stomach. 'System, fire will work right?'

「Affirmative, the Centu Worm is weak to fire. A well-aimed strike of fire will be able to burn it completely as well as the worms within it though Hurry up Host, I find the whole creature disgusting including the small worms within it」

Who would have thought?

The System hated worms too which was ironic since it was slimy like a worm however after that uppercut, the Worm chugged more of the Gorrila's arm in and bit down making the monster scream out.

"Master… if you want to do anything, I think now would be the perfect time." Riffi said and Koya brought out his hands, placing one above the other while converging flames there.

It was a fireball that would be fitting for his rank but it wouldn't pack nearly enough power to damage this big monster. "Master, it needs to be big–"

Koya used Extreme Mana Enhancement since he hadn't removed it from the slot since then and his mana spiked by five times, supercharging the regular blue fireball until it became a burning ball of flames that was hot enough to make Riffi wince.

"You suddenly made your spell stronger… what was that Hubby?" Victoria asked while flying at his side and looking at the burning fireball but it seemed like he wasn't done yet as the two monsters kept squabbling.

"Arise from the bond and lend me your strength… I call upon you, faithful one." Koya said as the same tattoos that appeared on the Dean when he had called upon the power of his Familiar back on Familiar Isle did the same on him.

He was using Rion's familiar ability to increase their master's flames to a higher degree of heat, alas since Rion was still an Embermane cub, it didn't work at full power but the heat of the fireball went up to the point that the center was turning white.

That was when the Gorilla and the worm had noticed him as well but it was too late, he blasted the Fireball forward at the worm specifically and the fireball stretched mid-air, elongating and compressing itself into a lance of pure fire that hit with a sound like an explosion muffled inside a furnace.

It slammed into the hole that the Gorilla had made on the back where the worms were clustered thickest and the instant it touched, the entire oversized worm lit up.

"CREEEEEEEEEEE—" The sound that tore out of the Centu Worm wasn't something that belonged in a throat.

It was too high and wet, like something screaming from the inside of its own body. The worm let go of the Gorilla's arm and recoiled, thrashing sideways as the fire lance buried itself deeper into the wound and spread.

The flames didn't just burn the surface… they went inward, following the network of smaller worms through the flesh and lighting them up from within, and for a second the entire body of the Centu Worm glowed blue from the inside like a lantern before the outer skin caught fire completely.

It fell to the ground and kept screaming, the sound dropping in pitch as the fire ate through whatever was making the noise.

'I'm still very slow.' He thought, he wasn't able to use the tattoos instantaneously like how the Dean of Familiars had done back in the Isle and the feeling of summoning his Familiar's power was weird as well.

The tattoos on his body began receding and the Gorilla placed a hand on the building they were standing on, spreading cracks through it completely as it gripped for balance.

"Look out!" Koya called out and the monster turned to face him, already swinging its free arm to swat him off the building.

He was already gone though as he kicked off the edge, got vertical in the air, and came down feet-first with every skill running at once, concentrating Mutant strength in particular to two points of contact as his soles hit the Gorilla's face.

The nose didn't just break… The entire front of its skull caved inward with a sound like a wall collapsing and the force of it transferred straight down through its body, blowing out its grip on the building completely.

It crushed the side of the structure as it toppled, concrete and steel raining down, and the shockwave from its body hitting the ground sent the still-burning worm skidding sideways across the rubble, slamming into the far wreckage while still screaming and burning.

Koya fell from the air and landed on the ground in front of the oversized Gorilla monster.

'I don't really know why this thing would be dumb enough to think I was trying to help it.' Koya thought as the Gorilla monster slowly rose to its feet and roared at him, sending saliva flying everywhere.

He leaned his face away from one that almost hit him and looked at it on the ground, it's saliva was purple with worms in them.

"That's disgusting." Victoria and Riffi said at the same time as the last of the worm's cries died down in the distance.

"Hubby, kill it already."

The monster took a step forward before throwing its fist and instead of Koya avoiding it, he extended his own hand and caught the punch.

The knuckles filled his entire palm and the impact hit like a building falling on him with windows in every structure nearby blew out at once and glass raining down across the street in sheets, as well as the ground under his feet cracked in a spiderweb pattern from his heels. He still didn't move.

"I don't know, it's just a bit weaker than I expected." He said, taking a step back into the crack.

Naturally he had the Mutant Strength skill on so his body was far stronger than usual.

He tightened his grip on its fist, felt the bones in the Gorilla's knuckles shift under the pressure, and then he stepped into it and threw.

The Gorilla left the ground completely… For something that size it moved through the air surprisingly fast, hurtling backward through the rubble, and then a steel beam jutting from the collapsed building caught it through the chest on the way down and pinned it there.

"GUrurur…" It looked at the building piece that had gone into it's chest and slumped over, dying off completely.

"That was very easy." Koya looked at his own hands, when compared to Yvelion… that oversized nearly immortal spider, his skills were making him barely survive however he had just wiped these two Silver class monsters in less than two minutes. 'Or are they Iron class?'

「No Host, these monsters were at the silver class however they weren't particularly powerful like the Queen Broodminder which made beating them relatively easy with your current skills.」

'Tch… Just glaze me for once in your life, it won't kill you.' Koya thought and the girls were on the ground again.

Akemi ran to him while waving her hands.

"Master, that was amazing. You just killed the two of them like instantly, the power of your mana was so strong that I could literally feel it hitting my face." She said while nearly hopping next to him, Yuna and Disguise Master caught up as well and finally the experience mana began to trickle out of the corpses heading toward him.

"Stand at my sides… Experience Mana won't do much for me at this stage." Koya said as the two girls stood at his sides and Experience Mana flowed into their bodies.

He was already at the peak of Four-liner, no matter how much Experience mana he got, he wouldn't force the Rank-up which made him wonder.

'Is there anything I'm doing wrong?' He thought and the two girls collapsed to their knees as the remnant of the Experience Mana entered his body and like he expected, there was nothing wrong.

"Ma… Master, I feel weird." Yuna said as there was a bubbling feeling in her chest that was making her even warmer and Sparkle looked at her worriedly.

The mink was pressed against her leg with its ears flat, watching her face worriedly.

"M-me too." Akemi said while holding one of her generously large breasts but she wasn't doing it on purpose, it felt itchy from the inside like something underneath the skin was rearranging itself.

The three line black crests on their faces began to move and Cinder walked laps around Akemi with a worried expression on her cute face.

"Don't worry." He patted the heads of both Familiars and stood back up. "They'll be fine in a minute."

His Rank-up to fourth-liner status hadn't been painful… or had it? He genuinely couldn't remember, it had been a while ago and so much had happened since then.

'Now System, I refrained from asking you this question for a long time but how do I reach the next level?' He thought and as he expected, the stingy system was at it again.

「100 FP to purchase the answer from the System」

'You sick individual, I'm not even surprised.'

「I am not an Individual Host, you of all people should know. I'm a greedy entity that's after all of your System Points Hahaha!」

'When did you become cringe? Did this world start getting to you too? Take the points from my balance and tell me the issue already.'

「Ding!」

Even though Koya couldn't see it, he could feel the points dropping and he couldn't help but sigh.

「The reason you haven't ranked up is because of the existence of Fighting Spirit, that energy that increases your physicality which is known as Aura in other worlds. Since you have both Elemental Mana and Aura, your body is in turmoil on which side to rank up to, ultimately the only way Host will be able to rank up will be to increase the amount of Fighting Spirit and Mana in your body to the same level so that both will rank up at the same time.」

Koya ran a hand through his hair.

'Of course.' He thought, it had been sometime since he had used Fighting Spirit as well. 'So I'll have to balance these two within my body, huh?'

Which meant he would stop relying on mana so much and instead start using Fighting Spirit on himself. However he was knocked out of his thoughts as Akemi reached for his hand.

"Master…" He looked at her and flinched a bit, she looked a lot more beautiful than before which was natural since Four-liner brought one to near the peak of humanly achievable beauty.

Before she didn't look her age and now she still didn't look her age as well, her face was a lot more shapely and beautiful with four black lined crests running down her face.

Her breasts hadn't increased but her figure had become a lot more curvy and she slowly rose to her feet.

"How do I look?" She asked while clinging onto his arm, the closeness made Riffi almost spit at her… Again, why were these women always in heat around her Master?

"I think you look gr–"

Another hand grabbed his own from the side and Yuna stood up, unlike Akemi, the woman had grown a bit taller and she had a more athletic build like Mio while also getting a much better face and perkier breasts.

She looked at him in the eyes.

"Master… I'm here too." She said and he smiled at her making her chest warm.

Koya then took a step back, letting go of the girls.

"Now that you have become Four-liners, both of you are now able to use magic." He told them while Victoria and Disguise Master watched from the side. "You should be able to feel it from deep within… a bubbling feeling of sorts. Let's see what kind of magic you can use."

Of course he already knew what kind of magic they had but they didn't… Where would be the fun in that?

"Okay Master, I'll go first." Akemi said and Yuna gave the girl a side-eye.

"I should be the one going first." Yuna said. Given someone like Akemi, the affinity she would awaken would be something that would stir a lot of trouble right?

"I'm younger than you so I'll go first, try to serve an example to the younger ones, will you?" She stuck out her tongue at Yuna and Yuna stepped away from Akemi, determined to take revenge on the younger woman later. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"Now just focus the energy into your hands and it should come out." Koya instructed and she closed her eyes.

'I need to have a good affinity so I don't disappoint Master.' She thought and focused on that warm feeling bubbling in her chest letting it spread out and in front of everyone's stunned eyes, Akemi's hands were covered in a golden light.

She had healing magic.

The golden light sat in her palms looking warm and highlighting Akemi's face, she looked like an angel.

"N-no way…" Yuna trembled.

How was that even fair?! Healers were meant to be of pure heart and Akemi was quite literally the opposite of that… she had just spent twenty minutes splattering monster brains across the street with a hammer and smiling about it.

She killed things for fun and then wanted their Master despite the fact he was already married.

Well she wanted him too but that was beside the point. Akemi was the absolute last person who was supposed to get a healing affinity and yet here it was, sitting in her hands like it belonged there.

"Master… is this rare?" She looked at her hand, ignoring the shock of the others. Akemi only wanted to know if it was good enough for him.

"Very much so, now when anyone's hurt… you'll be able to heal them completely while being able to perform support spells on yourself and others as well." Koya said and she walked over to him happily with Flare at her side and he gave Akemi a few good pats on the head. "Congratulations."

"Yay!"

"Yuna, what about you? Let's see yours." Koya said and she walked back into the spot, looking at her hands as she closed her eyes as well, focusing on the warm feeling.

Hers was a bit harder to control but she brought it out and her hands began vibrating with a fine tremor that ran all the way up to her elbows, and the air around her palms distorted slightly like heat rising off stone.

A low hum came out of nowhere and then stopped, she looked down in confusion.

"H… huh?"

"You awakened sound." Koya said while taking a step forward to her. "It's a nice affinity that will complement your battle style very well."

Yuna knew what sound was… it was a good element. A strong one too, she knew that much but Akemi had golden light pouring out of her hands and everyone had gone quiet with shock and Koya had looked genuinely surprised, and right now he was just nodding at her vibrating palms like he had already expected it.

She wanted him to look at her the same way.

'I… I… I…'

Her face was suddenly buried against his chest and she blinked, realizing that Koya had closed the distance without her noticing and was rubbing the back of her hair slowly.

She hadn't even seen him move.

"You did well… you've come so far and awakened an amazing element too, I hope you keep on getting stronger Yuna." He said while smiling at her. "Congratulations too."

She didn't know what to say.

There were words somewhere but they weren't coming out so she just hugged him back with her arms around his midsection while her face was still pressed into his chest while she took in his scent.

It was unfair how much it affected her. Her legs were wobbling and she had just ranked up to Four-liner, her body was at the best it had ever been and one hug from him was enough to make her feel like she was going to fall over.

"Hey! Master, you didn't hug me like that!" Akemi puffed out her cheeks and hit him in the back repeatedly though it was play fighting. "I'll tell Mable when we get home!"

Right Mable… she was supposed to come along with them but the moment he got home, she wanted him to play Princess and Knight all around the House and when they were finished playing, she slept off and according to everybody in the mansion, when she slept… Nothing in the world could wake her up so they left without her.

"Alright, why don't we kill some more monsters and then head back to our usual camping spot?" He asked and all of them agreed.

Koya let out a sigh… He was happy.