I'm in Love with the Villainess!-Chapter 86: Did I Seriously Forget About an Important Mechanic...!?
[Phoenix Flash]
Before I could even react, an orange blur tore through my vision.
He was fast, and more importantly, far stronger than the students who tried to ambush me. And it was by a very huge margin.
"B-Bright!?—THUD!
He drove both feet into the confused student’s head, slamming him straight into the ground and knocking him out instantly.
Just like he had done with the rest of the students—the ones I would have finished off.
A mage in the academy with a fighting style that relied on fists, it was no other than my unofficial best friend.
"Phoenix... come to save me again?"
Bright laughed at my remark and scratched the back of his head, a wide grin spreading across his face. He acted as if he hadn’t just knocked out everyone around me in the blink of an eye.
"More like I saved them from you..."
Bright awkwardly crossed his arms; he knew full well I wouldn’t let them off with just a visit to the medical district. If anything, he knew I’d probably make them stay for at least a month if I had my way with them.
"Right! Did you know that you’re the talk of the academy right now?"
Bright immediately pivoted topics, grabbing my shoulders with calloused, burn-scarred hands from excessive fire training.
"Vivianne?"
"Y-You know already?"
"I could guess as much..."
Did he really come all this way just to tell me that? I wasn’t sure if he had just that much free time or if he was just terrible at managing priorities.
Either way, I won’t judge.
"You know... you’re kinda creeping me out..." Bright chuckled, taking a glance at the translucent wings that bloomed out of my back.
"You mean the spell?"
"That—and the fact you’re not pushing me away..."
The first time we interacted, I adamantly didn’t want anything to do with him; the second time, I accepted Vivianne’s offer to be trained just because of his involvement.
And now...? It didn’t even seem like I minded if he was present and loud.
"Are you sure you didn’t sustain some sort of brain damage after all that... well... blood?"
Bright looked at me with concern, still not getting over the fact that he found me covered in blood after exiting the training room.
"You’re basically calling the academy’s medical district incompetent, you know? If I had any issues, they would have found it."
Bright shook his head, forming a cross with his hands as he adamantly refused my accusation.
"N-No, that’s not what I meant!" Bright leaned in closer to my ear, close enough to whisper conspiratorially into my ear. "And don’t tell that to the nurse, please!"
I raised a brow. Really? That’s what he’s worried about?
Although... it definitely seemed like there was bad blood between them back then, eh, not my problem.
"I won’t, I still owe you after all."
"That again... what did I even do?"
"No need for you to know..." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
I smiled, dispelling my light guardian as I gave him a pat on the back, further weirding him out at my sudden casualness, like we were long-time friends.
"Well, if you say so."
Bright grabbed the unconscious students lying on the ground, stacking them up on each of his shoulders.
He was muscular to say the least, he was carrying the weight of more than four average-healthy students without even struggling.
"You can go back to your training! I’ll clean up the mess for you." Bright smiled once more. "Well... I’d rather do that than have you take care of them."
*** Minutes later
[Light Guardian]
[Light Guardian]
[Light Guardian]
I returned to the training room, letting Bright handle the cleanup.
Well... I wasn’t even sure if I could consider this training anymore, especially after everything I’ve done at this point.
This felt more like a warm-up than anything.
All I did was continuously cast Light Guardian, making sure I could cast it as fast as I could, like the usual dark spells I used.
But compared to before, the mental strain has been significantly reduced, likely caused by my change of mindset when it came to casting light spells.
I can’t believe I was trying to copy Julius’s mindset from the novel when I was training...
Trying to think like someone I wasn’t could have definitely been the main reason why every single one of my previous trainings ended up with me being so mentally exhausted.
Who knew you could change spell fundamentals by interpreting them differently? This was another case of the novel not diving deep enough into specific details...
But at least that problem was now solved... and of course, it was all because I was thinking of Evelina.
She really is the solution to everything...
[Apprentice: Lvl 2]
[Light Mastery Increased]
Still at level two even after all this time?
That’s definitely surprising... after all this power, I still can’t even reach level three?
Although...
I hovered my finger over the system, and, as I assumed, it gave me extra details, though not by much.
[Progress: 2.6856]
"D-Decimals...?"
I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or be irritated... all my progress until now wasn’t even worth one whole number?
But I guess that’s for the better; life in this new world would definitely be very boring if I just blasted through the ranks like that.
Holding back, while effective, had its limits when it came to having fun.
Besides...
I tapped on my fake eye. Ranking isn’t everything after all; I knew full well my sheer firepower surpassed that of my current rank. There wasn’t really any reason for me to get stronger at this point.
...Wait?
I felt like I just forgot something very important...
[Photographic Memory]
I knew I did...
This damn... system... while it definitely made my life easier when it appeared, it sure as hell is the opposite of user-friendly.
[Bottomless Daggers (S)]
[Emperor’s Sword]
[Synergy Activated]
Right... this thing had a fusing mechanic, I’ve been so focused on gaining power through my own effort that I literally almost abandoned using the system entirely.
[Bottomless Daggers + Emperor’s Sword]
[Fusing]
[Endless Fang (Unique)]
That’s an over-the-top name if I’ve ever seen one, but it sure as hell fits the weapon.
From a dagger and sword, turned into a saber of medium length, and just like its name suggested, I didn’t only have one of them.
[Endless Fang (Unique)]
Another appeared in my free hand, effectively dual-wielding the weapon without any drawback or limitation.
"I wonder how many mechanics I missed just because I didn’t interact with this thing that much..."
I sighed, looking at the system panel with a look of pure disdain.
If this thing were a sentient being, I would have definitely told it to be better.
Was I being ungrateful? Yes, but it chose me for gods’ sake, the least it could do is make itself more active for its user instead of just letting me brute force through things.
Other than being a glorified notification system, it barely does anything...
-- [Progress to Hidden Ability: 30/100] --
