After having breakfast, everyone started to talk about the evaluation test.
Everyone talked about their own experiences, and when they found out that Link was the only one who didn't have to give the test, they all looked at him with strange eyes.
But unlike others, Rio was more shocked after hearing Link's words.
'Ah, so that's how it is!... now everything makes sense... I have had this strange feeling that Fade wasn't the real protagonist; he always seemed so fake to me...'
Link's words directly confirmed Rio's suspicion.
'Oh, wait... If we look at it this way, doesn't that mean all the chances that I have stolen until now originally belonged to Link!?'
This meant that Rio wasn't the real biggest thief; Fade was the biggest thief, it seems! All Rio did was steal the chances from the hands of another thief!
'I have to acknowledge... I really wasn't aware of your game, Fade Crest... You were a splendid thief! You have my respect!'
The main thing is that if the luck was still on Link's side, he would have gotten all these broken cheats. Which means he would have been even stronger than he already is.
'Really, even after losing all his luck and blessings, Link is still able to compete with me toe to toe and is one of the strongest in the younger generation... If he had the chances, he would have been too overpowered...'
Only now did Rio figure out just how broken that King Allen from the legends must have been. Unlike Link, that man had the blessing of both the world and the heavenly will. Which means he must have been a real menace in his time.
Although everything could have been very different, Rio doesn't care much now.
'Forget it, it's not like I need to rely on luck or these bullsh*t to improve... I can carve my own path and can achieve my goal; it doesn't matter what others achieve...'
Link has a blessed life that many would envy; even Rio envies the fact that Link can maintain his emotions and love; he doesn't need to sacrifice anything for power.
On the other hand, Rio is constantly losing emotions for some mysterious reasons, and his improving strength is accelerating this phenomenon.
The difference between them is too obvious.
'I guess this is the difference between an extra and a world's chosen...'
Even though Rio now has access to 'Shadow's emotions, it is still not feasible.
Currently he can make a connection to the other party's consciousness to borrow emotions from him, but if he does that, then the other party's consciousness might also get affected by the mysterious phenomena.
'I should only use him when it's necessary; if I let out his consciousness too much, he will get affected too... then I really won't have any hopes left...'
Originally, Rio was placing all his hopes on the last bit of his emotions to revive all of them again later.
But now that the original Rio's consciousness has awakened, he can borrow the other party's emotions via faint link in their consciousness in the future.
This process will only be feasible after Rio has successfully gotten rid of the mysterious phenomena that have been haunting his life.
'Still, even this much is better than nothing; at least I will have more time to plan things out now...'
Rio was really hard-pressed on time before; he was losing himself so fast that he was worried that things would escalate to the point of no return in just a few more months.
But now that he has the backup plan, the consciousness of the original Rio, he has more time to plan and figure things out.
...
"The most surprising is still you, Rio; you actually were able to win a fight with an S-rank golem while in the 'territory' created by an SS ranker's authority...."
"This is beyond impressive..."
Liam couldn't help but nod his head at Rio again and again.
Every time Rio comes up with something even more exaggerated than before.
Originally he was thinking that his awakening 'Mana Field' was already the highest feat someone could have achieved in this evaluation test, but Rio still beat him to it.
"ugh, I wanted to fight with an S-rank golem too..."
Link, who didn't even get the chance to participate in the test, was already feeling sour; he also wanted to test out his powers on a strong enemy, but Rio beat him to it.
Rio just shrugged his shoulders at those words of praise and replied in his usual emotionless tone.
"It just happened by chance... Oh, by the way, Riya, I copied your healing technique; it just seemed good to me, so don't blame me for it later..."
Hearing Rio's words, Riya, who was originally busy nibbling on the snacks, suddenly asked with a panicked look on her face.
"Wait, you can also use healing magic now!? Does that mean I will be thrown out of the team!?"
Riya was really taken aback by Rio's words.
She knows that she has no talent for combat and can't really fight and defend herself
effectively in battle.
If Rio, who is good at fighting, learned how to heal everyone, wouldn't she become an unnecessary drag on the team at that point?
'No... t-this... if this happens, where will I go then!?'
Several wild thoughts came to Riya's mind.
She was already imagining herself living in a broken house in a slum, starving as she had no
job to do.
All she knows is healing, and she has no other things that she can offer to the team; if that ability of hers was rendered useless, then she really will be in a tough spot.
Riya could already imagine a future where Link will kick her out of the house and say,
"Hmph! You are so useless; even Rio can heal better than you; go away! The team has no need
for you!!"
Thinking about all this, Riya felt that those pastries and snacks didn't seem tasty anymore.
Just when she was about to have a panic attack, Rio's next words made her relieved.
"No, no, all I can do is just some basic level healing... It's just some emergency first aid kind of ability... No one really dares to throw you out of the team. I kind of understand now how difficult it is to be a healer..."
Rio couldn't help but nod his head in admiration.
Killing and hurting others is many times easier than healing and saving others.
Rio's sword intent is weapon of destruction; after all, it can't really cure wounds properly as it
is meant to inflict wounds.
To heal someone, not only do you need the skills, you also need insane mastery.
If you apply healing magic to the wrong cell of the body, the cell will die from overload. In terms of mastery over healing magic, Riya is no less proficient than Rio is in 'Sword Intent'.
'If she were a mage or in any other profession, I fear that she would have been a fearsome foe that I would certainly like to avoid...'
Rio isn't exaggerating.
Even Link is having difficulty training and improving his mastery over 'Dao Rhythm'.
But look at Riya; she just eats candies and plays around all day long, yet her mastery over her
'Heart of Eternal Nirvana' is already better than Link.
She's only behind Rio in terms of mastery over the legendary skills.
'Riya is the definition of a sleeper build; everyone seems to not notice it, but she's always
progressing fast, hidden from everyone's eyes...'
"Oh, okay, that's good..."
While Rio was busy praising her in his mind, Riya heaved a large sigh of relief. She wiped the imaginary sweat from her forehead and thought to herself.
'Phew~ I won't get kicked out of the house, I suppose; I am still useful to the team...'
What Riya seemed to have ignored is that the members of team Astra didn't really care much
about it.
Even if she stopped progressing and remained weak, Link will never abandon her. For Link, abandoning her will be like cutting a large part of his own soul and throwing it away. Moreover, now that Riya has forced the world to 'acknowledge' her path and bless her with the 'Heart of Eternal Nirvana', Link will get retribution instead if he dared to abandon her! You can say that Riya forced the 'World' to agree with her love for Link; now the world will have to make sure that they never fall apart.
Her love had transcended the concept of existence and death long ago, when she awakened
her legendary skill.
Even if they both died, they will still be lovers in the next life and every other life afterwards; this is one of the powers bestowed upon Riya as the owner of the legendary ability, Heart of
the Eternal Nirvana.
"Oh, by the way, can you teach me that handwarming technique of yours that you use so often
to train your mastery over sword intent..."
"I think it will be beneficial for me too now that I have a legendary skill of my own..."
Rio has previously taught this skill to Link and Lia.
Liam was originally envious of the two of them, but now that he can learn it, he directly asks
about it.
Rio also nodded his head at those words and said,
"I will teach it to you when we go back to the human empire... Now that we are finally done
with the troublesome event, it's time we enjoy some free time..."
Selain nodded her head in response to Rio's words.
"Yeah, thankfully we all made it out of the evaluation in just three days; now we still have
four days left to enjoy the festival..."
"There will be a fireworks show there at night today; we can go to watch that, and during the
day, we can do some shopping!"
Hearing Selain's words, everyone finished their breakfast and started to prepare to leave.
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here!
Question of the day.
Don't you think Riya has quite a wild imagination?
(Tell me your thoughts in the comments) By the way, remember to use those power stones!