Spire of Ascension, Floor 50.
One hour after forced teleportation.
'Uh... will you let me fight too? You are killing them all before I can unsheathe my sword...'
Rio couldn't help but complain in his mind while walking through the empty corridor.
"Ugh... I feel so sick now that I haven't eaten a single candy for the past whole hour; looking at these demons makes me so mad for some reason..."
"Also Link's ring isn't giving off any signals either... Ugh, this is the worst day of my life..."
Riya couldn't help but complain with a dejected look on her face.
She was pretending to feel sick and was walking with difficulty, relying on the wall for support.
She seemed like a weak, helpless girl lost in a maze, but the gigantic healing field surrounding her proved that it was all just a façade.
This enormous healing field violently overheals a monster or demon as soon as it comes into contact, causing their body to explode like a balloon!
Her healing field is nearly three kilometers wide; she slaughters demons and monsters alike before Rio can even notice their presence with his mana detection.
This healing field is basically an automatic missile launcher; it attacks enemies automatically without even needing a signal or anything.
Moreover, once she casts it, she doesn't even need to cast it again when moving; the entire healing field follows her as she advances.
'The most terrifying part is that her healing magic is going right through these walls made of mithril and adamantine!'
'That means even if a monster is hiding behind these walls in the hidden room, she can still heal it by force!'
As a friend, she's a very reliable companion that everyone can depend on, but as an enemy, she's truly a fearsome foe.
'Heart of Eternal Nirvana is really a broken ability... this thing giving her insane powers...'
"By the way, Riya Sensei... Won't you run out of mana if you keep using such a powerful healing field continuously?"
Hearing Rio's question, Riya stopped pretending to be a sick and weak girl. A smug look returned to her face. She crossed her arms and spoke in a proud tone.
"Well, well, well, my little disciple, you still have a lot to learn..."
"You don't know how amazing this Riya Sensei of yours actually is... you know what? I have 8,000 healers working under me! Don't you underestimate me..."
*HAHAHHA!* (Fake evil laugh...)
"You see those dead bodies there, right? Yeah, those are my mana source... They come and offer their life force in my healing field; I then purify their corpses, absorb their mana and healing magic, and then put it all in the healing field again!"
"And the cycle continues... a very self-sufficient ecosystem, isn't it?"
*HAHAHAHA* (Another Fake evil laugh...)
After hearing those words, Rio nodded his head in surprise.
"Hoh, you have really become strong, haven't you, Riya Sensei? With this power, you can protect yourself even in that musclehead's absence..."
"Eh, no, maybe it's the other way around... He's the one who's getting protected by you, actually..."
Riya nodded her head with a smug look on her face.
"Oh, talking about that muscle-head... I am seriously going to punch him in the face the next time I see him!"
Rio was taken aback by the abrupt statement and inquired with curiosity.
"Did he steal your secret stash of candies or what? That's indeed a big crime, actually..."
Riya shook her head at that question and spoke in an angry tone.
"He's done something even worse! His ring isn't giving off any signal; that means he isn't wearing it!! He must have lost it definitely!!"
"That's such a mean thing to do!"
Rio also nodded his head and went with the flow of the conversation.
"Indeed! That's a very mean thing to do! Give your order sensei! Let's hire Detective Lia! She's good at finding out information on others! She can definitely figure out why he did such a
thing!"
As it turns out, Rio is indeed aware of Lia's stalking activities. (Lia seriously thought she could sneak up on a master of stealth so easily... how foolish...)
"Well, jokes aside, this place is really filled up with monsters to the brim; you have killed more than a thousand monsters with your healing field along the way, and they still keep coming..."
Hearing Rio's words, Riya also nodded her head, and a serious look appeared on her face.
"The main problem is... where are so many of them even coming from? So many monsters must need something to eat at the least; how are they even surviving in this empty maze-like place..."
"Moreover, their life energy is very strange; it's much more chaotic and fragile than a strong monster's should be..."
"In fact... their life energy seems similar to that of a newborn baby! Only a newborn baby will have such weak and chaotic life energy..."
"And despite having such weak life energy, they still have such ridiculous strength... This is extremely unusual; in my whole life as a healer, I have never seen such a situation..."
Riya squatted down and began to carefully examine one of the corpses of the monsters she had killed with a healing overdose.
'D*mn!? Is this really the Riya I know!? Isn't Riya supposed to be an airhead who's always in a world of her own and doesn't even bother caring about what's going on around her...'
'Such clear observations, such detailed information... This definitely doesn't suit her nature...' Rio was actually the one who was more confused and surprised at the moment actually.
'Her being able to kill monsters and protect herself can be explained by her increased proficiency with the Heart of Eternal Nirvana... But what's going on with this extraordinary intelligence!?'
Right now, Rio can sense it with his perception that the current Riya isn't just a normal healer; she's actually capable of 'combat' right now.
'Ah! Don't tell me that when she's not eating candy, her 'IQ' actually increases!?'
Even back in the Elven empire, Riya trained with an SS-rank healer for a while, and she didn't
eat candy for a long while, and the result of that was that she actually awakened a 'legendary skill' for herself.
Awakening a legendary skill isn't a simple matter; you need a very clear state of mind and immense concentration.
'Wait, is this even possible!? Don't tell me that eating candy actually dulls her mind, and she becomes an airhead... but when she stops eating them, she actually becomes more
intelligent!?'
'What kind of weird phenomenon is this!? Does the candy she consumes function as an 'IQ' suppressant or something like that?'
*BOOOM!!* *Crack!*
Just when Rio was getting more and more confused over Riya 'The Candy Destroyer's
mysteries', the floor started to tremble like crazy.
"An earthquake?"
'Isn't the spire of ascension supposed to be a very powerful existence... it can't even suppress
an earthquake?'
What Rio didn't know was that this wasn't just a simple earthquake; this was the result of
Ashtel going on a rampage in the upper-most floor.
*CRACK!*
The ceiling suddenly cracked and fell apart; even the floor started to crack like crazy.
"It must be a very strong earthquake; this place seems like it's going to collapse... Riya Sensei, let's go; we can't stay here for long or we might get buried under the debris-" Before Rio finished his words, the floor directly broke apart as the trembling became even
more intense.
Both Rio and Riya fell down along with the broken floor's debris, and just when Rio was about
to grab her and jump away, the lower floor also broke apart and an extremely deep hole
appeared.
A huge amount of debris fell from even higher floors and blocked Rio's sight.
[Sword Intent!]
[Elemental Sword Art: Wind Type: Serpent's Coil!]
Rio waved his sword in a circle, and all the debris was cleared away with a gust of rotating
wind in an instant!
Each strand of that rotating was like a sharp blade; the debris was broken to bits and reduced
to powder in an instant, thus clearing the area.
'Sh*t, I got delayed by that massive amount of debris; she fell in the hole...'
Rio can stand in the air as his sword intent mastery is truly very high, but Riya can't do that
yet; thus, she fell into the deep hole in the floor and disappeared from sight.
'Gotta catch her... hmm?'
Just when Rio was about to follow her into that deep hole, Rio's danger senses suddenly
tingled, and he moved his head to the side.
A pointed sword came flying at an insanely high speed, and Rio barely dodged the attack by a
hair's breadth.
'An S ranker...'
*Step* *Step*
Ignoring the falling debris, a man wearing pitch black armor appeared in Rio's sight.
He was walking on air, and the sound of his footsteps rang in the entire empty corridor.
'No... It's a peak S-ranker...'
Both of them were standing in mid-air and were looking at each other as if they were both evaluating each other's strength.
Rio clenched his sword's hilt, and the other party also unsheathed the sword hanging on his
waist.
The moment the other party unsheathed his sword, Rio's eyes narrowed.
'Skilled... This guy's extremely skilled, such immense pressure... Just by unsheathing his
sword, his aura became so condensed...'
'This isn't about talent anymore... This is someone who's trained in swordsmanship for
several decades! The sword aura is condensed to perfection...'
'This person's extremely close to attaining true 'sword intent'... What is such a strong person
doing in this place!?'
Rio had many questions in his mind, but he ignored them for the time being.
He gave up on going behind Riya, as he could feel that if he showed a single moment of
mistake, not only would he end up dead, but this person would pursue Riya after killing him. 'It seems I have encountered a troublesome foe...'