CHAPTER 39: WHEN TALENTS MEETS, ASH.

The mage class.

Known to be one of the most versatile and overpowered classes compared to the rest, and also by far the hardest and rarest.

In this world, people were born and forced to reach their ranks before they became of age.

By the time they were 17–18, the chances of them awakening another rank were second to none.

For the mage class, it didn’t follow the same pattern as the rest.

Right from birth, you are selected to either be a regular or an extraordinary talent amongst talents.

Echidna was the latter.

From birth, she was known to be a genius, an extraordinary mage, one who was bestowed the rank of gold and also the job of sorceress.

Not many mages were fortunate enough to have the gold rank and the rare job of sorceress at the same time.

However, Echidna got it all, awakening her grimoire before the age of 15 and crafting her own spells well before she was old enough to join a guild.

As such, she always believed she was strong, truly strong.

Nothing was supposed to impress or leave her shocked, not when she had spoken to the best of the best while being just a teenager.

So why, why was she so mesmerized at the sight of Aisha battling these monsters?

Slash!

Clank!

Aisha sprinted around the place, cutting as many goblins as her blade could slice in one go.

Kelvin was holding his own, but when compared to how freely and easily Aisha was killing these monsters, he was nothing but a child playing in an adult’s playground.

Echidna gulped down her saliva, her eyes still slightly widened with a nervous smile on her face.

"And here I thought I could use this to my advantage to win him over. This is the type of woman that follows him?"

Her hand was already stretched to the front, considering summoning her grimoire (Logbook) so she could join in the fight, but after seeing this, she could not help but think twice about it.

Getting one more swing in, Aisha touched the ground with both her feet, three goblins crashing to the ground right after.

Seeing that they were dead, she turned to look at Echidna, just to make sure that she was okay and had not been harmed by the swarm of goblins earlier.

Though when she looked, she picked up on a goblin slowly slipping behind Echidna to ambush her.

"Miss, watch out!!!"

Aisha warned, immediately dashing forward to help.

Ting!

A golden light shone around Echidna, followed by a golden book that hovered in front of her, its pages fluttering open as it glowed.

Not even a second later, a small magic circle appeared above the head of the goblin, followed by a powerful lightning strike that exploded its body into multiple pieces.

Aisha stopped midway, a relieved look playing on her face.

For a while there, she had forgotten Ash had told her Echidna was strong and should not be underestimated.

"Are you alright?" she asked, taking slow steps towards her.

"Yeah. Was that the last one?" Echidna asked, her eyes scanning the surroundings.

Soon, both of them looked toward Kelvin and noticed he was splitting up the body of a goblin, most likely trying to get the magic crystals.

"Seems like it," Aisha sighed. "My master is still battling with the leader of the goblins; he should be back soon."

Echidna gazed at her.

"You can tell?"

"Something like that; we kind of share a bond of sorts..." Aisha blushed as she replied.

Echidna had a straight face on, slowly drifting her gaze to the upper hill where Ash was supposed to be.

Her first thought was rather straightforward...

’Who are these people?’

Echidna found their very being mysterious and strange; it was a deep feeling that she herself could not fully imagine or understand.

And yet—

A small smile crept onto the side of her lips.

...

Meanwhile, right on top of the hill.

[You have absorbed the leader of the hobgoblins.]

[A new talent skill has been obtained.]

[Lord Hobgoblin:] Every time you kill a monster, your attack power increases by 15% until the chain is broken.

’Again, no levels. This is the max effect. Sigh, my theory was once again correct.’

Ash slowly stood to his feet, closing his fist shut before looking at the sight behind him, seeing the forest spreading wide and far, and yet near.

If they were to go from here, through the hilltop, they would get to the forest quicker, rather than having to go all the way around it.

With a sigh, Ash walked toward the edge of the hill, his gaze glaring down at the group, who were each already looking up at him.

Seeing the number of dead goblins on the ground, he figured they were able to take care of themselves without his help, most likely thanks to Aisha.

"Master!!!~" Aisha called out excitedly, waving her hand left and right.

"There’s a path here! We are taking it, it’s shorter!" Ash screamed back, cupping his mouth with his hand so his voice could reach them.

"Okay!!!"

Aisha shouted back.

"Master wants us to meet him up there. Do you think you can, or should I help you?" asked Aisha as she turned her attention to Echidna.

Echidna puckered a bit. "That would be very much appreciated."

Hearing her response, Aisha veered towards Kelvin’s position and saw that he was already climbing the wall on his own, even though he was slow and had to do multiple jumps.

"Miss, hold on to me like this."

Echidna soon found herself being carried like a princess, her arms wrapped around Aisha’s shoulder.

"F-for a girl, you sure are strong," Echidna uttered, her nervousness showing in her voice.

"Really? Master always tells me I am too weak, though."

"Does he now?"

"I mean, he is never wrong. Sigh, I don’t even know if I can make the jump, but I’ll try."

"Eh? What do you mean you don’t know? I thought you—"

"Hold on."

"Ahhh!"

Echidna screamed as Aisha launched herself forward as fast as she could, reaching higher heights in a matter of a few seconds.

However, it didn’t seem like they were going to make it to the top, as Aisha had slowly begun losing the momentum she had built to jump.

Just when it seemed like they were going to fall, Ash jumped right down, falling to catch them.

..

[A/N]

Just subtle hints to show Echidna’s character since i don;t plan to make that easy to read. She might be the next heroine and might not be the next heroine.

But a new heroine will not be shown, not until the current heroine has completed the trauma quest.