As Hydra finally finished bribing his companions, he started to flick through the menu. He was not about to make the same mistake he did previously and jump the gun. Before entering the dungeon he would need to check his status, items, and skills. As Hydra was moving his finger back and forth between the menu screens Irina was curiously staring at him. It was an action she knew about, more so heard about, but she has never seen someone do it this close before. She knew he was doing something in the menu’s but to her it was invisible and the actions he completed or looked at were unknown to her. Thus she could only stare curiously at him not moving her gaze even a little bit. Even when Pan, who was finished eating his snake meat, walked over to the dangling piece that Irina had and was chomping down on her portion as well.

Hydra oblivious to his surroundings finally let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t have a full set of gear but he had a good set of skills. To him it was more important to have good skills than gear at the beginning because even he knew that replacing gear was a common thing. While skills would be with him forever and only get stronger. Right now his main concern was getting gear but the low leveled monsters he fought were animal based and did not wear any gear. This was an addition that [Second Saga] added to the game. Phoenix didn’t want their users to be able to easily start off with gear and or find gear at low levels. They wanted you to either risk spending your money early on or find another means of getting gear. Which would easily lead to people dying early on or being broke. It was this that led to everyone having no money or left behind in levels as the penalty for death was to wait 24 hours before logging in again. Now that Hydra was level 20 it was time to find some gear and the best place was an unknown dungeon. With one last look at his menu he confirmed everything was okay.

With a sigh Hydra was depressingly looking at his last skill that he learned. It was [Sloppy Swimming], for anyone it would be depressing to receive a skill named like that. Worse off the skill didn’t even do anything and could not be leveled. He could only shake his head and rid the negative thoughts behind the skill. Sooner or later Hydra would learn how to properly swim through Irina. Now was not the time to focus on such things. Although he was depressed about [Sloppy Swimming] he thought about another thing.  He had not really used any of his skills since getting them. While it was difficult to incorporate using his skills because he lacked strong enough monsters that required using it, thus he used his sword to train his mastery over it. He was a little lacking in training with the sword in comparison to his hand-to-hand combat, leading to him using strictly the sword when fighting weak monsters that he could easily overpower even with the low damage sword.

‘It’s time I started focusing on learning how to play the game with all of my ability instead of relying on just skill’

While it was not a bad thing to rely on skill alone, if he didn’t master his other skills he would be unable to fight with his full ability. After all it was skills he learned if he didn’t put them to use it would be a waste. For instance, Hydra had tried to use [Trans.m.u.te] but he soon learned that a recipe was needed in order to complete a design of items. Without the recipe it was a skill that could only be used to make things like sculptures or to be played around with. It was simply not useful at the moment but that did not mean in the future it wouldn’t be. To Hydra he felt that it was one of his top skills, later when he needed any time of armor it would play a key role in making him stronger over all. Thus he was not to disappointed by the results and could only look ahead to the future. He also learned that the [Bread Buff] can be used on NPCs. This piece of information was only added on after Irina joined his party. Thus the game recognized that the possibility of [Bread Buff] being used on her and added the appropriate information. As Hydra would not risk using the buff on an ally NPC that would forever die from it. Finally after preparations were complete he decided to try the [Shadow Rune] once to get the basic hang of it so during battle it wouldn’t surprise him too much. Of course the only use of the shadow rune currently was to equip it to his sword but he didn’t mind that much. As the a complicated single rune floated in front of him. The hazy like rune had a border of black light encase the Rune while inside the ruin was void of s.p.a.ce. It looked as if nothing could approach the inside of the Rune and if it did it would be sucked up and disappear forever. It was a magical feeling and Hydra’s finger suddenly felt warm, as if the Rune was calling for those two forces to combine together for mysterious effect. As he ran his finger slowly down the Rune, as his first Rune he would only strive for perfection. But as he started to write Irina had finally woken up from her shock.

“How… are you using Rune magic!”

As Hydra jumped he nearly felt his soul leave his body. Naturally the Rune he was writing was completely destroyed as his finger completely went off track thus destroying the incomplete Rune. While it was natural to be able to do it sloppily that it would cast faster but if the effect was so undesirable it would fail and combust in itself. Hydra looked over to Irina and glared at her.

“That was my first time ever using it. But now because of someone screaming, I failed my first time. Do you know the repercussions of such a treacherous act?”

“Ah… I’m sorry…”

As Irina was apologizing for her actions Hydra’s glared softened before he spoke.

“Well as I didn’t tell you I could use Rune magic, some of the fault lies on me. Therefore I won’t blame you this time. As to answer your question, my profession is Aether Blade.”

“….!”

Irina was even more shocked now than when she saw the Rune magic herself. As she didn’t speak and only stared at Hydra with a dumbfounded look, he wasn’t able to tell how shocked she was. She then only quietly muttered while staring at the ground.
“Ah… for fate to be so kind.”

“Did you say something Irina?”

“Ah, No.. Nothing!”

“Well let’s get going, you said know about this dungeon does anyone else?”

“I don’t think so and personally I have never been inside the dungeon so I’m not sure about the strength of the monsters inside either.”

As Hydra was curiously asking about the dungeon, he forgot all about trying his Rune magic. Nor did he notice Irina’s slight change in att.i.tude towards him. It wasn’t huge but the difference was there and now a sharp glint could be seen in Irina’s eyes when looking at Hydra. On the other hand Irina herself fumbled around to gather all her belongings readying herself to jump once more into the river below the waterfall.

“You’re not going to drown again are you?”

“……”

———————-

“Lisa…….. I’m sooooooooo bored!”

“Well it’s not busy now so I can see that.”

“No. That’s not what I mean. We can’t see brother because we got grounded. What are we going to do? Our brother meter’s are getting lower by the minute!”

“That’s true. But there’s nothing we can do about that Azla.”

“Girls. If you want. You can come here on Sunday. The brat has practice on Sundays and you can come up with an excuse that you’re learning more about serving. Of course you will be actually learning under Sarah, but you will still be able to see the squirt.”

“”Don’t make fun of brother!””

“Yes, yes anyways come at noon. For now you can leave I’ll pay you for the rest of the day as it seems there aren’t any customers”

“Okaaay~ Let’s go Lisa!”

“Alright!”

“Hey that’s rude Old man. I’m still here!”

“Customers. Do you know the meaning of a customer?”

“Uhhh…. someone who frequents your shop?”

“Get out!”

“Really, come on it was just a joke!”

“……”