Floating Sky Island (9)
Suhan's absorbed phase power was about 140,000, far less than I had expected.
Was it because I was sucking in the phase power with my Mana Sieve from the side? But still, I reached D-class.
“Ahh. I should have absorbed it first...”
Suhan, who was patting my head with one hand while covering her butt with the other, had a face full of dissatisfaction.
“I know what you're thinking, Suhan, but even if I absorb the whole thing, I can't go to the next class. When I return to reality, I'll enter a high-tier aberrant raid. Whether I kill one or none, it won't make a difference. So don't worry about it. Rather, if I attract attention as a D-class survivor with light and dark attribute abilities, it will help the Grand Blue promotion more, so this way is better.”
“...But...”
Ignoring the grumbling Suhan, I turned my Mana Sieve and checked the massively increased phase power again.
My existing phase power of 300,010 had become 2,020,000 after absorbing all the phase power from killing the angel. Increasing by nearly 7 times in one battle, it made my heart throb strangely.
If I had 1.48 million, I'd reach B-class. It would be...
...Ah~! I'm so annoyed!
With a furrowed brow, I looked at the angel's corpse, scratched my head, and turned my gaze to Suhan.
Suhan was clenching her hands, eyes closed, lost in thought. Since her class had risen, she was probably going to show some new appearance this time.
When she opened her eyes quickly, she noticed my gaze and tilted her head while looking at me.
“Why?”
“No. Nothing changed after becoming D-class?”
“Nothing really changed. A few things require practice.”
“Practice?”
“Yeah. On the second day, as you said, combining light and dark attributes. I think it might be possible.”
...Wow. Combining attributes? Really overpowered.
In comics, combining opposite attributes is said to have tremendous power, and Suhan has light and dark?
It looks like the attribute fusion succeeded, and something huge should come out, but is it not stronger than my Mana Bullet?
If Suhan had obtained my Mana Sieve, I wonder what techniques she would have created.
“By the way... This is what? Since there's no halo, it doesn't seem like an angel.”
“Eh?”
Suhan approached the 2-meter tall angel's corpse, grabbed the wing tip, lifted it slightly, and frowned at the naked woman body revealed underneath, then put the wings back down.
“Is this not an angel?”
“Yeah? Yeah. It looks like an angel, but there's no angel halo on top of its head. It can't be an angel, right?”
“Is that so? ...Yeah, right? It can't be an angel?”
Good! Well, this is the Phase World. There can't be angels here. Not Jesus or God, but some strange deity?
Cancel the sky island ticket reservation!
The story of the angel ring being a later creation flashed in my mind, but I don't care! If I worry about it, I lose!
I exhaled a sigh of relief again while looking at the winged woman, not an angel.
Suhan's face that was furrowed suddenly opened wide, and she looked at me with a strange expression, but what did it matter.
“Ah, right. The staff.”
I jumped back to the lake and used spatial perception to find the staff that the winged woman dropped.
It wasn't just shooting light bolts from my hand; when I swung the staff, I shot light lightning and light bolts, so the staff might be some kind of item.
I found a long wooden staff longer than my height that had sunk to the bottom of the lake, came out of the water, and Suhan ran over to remove the water flowing on my body and asked.
“What is that?”
“Um, it's the staff that the winged woman was holding. It seems similar to the unicorn horn that Suhan is holding. Does it not feel like it's pulling something?”
I showed the 2-meter long straight wooden staff that was shiny and polished in front of Suhan and asked, but Suhan was shining her eyes brightly, as if realizing it was a stupid question.
“...Here.”
“Eh?! No, no. You should use that, Seoha-ssi?”
“Full of greed, huh. And I don't feel anything with this staff. So, Suhan who feels it should use it.”
“Yeah!”
She took the staff without hesitation, as if the refusal was just courtesy, and Suhan laughed with a hehehe.
“Are you that happy?”
“Ehehe.”
Suhan who was smiling bashfully took the staff quickly, grabbed the part just below the split T-shape on her head, closed her eyes, and focused her mind. Then, she pointed the staff head towards the lakeside sandy beach and pulled out a beam of light, drawing a black line on the ground.
Seeing the white light line blacken the sandy beach, I looked back at Suhan.
“Hmm.”
Suhan looking at the line she drew turned the staff upside down and swung it towards the lake once, and although not as much as the winged woman, the trajectory burst with light, and 8 light bolts rained down into the lake.
I was at a loss for words while watching the light bolts drumming on the water surface. No, although its power is less than Mana Bullet, let alone Mana Bullet, but Suhan only awakened for 10 days...
“And...”
There's more?!
“Eit!”
Zzzut!! Pa pa pa!
With a light shout, Suhan raised the staff, and a terrifying light lightning fell into the lake, exploding like bursting steam.
“Wow. Seoha! This staff is really amazing! The light attribute TP consumption has dropped by half! The power is even stronger than before, and the firing rate seems faster too!”
“Uh... Congratulations.”
It's really envious. Where's a weapon that suits me?
After Suhan reached D-class, she obtained one light lightning and an Elemental Cluster Bomb that condenses a certain amount of TP and detonates it at once. Commonly called Cluster.
According to Suhan, attribute users naturally know how to use basic attribute bullets when they awaken. Without anyone telling them, it comes to mind naturally like breathing and drinking water.
It was the same for physical reinforcement, recovery, and special types; basic understanding of one's own abilities comes naturally at the moment of awakening.
I... suffered a bit?
Anyway, attribute users can shoot the next stage of basic attribute bullets, condense attribute power to shoot lasers, and finally condense, rotate, and accelerate attributes to detonate Elemental Cluster Bombs all at once once they have a certain level of phase power.
But Suhan, who had explosively grown all at once, could now use lasers and clusters simultaneously.
In other words, Mana Cannon is an attribute type cluster, and Suhan’s light lightning is also a cluster.
Normally, one can use lasers at E-class and clusters at C-class, of course there are exceptions.
Even if not reaching the corresponding class, people like Suhan with high adaptability or those with talent for detecting phase power can use abilities early by applying them.
“...Suhan's shown adaptability is not average?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, you're amazing.”
Suhan answered as if it was natural, and I teased her, and Suhan smiled shyly, covering her mouth with a small cough.
“Humility is a virtue, but sometimes it can be deception. In front of you, I'm no different from ordinary, but if I have objective indicators, I can also be extraordinary, so I can honestly admit it in front of you.”
...Honestly, Suhan is more amazing. I'm in a state where I'm giving a gun or missile launcher to a child.
After completing the series of ability checks, I looked at the corpse of the winged woman, grabbed the wings, laid it straight, and the naked body of the winged woman with a small hole in the center of her chest was revealed.
Suhan saw it and frowned, muttering.
“Ahh. Why did you lay it like that?”
“First, I need to think about what to do with this angel. Even if it's like this, it's a high-tier aberrant. The corpse is intact, so if I take it back, there might be some use somewhere? Like these white wings.”
I think it can be a good defensive material because it survived dozens of Mana Bullets and even withstood spatial manipulation.
Suhan pushed me away and tried to cover the naked body by folding the wings of the winged woman and said.
“Hmm. That's true, but... Honestly, if possible, I want to transport it to reality and research it. If we donate the species to the research institute, the raid team's reputation will rise and there will be a lot of benefits.”
“There's only about 6 days until return, and the corpse might rot by then?”
“No. The higher the tier of the aberrant, the longer the corpse is preserved like with preservatives, so it will be fine until return. ...Probably.”
Hearing Suhan’s words, I grabbed the wing of the winged woman’s corpse and lifted it, and water dripped from the wing. After waiting a moment, the water came out and the weight decreased a little, but it still weighed over 100kg easily.
“Hmm. Should I make a rope and tie it up? When I asked what to do, Suhan had a slightly troubled expression and looked at the winged woman’s corpse alternately.”
If she's thinking, then an answer comes out.
The problem is how to carry this cumbersome thing...
To fix the posture, I need to make ropes, but what to do...
I was thinking about catching a bull, tanning the leather, and making leather straps, and Suhan said she knew how to make straps from plants.
Suhan looked around the plants growing around the lake, touched them, and picked only the ones as tall as her height from the hollow ones and started tearing them. I also started tearing a lot of the same grass, and Suhan screamed and told me to stop.
After piling the torn plants, I watched quietly as Suhan did. Suhan started tearing the leaves one by one from the plants. I picked up a plant, put strength in my fingertips, and brushed it, and her eyes widened.
I brought a flat stone and broke the plant stem by pressing it. Then, following the grain, I started peeling the plant's shell vertically.
“Here, and if you twist this like twisting a thread, it becomes a string.”
Suhan took two long shells from one plant stem, overlapped the ends, twisted them spirally, sat down, grabbed the twisted part with her heel, and slowly rubbed from the top.
Every time it was rubbed, it twisted and the threads loosened, completing the thread.
...It's not like a young lady in a skirt.
I took off my shirt and put it on Suhan’s thighs, and followed Suhan making the thread. The string from the 180cm plant stem shrank to 1m and was as thin as a ballpoint pen tip.
“Short and thin!”
“You have to make several and combine them. Keep making.”
“Uh...”
After that, I repeated the same work for about an hour, attaching, turning, and stretching, and I was able to make 4 strings over 10m long, each as thick as my thumb.
“Making strings is hard.”
After working for an hour in a fixed posture, my body was sore, so I stretched, and Suhan giggled and said while holding the string and approaching the corpse of the winged aberrant.
“Let's tie it up and go back. Since I also became D-class, I can spend the remaining time practicing my abilities.”
Eh? Ah, now that I think about it... Wow. Suddenly cold sweat flowed down my back. Even though I exploded Mana Bullets and caused that commotion, the 11 o'clock and 5 o'clock temples were unaware.
“You go somewhere for a bit.”
“Why?”
“Anyway!”
What is he trying to do? Curious, I moved a bit away, and Suhan rolled up the leftover string and stuffed it into the angel's vagina and anus to plug it.
Besides that, Suhan brought grass to stuff the holes in the chest and mouth to fill them.
While Suhan was doing the processing, I alternately looked at the places with temples in the 2 o'clock and 6 o'clock directions, and when I heard Suhan calling, I quickly picked up the string and approached the winged woman.
Because the wings were large, there was no exposed part except the face, so it looked like a rolled up feather blanket.
I bundled the woman whose large wings were rolled like a blanket around her body and carried her on my shoulder, feeling like carrying a Western woman, but shook my head, threw away the thought, and returned as if running to the 9 o'clock direction hill.
When I returned to the hill and hid the corpse of the winged aberrant by disguising it, the sun was setting.
The sky gradually darkening and the cloud sea dyed in orange light was a scenery that inexplicably stimulated the senses.
Suddenly looking back at Suhan, her eyes were moistening, as if the sensitivity was being stimulated.
I also sat next to her and enjoyed the scenery that is rarely seen until the sun completely disappeared into the cloud sea.
When it was time for the stars to start appearing one by one, I told Suhan, who was yawning and sighing loudly.
“Tomorrow, I'll go to the temple around 11 o'clock.”
“Are you going to explore the temple?”
“Yeah. I saw that winged woman coming from the 11 o'clock direction.”
“Earlier, the Heavenly Demon also said it came from the 11 o'clock temple... Since it's also a high-tier aberrant, do you think there won't be more aberrants in the 11 o'clock temple?”
I nodded to the questioning Suhan.
I don't think high-tier aberrants are that common to be trampled underfoot, and in a small temple, there shouldn't be a lot of high-tier aberrants.
“I think there won't be any more on that side temple.”
“Yeah. If there was, they would have all come at once, not just one.”
Suhan's curiosity about going to the temple first was worried, and she started thinking while looking back into the basin.
“This is my guess, but the Pegasus I killed the next day was probably the pet of that winged woman or an aberrant related to the 11 o'clock temple. The winged aberrant I killed was probably worried about the Pegasus that doesn't return from some day, and after hearing the explosion I detonated today, she realized it was the sound heard on the day the Pegasus didn't return and came to find it.”
“Huueng.”
“When the winged woman spoke, she kept asking if I had seen the Heavenly Demon and Pegasus. And when I said I had seen them, she asked what I did with them.”
“So, she was fighting with hostility, right? So, if there were other aberrants in the 11 o'clock temple, she would have come flying after hearing the fighting sound.”
“Yeah. So, I think the 11 o'clock temple is likely empty now.”
“Then, there could be at least two aberrants in each of the other two temples... but this is not certain either. If there was, she would have come after hearing the sound of fighting with that winged aberrant.”
There is no guarantee that the three temples belong to the same group, and no evidence that they are the same aberrant, but since I can't know if there are aberrants or not in the first place, thinking like that is reasonable.
“Good. I'll go with you too.”
Suhan said it was good, and if a fight broke out, she would join the fight this time, and started training to hone the abilities she obtained today.
With talent, aptitude, effort, and a good head, she would become strong so quickly.
Honestly, comparing utility in terms of attack, Suhan was already surpassing me.
Compared to my abilities of fast, wide-range, strong Mana Bullets, spatial protection, and spatial manipulation, Suhan creates various effects by manipulating light, dark, and water.
The dark attribute bullet has guidance performance and is accompanied by corrosion, a sub-category of disintegration, and can hide in shadows or instantaneous movement. This part will naturally grow with distance as classes rise.
The light attribute is even more so.
Although the effect of the 2-meter staff held by the winged aberrant was added, the speed of the light bolts had already reached the level of Mana Bullet. And the firing rate surpasses my Mana Bullets.
Although pushed by light and dark attributes, the usefulness of water attributes is so great that even if I say how useful it is, it would be painful to talk.
Ah, and earlier, seeing that Suhan could only absorb about 140,000 of the winged aberrant's phase power, I wondered if it was hitting a growth limit, but it was simply that she absorbed less phase power.
There, I saw phase power increase by 1 during the process. If it reaches the limit of aptitude, she can't absorb natural phase power from the Phase World.
Watching Suhan carefully figure out the abilities she can use one by one, I cheered inwardly. If Suhan’s attack power becomes as strong as mine, she can at least act as a cannon fodder.
After a simple power check, Suhan started using the Cluster Bomb by attribute.
The water attribute Cluster Bomb was like a claymore mine, spraying countless water pellets in one direction.
The light attribute Cluster Bomb was the light lightning I saw earlier, and she could also make a light pillar dozens of meters in diameter like Princess Lydia.
The dark attribute Cluster Bomb slowly flew and scattered a thick black mist that looked dense, different from the night darkness, with a puffy sound. The thick black mist that looked very dangerous.
And Suhan put down the staff, created water in her left hand and light in her right, and started slow synthesis.
Not light and dark, but light and water? I wanted to ask why, but she was concentrating with a serious expression, so I couldn't talk.
While concentrating for a long time, Suhan was alternating between water splash and eye snot after failing to combine light and water, and I understood.
If light and dark fuse and explode in reverse reaction, it would be a big injury, right?
Watching Suhan, who was completely wet and rubbing her eyes, not slacking in guarding the basin side, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't eaten dinner.
Swoosh!
“Apuhput!”
Seeing the water mass in my left hand explode again and splash water on Suhan, I opened my mouth.
“Let's catch dinner. Let's grill meat today.”
“Yeah!”
The night basin has a completely different atmosphere from the day.
Hunting on the hill, looking for suitable prey, the scene where fog and moonlight stars scatter and dimly illuminate the trees stimulated a sense of unknown fear.
“It feels a bit eerie.”
Now that I think about it, why was my heart beating when I saw the corpse of the winged aberrant in the afternoon? The Sky Island has a black castle and no connection points.
I thought about it for a moment, but the story of the black castle came to mind and the Ha Cheolsu incident made me feel bad, so I stopped thinking.
Using spatial perception, I looked around and saw two rabbits in a rabbit hole, shot Mana rays short and pierced the heads of the two rabbits.
It wasn't a pet rabbit, but a wild rabbit, so it was huge, and two were enough.
I pulled out the two dead rabbits from the rabbit hole and went back to where Suhan was, and the area near Suhan was strangely bright?
I walked a bit faster and ran up the hill, and saw a lot of light masses and light walls standing around Suhan.
Suhan, who had succeeded in synthesizing light and water, had floating light water masses the size of her head around her, and light and water walls of 3m x 3m height and width were standing here and there.
Suhan, sensing my presence, turned and smiled brightly, came over, and took the two rabbits in my hand.
“Back already?”
“Yeah. What is all this?”
“I tried to make a technique to protect my body too. Simply putting a protection shield on my body felt uneasy.”
“Cluster? Ah, these light water masses are clusters?”
“Ah! Don't touch them. They'll explode.”
Hmm. Anyway, the light and water walls made as a substitute for the shield.
Walls...?
Walls.
“But walls probably don't mean much to physical reinforcement types. If stacked several layers in succession, it might effectively block simple charges or attribute attacks of physical reinforcement type aberrants... ugh.”
“Eh? Wouldn't it be enough to hit the dark wall? Passing through or breaking it and it melts.”
“I also thought of that and made it, but look.”
At the place Suhan pointed, there was something wriggling... not fog or wall, something flowing mushily.
“...What is that. The movement is extremely unpleasant.”
“Yeah? Aberrants also seem to subconsciously avoid it with a sense of rejection?”
“Yeah.”
It is a visually violent appearance that makes you want to flee hastily even if you charge.