Chapter 74 - Amulet (Thank you, Visahi.)

Reina handed Irlan a long spear with a hairy butt, its shaft sturdy and its tip gleaming in the light. As Irlan’s fingers closed around the spear’s handle, his eyes widened in surprise. He could feel the rough texture of the hairy butt against his palm, and he couldn’t help but be taken aback by its unexpected feel. It was unlike any spear he had ever held before, and he couldn’t help but wonder about its origins.

“I don’t think that Edea needs to improve that much, but this one here still should improve your abilities.”

Reina passed Edea a green bow, its surface smooth and polished but noticeably missing something, there was no string attached to it. Edea furrowed her brow in confusion, wondering how she was supposed to use it without a string.

As she held the bow in her hands, contemplating its curious design, she felt a sudden surge of determination. With a thought, she envisioned drawing back the string and releasing an arrow. To her surprise, a string made of wind materialized on the bow as if summoned by her will alone.

“Kaitrine knows her strengths and weaknesses already very well, as long as you have stamina, you should be fine against most enemies. With these, you should be able to accomplish what you want.”

Reina passed Kaitrine a pair of daggers, each one gleaming in the light with deadly sharpness. But what caught Kaitrine’s attention was the thin chain that connected the two daggers, linking them together as if they were a single weapon.

Kaitrine’s eyes widened with curiosity as she examined the unique daggers. She had never seen anything quite like them before, and she couldn’t help but wonder about their purpose.

“Finally, it is your turn. You already have a weapon that is supposed to be more of a nuisance than anything, but you are using it well. Abandoning that wouldn’t be a good idea, so I suppose it will be better to make you be able to use your strengths more often since they aren’t many. This should help you with that.”

Reina passed Zelos a single amulet, its chain cool against his skin as he held it in his hand. The amulet itself was simple, with a green gem set into its center, but there was a weight to it that Zelos couldn’t quite explain.

Zelos frowned slightly as he looked down at the amulet. It wasn’t like he needed a new weapon, his trusty sword had served him well through countless battles. But it felt strange for him to be the only one not to receive a weapon from Reina.

“With this, I can say now that I am truly thankful for your help. I hope that this much will be enough to show that.”

“We are very grateful for these gifts, we will do our best to deserve them as soon as possible, Reina. If you need help again with some difficult task, you can call for us, and you don’t have to give us such a thing again. We are friends, or so I want to think that we are and we can help each other like that.”

“... Indeed, I would like to think so too. Once again, I thank you all for accepting this difficult job.”

Heirina bowed slightly and so did Reina before they did a handshake. The others also bowed slightly to show their gratitude, even Zelos did the same since he could tell that his amulet was pretty good. As soon as he put it on his neck, he felt full of energy. Even more so considering that he only slept and ate during the previous day.

Before that, it was time for another goodbye and Reina went with them for the river and even waved her right hand when the group began to move. Once the natives city was left behind, Irlan stretched his body feeling reinvigorated.

“Finally, the last part of our journey, huh? We were out for like six weeks, but it felt like six months.” 

Everyone shared the sentiment, but they decided to keep quiet about it since saying anything would be the same as jinxing the last part of the trip.

“Perhaps my little sister softened a bit while I was absent. I am not sure I can take much of her puberty antics now that I have seen such a sweet girl like the princess.”

“... You are being seriously creepy, Irlan. Besides, we are still working, so don’t say nonsense.”

“I am sorry, captain.”

After being scolded for that, Irlan learned his lesson… Instead of saying that out loud, he just whispered that to Zelos and waited for him to agree with him. Zelos just ignored him, though.

In the end, that week passed in the blink of an eye and soon the group was back to their base. While everyone was eager to go to their homes, they still had to give their report to Hei, so they went to Heirina’s house first and foremost.

“Oh,? It seems that you are all fine. That is good… now I won’t have to worry about any excuse that you will give me to avoid giving you all an earful.”

They found Hei in his office, and a smile tugged at his lips when he confirmed their condition. However, as he looked over them, his expression shifted from one of concern to one of annoyance. By the look of things, it was clear he had an idea of what they had been up to in the last two months.

“Good to see you all in one piece,” Hei said, his tone a mix of relief and frustration. “But I can’t say I’m entirely pleased with the situation.”

The group exchanged uneasy glances, sensing Hei’s displeasure. They knew that their actions during the war had likely caused some headaches for their superior.

“How do you know, Dad?” 

“Once you accepted the job from Reina, she sent a message sending the contents of the mission that she gave you all… to think that you would get involved in the most messy business in the capital. She told me that accepting the last part of the mission would be up to you all, but I had the feeling that you would accept it.

“Did you know about the conditions in the capital?”

“... I see Huxi from time to time and he never stops talking, so he passes information about what he is dealing with now and then. While he doesn’t know everything, I have a fairly good idea about what you all had to deal with. 

Without wasting time, the group gave their report to Hei, everyone talked about a part of the mission from their perspective. In the end, Hei looked quite serious and interested in the prime minister and Liry situation.

“As if we don’t have enough to worry about already… Anyway, you guys will get your earful at a later date. Go home and rest properly. I will give you all two weeks off.”

Everyone nodded with a smile on their faces. They finally had the chance to laze around a bit and recharge their batteries. As for Zelos, he was thinking how much he could do in those two weeks when it comes to his business. He had to check how much he earned and how much he could invest to complete his two hundred cows.

The group left Heirina’s house and then soon they began to split and then they headed to their homes. Edea and Zelos didn’t have families waiting for them, but they were already used to that.

“Zelos! My boy! How I have missed you! People these days don’t raise good workers like you!”

The old man farmer greeted Zelos as usual. Weirdly enough, his self-serving attitude made Zelos feel at home. Without wasting time, Zelos began to work on the farm while the old man passed to him the report about the business. Nothing out of the norm happened while he was away, aside from the fact that he had to hire different people since none of the part-timers could endure doing that kind of work for more than two weeks.

Thanks to his investment in the farm, Zelos gained six sapphire coins, he probably would receive a bit more to complete a single moonstone coin while he was away from Hei, so it showed how profitable it was to work outside on dangerous jobs. Still, that side money was much better since he gained without doing a single thing.

“I guess I can finally complete the two hundred cows here, gramps. After this, I will invest my money somewhere else since it is clear that maintaining all this place with only a handful of people would be too much. Besides, you might die of exhaustion while I am away.”

“Well, your assessment is probably correct. Besides, it isn’t like we need more cows to produce more meat and milk.”

After doing that, Zelos was left with only one sapphire coin remaining… he decided to save it until he decides where he should invest, but for now, he decided to buy some apples for his whining horse and then work on the other areas of his life.

On the very first day upon his return, Zelos realized what the amulet was able to do, it essentially doubled his stamina recovery rate. That would make him fight for longer, but it was hard to tell how that would affect his training. Until now, he made most of his progress by training as much as possible to the point that his health began to decrease. Maybe there was another way to train his body without doing that.

“Still, this isn’t enough,”

Thanks to the amulet, Zelos was able to train harder, and he started to make faster progress, but he still knew that he needed more. The last battles made him realize that he was lacking in skill as well and while a simple fighting style could be effective, it wasn’t enough. With that in mind, he decided to come up with a new tool to add to his fighting style. That was easier said than done… 

Moreover, while the next battle could be months away, he needed to fight his answer as soon as possible in order to make progress as soon as possible as well. He also had to consider getting a new weapon to fight while mounted.

Between a new weapon like the iron balls or a new technique, Zelos doesn’t know what he should pick, he also doesn’t have much time to train or master something new.