The Rising of the Scythe Hero

The semifinals were scheduled for tomorrow. I decided to spend the time until then getting familiar with the scythes — which, by that point, were still pretty much unmastered. I'd just pick the one I needed, strap it to my back, and go about my day. Once the scythe was finally absorbed (which usually took about three hours on average) — I'd just swap it out for the next one.

Though, to carry a scythe like that, I had to order a special back-strap harness through Pelge — but that's just a minor detail.

I spent my free time practicing blacksmithing, crafting a few short daggers and a single sword, which my teacher rated as "not bad for a rookie." It didn't level up my blacksmithing skill, but I think I started to understand the process a little better. More and more, I was confirming my theory about some kind of invisible progress bar for each skill, slowly filling up the more I practiced.

I also worked on Mixing — brewed myself all sorts of potions to boost attack, agility, and reflexes. The markets of Zeltoble gave me access to a whole bunch of new ingredients. Some of them I fed to the Scythe from time to time, while others I used to unlock and create new Mixing variations.

Out of sheer curiosity — and a complete lack of self-preservation — I tried drinking a weak poison I'd made myself. It tasted awful, bitter as hell, then came the heat flash, which turned into chills, and… that was it. The whole thing probably lasted six seconds, tops. After sitting there for a bit and thinking it over, I downed a second vial. Only this time, I didn't feel a thing.

After that, I went ahead and drank a few more poisons with different effects. Paralysis, sleep, pressure drops, a mind-fogging brew, one that caused bleeding, and many, many others. Most of them worked — though not for long — and a few, in rare cases, had no effect on me at all.

[Skill level increased: Poison Resistance – Lv. 6]

When I was lying paralyzed in a chair, a thin trickle of blood running from my nose and a twisted grin on my face… Wyndia walked into the room. What she wanted back then — I never did find out. She stepped in, took one look at the scene, gave me an expression I probably won't ever be able to describe in my life, stood there for a moment… then silently turned around and left, her face completely unchanged.

I also managed to level up my Mixing skill. Hitting level 8 — which had been leveling passively all this time — unlocked the Stat Potions branch.

These potions didn't give huge boosts, but they were permanent. Eternal.

The base recipe was nearly identical to the regular stat-boosting potion. The only difference was a single ingredient — unique for each stat. And those ingredients were usually pretty rare. Plus, the potions' effectiveness decreased over time.

Still, it was a solid way to get a bit stronger. And to make my allies stronger too.

So of course, the first one I started feeding them to was Night. My stats were already pretty high, and I had plenty of room to grow. But my bird had hit her temporary ceiling — and this was the only way for her to get stronger.

Well, aside from the usual training and all that. And in that regard, Night never failed to impress.

"Huh?" I heard her quiet surprise while I was deep in crafting new types of potions.

"Something wrong?"

"I… I think I messed something up, Master." I turned to her, giving her a look that told her to go on. "I tried to use the method Wyndia taught us, but…"

Night knew how sensitive I was to mana, so she decided to show me how she'd been trying to interact with it. It started off completely normal. Just like me or Wyndia, she reached out to the external mana — the kind that flowed through the world via the Power Lines. I saw that very same mana make contact with her body, and then...

It just… got absorbed.

"What?" I blinked in confusion. "Hold up. Do it again."

"Okay."

And Night did it again. She was actually doing something Wyndia had said was impossible — or at least that's what Gaelion, her dragon dad, had told her.

Wyndia once explained that it was possible to use your own mana as fuel for Earthforce magic. But she also said the mana from Power Lines couldn't be used in the normal magic system. Basically, that type of mana could be used only for Earthforce magic, while your own mana could power both traditional magic and Earthforce.

But Night was calmly absorbing external mana and making it her own — which meant she could use it for normal magic too. She… was like a little converter.

The only downside was that, to maintain the most efficient conversion speed, she had to stay still. Or she could move around — like walk, for example — but then she'd have to sacrifice the absorption speed.

As for me — no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't pull off the same thing. I could clearly sense the surrounding external mana, but whenever I tried to draw it into myself, I hit… some kind of barrier, I guess? Like trying to force sand through a really, really tiny sieve. It felt like the action itself was possible — just not with the method I was using. But I couldn't figure out any other way to approach it.

It might've been because my "Earthforce" skill was still stuck at level one. Everything about that skill felt unnecessarily difficult. Sure, I hadn't given it as much attention as some of the others, but even so, compared to them, this one was easily ten times harder to level.

I wasn't planning to let the matter go, of course — but right now, stressing over it would be pointless. There wasn't much time left anyway. Still, I made a mental note and would definitely come back to it later.

I also managed to raise my mastery of the Twin Scythes of Lunar Silver to level five — still training with that instructor Remus I'd hired. Fighting with them was easier than using a regular scythe in some ways, but also more complicated. Dual wielding obviously meant needing to be equally skilled with both hands — and being able to coordinate right and left without hesitation or overthinking. Not exactly an easy task for a normal person, but for me, it was a bit smoother. My brain was more adaptable when it came to learning, but even so, I'd occasionally run into conflicts between muscle memory and reflexes when switching between different weapon types.

That would probably sort itself out as the skill level increased — and with more experience — but for now, I figured it was best not to switch between dual weapons and single ones too abruptly.

...

The night before the semifinals, I decided to take a little time to relax alone. Biologically speaking, Night wasn't all that different from a human in the general sense, so she still needed sleep. And as for Wyndia — well, that went without saying.

Night, of course, dutifully asked if she could come along, but I had to say no. There are moments in a man's life when he just needs some time to himself.

She looked a little down about it, but thankfully, she didn't really take it badly. Which was a relief — the last thing I wanted was for her to get clingy.

So, after leaving them both at Pelge's manor, I headed out for a walk. The city at night had a charm of its own, but the way it operated changed completely. In the daytime, the streets were filled with people rushing around on business — but at night, the crowd was all about having fun.

Swarms of women of the night on nearly every corner, drunk and tipsy folks stumbling around, laughter ringing out from every direction — often turning into loud, drunken cackling…

I'll admit, a reckless little thought flashed through my head — maybe I should give those ladies' services a try. But… it didn't really sit right with me. Yeah, even if I wanted to, there was probably no way my body would react badly to anything — but still. The idea of picking up a "shared product" just left a weird taste. Not a hard no, but definitely not a "sure, why not" either. If I ever get desperate — maybe. But tonight wasn't one of those nights.

I wandered for quite a while — the sky was pitch black by the time I noticed. Somehow, I ended up on the same street where that tavern was — the one I took the girls to after my four-day blacksmithing marathon.

After a brief moment of thought, I decided to go in. With Poison Resistance at level 6, I probably couldn't get drunk anymore — but still. I could at least enjoy the taste. And now, I figured I was ready to finally try eating one of those kogol berries — the ones pretty much all alcohol here is made from.

Inside, taking up nearly the entire left side of the tavern, a crowd of people was deep in a drinking endurance contest. From what I'd gathered, the locals were really into that sort of thing. I even considered joining for a second — but the thought vanished just as quickly. I just didn't care enough.

I walked over to the bar and ordered the best alcohol they had — best in terms of taste, of course. Getting drunk off anything other than the berries would cost a fortune now.

This time, the place even had live music. That same left side had a little stage set up in the corner, where a small band was playing a lively tune that matched the competition's vibe perfectly.

So there I sat, sipping one bottle after another, listening to the music and enjoying the show. At one point, some guy — clearly annoyed about his buddy losing — even tried to start a fight. But a couple of his more sober, high-energy friends took him down pretty quick. Yeah… sounds about right.

When the crowd started to thin out a little, I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at something. One of the seats in the contest had stayed exactly the same the whole time — while the other one constantly rotated challengers in and out. That alone wasn't too surprising. What got my attention was who was still sitting there — the same girl I'd seen on my last visit. The half-human of unknown origin with black hands and feet.

By now, most of her opponents were either passed out on the floor or being dragged out by the still-standing few. That's what let me get a good look at her this time — the original crowd had thinned out enough.

"Damn…" I muttered, giving a low whistle.

"Yup." The barkeep next to me nodded with a smirk. "That's Nadya. Since the day she showed up in Zeltoble, no one's ever managed to outdrink her. Every contest she enters ends up just like this." He nodded toward the scene.

"Impressive," I had to admit.

For someone who wasn't a Hero, having that kind of resilience — almost like a built-in immunity — was pretty unusual. Which brought me back to the thought that maybe she was a Star Hero, possibly possessing something like my own Resistance.

"Thinking of trying your luck?" the barkeep smirked.

"No. That'd be pointless," I shook my head. "I'd rather test my limits with something faster."

"Hm?"

"You got any kogol berries?"

"Yeah, but… What for?" the man asked, clearly surprised.

"I wanna try one," I shrugged.

His eyes went wide. For a few minutes, he tried to explain the possible consequences of eating a berry like that, but all he got in return was a slight smirk and a raised eyebrow.

Sighing, he disappeared behind a corner into the storage area, then reached up toward the wall and pulled down a small, round berry — looked kind of like a firm grape.

"Don't say I didn't warn you. And they ain't cheap, by the way."

"Yeah," I nodded, taking the berry.

Meanwhile, the guy shook his head again and, for some reason, came back from the storage room with a whole barrel of water.

"In case we need to pump your stomach. Last thing I need is some guy dying in here," he explained when he saw my silent look.

Shrugging, I mentally focused on my Resistance skill, then popped the berry into my mouth. The skill was passive — didn't need activation — but still. I had a bit of a nervous flutter, I guess…

The moment I bit into the berry, my mouth filled with what tasted like pure grape juice. Back in my old world, I'd once had real, natural grape juice — and this was nearly identical. Except it had a distinct alcoholic aftertaste — but in the case of this berry, it was actually pretty pleasant. A strange, but really nice flavor.

"Well? How is it?" I heard after savoring the taste for a bit longer.

"Pretty… damn good. Gimme another."

"You're something else…"

Curiosity got the better of me — I wanted to see how many of these it'd take to actually get me drunk. And I wasn't the only one interested, from the looks of it.

The barkeep returned with a whole handful of the berries, clearly intrigued. But that wasn't the main thing. Right after I tossed the first berry in my mouth, I'd caught — just barely — a glance from the corner of my eye. Wide, staring eyes. Belonging to that same half-human girl. And then… her expression shifted into complete confusion.

I pretended not to notice her watching. Slowly, savoring every bite, I managed to eat two more berries before I heard a soft thump — someone landing in the stool next to mine.

"Hey. You've got quite the tolerance, huh?" I turned, and sure enough, there she was — with a cheerful, amused smile on her face that gave no hint she'd just drunk a whole crowd of burly men under the table.

Looks like things were about to get interesting.