"What was the sound?" Vanessa asked Akeru, who was eating with blinding speed while sheep made of cotton cooked food.
"I... I accidentally broke... the ceiling of the... first floor," Akeru said in between his gulps.
"Oh."
And there was silence again, broken only by Akeru scarfing food down.
Property damage was not something any of them were unfamiliar with.
In fact, they were very used to it as it happened on a daily basis in the hideout.
Everyone even knew that the building had magical properties.
Not only did the positions of the rooms change on a daily basis, but the damage it sustained magically disappeared the next day.
"You haven't talked with the captain since you returned, have you?"
"I just woke up. Was he looking for me?"
"No, just give him a summary of your mission. You have already handed the report to the headquarters, right?" Vanessa wanted to make sure the newbie didn't learn about their irresponsible ways.
"Yeah, don't worry, I'm not irresponsible," Akeru said with a smirk as if he could guess her thoughts.
Vanessa just rolled her eyes.
"Thanks for the food!" Akeru thanked Charmy again while plopping down on the couch beside Noelle.
Currently, Vanessa was lying on the couch in front of him while being half-drunk.
Noelle was drinking tea from another cup she had taken out while Finral, who was also sitting on the same couch, was reading a magazine.
Akeru was sitting in the middle of Noelle and Finral.
Asta was doing some one-handed push-ups while not wearing a shirt.
Charmy had left the room.
Akeru observed everyone in the room.
'Woah, I knew that Finral-senpai was like that, but for Noelle to be a peeper too? Now, that's something.' Akeru was barely able to hold back his urge to tease them.
He looked at the broken teacup and the spilled tea before both of them disappeared from the floor.
"Is that an application of your mana zone?" Vanessa asked in awe.
Mana zone is one of the most celebrated milestones of one's magic development journey, and many people could only dream of reaching that level.
Not even all the Captains could do it, so in any kingdom, it's just a fabled realm. Many knights believe that it's a fictional thing unless they see one up close.
"Yeah."
"You would be perfect for household chores then." Vanessa smiled so brightly that Akeru had to do a double take.
He then just rolled his eyes.
"Should I create some arrays in the hideout to take care of the cleaning? In fact, while I'm doing it, I could create some defensive ones too, which would withstand Luck's attacks."
"Ohhh, you're an expert in Rune Array too? It would be awesome. How long will it take you to complete it?" Akeru was surprised that Vanessa didn't stutter even once since he started talking to her despite being drunk.
"For cleaning spells, it would take me a few hours, and for the defensive ones, it would take me a few weeks. Should I ask for Captain Yami's permission before applying them?"
'Normally, I could accelerate it to a few days; however, I want to use this opportunity to apply whatever I would be learning directly. It's about time I start pushing for reaching advanced expertise in the Rune Array field.'
"It would be fine. Captain doesn't really bother with such minor things," Vanessa assured him as she took another sip directly from her wine bottle.
"Okay, I'll do it today then." Akeru nodded as he tilted his head and gazed towards Asta.
He analyzed his body and reached the same conclusion as Mimosa had about Asta's body.
His gaze now shifted towards the bird sitting on top of Asta's head.
The bird stared back.
A human and a bird stared at each other for a few seconds.
'As expected, I can't tell anything off about the bird. I don't know how to feel about that.'
Akeru stood up and walked towards Asta.
"We haven't talked before, have we? Name's Akeru." Akeru extended his hand.
Asta got up from the floor and returned his handshake.
"I am Asta! Nice to meet you. I am going to become the Wizard King!"
'Loud,' Akeru thought as he flashed him a smile before saying,
"Well, I hope that I'll be able to witness your rise to that position."
Asta seemed to be taken aback for a moment before he grinned. "You bet!"
"If you don't mind, I'm curious about your magic. Anti-magic sounds cool. If you don't mind, can you show it?" Akeru politely asked.
"Sure!" Asta started giving away information about his magic without any hesitation.
Though, the information itself wasn't that much either.
Asta held both of his swords in his hand as he told him about them.
"If you don't mind, can I hold it?" Akeru said while pointing towards the shorter sword among the two.
"Sure!" Asta gave him the sword.
'Heavy,' Akeru thought as he quickly increased the amount of mana going into his hands to increase his strength.
He also controlled the mana from the environment to go to the sword, preventing depletion of his mana reserves.
"Damn, this sword is quite heavy. You've built your body, haven't you?" Akeru didn't hold back on his praise.
Holding this sword without any mana reinforcement was a shocking feat, even if Asta's physique was better.
"Haha, I guess." Asta didn't really have any measure to know the exact ridiculousness of his own feat, so he didn't think much about Akeru's words.
'Still Spectator.'
Akeru quickly analyzed how the anti-magic particles were interacting with the mana of the air.
He then shifted his gaze towards the big sword in Asta's hands.
"So, you don't know the exact ability of this new sword you got?"
"Yeah, I just got it yesterday, though somehow, I was able to use Wind Magic once in that fight."
Akeru hummed as he analyzed for half a minute before reaching a conclusion.
"I think I understand both this sword and your anti-magic."
By this time, everyone in the room had turned their attention to the pair.
"Oh, what did you understand?"
"I think your magic just allows you to imbue any weapon or any object with anti-magic when it goes in your grimoire. These swords were somehow able to go in your grimoire before, as I don't think they belong to this grimoire. Have you tried to add any weapon or any other object in the grimoire?"
"Umm, no. Why do you think the weapons didn't belong to the grimoire in the first place?" Asta curiously asked.
"Coz of this..."
A very large amount of mana started coalescing near Akeru's hands, much to the obliviousness of Asta until he was able to see the tangible mana.
This happened for nearly half a minute before all that mana started flowing through the sword.
Much to Asta's and everyone's surprise, the black sword started turning white until it was completely white.
"Just now, I expelled all the anti-magic from the sword, reducing it to its previous state. This is the original form of the sword," Akeru said as he observed the sword.
"Woah."
"Noelle, send a water ball at me."
"Why me?" The girl whined; however, she still complied in the end.
She stretched her hand, and in the next instant, a very large water ball formed in front of her.
"No wand?" Akeru asked, clearly impressed seeing how far she had come.
She was the same girl who once couldn't even form a water ball properly.
"Hehe, it's been so long since you last saw me. I would obviously progress." Noelle was unable to hide the smugness in her voice.
In the next instant, the water ball was hurled at Akeru at blinding speeds.
Akeru quickly brought the sword in front.
The water ball hit the sword, but Akeru could clearly see that most of the mana from that water ball was absorbed by that sword.
The sword turned blue right at the middle.
"I guess the color represents the attribute it has currently. It would have been better if it didn't show it, but that's fine too." Akeru slashed the sword forward as a blue slash rushed at Noelle.
"Wait, what?" Noelle wasn't expecting Akeru to attack her.
Her grimoire shone just as she tightened her grip on the couch.
A defensive water barrier manifested around her, tanking the attack.
'At least Intermediate Level,' Akeru noted as he whistled.
"What was that for?!" Noelle asked while dissipating the spell.
Everyone ignored how the surroundings got wet.
"My hands slipped."
"Y-YOU!"
***
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