'Now where did I bury it?' I thought, all the while activating a locator spell.
"Master, why are you swimming in the water?" My disciple, who was standing near the stream bank asked.
Realizing my whole attire was drenched—an unsightly appearance—I quickly came up with an excuse.
"Come along now. Learning to swim is also an important skill." I said. Well, it wasn't exactly a lie because you never know what obstacle you will face when you were with or was a hero. I myself had experienced it firsthand.
"Swimming? But I already know how to." He said. Wait a moment, I don't recall him having a swimming technique in his status.
"How do you know how to swim?" I asked knowing that in this day and age, not many people knew how to swim. Warriors and magicians that could swim weren't exactly in high demand either because there weren't any large masses of water in the three kingdoms which was why the academies didn't have swimming classes. Even then, with the advancements in technology, there were things like Speed Ships and the such, so water travel wasn't as much of an issue as it was in my time.
"My friend taught me."
It wasn't hard to figure out which "friend" he was referring to.
I also had this creeping suspicion that he himself did not know how rare it was to find a swimmer. There weren't exactly many swimming manuals out there. Of course, the only elephant in the room now was how did his friend know how to swim. If my memory doesn't fail me, I believe his name was Daniel.
'Soul Examine.'
~~~~~~~~~~
Name: Sam
Race: Half-Human/Half-Angel
Title: NONE
Class: Hero(Mythical)
System: The Ultimate Heroic System(Godly)
Merit Points: 1200
Life Force: 110/110(11 years)
Strength: 119.67
Agility: 142
Willpower: 163
Spiritual Power: 0/0
Mana: 290/290
Physique: Knight Captain(Expert) - Lvl.11
Magic: Arch-mage(Expert) - Lvl.11
Soul: Mortal - Lvl.0
Spells: | Lvl.1 - Earth Manifestation, Wind Manifestation, Water Manifestation, Fire Manifestation, Lightning Manifestation, Ice Manifestation, Light Manifestation, Darkness Manifestation | Lvl.2 - Earth Blast, Wind Blade, Aqua Ball, Flare, Zap, Freeze, Light Orb, Smoke Bomb | Lvl.3 - Vine Bind, Wind Arrow, Summon Water, Fire Ball, Lightning Arrow, Ice Wall, Flash Bang, Blinding Curse | Lvl.4 - Mud Blast, Wind Blast, Water Implosion, Fire Blast, Shock, Ice Blast, Heal, Hearing Curse | Lvl.5 - Earth Wall, Wind Barrier, Water Barrier, Fire Wall, Spark, Icicle, Restore, Concealment | Lvl.6 - Earth Bind, Storm Tornado, Water Spike, Summon Fire, Superconductor, Frozen Upheaval, Divine Protection, Shadow Doll
Techniques: Battle Instinct(Epic-Lvl.5), Instant Cast(Epic-Lvl.5), Mana Body(Epic-Lvl.9), Imperial Swordplay(Rare-Lvl.6), Imperial Footwork(Rare-Lvl.4), Golden Refinement(Mythical-Lvl.4), Intangible Steps(Godly-Lvl.2), Eight Rebirths(Godly-Lvl.2)
Active Skills: Heroic Strike(Legendary), Transcendence(Legendary)
Passive Skills: Pain Tolerance(Common), Motivated(Rare), Righteous(Epic)
Sealed Skills: Limit-Breaking(Godly), Wings of Divine Light(Mythical)
Blessing: Destined Hero(Mythical)
~~~~~~~~~~
He really didn't have the 'Swimming' technique or any skill relating to it. Was it really possible to know how to swim without the technique? But then again, he wasn't prone to lying—a trait of a hero.
Anyway, it only took a couple seconds for my locator spell to return with news. I could sense a dense cluster of magic particles amidst this forest which is known to have little to no magic particles. It was pretty obvious that was what I was looking for. The strange part was how easy it was for me to detect it. The formation on the rock should be in an inactive state so it really shouldn't be this easy to detect it. I also made it with the intention of camouflage. Did I somehow get better at sensing magic?
That aside, the area where it was located wasn't in the stream, but somewhere along the stream banks. The most natural and obvious explanation would be that the surrounding geography shifted a bit since back then.
Stopping Sam as he was about to get in the water to swim, I got out and patted my robe to check how wet it was.
Utilizing the same principles in Fire Manifestation, I imbued it into the mana circulating throughout my body. If before, it was attributeless, the mana in my body was now naturally emitting heat—a fire attribute. I really shouldn't be using such an advanced technique for such a trivial task, but there were no limits when showing off; I had a reputation to keep in front of my disciple after all.
As I continued to increase the percentage attribute in my mana, my body also started to give off heat. I didn't stop until I could hear the crisp sizzling sound coming from my robe. A couple drops of water had fallen to the ground but the rest had evaporated into gass. Giving my robe a good pat, I rushed the residual heat out of my robe by circulating an ice attribute for a brief moment until the robe was back to a wearable temperature.
"Come." I motioned to Sam to follow.
In response, I could hear him mumble something to himself before following.
—Sam's PoV—
'I wonder why Master is staring at the ground so intently.' I thought while I watched as Master squatted down.
He then hovered his hand over the rock fragments and pebbles before promptly getting up all of the sudden.
"Let's go hunt." He said in a much lighter tone compared to how he usually spoke.
The expression he had on right now looked like one of a sentimental man, a face Master had shown me only a few times, whenever he mentioned "hero." There was something sagely about it too. It's like he was thinking something greatly philosophical like, "it is what it is," while stroking his beard... Well—he didn't have a beard but he gave off that old man aura right now.