บท 22: Surprising Growth

Ais looked at the tip of the sword aimed at her, and her original small hole shrank again.

"Ais!"

It seemed like someone was calling Ais, and the voice was full of panic.

Upon hearing the voice, Ais finally reacted.

*BOOM*

The wind enveloping Ais exploded and turned into a large shockwave, blowing everything around.

Riegel only felt an unparalleled force coming from the front, and he was thrown and hit the courtyard wall.

"Cough...!"

He felt pain in his back and involuntarily exhaled all the air from his lungs.

The wind all over his body was immediately pushed back by Ais's wind impact, causing him to endure the shockwave, and his whole body was in pain.

"Are you okay?"

Ais was momentarily stunned and became very anxious.

Not only her, but everyone witnessing the battle must be shocked.

"Something happened!" Tiona shouted.

"It's all your fault! What were you yelling earlier?"

Tione slapped Tiona hard and accused her.

The person who just called Ais was Tiona.

If it weren't for Tiona's scream, Ais wouldn't have acted unconsciously.

"I couldn't help but speak up when I saw Ais about to be stabbed!"

Tiona covered her painful forehead and argued with tears streaming down her face.

"Stupid Amazoness!" Bete cursed directly. "Ais used magic and was protected by the wind. How could the kid's sword hit Ais?"

Indeed, even if Ais didn't unleash the wind energy now and push Riegel back, the attack likely wouldn't have had a significant effect.

The [Ariel] protection would shield the user's body. Even if Riegel's sword pierced her, it might be blocked by the wind around Ais's body.

Therefore, Tiona's scream was entirely unnecessary.

"Sorry..."

Tiona seemed to realize this, and she began to mutter in embarrassment and guilt.

"Okay, stop arguing." Finn interrupted the quarrel and said, "Let's check the newcomer's condition first."

So, Finn jumped directly from the window, completely ignoring that he was in a tower dozens of meters high.

"Really, one or two is quite troublesome."

Gareth scolded and jumped down.

Riveria had already descended earlier.

Seeing this, Bete, Tiona, and Tione followed one by one, leaping from the tower to the courtyard.

Loki was the only one left, with one foot on the window sill, as if she were about to jump. Only after she saw the ground far below her, she moved the corner of her mouth, pretending not to care, and quietly drew her leg back.

"Forget it, as long as Finn and Riveria are here."

The main god wisely avoided the fate of falling into the box right away.

As a result, Loki's top-class adventurers entered the field one by one and gathered around Riegel.

"Are you okay?"

Riveria stepped forward first, helping him to stand, extending her hand and placing it on Riegel, as if checking something.

"...I'm sorry."

Ais also stepped forward, looking at Riegel, whose legs were shaky, with her head down and a frustrated expression, like a child who had made a mistake.

Even Tiona apologized while staring at Riegel with eyes full of regret.

"Cough..."

Riegel coughed a few times again, took a breath, and felt the pain in his chest and back subside. He looked around at the first-class adventurers present, shook his head, and said something.

"I'm okay, don't worry."

Riegel's words made everyone look at his face for a moment, and they sighed in relief after confirming that there was nothing serious.

"It's okay." Finn seemed to want to pat his shoulder, but his hand couldn't reach him at all, so he had to give up and say with a smile, "Luckily, there was wind to help you offset some of the impact. Otherwise, right now, you might have to lie in bed for a few days before you can get up."

"You guys are too messy." Gareth snorted coldly, looking like he was blowing his beard and staring, "It's okay if you have a little argument, but you guys were actually serious about it. Do you want to kill and hurt members of the Familia?"

"That's right." Riveria frowned and said, "Ais, you overreacted. You need to reflect on it."

"Ummm..." Ais's head suddenly lowered, and her expression became more subdued.

"It's none of Miss Ais's business." Riegel was completely calm now. Seeing her sad expression, he defended her and said, "I was the one who wanted to fight Miss Ais. It's understandable that she fought back."

"Even so, you've gone too far." Tione sighed and said, "Judging from your appearance, it seemed like you wanted to kill Ais to death. Some unpleasant things happened in my hometown."

"That's right." Tiona nodded repeatedly in agreement.

She was scared now and recalled some past events she didn't want to remember, so she couldn't help but speak out.

Therefore, if want to make calculations, all of this is actually Riegel's fault. He got too immersed in the fight and too confident in Ais's power, so what should have been a more communicative competition gradually turned into a serious battle. It could be considered a mistake on his part.

"This is my problem." Riegel naturally realized this and knew that he had done too much first. Seeing Ais frustrated, he immediately comforted her, "Please stop blaming yourself. In the end, it's my fault. You just acted in self-defense and didn't do anything wrong."

Hearing Riegel's words, Ais nodded, but she still looked a bit pressured, making her feel a bit guilty.

However, before Riegel could persuade Ais, Bete's voice intervened.

"Why should we chase after such trivial matters? Isn't the important thing the process of the recent fight?" Bete looked at Riegel, like a wolf intimidating something, and said, "Allow me to ask, Kid, did you really receive the Blessing three days ago?"

Once these words came out, everyone looked at Riegel.

Even Ais, who was still depressed, seemed to pay special attention to the topic, and she also raised her head and turned.

Riegel was momentarily surprised, then understood something, nodded, and said, "Yes, I received the Blessing three days ago."

This statement was ruthlessly opposed by Bete.

"To whom are you lying?" Bete said with a scornful tone, "Are you trying to say that it only took you three days to grow to this point? Listen to your nonsense!"

Bete's intention was clear; he simply didn't believe that Riegel could grow so fast.

It was also a reasonable concern.

"Looking at your skills just now, even if you don't count the blessings brought by Ais's magic, conservatively estimate that you must have one or two basic abilities that have reached stage D or even stage C, right?" Finn thought seriously and calculated Riegel's skill estimate very accurately.

"At least there's more than one basic ability at stage D?" Gareth said to himself, "It seems like it would take us almost a year to develop to this level."

"The fastest among us is Ais." Riveria glanced at the puppet girl and said, "But Ais also spent about half a year."

"Huh?" Tiona said in surprise, "Doesn't that mean the newcomer took three days compared to Ais's half-year effort?"

As these words came out, everyone suddenly fell silent.

Ais, in particular, stared at Riegel intently, as if she was very concerned about this issue.

Riegel could only enjoy the different looks from everyone, smiling a little in his heart.

Of course, he knew why everyone reacted so strongly.

Ais also took a long time to reach this level, let alone others.

And it only took Riegel three days to achieve this result, which was very hard to accept.

Ais held the world record for the fastest reaching Level 2. At the age of only 8, she advanced to an advanced adventurer in just one year.

With such talent, it was not an exaggeration to say that Ais was the best in the world.

But Riegel showed talent far beyond Ais, and it was even higher and exaggerated, so it was normal for everyone to feel so unbelievable.

However, Riegel truly felt that there was nothing wrong with this.

Moreover...

"The protagonist of the original novel was upgraded in about a month. At Level 1, every time he updated his ability value, he could comprehensively improve his skills by several hundred points at once. What does that mean for me?"

It was precisely because of this that every time Loki doubted his own growth, only Riegel felt that this was not something special at all.

Things that the protagonist in the original novel could easily do after cheating, he just did the same, so what was all the fuss about?

In other words, in this world, if in another world, it was not uncommon for monsters to grow faster than this, even reaching the peak in one step and reaching the top overnight.

Therefore, Riegel truly didn't think there was anything wrong, and his mentality was very calm and peaceful.

"You can ask Loki if there's anything wrong with my back when I received her Blessing three days ago. She knows best."

Hearing this, everyone turned around and headed to the god's room.

"You're coming too!"

"I want to see if this is true."

The Amazoness twin sisters each held Riegel and dragged him in.

Ais followed from behind, her steps very determined.

This made Riegel aware.

"My abilities have to be compromised now."