11 - Unexpected reactions

After my shower, I just rolled over in bed and fell asleep like a stone, only waking up the next day.

Opening my eyes a little groggily, it took me a while to get my bearings.

My mind was still confused between whether I was in my family's castle, whether I was still on the battlefield, whether I was under the sea or, more strangely, whether I was in the world of the Demon Slayer...

The action of yesterday's battle confused me a little.

I dreamt as if I had traveled to the Demon Slayer's world and battled alongside Water Breath users, but strangely, despite recognizing that they used the technique correctly, many even better than me, whenever they attacked, no water appeared!

Unlike me, who, from the very first test of this skill, the water already followed and accompanied my movements, their attacks, despite being very lethal, didn't summon any water.

'Why is that? ' I asked myself in confusion.

Realizing that just thinking up theories about it might not be enough, I decided to leave this question for when I went to train on the beach again.

'Were my gains from the battle good? ' I asked myself excitedly.

I was curious to see how much I had assimilated last night, since I used Percy's strength and his sword skills all the time in battle, while using Johnny's battle sense and a lot of his martial arts knowledge.

- Eric Lunaris -

Race: Human

GP: 13

- Character Assimilation -

Fully Assimilated: None

In Progress: [Percy Jackson - 11 -> 14%] [Johnny Cage - 14 -> 22%]

------------------------------

These gains surprised me a lot!

A total of 3% for Percy and 8% for Johnny!

If I fought every night and made gains like that constantly, I could complete Johnny's model in just 10 days while Percy's would be ready in just under a month!

Thinking about how easy it was to deal with the Goblins and Kobolds I fought yesterday, I began to wonder if, if I faced more powerful enemies, wouldn't the amount assimilated per day also increase?

Although my strength is greater now, in addition to the variety of attack methods and defenses I have, I know that if I faced someone really strong I wouldn't stand a chance, so this piqued my interest.

At breakfast I decided to ask my father about it.

"Dad, apart from Goblins and Kobolds, are there any other monsters attacking the kingdom?" I asked.

My father was a little surprised by my question, but probably thinking that this was just my curiosity about the safety of my task, he answered nonchalantly. "From the information that has reached me, the only monsters that have come to our kingdom have been normal Goblins and Kobolds, as well as larger variations of them that the informants have called 'Elite'."

This disappointed me a little, but thinking that if more powerful monsters came to our realm it would mean that normal people would be suffering even more, I felt a little less bad.

I might like the strength I'm getting, but my conscience would still be guilty knowing that my greed for power could cost the life of someone innocent.

Apparently understanding what I was thinking after seeing my reaction, my father continued. "But I don't know if you remember the origin of these monsters, Eric, they came from a wave of monsters from the east of the continent... as far as I know, the most powerful monsters are wreaking havoc in kingdoms around that area."

Hearing this made me excited.

I was still going to deal with the monsters in Miralune first, ridding my people of the threat posed by these smaller monsters, but now I knew that after the monsters in our kingdom were finished, I had a target to continue my journey.

Smiling contentedly, after breakfast I made my way back to the beach, but this time something was different.

Unlike when I passed people yesterday and they only greeted me with warmth and kindness, their reaction today was very different.

The soldiers who saw me looked respectful, adjusting their posture and armor to look as imposing as possible in front of me.

The castle servants looked at me with curiosity and pride.

The ordinary townspeople, on the other hand, were divided, some still maintaining the same attitude as yesterday, while others, in addition to the kindness they felt towards me, also showed respect and a little fear of me.

It was as if there was an aura around me that made people not only smile, but also bow their heads when they saw me, and this was intriguing me.

'What's going on? Why are they acting like this?" I asked myself in confusion.

Such a huge change in attitude from one day to the next seemed meaningless to me, until the answer came to me in the form of a group of children playing with wooden swords.

"With this attack of mine I'm going to create a huge tsunami of water and drown you all!" A little boy said as he swung his sword.

"No, you won't!" shouted a little girl, brandishing a wooden sword bigger than herself as if she were a heroine. "I'm Prince Eric now and I'm going to use the... what do you call it? I'm going to use the... First Form! I'm going to use the First Form to cut through everything with one blow!" She spun around, imitating a bow with her sword, and burst into laughter when she almost tripped. "Like this, zwooosh! The water will come out of my sword and cut you right down the middle!"

I stopped, hid behind a cart and began to look at this scene with a smile, beginning to understand a little what was going on.

The children were in the middle of the square, playing with sticks and boards, pretending to be me!

"How do you know that, Lila?" asked a smaller boy, holding a crooked branch.

"My father was there yesterday, he saw everything!" she answered proudly. She replied proudly. "He said that Prince Eric made the water dance with his sword, like magic! He said 'First Form' and pow! A goblin would lose his mind!"

Another boy jumped on a rock, raising his arm. "And my dad heard him shout something so loud that the kobolds fell to the ground!" He said, trying to imitate the Sonic Scream.

"No, no!" corrected a girl in pigtails, wagging her finger. "The coolest thing was when he became hard as stone! A kobold even hit him with a club and crunch! The club broke! My father said that the prince's skin began to glow and even after receiving the direct hit, the prince didn't even move!" She crossed her arms, imitating my pose, and I almost laughed out loud.

Especially imagining that for the girl to know the pose I took when I used the [Diamond Skin], her father probably also imitated the pose while telling his family what he had just seen.

"And he lifted a goblin into the air without touching it!" shouted another boy, jumping up. "The goblin stayed afloat, like a fish out of water, and the prince threw it hard onto a rock!" He threw himself to the ground pretending to be the goblin, and the others clapped their hands in excitement.

I was stunned.

The knights who saw me fight yesterday must have spread the whole story, and now the children were recreating every blow as if it were a legend.

"He's so strong," said the little girl with pigtails, dreamily. "My father said he'd never seen anyone fight like that. He cut down five kobolds after saying 'Second Form', and the water shone on the moon!"

"So the higher the form number, the stronger the attack? What if he uses form twenty?" asked the smaller boy, his eyes shining. "My uncle said that the monsters didn't even stand a chance, imagine if he used a shape with the number twenty!" He swung the branch, trying to imitate the blow.

I shook my head, still smiling, and got out from behind the cart.

The children saw me and froze, their wooden swords falling to the ground. "Prince Eric..." murmured the girl in pigtails, her face red.

I raised my hand in a simple wave to reassure them.

"You're doing well," I said, winking. "But the First Form needs more... fluidity." I made a movement with my hand, imitating the sword's arc and using some of Percy's power to summon water to increase the dramatic factor of it and they shouted with excitement, running to copy. "Train hard, okay? Maybe one day you'll fight me."

They shouted "Yes, prince!" so loudly that it echoed in the square.

I laughed, nodded, and continued on my way to the beach, my chest warm.

The stories were spreading, and the looks of respect I saw in town now made perfect sense.

No wonder the ordinary people were looking at me almost adoringly, while the soldiers looked at me with respect and tried to look imposing in front of me.

Thinking about the concept of Water Breathing, I realized that it was nothing more than a combat technique that didn't use magic or anything extraordinary.

Theoretically, anyone could practice it and benefit from the gains this technique brings.

'If I created some teaching materials on Water Breathing and taught them to soldiers, wouldn't that raise the military level of the kingdom and provide soldiers with an effective way of dealing with monsters without relying on my direct help? ' I thought excitedly.

And considering that the technique isn't extremely strong, I wouldn't need to fear the soldiers using it against me, but as a guarantee I could start by teaching it only to the soldiers most loyal to the crown, right?

The more I thought about it, the more I saw the strategic value it would bring, and without depending on me giving cards to other people, giving up the growth I would receive from it.

But there was one thing I had doubts about...

If I taught them how to use Water Breathing, would water appear when they used the First Form, for example? Or would it be like the battles I dreamed up from the world of Demon Slayer itself?

Curious to test things out, I urged the horse to run to get to the beach as quickly as possible.

--- Cat Notes ---

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