A cheating skill

For Sian's words, Illianna's beautiful face formed an expression of contempt. "There's no way my unique skill to be so simple. If I use the skills Analyze and Status along with Search, I can even search for people and minerals anywhere I've mapped."

"That's impressive!" Sian's eyes shone as he put his hands on Illianna's shoulders. "Look for an orihalcon or mithril mine, it can be silver too! Let's go, the precious metals await for us!"

"Take it easy, that's not how my skills work. As you said, they work according to my personal ability." Taking his hands off her shoulders, she continued. "Then it takes a long time to map a place, and the bigger, the more time-consuming will be."

"I know what I said, but that bullshit doesn't apply to you." He grabbed both of her hands and approached. "I'm sure someone so perfect as you are capable of something simple like that! You even designed dozens of magic tools on a single night."

With a face full of displeasure, she released her hands from his and said. "I created all the magic tool designs before I became a slave."

"All right. So how long do we have to wait?" He asked anxiously.

"A few months at least." She replied. "Besides not having much magic, my skill is still far from reaching its maximum potential."

"Looks like I'm going to have to settle for waiting." He said disheartenedly. "It would be nice if I could find that yellow shadow to gain a skill like that too."

"Gaining skills like mine is not that simple, they are just an extension of my knowledge." With a proud expression, she continued. "And that's why they're so good."

"Of course, of course, Miss Perfection." Accustomed to her massaging her own ego regularly, Sian urged her. "But how about you create something for me to see?"

"Looks like you finally accepted me." She said. "My skill is considering you as a friendly unit."

"There's no need to hold a grudge against you when you're so useful. So all I need to do now is to learn how to deal with you." He shrugged. "And also, you didn't talk about that skill."

"It's my Map skill combined with Status, it can tag enemy, friendly, and neutral units." With a face of displeasure, she continued. "And I'd rather you didn't treat me like a tool."

"To send me someone better than I was looking for, it seems that Goddess Zenobia really likes me." Closing his eyes and gathering his hands, he murmured. "Thank you Goddess Zenobia, one of these days I will build a temple for you as a form of thanks."

"Do not attribute my capabilities to a mere goddess of lust." She said in a tone of derision. "I'm not depraved like you."

"All right, all right." Sian said carefreely. "Create something, I want to see your cheating skill in action."

Looking around, Illianna took a stone from the ground and held it in the palm of her hand. Seconds later, the pointed stone began to glow with a slight shade of light blue, slowly changing it to a circular and flattened shape. The middle sank slowly as the edges rose a little. The whole process took about 1 minute, which could be considered relatively fast.

"Well, it's not as impressive as I thought it was going to be." Sian said with a look of disappointment. "Even I can turn a stone into a plate using earth magic."

Without seeming bothered by Sian's comment, she picked up an old, dry tree branch. "That was just an appetizer."

Like the stone of before, the branch began to glow and was losing irregularities while taking an arched shape. But this time, the process was much longer than before.

About 5 minutes later, the branch had taken the form of a bow.

"The usability of this is questionable." Sian said. "With how rotten it is, it would break at the first pull of the rope. Besides, I still don't know how you're going to turn the clay as hard as a rock."

"Just wait, I have not finished yet." She looked concentrated to the old bow that was glowing a little brighter than before and soon, the wood began to slowly change its appearance.

Despite taking about 10 minutes, the rotten parts recovered its brightness that it once had, it was as if the bow had just been done and polished.

Giving a long sigh, Illianna wiped the sweat from her forehead with one hand and handed the bow to Sian.

"Now that was impressive." Sian examined the bow, putting his foot in the middle and pulling its ends with his hands. "The quality is excellent and it is also clearly much more sturdy than normal."

"What I'm going to do with the clay is similar, but since I do not need to do something like restoring, the process will be faster, since I just need to shape and harden it." Taking a mane potion that probably took out of her spatial storage, she continued. "Give me this, I have not finished."

Taking the bow back, she inspired deeply and concentrated again, making both ends shine. Soon, a thin and weak blue line of almost transparent mana connected one end to another.

The whole process was time-consuming and even though Sian wanted to say something, he kept his mouth shut, because with his experience, he knew that what she was doing was extremely difficult.

When 30 minutes passed, Illianna finally lowered the bow. Where the mana line was, it now had a thin line, with the thickness that could easily pass through the head of a needle.

Sian promptly took a handkerchief and began to dry the sweat from her forehead. He was being as careful as possible not to let sweat run down her eyes. "Are you OK?"

"Why are you acting like this so suddenly?" She asked suspiciously as she pushed his hand away. "I know you're not a good person, what are you plotting?"

"How am I not a good person?" With the most serene face as possible, he said. "I decided to change, you can ask Ophilia. There's no way the current me can let my precious employee-"

"I'll say it right away," Interrupting Sian, she said disgruntled. "I can't create rare minerals, my skill is still very weak."

"Of course, of course." Sian said trying to contain his happiness as he used magic to cleanse her. "But you can get it when your cheating skill gets stronger, right?"

"It's possible, but I'll need samples."

"No problem, just tell me when the moment comes."

"You'd better not be so excited." She passed the bow to Sian. "Just creating this thin wire cost all the mana I had and it is not even so strong. If you pull too hard, it sure will burst."

Serving a glass of juice to Illianna, Sian said. "Take a little, it's great to restore your energies after a hard work."

Despite seeming pleased to drink the juice, she said. "Stop flattering me like this, this is weird coming from someone who wanted to kill me yesterday."

"That's bullshit." Sian said. "Have you never heard the saying that yesterday's enemy can be today's friend?"

"First, the saying is wrong, the right thing is, today's friend is tomorrow's enemy." Giving Sian a skeptical look, she continued. "And second, who in their right mind would become friend with someone who tried to kill them?"

"Well, you, maybe?" Sian talked doubtfully. "Stopping to think, this is literally your case."

"We are not friends!" She denied vigorously. "We're just cooperating because I have no choice but to do that."

"Yeah, yeah, as you wish." Sian said carefreely while examining the bow rope. "Well, despite having extremely thin thickness, it looks more sturdy than it would normally be."

An arrow appeared in his hands, then forming an upright posture, he stretched the bow to the maximum and then released the rope. With a loud, penetrating hum, the arrow easily crossed a tree and became trapped in a stone.

"Even though it's not a magic weapon, it's still as good as one. Your skill is really promising." Sian said.

Seeing a triumphant smile form on Illianna's face, he scoffed. "But while good, it's still not a magic weapon, and using it without any protection can end up severing the fingers of those who use it."

"As I do not have much knowledge about magic tools, my skill has to do practically all the work and consumes much more magic and time." She looked inquisitively at Sian. "But if I had the knowledge, everything would be easier."

"Oh! Right! I had forgotten." Guarding the bow, he took out 9 large, thick books. "Here are the books you had asked for."

"Have you always been with them?"

"Yes, but first I wanted to make sure of your skills and now I'm quite satisfied. In these books there are also some notes of mine, so enjoy."

Illianna stretched her hand and placed it on the books, making them disappear immediately.

"It looks like you're really proficient in space magic."

Ignoring his words, she asked. "What about mana, how do you intend to transfer? You better not try anything weird."

"I'm going to use magic to create a bond between us, so you can use my mana reserve."

Closing his eyes, Sian concentrated and after spending a few seconds in silence, a thick layer of mana surrounded his body. It was incomparably more powerful than Illianna's when she made the bow rope.

Stretching his arm forward, he pointed two fingers to Illianna and a burst of mana was immediately fired. Giving her no time to have any reaction, the mana hit her and wrapped her while leaving a trail that connected the two.

Still with his eyes closed, Sian held out his other hand, making a gray circle appear between the two, intercepting the mana trail.

The circle soon turned into two and while one was toward Sian, the other went to Illianna. Even if she was surprised at what was happening, she remained motionless.

The circles stopped in front of both and expanded, taking an oval shape and wrapping them slowly as if forming a cocoon.

After a few seconds, the mana trail that connected them slowly disappeared along with the cocoon that surrounded them, but Sian and Illianna were still glowing in blue. While they remained motionless, the brightness reduced in size and slowly adjusted to their bodies until finally disappearing.

With a satisfied countenance, Sian opened her eyes. "Done, now just wait a bit for the spell to take effect and you will have enough mana to use."