Tactical Break

"Roko. A moment please."

"What's up?" Roko asked as Kaguya came up to him.

"I've just come to inform you that I'll be taking a bit of a leave for a bit." She explained, "I'll be heading off to a somewhat close village to make some repairs on Calcify."

"You are going? Alone?"

"Me and Mikado, yes." Kaguya nodded.

"We're not coming along?"

"We're in the final stretch of our journey, the elf city is close to a day or two of travel away. The village I will be going to will take us quite off path and I didn't want to delay your journey any further. Rest assured, we will be heading to the city ourselves once the necessary repairs have been made."

"Are these repairs important?"

"Well, Calcify is technically an invention of the Hephestia people so I probably won't be able to get a proper repair unless I go there or find a blacksmith from there. Neither is the case here, I'll be visiting a normal blacksmith but even they should be able to do some basic repairs. Calcify is still in working order, it's just a bit dinged up and dented from Momo roughhousing with it back at the Oarbine mansion. It's one thing that it doesn't even have a proper blade but to fight with it against proper weapons is more than it can handle. Honestly, it's a covert weapon, not meant for actual battle."

"..."

"So that's why you don't have to come with us." Kaguya explained, "I would feel bad about delaying your journey on my account. So please go on without us for the time being."

"..."

"...I can see you thinking. Are you planning on coming along?"

"It's not because I'm worried per say." Roko stated, "I'm sure it'll go fine. But it hasn't been that long since the Oarbine mansion so a small break before diving into the elves' territory would probably be welcome for everyone."

"Taking this detour will mean delaying the journey by around four days at least."

"We've been delayed enough already, what's four days more?"

"Well..." Kaguya sighed, "It's not like I wouldn't welcome your company. So sure. If everyone's willing."

And so after a few days, Roko and company arrived at the village of Junesse. Momo went off to visit her blacksmith that she was insistent on doing alone with Mikado, leaving Roko to check up everyone.

"Hey Roko." Helena said as she hung out in the backyard of their inn with Roland who was doing push ups on the ground, "Here to join Roland in his drills?"

"Not really." Roko replied, "I came to check up on you guys."

"Roland included?" Helena smirked, "That's unexpected."

"I'm not particularly worried about him but I figured I'll check anyway." Roko shrugged.

"Can you at least pretend to care about how I'm doing?!" Roland snapped as he stood up and walked over to them, "I'm right here, you know!"

"Right, so, how are you doing?" Roko replied.

"I'm...fine..." Roland grumbled, "Nothing I can really complain about."

"What did you do while we were gone for the party?" Helena asked.

"I...went drinking with my buddies." Roland scoffed, "Something wrong with that?"

"And by buddy you mean..."

"Mikado. Also Varis was there I guess."

"What did Varis do?" Helena smirked.

"Nothing, aside from make people feel uncomfortable."

"He tends to have that effect." Helena chuckled.

"Are you even legal enough to drink?" Roko frowned.

"Pssh. Come on. I mean really. Like...come on." Roland replied evasively, "I mean...it depends on where we are. Like, we've been to a lot of places so the drinking age could be different and you never-"

"What's the drinking age in Aporia then?" Roko asked.

"...21."

"So you're underage." Roko said as Helena giggled.

"Oh shut up!" Roland cried, "Who cares anyway?! People start drinking when they're 18 nowadays anyway!"

"Didn't you start drinking when you were 16?" Helena smirked.

"Yeah and that's NORMAL!" Roland shot back, "And didn't you start drinking when you were 11, Helena?!"

"First of all, I don't drink." Helena scoffed, "I was taught to drink when I was 11 as part of my princess training but I don't drink regularly. Only on occasions."

"Drinking was part of your training?" Roko raised an eyebrow.

"Resistance to being inebriated helps a lot in negotiations." Helena smirked, "So does acting like you're drunk."

"You can act drunk? Without getting drunk?"

"I can drink most people under the table." Helena grinned proudly, "In fact, I can out drink everyone I know probably."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I can vouch for that." Roland sighed, "I don't think I've ever seen Helena truly, actually drunk. It's crazy."

"Hehe. All that training had to be good for something." Helena smirked, "I do wonder what it's like to be drunk sometimes though."

"So was all that training worth it?" Roland scoffed.

"Hell no. But you know, silver linings and such." Helena shrugged, "I'm curious though. How's Mikado with alcohol?"

"Complete lightweight." Roland snorted, "I think he got drunk off the atmosphere before any alcohol could even touch his lips."

"To be fair, I don't see Mikado drinking all that much." Roko added, "So nothing happened while you were gone? Didn't get into any trouble?"

"Nope. Not at all."

Helena stared at Roland with crossed arms, a stern look and a raised eyebrow.

"N-Nope." Roland insisted, "Nothing happened."

"Not to them, sure." Helena sighed, "But Roland was being quite troublesome from what I gather."

"I-I was drunk!"

"That doesn't excuse hitting on every girl in the room."

"H-Hey, I didn't get anywhere now did I?!" Roland protested, "Women just don't get me!"

"Is that what you're going with?" Roko said, "What was even your game plan?"

"I...I got to talking with some of them!" Roland scowled, "It's not my fault every girl just left when I asked if they wanted to see my swords!"

"Roland..." Roko placed a hand over his face.

"What?! My swords are interesting!" Roland cried as Helena laughed silently in the side, "They've got names and everything! What girl wouldn't be interested?!"

"Well, if you brought your swords with you, I guess we should be glad you didn't assault anybody." Roko sighed.

"What kind of person do you think I am?" Roland frowned, "Seriously, I'm concerned about what kind of image you have of me."

"Anyway, how are you doing?" Roko said as he turned to Helena, "You holding up well?"

"Oh, you know me." Helena smiled, "All that trauma's just another feather under my cap. Nothing I can't recover from!"

"I see."

"Still." Helena said, her energetic and upbeat behavior dropping a little, "Everything's starting to get a bit tiring. Can't believe the day would come where I would wish for a bit of peaceful days."

"Hopefully you'll get some once we arrive at the elf city."

"Heh. That sounds pretty nice right about now."

"At any rate." Roko continued, "I've been mostly concerned with Momo. She really strained herself so I want to check up on her but I don't know where she went."

"Oh, she's been doing some intense training in the forest nearby." Helena smiled, "Just check out the woods outside the town. You'll find her."

After a brief search, Roko did in fact find Momo. In the middle of the forest. Sitting on a boulder. Meditating.

"This is what Helena meant by 'intense training'?"

"Oh, hello Roko." Momo opened her eyes, "Is that what Helena said? She is prone to exaggeration."

"Anyway, I'm glad to see you haven't been straining yourself after the Oarbine mansion incident." Roko sighed, "You been holding up well?"

"Perfectly fine." Momo smiled, "Once the fatigue wore off, I was ready to jump right back into training but Kaguya told me to not exert myself still."

"It's good advice." Roko nodded, "So you decided to meditate instead?"

"Yep! Good food for the soul and I'm hoping it'll help me up my stamina."

"That's your concern?"

"Well, it was the most limiting factor for me during the mansion incident. Not that it was necessarily my fault but I needed something to work on. I've managed to have some birds and squirrels land on me, but I'm really trying to get a deer to approach me like Corissa can do!"

"I think the situation behind your goals are a bit different." Roko sighed, "Well, if you can control your thinking, you won't need me to tell you to use amp anymore."

"You think? I just want to take it easy for a bit." Momo smiled, "Say, what does my stats and stuff look like now?"

"I'll check. Scan."

Momo waited patiently as Roko looked over the data and recorded it in his book.

"Your levels has gone up quite a bit. Your intelligence in particular has risen quite a bit along with your constitution. Wisdom has gone up a little, dexterity by a good amount. Your strength has gone up but its made the least progress compared to the rest of your stats."

"My strength huh?" Momo mused, "I haven't been keeping up with my strength training as much so I guess it makes sense I haven't made much progress there."

"As your stats stand now, your lightning spell should be more potent but your reinforcement spells scales to different stats so a varied improvement would be best overall."

"Still, I'm a bit concerned that my strength has made the least progress." Momo replied, "That's my stat that I use for attacks right? I should put in some strength drills."

"Sounds fine to me."

"What about my weaknesses? Any improvement there?"

"Still the same weaknesses as ever. Water and gravity."

"Ugh...I haven't had much time to practice swimming but I figured I'd at least get rid of my weakness to gravity."

"I don't think I've ever seen anyone get rid of a weakness." Roko shrugged, "Then again, I've only ever been doing long term recordings of our little group and it hasn't been that long. It might not even be possible to become someone with no weaknesses."

"You haven't met one like that?"

"No, though I usually ignore the weakness section. As helpful as it should be, I just don't have the tools to take advantage of them so there's not usually a point to pay much attention to it."

"If only you could learn other spells." Momo smirked, "How do I compare to Varis?"

"Haven't scanned Varis in a while but I'd say he's still stronger. His stats are still marginally higher and his spells are more powerful than his stats would assume. The only explanation for that is that he puts more mana into them to increase its power which also means he must have a pretty good reservoir or mana."

"One step closer but still a few steps behind." Momo sighed as she laid down on the ground, "Am I ever going to beat him?"

"I mean, it doesn't have to be a competition. It's not like you're not going to fight each other any time soon."

"..."

"..."

"Maybe I should..."

"Well." Roko sighed, "I'm not going to stop you so long as you keep it friendly."

"Do I have your permission to use THAT spell if I do?"

"Will you reconsider if I say no?"

"You're no fun."

"Someone has to reign in your battlelust." Roko scoffed, "At least you seem to be doing fine after all that's happened to you recently."

"Haha. I haven't been able to let loose like that in a while." Momo laughed, "But if you haven't done so already, I'd say go check up on Corissa. She's probably got her own frustrations with her own special little spell that's been nagging at her. And you know Varis isn't going to be helping her with that."

"You know one of you girls can help her too."

"Eh. We're busy."

"And what, do I not look busy?"

"Not usually, no."

Roko thought about saying something until his phone began to rang. Picking it up, he heard a smirking voice on the other side.

"What? Come back to the inn? Why? … What do you mean, Corissa's drunk?!"

Over at a dingy bar, Roko found a crowd gathered around the front, murmuring loudly as they looked inside. Pushing through the crowd, Roko found some random stranger standing in front of the bar and facing Varis with his bare fists.

"Alright you black freak, I've had just about enough of you! Either you leave us alone or I'm going knock you out til next week!"

Varis raised his own fists in response.

"Alright then, you asked for it! Hyaaa-"

"You call that deescalating?" Roko said as he kicked in the man's legs from behind and cracked his foot over the man's head, swiftly knocking him unconscious, "If you can't handle it yourself, can't you at least go grab someone who can?"

Varis silently bowed in response.

"Where is Helena anyway? She's the one who called me here." Roko sighed.

"Ah! It's Roko!"

Roko turned around to the bar where Corissa was sitting at a table with a large half empty mug of beer on the table.

"Roko!" Corissa jumped up and shoved the beer towards him, "Turn this into a cocktail!"

"No." Roko replied as he took the beer out of her hands, "How many of these did you even have?"

"Just the one."

"Just the one? This one isn't even finished."

"Well hand it over and I'll finish it." Corissa moved to try and take the beer back only for Roko to push her back.

"You really don't have much tolerance for alcohol do you?" Roko sighed, "Who gave this to you? I assume you didn't buy this yourself?"

"Hmmm?" Corissa looked at him with a drunken smile, "Some really nice men thought I looked sad so they bought me a drink."

"Who?"

"Who?" Corissa thought about it for a moment, "Nope! Can't remember them!"

"Varis?" Roko turned to the knight.

Varis raised his hand to point at the culprits but after making a full turn around, he couldn't point anybody out.

"Ran away huh?" Roko sighed, "Alright, let's get you to bed now."

"What?" Corissa pouted, "But one of the nice men was going to take me to his home and show me his dog."

"You can't actually think he was talking about an actual dog."

"But I love dogs! They're so fluffy!"

"We can't leave you alone for a second." Roko scowled as he placed the drink onto the table and pulled Corissa onto his back, "Alright, we're leaving."

"But my drink..."

"You can get one after you wake up."

"I want a cocktail."

"You're getting milk tea."

"Yay!" Corissa mumbled as she snuggled closer to Roko's back, "You're so nice Roko...you're always so nice to me...but you mustn't do that."

"Why not?"

"Because...I'm useless."

"..."

"I can't fight. I cause trouble for people no matter where I go. All I can do is this stupid spell that won't listen to me. All I can do is save myself. What's the point of this power if I can only use it for myself? It's just the worst...I'm the worst..."

"...Corissa. I can't fight either."

"Liar."

"I'm just doing my best to keep everyone safe. I get frustrated by my own weaknesses as well. That's...normal. No matter how much you train or prepare you can never really be rid of your own your vulnerabilities. We don't eliminate these problems, we work with them."

"But what can I even do?"

"You already do everything you can. As for the rest, you can leave it up to me."

"To you?"

"If there's a way to gain control of your spell, I'll find it. So don't worry about it. You don't have to do it alone."

"...Roko...thank you..."

Roko's hand paused in front of the door to Corissa's inn room. From her soft breathing, Roko could tell she had finally fallen asleep.

"When did I become such a hypocrite..." Roko muttered to himself as he opened the door to Corissa's room.