[Warning! Please begin your training within 00:01:00 or else you will forfeit your turn and be blacklisted for 28 hours]
[Countdown begins. 00:00:59]
Althea, who was playing around with a water worm: "..."
Garan's lips twitched and he activated the aether screen. Althea, on the other hand, pouted.
"How stingy. It hasn't even been 10 minutes yet." She mumbled. Of course, she knew it was fair. After all, there was a long line outside. If everyone had fun as she would've, it was estimated only a few people would be able to use this facility every day.
Garan smiled as he patted her cheek. "We'll practice your elements after," he said, before looking at the screen.
Garan then finalized their choice. For now, he chose one level 10 monster with high speeds. This was for Althea to realize the differences in her fight before and after she reached level 10, regardless of the elements.
They watched in interest as glowing golden dust compressed, slowly forming a figure that became more and more solid. They had come to learn that this was a form of aether, and it was fascinating.
As the monster—an unfamiliar one— completely materialized and began to move, Althea immediately released her weapons, ready to fight.
Come!
…
Fifteen minutes later.
Garan's sharp eyes watched as his beautiful wife made several attacks against the aether monster. Her ponytailed hair was wet from sweat and she was breathing heavily, all signs that she was struggling a bit.
It had been a quarter of an hour since the fight began, and she had yet to make any progress.
However, it was miles better than the completely one-sided helpless fight from before.
[Use! Perfect Aim (Lv2)! -10 Mana]
Althea used her ability, but this didn't mean her Bellagio could be used—it still couldn't. She didn't even use a lower-level bow-and-arrow this time, because Garan wanted her to train her close-ranged skills, which was necessary if she didn't have a lot of teammates around her.
What she found out during this time was that she could use the skill for close-range attacks. There was a little difference in application though, similar to how one had to redirect water in a multi-level canal—that was, blocking one path to give entry to another.
She didn't know if the aborigines knew this. Even if they did, she never trained like this in front of them so it wouldn't have occurred to them to inform her either.
Her observant husband, however, did. He knew that this was certainly not public knowledge at all.
Anyway, with the skill, her slices and jabs became much more accurate. Even with its speed, she managed to time her hits and she hit its eye. Sadly, a level 10 monster's defense was still top-notch and it barely embedded.
Huffing, she cracked her knuckles and tried to reenergize herself. She looked for other spots she could focus on while she avoided its attacks. Eventually, she hit the softer-looking skin under the neck—another likely weakness.
Slash!
Rooarrrr!
She did it! Finally hit!
ROARR!
"Oops," she mumbled, barely avoiding a swift attack from the berserk beast.
The attack that normally damaged a monster didn't even scratch this one!
She internally cursed, panting heavily and trying to wipe her dripping sweat while she avoided its nonstop attempts to hurt her.
Although she had fought a level 10 before (and suffered), now that Garan hadn't weakened it, she felt the strength gap much more intensely.
It seemed like she still grossly underestimated enhanced monsters!
Garan watched her movements carefully, ready to move any time she asked him to.
It was normal for her to struggle.
Perhaps in the whole of Xeno, Garan was one of the handful of people who could take on enhanced monsters by himself and come out with complete limbs.
After all, Garan had a deep foundation in fighting, dual access to two aggressive elements, and had higher attribute increases during upgrades.
For Althea, she may have triple elements but they were all of a relatively peaceful nature. At best, she could handle an unassisted fight for a while by virtue of her higher stats.
Not to mention now, she couldn't use any of her elements in battle just yet.
Back to the fight, Althea once again stared at the monster whose fur had a metallic sheen, trying to look for more weaknesses.
It lunged at Althea as it let out a sharp roar, its jugged claws aiming for her throat.
Her hands gripped at her sword and, with improved reflexes, she sidestepped and raised her arm, defending herself against its attack.
Her sword hit its metallic coat. Her eyes twitched when her katana rubbed against its hard skin, creating that annoying metal-to-metal screech.
To her surprise, there were a few sparks lit by the friction.
This moment of distraction was enough for the monster to be able to land a hit on her.
The monster was too fast so she couldn't avoid it. She was thrown to the wall by its strong paws.
"Althea!" Garan yelled. He was so quick that he basically teleported to the wall, catching her before she hit it.
The force was not weak and they slid together due to the momentum, but Garan managed to stop it after a few feet.
"Thanks."
"I can debilitate it—"
"Not yet," she told him, "I want to know how long I can last on my own."
Garan frowned but saw the determined look in Althea's eyes. He sighed.
"Be careful," he said, reluctantly letting her go and taking down the ice wall he used to block the monster from her.
Althea just continued to use her normal physical attacks, because she didn't even have the time to use skills.
Another half an hour passed and Althea saw her spirit was less than half.
Although the monster would disappear if any of them had health less than 10%, she didn't want to waste this opportunity to learn more.
After some scuffle, she finally hit its eye again, this time with more precision. The blade stuck on its eye as it ran after her. She jumped and kicked the katana, hammering it deeper in its eyes.
By a few inches anyway.
The defense inside its body was unlike what she had encountered so far.
Fortunately, it did damage it enough to make it shake its head in confusion for a few seconds.
Taking advantage of these few seconds, she took out another blade—a level D one made by Brenda—and sliced the sword at it, creating more of those sparks.
To Garan's surprise, Althea decided to use her ability and drenched her sword, a small pond of water dripping from her hand to the connection.
The water successfully conducted the bit of electricity, stinging the monster even for just a milli-second. It wasn't much, but it was a distraction.
She then hammered the arrow that was stuck on it, further stabbing its end, finally reducing its life to half.
Garan stepped in at this time, understanding Althea was at her limit.
He debilitated the monster by damaging all four limbs, with Althea taking a breather on the side.
She approached the weakened monster and slashed repeatedly, finally killing the damned thing.
[Killed! Simulated Kronic (Lv10). + 150 experience (reduced).]
Seeing her meager earnings, she still smiled, finally losing her footing.
This time, her husband was right behind to catch her fall.
____
Garan carried her out the training hall, gathering some worried stares.
She had lost the feeling of her legs during the battle and could no longer stand so she could only get carried like this.
She didn't really mind this PDA, but the show of weakness was embarrassing and she buried her head on her husband's generous chest.
It was as if she couldn't see them, they couldn't see her either.
Garan smiled and only shook his head at the voices of concern, as it would only make her even more shy.
As such, the two reached home some minutes later without anyone bothering them.
The two went home for Althea to take a nap before lunch time, with Garan preparing her favorite dishes.
The children were once again 'kidnapped' by Betty and the nurses to play as mascots. They said the recovery rate, especially the Spirit, increased when the babies were there.
Such cuties would make everything feel better.
Anyway, the children were extroverted, and it would be wrong for them to stay at home all the time.
Garan stared warmly at his wife snoring in the lounge. She didn't want to dirty the bed, and she refused to have him bathe her 'so early in the day'.
Anyway, he did promise to wake her up for lunch so here he was, even if he was reluctant.
"My love," he said, "Time to wake up now."
"Hmmmm…" her eyebrows furrowed and she made a cute pout.
Garan couldn't help himself and he leaned down to meet her lips.
Althea was woken up shortly after, because of the… heat.
She glared at him. "You didn't have to be so… passionate."
He just gave her an innocent smile in response, "You made me promise to wake you up."