They had no need for words.
Kiro stepped through the fog wall first, and Loran followed right behind her.
The Pumpkin Head had its back to them, slamming its enormous helmet against the wall again and again.
Thud.
Thud.
The dull impacts echoed through the chamber.
Without saying a word, Kiro raised her dagger and charged.
Clang!
The blade struck the helmet, sending sparks flying. The Pumpkin Head did not even sway.
It slowly turned around, lifted its flail, and brought it crashing down toward Kiro’s head.
Riding the confidence boost from having soloed a dragon, Kiro tried to roll out of the way. But in the narrow stone chamber, her movements looked especially clumsy. The flail grazed past her shoulder and smashed into the ground. Broken stone sprayed everywhere, and the force of the wind scraped painfully across her cheek.
And at the exact moment the Pumpkin Head raised its arm to attack, Loran had already circled behind it.
The short sword in his hand was imbued with the skill [Determination], shining with a faint light as he aimed at the Pumpkin Head’s completely exposed back.
A perfect backstab.
The Pumpkin Head let out a deep, muffled roar. Its massive body staggered.
It gave up chasing Kiro and turned its attention to Loran instead.
Kiro seized the opening, scrambled up from the ground, and started hacking wildly at the bend of its leg. The damage was still pathetic, but it did successfully interfere with its movements.
And so, one of them focused on attacking its weak points, while the other handled harassment.
Between the two of them, an odd sort of coordination formed. Under that shameless pincer attack from front and back, the Pumpkin Head eventually could no longer hold on. With one final unwilling roar, its massive body collapsed to the ground and dissolved into a scattering of runes.
“Tch. Wasn’t that tough after all.”
Kiro kicked at the fragments left on the ground, looking completely relaxed.
Loran ignored her bragging and walked straight toward the door at the far end of the stone chamber.
The door opened.
Sorceress Sellen’s status panel appeared before Loran’s eyes.
[Name: Sellen]
[Identity: Exiled Sorceress]
[Affection: +20 toward Loran / +20 toward Kiro]
[Status: Rescued / Grateful / Appraising]
“...Oh? Tarnished, are you? Rare to have such unusual guests. My name is Sellen. As you can see, I am a sorcerer... Now, what business have you here?”
“Hello, Teacher!”
Kiro immediately put on an obedient expression and leaned forward.
“We came to rescue you! Don’t worry. With us here, no one can bully you anymore!”
[Sellen’s Affection toward Kiro: +20 → +22]
Sellen nodded to Kiro.
Then she turned toward Loran.
The instant she saw him—
[Sellen’s Affection toward Loran: +20 → +50]
[Status: Shocked / Disbelief / Ecstatic / Discovered Kin]
Loran had not even had time to analyze the sudden spike in affection before Sellen spoke.
Her voice carried an excitement she could barely suppress, even trembling slightly.
“You...”
She took a step forward, her mask almost pressing against Loran’s face.
“This vast, pure reason within you... so immense it is almost overflowing... This cannot possibly be the aptitude of an ordinary Tarnished!”
“Teacher? What’s wrong?”
Kiro, standing beside them, was completely confused by Sellen’s reaction.
As far as she was concerned, Loran was just an utterly ordinary idiot. There was no reason for this proud sorceress to be so astonished by him.
But Sellen ignored Kiro completely.
All of her attention was fixed on Loran. She looked like a starving treasure hunter who had finally found the legendary city of gold.
“I sense enormous potential within you,” Sellen said, her voice growing more and more excited. “No, that is not potential... It is already a fully formed sea. A vast river held back only by some temporary seal, waiting for the moment the dam breaks!”
She stepped forward and reached out, as if wanting to touch Loran.
But when her hand stopped a few inches from his body, she suddenly froze.
“Would you be interested... in exploring the secrets of the stars with me?”
At last, Sellen said those words.
She emphasized “with me,” not “becoming my student.”
This was no longer an offer to teach him.
It was an invitation.
It was the call of a lonely seeker on the endless road of sorcery, finally discovering another traveler who might walk beside her.
Loran was completely stunned.
Ninety-nine Intelligence should have simply meant he could learn every spell in the game that required only Intelligence.
He had never imagined that the number itself could create such an enormous shock in the eyes of another top-tier sorcerer.
Kiro stood beside them, utterly dumbfounded.
Her mouth hung open as she looked from Sellen, who seemed so moved she was about to cry, to Loran, whose face was filled with astonishment.
Her 9-Intelligence brain was quickly filled with jealousy.
Why?
[Kiro’s Affection toward Loran: -95 → -110]
[Status: Jealous / Confused / Unwilling / Self-Doubt]
“What do you say?”
Seeing that Loran still had not answered, Sellen’s tone became even more earnest.
“The path of glintstone sorcery is a lonely one. What we seek is the order of the stars, the origin of the cosmos, the truth beyond mortal comprehension. To have a companion on such a path is the greatest fortune of all. I can feel it. You and I are the same kind of person.”
She paused, as if carefully choosing her words.
“Perhaps I have nothing to teach you. But we can exchange insights. We can test each other’s hypotheses. We can read those lost glintstone sorcery texts together. Together, we may reach out and touch the current known as the Primeval Current, the final destination of all sorcerers!”
She was so direct with Loran.
So openly eager.
It was almost as if she had laid bare the most secret longing hidden in her heart.
And that made Loran realize that what Sellen pursued was not merely magical knowledge itself.
What she longed for was understanding.
Resonance.
A soulmate with whom she could share the lonely road ahead.
[Sellen’s Affection toward Loran: +50 → +60]
He nodded.
“I would be honored,” Loran said calmly. “It would be my honor to explore the secrets of the stars with you.”
And for Sellen, that was enough.
[Sellen’s Affection toward Loran: +60 → +80]
[Status: Overjoyed / Impatient / Soul Resonance]
The moment Loran nodded, Sellen seemed to set down a burden she had been carrying for ages.
“Wonderful... wonderful!”
She murmured excitedly to herself, as if afraid this was only a dream that would vanish the moment she blinked.
“I thought... I thought I would have to keep walking this road alone... I thought there was no one in this world who could ever understand me...”
She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
Then she looked at Loran again, her eyes full of expectation.
“Then... my new companion, would you like to hear me speak of the origin of glintstone sorcery?”
Kiro curled up in the darkest corner of the cellar, tucking herself into a small ball with her arms wrapped around her knees.
The wall behind her was cold and damp. Moisture seeped into her back, but she did not care.
She looked like an abandoned cat, hiding in a corner and silently licking the wound to her pride.
Not far away, Sellen and Loran’s conversation drifted over in fragments.
“...Therefore, the essence of glintstone sorcery is not what people call a ‘miracle,’ but an interpretation and invocation of fixed cosmic parameters. The astrology of the Carian Royal Family focuses more on simulating the gravitational influence of the moon. We of Raya Lucaria Academy, meanwhile, devote ourselves to tracing the initial star current back to its source.”
“Does that mean the energy source of all glintstone sorcery is not the caster themselves, but a temporary ‘borrowing’ of some external rule of the world?”
“Brilliant! With a single sentence, you have summarized what countless sorcerers have spent their entire lives failing to understand—or rather, refusing to understand! Yes, borrowing! That is precisely it! Our souls, our Intelligence, are the credential and credit limit for that borrowing! The higher the limit, the greater the power one can borrow, and the deeper the rules one can interpret!”
Kiro did not understand.
What was a “source current”?
What was the “Carian Royal Family”?
Credential?
Credit limit?
Those words were as distant and incomprehensible to her as scripture from another world.
All she knew was that this woman named Sellen, the teacher she had once liked very much and had only just rescued from the Pumpkin Head, was no longer even looking at her.
All of Sellen’s attention had been taken away by that idiot named Loran.
Jealousy.
Why did that idiot get Sellen’s favor without even saying anything?
Why could they talk so naturally, while she sat there like a fool, unable to understand even a single word they were saying?
She was the hero who had soloed a dragon.
She was the future Elden Lord.
What had Loran done?
Wasn’t he just someone who could throw out a few harmless little magic pebbles?
And Loran’s situation was not actually much better than Kiro’s.
In his vision, the UI panel above Sellen’s head had already turned a brilliant shade of pink.
[Name: Sellen]
[Identity: Exiled Sorceress]
[Affection: 100 (MAX)]
[Status: Soul Resonance / Extreme Admiration / Romantic Affection]
Her affection was maxed out.