Jason knew that Stella’s abundance of skills would be a little strange to Gina since she wasn’t used to seeing superhumans with so many skills, but Jason wasn’t surprised by Stella’s skills since Jason also had too many of them. Jason even had a skill called [Aquamarina] that allowed him to move freely underwater. But Jason decided not to allow Stella to go underwater.
"We don’t know what’s down there, so let the vipers finish surveying before we go in. Besides, the vipers may be weak, but this is their natural habitat. None of them will lose out to an SSS Rank in speed as long as it’s underwater."
Stella hummed in understanding, and she accepted Jason’s orders easily before standing at attention respectfully once again, and Jason turned his attention back to his [Eye of the King] as he followed the Viper’s progress. By the time the hour mark was approaching, Jason was starting to get irritated. The Swamp Vipers had been diving all this time, and they were still nowhere close to finding anything at the bottom of the ocean. There had been a few ruins with dangerous monsters, but all Jason had to do when he met those monsters was to leave a few vipers behind to fight and make the others continue moving forward. Most of the time, the monsters the Vipers encountered would be far stronger than them, but it wouldn’t matter once the Vipers used [Kamikaze] to blow them to hell, and by the time the monsters recovered from the Kamikaze, the rest of the Vipers would have already gone too far away.
"Have they still not found anything yet, babe? It’s been almost an hour."
Jason looked to the side when he heard Gina speak, and he saw her lying on the ground and staring up at the sky with a tired look on her face. Jason couldn’t blame her for being tired. Jason was already getting annoyed, even though he could see what the Vipers were seeing, so it had to be more annoying for Gina since she couldn’t even see what was going on. On Jason’s other side, Stella was sitting on her knees like a traditional Japanese warrior, and she had both hands on her thighs as she waited patiently. Even though Jason could tell that she was also exhausted from waiting, he hadn’t heard her complain even once, and he couldn’t help but praise her for that. Jason reached over and gently ran his hand over Gina’s hair while telling her that they hadn’t found anything yet.
"I think it’ll only take a few more minutes. The Vipers have been diving for a while now, so they have to be close to the bottom already."
Gina pouted and let out a tired sigh when she heard this, and Jason raised a brow when Gina suddenly stood up and came close to him. Gina knelt behind him and draped her hands over his shoulders before leaning her head on his back and letting out a cute whine.
"I’m booooored~!"
Jason just chuckled at the childish act from Gina, and at the side, Stella spoke up kindly.
"If you wish, I could keep you company with a game, your highness. There are many Avaran games that I used to play with the royal children who lived in the castle."
Gina turned to Stella with narrowed eyes and a pout, and she saw Stella smiling at her innocently. Stella just wanted to help out, but Gina wasn’t interested in getting close to Stella since Gina was still mad at her for how she acted during their previous battle. But Jason spoke up while reaching back to ruffle Gina’s hair.
"Why don’t you go have fun with Stella, babe. I’ll try to finish this as quickly as possible."
Gina’s pout deepened since she knew that Jason was only doing this because he wanted her to get close to Stella, and Gina pressed her face into Jason’s shoulder and took in a deep breath before she sighed and finally let go while speaking.
"Fine, I’ll play. But if you bore me, then I’m tossing you into the ocean."
Gina crawled towards Stella with a deep frown on her face, and Stella’s entire face brightened up with a massive smile as she nodded rapidly. Gina sat cross-legged in front of Stella, and Jason smiled as Stella started to explain the basics of some Avaran games that they could play. Jason could tell that it would take some time for Gina and Stella to become close, but Jason was glad to see that Stella was making progress in breaking through Gina’s walls. Jason turned back towards the water and continued to watch the vipers as they moved across the water. This was how time passed for the next thirty minutes without any news. After a while, Jason had stopped paying attention to the vipers, and his eyes were closed as he tested out his Resonance skill to see how long he could hold it. When he started, Jason could only use it for ten seconds at a time before he felt the [Resonance Poisoning] spreading through his body, but Jason was able to push himself to hold Resonance for about eleven seconds after training for about thirty minutes. Jason came out of his meditation a few seconds later, and he could hear Gina and Stella getting really excited over the game that they were playing.
"Hey, you only had three fingers, that means I win! I win!"
Gina pumped her fist in celebration as she realised she finally won a match, but Stella shook her head and grinned as she spoke.
"I only had one finger in the last round, and you had six, so that means I have four this time and you only have five fingers."
"What!? That’s not fair! You said it has to be an even hand in both rounds before you can win! Both our hands are odd!"
"I said it has to be an even hand in both rounds unless you had a one in the last round, then you can have an odd and take the win. It’s not my fault you weren’t paying attention, your highness."
Stella’s smile turned smug, and Gina’s cheeks reddened in anger, and she glared at Stella! Stella took the last of the gold coins that they had been using to bet, and Gina finally huffed, and she fell to her back and stared up at the sky tiredly. Stella asked Gina if she didn’t want to play another game, and Gina just waved her away. The games were nice, but Gina was already bored of them, and she would rather just practice her magic right now. Gina raised her hand to the sky with a nonchalant expression on her face, and she tapped into a power that she could feel deep inside her body.
[Sage] has been activated
All of a sudden, Gina could feel everything. The breeze moving across the Riyad sky and the way they swirled and twirled around themselves as they slammed into various obstacles became clearer in her eyes, and she could feel her consciousness moving across the winds and gliding over them as she surveyed the world around her. Stella watched Gina’s actions with a look of slight awe on her face. This wasn’t the first time that Stella would see a Sage in action, and Stella had even fought against a Sage once before during the war. That fight had been so one-sided that Stella barely managed to escape with her life. Stella had even tried once to become a sage, but she had been disappointed after King Richard told her that Avarans didn’t have the ability to become Sages. Sagehood was a gift only given to those who had dedicated their lives to one of the five branches of nature magic. Fire, earth, air, water, lightning. You had to belong to one of these five categories of nature magic, and you needed to have dedicated your entire life to the practice of this art before the world would grant you the gift of Sagehood. The Avarans were parasitic mages who consumed any form of magic they could get their hands on, so they weren’t fit for that blessing.