Chapter 15: A promise to Nami

A journey at sea was boring, especially when traveling alone.

Fortunately, Ron had company, and on top of that, he was lucky that his company was from the opposite gender. Even if it was just casual chat, it could help to pass the boring time.

Since their journey started, even if Ron spent most of the time practicing, and he occasionally chatted with Nami, they exchanged a lot of information.

Ron made up a reasonable past.

On the other hand, half of Nami’s stories about her past were also made up, but because Ron knew the truth, he overcame few loopholes in her stories and let her talk for a while. In the end, he managed to disclose the whole story of Arlong and the Cocoyasi Village.

“… I knew it would be like this.”

Ron smiled as if he predicted right, saying: “I know a lot about Arlong, it is very strange for humans to join his crew. In addition to the things happening in Cocoyasi village, your reaction to my proposition to help you kill Arlong actually verified my assumptions.”

Nami sat there and said heavily: “Humans can’t defeat monsters like fish-men, and if there is any hope to save Cocoyasi village, we can only carry out the agreement …”

“What if Arlong isn’t planning to keep his promise?”

Ron said in a muffled voice.

Ron never talked about this topic before, because he wasn’t that close to Nami, and they were just “companions”. However, after the occurrence of a lot of events, he wasn’t obliged to avoid this topic anymore.

Nami raised her head sharply to look at Ron and said: “No, Arlong is very strict with the rules! He will certainly respect our agreement…”

The first half of the sentence was said with a tone full of confidence, but in the second half, although her voice was still very loud, it was clear that her confidence gradually faded away.

Ron remained silent for a few seconds, and did not argue with Nami about whether Arlong would fulfill their agreement, but said: “I will help you, collecting the 100 million Berries. We will follow the way you think is the safest to save your village.”

“But if I sense that Arlong has no intention to respect the agreement, then we move to the other solution…I will help you kill him!”

Nami lowered her head and bit her lip. Her body trembled a little. After a while, she said with a faint voice.

“Thank you……”

“You’re welcome.”

Ron smiled and said, “You saved my life. That’s the minimum I should do for you. Okay, I’m hungry. It’s time to eat something.”

“Um.”

Nami nodded and stood up.

After putting some efforts to reveal Nami’s secret, Ron felt a lot lighter. He also tried to teach Nami how to use wind magic, but Nami couldn’t do it.

It’s not that her spiritual strength was too weak, but even if Nami could build a magic circle in her mind, she wouldn’t release anything.

Ron hesitated, and soon found the cause.

Mark of magic.

The magic mark in the professional system should be one of the essential keys to magic. Without this mark, even if she did the same meditation, she wouldn’t be able to use magic.

It was impossible to teach Nami his magic, which made Ron a bit helpless. However, it was already night, and the conditions for the “Salted Fish” achievement were finally achieved.

After achieving 1 achievement point, Ron immediately devoted himself to practice.

His practice was as usual based on switching from the spiritual aspect to the magic aspect. First, he simply exercised his wind blade technique.

Because of the huge boost of his mental strength, after a little practice, Ron became capable of releasing his Wind Blade within one second.

Improving his release speed had nothing to do with proficiency anymore, because he already mastered the technique that no room of improvement was left. Speeding up his release became only a matter of fast thinking, in other words, improving his mental strength.

At that moment, Ron’s mental strength was about 22 points, which was the basis for studying the derived runes, so Ron’s cultivation direction was still the advanced level of wind magic.

“The perfect fusion of three runes can form the second-level magic. What would happen if only two runes are fused?”

Ron thought about it and decided to give it a try.

Thanks to his proficiency in dealing with basic runes, it was not difficult to build the two runes. However, the difficulty was about how to fuse these two basic runes.

Which lines should be connected and which lines should change, were the most important questions.

Two golden light spots were formed in the realm of the spiritual world, extending countless lines at a rapid speed. After interweaving with each other, they merged together at the center.

But in the real world…

Bang!

The air in front of Ron suddenly exploded, forming an air vortex, which blew Ron’s body out, falling directly into the sea.

[Tip: you completed the achievement “Accidentally Falling into The Sea” and got 1 achievement point]

Ron, who was blown into the sea, was about to start complaining, but the system prompt sound in his ear was like a calming Morphine shot.

What are the chances!

Ron floated out, added the 1 achievement point to his spirit, and swam quickly towards the boat. With his heart calming down, he wanted to try again.

After hearing the noise on the boat, Nami saw Ron climbing up from the sea all wet, and said with a spooky tone: “Excuse me…What are you doing?”

“Um, I just messed up a bit while doing magic. Don’t worry.”

Ron left the water, smiled at Nami, and walked towards the stern.

Nami gave Ron a strange look, shaking her head, as he came to the stern. The moment she turned to look at the weather, she heard a bang from the rear.

A part of the stern was blown up by something, and Ron fell far away in the sea.

“Don’t worry about it!!!”

Ron soon swam back again, said while coughing: “It was an accident. Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay. It’s really going to be okay.”

Having said that, Ron ran towards the stern again.

After a few seconds, there was a bang again. This time, the ship was not damaged, but a wave was blown into the sea, throwing Ron out again.

In less than half a minute, Ron swam back again, with an excited expression. Without talking to Nami, he climbed up to the stern directly.

Then?

Bang!

His body flew out again.

Looking at this scene, Nami was speechless for a long time. He had a bad feeling afterward… ‘This guy has strange habits?!!’

Of course, Ron didn’t know that he was labeled as “masochistic” in Nami’s impression. At that moment, he was really excited because of the continuous accidental falling into the sea. He was close to complete a second achievement.

There were two achievements in accidental falling; one was a 1 accidental fall, as for the second one, it was called ‘unfortunate person’ achievement, which required 10 accidental falls.

And there was one more point. Although he kept constantly failing, during this continuous failure, he was able to sort out his thoughts. He couldn’t find an appropriate solution, but he gradually started to discover the right direction to accomplish the fusion of the runes!