Chapter 55 - Bridge (3)

After that, many elementalists talked with Edward and accepted working for the town. They didn't have the human resources to take over the country, and they couldn't leave, so their only option was to follow his lead or become slaves. Not to mention, many of the elementalists were missing some real beds. While their lives weren't exactly comfortable in that arid region, it wasn't as bad as sleeping on the ground without a ceiling above their heads.

One week after all that day started, the remaining elementalists decided to bow their heads and accept Edward's terms. Speaking of terms, there was the matter of the reward, but Billy didn't give him the chance to give him anything because he had a bad feeling about it. He told him that he didn't do much, so rewards were unnecessary. For some reason, Edward didn't press the matter either…

During that week, Lily and Camilla also managed to learn Earth Manipulation. While he wasn't looking, even Anna managed to learn that… Billy never used Appraisal on her, but she was at level twenty-five, and her HP, MP, and SP were two hundred… weirdly high for a non-combatant. Billy investigated more and realized that it was probably because of her level eighty in alchemy… it was the highest level he had seen in any skill.

"This is interesting, but it will take a while to become useful," Anna said. "I suppose learning how to manipulate water will be more useful to clean wounds and such."

Offensively speaking, that wasn't the case, but since Anna was a healer, it was obvious. While most of his friends were trying to learn Water Manipulation, Billy was stuck in learning Wind Manipulation… for some reason. He was failing again and again. However, since there was no need to guard the walls with so many soldiers, he had a lot of extra time, but not much. Billy knew that Edward would want to build the bridge as soon as the elementalists got used to their lifestyle.

"Maybe I should see them using wind… even if they don't like it, we are allies now," Billy thought.

"You look more lost in thought than usual, Billy," Alexander said.

Before he could notice it, Billy arrived on the training grounds. The kids were training there alongside recruits. Naturally, his group of misfits was there as well. Speaking of which, Alexander was having a hard time learning Earth Manipulation. Meanwhile, Lily was trying to learn Water Manipulation. According to her, she wanted to use the wind to speed up her arrows, but it was hard to know if it was possible. Natalie, on the other hand, was refining her Earth Manipulation. She wanted to make Earth Swords that were as heavy as possible… It was a weird goal.

"I am having a hard time learning Wind Manipulation, so I was wondering what I should do," Billy replied.

"You learn the other two instantly… at least don't look troubled for having difficulties like normal people," Lily frowned. "Anyway, can you help me with my training? I want you to fire some Earth Bullets toward me, I will try to stop them with my arrows."

"While I do have some mana, wouldn't it be better to ask them for help?" Billy said while looking toward a few groups of kid elementalists.

"I have a feeling that they won't accept," Lily replied. "Even if they do, they will probably go all out to wound me… I can't afford to get wounded during training."

"All right… I guess this will be good training for me as well," Billy said. "I will fire blunt projectiles without much rotation and then slowly I will increase their speed."

At first, Lily had no problems dealing with those, but eventually, her arrows lost their piercing power and durability. Even though Billy wasn't going all out, she ended up hitting her sometimes. Whenever that happened, he felt a cold stare coming from Alexander. When that started to annoy him, Billy some Stone Bullets on his knees. Just enough to cause some pain, but not enough to break anything.

When Billy ran out of mana, he began to meditate and watch the elementalists, but none of them were using Wind Manipulation. The black haired girl was there as well, but even though she could use it as the strongest element, she wasn't using fire Manipulation. Again, Billy considered asking for their cooperation, but when he felt that group's glare, he decided to give up…

"I suppose I will take things slowly when it comes to magic, I have other abilities to train, after all," Billy thought.

There was no need to get flustered that others were catching up to him since he was trying to master so many arts… In any case, he trained with his finds day by day like usual since things were peaceful in the surroundings. One month after, he decided that those spiker-like scorpions began to show up in the area, and that was a sign of the changes in the times… since the elementalists were no longer hunting them, those monsters were reproducing quite fast. Thanks to that, the leaders of the tribes decided to send some groups to hunt those. It would be troublesome if one of those evolved, after all.

Speaking of tribe leaders, Drew made a complete recovery in that month. The effect of the spear was really outstanding. Still, his body weakened a bit, so he will have to do some rehab to recover his full strength. During that month, even though he took his magic training slowly, Billy managed to learn Wind Manipulation. In the end, the trick was speed… since wind doesn't have a proper body, it tends to disperse rather quickly, unlike earth and water that usually stays in a single place, deeply connected.. Weirdly enough, that speed was something he only obtained after practicing with other elements regularly, so he began to understand more why they were learned in that order.