“That’s awesome, dude! You have a high affinity for both.” She slapped my back repeatedly. Ouch! “Only one in one hundred source users has this high elemental affinity for two elements.”

It was only natural considering that I had [All Elements] as my second Vocation… or first.

“I see. So, what can I do with this?” What would be the use of having a power without knowing its use? Nothing.

“Hmm…” She took the Pyro and Electro catalyst stones off my hand and inserted them into the small gaps near the handle of a pair of stone daggers she grabbed from one of her small bags. “Here, take these two stone daggers. I planned to use the other dagger for my own use, but this can become one interesting experiment.”

She didn’t idle around while I was concentrating on becoming an enhancer and went to make these weapons with any material she could find around here. Truly a talented craftsman through and through ­­­­­­— it was well worth saving her.

“To activate a catalyst weapon, you just need to do the same thing as you did with the catalyst stone before but with a bigger output. The trick is that you just have to pretend it is an extension of your body. Ya get what I’m saying?”

Um… I’d be lying if I said yes, but I get the gist of what she said. Thus, without further ado, I mustered my source power and directed the source energy within my body into the stone dagger on my right hand, more exactly into the Electro catalyst stone inlaid in it.

The stone dagger was suddenly coated with a purple hue as if being infused with lightning. I bet that it could slice a thick wall like slicing butter.

“Alright. Time to put this to the test.”

“Yup, yup.” Tuilë stood up and proceeded to follow me. Her injuries were all healed up at this point, so there were no worries on that part.

Debris of crushed concrete was strewn on the ground as far as my view could catch. The Third-Order pale cruncher we killed must be buried under the rubble before me. Although its exact proximity was unknown, clearing this wreckage — at least partially — to get to its corpse was a top priority to finish our primary goal.

“Locating the corpse under the piles of ruck looks to be an unsurmountable task… It may take us days to manually search, not to mention excavate it.” Which in truth, we didn’t have the luxury to.

“I can search it for you,” said Lunaria as Luna-1 flew out from my backpack.

“Thank you, Lunaria. You sure are a great help.”

“You should be… That aside, I’ll be back with great news.” Luna-1 quickly dived into gaps as soon as Tuilë’s intense stare was set on it.

After that, we secured a good spot to test my new power. A piece of large concrete rubble that looked like the shape of a large boulder stood in front of us. What a perfect and convenient target, I suppose.

Activating the Electro stone dagger in the same way I did before, it was now coated with high electric current. With a swing of my hand, the sword split apart the surface of the concrete boulder and left a deep sword cut.

“Not bad. You do have a knack for this. But you can also use your power like this.” Her fist crackled with lightning, and she punched into the rubble, releasing a small thunderclap as well as a spider-web crack into the impacted area.

“Whoa.” While an enhancer couldn’t evoke elemental attack, coating their body with source energy didn’t seem to be a problem.

“Incidentally, I am an evoker as well, so I can conjure up my source element in my hand. See this.” Her right hand suddenly coated with purple electricity and turned into a purple claw of a beast. She then swung her claw at the large concrete boulder in front of us.

The concrete boulder was split into five pieces and shattered. Really, I was completely bewildered by such a technique.

“Although it’s only a smart little trick, you can’t do this as you’re not an evoker. However, once you become one, then something like this is just a cinch. But becoming an evoker is many times harder than an enhancer, so don’t get too ambitious.”

“Okay…” If she was this strong, then what about the people with a higher Tier?

As if realizing what I was thinking, she said, “Y’know, in the whole Aquarine, there’s only a single known person at Tier 4: the head of the Divine Mushroom Cult.”

Huh? Divine Mushroom Cult? What kind of weirdos is making a damn mushroom as a symbol of veneration and devotion? On second thought, though, the giant purple mushroom at the center of Aquarine was the protector of the realm, so it was no wonder the thing itself was consecrated.

Stolen novel; please report.

Never mind the details. At least I was aware that becoming a dual source user like her would bring about a lot of possibilities in terms of combat, even though it would be many times harder as well. I would strive to become one in the future.

“Say, doesn’t that make you stand out among the masses if you’re a dual source user?” If treading one path was already hard, treading two was an accomplishment.

“Stop buttering me up,” she told me, but her puffed-out chest seemed to contradict what she said. “Yes, source users rarely try to become pursue both paths since it’s time- and resource-consuming. Not to mention that you require the right talent.”

What she said made a lot of sense. She and Spitzer were probably an exception to this, however, as they looked to be unique individuals.

Speaking of resources…

“Hey, is it possible for people to train source power without the use of source crystals?”

“Ah, I forgot to tell you that. Try circulating the source energy in your body. It’s one way to train your source power as well as to resist the corrupting power of the red fog. Source energy also exists in the air, but it’s unrefined, unlike the one you store in your body.”

“Oh, interesting.”

We continued practicing some more — more like learning from her — before Lunaria returned with information about the pale cruncher’s location.

“I have confirmed its location — it should be under the pile of rubble over there.” Luna-1 projected a 3D map of the sinkhole and marked the location of the pale cruncher. It was luckily not buried too deep.

“Oooh! What kind of map is this?!” Tuilë’s eyes were sparkling and her hands trembling, almost unable to hold themselves from pouncing on the drone and disassembling it.

Noticing the danger, Luna-1 quickly hid in my backpack. There was a flash of disappointment on her face, but I decided to play the oblivious. I couldn’t lose the drone at this critical juncture.

“Ahem! Let’s make our way to the pale cruncher and get its source crystal, shall we?” was what I said, but the distance between us made it not feasible to carve out a path manually even after becoming an enhancer.

She proposed, “I think it’s easier to climb and make a hole on top of the pale cruncher.”

“That’s true. But can you climb— No, my bad, that’s a stupid question.”

“Heh.” She grinned and leaped onto the sharp and jagged three-meter-tall pile of rubble in just a single jump. “Do you need a hand?”

“No need.” I forgot that she was physically strong,

Being an enhancer, I possessed more strength than before. Although it took me a few jumps and a bit of climbing to get where she was, it didn’t pose as much of a challenge.

We subsequently headed for the cruncher’s location, which was about fifteen meters in our ten o’clock direction. With the lightning claw condensing in her hand, she pressed it upon the ground, unleashing a lightning storm that made a hole in the pale cruncher.

“Such power.” I couldn’t help but be amazed the second time.

“Phew. This is my limit…” It appeared to have taken a toll on her, as could be seen from her light panting. “Alas, I have but a little talent as an evoker.”

“Hey, don’t belittle yourself. Everyone has their own set of talents. Besides, you did great in my opinion. Really.”

“You think so?”

“I do. No one can be good at everything, so you don’t have to push yourself so hard.” Even I myself wasn’t good in a lot of things: difficult science like chemistry, a tough sport that required a lot of tackling like rugby, or even simple things like washing clothes without the use of a washing machine; it was hard if you were incompatible with those things.

Her mood quickly switched back as she broke into a toothy grin. “Indeed.”

Focusing back on the matter at hand, we cleared the broken concrete debris on our way down and partially unearthed the pale cruncher. As expected of a Third Order, the corpse was somewhat intact despite being bombarded with explosives as well as falling debris weighing up to tons.

At first glance, it looked like it might be alive, but it was certainly dead. The reason I was so sure was none other than the status screen.

Condition: Dead

“Do you know where the source crystal is located?” I asked.

“For a humanoid monster like this, they usually have theirs near the heart. Just below the sternum.” She pointed her finger at the middle of its chest.

“Let me.” I felt bad if she had to do everything, and this could give me some experience at bisecting a strange and bizarre creature, too.

I tried to cut open the part that she’d pointed but was unable to put a scratch to it with the sharp hunting dagger; it felt like cutting a block of hardened steel with an iron knife. Consequently, I switched into the stone dagger, channeled the source energy inside me into the Electro catalyst stone inlaid within, infused it with lightning, and tried again.

The blade of the dagger managed to pierce about twenty centimeters deep before stumbling upon something. There, a source crystal as big as a football with an even more concentrated appearance and more yellow veins creeping inside were visible. Unlike the usual elongated shape, it was more oval instead.

“You need this for the robot that you’re making?” I didn’t think that making a robot with a Third-Order source crystal had a good cost performance.

She shook and then nodded her head. “To be honest, yes and no. A Second-Order source crystal would have sufficed, but to make something with limitless potential, then I can’t say no to something better.”

“Damn… You sure are one greedy girl.” Good grief.

“What’s wrong with that?” Tuilë didn’t bother to hide her passion.

“Well…” It wasn’t like there was anything wrong with being greedy as long as you didn’t take it too far. This much I understood.

I secured the Third-Order source crystal inside my backpack.

“Hey, I spotted my gun!” Tuilë raised her voice, running toward her lost gun along with its battery inside the backpack. “Aww… It’s broken. Oh well, I just have to repair it later.”

“It’s good that you found your weapon, but do you have any other catalyst weapon in hand?” I felt bad taking the stone dagger that she had made for herself.

“Worry not. You know what I’m capable of!”

“Fair enough. Anyways, let’s make haste to the tunnel so that we can get out.”

“Uh-huh!”

We swiftly trekked the pile of rubble and down to the ground where we were previously at to get to the sewer tunnel that I’d discovered much earlier.

“Crap. It’s about ten meters above the ground… That’s going to be a bit of a stretch for me.”

While we could take the concrete debris and pile them up to make an elevated ground up to the tunnel, that would take too long. By this time, it was already past noon if I didn’t have my sense of time wrong. The more we wasted time here, the higher the chance that something might go awry.

“Look here, I may have a way to get us up there.” Tuilë revealed an impish smile.