The news of Mikella achieving maxed skills, three at once, resounded throughout Eve Glade’s base of operations in the biodome. Zeke wasn’t sure whether getting everyone to know about her progress was a good idea or not. He had this nagging thought that they would look at her in envy, and potentially become hostile towards her success.

He was very glad to find out how wrong he was. Every soldier, including Zacharia’s retinue, became bolstered at the news. The time of the day didn’t matter anymore as everyone rushed to get extra training in. Especially in Zeke’s barrier where their mana is restored passively while inside.

Due to that, the next day after they arrived became extremely hectic. And the person who spread that knowledge of Mikella’s success was none other than the lords themselves.

Mikella, of course, told this to Val, which then got to Cloud, which then he gloated to Zacharia, and finally Zacharia took this chance to tell every one of the soldiers to get their asses moving.

Actually, he heard that Zacharia practically belittled them for letting this ‘little girl’ improve so much that she could beat them all with one arm tied behind her back. The worst part for all the retinue soldiers is that it’s probably the truth. Mikella became a monster as each soldier asked for a sparring session against her, hoping for some of her momentum to stick onto them.

It was proven that Zacharia was right all along. She trounced them with her improved skills, becoming faster, stronger, and more reactive than ever before. Her movements were sharp, precise, and borderline nonsensical to the untrained eye.

While Mikella was getting hounded with sparring sessions with the soldiers, Myra and Piker seemed adamant in fighting against one another. At first, Zeke thought the two didn’t like the idea of Mikella surpassing them. He worried that they would start distancing themselves from her.

But once again, he was glad to be proven wrong. If anything, he started to worry that their opposite attunements might hurt themselves from the way they kept fighting each other so fervently. Piker’s ice attunement froze over Myra’s fire attunement, and her own fire melted his ice. It became a back and forth, proving that they were equal in power. Zeke sometimes had to go over there and heal them from their excess injuries. Apparently thanks to the barrier’s regeneration properties, they would take it too far sometimes.

That didn’t make Zacharia or Val try to stop them. If anything, as long as the healers were around, they could keep at each other. Thanks to all that, they gained a plethora of stat points to bolster their bodies even further.

Soon, something strange happened. It was a minor thing, almost like a rumor, but every soldier that Zeke came across started to talk about how their progress improved thanks to fighting against Mikella.

It was as though her own way of fighting opened their eyes, making them realize something about their own skills and fighting style that made them level up their skills faster than they ever could on their own. Even the soldiers from Zacharia’s retinue began to talk about Mikella as though she was some momentum magnet that instantly roused everyone’s skills to level up.

She became more popular as each day passed, and for each day that passed, Zeke became… melancholic.

He was glad for Mikella’s success, and even gladder that everyone is relying on her for their own improvement. She was like a coach or a trainer, helping them get over their personal walls with her advice or even just a tip or two to fight against her.

But while that was happening, Zeke felt that his progress had completely slowed to a halt. He didn’t feel like he was progressing at all. Thanks to the stuffy collar on his neck, he felt that he can’t use his magic as often, forcing him to rely more on just studying runes again during the downtime.

But he knew, deep inside, that this wouldn’t work. He could learn more about runes all day, but he knew that reading all the books and studying them inherently won’t let him improve any more than usual. It was because he was unmotivated, and he knew the reason why.

He felt his supporter status was becoming pointless. As everyone kept improving, it became more apparent that they wouldn't need a support mage anymore. For Zeke, he should be happy that people can continue fighting without relying on him for their safety. And he was.

But at the same time, he found himself in a rut with no way out. He kept practicing his runes with his pens, trying to level up his Class Skills but to no avail. No matter how many days spent, there wasn’t any progress, as far as he knew, with his skills. His level was stuck, and he had gotten so unmotivated that he hadn't even checked his Class Skill option yet.

What was the point?

Suddenly, he heard the door open up beside him. Zeke flinched, realizing that he was delving too deep into his thoughts again in the living room. He was currently at the Ashton house, the tiny abode Zeke and Mikella were staying at. It wasn’t anything impressive, and it shouldn’t be considering it was just a one-story house with two rooms for themselves. They didn’t have much materials on hand.

He was currently drawing just nonsense runes on his floating barriers with four of his pens. He was trying to level up his Parallel thought at the time, only to realize that he left one of his thoughts spiraling down a dark path. He supposed he found out that there were downsides to having multiple thoughts running at the same time.

Mikella entered the room, drenched in sweat with a towel hanging over her shoulders. She was wearing the casual sort of leather armor, only covering her torso and lower body. She wore simple boots for easier movement rather than for rough terrain traveling, and she wore no bracers. There were obvious blisters on her hands and wrists, proving that she had done nothing but train all day with her weapons.

“Hey Zeke,” Mikella called out casually, showing a beaming smile that he felt was too damn bright for this room.

“Hey Mikky,” He called out back, mostly on autopilot. He didn’t want to sour her good mood.

Unfortunately, he must be pretty obvious as Mikella stared at his face, her own frowning.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“What’s wrong? You look pretty down. Anything happen?”

Zeke winced, completely forgetting the nonsense rune training he was putting on. As soon as the pens disappeared into his storage pack, Mikella took this chance to sit down beside him. Despite being riddled with sweat, the runes within the Ashton House made it possible to avoid any form of BO to occur as well as providing a cool temperature like a powerful AC all throughout the house.

The benefits of being a Runist were great. Really great.

Yet despite all that, he felt like a child being admonished for… showing emotion? Somehow that felt wrong.

“Zeke, what’s wrong?” Mikella asked, this time showing more concern in her voice.

He already knew what’s about to happen, so in the end, he accepted his fate and told her.

He told her everything.

“I just… I just feel really jealous, that’s all.”

Well, at least the main crux of his issues. That’s what it all boils down to, in the end.

“I’m jealous of you guys training together and sparring together. I’m jealous that you get to hunt monsters together, like a team–like comrades.”

Like team members in the role playing games he always played. Whenever he thought about Mikella, Myra, and even Piker together, he imagined a group of powerful adventurers together on a journey to defeat the final boss.

Then there was that mage in the group, the only one at the back line while the three of them fight to survive.

He knew it felt dumb. Actually, it really was dumb. But that’s how it felt.

“I also feel stuck, like I can’t do anything anymore.”

Strangely, he kept speaking, bringing out the emotions he kept swirling within himself. He normally doesn’t do this. He didn’t like burdening others like this.

But somehow, Mikella listened intently without interrupting him. Eventually, he stopped. The living room fell silent once he did, leaving Zeke to wonder whether Mikella was just too tired to fully comprehend it all.

He wouldn’t blame her. She did just trained a lot just now, and was now bombarded with this sob story of his. The more he thought about it, regret filled him as he was about to leave to give Mikella some peace when–

“Shit, I’m so sorry.”

That stopped Zeke, making him pause as he turned to find Mikella actually shame-faced. She looked down at the floor, her fingers clasping together.

“I should’ve seen it. Of course you’d feel like that. I did ask you to stay out of the way.”

“Huh?” Zeke asked, puzzled. He tilted his head. “No, you made a good point. And you even advanced your skills to max out.”

“I did, yeah, but that also took you out. Even if we did share XP, it wasn’t fair to ask you to stay out. Barriers were your thing, after all. Even with your spells and your healing, when the three of us go at it, there’s not really much of a chance for you to come in. Especially if we handled things to the point where we don’t even need healing. So… yeah, I just realized that you were kept out of most things, and it was eating at you inside.”

Mikella looked back at him. Despite her earlier shame on her face, she still had the will to look him straight in the eyes. They looked remorseful, but they were also glimmering in a way.

Like she was thinking of something that got her excited.

“It kinda sounds like you really wanna train with us. So… why not do that?”

“...What?” Zeke asked, now completely perplexed.

“Just train with us! Spar with us too, while you’re at it. Who’s saying you can’t?”

“Umm, reality?” Zeke asked sarcastically before shaking his head. “You should know why. Hell, weren’t you the one that said that I should stay back when I wanted to try that training course?”

“I did, yes,” Mikella nodded. “But after hearing you out, I changed my mind.”

“Y-You can’t do that!” Zeke rebuked, but Mikella only stared at him hard.

“Really? I’m not allowed to change my mind after hearing your side?”

“Uhh… kinda?” Zeke paused, somehow actually losing this weird argument he made for himself.

“Okay, seriously,” Mikella crossed her arms, still staring hard at him with that sharp look in her eyes. “What’s bugging you?”

“Like I said, I can’t just train! I’m a support mage. My highest stat is Spirit, for crying out loud. It’s too late for me to make any changes. And even if I did, I’ll just be spreading myself too thin. By the time I get into higher levels, because I kept doing different things at once, I’ll end up weaker than your average support mage. That’s why!”

Once he got into the rhythm of his logic, he became more confident after each word. He wasn’t trying to put Mikella down, just that her idea of trying to spar with them felt… felt…

What exactly was he trying to argue about?

“Nobody’s saying you have to change from support mage to warrior, Zeke,” Mikella scoffed. “I know what you mean. It’s that ‘min-max’ thing, right? Where gamers put all their points into the right stats to get the best out of their characters, sacrificing everything else to get enough power or something?”

Zeke stayed silent, already figuring that Mikella knew him by heart since she was using gamer terms. He hated to admit it–she read him pretty easily.

“But that’s the thing–this isn’t a game, Zeke. This is real life! Nothing’s actually stopping us from dipping our hands into new skills or fighting techniques. ‘Course, learning too many different skills that don’t make sense with one another is one thing, but what’s stopping you from training yourself? From learning how to fight better without magic?”

Zeke once again kept his mouth shut, listening as Mikella continued.

“I know that you’re worried,” Mikella let out a big breath, staring at him now with a soft look that made his heart quiver. “About ruining yourself and losing big gains later on. But I don’t like that. That kind of thought process feels controlling. What happens when you keep focusing on nothing but magic, and you end up in a situation where you can’t use it anymore? That’s why I’m trying to learn how to use my attunement–because I know my weapons aren’t enough in this world. I need to expand, to get better.”

Mikella offered a smile at him.

“So you deserve to do the same.”

Zeke felt a lot of things from those words. A sense of confusion and puzzlement, as though entering into a fog and having nowhere to go.

But at the same time, something warm exuded from his chest. Not the usual kind of warmth whenever Mikella smiles at him–the kind of warmth as though whatever weight he put on himself had been lifted.

What, exactly, was holding him back? Trying to min-max in real life? That was ridiculous.

So… why doesn’t he try to train and spar with them? What’s stopping him?

All of a sudden, the memory of Cloud’s words when they were traversing the giant hole into this biodome came into his mind. Now he felt so stupid for being stuck in his own mind for so long.

He closed his eyes, letting her words fill his mind along with Cloud’s advice. This world had no limits–the only limit was yourself.

And he didn’t plan on limiting himself anymore.

“...Alright,” Zeke eventually said. “Mikky? Can I ask you a huge favor?”

“Sure, what’s up?” Mikella asked. Though the smile on her face proved that she already knew.

“...Can you train me tomorrow?”