You see, ‘flow’ has a single meaning; it can be used in multiple contexts, but the interpretation will always be the same.

A ‘flow’ is the steady movement of something in a current, which could be gaseous, liquid, or electrical, but it also applies to more ethereal concepts like time, battle, and thoughts.

And obviously to [Mana] too.

Why am I talking about this right now? Because I had forgotten this simple fact when I had [Inspect]ed Undine’s [Class], and had severely underestimated her capabilities as a result.

Undince was dancing, while streams of various liquids were orbiting around her in complex patterns, but even a neophyte like me could tell that there was a surprising absence of wasted movement, with every single one of her steps deliberately chosen to bring her enemy within her range, or to step away from the enemy’s.

The mannequins were a very rudimentary type of [Golem] that I had upgraded while testing the difference between [Enchantments] and [Runes], that could do little more besides defending themselves from attacks and retaliate when the occasion was provided.

Undine did not give them any such occasion: It’s like she constantly knew what they would do and acted accordingly to what was needed for the best result to happen.

And I could tell only because I was observing the battle through my [Precognitive Aura].

When she closed in a thin stream of water cut through the [Golem] exposed flank, and when the latter tried to counter-attack it was instead stopped in its track by a shimmering shield of liquid silver, the very first [Spell] I was introduced to in this world by none other than the current user.

But there wasn’t only one mannequin in the room with her, but three. Not that it made any difference with her: Even if she were about to be struck from what should have been her blind spot she would always find a way to dodge by a hair’s breadth, still without any wasted movements. The thing is, though, that it felt very ‘wrong’ to my [Aura] whenever she looked like she was about to be caught flat-footed.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t tell what was that felt icky, so I could only make random theories about it.

The one that had the strongest backing was one that is linked to the definition of ‘flow’ that I had originally provided: She’s manipulating either the flow of time, the flow of battle, or both at the same time.

And [Holy Shot] if that isn’t OP as heck.

“Uh, an unwanted bracket, how nostalgic…”

The very same as the first bracket I uttered in this world, actually.

Step in, [Water Cut], step out, [Shimmer Shield], dodge to the side, [Dance Flow], area of attack, [Composite Whirlwind].

How did I know the name of the [Skills] and [Spells] she was using? You can thank [Gaze of the Abyss] for that.

Quite the unsung hero, the [Inspect Ability]: Everyone has it to begin with, and it eventually [Evolves] into a specialized version meant to further fit into the kit that someone had developed in the meantime, but the utility that it provides, both during combat and out of it, is not easily matched by anything else.

Anyway, she’s great in combat, both in ranged and close-up, but I can’t stop thinking about that ‘[Holy Shot]’: It felt like a deliberate call-out from my subconscious that she has some kind of [Time Affinity]… which apparently is a thing!

“Damn, I’m good!”

Toot your own horn some more, why don’t you?

“Don’t mind if I do! Also, go screw yourself.”

*sigh*

I should have never told you that I could appear in physical form.

“A bit too ‘fluttery’ for my tastes, but she definitely knows what she’s doing… and all that even without showing her [Support Abilities], which are supposed to be her strong point”, Sheeno reluctantly praises the [High Priestess] from my side.

Right, the [Buffs].

The thing that I originally really wanted to do, but succeeded seemingly randomly only later on.

I really hope that type of thing stacks instead of canceling each other out.

Definitely, something that needs to be tested as soon as possible

…

I mean, there is no reason to not do it ASAP.

“Hey, Undine? That’s more than a good enough show of your fighting skills; what we’d like to see now is your [Buffs]”, I shout over, mentally commanding the automatons to stop.

I must say, [Golems] are pretty nifty things, too bad that if I tried to make one I would probably end up giving it life later on. And I’m not so oblivious to randomly creating new beings willy-nilly.

“Who should I cast them on?” The Nymph is quick on the uptake and simply waltzes over to where we were observing her in order to move on with her evaluation.

Does calling it an ‘evaluation’ make me sound uppity? I don’t really care, out loud I might bother with a more flowery language to soften the blow, but in my mind, I can be honest with myself: If anything she shows us isn’t up to par, we might not allow her to join us.

Having thought that, she’s actually proven to be a better fighter than I, pretty obvious when you think about my less than two-month experience with [Mana] at all, versus her being born from a [Demi-Goddess] and having among the best resources her followers could buy.

Not too different from Sheeno’s upbringing, now that I think about it.

Even my theorized lack of friends while growing up might be something that they could have in common: Sheeno is [Anomalous] and [Aberrant], a stigma that normally ostracizes someone in [Nexus], while Undine has a divine parent, which means that she’s probably been on top a pedestal her whole life.

And when I say ‘they’, I mean ‘we’; but in my case, it’s wholly my fault, and no one else’s.

“Except for Ray-“

I immediately stop thinking about him, already starting to feel my eyes sting a little.

“Let me have it: I’m more experienced in this”, Sheeno said, and I nodded along.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

I’ve only ever been under the effect of my own [Buff], so I probably wouldn’t be able to tell the quality of Undine’s if I were the one to directly experience them.

“Understandable”, the [High Priestess] responds with a nod of her own before extending a pointed finger toward my companion.

A stream of light shoots out of her finger and hits Sheeno right in the chest; suddenly, the [Heliokan]’s muscle bulge out and becomes more defined, expanding her body to the limit of what her leather garments could contain.

“Woah! Ok, that’s pretty good. It feels close to a 40% increase in my [Body Statistics]!” Sheeno exclaims while jumping in place and rotating her arms in circular patterns.

“That was [Increase Might], and as you might have surmised it’s an [Enchancing Spell] that increases the target’s physical [Statistics] by around half of what they originally were”, Undine proudly explains the effects of her [Spell], “I also have another two that can increase a person’s [Mind] and [Soul]’s strength, albeit obviously only temporarily”.

“But can you stack them?” I asked out of the blue.

“I’m… sorry? As in, on top of each- Oh! I get it. Yes, I can ‘stack’ them”, the [Water Nymph] was confused by my choice of words, but I seem to still have gotten the message across.

“Let me have it!” The amazon excitedly exclaims.

“Sure”, Undine says with a little smile of her own.

She points both index fingers at Sheeno and two different colored lights impact her chest.

“Haha! My head feels light and clear and my [Mana] runs smoother and denser than normal!” As a demonstration, she summons an [Ice Spear] and it immediately starts cooling the surrounding air, generating a halo of frost around itself. Not only does her [Spell] feel more powerful, I could tell that it came out easier and faster than normal, and while costing less to generate to boot.

“[Tranquil Psyche] and [Spiritual Boost], my other two [Enhancements] that increase their respective [Statistic Type] by around half of the original amount. I can keep all three of them active on both of you with no problem, but while doing so it’s best if I don’t get distracted with melee, so I’ll limit myself to supporting from the back”, Undine explains once more, leaving me impressed with how she seems to already have some experience with buffing others mid-fight.

“Did the [Priest] make you go on excursions with them to fight monsters and gain [Exp]?” I inquired.

“Almost: We have a domesticated [Dungeon] not too far from the [Temple] itself, where we normally send our people to gain some [Levels], but I’ve been so busy as a [High Priestess] that I never found the time to actually go there more than once or twice”, She lamented, but there was a clear note of pride in there.

“Ah, I know what you mean: As a [Royal] myself I had a plethora of [Dungeons] to choose from after my coming of age ceremony; unfortunately, with all that happened afterward, and the various commitments befitting of a [Princess], I was unable to fight to my heart content more than the one time”, Sheeno remarked, while putting a hand on the priestess shoulder to convey her solidarity.

I filed away the ‘coming of age ceremony’ for another time, focusing on basking in the fact that the two women that mattered the most in this world to me were finally bonding over something that wasn’t at my expense.

“It really is obvious when it happens while you’re looking at him”, Undine said in slight wonder, and hiding quite a bit of mirth.

“Yeah, but he actually has a perception-based [Aura] that constantly tells him what is happening around him, no matter its nature”, Sheeno was quick on the uptake.

“Well, actually, I need an intent behind it to perceive it; something like an ancient trap or mechanical malfunction could still catch me unaware, but maybe not: The [System] is often unhelpful when describing limitations… at least for me”, I further clarified my girlfriend’s point.

“The [System] is sometimes whimsical like that, but it's all thanks to the [God of Creation] that wants for everyone to pave their path without having external sources telling what they can and can’t do”, Undine said while bringing her hands together in what was apparently the recognized multiversal gesture of prayer.

I was about to burst her bubble by revealing the not-so-secrets that kept this world afloat when I was slapped in the face with a big fat no.

NO

Quite literally in fact.

“Anyway, I want to test if your [Buffs] stack with mine, so keep them up for a while longer, please”, I finally informed them of my intentions.

“Oh, sure, go right ahead”, fortunately, the Nymph was happy to oblige, easing my worries that there could be some after-effect.

“Doesn’t the one affected get to have a say in the matter?” Sheeno warily asked.

“No”, I and Undine responded at the same time.

I wasted no more time and cast [Betterment] on our dear test subject.

A thin purple light momentarily shone from Sheeno’s body, but once it receded it actually took away a bit of the bulkiness that had come with the [Body Buff]… which did make her literally buff, now that I think about it.

The pale amazon took a shaky breath, making me fear the worst for a moment, but what she thunderously declared right afterward made me exhale a sigh of relief.

“I HAVE NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!! EVEN MY [STATISTICS] ARE MORE THAN DOUBLED RIGHT NOW!!!”

Besides the fact that she was shouting, the improvement didn’t match the amount of [Mana] I put behind the [Spell].

“Did it synergize with Undine’s [Buffs]?”

Highly likely: Your [Betterment] improves everything about something or someone, depending on the occasion.

You wanted to see if it could work with the already present augmentation, and so it purposely did so.

“Ooh damn, that sounds broken!”

If you do not hurry up and dismiss your [Buff], the only thing broken here will be the body of Sheeno.

Mortal bodies are not made to sustain that type of energetic strain for long periods of time.

I hurriedly canceled my [Spell].

“Hey, what gives!? I was feeling awesome!” Sheeno lamented when the light completely went away and her bulk returned.

“My [System] informed me that you would have incurred serious back-lash if I were to maintain the combination any longer”, I said as seriously as I could, making her rebuke die in her throat.

“Understandable: Low [Level] people like us just can’t handle too many exterior enhancement”, Undine hummed in understanding.

“Exactly. But why didn’t you stop me beforehand if you knew this could happen”, I asked, perplexed.

“It normally takes from three to four [Priest] focusing on a single target to start causing this type of problem: I simply did not foresee such an event happening so quickly with just the two of us. For what it counts, I’m sorry for not thinking ahead enough”, she bowed apologetically to Sheeno.

“Don’t sweat it. You get used to expecting the impossible when around him”, and with that she backhandedly pointed at me with a thumb, “I’m just glad nothing happened to me this time”.

“Kind of rude, but not untrue”, I muttered, a bit butthurt, which made both the women with me chuckle good-naturedly.

“So… am I in?” Undine asked worriedly once their laughter died down.

Sheeno looked at me, and I just raised an eyebrow as if to tell ‘Do you even need to ask?’.

“Yeah, you’re in the [Team], at least temporarily”, my companion said with a resigned smile.

“Yes!” The Nymph fist-pumped, a gesture that I found acutely cute.

“[Party: four jugs and a half pint], let’s go!” I shouted while throwing my arms in the air.

“…”

“…”

“We’re not using that as our name.”

“Definitely not.”

“Aw, come on!”

No matter how much I whined, it seemed like neither of my companions would relent to the humorous name I had invented for us.

Such a shame, really.

* * *

“So, when did you intend on leaving?” Undine asked us once she came out of the cleaning room.

We had just come out of the training room when the [Water Nymph] asked for a quick shower, so we showed her the magical equivalent I had devised while altering an existing design with my [Runes], which not only cleaned and cleansed anything in it when activated almost instantaneously but also reinvigorated the body of the people in it as if they had just taken a long and relaxing bath.

Now, I’m maybe tooting my own horn a bit too much once more, since the majority of the effects were coming from bits and bobs that Sheeno had brought herself, but I was the one that affixed them together, bound them into a single mechanism, and then modified them to be even better than the what she could find on the market, so I say that it counts.

“As soon as the [Tailor] and [Leatherworker] are done with Darwin’s new outfits”, Sheeno replied from our fancy couch, where she sat reading a book.

“I would have been ok with some ready-available stuff, but nooooo, she had to go with the fancy stuff and rope me into having my cape properly upgraded”, I said with no heat, leaning against her side, on the same couch, whilst perusing my own volume on the application of repulsive non-kinetic magic.

“And how long will that take?” She further asked, completely disregarding what I said.

“A couple of days, at most, and they should be done”, my lover answered with a shrug of her unoccupied shoulder.

“Yep, that’s right!” I mimicked a talking cat from the band of evil-doers that used to rocket into the sky.

“Then what do you suggest in the meantime?” Undine asked, worry clear in her voice, wriggling her hands.

Me and Sheeno looked at each other briefly, sharing a quick conversation with a single glance.

“Do you know how to cook?”