Chapter 289 Link and Rio, Eternal Rivals... Part-3.
Chapter 289 Link and Rio, Eternal Rivals... Part-3.
So he glanced at Rio and asked in confusion,
"What happened?"
Rio stared at those bolts of lightning for a moment and said,
"Someone has blocked the area from prying mana detections from outside, likely the work of that elven queen who was teaching her..."
Hearing Rio's words, Link smiled a bit and said in a calm tone,
"Oh, that might be because she must have wanted to stop people from knowing what was happening there, right?"
Rio nodded his head at Link's words and said,
"Such a big scene happened, it's likely that your father and other SS-rankers might be there too..."
Rio and Link don't know about the thunder of heaven's jealousy, so they both have no idea what's going on actually.
Link indeed did survive the heavenly wrath, but he was just a newborn baby at that time, and he has no memories of it.
Moreover, Ashtel has never told him about it; only the SS-rankers know the true story. Link only knows that natural disasters happened during his birth.
He doesn't know that Ashtel has shattered the space-time fabric to save his life.
Thus he didn't recognize that lightning, even though it's visible from so far away.
And on the other hand, Rio never read about someone below rank SS getting struck by lightning while ascending in the book.
That only happens when you try to ascend above rank SS.
Not even Link or Rio attracted the heavenly wrath when they ascended to rank A, even though they have such insane talents.
But Riya, who is usually not even interested in increasing her rank, actually ended up attracting the heavenly punishment, which is very bizarre.
This just shows how insane her talent in healing magic actually is.
She literally forced the world to acknowledge her and made the will of heaven feel jealous of her.
(By the way, 'The World' and 'The Heaven's will' are both separate things, don't count them together...)
...
Link glanced towards the falling lightning and said in a hesitating voice,
"Uh, well... if my father and others are there, I think I should wait. They likely won't let me see her right now as she is ascending..."
It took immense determination for Link to stop himself from rushing straight towards Riya's location after finally finding out where she was.
Although he is excited to see her again, he doesn't want to hinder her progress either, so he was hesitant to move.
Seeing that nervous look on Link's face, Rio shook his head and walked towards his own patient bed.
He grabbed his space ring and shadow robe's ring before saying,
"Let's go to the rooftop. We can see from there more clearly..."
Link was a bit reluctant to move his eyes from those bolts of lightning, but at Rio's words, he decided to move.
Both of them checked out of the infirmary and then jumped into the air to go directly to the empty rooftop of the infirmary.
Usually, this place is locked up, and no one comes here, so they both can just sit here without getting discovered by the staff.
While Link paced back and forth on the rooftop, Rio just sat on the guard-rail and made himself some tea.
He already has a cup, so he just made water with sword intent and then boiled it with fire-type sword intent and then drank the tea.
Link was so shocked by all this that he forgot about his anxiety for Riya.
"W-Wait... did you just use a legendary rank skill as a tea-making equipment!? I-insane... bruh you are insane!!"
Only then did Link understand why Rio's control over his 'Sword Intent' improves so fast.
This guy is doing delicate household work with a legendary skill!!
If you use a skill '24x7' to do extremely delicate work like using an extremely deadly move to warm water without breaking the frail cup, then obviously your control over that skill will increase like crazy.
But no sane person would try to use an attack skill that can literally destroy anything in its way as a cooking fuel!
Link's eyes widened in shock when he saw Rio do all that.
He knew all too well how difficult it is to control a legendary rank skill in such a way that it doesn't harm the cup and only boils the water.
'This guy usually looks so nonchalant, but he's an insane battle junkie!! He trains his skills even while drinking tea!!'
Yes, all this while, Rio was training his control over sword intent whenever he drank tea.
(He's just obsessed with tea, Link is just praising him too much...)
Rio handed over another cup of tea to Link and said,
"Hmm, what? You can have another cup, no need to glare at my cup like that..."
Rio mistook Link's gaze as he was eying his tea, so he just gave him another by making it with the same process again.
Link accepted that cup, but his eyes always stayed on the bottom of the cup.
Rio had boiled the water without making a single scratch on the cup, which shows how extreme his mastery is.
'So this is how he has gained such mastery over sword intent... I really underestimated this guy, he trains even when relaxing... a true battle junkie through and through...'
A look of determination flashed by in Link's eyes.
Originally, he felt that he might be able to get an upper-hand on Rio after the 'Law of Dao Rhythm' got strengthened, but now he isn't sure.
Just that one cup of tea was enough to convince him that he still needed to work harder.
Otherwise, he might never be able to catch up to Rio's level of mastery over his legendary skill at all.
'Even when I make some progress, I always feel that Rio is still a bit stronger… this guy, he is…'
Link stared at the falling bolts of thunder and said in a calm voice,
"You really are my Eternal Rival, Rio Flash…"
This time Rio was taken aback by that sudden change of mood, but he didn't think too much and just replied simply,
"I think the same about you too… you are a great rival…"
None of them knew when that rivalry turned into a friendship, but first and foremost, the two of them are a source of motivation for each other.
In the future, people will sing songs to describe the greatness of their rivalry and the journey they took to reach their destinations.
…
Just then, Lia and the other two also came to the rooftop.
"Ugh, it was quite the hassle to guess where you guys might have wandered off to, but it seems my guess turned out correct after all… you really were on the rooftop…"
Liam rubbed his head while saying that as if he had to face a headache to find them both.
Lia walked over to Rio and asked him in a calm tone,
"You have fully recovered already from all those injuries?"
Rio nodded his head at her words.
Link ignored Liam's complaint and his eyes fell on Liam's hand.
He was holding a small box filled with snacks. Seeing that Link was eyeing those snacks, Ellie snatched them from Liam's hand and said,
"Those are mine-"
But before she could continue, Liam pinched her cheek and took them back from her while saying,
"You have been eating them for the whole day, you will become the first oversized dragon if you keep going like this, so you aren't getting any of them now…"
Ellie pouted and rubbed her reddened cheek while glaring at Link angrily.
Link could only roll his eyes and stop looking at her to avoid trouble.
Liam handed over some snacks to all of them, and since everyone was getting some, he also gave some to Ellie after seeing that pitiful look on her face.
While eating, Link asked in a doubtful voice,
"You guys went to buy these?"
Liam nodded his head and rubbed his forehead before saying,
"I only paid for them. Lia was the one who picked them up. She has a lot of knowledge in this field, it seems-"
Before Liam could continue, someone put their hand on his shoulder and a devilish whisper sounded in his ears.
"Heh… so you went shopping with Lia? I see, hehe… you wanna die or something…"
Rio's empty eyes seemed to stare right through Liam's soul. Seeing that intense glare, Liam had to clarify.
"I-i only went with Ellie, she just tagged along, nothing else bruh…"
After getting the clarification, Rio went back to his spot to sip tea and eat snacks. Liam heaved a sigh of relief.
'Damn, I felt like he was ready to stab me in the back... at least a thousand times!!…'
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and then glared at Ellie,
"Why didn't you tell me that he was about to sneak behind me?"
Ellie just pouted at his words and refused to say anything, making him feel even more of a.headache.
'Ugh, I might need to carry headache medicine from now on, these guys always make my head throb…'
In the end, Liam could only shake his head in helplessness and stopped talking.
Riya's ascension also came to an end at this moment, and things have started to settle down.
Tomorrow is the day of the award ceremony, and once that ends, they will have no more reason to stay in the Elven empire.
Their days in this place are soon going to end.
They will be going home soon.
...
...
Author's Notes.
Yo! It's your beloved author here! It seems this elven empire event is slowly coming to an end...
Question of the day.
Which one of them would you like to have if given the chance?
1. Rio's hand-made tea.
2. Liam's hand-made snacks.
3. Lia's hand-made food
4. Riya's rare collection of candies