The Saint's Trial: Can He Resist Their Charm!?

‹No, it's just you that is abnormally strong! I've never seen someone get this strong even while still being level 5! It's probably the reason why the Quests are restricting you now!› said Ariel with a monotonous tone.

'More like, this is training! And, I just got a higher starting point! Besides, Gods that are targeting me should be much stronger than I am right now so getting this strong is definitely a thing that I must be thankful of,' Hiroto replied to her.

‹You are definitely right about that. But in this world, you are probably one of the strongest inhabitant of this world now,› Ariel said. Although she was shocked at first, she remembered that there are still a lot more worlds recorded in the Akashic Records where it was stronger than this world.

'Anyway, now that the barrier between me and Serveresta is gone. We can now try that magic blade!' Hiroto said as he felt that his mana already recovered almost 15% of his mana after 2 minutes of controlling the mana he poured inside Serveresta.

He started to pour mana into the Serveresta again to try his skill Magic Blade.

Meanwhile, Saeko who was watching the whole ordeal that Hiroto had gone through, couldn't help but her mad at him for lying to her that it is now dangerous. But before she could go there, she sensed a huge wave of invisible force push her back. Trying to sense what it was, she tried hard and eventually, she heard a notification sound on her head. This is like the notification that she first received. Although it was a downgraded version, Hiroto's girlfriends have to privilege to see their Status Window and Inventory.

›[You have learned the skill |Mana Sensing|!]

Getting the message, she now know that it was mana that was pushing her back just now. Looking at Hiroto's direction again, she saw a dazzling encore of sakura and silver colors swirling around Hiroto and his beautiful sword. The sword has a silver hilt while the blade has a silver top half, and a fading color of pink that eventually turned into silver at the very tip of the sharp edge. It is being surrounded by silver and sakura colored flames that came from a diamond, that is positioned at the connecting part of the blade and the hilt, with a deeper shade of sakura color.

She was dazzled by this sight and just stood there looking at her beloved with a love-struck gaze.

Unknown to them, there was a black haired girl with crimson eyes that was looking at Hiroto with a dazed expression like Saeko. She is hiding from a tree while popping out her head. Her hands that are formed into fists are blocking the lower part of her face. She's like a squirrel hiding in a tree, afraid of a stranger.

A few moments passed and she finally woke up from her dazed state. She immediately ran into the forest and then changed her direction to where Axel Town was with a red hue on her cheeks.

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Hiroto is trying out his new skill. At first, he tried to pour 1,000 MP into Serveresta. When he did, the blade got wrapped with a red with a few color of the current Severesta outlining it. It was a color transition from silver to pink then finally becoming red. Putting up a stance, he slashed downwards and the aura surrounding the blade shot out of the blade and tore through a row of trees, like a hot knife through butter.

‹Oh I forgot to say this. You can still practice your magic spells but you cannot use it in battle! Or else your Hidden Quest will fail!› Ariel reminded him.

'That's fine by me. I really wanted to train my sword skills in battle anyway,' replied Hiroto. Satisfied with his new skill, he looked at Saeko to call her out. What he saw was a cute creature pouting and glaring at him like she wanted to bore a hole through his body.

"S-Saeko? Is something wrong? Did I worry you?" Hiroto asked.

Saeko immediately ran towards him and tackled him. This, in turn, made them fall to the ground. Hiroto was thankful that their fall was cushioned by the patch of grass below them. He doesn't have enough time to worry about that though, as he felt a 100 combo hits of punches was executed by the girl in his arms.

"You idiot! You big BIG IDIOT! You lied to me! You didn't tell me that it was such a dangerous thing! Are you trying to make your girlfriend worry to death?!" Saeko said while still on her way to 200 hits combo.

"That, I'm sorry for worrying you Saeko. I'm really sorry. Please forgive me," said Hiroto while hugging and patting the jet-black hair of Saeko.

"What is this sword anyway?! Look, it's even emitting a scalding amount of heat! Are you not thinking about your own safety?!" asked Saeko, still furious.

"That is Serveresta, a sword that have flames as its blade. It can server anything if you insert the right amount of mana into it. I was just trying to perform a new skill when I felt the Serveresta has some problems with coping up with my mana. So I channeled all my mana into it and it changed into this one," Hiroto explained while still c.a.r.e.s.sing her hair. When he noticed that Saeko calmed down and stopped her punches, he cupped her face with his hands and proceeded to kiss her forehead.

"Don't worry about me okay? Beside, we need to be strong enough to protect ourselves from future dangers. We will also be involved in life threatening situations so you have to steel yourself okay? I know that it sounds unreasonable when we just came from a relatively peaceful world but, you need to have that much willpower to live in this world. Slowly adapt yourself with our new environment ok? Otherwise, your future sisters will think that my cute first wife is a fragile ornament only," he told her. He doesn't want her to depend too much on him. He wants her to be independent and be strong herself. Because he thinks that independent girls are more attractive, according to his previously acquired preference.*

(A/N: He based his preferences to his mom in earth(previous world before transferring in the Fantasy one) which was his aunt, and his real mom. He thinks that independent women have a certain charm in them when they act spoiled around him.)

"Nn, I will do my best and become the strongest Archer! Then, will you be proud of me?" asked Saeko while looking at him with upturned eyes.

Seeing this cute side of her, he couldn't resist anymore and kissed this cute girl in front of him.

"Yes, I will be very proud of you! I will even brag to others that you are my girlfriend! The cute Saeko that I love," Hiroto said those cheesy lines while looking straight into her eye.

"Hehehe, is that so?" she said before burying her face in his c.h.e.s.t and said, "I love you Hiro."

"I love you too Saeko. Although, we should get going and kill monsters now. We'll go back late if this goes on. I'll make it up to you later okay?" Hiroto with a smile at his cute girlfriend.

"Nn," Saeko answered. Propping himself up, he held Saeko's hand and began going towards the farmlands. Totally forgetting about the destruction he caused. Later that day, an adventurer saw the devastation caused by Hiroto's Magic Blade and called the person who caused it the 'Slash Man' or 'Slash Demon'. Labeled as the second most dangerous person to annoy along with 'Explosion Girl'.

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Heading towards the farmlands, they first spotted a horned rabbit eating a tomato-like fruit* with gusto. Saeko who saw this, wanted to spare the cute creature, but remembered the words that Hiroto told her earlier. She readied her Artemis's Bow, a recurve bow, and fired at the rabbit who was innocently eating its lunch.

(A/N: I'll think of a name for it later. Don't wanna leave things unnamed. That's why I am having trouble compiling doc.u.ments of where the heck and when did the characters appear though XD)

The rabbit felt something coming towards it and tried at flee, but it was all for naught. It was shot at the neck and died then and there.

"Aren't we too cruel for killing that creature?" asked Saeko who was a bit down after killing her first monster.

"Look, Saeko. If we didn't kill it, it would eat all the crops here and if all of them do this, the crops here will all be devoured in to time. Now tell me, who will suffer once that happens?" Hiroto explained patiently. He knew that it would take time until Saeko get used to this kind of dog eat dog world.

"I-I know that but, I still feel bad for it," Saeko said with tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

"It's ok to feel bad, it's normal. But please remember that this isn't our world anymore. There is a saying, 'When in Rome, do what Romans do!'," Hiroto said.

He took the rabbit in his inventory, using the auto-loot function of course, before saying,

"I will be the one to fight for now, you go and rest there for a bit ok?" Hiroto said and guided the distraught girl on a shade of a tree.

After placing her down, Hiroto came back to the fields and looked around to find a horned rabbit. He didn't have to look for long as he immediately spotted one that just came out of the shrubbery of the forest and ran towards the field, probably to eat some lunch.

After looking at for a while and calculating his speed, courtesy of Ariel-chan, he now know that his speed is 27m/s. Faster that the fastest man recorded in the Guinness Book of Worlds Records.

After some analysis, he found out that this rabbit can run 10m/s in its maximum speed. He then was assured that he can chase them in case they notice him sneaking at them. With Serveresta in his hands, he sneaked to the rabbit's side trying not to get noticed. When he did this, the notification sound rang out again.

›[You learned the skill |Hide|!]

›[You learned the skill |Stealth Steps|!]

›[You learned the skill |Concealment|!]

'Oh yeah, please turn off the notification sound please Ariel-chan. Just tell me the skills I gained after a battle ok?' Hiroto said before allocating points to the new skill until it reached Max level.

›[Your skill |Stealth Steps| reached Max Level!]

›[Your skill |Concealment| reached Max Level!]

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Concealment Lvl. 10(Max)

Description: The user can mask his presence and make it easy to sneak around without getting noticed. At max level, it can passively mask the user's mana and strength (can be turned on and off at will)

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Stealth Steps Lvl. 10(Max)

Description: The user's footsteps can no longer be heard. At max level, even the vibrations and the mark of your feet can no longer be seen.

•~•~•~•~•~•

'Wow! Such a nice skills! Can I combine this with other skills Ariel-chan?' asked Hiroto.

‹Obviously, yes. You have to learn how to control that concealing aura though. It takes practice. You are probably the personification of the saying, 'Practice makes Perfect'. You just need a little practice and you will master it just as quick as assigning points on your skills,› Ariel said.

'I will do that later, let me make money first though. We'll run out of money soon,' said Hiroto while dashing towards the oblivious rabbit.

When he reached the place, he swung his sword towards it's neck. The move was fluidly executed but there was a feeling that a master has transferred into a newbie's body and executed the swing. It was a refined move but there was no sense of 'mastery' in it. This is the problem of his title, Geniuses Have It Easy. He can max the level of a skill in one fell swoop but have to get the battle experience in order to execute the sword moves much more proficiently. It's no use making a baby the master of the swords if he can't execute it right.

Noticing this flaw, Hiroto wanted to try and experience more battle so that he can broaden his knowledge in the way of the sword.

But then, he felt a murderous aura coming from his back. Looking at that direction, he saw a black rabbit holding a knife at both hands with its deep crimson eyes looking at Hiroto intensely.

(Alternative Titles: 'Saeko-chan Still Needs to Get Used to It', 'Changes in Serveresta', 'The Black Rabbit')