"Now Everything's Fine."

At that moment, Laisha truly began to waver.

"You actually neutralized Space Erasure?"

No, that wasn't right.

That wasn't neutralization. It was resistance.

If it had been neutralization, then the other party should have cast magic at least as powerful as hers to achieve it.

But he had done no such thing at all. He had truly just withstood Laisha's magic.

Could it be...

"Does he possess a resistance skill?"

—"Resistance skills."

They were considered among the highest-ranking defensive skills.

Normally, defensive skills aimed to increase one's defense, allowing the user to endure damage so that it could not reach them.

For example, if someone's original defense could only withstand attacks from a level-ten opponent, then after learning a defensive skill, that defense could increase to the point where they could withstand attacks from level-twenty or even level-thirty opponents.

But resistance skills were different.

Resistance skills did not increase the user's defense, nor did they let the user endure damage in order to block it. Instead, they directly weakened the damage inflicted upon the user.

That was fundamentally different from the former.

With the former, no matter how much one stacked defense, there would eventually be an attack powerful enough to exceed it—the so-called breaking of one's defense.

But resistance skills were different.

No matter how powerful the opponent's attack was, resistance skills could directly weaken the damage itself.

And the higher the skill level, the more damage they could weaken.

In other words, the former had a limit to what it could endure, while the latter had none. Whether it was level-one damage or level-one-hundred damage, both could be weakened equally.

However, to acquire a resistance-type skill, one had to continuously endure damage until they developed "resistance" and "immunity" to a certain type of damage. It was extremely difficult.

Therefore, resistance-type skills were the hardest defensive skills to learn, but also the most powerful.

Since Shien could even resist Space Erasure, then unless he had used some rare Unique Skill or Special Skill, or a legendary Magic Item, the only possibility was that he had learned a resistance skill capable of weakening magical damage.

The problem was...

"That was advanced magic cast with a level-seven Magic: Space skill!"

Even with a resistance skill, it would have been understandable if he could resist part of the damage. But to completely nullify it—just how high would the skill level have to be?

At the very least, it would need to be the same level as the Magic: Space skill, level seven, to achieve that, right?

And Laisha had the support of her Unique Skill, which not only removed the need for chanting but also amplified her magic.

In that case, unless he possessed a level-eight or even level-nine resistance skill, there was absolutely no way he could have done it.

But this man was only level ten!

He was only level ten. How could he possibly possess such a high-level, difficult skill?

"That must mean he used his Unique Skill, or the Holy Sword's power."

It was said that the Heroes' Holy Swords possessed all kinds of astonishing effects.

For instance, they could raise their wielder's level.

For instance, they could enhance their wielder's skills.

And they could even protect their wielder from damage, directly immunizing them against a certain amount of damage like a resistance skill.

Legends described how, when the Heroes faced powerful members of the Demon Race, the Holy Sword's blessing would partially negate the attacks of however many demons they faced.

In particular, the Hero who defeated the Demon Lord a thousand years ago could supposedly negate half the damage from any opponent.

Even now, this was regarded as a legend, recorded in books of tales and all manner of novels.

If that was the case, then Shien must have used the Holy Sword.

Yet even as Laisha convinced herself of that, she could not help looking at the bundle Shien had kept slung over his shoulder.

There was no sign that bundle had ever been opened.

That made Laisha waver again.

On the ground, Shien, who clearly saw all this, brightened.

"Perfect!"

While she was wavering, he would kick her while she was down.

Shien made that decision without the slightest psychological burden.

However, Laisha seemed to suppress her shaken emotions and let out a breath.

"It seems that not only your Holy Sword, but your Unique Skill is also quite powerful."

Laisha said that.

Clearly, in the end, Laisha attributed the reason to the Hero's powerful Unique Skill.

"Just as you said, I probably can't deal with you either." Laisha gave Shien a deep look. "You're more extraordinary than I imagined. Perhaps even the Hero who defeated the Demon Lord a thousand years ago..."

She stopped there, then sighed again.

"Let's leave it at that for today."

Laisha withdrew all her magic power, and her expression returned from icy cold to how it had been before.

"Are you running away?"

Shien immediately provoked her.

"Do you intend to keep me here?" Laisha asked with a half-smile. "Forget it. Even if you use the Holy Sword, defeating me wouldn't be a problem, but you absolutely can't stop me from leaving."

After all, Laisha possessed spatial magic.

With a single spatial movement, Laisha could easily leave the battlefield.

"Still, you don't need to worry about me fleeing. I simply don't want to fight you anymore."

Laisha pulled an envelope that looked like an invitation from her chest and tossed it toward Shien.

Shien watched it happen.

Then he let the envelope fall to the ground.

"Why didn't you catch it!?"

Laisha could not help complaining again.

And Shien's reply was equally forceful.

"Wouldn't someone who catches something thrown at them by an enemy who just tried to kill them be an idiot?"

Shien shot back.

Given the atmosphere just now, catching it naturally might have looked cooler, and novels often wrote scenes like that, but Shien had often wondered before while reading novels.

"What if they threw a bomb at you?"

So Shien instinctively refused to catch it.

"You!"

Laisha was so furious at his retort that her chest heaved, inadvertently drawing some of Shien's attention.

He had to admit, this girl had a really good figure.

"Forget it!" Laisha said through gritted teeth. "I'll return to Lamigium. If you want to see me, come directly to the address written there!"

After saying that, Laisha seemed worried that Shien would refuse to follow the script again and shouted repeatedly.

"Remember to come! Otherwise, you'll regret it!"

Leaving those words behind, Laisha turned and vanished as though she had melted into space.

Shien stared fixedly at the spot where she had disappeared. Only after a long while did he relax his shoulders, shift his gaze, and look at the invitation lying on the ground.

"Regret it?"

He had a feeling that going to see her would be what he regretted.

"That obviously looks like the start of getting dragged into even more trouble."

Shien had not forgotten that when Laisha first appeared, she said she had fled to Lamigium.

"Getting involved with a fugitive?"

Trouble.

A whole lot of trouble.

So...

Whoosh!

A handful of dirt flew over and buried the conspicuous invitation.

"Now everything's fine."

As though nothing had happened, Shien stretched his body, turned around, and left.

But after Shien departed, a figure appeared without a sound and picked the invitation out of the dirt.

The black-robed girl simply watched Shien leave, remaining silent for a very, very long time.