Chapter 73. Difference in the Order

Chapter 73. Difference in the Order

Before leaving, I decided to eat another apple pie and drink a glass of peach juice. I genuinely liked them.

Right at that moment, a waiter was carrying the same dessert to a nearby table.

"Excuse me, I’d like to place an order," I said.

The waiter didn’t react at all.

Ah, right… I’d completely forgotten that Rem had used some kind of skill that made our voices inaudible to the other guests in the cafeteria. I couldn’t even imagine how many skills she had.

"You can talk to the waiter now," Rem said, apparently turning the skill off.

"Excuse me, I’d like to place another order," I repeated.

"Yes? What would you like?" the waiter asked as he came closer.

"One more apple pie and a glass of juice."

"Alright. I’ll bring your order soon," he said, then walked away.

--

We were in the training room, and Sherial was inspecting the crude little structure I’d built here—two small rooms and a bathroom—with obvious interest.

"You know…" she began, peeking into one of the rooms and judging my work. "You could really use professional builders."

"Sorry, but that’s impossible," I said. "I can’t let builders come in here. Then they’ll find out about my Training Room skill."

Sherial thought for a second, then shrugged.

"You don’t have to tell them it’s part of your skill. We can just pretend we’re teleporting them somewhere far away for the construction work."

I froze for a moment, then nodded.

"Maybe… you’re right. That could work."

And she was right. If we simply told the builders we were teleporting them to a remote location for the job, it’s unlikely anyone would suspect it was a separate space—or a part of my skill.

"Alright," Sherial said, glancing around. "So where’s the fire sword?"

I quickly pulled it out from where I’d stored it and handed it to her.

"Here. That sword."

Taking it, Sherial examined it carefully.

"Just to confirm," she said, looking up. "The walls and the floor here are solid stone, right? Strong enough? In case the flames get out of control."

"Yes," I answered confidently. "I’ve tested a lot of things in here. Neither the walls nor the floor even got scratched."

When it came to the training room’s durability, I had complete confidence.

"Good," Sherial said shortly.

The next moment, the blade of the fire sword flared with flame. She swung it a few times, as if getting used to the feel, then stopped, pointed the tip toward the wall—and a stream of fire burst out.

The flame didn’t reach the wall. We were almost in the center of the hall, about forty meters away, and the stream stretched only around thirty.

"Hmm…" Sherial murmured thoughtfully. "Not bad."

She lowered the sword.

"It’s not powerful enough, of course," she continued, "but against small monsters—or ones that are weak to fire—this weapon will be great."

The flame on the blade died out, and Sherial handed the sword back to me.

I took it and tried to do the same. I focused… tried to copy what she’d done. The blade warmed for a moment—and that was it. No fire. No flames.

"How did you do that?" I asked with a frown.

"Do what?" Sherial asked, genuinely confused.

"The sword. How did you make it ignite and shoot a stream of fire?"

Sherial smiled faintly.

"It’s simple. Push your mana into the sword. When it enters, you’ll feel a response—and you’ll understand how to control the flames."

"Push mana…?" I frowned even harder. "And how exactly do I do that?"

I honestly didn’t understand anything.

How do you even push mana into a weapon?

"Rem is better at teaching," Sherial said. "Much better than me."

"Can you help him figure it out?" she asked, turning to Rem, who had been watching us calmly the whole time.

"Of course," Rem replied, letting out a quiet breath. From the way she looked, it was clear she wasn’t exactly enthusiastic.

"She’s the best at it out of everyone I know," Sherial added, looking at me.

--

Ten minutes later.

Yeah… Rem really was an excellent teacher.

She explained everything calmly, clearly, and in a way that made perfect sense—as if she’d done it hundreds of times before. No extra words, no complicated terms—only what actually mattered.

I held the sword in my hands.

I closed my eyes and focused on the sensations inside my body.

I felt something flowing within me. It wasn’t blood—something completely different. Lighter, more pliable.

Mana.

Carefully, I guided a portion of that flow from my hand into the sword.

And suddenly I understood—mana was flowing not only through my body, but through the sword as well.

As if the weapon had become an extension of me.

Near the blade, I felt something strange.

Like there was something like a sponge… but not quite. More like a structure that could absorb and hold mana.

I directed the flow there.

The blade burst into flame.

"It worked…" I exhaled.

I made a few swings.

"That’s awesome…"

Now—the stream of flame.

So… what do I do?

More mana.

I strengthened the flow. Mana began to gather near the center of the blade, and yet it stayed under my control, as if it was waiting for a command.

I pushed it toward the very tip of the sword.

And the next moment, a stream of fire erupted from the blade.

Exactly the same as when Sherial did it.

"I did it!" I said, unable to hide my excitement.

"Nice," Sherial said with a smile.

"Not bad," Rem said calmly.

"Alright, Rem," Sherial said. "Let’s begin. Let’s get to the main point. Show us how your new skill works."

I wanted to play with the fire sword a little more… I mean, train with it, not play. But I could do that later when I was alone. Right now I was far more interested in seeing what kind of new skill Rem had obtained.

"Before you use your new skill, can you summon Rank-1 golems the normal way, without using the new skill? That way we can clearly see the difference," Sherial said.

"Alright," Rem replied.

Sherial and I stepped back, giving Rem space.

Ten magical circles appeared in front of her, each about a meter in diameter.

Stone golems began to emerge from them.

Small stone golems.

No… I was wrong.

I’d just gotten used to Rem summoning huge eight-meter golems.

These were much smaller.

Though even calling them “small” was relative—each one was a little taller than me, about two meters. Thick stone arms, massive legs… they looked solid and powerful.

And then Sherial suddenly lunged forward—straight toward the golems.

The golems moved to meet her.

Impact.

Sherial punched one of them—and it shattered into large chunks of stone.

The second—right after it.

What the hell is she doing?

"Why are you just standing there? Join in," Sherial said.

Not understanding what was going on, I glanced at Rem. She only gave a small nod.

Ah… now I got it.

We were supposed to fight Rem’s golems.

By then, Sherial had already destroyed nine out of ten. Only one remained. It looked like she’d deliberately left one for me.

I stepped closer.

The golem pulled its arm back to strike me, but it was moving far too slowly. I stepped in and punched it in the torso.

Its body simply tore apart, and stone fragments flew outward with a clang, striking the walls of the training room.

Looks like I overdid it…

It was just that their appearance made them seem unbelievably durable.

(---)

Wow… that was unexpected. I didn’t even realize you could gain experience points for destroying golems summoned by people.

Though… wasn’t it way too little experience for a Level 15 golem? Even monster rabbits gave about ten times more experience at the same level.

Maybe these golems were just too weak? I should ask.

"Weren’t those golems too weak?" I said—then immediately hesitated. Did that sound rude?

"What do you mean?" Sherial asked.

"I mean… they looked really powerful, but in reality they were way too weak," I explained.

"What did you expect?" she replied calmly. "They were only Rank-1 golems, and you’re already Rank 5. Nine more levels and you’ll reach Rank 6. Compared to you, of course they’ll feel weak."

Oh… yeah. She was right.

Maybe I’d gotten strong enough that golems like that now felt insignificant.

"Also, I didn’t know you could get experience points for defeating summoned golems," I said.

"Of course you can," Sherial answered. "You just get a lot less experience than you would from dungeon monsters or wild monsters."

And then an idea came to me.

"Earlier you said rich people and aristocrats spend enormous money to level up. They buy experience potions, hoard origin mushrooms, rare resources…" I began thinking out loud. "But wouldn’t it be easier to just hire a summoner and fight like this? Safely. Just defeating summoned creatures. Yes, you’d get less experience, but… shouldn’t it still be cheaper and faster than buying rare resources?"

"It’s easier to show you why aristocrats don’t do that," Rem said suddenly.

"Show me?" I repeated, not understanding what she meant.

At that same moment, a large magical circle—about two meters in diameter—appeared in front of her. A four-meter stone golem rose from it.

As soon as it fully formed, it moved toward me. It was much faster than the stone golems Rem had been summoning earlier.

When it reached me, it raised its fist, ready to strike.

I reacted instinctively.

I hit its leg with all my strength—its stone limb shattered. The golem fell. I stepped in and struck again, then punched its head.

The stone head split, and the rest of the golem crumbled right after it.

I looked at Rem.

She was silent.

Sherial was also just watching me.

"What was that…?" I muttered. "You said you’d show me something… but what exactly?"

The stone fragments began turning into light and disappearing.

I frowned. I was supposed to understand something… but I didn’t.

"You’re saying you still don’t get it?" Rem asked.

"No… sorry," I admitted honestly. "I really don’t."

"What happened when you destroyed that golem?" Sherial asked.

"Nothing… It just fell apart into stone and vanished. That’s all."

"And when you destroyed the Rank-1 golem?" she continued.

"Well… then its fragments flew everywhere…" I began—and then fell silent.

And that’s when it hit me.

The system window.

When I destroyed the Rank-1 stone golem, a system message appeared:

I defeated a Level 15 golem and gained experience points.

But just now—nothing.

No window. No notification.

I didn’t get a single point of experience.

"Oh… looks like you understood the difference," Sherial said.

"Yeah… but why?" I asked. "That golem was stronger. Why didn’t I get experience?"

"The answer is very simple," Rem said calmly. "I ordered the first golems to kill you. But that one—I ordered it to just strike the ground next to you."

I froze.

Now everything fit together.

"To gain experience points… the enemy has to truly be trying to kill you…" I said slowly.

"Exactly," Sherial nodded. "You can’t just summon something and safely farm it. The system doesn’t count that."

"So even if aristocrats hire a summoner…" I started.

"The summoner has to order their creatures to kill the target," Rem finished. "Otherwise the system doesn’t treat the fight as real."

I thought about it.

"What if they order it to kill… but stop at the last second?"

"Then from the start, the winner gets nothing," Rem replied. "If the order contains restrictions for safety, the system sees it. No experience is awarded."

"Got it now?" Sherial added. "You can’t level up while staying completely safe."

I nodded slowly.

But still…

"Even so… it’s still safe for us. We’re stronger than these golems. Couldn’t we level up this way?"

Sherial shook her head.

"You could… but it would be far too slow."

Ah… she was right.

If I really thought it through and did the math, to gain even a single level, I’d have to destroy hundreds of millions of Rank-1 golems.

Wow… that’s not just slow.

That’s horrifyingly slow.

And Rem can’t summon them endlessly either. Sooner or later her mana will run out. Yes, low-rank golems cost little mana, but there’s still a limit.

"Break’s over," Sherial said. "Rem, use your new skill and summon Rank-1 golems again."

Oh, finally…

I was about to see Rem’s new skill.