Happy times always go by quickly.

A lively celebration feast has passed, and the itinerary of the Loki family has also turned on the right track.

Everyone has their own things to keep busy.

Finn, Riveria, and Grace need to prepare for the next expedition.

The rest of the regiment, under the orders of the leaders, began to invest the money earned from the expedition in various affairs.

Diona, Theogne and others still have to repair weapons, Bert was arrested for his absence yesterday, and today he was also arrested, and he went to deal with chores with a stinky face, and even Refia mixed with a few elves to help Riveria check the information, as if he was going to find out the information of those new breeds of monsters.

Under such circumstances, Rig and Ace were idle.

After all, the weapons of the two of them are not bad weapons, although they do not need maintenance, they are not as worn-out as the rest of the team members, and the chores have already been taken care of by Bert in the past, so the two of them have nothing important to do.

So, Rieger once again proposed sparring to Ace.

Naturally, Ace had no reason to refuse.

The girl knew that every time Li Ge leveled up, she needed to get used to her strength at the current stage so as not to cause inconsistency.

This time, too, Li Ge was promoted to Lv.5, and there was no unexpected feeling of incongruity, and someone urgently needed to practice to get himself used to his current strength.

It's the old routine, and Ace casually agreed.

It's just that the result of this sparring is completely different from the past.

"Bell ——!"

When Ace raised her saber and blocked the head-on slash like thunder, the astonishing power transmitted from the bright silver dagger made her snort and retreat.

Rig's figure has completely turned into a vague phantom, and it seems to be moving in an instant, which is difficult to capture.

Even Ace could hardly capture the astonishing speed, her transparent golden eyes shrunk to the size of a pinpoint, and her whole body tensed up, and she didn't have the slightest hint of underestimation.

"Boom-"

Li Ge suddenly deceived in front of Ace, and the sword of the hermit in his hand turned into a cold light burst and stabbed at Ace.

“———！？”

So fast!

It's so fast!

Ace almost couldn't react, but she barely managed to meet it with her keen senses and good ability, dancing the saber in her hand and bouncing away the rain of incoming sword tips.

can barely parry, but what causes Ace's footsteps to retreat frequently is that she can't stop at all.

On the other hand, Rieger, not only does the more he fights, but the smoother his movements become, whether it is the attack speed or the movement speed, they are all increasing little by little, as if there is no end, so that Ace has a feeling of being caught in a storm, and she is getting more and more difficult and reluctant.

Finally—

"Boom!"

With a loud clash of gold and iron, Ace's saber was flicked off.

"Not good!"

The thought just rang in Ace's heart, and the next moment, the tip of the bright silver dagger was pointed at the front of her throat.

“————”

Ace's movements completely stopped, and her expression froze instantly.

Silence pervades the surroundings.

"Sorry, sorry!"

Only then did Rige, who had fought a little high, react, and hurriedly withdrew the hermit's sword and apologized to Ace.

“......”

Ace didn't speak, just fell silent, one hand clenched slightly.

Lost.....

Himself, lost to Rieger.

"Ace?" Li Ge looked at Ace, who was silent, and said with some concern, "Are you okay?" ”

“..... It's okay. Ace shook her head, looking at Rige's eyes with extremely complicated eyes, and said, "You have become stronger than me." ”

It's an incredible thing.

You must know that Li Ge has just been promoted to Lv.5, but Ace has been struggling at the level of Lv.5 for more than three years, and her ability value has already tended to be at the top of the level.

However, Ace, a veteran who has been promoted to Lv.5 for more than three years, lost to Rige, a newcomer who had just been promoted to Lv.5, today.

This hit Ace much harder than she had imagined.

"It's just a competition, it doesn't mean anything."

Seeing Ace's complicated face, Li Ge could naturally guess what she was thinking, smiled bitterly, and said with relief.

Indeed, the two are just sparring, just practicing, and there is no life-and-death fight.

It would be too early to say that Rig was stronger than Ace.

But where could Ace not hear this, Rieg was just comforting herself?

What doesn't the competition mean?

Sparring doesn't mean that Rig is better than himself?

So what can be considered a representative, a description?

Is life and death a struggle?

But how strong Rieg is when he fights for life and death, Ace has seen it more than once!

I can't win when I play against each other, so how can I win Lig in that state?

Thinking of the scene where Rig killed the crocodile dragon at Lv. 1 and a female monster at Lv. 4, Ace's mood became even more complicated.

This complicated mood did not disappear until the two announced the end of the sparring.

After that, Ace left.

Leaving here, leaving the Pavilion of Dusk, I don't know where I went.

Returning to the room, Rig had just put down the Hermit's Sword, remembering Ace's complicated eyes and expression when she left, and finally stood up.

"No, you can't leave that girl alone."

Worried, Rige left the room and went to find Riveria.

......

At this time, Riveria is in Finn's office, discussing things with Finn and Grace.

"You won Ace in sparring?"

Hearing the explanation of Rige who came to the door, it was not only Riveria, but even Finn and Grace were stunned.

"Good boy, are you so strong now?"

Grace was shocked.

It was Ace, who before Rig appeared, and was regarded by the gods as the most talented nether man in the world.

Although she is still young, in the eyes of many people, Ace is already one of the strongest in Lv.5, and even with [Wind Spirit Walking], she can achieve cross-level challenges, comparable to Lv.6.

The name of the strongest female swordsman is definitely not casually said, but has real materials.

To put it bluntly, even among the Loki clan, Ace is the strongest adventurer except for the Big Three.

Such an Ace actually lost to Rig in the sparring session, no wonder the leader camp was so surprised.

"It was just a sparring session, and I won a trick by luck."

Rieg still says so.

It's a pity that the Big Three are not stupid.

"If it's a fluke, Ace won't be hit." Finn looked at Rieg meaningfully and said, "You should know this best." ”

Rieger suddenly stopped talking.

Is he clear?

Of course he knew.

said so, but in fact, Li Ge has also understood through this sparring that his strength is indeed better than Ace.

There's no way, his potential ability is too high, and his development ability is stronger than the other, all of them are combat abilities, and they can all increase the ability value, and the effect of this potential ability and development ability is superimposed, even if Li Ge has just become Lv.5, he is not inferior to anyone under this level.

What if Ace is the top of Lv.5?

There is no skill that can improve the strength, there is no other magic that can surpass Riege, and even the development ability is only one "swordsman" that can play a role in the battle with Rig, and the level of this development ability is lower than Riege, so how can Ace win over Rig?

If in other respects, Ace has a place ahead of Riger, that's fine.

For example, sword skills, Ace, as the strongest female swordsman, has superb sword skills in one hand, and if she is stronger than Lige, it is not impossible to win back a city with her skills.

The problem is that Rieg has learned all of Ace's most commendable sword skills, which makes Ace completely lose her advantage when facing Rieger.

Coupled with the potential abilities accumulated by Rieger's previous four levels, at present, Rieg has truly surpassed Ace in an all-round way.

If even the magic factor is taken into account, then Ace is even less comparable.

Ace only has one [Wind Spirit Swift Walk], how can she be able to master the same magic and master the rest of the various magics?

Rig is not stupid, he can still see this thing, he can calculate it.

Ace also understood this, and only then did she receive such a big blow.

Thinking of this, Rieger somewhat blamed himself.

Seeing this, Riveria spoke up.

"You don't have to feel guilty about yourself." Riveria said, "It's not your fault. ”

"That's right." Grace also said: "If you deliberately hit Ace, that's another matter, but you just play normally, normal sparring, what's wrong?" ”

"Ace definitely doesn't blame you, she probably blames herself." Finn said quietly: "She has been in a hurry, she has always been in pursuit of strength, except for becoming stronger, there is almost nothing else in her eyes. ”

"You won her move today, maybe it made her feel that she was still very weak, and she had been quickly overtaken by others, so she was hit."

"To put it simply, she's in a hurry."

Hearing this, Riege suddenly fell silent.

Finn's statement can be described as hitting the nail on the head, to the essence.

Riege himself knew that Ace was dissatisfied with her growth and thirsty for strength, and Finn and the others naturally would not be unaware.

It can only be said that Ace was originally dissatisfied with this aspect, and the result of Riege's sparring with him was just a fuse.

"So what now?" Rige asked, "You can't sit idly by, can you?" ”

"Of course." Riveria frowned, and said worriedly: "With her temperament, she must have already entered the dungeon by now, and it is very likely that she plans to do something dangerous." ”

Ace's current state is more worrying than yesterday's Bert.

Bert should at least know a little bit about it.

Not so with Ace.

If that girl messes around, she really doesn't even care about her life.

"It doesn't seem like there's going to be a way to sit idly by." Finn groaned for a moment and said, "I'll send someone to find it." ”

"I'll go too."

Rieg spoke out unyieldingly.

"Then I'll go too." Riveria turned to Finn and said, "I'm sorry, I'm a little worried about that kid. ”

"It's okay, let's go." Finn nodded in agreement and said, "Anyway, it's not in a hurry, let's get Ace back first." ”

Everyone nodded in unison.