"Alright, next it's my turn."
After all, Hoshimi Miyabi's Frigid Blade was, at its core, a weapon without a Dragon Jade. The effects that Ether magic circuits could achieve with it were quite limited too — being able to imbue her body with the chill of the ice dragon was already more than enough.
As for the specific effects beyond that, it would all come down to how Hoshimi Miyabi herself wielded it.
After observing for a while how Hoshimi Miyabi communed with the Ether energy of this new-version equipment, Andrew, too, pulled out the Ether Engine he carried on him, preparing to begin his very first attempt.
That is, the first time he would mobilize the Ether energy inside the Ether Engine by his own consciousness, rather than using it directly through some external mechanism or object.
However, Andrew soon discovered that he had, in fact, overthought things.
Just as Andrew began, imitating Hoshimi Miyabi, to commune with the Ether energy and pour it into the armor on his body — before the Ether energy within the Ether Engine's Dragon Jade could even be drawn out by him — the armor on his body had already, the moment this thought arose in his mind, begun to change one step ahead.
The Kushala Daora armor, which was itself already a complete treasure tool, at this very moment began to operate wildly.
It needed no external Ether energy — the Life Energy within the Kushala Daora Dragon Jade inside the armor surged out rapidly, and under the conversion of the Ether magic circuits, it transformed into surging Ether energy.
It didn't even require Andrew to control it; guided by the Ether magic circuits, this energy began to circulate all on its own.
Wind — it appeared.
Gale after gale of hurricane wind materialized out of thin air beside Andrew in tandem with the circulation of the Ether energy — spiraling, coiling, wrapping him up completely within them.
Just as everyone was puzzling over what effect these hurricane winds actually had —
Andrew's tall, towering figure, under the astonished gazes of Hoshimi Miyabi and Kairu, gradually turned transparent, as though vanishing entirely into the air.
"Meow?!"
"This... what is this?!"
Such a marvelous sight brought, rather than delight, far more shock and alarm.
Andrew's figure had already vanished completely from their line of sight; in Hoshimi Miyabi's perception, all that remained where Andrew had originally stood was...
A mass of hurricane wind spinning at high speed without a single moment's cease?
Transparent traces, following the rapid spinning of the hurricane, left faint, shallow little ripples in the air — if one didn't observe carefully, they simply couldn't be detected by the naked eye at all.
Hoshimi Miyabi couldn't help but call out with concern: "Andrew?"
But this time, aside from the howling of that hurricane mass, no reply came to her ears.
This made Hoshimi Miyabi's heart leap into her throat in an instant.
Although Hoshimi Miyabi was already keenly aware of Andrew's strength, the instinctive reaction in her heart made her subconsciously forget all of that for the moment.
For some reason, she was subconsciously afraid that some accident might befall Andrew's safety.
And so, before anyone else could even react, Hoshimi Miyabi involuntarily stepped forward, drawing close to the spot where Andrew had just been standing.
Then, as if guided by some unseen force, Hoshimi Miyabi reached out her hand toward that mass of hurricane winds of her own accord.
Since she couldn't confirm it visually, and calling out had drawn no response, then she would confirm Andrew's safety through touch.
As for whether rashly thrusting her hand into the hurricane might get her hurt?
The anxiety in her heart had already flung that possibility straight to the back of her mind.
Fortunately, once her palm passed through the hurricane, the sensation that came back was perfectly normal — the cold, hard texture of metal armor transmitted from her fingertips instantly made Hoshimi Miyabi let out a breath of relief.
Most importantly, although her hand was scraped raw and stinging by this ultra-fast hurricane, she could still just barely hold out.
At least, with her own physical constitution, she wouldn't be bleeding for the time being.
Seeing this, Hoshimi Miyabi hesitated no longer. Her body, already pressed quite close, pushed further forward with the strength of her legs — she was preparing to stick her head straight into this hurricane mass and see exactly what condition Andrew was in.
But before she could force her way into the hurricane mass —
At that same moment, Andrew, who had been immersed and unable to pull himself free from the hurricane automatically controlled by the Kushala Daora armor, upon feeling Hoshimi Miyabi's touch, instantly jolted awake from his state of absorption.
"Miyabi?!"
Instantly noticing the trace of worry deep in Hoshimi Miyabi's eyes as she pressed up against the hurricane mass and still wanted to push further forward, Andrew immediately grasped what the situation was.
As he swiftly brought the speed of the hurricane down, he hurriedly spoke up:
"I'm fine. Sorry for making you worry."
Only —
Andrew's single sentence alone couldn't completely dispel the worry lurking deep in Hoshimi Miyabi's heart. Her brow furrowed slightly as she asked once more:
"Are you really alright?"
Able to control the hurricane by his own consciousness for the very first time, Andrew had gotten a bit addicted to it, and now, somewhat sheepish, he scratched his head and said:
"Relax, I really am fine."
"It's just my first time trying to master the power of the storm on my own, so I accidentally got a little too into it, that's all."
Hearing Andrew's repeated reassurances, Hoshimi Miyabi's heart finally settled completely.
But now that her worry over Andrew's safety had faded, what followed right on its heels was curiosity about this near-perfect visual invisibility effect of his.
You have to understand, in that touch just now, Hoshimi Miyabi hadn't felt anything besides the armor.
Could it be that this armor, which showed nothing special in its design, actually had an invisibility function?
But if that were the case —
Then what about that mass of hurricane winds that, in her perception, had been coiling around the outside of Andrew's armor this whole time?
Protection?
With the speed the hurricane had before it was slowed down just now, it seemed it really could deflect attacks slashing toward Andrew that fell below a certain power threshold?
Honestly, this was the first time Hoshimi Miyabi had ever laid eyes on such a marvelous ability.
Unable to figure it out, Hoshimi Miyabi simply gave up thinking about it and directly asked the Andrew before her, who was now returning to visible form:
"Andrew, what... exactly is this ability of yours?"
"Hmm..."
Raising his hand and clenching his fist, feeling out his palm that had already vanished from sight, Andrew — who had, through firsthand experience, basically figured out this armor's ability — spoke up:
"This is a little feature the Second Cohort Leader added onto the armor — you could say it gives me an extra reference while I'm studying, and lightens the burden of using it a bit?"
After all, this ability operated entirely on its own; it required no attention from Andrew to control whatsoever.
That was also what allowed Andrew — who had only just gotten it and was trying to control it for the first time — to accomplish an operation that, in the eyes of Hoshimi Miyabi and Kairu, was incredibly difficult.
"As for the principle..."
When in doubt, flip through the book.
The real world was no exam hall — since the Second Cohort Leader had already compiled and handed over all the teaching materials on treasure tools to him, then for anything he wasn't clear on, rather than researching it himself, checking the answer key directly was of course far faster!
Soon, Andrew found the relevant content in the teaching materials the Second Cohort Leader had given him.
"The Wind King Barrier works by changing the refractive index of the light in the air surrounding me, causing the light rays to bend, thereby rendering me visually invisible."
Looking over the Second Cohort Leader's records of the Kushala Daora armor modifications in the teaching materials...
"As it happens, Kushala Daora is an Elder Dragon that governs storms, which fits the essence of this ability perfectly."
"The Second Cohort Leader straight-up refashioned and inscribed the Wind King Barrier from that Sword of Promised Victory onto the Kushala Daora armor."
Feeling the Ether energy flowing automatically through the armor on his body, Andrew — who knew what it would take to achieve this by wind alone — couldn't help but remark with some emotion:
"The Second Cohort Leader really is something. Truly worthy of being one of the Guild's outstanding artisans."
"This ability is genuinely useful."
However, unlike Andrew's admiration, as she felt the air currents brought by this absolutely abnormal hurricane mass before her, Hoshimi Miyabi involuntarily knitted her brow.
She analyzed in earnest:
"Although this Wind King Barrier achieves nearly perfect invisibility on the visual level, the equally obvious air-current fluctuations it produces mean the effect would be sharply reduced against those who have already witnessed it, or who've gained intel on it beforehand."
"This... is more like an ability of the first-encounter-kill type?"
Andrew, however, showed no agreement with Hoshimi Miyabi's analysis. He curled up the corner of his mouth, shook his head, and said with a smile:
"First-encounter kill? That's not necessarily so."
If the armor's ability were merely the Wind King Barrier, then indeed that would be true — but the ability of this armor was, from beginning to end, the control of wind!
Or rather, the flow of air!
The Wind King Barrier was nothing more than a ready-made skill — if Andrew were skilled enough, he could accomplish this very same thing entirely on his own!
And a simple matter like that, the current Andrew could already resolve.
Watching the supremely confident Andrew before her, Hoshimi Miyabi couldn't help but tilt her head.
Could it be that Andrew, who had only just grasped the wind attribute, could already perform even finer control over the hurricane — keeping it invisible while also lowering how conspicuous it was?
But if it was Andrew, that didn't really seem all that strange?
Under Hoshimi Miyabi's puzzled gaze, Andrew — with no idea what she was thinking — slightly raised his right hand, like a seasoned conductor standing before an orchestra.
The next moment.
The air of the entire training ground, as if it had received a command, surged at breakneck speed under Hoshimi Miyabi's astonished gaze.
Yes — Andrew had already mastered how to make the wind obey his will.
After all...
The finest teacher was right there on Andrew's own body.
The Wind King Barrier — which, under the armor's automatic control, surged ceaselessly and precisely bent every ray of light — was like a teacher that had been guiding Andrew hand in hand all along, and Andrew had never once been a fool.
He even had a lead on the very method Hoshimi Miyabi had envisioned; give him a little more time and he could surely pull it off.
After all, who here isn't a genius?
A guy who could gain the strength to hunt Elder Dragons within just a few years of study — among the Hunters of this world's Guild, Andrew was, likewise, a super genius.
So, with this as an aid, from just that brief moment of immersion a moment ago, Andrew had already achieved basic control over the wind.
And in Hoshimi Miyabi's perception —
As the hurricane controlled by Andrew appeared, the Wind King Barrier's air currents — originally so glaringly conspicuous within the training ground — vanished without a trace, swallowed up and concealed by the environment.
If not for the fact that the sensation at her fingertips hadn't disappeared, Hoshimi Miyabi would have been utterly unable to perceive Andrew's presence at all.
Yes.
Rather than controlling the hurricane's flow more finely to make the hurricane mass — so abrupt within a calm environment — disappear, Andrew chose to directly change the environment of the place he was in.
This was a principle he had learned from the Elder Dragons.
Rather than changing themselves to adapt to the environment, the strong all change the environment, making the environment adapt to them in turn.
As armor forged from Kushala Daora, master of the storm calamity, it naturally possessed the mighty power to forcibly alter the environment directly.
In Andrew's perception —
If he wished, he could expand this hurricane field outward at any time.
Although its intensity was considerably lower than an Elder Dragon's — he couldn't, like a true Elder Dragon, reshape the natural environment of an entire continental ecosystem by sheer will — using his own power to directly transform the environment within a radius of several li was still no problem at all.
What's more, while this level of intensity could only be counted as a party trick in the Monster Hunter world, over on New Eridu's side, that intensity was an entirely different concept.
That there was solidly full-on environmental reconstruction.
However, compared to these more support-oriented abilities, Andrew — ever accustomed to the simple and brutal — was actually more focused right now on another aspect.
And that was the sheer power of manipulating airflow to attack.
Although he couldn't do it yet, since he already had the Wind King Barrier, then surely the Second Cohort Leader had thrown in this thing's variant, the Wind King's Hammer, right along with it?
With automatic assisted activation, it shouldn't be all that difficult.
No sooner said than done.
The Second Cohort Leader didn't disappoint Andrew this time either.
As Andrew's will shifted, the Ether energy that had been surging through the Ether magic circuits instantly reversed its direction of circulation, and after flipping around, once again went racing madly along the Ether magic circuits.
This was probably what you'd call... a Reversal Sorcerer?
Not only that, it even thoughtfully let Andrew adjust the specific output at any time, so he could dial in the magnitude of the power.
Feeling the hurricane gathering, Andrew, after a slight moment of hesitation, thought to himself:
'Thirty percent? No, no, that's way too much. Better make it ten percent — no, to be safe, better make it five percent...'
The next moment, Andrew moved.
Before Hoshimi Miyabi could react, she felt the armor's cold at her fingertips vanish completely.
The raging wind in the air utterly concealed Andrew's tracks — even Hoshimi Miyabi's keen insight could barely make out where Andrew was.
Perceiving with all her might, utterly bewildered, she could only faintly sense the rough trajectory of Andrew's movement.
But soon enough, she no longer had to wonder what Andrew was up to.
"Cover your ears!"
As Andrew's warning reached them, in the very next instant that everyone subconsciously obeyed, the wind that represented Andrew had already swept up before that target vehicle simulating a giant dragon.
The terrifying hurricane had long since gathered and swelled within his hands.
"BOOM!!!"
The wind — came to a dead standstill.
Accompanied by a terrifying muffled thud, like a colossal iron hammer smashing into wood with all its force, the target vehicle — which had been sitting steadily at the edge of the field — under everyone's astonished gazes...
went flying into the air.
"Meow?!!!! (Nooo?!!!!)"
Ringing out at the very same moment was the mournful wail of the logistics Felyne standing by off to the side.
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Homelander: Founding the Hero Association
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!