Shane was admiring his nine newly finished "arrows" with satisfaction. The afterglow of the setting sun outside the window plated them with a layer of warm gold.
Just then...
Bang!
The door was slammed open with great force, crashing against the wall with a loud thud.
"Shane! Time to train!" Erza's energetic voice instantly filled the room.
Shane's eyelid twitched. He looked up to see that scarlet figure standing spiritedly at the doorway, her long hair dazzling in the sunset.
It's only been a few days... she's already treating this place like her own?
He put down the arrow in his hand helplessly, roasting her silently in his heart. Yesterday she knew to knock and wait obediently. Today she just breaks the door down.
As he stood up, he glanced at the Book of Heroic Spirits.
On the page, the mark representing his connection with Erza was emitting a steady, faint light, indicating that "the friendship between the two has reached the level of 'Heart-to-Heart Friend,' equal to Jellal."
...This friendship level rose way too fast, didn't it?
The corner of Shane's mouth twitched imperceptibly. She really is just too casual...
But he completely forgot that the data recorded in the Book of Heroic Spirits required mutual recognition to be achieved.
Just as he was about to call Erza to head out, the girl's gaze was attracted by the row of strangely shaped "arrows" on the table.
"Hmm? What are these?" Erza leaned in curiously, examining them carefully. "Are these new weapons you manifested with magic, Shane? But... I feel very little Magic Power on them. They're much weaker than the swords you used yesterday."
Shane's eyelid twitched again.
Even though he knew Erza was stating a fact—these arrows were essentially just well-made mortal iron—hearing the work he had painstakingly put together being called "weak" was still inexplicably uncomfortable.
"These aren't manifested," he replied with a hint of sourness. "I made them myself. They're just iron tools treated with a special method. They just have higher structural integrity, that's all."
"You made them yourself?!" Erza suddenly looked up, her dark eyes lighting up instantly. "Shane, you know how to forge weapons?!"
Without waiting for Shane to answer, she immediately asked with an expectant tone, "Then... then can you forge a weapon for me in the future?"
This sudden request stunned Shane. Meeting her sparkling eyes, the little bit of unhappiness from earlier vanished instantly. The corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up slightly.
"Don't you have the weapons I manifest for you? Why do you need one specially forged?"
"That's different!" Erza answered decisively, even with a hint of accusation. "With a real one, you can't just suddenly cancel the weapon in the middle of a fight like you did yesterday! That was cheating!"
"And..." The girl's fingers gently brushed over the cold metal surface of an arrow. "Having a real weapon that you can hold in your hand gives a person a kind of... well... special sense of security."
Even though she was technically criticizing his "cheating" behavior from yesterday, hearing that she needed him to forge a weapon—a disguised recognition of his craftsmanship—put Shane in a great mood. A wave of satisfaction rose in his heart, and he agreed immediately.
"Alright," he nodded, promising, "Once I figure things out a bit more and can craft a qualified Magic Sword, I'll forge the first one for you."
"It's a promise!" A brilliant smile bloomed on Erza's face.
After chatting, the two went to the beach and started today's sparring.
Erza's progress was astonishingly fast.
She could grasp the swordsmanship techniques and force-generation methods Shane interspersed during combat almost immediately, quickly integrating them into her own attack rhythm.
She was like a dry sponge, greedily absorbing every drop of water from Shane's swordsmanship.
---
The following days became regular and fulfilling.
During the day, Shane would shuttle between the blacksmith shop and the inn, continuing to refine his "forging" skills. Erza focused on meditation and Magic Power control exercises, trying hard to familiarize herself with her suddenly increased power.
In the evening, the sound of weapons clashing would ring out on time by the coast. Occasionally, they would call Millianna to stroll the streets together, taste snacks, and look at the scenery of the harbor.
During this period, Shane specifically verified his guess about the dreams.
One day, he deliberately didn't use his Noble Phantasm, but as a result, the Saber illusion didn't appear that night either. This confirmed that the trigger for the dream had no direct relationship with whether the Noble Phantasm was used.
Peaceful days passed like flowing water, and in the blink of an eye, a week had gone by.
On this day, by the coast.
Seven longswords of different shapes, under Erza's control, were like seven agile silver fish, launching endless attacks on Shane from all directions.
The sword light wove into a net, the trajectories tricky and the speed alarming.
Shane held a Tachi in each hand, relying entirely on combat instinct to block and parry continuously. The sound of metal colliding rang out like a sudden rain beating on a tin roof—clang, clang, clang.
But although he could maintain an undefeated state for a short time, his footsteps were constantly retreating. Clearly, he had fallen into the opponent's rhythm and was at a disadvantage.
Finally, a sword found a gap in his defense and stopped steadily at the side of his neck.
"Haa... haa..." Shane gasped for air, looking at Erza opposite him, who also had sweat on her forehead but whose eyes remained sharp. He smiled helplessly. "Alright, let's stop here for today."
Without releasing his Heroic Spirit True Name, he was no longer Erza's match at all.
Erza appeared very calm because she had seen Shane's true strength.
Except for the surprise she showed the first time she defeated him, she maintained a humble attitude afterward, even actively lowering the power of her magic-enhanced swords to make it easier to learn Shane's swordsmanship.
This often made Shane complain in his heart that the Book of Heroic Spirits' design wasn't user-friendly enough.
If he could use two Class Cards at the same time, holding the Crimson Longbow and using Saber's Noble Phantasm as arrows, he didn't know how he could lose.
This growth speed is simply monstrous... He sighed inwardly. In just a few short days, the number of weapons she could control increased from four to seven.
It forced him to lower the strength of individual weapons and increase the quantity manifested simultaneously just to maintain daily practice.
With her current strength, maybe she can already exchange moves with that purple-clad girl who threw crystal balls? He couldn't help comparing in his mind. Of course, provided she can see through the opponent's hiding spot and the opponent doesn't use that Ice Magic.
After his daily roast of the purple girl (Ultear), Shane began to examine himself.
This week, his own improvement was also quite obvious.
Maintaining nine weapons for high-intensity sparring every day, exhausting his stamina to the limit, allowed his Agility parameter to naturally rise to E+.
And his Strength and Endurance seemed to have reached a critical point at the E+ level. He could feel that breaking through to D Rank might happen within these few days.
The only thing that annoyed him was that the Magic Power parameter remained motionless, stubbornly staying at E.
Shane knew the reason.
According to the Book of Heroic Spirits, the "warm flow" modifying his body was based on the stats of the Heroic Spirit he summoned.
In other words, since Arash's Magic Power was only E, the warm flow's improvement on his Magic Power was capped at E. Similarly, because Arash's Endurance was A, the warm flow could continue to push his Endurance toward the A level.
But this led to a situation that made Shane want to cry.
Because he discovered one thing: since he summoned Saber, alongside the warm flow belonging to Arash in his body, another warm flow with slightly different properties had appeared.
This was naturally proof that Saber had begun to modify his body.
However, these two warm flows didn't stack; they shared a cap, jointly promoting the transformation of his flesh. But the problem lay exactly here:
His Magic Power parameter still showed no growth.
This meant that this Saber's Magic Power rank was, in all probability, also only E.
"What kind of luck is this..." Shane was incredibly speechless. In a world dominated by Magic, Magic Power happened to be his biggest shortcoming.