“H-Hold on, are you really that weak? Not just being modest…?”
I couldn’t help but ask Paula, who claimed to have the Spatial Affinity.
She nodded as if it were obvious, speaking as if stating a common fact.
“That’s right. Spatial Affinity is a useless, dud Attribute.”
“R-Really…? It feels like you could do a lot of things with it…”
“It would be nice if that were the case, but in reality, it’s completely useless.”
Paula stated it clearly.
Ergo, standing next to her, also wore a pitiful expression.
“Think about it. For example, with Fire Attribute, you can shoot fire to attack. With Earth Attribute, you can harden earth to make a shield. But even if you try to move or gather space, it doesn’t do anything, right? Because there’s nothing in just space, you can’t break things or defend against attacks. It’s truly useless.”
Paula spoke self-deprecatingly with a self-mocking smile.
Ergo, unable to bear her painful state, spoke up.
“That’s not true… I don’t know any scout as skilled as Paula-san. It was all thanks to Paula-san’s Spatial Awareness that we were able to find Slime-dono so close to the Feral Beast territory. Spatial Affinity isn’t useless at all.”
“Thank you. But everyone says that a scout who can do some scouting and also fight is much more valuable than a scout who can only scout.”
“That’s…”
The girl, ignoring the hesitant young man, said,
“See, Kouya-kun? Spatial Affinity is a meaningless, powerless, useless Attribute.”
This time, the young man could only bite his lip and say nothing.
Seeing that, I thought.
(Hmm… wait? Am I the one who’s wrong here…?)
–No, no way!
Don’t be fooled by the atmosphere! There’s no way Spatial Affinity is weak!
“…Ah, wait. You said earlier that it can’t be used for attacks, but isn’t that judgment a bit hasty? I think you could attack by tearing space apart…”
For now, I said what came to mind.
However, Paula only furrowed her brow in confusion.
“…Tear… space apart? …Sorry, I don’t really understand. When does space tear?”
“…Huh, when does it tear…?”
Indeed, I don’t really understand the principle of how space tears…
Actually, what even is space?
(I have a vague understanding from manga and stuff, but saying it’s like in manga won’t get through to people in this world. But I didn’t learn about space in school, so I don’t know how to explain it either…)
Space… space… As I pondered, the x, y, and z axes flew in and started dancing in my head.
…I didn’t seem to be able to come up with anything, so I decided to gather information first.
“What kind of Attribute Skills does Paula have?”
“I only have the Spatial Awareness trait. I can sense the surrounding terrain and the position of things.”
“I see, so that’s how you were scouting.”
If you can perceive the entire space, then it doesn’t matter how much you try to suppress your presence or make no sound.
Isn’t that the strongest Skill for scouting?
(Skill… that’s right, Skill!)
At that moment, a flash of lightning ran through my mind.
With this method, it might be possible.
“Watch closely what I’m about to do… no, perceive it with your Skill.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Paula, looking puzzled, agreed.
I extended my whip so she could see it easily, and then,
“(Weapon Storage)”
I used my Skill to take out a weapon.
A steel club appeared on top of the whip, as if rising from the surface of the water.
“Whoa.”
“That’s the Skill you used earlier, isn’t it?”
Ergo said, hugging his Earth Affinity Spear.
I used that when I took that out, now that I think about it.
“This is called Weapon Storage, a Skill that allows me to store weapons… where do you think I store them?”
“Hmm… inside your cheek, maybe?”
That’s kinda like a squirrel.
“But that wouldn’t explain why it wasn’t visible from the outside.”
“That’s right. And just now, for a moment, it felt like it was connected to another place, like there was space beyond Kouya-kun.”
“If you can sense that much, then it should be fine. The correct answer is another dimension.”
~Skill Details~
Weapon Storage: By completely covering a weapon with one’s body, it can be stored in another dimension.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“It seems to be a Skill that stores weapons in a personal space linked to oneself. I don’t really understand it myself.”
“There’s a Skill like that?”
“Amazing! Even if it’s limited to weapons, that Skill would revolutionize the distribution industry!”
“Ah, there might be that aspect to it, but… focus on the other dimension for now. With Paula’s Spatial Affinity, shouldn’t you be able to reproduce this space?”
The girl’s eyes widened as if she had been struck by something.
But she immediately clouded her expression.
“No. It’s impossible with my power…”
“It’s not impossible! You noticed the strange feeling with Spatial Awareness earlier, right!? If you explore that strange feeling and reproduce it with your own power, you should be able to do it!”
I said it as strongly as I could.
Paula pondered for a good ten seconds, then came to a decision.
“………………Okay, I’ll just try it.”
She closed her eyes and entered a state of concentration.
Mana gathered in her outstretched right hand, swaying erratically as if searching for a place to go.
“…Sorry, Kouya-kun, can you show me how you store it one more time?”
“Not just once, look as many times as you need.”
I said, repeatedly taking the iron rod in and out.
Showing her the back and forth with the other dimension multiple times would make it easier for her to grasp the image.
“……………”
“……………”
“……………”
A silent time passed.
Paula, the person involved, and I, the proposer, of course, and Ergo, were all watching quietly so as not to disturb her.
The chirping of birds. The rustling of trees. The dying screams of Demon Beasts.
Surrounded by such natural sounds, some time passed, and just as I, who had become bored, started juggling with Weapon Storage.
“—I think I can do it.”
Paula opened her eyes, and then Mana was consumed.
“Space Storage.”
No change occurred.
No, that’s not right.
We, who couldn’t perceive space itself, didn’t realize that a change had occurred.
“…………I did it.”
In a voice so soft it could be missed, Paula muttered.
Then, she picked up the basket she had placed beside her, gathered Mana, and,
“Space, Storage…!”
She used the magic again.
This time, we could tell that it had been activated.
After all, the basket she was holding had vanished in an instant.
“I did it… I could use it…”
Before we could offer words of congratulations, Paula collapsed on the spot.
I thought it was because she had used too much Mana, but upon closer inspection, that wasn’t the case.
“I can use it… I can really use magic…”
Her voice was broken, mixed with sobs.
As she repeatedly took the basket in and out, as if confirming her own power, a transparent droplet fell to the ground with a patter.
(Is being able to use magic that happy of a thing…?)
While slightly perplexed by her reaction, I silently watched over the girl until she calmed down.