A few days after Subaru began his training, the mansion had gotten it's new hire. It was one of the villagers. More specifically, one of the children he had saved. Her name was Petra. She learned the basics of the mansion faster than even Subaru had. She was still a beginner and a child at that, but she was incredibly invested in working. She tried her best every day, which in turn motivated Subaru to do so as well.

The past few days, Subaru had worked his skills like crazy. He had done minor bits of hunting that had given him a level too. The results were swordsmanship level 11, last stand to 12, and flight to 4. He had learned how to do basic maneuvers in the air, but other than to gain height or keep air superiority, it was useless. One useful application was on the ground. If he used it full blast to go backwards, he could retreat quickly and give his opponent a strong headwind that most opponents probably wouldn't be able to peruse him in the face of.

One of the other great things that was coming into effect was his secondary job. In the EXP that it took for him to go from level 18 to 19, his secondary had gone from 1 to 8. For every level that he had gained on his secondary job, he got extra stats for it. He hadn't done anything with his magic job yet, but he assumed it was most of the same. It looked like he was going to use a physical build that used MP to enhance his physical abilities. By running MP through his body, he had even gotten an enhance strength skill that used MP to buff his physical attributes. He hadn't done much training with it though since it required use of both MP and stamina. He was focused on using his MP on practice flights, so his magic went neglected.

To begin with, his magic wasn't even very good. Healing was nice to have, but his HP had started restoring at a respectable rate at a certain point. Healing would only apply in an emergency or to heal another possibly. His space magic didn't have any way to attack either. He could find plenty of practical applications for it, but short range teleportation didn't have much other than a quick no recoil dodge. He would have to dedicate a few days to magic practice in the future to catch the skills up.

As he finished swinging his sword, the new maid came running up to him.

"Have you finished practicing Subaru-sama? I brought you water and food."

Subaru had developed a habit of missing meals due to practice and being away in flight. The new maid came once he had finished to offer him food twice now. He had missed breakfast, but Petra had brought it to him then and now again. She catered to him quite well, but Subaru was worried if she was getting along with the others.

"Yeah, I think I'll take a short break. I've recovered a good bit of my mana so I'll try flying after I've had some time to eat. Thanks for the food."

"It's fine, I'm learning how to serve guests too! I've been doing my best Subaru-sama."

"You don't have to call me that. You can just call me by my name if you'd like."

Petra and Subaru conversed for a moment before Petra had to get back to work. The twin maids were certainly not going easy on her. Petra managed to keep up despite that. Subaru finished his meal before taking off into the sky.

"No matter how many times I see this, it never gets old."

Subaru enjoyed the view he got. He looked down and set where he wanted to land. He dive bombed towards the ground and pulled up at the last second and landed on the spot. Flying wasn't too tough, but landing was definitely not his forte. Half of his landings were poorly done. Despite his landings not being great, they weren't awful either. He was managing to land on his feet consistently. Subaru felt pride at his landing, but felt like he wanted to do more. He swung his sword until a bit before dinner.

Leaving the area, he found Rem wrapping up her work.

"Hey Rem, are you available after dinner?"

"My work is complete, so after dinner, I would only have to clean dishes and other small tasks. Is there something you need?"

"I'd like to spar against you. You're a pretty strong opponent. If you want, I can help you out after dinner."

Rem accepted his offer and they headed off to eat dinner. After dinner, Rem and Subaru faced each other in the courtyard. Rem had he ball and chain in hand and Subaru had his katana in his. They had a small crowd watching them. It consisted of Petra and Emilia, who nervously watched the two, Ram and Roswaal, who observed closely, and Puck, who wanted to see how much Subaru had grown.

Rem started out easy and swung the ball in Subaru's direction. Subaru dodged and charged in Rem's direction. She wasn't going to let him get closer easily though. She summoned her ball back to her, with Subaru being in the returning path. He dodged once again, awkwardly moving his body around the unexpected attack. His charge was slowed for only a moment, but Rem took advantage of that. Her chain lashed out, forcing Subaru to back off. Instead of charging back at her, Subaru teleported behind her and slashed quickly. Rem dodged the strike and send her ball at him again. Subaru this time teleported again right in front of her. She began to dodge again, but Subaru instead of swinging, grabbed the chain to prevent her from her from backing off too far or making effective use of her weapon. Rem in response pulled with all her strength. Subaru lost his footing and tumbled through the air for a couple seconds. He landed well, but had once again, Rem had the range advantage.

The battle went on for a couple minutes, both sides failing to find a way to land a decisive blow. Subaru was holding his trump cards, and the same could be said for Rem who hadn't called on her horn. After a bit of time Subaru decided to kick himself up a notch. He activated sprinting and body enhancing simultaneously. At his level, he could maintain it for a couple hours, but in a real fight, he would be spending his stamina and MP on other things.

Subaru began pushing Rem. She was forced on the defensive in the face of Subaru's advance. Subaru's goal was to either beat Rem here, or force her to use her horn. Subaru finally brought his sword to her neck where both of them froze. Subaru had emerged victorious. Although he had won against a much higher level opponent, he knew that the level given was a vast overestimation. It was probably based purely on his stats and had nothing to do with skills or even assigned stat points. Like this, he managed to beat Rem without her horn. On the other hand, Rem felt inferior now that she was bested. She knew that she might have been able to beat him if she used her horn, but it was an unreliable strategy. She wouldn't have complete control, even if it boosted her base ability.

The audience let out sighs of relief and applause at the results of the battle, happy that no one was badly hurt and that Subaru had come out victorious. Puck approved of his strength while Roswaal simply smiled at the result. Still, neither had used their trump cards, so a winner of true strength couldn't be determined.

The results of sparring with Rem came in the form of one of the best breakthroughs yet. His secondary job had hit max. It was now level 10 which was the max for it. Boasting a jump from +19 at level 9 to +25 at now max. In addition, he now had a new option for his secondary job, being just swordsman. No longer an apprentice, it started with a +20 in physical at level 1. It was weaker than the max on apprentice, but it was more than likely to have a higher limit.

Subaru was happy his strength was growing, but it would still be bad to leave behind magic.

Natsuki Subaru, Lv. 19, Genius, Lifesaver, Hero of the Village

Job: Sage Candidate

Secondary Job: Swordsman Lv.1 (Apprentice Swordsman Lv. Max) (Apprentice Mage lv. 1)

Stats: (45 Stat Points)

Attack: 23[+20](+20)

Defense: 23[+10](+20)

Magic Attack: 23

Magic Defence: 23

Speed: 58[+6][+10](+20)

Skills:

Arithmetic 1, Writing 1, Magic Resist 1, Knife 1, Strategy 1, Last Strike 1, Last Spell 1, Last Defence 1, CQC 1, Boxing 1, Enhance Strength 1

Sense Danger 2, Fear Resist 2, Space Resist 2, Negotiate 2, Healing Magic 2, Lugnica Common Language 2, Curse Resistance 2, Curse Removal 2

Inspect 3, Footwork 3

Pain Resist 4, Space Magic 4, Flight 4

Cleaning 5

Madness Resist 6

Hand to hand 10, Musicianship 10

Swordsmanship 11

Sprinting 12, Last Stand 12

Unique: Return by Death

This has gone far off of what I was thinking. Next chapter will be the end of arc 2. I might try making a memory snow chapter, but so much of the stuff that drives that side story just isn't there. I think I might try coming back to it in the future, but for now I'll have one more chapter before doing a time skip to arc 3's beginning. As always, see you in the next chapter.