You are all my wings!

She reached out and gently touched Maggie's shoulder:

“Magical… I’m sorry, I just… lost my composure.”

"No need to apologize, you did nothing wrong."

Maggie wiped away her tears with the back of her hand and stood up abruptly.

She was, after all, someone who had been corrupted and impacted by the spiritual pollution of demonic bloodlines for a long time. After breaking down for a while, she quickly adjusted her mindset.

"Iris, your wariness of me is justified. I did have some unrealistic fantasies before, but you reminded me that I still need to keep working hard. Thank you. From now on, please don't talk to me unless it's absolutely necessary. I will only focus on doing my own thing and pursuing what belongs to me!"

She rejected Iris's apology.

No, it should be said that she felt she had no reason to accept Iris's apology.

She realized that she had indeed enjoyed playing with Leon before.

Even though he was being bullied by Leon, he felt a sense of relief, as if he could let go of all his worries and not have to worry about any troubles.

After her dreams were shattered by Iris's fall, her strong personality began to recover rapidly after a brief period of disillusionment.

Upon hearing Leon's words, she immediately realized that perhaps only Leon could truly understand her.

She won't fall into, get caught up in, or become obsessed with anything because of this.

But she knew she had met the right person at the wrong time.

So, after experiencing the shattering of illusions, what is the best thing to do next?

That is to build a new dream.

Therefore, she felt that one day in the future, after accomplishing many things, she should also try to pursue her own true happiness, which was her future dream.

A highly probable, unattainable dream.

With this, she was able to more firmly do the things she had long ago decided to do.

So, she quietly added a bold stroke to the list of things she had already made in her mind that she must do in the future.

Upon hearing Maggie's words, Iris was taken aback at first, but then she vaguely understood Maggie's subtext.

She was initially relieved, and then, for some reason, the corners of her mouth slightly turned up.

"That would be best, Machiru. I just hope that I won't interfere with you when you're doing your own thing."

"Hmph! Just you wait and see!"

Maggie's voice also sounded more relaxed.

Leon, who had intended to comfort the two and ease their tension, could only shrug helplessly.

So, this witnessed the breakdown of a fake sisterhood?

It's not surprising, though, since the relationship hasn't been established for very long, so it's normal for conflicts to arise.

But it seems that changing direction isn't so bad?

The two of them shouldn't become so estranged that they never speak to each other again, right?

Leon cleared his throat and said:

"Maquilu, go have a good fight and vent your emotions. It just so happens that the floor master hunting operation in Ophima is about to begin."

"Hmph, I was planning to go a long time ago. If it weren't for your boring master taking the opportunity to play with my body, would I be so unhappy?"

Machiru held her head high, quickly tidied herself up, and left with her fourth-tier magic wand.

Before leaving, she triumphantly raised her fourth-tier wand at Iris, giving her an expression that said, "You'll never be able to use this again."

Iris stopped paying attention to the phrase "playing with the body" at this point, because this tactic was exactly the same as when she first met Maggie.

Moreover, she felt she needed to think carefully about what she should do now and what attitude she should take towards certain things.

These subtle feelings are really difficult for her to handle without Maggie's advice.

What to do next?

Should we continue to treat Maggie with the cold shoulder?

Snapped.

Leon suddenly grabbed Iris's ankle and pulled her hard.

Then, Iris was forced into an upside-down position.

However, she was wearing light leather armor, not a magic robe or a dress, so there was no need to worry about her underwear being seen by Leon like Machiru did.

Of course, her ankles were indeed exposed, so when Leon's warm hand firmly grasped hers, she felt a tingling sensation in her heart and couldn't help but tremble.

"Iris, stop frowning and thinking about all sorts of things. Frowning too much will make you less attractive. Now, put aside all that nonsense and get to work out with me!"

"But... but isn't this kind of training strange?"

"Aren't you curious about how I trained Machiru?"

"curious."

"That's settled then. Starting today, we'll do basic physical training together, and we'll also practice some movement-related combat skills."

"what?"

"What are you 'ah' about? Iris, you're already at the fourth tier, and you're still being easily suppressed at close range by me. You should feel ashamed!"

"That's because I didn't use magic because I was afraid you'd be in danger!"

"What if you run out of magic in the future and get caught in close combat by warrior-type enemies? You're not afraid of being bullied, but I'm afraid of you being bullied."

"Hmph! If I don't let others bully me, won't I still be bullied by you?"

"Then you don't want me to bully you?"

Chapter 168 I'm not happy training alone, but I'm happy training with you.

"No, I don't want to!"

Lyon was shocked. Iris was actually unwilling?

Iris said loudly:

"I don't want to be bullied by you all the time! I want to bully you too!"

As she spoke, she reached out with both arms and suddenly grabbed at Leon.

Lyon lifted her lightly, and Iris swayed like a swing.

In a daze, Iris suddenly understood why she had seen the bizarre scene of Maggie opening her mouth to bite Leon.

It turned out to be the case.

She opened her small mouth, revealing a row of beautiful, white, and dense teeth, and bit down.

……

After half an hour.

Iris was covered in sweat, her cheeks were flushed, her breathing was light and rapid, and her shoulders trembled slightly with the up-and-down movement of her body.

She lay sprawled on the bed beside her, looking both tired and happy.

"It seems quite comfortable."

"You get it now? This is the joy of honing your combat skills."

"I'm not happy practicing combat skills alone, but I'm happy practicing with you."

Iris's voice was hesitant.

"I can't hear you, Iris."

"Tch! If you can't hear me, you can't hear me."

"Shall we practice one more time?"

"No, no, the intensity just now was too high. It feels like practicing combat skills is more tiring than fighting monsters."

"When you fight monsters, you only need to stand still and cast spells, occasionally dodging. But now you're forced to use your strength to the limit, so you'll definitely feel tired. But with your physical abilities, you'll adapt quickly and get used to your powerful body."

"Am I really that strong? Why do I always feel like you're suppressing me?"

"Your body is much stronger than mine, but you lack the skills to use it. If you have 100% strength, you can only use 30%, while I can use more than 90% of my strength. In addition, I have various small techniques, so you are always inferior to me when you get close."

“I understand. Just like Britta knows advanced magic, so if she wants, she can release all her magic power at once. My strongest intermediate magic can only unleash a fraction of my magic power. That’s why my total magic power is higher than hers, but I can’t deal such strong instant damage like she does.”

"That's right. The same principle applies to the use of physical strength. A warrior who often eats monster meat may have a high strength ceiling, but that doesn't mean he can exert the corresponding strength in ordinary situations."

Lyon explained:

"Just like my three-tier combat skills, one is Shadow Step, which mainly uses the muscle groups in my waist, abdomen, thighs, calves, soles, and toes, as well as the corresponding tendons, bones, magic meridians, blood vessels, etc. After using the combat skill many times, these parts will be easier for me to mobilize all the potential power, and will also be easier to withstand the extreme burst of power."

"Where is your other Tier 3 combat skill?"

"The other Swift Shadow Slash mainly uses the power of the spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and fingers. As a result, the muscles in these areas have been strengthened accordingly."

"I see. So, the more combat skills one has, the more parts of the body are strengthened, and the more one can unleash the body's full potential?"

A thoughtful look appeared in Iris's eyes.

Because Hamra is also a spellcaster, the supernatural content she was exposed to from a young age was related to spellcasting.

With Hamra, a sixth-tier expert, around, Iris didn't need to worry about encountering any problems that required special vigilance. Therefore, she hadn't paid much attention to combat skills.

Compared to combat skills, she definitely preferred the feeling of casting spells.

"That's right. And coincidentally, the two combat techniques I chose to learn can basically cover all my muscles, so I can exert a good level of strength."

This is certainly not a pure coincidence; it is a combat technique that Leon carefully selected after much consideration following the awakening of his past life memories.

Shadow Breath, Swift Shadow Slash, and Instant Shadow Step are all growth-type combat skills that can be automatically upgraded once fully mastered.

This is another advantage of the Phantom Walker class: it allows one to focus on mastering only a few core combat skills over a long period, using them to a high level, making the skills more and more refined, and developing the potential of physical strength.

Conventional combat skills typically plateau after advancing one or two levels; to continue improving, one must learn other similar high-level combat skills.

While this may seem like you can learn many combat skills, it often ends up being a case of biting off more than you can chew.

Spellcasters should be broad and knowledgeable, while warriors should be specialized and skilled.

Ideally, one should achieve both, but when that's not possible, prioritizing one or two key aspects is also important.

Of course, since the Phantom Walker's combat skills are relatively simple compared to other warrior classes, Leon's strategy to compensate for this is to find as many upgrade items as possible with super-strong characteristics to enhance his class abilities.

"Then what combat skills would be suitable for me to learn?"

After training with Leon, Iris found it quite good and decided to learn combat skills as well.

Although she still wanted to major in her own light elemental magic, having another reason to get closer to Leon didn't seem so bad.

"I only know shadow-type combat techniques. I just don't know how compatible you are with shadow-type magic."

"Light and shadow complement each other. My affinity with the light element is so high, so my affinity with the shadow element must be pretty good too!"

"Iris said confidently."

Leon laughed too; it was quite novel for a light elf to learn shadow magic.

This is different from Hamra's fall. She was cursed and her bloodline was reversed, turning her from a light elf into a dark elf, a special species that was sealed away by ancient gods.

This kind of depravity isn't necessarily bad, but the transformation process will destroy and change the original soul, and in severe cases, it can even turn the body into an empty shell.

In the original storyline, Hamra went insane during his fall from grace, causing immense bloodshed, and was ultimately killed by a powerful figure from the capital.

Learning shadow-based combat techniques is just something to learn, it's not a problem.

"Then give it a try and see if you can become a super master of the two elements of light and shadow."

Leon began to personally instruct Iris, teaching her step by step and mouth to mouth.

Without realizing it, perhaps due to more frequent and intimate physical contact, the atmosphere between the two became ambiguous.

Lyon and Iris enjoyed the subtly comfortable atmosphere, and neither of them broke the unusual peace.

Time passed gradually.

[Character Iris's affection level +1%, current affection level 95%]